Knee High By The 4th Of July

When I was a kid I remember hearing the phrase, "Knee high by the Fourth of July".  The idea was that your corn crop was doing pretty well if it was as tall as your knees at that point in the growing season.  In my experience, the corn is quite a bit taller than that these days.  This year I managed to get a picture on Saturday July 4th to illustrate the point.

Brought to you by the miracles of modern agriculture.

Happy Birthday, Mel Brooks

Yesterday, in honor of Mel Brooks's (28 June 1926 -) 100th birthday, the local glorious old theater showed the movie "Young Frankenstein" (1974).  Tickets were just $7 and I was happy to attend.

There was a good crowd at the Virginia Theatre, though it wasn't packed.  Before the show, a live (adjective required?) organist played the Virginia’s historic two manual, eight rank Wurlitzer Hope-Jones orchestral pipe organ, installed during the original 1921 construction, to entertain us while we waited.  The organist sits at a console mounted on a podium in the orchestra pit that can be raised to stage height, as it was Sunday, and lowered again, as it was while the organist played his last tune of the day.

The crowd applauded the organist, and the beginning and end of the movie.  Mel Brooks would be happy to know that there was laughter in the theater, and audience members saying they had seen the movie in this theater in its original release. 

First Generation

This past Saturday we held our very first Gumdo (Korean sword) Black belt test at HMD Academy.  Five students successfully tested for Black belt in Gumdo, demonstrating 12 different cuts, special sword handling sequences, 8 forms (like poomsae or kata), and offensive and defensive partner work. 

These students signed up when we started our Gumdo program in March 2024.  All five benefited from their Taekwondo experience where they were already Black belts or Black belt candidates.  Three of the five were my students who train in Monticello, including David, previously mentioned here as a Taekwondo student and currently 2nd degree Black belt in Taekwondo.

These students will continue to advance their training.  We instructors are very proud of their accomplishments.  Haidong!

Happy Halloween!

Tonight I had 106 Trick or Treaters come to my house for Halloween.  I started the evening with 102 full-size candy bars, with plenty of backup candy when that ran out.  The house was well decorated by my #5 daughter (pictured).  

Happy Halloween!

Sa Dan

On Saturday April 12th I tested in front of my Taekwondo master instructor, 8th Dan Grandmaster Namsoo Hyong, for the rank of 4th Dan.  Tonight I received my new belt.  

Testing requirements included 20 poomsae (patterns or forms of about 20 movements each), including a creative poomsae of my own design, 40 different kicks, and numerous other combinations, with a few creative combinations of my own.  The testing culminated in sparring against a single opponent, and then sparring against two opponents at once.  

The last time I tested was April 2020, peak pandemic time, 5 years ago.  It took about 18 months to prepare for this test, including about 5 to 10 hours per week since the start of the year.

With this rank I have earned the title 사범 님 Sabeom Nim, meaning one who teaches, and who can perform all of the requirements at a high level.  In our system, you must be 4th Dan to judge Black belt tests, and to award others the rank of Black belt.  Achieving this rank checks off an item on my bucket list.  It will be about 4 years until I am eligible to test for 5th Dan, and from today's perspective, I wonder whether I'll test again.

Glad to have that behind me.

RIP Dr Don Bitzer

I just learned an hour ago that yesterday [10 December 2024], Don Bitzer, creator of the PLATO system, and friend to us all, passed away at age 90 in North Carolina.

I'm at a loss for words at the moment and can't think of much to say that I didn't say in my book, which, in hindsight, may kinda sorta be the closest attempt at a biography of Don, but I will say that I never ever met a more generous, supportive, enthusiastic person in the world.  He and his wife Maryann, who passed away in 2022, were incredibly generous.

He was an inspiration to us all, and to the world, which he made a better place.

-- Brian Dear, author of "The Friendly Orange Glow", announcing the passing of Dr Donald L Bitzer

[Meta - I got my start in computing through the good graces of Dr Bitzer in March 1974, and it led to my lifelong career.  And of course "trvth" itself originated on the University of Illinois PLATO system in notesfile =pad in February 1981, and has always been maintained on some PLATO system, somewhere.  Currently these posts are hosted in notesfile =pad on the "cyber1" CYBIS system (more info at cyber1.org).]

