Nose to the grindstone 2025

[Drunk Monk]

I passed although I messed up pretty badly at one point - got ahead of myself. I’m now ranked ikkyu (brown belt). My next test will be for shodan (black belt).

Today is yoga, then work.

Congratulations!

Thanks. 

I may treat myself to a new sword. A Kung Fu master friend sent me an Amazon gift card and I'm thinking of spending it on a new iaito. I have several katanas, including that old gunto blade we traded back when we were in high school that's now remounted into modern fittings for a cutting sword, as well as that Oscar blade Fred gave me which I also remounted for another cutting sword, and a few others like my ninja sword. However an iaito is not edged and has an aluminum blade. I have a Tiger Claw aluminum demo blade that's a POS but it works (one of the critques I got last night was that that katana is too light for me and I'm overpowering it). I also took the edge off a steel Tiger Claw katana but it's horribly balanced and I almost threw my shoulder out with it (and I don't want to end up a one-armed swordsman like Greg). A good iaito is about $300-600. I've found plenty of cheaper ones on Amazon, but who knows how they perform? The reviews are all over the place. But I've got this gift cash, and anything is an upgrade from that TC POS I'm using now. 

I need a new sword like I need a hole in my head (or my shoulder... as entertaining as it might be). The number of swords I own came up in conversation recently (maybe that was with Greg?) I don't think I've crossed 3 digits yet, but I do have several dozen, easily 4+ dozen. I should count someday...