Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Non-BJJ stuff

I have a couple of non-BJJ related items to throw out to the general population.

First of all, my friend over at Black Belt Mama is having a hard time. For those of us who are getting into Martial Arts for fitness and fun, particularly those of us pushing 40 (or in BBM's case, 29), being injured just sucks. I know I came into BJJ feeling really bad and that it's been a huge part of my health and general well-being. So, every injury that kept me from training really made me feel bad. I don't know about anyone else, but I've NEVER enjoyed organized sports or exercise in general. I've always been athletic, but never an athlete. What I mean by that, is I've always been coordinated and able to play sports well, but never been driven either externally or internally to TRAIN.

BJJ is the first sport/form of exersice that I've been compelled to stay with. I love it and I love being in shape. So, injuries suck. I've been lucky to avoid anything long term, and beyond my back/SI joint issues, I've been relatively injury free. BBM is not so lucky. From a whiplash injury incurred at the hands of an Aikidoka with emotional issues to a freak injury recently resulting in a torn ACL, BBM has been cursed.

So, if you feel compelled, I'm asking for anyone who reads this to go over to her blog and do what you can to cheer her up. Try to think of ways to look on the bright side. For example, BBM now has something in common with Jerry Rice, the best wide receiver to ever play in the NFL. While watching the classes, she can spend more time blogging. If she plays her cards right, her husband will whisk her off to bed each night, carrying her across the threshold of their bedroom (not that he doesn't already... I have no idea... but if he doesn't... good opportunity). There must be hundreds of things that could cheer her up. Heck, send her a virtual hug, give her a link to something funny. Lets shake her out of this funk!

Second. I have a quick question. How many people have ever worn their gi outside of the school? I don't as a rule, but last night I went to class directly from work. Not a problem except that my little girl was sick and wanted some orange juice from the store. So, there I was... faced with a dillemma. I had already left the school and was wearing a workout shirt, my blue Gameness gi pants (with a big patch on the right thigh) and a pair of flip flops. It wasn't really a dillemma, but boy did I feel geeky walking around Safeway. So, do you guys wear your gis out and about? Is it a big deal? Am I being irrational?

Monday Class - Drills and Conditioning 10/29/2007

Oh man, how I wish I could make this class every week. One of the Jeff's runs this class and it's just a great class.

The warm up was grueling. While I'd love to say something snide about how I could do without it, or something along those lines, all I did was feel a little ashamed about my effort. Following warmups, both Jeffs felt compelled to deliver a short lecture on committment and the sincere desire to improve. One Jeff, who I've never heard say more than 20 words in a class, talked for a bit about how cardio and fitness is the only thing you can control. You can't practice BJJ without a partner, but nothing stops you from going out and running some sprints or doing some burpees. The other Jeff spoke about how there's a point where you have to take control of your training. When you start you can't help but improve. Simply because "you sucked so bad to begin with" it is almost impossible not to see improvement simply by being a warm body on the mat. But then one hits a plateau, whether it's in fitness level or technique (or both) and it becomes one's own responsibility to put forth the effort necessary to improve.

The points hit home, and I feel like I need to stop being satisfied with where I'm at and the progress I've made. I think it's time to set new goals and stop dwelling on the goals I've achieved or haven't achieved.

The class itself was fun. We did armbar drills, some escape drills, a positional drill and just worked the basics.

Fun with Google & English

Well, I didn't make it to class last night. I got off work late, which was very disappointing, as I was really looking forward to training. As a consolation, however, I heard a turn of phrase that I thought was very funny. The reason I was late was a conference call, and in the notes that followed the call, something was characterized as being "overwhelmingly satisfactory." I'm not sure why, but that just really makes me giggle. It's the very best and worst of business speak. I thought, as we enter into a new appraisal period, I might try to incorporate some phrases along a perfectly flat spectrum of mediocrity... a five point, perfectly equivalent line starting with Overwhelmingly Satisfactory and ending with Satisfactorally Overwhelming.

