Massage

I got a most excellent massage yesterday at The Bancroft School of Massage Therapy using their student clinic. For $35, its a great hour of relaxation. The only risk is that the student may not yet be capable of giving the best massage due to experience level. Last night, however, Beth, an X-ray tech by day, really let me have it. I told her in the post treatment evaluation that "She was meant for this type of work. I asked for an appointment with her in August which is unusual for me since the mediocre massage is typical, I'll usually just move on to the next available student. Finally, someone with a future in this business!!

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BODYROCK (Moby)

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Shorin-Ryu Karate in Satellite Beach, FL 1973-74

modified from similar history provided at: http://www.okinawan-shorinryu.com/palmer/sensei_palmer.html

I began karate training with Sensei Sam Palmer in 1973 in Satellite Beach, FL when I was in 10th grade at Satellite Beach High School. My Dad (USAF) got a one year remote assignment to Grand Bahama Island in his 17th year and this was as close as we could live to him. He visited every 4 to 6 weeks or so. I know Palmer Sensei was in the USAF and was a Sargent stationed at Patrick Air Force Base, but did not know he was retired. The Wichita Falls, TX (Sheppard AFB) dojo also sounds very familiar.

I began training as a white belt at the suggestion of my friend and neighbor Bob Tedder in late Fall 1973 after football season was over. My brother, Jerry, also trained. I remember feeling like I was never going to get it, but after 30 days, I think I began to catch on. I remember a brown belt instructor who was probably 17-18, wore a bowler hat and had no back seat in his old model car, just carpeting (maybe the guy John Unk.?) in the picture. I remember the woman Joyce being a policewoman, I think, and there was another guy who worked out alot and off normal class schedule who was a Brevard County Sheriff and real good with nunchucks.

I agree, Palmer Sensei was a Yon-Dan (4th Degree) and, the Head Instructor, United States of America, in the Okinawa ShorinRyu Karate Association at that time. In 1974 during Ueshiro Sensei's (NY) visit to FL, he was promoted to Go-Dan (5th Degree). This is evident in my Yon-Kyu (Green belt) promotional certificate dated 1 July 1974, where the "4" in the 4-DAN title under Samuel G. Palmer's signature is overwritten with a fine black marker "5".

I agree that Palmer Sensei had several children who trained as well. I specifically remember meeting his son in 1974 who at the time I think was nine and a brown belt. I don't remember his children working out with us. But I remember coming home from school, doing my homework, walking to dojo for 4pm beginner class, after a few months I'd stay for advanced class at 6:30pm. After awhile, I was there every day.

I remember going to a tournament in Clearwater in maybe May or June 1974 as a white belt and coming home with 2nd place kata and 1st place kumite and not being able to sleep on the bus ride home because of the adrenalin flow after fighting the guy next to you in a large circle that kept reducing in size by 1/2 every cycle until after nine fights there was just me and another guy left who tried to foot sweep me at least 5 times instead just kicked my horse stance calf so even after I beat him I couldn't walk for a week and didn't work out for two. That reminds me of his saying that whoever he fought, no matter how tough, even if both ended up in the hospital, he would go home first. Palmer Sensei took pictures, but I never got any copies of them.

Also another one, the bowler hat brown belt said if you are ever surrounded by 10 guys ready to beat you, punch one in the nose so hard that you break it, then thrust two fingers into his nostrils, rip his nose off, put it between your teeth and growl at the remaining nine guys and they will run away (in college, I was surrounded by 10 guys once and the smallest came out from underneath his taller friends, punched me in the nose, then they pulled my jacket over my head).

I lost contact with Palmer Sensei when my family moved back to Massachusetts in August of 1974 after my father's 1 year remote assigment to Grand Bahama Island was complete. I tried to stay for the rest of the Summer to continue working out, but it was time to go. Palmer Sensei was an important male role model for me that year and I will always remember him.

I returned to Satellite Beach to visit some friends in the Summer of 1975 and was very upset to see the Dojo gone and to learn Sensei Palmer had passed away of a heart attack. Details of his sudden heart attack in NY at a promotion board while performing Pinan Sandan came from http://www.okinawan-shorinryu.com/palmer/sensei_palmer.html . - In spite of resuscitation efforts he did not survive - . I agree, this was the way Palmer Sensei wanted to go, doing what he loved. His spirit survives in his students over 30 years later.

