Just in case I ever have something to say

What does it mean to win in the gym?

2011-03-18T11:31:00.000-04:00

I post on a lot of BJJ forums. In other news, the sky is blue. I know. This is not news. Every week or two, there is another new post from a grappler, talking about "winning" in the gym. The post is usually one of a few different types. First, the grappler is brand new and wants to know when *he's going to start winning rounds. Normally, he means he wants to know when he's going to start submitting other grapplers. The second type is from the grappler who's been training for a few months (usually 4-6) and has "caught" an upper belt. He doesn't know that the upper belt is working on something new or is letting him work, etc. and foolishly brags about it on an internet forum. Then, there's the "I should have my X belt" or "how long will it take me to get my X belt" folks.

So, after seeing all of these threads (and at least a hundred variations of each one), I thought I'd talk about what I think it means to 'win' in your academy. First, winning is reserved for places where cash, medals, trophies, belts, or even swords are on the line. Hands are raised, referees are involved, etc. When you're training with your team, you're both winning. You're both getting better at jiu jitsu (ideally). That's sort of the point here. You actually can lose in your academy. Read on to find out how.

Ways to lose in the academy:
1) Only play your A game (which means you never develop any other game)
2) Only train with people that you are better than
3) Hang out in safe positions (hello, half guard of desperation!)
4) Take no risks

Are you seeing a trend here? The best way to lose is to never put yourself in a position to LEARN. You're paying good money for those ass kickings. Take them with a smile. Learn from them. Stopping someone from passing your guard by holding them in your half guard (I am so, so, SO guilty of this - so much that I'm pretty sure I'm the reason for a new rule in our academy) doesn't mean you 'won'. No one won. You had a boring round where no one got better at jiu jitsu. If you're stalling in half guard bottom, give up the pass and figure out how your opponent got there so you can stop him next time.

If there's, say, a 130 lb brown belt woman (hi, Marissa!) in your academy that armbars you 82 times in 5 minutes, don't avoid rolling with her. Learn to keep your arms safe. "Win" by making her switch to a triangle to tap you next time. (This is how I "win" when I train with Marissa, anyway - it's the little things in life.)

Set attainable goals for yourself that constitute a win for the day. Hit the sweep you've been working on against someone 1 belt above you. WIN! Work out the details of a new guard pass or the bow & arrow choke. WIN! Successfully defend an armbar against Marissa. DOUBLE WIN! (Trust me.)

If the only way you think you can win is by tapping someone out, you're going to spend a long time and a lot of frustrated hours losing. The academy is your home. Your teammates are like your big, dysfunctional family. Learn with them. Learn from them. If someone keeps doing something to you that you just can't puzzle out, ask them how to defend it. If they show you the defense, you BOTH win. Know why? Now you both have to get better at jiu jitsu. It's awesome that way.

*I'm saying he/his for ease of typing. Women want to win just much as men, though.

2010 BJJ Stats

2011-01-03T11:15:00.001-05:00

I trained 126 times in 2010. I also had to take most of February, all of March, and some of April off for surgery.

This doesn't count days where I trained in back to back classes (or back to back to back), or am then pm classes. This also doesn't count competing, since I didn't do it a single time. I'll be improving that in 2011.

Still, my numbers are up from 2009 by a good bit, so I'm happy. Here's to raising them even more in 2011.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Open letter to gi manufacturers

2010-12-21T08:21:00.002-05:00

If you make a gi for women, we will appreciate it. If you take a woman's build into account, we will be even more likely buy your gi. It is not necessary to cover the gi with Pepto Bismol pink accents (or, Doogie Howser forbid, make a solid pink gi) to entice us. Really, standard white/blue/black gis are fine. Honest. Just make them fit us and we'll be happy. Honestly, I don't even care if you want to keep making the pink ones for the women that like them, but could you please, PLEASE give those of us that don't want to be dressed like a Care Bear some decent options?

Sincerely,
Grumpy Bear

Finally!

2010-06-08T22:39:00.000-04:00

After nearly 5 years of training BJJ, I have my first black eye. I don't think it's going to be a terribly impressive black eye, but it's all mine.

In other news, I had four women in class again tonight, and I feel like I'm getting the timing of the class down a little better. Tonight, we had a brand new woman, so that slowed things down a little bit and I didn't show the submission I was planning to show. Ah, well...next week. I'd much rather make sure that they feel good about what I did show, instead of rushing them through the things on my lesson plan. I also feel like they're getting the things that I show them, which is cool. I wish I had more time to watch them sparring in the regular classes to see if they're remembering things and trying them on larger opponents. I'll have to remember to do that soon.

Now that I'm done icing my eye (with a bag of lima beans), it's bed time.

One month down

2010-05-26T13:36:00.000-04:00

The first four women's classes are in the books. Well, technically, they're in my handy little Sasquatch notebook. True story. The classes are going well, and Rachel gets a gold star for perfect attendance (or she would if I had any gold stars). Last night, there were 4 women in class, which is a new record. I was really excited to have 4 women last night because I showed my favorite armbar from s-mount. I'm figuring out the timing of things, and keeping another idea or two for each class in the back of my head in case I need filler. More often, I end up needing to skip something in order to make sure we have time for positional sparring. I've noticed that some women tend to bail at the end of regular classes without sparring, so I want to make sure that they're getting a little bit of that in this class.

Speaking of sparring, I'm back in that achy saddle. I sparred for the first time last Wednesday (5/19), and then again Monday and Tuesday nights. I'm taking tonight off so that I will be semi-fresh for tomorrow night, and then heading off to Orlando to look at a venue on Friday.

In other news, Brian should be able to officially destroy his crutches in a few more hours. I'm keeping my fingers crossed - the sooner he's off of the crutches, the sooner he can walk around and get things off of the top shelves for me.

2010 so far

2010-05-06T14:33:00.002-04:00

My faithful readers (all 3 of you) probably remember that I was hoping for 2010 to be a better BJJ year than 2009. So far, it's been a little rough, but I think things are finally getting back on track. After finding out about the gallstones in February, I couldn't train until April 1. I managed to train 10 times in April, even though I'm not really able to spar yet. Just 12 more days, and the stupid anti-sparring device gets removed, so I can get back on the mats for real, though.

In other BJJ news, I taught my first class last week. I know, I'm a blue belt. Blue belts shouldn't teach. I have believed this since I started training, and I'm sure I've said it on more than one occasion, too. At any rate, I'm officially a hypocrite, but I've come to grips with it. Klint and I talked about a women's class a few months ago, and I tried really hard to get him to convince Marie to teach it, but she doesn't really have the time to do it. Klint asked me if I would teach it, and I told him there was no way I should be teaching anyone. Then, I spent 2 months off the mats, and I started thinking about teaching again. I've always thought I didn't really have any interest in teaching BJJ. I thought I just wanted to be a grappler, not a teacher. Then, I realized that teaching will actually help my grappling. I will improve my own technique by paying attention to the details, and so on. So, there you have it. About halfway through April, I asked Klint if he was still interested in having a women's class some day (thinking that some day would be 6 or 8 months down the road). Klint, being the quick mover that he is, decided we would start in May. Crap. I had 2 weeks to come up with a plan (and students). So, I sent a panic-stricken email to women I know that teach (or have taught) women's BJJ classes (Addie, Alaina, and Jen), and got some advice. Then, I put together some lesson plans for the first 9 weeks (May and June), and sent them to Val for review. I'm pretty sure that without the support of those 4, I would have spent the entire first class making people shrimp or something. Anyway, now that I've made it through one class, I'm feeling much better about the whole thing. We had two women the first night, and I showed 2 mount escapes and a few ways to maintain mount that I like. Then, I asked both women that came for feedback, and they said nice things. I'm hoping Klint also talked to both of them, so he can give me some feedback, too.

