After being out of training for several months, this weekends grading was always going to be a big challenge for me. I’ve not updated this site since the last time I trained before the accident. If you don’t know, I tore the cartilage in my right knee which developed into bursitis, had to have two operations on it. So i was out for a few months.

The grading went well. It was a struggle to keep hold on the shiko dachi stances, and I know i could have done them better than I did on the day. I was more worried about damaging my knee more and not being able to continue with the grading. However it pulled through and I managed it. I’ve got a lot to work on, but now I’m a kyu higher It’s going to get more intense, and I’m going to commit to every minute of it.

Till next time, Oss!

Seems a little more complex than the previous kata’s but still a good challenge. Here’s pinan sandan broken down into a few combinations. I may be wrong with some of the japanese terms but here we go.

Looking over the left shoulder, turn into cat stance blocking uchi uke with the left hand. Step the right foot up to the left foot, perform double block (right hand chudan, left hand gedan, both fists closed).

Repeat the double block, this time left hand chudan, right hand gedan

Look over the right shoulder. Step the left leg across and over the right leg, turning into right cat stance, blocking sieken uchi uke with the right hand. Perform the same double block, twice, as in combination 1. This time, the first double block is performed with the right hand blocking gedan, then chudan, and the left hand chudan then gedan.

Look over the left shoulder, step out towards 12 o’clock with the left leg, dropping into cat stance. Once more, block uchi uke with the left hand, fist closed. Stepping into a long zenkutsudachi, with the right leg forward, strike nukite to the opponents solar plexus.

Your attacker now grabs the wrist of your outstretched right hand. Lean your body away into back stance from the attacker, rotating your right hand and pulling tori in towards you.

As you continue to pull your right hand into the small of your back, take your left leg around behind you, stepping into horse stance and striking uraken uchi (backfist strike), then step forward on the right leg, into right zenkutsudachi, punching chudan oizuki.

Kiai on the punch.

Draw the left leg up to the right leg, turning through 180 degrees so that you are now facing towards 6 o’clock. Both fist should be placed on the hips, elbows slightly forward..

Fall forward, stepping the right leg out into horse stance. Keeping both hands on your hips, block across your body with right empi. Strike uraken uchi with the right hand, bringing the hand back to your hip after the strike.

Step forward with the left leg, into left horse stance. Maintaining both hands on hips, block across your body with left empi and strike left uraken uchi, returning the left hand to the hip.

Finally, perform the move one last time, stepping into right horse stance, blocking across the body with right empi. Strike uraken uchi with the right hand, however this time keep the uraken uchi extended.

Rotate the extended right hand through 90 degrees, fist closed, palm facing downwards. Step forward on the left leg, into left zenkutsu dachi, punching oizuki with the left hand.

Bring the right leg up alongside the left leg into heisoku dachi (feet shoulder width). Continue by taking the left leg behind the right leg, turning to face towards 12 o’clock once more. Staying in heisoku dachi, strike empi to the lower rib with the left elbow, and punch over the left shoulder with the right hand. Ensure that you are looking over the left shoulder, at the opponent you have just finished.

Take a wide step out with the right leg, still facing towards 12 o’clock, As the left leg is brought up to shoulder width (by shifting the body to the right) strike empi to the lower rib with the right elbow, punching over the right shoulder with the left hand. Ensure you are looking over your right shoulder, at your opponent.

Kiai on the final punch.

Step forward into yoi, still looking over your right shoulder at your final opponent. As you extend your arms into yoi, bring the head back round to face 12 o’clock.

To start we had our usual hours lesson which really focused on what we were about to be graded on. Obviously I was 10th kyu White belt I was attempting to grade to 9th kyu.

Sensei sectioned us into grading lines and I was on the fourth line. Sitting in a separate room I was helping some of the other 7th kyu karate-ka’s with their kata, as they thought that they would have to go through pinan shodan, turns out that it wasn’t needed but it was still fun trying to remember how to do it.

Ok so first up we had to be graded on our step with rising block which we drilled for about five mins. I felt very strong and full of spirit at this point, and really excited I could feel my ki running through my veins it was a very strange but amazing feeling. Next came a couple minutes of reverse punch and hold, followed by leading hand face punch by this point my arms were starting to ache. So we moved onto standing mae geri in yoi stance which we did for another few minutes. Finally we finished with stepping punches with down blocks and inside blocks and thrusts. I can remember after about the fiftieth time my final kiai was the most intense of which I think I made sensei Karen jump.

We returned to our little room a couple of times between each drill, of which each time seemed to be longer even though we weren’t in there any longer than usual. Sensei asked me to help with the 7th kyu’s final grading as they had to demonstrate kumite techniques. This was amusing as I thought I was going to just stand there, yet sensei made me demonstrate the sparring techniques.

Finally grading was over and it was time for the feedback and results. Sensei was very impressed with us White belts, now remember I mentioned that I was grading for 9th kyu which is red belt. Sensei went through the lines giving everyone feedback an results and as we were the last line it seemed to take forever. My turn to be called up, and I shocked myself as not only did I pass 9th kyu, I passed 8th kyu and also 7th kyu, so I am now orange belt with a 1st class pass.

I want to give gratz to everyone else who graded and passed you all did fantastically well! Oss!

Well I’ll try to keep you guys more updated in regards to this.

I received a call from a ‘representative’ of BT, informing me that he was disconnecting me because of an unpaid bill. He demanded payment immediately of £31.00, or it would be £118.00 to re-connect at a later date.