"Joe, I want to start by thanking you for your continued contributions to the unit. Your work has been consistently satisfactory. In fact, it is overwhelmingly so. Over the next few months, I'd like to see you contribute to the success of the division by sharing your best practices with your peers. Doing this will make a big difference in overall productivity and I believe help you make the leap from Overwhelmingly Satisfactory to Overwhelming... at least satisfactorily so. Do you have any questions for me?"

I wish I could give credit where due, but I can't remember where I first got this idea. On more than one blog, people have posted some of the more interesting Google searches that have led people to their blog. I've had a few as well, and thought I'd share them. Some are quite strange. First, as a disclaimer, all material on this blog is rated PG-13... at most. I have kids and family who read this blog, so for all of you guys who find me based on these keyword searches, I hope you find what you're looking for, but you won't find it here:

youtube head between thighs led one intrepid explorer here:
I still don't get that one. But it gets better (worse?).

like an anaconda her scissored legs tightened around him Really? Seriously? And that led them to July.

does the dragon pearl green tea help you sleep Well, this one I can answer. To whomever is looking for this, the answer is no. Dragon Pearl Green Tea is still green tea, meaning it has caffeine. While different people are more or less sensitive to caffeine, most will find that it is a stimulant and will generally keep one awake.

fart poems It makes me very happy that someone found my fart poems. Maybe someday I'll get to sue someone for plagiarizing my work! :D

brazilian birthday cakes This led to the main blog index... not sure why. Heck, I'm not even sure what would be different about a birthday cake in Brazil.

creatine brazilian jiu jitsu: This one stood out only because it also took someone to the fart poems.

Of course, the vast majority of searches are for some combination of beginner, bjj, specific technique names and searches from people who share the many health issues I have had to work with including a herniated disc, hip issues related to the SI joint, fatness and elbows that are far too fragile.

Sunday BJJ Class 10/21/2007

Well, it's Tuesday and I'm still sore from Sunday. We reviewed again techniques for passing spider guard, and then did several short rounds once again. Coach seems to like that as a way to keep a lot of people cycling through in larger classes.

Not a lot to report. We did 2 minute rounds, which means that you have to really go for it to get anything going. I rolled several times against several different guys and feel like I did pretty well. In my match with Matt, I feel pretty good. He's a really big guy (about 270 lbs) and I almost got through his guard a few times. At least, I felt like I might have gotten around had he not been so much stronger. Usually, I'm mistaken and wasn't as close as I thought. Hehe. Anyway, after about 90 seconds, I got swept, but was able to bridge up and get my knees under him to prevent mount just as the timer went off. I think my work on the side is helping out in that regard.

The other match that I recall was with a blue belt. He's a very strong guy. I tried to pull guard, which didn't work. He slid immediately into half guard and began to pass. I feel good about keeping my knees in. While I was dominated from a positional standpoint, I was able to keep him busy enough trying to secure his position that I don't feel like I was in any imminent danger of submission. At times, he was able to flatten me out, but I would widen out my elbow to create space and then sneak a knee back in. As I said, I was clearly outmatched, but still feel pretty good about it.

In open mat, I rolled for about 1/2 hour with Lim. I always like rolling with him because he's really crafty and no matter how tired he gets, he keeps pushing. I worked on a few things. Got him once with an Americana and another time with an Ezekial choke from mount. Good class.
I'm hoping to make the BJJ class tonight, too. Depends on what time I can get home from work.

Wednesday BJJ Class 10/17/2007

I went to Wednesday's class. Close to missing out. I was driving from downtown Seattle to Kent, where the school is. This is usually about a 35 or 40 minute drive, but on Wednesday traffic crawled ALL THE FRIGGIN' WAY. It was grueling. Fortunately, I had a podcast to keep me occupied, so I was relatively content to listen to the latest information on the UFC and Randy Couture's unexpected "resignation" (not to be confused with a "retirement" which could freeze his contract and keep him from fighting again).

So, I rolled into class and made it out onto the mat with moments to spare before warmups started.

Technique involved a method of getting around spider guard. I've written in the past about Todd's spider guard and how I couldn't even break the grip, much less pass. Against someone who's got long legs, being caught in spider can make you feel like you're a marionette on the wrong end of string. Dance, monkey boy, dance!