In non-BJJ news, I'll be picking up Cheryl's puppy tonight and keeping her at Casa Linzy for the next few weeks, while Cheryl is off lying on a beach and NOT thinking about MRSA test samples. Puppies are fun and all, but I'd much rather be on the vacation.

Things that I wish I learned before I was old

2010-02-02T17:49:00.000-05:00

1) Lentils are delicious. In soup, in salad, as a side dish - so far, it doesn't matter how you serve them. They're just good.

Hmm. That's all I have so far, other than wishing I had heard of BJJ (and started it) when I was 15 or so, and still full of piss and vinegar. Now, I'm more filled with pissing and moaning about the aches and pains caused by jiu jitsu. So not the same thing.

Oh, the bruises.

2010-01-14T11:28:00.000-05:00

My return to BJJ has left me with lots of new bruises, including one on the top of my left foot. That's a weird one. I think it came from someone trying to kick/scrape my foot off in half guard.

At any rate, class last night was HARD, but I had a blast. Let me see if I can remember how it went. First, I helped out with the kids' class. There were two new kids (brother and sister), so Klint worked with the brother while I worked with the 5 year old girl. Working with her went something like this:

Me: Aliya, the first thing we're going to learn is how to stand up.
Aliya: I know how to stand up. I can kick, too. Can I play on that stuff?
Me: No, no playing now. We're going to learn a special way to stand up, just for jiu jitsu. Sit just like me.
Aliya: I want to run around. Can I run around?
Me: No, you can only run if you're on time for class. We run to warm up.
Aliya: I'm cold.
Me: Are you sitting like me? Let's practice standing up now. Pretend your elbow is glued to your knee.
Aliya: Glue! Hahahahaha! (Falls down laughing.)

This was the first 3 or 4 minutes. The next 40 minutes were more of the same. I did get her standing up in base, scooting up and down the mat followed with standing in base, and then we semi-learned what guard, side control, mount, and back mount are. I let her hold onto Brandon's back while he rolled her around. She liked pretending to be a spider monkey.

After making it through the kids' class, the adult class started at 6:30. Dan started the warmups, and Klint said something along the lines of, "Dan, make them do something awful now." So, Dan lined us up and broke us into three groups. We did wind sprints for 30 or 45 seconds/group for 2 rounds. Then, wrestling shots up and back in groups of three again, but I was trying to show a new girl how to do wrestling shots, so I got a little break there. Then, Dan paired us into groups of 3 and we lined up across the mat (think monkey in the middle scenario) to work on takedowns and other awful-ness. Center person runs to person 1, takes him down, bear crawls to person 2, takes him down, run/breakfall/run back to person 1, take him down, bear crawl...until you've done 10 takedowns. Whew. Then, we circled up and did this weird hand thing. Hold your arms straight out in front of you. Make a fist. Now, open your fist, exploding your fingers outward. There must have been 20 people in class last night, and we went around the circle and did a 10-count for each person with arms in front, arms to sides, and then arms overhead. Ow ow ow ow ow.

After that, we did 10 minutes of drilling a butterfly sweep to side control/recompose butterfly guard, sweep to side control, etc. I did that with MikeByrd, who was having big fun trying to sweep me right into being mounted (which he did more than once).

Next up, king of the hill. Marie, MikeByrd, Todd, and Mark remained kings through the entire session (maybe 15 minutes?), regardless of who won. Sweep/submit/pass are the goals...no closed guard. I got a pass that Mike Crawford showed me on Saturday to work on Marie and Todd, and a variation on Mark (I never got matched up with MB during these rounds), so I was really happy. Then, Klint broke us into groups of 3 for 2 minute rounds with people similar in size. Same rules, starting in butterfly guard, and resetting when there was a sweep/submission/pass. I worked with Rose and Marie, and had more success with that new pass. Seriously, this pass is money, yo. That's how much I like it. I had to get all street on you.

Finally, time to bow out, and then we started competition-type sparring. 5 minute rounds, 1 minute break. No resting rounds...you need to rest a round, you're done for the night. I did 2 rounds with Amy, one with Eric, one with Marie, and then one with MikeByrd, and then there was no one left to grapple. All in all, a very long night of hard work.

I'm achy today, but I think the endorphins are still hanging around, because I'm in a pretty darn good mood. Back to the gym tomorrow and Saturday for more of the same.

Thus far, 2010 has been work-heavy...

2010-01-06T18:20:00.000-05:00

...and BJJ-light (by light, I mean nonexistent). I plan to remedy that this weekend, when my antibiotics have had a few days to work some magic on this sinus infection. Then, just in time for my grand return to BJJ, I'll have loads of women coming to visit.

Right now, it looks like Brian will be in upstate NY Saturday - Monday, and I'll have company coming down on Friday night. Kelly, Arial, Leslie, and Jessy will be here Friday night, and then Tori gets down on Saturday afternoon sometime. On top of the traveling women, Cheryl, Andi, Thea, and maybe Barbara and Kinsey are going to come out and train some over the weekend, too. I've also spread the word to Liz, Lo, Cecily, and a few others that I'm hoping can make it to at least one of the three times we'll all be training. Klint is going to open the gym on Sunday morning for us, too. Oh, and I can't forget Marie, Amy, and Meaghan, the women that already train at my gym. It should be the girliest, grappliest weekend in ages!

BJJ in 2009

2010-01-02T09:29:00.001-05:00

In 2009, I trained 100 times (remember my calendar coloring?). I competed once.

Here's hoping 2010 is better than that.

The internet makes the world tiny

2009-12-03T10:21:00.015-05:00

I left work yesterday around 4:15 to go pick up medals/trophies for our tournament this weekend. This meant leaving the West End of RVA at 5:10, prime traffic time. Add to that the pouring rain (it rains every day, it seems), and it took me about 75 minutes to get home. It should have taken 40, tops. Ugh. Anyway, I'm sitting in traffic, at a red light (for the third cycle, I believe), and I tweeted that the only good thing about traffic was getting to listen to more of the audio book on my iPod right now. By the time I got home, maybe 30 minutes later, the author himself replied to me on Twitter. That's freaky. I think I actually blushed. (I intentionally didn't mention the author or the book here because I'm sure his web searches will find this, and I'll blush all over again.) The book is awesome, though, and I'm really glad Brian got me to listen to it.

Oh, Canada.

2009-08-23T23:03:00.002-04:00

So, I'm in Canada. It's sort of surreal. So far, I've hung out at MECCA MMA a lot, ran a double elimination tournament just for women (where we had enough women that not everyone got a medal!), and made it through the first day of a seven day grappling camp. Well, most of the first day, anyway...I didn't do the second training session today because my back is a little sore from traveling and standing on concrete for 8 hours yesterday. Plus, it was no gi.

