Zaine

It probably was clear! I sometimes miss little nuances like that!

This line here distills a lot of how I feel about young black belts. It is our job, not only as adults but especially as instructors whose responsibility it is to guide the journey of these kids, to set a good example. Kids are sponges, and they lack the nuance to decipher when someone is good for them or bad. They're dopamine monsters, just like we all are. They will seek whatever gives them that boost. Whatever makes them feel like they have a place. What are bullys but people who are scared that they have no place in the world? When we teach karate, for whatever reason, in whatever way, we instill within our students not only confidence to stand up and face challenges, but the ability to be violent about it. This is why good instructors focus so much on the budo of martial arts. We are meant to teach honor, compassion, and understanding. No teacher worth their salt teaches that violence is a first reaction. It is, unequivocally, a parent/guardian's job to imbue their children with a strong moral compass. However, these are hardly ever the only players in a child's life. As much as I am a product of my parent's beliefs and philosophies, I also have a lot of others to thank for shaping me. Despite the philosophical issues I have with my original teacher, I will forever be indebted to him helping me (and, by extension, my parents) shape myself into the man I am today. It's an incredible responsibility, being a teacher. We're not always going to make the right decisions. The same is true about parents. However, being honest about our shortcomings and showing our students and children that we, too, are human is important. I've seen too many black belts, adult and children alike, who wear it as a status symbol. Black belts aren't meant to remove us from the equation, making us above the others. Black belts are meant to put us at the front, so that our example can make the world a better place.

Congrats!

Here is an example of the wolf whistle. It got its name largely thanks to cartoons using the imagery of a wolf (sometimes having other cartoon animals morph into having wolf like features to do so) while whistling. I think it's less about wolf whistle being his biggest regret, and more about an acceptance of the past. I have things that are much larger and personal regrets than not knowing how to wolf whistle or roll my Rs. However, these regrets shaped me. Our regrets shape us all and it's up to us to find the positive lessons in those regrets. Regrets teach us about ourselves, they are the strongest way to understand who we are as a person. One of my biggest "regrets" was from when I was 14 years old and I became physically aggressive with my best friend's mom. The fallout of that taught me a lot about who I was, and how I wanted to shape myself going forward. If I could go back, I would change how I received that lesson, but I would not change what I learned. The situation actually brought me a lot closer to all involved parties after I got help with processing what it was that was going on with me internally. It also helped focus what I wanted out of martial arts.

This is so funny because that loud taxi/wolf whistle is something that has bewildered me for years. That, and rolling my Rs.

I take Kobudo classes from a guy in Canada and we meet over the internet. We generally get together with a video call on Sundays, and then (if I remember) I send him progress videos. It's unranked, but I'm not really concerned with the rank. I just love the practice. In general, I get nervous when rank and distance training are involved. It's very difficult to tell the nuances over video, when you don't have the ability to walk around or even see everything up close. This is my biggest complaint about online training as I do it now. There are some partner drills that I am missing out on because I don't have anyone to do it with.

I don't regret anything in my MA journey. I have goals that I want to complete before I cannot any longer, but I can't find any regrets in my training.

Congrats!

I hope everyone still has all appendages and digits accounted for! We actually spent no small amount of money to have some fireworks at my grandfather's house. He lives in the country, and his closest neighbor is his sister, who lives a quarter of a mile down the road and joined us for the festivities. We had a lot of fun setting off fireworks!

In the Shobayashi dojo, the stripes are official rankings. One stripe promotes to 9th kyu, etc. With adults generally making the jump from 10th to 7th in one test.

I've been to multiple schools that segment white belts like this, and it seems to be a good plan, especially for children. In my Shobayashi dojo, the kids must earn 2 stripes before testing for yellow. The adults, on the other hand, while technically following the same path, typically don't get stripes. Stripes are an excellent way to set expectations for students, particularly for younger students. Given students smaller mile markers makes them feel like the journey is more achievable, and gives them that dopamine hit of "ranking up" with more frequency. This also helps because it allows the student to feel like they belong faster. They've made it through the introductory part of the martial arts, and are now eager to practice. So, in all, I definitely like option 3 for kids, option 4 for adults.

The breadth of Dragonlance is crazy. There are a lot of books just for this universe. I tend to stick to the main line, so Chronicles, Legends, etc. I'm not a huge fan of the 5th age stuff, and so far the Destinies trilogy (I'm on book 1) is underwhelming. That said, it's the series that got me into high fantasy. I loved dragons as a kid so a series called "Dragonlance" was always going to bring me in. Oddly enough, I had no idea that it had anything to do with D&D until much later. Perhaps that's why the FR stuff was unknown to me. My parents, at the time, were not welcoming to D&D. As an adult, I now collect the DL D&D modules and sourcebooks. I've given thought to collecting all the DL books, but with so many out of print I might see what this reprint/omnibus spree might give us. Next I am going to read Sabriel by Garth Nix on the suggestion of a friend. I have been promised a very good time with the book, so I'm trying not to hype myself up too much.

I didn't really read any Forgotten Realms stuff. Not sure why Dragonlance was on my radar as a kid but FR wasn't.

Good question. I always struggle with that. Just roll a die?

I've been in a reading slump, but I picked up Dragonlance Chronicles to reread. Dragonlance is the series that got me into fantasy. It's been a blast reading them again. I can't seem to put the books down.