Helen and love to travel, but we really haven’t been to all that many places. We do to some spots over and over, and have a list of new ones that we get to slowly.
We went to Germany once. Stuttgart has a swell downtown, with a long pedestrian mall surrounded by palaces and old churches. There is a nearby town on the commuter train line that has an accessible city wall. Both would make wonderful morning runs.
Passau is the cutest little medieval city you could ever imagine. The lanes are too crampy to make a decent run, but there are rivers all around. Running alongside of those would make a swell 3 km loop.
Vienna would be a runner’s paradise. The center is very pedestrian friendly, and surrounded by the Ringstrasse (Ring road) which is a 5 km circle. About a half mile away is Prater Park. Green zones are always good. The city is home to many palaces and their palace grounds. Can’t beat jogging past and through the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
North American cities often hide their gems under a layer of late 20th century car dominance. They all must have fabulous runs somewhere.
None spring to mind in Florida, except along Miami Beach. Sand running, however, is an acquired taste.
California is much the same. I would love to run from San Francisco’s fishermans’ wharf area out to the Bridge and back. How about out and across the Bridge and return. Then sourdough bread full of chowder for breakfast. I could do that.
I love running the early morning Vegas Strip. There are a fair number of runners, all sparkly and bright, and tons of folks still up and not quite so wide-eyed.
I love tons of other places in North America, but their runners’ haunts haven’t been obvious. I adore Kissimmee, Palm Springs, Disneyland, San Diego, and Monterey. All are tourist meccas, but where does one run?
My wife and I fantasize about a round the world cruise after we retire. Wouldn’t it be swell to do at least a short jaunt at each port, and be able to claim that I’d run around the world.
It would be like the time I swam in Alaska’s Glacier Bay. Granted, I was in the Cruise Ship pool when I did it.
But still.
I am a 68 year old retired teacher living on the west coast of Canada. I spent over 30 years as a student of Karate until my knees stopped liking it. My current passionate activity is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, which I've been at for about 13 years.
Friday, 6 May 2011
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Harry Potter
I am out of action.
Nothing big, but really can’t do anything more physical than microwaving a burrito. It will only last a little while.
No bike for a few days. No running on the weekend. No Karate for a week.
It doesn’t matter, but is annoying.
If we are lucky, we get ourselves hooked into little patterns of good behavior. My bike saves me having a second car, and is healthy. Running is good for me, too. Karate is healthy, sort of, and I really enjoy doing it.
My patterns are down. My rituals are scattered.
It can be all to easy to let a break, become a full stop. Surely you’ve known somebody who was on a diet for a while, or trying to quit smoking. One slip and they throw up their hands and the entire effort is off.
Broken patterns should just mean you are on pause for a wee while. If the phone rings while you are watching a recorded movie, do you erase Harry Potter because you had been forced to put him on pause?
Harry Potter would never do that to you.
Nothing big, but really can’t do anything more physical than microwaving a burrito. It will only last a little while.
No bike for a few days. No running on the weekend. No Karate for a week.
It doesn’t matter, but is annoying.
If we are lucky, we get ourselves hooked into little patterns of good behavior. My bike saves me having a second car, and is healthy. Running is good for me, too. Karate is healthy, sort of, and I really enjoy doing it.
My patterns are down. My rituals are scattered.
It can be all to easy to let a break, become a full stop. Surely you’ve known somebody who was on a diet for a while, or trying to quit smoking. One slip and they throw up their hands and the entire effort is off.
Broken patterns should just mean you are on pause for a wee while. If the phone rings while you are watching a recorded movie, do you erase Harry Potter because you had been forced to put him on pause?
Harry Potter would never do that to you.
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Computer Meltdown
I have three laptop computers, or maybe I have none.
One isn’t really mine. It belongs to the school district I work for. It is a bottom-of-the-line Macbook that I really don’t like using. I far prefer Windows 7. So sue me.
My newest machine is only a year or so old. It is a seriously underpowered pink netbook. It cost almost nothing, and is the smallest and cutest computer I’ve ever used. It’s perfect for hauling around. Sadly, I spilled coffee on it a couple of months ago, and it’s never been the same. She still works, but is no longer reliable.
