Uncategorized

Intelligent MySQL Configuration
http://www.justatheory.com/computers/databases/mysql/configuration.html
Found some useful MySQL tips for Mac OS X

Read more

UPDATE: There appears to have been more sword releated violence in Victoria.

I hope this does not lead to more laws restricting what I can do with swords when I get back home. I wonder if it effects my ka-gum. A Ka-gum looks like a sword, but it is blunt. Would it be considered a weapon under the law? … probably 🙁

Read more

An era long lost. Myself in 1989 at University.
At 179cm I was only 79 kg and very thin.
Even through I was thin, the height / weight tables you saw in high school physical education textbooks said I was overweight!

Now 17 years later I am overweight but I hope to lose that excess weight like I have lost my hair 🙁
The worse thing is in October 2004 I was 10 kilograms lighter then I am now. But I hurt my ankle and stopped exercising. What a difference that makes.
You don’t appreciate your health until you lose it. Fortunally I am well on the way to overcoming my ankle injury, but it is still with me now as a minnor irritant.

When I go back to Australia in September, I will miss all the apartment buildings and the wonderful snow in winter.

Already it seems a distant memory and I haven’t even left yet. Still to be home again, to experience a cold wet winter again will be nice … for the first 5 minutes. Then it will just be cold and miserable.

Google Calendar has been released. I am quite impressed with the interface. Have a look for yourself.
Better yet, head over to http://calendar.google.com

Read more

Sperwerslog at http://www.sperwerslog.com/index.php/sperwerslog/snuffing_out_candles_w_a_sword/
is talking about snuffing out candles with a sword. This is very difficult and often results in flattened candles when your focus is off.
After a few minutes it also kills your eyes.
He also mentioned his legs getting stiff after being in a sitting position for a while, a problem I can relate too.

I remember doing a grading for Hapikdo in Australia. The most important thing in the test was not your actual techniques but you attitude, so no slouching while sitting on the sidelines. So there I was sitting there for 20 minutes, the instructor calls me as a sparring partner and I get up. But my whole leg is number because I had cut of my circulation. You know the feeling where your leg feels a few inches bigger and then when the blood starts to flow again you get that lovely electrical feeling where you don’t know if you should cry or laugh.

Fortunally in my class there are two students, a kid and myself.
So when the kid is being instructed I get to practise by myself. It also allows me the opportunity to stretch because I have found I really need to stretch otherwise my knee gets very irriated at me.
When you are part of a much larger class, you can’t really do this because the class is much more formal, not to mention a bunch of Korean children walking around with big sticks.

Goals
My number one physical goal is to do the splits again ( ok… 95% of the way there) Gumdo is number two.
I have found that if I don’t have a flexible body I get injured very quickly. Even when you are flexible I have also noticed that it is best to strengthen the muscles and joints that you are flexible in, otherwise, you guessed it — injury
Even more so for a fat prick undertall person like myself.
When I went to university I could not even touch my toes! But after 9 months of Aerobics and 6 months of Taekwondo I could get +30 cm in a straight leg test and could nearly do the splits.
I found Aerobics teaches you lots of safe ways to stretch while martial arts teach you lots of potentially unsafe ways (but a lot more effective).
So this means part of my routine again will be sitting in the splits position reading the Economist for 10 minutes. This is not the most effective or quickest way to obtain flexibity but it works and it toughens your mind.

It’s nice to know that I am not the only foreigner studing Haidong Gumdo

http://nicoleinkorea.blogspot.com/2006/01/my-second-gumdo-test-cause-first-one.html

I have spent much of this weekend playing with WordPress. WordPress is the blog software that powers what you are reading now.
They have just introduced some new features which makes it easier for non programers. I have been using these new widgets and they are a lot of fun.
It really cuts down on having to edit PHP files.
So good job, WordPress

Have also been doing some research on pingbacks and tracebacks. I am not sure yet if it is working properly on my blog. By all accounts it should. I found a very help article on the subject at http://www.optiniche.com/blog/117/wordpress-trackback-tutorial/

Test traceback to pesonal weblog

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE FULL SIZED PHOTO

Click here for more Haidong Gumdo photos

SLIDESHOW: click here for a slideshow of Haidong Gumdo photos

Obviously Korea, Americia and Australia have a slightly different view about weapons.
Korea I believe is the strictest. The only weaons I have seen are shotguns which are used for hunting.
In Australia the law differs in each state. But after a particulary horrific shooting spree in the mid 90’s a lot of guns were banned.

Read more

Over at Sperwerslog log, lots of stuff you can’t do in Australia.
Half of me loves the video, the other half is thinking “what the f…. ?”

http://www.sperwerslog.com/index.php/sperwerslog/why_do_you_need_a_silencer/
http://www.sperwerslog.com/index.php/sperwerslog/the_last_samurai/
http://www.sperwerslog.com/index.php/sperwerslog/brass_on_the_deck/
http://www.sperwerslog.com/index.php/sperwerslog/oh_hell_cant_leave_this_one_out_anger_management_with_gunny/
http://www.sperwerslog.com/index.php/sperwerslog/and_finally_girl_saturday/