tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82782899263234455192024-03-13T08:04:36.837-07:00Bill's Cornerwh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-63478824268846392382012-06-27T11:14:00.000-07:002012-06-27T11:14:30.932-07:00Catching upTomorrow is the bi-annual belt-test, but I'm not testing this time. There wasn't as much push for me to do so this time, and I don't really feel ready. I've been busy helping others prepare, but myself I don't feel that much further along than last test - while I've had some improvement on breathing, kiais and stance, I've actually forgotten some of the techniques I was planning on using the last belt test. Generally I've been rather busy with a bunch of things. Oh, and I've got a rather hurt (broken?) toe again. It's taped and been recovering reasonably the past two weeks.<p>
I'm still learning Chinese in exchange for Guitar lessons. I've been expanding my areas of interest - learning from Chinese Wikipedia using the Perapera addon for Firefox. Tonight he is not here though: he is planning on watching the soccer championships with a couple of friends. Watching soccer does not really interest me.<p>
This last Monday I took a trip to Stuttgart to meet face-to-face with my coworkers for the first time in many months. It was rather chaotic, but I managed to have two relatively important meetings. There are two new possible projects to do research for, as soon as I am done doing what I'm doing now.<p>
There is a new Baha'i in our community. Curiously, instead of declaring in person, she sent her declaration card in and we were notified by eMail. We're all happy either way. :-)<p>
I feel like I've been wasting too much time - reading reddit and playing online games, instead of improving myself. My guitar playing has been stagnating, except for playing Classical Gas, which is slowly improving. I feel like I could be learning Chinese faster.<p>
That's pretty much it - a rather scatter-shot post. That's how I feel at the moment, too.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-28577248876892782852011-12-19T19:37:00.000-08:002011-12-19T20:34:24.472-08:00Blue-Brown Belt and Other StuffI just belt-tested this evening and earned a blue-brown belt. On the one side, I made so many mistakes, it wasn't funny. I didn't kiai enough, I didn't breathe properly, I didn't have enough endurance, I didn't move my hips enough, I used too much power instead of technique, I leaned forward too much, Augh! On the other side, I did know the techniques required, I did recover seamlessly when I made mistakes, I was neither too gentle nor too rough with my uke and I did remember to kiai a fair number of times. I am very disappointed with myself, but I don't think the belt is completely undeserved. I probably wouldn't have tried for it yet, except that I was pretty much told to do so by Sensei and Shihan - it was a lot of work on top of helping everyone else prepare. It's probably for the best that I did: I can only help people insomuch as I know and can demonstrate the material myself.<br /><br />In other news, I think the dojo Christmas party is shaping up to be really fun. A good lot of parents and adult dojo members have said they are coming. Unfortunately, our Sensei won't be coming, or if he does, rather late: work conflict. On the fun side: it'll be a potluck, so not so much work, and at least several people (including myself) are planning on making music and singing. :-)<br /><br />Workwise: I finished a bit of required work, and am now having fun, trying to make a work program multithreaded, or at least pseudo-multithreaded, so that a long process can be interrupted if need be. The "program" is actually an add on for another program, and apparently the original program never anticipated multithreaded DLLs and puts some pretty insurmountable roadblocks in the way of true multithreading, so I'm going with the pseudo-multithreading. I think I have it pretty much licked.<br /><br />I've got next week off, and I'll be helping a few people move. Then we kick off next year with a Jiu Jitsu "trainer training". After being in the dojo an average of 4 times a week for the past couple months, it feels like Jiu Jitsu is taking over my life. I think it's good I'll be taking a two (three?) week vacation from it.<br /><br />There are several JavaScript/Perl programs that have been put on the back burner while I've been in Jiu Jitsu overdrive. I hope to finally get around to making the games playable and the other programs actually useful.<br /><br />I've also got some repairs and improvements to be done around the house: I want to put a ventilator in the bathroom and install a fireplace.<br /><br />I switched from Vodafone (they bought out our previous provider) to Telekom, which was a mistake. I've switched again to UnityMedia, which is a good deal so far, but now I've got a conflict with the German Telekom. I need to talk to a lawyer about that. I'll probably end up paying for two years of overpriced Telekom service that I don't need or want. *sigh*.<br /><br />The youth group I mentioned in the last post didn't work out very well and has pretty much self-destructed - the youth stopped coming. It looks like we'll be starting a new group with two kids who are more enthusiastic about helping their community. I hope we can attract a few more kids like these two to the group.<br /><br />I'm still working on perfect pitch - it is slowly, ever so slowly improving. I've been at it for months now, and I have only about a 30% chance of getting through the first six levels of the easiest setting with no mistakes (that is, recognizing 18 notes in a row, from a single octave with no sharps or flats).