Focus, Daniel-san

Maybe it's just because I share the first name of the main character, but the first and second Karate Kid movies had a profound impact on the way I grew up. In fact, they could be the very reason I've been obsessed with Japan and martial arts my entire life. But recently, as I was driving, I realized that there was an important bit of Miyagi-san's advice I'd been neglecting, to my disadvantage .. it goes something like this:

Walk on left side of road - safe. Walk on right side - safe. Walk in middle - get squished, just like grape. Karate, same. You karate yes - safe. You karate no - safe. You karate "guess so" ... (squishing noise) just like grape.

Yoda said something similar about "Try not .. do, or do not .. there is no try," but I like Mr. Miyagi better. 小林さん has echoed this sentiment of "not half-assing things" in the form of a "general operating principle for the New Year," but for some reason I never noticed how Japanese an idea it was, and that I need to apply it also.

Of course, neither Mr. Miyagi nor Yoda could ever possibly fathom the distracting power of the internet. I guarantee that if Daniel LaRusso had been a member of Fark, I would have grown up much differently.


UPDATE: I was reading up on The Karate Kid to see who wrote/directed it .. the director unsurprisingly turns out to be the same guy who directed Rocky and Lean On Me, but the writer is apparently some guy who always works with Luc Besson, and co-wrote the screenplays for The Fifth Element, Kiss of the Dragon, and the upcoming Unleashed. Why does everything I like have to be connected somehow?? Why the hell is everything so circular?? Speaking of which, I Heart Huckabee's comes out on DVD next Tuesday. Buy it or I'll crane-kick you in the face.