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Google Reader Shared links for 2008-10-28
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Interesting article on commuting trends
Why is that sore?
(Note: My fingers are just fine, they just look mangled because they are freakishly long and bend in weird ways)
The first class of Krav Maga went well. Waking this morning wasn’t painful, and oddly enough the only part of me that feels off is my hands. My fingers feel weak, likely from my forearm muscles, which I can only attribute to them being strongly clenched for the better part of an hour last night. Most of the rest of my muscles feel like I had a decent total body workout last night, but no one area is worse off than another.
Not having ever participated in martial arts or any organized physical activity really (no sports, only lifting), I was curious to see how the class would be structured.
We started off with a good warmup, mixing cardio & muscle-usage. Not having devoted significant time to cardo lately, this seriously kicked my ass. It did its job though, as afterward I felt warmed and loosened up. Within a minute or so I didn’t feel winded anymore.
The first order of the day was punching, starting just practicing technique and then pairing off with rectangular pads to be held in front of the chest. I was the odd-man out for the class, but got my share of licks in. I need to remember to bring my hands back to my face.
Next up was palm strikes - same concept as punching except with your fingers straight out and impacting with your palm. You’ve got to rotate your arm slightly counter-clockwise (middle finger pointing to about 10-11 o-clock) to minimize chance of injury, it aligns your forearm bones better with your upper-arm & shoulder. Again I need to remember to bring my hands back to my face.
Head butts followed - these are not pleasant and I don’t really care for them, but at least I’ve learned & will practice proper technique so that if the shit hits the fan, I don’t break my neck head butting someone.
Kneeing was mixed in there somewhere, which was fun but we didn’t have the proper pads to practice this on our partners - technique only.
The remainder of the class was spent on breaking choke holds. We started with the specific aspect of breaking the hold & quickly striking back, but progressed to a full-on retaliation. My favorite part of this was when one person was constantly punching the pads while a third circled and randomly "attacked" with a choke - you broke the attack, repelled the attacker, and got back to punching at full intensity. The final 5 minutes were spent with four of the nine attendees holding a water bottle, symbolizing a glass one might have in their hands at a bar, while the other five randomly attacked - emphasizing improvisation and attacking even though one hand may be holding something.
All in all very fun, great exercise, and wholly practical. I assume once the class becomes proficient in all the basic techniques (this was only the 3rd class held in Raleigh), we’ll move on to application and scenarios. Krav Maga training is famous for real world simulations, with sensory disruptions like low light, flashing light, loud noises, etc while facing off against multiple attackers, etc and emphasizing a high degree of situational awareness.
Things I’ve Learned - Week of 10/19
The title of this post should be pretty self explanatory. I will specify that this particular post also includes other recent learnings of note, not limited to this week.
- Small business computing isn’t just about low cost - it’s about sustainability and self-sufficiency, that’s how you need to talk to "small business" owners (Thanks David)
- Best Buy honors their "If your store-pickup online order isn’t ready in 1 minute, we give you $10 off" guarantee and without hassle - even if you’re only buying a couple DVD’s
- Proper assessment of non-responsive person with regard to breathing/airway, CPR (dictated by the aforementioned), use of nasopharyngeal airway, and other fun/interesting medical doodads/techniques
- Tidbit: the beat to the song "Stayin’ Alive" made famous in the John Travolta disco movie (Saturday Night Fever?) is a near perfect match to the proper rate of compressions when performing CPR. Good to hum in your head if you ever have to perform compressions (make sure they don’t have a pulse first!)
- If your girlfriend gives you two birthday cards and one says "Daddy," pay attention to other markings on the outside (i.e. cat paw prints) that might signify the card being pseudo-written from a pet, whom you are the unofficial parent of, before looking like this
- I need to get a more global perspective on things for work - when considering your social media audience, you can’t even assume you’re limited to countries that speak the same language, nor should you limit your tools & platforms to one language
Krav Maga
Monday evening we’ll be attending the first of hopefully many Krav Maga classes. More details to come.
In Krav Maga, there are no hard-and-fast rules, and no distinction in training for men and women.[3] It is not a sport, and there are no specific uniforms, attire or competitions, although some organizations recognise progress through training with rank badges and different levels. All the techniques focus on maximum efficiency in real-life conditions. Krav Maga generally assumes that the individual attacking will give no quarter; therefore, as a response the attacks and defenses are intended only for use in potentially lethal threat situations with the aim to neutralize and escape as rapidly and safely as possible. Crippling attacks to vulnerable body parts, including groin and eye strikes, headbutts, and other efficient and potentially brutal attacks, improvised use of any objects available, and maximizing personal safety in a fight, are emphasized. However, it must be stressed that instructors can and do demonstrate how to moderate the techniques to fit the circumstances. While no limits are placed on techniques to be used in life-threatening situations, the legal need to inflict the appropriate minimal damage in other circumstances is recognized and stressed.
links for 2008-10-25
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How many different Mustang varieties were there over the past few years? AutoBlog has the list - and it's long.
