I have to apologize to my good buddy dante8. Last week he was telling me how great Google Reader is, and I commented about how badly it sucks. In all fairness, I had not even looked at Google Reader since it was first release; and it did suck then. Therefor, I felt that I should give it another try before reasserting my position.
The results are in. Google Reader is pretty cool. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now, and have come to really enjoy it. They’ve really AJAX’d it up since I last looked at it, and found the enhancements to be pretty awesome. I still think it’s ugly as hell (what’s up Google, can’t you hire a decent graphic designer? I know one that might be interested in some freelance in a couple of months!), but the usability is definately there; and we all know that’s the important part.
Tonight’s class was led by me. I started off by having Mr. Forshee lead a barn-burner warm up session. After 10 minutes of calisthenics, each student that is planning on attending the tournament this weekend did their kata in front of the class, and then received constructive criticism from Sensei Kuehner and me.
After the kata demo, we moved on to the meat of the night: sparring. 1 hour and 15 minutes almost non-stop. The theme of the night was, “play and have fun.” All the lower ranks lined up in front of a black belt with one left over. The lower ranks were constantly rotated over the course of the evening so that each got to face a black belt several times. The odd man out each time had the opportunity to observe how all the other members moved, and how they put together techniques. You can really learn a lot about sparring by watching and paying attention to the way different people spar.
We started out with very spirited basic 3 time attack. Lots of spirit and lots of kiai was the goal. After several times through the line, we switched to basic 1 time attack with the same spirit and feeling.
The third exercise was a form of 3-5 time attack that I icked up from Sensei Fink’s dojo in Pekin. Essentially each person takes turns doing 3-5 techniques, but unlike regular 3-5, at the end of the 3-5 techniques, the partners do not get to ‘reset’. Each person must continue from the position they are in, no matter how bad a situation they may be in. The whole point of the exercise is to learn to react to an attack from unfavorable positions. In a real confrontation, you’re most likely going to find yourself having to fight from an bad situation; that’s not a good time to have to learn how to deal with it.
After that exercise, we moved on to regular 3-5 time attack. We did this drill for about 15 minutes; continuing with the rotations and the spirited play. After 3-5, we moved into regular slow sparring. By this time we were all pretty exhausted, but no one seemed to have a problem finding their spirit and continuing to spar. Overall, it was a pretty fun class, and I think everyone enjoyed it.
The big talk today is about Microsoft’s proposal to buy Yahoo for an ungodly amount of money. I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft; despite what everyone thinks. What get me is that people complain constantly about Microsoft being a behemoth monopoly, their monoplistic behaviors, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Google is no different than Microsoft; except for the undeserved ‘cool’ factor they receive. In fact, they are trying to become just like Microsoft; and they are pretty well on their way. Google is a business, and, like all businesses, the folks at Google are in business to make money. Anybody that believes for a second that Google won’t behave exactly like Microsoft when they get that big is just kidding themselves. Likewise, don’t think for a second that the folks at Google wouldn’t sell to Microsoft if they were offered enough money.
We’re all whores. The only difference is price we can be bought for.
For those interested, I’ve posted new pictures of Haley. The ones in her holiday outfit are awesome… of course, I’m prejudiced. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66808423@N00/
Some of you have asked repeatedly, so this is for y’all and anyone else who might care. I am officially ranked shodan in Matsubayashi-ryu karate.
You scored as Neutral Good, A Neutral Good person tries to do the ‘goodest’ thing possible. These people are willing to work with the law to accomplish their goal, but if the law is corrupt they are just as willing to tear it down. To these people, doing what’s right is the most important thing, regardless of rules, customs, or laws.
What is your Alignment? |
August 23, 2007
12:18 A.M.
8lbs 8oz
21 inches
Pictures to follow later.
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