Patrick

Welcome RichardZ. What's your background in the arts?

Thank you to those that have nominated thus far. If you haven't yet, please do! It's definitely appreciated. Patrick

Congrats Joe.

Thanks everyone who has posted so far. No worries, Bob!

These last two games have definitely gone well. That was a great two out rally in the ninth. I always try to stay on a pretty even keel. So, we'll see what happens next.

It was a good game for the Dolphins. Happy to see our defense make a stand at the end. I'm happy for Favre, as well.

I have no problem with it at all. The idea is to convert. You do that through any legal means necessary. If the game had been out of hand, maybe, but the article says it was 13-0 at the time. At that point, it's still a ballgame.

The Yankees did win game 2, with 3 earned runs off of Pedro over 6 innings. Burnett and Mo were both very sharp. Game 3 next.

Hello, Welcome to the eighth annual KarateForums.com Awards. Through these awards, we recognize just a few of the individuals who have made outstanding contributions to KarateForums.com in the past year. These awards take into consideration all community activity between October 19, 2008 and October 18, 2009. Members must be nominated based upon their activity in this period and articles nominated for Article of the Year must have been published in this span. To nominate, you must have a KarateForums.com account that had at least 25 posts made on or before October 18, 2009 (Eastern Time). There are just three guidelines to keep in mind when nominating: 1. Only one member or article can be nominated for EACH award. In other words, you cannot nominate the entire staff for Staff Member of the Year. You have to pick one person. One person can be nominated for more than one award, however. 2. You cannot nominate yourself or an article that you wrote for any of the awards. 3. Do not attempt to artificially inflate our nomination totals in any way. This includes but is not limited to trading nominations, encouraging people to nominate indiscriminately (publicly or privately), mass mailing/posting and any other behavior that could lead to results being artificially skewed. Individuals found to be participating in these activities will be disqualified from nomination in any category. Please note that you do not have to nominate for every category. You can nominate for as many or as few as you would like - please go for as many as you feel comfortable with. The more valid nominations that we get, the better! From these nominations, the ballot for each award will be chosen, consisting of the top 4 nominees, plus ties. Through the poll system available on these forums, you will be able to vote for the winners! Here are this year's categories: 1. Member of the Year This award is intended to acknowledge the non staff member who you feel best exemplifies the qualities that KarateForums.com puts a premium on. Knowledge is valuable, but most valuable is a kind and helpful nature. You don't need to be a martial arts expert to be nominated for this award - you need to be someone who is kind and who shares what they know in a productive fashion that helps others. Current staff members (Sempais, Senseis and Patrick) cannot be nominated for this award. 2. New Member of the Year Basically, this award is the same as the Member of the Year award, except that this one is strictly for members that registered on or between the dates of October 19, 2008 and July 18, 2009. Current staff members (Sempais, Senseis and Patrick) cannot be nominated for this award. 3. Community Spirit Award This award should go to a person whom you feel has a passion for this community. A person who is all about the home team - in this case, KarateForums.com. Regular members and staff members (except Patrick) can be nominated for this award. 4. Staff Member of the Year Basically, this award is the same as the Member of the Year award, except that this award is for current staff members only (except Patrick). Regular members cannot be nominated. If you are unsure of who is on staff, please visit http://www.karateforums.com/staff.php for a complete listing. 5. Funniest Member of the Year Humor is an important aspect of the forums and this award recognizes the member who has brought a smile to your face many times. This person should have a good, clean sense of humor. Regular members and staff members (except Patrick) can be nominated for this award. 6. Article of the Year This award distinguishes your favorite article that was published in the KarateForums.com Articles section on or between October 19, 2008 and October 18, 2009. Whether the article enlightened or inspired you, this is the place to recognize it. Here are the articles that are eligible for nomination: Zen and Martial Arts Practice by BillKephart Principle Based Martial Arts Training by tallgeese Focus Mitt Training for the Multi-Disciplined Fighter by tallgeese Learning About Wado Karate by javykixs Cross Training and Self Defense by pittbullJudoka Sparring: The Basics by DWx The Mind of the Martial Artist by KarateEd Step-Sparring and Self Defense by bushido_man96 The Tenets and Precepts of Kwok Wu Chuen by ninjanurse So, that's all there is to it. Please nominate. You will find a blank ballot at the bottom of this message that you can copy and paste. We need as many valid nominations as possible! You nominate by sending a private message at http://www.karateforums.com/privmsg.php?mode=post&u=2715 - nominations will be closed on November 12, 2009 at 6 PM ET. Please do not post your nominations on this, or any thread. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to private message me or reply to this thread. Thank you for reading and for visiting KarateForums.com. Here is the ballot that you can use:

So, on a couple of threads recently, I saw people talking about Facebook. Let's share our profile URLs. This is me: http://www.facebook.com/patrickokeefe This is KarateForums.com: http://www.facebook.com/karateforums Thanks, Patrick

Thank you for the submission.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification, Bob.

The Dolphins game was hard to watch. The first half was euphoria. The second half was PUTRID. Tough game. I'm still hopeful, though.

Funny guys. Be nice! Congrats to the Phillies and their fans. It should be a great series and a nerve wracking experience for both fan bases. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for sharing yourselves with the community. It's great to get to know everyone just a bit better.

Belated birthday wishes to you, Bob, and Brian's son.

I'm definitely happy and looking forward to the series starting tonight. 7 games decide a season. Anything can happen. Congrats to the Phillies and their fans and good luck. The starter discussion is an interesting one. I marvel at the stats of Catfish Hunter, Nolan Ryan, etc. and the innings totals they would amass. Regarding Mo and more than one inning. I think overall Girardi tried to protect him from that during the regular season, as he should have. But, for the playoffs, all bets are off. Since becoming the closer, he's pitched in 24 postseason series and he's pitched more than an inning per appearance (on average) in 21 of them (and the other 3 were all ALDS' where the team got eliminated). Patrick

Hey ElShaft. Glad to have you here.

Welcome to KF, SenseiJ.

I'm sorry to hear about that, patusai. Best of luck to you. And welcome back. Patrick

Welcome to the community, Raul.

Welcome to KF, KarateGeorge! Glad to have you.

Welcome aboard, Abari Isamu.

Hello, KarateForums.com recognizes one member every month as the Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. The October 2009 selection is... armanox. Congratulations!

Thank you for the submission. Good principles for life.