Monday, December 28, 2009

Skiing at Gunstock today. It's white out. Life is good.
Skiing at Gunstock today. It's white out. Life is good.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year, too! http://ping.fm/oNJSx

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Merry Christmas


From all of our staff at Matt Randall's Black Belt Academies...
Merry Christmas to all!
...and best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

The family that kicks together…

It’s true!  The family that kicks together, sticks together.

Only 3 days left to get our holiday special for the whole family…3 months of lesson and a free uniform for just $59.

Call us today at 603.743.6500

www.mrbba.com

Holiday special

NH parents. Put some Discipline under the tree this year. $59 for 3 months and a uniform. 603-743-6500 http://ping.fm/kl5mT
NH Parents. Only 3 days left to get the gift of CONFIDENCE for Christmas. 3 months, just $59 - 603-743-6500 - http://www.mrbba.com
Well...the weather outside is frightful, and I am supposed to drive to RI. Hmm...is the party still on??? I think I should leave early.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Only 7 days left for our Holiday Special - http://ping.fm/14nkJ - call today 603.743.6500 - just 59 for 3 months and a free uniform!

Holiday Special


Only 7 days left!

Put some Confidence, Discipline, and Respect under the tree this year.

3 months of lessons and a free uniform for just $59!

We even gift wrap it for you.

Call today to reserve yours – 603.743.6500

www.mrbba.com

Just when you think you've seen it all...KungFu Monkeys take on the trainerhttp://ping.fm/PGp54

Kung Fu Monkeys Turn Tables On Trainer


A Chinese man who trained monkeys martial arts to entertain shoppers was shocked when they turned the tables on him.

Lo Wung's taekwondo monkeys have become a regular feature outside a shopping centre in Enshi, Hubei province, where they were trained to show off their martial arts skills on each other.

But one quick-thinking monkey saw his chance when Lo slipped - and caught him with a perfect flying kung fu kick to the head. The rest then joined in the affray.

Hu Luang, 32, who caught the incident on camera, said: "I saw one punch him in the eye - he grabbed another by the ear and it responded by grabbing his nose.

"They were leaping and jumping all over the place - it was better than a Bruce Lee film."

At one point the monkey trainer grabbed a staff to hit the monkeys, only to find himself facing a stick-brandishing monkey that cracked him over the head.

Lo only managed to get the monkeys under control by tangling them up in the rope that had been used to stop them running off.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Local Black Belts Fight Leukemia and Lymphoma! http://ping.fm/hrCO4

Monday, December 14, 2009

10 new black belts promoted. Click here to see the photos. http://ping.fm/bY5n1 It was a great test.

10 new Black Belts!


Saturday, December 12th, we tested and promoted 10 new black belts.
7 promoted to 1st degree and 3 for 2nd.

Anyone who wants a free photo emailed to them may take a look at the photos and email a request to Mr. Gene Paltrineri at the following information:
The Black belt exam images are posted at http://tinyurl.com/mrbba-bb
As always, families can receive a free file by simply emailing me with the file number and I will email them to them.
Gene Paltrineri Photography
Certified Master Photographer Craftsman
603-749-4777
800-755-4771
www.genepaltrineri.com
genep@genepaltrineri.com

A big thank you to Mr. P and the rest of our testing board for their time and experpetise during the test as well as all their effort in the previous months preparing these students for the exam. It takes a village to raise a black belt.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Keep you kids a little safer while surfing the web with Google's new SafeSearch feature - http://ping.fm/3uaB8

Google Safe Search

Here's one easy way to make surfing the web safer for your child.
View this video at YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNbHGrGJu8Q&feature=player_embedded.

Keep them safe at school and on the playground with martial arts training also - www.mrbba.com - just had to slide that in.
38% of kids in US ages 12-14 have a social networking site - http://mrbba.blogspot.com - are yours safe? Talk about the risks and rules.
Do your kids have a social network site? - http://ping.fm/UscW1 - read this CNN article.

Social Networks and Kids

Here's a great article that should spark some family conversation.
- Master Randall

Social networks and kids: How young is too young?
By Doug Gross, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Facebook, MySpace require users to be 13, but the sites can't really enforce it
Study found 38 percent of kids ages 12 to 14 have online profiles
One Georgia parent allows kids to use networking sites, but with rules, supervision
Expert: Kids' social networking use is "pretty harmless"
(CNN) -- Status updates, photo tagging and FarmVille aren't just for adults or even teenagers anymore.

Researchers say a growing number of children are flouting age requirements on sites such as Facebook and MySpace, or using social-networking sites designed just for them.

Facebook and MySpace require users to be at least 13. But they have no practical way to verify ages, and many young users pretend to be older when signing up.

Some scientists worry that pre-adolescent use of the sites, which some therapists have linked to Internet addiction among adults, could be damaging to children's relationships and brains.

But many other experts say there's not any solid research to back that up and that most children seem to use social-media sites in moderation, and in positive ways.

"For the most part, although there's so much press about all the bad things they're doing, much of what they do on these sites is stuff they would be doing anyway," said Kaveri Subrahmanyam, a professor of psychology at California State University-Los Angeles.

In two surveys reported this year by Pew Internet Research -- of 700 and 935 teens, respectively -- 38 percent of respondents ages 12 to 14 said they had an online profile of some sort.

Sixty-one percent of those in the study, ages 12 to 17, said they use social-networking sites to send messages to friends, and 42 percent said they do so every day.

