I was thinking about how much I have learned and benefitted from this forum. It is,as someone else once stated in a thread, an actual virtual dojo.

As I was remeniscing (sp), I was trying to think which thread had influenced me the most over my time here. I have gained a lot of practical fighting knowledge but the philosophical learning has been important as well.

Can you tell me which thread has helped you, touched you, or enlightened you the most? If it is one of your own threads that others have amply contributed to, that is fine also. Do not be bashful because many great minds have probably contributed to make the thread what it was.

It does not have to be from this topic area either. It can be in any one of the forum topic areas. And it could have just been one that made you feel good after reading it. Just interested in finding out what moved you, enlightened you, touched you, or taught you the most.

And, if I have not read it, it may well help me as much as it helped you.

This one. No joke. If all the threads are connected, like glowing white lines that connect people, trees, computers (Indra's Net), then the site is viewed as a whole.

A more shallow answer would be: hoodat. Was an intense two days, and got introduced to new folks.

One of my first "enlightening" threads was the Hapkido(don't remember the exact name) thread quite a while ago. A majority of it was JKogas going on about "alive" training. It was long, drawn out, and quite inflammatory at times, but I was able to finally understand JKogas' approach and methodology to training and see contrasts and comparisons to other methods (both in the thread and in my head).

I'm also starting to enjoy "Oldman's Technique of the week" and other application threads.

But in general I gravitate more towards philosophical threads ather than technical. I do this for two reasons:
1-my own lack of technical knowledge and skill, I leave it to the more educated.
2-Writing is good and all, but I prefer to learn 1st-hand, which I'm sure you all do. If I do read a technical thread, I usually just put that in he back of my head until I have qualified instruction to help.

Usually, it's the threads that I go on rants about. *sighs*

It's true, though. I don't have much opportunity to find myself in dire straits in person, but it's true that you only see a person's true form under pressure. This just happens to be a...weird...kind of pressure .

I've learned more about myself through my own rants than I could ever hope to learn about technical application on here. I learned from the "$1,000,000,000 question" thread that I am all talk about being realistic and pragmatic. LOL! I'm an idealist to the core now.

The nazi thread *shudder* showed me that while I possess the cognitive ability of an adult (accurate self-assessment only), I do not have the emotional maturity yet. I learned that I have a ways to go in that regard, but the first step to healing is admitting the problem, right?

*Crickets*

A thread that I can't remember the title of set my belief that politics hold no value in stone. Even if I was probably beaten in the debate, I really had to dig deep.

I suppose that means that I learn from my mistakes. YAY! (And no, I'm not gonna go making "mistakes" on purpose now.)

I gravitate toward the philosophical ones for the same reasons, Joel. My only help in the footwork thread was to give a soccer analogy...and then left it open for others to interpret!

I can't think of any single thread that has affected me the most. There have been a few that have raised my ire some, and there have been a few that make me think. I've also learned a little about what is availabe in terms of traditiona JMA/OMA.

Oh my.....yes there have been a few. Great post, Razor.


TECHNICAL - MuayThai's thread on the MT clinch and related techniques.

HISTORICAL - Shug's thread on the "History of TKD".

MOST FUN I'VE HAD ON THE INTERNET WITH MY CLOTHES ON -

Oldman's "hoodat/youdat". Hilarious, plus got to see the faces that go with some of the writers here. Even with BuDoc flinging me to the lowest rounds of hell (for naught! JohnL beat me to the question anyway!), a great time.

LAUGH AT ANOTHER'S EXPENSE - The "I'm an assassin" thread. Oldman knows the one of which I speak. "Assassins know how to kill, but they don't know how to defend themselves", etc.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*snork* mmmmWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oldman's cartoon rocked!


Oh yeah, and the one about the Supreme ultimate Soke (or whatever) that lifted all the "100 gallon containers of ice cream", dug ditches, etc. Idiot, but funny.



EYE OPENER - The "Bushido Academy of Martial arts" thread. The eye opener was not that there are McDojo's in the UK. The eye opener was that so few seemed to care......

Another hilarious Oldman cartoon as well.

LEVITATING WITH RAGE - The various street/sport, striking/groundfighting, X art sucks threads.

Cause I need higher blood pressure. Where's my kool-aide?

*faints*

{some kind of hard to place eastern european accent} "Zere waz song, an-dance and oh! how ve laughed...wahaha."

There were a bunch of threads that inspired me to learn. Some of the best were lost in the migration.
After the first couple of days here the one topic that started me thinking that the forum might actually be a useful tool, It was a thread where I got a pimp-beating from multiversed...lol He pissed me off enough to do some research, and while I was busy digging up some ammo and dirt on him, I came across some really interesting topics by victor, hedkikr, cxt, medulanet, Mr V, sanchin31 and alot of others ...I got sidetracted to the point that I was no longer angry at mv, and started to take a different approach to posting. For that initial virtual hit upside da head, thanx brah.

tons of other memorable posts...one of the funnier ones was the whole Oozuru business with JoelM. For those who missed it: This guy Oozuru claimed to have advanced training in a list of 30-odd styles (he's less than 25 years old) and invented his very own "Raptor" style based on the movements of dinosaurs- he was dead serious. LOL All of these claims in great detail were made to Joel in PM's until Joel produced them on the forum to Oozuru's horror...he continued to defend his claims and sunk himself so far down in the credibility food chain, that he announced shortly after that he was moving to Hawaii. the next day he changed his mind, he will now move to Spain. His reasoning? so he could have a fresh start in a new forum with people that would listen to him...or something like that. uuummm...it's the internet, which is not bound by physical location. he was determined to move...somewhere.
bizzare and hilarious.

Kin,

So that was the Oozuru thing!!! I read the tail end of the postings and didn't get it until you just mentioned it. So that was it..."Raptor Style." What a knuckle-head.

Ok, now I am laughing...

-B