Canadian things I've done, or will do:

I had a donut from Timmy's, AKA Tim Horton's. I understand this is a very Canadian thing to do. I didn't have a double double, though (which is coffee with 2 creams and 2 sugars), so I may not be getting the full experience.

I will eat poutine. This is a big deal. People don't understand that a lot of us have never had this.

I've met a LOT of grappling women, and got to catch up with some old friends. I'm really interested in seeing how I feel about BJJ after the week is over. Right now, I just feel like going to Sleepytown.

Diamond State Games, Competing, and a weird dream

2009-06-26T08:59:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, we (US Grappling) ran our 4th Diamond State Games. I think it was the 5th one for Andrew, but only the 4th for me. Anyway, it was also our first two day event, and I really liked it. We were out of the venue by 4 or 5 each day, and had a great time. I even got to compete on Sunday, which was nice. I hadn't competed since November of 2007, back when I was still a white belt. (Andrew says the in-house tournament last year doesn't count.)

Competing...it was actually fun. What I remember of the match: I corrected Turkey Sandwich on the match length time, we shook hands, and I pulled guard pretty quickly. I had a hard time gripping my opponent's sleeves because they were kind of short, but I still worked a little spider guard. I went back and forth with that and closed guard for a while, finally dragging her right arm across to my right side and taking her back. I tried for a bow & arrow choke, but my bottom leg was trapped too deep, so I couldn't get the angle. I think we scrambled around a little when she escaped, and I ended up with her in my half guard. I moved to scissor half, and tried for a kimura from there, which allowed her to pass my guard. I got to my knees and ended up mounting her. Wait, I may have already mounted her earlier, too. I forget now, but I think I was up 8-0 when she passed my guard. I'm not sure any more. The final score ended up 12-3. I had submission opportunities (bow & arrow, kimura, the S-mount armbar I love), but didn't really commit to any of them. I'm sort of disappointed in myself for that, but I'm glad I competed, and was able to actually enjoy the experience. I'm alllmost looking forward to doing it again.

Now, the weird dream I had last night. First, there was a pink buffalo. Really. He was the color of cotton candy. He and I had a high-dive act. We would dive off of platforms into a really deep pool. Jen Flannery was there, taking pictures of us in the water. As a matter of fact, a lot of BJJ people were there. I think someone was coaching me and the buffalo, and there was a referee, like in a tournament. Man, I wish I had written this down when I first woke up, because there was a lot more. Still, I can remember the fluffy pink hair on the buffalo very clearly. Plus, I remember how his eyes looked (dark brown, and very calm) and how his nose looked, and how it felt when he would breathe on me.

Looking back, I suspect Miles was standing next to the bed.

Women's open mat weekend

2009-06-16T12:23:00.002-04:00

First, www.clinzy.com and www.chrissylinzy.com now bring you to my blog. Thanks, Brian!!

On to women's open mat weekend info:

Friday night, Brian and I picked Alaina up at the airport around 6:45 PM. We headed off to Andrew's class, where we did 2 takedowns (tane otoshi and sumi gaeshi), followed by an evil straight ankle lock that I had to modify just a little in order to do it. Then, Elaine and Lisa showed up around 9:20 PM, and we waited for Kelly (who went to Richmond BJJ instead of Revolution BJJ on Friday night). We had dinner at O'Charley's, where our waitress worked very hard to keep us happy. Back to Casa Linzy, where we went to sleep around 1:30 or 2 AM.

Saturday morning, I made eggs for people, pretending to take special orders, except I can only scramble them. Luckily, everyone wanted scrambled eggs. Outlier DC made an awesome fruit salad, and Alaina fried some bacon. Off to Richmond BJJ for Burdo's class at noon (Lisa was brave enough to go to the 10 AM yoga class first!), where Eric taught a choke that I really like, along with two sweeps off of the choke setup. Then, he showed a few ways to get your underhook back from half guard bottom, along with one more thing from there that I've forgotten. I like Eric's teaching style - it's very detailed and he gives you the 'why', not just the 'how'. This is very important to keeping my brain happy. The best part about this class is that there were 7 blue belt women, 1 blue belt man, 9 white belt men, and 5 white belt women. The women outnumbered AND outranked the dudes. Very cool to see! At 2 PM, Eric kicked the boys out, and more women started trickling in. We ended up with 18 women at the open mat.

Highlights for me: getting to use my favorite armbar on two people Saturday (everyone at my gym is hip to it now, the jerks), and meeting loads of new women. Some of them even live here in Richmond, so we'll all get together again soon, I'm sure.

After the open mat ended, around 4 or 4:30, we all headed off to shower at different places, and then met up for dinner at Cafe Gutenberg (which was DELICIOUS). Then, we booked back to Casa Linzy (I live about 20 minutes from downtown, but it's worth the drive, in my head) to watch the UFC. Lots of us half-watched, and half-slept through the fights. People cuddled with my dogs (like Lauren).

After everyone left, Elaine and Brian stayed up talking about geeky things until nearly 3 AM. I dozed on the couch, waking up to toss in random (appropriate) comments from time to time.

We all got back up around 8 AM Saturday, and headed to brunch at Galaxy Diner. Galaxy offers things like Oreo pancakes and trailer park pancakes (which is actually french toast, stuffed with peanut butter and bananas). Despite common sense telling us not to move, we headed to Starbucks to kill a little time before the open mat started at 1 PM. The open mat had 7 or 8 women at it (Alaina, Elaine, Lisa, Leslie, Rosie, Andrea, Eva, Lo, and me...I hope I'm not forgetting anyone), plus another 6 or 8 guys. I think all of the women got to roll with Andrew and Vince, our awesome purple belt dude.

Lisa and Elaine headed back to NoVA/NJ around 2:30 (right as Eva, Andrea, and Rosie showed up), and Brian and I left with Alaina and MikeByrd around 3:15, so we could get Alaina to her flight home on time. I dropped her off at the airport around 5:15 PM, picked up some dinner, and went to bed at 8:30 PM. It was a fantastic weekend, but exhausting.

What defines you?

2009-05-15T11:49:00.002-04:00

I know a lot of people who define themselves by one aspect of who they are. "I'm gay", "I'm black" (oh, sorry, African-American), "I'm a Catholic", "I'm a mother", "I'm an IT nerd", "I'm a gun nut", "I'm a conspiracy theorist", "I'm a collar-popping douchebag"...you get the idea. Sometimes these labels come from your parents, or your heritage, and you've never known anything else. Sometimes, you find out something about yourself, like sexual preference or collar-popping propensity, and you're so happy to finally find others like you, this becomes everything about who you are. No decisions are made without considering what others like you will think. I think if most people stop to think about who they really are, they'll find that being defined by just one part of the whole is really a disservice.

