JKN Dean

Well, help us understand what you mean when you say "yin and yang help pull everything together" for you. Are you talking about spiritual aspects? If so, then sorry but there is nothing overtly spiritual about Kuk Sool. As a matter of fact, I've never bothered to consider that the Kuk Sool hyung need to be tied together with Kuk Sool soo. The hyung are not going to help you perfect your soo, since hyung are a solo performance, and soo must be practiced on a partner. What hyung do is help you train your body for strength and balance. You don't need to be spiritual to do that. You just need focus.

Not true... gasoline is pretty high here in Texas... $2.80/gal for 93 octane... dunno what's up with that, but it sux! I'm babying this motor... after what happened to my previous motor (hydro-locked), I don't beat on this motor that hard. Think I'm gonna go buy some Exxon stock.

If you don't think you are going to hang onto the car, then I wouldn't bother modifying it at all. But you can still modify your car and sell it at a good price. It's a perception thing - a person that wants a car "built" the way you have modified yours, will most likely want to buy it, but the average Joe-Shmoe, who doesn't know a head gasket from an easter basket, will be suspicious and not want to buy a modified car. It's all about taking the time to find the right market. Beware though, that even though you could get a good price for a modified car, you generally WILL NOT recover the cost of modifying the car, so don't look at modifying it as some sort of investment. Cars make lousy investments.

You mean, hopefully find girls that can see the epidermis past the hair?

I used to play trumpet in Jr. High and High School. Tried to teach myself guitar... Now I just play my stereo.

Is this person mentally-challenged somehow?? Seriously, it really sounds like it if he's been told to stop, but continues anyway. I don't understand how he's allowed to continue, but if it were me, I'd try to draw as much attention as I could next time he joint-locked me, like yell at the top of my lungs "OWWW!! YOU'RE HURTING ME!!" It sounds like everyone involved is trying to keep it hush-hush so as not to hurt his feelings. To heck with that. If it comes down to either hurting his feelings or him hurting me physically, I vote for hurting his feelings.

Well, are you talking about modifying the tuning, or are you thinking about adding higher performance parts? If just the tuning, then when modifying your motor's tune, the first thing you will do is download the stock tune from your car's computer to a file. Then you copy this file, make modifications to it, and upload the modified file back into your car's computer. You can always load the stock tune back in if you want to sell your car. You can do the same thing with parts actually, but it's a little harder than loading the stock tune back into the computer. The problem is, with stock parts on your engine, there is only a limited amount of extra HP a tuning change will produce, and typically, once folks get bit by the "more power!" bug, they want more and more, and start adding high performance parts too! People do that all the time, believe it or not.

True, but you can't get a REAL engineering degree from a non-accredited engineering college. That's important when getting your PE Certification.

When I have to start considering MPG, that's when I'm shopping for a motorcycle. Oh ya, I don't street race. It's illegal and dangerous.

Well, I find the Trans Ams comfort level is just fine. It's funny that other F-body drivers don't keep challenging me to street races all the time. It's mostly the drivers of those same type cars you describe. It's as if they have to prove to themselves that the car they spent twice as much for as I did for mine, was worth it and can hang. I always find that amusing, as I suspect that the "comfort" and "quality" line doesn't satisfy them after all.

I like the LS1 engine but I hate the interior of the Firebird. So shoddy... Hehe! I'm the opposite. I hate the pretentious, overpriced, "refined" cars that have no muscle. You know the ones, all show - no go. For the price of a Trans Am, all you get anywhere else are just weak imitations of a sports car. Might as well just get an economy car like a Honda. The Pontiac GTO has a very nice interior, and is the only other GM car besides the Corvette to sport the LS1/2 engine.

I'm into tuning my motor: GM LS1 (iron block variant), bored and stroked to 408 cubes, ported heads, with a 248/248 .615 lift 112 deg lobe sep cam, topped off with a LS6 intake. Current tune has me running deep in the 11's in the 1/4. Haven't dynoed it yet, but I'm guessing between 450 to 500 HP at the rear wheels. Oh ya, the motor's in a '98 Trans Am that goes "lumpity lumpity" at stop lights.

I don't currently have a pet dog, but I used to. By far my most favorite breed of dog is the Irish Setter. I owned three of them at one point. They are very loving and very protective dogs. They get a bad reputation as being "high strung". Well, they are very energetic, and thus need lots of exercise, but if you give them that outlet to burn that energy up outside then they are very well mannered inside the house. I think Irish Setters, with the rich, dark red fur with the feathering around the ears, legs and tail, make them the most beautiful dogs in the world! But not only are they beautiful animals, they are very smart too. Originally bred for hunting, they all have that instinct in them, and are very trainable for that. Next dog I get will be another Irish Setter.

It's funny. Looking back, I got that exact same feeling when I was in college working towards my engineering degree. How the heck do they expect me to learn EVERYTHING they're cramming down my throat in so short a time. Between the English classes, history classes, political science classes, and my engineering classes, I'm going to end up a jack of all trades, and master of none! Of course, things didn't end up that way. I don't know what your expectations are, but attaining a 1st degree black belt in KSW does not make you a master of KSW. You don't become a master until 5th degree! So, it's putting an unecessary burden on yourself to expect yourself to have mastered anything in KSW at just the 1st degree BB level. As far as focus goes, I don't know. I just have it. Maybe it's because KSW is the only MA I've ever taken and I don't have any preconceived notions of needing something other than trying to become the best KSW practioner I can be to keep me motivated. I don't know how to help you on #2.