Interview on Chinese culture & Social Media
I’ve been trying to kick my nasty habit of just populating my blog with links to other stuff, but I found this post too insightful not to share.
The famous Shel Israel’s blog Global Neighbourhoods is one that is usually neglected in my Google Reader, but the headline about SM and someone in China caught my eye. China is a big strategic opportunity for SM and given Lenovo’s huge presence there - well, you can understand my interest. I’m also slowly (and I do mean slowly) learning Chinese (it’s really more like intending to learn Chinese), but the language is only half the battle, if that. Culture is eminently important in social media, or really any direct interaction between people.
SM Global Report: China’s Kaiser Kuo - Straddling 2 Worlds with Balance & Understanding
I strongly encourage you to read the entire interview, as unlike some other pandering content this one is chock full of good information. That said, this nugget stood out to me:
My purely unscientific, anecdotal surmise as to the main subjects of conversation in China: Basically, your pedestrian comings-and-goings blogs: "my kitty got sick and I had to take her to the vet," or "I’m so depressed that my girlfriend dumped me," entertainment (boy bands, Korean soaps, Jay Chou and other pop stars or the latest Hollywood blockbusters. Cars are a big topic–it’s like the 50s in the U.S., where young people are car-crazy and of course there’s technology, online games and that sort of thing. There is a surprising number devoted to literature. Political blogs are rare.
Kaiser also talks about how discussion forums (or BBS as he calls them) are far more prevalent than blogs - to the tune of 1/3 of internet users post to a BBS regularly, with tens of millions of posts going up each day. Just serves to remind you how small our world really is.
Windows Live Writer revisited
It’s been quite a while since I compared Word & Windows Live Writer as blog composing platforms, and since I’ve recently dusted off the site I’ve been getting back into the nuances of WLW.
First off - I came across a great list of ‘must have’ plugins for WLW. I don’t need some of them, and video embedding is built-in, but stuff like auto-inserting of Wikipedia links or capturing screenshots from SnagIt (which I use, when they were giving away the old version for free) is quite handy and anyone using WLW should give it a look.
I remembered that since I had last used WLW, I had a plugin that put a button in Firefox to make posting a webpage just a single click. Well that plugin was broken in FF3, until a Google search led me to a MS WLW developer’s blog. (Notice the platform this MS developer is blogging on…) His WLW-specific posts (which are most of them) are quite helpful and insightful to the WLW design process. Back on topic - he posts that the plugin itself DOES work with FF3, but there is a file parameter which flags it as only 2.0 compatible and causes FF3 to puke. Find the simple fix here.
EDIT: And it works! 
I guess I should try the new beta version, but I don’t devote enough time to blogging as it is, much less to devote time to messing with beta stuff. You know you’re getting old when you don’t want to spend time messing with new, experimental stuff (or maybe you’re just super busy?).
links for 2008-10-21
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Good post on how economy effects IT & cloud strategy. Something for me to watch
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Interesting article on car insurance & track events. Bottom line - you probably need separate insurance for track events if you don't want to pay out of pocket, and sometimes even ASKING your insurance company can get you dropped.
Quarter century
I recently passed the big quarter-century milestone and had a nice three days of celebration. My mother and sister visited Saturday, bringing my present from the both of them. While I have no clue 
where she got it, my sister certainly has that creativity streak and has been honing her artistic abilities for the better part of this year.
The picture above was done by her (with chalk) and framed by my Mom. The subject is my childhood dog Jasmine, who is still alive and kicking - turning 15 years old, originally a present for my 10th birthday. (Pictured at right)
This was an incredibly moving gift for me. I’m very proud of my sister’s talents and I know I will always have this memorance of my sweet old pooch.
Sunday my Dad and I took the trip up to Martinsville, VA for a NASCAR race. I’m no NASCAR aficionado, but I do love the sound of a few dozen rumbling V8’s.
Finally, I played hookie for a bit on Monday as Candice had some plans. We had a nice dinner, she got me an hour long massage, and we retired for a quiet evening.
All in all, a simple and memorable birthday weekend. A big thanks to everyone who shared their b-day wishes, mostly through one social network or another 