Personally, I have been having a hard time connecting with people at work, because I don't want to be friends with them. They don't grapple. Then, I realized that I was doing the same thing that I see other people doing, and defining myself as a grappler. That's not all I am. I'm also a wife and an IT nerd and a chick who isn't too good at being one, and a blonde and a million other little things. I wouldn't want anyone else to write me off as "just a grappler", and I was a little disappointed with myself when I realized that I was doing it on my own. It's time for me to stop dividing people into grapplers or civilians and get to know these people I've been working with since last fall on their own merits. They're actually a fairly interesting bunch, including a semi-pro hockey player, a semi-pro bass fisherman, a native of Uganda (I think), and so on. Interestingly enough, if I asked them to label themselves, I think Christian scores high on each list. Makes for an interesting dynamic, for sure.

Once again, I suck

2009-05-07T18:06:00.002-04:00

I'm barely training, I never blog, and I'm behind on almost all of my TV shows.

In the good news column, US Grappling is running tons of tournaments, and we're finally making progress on booking venues. Oh, and my sister is graduating from college this weekend. I'm very excited for her (but bummed that I'm going to miss it because I'll be at a tournament).

At any rate, it's time to go do stuff outside my house now. I'm going to get the email blogging deal set up, though. Honest.

On donating platelets, and hating Duke

2009-03-27T18:40:00.002-04:00

So, this is how my week went. Monday, I went to work, then went to BJJ. After BJJ (which didn't end until 10), Brian and I had a US Grappling meeting at Glory Days with Andrew. I got home around midnight, and in bed around 1 AM. I think I fell asleep by 1:30 or so, and the alarm went off at 6:15. Tuesday, I knew I had to get to bed early, because I had to be at work at 5 AM on Wednesday. So, I made it to bed at about 11 PM (so much for early), and got up at 4 AM to go to work. Another night of 5 hours of sleep. Yay. After getting to work well before dawn (not good times), we couldn't even start testing until around 7, so it was a waste of my sleep-time anyway. Boo. At 11:30, I headed down to the blood drive, which brings me to donating platelets.

Donating platelets is weird. Just weird. First of all, it took nearly 2 hours. I sat in the room for nearly an hour before I could even start, because they only have 2 platelet-donation stations. So, I watched Forest Gump with the rest of the donating folks, and sent a bunch of text messages. At about 12:30, Forrest Gump ends and it's finally my turn. One of my coworkers had already warned me that when they're returning your blood (well, the non-platelet part), you'll feel cold and your lips will tingle. Boy, was he right! Since I had never donated platelets before, I got to experience the default 8 cycle system. For 5 minutes, they pull blood out of my arm (with a giant needle, I might add). The entire time, I'm squeezing a little sponge-type thing, so I can keep the blood-sucking machine happy with the rate that I'm bleeding. The more I think about this, the less I like it. Anyway, even squeezing every 2 seconds, I don't bleed fast enough. I suppose this is good for most aspects of my life, but not at all good for donating blood on a schedule. Moving on...after they draw blood out, it starts getting returned to you. Now, the cells that they're returning are mixed with saline (hello, cold) and something else. About 2 minutes into the 5 minute return process, I start feeling queasy. I have a terrible metallic taste in my mouth, my lips are tingly, and I'm cold. About 4.5 minutes in, I'm shivering. Repeat 7 more times. At about the halfway point, one of my coworkers got me a can of orange juice, which was nice. It got the weird taste out of my mouth for a few minutes, anyway. Now, normally on release Wednesdays (the crappy days that I have to go in somewhere between 3 and 5 AM), I get off work in time to go to the 2 PM BJJ class. This is by far the best class of the week, and I hardly ever get to go. Unfortunately, after this whole platelet fiasco, training for 2 hours was not on the agenda. Instead, I went home around 2:30. Brian and I got some groceries, he made a delicious London broil, and I fell asleep around 6:30 PM on the couch. At 10:30 or so, I got up, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I slept until 6:30 on Thursday morning. Oh, and if you're interested, if you're just looking at a bag of platelets hanging there on the blood separating machine, it looks like melted ear wax. It's this weird yellow color, and looks thick and goozy. It was gross.

Thursday and Friday were normal work days (all crap). Tonight, I am skipping BJJ. I have no good reason. I just want to be on my couch, and not drive across town in the rain. I'll go tomorrow, though. It's an open mat, since Andrew is out in LA for the Pan Ams.

Oh, and Duke can suck it. They were supposed to win the stupid NCAA crap, and they lost to crappy Villanova. Way to screw my bracket, jerks.

Oatmeal

2009-03-19T07:35:00.003-04:00

For years, I've wanted to like oatmeal. I like oatmeal cookies (but not the ones with raisins in them), so it seemed like there should be a way for me to eat oatmeal for breakfast. I tried all of the instant oatmeal with fruit, with cinnamon roll flavoring, maple and brown sugar, etc., but they all tasted weird and mushy to me...sort of like a bowl of mushy chemicals. So, I had pretty much accepted that I wasn't ever going to actually like oatmeal. Then, I found McCann's Irish Oatmeal in the hippie section of the grocery store. I liked the can, so I figured even if I didn't like the oatmeal, I was still getting a neat can out of the deal. (No, I had no plans for this can...it was just neat.) So, Brian makes some of this new oatmeal, and it's not too bad. I put some fresh fruit in it, and some nuts, and I found that it wasn't too bad. The only down side is that it takes like 45 minutes to make it. Boo! No way I'm getting up 45 minutes earlier to make oatmeal for breakfast. Sometimes Brian will make a big batch, so we just have to reheat in the microwave, which works. The other day, I found oven toasted oats in the hippie section, and they claim that this oatmeal cooks in 3-5 minutes. I made some this morning, and it was more like 10 minutes, not counting the time it took the water to boil, but that is still preferred to 45 minutes. I'm having a bowl of semi-instant oatmeal right now. I added a little brown sugar, a bunch of pecans, and some sliced almonds. It's good. Not tolerable, but GOOD. It's so nice to finally have a breakfast option!!

New plan redux

2009-03-17T10:03:00.003-04:00

So, I made my grand new plan, and promptly got sick. AGAIN. I'm so freaking tired of coughing. I think I've trained 3 times in March. Sigh. I did go to the open mat on Sunday, though. That was a lot of fun. MikeByrd showed me how he sets up a bicep slicer using his 'squirrelly foot' that I'm looking forward to playing with. Even if slicers aren't legal for me for about another 10 or 20 yeas, it's a good setup...leads to a reverse armbar / kimura / straight armbar (if the person defends the first, you go to the next, and so on).

Other than that, things are about the norm. I would like some Thai food. That is all.

New plan

2009-03-05T11:48:00.001-05:00

Over the last few days, I've been thinking about changing my BJJ mindset. Typically, I go to class when I feel like it, & train as hard (or as soft) as I feel like training at that moment. Since I'm fairly lazy & hate losing, this tends to lead me toward rolling light, or just staying home. My new semi-plan is to treat BJJ more like a part-time job. I need to be training 3 times a week, & training hard. I'm starting to think I need to commit to competing in a certain tournament or something, in order to make myself stick with it for more than a few weeks. Guess I'll have to look at the tournament calendar & find one to do, or come up with another way to get motivated.