<br /><br />I'm still meeting with the Chinese student to exchange guitar lessons for Mandarin lessons, though we give it a miss more often than we meet - both he and I have schedule conflicts fairly often.<br /><br />Altogether, life is going okay.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-60991731833941861862011-11-13T14:20:00.000-08:002011-11-13T14:50:21.286-08:00UpdateWell, it's been a long while:<br /><br />I turned 50 this past month. Best birthday party ever: I invited a lot of people, and we partied in the dojo. I asked people to bring food or make music in lieu of a present. There was lots of hand made music and some singing, lots of good food, lots of good conversations. I think almost everyone had a good time.<br /><br />In Jiu Jitsu, this past Summer I was given the Sho Dan Ho, shortly after our previous Sho Dan Ho earned his first Dan. Normally they wait until you're a brown belt, but apparently both my Sensei and Shihan felt very strongly that I should have it right away. It probably has more to do with my dedication to helping with the kids and youth than my actual capability, though I am progressing acceptably. I am supposed to test for a blue-brown belt with the other belt tests in December. I think I have the basic techniques down that I'll need, but I need to work on speed, not to mention my kiai. I'm having trouble finding enough time to work with my partner on it.<br /><br />I've started taking lessons in Chinese from a Chinese student who lives nearby. In exchange, I'm teaching him to play guitar.<br /><br />We (DW, myself and several other Baha'i) have started a youth group based on Ruhi 5. Not to mention, that I just started Ruhi 5 (DW finally finished this past year and is taking it again). We met with the first 3 kids this past Tuesday, discussed what it was about, played a game, did some exercises. It was good - I think they'll come back and bring a few more people.<br /><br />I've been working on guitar a fair amount - learning several new folk-picking pieces, learning sight-reading and practicing playing from sheet music, trying to get perfect pitch with this site: <a href="http://www.detrave.net/nblume/perfect-pitch/">www.detrave.net/nblume/perfect-pitch/</a>. And I'm starting to practice Christmas songs so I can play them at any Christmas parties if the need should arise.<br /><br />I've also been practicing programming in JavaScript/DOM and Perl. I'm working on writing several programs - probably spreading myself a little thin there.<br /><br />Work has been starting to get heavier again, in starts and fits. I actually pulled an all-nighter last month.<br /><br />I helped two different people move this year already, and I'll probably be helping more people move in December. Just like old times!wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-7927058346709048722011-01-16T14:26:00.000-08:002011-01-16T14:52:13.354-08:00UpdateIt's been a while since my last update, and lots of stuff has happened.<br /><br />DW and I went to the U.S. in October for two weeks - DW spent almost the entire time at her sister's, where her Mom was visiting, back from the Solomon Islands. I went off to my sister's for about a week first, where I had a great time, met my parents for a few days and got lots of exercise - I joined her in doing the "Couch to 5K" program, went to her dojo twice (Isshinryu), did "core" with her (lots and lots of crunches), and went bowling with her and the kids as an early birthday present to me :-). I came back to Georgia and my sister-in-laws on my birthday, where we celebrated an all-in-one birthday party the next day (mine, my mother-in-law's, my brother-in-laws all in the same week). Then I visited my cousin near Philadelphia for a day, and finally went to D.C. where I met up with DW and we celebrated her birthday with a few hundred thousand people (well, they mostly weren't there for her birthday, they were there for the Rally to Restore Sanity, which we were there for, too). We did a road trip back to Georgia, which was pretty fun - lots of time with DW. :-)<br /><br />In December I passed the belt test for green belt. I did lots of prep and held children's "free training" Saturday mornings again - the kids did pretty good when they were tested. The youth were more mixed. The lower belts were really good, the middle belts were so-so, and two of the youth who had just moved up from the kids failed - the standards are much higher for youth than for kids. I'm hoping that they don't give up: they're both good.<br /><br />We did some visiting during Christmas and had a small New Years party with Raclette at our place. I continued to work. I felt very out of shape after a couple of weeks of not training.<br /><br />Then I jumped right in with a "trainer training", from Wed. (5-Jan) evening to Sunday noon, training, training, training, with a surprise: on Sat. all the green belts were given a surprise belt-test, and we're now all blue belts. I also have a trainer "C" certificate, allowing me to train in our dojo with my sensei's permission. I still need to get my first aid certification, though.<br /><br />Mom is still cancer free, though it's really too early to say it is really gone. She's also just had a cataract operation on one eye.