About The

My photo
Sensei Ono, founder of Shinka Martial Arts, is a teacher and student of life. His passion for helping others and self improvement is the purpose behind this blog. -- "If your purpose in any way includes making the world a better place, I urge to you read, and share the knowledge."

Friday, September 17, 2010

Making the world a better place

I think that, on a whole, it comes down to people's impact on people, people's impact on large groups of people, people's impact on the planet as a whole, and people's impact upon themselves.

I think that The Key to Awesome focuses primarily upon people's impact upon themselves, and the second book focuses primarily upon people's impact on other people.  The third book focuses primarily upon impacting large groups of people, and I haven't written the fourth book yet - but perhaps piggybacking off of the success of the first three, a book on improving the planet would be more well received.

I think that, currently, people view saving the planet the same way a smoker views quitting their own habit.

We all... WANT to make the world better... but... well, driving to the grocery store and getting some quick food in a Styrofoam container, microwaving it when we get home... it's just so much easier, isn't it?  And, how bad could buying a BLT be, really, for the environment?

Unfortunately, if "God made pigs taste good so we'd eat them"... then God might want us to destroy the planet.

Well, that's a bit of a misleading statement.  Eating bacon won't destroy the planet.  The planet will be just fine.  It's all the living things ON the planet that will get wiped out.

Again:  ALL living things?

Okay, no.

Not ALL living things.  But, let's just say Algae & Bees.  Algae die from global warming, and Bees die from cell phones & wifi.  Seems simple enough.  Who likes algae or bees?  That's the stuff you have to clean off your fish tank and those other buggers'll sting you if you sit on them by accident, right?

The issue is, those two lil' guys are kind of what everything else is riding on.  They seem pretty tiny and inconsequential, but, without bees, we have nearly no trees.  Without trees, we have nearly no atmosphere, nearly no habitable environments, nearly no herbivores (so no Big Macs!), which means nearly no carnivors, or, omnivores (so no people to EAT the Big Macs!).  Granted, this would likely give a large surge of scavenger populations (rats, cockroaches etc... so maybe there would be ingredients for a few more Big Macs) -- In essence, without bees, humans are kinda screwed.

Unless we move into the oceans!  Okay, let's do that.  Oops.  We nuked the algae, didn't we?  Dang nab it!  That's the same basic thing!  Algae feed the fish which feed the fish which feed the fish which feed the fish which feed the fish which feed the fish which... well, you get the idea.

Now, nature evolves, so, I'm going to say that fish would figure out a plan without algae.  I'm not a marine biologist, but, I could see adapting and eating coral or something, right?  Sure, why not.  And, without humans being on the surface world anymore... in fact, without ANYTHING being on the surface world anymore... its conceivable that the oceans might rejuvenate without the constant bombardment of oils, toxins, garbage, sewage and the occasionally discarded bikini top.

Yeah!  We'll just live underwater!

... of course, if there were no bees to pollinate the plants, the world would somewhat run out of plants, and the world would turn to a desert...  But... that would take at least a few years.

(so what's the solution?)

To start asking that question, I'd say.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Kia Master vs MMA

I was watching this video the other day on YouTube, and it got me to thinking.

What is the purpose behind this video?  What is the reason it exists?

Many people see it as a quick proof against any form of offensive chi use.  And, while I have not seen offensive chi used, nor have I felt its effects, I would still defend this particular video as evidence against it.

Again, to re-state, it is not that I necessarily believe or disbelieve in offensive chi - but rather, I am refuting this video as evidence one way or the other.

A few questions come to mind:
1) If you knew your offensive chi was a scam, would you set up a (public) spectacle like this?
2) If you knew you were going to lose, would you bet $5,000 on the outcome of the match?

There are some interesting points in the video which point to genuineness; the MMA fighter's concern for the old man halfway through the match, and then his quick dismantling of him thereafter.  "I'm going to have to win this, so... sorry" is a fairly typical "It's just a job" response that many fighters make reference to when they must fight a friend or ally.

Weather or not that crap actually works to distance their guilt from their physical and mental dismantling of someone they consider a "friend"... well, that's a conversation for another day.

So why would this video be created?

Option 1: The Kia Master believes his art works.  
Why?

Did his students ALL just go along with it so as not to hurt the man's feelings?  Unlikely.

Hypnotic suggestion?  But then he would know that he was hypnotizing the students and ergo that it wouldn't work upon the uninitiated MMA fighter.

Option 2:  The MMA fighter was supposed to be bought off or be an actor and something got messed up
Probable, but doesn't quite fit the body language of the MMA fighter.  His show of concern for the old man would indicate that he wasn't upset with him... unless he was until the first punch landed and, at that moment, he realized what a douchey thing it was to beat up the old fellah.  This would also explain the flurry towards the end.  A kind of "I gave you a chance to back out of this" response.

Option 3:  The MMA fighter is just "too well conditioned".
The standard "you must meditate" or "do a lot of situps" response whenever I have attempted to test any so-called offensive chi master with my own body.  "I can burn you with my chi" really?  Sweet, do it.  Right here.  "Uhh... I can't.  You must meditate or something... too many defenses"  uh huh... okay, burn that guy!  "hey!  what?  no!"

Probably not.  One would assume that any MMA fighter would be well conditioned.  Then again, maybe he never tested it on anyone other than his 17 year old skinny students?  Who knows on that front.

Option 4:  The whole thing is misdirection
This idea intrigues me.  Think about it.  What if the whole thing was a sound stage, with everyone involved being an actor?  What purpose would creating disbelief about the whole thing serve?  Heh, perhaps I've been writing too many plotlines lately that I see this as an option eh?

Anyway, this just came up when I searched for MMA Richmond (which is a keyword I am hoping to optimize for my site) and I thought I'd post a few thoughts on it.

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts
Winner of:
 Best Dojo in Richmond
 Top 3 New businesses
 Best Martial Arts Instructor

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Making the world a better place

Such an abstract concept, isn't it?

I'm going to be writing a few thoughts about it in the next couple of weeks.

Here's something to wet your proverbial whistle.


Thursday, September 2, 2010

Chris Parry - Guest Writer on Vancouver Sun

Hey all, I got featured on the Vancouver Sun's blog by Chris Parry :-)

The article he wrote is about Kids and MMA, and he quotes me in regards to health and martial arts.

Keen :)