Traffic school! Which really doesn’t deserve an exclamation point in any way. Let’s hear it for spending several hours going through the motions. I did learn a few trivial things, but the one thing I have to say I did get out of it was a reinforcing of other changes that have occurred within me recently. Part of the instructor’s stated goal was to ‘change our attitude,’ which judging by the open sleeping or sassy looks of some of the people might not have been a realistic goal. I think it did work with me because I was already receptive to it, but I guess that’s the way of that sort of thing. Like the friend I went with pointed out, though, more videos of interesting crashes or the like would have certainly made the day more interesting. That, and less being concurrently sick on my part.

Also, a lament. Which I regret I feel like I don’t have more eloquence for at the moment. I’ll just take one example: commercials for sleeping pills, and tangentially a news story on the increasing prevalence of kids under 10 being prescribed the same. With a beautiful iridescent butterfly, one commercial implies that your worries will just float away with the medication, and oh don’t worry about those side effects like memory loss either they’ll float away, too. I don’t remember enough to semantically take apart any of them, unfortunately, but here’s my angle on it – I lament that it’s human nature in some way to take the easier route, to have someone or something else do the work. Wow, that sounds arrogant now that I read it…oh well. Anyway, instead of addressing the original concerns or worries or stresses that are described and implied in the commercial, they are subsumed under the comforting blanket of chemical ignorance; instead of exercising or doing yoga or a hobby, or trying to fix the originating issue through communication or self-study or time-management or any number of things, take the pills! Who knows, maybe that memory loss will even work out in favor of contentment.

And, some comments on cervical chokes (being a martial arts technique). Basically, it's the same effect as full nelson or crucifix - a forward crank of the neck - but is done with a a kind of Thai-behind-the-head clinch from the front; the best positions for leverage for it are from the guard (ironically probably equally from both sides of it) and sometimes from the top of a mount. It can be avoided like most chokes, by taking away the base of the leverage, though in this one that's probably usually a bit harder because it's really a full body technique, and because it's just an odd technique and is hard to even recognize till it's too late sometimes. Just watch out, on either end, for injury-causing - like full nelsons being off-limits in wrestling, it's easy to leave someone with a really sore neck and traps, if not big knots in their muscles; luckily, I've still got some arnica cream...