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-13977765978655466932010-07-09T02:27:00.000-07:002010-07-09T02:49:05.100-07:00CompletionI got my orange-green belt (sorry for taking a week to report on it). It was a good test. Everybody passed, kids, youth and adults, but only one person skipped a half-belt (adult), and she really deserved it. I was her regular training partner before and uke during the test :-) . We had been expecting Shihan J. to be on the test commission, but he didn't show. The test commission was only two black belts, our Sensei, H., and Sensei T. from out of town. I sat next to them for the kid's belt tests and called out what they were to do. I was both happy and a little disappointed in the kids: I felt most of the lower belts should have done a lot better, the higher belts, most of whom showed up Saturday mornings for kids' free training, did better (sigh of relief). For my own test, I was more relaxed than previous times and managed to recover several errors rather than ask to restart, but still not relaxed enough to remember to kia, despite Sensei H.'s reminding me to two or three times :-( . Generally, neither the kids nor I got to show off any extra techniques, which was a little disappointing: both the kids and I had trained to the green belt program, though we were testing for orange-green. The youth, with one exception, were very listless and barely scraped by - the one shining star was J., the newbie white-belt, who easily outshone the much higher belts.<br /><br />The Ruhi 8 course is completed. It was interesting stuff - I'm motivated to read more Baha'i history now. I need to order some books.<br /><br />In other Baha'i news, we had our reflection meeting this past Sunday. We're going to have a 3 week expansion phase instead of 2 weeks. I think that's because of an event this weekend that would distract from any events we might plan.<br /><br />I need to sign off now: almost time for the devotional for the Martyrdom of the Báb.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-12840696685696707002010-06-23T14:18:00.000-07:002010-06-23T14:48:52.420-07:00Upcoming Belt Test, Ruhi 8, OpenMoko and CancerWell, it's been about a month and well past time to update.<br /><br />Belt test is rapidly approaching (July 1st) - I'm feeling pretty good about it: I'm feeling much more comfortable both throwing and being thrown with the new hip throw. My forward roll left is still not as strong as right, but it's still good. My biggest worry, as ever, is remembering how each move starts, which is kind of compounded by the recent changes, but I think I have it under control. In general I'm just feeling much more relaxed while training. I should - I've been training nearly every day. One (hopefully) minor hitch: my ring finger on my right hand got jerked rather hard yesterday during practice and has started hurting whenever I try to grasp something. I don't think it will be a problem, but I need to keep an eye on it.<br /><br />The kid's training has been going well, too. Last time 8 kids showed up and no co-trainers, so of course there was some boredom as I kept switching between the advanced and the beginners, but I think it was tolerable. A week and a half ago I did a dry run of the test and was shocked to find some rather large gaps in their routines, which I think are now more-or-less under control.<br /><br />As expected, we've started Ruhi 8 on the Covenant. A very intensive course: we've had three days so far, all from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm - the first day there was a mild conflict with the kid's training, where I left training relatively early and arrived at the course a bit late. There's a lot of memorizing and a lot of homework: this last time I turned a quote into a song to help us memorize it, and researched short Biographies on Ethel J. Rosenberg and Thomas Breakwell, two early Baha'is from the British Isles.<br /><br />I managed to almost trash my OpenMoko - I issued the command "opkg upgrade", which tells it to upgrade everything it can. It worked for a while, but then tried to upgrade the WiFi program - problem being that it was connected via WiFi at the time. *sigh*. It worked as a basic phone, but various other things were broken, including especially WiFi. I flashed the NAND memory from scratch and things are working again. The latest Navit is still not showing roads - I wonder if the Navit developers are seeing the same things I am, because it has become completely unusable for me. I would try and fix the problems, but it refuses to link with the toolchain I have, which makes fixing things rather a problem.<br /><br />Mom is doing as well as can be expected - better really. I told her about William Li and his antiangiogenic diet (see <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/william_li.html">this TED video</a>), and she has been going wild with that. I think it gives her the sense of control she needs.<br /><br />That's all for now. :-)wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-18880648574610495942010-05-20T06:14:00.000-07:002010-05-20T06:28:29.780-07:00LSA, Scanners, stuffI forgot to mention in my last post, that we elected a new Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA) this past Rizvan. We had 10 people eligible, so there actually was a vote. Yesterday we elected the officers.<br /><br />I was just reading up on the scanners - apparently a lot of the new scanners are back-scatter soft x-ray scanners. The safety studies on the things average the radiation exposure over the body, whereas almost all of the absorption occurs right at the skin, meaning your skin gets a nice unhealthy dose. Joy of joys, yet another reason not to fly. If I fly, I think I'll just opt for the strip-search over the scanners.