To be honest, i never keep much of a close eye on how many followers my blog has accumulated. I have the benefit of writing for very different reasons than gathering a follower-ship, so the numbers tend to creep up for a significant amount of time without my realizing it. That’s why I was a little surprised to check my stats through the WordPress app (highly recommended if you’re a WordPress user, FYI) and noticed that I was sitting at 400 followers!
My stats screen
And yes, you’ve read that right. Since starting this blog, I’ve written 953 posts, with a continuous streak of 560 days. This means I’ve posted for 560 days in a row without missing a day. And that’s the current count, so that number will continue to grow unless I get lazy and skip a day. But I don’t see that happening. But anyway, it’s a short and sweet post today but I wanted to share the accomplishment. Y’all keep reading ’em. I’ll keep writing ’em. ☯️
Here we go with another instalment of The Uechi Chronicles, where I provide interview answers I’ve gathered from some of my longer-standing karate colleagues. I’ve actually started accumulating a number of responses, so there’ll be a few of these coming out. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives, opinions and reasons behind why all these people chose to join the martial arts and in some cases, were forced into the martial arts.
In this post, I’ll be providing JL’s answers. JL is a friend of mine from back in New Brunswick, who ironically lives and works here in Regina. A few years younger than I, I first met JL while visiting his Sensei’s dojo. His Sensei happened to be a student of my Sensei, and she had opened a dojo of her own. Since we had recently dropped from three classes a week to two, I decided to supplement my training by working out in JL’s dojo on Fridays. Since the class was entirely comprised of new students, everyone was a white belt, save for the Sensei and myself.
This being the case, when the class formed up I took the front spot to the right, which is where the most-senior belt is to stand. Turns out that this was the spot JL was accustomed to standing, despite being ranked the same as everyone else. When he walked up to the front, he confronted me and asked, “What the hell are you doing, that’s my spot!” I remember thinking I couldn’t decide whether I should laugh or punch him, but the Sensei recognized the situation and eased it for all parties concerned.
Jean-Luc (JL) and his dog, Baxter
Despite that rocky start, JL would go on to be one of my oldest friends. We would train in karate together, go on to pursue the same career and despite the massive size of our country, somehow managed to inadvertently end up in the same area. Life has progressed in such a way that we don’t get to see much of each other anymore, despite living so close to each other. But we still get the opportunity to grab the occasional coffee and catch up. And that’s more than a lot of people have. Despite his busy schedule, he managed to eke out some answer for me. Here they are:
Why did you join karate? “Tired of being the small, weak kid. Wanted to be able to defend myself, as I was picked on every now and then while growing up.”
When did you join karate? “I joined when I was in Grade 9, so 1996.”
How many years have you been training? “I trained for 4 years. I would have continued, but I made the choice to go to college to ensure I would be ready for the rest of my life. After college, I thought of getting back into it but I wanted to get muscular, so I started hitting the gym.”
What have you gained/hope to gain from karate? “A little more self-confidence, some skills to defend myself and somewhat prepared me for the idea of wanting to become a police officer.”
His answers were short, succinct and less detailed than Ricky’s. But this is a good opportunity to point out that it’s never too late. I’ve had students start karate from day 1 in their 50’s and have gone on to build skill and precision and become avid martial artists. I, myself, worked through two years of college WHILE training regularly in karate. As the old saying goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way. I anticipate that once the renovations are done in my basement, I’ll be setting up a home dojo. JL, if you’re reading this, here’s and open invitation to come train for free. Hell, since I have a punching bag and a garage, that invitation is effective immediately! ☯️
It stands to reason that I’ve met and trained with a number of interesting people over the past 33 years that I’ve been studying karate. I’ve seen the entire spectrum, from folks who walked in and tried it out before walking away, to those who toughed it out and developed themselves beyond the basics. And I have a handful of long-standing friendships that have developed as a result. By virtue of this, I thought it would be interesting to get each of their perspectives on what brought them to karate and some of the details of their material arts journey.
I’ve known Ricky for a little over twenty years at this point, and met him while visiting one of my Sensei’s students who had opened a dojo of her own. Over the next couple of years that followed, the student body at this dojo dwindle to the point that the lead instructor chose to close her doors, leaving thee remaining students with little options. Some went off to different styles but a few chose to join Sensei’s dojo and continue their development in Uechi Ryu. Ricky was one such individual.
The man, the myth, the legend… Ricky!
