A glimpse of who I am

 You know me as an Isshinryu karate practitioner.
 

The rice on the patch symbolizes that as we

age and grow more mature we naturally bow ever lower.

But the truth is there is a lot you don't know about me, and likely it is the same about everyone you have met in karate.

My family

We are of course much more. First I have been married to Maureen for over 50 years now. I have two children Victor Michael and Caryn Alyssa.

The professions I have worked at.

I have always said I will do anything to support my family. In my years I have been a construction laborer, several store managers, worked for a Bank in numerous capacities. worked for a software house,  worked for Dennison Manufacturing, Avery Dennison, worked as a consultant for another software provider, worked as a Senior Business Analyst for Fidelity.

I was never trained for any of those professions. Either developing my skills hands on, or taking advantage of opportunities (that no one really wanted me to do) and made myself an expert in payroll/benefit/personnel systems software, then using those skills for my position and then to move forward into other positions.

While I have been educated in college and used the skills i developed there many times over the decades. But for my work profession I used the math and science skills I gained from High School to build into my expertise. The full extent of this story would take a multi volume book in it's own right.

Yet all of this is only a part of the picture of me. Let's look at some other things.

Favorite music

 

 

I am a big fan of classical music, especially the pre-1500ad classical music.
 

A fan of the Lawrence Welk Show, I can think of nowhere else that continually  touched on the music of 1900ad onward music. So much American music history that has been lost to most.
 

As for Rock I personally feel for the most part, rock lost it after say 1969. And the most perfect Rock song I know is "In A Gadda Da Vida by Iron Butterfly

 

Favorite Books
 

First would be the entire Destroy Series by Murphy and Sapir. I began reading them in 1975  and own the complete set +150 books. I have read all of them multiple times. When I began my Isshinryu studies, I found a great deal of martial truth in the first 20 volumes. And with such a long running series, many many other great volumes. The series continued in the Legacy series, a spin off from the original series.

 

 

Almost the same would be my admiration for the entire Dune series of Frank Herbert. The books cover a story covering many thousands of years. I also have read the series many, many times.

 

Favorite Movie

This I can simplify. From the first time I viewed, and so many viewings ever since it is the movie "Howard The Duck".

 

And more

And that does not begin to encompass everything I have done.

I have been a blueberry farmer having 100 large berry bushes in my back acre where I lived for decades in Derry, NH.

 https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2010/08/karate-lessons-from-blueberries.html

I enjoyed the Destroyer series so much a gradually wrote my own fan fiction of the series. Growing from short stories, to longer stories, novella and then over 20 books. Learning a great deal about becoming an author.

I believe you may get the idea, that along with my varied martial studies, martial research, teaching youth and more senior adults, I have experienced so many other things.

This is one explanation of one life to date.

I do expect your own stories are even more interesting.