Power out for 5 minutes on February 1st

January 31st, 2007 at 21:29 · Filed Under Environment · 8 Comments 

Dear earthlings,

From an email:

Participate in the biggest mobilization of Citizens Against Global Warming!

The Alliance for the Planet, a group of environmental associations, is calling on all citizens to create 5 minutes of electrical rest for the planet. http://www.lalliance.fr

I am going to power out my entire house tomorrow morning for 5 minutes. What about you?

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Stances (dachi or tachi)

January 31st, 2007 at 6:27 · Filed Under Karate · Comment 

Dachi (立ち) or tachi or stance in English is a preparatory posture of the body and limbs for evasive and offensive maneuver. All martial arts have effective use of dachi or stance in their training and applications.

Like most martial arts, karate greatly emphasizes the importance of one’s dachi for effective maneuvering and to generate speed and power for blocking (uke), striking (uchi) and punching (tzuki). A dachi can effectively move one’s body to create an angle of attack in most favored and as well as moving the body out of the line of attack. A slight change in the dachi can alter the body structure and disrupt the balance and harmony of the muscular and skeletal structure of the human body. Thus, impedes the power and speed generation as well as stability and maneuverability.

Dachi is practiced most often together with hands and legs techniques after a student has mastered some basic of the stances. Dachi is the most important feature in kata.

There are more than 20 different types of dachi in karate-do.

  • heisoku dachi (ready stance) – Feet together, legs straight and relaxed.
  • musubi dachi (ready stance) – As in heisoku dachi, legs straight, heels together with each foot pointing outwards 45º (forming a right angle between the feet).
  • heiko dachi (natural stance) – Feet parallel, shoulder-width apart.
  • soto hachiji dachi or just hachiji dachi (natural stance) – Feet shoulder-width apart, feet both pointing outwards at 45º.
  • uchi hachiji dachi (natural stance) – As for soto-hachiji-dachi but feet pointing slightly inwards.
  • zenkutsu dachi (front or forward stance) – Forward leg bent at the knee with 60% of weight on front leg and 40% on rear leg. Knee of rear leg locked and extended approximately two shoulder-widths behind lead foot. Torso erect. Front foot pointing slightly inwards and rear foot facing outwards at about 45º.
  • han zenkutsu dachi (half front stance) – As for zenkutsu-dachi, but feet only one shoulder-width apart. Weight is distributed evenly. Front knee is bent so that toes are obscured.
  • sanchin dachi (tension stance) – Feet shoulder-width apart, weight distributed evenly over both legs. Kneeds tensed and pulled inwards. Forward foot slightly ahead of rear foot, so that back of front foot aligns with the front of the rear foot. Toes pointed slightly inward. Back straight and hips tensed, with pelvis pulled forwards and upwards. When look from the front, the entire body structure will look like an hourglass.
  • gyaku zenkutsu dachi (rear defense stance) – As in zenkutsu-dachi but turned around so straight leg points forward. Head and torso turned to face forward, leaning to the rear.
  • neko ashi dachi (cat stance) – Rear knee bent, with foot flat on ground, and toes facing to the outside. Resting lightly (10%) on the front leg, approximately one shoulder-width from the rear leg. Toes of front foot facing forwards, flat on ground with heel of foot raised. Crouching slightly, with front leg in centre of body, bent a little at the knee. Torso erect.
  • kokutsu dachi (L or back stance) – Rear knee bent, with foot facing to the outside. Forward leg approximately two shoulder-widths in front of and perpendicular to rear foot (i.e. facing forwards). 70% of weight on rear leg, 30% on foward leg.
  • hanmi kokutsu dachi – as for kokutsu dachi, but rear leg is placed slightly to the side. Rear foot points directly sideways with back of foot aligned with big toe of front foot.
  • kiba dachi or naifanchi dachi (horse riding stance) – Feet roughly two shoulder-widths apart, parallel, toes pointed forwards.
  • shiko dachi (straddle or square stance) – Feet spread approximately two shoulder-widths apart, toes pointed outward at 45º. Weight distributed evenly over both legs. Knees bent deeply and pulled back as far as possible. Torso erect. Lower legs/shins approximately vertical.
  • naname shiko dachi (diagonal straddle stance) – as for shiko dachi but at a 45º angle.
  • yokomuki shiko dachi (sideways straddle stance) – As for shiko-dachi, but looking directly to the side.
  • sesan dachi (side facing straddle stance) – Similar to yokomuki shiko dachi, but leading foot points directly forward and rear foot points directly outwards.
  • moto dachi – Similar to naname shiko dachi, but leading foot points directly forward and rear foot points directly outwards.
  • kosa dachi (crossed-leg stance) – One leg crossed over the other with both knees bent. Front foot flat on ground. Rear leg supported on ball of foot. Front foot facing to outside at 45º.
  • bensoku dachi – similar to kosa dachi but both feet flat on ground.
  • shirasagiashi dachi or sagiashi dachi (one-legged or crane stance) – Leg raised and tucked behind knee of supporting leg. Supporting leg bent at knee and foot turned outward, weight shifted back above supporting leg.
  • renoji dachi (Japanese character Re stance) – Feet one shoulder width apart, front leg in centre of body pointing directly forwards. Rear leg pointing outwards 45º. Legs relaxed and straight.
  • naihanchi dachi – as for sanchin dachi but feet even (neither is further forward than the other). Naihanchi dachi is not the same as naifanchi dachi.
  • fudo dachi or sochin dachi (free/immovable stance).