Blackberry blogging

2009-02-27T10:16:00.001-05:00

Since my public (and by 'my public', I mean Kelly) demands more blogging, & since my tech support (and by 'my tech support', I mean Brian) has pointed out a myriad of ways that I can blog while working, I've decided to try one out. I'm blogging using Opera Mini, on my Blackberry. I typically like Opera Mini, even though it's a little weird with the zooming.

Now, on to actual blogging, or something. Thanks to Brian, I've started listening to TED talks on my iPod. They're great! Plus, they're all right about 20 minutes long, so they're perfect for the drive to work. If I were blogging from a computer, I'd post links or something. Sorry.

So, I suck at blogging

2009-02-26T20:59:00.002-05:00

Here's the thing. My job blocked http://www.blogger.com/. I can't blog from work. That's when I feel "bloggy". In the evenings, if I'm not training, I play Mafia Wars, Scrabble, Lexulous, Scramble, or Word Twist. I don't do thinking things after work, aside from BJJ. Work uses up all of my thinking power.

Okay, that's not true. I have plenty of thinking power left. I just don't think about blogging when I'm not at work. That's really what it boils down to, I think.

In better news, I'm still keeping track of my training for the month. Unfortunately, February has been crap-tastic for training. I think I've trained 5 times. I spent the first 10 days recovering from a hellacious cold (and I'm still coughing, even now). To make up for it, I'm going to go to NoVA this weekend. I'm going to hit the first hour of the open mat at FightWorks, and then go to Fifty/50 BJJ for the women's class, followed by their open mat. I should make it back to Richmond sometime Saturday evening, as long as I don't collapse on a mat somewhere.

Dogs are funny

2009-02-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

Dogs develop the weirdest quirks. For example, Miles comes in from outside and always goes to the same spot to sit in the living room. He sits with his butt against the love seat, facing the dining room. It's his 'I just came in from outside' sitting spot. He does it every time. It makes no sense, but makes me laugh, just the same. A minute ago, he came in, and Deke's feet were hanging over the edge of the love seat, where Miles needed to sit. He sat down and scooted over until Deke pulled one foot back onto the love seat, so Miles could be in the proper spot.

Deke's biggest quirk lately is lying on the love seat, flinging his head onto the arm of it, staring at me sitting on the couch, and whining. I'm not really sure what he wants, but it's weird.

Oh, and if Brian stomps his feet, it signals the beginning of 'crazy time'. Both dogs, but especially Miles, run around and grab toys and slam into each other in mid-air for about 5 minutes. Then, they need another nap. Ah, to be a dog.

Some Vegas observations

2009-02-03T10:11:00.002-05:00

1) Strippers, stripper-hopefuls, and former strippers (or those that should be former strippers) are everywhere.
2) Everyone smokes.
3) Thanks to the UFC, there were Affliction and TapouT shirts everywhere we turned.
4) BJ Penn has a lot of fans, and they all wear his shirts, too.
5) Vegas is not a good place to be a pedestrian.
6) Slot machines are boring after about 5 minutes.
7) There were more overweight cocktail waitresses than I expected.
8) The best thing about Vegas (that I saw) = lions inside MGM Grand. I could have hung out there all day.
9) The food that everyone raves about is really just okay.
10) It's not as easy to get lost inside the hotels as everyone claims. I suspect that has a lot to do with how much you're drinking while you're there.

Overall, I felt like Vegas is one of those places that you have to go to, so you can say you've been there. I didn't feel the instant love for it like I did for NYC, and I didn't feel the instant need to book another trip. I'm sure we'll go back again, though. Next time, we'll have to take in a show or two.

In other news, I am still sick. Boo.

So much to say

2009-02-02T16:57:00.003-05:00

And yet, I feel too crappy to type it all up.

Short version: We went to Vegas with another couple that we affectionately call the Bleeds. Yep, I know it's a lousy name. Not my fault. Their screen names are Letmbleed and Letrbleed. What else would you call them? Anyway, we met up in Vegas on Friday, watched MMA fighters weigh in (surprisingly anti-climactic, oddly), then had a swell dinner at a Mexican restaurant in MGM Grand. I think it was called Diego's. Anyway, that was probably the best food we had in Vegas. Saturday, we roamed around the strip a bit, and stopped in a few different casinos. I think New York, New York was everyone's favorite. I know I thought it had the best vibe. Plus, I won money at their slots! Okay, so it was $3.75, but still...I'm a winner! Woo! Saturday night, we went to the UFC, where we saw fascinating things, including a UFC fighter in a sequined dress and heels (hooray for Gono!). We also saw sad things, like BJ Penn getting his guard passed and his face pounded repeatedly by GSP. I like GSP, and feel that he's a great champion/representative of the sport, but BJ Penn has always been one of my favorite fighters. It was very sad to watch GSP just run through him. Sigh.

Anyway, I spent the whole time we were in Vegas sick, and I still feel crummy. I'll post more Vegas observations tomorrow or the next day.

Wintery Mix

2009-01-27T08:51:00.002-05:00

Meh. Snow/sleet/ice is falling from the sky. I do not like this, Sam I am. I do not this wintery sham. I do not like it on the road, I do not like it with a toad. Okay, that's the best I can come up with in my grumpy, I-hate-winter mood.

I'm kind of excited that the US Grappling event season is shaping up for 2009. We already have 7 events officially booked for the year, and that's just the tip of the grappling iceberg. I need to get to work on the venues in other cities, though. Those are tough.

Good news about training last night - I trained with a kid who has been coming for a few months now. He got his first stripe last month, so I guess he's been around a while now. Anyway, last night was the first time I had trained with him. He's not at all a spaz, which is super. Down side is that he's going to be kicking my ass within a few months. I better keep training. Anyway, he's a small fellow, so he's a good partner for me.

Other good news about training last night - I defeated Vince's stupid butterfly hook from half guard. Once. He swept me with it about 4 other times, though. Still, one hook defeat for someone who Brian and I have decided must have 6 feet is a win for me. I love rolling with Vince. Love it. Every single time I roll with him, I learn something. I see things that he's doing that are so simple and effective that I try to remember them.

Bad news about training last night - I can't do a damn thing with Parker. Nothing. I flopped around like a fish out of water the whole time we rolled. Sigh. Oh well. Guess I need to suck it up and roll with him every time we're both there.

Tied!

2009-01-26T13:24:00.002-05:00

Right this minute, my pink marks and my purple marks are tied. I've already made Friday and Saturday purple days, since we'll be out of town, and I'm counting those, too. That means that as long as I train tonight, I can't finish worse than .500 (I prefer to think in terms of batting averages, instead of test scores). If I train tonight AND make it to the Wednesday day class, I'm up two classes! It's been a while since I trained this many times in a month, so it feels good to be training regularly again. I think it's going to average out to training 3x a week. I haven't been training like that since last spring, before I hurt my foot. Even better, Brian has trained every day that I've trained. I don't remember how long it's been since he was able to train this often. (Of course, he's just ignoring all of his parts that hurt, but he's still training!)

Let's see...I don't really have anything else worth mentioning, except one more week to FTE status.

I've tripled my reader-ship!

2009-01-22T13:40:00.002-05:00

That's right, folks. I went from one reader to THREE. Woo. I should be loaded off of this blog any millenium now.