The data in the study was from 2006, so it's not a stretch to assume those numbers are higher this year. Research on younger children is limited, but anecdotal evidence shows that many of them are also logging on.

CNN iReport: How much do you let your kids reveal on social networking sites?

"Of course they are," said Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at Pew and one of the report's authors. "They're using them because that's where their social world is. Because there's no effective way to age-verify ... children very quickly realize, 'I just say I'm 14 years old, and they'll let me use this.' "

Marc Bigbie, a software salesman who lives near Savannah, Georgia, said he has three children -- 14, 12 and 11 -- who all have accounts on at least one social-networking site.

His oldest daughter, then 11, was the first in the family to create an account, on MySpace. And it was without her parents' permission.

"It was kind of a negative thing at first," he said. "We kind of took it away from her. But, finally, we said, 'You can have it, but we need the password so we can be on there at any time.' "

Since then, all three of the kids have gotten Facebook accounts, with their parents even agreeing to fudge their ages.

Bigbie said he makes sure his children's accounts are set to provide as little personal information as possible, and they allow their activity to be seen only by confirmed friends. He and his wife monitor the pages to make sure they know the friends that their children have added.

He said the oldest daughter is the only one who uses the account almost every day, while the younger children log on briefly every now and then.

In the past couple of years, some scientists have voiced concerns that children are spending too much on these sites and that such online socializing could have lasting negative effects as they mature.

"My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment," Susan Greenfield, an Oxford University neurocientist and director of Britain's Royal Institution, told London's Daily Mail in February.

"I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitized and easier [online] screen dialogues," she said.

Other scientists criticized Greenfield's comments, calling them speculation, not science.

Subrahmaynam said a study of high school students showed that in most cases, the people they interact with most often online are people they also socialize with in person.

Children today have spent their whole lives on computers, and their brains are better adapted than those of adults to integrate online activities with their offline lives, she said.

"You'll always have the small minority of kids who are not using it appropriately," she said. "I do think you're going to have a few people that are doing things that kids probably couldn't do with telephones a generation ago.

"But we don't want to get swept away by the general fear. It's here, and it's pretty harmless."

Many parents also worry that younger users of social sites could be targets for online predators. While there are some concerns that kids aren't mature enough to make good decisions about their privacy, Subrahmaynam and Lenhart said most are savvy enough by their early teens to know what, and who, to avoid. Younger children, they say, need more parental supervision.

Alternately, a growing number of networking sites are geared specifically toward younger users. Sites such as Disney's Club Penguin -- mainly a game site, but with limited social functions -- WebKinz and Whyville feature more restricted and supervised networking.

Such kids-oriented sites are "sort of a training ground" for future use of mainstream social networks, Lenhart said.

Children as young as 5 have accounts at KidSwirl, a kids' social-networking site patterned loosely on Facebook, said creator Toby Clark.

Clark said the average user spends about five minutes on the site per visit -- far less than Facebook's average of more than 20 minutes.

He said he limits the amount of time his two children, 9 and 6, spend on the site, but that any parent who bans their children from such sites isn't facing the facts.

"The reality is that we're a technology-driven generation," said Clark, who launched the site in February and said it has about 10,000 users. "That's not going to change."

So what long-term effect will social networking have on children? Scientists say it may be hard to know for sure.

"We've lost the control group," Subrahmanyam said. "How do you find a group of kids that are not using the computer?"
Had a great time at the Dover Chamber holiday open house last eve. I met some new faces and the food was terrific. Thanks Maples Suites.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Would you like your child to be a community leader like our black belts? http://ping.fm/vrQcb

Just couldn't resist posting this.

Local Black Belt Leader Assists in Berwick Soup Kitchen - http://ping.fm/cIdog
Ninja Assassin was awesome! Don't bring the kids. So much blood...

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Off to see Ninja Assassin with our instructors. Chinese food and martial arts flicks. Great stuff.
3 months of training and a free uniform for just 59 - call us today at 603.743.6500 - expires 12/23! http://www.mrbba.com
Parents-bring in your kids for a free movie while you shop downtown Dover-Wed 12/9 from 3-5pm - http://ping.fm/iFaol
Parents go shopping in Dover while the kids watch a free movie this Wednesday. http://ping.fm/qmO15

Sunday, December 6, 2009

This is the stuff that makes me angry - http://ping.fm/Q5lz5 - Call about Free Classes -743.6500
Go ahead. Ask me why I've been teaching women's personal protection for over 20 years for free. http://ping.fm/SyTM1
Earl release + free movie = shop local. This Wed drop off the kids for free movie and shop local. http://ping.fm/GsLjW
Winter is finally here!  This is a view of my daughters cottage in the back yard. She's very excited.
Winter is finally here! This is a view of my daughters cottage in the back yard. She's very excited.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

The Libermans came to help at the winter carnival. Thanks.
The Libermans came to help at the winter carnival. Thanks.
Local Food Pantries Receive Black Belt Help! http://ping.fm/WlUtA
Yeah!  The Plantes are here.
Yeah! The Plantes are here.
Mr. P is ready to give free introductory lessons at the winter carnival. Come see our demo at 2 pm.
Mr. P is ready to give free introductory lessons at the winter carnival. Come see our demo at 2 pm.
Setting up for the winter carnival at Woodman Park School. Join us from 9-3 today.
Setting up for the winter carnival at Woodman Park School. Join us from 9-3 today.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Being a Black Belt Leader is about giving back to the community. http://ping.fm/iCA5f

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