Administration Notes: September, 2003

As you can see, there have been some changes to this site. Sorry that it has taken so long to get my act together. The summer had me busy with a specific project (which shall be revealed to all in short order) and I also needed some time off just to re-charge and get some perspective on a few things. Life gets busy. Sometimes life gets weird.

We have done some revamping of the look of this site, included some enhancements, along with a new batch of articles and reviews. A few things have been removed from the site, material that you can find in my book, Karate The Japanese Way. This move was not designed to reduce the value of this site, but rather, to encourage visitors to order this book for themselves. But do not despair, this site is not being “gutted”. More material is added, more articles, more sections, more daydreams. Karate The Japanese Way is not the only book I hope to write in this life, and many of the articles and thoughts that you see posted here are a means for me to “test-read” new material. So keep coming back to this site, and let me know what you think.

This month we have an important, and long overdue addition to this site. Frank Thomas of Michigan, has been kind enough to submit his 4-dan thesis on teaching karate from a wheelchair. I thought that it was quite interesting and I am very grateful to Thomas-Sensei for submitting it to me for this site. There are a lot of theses out there that are doing very little but gathering dust. If you think that you have a thesis or research project that would be interesting for this site, and would benefit others, by all means, please send it to me. I do not edit or judge such work, I just want to make more of it accessible for students of karate. As many of you who have written such research are also likely karate teachers as well, you understand full well the importance of putting such material in the hands of students. David Gomez has also been kind enough to send a teaser of his thesis as well. If you want the rest of the document you'll need to contact David ( www.gka.ajka@i.am) and purchase the full thesis as a spiral bond booklet for a modest price.

Another section of this site is now open. It is called The Floating World. Here you will find article, reviews, and perhaps other material as time progresses, relating to Japan, its culture, its vanishing aesthetics, and all other things which are intoxicating, evocative, and not suitable for more sharper edged sections of KTJW. I hope that the index there will be a little more explanatory of where I would like to see that section go and evolve.

This month also marks the beginning of another bold development, the establishment of Usagi Press Japan, my own imprint of karate books. With one title behind its belt, another text is in current development. More on that soon. In the meantime, you can click on the appropriate section and check out our cool logo.

We are also slowly getting to some of the links which are long overdue. I have wanted to dress up that section for a long time, but every time I start on it, the deadline I set up for getting it done blows past me and we take a little poke at it once in a while. But I am trying to add club logos and banners to that section to make it jump out a little bit more. Thanks to all you guys who link to KTJW. There are more and more I keep finding out there so if you have linked here and I don't have a link for you, please let me know. I will do everything I can to reciprocate!

In the meantime, autumn is upon us in Groovy Nippon, and the scent of change is in the air. I promise to have more timely updates to my site and to continue adding to, and enhancing this ever-changing, ever-growing work in progress.

Best regards to all!

Mark Groenewold

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