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I think I've found our true roots, Da Shifu Clark and Shun Shifu Weaver would you care to verify?

Everyone gets inspiration from different places. A family member, friend or colleague.

Over the last eight years we've been working on a project that seemed impossible. I truly believed in it so I just kept working at it. I'm blessed with an amazing family and equally amazing friends. They love and support me no matter what. Now this doesn't mean that they don't think I'm crazy it just means that to my face they are loving and supportive.

Over that time I can't tell you how many times I've watched the movie Field of Dreams. Every time I rented it the ladies at Showtime would say "you know you rented this before?". As I got to know them I just told them the movie inspires me during difficult times. Turns out they are loving and supportive as well, from then on when I rented it they just smiled and said "Tough Day?"

Field of Dreams inspired me to follow my dream even if the entire town thinks your crazy. That you have to listen to your heart, the voices in your head and sometimes the voices from the corn field.

I love being an Entrepreneur, it constantly challenges me to be better at everything; a better person, a better business woman. I do admit that sometimes these challenges wear me down, then it's off the the movies for some inspiration. So last nights movie was Finding Nemo. I love how Zen Dory is, her ability to let go of the the past (short term memory loss), the way she goes with the flow. Best of all is her little "just keep swimming" song that she sings when Marlin is feeling down.

Our project is finally coming together. I take this as a sign that our Field of Dreams was meant to be. However, there is still much work to be done and challenges ahead. So today, as I work through these challenges I sing Dory's song and just keep swimming.

Shifu Liz Weaver

P.S.
I think the sea monkey really does have my money.

I just checked the web statistics and was very happily surprised by what I found. Looks like a lot of people are referring others to the site. Below is a picture of our web stats. Since the analytics software was down last week there is a dead spot. Didn't get it fixed until late Friday night. So Friday stats are off considerably. But Monday and Tuesday show a large increase in traffic and the majority of this traffic is direct. Meaning it came directly to the site rather than through a search engine, a link, or an email. That can only mean one thing. People are telling others. It's good old fashioned word of mouth.

So for all of you out there spreading the word. We thank you. Keep it up. That's what it's going to take.

Ok I think it's pretty obvious there are some major site changes going on. The underlying software has been upgraded and that will allow me to make the site way cooler than it already was.

Of course this is all in preparation for our big news we're releasing.

A couple of things.

1)Blog post can now be public or private. When crating a blog post you'll see a new selection box with the groups you are in. You can select which group you want the post to be posted to and also select whether you want the post to be private. There is also another content typew called group post which will only post to the groups.

2) I've gone through and checked all the blog posts which are now public (used to be private) and moved any of them that should remain private to the appropriate group. If I missed anything please let me know and I'll get it moved.

3) Privacy is now done through the groups. Please make sure to go to the group page and apply to any groups appropriate to you. I.E. If your a Shifu apply to the shifu group. You can also apply to any group below your rank of course (If your interested hahaha)

4)There are bugs. Because I had to change the file structure there are going to be pictures missing. If your profile picture is missing please re upload it.

5)Please use your real name or something simlar for your username. It's confusing to try to remember who is behind each username. Go to your profile page and click on the edit tab

6)Profiles have been upgraded. Please go to your user profile, clcick on the edit tab. then under that you'll see a profile link. Click on it and update your profile. Tell us about yourself.

7)Things are a little clunky but I'll get everything organized and user friendly as soon as I can. Your patience is appreciated.

SSW

2010 marks the year of the Tiger and which is appropriate for the ISSA.

We've got big things coming soon. We'll soon announce some very exciting news. Something we've been waiting on and working towards for a very long time.

I think it's pretty easy to imagine that the year of the Tiger is the year to leap into action. The Tiger takes chances and makes change. It's a proactive beast that gets things done.

On February 14 we will leave the year of the Ox. The Ox symbolizes hard work and preparation. It's definitely been that.

In our final preparations we will be working on this site. So if you see weird things going on on the site over the next few weeks that's why. We'll try to keep it operational but we do have some hurdles to overcome as we update to a new technology.

We'll also be putting into action projects to move the ISSA forward. We'd like your help. There will a few projects that just about anybody can jump in and help on. Some we can't do without your help. This will free me up for the more technical aspects and move things forward as quickly as possible.

