Right now things are not going so well,

My Great Grandma had a stroke a few weeks ago and the doctor said she has 6 monthes to a year to live. She is now in a wheel chair and cannot eat food, she has to eat real soft stuff like pudding. It's hard to understand what she says sometimes. She is dieing and I am going to miss her but until she dies I enjoy every moment I get to be with her.

Today has been a fun day at school. I went to six classes PE, Independent Living, Physical Science, Math, English and Health. My favorite class is English this year. The class I really like is World History but I can't take world history again the school said and that sort of sucks if you like history. The thing I will always remember my history teacher telling me is "History repeats itself". I like to go to school but I miss going to history class. I used to look forward to that class whenever I would come to school last year. A word for this I think would be
EVOLUTION! Life is life and things both good and bad happen in life and school is a good thing.

Arnis
by: Eric Daniel


Important:
Make sure you consult your doctor before doing any strenuous exercise or physical activity.



The word arnis comes from the Spanish word Arnes, which means “trapping” or “harnessing”. The Spaniards tried to take over thePhillipines and were a big influence on Arnis. There are many different systems of arnis.. Some of the systems are modern arnis, giron arnis, lightning scientific arnis, and Garimot Arnis. There are many other Arnis systems but these are what I find most interesting.


Modern Arnis:
Grandmaster Remy Presses is the founder of Modern Arnis. Remy is the one who is responsible for the spread of modern arnis in the United States as well as the Philippines and now modern arnis is practiced worldwide. One reason modern arnis is “modern” is because of the inclusion of empty hands. At first modern arnis was used as part of the physical education in the schools in the Philippines but now is a regular system. Most of the training is with a partner. Modern Arnis is practiced in three basic categories: single stick (solo baston), double stick (double baston), and stick and dagger (espada y daga)
With a solo baston, there are 12 basic strikes and 6 basic blocks. With double baston you learn to do drills called sinawali. Sinawali are basic patterns with two sticks. You will learn drills, blocks and strikes with espada y daga training. After this training you will learn empty hand drills, blocks, strikes, and more which is all basically taken from the solo baston, double baston, and espada y daga training and put into empty hand techniques..


Giron Arnis:
Leovigildo Giron founded Giron arnis. Giron Arnis is based off of Cabaroan, Cadaanan, and Sinawali Escrima
Styles. Leo lived in California in 1929 and while he was there he studied arnis. In this system there are twenty individual playing methods. The method could either be a concept, a particular technique, or a certain strategy. To develop reaction of a real opponent there are many training methods that include partner drills?




Lightning scientific Arnis:
Lightning scientific Arnis was founded by Benjamin Luna Lema and was founded in 1937. Ben studied arnis with other arnisadores as well as his father before he found this organization. Lightning scientific Arnis is practiced in four basic categories: Single stick, double stick, stick and dagger, and empty hand. After learning proper courtesy, you learn footwork, than the 13 basic strikes, and than you go on to learn two- person drills.


Garimot Arnis:
Abondio “garimot” Baet founded Garimot Arnis in 1993. In this “art” of Arnis There are empty hand and weapon’s training. There are also partner-training drills. There are also forms in Garimot Arnis and the forms are done both solo and with a partner. In Garimot Arnis the weapons used are: single stick, double stick, stick and dagger, knife, walking cane, spear, headband, and handkerchief as well as belt. There are many stages in Garimot Arnis and each stage is based on weapon training..














References

Presas, R {1983} Modern Arnis: Filipino art of stick fighting
O’Hara publications.

Wiley, M {2000} Filipino Fighting Arts: Theory and Practice
Unique Publications

Beginning Martial Arts

By: Eric Daniel


Martial Arts are for both adults and children. There are many reasons to practice Martial Arts. This paper is to tell you why you should join Martial Arts, help you pick a good dojo as well as sensei and what you can expect when you first begin.

People should join Martial Arts for many reasons. One reason is to get in shape. Many people have joined the Martial Arts because some Martial Arts such as Tae Kwon Do have exercises that improve your health and help you get in better shape. Another reason is because Martial Arts can help improve your focus and self- discipline. This is a benefit that will help children and adults. Focusing can help a child improve his/her grades in school for adults focus can help them at work. If you have a job that requires you to stay alert and focus like a construction worker, Martial Arts can help. Furthermore, Martial Arts can help adults with ADD (attention Deficit Disorder) and children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyper Active Disorder) as well as ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder). Finally, you should join Martial Arts because you will learn to defend yourself, friends, and family members if you ever get into a sticky situation. For example, if you go to High School and you see another High Schooled beating up middle schooled (or anyone) you can take control of the situation and if needed, use Martial Arts to help defend the person.

When you are first thinking about joining a dojo you must do research. You should look in your local phone book to see what Martial Art dojo’s are in your area, write them down and when you have time check out each one. When you go to a dojo the sensei should let you watch at least one class before you join and when you are watching the class you need to take notes on anything you find may be important (like how the sensei teaches his students, Does this dojo have a friendly environment?) Finally, after evaluating all the dojos choose the one you liked most and sign up for class.

In the first month of training you can expect many things. A few things you can expect is to make new friends, go around barefoot and wearing a gi , and doing a lot of bowing. When you evaluated the class you should have known that this dojo had a friendly environment. You can expect to have a friend in the dojo and also the students should be your friend outside of class and you should be friendly to them in and out of class. When you first enter the dojo you will most likely have to go around the dojo barefoot. Going barefoot will/should be expected of all the students when they first get onto the mat. Wearing shoes on the mat can tear the mat. That is why you go around barefoot. Finally, you have to buy a gi. A gi is worn at class only, not outside of class. The reason you wear a gi is to help in some of the martial art techniques and because it’s part of the Asian tradition.
I hope you understand how martial arts can benefit you, how you can find a good dojo and what to expect if you ever join martial arts.









Dojo means “place of the way” and refers to a Japanese Martial Art school.
Sensei is a Japanese word meaning teacher or instructor
A gi is a Martial Art uniform you where.

Hello, my name is Eric Daniel. My father is Richard Daniel and my mother is Trisha Martin. I was born at samaritan hospitol in Moses Lake, Wa on February 16th 1989. My mom and dad divorced when I was four and my first brother (Aaron) was two years old. I have lived in many places and have gone to many schools during my life. In the year 2000 I started going to Martial Arts because I wanted to be able to do things that I saw actors like Chuck Norris do. I now have seven brothers (Aaron, Victor JR., Brice, Dyllan, Zachary, Tony and Carlos). In Fubruary 2005 my mom died from a blood clot going to her heart. In late 2004 she found out that she had cancer, she went to Spokane, Wa for cemotheropy, she had some sort of surgery for something, and in february of 2005 when she went to see the doctor she found out that she had a blood clot in her leg and she had to stay in the hospitol. A couple days later my aunt came to my school and got my causin and I out of school and told us that my mom had died because the blood clot went to her heart. She died a few days before my birthday (my birthday is february 16th), and her funeral was a day before valintines day.    In december of 2005 my Grandma from my dad's family died. About two moths before she died she was in a horrible car accident. While driving to work her car went off the road and rolled twice. about a month later she had surgery to help her shoulder from the crash, a week after the surgery she died. The year 2005 was a hard sad year.