From: michael
To: "Christopher King"
Subject: Re: Shorin-Ryu Karate in Satellite Beach, FL 1973-74
Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 01:12:59 -0400
Chris, GOOD to hear from you!
Satellite Beach High School: I graduated from Satellite HS in 1972 so we were there at the same time. 73-74 I was at B.C.C.
Bowler Hat: Wasn't that Carroll Scofield right before he was promoted to Sho-Dan? I too remember the hat on somebody.
Brevard County Sheriff: (Something) Graziano. Recently died from cancer. I went to F.I.T. with his brother Mike Graziano.
Diploma: Mine too!
Family: Yeah they kinda wandered away. I have had no contact with them.
Tournament: I was at the same tournament with you (there was an Arby's across the street) as a green belt - got my butt kicked.
Chris, it's really good to hear from you. Come over to the dojo sometime and work out with us old-guys! Michael

Project Management

The Ten Major Causes of Project Failure

1. Inadequate planning
2. Lack of proactive user involvement
3. Lack of experienced project managers and experts
4. Executive changes
5. Inadequate change control management
6. Poor communication
7. Lack of visibility into vendor processes
8. Development resource diversions
9. Expansion of project scope
10. Overly aggressive development schedules

Notes:
specify, design, detail, quote, procure, receive, build, test, debug, integrate, test, commission.
team colocation and focus.
involve end users to fully define scope.
require specification from end customer even if you have to write it for them.
run a tight meeting, then produce and track action items.
get a detailer for mechanical design resource.
improve the quotation cycle and breadth to obtain best pricing.
get electro-mechanical assembler for electrical engineer, controls engineer, mechanical design resources.
allow for sufficient programming and debug time.
reduce purchasing cycle time.
have budgetary monitoring resource.
track due dates and pursue minimum delivery times.
communicate all deviations as instantaneously as possible - no suprises.
communicate status regularly throughout project cycle.

Melissa Cleaned My Apartment Today

Melissa cleaned my apartment today and did a great job! She charged me $10 per room - kitchen, den/dining room, living room, long hallway, bathroom, bedroom - for a total of $60. I think she worked on it for about 3-4 hours. The dust was the worst part since I live in the city and like to have the windows open. I asked her to dust the overhead fan blades and do the wood floor under the bed the next time. She set the clock she turned off when she stayed with me in May, but still hasn't returned my large golf umbrella yet. Its real nice to have the space cleaned by someone else at a pretty reasonable price and the money is going for a good cause.

Christopher & Theresa Visit

Christopher and Theresa arrived on the train from NYC to SARatoga on Saturday around 11:30am, my first pickup at the new station. When I was going down the driveway road off of Rt. 29 a doe and 2 fawns were grazing on the right edge. Doe slowly made her way to the left and eventually into the woods while fawns followed but to left edge and then ran along road while I slowly crept up. One then reversed ran back towards and passed me entering woods at doe while other just found way in. Very cool way to spend a few minutes.

Some other people at the train station looked like they were having alot of fun, but then it was a hot summer weekend in upstate NY!

Is Your Boss a Psychopath?

IsYour Boss a Psychopath? written by Alan Deutschman, a
Fast Company senior writer based in San Francisco.

This is a recent article I viewed on finance.yahoo.com. The sidebars and a quick test are also very interesting reading. A longer test for diagnosing psychopathic criminals has been around for awhile and is just recently being looked at in the context of ultra-driven business leaders. Here are a few exerpts I found to be particularly relevant:

"The 20-item personality evaluation has exerted enormous influence in its quarter-century history. It's the standard tool for making clinical diagnoses of psychopaths -- the 1% of the general population that isn't burdened by conscience. Psychopaths have a profound lack of empathy. They use other people callously and remorselessly for their own ends. They seduce victims with a hypnotic charm that masks their true nature as pathological liars, master con artists, and heartless manipulators. Easily bored, they crave constant stimulation, so they seek thrills from real-life "games" they can win -- and take pleasure from their power over other people."

