Patrick

Congrats to your instructor, Liam. Patrick

Glad to have you, Struggling_Mudansha. Thank you for joining us. Patrick

Welcome back, twistkick kid. Happy to have you rejoin us. Thanks, Patrick

Belated welcome, PhilC. Glad to have you. Thank you for the kind words, catlike! Patrick

Glad that you like it, Brian!

Happy birthday to John (Zaine), who is a newly-minted KarateForums.com Sensei! Thank you for the amazing contributions that you have made 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 August is... RJCKarate. Congratulations! Thank you for the wonderful contributions that you have made to our community and for being a member for more than 10 years! Sincerely, Patrick

Congrats catlike! Patrick

Have to add my congrats on KF. Happy for you, Noah! Thanks for sharing it with us. Patrick

That's really nice of you to say, Brian. It's very touching. Thank you. Thank you, as well, to everyone who took the time to reply to this thread. As Brian has now seen the award, I wanted to go ahead and include a photo here as I said I would: http://www.karateforums.com/img/photos/bushido_man96-award.jpg Thanks, Patrick

Belated welcome, David. Thank you for joining us. Patrick

Happy birthday to Danielle (DWx)! Thank you for all that you do here at KF, and for your amazing contributions over the years. I'm proud to have you on our team. Thanks, Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. July 31 marks 10 years since Brian Walker (better known as bushido_man96) joined our staff. This is a rare milestone. Not just for our community, but for online communities in general. Having someone as a member of staff for a decade is demonstrative of an intense commitment to the community. We've been fortunate enough to have it happen once before, with Heidi Wilmott (ninjanurse), and Brian becomes the second staff member to reach this mark. Brian's contribution within our community, in his 10+ years of being a member, has been immense. Let's start with his more than 26,000 posts. He was the first member to reach 25,000 and numbers like that can be deceptive, but in Brian's case, they aren't, because his posts represent a mix of encouragement, helpfulness, inquisitiveness, personal growth and fun conversation. Once in a while, I'll have a conversation with a veteran member of our community, where I explain that how they participate is how the next wave of new members will participate. The many great, longstanding voices in our community have the opportunity to guide newer members and reinforce the values that we share in our community. Brian exemplifies these efforts, and has set an amazing example for others to follow through his incredible legacy in our community. As a staff member, Brian has been an active, deeply engaged part of an incredibly strong team. These efforts that few people know about, behind the scenes, help to keep KarateForums.com headed in the right direction. He has served as a helpful hand to fellow staff members, and his support and loyalty to me and to this community is something that I am deeply grateful for. Brian is a true believer in this community and its potential. How many people has Brian's presence drawn into our community? How many people has he helped and made feel welcome? It's not a small number. I believe that this why the community has recognized Brian so broadly through the KarateForums.com Awards. No one has been nominated more than Brian - that's 36 times - and Brian has the second most award honors, with 13. Brian, thank you. Thank you for being such a thoughtful contributor within our community. Thank you for being a kind, helpful presence for members, staff and for me. Your enthusiasm and loyalty for this community is self-evident, and I deeply appreciate it. In recognition of this milestone, on behalf of KarateForums.com, it is my honor to present you with a physical token of our appreciation for everything that you have brought to this community. It will arrive on Monday, and I will post a picture of it after you receive it, as I want you to be the first person to see it. When you look at it, I hope that you are reminded of the fond memories you have made within our community, in addition to the ones that we'll make moving forward. Please join me in congratulating Brian on this incredible milestone, and sharing your thoughts on what he has brought to KarateForums.com. Sincerely, Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. Over the last few years, it has become clear by the volume of submissions that interest in the KarateForums.com Articles section has waned. Because of this, I really believe that the types of insights that are shared in this section would be better shared in the specific forums that match the content of those articles and threads. As such, I have decided to close the KarateForums.com Articles section. It will remain online for a while and then we'll move the discussions in that section to the individual forums where they make the most sense. However, I also didn't want to cut anyone off who may be working on an article currently. We'll remain open to submissions for 30 days (through August 20) and, if you have something in mind, I look forward to seeing it. We will once again have an Article of the Year category in this November's KarateForums.com Awards. In addition, there are currently a number of articles in the queue, and I'll be working to edit and publish those as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you for your time and understanding. Sincerely, Patrick

What a terrible tragedy. Again, I'm sorry, Bob. Patrick

Hey catlike. Belated welcome. Glad to have you. Patrick

Welcome aboard, idsymo. 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 July is... LLLEARNER. Congratulations! Thank you for the wonderful contributions that you have made to our community thus far. Sincerely, Patrick

Congrats LLLEARNER.

Welcome to KF, gunner! Not long at all, it's good to get to know you a bit. Patrick

YIKES. Sorry to hear that, Danielle.

Haha, that's funny, Bill. Nice use of the lyrics. In the movie Popstar, Andy Samberg plays a pop artist who came from a boy band called Style Boyz and this is one of their songs. But the Popstar album is essentially a new The Lonely Island album in the story of the character. I shared Karate Guy here for obvious reasons, haha, but my favorites from the album are Finest Girl, Mona Lisa, I'm So Humble (with Adam Levine), Should I Move? (Akon), Things In My Jeep (Linkin Park) and Incredible Thoughts (Michael Bolton and Justin Timberlake. Patrick

Belated Happy Father's Day! If you're a Dad or filling that role, hope you had a nice day. Patrick

https://open.spotify.com/track/5W1LU1KqP8RjGRpA0hudH6 If you know The Lonely Island, it's what you expect. If not... then it's totally random, haha. Just saw their new movie Popstar with my brothers and loved it (and this is one of the songs from the soundtrack). Patrick

My pleasure. Once in a long while, I'm good for something of value around here. Hahahaha. Patrick