GARsTWCM

Let me start things off by apologizing for my lack of "constructive" posts lately... like... um... deviations... and... explaining myself... You've probably noticed that I tend to post things in groups of five... meaning that I don't post things when they're "finished" but when I get around to typing up everything I've written for awhile... well, I had around five or six things to post ready, going from late June up until the week before I left for college... I put them in my suitcase along with a bunch of clothes, intending to post them once I got a break at college. The first weekend was... full of little gaps where there was nothing to do

For those of you that haven't heard yet, I took my test for first-degree black belt on Saturday... and passed it. I got the belt and a certificate at a ceremony at the start of class last night XD It's... a slightly unusual feeling, to know that I'm a black belt now. For... just over five years, I've been attending Keko's Academy of Martial Arts... and always been in just a little bit of awe at the black belts. When I first started, it seemed like there was no way I could learn all that I needed to know, in any amount of time... and now I am one of them. It didn't really hit me, that I was really truly qualified and ready to be a black belt,

Saturday, I was talking with John Davis, this friend of mine from karate. The topic moved to being able to mess with people when sparring with them - about the mind game that people play... John talked about his time as a salesperson, of sorts - he realized that he had the gift to get into people's heads - he knew the buttons to push to make a sale. He went to the edge of it - brought himself to the cusp... and decided that he couldn't really... live with himself - and that he couldn't bring himself to manipulate someone for money... "For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?" Last night, I was talking