"So long as they're lifting profits and stock prices, we're willing to overlook that they can also be callous, conning, manipulative, deceitful, verbally and psychologically abusive, remorseless, exploitative, self-delusional, irresponsible, and megalomaniacal. So we collude in the elevation of leaders who are sadly insensitive to hurting others and society at large."

"Psychopaths succeed in conventional society in large measure because few of us grasp that they are fundamentally different from ourselves. We assume that they, too, care about other people's feelings. This makes it easier for them to "play" us. Although they lack empathy, they develop an actor's expertise in evoking ours."

"Psychopaths are typically very likable. They make us believe that they reciprocate our loyalty and friendship. When we realize that they were conning us all along, we feel betrayed and foolish."

Flamingo Fotos Craft Shows 2005

Date Show

Jun 11-12 Zonta Country Faire - very hot both days led to low attendance in afternoon.
Jun 25-26 Lake George Summerfest - very hot, but good tourist crowd.
Jul 02-03 Lake George Forum - new show this year, added late. Indoors on a very temperate weekend made for low traffic. Air conditioning was a plus, but would have been a better show location previous weekend. Met the German "Crazy Daisy" couple and had a great time - see other post.
Jul 09-10 Warrensburg Chamber of Commerce - periods of heavy rain on Sat. followed by a nice, sunny Sunday made for a good show.
Jul 16 Schroon Lake - this was a very good show last year and this year we had more Schroon Lake items and did really well.
Aug 02 Saratoga Catholic Canfield Casino - Pat got rained on last year, but did really well at an inside booth this year on a sunny day.
Aug 06-07 Town of Hague Craft Show - new show this year, added late, in low traffic area, but did fairly well anyhow due to buyer interest

Aug 19-21 Lake George Firemen's Carnival - this is a good show for us.
Sep 17-18 Eagle Mills - this 2 consecutive weekends shows have good crowds.
Sep 24-25 Eagle Mills - under the tent is nice, but awfully dusty.
Nov 05 St Marys/Alphonsus - new show this year.
Nov 19 Caroline Street School or CBA Albany - pending acceptance.


FlamingoFotos
from www.teridanielsbooks.com/ States/California.htm

Flamingo Fotos specializes in matting and framing antique postcards.
Specialty matte cutting is done to accentuate specific postcard features.
Double and triple mattes are used to bring out the postcard colors.

Team matting is a technique we employ to guarantee a quality matte:
1. Pat picks out the matte colors and creates a stack of postcard, frame and mattes to be cut.
2. Chris drafts the cut lines and creates a ready to cut stack.
3. When ready to cut, Chris places the ruler on the first line
4. Pat pushes the razor fixture along the ruler.
5. Chris uses his other hand as a stop to prevent overcuts if "stick-slip" occurs when Pat is cutting.
6. Chris turns the matte and lays down the ruler for the next cut.
7. The process is repeated until all sides of all mattes for a particular picture are cut.

"Sometimes our hands touch while we are working so close and we can only do a few mattes before we need to "take a break"", remarks Chris.

Antique postcard art is a term we use to describe when we make a panaoramic scence from two similar but different postcards. Using Google on this term reveals Antique Postcard Art by Lisa Begin-Kruysman. This artist extents the region of the postcard onto the surrounding matte using paint and imagination.

As a sideline, we also sell: Army Guy Soap, BugSoap, Fish-in-a-Bag Soap, Heart Soap and Various Holiday soaps.

Zac's High School Graduation

Alex with Kathleen 

Zac (Pat's son) graduated High School on Friday, June 24, 2005. Pat had a party for him before the ceremony that I left work early to attend. I got there about 1 and 1/2 hours ahead to make sure Pat was calm for the relative invasion. Pat's mom, Kathleen, and her husband, Bill traveled from Syracuse with Pat's Aunt Helen and Pat's sister, Ann and her husband, Vito. Pat's other Aunt Wilma came with Uncle Frank and their grandson, Alex, from their daughter, Kathleen and her husband Steve. Emma was there stealing beers. Also, Chiara and Gary (Adirondack Chocolates) and Ed and Ruth Ann Minor were there. I cooked the chicken speedies, and did a total cleanup afterwards while they all went to the ceremony. Alex and I became fast friends. Congrats to Zac!