The first thing to do is break one of the grips. Coach Foster showed us first to identify which grip is the most troublesome. It's easier to break the grip that is creating the most pressure. So, if my opponent has grips on both sleeves, and one foot planted on my bicep with the other posting on my hip, I'll want to break the grip on the bicep side. If my opponent has his leg hooked around my arm, that's the side I'll go to. If both feet are posting in my bicep, there will generally be one high and one low. I'll go to the high side, because that's the side with the most pressure. Pretty straight forward.

To break the grip, I'm simply going to bring my knee inside that leg and while I jerk my arm back I'm going to drive my hips in and force the leg back a little. I want to be careful to not allow my opponent to get ahold of my other foot and of course, I don't want to spaz out and lose my balance or compromise my stability. Now that I have that arm free, I'm going to get a good grip on his pants at the knee.

Okay, here's the fun part and it's actually a bit counterintuitive. I want to really be able to drive his knee to the ground, and if I move immediately to his back, I can't get a lot of leverage, so anyone good will be able to hip out, turn into me and at least make the pass difficult if not immediately re-establish guard. So, instead, I'm going to move in a big circle all the way around. So, if you picture this from above like a clock, I'm at about 6 pm, with my opponent's head at 12 o'clock. I'm going to grip his pants at the knee with my right hand and drive his left knee to the ground on top of his right leg. This is going to get him up on his right side and make it very difficult for him to hip escape or turn into me. Because I'm moving around in front of him, I can keep my weight firmly on that knee as I use my right arm to pivot all the way around from 6 pm through midnight and back to 3 o'clock into side control with my opponent still up on his right side facing away from me. One of the blue belts brought up that you could, if you wanted to, drive the knee to the ground, begin moving to the front, and then redirect around to side control. Pretty much accomplishes the same thing. The key is that you don't just start back until that knee is firmly planted on the ground.

We drilled that until sparring. It was a very large class, so we did 2 minute rounds on a rotation again. I started with Todd and had an opportunity to try that pass. Of course, it didn't work. Pinning his legs proved to be a little more difficult than it was during the drills. Breaking his grip as instructed worked like a charm, though. I'm going to keep working on that pass.
I got to roll with Coach, too. That's always interesting. I got one, "Nice," as I passed guard into side control (I thrive on positive feedback!) At one point, Coach had some kind of head/arm choke and as he rolled to his side, I kind of slid over and into a control position on top. While I'd like to say I did something to "reverse" the position, the reality is that he probably let it go when I didn't have the good sense to tap. :)

It was a fun class. Oh, and lest I forget, Doug got his blue belt and several people added stripes to their white belts. Congratulations are in order for everyone who received promotions!

10 Questions with Yours Truly

Blogsweluv.com is a website all about spreadin' the love. That's how they roll. One of the things that they do is sort through billions* of questionnaire submissions, culling them down to a select few that they post.

So, if you want to read about some interesting blogs on an interesting blog, check out blogsweluv.com and read 10 questions with me.

*by billions, I mean some unknown number. I'm guessing high, because billions just sounds good. Certainly better than that it was a terribly slow week for the blogsweluv crew, and they were stuck choosing between me and the "Famous Face Found in Food" blog.

Sunday BJJ Class 10/14/2007 - It's Go Time!

Sunday's class was pretty rough! Bill ran the class as Coach was still getting settled after the trip to Oregon. What's really good about Bill is that you would have to really work hard to not get caught up in his enthusiasm.

The phrase that pays for yesterday was, "It's go time." When you're in someone's half-guard, you do X, Y, and Z and then it's go time! And if your opponent has the temerity to try and defend... well, that's his mistake.

We worked on a few techniques from within someone's half guard. Maybe we tried to pass and got a leg caught. The beauty of these two techniques is that they are both an effective way to pass guard and also set up submissions.

