Haven't been to iaido for two weeks, and it shows. As is typical I can barely lift my arms and don't remember anything, but I had maybe one decent cut that made that nice high-pitched noise of sword cutting air...all the rest was pretty lame. Any movement other than straight down and I'm hopeless; diagonal cuts, straight across, and anything single-handed is even worse as I can barely keep my wrist straight let alone actually cut someone. But at least I get to "stare at the far mountain" and work my ass off gettin' all Zen-like. Did a new standing kata today, too: dude comes up from behind and you do kind of this 45 degree turn to the right, barely peeking behind, and then turn and cut up diagonal, follow him as he retreats, and finish him off. Looks really slick when K-sensei does it. I look like an old man planting rice or something...
Been cranking on the translation of the Mugai-ryu homepage, too, but I got stuck on the poem by Sekitan that inspires Heinai to name his iai style Mugai. Need Hiroko's help and a whole lotta brain juice to boot.
But first I really need to study for the RR level 1 exam! I barely understand futures, and haven't even gotten into options yet, let alone review margin trading and all the new tax laws...remind me why I am taking this test?