Ultimate Warrior
There was a full contact championship in Kuala Lumpur last weekend. The event was called Ultimate Warrior. It’s a mixed martial arts full contact sparring championship organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Malaysia.
My friend told me those losers could even receive RM500 cash prize if they lost in 1st round. Quite a number of participants. What the heck? Are these “warriors” lured by the cash prizes? It is like fighting in underground rink seen in the movies. Fighters usually got paid with huge awards. Where is the dignity of a martial artists? Is this right?
Phototherapy at home
Disclaimer: This is a follow up of the other post on August 29, “Icterus and phototherapy”. This is not a medical advice. Try it at your (and your baby) own risks. We will not be responsible for any health damage or fatality. Please seek medical advice.
Our sons, Dmitry and Dominik, developed baby jaundice after a few days of their arrival. Dietrich was lucky not having a jaundice at all. I think Dietrich has developed his liver well in the womb. He was actually overdue by 1 week. This could be the reason why Dietrich did not develop jaundice.
To help the baby with jaundice to break down the bilirubin build up in the body, it requires lights with spectrum about 75%UVA (400 – 315 nm) and 25% UVB (315 – 280 nm). A normal fluorescent lamp used for home lighting lacks of these spectrum.
Normal fluorescent light spectrum
The Sylvania 215W cool white fluorescent tube (very high output) provides some UV spectrum for this purpose. It may be hard to find this tube but anything close to it will be sufficient (cool white for aquatic plants). The intensity of the UV emitted is not high. It shall be able to aid the breaking down of the bilirubin slowly. To accelerate the break down, place the baby near window or door where there are scattering UV. A morning sun bath will also help.
It will be better if use three tubes. One UVA, one UVB and one cool white. The UVA and UVB tubes will provide full UV spectrum at higher intensity. I haven’t tries this combination. Common sense tells us that too much UV will harm the skin, especially the tender skin of a baby. Please exercise more care when using UVA and UVB tubes.
Please exercise great cautions and observe closely the progression of the jaundice. If it is getting more yellow and towards the feet and palms, please seek medical advice immediately. Observe the color of the stool closely. The color should turn greenish yellow. This indicates the bilirubin has been broken down and discharged out of the body. Give plenty of water to avoid dehydration. Cover the eyes with something. UV and bright lights are harmful to baby’s developing retina.
Again, this is only our experience and research about using right spectrum for the purpose. It is not to replace professional medical assistance. Use at your (and your baby) own risks. We will not be responsible for any health damage or fatality.
Good luck!
A pet for my Mac Mini
My new Mac Mini has finally had a memory upgrade (2GB!). I found an interesting Widget called Chi Pet. It is a kind of plant that grows on a tortoise. Nice graphics that convinced me to adopt one for my Mac Mini. It will grow every 2 or 3 days. Let’s see how it looks like after 2 or 3 days.
Memory upgrade
I collected 2 pieces of 1GB DDR2 SDRAM from vendor this Tuesday at PJ. I decided to spend a few more days to research HOWTO open the Mac Mini to perform the memory upgrade. One of the common and recommended (by Apple) method is to use a putty knife while the other less common but effective method is to use network cables to hook onto the clips of Mac Mini.
I tried the second method this evening but found it hard to catch the clip with the wire. I finally managed to hook onto the clip but did not manage to pull the clip to a “snap”. And there is a danger to cut the hand with the wire because it is slippery.
I decided to get a putty knife. After my dinner and a quick bath, out I went to a nearby shopping complex to buy a putty knife. It cost me RM1.70.
I took less than 5 minutes to open the Mac Mini with only two insertion. After opening up the casing, I found that the internal was different from the older Mac Mini (PPC version). The memory bay was not at the side. It was hidden under the drive cage. I managed to identify four (4) screws that hold the drive cage to the chassis. I unscrewed it but did not manage to flip the drive cage out. Fortunately, I was able to hold up the drive cage at the other end and allowed my finders to slip in to unsnap the memory latches and took out the two pieces factory fitted memory. I put in the new 2 x 1GB SDRAM, put back and tighten the screws on the drive cage and then put the Mac Mini back into her casing. I used some caution when snapping the Mac Mini into the casing. It was quite easy though.
The entire process took only 47 minutes.
