Certificates

I talked with the artist that is making up the new certificates over the Thanksgiving holiday. My people met with his people over lunch. My people being my wife, son and I and his people being him.

He said he has been tied up on work projects and some Christmas presents that he was making for his daughters. Can you believe he is putting his paying job and family ahead of our certificates? Me too. Karate takes a back seat quite often because at this point, it's a hobby for most of us.

He does our artwork for nearly free so I really can't complain. What's nearly? I buy him lunch once in a while and I have promised to take him to the Trans Siberian Orchestra next year. For what he does, that means I am pretty much paying him nothing. One more person for me to be thankful for.

Over this last weekend, my wife and I made up a list of things that we were thankful for. Our son topped the list but right after him came our friends. We have been blessed with having some very wonderful people in our life and have vowed to do more to let them know how much we appreciate them.

I'm hoping to get some work in on the website today

I'm going to have to sneak in some sleep but I'm going to work on the website when I wake up. I wish it were going faster but things just seem to keep coming up. I guess that's how it is around the holidays.

I am hoping to be on straight swing shift within 6 months. I may have to start looking for a new job. I don't really want to do that but I'm tired of being tired. Working two grave shifts a week throws off more than just those two days. Switching back and forth and trying to do everything else that I try to do is just wearing me out.

It would be nice to be on a stable sleep schedule. A dream. =)

The low down

We worked a couple of techniques in the Black Belt Workshop today where we did strikes from our knees and take-downs from our knees. It was fun and I think we'll explore it further next week.

I spent the first half of the class working on the windows. We are in a WWII barracks and the windows blew up in a windstorm the other night so when we got there today, it was cold. One of the windows doesn't fit properly so I did some rigging to try and keep it shut.

There are windstorms out here often so it is something that needs to be dealt with. We are going to put plastic over all the windows for the winter and start putting insulation up in the larger room. It may take some time but it's going to be a very nice karate school.

Team Effort

I'm going back to college to finish my degree that I started oh-so-long-ago. I'm also going to be taking an active role in teaching at my other school. I am also going to be teaching another day a week in an after-school program at the local elementary. I am also going to start fixing up my karate building.

All these "also's" mean that I am going to be depending on my top students to help out. I thought that I was busy before but these next few months are going to make it look like I was on break.

Oddly enough, I am looking forward to it all.

All the king's men and all the king's horses and me

I have moved created all my subdirectories and moved all my files around for my website. I guess I should post the link since I'm spending all this time talking about it.

Blue Tiger Tactical Defense

I have started reconnecting all the links. It may not take as much time to do as I had originally thought. If I can get through 25 pages a day, I should be done in a week. I was hoping to have more than that done yesterday and today but things didn't turn out that way.

Maybe I'll get up early before class tomorrow to get some work in on it. I really want to have it all put together as fast as possible. I want to move ahead on working on the actual content of the site. There is so much to do on that aspect of it.

I'm also going to have a group of people critique my site and give me some tips for making it better.

Starting into the website overhaul

I have started working on the website directories which means there are going to be a lot of dead links for a little while. I'm going to try and get as many of them up and running today as I can. Today is when I have the most time to work on it for the week.

Today is also the day that I have to take my son to the doctor to check on a mystery rash that has appeared on his face so I won't have as much time as I planned.

I am going to be changing the format of some of the pages and there are still some of the higher belt techniques that were never changed to the new layout. So much to do...

This week's goal

My goal for the website this week was to write two more articles. I'm halfway through the second one and it should be finished today. I'm going to have to try and get a little bit of sleep in somewhere in the day so that I have enough energy to teach class tonight. Wednesday's are long days for me. I work graveyard shift Tuesday night and try to stay up through Wednesday, sometimes taking a couple hours of sleep.

Today, I'm already tired and the day is barely beginning.

Next week's website goal is to overhaul the directory. That's going to take some work but I'm hoping to get it accomplished in one week so I can go back to building on it.

I'm going to try to get out another article today

I have plenty that I want to get out. It's one of the reasons why I have this blog, the website, the forums, and the discussion group. I don't have enough time in class to get all my ideas out.

