Welcome to the first official review of the new TaoOfDerek.com!

The Little Black Book of Violence, by Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder, fills an interesting niche in the genre of self-defense books. This is a book that is basically designed from the ground up to appeal to young men (ages 15-22'ish). The writing style and attitude the authors take towards the reader immediately reflect this focus, and the book has a very personal style as a result. From the outset, the reader is made aware that the real goal of the book is to help young men avoid the kind of violence that will be detailed therein, hopefully preventing life-altering consequences such as injury, jailtime, or death.

The most impressing thing about the book is that as a deterrent to violent behavior, my bet is that it will likely work for a reasonably portion of its target audience. While it will likely have very little effect on the real whackos out there, this would be a very useful book for those young men who would make a mistake because they hadn't really thought of the consequences.

I work in a public school, and I can tell you that I can think of half a dozen young men right off the top of my head whom I feel would benefit from this book.

So, that said, the next question must be whether or not this is a book that is worth owning by anyone outside the primary target audience. It is here that I give the book a resounding yes. As a lifelong martial artist and as someone whose primary interests include the fields of self defense and criminal justice, I can say that this has been a very informative read. Kane and Wilder have managed to condense an extremely large topic into condensed, information-packed chunks. They have combined some of the best aspects of books by DeBecker, Miller, Grossman, and others, into a very readable and 'novice-friendly' format. If nothing else, this is a great first book on violence for someone with no other background in the subject.

The book is divided into three sections, essentially corresponding to the three stages of violence.

Section 1, Before Violence Occurs, details the best methods for avoiding conflict before it begins. This section includes chapters on everything from general awareness to peer pressure, and is probably the most important part of the work. If this were mandatory reading in high school health classes, I think we'd all be better off for it.

Section 2, During a Violent Encounter, contains many no-nonsense self-defense tips and techniques. You won't find instructions for doing a flying scissors kick here, but you will find practical advice that might help you get out of a violent conflict alive. There's not much more I could say about this section except that the techniques are grounded in reality, and in the authors' experience as martial artists and security professionals.

Section 3, Aftermath of Violence, is a vital part of the book, and a topic that really deserves an entire book of its own. Kane and Wilder manage a very useful and usable section on feuds, and overall this section maintains the strength present in the other two.

In closing, The Little Black Book of Violence is a highly recommended work on the realities of violence, especially as they pertain to young men. I agree with the quote on the cover of the book - this is a text with the potential to save lives, if we can get it into the hands of those who need it most. If you know someone who is at risk for violence, or if you are the parent of a young man, I heartily recommend this book to you and your loved ones.

I solved my logo problem by simply changing themes again. This is my final choice for the new site design(probably).

I like that it is simple, and retains all of the functionality of the very basic templates (trackbacks, post e-mailing, etc.) The previous theme, while fancier, lacked a lot of the really basic features that make sites like this usable, so it had to go.

Not to be confused with the Lodoss Saga.

As I promised down in the comments to the previous post, here are some of the other attempts I've generated while slamming my head into this logo project:















I like some of these, but I don't think any of the brightly colored ones match the feel of the rest of the site.

The new logo continues to be a work in progress - the current version is to the left here.

I am really fond of open-source software in general and GIMP specifically. Why would I pay almost $700 dollars for Photoshop when the GIMP is basically just as good and free? GIMP is extremely easy to use, and allows me to work on things like my new blog project's logo while on break at work, without having to pull overtime to make up for the cost of the software.

The logo saga continues. It is still not what I want, but it helps me to leave a record here so I can go back and see what my previous attempts have been. Who knows, maybe it is interesting to someone else out there to watch the idea evolve.

One of my other attempts is this one on the right. I was going for a 'natural vs. man-made' look, but I don't think the metal looks, well, metally enough. Yes, I said 'metally', sue me.

Things are starting to look different around here, obviously.

The first articles of the new site focus will hit in the next few days, and in the meantime, changes in site layout and theme will continue to occur as the final lok of the site gets nailed down.

Also, I'm working on the new site logo. The current work in progress is on the right.

If you have any feedback regarding the new look, toss a comment below!

Alright, after a few months of research and preparation, I can now officially announce the repurposing of this blog. Whereas in the past this has been a location for friends and family to catch up on what I'm up to, the new Tao of Derek has a new agenda. I plan to make this a one-stop shop for martial arts topics, product reviews, and discussion.

I have seen and read other martial arts blogs, and have come across basically two types. The first type is the personal blog of a martial artist. This type of blog is useful as a window into a real life training regimen, but unless the reader's martial interests very closely mimic those of the writer, the actual usefulness of the content is probably pretty low, other than the obvious uses as inspiration for best practices in training to take into one's own art. The second type of martial blog is the general-interest type. Blogs that fall into this category tend to include only very basic information on several different styles, thus providing a good jumping off point for the new martial artist, but very little for the advanced practitioner. The second type of blog is often associated with one or more specific schools or organizations, and serve as marketing tools more than information sources.

With this blog, I am setting out to do something different. I plan to touch on everything from the very basic applications of specific martial techniques to very high level 'meta' thinking about the martial arts. While every post will not likely be imminently useful to every reader, my hope is that each update will include at least one or two pearls of martial wisdom, best practices, or training techniques that will be universally applicable to any martial artist.

Additionally, I will be reviewing martial arts products. Subjects in this category will often include books and DVD's, but will also include things like training equipment, software, and possibly seminars.

Finally, you can expect some of my general babbling to continue. Posts about games and gaming in general will probably happen about as often as they have previously (which is to say, rarely), but they will go from being the major content of the site to a very small percentage of the content.

That pretty much sums up the new purpose for the site. You can look forward to the first posts of new content later this week!

As of today, the blog formerly known as http://taoofderek.blogspot.com now has its own domain!

http://www.taoofderek.com is now up and running, though it may take a few days before the DNS settings are correctly configured.

I mostly made this change because I will be swapping my primary e-mail address at the end of this year when my previous domain expires (won't be renewing). Additionally, I wanted to begin setting up pages and so forth again beyond the scope of the blog.

More to come!