Born Again
Although she sports a Core Duo 1.66GHz, with the default 512MB memory, she worked like a wheeze and sometimes, large applications like Acrobat Pro, iTunes 7 and Safari stopped responding.
I powered on and the boot up was faster. I quickly launched a few applications, like iTunes 7, Skype, Safari, Firefox, Mail, GimpShop, Acrobat Pro and NeoOffice. I could see increased speed and performance. Now my Mac Mini worked like a breeze.
Shitty karate sportsmanship
There was a tournament organized by KARAMET at MMU on last Sunday. I went there together with a student of mine.
Many KARAMET “friends” were surprised to see me there. The tournamnet was a closed event only for KARAMET members and there was no publicity. I am sure they will guess how the hell I come to know about this tournament.
Sadly, I could see some unhappy (besides surprise and doubtful) expression on most faces. Raymond was the only person who came to say hi and to chat with me for a while. Thanks Raymond.
How about the others? Some walked pass my side and pretended never see me. Can you imagine passing next to a 6’3″ guy and not seeing him?
What shitty sportsmanship do they have?
This was a crappy and unfair tournament. A 14 year old (possibly 15 year old now) girl participated in women kumite below 48kg and fought with girls of 20/21 years of age. Although this girl had an experience fighting in National Junior Championship this April, it did not seem applicable in a women category where her opponents were older than her. This was not proper as far as sports was concerned.
This had already happened in the same tournament last August when I was still with KARAMET. The same girl had lost in girl individual kata but Chua (the MMU instructor) put her back into women senior individual kata and she bagged a gold. My students asked me how could she compete in another event because her name was not in that event. And they asked me why they were not informed so that they could participate too. I was stunned by the questions. I told them not to be greedy. I was happy that my students were able to see such shitty things in adults’ management. It was shameful to have such practice, especially in karate-do. Where are rightness and justice, I ask? Today, I am happy I am out of such shitty things.
The tournament was organized by a karate-do association of the central district of Melaka and sponsored by a government agency of Melaka. How could they not inviting other dojo/club? I see no difference between KARAMET and MAKA because both management are practicing monocracy and tyranny. It is disappointing to see how these organizations manipulate and capitalize on the ignorance of government agencies. Perhaps it is time to educate the government agencies about real karate-do and the way the public fund should be utilized for the benefits of all without discrimination and autocracy.
Got my data back
I purchased a Cutie DX, Pocket Hard Disk Drive, by Sarotech yesterday. Came home and could not wait to plug it into Mac Mini.
It took me less than 30 minutes to transfer my documents and user accounts from my old iBook hard disk using Migration Assistant. After that, I did some manual transfer and adjustment on iPhoto and applications.
Just finished customizing Mac Mini desktop to look similar to iBook.
Most importantly, I have to my data back. Three weeks of sleepless nights have finally ended. I guess I can sleep well now. In the morning, I shall backup some data to DVDs.
Disc jammed in Mac Mini SuperDrive
I was trying to install some software from a CD on my new Mac Mini. While the drive was reading from the disc, I could hear loud chunk from the SuperDrive. After a while, the drive went silent and I could not eject the disc. I could hear a loud noise from the drive periodically as the drive was trying to spit the disc out. I restarted my Mac Mini but a blank white screen appeared. My face was as pale as the screen though.
I searched the web and Apple’s support forum and as well as the manual. I tried holding the mouse button and F12 while restarting but failed.
The problem of this front-slot-loading SuperDrive of Mac Mini is that it does not have a hole to allow force ejection using a paper clip.
What now?
I inserted a plastic ruler to see if something was stuck in the drive. I discovered a spring-loaded mechanism at the right side of the drive. To my surprise, this method works!
Insert a plastic ruler an inch deep about 2-3 cm from the right side of the drive.
Gently push the ruler towards the right end and wait for the next eject attempt by the drive.
Do not use force to lock the ruler into position. When you feel some resistance, withdraw the ruler and the disc will follow.
I found out discs with printed paper label of poor quality (thick and rough surface) will most likely jam in the drive. Good quality discs, such as from Apple, will sometime jam as well. The drive in Mac Mini is very thin. With all the electronics and mechanisms packed into a very thin drive shell, some discs of poor quality and thickness will stuck inevitably.