Friendly and always quick with a laugh, I’ve come to appreciate Ricky for his warm-hearted and level-headed approach to life. He currently holds a brown belt and is one of the few active, remaining students of my Sensei’s dojo. I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions. Here are the answers:
1. Why did you join karate? “I joined Karate for confidence and reassurance. I needed that protection not, only physically but mentally as well. I didnt want to go somewhere and be afraid of conflicts. I wanted to protect myself and/or people I cared about. Also, I watched a wack load of movies about martial arts and seen many demonstrations that I found “out of this world” and instantly caught my interest. Plus, it was cool and deep inside wanted to impress people like they impressed me. Lol”
2. When did you join karate? ”I joined karate in 1997. I was 12-years old at the time.”
3. How many years have you been training? ”When I was younger, I wasn’t taking my training seriously. So it became an on and off thing but when I began to upgrade in ranks, I felt like I needed to change to become better. Focus, determination had to be in me to succeed. So to answer the question, I’ve been training for over 20 years give or take.”
4. What have you gained/hope to gain from karate? ”I gained the power of mental discipline and a focus I never thought I could acquire. I gained not just friends but a family outside my family. Physically, I am stronger, faster and tougher. I truly gained a skill that I can now pass on to people that need it, like I did at the time and to my children one day.”
It’s definitely interesting to hear the different perspectives and reasons behind peoples’ choice to enter into the martial arts. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe I’ve known Ricky for half my life and although we’ll never know for sure, we likely never would have met if not for karate. Another shining example of how the martial arts can provide so much more than just the skills and knowledge of the style. I’m looking forward to providing interviews from a few other people. Stay tuned. ☯️
For most of my childhood, our household meals involved a pretty bland selection. Part of that had something to do with the fact that it seems to be the cultural way back home to basically throw everything into a pot with water and stew it until it’s mush. But another big part of it is the fact that my older brother had gotten a kidney replacement shortly before I came along and had a plethora of stomach and digestive issues, so spicy foods (any spices in general, actually) were taboo in my childhood home.
This meant that I was stuck eating a bland Acadian diet with very little to no exposure to spices and, well… flavour! Picture your pasta being nothing but the noodles and plain tomato sauce with fried hamburger meat. That’s the basic idea, except for every meal. Every. Day. So it’s no surprise that the past twenty years or so have seen me taking advantage and making frequent visits to “flavour town.” this has included experiencing and enjoying a wide variety of ethnic, spicy foods. This has earned me the unfortunate nickname of “Butter Chicken,” for that and others reasons. But that’s a story for another time…
It’s a rare occurrence to look in my refrigerator and NOT find a bottle of hot sauce, Buffalo Sauce or both. And some of my favourite snack foods of choice involve Buffalo Chicken in some way, shape or form. This is why a recent concoction prepared by my wife has had me drooling and begging for more. I’m talking about a slow-cooker Buffalo Chicken dip. See the below image…
As you can see from the image, the ingredients and their respective amounts are all included. It’s a pretty simple recipe. My wife made a batch last week and we gorged ourselves on it using tortilla chips. But once prepared, it can be added to a tortilla wrap on a bed of spinach to make a decent spicy Buffalo wrap or eaten in a kaiser bun as a spicy pulled-chicken sandwich. It’s a pretty versatile recipe. She made another batch this weekend and I gotta say, it’s been a pretty good weekend!
People have a love/hate relationship with hot, spicy foods. Given that consuming too much of it can cause all sorts of digestive issues, including heartburn, diarrhea or ultimately compound or aggravate any of those conditions, it should come as no surprise. But what likely WOULD surprise some folks are the actual health benefits from consuming spicy foods. And just to be clear, when I refer to “spicy,” I mean the spices that bring heat.
According to an article posted on HealthLine.ca, there are a number of benefits based on some studies, including potentially lowering mortality, speeding up the metabolism and suppressing fat cell increase, fighting cancer cells and killing bacteria. The article even makes mention of spices helping to reduce inflammation, arthritis, headaches and even nausea. With all those potential benefits, who WOULDN’T want to bring the heat.
The article goes on to mention that the belief that spicy foods were a leading cause of ulcers has been disproven, and that certain short-term symptoms like stomach pain and diarrhea are temporary and are caused by overstimulation of the nervous system. Good to know. I’m glad I get to add a bit of spice to my life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go finish the leftover Buffalo Dip. ☯️
It’s been a difficult couple of years for the entire world and very few people have gotten away unscathed. The pandemic caused a lot of upset and difficulty for most people, causing the closure of businesses, loss of jobs and the loss of key life experiences that one will never get back, like high school graduation. As society begins to lick its wounds and the world re-opens (for now), I take stock and reflect on the fact that one of the biggest things that has affected me, besides Nathan being kept home from school, is the closure of my karate dojo.