The first technique is for when I can avoid the underhook. I'm on top of my opponent. He's got good technique with my leg locked up and is looking for space to hip out and re-establish guard. My goal is to put some pressure down on his arm so that he pushes back. I'll use this to shoot his hand underneath my body and drive my hip to the ground. So, now I've actually got my back to my opponent's arms and head. I'm keeping a solid base and lots of pressure back on his armpit so that he feels pretty well locked down. Now, to clear my leg and get mount, I simply walk my foot up until my knee pops out, then drive that knee to the mat. I'll then "violently" bring my arm around to what is essentially a mount position. I'll pull my foot out, using my other foot to help if necessary. As bill says, this is an untenable position on the part of my opponent. Sometimes, they'll worry about locking in that foot, and if they do, it's go time. If they're worried about my foot, they are probably leaving their neck open, or he mentioned that we could even swing around for an armbar and just go for that. The only detail to remember is that if my foot is still caught up, I can finish the armbar, but I have to be really cognizant of keeping my knees tight together.

The second technique was similar to the first. The main difference is that my opponent is fishing for an underhook from half-guard. Bill says that this really irritates him. Someone underhooks me from half-guard, it's go time. I'm going to bring my left arm around his head and drive my left hip to the mat just as before. This time, however, I'm going to hook his left arm with my own, snaking it through and, if I'm wearing a gi, grabbing my lapel. No gi, I have to keep my elbow in tight. Next, I'll bait my opponent by continuing to work on the pass. When he brings that arm down to block my leg, I'll simply take it around into a straight armbar or a kimura. Or, I can always finish the pass and establish mount.

Keys to this position are keeping lots of pressure on his shoulders, keeping his flat on his back and minding my base. If my hip isn't on the mat, my base is somewhat compromised. On bigger guys, this may be the case. These techniques still work, I just have to be more careful with my base.

Sparring was crazy. Basically, the upper belts all took the mat, and the lower belts cycled through. Two minute matches with not very long to rest in between. The first several matches, the upper belts started from the bottom, and then later, lower belts started from the bottom.
I rolled with Josh first. Josh is very flexible, and has long legs. I got around into his half guard a few times, but would end up back in his guard before long. Against guys like Josh who are constantly fishing for a triangle, I tend to try and pin one leg to the ground and passing over that leg. The other pass that I tend to use involves hugging both legs together at the knee and passing around that way.

My second match was with Bill. I did my best and just tried to keep good posture, good base and pass if possible (it wasn't). I tapped to a triangle and got swept twice, but it was good. I was officially gassed after this round. Then two minutes with Big Rick. I passed Rick once. I can't remember for sure, but I think he let me pin his legs together and I moved into side control from there. Now I'm REALLY tired. Next match was Matt. I had a good match against Matt, getting through a few times. Matt's a really big guy, about 270 or so lbs. But he's flexible and actually moves a lot like Josh. A few times, I ended up trying to pass under Matt's legs, where you sort of shuck one leg over. Unfortunately, he just sort of chuckled and reminded me that he was too big for that to work. While I didn't get past him that way, I did move him and got around his guard a few times.

By this time, I was wiped, so I took 2 minutes to rest and then started working from the bottom, finishing out against Todd, Cory and Josh.

After class, I was pretty overheated, and this morning I felt like I had a hangover from dehydration, even though I drank a bunch of water yesterday before and after class. In spite of that, I feel really good. It's been a long time since I've been healthy enough to really go 100%.

Congratulations on the Oregon Tournament

Congrats to all of the guys who competed at the tournament in Oregon on Saturday. Coach Foster took several guys down to Oregon to compete in the tournament hosted by Impact Jiu-Jitsu and they did very well. Bingo, Josh and Trevin all represented, and while Rick went down to compete, there were no purple belts that were big enough to give him a match.

Josh ended up taking bronze in his first tournament as a blue belt. He got two matches, and ended up losing to the guy who eventually won gold 2-0. Trevin lost a match 8-7... so close. He did well, too, winning a bronze medal. Bingo won the white belt division after what Coach described as four hard matches. Coach Foster was prepared and awarded Bing his blue belt on the podium. How cool is that?

So, congratulations to everyone who competed, and to Bing on your well deserved promotion to Blue Belt.

Sunday 10/7 and Tuesday 10/9

I made class Sunday and also last night. Wow, it was humid in the school last night.

