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Well I went out to the movies tonight and saw Saw V.   I did enjoy the movie however I thought I was the weakest of the series.   This one was more story oriented and not just the usual torture porn that the other movies were.   I think if you enjoyed the other movies then this one is worth seeing.

I went and saw the new movie Lakeview Terrace today.   I thought it was quite good.  Samuel L. Jackson did a great job and everyone else in the film were pretty good as well.   You could really feel for the characters.  They felt very believable.  One thing that I really liked about this movie was that the situations were not so over the top that you could really get behind them actually happening.   This movie reminds me of the movie Unlawful Entry.   I really liked that movie as well but in way it was a little bit too much over the top.   If you’re looking for a good flick to catch sometime then Lakeview Terrace would be the way to go.

I went out to the balloon races today. It was really a good time. I took quite a few pics. I missed out on getting a ride on one. I’ll have to do that next year.

Even though I should be in bed right now (going to the balloon races in the morning), I felt I needed to get down a few things while they are still fresh in my mind.

Playing capoeira tonight was great as it usually is.   I really love how it can just bring people together.  The usual gang and I were doing our thing and people just kept coming up and asking what we were doing.   Everyone really seemed to be interested in the berimbaus we playing.  I forget how exotic they really are to most people.  Good thing I’ve been practicing so I could kind of show off a little.  We all had a nice little laugh when a group of kids came up to us.   They were probably in the 13 to 16 age range.  They were kinda mocking what we were doing for a bit.   We decided they should just join in on the fun and invited them to join the roda.   A couple of the kids were brave enough to do so and mainly just jumped around all crazy like.   In hindsight, I wish I would have take a few pics of them.  It was fun having them around even though I don’t think they were really interested in learning the art.

After we wrapped up for the night, I decided to stick around and just work on the berimbau a bit.  Everyone else had left, so there I was just out working on some tunes and then this girl walked up.  She asked if I was doing capoeira and I told her yes.   I asked if she played at all and she said she picked up a few things in her travels.   She wanted to try playing the berimbau so I handed it to her and gave her some pointers.   She did pretty good for a newbie, I was impressed.   After our little lesson I thought we would part ways but she hung around for a bit.  She seemed interested in working on some moves she had learned before so I started showing her the ginga and some kicks.   She started off kinda shakey but seemed to get the hang of things pretty quick.   As we were talking and kicking and such, another guy came up and said he wanted to get a little lesson.  So I showed him one of the kicks and we were practicing away.   We played and talked a bit.  The gal, Elisa, said that she was in town because she went to Burning Man.   She said she goes every year and has been for like the past 4 years.   She really made it sound like an awesome place to go and commune with other people.   I’m certainly going to have to go one of the days.  After telling us about Burning Man, she said she had to go.   I did think to take a pic of her.  I’ll have to edit this post and post her pic.   She was bit of a cutie I must say.  She is Brazilian.  Got to make sure I note that so I don’t forget.  As she was leaving another gal came along and asked if we were playing capoeira.   I told her yes and asked if she played.  She said no but her sister does and was looking for a place to play.  I said she could come play with us anytime and I gave her a flyer.   I also invited her to play with us.  She declined but said maybe she’ll come to a class with her sister.  As I was wrapping up for the evening I met one other guy that said he had played a little.   I think he was a little drunk or high or something but he was pretty nice.   It was kinda of funny because he said he didn’t want to play because he was a bit self conscience about people watching him.

All in all, it was a really good night.  I had a lot of fun and it was great to meet new people.   That’s what I really love about capoeira.   It’s such a friendly and fun atmosphere.   It just kinda of brings people together wheither they play or not.

The one other thing I wanted to mention about tonight was that it felt so good to teach others.  I’m far from being a master at this myself but I think I have a nack for explaining it to people and helping walking them through how to do the movements.  I really want to stick with this and learn more so I can teach more.   Who knows, maybe one day I’ll become a mestre and have my very own school.

Here is Elisa.   She went by another name but I can’t remember it.

Had a great time on Twitter today. Thanks D and K.

Well I woke up a little early this morning. Not sure why. When downstairs to take the dog out for a pee. While she was out I went into the kitchen to get a drink and what run past me? A damn mouse/rat of some kind. I kinda suspected there was one in the house but I wasn’t really sure. Good thing I picked up some traps the other day so I’ve laid those out and hopefully I’ll catch it soon. I really don’t want that thing all over the house and I hope there is only one. Funny thing is that my dog is a Terrier mix, which they were supposedly bred for rat catching. Looks like she hasn’t been doing her job.

Snapped a couple of photos at work.

Since I’m in the posting mood, I figure I better jot down a little thought I had today at Capoeira class.

I’ve been a pretty shy guy all of my life. I’m kinda amazed at the changes that have started to take hold since I started Capoeira. Today we were playing and I was leading some of the songs. We had a pretty good energy going and I just felt moved to really try and sing my ass off. Granted I’m not that much of a singer but I did what I could and just went about it like I’ve been doing it for years. Heck just a few years ago I’d would have been terrified to sing let alone lead an song but now I’m putting myself out there and trying to amp up everyone else. Feels good.

When I started this blog I swore up and down that I was going to keep up with it. I haven’t exactly been doing that. I’ve been doing better than I thought and probably better than most people but I still feel like there needs to be more. Yeah my life isn’t that exciting and there really isn’t a lot of people reading at this point but hey it’s something to do. It will be interesting to look back on these posts in the future and see what was going on in my world. This can be the journal I always wanted to keep but was too lazy to do. Oh well we’ll see how this goes. I’ll probably get bored with it after a couple of days and then go back to not posting anything.

I was just going through the stuff on my phone and I realized that I had some pics that I didn’t post.  I’m not really a car guy but I like to justify having a camera on my phone once in a while.  I took them while I was drving by so they are not spectacular.