The guy wasn’t even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media, allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental!

I asked the guy’s name – the very ‘English’ John Peacock with a very ‘African’ accent – & phone number – 0800 0800 152.

Obviously the fella realized I wasn’t believing his story, so offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang up & try phoning someone – he would disconnect my phone to prevent this.

AND HE DID!!
My phone was dead – no engaged tone, nothing – until he phoned me again.

Very pleased with himself, he asked if that was enough proof that he was with BT. I asked how the payment was to be made & he said credit card, there & then.

I said that I didn’t know how he’d done it, but I had absolutely no intention of paying him, I didn’t believe his name or that he worked for BT.

He hung up.

Did 1471 & phoned his fictitious 0800 number – not recognised.

I phoned the police to let them know, I wasn’t the first! It’s only just started apparently but it is escalating.

Their advice was to let as many people know by word of mouth of this scam. The fact that the phone does go off would probably convince some people it’s real, so please let as many friends & family aware of this.

This is good but not that clever. He gave the wrong number – it should have been 0800 800152 which takes you through to BT Business. The cutting off of the line is very simple , he stays on the line with the mute button on and you can’t dial out – but he can hear you trying. (This is because the person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back. You could almost be convinced! The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool the elderly and vulnerable. Obviously, if this scam is real, once they have your credit/debit card details, there is nothing to stop them cleaning out your account.

I currently attend the english karate academy’s school Rising Sun Karate. http://englishkarateacademy.com and am now onto my 5th lesson. I will hopefully tell the story from start to finish as I progress up the various kyuu gradings finally reaching my dan grade’s. I have the determination to do it, and I wish to share this passion with you all.

This script basically takes away the time taken to set up the django project [See Perplexed Labs].

Basically the script does everything that is stated to do by perplexed labs with a little more inserted it just makes it far more quicker, for me this is great because being a web host we have to be quick to set up these types of accounts.

CODE : http://www.streamflame.com/media/scripts/djangosetup.zip

USAGE

upload to your webserver and run the file as
$ python djangosetup.py

The script will then ask you for the username and domain that you set up previously in WHM. The script does the rest and the django account is ready to go!

The file structure that this creates is based on streamflame’s XPROCC Standards which our developers use for all their projects

- media
- templates
- www
– settings.py
– urls.py
– __init__.py

any questions on how to use this, just leave a comment i’ll try get back to you.

Now I’m not really big on fraud prevention, and I don’t know all the details but from a little research i’ve done on the internet i’ve found that generally any ATM machine can be used to skim your card where the details would be obtained and the fraudster can potentially clone your card and use that card to withdraw money from your account. I don’t know how long this particular technique has been used for, anyone with any more information would be great if you could leave a comment.

An interesting site to look at is on snopes.com, I have no affiliation with this website this is purely for source information. http://www.snopes.com/fraud/atm/atmcamera.asp

basically they state that also CAMERAS can be used within the pamphlet holders on the sides of ATMs.

Remember always be weary of anyone looking or acting suspicious when your using card ATMs and always cover up your pin when entering it. Check for suspicious looking card readers on the ATM that don’t look legitimate, if your unsure go into the bank and ask them to check (if the bank is closed don’t use that ATM).

Stay safe, keep vigilant.

Times are hard, but hopefully with me moving back home with my parents that my luck might be up, I’ll get to save up some money and get out of debt, and there is potential for my relationship to be reunited in a while.

My main focus at the moment is to make the most of what little I have left and enjoy these last few days I have with the woman I love most in this whole world. One thing I am thankful for is that it’s not been a bad break up, I don’t think she’ll ever understand how much I do love her, mainly because I haven’t fully realised myself yet but hopefully in time.

This is a message to my one true love. I love you more today than I did yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow. That is so much more significant than I first realised as I really do understand my love for you more each day, even if it’s only slightly

It’s been a while since I updated the streamflame website. I’ve been trying for the last year to get a nice looking template to go with it and never succeeded, until now that is. The current template on streamflame was borrowed from our sister site audiohosting.org kindly donated by Peter Stannard, an old friend and web enthusiast.

I’m not going to leak much in the development side of things only to say that there WILL be a complete rework of our billing system. Currently the guys over at WHMCS provide the software and license for our current billing software. However WHMCS is too powerful for what we are needing however much of a great system without a doubt it is.

I will be uploading screenshots of the front page of the design shortly. As the design element is finished I think its only fair to show everyone why we are so excited about this.

He’s growing so well. The head which we thought was going in the direction of labrador (which would have been great) has developed into a beautiful mix of the two breeds however more leaned towards the classic rotty look. He is such an amazing dog, so loving and kind temperament. He’s still nipping but its not half as bad as it used to be. We’ve halted the crate training as he goes in it fine and he now gets to spend a lot more time outside of the crate as he can control his need to eliminate now.

He’s turning more into a family dog every day now, he can last longer periods of time outside of the crate with the family before he goes crazy and starts attacking everything.

House training is still hit and miss. I suppose it will be for a while yet I mean he’s only 17 Weeks old but he is getting better, We went our second night overnight where he hasn’t done anything in his crate last night and he went straight outside to eliminate when we woke him up. However saying that he did then eliminate in his crate the moment after i’d turned my back after he’d finished his breakfast.

So all in all things are going well, his obedience is going great. Just the recall to master now but he didn’t seem to have any problem going to anyone that calls him he just loves any attention he can get.