For almost fifteen years, my policing career has dragged me all over Saskatchewan, to an extent where the thought of joining a karate class was a moot point. After all, what’s the point of joining a martial arts school just to have them lose me after the 3 to 5 that the Mounties usually required at any given one spot? So, it was an important step in the right direction for me when I transferred to Regina and found the current dojo that i train in. Imagine the irony, when I was forced to step away when the dojo closed due to the pandemic.
Oh, we tried the old Zoom training thing, as I posted about here. It was alright, per se… But karate isn’t a knitting circle. Eventually, you need some physical contact with an actual partner in order to train and practice certain techniques. We closed up shop for the summer, as we usually do. As Labour Day came and went, i got a little concerned when I didn’t get the customary “back to the dojo” email that I’ve gotten every year for the past five years. Five years… I’ve been training with the Regina Institute of Kempo Karate for five years, Still feels like yesterday…
Anyway, I got the email on Monday for class on Tuesday evening. I walked into the dojo and time melted away. it was two years ago, before the pandemic and lockdown. The same faces and the same class. the same energy and the same mojo. We were back. I was back. It was glorious. We were all a little excited to be chatting and catching up, so we started a little late. AND we took things a little easy to start off the season (I may or may not have pulled a bicep during a ridge punch) but it was a fantastic class. Next one is tomorrow night and I just can’t wait to get back.
I’ve been so focused on cycling and training by myself, I had almost forgotten the importance and value behind training with others. Who knows what the months to come may bring? With all the variants floating around and the way the world is treating the pandemic, things may lock down again shortly. And if they do, so be it. But when opportunities present themselves, it’s important to jump on them while we can. After all, you never know what you got ’til it’s gone. ☯️
I’ve always made a point of ignoring my birthday. This usually involved working extra hours, burying my head in a book or doing something that kept me out of the limelight in order to allow this day to pass as quickly as possible without drawing attention to it. It doesn’t help that today is usually memorable to most people for different reasons. Then it was made clear to me a few years ago that when you have children, your birthday isn’t JUST about you anymore.
How did the path to my birthday this year come about? Well, let’s see… On Thursday, I had my eye injections. Loads of fun. Because I’m self-masochistic, I endured the evening’s pain without my usual dose of pub beer. I did, however, enjoy a plate of very filling, “Irish” nachos. These are nachos made with cross-track fries instead of nachos. Quite delicious. So, that wasn’t so bad. But the next day on the way home, a lovely officer of the law was kind enough to educate me on a mistake I made by serving me a $233 ticket. That was SO nice of him. Especially since it was for something I technically SHOULD have known but surprisingly didn’t, despite my previous career.
With any luck, I’ll be getting my hands on a raspberry pie this morning. Combined with some time with my family, it should make everything alright. Today is an important day of reflection for me, to examine where I’ve been, what I’ve been through and where i hope to go. The world has changed significantly since I was a kid, and I’m often amazed at the fact that I’m still kicking. But kicking, I am (karate pun fully intended) and I have too many plans and ambitions to slow down now. Here’s hoping the next year brings better tidings than the last three. ☯
My wife travelled to her home town for a family function, last weekend. And given the nature of the function and speed of the trip, we agreed that both boys would be left home with me. I was fine with this, obviously, as it would allow me some “guy time” with both my sons and allow my wife to fully experience and enjoy the function she was attending without worrying about our 2-year old youngest clinging to her and causing havoc.
It was a good weekend. We did the usual things that a father would do with his sons; ordered pizza, played outside and had a “camp-out” on the living room floor (although the 2-year old didn’t participate in that part). The weekend wasn’t without obstacles, as Nathan conveniently knocked over the lamp in his bedroom, causing a shower of shattered lightbulb glass to spray everywhere, including into some toys, which had to be cleaned and safetied afterwards. Kids, am I right?
Despite the perilous balance between fun and chaos, one outing that took place on Saturday evening stuck out and like most things in life, had me reflecting. I loaded the baby into his stroller, grabbed a clutch of water bottles and granola bars and walked the boys to a local park. Alexander hasn’t had much exposure to outside parks, what worth the pandemic having been in effect for almost as long as he’s been alive. This doesn’t stop him from taking full advantage of the opportunity, once he’s there.
As parents, we often complain about how children constantly need to be entertained. But at its core, that entertainment can be as simple as letting a child walk up some stairs and go down a slide. Over and over and over…. The insight I gained was when a handful of other children showed up to play. I recognized that the parents were much in the same state as I was. A sort of disconnected state of disinterest while closely watching the children.