Class on Sunday was a lot of fun. We had a light warmup and then went into technique. Coach opened up free rolling early on Sunday, so I worked with Sean and Bill on some stuff. I like rolling with them because they're a lot bigger than me, which gives me a chance to work on stuff I can't otherwise. I also got to roll briefly with Hyam and just as I was going to get squished like a small bug by Big Rick (Brick), we broke off for birthday cake. Whew. :) I joke about that. I was actually looking forward to it. Rick is big, but I firmly believe in working on what I'm worst at, and I continue to believe that my weakest area is under side control/north south and mount.

Last night we worked on a great move from a tough side control. When my opponent gets me really pinned down with deep control under my head and control of my leg, this is a technique I can use when I just can't get back up on my side. I'm not going to go into a lot of details on it because it would be difficult to describe it accurately.

The key to not giving up my back or neck in this move is to keep my leg up tight to my elbow to avoid giving up the hook, and not switching or moving my hands until I'm ready to execute the maneuver to avoid opening up my neck. Essentially, I'm rolling over to my side and bringing my top leg over and down, so from the ceiling looking down I'd look like I'm running. I keep my top hand guarding my neck from a choke, tight to protect from an armbar, elbow to my top knee to keep him from stepping over and getting a hook in. When I'm ready to move, I can do one of two things that we learned. The first is to switch my hands and then step through and turn to my other side facing my opponent while at the same time pushing off his shoulder and bringing my knee in. The other thing I can do is to nonchalantly secure a strong grip on his wrist, and then when I'm ready to move, I just move around to my knees, control his arm and then armdrag to take his back or do whatever I want from there.

In spite of my being pretty tired, I had fun in sparring. I went with Todd, who's a very good wrestler. He's always fun to go with because he's got a very strong side control and is difficult to control from guard. I did my best and it went pretty well, although he did get me with an armbar. I also rolled with Doug. We went at about 1/2 speed. Not exactly light... just not as explosive. I got some stuff to work and it gave us both a chance to work hard but have some time to think about technique. My final match was with Abraham, who is a blue belt but gives up several pounds to me.

One thing that I'm really working on are chokes. I think I'm ready to pick up some variations, so I'll work on that in the coming weeks. There's a particular set up that I'm really getting to work a lot of the time. I don't finish it every time, and of course the strength and skill of my opponent makes a big difference, but I'd call this about the highest percentage move I have and I get it deep on many opponents. It starts with a cross collar grip. I usually start with this grip and a grip on my opponent's arm to control their posture and break them down. I'll switch it up as necessary and then when I can, I'll bring my other arm around the back of that same side... kind of loose. It's obvious that I'm working for a choke, but it seems like my opponent's consistently worry more about their posture then any imminent choke. I don't have my arm underneath, so they don't really think they're in trouble. So, I give them enough slack and almost invariably they bring their head up through my arms, almost giving me a deep cross collar choke.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing. I'm going to try and make class on Friday. If not, I'll definitely be in Sunday.

If I still enjoy my birthday, does that mean I'm still young?

While there are so many people in the world and only 366 (at least, during a leap year) possible days upon which to be born, I still think it's neat to share birthdays, particularly when they're people you like. Coach Foster and I share a birthday, which is very cool. Of course, he's... a little younger than I am... and maybe a little more athetic. Damn, now I'm getting depressed. I'll bet he'd kick my ass in video games, too. Nevermind. Enough about that.

I also share a birthday with my dad, which growing up was always made to be a treat. Excepting a few rebellious years in my youth, my dad and I have always been close, and I've never felt like I was being cheated out of a share of the limelight by sharing his birthday. On the contrary. Even as a young kid, I always felt like it was a special thing to have been born on his birthday, and I appreciate it even now.

My son's doing extremely well in school this year, and we believe that this is in large part due to the personality of his teacher. His teacher is a young man with a lot of energy who is sharp, articulate and holds the kids to a very high standard. He also happens to have been born on my birthday, too! :) See where I'm going with this?

Two of my favorite movies of all time are the Bourne Identity and Ocean's Eleven (and all of the sequels to a lesser degree). These two movies, as well as the Departed (damn, that was a good movie) all starred Matt Damon who has charm, wit and talent... who was also born on my birthday!

