sensei8

1 hour ago, Patrick said:

Thanks for sharing this, Bob. I can only echo what others have said, while at the same time acknowledging it may feel like cold comfort at this particular juncture. But obviously you mean a lot to many people, and you still have so much to offer people, in the martial arts and outside of them.

Thank you, Patrick!!

It’s a very hard pill to swallow whenever it comes to accepting my challenges from where I once was to where I am now. Especially when the floor is considered.

One day at a time.

2 hours ago, KarateKen said:

How long has it been going on?

For several years. 

While I’m not a Raiders fan at all, I purchased 3 tickets yesterday for the Raiders VS 49ers pre-season game to be held here in Las Vegas at the Allegiant Stadium on August 16th, Saturday, at 1pm.

My wife, Linda, is a die-hard Raiders fan her entire life…she’s no taste obviously and if she did, she’d be a Cowboy fan like our son, Nathan, and me.

Linda has never ever been to a live NFL game, especially a Raiders game, and Nathan and I have never been inside Allegiant Stadium as a “fan”.

Regular Raiders home game tickets are not cheap, about $300 and up per ticket…OUCH!! For the pre-season tickets I purchased yesterday I spent $383 total…$99 per ticket, $56 for fees, and $30 for protecting the tickets. We’ll park off site about 1 block from the Stadium.

GO COWBOYS!!

14 hours ago, KarateKen said:

The Rockies are 10-50 and on pace to be the worst team in baseball during the modern era.  It is the worst record through the first sixty games of the season since the 1884 Kansas City Cowboys.  

At least the Rockies have a beautiful stadium to lose…I mean…play in.

9 hours ago, KarateKen said:

Hope you can get some good sleep.  Do you have a long history of this? 

No, I don’t have a long history of this!!

Admittedly, I’ve never followed the life of Ralph Macchio for no particular reasons. Watching a YouTube clip last night of The Kelly Clarkson Show, her guests were Ralph Macchio, Jackie Chan, and Ben Wang.

Kelly starts her interview by asking Ralph, “4 years after the first movie, you earn something pretty big by, right? Which I thought was cool.”

After 41 years, Ralph earned his black belt in Okinawa Goju-ryu this April 2025. Better late, than never.

Ralph and his Karate Kid: Legends co-stars received an honorary black belt for the World Karate Federation (WKF) during the film’s New York premier in May 2025.

Just for grins and giggles, at the shows first commercial break, the daughter, a black belt, and granddaughter, a blue belt, in full gi and Obi, of 9th Dan Grandmaster Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura, the founder of World Seido Karate took the show to break.

11 hours ago, Nidan Melbourne said:

Shame I'm missing a book written by @sensei8 because he hasn't done one yet but should!

Well, I’ve given that some serious thought of writing my memoirs, as boring my life is, and how the SKKA civil war killed itself. However, some can write and some can’t; I’m of the latter, and ghost writers are not cheap.

Maybe I will stab at it again seeing that I’ve a brand new laptop, and I get Word and Norton installed.

On 6/2/2025 at 6:40 AM, Nidan Melbourne said:

• Unreasonable? 
  • God No
• Pig Headed?
  • Never  
• Despondent? 
  • No! Senile maybe? hahahaha you know I love you like a brother
• Call You?
  • Call Me Maybe?

Have you thought about writing a book? Like about your Journey in the MA world, from where you were to where you are now. How it impacted your life? And where you would have been if you weren't a Martial Artist and Instructor? 

 

I’ve given it a lot of thought to writing my memoir before. However, some can write and some can’t; I’m of the latter. Ghost writers are not cheap!!

2.5 hours sleep last night!! Sheech!!

I do greatly appreciate and respect what all of you have said, means the world to me. You’ve all gave me somethings to seriously consider.

In my mind, as feeble as it is, my not being able to do what I’ve been trained to do is quite inexcusable and unacceptable for me.

I want to pass away like Morihei Ueshiba did…he was teaching on the day he died; he was giving a demonstration in Tokyo…he was on the floor. Yes, I can teach but I don’t want to do it from a wheelchair.

Call me unreasonable…call me pig headed…call me despondent…call me what you will. 

I’m not giving up, no matter how despairingly I might appear to be, I need to learn how to chart a new found course and not to allow my limitations limit my abilities on the floor.

Now I’m on book 2 of the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy…”The Two Towers”

14 hours ago, bushido_man96 said:

Hehe, probably not quite.   But I'm trying!  Lately I'm trying to be more picky about what I pick up.

Right now I'm working through some more TKD books: 2 volumes of Taekwondo Complete Taegeuk and Palgwe Forms & Readings and Complete Koryo-Ilyo Forms & Readings, both by Dr. Daeshik Kim.  The form sections are ok.  The articles seem to repeat in both books, at least the ones at the front of both volumes are the same.  The history section is the same old misinformation of TKD's actual history, and after the Forms section of volume 1 is a pretty worthless article on weight training for the Martial Arts. 

But it is a decent forms reference, and it includes the Palgwe's, which I like.  I think they are better Forms than the Taeguek's.

