Timberwolf

1. How long ago was that? 2. As long as @hirondelle and I own the domain, it will always be here in some form or another @Dark Mew.

So, I'm feeling mildly better about this season as the Vikings have won their last 2 games. Lets see if they can keep it up this week against the bears.

Round and Round - Ratt

Right now, I'm drinking water. That's mostly what I drink while I'm at work.

I think you should start drawing again. I love your work!

As most of you know, back in March, I had knee surgery, which I wrote a blog post about back on September 14th, 2020. Since before that, I've thought about going back to martial arts. There is a place near me that teacher Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ), but to I have a few issues with going to that place, which I won't get into here. To go along with that, I really wanted to go back to karate. There are basically two (2) different disciplines in karate. There is Japanese karate and Okinawan karate. Here is a one of my favorite youtube people for martial arts, Jesse Enkamp, talking about 10 differences between Okinawan karate and Japanese karate. Now, there isn't anything wrong with Japanese karate or Okinawan karate, it's just that Okinawan karate was where I got my start when I still lived in the States. Now, in Thailand, I studied Japanese karate. To be more specific, I studied JKS Shotokan Karate, which I really do enjoy. I studied for about 3 years. You can see my belt tests here with these videos: 10th kyu (White belt) to 8th kyu (Orange belt) test: 8th kyu (Orange belt) to 5th kyu (1st purple belt) test: 5th kyu (1st purple belt) to 4th kyu (2nd purple belt) test: 4th kyu (2nd purple belt) to 2nd kyu (2nd brown belt) test: 2nd kyu (2nd brown belt) to 1st kyu (3rd brown belt) test: 1st kyu (3rd brown belt) to Shodan (1st black belt) test: I felt so honored when I achieved my Shodan belt. The problem was, my life got busy, and I moved away from karate for a bit, and when I did come back, I didn't agree with some of the things that I saw happening at the dojo, and I had a really hard time with that and I ended up walking away from the dojo. I came back a year or so later, and it was pretty much the same, just fewer students. Fast forward to November 2020, and I feel like I'm ready to go back to karate, actually, I'm kind of craving it. So I went back to karate on October 22nd: https://www.facebook.com/Timberwolf1771/posts/10157352946052676 <=== My FB post about it. I have since done a total of 4 classes, with last night being my 4th class. Now, I can't do as deep of stances as I used to, not yet anyway, and I can't quite move the way I used to, but I will get there. It's just going to take some time, and I need to be patient. Katas are slowly starting to come back, and I'm seeing different layers of the katas again which is nice. Also last night, we were recorded doing the kata teki-shodan. teki-shodan.mp4 I'm really happy to be back doing karate, and I'm looking forward to doing more. I'm really looking forward to doing more karate. I don't know if I will do any more tests, but I will keep learning and finding more and more layers to the katas. Always Remember: You should do the things you love, even if you don't get the chance to do so in the autumn of your life. Still do it, because you love it.

Those are awesome @Squarepeg

Part of the reason for this, is the UK can be just as bad as the USA and they say "No, I want to go out for a pint with my friend!" or something some such.

So, on October 9, @hirondelle and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary of being together. On October 09, 2005, after 40+ hours of travel from Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) to John F. Kennedy International Airport (where I spent 8 hours) to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (where I spent 2 hours in the middle of the night) to Taiwan International Airport to Don Muang International Airport, which at the time, was the only international airport in Bangkok just to hold @hirondelle in my arms for the first time. I'd never traveled so far in my life, let alone to fly internationally. It was so worth it! Yes, I know, that's a lot of hearts, but @hirondelle knows. Anyway, for our 15 year anniversary, I decided I would write her a poem. It was a bit last minute, but it was something that I wanted to do for her. I have already given it to her, but I wanted to post it here as well. I mean, this is one of the reasons I created a blog for, to share my writing. Oh yeah, before you read this, I made a mistake when I originally wrote it and something in my head told me it was 16 years. I have since fixed it though. 15 Years Can you believe On this day 15 years ago I stepped off Of the plane I couldn’t even Give you a hug Cuz of my bags So, I leaned in Oh, so close Just to be near To feel your body Next to mine You leaned up And kissed me Like I imagined 1,000 times before We have had Some hard times We have had Some amazing times All based in love And now it’s been 15 short years And I still have Not a regret I love you more Then I did before I love you My Darkness My Air ©October 8, 2020 Domnick M. Dumais Always Remember: If you love somebody, tell them right now. Don't hesitate.

I have board games I want to play, but now it's a matter of find the time, which probably won't be until the SHL season is finished.