Haidong Gumdo 1st Dan

This weekend I had another 3-day Korean sword seminar with Grandmaster JeongWoo Kim, Chief of Education for the World Haidong Gumdo Federation.  At the end of the seminar I successfully tested for Black Belt in Gumdo along with four other HMD Academy instructors.

Our academy was the first stop of Master Kim's 2024 Pan American Haidong Gumdo Masters Training Seminar, in which he is conducting six 3-day seminars in six different United States during November before returning to Korea.

I look forward to continuing to train with Master Kim whenever possible, and I'm pleased to have a better understanding of Gumdo to share with my students.

해동  HaiDong!

Congratulations, David

Congratulations to my Taekwondo student, David, age 12, who successfully tested for Black Belt this Saturday. It was satisfying to watch as he performed his Black Belt test with its 10 forms, 30 different kicks (4 times each), and 17 pre-arranged sparring combinations, plus free-sparring against his fellow Black Belt candidates.

He's enthusiastic to continue the journey.

RIP Bill Anders

That photograph, shared globally and always in the public domain, has since served to educate and inspire: The Earth we saw rising over the battered grey lunar surface was small and delicate, a magnificent spot of color in the vast blackness of space.  Once-distant places appeared inseparably close.  Borders that once rendered division vanished.  All of humanity appeared joined together on this glorious-but-fragile sphere.

-- William Alison Anders (17 October 1933 - 7 June 2024), former American astronaut, who flew as Lunar Module Pilot for the Apollo 8 mission (although no lunar module was carried by the mission), the first mission where humans traveled beyond Low Earth orbit, "50 Years After 'Earthrise,' a Christmas Eve Message from Its Photographer" Space.com (24 December 2018)

Golden Anniversary?

Back in the day I was a Boy Scout camp counselor and lifeguard.  More recently, I worked as a lifeguard for the Champaign County YMCA from 2009 into 2023.  This summer I'll be working at the Bement Village Pool, and I spent the weekend getting my lifeguard certification up to date.  It was 8 hours of training on Saturday, and 7 hours testing out on Sunday, including 4 hours in the water, for lifeguard rescue, cpr & aed, and first aid.  

I wrote this nice Trvth bit tonight when I mistakenly recollected that I (in a class with Dan LaBerge) first got certified (by Red Cross) as a lifeguard back in 1974.  I thought it was my Golden Anniversary, but then I found a pic of my original certificate, and I see that it was 1975.  In any case, the new certificate is good for 2 years, so it'll be past 50 years next time, if there is a next time.  Stay safe in the water this summer.

Eclipse Day 2024

Today I joined millions of others to pause in the middle of the day to observe the solar eclipse.  Totality could be found just 75 miles from my home, but with my 2017 experience of both totality and the insane traffic that accompanied it, I opted to enjoy today's eclipse standing in the driveway of my house.

We had about 98% totality here.  At the start of the event the temperature was in the low 70s, and the sun provided plenty of warmth.  The light in the sky changed noticeably with a little over 30 minutes to go, and continued to diminish with an eerie dimming that didn't quite match the clear sky and sun.  The loss of the sun's warmth was even more dramatic.

My daughter and I watched the eclipse through our eclipse glasses, and cast images of the sun onto various surfaces using a small hole through a 3x5 card.  The experience stirred memories of watching a partial solar eclipse during my elementary school years.  At that time, as I recall, we didn't have eclipse glasses and instead used several layers of 35mm film negatives that had been overexposed and were therefore completely dark.

W00t!

Congratulations to my daughter Tia who on Saturday graduated with a Bachelors in Health & Human Services from Eastern Illinois University.  On Sunday, she received word that she has been accepted into the Masters in Social Work program at the University of Illinois.  It was a busy weekend.

You Will Be Assimilated

After 1,358 days since the WHO declared a global covid pandemic, I tested positive for covid on Saturday.  My Garmin watch agrees that today has been better than all of last week.  I'm bummed, but I've experienced worse.  Still, not recommended.

