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Yep i added one too - couldn't resist adding one that matched my username!

Yes!!! I too have changed it!! Actually, this is my first time having an avatar.

I would say karate taught me about goal setting and incremental progress. It's like an antidote to the instant gratification of so many other things. Being able to grind away at something slowly over time has served me really well. Since I started training as a kid, I'll also say that karate taught me my left from my right. That's been pretty handy...

Hey all, Was anyone actually reading the updates I was writing? I'll have plenty to say about the new software powering our community in the coming weeks, months, and probably years, but for now, I want to be brief, so I am get the community back online and so you can start using it. We've been planning this for years. I was literally looking at email conversations I had in August of 2021 yesterday, as I tried to figure out a particular issue. In the time where we have been working towards this, I got married, and we had a son who is now 2. You grow, and you add new commitments to your life, and it's hard to juggle things. But this migration is so important. Our old software was going to die. Sooner, rather than later. One day, you would login, see an error, and that might be it. I did not want that to happen. I've been managing this community since it launched, for over 23 years now. I don't know if I have another 23 in me or not, but I do know that if there are members who find value in it, I want it to outlast me. That wasn't possible on our old software. Change is very hard. Especially change of something that has largely been unchanged for probably 21 years or so. Not just bugs or errors (please share those in this thread), but things that you don't like or something that is in a totally different place than you are accustomed to, which will be annoying. That is completely reasonable, and I'm sorry for the trouble. But I hope that the overall experience is improved for you. The ability to upload avatars has been broken for years. That is no longer the case. We've never had a mobile-friendly website. Now we do. Try it! You can actually upload images to posts now! You can tag people. You can react to posts. We've tried to be very thoughtful about those last two because I don't want this to become yet another place on the web that tries to addict you. I don't want members who can't stay away, I want members who find this community adds something to their lives. We'll get better, and we'll improve but crucially, we now have the ability to do so. We did not have that with our old software, not for many years. Before I wrap this up, I want to thank some folks: My friend, Chrispian Burks. @Chrispian here, who now has the honor (?) of being the first ever mention. Chris is my old, old friend, and I met him in an online forum 23 odd years ago. This simply would not have been possible without him. Chris has countless hours of his time to this project. It would have been dead on the vine if he wasn't in my life. He's not only a great developer, but a big believer in online communities and their power. His commitment to finding the right way to do this, the whole time, and not taking shortcuts, has been vital to this process. Matt Mecham, the co-founder and director of development for Invision Community. I would add in his team at Invision, too. Matt was generous with his time early on, giving me thoughtful feedback and tooling that allowed me to this the right way. Matt has been developing software so long, he was developing software when our old software was being developed. His ethos, the respect with which he treats online community content, is incredible and rarely seen in the community software space. His commitment to maintaining migration tools is to be admired. He is the reason your password works. That was really important to me, and it was important to him. The staff here at KarateForums.com: @bushido_man96, @Wastelander, @sensei8, @Nidan Melbourne, and @aurik. They've been a part of so many portions of this process, and I suspect at one point may have thought we'd never make it, as I let time slip by. But from reorganizing the forums and keeping them chugging along to testing the software and being a sounding board as I worked through various issues, their efforts made this better. The members who volunteered to test the software: @DarthPenguin, @KarateKen, and @Zaine. Thank you for your thoughtful feedback and support. Finally, and certainly not least, all currently active members of KarateForums.com for your patience throughout this process and the process to come. I am grateful for your patience. And I'll leave it there. Chris and I have been working on this pretty solid for now almost 4 days, and I think I might be a little quiet. Or not. We'll see. Thanks for reading! Patrick

Congrats Ashworth! Well done!

Thank you for the kind words, @ashworth! Happy to accept them and acknowledge the wider team at the same time. Also glad the new software is growing on you!

Also how i picture myself :p Though in our house we are also big fans of Thanos and Beerus (from Dragonball!) so i might have to rotate them in too!

Thanks! Slowly getting used to the new forum, and it is growing on me! great work Patrick! the time and dedication that you put into this community continues to amaze me!

That's a cool feature!!

Congrats, ashworth; well deserved!!

Congrats

Congrats!