If you're interested in seeing what Wikipedia has to say about your birthday, including events, as well as who was born and who died, just click on the day here. If anyone gets anybody good, let me know! :)

As for birthday celebrations, I had a very nice day. I got to see everyone off to work/school, took the day off and hung out with the dogs. The four of us drank coffee and played video games (Bioshock) until about 11am. I met my wife for lunch, then drove home and played some more Bioshock. Oh, I took some time in the afternoon to sit on my front porch, enjoy the cool but nice weather and smoke a cigar while reading a book. It was a great day!

We had a nice steak dinner, cheese cake for dessert and I got to open my presents, which included a new shirt and tie for work, and a bunch of smell good stuff. I also got a new bag for work, too, so I can give my son back his backpack.

All in all, it was a good day!

While playing video games and relaxing, it did occur to me to wonder at what point do we stop enjoying our birthday? I hear about people for whom birthdays are bad days, who dread getting older or consider certain birthdays to be ominous milestones. I just don't get it. What do you guys think?

Blogging 101

As I get more comfortable blogging and begin to open up the topics to include the occasional post outside of training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I'm finding that I just don't know a lot of things that other bloggers take for granted. I think it has to do with how I came into this entire subculture of blogging. Where most bloggers go into it with the intent of starting a blog, gaining readership and trying to market their blog and, in some cases, make some extra cash, I stumbled into blogging largely by accident. My coach recommended that we all keep a training log and suggested that setting up a blog was really easy. Turns out he was right.

The result is that I sometimes don't know simple things. Like, what is a meme. What a strange word. Turns out (thanks Google) that meme's are "a type of Internet meme that requires active participation by the blogger and rarely traces back to an originating source. It's often a series of questions that a blogger answers to share some personal perspective or experience on random topics." There ya go.

I try to avoid most of them, but every once in a while, I get tagged to respond to a meme. Honestly, when I don't want to respond to them, I do what I do in real life and that's to pretend that I didn't hear the question (don't tell my wife). :)

But I'm feeling SO much better after getting over this exotic, Canadian cold, so I'm going to take a stab at this one: 7 Random Things About Me. I was tagged by BlackBeltMama over on her blog, even as I learned that her husband too the easy way out and brought back Chocolate from Germany... instead of being bold and bringing back a cuckoo clock or a CD collection of Bavarian Polkas from the Hofbrauhaus!

So, without further ado (or if you're tired of reading this, adieu), 7 random things about moi.

1: My fingers are double jointed. All of my fingers bend back further than most peoples'. As a kid, when I was more flexible than I am now, I could bend my fingers back so that they were flat against the back of my hand... a neat trick for "grossing out the girls" in elementary school. They're still more flexible than most, and my pinkies can still make it back to touch the back of my hand. Ewww.

2: I am addicted to Petfinder.com. Petfinder is a tremendous resource for anyone who wants to be a part of the solution for animal overpopulation. We currently have three dogs, all adopted from shelters/rescues. I am a huge fan of adopting dogs from the pound or a rescue rather than from a backyard breeder, or worse, from a pet store. I won't get into the many reasons that this not the best thing to do, but if you're interested check out the links or just do some reading.

Duke is a Great Dane/Boxer. I got Duke from the Humane Society in Bellevue, WA. He was 18 months old and weighed at the time about 85 lbs (he's a svelte 115 lbs now). Like many of the bigger dogs, Duke was picked up by a family that didn't think about how big he was going to be when he grew out of his cute puppy stage. He was also an "outside dog" (no such thing, as far as I'm concerned) and would routinely cruise the neighborhood after jumping their 6' fence. To their credit, he was well socialized and relatively well trained and is the Best Dog Ever. Duke's pushing 11 years old now, which is getting up there for a dog his size. He's slowing down some, but still has plenty of puppy left in him.

We adopted Ajax and Apollo from a shelter in Eastern, WA. It was a drive, but we found them on Petfinder. This particular rescue would pull pregnant dogs from the high kill shelters in the area, whelp the litter, and then after spaying/neutering the lot of them find them all homes. So, we picked these two mutts up that way. We were only going to adopt one, but they were irresistible.