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-92122349573865688892010-05-16T09:26:00.000-07:002010-05-16T09:54:44.933-07:00General UpdateWell, things have been rolling right along. I'm supposed to take a month of vacation leftover from last year before the end of June, but I haven't managed to take any yet. I've been rather busy with work of late, despite the "Kurzarbeit".<br /><br />In related news, I've been banging my head against the wall trying to create a proper cross-compiler toolchain for big-endian ARM processor so I can develop for my OpenMoko (SHR) / Neo Freerunner. Getting the cross-compiler itself is easy, but getting all the libraries etc. to compile is near impossible. I've given up for the moment and taken an older pre-compiled toolchain, just so I can get something done.<br /><br />I've taken part in 2 Jiu Jitsu trainings since my last post. I'm continuing to be a co-trainer for Nippon Jiu Jitsu, and in fact am adding to it by leading 9:00 am Saturday "free trainings" between now and the belt test next month for any kids who want to practice up before the belt test. I've discovered I need a first aid certification before I can get a green belt - I need to do that soon.<br /><br />We're continuing our Friday evening devotional, sometimes with more, sometimes fewer people, but still going good. Our (Baha'i) cluster is now officially an "A Cluster", meaning we have a vibrant community with lots of people involved in core activities. I'll probably be participating in a Ruhi 8 course soon - though my Saturday morning free training may conflict with that (time and place is not yet set).<br /><br />Oh - big news: Mom has cancer, but most of my few readers will already know that. She's undergoing chemo and radiation - the prognosis is good, because it was caught early.<br /><br />I *still* don't know if I'll be going to the U.S. this Summer. DW is definite that she's not going: she protesting the new Teraherz scanners the only effective way - boycotting air travel. If I go, it will be around the week of July 10-18.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-31320954160529539202010-03-30T22:26:00.000-07:002010-03-30T23:06:03.537-07:00Belated Anniversary and Naw RuzThe bad news first: my Mom has breast cancer. She's already been operated, and will have to have chemo and radiation. My sister has been helping out there, despite that she has her hands full taking care of her father in law, who has cancer, too. It got caught at a relatively early stage. As I understand it, the survival rate for her type and stage is about 80%.<br /><br />While we're talking cancer - a co-worker of mine died this past Friday of lung cancer. He's going to be given a "forest burial", probably middle of April. My company is planning on either participating, if his children wish it, or holding our own memorial, if they don't.<br /><br />And at the beginning of the fast A.M., who I haven't seen in years, called: her Mom died - and I went to that funeral, about an hour away. It was just A.M., myself and I.D. - I.D. has now gotten married and has a two kids, one his wife's from a previous marriage, and one his own who is still a baby. A.M. is not doing well health-wise herself, but it was good to see I.D. is doing well.<br /><br />All in all, I notice I'm getting older (48) - people I know are getting ill and dying with increasing frequency. As they say: getting older is better than the alternative.<br /><br />The fast went well this year - not too much difficulty, despite Jiu Jitsu Mondays and Thursdays meaning that I only got a small sandwich somewhat belatedly after sunset. I've officially been working five hours a day, roughly accurate - sometimes more, sometimes less. It hasn't gotten to the point where it is conflicting, which is good.<br /><br />We went to a restaurant for our anniversary, as has been our custom the last several years. This was our 27th. We went to a nice Indian restaurant for it. :-)<br /><br />Naw Ruz on the 20th was rather laid back this year - we had planned to celebrate the evening of 20th at a friends house who was combining it with a small Birthday party, but that got canceled, so we spent it at home. Then on the 21st there was a nice celebration in a restaurant in a nearby city - there we met with A & A and their two daughters and had a really nice time. Mom A. is Hindu, Dad A. is Christian, but they're both very practical, so there is not much conflict - in fact they're thinking of sending their kids to Baha'i children's classes when they get started in their new city (they moved there a few months back). On the 23rd, we celebrated Naw Ruz yet again at a private gathering - for some reason I'm totally blanking on that celebration.<br /><br />Tomorrow I'll be attempting to teach the Jiu Jitsu kids "alone" - Sensei will be there, but he wants me to lead the class while he watches from off the mat, so I get practiced in case of a real emergency. It is now school vacation, and probably half of the kids will be gone (we usually have over 20 these days) - ideal for practicing.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-26249933686345288642010-02-25T16:18:00.000-08:002010-02-25T16:33:52.170-08:00MiscellanyIt's about time for an update:<br /><br />A week ago last Tuesday I went to the company central and dragged along my "praktikant", even though he was no longer a praktikant and his contract was about to run out. He's now done and starting his studies at the University here. :-)<br /><br />I am doing a lot less "Kurzarbeit", i.e. a good deal more work. In particular I am currently trying to get a set of cross-compile tools set up for both MIPS and ARM processors. Documentation in OSS really, really sucks. I think once I get my set to compile, I'll post my script to generate them somewhere.