The Blog of Robert Van Valkenburgh
My first college professor, the one who inspired me to pursue higher education after dropping out of high school, taught religious studies and philosophy. The first class I took with him was called Eastern Religions. It should have been called Asian Religions because even Judaism, Islam, and Christianity originated in The East, but I digress. [...]
When Kano Jigoro founded judo, he brought together experts from various koryu (classical Japanese traditions) jujutsu schools and asked them to help him put together a system of techniques based around the throws, pins, and submissions that they had found the most success with in randori (freestyle practice) and shiai (competitive bouts). He only wanted [...]
With a Cambodian-American mother, aunt, and grandparents, my daughter has grown up eating and enjoying foods that most American children have never seen or tried. She is too young to be aware of the fact that what is normal for her is not necessarily normal for her peers and, for now, she is quite content [...]
Growing up, I was exposed to a wide variety of different foods before I ever knew that they were culturally unusual. I was not inherently adventurous per se, but I was never scared to try new, different foods and, as a result, I developed a palate for the unusual or exotic, as compared to those [...]
When my wife and I were engaged, we got into an argument and, partially joking, I made the comment, "What am I getting myself into?" Without missing a beat, she replied, "Well, you have the next 60 years to think about it." We both laughed and the argument dissipated. When my paternal grandmother passed away, [...]
Design has become one of my creative passions. Like many of my hobbies, designing logos, flyers, websites, etc. started with an idea and a compelling urge to see it come to life. Below is a design I did for my martial art school, Kogen Dojo, where I teach and train. I designed both our main [...]
When I was managing a coffee shop in the early 2000’s, I had monthly business review meeting with my District Manager. At one of these meetings, he asked me if I was hiring. I said, “Not right now.” As if he was expecting that answer, he immediately rebutted, “Yes you are.” “I’m fully staffed right [...]
