The Eastern Edge

I haven’t got a heck of a lot done on the website, although I am working on stuff.
But I have done a lot of writing and editing content for the Gottsupedia - editing stuff from wiki, writing original content and so on. Most of the stuff is on Japanese martial arts and history right now. I personally don't care, for example, what celebrity had a shotgun wedding with who or what Gravure idol currently has the biggest breasts, so I won't be adding much about Japanese pop culture in the foreseeable future. Not that I won't allow content like that - I will - I just won't be writing it. As long as I'm the primary contributor, history and martial arts are going to dominate for a little while, with stuff on Canada to follow.

I was originally inspired to start the gottsupedia when I was wikipedia entry on something I know a little about that was completely wrong. I wrote something about it and later found that the wiki entry had been updated to reflect exactly what I'd written. Naturally, my first thought was, "Screw that! If I7m gonna get ripped off anyway I'll do it myself next time."
However, I didn't want to actually do it on wiki where someone can screw with it again.
So, since the software used for wiki is freeware, it didn’t take me long to start experimenting.

The reason I've done a lot on martial arts, particularly aikido, is for the same reason; The info on wikipedia leavers something to be desired - especially the entry on Yoshinkan aikido. Not that this is wiki’s fault, because they can’t be experts on everything, but the Yoshinkan entry, to name one, just seems to get worse and more inaccurate with each new edit. Obviously the people editing in these cases don't know what they're talking about, or have an agenda. Maybe they are enthusiastic beginners trying to provide info for people like them but going beyond their range of knowledge (like translating the title "kancho" as "founder". Yikes!). I don't know.
But, anyway, Yoshinkan in partuicular has long been a victim of wrong and conflicting info. Other than the total shit wiki entry currently up, the official Yoshinkan English website itself is badly written and contains errors.
For example it states that "the current Crown Prince also visited in 1998 spending a long time meeting with Shioda Gozo Kancho privately and observing a special demonstration."
Problem is that Shioda sensei passed away in 1994. Yeah, sure, it's a typo. Typos happen (I do more than my share of typos). But English info on Yoshinkan, among others things, is notorious for being all over the place.
I just thought I'd like to so something about that and write about some other things I'm interested in myself and see where it leads.

Anyway, I'm having fun tracking down original Japanese sources and adding content for all kinds of people, like Yoshinori Kono , that doesn't exist in English.

I hope someday my little pedia will graduate from a "my wikipedia" pet project, into a serious resource.
We'll see.

In the meantime, I'll just keep plucking away and having fun doing it.
(Come on “trit” and “Zero Fighter”! I need you guys!)

On another note, I've deleted links on this page for dead blogs, like "Life in the Blue Forest - Blogged and Revisited" (which hasn't been blogged or revisited in over a year and a half), and the Aiki Journal because the posts are mostly adds and recycled stuff.

Anyway, more updates and a redesign to my columns page - with English this time - to come.