Patrick

Happy birthday to Liam (Nidan Melbourne)! Hope you had an outstanding day. Thank you for all of the amazing contributions that you have made to our community over the years. Patrick

Welcome to KF, albertnicholas61. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for February is... mushybees. Congratulations! Thank you for being such a great part of our community. Sincerely, Patrick

Happy birthday to tallgeese (Alex)! Thank you for all of the amazing contributions that you have made to our community over the years. Patrick

Hey all, It was on the same day, 5 years ago as of Monday, that both Noah (Wastelander) and Devin (Lupin1) joined our team. To have 2 amazing people join our team on the same day is pretty amazing, but to have them also continue to be on our team for 5 years, is unique. Please join me in congratulating Noah and Devin on reaching this milestone! I'd like to take a moment to talk about both of them. Noah has been such a solid, consistent presence on our team. After about a year, he become a moderator, and has really taken to the role, and applies a great patience and sensitivity to ensuring that we are treating members, and their contributions, with the utmost respect and consistency as we apply our community guidelines. Of the many things that stand out to me about Noah is that he is someone who has a fairly well-known karate blog, but he has never put me in the awkward position of having to tell him that he was advertising his blog or self-promoting. He has always erred on the side of caution and held himself to the same standards that we expect of all members. Which, I know, is how it should be, but is also not always how it is. Noah is exemplary. He is also incredibly patient, and thoughtful in his posts here on the community. Even for someone like me, who is not a karate practitioner, it has been impressive to watch Noah grow over the 7+ years that he has been a member here, as a person, martial artist, instructor, community member and moderator. Thank you, Noah, for everything that you have done here at KarateForums.com. When I think about Devin, I think of someone who is just consistently kind, welcoming and encouraging to members of our community. I think she has really helped a lot of members, especially new members, to feel comfortable here and to come out of their shell, and to share with us. It's easy to take someone like that for granted, but it's a mistake. Sometimes, in online communities, we can get lost in who has the post posts, or who sounds the most authoritative, or who has the most likes (we don't have likes... yet), but it's harder to measure and spot folks who are not only good at making a point, but good at helping you step forward to make a point, as well. Devin's good at that. As a staff member, in the areas of the site that only staff can access (it's not fancy, haha), Devin is very present, which I have always appreciated. What I mean by present is that, when I am seeking perspectives on the community, she usually has a considerate one to share, which helps us to make the right choices to move the community forward. She can be counted on. Thank you, Devin, for all of the contributions that you have made to KarateForums.com. This community is so much better for having both of you, as members and on staff. I'm grateful to have you on our team, and for all of your kindness and support over the years. Thanks again, Patrick

That's pretty cool, singularity6!

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for January is... RW. Congratulations! Thank you for all of the contributions that you have made to our community. Sincerely, Patrick

Happy birthday to Devin (Lupin1)! Thank you for all of the amazing contributions that you have made to our community. Patrick

Thanks for sharing this, Struggling_Mudansha!

Belated, but that's great news, Danielle!

Welcome to the community, OneKickWonder. Thanks for taking the time to say hello. Patrick

Welcome to KF, Jason. Glad to have you. Patrick

Congrats singularity6! Enjoy the move. Patrick

I think your post is one way to look at things, JR, and a reasonable way. And you definitely aren't alone in having a, perhaps, snarky take on it. It's really just a matter of what's convenient or cool to you, and what the worth of that is. For example, I'm getting ready to move to a new apartment, and it has window shades (the building actually mandates that we use them). They look cool, so that's fine. And I don't necessarily mind raising and lowering them. But I pretty much can't wait to get this: https://www.somasmarthome.com Sure, it's a luxury, but I think it's pretty cool, and I'll love saying, "Alexa, lower the shade in the living room." And when I wake up in the morning, to ask it to raise the shade partially or something like that. It's worth it to me. After all, there are a lot of things people spend money on that are worth it to them, that aren't worth it to me. Like I don't drink or gamble or go to the movies regularly or have a gym membership (I workout at home) or... you get the idea. Now, if I was in a financial place where I had debt or I had kids to feed, of course, I would never choose to spend a couple hundred bucks on automatic shade converters. No doubt. I don't really agree with the idea that "if I can't be bothered to do it, that means X is wrong," because that could be applied to a lot of simple conveniences in life. In your case, I don't see any reason not to take Echo out of the box and play around with it, at least. For example, after I shower, I'll be shaving and getting dressed, and I'll ask Alexa for the weather. When I lay down to sleep, I ask Alexa to play rain sounds and set an alarm. It's small stuff and, of course, it's not a necessity of life. I can just use my phone to set an alarm. I can use it to play rain sounds, make it pair with a Bluetooth speaker, etc. etc. etc. But I like it. Re: wanting to control lights. Depending on the type of light you mean, and what type of bulb it accepts, there are actually smart light bulbs that you can use. So, you wouldn't have to change out switches, fixtures, etc. Yes, they are definitely way more expensive than traditional bulbs, but none of this is going to be free, whether you are buying new bulbs or repaving your drive way. Example here: https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Equivalent-Dimmable-Compatible-Assistant/dp/B01M1SXLD8/ There are also Alexa compatible switches and power outlets. For the TV, you wouldn't need to buy a new TV, just a remote or hub that can connect to your TV. For example, you could buy a Harmony remote or hub, you can use the Dot to control it: https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/harmony-experience-with-amazon-alexa Again, not free ($80-$120), but it's an option. Patrick

