I Gotta Try This!!!!

Dude... I am in this position all of the time!! I always get the lapel, and I use it to pass half guard. I like the choke from this position, but, like he says, everybody knows it. Stepping around isn't too fancy and it will certainly be unexpected. Sweet!!

Random Thoughts on a Monday

• Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard is like yellow crack.
• No mater what caliber, make, or model of gun you shoot, somebody will tell you it sucks to your face.
• At the range, no one accurate you were...  But everybody will talk about the asshole who was unsafe.
• Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice.
• Double taps are a myth.  Practice shooting after immediately reacquiring your sight picture.
• You can only be brave if you are afraid.
• Panic is death.
• Practice escaping North-South and Side Control as if a 900 lb world champion black belt is on top of you.
• You can always do just one more burpie.
• Your body reacts differently in high pressure situations.  Seek out safe high pressure situations to ensure that you will react properly if the unexpected occurs (tournaments, ring fights, shooting competitions)
• Rules suck
• Emotions should be felt and experienced, but never acted upon.
• Reason is refuge
• If you are not a professional athlete, there is no reason for training hurt.  Give your body time to heal.
• Never mistake being uncomfortable with being in pain.  
• Seek out things that make you uncomfortable.
• Maintaining a fitness level, weight, cardio level, and skill level is easy.  Increasing same is difficult.
• It always feels good to tap somebody...  Even if it is their first day in class.
• If taking 100% of a person's income is wrong, at what percentage does it become right?
• To make money I must sacrifice some of my time on this earth to earn it.  Therefore money = life.
• If money = life, forcing someone to give up some of there money to someone who didn't earn it is direct theft of life.
• Freedom is too precious a commodity to be given up for convenience.    
• Anything worth anything takes effort and sacrifice to obtain...  And there will always be someone running some scam that promises that you can get it with no effort at all.
• Anyone who insists that their point of view is correct, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary is presented...  is probably very religious.  
• My wife is awesome
• There are few things that are worth more than what you pay for them...  Maui Jim Sunglasses, Glock Firearms, and Vaseline are are few.
• If Bermuda Grass ever becomes self aware and wishes to take over the world, we are all fucked.
• Someday, if you are lucky, some future scientist will be uncovering your belongings and think, "What the fuck???"
• The only way for the human race to survive is to leave Earth.
• After many years have passed, will the descendants of those who left Earth still be human, or will they evolve according to the environment they settle in?  
• Will those humans choose to alter their evolutionary progress to mimic what is happening back on Earth?
• Start calling your body a "Meat Suit."  Laugh at the reactions you get from doctors.

The President, Culture, and Eating Dogs

Wow... Mitt Romney mentioned that the President ate dog as a child. My first reaction is, "Who gives a flying frack?" But then, after thinking about it for a moment, it speaks to a larger cultural issue, and American ignorance of other lands.

In the United States, for the most part, dog is not seen as livestock. They aren't even chattel, as you can go to jail for "mistreating" them. They have a special semi-human status. So, the vast vast majority of people in the U.S.A. have not, and will never eat dog meat. This is not so in many other cultures. In many Asian cultures the consumption of dog meat is normal practice. Asian cultures such as Indonesia, where the President spent some of his childhood, and in Korea where I enjoyed soup made from dog meat.

When I travel, I attempt to do very much as the "Romans" do. I want to eat all of the national foods, hang out in the local cafes, and open myself up to a culture that is very different from my own. It is part of the fun of traveling internationally. Therefore, when I was in Korea, eating dog was very high on my list. Dog is very big in the Martial Arts community in Korea, as dog meat is said to promote strength, and quicken recovery. So, I wanted to make sure that I experienced this unusual, to me, practice. The dog soup came in a spicy, kimchee based soup with vegetables and hard boiled eggs. The dog meat itself tasted like beef, but with a more concentrated beef flavor. It was very good. I would eat it again, and not blink an eye.

In Japan, I have eaten just about everything that they serve. Whale, raw fish of every kind, fermented beans (natto), and... live squid. Live squid is served in a shot glass of sea water. You use chop sticks to grab the squid and shove it in to your mouth. You try to chew, but live squid is very rubbery, and you end up just swallowing it whole. That isn't the strange part... The strange part is that the squid tries to escape. As you try to chew, the squid will be moving around, grabbing your tongue with its tentacles, and doing exactly what you would expect a live animal would do to prevent being eaten alive. The STRANGEST feeling, yes it gets better, is that it will fight for a few moments when it is in your stomach. Yes, you can feel it struggle. The psychological impact of that sensation is that you pretty much feel it moving long after it has been digested... I feel it move as I write this...

The point of all of this rambling about strange, to me, foods is that other places do not share the same culture as the United States. Therefore anyone who holds the fact that the President ate dog, in a foreign land where it is perfectly acceptable, against him is a complete ignorant fool. I'm not sure what Mitt was trying to get at when he made the comment... For a guy who has had such exposure to other cultures in his work with the Olympics and as Governor of Massachusetts, this seems terribly silly of him to mention. Especially for a guy who wants you to ignore his own "unusual" upbringing as a Mormon.
Romney seems to want to tell people that the President is "different" from everybody else. That brings up another point. All actions that occur outside of your own culture need to be looked through the prism of THAT culture, not of yours.

Bad form Mr. Romney. Bad form indeed.