We finished Rust Valley Restorers. Can't wait for the 4th season. Now we are watching Rebellion, which we are in the second season of. It's really good so far. We are also watching Cobra Kai again, in preparation for the 3rd season, which will be coming out in January!

As @hirondelle has said, we are doing well. No Covid in Thailand, which is good. I'm recovering quite well from my knee surgery. I've been back to hockey once, and it felt good. Plus, I've been back to karate for 3 classes. I can't wait for the next karate night and the next hockey night. I'm also preparing for a hockey tournament that's coming up here at the end of the month. I'm sad to hear about your grandmother @PyroCJ, but happy that you are reconnecting with your bio dad.

So I have just updated NL to 4.5.4. We have the default (white) IPB Theme, which is white and we have Northlands Night, which I have set to the NL default theme. We do have Northlands Day 4.4.10, but there may be some things that are broken. If there is let me know. We also have The Lodge, which is also from 4.4.10. If you have any problems with that, please let me know. Once we have updates for Northlands Day and The Lodge, I will swap those out. As with any update, if you encounter any problems, please let me know as soon as possible, and I will do everything in my power to fix them.

And another test.

This is another test

This is a test of the new NL on the old theme.

Thank you so much! It's such a pleasure to drive. The biggest thing is that I have accepted what traffic is going to be like as soon as I have decided to take the car instead of the bike. Also, when it's raining, I don't have to worry about gearing up with rain gear, which is so hot, I sweat so much, it's almost as if I didn't wear rain gear. LOL.

Thanks for stopping by @Mirbiggs! I'm happy that your life is going so well. Love to you and your family.

Damn Vikings!

For years, Tracy has been trying to convince me to drive a car. She wants us to do some road trips in the UK and here in Thailand. We’ve done road trips on the bike, and as lovely as those are, I’ve never felt comfortable with taking one puppy, let alone two, on the bike. Since I’ve started my new job, I travel farther for work. I used to ride for about 20 minutes to get to work, now it’s just shy of an hour, and Tracy has been concerned about my safety, understandably. I was starting to come round to the idea of driving a car here in Thailand, and then one day, on my way to work, I got caught in the rain. That normally wouldn’t be such a problem, but then, on my way home from work, on the same day, I got caught in the rain again! At least on the way to school, I could pull over and put my rain gear on, but when it happened on my way home, I wasn’t in a place where I couldn’t do that, and was soaked. I got home and told Tracy I was ready for a car. We talked about it, and I told her that I wanted to go out with a driving school instructor, if they had them in Thailand, and practice driving so I could see what it was like to drive a car on the wrong side of the road and be on the wrong side of the car. Now, in the States, I can drive an automatic and a manual, but as I felt everything would be on the wrong side, decided I wanted to start with an automatic, and get used to that. The driving school instructor said that was a good, because she only had automatic. The day arrived and she took me to a deserted area of Bangkok and we switched sides of the car and off I went. She took me through some Bangkok traffic, a lot of Bangkok traffic actually, , then she took me to a parking garage at a mall to try parking, but it was full, so she took me out on to the express way and we drove out to the airport and back. Then through some more Bangkok traffic and back to our apartment. When I was finished, she said I was fine and could take my driving test any time I wanted. Now, for cars. Tracy and I did a lot of talking about cars, should we go new, should we go used. We decided on used, and an SUV, so we looked at some of the used car dealerships here in Bangkok, and first we looked at a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, but thought we wouldn’t be able to get it into the parking spot. Next, we looked at the Nissan Juke. Nice little SUV, but Tracy felt I was almost too big for it. After that, we looked at a Ford EcoSport. We almost got one of these, but in the end, we felt we couldn’t trust used car dealerships. So, we decided to go for new. I did a ton of researched on car makes and models, and wanted the best we could get within the budget we had set, and still get an SUV if possible. Once we decided what we wanted, we contacted dealership and went in to talk with them about what we wanted. Interesting thing, in my experience, when getting a new car in the States, you start off with a barebones model and as you add options, your price goes up. Here in Thailand, at least for the car we chose, we chose the model and it was a certain price (not going to discus how much we paid), and that’s with all the options. If you wanted to pay less, they start removing options. This was great for us, because then we could get everything wanted and the price would remain the same. So, we ended up going for a Honda BR-V. Here in Thailand, they have 2 versions of it. There is the V and the SV. The V is a 5 seater and the SV is a 7 seater. We decided on the V version because we wanted more room in the back for the puppies and for my hockey gear. We picked up the car last night and it’s amazing! And there is so much more space in the back than we thought. We need to get more puppies. Sorry about such a long post, but I’ve been holding this in for a few weeks. Anyways, my positive of the day is getting a new car! Always Remember: If there is something you want, it's never to late to get it.