Are applications included??

Studies show that the average person sleeps 8 hours. Hhmmm!! Oh, now I’m not average?!?

3-4 hours. My goal is 6-7.

Seems to me that the Stars will face the same fate as my Knights against the Oilers when the ice melts.

Oilers just might end up winning the whole shebang when all has been said and done.

My Karate is in my heart…My Karate is in my mind…But my Karate is no longer in my body.

What good am I as a martial artist or as a karateka if my body has some serious limitations due to medical conditions?!?

My prostate cancer greatly affected my spine at my T12 and L4. Yes, my cancer is in remission, Praise God, unfortunately the damage has been done. Due to the damage to my spine, I can’t stand very long, a minute at the most, nor can I walk very long, a few feet, at best.

Being a martial artist is all that I’ve ever been for 6 decades…the only thing that I ever loved…the only thing that I was ever good at.

Now, because of my wrecked spine, I'm no longer effective on the floor, wherever that floor might be at. My students have always been everything to me!!

“Martial arts is not just about physical strength; it’s about mental and emotional strength as well.” – Unknown

Those aren’t just some idle words to me because I believe in them. Nowadays, I deeply struggle with those words daily despite what others have encouraged me on.

My martial arts, my Karate-do, has been ripped away from me unceremoniously and it’s very difficult for me to cope with that fact.

10 minutes ago, bushido_man96 said:

Tales of Okinawa's Great Masters, authored by Shoshin Nagamine and translated by Patrick McCarthy. 

Brian, I think your MA library might give Bruce Lee’s MA library a run for its money!!

There’s something else that’s important to any music tempo and rhythm of kata is the timely crash of the cymbals, aka, BREATHING.

One surely doesn’t want to be out of breath at the end of said kata. There’s no use to have timing and rhythm in your kata if you’re going to be out of breath. 

One must control their breathing!!

No kata has the exact same timing and rhythm and breathing from move to move. All 3 have to be controlled accordingly kata to kata.

The more demand of said kata, the more control of timing, rhythm, and breathing. The more complex movements the more oxygen one’s going to need.

Proper breathing will show up within any said kata at the moments of the kiai. Ever heard a kiai that’s out of breath?? It’s not a pretty sound; wheezing out a strain kiai.

Timing…Rhythm…Breathing…these are at the core of any kata’s music score.  Control…Focus…Conditioning…these are the notes to the kata’s symphony.

Imho.

Oh what a tangled web we weave whenever we…keep messing with the darn thing; if it ain’t broken stop trying to fix it.

Imho!!

Since my Knights were demolished by the Oilers, my interest in the NHL anything as waned, however, depending on which teams end up battling for the Stanley Cup, like if the Stars, for example, reach to the championship games, I might watch.

No Stars…no interest…Stars…will watch!!

8 hours ago, bushido_man96 said:

As regards the tush push, I don't think it should be banned anyways.  No injuries recorded from its use, and it doesn't appear to be an unfair play.

The playoff seeding not changing does bother me.  I don't care if an 9-8 team wins their division; that should not guarantee a home game.

I like the onside kick rule adjustment, but I think I'd rather see the onside kick handled the way it is in the UFL.

I agree with what you’ve saying about the tush push, Brian. It’s a very effective and smart play. Whatever team is wanting it banned, perhaps they’re just ineffective at preventing it and/or ineffective in making it effective for them. 

I also agree with you, Brian about the playoff seeding because a team with 9-8 should not guarantee a home game. A team with a minimum record of perhaps 12-5 or better should earn that home game seeding. 

I also agree with you, Brian about the onside kick ruling. I got a tickle by the “not at the 35 yard line, but at the 34 yard line” like that’ll make a big difference. Having it like how it’s done in the UFC would be interesting.

I like the BOTH teams will possess the ball in overtime rule. Many major professional sports give both teams an equal opportunity to win!! MLB games, for example, in extra innings, are not over until a decided winner is decided at bottom of said inning and not at the top is said inning. NBA OT games, for example, aren’t decided until the OT clock time runs out and whichever team is ahead at the OT buzzard, that team is the winner. 

I also like the NFL rule how it “expands use of replay assist”. Teams now can review hits on a defenseless player, grabbing the facemask, performing a horse-collar tackle, tripping and running into or roughing the kicker. However, for those penalties to be reviewed, a referee has to throw a flag right at said play, and not at the insistence of a coach.

GO COWBOYS!!

23 hours ago, KarateKen said:

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay passed away.  He reportedly died in his sleep on May 21.  He was 65.   

My most sincerest condolences for his family, friends, players, staff, and to all of the Colts nation.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 

Love how Hollywood takes libertines, as it’s their right to do so, I suppose, away from what was written in the book vs what was in the movie.

Example:

The conversation between Gandalf and Frodo when Gandalf was coming into the Shire.

Congrats @ryanryu; well deserved!!

I don’t think that we’d ever see a PPV SB because the SB In itself generates quite a lot of money to go around to make whatever company happy.

BUT…one never knows.