My favorite is my Toshiba. This baby is long in the tooth at 3 or 4 years if age, but still has twice the processing power of the much newer Macbook, and 6 times the power of little pinkie. This baby is set up exactly how I want a computer to be. Today, my best computer has developed problems that make it intermittently unstable. The writing is on the wall.
Repair on the Toshiba would easily cost more than a replacement’s price would be.
I suppose it’s good news that computer prices are extremely low these days. It would be about $400 to buy a new computer.
This is less than I spent recently on an iPad, and even less than I spent on my iPod Touch, but it’s still galling.
This week Helen us up a lottery ticket. The drawing was a couple of days ago. A win could bring up to $7 million. Guess we should check it.
I could then get 17 thousand new laptops. Bet I could get a bulk discount.
One isn’t really mine. It belongs to the school district I work for. It is a bottom-of-the-line Macbook that I really don’t like using. I far prefer Windows 7. So sue me.
My newest machine is only a year or so old. It is a seriously underpowered pink netbook. It cost almost nothing, and is the smallest and cutest computer I’ve ever used. It’s perfect for hauling around. Sadly, I spilled coffee on it a couple of months ago, and it’s never been the same. She still works, but is no longer reliable.
My favorite is my Toshiba. This baby is long in the tooth at 3 or 4 years if age, but still has twice the processing power of the much newer Macbook, and 6 times the power of little pinkie. This baby is set up exactly how I want a computer to be. Today, my best computer has developed problems that make it intermittently unstable. The writing is on the wall.
Repair on the Toshiba would easily cost more than a replacement’s price would be.
I suppose it’s good news that computer prices are extremely low these days. It would be about $400 to buy a new computer.
This is less than I spent recently on an iPad, and even less than I spent on my iPod Touch, but it’s still galling.
This week Helen us up a lottery ticket. The drawing was a couple of days ago. A win could bring up to $7 million. Guess we should check it.
I could then get 17 thousand new laptops. Bet I could get a bulk discount.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
The Back is Back
My body and I normally get along just fine. It’s never let me down in any big way.
However, every so often my back gets interesting. There never seems to be a reason, so I can’t predict when it will happen. It doesn’t get caused by lifting or twisting or any of those things that are supposed to set backs off.
Sometimes I just wake up stiff. Today it wasn’t even that.
I was walking around the school getting ready for my day, and noticed that my back was doing its thing. No serious pain or anything like that, just a stiff feeling that means trouble. My back was just fine on the bike ride to work. See what I mean? Unpredictable.
So I popped down some over-the-counter back pills, which do a pretty bang up job of relieving things. I walk with my back extra straight.
Now I’m home, with a heating pad strapped on. I like my heating pad. It’s warm. I feel like a kitten sleeping in the sun.
No Karate for me tonight or I’ll certainly be off work tomorrow. The concept of pushing through is one that doesn’t work with this back of mine. It’s like double dog daring it to lay me flat. It will.
So it will be a few days of back pills, heating pads, and walking like I have a stick up my butt.
It’s nothing, not really.
However, every so often my back gets interesting. There never seems to be a reason, so I can’t predict when it will happen. It doesn’t get caused by lifting or twisting or any of those things that are supposed to set backs off.
Sometimes I just wake up stiff. Today it wasn’t even that.
I was walking around the school getting ready for my day, and noticed that my back was doing its thing. No serious pain or anything like that, just a stiff feeling that means trouble. My back was just fine on the bike ride to work. See what I mean? Unpredictable.
So I popped down some over-the-counter back pills, which do a pretty bang up job of relieving things. I walk with my back extra straight.
Now I’m home, with a heating pad strapped on. I like my heating pad. It’s warm. I feel like a kitten sleeping in the sun.
No Karate for me tonight or I’ll certainly be off work tomorrow. The concept of pushing through is one that doesn’t work with this back of mine. It’s like double dog daring it to lay me flat. It will.
So it will be a few days of back pills, heating pads, and walking like I have a stick up my butt.
It’s nothing, not really.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Me as a 7th Dan
In our club, we have a Brown Belt. She was away from training for several years. Since we started up in November, she’s been working hard.
She wants to do her next test by Christmas of 2011, and that one will be for her Black Belt.
It is a tough test. And people have to do extra to prepare.
