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Things have solidified!

We are leaving for China in a couple of weeks! Wow. After 5 seemingly endless years of waiting we are on the verge of finally having the child we have been praying for. Julia and I are just over the moon. On another note, after we return from China, I am going to set about building a grappling dummy. The commercially available models are prohibitively expensive. I have found some designs for decent home-made models that don't sound terribly difficult or expensive to build. I will plan to build the dummy a little bit at a time, here and there. I think it will be a great training aid for myself and for Zach when the time comes.

On the Brink!

Things have been just crazy busy lately with final preparations underway for our journey to China to get our Zachary. Had to get all kinds of travel vaccinations, do final prep of Zach’s room, work our way through the final bit of paperwork jungle. We received our updated form I-171-H the other day, which is the final piece of the puzzle. Now we are just waiting for our agency to let us know when they have our consulate appointment scheduled. Our travel plans all hinge around that. We are hoping for a departure date of 3/24. The wild card in all of this is that, in mid-to-late April, the city of Guangzhou, where the US consulate is located, hosts a big trade show. During that span of time, there are no hotels to be had. Therefore, those are considered “blackout dates”. In essence, if we don’t travel by around April 1st, it will likely get bumped back to May. The thing about that is, our travel approval from China has a shelf-life and will expire on May 7th. Therefore, if we don’t travel by May 7th, we have to renew our travel approval which could delay things further. So, we are hoping for 3/24. Will keep you posted.



On the BJJ front, this weekend, I am going to a seminar being taught by Prof. Pedro Sauer and Andre’ Galvao, both of whom are very high-level BJJ black belts. My school is affiliated with Pedro Sauer. This will be my first time meeting and rolling with practitioners of that level. It will definitely be an honor. I will post about my experience and include pictures when I get back.

Building "The Dungeon"

I am on track to officially begin P90X this next Monday (2/21). In order to make it easier to stay consistent (I hope), I am in the process of turning part of the basement into a fitness area. I am nicknaming it “The Dungeon” in tribute to the Hart family’s infamous basement dojo. I hope to sweat buckets down there. The plan is to go through P90X probably twice and then move onto INSANITY. In between, maybe do some work with HIP HOP ABS and TURBO FIRE. I also have some other videos dealing with kettlebells as well as several martial arts training sets. I will take some pictures and post here soon.

New Logo and More!

I want to profusely thank Jimmy Bacon, one of my friends over at Lockflow.com for hooking me up with the new blog logo. He's a talented dude. If you need graphic design work, I recommend him highly. He can be reached at http://www.jrbaconproductions.com/

Weird news story of the day...the "Food Liberation Army" kidnapped and threatened to execute Ronald McDonald unless the company answered questions regarding their food quality. The statue of Ronald was taken from outside a McDonald's in Finland. Apparently, the company and the local constabulary took a dim view of the activity because the house of a local artist (and apparently the head of the FLA) was raided, Ronald was rescued unharmed and two people were arrested.

Comic Books and Hollywood

Growing up I was a fan of comic books. Between the "big 2" I was a Marvel guy. I always thought their characters and storylines were more compelling than those offered by DC. I loved Spiderman from earliest memory and grew to love the X-Men, the Avengers, Daredevil, and Iron Man. On the DC side, I did enjoy Batman and The Flash. Hollywood's attempts to bring comic books to life on the big screen have been largely hit-and-miss. Some notable hits have been BATMAN BEGINS and its sequel THE DARK KNIGHT, with its freakishly awesome portrayal of The Joker by the late Heath Ledger. Other well-done comic book adaptations have been both IRON MAN films. Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast as Tony Stark, in my opinion.

This summer brings 3 new Marvel offerings: CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. I was never a huge fan of Captain America or Thor, so I am likely to wait for video on both of those unless I just can’t resist. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, however, I may have to go see in the theater. It is supposed to be the back story on the founding of Charles Xavier’s School for the “Gifted”. From the looks of the trailer, the Cuban Missile Crisis is heavily involved in the plotline. Hoping for good things.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS


CAPTAIN AMERICA


THOR

Incorporating the Past, Moving to the Future

I just imported all posts from previous blog attempts into this blog. This just allows me to consolidate my blogosphere into one place. So, you can feel free to explore back if you wish, or just hang with me going forward.

I want to comment on the news of Kenny Florian making the decision to move to the featherweight division. Those of you who know me know that I am a big Kenny Florian fan. I think he is a talented and smart fighter. However, I think he finds himself in a very peculiar position. After losing to Gray Maynard, he would need to string together several wins in lightweight to get back in the title mix. Going to featherweight, if he can successfully make the cut to 145, he would likely have a quicker route to title contention. That being said, Jose Aldo, the current featherweight champion is just scary. I really think Florian would be a victim of yet another devastating knockout. There are some rumblings that Aldo may be considering moving up to lightweight, which could explain Florian's move.

If Aldo does depart featherweight, Kenny could do very well in the division. My first concern is whether he can successfully make the cut. Even at 155, he sometimes looks somewhat skeletal as he walks around at around 170.

Tonight is BJJ. Really looking forward to it. Been 2 weeks since I have been able to train. Been sick and had other stuff going on that has prevented me from getting there. Be good to get back on the mat. On the subject of fitness, I have decided to start P90X this coming Monday. I am going to really try to do this right, following the diet and everything. I played with a couple of the workouts not too long ago and they are quite demanding. The hardest part is going to be carving out the time to do it each day. But, I am determined to do it.

