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I’ve been reading up on a lot of things lately.  One of the things that stand out is how people out there are able to capitalize on their blog to earn income online.  If you have an interest in this field, feel free to follow me online and learn from what I learn.  Note that I credit Pat Flynn for inspiring me to do this.  Pat Flynn is the owner of the blog Smart Passive Income Blog.

This particular topic will take one year to complete from beginning to end.  The objective is to find a market niche and fill it with a web site which is monetized to earn income purely from Google Adsense and possibly from affiliate ads.

Wish me luck.  Let me know what you think by posting comments below.

by ·Comments Off on About Taekwondo Belts: Why are there so many Taekwondo Belts?
Taekwondo Belts: Uncovering the meaning of Taekwondo Belts

credit: Graeme Weatherston

Are you confused by Taekwondo belts?  When you go to a Taekwondo event and see the many rainbow of Taekwondo belt colors, do you wonder why there are so many?

Well, this article should help clear things up.

In Taekwondo, the core belt colors are:

  • White (typically mapped to the lowest belt rank)
  • Yellow
  • Green
  • Blue
  • Red
  • Black (generally mapped to the highest belt rank)
Most traditional Taekwondo schools use these as the base color.  However, some schools take the liberty of using other colors, such as orange, purple, and brown.
Anyway, these belt colors represent a student’s rank (GUP in Korean).  Typically, the lowest rank is mapped to white belt.  In Taekwondo the lowest rank begins at 10th gup.  In our school, it goes in this order (from low to high):
  • 10th gup – white belt
  • 9th gup – senior white belt (white belt with a black strip going across)
  • 8th gup – yellow belt
  • 7th gup – senior yellow belt  (yellow belt with a black strip going across)
  • 6th gup – green belt
  • 5th gup – senior green belt  (green belt with a black strip going across)
  • 4th gup – blue belt
  • 3rd gup – senior blue belt  (blue belt with a black strip going across)
  • 2nd gup – red belt
  • 1st gup – senior red belt  (red belt with a black strip going across)
  • Bo dan – black belt candidate (red/black belt; red on top/black on bottom half)
  • 1st dan (or poom if student is 15 years old or younger) – black belt
  • 2nd dan (or poom if student is 15 years old or younger) – black belt
  • 3rd dan – black belt (two of our instructors are at this rank)
  • 4th dan – black belt (one of our master instructors is at this rank)
  • 5th dan – black belt (our chief master instructor is at this rank)
  • it goes up as high as 9th dan (black belt)
If you keep rank in mind when looking at belt colors, it may help a bit in reducing confusion, but since most people are visual, knowing the core belt colors and how they fit in the general ranking scheme helps.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them below.

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Taekwondo is Exercise

Taekwondo is great for health and fitness

Is it true that Taekwondo is good for health?

The answer to this is yes.  Like any physical activity, having exercise in one’s life is good for the heart, muscles, bones, and to some degree spiritual and mental fitness.

Unlike other physical activity, Taekwondo as a martial arts also provides one with core values to strengthen one’s character.  No other physical activity builds one’s core like Taekwondo.

When you practice Taekwondo, you exercise your mind, body, and spirit.

The mind is kept active through the knowledge one gains about martial arts and how one is taught to have “victory”–a code of conduct which reflects positive mental attitude.

The spirit, which is ones inner motivator, is strengthened through the reinforcement or teachings on core values–the six tenets of Taekwondo (courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit, and victory).  When one has strong spirit, one is able to motivate himself or herself to achieve goals and objectives.

Last but not least, the body is regularly exercised through calisthenics, aerobic, strengthening, and stretching exercises.  The exercises are done in such a way where all parts of the body work in an integrated fashion to give it natural strength.