Three Dog Night

Tonight I enjoyed a concert by Three Dog Night at Champaign's Virginia Theater.  Despite now being in their 70s and 80s, they put on a great show.  The three vocalists fronting the group tonight were Danny Hutton, David Morgan, and Paul Kingery, along with Timothy Hutton on bass, Pat Bautz on drums, and Howard Laravea on keyboards.

All of the songs played tonight were Top 40 hits, and they mentioned that they had a run of 21 consecutive singles that made it into the Top 40.  It was good to see them having a good time, and the music took me back to junior high.

Visiting Family

This long holiday weekend I had the pleasure of visiting my #3 daughter, Heather, and her family in Louisiana.  They're in a new house which I saw for the first time, and we visited a number of touristy things, including the Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium where my two granddaughters especially like the Butterfly Garden.  

For what it's worth, this concludes three consecutive weekends of travel by car, 2 weekends ago to Indiana, last weekend to Nebraska, and this weekend to Louisiana.  It's been fun, but I'm looking forward to not driving out of state for a while.

Haidong Gumdo

White Belt again

This past weekend I took advantage of an opportunity to learn Haidong Gumdo, Korean swordsmanship.  Our instructor was Grandmaster Jeong-Ho Kim, who traveled here from South Korea for the occasion.  The students were seven Taekwondo Black belts who are instructors of Taekwondo.  We met for 3 hours Friday, 3 more hours Saturday, and another 5 hours on Sunday.  This was enough time to be introduced to all of the basic movements and stances, plus a few forms (although only 2 of us attended all 11 hours of instruction).

Grandmaster Kim will return roughly every six months to review our progress and teach us more material.  Ultimately, in a couple of years this training will lead to certification as instructors of Haidong Gumdo.  

The picture shows me, 3rd from the right, with Grandmaster Kim on my right, and my Taekwondo Master Instructor Grandmaster Namsoo Hyong on his right, in the middle.  This should be fun.

Bookends

Back in 2001, I was in my 8th year of working for NovaNET, the descendant of CERL PLATO.  Each year the company hosted a national gathering of its customers and employees in Phoenix.  As a long-time Cardinals baseball fan, I noted that the Cardinals would play the Arizona Diamondbacks, in Phoenix, during the conference.  I bought a ticket for the Diamondbacks home opener, Friday April 6th 2001.  

At the game that night, the Cardinals fielded a much-heralded rookie right fielder (later first baseman) by the name of Albert Pujols, who, at 21 years old, was playing in what I think was just his third MLB game.  In the 4th inning, facing Armando Reynoso on a count of 1 ball and 2 strikes, Albert Pujols hit his first career home run, a 2-run shot that tied the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUvUUQfYdRo

Fast forward to this weekend, and my daughter (who was 2 when that first home run was hit) treated me to a Labor Day Sunday game at Busch Stadium, as the Cardinals faced their arch-rival Cubs.  The game started more than an hour late due to rain, and it drizzled off and on, but it was well worth it.  Albert Pujols didn't start the game, but in the bottom of the 8th inning of a scoreless game, he emerged from the dugout to hit a pinch-hit, 2-run home run, and the Cardinals went on to win 2-0.  It was Pujols' 695th career home run as he aims for 700 before retiring at the end of this season.  There's a lifetime between those 2 home runs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqcLl9QSJgU

This post made possible by my daughter.  Thanks, kid!

Four Brothers

Today I'm happy to report that I'm in the St Louis area with my three older brothers for a family reunion. Our last reunion was before the pandemic, although we did get to see each other a bit at a wedding last August.

This pic was taken on the Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour in St Louis.

James Webb Space Telescope

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date.  Known as Webb's First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.

Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb's view for the first time.  This slice of the vast universe is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length by someone on the ground.

This deep field, taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope's deepest fields, which took weeks. 

The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it.  Webb's NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features.  Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies' masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.

-- NASA's announcement of the first publicly released image from the James Webb Space Telescope, 11 July 2022

Matthew & Adriana!

Congratulations to the newlyweds, my nephew Matthew Appleman, and his lovely bride Adriana.