Intensive Purposes

Coat of Arms for Phobos of Seattle

Okay, first one is the latest design. Ignore the border around the eagle's head. It's just an odd artifact, owing to my lack of gimp prowess. Lower left is the first actual design, Once I get some time, I'll rip the shield off of the mantling to make it a bit easier to look at. Upper right is the the "Zero" eagle, and lower right is Darth's idea, the saltire with a rising sun in the middle.

posted by Sir Phobos on 24 Apr 2006 at 10:23

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Coat of Arms

Darth Illegitimus and I have been talking about my non-existant coat of arms. Well, just the motto, actually. Since I'm trying to squeeze some gaelic studying in when I get time, I thought it'd be cool to make up a motto in Scottish gaelic, and maybe someday use it on a coat of arms. After some thought, I decided to try translating "boot to the head". The tentative result is "mo bhrog e do cheann agad", or "my boot is at your head". I like it. I don't think it'd fly with the Lord Lyon, but I'm not too worried about that being an issue.

A side effect of this has been stumbling across some interesting websites dealing with heraldry. I'm not too savvy to the heraldric arts, so I find a lot of this fascinating. Did you know that there are at least four organizations in the United States who will register your arms, whether they be granted by a foreign authority (like the Lord Lyon or the Chief Herald of Ireland) or assumed arms that you designed yourself? At least two of them offer assistance with the design and rendering of your arms as well. There's also an American Heraldy Society, which focuses on education about heraldry instead of registration. The main aim of these groups seems to be introduction of legislature granting legal protections to people using arms in the States.

As a result of all of this, I'm considering trying to come up with an actual coat of arms. Why not? It's free to register (at one registry, anyway), and there are plenty of people out there who are willing to help out with the design. So, over the course of the next couple of weeks (or months, we'll see how long it takes me), as I come up with preliminary designs, you can expect to see them here. At least until my obsessive-compulsive disorder gives up on this one and I move on to something else.

Links:

posted by Sir Phobos on 01 Mar 2006 at 07:56

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Just shoot me

So the boy's been sick this week. Started on Wednesday, the wife and I didn't get much sleep that night. He started feeling a bit better yesterday, but was still coughing off and on and his nose was running. He slept better last night, only woke up a few times. Now I'm tired as crap, and I'm coming down with something myself. I've been slamming Mountain Dew all morning, only stopping long enough to suck on a cough drop here and there. I think it'll be a short day today.

posted by Sir Phobos on 24 Feb 2006 at 11:04

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Japanese Food

Okay, I don't really want to start a whole new category just for food, since I'm not much of a foodie, so I guess I'll just lump this in here.

One of my favorite foods is tonkatsu. The transliteration I usually see for this is "deep fried pork loin". You take a thin slice of pork (not paper thin, like half inch thin, maybe a little thicker), dust with flour, dip in beaten egg, roll in the bread crumbs, then deep fry it. Awesome. The only way it could be made better is if it was injected with cheddar cheese and wrapped in bacon prior to deep frying. But I have yet to see that attempted. Anyway, there's a certain dish called "katsudon" that I absolutely love. "Don" is the japanese word for "bowl", and yes, the "katsu" comes from "tonkatsu". Basically, you have a bowl of rice. Put some sliced onion and a sauce (it's kind of teriyaki like) over them and the rice. Then slice up the tonkatsu into strips about an inch wide. Place them on top of the onion. Crack an egg over the tonkatsu, cover the bowl and put it in the oven. It's done when the egg is cooked. I've also seen it where they heat up the bowl without the egg, then crack the egg on it just before serving so that the heat inside the bowl cooks the egg on it's way to the customer.

