Twenty Fifteen

Holy shit! It's 2015 already.

No point getting all sentimental but let's do a quick review of 2014 and look ahead into 2015.

Uni - It's no more, I graduated with two degrees and now it's all over. I do miss it, all the free time and how chilled it was. I don't miss being poor though so let's move onto employment.

Employment - Had a job, went on holidays then lost the job. I was unemployed for a bit but now I'm working at Eastern Creek Karts (closest thing to a dream job). Love every moment of it and it's the first time I've ever woken up and I actually look forward to going to work. But there's no progression/future there so I'll be applying for a few graduate positions that'll be opening up in 2015 and we'll see how that goes. Unless I can convince management to give me a permanent role there.

Kendo - It's also no more (for now). Decided to take a sabbatical from it. It was just getting a bit too much so I've pulled the plug on it and only time will tell if I get back into it or not. I really want to push for the 2018 WKC but I just don't have enough time to commit to it fully.

Cars - Kim's CRX has been resprayed with the EF8 front end swap, still no engine swap yet but it'll be getting one soon. No B16A here though, it'll just get a fresh D16A8 dropped and keep it running sweet as a daily. It also won Best Paint at JDM Yard's Honda Showoff thanks to Mowads' Smash in West Ryde. My CRX didn't get boosted in 2014 since I put it all on hold for a massive trip to Japan in October. But rest assured, it WILL get boosted this year, my ETA is 3 months from now. We still have our spare CRX sitting in our garage but I'm hoping to get rid of that soon so I can make more space in the garage to work on other shit.

Personal Projects - I managed to get Karts & Kebabs off the ground and we're finishing off our final round in February. We managed to get 8 competitors for the first series and it's been going great. 2015 will mean bigger and better things with more races and hopefully more competitors joining. I also plan on taking more photos this year, I hardly touched my camera last year so to get into the swing of things I recently purchased a couple of new lenses and attend more events this year. 

Twenty-Fourteen

Another year has passed already and only 7 posts from me haha, you know this has been a priority for me.

/sarcasm

Well it's time again to look back at 2013 and see what it's been like for me, I have to admit 2012 was pretty good and a bit hard to top but I think 2013 was just that little bit better. So here's a quick review of 2013 for me.

Uni - I had my First Last-Day which actually turned out to be my last first-day. That's right, I've finished studying and will be graduating in May next year. Yea yea! I was close to not finishing though, I failed a core subject by 5 marks but I was fortunate enough to have a generous lecturer who allowed me to sit a supplementary exam in which I passed with flying colours and by flying colours I mean a pass, 50 on the dot. Hey! As they say 'Ps gets degrees'. It was a bit anti-climatic but I can't complain, not many people get a second chance and I managed to make mine work in my favour. Oh I did get a distinction this year too! My first and only distinction and it was for an elective, Photography 2. It says a lot doesn't it. Sometimes I wonder why I study science too. So this will probably be my last post about uni until graduation rolls around next year.

Kendo - What can I say? My highlights would be going to Hong Kong for the Asian Zone Kendo Championship, my first international competition and it is one of the best kendo experiences I've had. Great company! I made great friendships from that trip. Next would be getting my shodan, so I'm a little fish in a big pond now and starting from the bottom again. Finally it would be the greatest moment in my kendo career to date and I think it'll be hard to top for a very long time, the 2013 Australian Uni Games. My first competition as a dan grade and even though I lost in the individuals I did not drop a match at all in the teams event and was nicknamed the 'ippon machine' haha. The best kendo I've ever played thanks to the coaching team and Fukuda Sensei. No victory has tasted as sweet as 2013 Uni Games. It puts a smile on my face every time I think about it. I was also awarded UTS' sporting scholarship, the Elite Athlete Program for kendo in 2013 and was again a recipient of a Half-Blues award, so close to Full Blues!

What's next? I don't know, life is starting to get in the way so I don't have much time for training. I was started the National Squad training for the World Kendo Championships in 2015 but that didn't last long due to study commitments. So I'm hoping to maintain my present level and get my life under control and try for the 2018 WKC so that gives me a few years to get back into it seriously.

