bat in a birdless village

lol I just checked my gmail account, and I have 99 invitations that I can give out (I don't use my gmail account even though it has more cool options than you can shake a stick at). If anyone wants one or several, just tell me. bat

http://privatephone.com/ That is a site hosted by Netzero. Go there and they will give you a phone number which you can hand out to people. The phone number is a voicemail number that you can check over the phone or online. If you already have a Netzero account or email account, you can sign in with that, if not, you can just open a free account. It would be a safe, unlisted, untraceable phone number you could put on your business cards (for your martial art classes) or even to give to bill collectors. bat

http://www.archive.org/ That is a cool one if you are an internet junkie (like me). You can go there and view websites that closed down years ago. They keep an archive of internet sites and the way they looked when they existed. bat

To a point I will agree, but as I stated before, the Canemaster system is so large, that someone with physical limitations could pick and choose what he or she is able to do and still end up with a large set of self-defense moves, strikes, or blocks. bat

I am ahead of everyone on this one. My father started training in the martial arts back in about 1974. When I got my brown belt in 1993, he gave me his uniform. He and I trained under the same teacher, so the large dragon patch is the same one he used 20 years later when I got it. I wore the uniform a few times as a black belt around 1996 and plan to give it to one of my sons later on. Of course, when they get it, it will be around 40 years old. Also, I plan to have my father's name, my name, and one of their names (depending on who gets it) embroidered on the back. bat

Okay, everyone list a cool web site. The sites can be of any kind, such as sports, games, company sites, email sites...whatever. bat

http://www.clubunlimited.com/cat352.htm That has some snowboarding images for avatars. I went to google.com and searched for "snowboarding avatar." That pulled up several sites. bat

And just like that, you and I are friends. Terry Pratchett rocks! I read my first Discworld book about 3 weeks ago (Wee Free Men) and then read the sequel (Hat Full of Sky). I then got the Color of Magic and am now reading Wyrd Sisters. His writing is very similar to Terry Brooks, only with a very British sense of humor. Did you know that Wee Free Men is in preproduction for a movie from the director of Spider-Man? By the way, after reading Wee Free Men, I wanted to change my user name at message boards (like this one) to NacMacFeegle.... Crivens! bat

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=2a82x38ad11en?tname=list-of-fictional-martial-arts&sbid=lc05a That is a very cool list of fictional martial arts and worth checking out. Does anyone know of any more or have any comments on the ones listed? bat

http://www.allavatars.com http://avatars.jurko.net/ http://www.blackmaxpc.com/avatarsmiles/index.htm http://www.hotavatars.com/ (that one is probably the best one) All I did was go to google.com and seach for "free avatar." bat

I forgot to mention, that you can go to youtube.com and search for "throwing cards." That will pull up several videos of people throwing cards into pickles, watermelons, and other objects. bat

ABC (tv channel) will be airing "Master of Champions" this Thursday July 6 at 8 pm. This is not on cable or satellite, so anyone with a tv can pick it up if they want to see it. This week they will show a man throwing playing cards into walls and fruit from several feet away. I could not get many details off of the fast commercial, so I could not see what material the wall was made of or how far he was from the targets, but I did see him thow the card and sink it halfway through an un-peeled banana and then an apple. I have seen discussions here about throwing cards, so here is everyone's chance to see it. bat

Actually, on the Star Trek holodeck, the images can kill you (if you turn the safeties off), so physically it would be identical to a real fight. You could "kill" or actually be killed yourself. My question centered on whether the martial arts community or society would recognize someone as an experienced martial artist if they got all of their training in a holo-simulator like that one. bat

By the way, the Ralph Gracie school is something you need to visit--just to say you did. He is amazing. In fact, here is some video of him: http://www.youtube.com/results?search=gracie+ralph&search_type=search_videos bat

Check out the Oakland Karate one, the shorin-ryu karate, and the shotokan karate (my opinion). Those sound okay, but you can never tell from a phone book. I would not pay over $60 per month if I were you. Did you call your YMCA's and community centers? By the way, "mixed martial arts" is a term almost as common as taekwondo these days. It almost always is refering to the type of fighting used in UFC and Pride. bat

In the August 2006 issue of Black Belt, there is an article suggesting carrying a decoy wallet. He states it should hold about $35, a few fake credit cards, photos of kids you don't know, and some receipts and business cards. What does everyone here think of the idea? I like the idea. Yes it seems paranoid, but if someone has a gun pointed at me and is several feet away, there is no amount of training that is going to help me disarm him. Give him the fake wallet and pray for the best. bat

