August 27, 2010 :: eleventeen AM

I've been working out on the bridge over the stream near my house that David McLaughlin built while he was living down there. It's a tranquil little spot. My amateurish attempts at some of the kata from my style of karate:

Suparinpei -- a very old kata with a Chinese name. I haven't been practicing it very long, only a year or so. I haven't seen a lot of variations of this kata, looks almost identical between schools (probably because relatively few people practice/have practiced it). Lots and lots of really devastating techniques in the bunkai.

Tensho -- definitely not the Chojin Miyagi version, though it sure does reek of white crane. If anyone practices this kata and learned it by another name, please let me know!

Pinan -- This kata is usually taught broken down into five parts. Called "Heian" in Shotokan and other Japanese styles. Nobody really knows how the original kata looked, but if you stick the pieces back together you get a few new bunkai.

July 13, 2010 :: 12:30 PM

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=12744540
I never could find the original statement from the scientists (whether it was a journal article, something released through one of the universities involved, or what). So, fuck our country's laws on journalistic integrity and actually citing sources. Anyway.

Meanwhile, your tax dollars are hard at work.
Yup. Totally safe to eat, according to our fine government and Doctor Dickhoff (I'm not making that up) who leads a team of brilliant guys who...I can't believe this is actually true, either, but...smell the...fish...to see if there's oil in there...no, that's...totally not a huge waste of money...
And I hope this older article I've seen reproduced about 23094829034 times in various newspapers is just typical inaccurate journalism...
Because. uh. Dichloromethane's a solvent for half the polyaromatic hydrocarbons you'd be testing for to determine the presence of oil (naphthalene, anthracene, pyrene, fluorene, etc.)...so, not really what you'd want to use to remove insignificant material...you'd be better off keeping the dichloromethane solution and discarding what's left. Or maybe the "tests" being conducted are just a bullshit facade like BP's low-res video footage of the initial leak designed to minimize negative public response to the disaster. After all, cancer takes years to develop, anger only a split second...

Now seems like a good time for one of those RORSAT spy satellites to fall out of the sky and annihilate the entire Eastern US seaboard and remind us all that we've fucked ourselves over from every possible direction and left traps for ourselves everywhere from the mutated virii swarming in our bodies to the bottom of the ocean to outer space.

I wonder when ether's going to make a comeback as a popular addiction...

June 16, 2010 :: 12:30 PM

New oil painting in the art section.

May 21, 2010 :: 9:00 AM

Added a photos section to the site. Some fairly recent shots in there from Rhode Island on.

February 17, 2010 :: 1:40 PM

Updated some links. Sean Walker forged a ring at the Davistown Museum the other night--videos can be found here:
Ring Pouring
Ring Cooling

February 11, 2010 :: 11:22 PM

Photos from the aforementioned gathering are up here, and I've added links to a karate section (since I do enough of it).

February 4, 2010 :: 11:22 PM

The biannual Gasshuku my dojo throws in Midland, Texas just finished up. Good times were had by all, was very impressed with the Shotokan dojo that showed up from El Paso. Honorable, respectful, open-minded, all-around top-notch karateka. I hope to see more of them when I come down next. Photos and video soon to follow!