If you currently have the app installed, I suggest that you uninstall the app first then reinstall through App World. If you just go ahead and update it will produce two icons for the app on your homescreen. If this is the case, please uninstall version 1.0.0 from your PlayBook.

Hopefully, future updates will not have this error.

Download the ITF Taekwon-Do Guide app from App World

Just to update on the progress on the ITF Taekwon-Do app I submitted to Google Play earlier. It has now gone live. If you haven’t heard about my app yet, you can find out more from the ITF Taekwon-Do app section. To download use the link below.

On a side note, there shall be a new update to the BlackBerry PlayBook version soon.

If you missed it earlier this week, my first app was approved already and is currently live in App World. You can check out my blog on it here or you can go ahead an check out the Apps page.

A month ago today, on March 18th 2012, I competed in my second UKITF Scottish Championships. After last year’s, somewhat lucky, wins, I was feeling pumped for a long period running up to the event. I’d been training where and when I could, mainly trying to build up my stamina, I was still carrying some holiday weight (something I always have trouble getting rid of). I didn’t want to feel complacent going in to these championships, especially after last year’s two gold medals, so I trained even harder in the last week up to the championships.

The day came and I was up early, waking up the whole house to make sure they were ready on time. I didn’t want to be late as we didn’t get a club bus this time around. As we bundled up in the car, dog included, I was beginning to feel all sorts – apprehensive, nervous, excited. I didn’t know what to think. Last year there was only two of us in the weight class. Questions kept running through my mind – Would it be the same again this year? Would it be the same opponent? I tried to get rid of the questions and focus on what I needed to do.

We got to the venue just before 9:30, in time for registration. The actual event was due to start at 10am. Upon entering the hall it was apparent that things were layed out differently this year. After, running over time last year, it seems that 4 rings were put out this year in order for more competitors to be competing at any one time. I got myself registered and promptly went to the changing rooms to change into my Dobok. Once I was in gear, it was time for the weigh-in. We had to put our weight category on the forms we send to enter the competition but I guess things must be double checked on the day. On the scales I got and yep 62kg — middle weight category for sparring confirmed. (Yes I know I’m heavy for petit frame). Once that was confirmed I got my competitor number sticker and now the waiting began.

As usual the first competitors up were the Generation X (5-7 year olds) and the juniors (8-13 year olds) to do patterns. So, I found a corner in the hall and started stretching and warming up. Once warmed up I went through my tuls (patterns), then did some pad work to get all the blood flowing through my system.

By about 1pm-2pm adult female colour belts were up for patterns. Down I went to ring 4 and waited to be called up to do my patterns, I was put in a line with another red belt and black stripe and we went up two at a time to perform a pattern of our choice. I went up first with the black stripe competitor, I chose to do Hwa Rang which is the red belt pattern and she did choong moo. She won that round. I stayed up and the other red belt was called, this time around I did Toi Gye, the red stripe pattern. I won this round. So, one win, one loss, I had to wait for the other two to see where I would place in the medal tally. The black stripe girl won, so that meant I was in for a silver. The other five adult female colour belts went on to do their patterns. Once those were through, it was on to do the medal presentation. “Adult Female Colour Belt Patterns Silver Medal – DJ Reyes”. Woohoo! First medal of the day.

With patterns out of the way, it was time to gear up and get ready for sparring. The last competitors were getting through their patterns, then we slowly saw the rings filling up with sparring bouts. First up again were Generation X, then Juniors. Another hour or so of waiting, more warming up and stretching and padwork and then it was announced through the tannoy “Adult female colour belts, all weight categories to ring 3″. Nervously, I made my way down to the ring. Others slowly making their way too. Apprehensively, I kept looking around to see who I might be called against. I was standing next to another girl from my club and we waited to see who would be called up. The umpire called out two names, I didn’t quite hear from all the hubub but the girl from my club said “Oh what? We’re fighting against each other?” I was like, “What?!” Out loud and again in my head. Both of us shocked, we made our way to the centre of the ring. Still, looking at each other in dismay, we just had to get on with it. In my head, I was thinking I’m just going to treat this like a class sparring session. I really didn’t want to compete against another club member but that was the straw we seemed to have drawn that day. So, in our fighting positions we went, umpire shouts “Sijak” and then pow, a couple of blows to the head. Totally unexpected, my bandana even came off. It came from nowhere, I really didn’t expect she would come at me so much. It completely threw me off my game. In hindsight, I don’t know why I didn’t try harder, it was a competition after all. We were there to compete and that’s what she did. For what seemed like the longest 2mins of my life, I kept on keeping on, trying to get in where I could, in my mind I knew there was things I should be doing but my legs just didn’t want to do them. I seemed stuck to the mats and the kicks I wanted to execute in my head were not becoming reality. Eventually, I heard the buzzer and that was the end of it, a big hug at the end but I knew that was not a match I had won but felt damn good to have got through it without a bruise. (Well, to be honest that was a thought a few days later, not at the time). Other matches when on in the female division but after that I was in no mood to watch. Still in a bit of shock we were eventually told to head on to the medals podium and called for the medal presentation. Silver medal again. Woohoo! Second medal of the day.