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The stupidest nonsense

January 27th, 2007 at 23:48 · Filed Under Critiques, Karate · 4 Comments 

A high authority of a country branch of an organization saying to me that if the black belt members were not coming back to headquarters for their regular training, he was going to write a letter to disregard their certificate!

To disregard their certificates? What an absurd nonsensical statement is this highest country authority trying to implicate? I have not heard of any organization disregard any certificates they have issued. A certificate is to prove that a person has achieved to some extent a standard or requirement that an organization required. A certificate is usually issued when a person has passed a test given by that certificate issuing organization and that organization has already recognized the standard or achievement of that person. How can the certificate be disregarded?

If a person does not meet the requirement, why in the first place that organization would want to issue the certificate? If so, then the technical merit and the management of that organization are very much questionable.

That guy is the stupidest fool (and uneducated) filled with absurdity and nonsensical management skill. A huge laughing stock!

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A tribute to Jean Ichbiah

January 27th, 2007 at 23:39 · Filed Under Ada · 2 Comments 

Jean Ichbiah? Who is he?

Jean David Ichbiah was born March 25, 1940. He was the chief designer of the Ada programming language from 1977-1983. During that time, he worked as a member of the Programming Research division at CII-Honey Bull (CII-HB) at Louveciennes, France. He had been chairman of Simula User’s Group and was one of the founding member of IFIP WG 2.4 on System Implementation Language.

CII-HB’s proposal won the US DoD (Department of Defense) contract to design a new programming language. After Ada was selected, he left CII-HB and founded Alsys Corporation in La Celle-Saint-Cloud which continued language definition work on Ada and later went into the Ada compiler business. Alsys first released a PC version of Ada compiler in 1983 making Ada compiler more affordable in PC programming. Ichbiah later moved into the Waltham, Massachusetts subsidiary of Alsys.

Ichbiah later started the Textware company, which sells text entry software for PDA and tablet PCs as well as text entry software for medical transcription on PCs.

Jean Ichbiah was a member of the France Legion of Honor and the French Academy of Sciences and received a Certificate of Distinguished Service from the DoD for his work on Ada.

He died of complications of brain tumor and a fall, on January 26 2007.

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I’m losing my voice!

January 25th, 2007 at 23:16 · Filed Under Days in My Life, Karate · Comment 

Yesterday, I was teaching at a secondary school at the fringe of the city. It was situated 20 minutes away from my home. There were 33 students including the GPK Koku teacher. The hall was occupied by a seminar so we had to use the canteen. The environment was a little noisy so I had to speak a little louder when explaining.