One of those things will be creating an account and becoming active at www.shoushu.com (our public site)
So if you have not created an account there yet please do so at
http://www.shoushu.com/user/register
I'll try to check in and activate accounts as often as possible.
There is the oportunity to create a very detailed profile and we ask that you please do so. Become active and comment to the posts.

I'm also working hard on some video projects. Trying to get as much Shou Shu demo material up on the web as possible. This helps me promote the art of Shou' Shu' to the world. Something we all want. So if you have demos on any type of format plase send them to me at
139 Main St.
Valley Springs, CA 95252
I'll convert them and get them up online. You can find the ones I've done already on www.shoushu.com and a variety of the popular video sites (I'll link to them when I get a chance) but they should be pretty easy to find.

So stay tuned for the great news coming very soon. Help us cheer in the year of the tiger !!! It's going to be a great year!!!

SSW

Around Christmas I ran across a quote “Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful”. It spurred me into a cleaning frenzy. Cleaning doesn’t actually describe it. I have organized my storage, every tool every nail has been sorted and placed somewhere logical. I felt like Cinderella separating the lentils from the ashes as I went through numerous glass jars of mixed nails, washer, bolts etc. It was crazy, it took me over 10 hours but I got it done.

Then on to the kitchen, why do I own three crock pots, two wok’s and two electric skillets? No longer, I now own one of each.

Then off to the office I went, old magazines that I’ll never read, gone. Anything sentimental that I wanted to keep has been put into a box to be scanned. The box is in clear sight, I will not hide it!

In my office, in the depths of the drawer on the right I found the most amazing things. Not the least of which were three cigars that I bought while in Germany, does anyone remember how long ago I was in Germany? I don’t and I was there. This building sure didn’t exist, yet at some point I felt the need to have those cigars in my desk. Better yet, who remembers how long it’s been since I actually smoked a cigar? I’m certain it would kill me now.

This brings me to the point of this blah blah blog.

Thanks to BreakPal and FB I’ve made a lot of new online friends, stay connected to “the gang” and reconnected with friend I grew up with. It’s been amazing but I do admit to being slightly guarded in my posts and tweets, torn between the grown up business owner and the eternal child whose bad judgment allowed her to smoke cigars.

So here’s a little insight to the scope of my personality. For those of you who know me in the real world it will come as no surprise. For those of you who only know the virtual me, well who knows what you’ll think.

Besides the cigars, best find is a toss up between a framed picture of a flower with a quote by Anais Nin that reads “and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” OR Chuck Norris vs. Mr. T joke book.

Enough said.

Liz Weaver

We're pretty happy about this.
For those of you who don't know. Liz and I have spent this last year developing and marketing a new type of workplace wellness application. It's the only app of it's kind on the market and we think it will go big.

www.breakpal.com

Some of the exercises use Shou Shu motion and we hope that when this does go big time that we can cross promote Shou Shu also

We were mentioned in Real Simple magazine which has a huge distribution.

But yesterday we were mentioned in an article on www.itworld.com

You might know that ITworld is a vvery big deal in the geek world. I'm happy to be among them.

http://www.itworld.com/offbeat/94505/dont-become-a-cube-potato-ways-get-...

But today that article has catapulted to the top article on the site. Wow, even better.

So we need your help. Please go to the article and do one or more of these three things

1)Click on the "I like it" link
2)Click on the share link and share it in your favorite news site. It's already gaining momentum on Digg. Front page of Digg would be nice something like a million viewrs hit the front page a dig every day.
3) Comment on the article.

It is just a little thing to do any of these but a big thing to us.

Thanks for your help

SSW

To EVERYONE who attended today. You did a fantastic job. It was a great shoot.
Very proud of everyone and I hope you all heal quickly.

To everyone not in attendance. Wish you were there.

I think I've got like 9 hours of video to capture and will get on editing right away but it's going to take some time to get it all together. It takes a lot of 3 second clips to make a show.

It's going to look good though.

So do you guys still have a 7:00 PM group?

The Calaveras Enterprise just published an article on us online.
http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/articles/2010/01/04/top_story/top01_v...

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(A nice one please)