<br /><br />My Sensei was out both Monday and Thursday this week. On Monday, his official assistant, B., managed to get some parents really angry with him and give Sensei an earful - he was too heavy-handed and caused a couple of kids to be really upset. On Thursday, another brown belt, T., led the group - this time, the kids were so happy with T., that several asked if he would be there on Monday, too. I think that evened things out a bit. :-)<br /><br />We've also been very active in Baha'i activities. Last weekend, we were all underway in different cities for the Baha'i cause: I was at a practice session for guitarists and singers who wished to improve their skills for Musical Firesides, DW was at an institutional meeting, and K. was underway trying to get youth and children's classes started. Tomorrow we're having an Ayyam-i-ha celebration at our place - I've made some stollen for the party. :-)wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-29918397826387236162010-02-08T15:35:00.000-08:002010-02-08T15:51:48.460-08:00Orange Belt!This past week I was in the dojo "only" four times (see previous post). The training on Saturday, the last one before the test today, went really well: a lot of people showed up, and everyone was concentrated and helping each other and making real progress. It felt like we were coming together as a team. We all cleaned up the dojo together afterward as well. Then today, the test went really well for pretty much everyone in the adult group: everyone knew at least the moves they were supposed to, and many a good deal more, and everyone was quick and precise. Of the ca. dozen people being tested, about half (including myself) skipped a half belt. This is very unusual - previously, the most that had ever jumped a half-belt at one time was two. (half-belts are not used by all dojos, but ours uses them. the progression is white, white-yellow, yellow, yellow-orange, orange, orange-green, etc.)<br /><br />On the other hand, the kids did not do terribly well. The highlights were some of the very young, white belt kids, who, despite being very lax in practice, were suddenly totally snappy and alert in the test. But a whole group of the higher level belts have been asked to work on it another month and retake the test then (rather unusual, too: we usually only have the tests twice a year). We're going to have to arrange some extra hours for the kids - the "free training" sessions are too late for most of the kids to participate in.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-44130627070303335562010-01-31T13:28:00.000-08:002010-01-31T13:58:21.432-08:00Jiu Jitsu WeekWell, as this week comes to a close, I've been in the dojo 5 times:<p><br />* Monday - the usual 3.5-4 hours, as co-trainer for children and youth, then participating in the adult session<br />* Wednesday - had a good 2 hour free training session with I., who brought along his iPhone with training videos on it <b>and</b> a digital video camera with tripod so we could see ourselves better. That was one of the best training sessions ever, even though I. is a yellow belt like myself.<br />* Thursday - same as Monday.<br />* Friday - Since I couldn't go to the evening free training session, I asked around who could do earlier. It turned out that I. could do morning but had to leave by 2:00, M. could come as early as 2:00, but would prefer 3:00, and K. couldn't come before 5:30. So, I. and I had a session from 12:00-2:00 (he forgot the camera, but it was still good), I rushed home had lunch rushed back and had a session with M. at 3:00, K. showed up early at 4:30, just before M. left, and K. and I practiced until around 6:30. Sensei H. showed up shortly after, and said I should keep the dojo key - he had got one of his lent-out keys back. :-)<br />* Saturday - was a required pre-test training session from 10:00-5:00. It was led by Shihan J. It was a bit more difficult than I'd been expecting - some old techniques are being exchanged for new techniques, and so, a lot of the things I've been training are obsolete. I also managed to get my right thumb stubbed, again, about an hour before things were over - I stubbed it about a month ago, jamming it into the mat during a wrestling session, and it had just about stopped being sensitive. Now I was in a semi-free sparring session with I., and he slammed his palm down on my thumb at just the wrong angle.<br /><br />Friday evening I was at a tutor-meeting with my daughter instead of at home for our usual devotional - DW hosted alone. It was interesting seeing how the Baha'i study circles and other activities have been growing dramatically in the past few years, it looks like an exponential growth curve. :-)wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-22466980494822962712010-01-23T15:54:00.000-08:002010-01-23T16:02:12.428-08:00Sensei for a DayWell, actually just Sensei for a little over an hour. This past Thursday my Sensei had to deal with a semi-emergency, and I took over the children's class for the last 10 minutes, and all of the youth class. It went well - they're all used to me as Sensei's co-trainer. Our Shihan and Sensei's previous standard co-trainer, a brown belt, showed up during the youth class and helped out a bit with some questions. The brown belt then took over for the adult class.