Month: July 2009

Math for victory

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

A video from SouthNarc describing the HideAway knife:

The knife itself, useful information. What stood out to me as more useful?

1. Emphasis on the draw.

I’ve heard SouthNarc focuses a lot on drawstrokes, because if you can’t assuredly get your weapon into play, your chances of successfully dealing with a self-defense incident are drastically reduced.

2. Simple math for victory:

Good training + aggression + simple tactics = victory

Updated: Added a link to the knife company, and fixed the video to use an embeddable one (don’t know how that happened). Thanx Linoge.

Howard’s hot times

/ hsoi

Howard Nemerov was invited to speak at a local “tea party” with mixed reception.

From what I know of Howard, he isn’t what the organizers wanted… he’s pretty sick of it all:

Why should people believe a “conservative” will be any better than a “liberal” when a self-proclaimed conservative ran up the deficit during his time as president? It was the Republicans during the 2000-2004 time period that prepared the way for Obamanomics. They justified expanding government and federal spending, because it was for the “right” reasons. Now, they sit mute while the new administration makes their efforts look sophomoric, because they know that speaking up too loud risks drawing attention to their hypocrisy.

They know that the American electorate has demonstrated a resistance to learning the lessons of history. As “progressive” economist John Kenneth Galbraith observed:

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

[…]

We no longer have a two party system: We have the Democrat party, and the Democrat-too party, neither of which adheres to the goals stated on their party websites.

We’ve got mere weeks before Congress returns from their summer holiday–more travel expenses paid by us–and takes up issues like Cap & Trade and socialized medicine. If you have any ideas on how to refocus this movement on We the People, please send them along.

I’m starting to think that the better strategy now will be to vote for whomever has the best chance of unseating the incumbent.

Lessons learned from D&D

/ hsoi

A rather amusing but strangely true post about real life lessons someone learned from playing Dungeons & Dragons.

I haven’t played D&D in years (decades?), but it sure was fun. I can certainly relate to the lessons learned.

Treemaps for space-constrained visualization of hierarchies

/ hsoi

If the title made your eyes glaze over, no need to click this link to read Ben Shneiderman’s paper on treemaps.

I’ve been buried in working with them all day today at work. Just conceptual and design at this point, haven’t started to write algorithms just yet. It’s pretty cool stuff, at least for geeks like me.

Even if you’re not, the graphical representation of treemaps can look pretty cool. I really like these circular treemaps.

Who knew examining the composition and state of your computer’s filesystem could be so trippy. 😉

The importance of striking

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Matthew Apsokardu at his ikigai blog talks about the importance of striking.

I recall much of the same from my Kuk Sool study. So much emphasis and time spent on locks and throws, and not enough time spent on how to get into those locks and throws (tho some instruction given, not always practiced). Things like needing to throw a strike to the eyes to blind and/or distract so you can gain entry to perform a lock. Or say someone has you in a bear hug from behind, you use your foot to stomp down on the instep of their foot, perhaps raking your foot down their shin as you go, to create the initial pain distraction so you can throw them.

I just discovered Matthew’s blog (due to him commenting on my blog) and my initial look around his place seems pretty nice. He wrote an eBook called The Student’s Guide to Surviving a Traditional Dojo. I haven’t read it fully but I did skim it. It’s actually a pretty nice eBook. What I liked is how he talked about mindset, about longer term troubles like burnout and fading away. I mean, everyone talks about uniforms, basic etiquette and such, but he approached some topics that are very real but rarely discussed. The eBook provides a nice overview, touching on many subjects. The only problem? The book is geared towards traditional Japanese martial arts. That’s OK, especially since that is the author’s realm of experience. Myself, coming from a traditional Korean martial arts background, I can see how there are many similarities, but also some differences. This isn’t to say the eBook is bad, just it depends what the focus and potential audience is for the author. If he’s attempting to discuss traditional Japanese arts, then it works very well towards that purpose. If he’s wanting to discuss traditional Asian martial arts, then it may not work so well. If he’s wanting to discuss traditional martial arts (including non-Asian), then it again gets a bit further away.  As well, I noticed no mention in the eBook itself about who Matthew is… no bio. There is a link to his website, but as websites can come and go and the PDF file could stick around, it’d be useful to have such things within the eBook itself so people can directly know who the author is and with what authority they speak on the matter.

Nevertheless, it’s a good effort that he made and one worth reading. I’ll be spending more time on his blog in the future.

I still got it

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Had a nice Independence Day weekend with the in-laws.

