So, I was out of the loop during June and a little bit of July as well (click the links for the monthly roundups – not looking as healthy as my usual efforts!!), and this also means I’m also out of whack with what’s been happening in the martial arts blogs I regularly read during the week.

So, it left me feeling a little sheepish that I hadn’t dropped by Black Belt Mama’s blog to read up that she was successful in not only getting her 1st Dan in Okinawan Kenpo Karate, but she double-graded and also earned her 1st Dan in Okinawan Kenpo Kobudo as well. Crazy stuff, and really awesome to hear. She’s had to fight through ACL hell to get there, and I think it’s brill to read that she’s achieved her 1st Dan in both of those styles. I’d encourage you to check out the full post on her blog (click here), and I reckon I’ll have to think about the beer idea she had. Might come in handy for whenever I manage to progress that far

Congrats BBM! Sorry it’s so belated!

Bloginated Thursday, 30th July 2009 / Blogs/websites
Tag-isms: grading

Just wanted to quickly post that I’m still around the place!

Sorry for the lack of new content over the past week, things have been a little crazy around here, especially with work (I have a project looming with a definite end date of June 30, so it’s required extra hours on top of my usual commitments in order to meet the deadline), to the point where I haven’t been able to make it to class for a few weeks, though I’ve still managed to squeeze in some training at home, working on my basic forms and kata as I’m still aiming to be able to attend the next grading.

Anywho, give me a week or so, and I’m sure I’ll be back to my usual blogging routine by then In the meantime, feel free to drop by any of the excellent blogs and resources I’ve listed on the right-hand side of this page, I know I’ll be looking forward to catching up on them myself once I’ve got things straightened out!

Bloginated Tuesday, 23rd June 2009 / Blogs/websites
No tag-isms applied to this post due to unruly laziness :P

It’s getting late and I have an early start tomorrow, but wanted to post at least something remotely worthwhile before I went to bed:

The Martial Explorer: Project Natal
Jesse over at The Martial Explorer has two posts (here and here) on Microsoft’s new Project Natal tech they demo’d at E3 last week-ish. Being a bit of a nerd, I didn’t really take much interest in it at first, but I’m now intrigued with the possibilities. Mind, the same promises of this kind of control were made with the Powerglove, Sega Activator (I bet nobody saw that reference coming!), EyeToy, EyeToy 2 and the Wii, so we’ll see how it goes. MA stuff could go quite well if the canned footage is anything to go by, and it’d be nice to see some more XNA love for indie developers and this kind of tech getting filtered onto XBLA or something. I guess time will tell!

Wim’s blog: Martial-intent, Maori-style
Wim’s got a great post on martial intent and its importance in training, with some great demonstrations of the precept in action. It’s gotten me to thinking that this might be something I have traditionally missed during previous sparring training, and will keep in mind as I continue my training. I’m sure I can find it somewhere, surely it’s lurking somewhere amongst my general placidity

Oh yeah, and Wim’s giving away free stuff as part of promoting his mailing list. Click here for more details and to sign up if you’re interested! Free stuff is always good

Black Belt Mama: Karate from an Outsider’s Perspective
I’ll keep this one bookmarked – BBM’s invited Lauren Balogh (of travel blog Get Fox’d) to give a guest post on the BBM blog. It is a brilliant piece on the nature of a martial arts as an art, and on karate in particular. The next time you get a funny or awkward look from a friend/colleague/family member/dude on the street when you tell them you do karate or martial arts, point them in this direction. Thanks to Lauren for posting her thoughts, and for BBM for giving her the stage to share it with the rest of us. You can read the post in full and leave comments here.

Oh, and Lauren gets extra points because she thinks Australia is awesome, even if she neglected to mention that I’m of course one of the contributors to this country’s inherent awesomeness.

Mind, I’m also prone to moments of delusion caused by illusions of personal grandeur. Keep this in mind when considering the previous comment about my personal level of importance and/or awesomeness in relation to this country

Well, that should do it! I’m off to bed now, good night!

Bloginated Friday, 12th June 2009 / Blogs/websites, General training
Tag-isms: E3 | martial intent | Outside views on martial arts | Project Natal | Technique | training | Video games | XBox 360

Hmmm, it’s been a busy week or so, haven’t had a chance to write another post since the last one – but don’t fear, there’s plenty on the way, including a full review of Wii Fit, but from an amputee’s perspective! It’ll include plenty of pics as well, most of which see me looking really stupid, and thus, funny I’ve also got to catch up on some of my regular blogs, and I’ll probably post some other random stuff to share too. Stay tuned!

Bloginated Thursday, 11th June 2009 / Blogs/websites
No tag-isms applied to this post due to unruly laziness :P

Just a quick post – added a link to a blog on Blogspot for the Prosthetic Center of Excellence. The blog’s a run-down of stories posted by other news sources and looks like its repeated verbatim, so could be a great way to keep up with what’s happening at least in the US on issues to do with amputees.

Bloginated Tuesday, 2nd June 2009 / Blogs/websites
Tag-isms: Blogs