<br /><br />Today (Saturday) I was guitarist for another Musical Fireside, this time an hour away in Korbach. It went quite well - I had an interesting chat, played a bit of background music, and at the end, there was a rousing round of "Amazing Grace" with DW and some others there who had choir experience.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-80500827006638040482010-01-19T03:44:00.000-08:002010-01-19T04:53:21.692-08:00Short Work, Co-Training, Between the YearsI really need to get in a routine of posting. Since I last posted the biggest change is that I am (and all my colleagues are) in what Germans call "Kurzarbeit" (literally "short work") - that is, I am to work (much) less than usual and the employment office pays part of my salary. This has given me tons of free time, which I've been filling with different activities: Mondays and Thursdays I go to the Dojo two and a half hours earlier to act as a co-trainer for the kids and junior classes; I've been attending more Baha'i activities; I've been reading more; I've been surfing more (I discovered reddit).<p><br />The Dojo has a lot of kids: there are usually between 10 and 20 kids. I still can't remember all their names, though I've been trying to learn them. The juniors are much easier: there are only four who come regularly. It is very gratifying to see the kids (all of them) progressing - not so much in their Jiu Jitsu skills, although they are improving there, but in their interpersonal skills and their attention span - that is where it is really gratifying.<p><br />The next belt test is in 3 weeks, and I feel pretty confident, what with all the extra practice as co-trainer. Even so, I plan on stepping up my practice a notch: I want to go to a "sister" Dojo Wednesdays to train some more - I can't usually make the "free training" on Fridays because of our regular Friday evening event.<p><br />What Germans call "Between the years", that is between Christmas and New Years, we (myself, DW and DD=dear daughter) were in Berlin, visiting P. P is an elderly Iranian woman, whose husband was martyred some time ago. She herself spent some time in an Iranian prison and still has some health problems because of it. Kelly produced a radio show with her, telling of her experiences, and later Kelly helped her write a book about it (in German). She's pretty happy and sprightly anyway. We camped out with sleeping bags in her living room and had a good time, visiting museums, seeing shows and such. I fixed some problems with her laptop for her and installed Skype and a webcam so she could communicate with family and friends, while DW and DD went window shopping on the famous KuDamm. We had intended to be back home about 9:00 pm on New Years Eve, but due to weather, our planned train was canceled and our alternate trains were all late, such that we ended up getting home about a quarter to midnight. We were in good spirits anyway. We spent a good chunk of the time in a Chinese restaurant in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe train station - the last open restaurant - waiting for our next connection. They were really nice about letting us stay in the warm restaurant and reading our books instead of waiting out in the cold, even though they wanted to close up shop.<p><br />Yesterday I hurt my thumb in Jiu Jitsu practice, but not badly, I think: I slammed my hand down on the mat with my thumb underneath. It's red, sore, stiff and slightly swollen today, but usable. Our Sensei has been having us do more free sparring of a sort - officially there is no free sparring, but we have exercises where we wrestle - no standing allowed - but locks are allowed.<p><br />Last Friday I finally visited H, who I've been attempting to visit since October. He's a Christian who really believes in living Christ's message - the love everyone Christ, not the "hate fags" Christ. He lives in a house out in the boonies, with a dog, a cat and four sheep. I played a lot of guitar and we discussed religion and society, and we were pretty much in complete agreement about everything. I also told him a good bit about Baha'i - he was interested and asked a lot of questions. I also got a bag of wool for my sister :-) . I still have to clean it before I can send it to her. I'm not sure if we're going to the U.S. this Summer, what with reduced income and uncertainty and all, but if we do, I'll probably bring it along instead of sending it.<p><br />A somewhat older story (November?), but very happy thing: I've had a solar panel for most of a year now, and had been intending to set it up and make it usable. Sensei's girlfriend, E, is a teacher, and she was participating in a project week on energy conservation and alternate energy sources, so I suggested that she could use my solar panel to demonstrate. This was the motivation I needed toget off my ***, and I fixed everything up so that it worked, with the various components detachable, and then gave it to her together with a voltmeter, so that the students could see how the solar panel could charge a 12V battery, and how that was converted to 220V (the European norm) which could light a bulb or run other appliances. I wasn't there myself, but apparently it was a great hit. :-)wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-36136601401379250442009-08-10T14:50:00.000-07:002009-08-10T15:04:32.043-07:00It's been rather a while: I passed my yellow belt test. I've been to the U.S. with my daughter. My intern is progressing well. I'm currently planning on moving out of my office into a home office by the end of October, so I can rent the apartment to my recently married friend.