Hello, all!

Thought I'd relate an incident that happened with me this last week
at work. It's kind of funny.

I work at a sign/vehicle graphics shop. I'm the computer nerd and I
do design work, print on and cut vinyl, etc.

So this week, I'm working at my desk and one of my co-workers comes
up to me and asks if I can help him with something in the shop.
Being the kind-hearted soul I am, I say "Sure!".

I get out to the shop and they have a large, thick board set up on a
couple of metal sawhorses, with a plate of metal under the board in
a diamond cut. (I don't know materials very well, so can't very
well relate what these things were.) Seems to me like it was around
4' x 8' maybe 2.5 or 3" thick. (The board. Don't know about the
metal thing. I figured since it was so big, should be a piece of
cake. Didn't think about the metal thing under it.)

And my co-worker says to me, "We've been hearing you spout off about
your 'Kung-Fu' stuff for years now. We wanna see some."

This is where my trouble began. I normally don't show off. I
really don't because it gets you in trouble. But, it's hard to
resist a challenge. So I size up the board. I though about jumping
on/through it. I figured that'd be a straight shot. Then I
imagined the board and metal thing sandwiching me. Didn't like the
image. So I decided on an axe kick.

Basically, I was able to break the board and bend the metal thing.
Unfortunately it took me 5 or 6 good whacks. I was disappointed. I
figure it should've taken 1. The guys at the shop, however, were
very impressed. So they want to see more.

That's when I start throwing random kicks and punches in the air.
Was throwing punches with a pretty good twist in the waist to
generate power. I'm starting to get somewhere with that. I don't
know how I did it, but I caught my right index finger on my shirt
while I was punching and kind of hyper-extended it. It's OK. I'm
OK. But I'm in some pain because of showing off.

So this is my cautionary tale to you fellow kuntaoists out there.
Try not to get caught up in challenges and showing off. It hurts.
But I have to admit it was kind of fun. I did feel extremely silly
afterwards. :)

Dave Sharpe