This afternoon, I was teaching at another secondary school near my home. There were more than 80 students and the training was held in the school’s hall. The hall was huge. I had to speak a lot louder and when I commanded the training, I had to shout a lot louder. Towards the end of the training, I was beginning to lose my voice!

Shouting and speaking loudly in a big hall were not fun. When the training began, it was hard to get the attention of the new boys and girls. They were really noisy and I had to control the situation. No choice, I commanded “Ritsurei!” or bow from a standing position. My voice echoed loudly in the huge hall. The entire hall immediately became silence. They were looking at me with some kind of shock wondering how my voice could be so loud and clear.

I continued to explained the tradition of karate-do training followed by some kihon renshu (basic training). I taught them how to hold their fists and also taught them shomen tzuki and renzuko chudan tzuki. They learned fast and I managed to bring up their spirit with loud and clear commands and they responded with loud and clear “Hai” and counting.

This afternoon was an awesome experience for me for the first time to break my record of 50+ students in SMK Munshi Abdullah 20 years ago. I wish the number will retain or at least will not fall below 60. Many signed up with membership registration and Gi orders. I look forward to having more registration and Gi ordering next week.

Oh yeah! Which schools? I am not revealing the name of the school for confidentiality. When the students have improved on their tracks, I will reveal the name of the schools. This is to prevent some unethical and jealous morons who will try to sabotage my classes, if any.

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Child abuse

January 19th, 2007 at 11:46 · Filed Under At Home, Critiques, Days in My Life, Dietrich, Dmitry, Dominik, Family, General · 5 Comments 

Actually, I did not plan to write about this child abuse thing. It happened to my kids and I would not want to leave any marks on them. So, I decided not to write about it and hopefully to let this incident died. But I read about this maid thing in Suzette’s blog and I think I shall speak up and warn other parents about Indonesian maid.

Last August when my wife gave birth to Dominik, my mom sent her maid to our home to help. She helped to wash and cook. We did not want her to even lay a finger on our kids. But my 2nd son, Dietrich, liked her very much and liked to hug her. We left it to be but we tried to prevent him from doing so as much as we could.

Then I had retinal detachment in September. Had a surgery and needed for follow-up examination in KL. My wife would drive me to KL for the examination. One day in October, my wife sent me to the clinic in KL without taking any kids along (we left them at home together with my MIL and the maid), we discovered a small bruise on my eldest son left inner arm. We became suspicious about her and my wife asked Dmitry who did this. He told my wife that the maid “pinch” her! My wife asked him 5 times and he answered 5 times the same answers! Then my wife and I checked on Dietrich and found a bruise on his right waist. Dietrich did not know to express yet. Then we decided to file a police report and sent her to the police station for investigation. And we had to sent our kids to General Hospital for examination! After the police investigation, we deported her back to Indonesia.

Why did she pinch the kids? We trained our kids to do household chores. It appeared that Dmitry wanted to help her to clean the dining table. Apparently, the maid did not want him to do that so they were snatching the cleaning cloth. And the bitch pinched him. As for the case of Dietrich, we did not know what happened because he did not know how to express himself yet.

Of course not all Indonesian maids are bad. My mom had one maid earlier and she was very hardworking and quick in her work. We, particularly my sister Angie, really missed her. Angie missed her so much even until the last days before her departure. We tried to contact her in Indonesia but failed.

Before this happened, my wife and I had talked about installing CCTV at home. But before we could finalize the decision, this unpleasant thing had already happened. It was too late to install and we would never need to install one because my mom had decided not to employ any maid anymore.

If you want to install one, then do it! Don’t think about the cost or its worthiness. You never know what these fanatic Indonesian maids can do (but not all of them are like this).

Luckily, the incident did not leave any permanent psychological effect on our kids.

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People come and go

January 17th, 2007 at 23:04 · Filed Under Buddhism, Days in My Life, General · Comment 

When I look again at my Happy New Year 2007 post here, it struck me again about “People come and go”. Who are we? No one will give a goddamn care about us (except our family), especially those who do not know us. When I look at the picture of Angie and the pictures at her website here, it is as though she were still alive. Her lights still shine like the twinkling stars in the night sky.