So we get Japanese heat and eat meals from my in-laws. Which is a great help to us. Sometimes neither one of us can be bothered to cook. Those are the days that we like to heat up yesterday's rice and break out the curry in a bag, which can be surprisingly good. Last night, though, my wife tells me that I have katsudon as one of my choices for dinner. So I jump all over that, of course. In the back of my head, I'm thinking "don't do it. It'll taste like crap." It didn't. It wasn't quite katsudon, but it was pretty damned tasty. They even included little (say 1.5 inches squre) chunks of pork that may or may not have been deep fried at some point prior to it's being sealed in a plastic sack. All in all, a good meal, but now I've got a craving for real katsudon again. I know one of the sushi places around here has it, but it's not on the English menu. It's only on the "special" Japanese menu. We may have to head out there again next time the boy's spending the night at some friends.

posted by Sir Phobos on 24 Feb 2006 at 10:08

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Fun with Kanji

I learned something new this weekend. Which is kind of sad, it really shouldn't be news to me. First, some background.

In japanese, the word for delicious is "oishi", written in kanji as "美味しい". I was watching a japanese TV show called "Kuitan", which is about a private detective who likes to eat a lot. But that's neither here nor there. During the show, he visited a place called "The valley of the beautiful women". I know that "beautiful woman" is "bijin" in japanese. What I didn't realize is that it's spelled like this: "美人". That's right, the same character is used for "delicious" and "beautiful".

Okay, I know. I'm easily amused.

posted by Sir Phobos on 21 Feb 2006 at 10:20

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The Famous Muay Thai Round Kick

I stumbled across a post I made to an internet forum about four years ago, describing the mechanics of the round kick. I thought I'd dust it off and update it a little. Now it's posted here, for posterity's sake.

We're going to assume a left lead stance and you will be kicking with the rear (right) leg. First off, take a step (or hop) about 45 degrees to the left from straight ahead, to your opponents right. Now, your support (left) foot will pivot outward, ideally ending with the heel pointing at your target. You should be up on the ball of your supporting foot. As you pivot, turn your hips, kind of like you are turning around to look behind you, but don't actually go that far. While your hips are rotating, your kicking (right) leg will lift off of the ground. Let it swing, like a baseball bat, at the desired level (thigh level is good). Don't tense your thigh muscle, just relax and let the kick make contact. You should be hitting with your shin, not the foot.

About halfway through the kick (experiment for the right timing), drop your right hand back behind you, this adds counter balance to the movement so you don't spin like a top (unless you want to). Be sure to keep your shoulder up to protect the chin though, otherwise a counter punch has your name on it.

On contact the knee should be bent, and the force of the blow should contact the target at about a 45 degree angle inward (not straight in from their left side - 90 deg. - and not straight in from the front - 0 deg). Again, don't tense up on impact, just let it swing like a baseball bat or axe, right on through the target.

To sum up, the major points - hips completely turn over (the biggest problem with newbies), the hand is dropped to provide torque, but the shoulder is kept up for defense, and don't chamber the kick, just let it go.

posted by Sir Phobos on 17 Feb 2006 at 09:24

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What is Jeet Kune Do?

Good question. I guess, technically, you could say I train in Jeet Kune Do, or JKD for short. I mean, my instructor is a certified instructor under Guro Dan Inosanto, who was the only person to hold all three certifications that Bruce Lee awarded. But I have a hard time telling people who ask that I train in JKD. Mostly because I don't feel like people would understand what that means. In my opinion (possibly wrong, but this is my understanding), JKD doesn't have a certain body of moves, a certain stance, things like that. JKD is a martial arts philosophy, a method of training. Jun Fan Gung Fu was what you would actually call the martial art that Bruce Lee created. That term encompasses all the punches, kicks, traps, parries, etc that he used when fighting.

At PMA, we train in a bunch of different arts. Now, there are many schools of thought on crosstraining in martial arts. If done haphazardly, then it can be detrimental to the skill and undersanding. But for us, JKD provides the glue that binds the pieces into the whole. We train a lot of Muay Thai for the striking and standing clinch work. We train Inosanto Blend Kali for the weapons as well as the striking. Boxing gives us some more options, and provides a nice bridge between the two. On the ground, we use mostly Brazilian JiuJitsu and some wrestling, with a healthy portion of silat mixed in. The silat also brings us back to the striking and takedowns. While training these different systems we emphasize the pieces that fit together. We blend them together in a way that they support each other.

