I'm Never Having Kids. Ever

I've often said this, and at times have even wavered from this stance but I must admit that there is no finer birth control then dealing with a seven year old for a week. I do not ever want, nor will I ever want one of my own.

Some background is in order here.

Due to some family issues the Missus's parents do not feel comfortable leaving their youngest Denise with their next youngest, Kaylee, while both girls are on break. They were looking into daycare options and found them to be rater expensive, though how a family that makes over $200K annually deems something in the realm of $300 expensive is beyond me but anyway. My Missus volunteered to take Denise for the week. So she retrieved Denise, and $20, I figure for our trouble from her mother and now we have Denise for a week.

Now, I have nothing against Denise. She's loud, annoying, and attention starved but that's hardly her fault nor unique to her. I've been told most seven year old kids are loud. But it wouldn't be half as bad if she wasn't so attention starved. I know she's used to dealing with parents who are indifferent at best and an older sister who is even more attention starved and makes sure she gets all the attention she can, usually by negative and destructive means. Anyway, it's just so frustrating. Denise would have probably been a great kid accept her parents are turning her into an attention starved materialistic thing and they just don't see it, or don't care.

Just frustrating. I'm just not having kids and then I won't have to worry about it! No noise, no parenting, nada. Seems like a good deal in my mind.

So he Wants to Wrestle eh?

A good friend of mine IM'd me the other day with a few questions, the topic interestingly enough was wrestling. No, not the professional kind, the middle school sport kind and as I'm one of the few people in my group who practices any sort of martial art she thought I would be a good person to ask.

Evidently one of her sons had recently expressed an interest in joining the wrestling team. He's not terribly athletic but then again nobody in her family is. It's not that they are fat or out of shape they just don't really exercise. They are all thin, genetics god bless, and in fair physical condition but as I told her wrestling is a whole different animal. She had concerns about injury, about he sons ability to handle himself in a physical situation, concerns over his physical health, general normal concerned parent questions.

I told her that he most likely would get hurt, and it was natural. Wrestling as with Judo, Boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, or in fact any contact sport the chance of injury is high. Yet at the same time the risk of injury is known, and mitigated to a great deal. Rules exist in sport to mitigate the risk and a good coach, and a good team will look to train hard, practice hard and at the same time minimize risk. I also said something that made me pause. I said that the training takes care of that. By that I meant the pain, the inevitable injury, but I meant something more. Training in any physical discipline conditions your body. A football player hits day after day till one day he wakes up and realizes he's taking hits that would have floored him just a few months back. I take throws in Judo that when I started would have left me winded and on the verge of tears and now I stand up, fix my Gi, and go back to work. I'm able to do this because of the training, the conditioning.

Her son is small, lean, with little muscle mass. he is thin for his height, an advantage in wrestling and I wonder if with the proper training and conditioning and support if he could be a fantastic wrestler. Either way, good or bad I told her she should make sure he follows through, and I hope to offer whatever help I can.

It's a Ghost Town

Twas the day before Christmas and all through Engineering not a cube was stirring.... accept for mine...

I swear it's a ghost town in here! I saw a tumbleweed blow past the coffee pot earlier. This is just asinine, I have no idea how I'm supposed to get any work done today. Oh well.

Good Luck to the Missus!

My Missus has an interview today. It's for Petco down the road and I wish her luck. She took the Rochester City Police Exam a few months back and were still waiting on the results so this job, if she gets it, is really just a place holder for the short term but it's a good place holder. Aside from the fact that she loves working with animals Petco offers health benefits to part time employees which is a huge plus.

On top of all this she has also really gotten into working out, she needs tom pass certain physical fitness requirements for the RPD, one of which is a mile and a half run. While it doesn't seem like much running for any distance just sucks for people like the missus and myself. Were just not built for it but she has gone out, and dragged me along, day after day to run or walk or lift and just in general get into shape. I'm proud of her, even if she does insure that I end up sore and achy every night.

Were going to get into shape even if it kills us!

Martial Decisions

I've tried writing this post a few times and it never seems to come out well. This is a sentiment, a topic, that has come to me based on a few bad decisions and years of being dissatisfied and not knowing why.

I always wanted to be a martial artist. I always knew I was not an athlete. I've always been heavy, I've always been a little slow on my feet, and I've had bad joints for as long as I can remember.

I always believed that an athlete was not a martial artist, that there was somehow this divide between the two. I's seen it referred to as the Ring v. Street debate and in a large way that was the issue in my mind. I was unwilling to believe that what I was practicing, the martial art I was practicing, was less martial and more art, then I would like to believe. I refused to make the correlation between physical conditioning and hard sparring and martial applicability. I was stuck in a street mentality. I did not have to spar, did not have to compete because my art did not have rules, I refused to limit myself to what could be used in a ring and therefore my art was better, in spite of the lack of sparring and conditioning.