No other fitness activity can deliver like Taekwondo!

by ·Comments Off on 100-day Marathon Training Plan

100 Day Marathon PlanI found an interesting marathon training plan.  The plan looks very promising and is called the 100 Day Marathon Plan.  Note that the link is an affiliate link.  It will not cost you anything to click it.  But it will take you to the author’s web site explaining exactly what you will get with the training plan.  Here are the highlights:

  • 8 different marathon training schedules based on your finishing time goal
  • Workouts based on your heart rate and specific running times
  • 15 instructional videos where he walks you step-by-step through the schedules
  • 10 additional videos covering important things like how to pick the right training shoes, running form, strength training
  • 120 pages that “walk you through” the whole marathon preparation process…

I could probably use this for the 2012 NYC Marathon—the marathon I’m training for after the upcoming California International Marathon.  And if things workout, then maybe, I can make it to the Boston Marathon.  I have to get fast though; have to eventually break 4 hours, then get down to 3:30.

Anyway, the offerings, information, and endorsements on the web site look very compelling.  When I get it, I’ll let you guys know how it works out.

If you’ve tried it before, let me know what you think.  They do have a 60-day money back guarantee, which is always a good thing, if you decide you want to purchase it today.

by ·Comments Off on Ge.tt: Sharing Big Files in the Cloud with Ge.tt

Sometimes files are just getting way too big to email.  When they do, you can always use Ge.tt to temporarily store your large file (2GB max) in the cloud so that others who you wish to provide access can reach it via some unique URL.

Just recently, my mastermind group recorded a meeting which I wasn’t able to attend.  The video file was over 100MB in size.  They uploaded it to Ge.tt.  One of the group members emailed us a very short URL.  That link provided us access to download the large 100MB plus video file.

So if you ever find your self in a bind, Ge.ttspace for it.

ge.tt

source: ge.tt

by ·Comments Off on Official 2011 Bridge to Bridge Time and Place

This is just for my own record keeping because I seem to always misplace prior years stats.  So I can’t recall if I’m getting better, worse, or the same.  This is the official 2011 Bridge to Bridge race results:

  • chip time: 1:07:28
  • gun time: 1:08:34
  • overall place:  630 out of 2242
  • age group place:  51 out of 149
  • average page:  9:03/M
  • time back from #1:  23:26
  • bib number: 2833
  • age group:  50-59
  • weather:  warmer than normal
  • thoughts:  My average pace from last years half marathon was faster; feels like I’m at a plateau; need interval training.

I’ll post all run times on this blog from here on.

by ·Comments Off on Less Corporate Sponsorship of 2011 Bridge to Bridge

In my younger years I would go to the Bridge to Bridge run and do the 12K, every year like clock work.  Back then I think they used to support the Big Brothers/Big Sister charity program.

There is the one thing that I (and I’m sure many others) looked forward to when I crossed the finish line—all the goodies you can stash in your plastic bag.

I recall Raley’s used to be one of the sponsors, and they gave a lot (little boxes of cereal, bananas, and even yogurt).  There were other companies there too; I can’t recall their names (getting old I guess), but they gave away sports drinks, sports bar, little trinkets, and many others.  I would always find my bag full of stuff!

This year is so different.  First of all, there weren’t as many booths with give-away goodies.  This tells you right away that there isn’t that many corporate sponsorship for these worthwhile runs anymore; and it seems to be less and less every year.

When I left the Bridge to Bridge expo today, this is what I had in my goody bag:

  • three half pint chocolate milk drinks
  • a handful of Glide Floss single use floss samples
  • a couple of 0.635 oz of almond nuts packets
  • the run t-shirt
  • a couple of bags to put all these goodies in

I wonder if the economy has something to do with it.  I hope more companies would sponsor this worthwhile event; it definitely adds to the after run festive atmosphere.  They do still have the main events:

  • concert (from some band I’m not too familiar with; of course I’m not really a heavy music listener)
  • massage area
  • various booths encouraging fitness/health club sign ups

Anyway, next year I’ll be back again to support this event; maybe we’ll be out of this economic drought and more corporations will sponsor the run.

Have anyone of you run this event?  If so, what do you think?