Patrick

I filled one out for the family pool. Took some chances in the first couple rounds. Going pretty well so far, but lost my first Sweet 16 and Elite 8 team when Buffalo lost today. Hoping for an Oregon win tonight. This link should work: http://freebracketchallenge.1.mayhem.cbssports.com/brackets/shareable-bracket/993e469f280eb918fbcfaa5107854e9a15f5cd5f3b303dd7?randkey=576766&ttag=BC19_tw_sh

I'm glad that it could provide you with a boost. Our staff selects the Member of the Month, I'm just the messenger. Thanks again, Patrick

Happy birthday, Liam! Hope you had a great day. Thank you for all of the contributions that you have made to KF! Patrick

Hey all, Arcade1Up makes budget, officially-licensed 3/4 size arcade cabinets. We have a Rampage one, and I love it. Anyway, they announced recently that later this year they'll be releasing a Karate Champ cabinet that will also include BurgerTime, Caveman Ninja and Bad Dudes, and I'm definitely thinking that I want it. https://arcade1up.com/products/karate-champ I kind of wish they had styled the cabinet itself as Bad Dudes, just because that game is so goofy, but Karate Champ is better for this group, obviously. They haven't announced a price yet, but the previous ones retailed at $299, so maybe around there. Patrick

Thanks JazzKicker, you're right. I have updated the post! 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... Bulltahr. Congratulations! Thank you for all of your contributions that you have made over the years. Sincerely, Patrick

Hey the_mars_bar_kid! Welcome. Patrick

Happy birthday, Devin (Lupin1)! Thank you for all of the contributions that you have made here over the years. 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 January is... Wayofaswede. Congratulations! Thank you for all of your contributions that you have made here! Sincerely, Patrick

Welcome back, LLLEARNER! Nice to hear from you! Congrats on the graduation! Patrick

Belated, but that's such a nice sentiment, JazzKicker. Thank you for sharing it! Patrick

Love to see members return to this thread at the end of the year. Patrick

Love this annual thread. Thank you for sharing, everyone! Patrick

Happy belated birthday, Brian! Thank you for everything that you do here. Patrick

Hey all, I just wanted to take a moment to wish you a happy holiday season! Thank you for being a part of KarateForums.com, and thank you to all of our members who appreciate the environment that we have here, and work to make it even better through their contributions. We have a great group of people that treats each other with respect, no matter their level of knowledge or years of experience, and who selflessly share what they know, while also recognizing what they don't. You make the community a special place to be. I hope 2019 is a great year for you, and those you care about. Thanks, 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... JazzKicker. Congratulations! Thank you for all of your contributions that you have made over the last 15 months. I've definitely enjoyed your posts and what you have brought to the community. Sincerely, Patrick