Cars - Kim and I own 3 CRXs between us now, my EF10VE is still going strong and believe it or not but I didn't attend one track day this year, how disappointing but my sacrifices paid off as I focused on studying as much as I could. Since I've finished uni and have started full time employment (more on that soon), I'm getting straight into it and will be boosting my CRX in 2014. The parts collection has started and a lot of time has been spent researching online. For Kim's CRX we'll be dropping in a freshly rebuilt B16A and hopefully I don't have to trade a JDM SiR front for it, I'm hoping to get this done sooner rather than later as her CRX is blowing a lot of smoke. I have already installed a set of coilovers but no paint job this year, maybe she'll get lucky in 2014. As for the 3rd CRX, it can't be registered but it has a lot of goodies, so I'm hoping to transfer all of the good bits over to Kim's CRX then scrap it, I did have the idea to keep it and build a track-only CRX but I think 2 CRXs will be enough for now. I've been getting the urge to buy an S13 lately so we'll see what happens.

Personal shit - well my personal project for 2013 fell through, but another one started up without the intention of it doing so. There's a lot of things happening behind the scenes lately and we're still growing but keep an eye out for Honda Historics in the near future. Two members took home trophies from JDM Yard's Honda Showoff meet earlier this month so we're doing okay for now. Also I've decided to start something else up, let's hope this project gets off the ground and 2014 will be the year for me.

Employment - This is a new one! After finishing my last exam (before the supplementary) I got all excited and applied for a few graduate positions, around 5-6 in total. Didn't hear anything for about a month, during which I started working full-time at another call centre to make some money, then I received a call for an interview. It was interesting, my first real interview to become a NATA Certified Quality Control Agent working for a road paint company based in Ingleburn, which would have been perfect for me. It was close to home, good pay and I would be using my degree that took 7 years to get. The interview went well but unfortunately it wasn't me, got told I was no.2 from about 60-70 applicants and the only reason the other guy got the job was because he had experience by doing work placement during his degree. Well that's 0 for 1, but at least it felt good to know I was second best on my first interview. I'll be starting to look for a proper job again soon, just going with the flow right now as my current job is quite flexible and pays quite well and the work is relatively straight forward.

2012 Kendo State Championship

So on Saturday morning I got up bright and early to head to the NSW Kendo State Championships. I haven't been at training for the past two months. Since I've finished uni I started working full time to save for my holiday that's coming up real soon so there's hardly been any spare time for me. But I have been trying to keep my fitness levels up with some runs and weight training at home.

In the end I took home third place, not the best result, I would have liked to take home first place but considering the circumstances, third wasn't a bad result. My focus is now on the National Championships held in late March/early April next year and I'm definitely looking at making the state team again. But for now kendo is going to have to wait since I really need to save for my trip, in saying that though I look forward to getting back into it when I get back next year.

UTS Shield - UTS Kendo Club's First Taikai

Towards the end of last month UTS: Kendo Club hosted its first ever taikai (competition), UTS Shield. It was a great day for all the participants and a successful one for UTS: Kendo Club. The day ran without any problems and UTS: Kendo Club took home most of the medals and trophies on the day.

Head over to utskendo.com for the full story and more photos from the day.

UTS Kendo Club - Victory!

UTS Kendo Club won the Korean Kumdo Championship over the weekend. Read all about it here.

Fukuda Sensei's Welcome Dinner

(Excuse the shitty iPhone photo)


A few weeks back I was informed about Fukuda Sensei coming to visit Australia for a few weeks. So to welcome Fukuda Sensei Jayson organised a dinner earlier tonight so we could get together with Fukuda Sensei and have a meet and greet of sorts.

For those that don't know, Fukuda Sensei is a 7th Dan sensei from Japan and is also very well recognised in Australia. Jayson is also his student so UTS Kendo Club hopes to build on this relationship with Fukuda Sensei and make UTS Kendo Club feel like his own.

Earlier tonight we had dinner at O Bal Tan in the city and I headed straight there with the other beginners who were at training beforehand. When we arrived I was amazed at how popular Fukuda Sensei was, he was sitting with all the big names in NSW kendo and he is definitely very charismatic. The beginners and I on the other hand had our own table, sort of like the kiddy table but it was fine, the main table was too intimidating for us anyway.

Dinner was very nice and so was the beer, you can see in the photo that it came out in like a 3L cylinder with a self serve tap at the bottom. This was too cool so we got 2 of them for our table haha. We all enjoyed it very much and it's always fun having a laugh over some beer and food after training, this time we just had some extra special guests with us.

