Gisoku Budo - musings of an amputee martial artist » Blogs/websites

Reading some local amputee blogs

Sean — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 02:00:42 +0000

I went hunting for some amputee blogs the other day and stumbled across two new ones I thought were interesting and wanted to share.

The first one is Ordinary Situations, and is written by a fellow Aussie who lost her leg at a young age and details a variety of topics, including some of the challenges/experiences she’s had as an amputee. Unless I’m having a crazy moment, we’ve actually spoken over e-mail before, but I didn’t realise she had a blog as well, otherwise I would have put it up in my link resources sooner! She’s tagged all her amputee/prosthesis stuff together as well, so it makes it easy to read up on what’s been happening with her. It looks like she’s done a me and has dropped off the blogosphere, so hopefully she’ll come back again soon for more posts!

The second one I’ve added is Active Amputee, a blog by a below-knee amputee living in Queensland who originally hails from Canada. I certainly wont hold his heritage against him though, as Wifey and I are fans of Canadians – not only are they polite international travelers and gave the world Degrassi Junior/High, but they also produce 80% of the world’s supply of maple syrup, possibly the greatest condiment in the world. Anywho, as the title suggests, Mike’s a very active above-knee amputee, and when he’s not sporting a shiny new prosthesis with a bright red Canadian maple leaf, he’s doing crazy things like climbing Kilimanjaro. His travel posts are also great, including the travel tips he’s put together.

… and I’m back!

Sean — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 02:00:20 +0000

Apologies for the unplanned break – a handful of unfortunate issues cropped up over the last couple of months, along with a couple of annoying injuries that have kept training somewhat sporadic since June.

But that’s the past – I’d rather look to the future. I’ve got plenty of material to write about which I’ll be rolling out over the next couple of weeks, as well as regular insight into my training in the Koryu Uchinadi system. On the amputee side of things, I’ve just started to get the ball rolling to have my prosthesis (which is from 2006) replaced with a new one, included some new options for the socket design and knee. Should be interesting!

I’m also out of whack with what a lot of my fellow bloggers are writing about, so I’ll be jumping back into the loop to get up to speed over there as well.

I’d also like to fire across a big thanks to those of you who e-mailed me during my blogging absence with questions or feedback, to my Sensei and fellow students for being understanding of my situation, and to Wifey for putting up with a grumpy husband the last couple of months

That’s it from me for now – more updates will come, stay tuned to the blog!

Archive: Training mashou!

Whew, time to start writing again!

Sean — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:19:46 +0000

Just wanted to share with everyone that the new site theme for Retro Otaku is finished and has been uploaded. There are still a few bugs to sort out (particularly with the image galleries), but it’s looking very nice. Please feel free to have a look!

The good news is that I can start getting back into writing, rather than coding/designing Though the next two posts will be WordPress related as I’d like to share some fixes/tips I’ve picked up from the new themes I’ve put together, so indulge me a little longer

Happy 2010!

Sean — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:58:26 +0000

Just wanted to wish everyone well for the coming year… and apologise for the dearth of updates to the site over the last couple of weeks – I was enjoying a few weeks off catching up with family, spending time with Wifey, celebrating x-mas and the new year, and taking a break from work/blogging/training/etc.

It’s been nearly 12 months since I first started up this site, and I also want to say a huge thank you to my readers, as well as the blogging and martial arts communities who continue to support, give advice and lend their encouragement to my little corner of the blogosphere. I think Wifey deserves a mention as well, since she’s the one who has to exercise patience owing to the time/energies I spend maintaining the site

I’m looking forward to a few changes in the next 12 months – there will be more image galleries as these seem to be popular with visitors, possibly a couple of videos and a new visual overhaul of the site to make it look a bit more interesting

Here’s to another exciting year!

Awesome home-spun machete vs pipe fight clip at Martial Explorer!

Sean — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:23:29 +0000

Huge props to Jesse over at The Martial Explorer – he was involved with a video production a while back that saw him having a machete vs iron pipe biffo on the top of a small building, complete with gratuitous kicking of his opponent into a swimming pool below. The final cut’s been put together, and here are the details:

FILERO GRANDE vs. PIPA CHICA: A Mr. Mean Adventure (full short) from Jack Daniel Stanley on Vimeo.