Thanks Ken. Patrick

First, I appreciate the effort to ensure this discussion does not delve into general politics, as that wouldn't be appropriate here. Specific candidates, specific non-martial arts issues, etc. would not be welcome here, as you eluded to, MatsuShinshii. Thank you for that. Though potentially awkward, the best way for the conversation to exist here is it to focus on the relevant side of the conversation: School owners and instructors, and the level to which their choice of association should impact whether or not students continue to choose to learn from them, or patronize their business in some cases. ----- It's possible that the students are being unreasonable and acting in an immature way. That said, I believe that instructors serve the community (or, at least, a community), and if their political views lead to them supporting candidates or causes that may harm that community, or members of it, then it seems like a reasonable outcome for those members to stop supporting that instructor or that business, and choose to go somewhere else. The fact is, you will be judged by those you associate with. The instructor can exercise their right to support a particular candidate or party, and the students can exercise their right to go elsewhere. I don't think either is necessarily wrong. In my life, there is plenty of room for respectful disagreement on any number of serious issues. But then there are definitely some specific issues that are close enough to me personally where if I were to find someone supporting a candidate who crossed the lines on those issues, it would be difficult for me to continue supporting them. I may have known them for many years, they may be my friend, I may have been a loyal customer. But we all have lines of where polite disagreement meets a serious threat to me or someone I care about. And if you are threatening someone I care about, then it seems pretty natural to want to distance myself from you. I may not make a big, public show of it, I might just bring the relationship to a close quietly. Relationships shift and change, and one of the ways that they do that is based upon how the members have that relationship change and/or grow. I don't think this should be any different for the instructor/student dynamic. Just my thoughts. Thanks, Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. After more than a month of nominations and votes, the 2018 edition of the KarateForums.com Awards 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. Out of the 18,167 registered members in the history of this community, only 153 have ever been nominated for an award. So to be nominated is 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: MatsuShinshii 2. New Member of the Year: OneKickWonder 3. Community Spirit Award: sensei8 (for the 6th consecutive year!) 4. Staff Member of the Year: JR 137 5. Funniest Member of the Year: JR 137 6. Karate Contributor of the Year: MatsuShinshii (for the 2nd consecutive year!) 7. Equipment Contributor of the Year: Bulltahr 8. Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year: (tie) singularity6 and Alan Armstrong 9. Instructor Central Contributor of the Year: sensei8 (for the 6th consecutive year!) Congratulations to MatsuShinshii (2 wins), OneKickWonder, sensei8 (2 wins), JR 137 (2 wins), Bulltahr, singularity6 and Alan Armstrong! OneKickWonder, Bulltahr and Alan Armstrong are all first time honorees. 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

Thanks for sharing this with us, DeskWarrior! Welcome. Love the responses on this thread. Patrick

Welcome to KF, Mitlov! Congrats on the 4th gup! Patrick

Congrats Ken. Patrick

Thank you for taking the time to reply and add your thoughts, Bob, JR, Ken, Noah, Fat Cobra, Brian, MatsuShinshii, Bulltahr, Ken and Alan!

Welcome aboard, John. Glad to have you. Patrick

Hey all, December 2 marks 10 years that Alex (tallgeese) has been a member of our staff at KarateForums.com. There are many cool things about Alex, and I'd like to talk about a few of them today. First, let's start with his contributions to KarateForums.com. He's up to exactly 6,800 posts now and there's a lot of wisdom there. I read a lot of posts, obviously, and we have so many posts that contain insightful martial arts wisdom. But there is something about Alex's posts that, even as a non-martial artist, I enjoy reading them. I think his posts feature a mix of elements that, as a whole, represent what makes KarateForums.com great. These are: 1. Solid knowledge. 2. An ability to communicate that knowledge in a way that isn't self-serving. 3. A friendliness that encourages a response. 4. The opening for others to respond and, as such, the opening for growth, where his posts don't read as someone trying to be end the conversation or be definitive. 5. Comprehension of the posts he's responding to. His posts are just really outstanding. Next, I'd like to discuss Alex's contributions as a staff member. He's a really outstanding moderator. To become one of those, you really have to want to be one. It's easy to be a bad one, to try to moderate as an individual and apply guidelines in your own way, to miss details, to be sloppy. But Alex is a really strong moderator. His law enforcement background helps, but what also helps is that he cares. And it shows. A lack of caring leads to inconsistent decisions and cutting corners. Alex doesn't do that. Finally, I'd like to highlight his journey since registering here in May of 2008. He touched on this recently, and I'd love for Alex to expand on that a bit here to refresh our memories, but he's really come a long way as a martial artist, especially in BJJ. Specifically, it's been amazing to watch him grow to the point where he felt comfortable to start his own school, Alpha BJJ, which has become a focal point in his life. That school didn't exist when he joined, and now it does. Alex, thank you for your consistent, meaningful contributions to our community, as a member through your posts and on staff. Thank you for all of your support over the years, and for really believing in this community. I feel fortunate to have you. As a small token of our appreciation for Alex, we have sent him a physical award, which he hopefully has received by the time he reads this post, pictured here: http://www.karateforums.com/img/photos/tallgeese-award.jpg Please join me in recognizing Alex, in honor of this milestone, with a reply to this thread! Thanks, Patrick