Look mommy, I made it myself!

Today was a good day. It started early for a Saturday, since I had to get up at quarter to seven in the morning and drag my half comatose existence all across Orange County running errands, but there was a method to the madness of the early rise. I had an appointment at ten o clock to make my own berimbau over in Bellflower.

The local Capoeira teacher on campus has an academy over there. Many others and I paid him a hundred dollars to strip wood from branches, cut wires from tires, saw holes in gourds, and scrape bark from berimbaus to be with the broken bottles of Corona that we drank as we worked, worked to fashion the instruments we will use to play the game.

It was awesome... spiritual in the sense of making a powerful instrument with great cultural meaning. I can only imagine what sitting down with Leo Fender in a workshop would be like; making my own fifties reissue Stratocaster, drinking a couple of beers along the way and listening to his life unfold in stories. Or sitting down with Ray Ozzie to write a groupware module. But today I got to do this, which is just as significant. I sat down with a Professor and had him guide me in the construction an object that I will use to guide others and myself in a game that will expand the limits of our minds and bodies.

Today was a day of sandwiches and iced tea. Today was a good day.