Seienchin
Seienchin (or Seinchin, Seiunchin), セインチン, 制引戰
(Pronounced as Say-yen-chin)
Seienchin is a very ancient Chinese kata, and it’s origins are probably in the Xingyi ( or Hsing-I) internal system (形意内家拳). Many Seienchin movements closely resemble Xingyiquan. All Seienchin movements are hand techniques with no kicks, a very unusual feature. It is in the tiger series of katas.
The 1st kanji, 制, translates as sytem/method. It also translate as seize/capture. The 2nd kanji, 引, translates as “pulling” in the sense of “sucking/drawing/leading/setting up the person into a trap”, (eg: an “attack by drawing”). The 3rd kanji, 戰, simply means battle/fight/war. Furthermore one could speculate that Seienchin, as a kata which illiustrates a system of seizing and drawing the opponent to make the initial attack into your counter or traps. I see Seienchin as a more generalized kata showing different methods of engaging the opponent in a favorable manner (the idea of the 2nd kanji). Hence, Seienchin means “Seize-Control-Fight”.
Seienchin and Xingyiquan share common characteristics and principles. Both feature direct footwork and linear movement to deliver aggressive shocking attacks. Despite their hard, angular appearance, cultivating soft internal strength is essential to achieving power in both systems. Efficiency and economy of movement are the qualities of Xingyiquan and Seienchin and direct fighting philosophy advocates simultaneous attack and defense. Xingyiquan favors high stance rather than deep stance in Seienchin. A common saying of Xingyiquan is that “the hands do not leave the heart and the elbows do not leave the ribs.” and so is Seienchin. Like Xingyiquan, Seienchin techniques are prized for their deadliness rather than aesthetic value. There are few kicks in Xingyiquan.
Some techniques in Seienchin also resemble to Liu He Ba Fa (六合八法) or Six Harmonies Eight Methods. Liu He Ba Fa uses circular motion instead of linear movement. At the end of Seienchin, step into hidari nekoashi dachi while with both hands, make large arc overhead till both hands reach each other, then they are placed slowly with the fingertips of both hands together palms facing down and push the hands slowly forward a little bit with tension (kuri uke). This movement/technique shares a common characteristic with the opening move of Liu He Ba Fa.
It is believed that Seienchin has a sister kata called Seisan (十三) or Thirteen (13) Hands. Seisan is suited more to people with larger frame and who can build power easily. The opening three punches executed with sanchin dachi demonstrate this theory. Seienchin, on the other hand, is more suited to smaller person, as the kata uses many techniques that involve two hands working together for one technique. A larger person with longer limbs contradicts the concept of Xingyiquan, “the hands do not leave the heart and the elbows do not leave the ribs.”
Understanding the fundamental philosophy of this kata, both techniques and philosophy in Seienchin are just as applicable strategically in business meeting as they are in self defense and confrontation. Thus, karate-do is a way of life.
A busy week but fun
I feel very exhausted today after the evening class. I had an extremely hectic but enjoyable and fun week. I had learned some experience about making a TV documentary program for karate. It is a program called Malaysia Extreme Martial Arts and will be aired on national TV, RTM, some time in December.
We had the shooting on Wednesday and Friday. It was more tiring than training and coaching especially NG scenes and many repetition for inserts. I did badly on my interview session on Wednesday. This was my first time in front of TV camera for real. I was kind of panic and I could not remember my lines. But I did pretty well with my lines and actions during the kumite session on Wednesday and the kata and bunkai session on Friday.
After the making of the TV program, I realize that it is not easy to make an action movie.
It was an awesome experience and really fun. I hope I will have more opportunity to make documentary for karate like this. I hope the film will turn out to be good.
A nice photo by Dmitry
Dmitry likes to make pictures. Yesterday morning, he arranged his toys on the floor and asked me to let him make a picture of his creative work. He likes to arrange his toy animals and is very good at it. I allowed him using the Cybershot. He made 3 pictures but the 3rd photo turned out nicely.
He seldom posts with his creative works. He was very happy with his achievement and had a good mood to post so I took a picture of him together with his creativity work.
Sexy Mac Mini
I got my new Mac Mini Core Duo 1.66GHz today but I did not have time to hook it up until late afternoon. The photos below showed the sexy Mac Mini and her packaging. Apple has certainly done a great job in packaging its products.
