ugh. hope i don't offend anybody, but i hate XMA.
completely pompous showoffs.

yeah, and my vertical-grain white-oak bokken broke the other day...after 2 years of use!
i've broken at least ten with it, it broke about 13 inches below the tip.
*sob*

oh well, thanks for the advice guys.
i'll see what i can turn up.

Hey, I'm a newbie in these parts and I'm just recently getting to know the workings of a sword. Right now, I have a katana, a shorter one, and a reverse-blade katana. Plus a couple of throwing knives. ANyone know what I could learn to do with them? I'd like to learn some kind of art or technique, but I don't know who to ask...

First I would recommend not ever admitting to owning a reverse-blade sword again. It rubs a lot of serious folks the wrong way. There have been entirely too many kenshin obsessed fanboys online in the last couple of years. It's got some of the old timers a bit frazzled. They'll read that in one of your posts and tune you out immediately if not outright ridicule you.

As for the swords you have now, there's a better than average chance that they are mostly of stainless steel construction. If so they are not good for anything beyond hanging on a wall and looking... well I'd say pretty, but the word doesn't apply to most wallhangers that I've seen. Perhaps yours are nicer.

The usual way to look for sword dojos is to search your local area via the yellow pages and asking around. Then bring what you've found online and ask for opinions about those dojo and advice on other possible training options in your area.

Swordforum.com is one of your best options for this kind of query at the moment. (Is E-budo ever coming back?)