When I was working towards my own, I did tons of extra practice. I also started running, and joined an aerobics class. This all went on for months. As the club’s instructor, I didn’t get much of a workout during class time.
I failed my first attempt. I hope that our Brown Belt won’t experience that. I was my own Sensei, while she has 3 Black Belts in the class who can help her. She is also planning on training in the city once month with even better instructors. That is a really good idea.
It’s funny how much respect one gets from non-Karate people as a Black Belt. You also get tons of respect from lower belts, too. Really, Black Belt means that you’ve finished Kindergarten, and are ready to be a beginner.
A shiny, fresh belt is a good signal that one is new. It takes about 5 or 6 months before a new satin belt will condescend to stay tied properly.
A few years after attaining first degree Black Belt (Shodan), one normally tests for second degree (Nidan). This continues up the ranks, with increasing periods in between. There is also an age requirement to insure maturity.
If I had been ambitious, and tested at the maximum rate, and had opportunities to do so at the appropriate times, and by some miracle had always passed, I could be a 6th degree (Rokudan) by now. If I hadn’t taken off so many years, I could be a 7th degree (Seichidan). Perhaps pigs would be flying overhead. More realistically, I might be about a 3rd (Sandan).
I am, in fact, Shodan. A mere 1st degree. After gaining my rank, I put all my effort into preparing my senior students for their Black Belts. After that, I ended up in a University program that allowed me no spare time. We moved to Sechelt, and I worked on starting a new club, and a new job. We also could only test above Shodan with Mori Sensei. For the next ten years, he never visited us. To visit him, we had to go to New York. My wife and I had other trips we’d rather do. Then I took my long break.
The result is a very long-winded explanation that nobody wants to hear. Did you enjoy reading it?
I think I’ll just switch to something almost as accurate. When people ask me, from now on I am going to put on an enigmatic expression and say, “I don’t like tests”.
Which is true.
She wants to do her next test by Christmas of 2011, and that one will be for her Black Belt.
It is a tough test. And people have to do extra to prepare.
When I was working towards my own, I did tons of extra practice. I also started running, and joined an aerobics class. This all went on for months. As the club’s instructor, I didn’t get much of a workout during class time.
I failed my first attempt. I hope that our Brown Belt won’t experience that. I was my own Sensei, while she has 3 Black Belts in the class who can help her. She is also planning on training in the city once month with even better instructors. That is a really good idea.
It’s funny how much respect one gets from non-Karate people as a Black Belt. You also get tons of respect from lower belts, too. Really, Black Belt means that you’ve finished Kindergarten, and are ready to be a beginner.
A shiny, fresh belt is a good signal that one is new. It takes about 5 or 6 months before a new satin belt will condescend to stay tied properly.
A few years after attaining first degree Black Belt (Shodan), one normally tests for second degree (Nidan). This continues up the ranks, with increasing periods in between. There is also an age requirement to insure maturity.
If I had been ambitious, and tested at the maximum rate, and had opportunities to do so at the appropriate times, and by some miracle had always passed, I could be a 6th degree (Rokudan) by now. If I hadn’t taken off so many years, I could be a 7th degree (Seichidan). Perhaps pigs would be flying overhead. More realistically, I might be about a 3rd (Sandan).
I am, in fact, Shodan. A mere 1st degree. After gaining my rank, I put all my effort into preparing my senior students for their Black Belts. After that, I ended up in a University program that allowed me no spare time. We moved to Sechelt, and I worked on starting a new club, and a new job. We also could only test above Shodan with Mori Sensei. For the next ten years, he never visited us. To visit him, we had to go to New York. My wife and I had other trips we’d rather do. Then I took my long break.
The result is a very long-winded explanation that nobody wants to hear. Did you enjoy reading it?
I think I’ll just switch to something almost as accurate. When people ask me, from now on I am going to put on an enigmatic expression and say, “I don’t like tests”.
Which is true.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
BC rules the universe
Our club is a newly joined the BC branch of the ISKF. We get access to all the visiting high-level instructors that come to give seminars. We’ve already had 9th Dan Yaguchi-Sensei, and Kline Sensei, a 7th. In June, Yaguchi is back, and in the fall, we get 10th Dan Okazaki. This is very cool, but why are they so nice to BC? We don’t really have a big population here, so why do they bother so much with little old us?
