I just saw Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe. that was an awesome movie and russell crowe is a good actor, he just needs to learn to shut the fuck up. that movie was based on the true story of james braddock, a heavyweight boxer from new jersey who made a huge comeback during the depression when everyone said he was washed up. unlike rocky, the fights actually look like real boxing.

i still like the movie rocky, but taking boxing lessons for MMA ruined the rocky movies for me. you see stallone run across the ring and hit apollo creed 4 times in the head with the same hand. it's kind of ridiculous, but i do like how the rocky movies explain basic the point of prize fighting. if you can go the distance with the champ then that's a victory in itself. in rocky 3, it goes into strategy and shows how rocky gets clubber lang (mr t) to tire himself out by throwing punches. alot of people don't realize that kind of stuff when they watch fights on spike tv.

anyways, i got a bunch of shit on my phone that i want to send to the computer buit i haven't figured it out yet. i can get into the pictures and the video. i can get into the email, but i haven't figured out how to attach pictures and videos from my phone to my email.

...and right now i have 2 celebrity crushes. aside from the obvious ones everybody on this site has (dita von teese, betty page, johnny depp, etc), these 2 are pretty mainstream and not alternative at all.

alicia sacramone. she's got a great body and she's an italian girl from new england....and that's the side of her that the world saw. hey, i don't blame her. those chinese girls were too young to be in the olympics.


and mary kate olsen for her well documented foot fetish



why do i always fall for the bitchy ones?

so now i officially own the MMA group.

and i'm off to a grappling tournament tomorrow at misquamicut beach. it's at paddy's beach i think it starts at 7pm. come watch and say hi if you're in the area.

i've loved misquamicut since i was a kid, but i've never been there at night. i guess there's quite a night life down there. it's also the 2nd largest beach on the east coast next to daytona beach.

so, a month or two ago, i had been going to a bando school to work on my kickboxing for MMA fights. i wasn't paying and bando is similar enough to muay thai that you can kind of use it for mma if the class is mostly drills and sparring. it was kind of cool for a little while, but i don't think i was learning what i should have about striking.

now think of this: a fat, ex-military bando-martial arts nerd. a bullshitter, who tries to act like he's the sensei from cobra-kai in the karate kid. not just a little chubby,not a new guy who came in to classes to lose weight, a huge human pillow who's been "doing martial arts for 20 years." that whole attitude, but he believes his own bullshit. the kind of guy who goes around telling everyone he could kill them 17 different ways. but he's in such bad shape you have to look at him and laugh because you know he doesn't train too often.

((besides, he's never used his combat-death strike moves or he'd be in jail right now. it's not like you can practice those moves so you know if they work or not. i know a triangle choke works because i do it all the time. it still took me like 6 or 7 tries to figure out how to do that. any other move would need to be practiced on a live target just the same.))

so anyway, rex kwon do here is holding the pads for me as i am punching. out of the blue he strikes me with the heel of his palm in my ear. it was right on target and i could feel the nerves in my inner ear going crazy. i flipped out and almost got into a fight with him. he said he was "trying to teach me not to hook my hands." in any other school, they'd give a warning first, then maybe hit a boney part of your skull, but that was a nasty shot.

so we keep training. and we're both being more aggressive, but he's not even trying to work on technique or help me on my technique, he just wants to plow into me with sloppy punches to knock me over while i'm holding the pad. he's an assistant instructor here.

so we do our cardio and at this time i was training for an MMA fight. of course i'm doing the hardest cardio because i'm getting ready to fight. at the end, the cobra kai-rex kwon do guy has me grappling with everyone else starting in mount, and i have to escape and new guys keep cycling out shark bait style. the only one i wasn'y doing submissions on was the 16 year old girl. that's fine. but this guy saves himself for last, thinking he's got me all tired out and he can throw his weight around. i escaped his mount faster than anyone elses, and he grabs onto my leg and holds on for dear life. it's obvious he knows nothing about grappling. i switch around and take his back. i get one arm across his neck for the rear naked choke, i clasp my elbow and he goes "okay, good that's enough for today." he couldn't just bite the bullet and get tapped out.