Out of those two, I lean toward karate. The problem that many face with those two styles is those are the two martial arts that make the most McDojos. If you are new to all of this, a McDojo is a school that has little kid black belts, promises you a black belt in two to three years, and charges lots of money every time you turn around. Find out about timing for belt levels, age limits for ranks, and very importantly how much they charge. Do they make you sign payment contracts? If so, leave. Also, they may want to charge you testing fees, yearly association fees, they may double the number of belts (typically around 7-8 belts doubled to 16 belts); if they do that, they double the number of times you pay testing fees. In my personal experience, taekwondo schools in my area are notorious for all of this, but I know nationwide karate schools can be just as bad. Make sure you hit all of your YMCA's and community centers while shopping for a school. There are some great schools hidden in places like that. bat

I have the whole Canemaster series and highly recommend them. As someone said earlier, there are some movies you may not like in the style, but the Canemaster style is so large, that you can throw away anything you don't like and still have a very large style. Mark Schuey has created a full stand alone style for the cane, so that means that the videos show a large set of basic strikes, blocks, and hooks, also they show self-defense, and kata. I did not like the kata that he teaches in the kata tape, but that is my opinion. I built an entirely different kata using the moves introduced from the Basic Foundations video. Here is a big hint: do not buy the "Introduction to the Cane: stretching, resistance, and basic techniques." It is kind of a fluff video maybe geared towards people who want a general intro to the cane without buying the other videos. Everything in it is covered in the other videos in better detail. Go ahead and skip to the "Basic Foundations of the Cane" video. That will get you started properly. He sells about 9 or 10 videos now, but you really only need 3 or 4 of them: "Basic Foundations of the Cane", "Intermediate Techniqes and Drills", "Advanced Tecnhniques and Takedown", and "Winning Katas" (although I am not really sure if that one is worth getting). The problem with Canemaster is they are expensive, but in July, they are running their VHS tapes for $25 (instead of $39), so you may want to hit them in July. Also, Century is running these two Cane videos for $9 each: http://www.centuryfitness.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10051&storeId=10051&productId=79297&langId=-1&crumb=13501-13753&categoryId=15075&parent_category_rn=15070 They are by a guy named Fariborz Azhakh. I don't know if they are any good, but since they are only $9, they may be worth buying. Here is a quick story from me: when I first became interested in the cane, I bought a video off of eBay for $5 from a Kenpo organization off of eBay. In the video, the very out of shape guy in his karate gi and high top sneakers shows cane moves on a 9 year old orange belt. In the background is his pool, his un-mowed grass, and a garden hose that is unrolled and laying behind him everywhere. During his solo moves, a small dog comes up and sniffs him a few times. At first I was mad that I wasted five dollars, but realized that the laughs I got from the video were worth far more. Ah, the unintional comic genius. I started hoping he would trip on the garden hose (he came close enough to do so). Anyway, Canemaster is overall very good. You should give them a try. bat

I say get the PSII. Another nice thing is that the PSII can play PS1 games. Those are great games and can be bought for under ten dollars at chain retail stores. You also need to hit half.com (which is run by eBay) to buy PS1&2 games. They are mega cheap. bat

Check that out. No one is really sure if that clip of Ultra Magnus is from the movie or just a fan work, but it is still very cool. You can see lots more cars transforming at that site by searching youtube.com for transformers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL5c2DUnYno That one is from a UK commercial and is not Transformers, but is VERY cool and worth watching. bat

official site: http://www.transformersmovie.com/ http://www.superherohype.com/news/transformersnews.php?id=4388 The bottom link will give you on set pictures, but they don't show any of the robots. The top link will give you a count down ticker for something. The movie will hit in July of 2007, so we have over a year to go. There are rumorst that Steven Spielberg is directing it, but I don't know. I am ready!!! Although not as ready as this guy: http://www.geocities.com/transfansph/tf_cosplay.html bat

http://www.museumreplicas.com/WebStore/BrowseProducts.aspx?SearchCriteria=__C__3012&GroupId=&CategoryId=&SubCategoryId=&ActionSource=LINK:19 That is very cool to me. The GI Joe Ninjas were the first exposure that I had to the martial arts. I want one! bat

How many and what kind of patches does everyone here use on their uniform? If none, why? bat

Yes, it can provide credibility, but sadly there are many organizations that are nothing but certificate mills. You can go on eBay and type in "black belt certificate" and buy your black belt papers. Or you can join groups like the United States Martial Arts Association http://www.mararts.org/ and they will mail you whatever black belt level you say you are on very pretty certificates. I have noticed that with the recent popularity of the internet (over the past decade or so), the number of questionable associations has increased a hundred fold. Still, I do agree that having paper certification does provide credibility. bat

You would have to clear up your post some. Take my first degree black belt for example. I have a certificate from my instructor stating that he promoted me to first degree black belt, but we are not members of any organization. Years later, I opened a school and used the name of the style that I have a black belt in, but did not use any organizational references. I was a black belt on the belt's merit, not on the merit of being in a larger organization. Note: I got my 2nd degree black belt some years later and got it from someone not in an organization. Then, I joined an organization/association for the benefits of networking. That was a matter of convenience, but not of making my skills any better. bat