Zaine

I have mine hung up in my home office, where my college degrees are (at least, on the same wall if not close). For me, these certificates are something for me to enjoy. I like the way it looks, but also I like the representation of my hard work. As a general rule, I don't value the papers of my achievements very highly. I value the experience that led me to those peaks. Therefore, it does not bother me if a dan certificate is next to my diplomas. They're both fun things to hang, but I wouldn't assign them any axiomatic value.

Congrats, Noah! It is well deserved!

None in particular. I view this as a general nidan with a focus on the Matsumura-Seito parts of my training. All of the stuff that I was tested upon was from my Matsumura-Seito training.

Over the weekend, I attended a seminar hosted by the INKKS (an organization that our own Noah Legel helped found). It was a great seminar and I learned a lot. After the seminar, however, the board tested me for my nidan and I passed! We had been discussing a test for some time but I was surprised by them testing me after the seminar as we had not discussed that. I had been a Shodan for 16 years and this was a long time coming. I plan to focus on kobudo for my nidan curriculum as well as becoming more educated in history and theory.

I would love for KI International to offer hemming services. They tend to be my go-to brand for lower end gis, and as previously mentioned I love their Mugen series and often wear it to competitions. Having an in-house service would be great.

Congrats! Well deserved!

No relation, as far as I know. We do, however, throw many jokes his way about the coincidence!

Congrats and welcome back again!

Yep. Thanks. Great to hear, KarateKen!! I mean, it could be worse. My name could be Michael Bolton. I actually know a guy who does karate whose name is Michael Bolton.

Welcome back!

Congrats!

Awesome! Hapkido has always fascinated me. Maybe I should look in my area and get into it as well.

This is what is so scary about real fights, and a big reason why I hope to never be in another as long as I live. You just don't know the intent of the assailant. Because of this, you have to assume the worst. My original sensei would always tell us that in this situations, be ready to kill someone because they could be ready to kill you. Now, he also taught constraint, and how to incapacitate rather than kill, but the message was always there. If it's them or me, I'm going to choose me.

That's an interesting question. I think I would have Itosu Anko, Funakoshi Gichin, Kano Jigoro, and Matsumura Soken. Mine is very karate centric, with a nod to Kano for the way we rank things in karate. I imagine that it is incorrect, as well. There are just so many things that I don't know that it's difficult to pick 4.

I know the feeling. An issue with content on the internet is that just anyone can post whatever they want on social media. For every person posting a drill that is so far from having real world application that it just cast a magic spell, there are plenty of people doing good drills... they just don't post. Which is a shame! I would love to see a lot more traditional martial artists posting drills and bunkai videos. The issue, in my summation, is that modern sports karateka feel they have nothing to hide. All of their content is out there for the world to see by design. Traditional karateka, on the other hand, are trained to believe that their way of doing something should remain a secret known only to those on the inside.

Happy new year!

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday!

Getting a framed picture of the guy is absolutely hilarious and I might do that to some of my friends as a joke. The worst thing I ever got was mega-blox instead of legos. Or a t-shirt specific to my aunt's church that I wasn't very interested in. Altogether, I've been pretty lucky in that the people in my life usually ask directly what I want and then get it, provided that I haven't asked for something asinine like a go-cart or a laptop.

I have a few goals related to martial arts. The first is MA adjacent. I found out that I have tachycardia this year and I want to get that under control so that I can continue to train at the level that I enjoy training at. I want to get a few karate papers that I am writing published. I want to get my Nidan. I've been a Shodan for 15+ years, it's probably time to rank up.

I make an apple pie like cookie that I call Oatmeal Applebottoms that I make every year. They taste just like an apple pie, they're great.

Whoa! I am once again honored to have such an impact on this amazing community! Thanks for all the votes! And thank you, Patrick, for hosting such an amazing place for us to get together and talk!

Most things by Remi Wolf. She is definitely on the explicit side with her lyrics, but the upbeat songs really get me going.

The tournament circuit that I compete in costs $50 for 2 events, $55 for 3. It's a smaller circuit made up of a decent number of schools within the DFW metroplex that I live in (which is not small at 9,286 square miles). There are other tournaments within DFW that are more expensive, ranging from $75 - $150 depending on who is running them. However, the average seems to be around the $50 - $60 USD range. I have personally never traveled to another state to do a tournament, but I don't run in tournaments like that. Local stuff is all I do.

This year I am asking for a vacuum cleaner. My wife refuses to get me one for Christmas (although she did commit to replacing our old one which doesn't work). Most of the martial arts related items that I get for myself, recently, have been books. I hadn't thought to ask her to get me anything martial arts related but I might point her in that direction now that you bring it up.

Right now I've been spending some time at a chain down here called Free Play. There is a cover charge, but they have a punch of old school arcade games (that rotate, depending on popularity) and a bunch of pinball machines. There's also a bar and kitchen to buy some food. Another bonus is that after a certain time, I believe 7PM, it becomes adult only.