I can understand why some people will do something great so that they can leave behind for generations to know about them.

Sigh! That’s life. We are nothing but only a capitalization sapheads for corporation and government. We are worthless unless we have something great to leave behind. Like Buddha, he left behind his great philosophy but after three thousand years, there are so many deviation and fraternities. I wonder people are still remembering the true teaching of Buddha?

i always wanted to write about Buddhism and to finish my article about Buddhism but I never find time for it. I don’t know why I will write about Angie, life and Buddhism today. Although this is a short post, I believe it will be a good beginning.

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冥顽不灵的猪农

January 17th, 2007 at 17:42 · Filed Under Chinese, Critiques · 1 Comment 

几个月前，猪农使用长肉剂被揭发了以后，好多人包括我在内都对猪肉起了戒心。不多久之后，又发现猪农不但没有悔改之意，还继续使用长肉剂！真是太过份了。华社应该大力抵制猪肉，让这些冥顽不灵的猪农好好得到一个教训。很可耻的是，华社都不团结。华社应该醒醒了！

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Compact design

January 16th, 2007 at 23:39 · Filed Under Autos, Critiques, General · Comment 

I took my Honda City to an air-cond service center behind Petronas at Taman Peringgit Jaya for a service. Honda’s compact design has managed to make the engine compartment and the engine so compact but there is a price to pay.

It requires more work to service the air conditioner. To do it, first the front bumper has to be dismantled. Followed by removing the radiator reservoir then unfasten the radiator cooling panel before the compressor can be removed for service. The filter was built into the compressor so to replace the filter, the compressor must be removed. How troublesome!

Fortunately, the workshop is very experienced and has done a good job. After the service, I asked one of the technician why was a sound when the air-conditioner was switched on. He checked and told me that it could be the belt. He said the belt was still good but was already harden. He tried to tighten the belt but there was still some noises coming from the bearing. He suggested to change the belt.

I decided to change it and he proceeded. After changing the belt, the noise was gone. I can feel my car is more powerful. Why? Because the belt runs the air-conditioner, the power steering and the alternator. The new belt provides better power transmission to these components. I also learned that if the belt is broken, the car will be immobilized. First, the power steering will not work. Second, the alternator will not run so it cannot charge the battery and cannot provide electricity to the car.

I am quite furious because I was not told by Honda service technician and they did not check my air-conditioner and the belt. I was having the noise for almost a year. Every each time I complained to the service center, they would spray some silicone lubricants and told me it was alright. After a while, the noise would come back when the silicone dried off.

So good of Honda’s service! I am going to call Honda tomorrow and make a complain to them.

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How to get black belt fast?

January 11th, 2007 at 15:45 · Filed Under Critiques, Karate · 8 Comments 

I met a businessman and we talked about karate training for his children. He was quite interested to send his son to my training place at Bukit Beruang. He asked me a lot about karate training for kids. As usual, I explained every details to him.

Almost at the end of the conversation, he asked me how long does it take to get a black belt. I told him it will take two and half to three years to achieve black belt. His first reaction was “Wah! So long. How to get black belt fast?”

I explained to him that a black belt did not signify anything. It was just a grade to show that a student had achieved his basic training just like completing high school. I told him the restriction for my student to get a black belt was above 15 years old. At least at this age, a person had reached some mental maturity and it was easy to understand the meaning of black belt.

A black belt is not just an awesome color to wear. A black belt means one’s learning journey has just begun. It is like one rowing the boat from the beginning of a river, along down the stream, experiencing rapids and difficulties along the journey and finally reaching the mouth of the river (black belt) where the river meets the ocean. Once pass beyond this point, there are a lot of adventure and experience and vast knowledge to seek when one journey into the ocean (black belt and beyond Shodan or first dan).

The man was amazed with my explanation. He reinforced that he would send his children to the training this Saturday and he mentioned that he would encourage and make sure his children to train with perseverance.