Then something shifted, I began to really think about what I was practicing, I began to really think about my training and most importantly I began to try and use my training and I kept coming back to one conclusion. What I was doing simply did not work. I wanted to be a fighter, and in order to be a fighter I had to stop thinking like a martial artists and start thinking like an athlete.

So the pendulum swung the other way. I enrolled first in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu then in Judo. I began to look to compete, I began to run and lift weights outside of class to improve my performance in class. I stopped thinking of myself as a martial artist and began to think of myself as an athlete.

However I have found out one interesting truth. It's a truth that should have been self evident and it was brought to light by a comment the Missus made. Her younger sister began to take Aikido, an art that I have little respect for for many reasons none of which are important at this time. She said that I "talked crap about any art I didn't practice" and this made me pause. She is partially right and it was something that I had partially realized years earlier but had not internalized. That truth is this: Not everyone is me. It seems crazy but it was really a tough pill to swallow. I look at Aikido, most Kung Fu, most Karate, most Tae Kwon Do and I see arts that are a waste. I see people training in styles that have no sparring, no conditioning and minimal applicability to a combative situation. When I first made the transition from a martial art to a combat sport I thought it was the most logical of transitions and wondered why everyone didn't have the same epiphany I had just had. Then once the Missus made her comment it clicked. Everyone isn't me. Most people don't want to sweat, want to fall, want to get hurt, want to get hit and thrown and bruised and come back for more. Most people don't wake up in the middle of the night thinking about competing. It's a sad truth, but it's the truth. So now when I hear about the Missus sister's Aikido I simply smile and remind myself that I have years to show her the error of her ways when she's just a little bit older.

Until then I'm going to keep competing and training and hoping that all the people I see streaming out of the Karate dojos never need to use what they feel they are learning.

Winter Driving 101

As a prelude to this post I'd like to say it snowed today, a lot. Now snow itself does not bother me, neither does the idea of driving in the snow. What bothers me, and what I wish to address here is the behavior of other drivers while it's snowing and what I like to call "Driver Etiquette"

First let's establish some common terms. Roadways are divided up into a number of lanes. The right most lane is referred to as the driving lane. Now if there is more then one lane in either direction lanes to the middle and left are referred to as traveling or passing lanes. Depending on the number of lanes. For the purpose of our discussion today imagine a two lane highway, one driving lane and one passing lane.

Now, when it is snowing I like to change the designation of these lanes, the driving lane becomes the "Safe traveling speed" lane in which the maximum speed is anywhere from 15 to 30 mph. The passing lane is now referred to as the "I have a death wish" lane or the "I own a Hummer with studded snow tires" lane and in this lane the speed limit is roughly five miles above the posted speed limit.

Now, on to etiquette. If you are driving in the sane speed lane stay there. If you are driving in the death wish lane, stay there. Nobody has problems, nobody dies. Accidents happen when the two lanes interact, usually at a speed greater then the sane lane and less then the death wish lane.

Also, drivers who erratically change lanes should be shot.

If the driver in front of you is going too slow for your liking feel free to pass, but do so in an intelligent manner and not when the passing lane is full of cars. If you do this you are an idiot and should be taken out back and beat senseless with a snow shovel.

Now, accidents. I've often thought this is an interesting term. I would hazard a guess that there are very few true accidents. An accident in driving would be turning down a one way street that did not have a sign, an accident is not going to fast and hitting another car in the snow. Anyone with a basic understanding of physics can avoid 99% of winter "accidents" and those in Rochester who seem to lack this basic understanding, stay off my roads!

After Action Report, or How I Will Get Better

I know it's been a little while since the club tournament but I wanted to put down my thoughts on what I did right, and what I did wrong.

My first match was against Will, I have a fair size advantage against him yet I know he's a better Judo player then me, especially on the ground. I know if I wanted to have a chance I had to stay on my feet. I promptly forgot this game plan and ended up on the ground. Instead of standing up and restarting, which would have been smart, I tried to grapple. Me, versus a collegiate wrestler, not pretty. Advice for the future.... follow the blessed game plan.

My second match was against one of my Sensei. I had an even larger weight advantage on Sensei Mike. I've thrown him in the past and have held my own on the ground. I spoke quickly with Sensei Jeff while I waited to take the mat and he told me roughly the same advice as the previous match. Don't grapple. This time I listened, I stuffed a few good throws and worked for a sweep. Several times we ended up on the ground and I was quick to stand back up and back off. I played till the two minute mark when Sensei sunk in a beautiful throw. I felt him coming in and tried to drop my hips to block the throw and simply wasn't fast enough. next thing I know I was airborne. I was told later the throw occurred in two distinct parts, the first I felt as my feet left the floor, the second was the technical throw, which resulted in me executing a perfect break fall... to bad they don't give out points for that. Advice for the future? Grip fighting is good, combos are good, I need to get faster.

I thought my performance was a huge improvement over Pittsburgh. I would have liked a victory but I guess that's going to have to wait for next time.

As I keep saying, my objective is not to be good.... it's to suck a little less each class.