be like water

[Yan Zhu]

http://tweakmylife.blogspot.com/2008/07/be-like-water.html

ash, how is the training going?

--
"Imagination is greater than knowledge."
- Albert Einstein

http://tweakmylife.blogspot.com/
http://buttkickingbooks.blogspot.com/

[Ashley Lee]

Hey bud, training is going great!  I'm a little sore today because last night was Judo night and we did a ton of Judo throws all night...complete with 15 minutes of Judo randori.  How is training going for you?  When do you test for Shodan?

--
Ashley Lee

[Yan Zhu]

Judo night sounds like fun. :)
I am about to take my 2nd qualification test next week. Shodan test should be early next year, if I am ready. :)

[Ashley Lee]

Hey Yan,

A discussion I was having with my sensei recently made me think of you.  It's been a long time since our last communication so I thought I would drop you a line.  How are things going?  Are you still training with Van Bushnell Sensei?  I am still training in Yoseikan and am preparing from my Ikyu test coming up soon.  A couple of years ago my sensei affiliated with the United States Yoseikan Budo Association as he felt it was being taken in a direction that he did not agree with and abandoned many of the principles taught to him by the founder of Yoseikan Budo, Minoru Mochizuki.  Since then he has been struggling with which organization he should consider affiliating with.  He has very rooted beliefs in the principles taught in Morhei Ueshiba's teachings and in Aikido.  In-fact, that is why he called his dojo Huntsville Aikido.  He had mentioned to me recently that he has been doing some in-depth research on Aikido and the various derivatives their in and said that he most liked the teachings of Gozo Shioda and his style of Yoshinkan Aikido.  I mentioned to him that Van Bushnell sensei taught this style of Aikido and that I hold him in the highest regards as an instructor and person.  We had a deep conversation about my experience at his dojo and the style in general.  He was very interested in what I had told him and since that discussion has done some research and decided that he would like to approach Van Bushnell sensei in reference to possibly affiliating with his school and the Chudokai Aikido Federation International.  He plans to contact Van Bushnell sensei this weekend via email to discuss us possibly coming down for a seminar or at some other time.  I think it would be awesome to establish a relationship with you guys and would love the opportunity to train with you and Van Bushnell again.  Hopefully something will come of it.  We will see.  Anyway old friend.  Just wanted to say hi.

Stay in touch.

Ashley

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[Yan Zhu]

hey ash!

  good to hear from you, it has been a long time. :)

  I had to stop training last year due to health issues. I have this condition of chest pains and related symptoms (fatigue, nausea, etc)
and it has gotten worse over the years. Last year around Feb it finally got to a point that I could no longer train so I told Sensei and
stopped going. It was really a pity since I was only six months away from my blackbelt test. If there was a way I would have stayed, but
it was just impossible. :(

  So I been in and out of doctors and we tried various things, lately wearing Nitro Glycerin patches has helped my condition. Of course,
that does not really mean we know what it is and it is just a temporary remedy at best, so I foresee more time with the doctors in the
future.

  Of course, if my health improves to a point where I think I can train without interruption for six months, I would go to our Dojo right away.

  Yea, I totally agree with what you said. Aikido is mainly a spiritual training for me. I think the whole process is best viewed as a journey
for self improvement, and harness harmony with your environment. And I think our Sensei  is a man with the character to teach it well,
for sure. And I always believed that our Dojo is the best Dojo in the state of Alabama, if not the nation. :)

  We were lucky weren't we? I still remember us going over there the first time. We had a lot of fun together!

  Are you still with NASA? Is the cost cutting affecting your job?

  Thanks for writing. I have missed you.

yan

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[Ashley Lee]

Yan,

 

Great to hear from you.  I've missed you too.  Wow, sorry to hear about your health problems.  Not unlike my own.  I had a third stent put in Dec 23rd of 2008.  Fortunately for me that opens the artery up and I don't have any fatigue associated with it.  I had severe chest pains akin to a heart attack all three times before my stent implants but once they were in, no more pain.  Unfortunately for us both, we are now heart patients for the rest of our life.  I have been fortunate to be able to continue to train up to this point.  That being said, my cardiologist told me that if my artery closes again I will have to have bypass surgery which would essentially put an end to my martial arts training.  I hope that doesn't happen and I hope that by staying active I can stave off that type of surgery.  I hope that your health gets better so you can train again.  I know you love it as much as I do.  We did have a lot of fun.  I hope to attend Sensei Van Bushnell's clinic in May but I will have to get his permission first.  Please stay in touch with me and let me know how you are doing. I will be thinking about you.

 

Oh, yes...I am still with NASA.  I am a systems engineer workin on the Ares Systems Integration Lab for modeling, simulation, and integration of avionics software and hardware in-the-loop.  The cancelation of Constellation will have a big affect on the contractors but as a Civil Servant my job is safe.  We are tring to position the lab as an institutional capability that could be used to test and verify comercial avionics software and hardware.  But it's a long shot.  I am actively involved in developing a proposal and a demo to keep the lab.

 

Your friend,

 

Ashley

[Yan Zhu]

hey, how do they know conclusively that you had a artery problem? do you recall what was the test that did it? I did stress tests etc but they don't show anything.

[Ashley Lee]

I had a cardiolite stress test before all three of my stents and every time the results said that I had NO problems at all.  Funny, but after each ok test I ended up getting a stent.  The reason is that I was persistent.  When they told me my EKG and stress tests were fine, I told them that something is still wrong and that there must be something else they could check.  My cardiologist said that the only other option was to do angiogram where they go up and check the arteries from the inside.  I immediately told him that I wanted that done because it felt like a heart attack and it hurt like hell.  When they went in they inserted a tube in through my thigh and ran it up into the arteries in my heart.  He used an xray machine (in real time) and once he had the tube in my heart he pumped die into it.  For an instant (a heart beat), you could see the dye pump through my arteries, and there it was plain as day, an 85% block L.A.D. It looked like someone had pinched the artery in the middle of it.  On one side the artery was nice and full of blood but on the other side the blood was limited, barely getting through.  With the next two stents, the same thing happend.  All of my tests looked good.  It wasn't until they did the angiogram that they found that my previous stent(s) had reclosed.  Not trying to scare you, but if you are having what feels like panic attacks where your heart races and hurts like hell and if you get tingling or numbness in your fingertips when its happening, and they can't find anything wrong with the normal tests, I would ask them to do an angiogram. It is really the only sure fire way to know if it is artery related.

Ashley

[Yan Zhu]

thanks for all the info, I have a feeling that you are right on the money. :(

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 8:07 PM, Ashley Lee <ashleyl...@gmail.com> wrote:

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