We have slowed down the pace of the class so that I can teach more of the principles and concepts behind the techniques but there is still more to be taught. It's the principles and concepts that are important, not the techniques. They are a tool to be used to teach the principles, not the end product in themselves. We use them to teach motion, weapons and targets, and other basics for combat.

It is unlikely that a student will end up using a technique as it was taught. It's not impossible. I have had one student use a stock technique to defend himself against someone trying to stab him with scissors. So it does happen but it's just not likely to go down that way. Most of the action is going to be improv instead of scripted. It will work if I have done my job as an instructor and the student has studied and practiced.

New Article

I have added a new article to my website where I discuss the difference between hurting someone and harming someone. An important distinction in our school.

Hurt vs. Harm (part 1)

I had to cancel the black belt workshop today

My son was really sick last night. Today, he seems to be a little bit better but he's still running a fever. I take him with me to the class. He's 18 months old and I usually even put him into a karate uniform. He's dang cute. My other classes, my wife watches him but on Monday's she's at work. It usually works out okay. He plays with all the karate stuff while I practice.

My website needs an overhaul

When I first had the idea of creating a website for my students, it sounded so straightforward. I just began not thinking much about planning ahead. I knew what I was going to do and it was going to be easy. A little time consuming but easy.

It has become a lot time consuming and the project seems to continue to grow. I am going to have to go back through the pages I have (over 150 of them) and create subdirectories to keep track of everything. It's going to be the only way to keep everything straight. Doing that is going to require going through all the pages and updating the links. It's going to be quite the daunting task.

I feel like I'm doing it just for me, for the pride of creating this website, because I don't think my students look at it often. I could be wrong but I have added a picture sequence and a video to the page and haven't received any feedback on it, positive or negative. I'm not going to let that discourage me because I do think that it will eventually become a valuable tool.

Picture sequence

I was able to get the picture sequence up yesterday. I really think that's going to be helpful for the students, especially in the other school. When I get them all done (HA!), it will be great for everyone. It should be especially helpful for the lower belts. If they forget a move, they can just look it up on the web.

I haven't been able to move the video from my camera to my computer yet. There is some sort of glitch in it and I haven't been able to figure it out. If I have time today, I'm going to work on it some more because I think that will be helpful as well.

Class last night

My dentist appointment ended up taking 3 hours. Supposedly, everything is fixed and the problem is solved. I was lucky I was able to go to any class at all.

We took the pictures that I want to include on the website and also took the video. I have downloaded the pictures but for some reason, I can't download the movie to my computer. I'm going to have to work on it. I was going through the instuctions last night and I can't see where I'm going wrong with it.

We worked on a new variation of Gripping Talon. That was fun. I wish I had more time to spend on practicing. I'm going to have to work on becoming a full time instructor. =)

I'm looking forward to class tonight

I'm not looking forward to going through a root canal to get there. Scheduling can be difficult for me between my full-time job, karate, and taking care of my son. There is a slight gap between taking care of my son today and karate. That's where I have put my dental appointment but I think it's going to overlap into karate time some. Hopefully not much and hopefully I still feel like doing karate after going through this.

Sleep takes a back seat to all of the above activities as well. I try to nap with my son on the days that I have worked graves and always hope that he'll sleep for at least 2 hours so I get some rest. Without those 2 hours of sleep, I would be up for 24 hours.

That happens at least once a week. This will be the second time this week. It should be the last time for the week.

I was given a good tutorial for movies

I will probably try to put a movie onto my website this week to see how hard it is to do. I'm going to take my camera with me on Wednesday to try some still sequences and a movie of a technique. I think both will be beneficial.

I'm going to be late getting there on Wednesday because I have to go to the dentist. I had a root canal done years ago and it seems it didn't actually get all the way done. There is a little bit of a gap at the bottom that gets infected and causes me problems like pain and swelling.

We are going to have three new students on Wednesday night too. Siblings, which can be fun. Watching the Dunn's, five siblings that are now green belts has been a joy to see. I have never asked but I'm sure that the shared hobby helps bring them together.

I always encourage parents to join with their children because it is an excellent experience they can enjoy together. I do have a couple that follow through with the invitation.