We all got to briefly meet Fukuda Sensei and he is quite a character and a very outgoing person that is very fun to hang out with. In saying this though, he is a 7th Dan sensei so things might be different when we're training together. Thursday night training is when he will be visiting UTS Kendo Club so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks to Jayson for organising everything and I'm sure everyone had a good time, I know I did. I feel really honored and proud of myself that I was able to translate for Fukuda Sensei when he came to our table and introduced himself.

A quick catch up.

Hello stranger, I know it's been a while since I've updated my blog but I am happy to inform you that I've been enjoying my holidays and I've been spending a lot more time away from my computer hence the lack of posting and updates even on my twitter. So let's see what I've been up to since my last post.


I've been training kendo a lot, participated in a couple of competitions and also passed my grading and am now 4th Kyu. Through the 3 or 4 years that I've been doing kendo I've only graded twice haha.

It's been great fun though, I've made a lot of new friends, not only from UTS Kendo Club but from many other clubs too. I also take Tuesday's training sessions now and it feels good to be able to set a good example for the newer members who attend our Tuesday training session.

I would like to say I've performed fairly well at the competitions I've competed in and that I have high expectations for future competitions to come. In saying that I've also been appointed Club Captain as I won the internal competition held last Thursday night. Next is winning Uni Games which is being held on the Gold Coast in QLD at the end of September.


The usual partying during the holidays, this was for Oscar's birthday where he had a photo booth set up and we had a blast trying to capture some funny photos from the night.


I did a couple of trips to Thredbo, the first one being just a small weekend trip and the other I went with my family and a much larger group of friends and we got a house right at the bottom of Friday Flats too. It was great fun hanging and snowboarding with everyone and having my mum cook for us was amazing. Having pho for dinner after a long day out snowboarding is the best! I bumped into Oscar too and he ended up hanging with us for quite a bit during our time at Thredbo.

The first week of August was crazy for me too with so much happening and it was a hectic weekend for me with the WTAC being held at Eastern Creek and also Founder's Cup, a kendo competition, was held at Macquarie University and I had to be at both. It wasn't easy and there were quite some highs and lows throughout the weekend but I ended on a high so that's all that matters.

Here's a little bit of something from that weekend, my article and photos published on www.7tune.com click here to read it. I have a lot more photos which I'll save for a separate post.

Semester 2 of uni started a couple of weeks ago too and due to some certain circumstances I have to study a lot harder than I did last semester, so there might not be as many posts coming up in the next couple of months while I work on passing all my subjects this semester. Speaking of which I have a prac on now which I have to get to, I'll try my best to get the WTAC photos up soon.

UTS Kendo Club Re-Launch

UTS Kendo Club (UTSKC) has been around for a few years now but it has never really established itself as a proper club due to not having a proper training facility until the new Multi-Purpose Sports Hall (MPSH) opened up at UTS recently. With the new hall opening up it meant that we new have our own dojo (dance studio) in the MPSH which is very good since it's on campus as well.

I'm also one of the senior members so I was encouraged to be on the executive committee and I chose to be the Media Officer, I let some of the more enthusiastic younger members fill up the other rolls. This is the website I whipped up for UTSKC and it's still in it's early stages, a friend and I will be working on an official logo for the club so keep an eye out for that too.

Welcome to 20 Eleven

Welcome to the New Year everyone, I hope you all had fun New Year celebrations because I know I did. No new photos from me today but let's take a look back at the memorable moments in 2010 and hope that 2011 would be an even better year.

Let's see, in 2010 I noticed that I picked up a lot of new interests some I'm still into today and some I have lost interest in. Here are just the things I got into throughout 2010.

My Trip to Kyoto during Golden Week

The beautiful scenery in Kyoto, if you notice there are 2 large eagles flying around as well.

During my golden week I had a few things lined up like going to Fuji Q Funland but changed my mind in the end to go to Kyoto for the 106 Kyoto Takai which is a Kendo Demonstration held every year and it was a great privilege to see all these great kendokas in one place.


Gifu station looked pretty empty too so it must have meant a lot of people were out travelling as well.

During the 1.5hr train ride to Kyoto my friend William informs me that Kyoto is one of the cities the Japanese want to preserve so you will not see any sky scrapers and there are a lot of nice temples and shrines to visit. The main reason behind this was that during the war Kyoto was one of the cities that was bombed the least therefore the Japanese want to preserve the architecture of the city.


Then when we got to the station I was a bit surprised that it looked like this, a very modern looking station for a city that's meant to be preserved.