I counted up all the ISKF Dojos in the States, and it turns out they have 180. In the entire USA they have less than ten times as many clubs as BC. Yikes! It seems we’re pretty big.
In fact, only two states have more clubs than BC. The biggest is Pennsylvania, which has 32. This makes sense. The association’s leader, 10th Dan Okazaki, is based there. The state also has 3 times BC’s population. For our population, we actually have more clubs.
The other state with more clubs than BC is California, which has 23. That’s only 3 more than BC, and California has a population greater than the entire country of Canada.
The other 48 states average less than 3 clubs each. Many have none at all.
No wonder they like being nice to BC.
And I’m here, of course.
I counted up all the ISKF Dojos in the States, and it turns out they have 180. In the entire USA they have less than ten times as many clubs as BC. Yikes! It seems we’re pretty big.
In fact, only two states have more clubs than BC. The biggest is Pennsylvania, which has 32. This makes sense. The association’s leader, 10th Dan Okazaki, is based there. The state also has 3 times BC’s population. For our population, we actually have more clubs.
The other state with more clubs than BC is California, which has 23. That’s only 3 more than BC, and California has a population greater than the entire country of Canada.
The other 48 states average less than 3 clubs each. Many have none at all.
No wonder they like being nice to BC.
And I’m here, of course.
ISKF
Got all snoopy the other day. I don’t like taking things on trust if I don’t have to.
Our Karate club joined the International Shotokan Karate Association, known as the ISKF. They have been welcoming, and their Karate is top notch.
They are a USA based group, and are strong in much of that country. I wondered how successful they were in Canada.
Not counting us, there are 19 Dojos in BC. That is impressive, but how about the rest of Canada.
Alberta has 15 clubs, but Saskatchewan has only 2 and Manitoba 4. In the North, there is 1 in the Yukon, and 1 in the Northwest Territories, but none in Nunavut.
So far, about what I’d have expected in relation to the BC numbers.
In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick has 4, as does Nova Scotia. There is 1 in PEI and none in Newfoundland.
It gets weird in Central Canada. Quebec is a hotbed of Karate, and her population is about the same as BC and Alberta put together. So how many ISKF clubs? Only 17.
Ontario has a population greater than all the rest of Canada put together, if you leave out Quebec. Karate is very strong in Ontario, but there are only 8 ISKF clubs.
BC is the biggest province in ISKF terms.
How about internationally? I got lazy and didn’t want to do all the research so I just looked into the big Karate countries in Europe. Britain has 8 clubs, France 1, Spain 1, Italy 1 and Germany 7. I find that pretty petite. BC has more ISKF clubs than all of those countries combined.
It seems that the ISKF is truly a North American group.
Nothing wrong with this, but good to know.
And by the way, they have no clubs in Japan at all.
Our Karate club joined the International Shotokan Karate Association, known as the ISKF. They have been welcoming, and their Karate is top notch.
They are a USA based group, and are strong in much of that country. I wondered how successful they were in Canada.
Not counting us, there are 19 Dojos in BC. That is impressive, but how about the rest of Canada.
Alberta has 15 clubs, but Saskatchewan has only 2 and Manitoba 4. In the North, there is 1 in the Yukon, and 1 in the Northwest Territories, but none in Nunavut.
So far, about what I’d have expected in relation to the BC numbers.
In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick has 4, as does Nova Scotia. There is 1 in PEI and none in Newfoundland.
It gets weird in Central Canada. Quebec is a hotbed of Karate, and her population is about the same as BC and Alberta put together. So how many ISKF clubs? Only 17.
Ontario has a population greater than all the rest of Canada put together, if you leave out Quebec. Karate is very strong in Ontario, but there are only 8 ISKF clubs.
BC is the biggest province in ISKF terms.
How about internationally? I got lazy and didn’t want to do all the research so I just looked into the big Karate countries in Europe. Britain has 8 clubs, France 1, Spain 1, Italy 1 and Germany 7. I find that pretty petite. BC has more ISKF clubs than all of those countries combined.
It seems that the ISKF is truly a North American group.
Nothing wrong with this, but good to know.
And by the way, they have no clubs in Japan at all.
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