While they're littermates, we think there must have been two dads in the mix. I guess their mom (who is a sweetie), ran with a pretty bad crowd for a while. Ajax, as best as we can guess, has some Australian Shepherd and Great Pyranees, along with... some other stuff. These seem to be the dominant breeds, though. The Pyranees has given Ajax a rebellious streak that has earned him the nickname "Devil Dog."

Apollo is also clearly some Australian Shepherd, and we think Newfoundland. There may be some Chow in there, but I tend to think not. Apollo has a very efficient metabolism. In other words, he's a wide load. His nickname is "Little Fatty."

All told, we have about 300 lbs of dog who live with us, and no, they're not outside dogs.

3: I love to read. I've always been an avid reader, and will read just about anything I can get my hands on. I still enjoy Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but not as much as I did when I was a kid. That said, I am a sucker for Robin Hood and King Arthur. I've read just about every telling of those stories I can find. I'm currently working through Scarlet, a book by Stephen Lawhead and the second in a trilogy on Robin Hood. Turns out that he's also written several King Arthur books. Those are on my birthday list.

4: Speaking of birthdays, I was born on my dad's birthday. Pretty neat. Growing up, my mom was great about baking two cakes, and rather than feeling like I was getting cheated out of my share of the limelight, I always thought it was pretty darned cool. One of my brothers also has a son born on his birthday.

5: I love honey. I have to really be careful, or I'll gain 30 lbs just from eating too much honey. While living in Boston, MA for three months on a detail for work, I was cursed/blessed to walk past a farmers market daily where fresh honey was sold. Mmmm... quickly regressing into my old bachelor habits, I would stand over the sink and have slices of toast with butter and honey while drinking a beer. Only one dirty dish, and that was a butter knife. :) I came back after three months weighing in at 225 lbs or so. Dayum.

6: I still play Dungeons and Dragons. That's right. I admit it. I've played them all, from the old Basic set where an Elf was a race and a class, through AD&D, 2nd edition and now D20/3.5. To be honest, it's more a time to get together with my friends and socialize. We all have kids, and so the kids get together and play video games or outside when the weather's nice, and we have a good time telling stories and being geeky. I started playing back in the 6th grade. At the time, there was a fervor amongst some insisting that D&D was leading to kids acting out and accidentally killing each other in real life. This is ridiculous, much as we see that video games, rock music and any number of other things are blamed. To my mom's credit, she never bought into that crap and always encouraged my brother and I to use our imaginations.

7: Joe Biden is my guy in the upcoming elections. I am not interested in getting into any sort of political debates. I realize that he won't get the Democratic nomination (which irritates me, because I'm not all that keen on Clinton or Obama), but he's the candidate that best represents my political views... and he has a voting record in congress that demonstrates his willingness to vote according to his beliefs. I think that he's got the experience and the political savvy to be a great president who just might be able to pull us out of the current... we'll call it era.

Now, I guess it's good form to share some of the love. So, I'll tag my buddies at Brain Cheese, You're a Fly, and ChattieKat at The Kat House.

Wednesday Class 10/03/2007

Big class today, and after my sinus infection my energy level was kind of low. It's been a week and a half since I last made a class and I was feeling it. Fortunately, warmups were somewhat light and technique involved an escape from a straight ankle lock.

In warmups, we worked on our armbar and armbar defense from guard. I enjoy that drill and like to take any opportunity to work on my armbar from guard. So, as soon as you feel the armbar getting locked in you react first by stacking your opponent. The instinctive response is to try and stand up and pull your arm out. That would be the wrong thing to do, and would only serve to straighten your arm out, sinking the armbar in tight and possibly blowing out your elbow. So, keep your arm bent and really put pressure on your opponent's hips and legs. Next, I grab my opponent's collar, thumb in and get some pressure on his neck with the blade of my wrist. He's trying to armbar me, so I'm not too concerned with his comfort. Then, keeping pressure on his legs with my head to prevent the armbar, I jerk my arm out... short jerks, as many as necessary. Once free, I'll use my shoulder and chest as a pivot point to take side control.

Defense against the straight ankle lock was different than the one that Coach showed us a few months back. In this one, my opponent takes the ankle lock and I immediately try to buy myself more time by posting up on my arm, turning my foot out and pulling my toes back. I'm then going to scoot my hips over his leg, then push my foot all the way through so that I can regain guard. This is a very simple counter, but almost impossible to describe in a way that makes sense. One of these days, I'm going to figure out a way to get pictures taken.