I've been quite remiss in updating this thread. A lot of things have happened over the past few months. I've been keeping up with all of my doctor's appointments related to my incident in May. I had a nuclear stress test in July, which showed that my heart is still pumping blood how it needs to so that isn't an issue I need to worry about right now. I spoke with the cardiologist last week, and she suggested that since what I had was atrial flutter (different than atrial fibrillation), there is a surgical way of correcting it. From what I understand, the surgeon would go in through my femoral vein with a laser and essentially zap away the set of neurons that can go haywire and trigger the atrial flutter. I'm nervous about it, but it would mean I wouldn't need to be on blood thinners anymore. I have an appointment to speak with the surgeon in October, so we'll see what he says. I'm very concerned with complications, but I'll at least see what the surgeon says. The weight is down by 20 lbs since I had my episode. It's not coming off as fast as I'd like, but it IS coming off, which is the important thing. I've had to trim my belt twice, and I'm going to have to start buying smaller pants here soon, so that's a good thing. In terms of martial arts, I'm continuing to teach my weekly Thursday class, and we just got a new batch of white belts in the class so that's fun. My Thursday night now consists of an hour of kobudo followed by teaching my karate class. Saturdays is usually an hour of karate followed by an hour of kobudo, with last Saturday I did an hour of karate, an hour of kobudo, and then a kobudo test. Our instructors tend to give feedback after the test, and one of the pieces of feedback I got will basically mean I'll need to relearn the way I handle the bo (specifically with the grip changes that are involved). I did finish my purpleheart bo, and it's a beast. I intentionally made it long and heavy with the intention that if I can wield this effortlessly, I can pretty much pick up any bo in the dojo and it'll feel like a toothpick. I'll get some pics of it shortly. In the next couple weeks I plan on taking that purpleheart (I"ve still got plenty of it) and making a set of nunchaku. We have a guy in our dojo who has made quite a few weapons and is willing to help me out on that. It also turns out that I've got some pretty unique tools that should help with that. More on that later. I spent the first 2 weeks of August in Colorado Springs taking an "Introduction to Bladesmithing" class. I have to say that in those 2 weeks, my forging and grinding techniques improved by leaps and bounds. I'm now able to take a piece of steel and forge it efficiently into the shape I want, so that there's a lot less time required on the grinder afterwards. I'm also getting to the point where I can draw something on a sheet of paper and forge within an eighth of an inch or so to that shape. (That's about 3mm for you metric folks). There's a LOT left to learn, but I feel like I'm at a point where I'm comfortable making something and giving it and/or selling it to someone else. So this coming weekend I'll be heading down to Colorado Springs again and starting on a few projects: - A set of Japanese scabbard chisels (https://www.waltersorrellsblades.com/product-page/saya-nomi-japanese-scabbard-chisel). It turns out these are also EXTREMELY useful for cutting in the side grooves on a set of nunchaku. I checked with my friend, and it looks like a 5/16" width is just about the right width for it. And it so happens I've got 1/4" stock that will forge out to just about the size I need - Two test blades for the ABS Journeyman test. I made a couple in my class, but these won't qualify since they were made during a test. These are blades only for the purpose of passing the ABS Journeyman performance test: They have to be no longer than 15" with a 10" blade, the blade can't be any wider than 2", and they have to pass the performance test: Slice through a 1" rope in one swing, Cut a wooden 2x4 in half, twice, Shave hair off your arm (to show it's still sharp), and then put it in a vise and bend it to 90 degrees without breaking. It's okay if it doesn't straighten back to true. - We have a few kids in my son's Scout troop who will be completing their requirements for Eagle Scout in the next few months. I plan on making them custom knives to commemorate the event. I've found a really cool idea for a pommel that I should be able to cast out of bronze, and we'll see about other things as well. And I'm going to start making the commitment to work as much on fit and finish as I do forging. For the longest time I'd forge something out and never finish it. From here on out I'm going to finish them.

I noticed it too. I chuckled a little when I saw it, and thought, "man, that's perfect!"

It's perfect!

This is a very good point.

I wasn't too surprised. This was my first time acting as a Chief Instructor and in the organization only Godan and above were allowed to promote independently. Since my Sensei was the head of the org, I figured this was the standard they would uphold. Looking back, I still see value in the recording and sending, but I would have pushed to promote students myself and just consulted with my Sensei after the fact. It would have made the timeline much easier, still given me mentorship opportunities with my Sense, and given Sensei some oversight of the branch dojo. I was just excited about the opportunity and naïve about the workload, so didn’t think too critically about the “process” stuff. And then never revisited it when I should have a year or so in. Spartacus, best of luck with this. It sounds awesome and truly a great opportunity – for you, your teachers, and your future students.

Finally! been able to change my Avatar! The old one was very outdated! Getting used to the new look! was a shock when I just signed in for the first time in a while!

It is coming along. I am starting to feel like it has become part of my routine, which is good. I began wearing a heart rate monitor during my workouts this week to track my heart rate and calories burned. I'm also drinking a protein shake after every workout.

I read them all Change is inevitable, and this KF change is very solid, more than solid. I echo what Brian has said...

Self-control and patience. Especially from teaching kids. It's also helped me to see when I need to take a different approach to something someone doesn't seem to be getting.

It's great to see the site back up and running, so new and improved! Thank you to everyone that contributed to the success of this migration. The new site looks so good! Kudos to you @Patrick, Chrispian Burks, and Matt Mecham on the work done here!

Well not "easter eggs" per se. but when i go on a site that i've used for such a long time (like here), and love seeing the changes and functions added. Like the pleasant surprise coming back on here before going to bed and a little notification popping up letting me know of ur response.

It's here! I was periodically checking in on your updates, excited for the end result. I'm happy to have helped test this site, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for this community which I love so much.

Thought i would check in and ask how the routine is going? Hopefully it is all going smoothly and you are seeing some benefits

Happy to help, looks good so far.