She was still in the brown box.
Her nice package box comparing to the size of a can of soft drink and mouse.
Inside the box lay the beauty in her nice plastic wrapping.
She and her power brick and accessories.
Powered up.
The desktop cluttered with cables from mice and keyboard. I am considering an Apple keyboard and Mighty Mouse. If I choose wireless, I will not be able to use KVM to share keyboard and mouse among Mac Mini, Sparc and Linux servers/workstations (as seen beside Mac Mini).
Anyway, this sexy little Mac Mini makes a nice desktop.
性感的 Mac Mini
今天拿到了新的迷你麦金塔 (Mac Mini)，但是没有时间把她装备，直到下午。苹果在包装这方面做足了工夫。
她还在外盒里头。
她那漂亮的盒子和汽水罐成对比。
在那漂亮盒子里，有位俏姑娘。
俏姑娘和她的配件。
哗，终于启动了！
Good bye Steve
A shocking news broke to me this afternoon. Steve Irwin, the famous Crocodile Hunter, died today after 11:00 Australian local time leaving behind his wife Terri, 8-year-old daughter Bindi and 2-year-old son Bob.
Steve was fatally pierced in the chest by stingray barb. The barb punctured his heart. This happened while he was diving off the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia. He was filming his next documentary series, Ocean’s Deadliest. This is a second known fatal attack by stingray in Australian history. His encounter proved the deadliest lurking in the ocean.
The stingray barb.
We like to watch his documentary. He can be described as brave, bold and entertaining while educating. Dmitry likes his show too. We will miss him.
A good place to enjoy real karate-do
I have the intention to establish a karate organization. A place where karate-kas can come to train with a company of true friends who have mutual respect of each other without any discrimination of gender, age, race and ranking. It will be an organization where all styles can come together to train and share knowledge. A place which is free of political skirmishes.
Above all, it is a place where karate is not taught only as a martial arts for self-defense, it is taught as moral education for personal development. This will be an association emphasizes personal morality, discipline and commitment to social relationship with kindness and sincerity to uphold justice and rightness.
The organization will be based in Melaka. People from every corners are welcome to join.
If anyone is interested, please contact me or leave your comments by clicking comments link after this post.
Blog almighty, a potential business resource
When I started blogging, it was some kind of addiction to me. Now after 2 months, I start to realize blogging is a very powerful tools for marketing and to get messages across.
My karate blog, for instance, has generated many inquiries and interests. It has brought some passionate karate-kas to my training place at Bukit Beruang. It has also sent my messages and ideas across so many readers locally and across continents. My blog has initiated their thoughts and passion. I find these people are of same thinking and share similar ideology who dislike political skirmishes. These people like to seek self-betterment instead of heroic display.
My recent iBook posts, another instance, have brought forth people with the same experience via comments and mostly through my contact form. There is even a guy who has bad experience with a local Apple’s authorized reseller. The post and comment(s) may be bad for their business. On the other hand, this will alert potential buyers to be more careful when selecting vendors, forcing these company to improve their services or let die. That’s business all about.
A blog can be a massive vault of useful information for a business. Marketing, services, opportunity, and list goes on. Blog can be a new powerful business tool able to transform traditional business in many ways.
Blog is a great tool to collect public opinions before making any business decision. The responses of the public or groups are crucial. Proper strategies can be shaped by effective use of the blog and public opinions received.
I can still remember my friend, Robert, told me about young people wasting their time blogging in University. Robert is an associate professor and head of department at UTAR. I always remind myself of his comment. I agree with him to some degrees. It is the ignorance and misuse of blogging in most young people. Blog is their loyal friend. I have read about people blogging about their anger and fuss about their work and about anything that does not favor them. They have even used 4-letter word such as F*** to express their emotional feeling towards some incidents or people. I used Sh!T to express unbalanced worthiness and dislike about things. Anyway, it does not matter simply because it is just an expression to balance stress. Readers should not take these expression seriously but to understand the emotion, feeling, psychology and intention of the poster. With the understanding, one can find enormous useful information which is relating to the event or things in their post.
I was involved in a business meeting yesterday. Together with the information I obtained in the meeting and my experience in blogging, ideas have begun to spark in my mind and I shall develop new business soon.
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