Archive for the ‘Stuart’ Category
I’ve never seen myself as a natural language learner.
My dad and my (so far) eldest son yes, but not me.
So when I realised that I need to learn some Korean so that Ican properly progress in my Tang Soo Do efforts I went a hunting. In short we new green belts have been told that from now on our gradings will be done in Korean – well at least the moves, forms, kicks, etc will. After staring at my manual for a while and realising that Korean by osmosis wasn’t going to work, I set about a plan.
My first thought was to use popling and create a set of Tang Soo Do cards for each section of the manual. I did this and my efforts can be found over at the Popling site, here.
Then I decided to tap up a martial arts forum I have started to frequent. Some of the longer standing members offered advice and even proffered their knowledge when it dawned on me….
Why not just Google it.
So I did:
First hit was to this interactive, online TSD flashcard utility.
Next stop hit was Flashcarddb and a search for TSD stuff returned this list.
Finally I found another flashcard site, though nowhere near as impressive as popling or flashcarddb which had this set of cards.
So, along with my manual; various flashcard sites; the MartialArts Planet forum and the DVD’s I already have then the only other thing to add would be perhaps watching YouTube videos. That is unless any of you can add to my list of resources?
I know I’ll be frequenting these sites and supply them here in the hopes that they help someone else.
Tags: 
My 16 weeks of “exercise by referral” has ended and I mostly enjoyed it.
Unfortunately the final 3 weeks were a bust as life prevented me from getting to the gym. The good news is that my employer has come up with a corporate deal at the local Esporta and so I’m fully signed up and attending there – it’s amazing how much pain you can be in from exercise after having taken 3 weeks away!
All this can only be good though. Saturday (Nov 26th) is my next grading day for Tang Soo Do – this time it’s for my green belt or 6th Gup. From here on in it gets real serious and I need to know the Korean for everything rather than asking for a translation or demonstration …. anyone got a Learn Korean quick lying around? The children won’t be joining me this time as they couldn’t quite get to grips with the required form – Pyung Ahn O Dan. However ma’am tells us this is the hardest Pyung Ahn form we will learn and next grading the children get to do a much easier form. Coel was devastated but I’m hoping it’s a valuable lesson learned.
Jenna is loving year 6 at school – she was one of the comperes for their Coychurch has got talent in aid of Children In Need. Kathryn again helping Coel with a fabulous idea where he pretended to be a mini James Bond and finished by delivering a box of Milk Tray to his teacher … with appropriate music and voice over. We’re told he stole the show!
Kathryn has now re-taken her Stage 2 Signing exam module that she failed last time around and we should know the result by Christmas – she’s also stepping away from the slave labour that is her Thursday afternoon at work. It’s not worth all the extra grief, stress and hassle for an extra few pounds in the purse
Owen meanwhile has launched himself into Uni and in his own words is “happy and having a real good time”. He’s on top of his projects and excited about the potential of his Industrial Year. For those that haven’t heard he’s applied to spend the year at Cern. Although he’s dropped the physics for now he still loves the subject matter and the idea of being there for a year is a real draw. His Uni was only too happy to get behind his application and they have thoroughly praised h and recommended hi. They also told him they don’t let just any student wistfully apply to Cern and he’s one of a very select few that have been allowed in Cern’s history.
So if any of you know somebody there that could help him out then do tip them the wink – he’s under no illusions though that he’s guaranteed a place.
What is it with the word Free and Cash when put together in the same sentence?
Is it that we have become too jaded and when someone says “free cash” we only ever expect physical pound coins or notes to be placed in our sticky mitts?
I ask because getting cashback on your internet based shopping is big business and one of the big ones (that I use and like) is TopCashBack. So far with TCB I’ve saved free, gratis, nada, for nothing in excess of £500 on my shopping. The only downsides, as I see them, are:
- you have to setup an account with TCB
- you have to do a search for your product and / or supplier at the TCB site
- you then have to follow their links to the supplier and complete your order wholly online.
This works for electronics, white goods, insurance, etc, etc … in fact if you can think of a category / supplier you can probably find them offering cashback on top of the same price you pay by going direct to their website.
Some recent highlights of mine are:
- £100 cashback when we signed up to Sky – that was on top of the fantastic deal and was equivalent to an extra 5mths free rental
- £70 back on my mobile phone purchase
- £60 back on another mobile phone
- £10 back on a washing machine
- and so on
So why do I ask if people are jaded or suspect the words Free and Cash in the same sentence?
Simply because TCB (and other cashback sites) almost always offer affiliate or referral earnings. At present TCB are offering me £5 for free for every one of my friends or family that sign up. On top of that you also get £5. The only requirement is that you sign up and reach a minimum spend level (currently £5). The usual deal is £2.50.
Anyway, I fairly recently offered my F&F this via facebook and 96 of them clicked through to teh offer. A further 2 went the extra step and signed up. But as of today – not one of them has actively used their account.
So I conclude … you don’t like free cash.
If you do, simply click here: TopcashBack Referral.
But you could prove me wrong.