Last night, fighting a cold, I led our weekly Wednesday night Aikido basics class at the dojo here. For the second week in a row, we covered basics of koshinage (hip throw), and did drills to help build leg strength, as well as to build the kinesthetic memory and response which enables one to perform a koshinage without having to stop and think about it. Koshinage has also always been one of my weakest techniques, as the transition to my weak knee has usually been an iffy proposition at best, so I can always use the practice. Continue reading “Koshinage and Sensei Flashbacks”
Book Review: The Power of Full Enagement
I recently finished reading The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. As the subtitle indicates, “Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.” Continue reading “Book Review: The Power of Full Enagement”
Public Education
A client of mine, who really feels more like a colleague on most days, just sent this little gem which pretty much sums up the state of public education in this country today. Take a listen and tell me what you think.
School Answering Machine Message
GraphJam Vulnerable to Some Kinda Injection (NOT)
A friend of mine’s daughter was surfing around GraphJam.com this evening when her computer popped up a warning, saying it had a virus on it! A very authentic-looking Windows Security Alert popped up, telling her that her system was infected with malware. Continue reading “GraphJam Vulnerable to Some Kinda Injection (NOT)”
Login to Active Directory From Ubuntu with Likewise
Last year, Ubuntu added Likewise to their repositories. Likewise is a set of programs which allow you to leverage Active Directory on your Linux desktops. I experimented with Likewise when it first appeared in Ubuntu, but was never able to get it to work. Today, I did. Continue reading “Login to Active Directory From Ubuntu with Likewise”
FairPoint Now Following Me on Twitter
Following in the foosteps of Comcast and their Twitter account, MyFairPoint is now following me on Twitter. Perhaps this customer service move will help them provide better response times and problem resolutions. Sadly, given my past experiences with Fair Point, most of which I’ve documented here, I’m not terribly optimistic.
However, I encourage anyone who is having problems with FairPoint, whatever the service, to contact them and see if you get a better response than the traditional channels.
AT&T: We Don't Want Your Business
This week, at a client’s request, I am reviewing their entire telecommunications spending. I decided to look at four different vendors to compare their offerings. The first one I looked at was AT&T, to see if they had a comparable long distance package. Continue reading “AT&T: We Don't Want Your Business”
My New Bujin Bokken
My new bokken from Bujin Design just arrived. I opted for the hickory jigenryu style, and chose the smallest one I could get because I really like having a lighter, nimbler sword.
McConnell Taping
This weekend, after starting a new round of physical therapy for my knee, I experimented with McConnell Taping to see if it could keep my patella in place. I’d tried something like this before, and was pretty skeptical.
To my surprise, the technique not only moved my kneecap into a more proper location, the tape actually held through hours of hot, sweaty aikido practice, including kneeling and suwariwaza techniques. I definitely will be using this technique in the future.
Shobu Aikido Vermont Summer Gasshukku with William Gleason Sensei
This weekend I had the pleasure of training with William (Bill) Gleason Sensei, who taught several classes at our dojo in Woodstock, Vermont. Gleason Sensei has been incorporating more techniques to develop internal control and power into his teachings, which is still new to me, and very interesting. I am looking forward to more of this training in the near future.