In other news, today is dress-up day at work. We have 'visitors', so everyone had to wear 'business professional' clothes. Interesting to see what my team thinks that means...2 ties (not counting my director), 1 sports jacket (with a tie), 3 guys in blue shirts & khaki pants (shocking), one woman in a dress, one woman in a suit (me, but it's a fairly casual one), one woman in a girl's sports jacket sort of thing, and a few 'nice' sweaters.

Also, I am still a lazy bum, and I didn't go to no gi last night. Now I have 3 purple marks in a ROW. Sigh. I'll go tomorrow (famous last words at this point, eh?).

Only one more week until we go to Vegas. I'm pretty curious about seeing what all the fuss is out there. We're staying at The Signature @ the MGM Grand, which is their little boutique hotel that doesn't have a casino in it. It looks really nice, though, so I'm glad that our travel buddies were able to get us such a great rate on the room. Anyway, no casino means we'll be heading over to the MGM Grand to check out that hype, along with watching BJ Penn and GSP beat the tar out of each other at the UFC. Lots of firsts for me next weekend!

http://www.signaturemgmgrand.com/Suites/

Laziest weekend ever

2009-01-20T09:47:00.002-05:00

So, I skipped BJJ Friday night, Sunday (open mat), and last night. That's right. I trained 1 of the 4 times I could have trained over the weekend. Lame. I felt very bad making all of those purple marks on my calendar this morning. I mean, so bad that I'm considering going to no gi class on Wednesday night to get an extra day back. Sigh. Sad times when I'll go to a no gi class on purpose.

On the bright side, Netflix rules. Seriously, it's a lot of fun to poke around in there and find new movies. It's fun to rate the movies. It's just fun. Dan in Real Life? Crappy. Not fun. Not at all.

Oh, I also went to Wal-Mart yesterday and got new lenses for my glasses for about half the price that my eye doctor wanted. Good grief.

New and Different

2009-01-16T13:08:00.002-05:00

First, it seems that I'm going to be a real, live employee of an actual company, instead of being a contractor. Sometime next month, I should be officially official.

Second, Brian just ordered Dish Network. We had satellite when we first moved to Richmond, until cable became available. Then, we switched to cable. Since our cable bill is ridiculous, we're getting rid of the cable and the cable phone. We'll keep our internet with them, but that's all. The Dish plan is WAY cheaper, and has plenty of channels. Plus, I think they're all HD. Woo!

Okay, that's not so much new and different stuff, but I don't have loads of time. I'm really looking forward to the three day weekend here. It's been a pretty taxing week at work, what with the HR dealings and all. I'm really looking forward to training for the next 4 days in a row, and (oddly) toward doing pushups tonight. I sort of like them. Sort of.

I'm officially getting old

2009-01-12T12:46:00.002-05:00

I went to the eye doctor this morning. My eyes still read at 20/20, but they also still don't know how to relax (much like the rest of my brain). So, he's increasing my prescription for my reading glasses once again, and made me promise to actually WEAR them when I'm working on the computer or reading a book. Since this averages out to at least 60 hours or so a week, I'm going to do it. Anyway, he also pretty much described my glasses-wearing history exactly, even though he didn't really know much from before 2005 (when I moved here and saw him for the first time). He said I had probably been given reading glasses when I was a kid (true, 7th grade). He said I had probably outgrown wearing them (true, by 9th grade, I didn't need them any more). He said that after 3-5 years, I probably needed them again (true, 11th grade, I needed glasses again). Then, he said that every few years, my eyes would need a slightly stronger prescription (which has been true over the last 8 years or so...I bump up one notch every visit to the eye doc). The worst part? I'm going to need bifocals before I'm 40. He checked me today to see if I needed them already (I don't), but told me I won't make it to 40 (which is somehow the magic year for bifocals for most people). He said I might make it to 38, 39 if I'm lucky. This is just peachy, since I'll be 35 next month. So, yep. I'm old.

In other news, the hundred pushups seems to be going okay. Tonight, I do 5 sets that look like this: 14, 19, 14, 14, max to failure (minimum of 19). I get 90 seconds of rest between sets. Wednesday, we'll do the last day of week 3 (which is actually week one for us).

Tomorrow, I'll do my initial situp test. I'm aiming for, oh, 10. Yeah. 10 would be good. I think I can do more than that, especially if I put my feet under the edge of the couch or something, but ugh. I need my abs for BJJ.

Speaking of BJJ, my calendar system is working well. I have lots of little pink highlighter blobs on there, indicating how many times I've trained for the month (6 so far), and only 2 purple blobs, indicating how many times I could have trained, but did not. I'm counting open mats in here, too, and one of those two purple blurbs was the open mat yesterday.

Yesterday, Brian and I went to VB and rebuilt two of the computers in his sister's office. Brian spent ALL day working on a third computer, trying to clean it up a bit, but we couldn't rebuild that one yet. Brian will have to go back for that soon, I think. We took the dogs with us, and they were great. Hung out in the office all day, then came with us to Brian's parents' house for dinner. They crashed on the floor and pretty much slept the entire time we were there.

More than BJJ

2009-01-08T08:06:00.002-05:00

We're one week in to the new year, and I've trained 4 of 5 possible times. This is pretty good, I think. I didn't go to Trey's on Tuesday night because after training 3 days in a row, I figured taking a day off would be better than ending up needing a week off. It sucks to miss training with Trey, but he's covering our class on Saturday. I won't miss that.

As the title indicates, I'm actually doing something more than BJJ. Last night, I did 2 situps. Sure, that doesn't sound like much, but today I'll do 4. Tomorrow, I'll do 6. We'll keep going until we've added 2 situps for 100 days. It works out to 10,100 situps in 100 days. Oh, holy crap. What have I gotten myself into? In addition to that, I started the one hundred pushups training program. Last night, after bjj, I did 2 situps and then maxed out on pushups. I maxed out at 25. I think I could have done a few more, but my form was still pretty good at 25, and I just didn't want to do any more. Pushups aren't easy. Anyway, since my baseline is 25, I start at week three. You can read about the plan here: www.hundredpushups.com. Friday, I do something like 12 pushups, then 17, then 13, then 13 more, then max out, with a minimum of 17. I get a 60 second break between the sets. Yay. At least this program is only three days a week.

Brian is also doing the situps and pushups, and so is my friend, Jennie, in Virginia Beach. It will be interesting to see how long we stick with it (especially knowing how MANY situps we're going to be doing). I just figured out that our last situp day is April 16. That seems so far away right now. So very, very far. At the end of all of this, I should have great core strength and abs and crap though, right?

Back in the BJJ saddle

2009-01-06T08:57:00.003-05:00

I'm tracking how many classes I attend now. I never bothered before, because back in the beginning, if there was a class when I wasn't at work, we were at it. Then, we started getting banged up one way or another. Anyway, my system now is to just hit my calendar with a highlighter on the days that I train. It takes 2 seconds, and every time I look to my right, I see how many times I've trained for the month. It will also be interesting to look back at the end of the year, I bet. Anyway, in the last 5 days, I've had 4 opportunities to train, and made it to 3 of them. Not bad. I'm planning to train tonight at one of our affiliate schools, too.