Make sure you visit his blog post on it (here) to view the footage (I can’t embed it from my blog)and leave comments/praise for its awesomeness

Plugging another blog :)

Sean — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:40:04 +0000

Just wanted to take a moment to point to another blog I’ve added to my list – A Teaspoon of Treacle. Why the plug? Because it’s Wifey’s new blog We’ve been talking for a while now about her starting up her own foodie blog as she’s extremely talented in the kitchen and has been thinking of doing something about it on the web. So, while I’m not sure how much crossover there’ll be, I’d like to encourage everyone visiting here to drop by her site and take a look!

Thanks!!

New companion blog

Sean — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:46:26 +0000

In an attempt to stave off the temptation to post about old video games on this blog, I’ve finally put the finishing touches on a companion blog where I can keep the off-topic stuff siphoned away to an appropriate place

I’ve given the new blog an appropriately nerdy name – RetroOtaku – and you can check it out in all its awesomeness at http://nerdisms.gisoku-budo.com/ if you’re so inclined. At this stage I’m not sure how often I’ll be updating it, but it’s there for when I want to wax lyrical about video games and junk

The good news is that now I’m finished putting it together I can get back to blogging here more regularly, which I’ve been pretty lax with of late. Apologies to the regulars checking out this site, I’ll get back into the swing of things over the next week!

Oh, and if you forget about the URL, you’ll find the site linked under ‘Companion blogs’ in the side bar!

Giving the blog a facelift

Sean — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:18:04 +0000

I’ve been toying with the idea for a little while now about giving the blog a facelift and incorporate a few new tricks I’ve picked up over the last couple of months toying with a bit of ASP, implementing some jQuery scripts and picking up a few advanced-ish CSS tricks at work…

And yes, I know that WordPress uses PHP as its main scripting language, but some of the principles behind scripting within ASP (though to be honest, I actually cut my teeth on XSLT, and everything’s been a bit easier to understand since then!) can still be applied to PHP – a scripting language is a scripting language, you learn some of the principles and apply it to the situation, and sometimes your code works, sometimes (more often since I’m still learning!) it kinda breaks everything Or is that just me? I guess that’s the problem when you’re a bit of a self-taught backyarder when it comes to coding

Anywho, I’ll probably start toying with some ideas for design changes and some new functions/features soon-ish. If anyone knows of any really progressive and stylish blogs or blog designs (self-promotion is fine ), let me know in the comments. I don’t know when I’ll put time aside to start fleshing out some new ideas and compile some new toys for the blog, but I figured if I actually post about it, it might encourage me to actually do something about it instead of just thinking about it Plus I haven’t built a local testbed since re-installing my O/S a while back, so I’ll have to get off my behind and get onto that too!

I’m a bad blogger

Sean — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:21:33 +0000

I was just thinking that I’ve been pretty slack with catching up on my usual round of martial arts bloggers on my side panel, and wanted to quickly post up a “I still think you’re all awesome ” comment on my blog acknowledging that I blame it on a busy work schedule and my almost-obsessive fussing over my arcade cabinet. I might break down and post some nerd images in a few weeks as I’ve tracked down a couple of ace fighting games, which in my mind is still remotely connected to the martial arts side of this blog. I don’t think the vast majority of my readership will care (though you’re welcome to surprise me!), but I don’t mind shouting into the void every now and again

Crazy prosthetics technology – the i-LIMB

Sean — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:40:04 +0000

Was doing some random Googling and found this awesome blog – The Adventures of the i-LIMB. The blog’s author, Darin, has had his left arm amputated from just below the elbow from what I can see in the videos he’s posted, and he’s documented a daily journal of his experiences with his i-LIMB, an awesome piece of crazy cybertechnology (i.e. his prosthesis ). There are plenty of videos documenting what he’s been up to and stacks of content – regardless of your background, check out his site and read up on his experiences.

Oh, and check out the vids, the technology is awesome to see in action I’ll be adding a link to his blog in my side bar, so if you forget where his blog is, you’ll be able to easily get to it regardless of where you are on my site.