Anyway, it was a very large class, so instead of rolling as normal, Coach picked five guys to be in the middle and we ran 2 minute rounds. I'm continuing to work on some different chokes. I'm going to spend some time looking into some variations, and tips on finishing and getting the tap. I'm so close so often, and can feel that the choke is in deep, but I'm not finishing. There's a detail that I'm missing.

Back from the brink...

Well, it's been a week and a half since my last post and I finally felt up to going back to class. I'll write that up next. I've been getting over a crud that started as a result of a ton of cleaning I've been doing around the house and at work. I'm allergic to dust, and so the cleaning really got my sinuses in a tizzy. Just to make matters worse, my wife brought home some kind of mutant cold from Canada.

Anyone else catch an episode of Kitchen Nightmares? It's a show where Gordon Ramsey goes to restaurants in trouble and fixes them up. So far, the recipe seems to be dysfunctional staff lacking clear leadership and a really gross kitchen in which either nothing works, everything is rotten and gross, or both!

I'm halfway through a four month developmental detail where I'm working as a supervisor. The office has a new manager who I really like, which is great, and who wants to work on the office culture and environment to make it a nicer place to work. I've been working to that end for the last two months. While a lot of it has been trying to learn the ropes of being a supervisor, helping out with the backlogs, workflow, and all of that kind of stuff, last week I had a chance to get some of the... just crap out of there. I firmly believe that you can't cook in a dirty kitchen. Not just for the hygiene of it, but you just can't be creative when there's junk all over the place. Same goes for sex, art... everything. Wait... not just a dirty kitchen... I mean wherever it makes sense. I'm not advocating sex in the... oh, nevermind.

My wife likes to read books about organization and decorating, but to me it's all about keeping the junk levels down so that everything has a home that makes sense. No great mystery. When things are in order, you just feel better. So, as things get piled up, get more and more agitated until at some point I take a few days and purge the crap. Most gets trashed, recycled or donated to Goodwill, and the rest finds a home. Gordon Ramsey seems to do two things on his show. First, he identifies the deadweight and either gets rid of them or turns them around. Second, he cleans up the kitchen and organizes it. So, in my own way, I'm trying to do this for my new office, or at least as much as I can get done without stirring things up.

My first impression coming back of this office is that it's claustrophobic. I personally think that there are way too many file cabinets. The solution to organization after I left seven years ago was apparently to buy more file cabinets. They're everywhere now, narrowing the aisles between the cubicles and providing more surface space upon which to stack more crap. The other notable change over the last several years is that the staff of the office has been reduced a bit, so now there are several empty cubicles which, once again, provided yet another area in which to stack more crap. Thinking back to when I was pushing paper and processing claims, I can't imagine getting anything done when I'm sitting in what amounts to the stereotype of a cluttered office.

Another thing that really bugged me was the stockroom. As a government agency, we use a ton of different forms. Lots and lots of forms. Most of these forms are online now, as are the disability folders and such. So, going into the stockroom, a guy can't find anything in there because there's so much crap. The forms we do need are buried amongst the forms we don't... the perfect camouflage.

Getting to the point... finally... I spent a few days around the office. I recycled many forms that are obsolete, as well as envelopes that we can no longer use, phone books from 2003, and anything else that I felt could go. I threw away anything that we couldn't recycle. We had old headsets that were just... nacky. Oh, and mouse pads and wrist rests that were faded and gross. Who's going to want to pull that out of the stockroom? Not me... so garbage for that. I was able to get the post office to take back about 50 cases of priority mail envelopes, so that cleared out a ton of room, and worked to put everything that remained in a reasonable spot so that it was accessible to everyone.

I did what I could to make the rest of the office nicer, too, but that's a larger project that will take some time. I'm hoping, and firmly believe, that with everything in a home people will be happier and more productive on the job. I guess we'll find out.

The side note, however, is that by Friday, my sinuses were impacted and I was on my way to a sinus infection! Yippee! Just in time for my week off.