then he stands up and says "not bad for someone who doesn't do jiu-jitsu huh?"

give me a break.

i told him i had him. he says "well, if this were a real fight i would have just hit you in the throat, blah blah."

what an ass. i don't need to get into a pissing contest with a poor sport who just sticks around the bando club to bully the new guys and tell everyone he's the most dangerous man in the world. it's obvious he has no discipline and no desire to actually learn martial arts. what does he want me to do? stand there and say "yea, man you are the toughest guy in the world. i bet you are even tougher than chuck norris. boy, you sure kicked my ass with that leg grab you did there."

needless to say, that was my last time there at that school.

that's the one thing i hate about martial arts, especially alot of the traditional martial arts. they are full of people who believe their own bullshit. i figured that one out in 2nd grade when the nerdy kid told everyone he was a blackbelt in karate so nobody would beat him up. the only way you can prove that you are a good martial artist is to compete and put up a good fight. if you just go around bragging to everyone then you are nothing but a loudmouth braggard. it's better to just keep your mouth shut.

my new MMA school has taught me alot more about striking in a few weeks than they have in a few months. already, my punches and kicks are quicker, more powerful, and have much more of a snap to them. i am learning from a guy who held 4 different titles in local pro MMA leagues. He knows not only alot about boxing and kicking, but he knows about boxing and kicking for MMA.


***********************************************************


so, nina and i went to a barbecue on the 4rth and then we went out for dessert and coffee on atwells ave in providence. then we went out to some new fetish night they have at this club called the gallery or something like that. i'm not really good at parties or clubs or things like that. i'm more socially reserved, but i do fine in normal atmospheres. i guess it's better that i fight and train alot but don't party as much because i suck at crowded social events. i don't get drunk very often so maybe that has to do with it. but people seem to swarm around nina. i think she's the opposite. she doesn't know as many people as i do but she's always the belle of the ball whenever we go out.

i know so many people, i had no idea i was such a townie. i run into people wherever i go. well, at least in eastern CT i'm a townie.

i also made a sandbag and i have been working out with my sandbag.....

i think I'm becoming the new owner of the MMA group. Drama is leaving the site and he selected me to be the new owner and everyone there seems to support the decision. so, wish Drama well if you haven't, and if you're interested join the group.

That said, it's hard to pick a winner for the Griffin vs Jackson fight coming up. I like them both, I think they're both champion material and are real classy guys. They're hilarious.... but the only thing is Forrest is the underdog in this fight and that might make me root for him.

I'm still going to my Gracie jiu-jitsu school, but while I have some time, I joined the roughhouse it's an MMA school and I love going there. the 2 coaches are awesome. the striking classes are so much better than the bando school I was training at before. This guy teaches MMA striking. It's a hybrid of western boxing, muay thai, and it's altered a little bit futher for MMA. for example, you can't give away your hips to a takedown like a boxer or muay thai fighter might because there are no takedowns in those sports.

Funny story from last week.... I went to this club in Providence called AS220. It's a pretty cool space for DIY punk shows. sometimes they have artsy indie rock crap, for a bunch of RISD kids but i just don't go on those nights. other than that it's got a nice bar and awesome Mexican food. I like it because it's a place for DIY punk shows and I haven't seen too many of those that have run as well as this one.

Now that night, I went looking for an ATM machine from my bank. I didn't know there was a gay bar around there but I passed one about 1 or 2 blocks away from AS220. On the way back there were some drag queens out in front of the bar being funny. I overheard them, chuckled to myself about their giant shoe size and was on my way. About halfway through the parking lot I looked back and noticed someone was following me.

It was a big, fat, mustached, middle aged queen who resembled a walrus in a golf shirt.

"HI"

"....hi..." i answered.

"What's your name?"