Up at the father&mother-in-law abode, they have a “tank” — basically, a pond. When they expanded its size about 4 years ago, they stocked it with some fish. My kids have been on a fishing kick lately, so they wanted to go fishing and fishing they got. Actually, this was more “catching” than it was “fishing”, but still great! Oldest caught a catfish and 2 largemouth bass. Daughter caught a catfish. Youngest caught a catfish and a couple bluegill. All the keepers were about 2-3# in size, bass were 14-16″ and catfish 19-21″. Kept 5 total fish, and some were thrown back. It was a big learning experience for Youngest because he’d get some fight on his line then the fish would throw the hook… Youngest got upset about it, but he has to learn that sometimes that’s what happens. A few minutes later it even happened to me and Youngest saw it (just a few feet from shore, and Youngest even got to see the fish throwing the hook) — see? even happens to Daddy!

Nevertheless, a good time catching fish. Brought them back up to the house and I learned that my fish cleaning skills are still with me. I haven’t cleaned a fish since I was a teenager (either haven’t fished or have only fished catch-and-release), but I still got it. We’re going to have some fried catfish and bass for lunch today.

After that, went to my brother-in-law’s place. Kiddos got to swim. Ate good food. Fireworks too. Since we live in the city (Austin only allows things like sparklers and snakes) and typically have burn bans, we don’t get much for fireworks. But my brother-in-law had no such issues so they bought all sorts of things. Kids got to shoot some stuff off, see some rather big shells going off. It was quite cool for them to finally get to experience fireworks beyond the little dinky things that we might get to do on occasion.

It was a hot, tiring, weekend. But ever such a good one. Family’s important. Spend time with them. I don’t often hear people saying “gosh, I wish I spent more time at work” but often you’ll hear that folks wished they spent more time with their kids and family.

Anyway, I’ve got some fish to fry.

Sunday Metal – White Trash

/ hsoi

You probably don’t remember White Trash. The had a minor hit back in 1991 with “Apple Pie” but for whatever reason never hit it big.

I enjoyed their debut album. It was a mix of metal, jazz, funk… and hell, they had a horn section. How cool was that?

I got to see these guys play at the legendary Hammerjacks in Baltimore. The show was great. They were all about having one big party, but were tight on stage. It was also probably the loudest concert I have ever been to. This was back when I thought ear plugs were just so uncool… I walked out of the club and my hearing was muffled, ears rang for days afterwards. That concert probably did more to damage my hearing that anything else in my life (I wear ear plugs now).

While “Apple Pie” may have been the single, I thought the album had better songs such as “Judge-Me-Do”, “Take My Soul”, “Po’ White Trash”, the bass intro to “Buzz!” was quite cool, “Backstage Pass”, and “The Crawl”

Apparently the band is back together. We’ll see if anything comes of it.

A “Systems” Approach to Building a Profile

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

All this talk of Jeet Kune Do. Of studying various martial arts. Take what is useful and discard the rest. How do you determine what is useful and what to discard?

Over at ShivWorks there is an article “A ‘Systems’ Approach to Building a Profile” that discusses this.

What exactly is a System? A lexical definition of a system is “an arrangement of units that function together”. Following this line of logic, we would assume that when we call the data in our profile a “system” then all of it would function together. But does it by definition or even in reality?

[…]

For what you do to truly be a system, as per Webster, your “units” have to work together, or more importantly be common. The movements to deploy tools, strike, etc. need to be as close to one another in execution as they can efficiently be.

If you just take a bunch of things and mash them together, is that a system? According to the above, not unless they function together. It reminds me of my discussion of mantis blocks. Sure you could have various ways of blocking a punch or of putting up a fence or drawing your concealed handgun, but looking at the mantis technique it provides a system-like approach in that the movements are close to one another in execution; they are an arrangement of units that function together.

In the systems approach to building our combative profile, all skill sets are as similar as possible. Gun-handling is similar to knife work, knife work is similar to striking, and generally all footwork is the same. A good system should allow for the appropriate skill set to be utilized with essentially zero conscious thought, following a streamlined, learned, decision making process. With the proper system and the proper decision making process, one’s success in battle should be high.

The analogy of the system’s approach is to a well-trained unit versus a collection of individuals. A good unit, which works harmoniously, will always be more successful because everyone contributes their specific role to the overall success of the mission. Good team members in a unit compliment each other. They know their job and how it relates to their buddies’ responsibilities.

Likewise, a good system’s individual skill sets work in conjunction with one another to accomplish the overall objective of survival.

When in the course of human events…

/ hsoi

…it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the power of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and the Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Read the rest of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. Remember why this country was founded.