Wednesday Nonsense

Lots of good stuff happening here.

School starts Thursday. That’ll be multi-cultural counseling, which sounds pretty cool. Saturday will be another research techniques class. Ugh.

After class Saturday I’ll leave for Houston (well, Katy). Sunday morning Whit and I will “run” the half-marathon.

This oughta be amusing.

Monday I’ll see my sister and father, which I’m looking forward to.

***

THEBOY has been playing with walkie talkies lately. I was reading the paper this morning while answering his queries from across the living room. I went to sign off, and he protested.

Me: “Do you think I should go to work in my jammies?”

THEBOY: “Nonsense!”

***

I dreamed I was working here (for these folks at least), but in a different office. It was in Austin maybe. We’d been getting some sort of promotional material for some sort of ambitious project headed by this guy I used to work with named Rick.

I think we got pamphlets or something.

So looking out the window at the freeway, we suddenly saw his project: a huge rocket.

Only it was coming DOWN, scooting around, going all sorts of crazy directions. We had a perfect view from 500 yards away as it finally headed towards the busy freeway. It was going to be a terrible catastrophe, and we had a perfect view.

From that distance, though, I decided not to take my chances with exploding rocket fuel. I made a beeline outta there. I made it quickly to the parking garage below, where I was safe.

End of dream.

***

Rick is actually no longer with us. I liked working with him. Not sure how/when he passed.

***

I’ve had good workouts lately at least. As I told someone, I tend to leave the gym feeling like I’m either a useless sack of shit, or the baddest mofo in the building. Two nights in a row it’s been the latter.

***

Been watching some Pride fights on DVD lately. It’s Japanese mixed martial arts bouts.

It’s… interesting. This DVD, Shockwave 2004, is a good three hours in length. I picked it up because it features a Gracie, and I’d heard good things about Fedor Emelianenko.

From what I gather, the Gracies are basically the be-all, end-all of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’ve heard stories about early UFC fights featuring some of those guys, and how they changed the sport. You pretty much need some sort of ground game these days to have a good chance, and I gather it’s due to them.

This Gracie (the package says he’s Ryan, but the announcers kept saying “Hyan” or something) was a good fighter all right, but he apparently has a bit of a bad reputation. He pushed the ref at one point, and for a brief moment I feared for the ref’s method of ambulation (nice phrase, Whit).

***

Gracie was frustrated by the very thing that frustrates me about Pride: the ring. Unlike UFC, which takes place in an octagon-shaped cage, Pride matches are in what appears to be a standard boxing ring. I’ve heard people say that the octagon is “cheating” somehow, but you know, whenever Pride fighters spend too much time on or near the ropes, the ref STOPS the action and re-positions them in the middle of the ring. It’s a real momentum-killer.

Why have such a ring when so much of it is off-limits?

And if one guy is defending from his back while another is standing, the ref will stop the fight and stand them both up rather quickly. Why?

There are some serious size-mismatches too. At one point the difference between two heavyweights was over 100 pounds. That ain’t right.

Those extra pounds didn’t help the bigger man a bit though.

***

And that’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about Pride.

***

Happy Wednesday, ya’ll.