Dougis' random thoughts

I have been lucky in that I have been afforded the chance to teach classes for a while now at the dojo. This has helped me quite a bit in my own training as in order to explain something to a student I have to understand it first (there have been many times when I find things [...]

For those of you who don’t know in Kokikai Aikido we are asked to write an essay on what Kokikai means to us as a part of our Shodan (1st degree black belt) test and barring something unforeseen happening I will be testing for this at camp in 2 weeks. I wrote this same essay quite a while [...]

Just a reminder to everyone that tomorrow is election day. There are many people who have given their lives so we have the ability to choose those who represent us in government and so that we have a voice in how we are governed. Don’t waste their sacrifice.   If you don’t vote you can’t [...]

I will admit it up front, I have been terrible about writing. Life has been busy and I have not made the time to do this even though there have been things I wanted to write about. I will not promise this will stop but I am going to try to write more (even if [...]

Had to share this (it was passed on by my wife). The sad part is they all apply to me   THIS IS WHAT JEFF FOXWORTHY HAS TO SAY ABOUT LIVIN’ in Washington State! If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don’t work there, you live in Washington. If you’ve [...]

Last week at the dojo we were working on Shomenuchi Kokyunage (a strike to the top of the head defended by getting behind uke and taking their balance). For whatever reason, I was having trouble throwing uke. The evening went on, we finished up class went home and when I thought about the issue I [.

I posted a while back about some memories that stick in my mind like snapshots. I hadn’t given it any real thought until I did so, but now am wondering “which memories are there in my head?” Here is part of the list as it stands right now (these are not necessarily the most important [...]

I got tagged with a note in facebook by a couple of old friends that said “Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. [...]