What I immediately noticed is that all the children became entwined and started playing with each other. A soccer ball was involved, and everyone was laughing and playing and having a blast with each other. The lesson is that this happened organically, without any prompting from anyone. The children not only congregated together but learned each other’s names and accepted each other without any judgement, reservations or prejudices. It was a beautiful thing to see and I appreciated the fact that these children were able to see another person, not race, gender, political views or religion, and come together for the sheer pleasure of having fun.
As adults, we tend to lose this free perspective. Life, responsibility and adulthood, sprinkled with a generous dose of ideology and learned discriminatory lack of trust, makes it so that adults can’t connect without an in-depth back-and-forth of social protocol. And that’s a little sad. How much better of a place would the world be, if we all saw the world through the innocent lens of a group of children playing together? Food for thought…. ☯️
Where does inspiration come from? I mean, in all seriousness, I could go on a long-winded rant about how one becomes inspired and where thoughts, ideas and shit comes from. But the reality is that even the most inspired of people eventually tap the bottom of their proverbial inspiration keg. My keg’s dry, at the moment. Usually, I can’t find enough lines to write out everything floating about in my brain. But today…. I don’t know, maybe it’s the rainy weather.
But that doesn’t apply to kids. You ever notice that? Kids have the darnedest way of finding inspiration in the weirdest stuff. My son Nathan is a prime example of this. We recently had our air conditioner replaced and the contractors had a cardboard spool they were using for the piping. They left it behind for Nathan to play with. Once he removed the wooden plates on either end, this is what he ended up with: two Captain America shields and a tunnel. I shit you not.
Nathan and I, enjoying an ice cream.
I can’t say that I ever find myself being jealous of Nathan since, as an adult, I can do some pretty cool shit like drive a car, buy stuff and have sex and he can only do two of those things. But if there’s one aspect that I definitely wish I could get back from when I was his age, or even emulate now, is his imagination. Sometimes he’ll come to me with the oddest combination of LEGO pieces but will have an intricate and expansive explanation of what he’s built, what it does and how he came to build it.
I think that as we get older and we lose our sense of child-like wonder and as a result, our creativity and inspiration is affected. Imagine if we could maintain our creativity to the same extreme as adults as we did as children? The responsibilities of life and constantly having our parents harp on us to “grow up” and be responsible affects those parts of us that let our minds freely explore. of course I say that, but when one considers shit like SpongeBob Squarepants, there are at least SOME adults who are still functioning with the mind of a child. No judgement.
Inspiration can be fleeting, so it’s important to strike when the iron’s hot. I’ve learned the hard way that consistent good ideas don’t always flow freely. And when you’re trying to post a daily blog, dry spells can suck, big time. Of course, I’m always open to guest writers or blog post ideas. I have a comments section… cough, cough! ☯️
Alright, so as I’ve often written, I usually don’t make a potion to endorsing specific products or brands. My blog isn’t the place for that sort of thing but on occasion, I’ll get into something or use something that I just can’t help writing about and spreading the news, as it were. One of these cases is The Conqueror Challenges.
I had been seeing these marathon medals advertised on Facebook for months, and it looked pretty solid, so I decided to check it out. I even had people on my pretty limited friends’ list who liked the pages and supported the Conqueror Challenges, so I thought, “Why not try it?” It’s basically the way of the new world, right? Almost ANYTHING can be done virtually, now.
I’m always the first one to be a bit leery about the prospect of trying anything online. The internet is a sketchy place at the best of times, with peoples’ identities and the authenticity of whatever one might be dealing with while taking advantage of things online. With my usual amount of caution and doubt, I dipped my toes in and I have to say that I’m reasonably pleased with the results. Here’s what I found…
First, you start by installing The Conqueror Challenges app. The app is free to download and honestly doesn’t ask for much of anything in terms of information. Then, you pick your challenge. This is where it gets interesting, because you can choose from challenges as short as 30-some kilometres, all the way up to 4,000 kilometres. You can do anything that calculates distance, cycling, running, walking and even swimming.
The only thing I don’t like, is picking out a challenge brings you to The Conqueror Challenges website for sign-up. Then you purchase an entry fee (which is typical for any marathon one participates in, I’ll point out) and they email you a “sign up code.” Once you get the code and enter it into the app, you’re good to go. You can set your own timeframe and arrange for reminders and alarms to keep you on track. I started a 42-kilometre one and set it for 8 weeks because I had no clue how long it would tale me, or how available I would be to work on it. I finished it in two days.