This is Jeet Kune Do. Using that which works.

posted by Sir Phobos on 16 Feb 2006 at 14:17

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My Free Time

Or lack thereof.

I like martial arts. Always have. And for the last 5 years, I've been training pretty regularly. I'm even an assistant intructor. But sadly, since my wife got pregnant last summer, I haven't really had any time to go roughhouse. The first time she got pregnant, it wasn't much of a problem. But this time around, we have a toddler to take care of. And after I've been at work all day, she's pretty well worn out by the time I get home. I can't really take off for a couple of hours and leave her at home, exhausted, to try and keep up with a cranky 18 month old.

I've tried taking the boy with me to the school, but that doesn't really work out so well. He likes watching, and usually the owner's kids are there (especially if I give some notice), and they'll play with my little boy. But it's hard to keep him from running out on the mat, and sometimes he gets cranky halfway through class, which is a distraction for everyone else who's paying to learn. So I guess I'm not selfish enough to bring him with me.

The school where I train is great, though. I helped set it up before it opened, and I've been there ever since. The other instructors are like family to me, and the students are all friends. I really can't wait until I can start spending more time there again. Training there always helps me forget about any worries I have and helps me deal with the stresses in my life.

posted by Sir Phobos on 16 Feb 2006 at 07:24

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Happy 40th!

So, this weekend I went over to some friends' house. It was my Brazilian buddy's 40th birthday, so he had a "surprise" party. He was under the impression that it was a housewarming party, but his wife told everyone that they would actually be celebrating his birthday. And it would have been a surprise, too, had their three year old daughter not told daddy all about his birthday cake. It was a great time, or at least it looked like a great time. I spent most of my evening keeping an eye on my 18 month old. But he seemed to be enjoying himself, which is good enough for me. The added bonus came when it was time for "Guesstures" and I couldn't participate because I was upstairs watching the boy. Outstanding, since I hate party games. I'm just not social enough, I guess. I did watch a bit of it from the upstairs, and it looked like everyone else had fun. By about 20 minutes into it, most of the Japanese guests had also found their way upstairs. All in all, it was a great evening, and I didn't even drink any Scotch.

posted by Sir Phobos on 13 Feb 2006 at 11:34

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Blog Title?

In case you're not Darth Illegitimus, the title of this blog refers to the common miswording of the phrase "for all intents and purposes". Intensive purposes now seems to be, at least from what I've encountered, more common than the proper way to word it. At least it makes marginally more sense than the newest variant: "for all intents of purpose", which just makes me want to slap your English teacher.

posted by Sir Phobos on 11 Feb 2006 at 10:09

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Testing Kanji Support
みんなさん今日は。

posted by Sir Phobos on 10 Feb 2006 at 14:03

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JLPT?

Okay, one of my goals for this year is to take the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) this december.
The test is structured in four levels, with JLPT-1 being the hardest, and JLPT-4 being the easiest. I'm told that JLPT-4
should be very easy, so I'd planned to tkae JLPT-3 last december. Unfortunately, due to some personal issues,
I was unable to sign up for the test. Which leaves me the following quandry: should I continue as planned and
attempt JLPT-2 this year, or go back and get JLPT-3? The test is only offered once per year, and you have to
sign up by september, if I recall correctly. If I try for JLPT-2, and don't pass, then I get nothing and have to wait
another year for my next shot. At this point, I'm leaning towards taking the JLPT-3.

posted by Sir Phobos on 09 Feb 2006 at 08:21

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First Post
Let the Grammar Jihaad begin.

posted by Sir Phobos on 08 Feb 2006 at 14:52

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