Welcome to KF, mevis. Glad to have you. Patrick

Good luck, singularity6! Patrick

How was it, Karate_John? Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for December is... Prototype. Congratulations! Thank you for all of the contributions that you have made to our community. Sincerely, Patrick

Thanks for being a part of our community. Patrick

I am so sorry for your loss, Noah. Far too young. This is just so terrible.

Happy birthday to Brian (bushido_man96)! Thank you for being such an amazing member for so long. I appreciate all of the contributions that you have made here, and all of your support as a member of our staff. I hope you have a great day. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. First of all, I would like to apologize for the extreme delay in posting the results. Suffice to say, I have been dealing with some crazy times due to changes in my life. All good! Just figuring it all out. I appreciate your patience, and I am so excited to reveal the winners of our 2017 awards! After a month of nominations and votes, the 2017 edition of the KarateForums.com have come to an end. It is now time for us to announce the winners. Before I do so, I wanted to once again congratulate everyone who was nominated. Regardless of whether or not you won the award, the fact that you were nominated means that, when asked to identify a member who really stood out in the past year, your fellow community members thought of you. That's pretty cool, and you should be proud. If you did not win or were not nominated, please don't take it badly. These awards do have meaning, but they are also for fun and not everyone can win or be nominated. Please join me in congratulating our winners. I would like to specifically thank everyone who participated in the process by nominating and voting. It is the community that selected the nominees and decided the winners. There are no KarateForums.com Awards without you. Several nominees took the time to vote in categories where they were nominated. Since you can't vote for yourself, your choice is to vote for someone else or not vote at all. Though I can't reveal who voted for whom, please know that I appreciate everyone who thoughtfully voted in the categories where they were nominated. It says a lot about you, and I love to see it. Without further ado, here are our winners: 1. Member of the Year: Spartacus Maximus (for the 2nd consecutive year) 2. New Member of the Year: singularity6 Note: singularity6 won by unanimous nomination. There were several nominations in this category, but they were all for singularity6. For the sake of suspense, I did not include this nomination in our overall nominations tally on our awards page when the ballots were announced. I have now added it. 3. Community Spirit Award: sensei8 (for the 5th consecutive year) 4. Staff Member of the Year: DWx (for the 4th time) 5. Funniest Member of the Year: TJ-Jitsu 6. Karate Contributor of the Year: MatsuShinshii 7. Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts Contributor of the Year: tallgeese (for the 5th consecutive year) 8. Equipment Contributor of the Year: JR 137 (for the 2nd consecutive year) 9. Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year: (tie) JR 137 and sensei8 10. Instructor Central Contributor of the Year: sensei8 (for the 5th consecutive year) Congratulations to Spartacus Maximus, singularity6, sensei8 (3 wins), DWx, TJ-Jitsu, MatsuShinshii, tallgeese and JR 137 (2 wins)! singularity6, TJ-Jitsu and MatsuShinshii are all first time honorees. I would also like to congratulate sensei8 on reaching 20 wins (now with 21, the most all-time), tallgeese on tying for the 2nd most wins all-time with 14 and JR 137 on reaching 5 wins, good for 5th overall. For past winners and all of the awards historical data, please check out: http://www.karateforums.com/awards.php Thank you for reading and for supporting the KarateForums.com Awards. Sincerely, Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for November is... Shizentai. Congratulations! Thank you for being a long term member of our community, and for the contributions that you have made. Sincerely, Patrick