Next, I signed up for one called the “English Channel,” and finished it in one day. Then I slowed my roll and decided to wait and see if they’d actually ship me the medals I earned. It took a while, and good ol’ COVID-19 got its sticky fingers in the pot and caused delays, but I got the medal from my second challenge first, of all things. It’s solid metal, got a nice heft to it and they look pretty sharp. See the photo below…
I used the reverse function on my camera. The medal doesn’t ACTUALLY read like that…
I got my “Marathon to Athens” medal the following week and my “Mount Everest” medal is currently on route. These marathons were 42, 34 and 62 kilometres, respectively. I’ve been motivated enough that I signed up for a 500-kilometre challenge called “St. Francis Way.” I only have 10% of this challenge completed, which is why I cycled like a douche and burned myself out, yesterday by punching out 51 kilometres in one sitting. But i wanted something challenging that would take more than one outing or two, and that would push the envelope a bit. That, and my wife and I agree that the medal is pretty.
There you have it, slime subjective and objective thoughts on The Conqueror Challenges. Some highlights I neglected to mention is that the organization that runs the challenges will allegedly plant a tree for every 20% of a challenge you complete, so it helps in a positive way. AND you can sync your fitness apps with the Conqueror Challenges app, which means I can measure my distance using Runkeeper and it’ll add the mileage automatically to my marathon challenge. All in all, I highly recommend this app, if you want the challenge of a marathon without the stress of running alongside others. Plus, you get to set your own timeline and get some trees planted. I believe that’s what’s referred to as a win-win… ☯️
Alright, so as I’ve often written, I usually don’t make a potion to endorsing specific products or brands. My blog isn’t the place for that sort of thing but on occasion, I’ll get into something or use something that I just can’t help writing about and spreading the news, as it were. One of these cases is The Conqueror Challenges.
I had been seeing these marathon medals advertised on Facebook for months, and it looked pretty solid, so I decided to check it out. I even had people on my pretty limited friends’ list who liked the pages and supported the Conqueror Challenges, so I thought, “Why not try it?” It’s basically the way of the new world, right? Almost ANYTHING can be done virtually, now.
I’m always the first one to be a bit leery about the prospect of trying anything online. The internet is a sketchy place at the best of times, with peoples’ identities and the authenticity of whatever one might be dealing with while taking advantage of things online. With my usual amount of caution and doubt, I dipped my toes in and I have to say that I’m reasonably pleased with the results. Here’s what I found…
First, you start by installing The Conqueror Challenges app. The app is free to download and honestly doesn’t ask for much of anything in terms of information. Then, you pick your challenge. This is where it gets interesting, because you can choose from challenges as short as 30-some kilometres, all the way up to 4,000 kilometres. You can do anything that calculates distance, cycling, running, walking and even swimming.
The only thing I don’t like, is picking out a challenge brings you to The Conqueror Challenges website for sign-up. Then you purchase an entry fee (which is typical for any marathon one participates in, I’ll point out) and they email you a “sign up code.” Once you get the code and enter it into the app, you’re good to go. You can set your own timeframe and arrange for reminders and alarms to keep you on track. I started a 42-kilometre one and set it for 8 weeks because I had no clue how long it would tale me, or how available I would be to work on it. I finished it in two days.
Next, I signed up for one called the “English Channel,” and finished it in one day. Then I slowed my roll and decided to wait and see if they’d actually ship me the medals I earned. It took a while, and good ol’ COVID-19 got its sticky fingers in the pot and caused delays, but I got the medal from my second challenge first, of all things. It’s solid metal, got a nice heft to it and they look pretty sharp. See the photo below…
I used the reverse function on my camera. The medal doesn’t ACTUALLY read like that…
I got my “Marathon to Athens” medal the following week and my “Mount Everest” medal is currently on route. These marathons were 42, 34 and 62 kilometres, respectively. I’ve been motivated enough that I signed up for a 500-kilometre challenge called “St. Francis Way.” I only have 10% of this challenge completed, which is why I cycled like a douche and burned myself out, yesterday by punching out 51 kilometres in one sitting. But i wanted something challenging that would take more than one outing or two, and that would push the envelope a bit. That, and my wife and I agree that the medal is pretty.
There you have it, slime subjective and objective thoughts on The Conqueror Challenges. Some highlights I neglected to mention is that the organization that runs the challenges will allegedly plant a tree for every 20% of a challenge you complete, so it helps in a positive way. AND you can sync your fitness apps with the Conqueror Challenges app, which means I can measure my distance using Runkeeper and it’ll add the mileage automatically to my marathon challenge. All in all, I highly recommend this app, if you want the challenge of a marathon without the stress of running alongside others. Plus, you get to set your own timeline and get some trees planted. I believe that’s what’s referred to as a win-win… ☯️
