Showing posts with label FreedomVPN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FreedomVPN. Show all posts

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Kay Kay First Taekwondo Grading

Date:  Aug 10, 2014

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Taekwondo is a life skill that we as the parents require our kids to learn well.  

It is for self-defenses and learning of respect.

Jay Jay learned Taekwondo when he is in Q3 of K2 years.  

But Kay Kay, we put him much earlier.  When he is in N2, we have enrolled him into the Tots class.

HaHa… Look at all the happy face stickers he has… you know how long he has stayed in the Tots class.

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But I think it was a bit of mistake, as he perceived Taekwondo as a playful class or similar to a gym class.

That is why, he was in there for a whole year before we force him to go into the normal class together with his brother.

I think it is a bit young for K1 to receive instruction to learn Taekwondo too. 

So, when he is going for the grading, we were a bit worry, because all the punch and kick were no strength at all.

Kay said: “I am ready!"

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Last week was the grading.

And this week… is change belt week.  All the students is waiting anxiously for their new belt.

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He is so happy today watching so many people change their belt.

And he starts to understand it is an important thing to pass the grading.

He starts to understand why his daddy force him to practise the white belt pattern 3 times every day, for 3 whole weeks before the actual grading day.

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Yeap!  It is for today.

Terrence’s boy, Justin also receiving the yellow toil today.  So, see both boys received their belts.

This is the first time for both boys receiving the new belt.

I love his 90 degree bow.

What we hope Kay Kay will learn is to learn how to respect Taekwondo.  How to defend himself.  Also, he will learn the warning from me, never mis-use the self-defence art on wrong purpose.  

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Well done!

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As for Jay Jay, he also take the grading on the same day as Kay Kay.

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His story is different.  He is going for the Black Tip belt, so, he has to be tested on Taeguek 4 (Blue Tip), Taeguek 5 (Blue), Taeguek 6 (Red Tip) & Taeguek 7 (Red Belt).

He has to know all 4 patterns well.

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We were a bit worry 3 weeks before the grading.  We have not much time left as we took 3 weeks off during the last June holidays.  That is why he missed out a lot of classes.  

Not to worry, we actually bring him to Taekwondo classes 3 times a week for the last three weeks so that he can be fluent in all the 4 patterns.  He has actually taken 2 more extra lessons to do so.

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On that day when the actual grading takes place.  Jay was full of confident.

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We arrived 50 minutes earlier.  So, he said, let’s cut hair.

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That day, the red belt grading took about close to 1 hour to complete.  

From outside, all the anxious parents were talking about it.  

There are a couple of students re-do the patterns.

Last term, there are a lot of student actually failed the red-tip test as well as red belt test.

The rumours says that the STF examiner were commenting that J.H. Kim’s students pattern was not so accurate.

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But as soon as he came out from the room, and he gave me this pose, I knew he nailed it.

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And today, we are very proud to see him received his black tip belt.

Well done Jay Jay!

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So, November hopefully he can get his poombelt, and then, next year black belt.

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Photographed and videoed by daddy & mommy.

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Thursday, November 28, 2013

Netflix & Hulu on ViewQwest FreedomVPN

Date:  Nov 28, 2013

This week is SITEX week.  So, it will be appropriate to talk about this.  :)

I wrote a blog entry 16 months ago about the magic DNS that I have been using to access Netflix and Amazon Movies.

Magic DNS:  http://miniliew.blogspot.sg/2012/06/magic-dns.html 

This pair of DNS works fine until I changed my home router from ASUS Black Diamond into DLINK DIR-868L (AC1750).  According to the SmallNetworkBuilder router chart, the DLINK is ranked #2 on WAN-to-LAN throughput.  Scoring 931.4Mbps throughput.  My old trust worthy Black Diamond is 11 place behind with a score of 802.4Mbps throughput.

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Suddenly, my magic DNS breaks.  I think is the way how they do the DNS rerouting that breaks my magic DNS.  So, my son was sad as he can no longer watch Mighty Machines on Netflix.  I was sad as I cannot watch my favourite movies and TV shows.  

So, I decided to upgrade my home Internet and top up with the Freedom VPN service.  Using this service, the ISP will give a pair of DNS that will interface with Netflix and tell Netflix that “Hey!  I am in USA.” so that Netflix will allow us to watch Netflix from outside USA.

So, I went to ViewQwest to picked up a new ONT.  (Mine some how spoiled, after I mingled around the settings, etc).

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OK.  I have to wait for 2 working days for ViewQwest to place my home IP address range into the “Super Magic DNS” servers.  Once that is done, my home Internet are given a new pair of DNS address.  

In this case, it is the ISP who give me the DNS so that I do not have to mingle around with the DNS settings on my IOS devices.

Two days later, I just type www.netflix.com, and I am able to access Netflix without doing any special settings on my DNS settings.

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Jay was so happy to finally see Netflix working at my home again!

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There are so many cartoon and documentary he can watch.  Netflix is only US$7.99/month and it is much cheaper than Starhub Video on Demand services.

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So, I also configured the Hulu Plus on my TV.  And it is US$7.99/month again.  

[Go Google How to do it...] To sign up, simply click on Signup.  When you need to fill in the credit card info, I fill in the correct home address and card number, but I change the ZIP code (Postal Code) from 198798 into 19879.  And I check with the US zip code, there is actually a place in US owning that ZIP code.  And Walaaaa…. Hulu Plus activation is approved.

Hulu Plus provide more Korean shows.

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I am very sure there are ways to turn the Advertisement off.  But one of the annoying thing about the Hulu Plus is the Advertisement.

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Also there are some categories are not suitable for kids too.

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I am very surprise that the speed of accessing and buffering the Hulu is VERY FAST.  Take a look at the video below and you know what I meant.  (After the Ads)  yes, and the Ads are indeed annoying.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/wg71hcSB8Cs

Look at this one.  See what I mean the speed of playing the video.  And the video is quite good quality.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/Ht8gizoWaXc

Now, if you compare to Netflix, the playing of video and the buffering takes slightly longer time.  About 15 seconds.  But the quality is also amazing.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/OhJ6TGa5Woc

Not only I can do Netflix and Hulu, I continue to sign up for PBS.

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PBS have quite good shows too.

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So, my recommendation is if you can afford the S$10/month, please get a FreedomVPN from ViewQwest and watch these fantastic shows at your own convenient time.  Quit cool.

Suddenly I felt like terminating my Starhub’s subscriptions and make it as minimal as possible.  Wahahaha.  Because I am paying almost $50/month for it but the contents are not much nowadays.  Wahahahahahaha.