Black Belt Test

Today the 27th of June I had my grading or test for black belt.

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In Haidong Gumdo this test consists of

  1. A poomsae or kata called Shimsang Gumbap
  2. 20 finger pushups
  3. Breaking a piece of wood with your sword.

Board breaking exercise
The finger pushups were easy and the wood was surprisingly easy to break.
Unfortunately when performing Shimsang Gumbap I was nervous and I forgot what the next move was!
Considering I have walked through the entire sequence 5 times a day for the last two weeks, this was rather annoying.
So I had to start again and this time I finished without too many mistakes.

On July 9th I have to travel to another dojang to do the wood break again. This time the wood will be of a much better quality, i.e. harder If I break it then I will be a black belt. I only get two chances at doing this so I had better not stuff up.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot, normally a test costs 20,000 won. The black belt test costs 220,000 won ! 🙁
So I better not fail.

While training for this test I have managed to get two “tennis elbows” !

Muscles on forearm

This is the problem area on my arms. Sports like fencing or Gumdo put a lot of stress the muscles in your forearms.
What I can’t figure out is why now? I trained much harder when I started Gumdo. Is it my diet or am I just too old?

I also had a knee problem but it has resolved itself But the tennis elbow is a problem.
Originally it was only my left arm, but now it has moved to my right arm!
So I will take a break from Gumdo this week and see a doctor for treatment options. I want to get it fixed whilst I am in Korea b/c it is so cheap here for physiotherapy and Oriental medicine.
So if I successfully pass my black belt test then I shall stop training. Since I only have two months left in Korea, that means no more Gumdo training.
If I am presented with an opportunity to do Gumdo in Australia I would like to do so. But first I need to lose weight and build up strength and flexibility.

Mapping F13-F16 on Apple Keyboard under OS X

I recently purchased an Apple Keyboard for my Mac Mini. It includes 2 USB ports, as well as volume control and mute keys. All very useful but the thing that caught my eye was the F13 through F16 keys as my normal PC keyboard ends at F12.
Apple Keyboard

So how can you use these extra keys in OS X? Well F13 is easy, the Keyboard & Mouse preference panel will let you map this key.
But it does not recognise the F14, F15 and F16 keys even through I am using an Apple keyboard!
Apple software not recognising Apple hardware is very annoying! Fortunately there are workarounds.

This link at OSXHints explains how to do it –> How to map F14, F15, and F16 to Expos?ɬ©, Dashboard

I set my keys up as follows:

* F13 = Dashboard
* F14 = All Windows
* F15 = Application Windows
* F16 = Desktop

If you like this setup then just download the com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist file below

com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist
and place it in your home directory under …/Library/Preferences

Memorial Day (Korea)

Today is the day, Koreans remember those who have fallen defending their country.
So what did I do on this sacred day? Shopping!
I went to Busan, watched the new Dreamworks movie “Over the Hedge” which was OK, but it is not Toy Story by any means.

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And I then got my Mac Mini upgraded to 2GB for 144,000 won. It is worth every cent.
I can now switch between Windows XP and OS X with no delay !