Also, guard passing month is over, and now we're moving into open guard for January. I'm actually toying with attending a few of the no gi classes for this, believe it or not. Maybe I'll do 2 of the 4 or something. Oooh...that actually works, since I'm going to have to be in to work really early on two Wednesdays, which will mean I can be off in time for the 2 PM class. Super.

Food and when to eat it

2009-01-02T12:02:00.003-05:00

I have a lot of rules about what can/should be eaten, and when. For example, pizza is not a breakfast food. Neither is spaghetti. Now, I don't actually like your standard breakfast foods too much (eggs, grits, toast, oatmeal), but I still have clear ideas on what should and should not be eaten for breakfast. Growing up, I liked to eat soup for breakfast. Specifically, Campbell's condensed chicken and {insert pasta form here}. It heats up fast, it was better than eggs (ick), and more filling than cereal. I'm not sure when I got away from the habit, but for the last few years, I've been eating a muffin most days. Muffins, while tasty, are not what you could call 'diet-friendly'. So, no more muffins. (It helps that Starbucks has discontinued the cranberry orange muffins, too.) I think I'm going to have just get over it and start eating oatmeal and/or eggs. Sigh.

Moving on, not only do I have ideas about proper breakfast foods, but also what foods go with what weather conditions. Everyone knows that snow days call for something warm and comforting. Foods that fall into this category for me include chili, mashed potatoes, and fresh donuts. When I was a kid, we would make donuts at home on the first snow day of the year, which was always sort of magical. Anyway, I'm not sure why I even like chili so much, because I don't like most of the things in it. I pick around the tomatoes, I don't like biting into onions...gah. Still, I like chili. I like it on rice, or mashed potatoes. I like it in a bowl with sour cream. I like it with chunks of steak in it (but prefer no ground beef). I like it with beans. Huh. You know what...I like Campbells Chili Beef soup. THAT's where my chili love began. I like this stream of consciousness writing stuff...you just never know what's going to come out.

Today, it snowed. I brought a salad for lunch. These two things do not go together. I ate my salad anyway, but now I want something warm to eat. I'm wondering what will happen if I put an apple in the microwave. I probably won't do it, but a baked apple sure does sound nice right now.

Planning for the next week or so

2008-12-30T11:07:00.003-05:00

I don't have to work on Thursday. Happy New Year, I suppose. I think I'm going to try and use that 'free' day to get some painting done in my house. We've been dragging it out for ages now. I'd really like to finish the stripe in the dining room. If we get really industrious, maybe we'll paint our bathroom, too.

For the record, painting stripes is hard. Get the laser level. You'll need it.

Things I'm pondering

2008-12-29T15:11:00.002-05:00

I'm pondering what sort of quarter-sleeve tattoo I want to get. I know that I want to get one, but I have no idea what to put on it. I'm also pondering the best time of the year to get it. Should I do it when I have about 3 days to heal before going back to work? I don't really work at a sleeve-friendly place, so I'll need to keep it covered, but it needs to have air when it is healing. I guess that means I get the tattoo on a Friday evening when the following Monday is a holiday. Now, if I'm going to have to spend 3 days in sleeveless shirts, it will have to be warm outside. On top of these restrictions, it has to be a time that I don't mind taking a week off of BJJ. Maybe Andrew will teach rubber guard for a week. That would make the BJJ decision an easy one. Anyway, I want something feminine, but nothing from the 'top 10 tattoos for women', if that makes any sense. I'm toying with a magnolia blossom or a stargazer lily, except getting a flower of any sort still feels a little too girly to me.

Other things I'm pondering include which books I want to read next...right now, I'm reading Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara trilogy on Brian's Kindle. Next is Anathem on Brian's Kindle. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is also on there, but I think I'm going to have to give the Kindle back one of these days. When I switch back to books on paper, I'll read The Mote in God's Eye (after Brian finishes it) and the Dune series. Oh, and there are two Lois McMaster Bujold books coming out in January and/or February that I want to read (part of the Sharing Knife series). I also have three or four more Ender books on my iPod to listen to soon. Ack...I almost forgot Singularity. If I don't read/listen to that soon, I think Brian might kick me.

Finally, I'm pondering the things I want my next cell phone to do. I've been pretty happy with the Blackberry 8830, except I can't watch videos on Youtube on my phone, and there's no camera. Now, I don't watch Youtube videos at my computer, so I don't know why I feel like my phone needs this functionality, but other phones can do it, so I want mine to do it, too. Features I don't want to give up include the various IM apps (although I would like ONE app for all IM clients, including Gtalk, AIM, and Yahoo), GPS that talks to me, fast web access, and Tetris. Qwerty is non-negotiable.

Evidently, I like to say recap

2008-12-23T08:48:00.003-05:00

That's right - three titles in a row, now. I'm a recapping fool, it seems.

In other news, Pandora (www.pandora.com) isn't blocked at work. This makes me happy. It's also saving my iPod during the day.

Holidays...Big Family Fun starts tomorrow evening. Brian and I will be heading off to family dinner on Christmas Eve and then spending Christmas day with his sister, her husband, their son, and Brian's parents. Tonight, I better pack and finish wrapping presents (after we figure out what that last present will be, anyway). On the bright side, I think we're going to have dinner at Texas Roadhouse tonight. It should be chock-full of holiday cheer and crap.

Weekend Recap

2008-12-22T13:52:00.002-05:00

Brian is mostly recovered, but still not really feeling up to going places or doing things. We stayed pretty close to home this weekend. I should have done laundry yesterday, but I just read a book instead. Tonight, I'll do a little laundry, and maybe finish wrapping presents for Christmas. Speaking of Christmas...only one gift left to buy. Still have NO idea what to get. Ugh.

I went to class on Saturday, but only rolled with Andrew. He was nicer than usual.

Oh, and now we have a fish. Thanks, Cynthia!

Wednesday day class recap

2008-12-18T09:29:00.002-05:00

Well, ow. We started rolling at 2 PM and stopped at 3:45. Then, we did about 35 minutes of technique. We did 5 minute rounds with everyone, stopped for a 5 minute water break, and then did 4 minute rounds until 3:45. I rolled with Cheryl, Fred, Jose, rested a round, Andrew, Bryan, Dave, Parker, Antoni, Jackie, and Rachel. That took us to the break, I think. Then, Andrew watched everyone roll, to find a common theme for the lesson. I rolled with Cheryl, Fred, Jackie, Isaac, Parker, and Rachel. I think that's it. Andrew showed 3 scissor half guard passes when we were done rolling. It was a good class, albeit painful. I'm pretty achy today, but in a good way.

After class, I checked on Brian (who has been sick for days and days). His fever was back, so we went to Patient First. That was an experience. We were there a little over 2 hours. They took his temperature when we got there (101.3) and tested his snot for the flu. That came back negative, so they took some blood from his finger, swabbed his throat, gave him a shot of some anti-inflammatory to help with his head and body aches, gave him 3 super-strong Tylenol, and rolled in an IV. Two nurses tried to put in the IV, once in the left arm and twice in the right, but failed. The third (and final) attempt punctured through the vein, which allowed saline to leak into the tissue. That burns. Yay. They scrapped the IV plan (after repeatedly telling Brian that his veins were weird, etc.). Brian drank 2 cups of water and the bottle that I brought along, then got to pee in a cup, so that they could test his urine, too. Final result? "It's probably viral, and we can't really give you anything for it." Suuuuper. I'm taking him to his regular doctor at 1:10 this afternoon.