<br /><br />At the yellow belt test: I flubbed things a bit - I had a terrible time remembering the correct start for various things I was supposed to demonstrate. I'm not used to that - I never have test-angst for academic tests, but somehow it was a problem here. I passed anyway, but I'm going to need to work on this.<br /><br />In the U.S.: We had a blast at the big family reunion, where I had very restricted communication access (no cell phone coverage, no phones or WiFi in the cabins) - I played a lot of guitar, practiced martial arts with my sister and my black belt cousin, went swimming, had some really good food, and generally hung out with people and had a good time. After that I visited my brother and his family. Finally I visited my Sister-in-Law and drove a few hours with her and her son to see Thomas the Tank Engine, life size. I got to go swimming again while I was at it. We also visited the "Goats on the Roof" Cafe.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-46440575517119378012009-06-20T16:25:00.000-07:002009-06-20T16:33:48.252-07:00DW is in MacedoniaWell, my DW is off to Macedonia for a week. I drove her and a friend to a third friend's place about an hour away this afternoon, and they're all in Macedonia now (at least I presume they are - I haven't heard from her yet). They're "travel teaching", mostly meaning that they're giving talks about Baha'i at gatherings and inviting people to such gatherings.<br /><br />DW bought a small book on the Macedonian language - sort of a "phrase-book plus" - they used to be called "globetrotters", but now they're called something else - I forget what. Unfortunately they're only available in German - they're really good for getting a quick handle on a language.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-57365534902210141952009-06-18T06:54:00.000-07:002009-06-18T07:51:58.787-07:00UpdateA friend of mine just got married in Armenia. :-) It was only a church wedding: there were problems with the paperwork, and he's going to have to get an extra registrar's wedding here in Germany.<br /><br />I've been practicing guitar a lot: I've buffed up a lot of old things, and learned a few new, like "When I'm 64" and "El Condor Pasa". E. wants to do "Hey there, Delilah" and "1 2 3 4" by the "plain white t's", both of which I'm progressing on.<br /><br />E. is a teacher, and she's also interested the People's Theater and Stop and Act, so I've arranged for N., who did People's Theater for her year of service, to meet her at our Friday evening event (prayers/singing/story telling).<br /><br />Oh, and my company has started doing "Kurzarbeit" (short work), meaning I should be working less. It's complicated, and has just started, so I'm not going to try and explain it here.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-64393929652722077872009-06-08T15:22:00.000-07:002009-06-08T15:32:57.451-07:00Random Late UpdateThere's no special reason to update now, just I haven't in a long time. I've been practicing guitar a lot, slacking off on Farsi and Chinese, making steady progress in Jiu Jitsu. I've got a new laptop for work - not at my request, but still cool - I still haven't "broken it in" - I'm still using my old laptop for most things.<br /><br />I've not been getting enough sleep (so what else is new).<br /><br />A friend of mine is off in Armenia getting married (hopefully). It kind of depends on some paperwork I sent to him by mail, which is taking its sweet time getting there, despite being sent express. Twice.<br /><br />My praktikant has been making good progress, though he would like things to be more hardware oriented, and I don't have that much hardware stuff for him to do.<br /><br />I've reserved tickets for K. and myself to go to the States in July - DW is not going this year. Instead she's off to Macedonia later this month on a Baha'i Teaching Trip with a couple friends of ours.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-92067343445268239852009-05-01T17:19:00.000-07:002009-05-01T17:36:03.022-07:00Fun with Sensei and May DayThis past Thursday at Jiu Jitsu we got to play with rope (hojo?), tying each other up and hitting each other with them. :-)<br /><br />Afterwards, I broke out the guitar, and Sensei, his GF, DW and I sang songs until past 11:00 pm. Much fun! :-)<br /><br />Generally I've been steadily improving at guitar playing. I'm thinking of trying to create a video and post it on youtube - as much for learning how to post on youtube as anything else.<br /><br />My Farsi has been noticeably improving, although my Farsi teacher is going on vacation in a little over a week, so it may slide again.<br /><br />Our Friday evenings now have a set of regulars. I'm really happy with them, despite some difficulties. This Friday evening was also May Day.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-81594154523809730922009-04-23T16:00:00.000-07:002009-04-23T16:07:41.670-07:00UpdateIt's near two weeks since I last posted. I need to post more often.<br /><br />I now have a 'praktikant' at work (whatever that is in English). He's not been able to really help yet, but he's been learning what I've been teaching him very quickly.<br /><br />Our Friday night event is still going strong. I'm still going to Jiu Jitsu. Ruhi course, book 1, started up again this past Tuesday - DW and I are the tutors.<br /><br />My participation at allbeliefs.com has been suffering a bit, as full time job, practicing guitar and studying the Writings have been filling my free time.