I hope he will send his children this Saturday and they will train with perseverance. Sometimes, it is easier to say than done.

There are many people out there looking for ways to achieve black belt in whatsoever training they are taking. I received quite many searches on “How to get black belt fast?” from search engines. I guess it is a current trend for many youngsters who do not understand the meaning of black belt and the life-long commitment and passion one requires in their martial arts training. It is kind of sad and sickening to see this happens. I have heard of people got promoted from 5th kyu to Shodan. One good example happened in the clone Shorin-ryu in Melaka. I do not know how true it is but it sounds possible with the people and instructor at that dojo.

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Bullied by girls

January 11th, 2007 at 15:19 · Filed Under Dmitry, Family, Karate · Comment 

Dmitry was bullied by girls of his age today! One good thing was that he did not bullied them back. What a gentleman he was. On the other hand, it was not so good to let girls to bully him. I told him to say “No!” and “Stop!” when someone did this again and immediately to tell the teacher.

I asked his teacher if he cried. “Nope. He is a good boy. Dmitry did not bully anyone and he is very good to his friends.” , said his teacher. I was so proud of D after hearing his teacher’s comment.

It is ok at this age but when he has grown older, there should be a bottom line and the bullies will better not to cross this line. D is not really following the karate training at this curious age. He runs around during the training but I know what to get him to follow in the class, I have to be in training myself. He likes to train beside me. I will try to train myself during the class tomorrow. It can be exhaustive when I need to coach and train at the same time.

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Daddy was late again

January 11th, 2007 at 15:11 · Filed Under Days in My Life, Dmitry · Comment 

I went to meet up with someone to get some quotation done. On my way back, I dropped by D’s school to see how he was doing. He seemed like enjoying his school. After a while of watching, I left. It was still early before the school dismissed. So I went home to do something else.

I organized the quotation I had obtained and called up my partner about this to schedule a meeting in the afternoon. When it was time to pick D, I was all ready to go. Unfortunately, I had a tummy ache and I had to answer call of nature.

Again, I was late. Half an hour late! D had broken into tears again when I arrived there. I was so sorry to D and I told him again that daddy would never be late again. I also promised to call his school if I would be late again so that he would be informed.

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Sorry daddy was late

January 10th, 2007 at 20:05 · Filed Under Days in My Life, Dmitry · 1 Comment 

We needed to get some groceries and we decided to go to Giant without D. D was having school that time. It was our first visit to Giant since it opened for business on New Year day.

It was huge, the largest in Melaka. We especially like the cold storage and vegetable section. It was really cold and it was like the weather when we visited Poland.

We were too engrossed in out shopping until we passed the time to pick D from school. We rushed there and we were an hour late. When we arrived there, he had already broken into tears. “Dad I missed you!”, cried D. I gave him a good hug and kisses and promised him that I would never be late again.

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Dataran Pahlawan

January 7th, 2007 at 22:12 · Filed Under Malacca · 1 Comment 

Dataran Pahlawan is the new shopping mall opposite Mahkota Parade which was opened sometime ago. But we did not have the chance to visit the place until today. It was a nice place to hang around for locals and tourists.

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Fly kite

January 7th, 2007 at 21:57 · Filed Under Days in My Life, Dietrich, Dmitry, Dominik, Family, General · Comment 

After dimsum, our plan was going to the MBMB park at Bukit Serindit to watch kite flying competition. I got to know there was a kite flying competition at the park after I had a morning workout at the park. D wanted to fly a kite long ago.

When we arrived at the park, it was noon time and there were some crowds at the tracks and some kite sellers and parents with kids were flying kites. So we went to Roger’s Kites stall and bought a kite for RM45! It was quite expensive for a small one but according to the man, it will last for 2 years because of the stitching. So we bought it.

I had not been flying kite for more than twenty years. I could not get the kite up. After many tries, the man who sold us the kite offered to help us. He slightly explained and I had recollection of the techniques in the younger days. With his help, we finally got our kite soaring high in the sky. Can you spot which kite is ours? The photo was taken using my cell phone the kites look small.

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