Going to the day class today!

2008-12-17T07:40:00.002-05:00

On the last Wednesday of each month, my office has a release (that's an IT thing - it's when our new numbers/routing/whatever other changes the business needs all go live). Today, I came to work at 5 AM so I could do testing before the phone lines officially open. Getting up at 4 AM was painful, but it means that I should be off work by 1 PM. That means that I get to go to the Wednesday day class from 2-4. This is a gi class (unlike the Wednesday evening classes, which I no longer attend).

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about the day class. The format for this class is slightly different than the normal classes, because it's normally a small class, with more experienced students. It's also a lot of rolling. I'm just hoping I don't suck too much.

Personalized Plates

2008-12-16T10:33:00.001-05:00

After much deliberation, I have decided to put GI CHOKE on my license plate. Dorky? Yes. Do I care? Nope.

So, I forgot that I have a blog.

2008-12-15T11:28:00.003-05:00

That's right. I totally forgot.

Since the last time I posted, I thought I was going to have to have surgery on my foot, here's an update. No surgery necessary. It's been over 6 months, and my toe is still not 100%, but I'm back to training (sometimes) and I don't even have to wear wrestling shoes any more. I took the entire month of June off (and was really pissy about it, because I was finally in a good training groove through the spring). I came back to class on 7/2, and left in tears, because my foot hurt a LOT. I bought wrestling shoes the next day, and came back to class wearing those. Now, July is not wrestling season, and my feet are not man-sized. So, my very fancy wrestling shoes were a) for kids, and b) really obnoxious. Blue, white, silver, and black. For real. Oh well - they fit, and allowed me to train. So, I trained, babying my foot and hardly sparring at all for another month or so. Around August or September, I got into a gigantic BJJ funk. I hardly trained at all, because I was pretty frustrated with my foot (among other things). I am FINALLY getting myself back to training regularly, but I feel like I've lost about a year of training.

Now that I'm back to training, I'll try and be better about posting things here. It might even be about BJJ.

In other news, Brian updated www.educanines.com and made it into a Wordpress site. Wordpress truly does make you want to write. It's amazing. I've been posting a dog training tip there every day (Monday-Friday, anyway), and I love that I can schedule posts to appear on a schedule. I think I've written posts through 12/22 or so, and I have at least 15 more topics in the hopper, so to speak. I've missed the dog world. It's time to get back in there.

Good news and bad

2008-06-11T18:57:00.002-04:00

First, the good news. I got a very cute hat in the mail today. Thanks a lot, Hip Threads! (www.hip-threads.com) It's a little big, but that's okay, in case I ever develop dreadlocks. Okay, so that's not going to happen, but the hat is still cute. In other news, I also got clothes from Soul Flower today. They ship fast, too. Unfortunately, half of my order doesn't fit, so I have to send it back. I have to stop ordering shirts online. It never works out. I thought I'd have a cute, spinny sort of hippie top to wear with jeans. Turns out, it's long enough to wear as a dress, but just makes me look pregnant. This is definitely not good news. So, back that goes. Oh well.

The worst news is that I have damaged a tendon and possibly torn a ligament in my right foot. That's right - looks like I'm in line for my first BJJ surgery. I'm waiting for an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon now, to discuss options. Quick version of what happened - I had a new guy inside my butterfly guard. I planted my right foot and pushed out to armdrag him. When I pulled his arm, he sort of fell onto my leg. My big toe (the hallux - that's right, it's a $5 word) twisted out about 90 degrees, but I didn't have to put it back. I thought this was a good thing, since it didn't actually dislocate and stay pointing the wrong way. I remember thinking that I'd need to ice that later, and continued rolling for another 30 minutes or so, until the end of class. I iced it when I got home, and took some Advil. By the next day, I couldn't really move my toe (or walk very well). I made an appointment with a sports medicine doctor on Monday, and saw him last Wednesday. I got an MRI on Friday, and got the results today.

This is what it says:

Multiplanar MR imaging performed of the forefoot with particular attention to the first digit. An MR visible marker was placed over the area of clinical concern.

There is subtle subcortical cystic chance in the first metatarsal head near its articulation with the medial sesamoid. Sesamoid signal intensity is normal. Remainter of metatarsal and phalangeal narrow signal intensity is unremarkable.

There is a small amount of fluid within the first MTP joint space. The flexor tendon appears intact. Definite extensor tendon abnormality seen. there is minimal fluid adjacent to the lateral margin of the first MTP joint and I cannot positively identify the lateral collateral ligament. The plantar plate appears to be intact.

Meh.

I hate it when Andrew is right

2008-05-29T08:45:00.002-04:00

About a week ago, Andrew (my instructor) told me I should start using the rubber guard setup. I have no idea what random thing the position is called (I've always sort of avoided learning any of the Eddie Bravo names, because they're silly), but it's the basic setup where you hook your arm outside your leg, and then under your knee to cup their shoulder. I know, that's hard to understand. If I weren't so lazy, I'd find a picture.

Anyway, we drilled the setup last Friday night, with the transition to the omoplata. Now, I'm 5 feet tall. I'm not 'leggy', by any stretch of the imagination. I can't easily wrap people up from a mile away with my legs, and I have to modify nearly every technique to account for my body style (as do most people). Moving on...I drilled the rubber guard setup Friday night, and retrained myself to get that setup instead of the normal way I break down the person's posture (I always do some weird thing that doesn't really make any sense to anyone but me, but it's natural now). I don't mean I have 100% cured myself of the weird thing, but that I can actually do this right, if I'm actively thinking about it now.

Last night, a guy that used to train with us pretty regularly came in for the first time in a few months. He's got 8" and 50 lbs on me, easy. I mentally prepared for a little smashing, but rememberd to use the rubber guard. Instead, I submitted him twice in 6 minutes. It works. Damn it, it works.

Do what you say you're going to do!

2008-03-18T12:55:00.002-04:00

If you agree to do something, do it. If a task is assigned to you, do it. No excuses. Don't give me status on the item that is several weeks old, either. Finish shit. Don't expect me to clean up your damn mess.

That is all.

My official introduction to Blogspot

2008-03-14T11:28:00.002-04:00

So, all the cool kids seem to have a blog these days. I've never really thought I had anything worth blogging about, but in order to stay on the cutting edge and crap, here you go.

I suspect this blog is going to end up being about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Thai food, training dogs, and the books I'm reading. Maybe I'll even flag them, so people can only read about the stuff that interests them. Maybe not. We'll see how it goes, but I make no promises.

Now, for the actual introduction: I'm clinzy. I train BJJ as often as possible. I run a BJJ/submission grappling tournament circuit with my husband and our instructor. We all eat a lot of Thai food, and rate the restaurants in our area. I've also been a dog trainer for around 15 years now, but I mainly just help out friends these days. I'm too busy with the 9-5 job, plus the tournament deal, plus BJJ training to train many dogs for money. One day, though. Well, there you have it. Make of it what you will. I'm officially a blogger. Yay.