<br /><br />I'm generally feeling pretty good about life, though I think I need to slow down a bit somehow.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-32102068699288052352009-04-13T13:05:00.000-07:002009-04-13T13:14:32.227-07:00Watchmen & StuffWell, DW did want to go to Watchmen after all. It was in German, of course. I think they did a good job of it. They changed the story a bit, but not in any way that I felt detracted from it. Warning: it is rather gory in parts. In general, I enjoyed it and DW thought it was an "OK" movie. :-)<br /><br />I've been getting on a late night schedule, which is not really good, considering my praktikant starts tomorrow at 9:00 am sharp. I think this may be related to my difficulties with hay fever, which are ongoing - generally there seems to be less pollen at night, and I don't feel so great in the morning.<br /><br />I've been continuing to practice guitar a lot - I've decided to at least get the basics down of every song in my basic German guitar book. A fairly big project.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-84408069862885353132009-04-11T10:41:00.000-07:002009-04-11T10:56:18.608-07:00Friday Event and GrillingBusy, busy, busy! We've been "this close" to a release of the new software for weeks now. I made a final fix and checked it in late last night (Friday evening / Saturday morning), even though Friday and Monday are official holidays here in Germany.<br /><br />Thursday was Jiu Jitsu as usual - very few people. Most of the regulars seem to be on vacation. Our Sensei asked me to show a technique from our retreat that we don't normally do - kind of embarrassing, because I didn't remember the new stuff very well - there was a *lot* of new stuff.<br /><br />Our Friday evening event was very successful, with 7 people, lots of singing and guitar playing and interesting discussion, even though our daughter K. is off in Austria skiing with friends (Thursday through Sunday). I'm really happy that DW started this! :-)<br /><br />Today we went to A.'s and grilled with her and her kids and R. It was lots of fun, and I played some guitar, too. We spent from about 1:00 pm until 6:00 pm there.<br /><br />Now that the weather is so nice, my hay fever is beginning to kick in. I noticed it some last night, but after grilling it seems to have really kicked in. Perhaps somewhat provoked by my having an espresso - caffeine and sugar seem to provoke the hay fever.<br /><br />I kind of want to go to the movie theater, but the only thing interesting is "The Watchmen", and it's only 10:45 pm, in German, and nobody seems to want to go with me. So, I guess I'll hope it's still being shown somewhere in the U.S. this Summer when I go - this is one I do want to see on the big screen, preferably in English.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-37424393967732541712009-04-05T15:54:00.000-07:002009-04-05T16:09:33.905-07:00Jiu Jitsu Training & Friends in KasselThe Jiu Jitsu training went well. There were more about 50 people there, and about 20 black belts. There were nearly a dozen trainers. I felt seriously low-level with my mere white-yellow belt, although there were 4 white-belts there. I think I learned a good bit - though there really was too much for me to absorb half of it.<br />Afterward there was a grill party with meat and bread. No salad, not even potato salad, no fries, no veggies. About a pound of meat per person. Oh, and six cases of beer - although there was water and cola for those who didn't want alcohol for whatever reason.<br />Today I spent the day visiting friends who live near Kassel. DW and K. and I all went. We spent a lot of time playing guitar and singing, and all had a good time.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-54128195135621226512009-04-03T13:57:00.000-07:002009-04-03T14:06:29.969-07:00MiscellanyI haven't got any one special thing to report today. Life is going pretty well. :-)<br /><br />I've been waking up early and doing dishes and other useful stuff in the morning, before DW is awake. It feels good. I get tired earlier in the evening, of course.<br /><br />Jiu Jitsu went well yesterday. Today's Friday Evening Event went well, although only three people showed, and K. was off at a house-warming party for her best friend. We sang a lot, heard a story, said a few prayers.<br /><br />Tomorrow, Saturday, I'm going to a short Jiu Jitsu retreat, with a grill-party afterward. Sunday we're off to visit a friend and his family in Kassel that we haven't seen in ages.<br /><br />That's all for now.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278289926323445519.post-70565075008879997002009-04-01T23:14:00.001-07:002009-04-01T23:23:47.628-07:00PostageI really have to post more - it won't help my writing much if I only write once every few weeks.<br /><br />My DW has instigated a regular Friday evening event (with my and K.'s support), and I'm very happy with it! It is a prayer/sing-a-long/story-telling meeting. Our first event was last Friday, and it was great fun! :-)<br /><br />Since last time:<br />- I went to Stuttgart Wednesday last week<br />- I've been to Jiu Jitsu regularly, though I missed once - I was overtired the day after Stuttgart.<br />- I've been mostly staying to a semi-normal schedule, getting up most mornings before 9:00.<br />- Last time at Jiu Jitsu, I seem to have irritated my previously hurt toe - it swelled up and turned red, but it seems to have recovered quickly and I will be going to Jiu Jitsu again today.<br />- I am restarting my Farsi lessons.wh44http://www.blogger.com/profile/17209713992610016743noreply@blogger.com0