"Don't worry about it" yea, it was rude, but it's short and to the point. it's alot nicer than what i felt like saying.... I just want to see my show, go away you old haggy bar queen. I am not cruising this gay bar's parking lot looking for gross old men to bone me in the ass.

the guy got pissed anyways and goes off on a tangent about how i think i'm better than him because i won't tell him my name, blah blah, he tells me I'm being a bitch twice. I was confused for a second there. I thought he was looking for a fight because he followed me and called me a bitch. I got kind of stand offish at that point. You don't call a grown man a bitch....but then I realized he thought I was a patron of the gay bar and he meant it in a queen to queen kind of way.

so i just said "My name is Bill." and Big Gay Al says "well my name is Bill too. You go your way, i'll go mine. Your world is over there, mine is this way." and he walks away with his nose in the air.


okay, so crap.... i've been off of work way too long. i've been trying to do stuff so i don't get depressed from becoming a shut in who spends all day on the computer. So far, I haven't become one of those low-lifes who's always in SG chat.

i'm lifting weights again after a little break i took around my fight, and i'm gonna try to go to the beach some more. i'm also going to a new MMA school in addition to my BJJ classes.

...and a new book. Our Troth volume 1 history and lore. It's basically a book on the history and lore of Germanic Heathenry (aka the viking gods)

the song + the intro from rambo, + don frye kicking the shit out of people in his american flag shorts = pure genius.

okay, so next blog i will talk about why i stopped going to the Bando school, because this weekend I just had another amateur MMA fight and I want to talk about that right now.

So my opponent was this guy who was about 5'9" and he looked like he was 230lbs. the guy was all upper body, built like a brick shithouse. i am 6'5" 204lbs. i seriously think he was above weight, but that doesn't matter. the guy was huge. the fight went the full 3 rounds, and i lost a decision. i legitimately lost though. i wasn't getting pummelled but he did have more takedowns than i did and he had a dominant position for longer than i did.

basically in each round, i landed a few punches, he took me down, he tried to pass my guard while doing some ground and pound, and i tried to land submissions from there. he got into side control a few times and i replaced the guard a few times. he was a solid guy, so it was hard to do much with him. he got tired and just laid in my guard near the end. that sucked cuz he was so heavy. i did attempt a kneebar, an arm bar, and 2 triangle chokes. the triangle chokes and the arm bar were close to finishing. i also cut him above the eye with punches, but it wasn't big enough to stop the fight. if i had been able to hit him more, i might have won by a cut too.

in all fairness, i did try to finish the fight more than this guy did. these amateur fights are mainly just to get me ready for the pro-leagues. it's a good way to get your feet wet because your amateur record doesn't count anymore once you start doing pro fights. i also think that since this was my second fight, i'll be less nervous going into the next one.

i also started going to an MMA school that was started by a local guy who had 6 titles in different minor pro-MMA leagues around here. I still go to gracie jiu-jitsu, but as i mentioned above i stopped going to the bando school. i want to keep going to the gracie school until i get my purple belt, because that's like having your bachelor's degree in brazilian jiu-jitsu. i've got about another 2 years for that though...

the MMA school is awesome. they've shown me some great boxing, clinch fighting, and jiu-jitsu stuff for MMA. just real, basic, simple stuff that makes a big difference. my jiu-jitsu is good, but i definately need to work more on my stand up. i have a ridiculously long reach and i need to use it to its full potential.

okay, i was in stop and shop today with nina and her son michael. i was walking through the health food section and i stopped, lifted my leg up like a dancer and farted real loud. then i looked to my left and there was a guy right there looking at the organic potato chips. i walked away quickly and i almost died laughing.

also.... i complain alot bout people on SG. there's some real shits out there. but today on youtube, i found this series of videos called "the underminer" this is the kind of thing that i'm talking about! people who think they're nice because they pretend they're complimenting you then cut you down with something passive-aggressive in the next sentence. this is hilarious!



...of course i'm familiar with this in real life too. people just act like this on SG aalot. i think it's cuz people don't want to get the zot, so they'll get all "well, i'm just trying to be honest with you for your own benefit but you suck at life and you're ugly too. it's not my fault you can't take criticism.

i've been a vegetarian since i was 15 and i used to be more involved with nonprofits and activism and such.... i know this video is a joke, but people like this are real. and they're attracted to alternative lifestyles. i guess alot of people just like to tell everyone else that they're wrong and having a cause gives certain types another excuse to do that.