A little tired after that match, trying to put it behind me, I still had two more events to get through — special technique (basically seeing who could kick the highest) and power (board breaking). It wasn’t a long wait to be called to this event, actually it may have been around 30 minutes. They were only three of us put down for this event and too be honest none of us felt that we were not going to do that well in it. Of course, that ended up being true as none of us managed to reach the standard starting height, which was taking the tallest competitor (I was the smallest, the other two just a bit taller) and have her stretch out her arm upwards and that would be the first target height. It was brought down a notch and none of use got that one either. By then that was the lowest the thing would go, so the umpires had to look for a pad so they could hold it up for us instead. The next height down, none of us could reach it and it was turning out to be a bit of joke that everyone seemed to find just as funny as we did. Eventually, one of use managed to get it and she got the deserved gold, even if it wasn’t the best showcase of Taekwon-Do skills. So, no medal for me in special technique, although I already knew I wouldn’t do so well in this event. Straight up after that was destruction. Again, there was just three of us competing here but not the same as in special technique. We had to do three techniques – side kick, turning kick and a hand strike of our choice. I was called up first. I measured up for the side kick, then got in position. Bam, no break. Next I measured up for a turning kick and got in to position. Bam, no break. A little dented in my ego, it was time to do a hand strike. I went for the inner knife hand strike and put as much energy as I could into it. Bam, no break. I guess there wasn’t enough adrenalin in me to get through the boards. I had also not really practised for it as we have no board holder at home or at the club we go to (our club does have one, just not at the place we go to), so it was just a case of going for it, which I did but again no medal for me on this.

That concluded the day and pretty much the hall was being cleared up as we were doing the destruction. Having four rings certainly did speed up the process but there was also slightly less competing that there was last year but still we shaved almost about three hours off last year’s championships so was certainly an improvement.

Looking back at the championships, although I was a little deflated, I felt I gained a lot more this year than last year. I certainly have a lot to work on and I see it only as making a better fighter and competitor for the future.

I look forward to competing at more events, even trying to the UKITF English Championships in June as well as the UKITF British Championships in October. There’s plenty more training to get through and I’ll certainly be sharing those experiences here too. Until next time… Taekwon.

If you have been following me the past couple of months you’ll know that I was creating a BlackBerry app, in the hope to follow a path to become a fully fledged app developer. It took a while to get there but today I am very happy to say the my app has been approved for release into App World.

Although I had mentioned I was making an app, I don’t believe I said what the app was. The curiosity can end here. The app is called ITF Taekwon-Do Guide. I’m pretty sure from that name you already know what the app is. I felt there were a lack of apps that supported the sport so I thought I’d create one myself. Curiously, there is also another app in App World which covers the same thing. So, perhaps I’ve started a trend (even if the other app was released before mine).

If you are interested in giving it a try you can download it from the link below. It is currently available for the BlackBerry PlayBook running OS 2.0.

Feedback and suggestions are most welcome.

Download the ITF Taekwon-Do Guide for you PlayBook

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Back when RIM decided to extend the free PlayBook offer for a second time, I took it as a sign that I should get started with my longing to develop apps for the BlackBerry platform. I procrastinated for a while but as soon as it was announced that there was an extension, I signed up as a Vendor for App World straight away. Within 48 hours, I got my approval status through email. It was then time to design and develop the app.