Then right across the road is Kyoto Tower Hotel, the tallest building in all of Kyoto. As we were walking out of the station I saw a kid approaching a tree, in the middle of a very busy bus stop mind you, pull down his pants then he started urinating on the tree. It was the strangest thing I saw that day too, public urination was something I never thought I'd see in Japan yet I saw it in broad daylight at a busy bus stop.

We were running a bit late due to my alarm clock not going off, and apparently one of the trains we jumped on took a lot longer than expected. So after we got to the station we headed to Mc Donalds for a quick and cheap lunch then it was off to see the exhibition.

We were going to walk but after about 10 minutes we opted to take a bus instead and as we were checking what time it came the bus happened to pull up right in front of us. We got on then the bus kept on going and it was really busy and crowded because of golden week I think, then we realised that it would be faster to walk so we got off and started walking.

A good 30 minutes after we knew we were getting closer since we saw more and more people walking around with kendo gear, then we walked past some kendo shops, turned the corner and we made it.


As we walked through the main gates we could already here the fumikomi and kiai coming from the dojo but we just couldn't look past the many stalls they had set up outside.


Not only were they selling Kendo Bogu and other gear but also katanas like this one here. I was tempted but nothing was cheap and I didn't anticipate all these stands being here so I did not have enough money with me to bring home a katana.


After a quick browse we entered the dojo to get a view of some of the action.


My view wasn't the best for photos since it was really crowded and people's heads kept popping up in the frame and I didn't want to spend my whole time behind the camera so I ended up just watching in awe at the kendo on display by the senseis.





After watching a bit more we went back out to browse the shops, I ended up spending quite a bit of money, some special tenegui's, a very nice shinai bag, a green tsuba for myself and the rest are omeyage for friends back home.


I also managed to watch a bit of a practice session for Kyudo, which is traditional Japanese archery.

When the exhibition finished we met up with one of William's friends for dinner but that deserves a story of it's own.

Kendo!

I admit I've been slacking off lately, especially in regards to my kendo, I haven't been training for months now, I guess I need to find motivation and set a new goal for me since my main goal since I started kendo was to participate in uni games and win in which I did in September last year. UTS won gold and we are the 2009 Uni Games Kendo Champions, I think since then I've slacked off a lot so to try and get back into the swing of things I started repairing my shinai.



This is my first shinai that I purchased from onlinekendo.com a great beginners shinai, and it has been with me for a few years now, it got a bit damaged right after my final match at uni games (what timing aye?) and I purchased a newer one prior to uni games also so I've been using that one since then. Heres a comparison shot.


The newer one is on the left as you can tell.

I had to sand back one of the slats and then oil it up, canola oil is recommended and since I only had olive oil I used that instead. I was hoping to be back at training this weekend but since my car is out of rego, and my parents car which I usually borrow had a flat tyre so I couldn't make it to training tonight. Hopefully I'll get to one training session before the next competition in a week's time.

Burwood Kendo Competition

Hi there guys,

Today was the 13th Daehan Moodokwan Kumdo Competition held at Burwood PCYC and I went along to support my team; USYD Kendo Club. Overall it was a great day with some great action and it was good to see some of the club members perform at their fullest potential. Not only was it good to see our own members compete, but it was a good experience as I got to see how the other competitors perform as well. If anyone from USYD Kendo Club is reading this, sorry I couldn't stay until the end and watched the Men's Team matches but I did stay for as long as I could.

OK now about the photos for the day, they didn't turn out as good as I expected because I was expecting a bit more space and lighting in the centre, instead it was a bit crowded and I pretty much shot from the same spot the whole day. Lighting was bad as well so I had to increase my ISO to 800 which lead to my photos containing a lot more noise than I would of liked and also to reduce camera shake I had my shutter speed at 1/30 - 1/50 throughout the day. As there was a lot of movement and to be able to capture a nice "action shot" I needed a much higher shutter speed but that was impossible with the lighting available in the centre and I didn't want to use a flash and distract the competitors. So what I was left with was noisy, dark and badly composed pictures, although I did manage to salvage a couple of photos which are of average standard.

Here's a little preview:

Our very own Jacinta Fong who did very well going up against a very worthy opponent.




This is the USYD Kendo Club members and supporters.



The rest of the photos can be viewed here:

Burwood Comp Photos

Thanks for viewing my photos, be sure to leave both good and bad comments.

-Steven