I didn’t really have any coding experience. I have done HTML/CSS before and that’s about it. I already had some ideas on the apps I wanted to create. However, my time was somewhat limited. A suggestion was given to me and I took it. Since, the offer included Android developers porting their apps to the BlackBerry platform, I took the route of creating an app for the Android platform, then port it using RIM’s Runtime for Android apps tool. Why not reach other platforms at the same time, right?

Once I had all my tools, I started creating the app. The design and icons where the things that I had to think about the hardest. I’m not the best designer but I tried my best. After, completing the first design. It look good, better than I expected and so it was time to test it on my devices. After a few tweaks here and there the end product was complete. It did take me a while to get there but once I was there I was quite excited. Seeing it on the simulator was cool but seeing it on my test devices was even better.

The next thing I needed to do was repackage it for BlackBerry devices using RIM’s Runtime for Android apps tools. RIM offers different ways to do this – Eclipse Plugin, Online Tool and Command-line tools. I chose the route of using the Online Tool. It’s pretty simple to use, great for if you’re a beginner, like I am. Repackaging the app went smoothly. The longest part was waiting for my signing keys. Word of advice, get your keys beforehand to avoid have to start the process again. Once this was all done, I had the .bar file for my app and was ready to submit it to App World.

This was a smooth process too and I was very excited to see my app sitting there, waiting for approval. I’m hoping that it can be approved soon. I already have revisions in mind for the app and it would be great to see something I’ve created on a platform I love. I am by no means calling myself a fully fledged BlackBerry developer, I think I have a long way to go yet but I shall take it in baby steps.

My next project is to actually create the app using native SDK, or even using WebWorks so that it truly runs on the PlayBook as I would like it to. I will keep you updated as to when the app has been approved.

On a side note I was also thinking of submitting the app to the Android Market, since I do have an .apk file of my app. We shall see how my feel about that in a few weeks time.

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I have since downloaded a few more books to read on my Kindle app. However, I haven’t been reading as much as I thought. Maybe it was just the book I was reading. The Lost Symbol was quite the page turner. Not my favourite of the Robert Langdon series but certainly a good read. I’m currently reading The Becoming: Outbreak by Jessica Meigs, a zombie horror novel. Not normally one to read horror books but since this one was written on a BlackBerry device I felt compelled to read it. Check out more here.

So, I like I said I would still read books but I have been enlightened by my recent experience in reading an e-book that I will certainly be a little more open to reading a few more. Just wish a BlackBerry Amazon Kindle app will be released for non-US users in the near future.

I would also be grateful if anyone could recommend and other books for me to read. Drop me suggestions in the comments.

When I eat chicken wings I don’t leave any piece of meat on the bone. That’s how much I love eating chicken wings. And I’m not talking about the drumstick part, I’m taking about the actual wing part that has two bones in it. Once I’ve eaten the meat around, I separate the bones and eat the meat in between. That’s pretty much how I’ve been eating chicken wings all my life.

After seeing the video I was surprised to know that some people eat the wing part by just going around the two bones and wasting the meat pieces in between the bones. Why would anyone do that? I’ve eaten chicken wings the same way I have ever since I was a child and the way shown in the video below is a nice, neat, new way to do so without wasting any meat but the fact that some people do surprised me a little. I may not change the way I eat chicken wings to the one suggested in the video but it certainly is a great way to eat them with dip.

Check out the video for yourself.

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Aaaargh

I’ve already got the ball rolling with creating a few websites, one of which is a BlackBerry unlocking service, as well as a BlackBerry repair service, amongst other BlackBerry support services. My only problem now is getting my services out there. I’ll get there slowly but surely but wish it would come by a little quicker.

I am also looking to re-launch my IT repair business, the one I started long ago with my partner. With three years of my degree under my belt I feel a lot more confident than I did before so hopefully it will be more a success this time around. So, if anyone is in any need of computer help hit me up. Most especially if you’re in the Ayrshire area.

I feel more confident in the belief of working for myself now more than ever. Of course, I’ll still contribute to CrackBerry.com, I love the site and I love the team and it’s great to be a part of that.

So watch this space, as there will be good things to come. In the meantime you can check out my current projects – www.thematrixfactor.com, www.ravingtigers.com.