Gunfire and Other Happenings

This weekend, Julia and I went out to Douglasville on Saturday. The trip was multi-purpose. Julia, her sister, and her mom went and spent most of the day (not to mention a good bit of money) at Babies R Us. We are now registered for all kinds of accoutrements for Zach. While they did that, Glen (my father-in-law), John (my brother-in-law) and I went to the property of a friend of Glen's called Chigger Ridge Farm. John (Glen's friend) owns about 25 acres and has several private shooting ranges set up. He is an NRA-certified shooting instructor and gave us a gun safety refresher and then some instruction on handgun shooting. I grew up shooting rifles, but have little experience with handguns. I actually got a lot out of the session and feel like I really improved as a shooter. We had the opportunity to shoot a wide variety of guns, including .22 caliber revolvers and semi-automatics, a .357 magnum revolver, 2 different 9mm semi-automatics,a 12 gauge sawed-off shotgun, and a contraption called "The Judge" that is a pistol that will fire either shotgun shells or .45 caliber rounds. A few pics from our shooting excursion are below. Needless to say, I look forward to future trips to Chigger Ridge Farm.

Various Thoughts

Welcome to another scintillating installment of GWF! First off, my apologies for not posting for a few days. I am sure you were thinking “Oh, there he goes again---starting a blog off strong and then falling by the wayside!” But, no, faithful reader, I have had the blog on my mind. I have been fighting off sinus crud the last couple of days so I haven’t been feeling all that hot. Plus, Julia and I have been continuing to navigate the paperwork jungle that goes along with our forthcoming journey to China to get Zach. So, anyway, on with the show.
First topic for today is Egypt and the uprising/revolution that is occurring there. This is a VERY dangerous situation and I don’t think the average person understands the potential implications of what is going on. The uprising is being puppeteered by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the group that gave birth to both Al Qaeda and Hamas. Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Kalid Sheikh Mohammed, the number two in Al Qaeda and the architect of the 9/11 attacks respectively, both have strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. With Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, apparently on his way out, there is likely to be a power vacuum. This is an opportunity for the Muslim Brotherhood to make a power grab, establishing a theocracy similar to that in Iran, ruling Egypt under sharia law. If Egypt falls under the control of the islamists, what happens to the Suez Canal? If it is closed or disrupted, we could see gas prices skyrocket. Similar uprisings seem to be breaking out in other Arab countries. If something similar occurs in Saudi Arabia, we could see gas prices skyrocket further. I am watching coverage on Fox News while at work and the protests are becoming truly and deeply violent.

Second topic for today is geocaching. I went out on Sunday and did some caching with Julia was scrapbooking with Connie. This was the first time I had gone in quite a while and I had forgotten how much fun it is. I found 8 for the day and am definitely looking forward to caching with Zach when he is old enough. A couple of pics from my adventures today are below:




Third topic for today is Sting. No, not the singer…the professional wrestler. I grew up watching pro wrestling and have fond memories of Sting. I remember him when he first came on the scene, tag-teaming with another guy named Rock (who went on to be the Ultimate Warrior) as the Blade Runners. That team didn’t last terribly long and he became a highly successful singles wrestler. Sting truly became the “face” of WCW. He was the icon of the promotion, whether it was while wearing the brightly colored facepaint and the short blond hair, or the “crow” facepaint and the long dark hair. Steve Borden, who is the man behind the facepaint, is a committed and outspoken Christian and a guy who really can be admired. I don’t watch wrestling these days, but I have heard rumors that Sting has signed with World Wrestling Entertainment. The exciting part of this is that Wrestlemania, the WWE’s “flagship” pay-per-view show is being held in Atlanta this year. WCW was an Atlanta-based promotion and Sting has a long association with Atlanta for that reason. The rumor is that Sting may be main-eventing Wrestlemania and taking on The Undertaker. It would be an exciting last hurrah for the man called Sting and I hope it happens.

Kids in BJJ and/or MMA

There has been a lot of controversy of late about allowing kids to train in mixed martial arts or any of its components (brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, boxing, etc). Many parents and organizations cry "child abuse!" at parents that allow their children to train, claiming that the sport is just too violent. These sorts of claims just show that, although the sport has made great strides in moving into the "mainstream", there is still a lot of ignorance and misunderstanding of the true nature of MMA.

The early days of the UFC probably contributed to the myths of MMA. At that time, the fights had no real rules, no time limits, and the referees were basically in the cage to start and end the fights. Many of the early UFC fights were extremely brutal. After Dana White and the Fertittas bought the UFC in 2001, rules were established and they set about working to legitimize MMA as an actual sport, not some gladiatorial bloodbath. The MMA fighter of today is a highly skilled, highly conditioned athlete, who must be well-versed in kickboxing, boxing, brazilian jiu-jitsu, and wrestling, just to survive in the cage or ring. Strategies and techniques are routinely employed in these fights, so there is definitely a cerebral element to it as well.

I don't train in full-blown MMA myself. I train strictly in BJJ. The reason being that, especially at my age, i really don't care to get hit. I would rather just grapple. I have a background as a wrestler so this seemed like a logical progression. I definitely want to get Zach started with BJJ and wrestling at an early age. I think those sports will help out a lot with coordination, self-confidence, and quick thinking in a fluid environment. I would not be in favor of adding striking until he is older, however. If he wants to eventually add the striking elements and study MMA, I will be happy to let him do so. That will be his decision, however.

Is the study of MMA among children abusive? Absolutely not. If a parent is forcing a child who does not wish to do so to study a striking art, then yes, that may at least border on abuse. But if the child is enthusiastic and enjoys the art, then more power to them.

Thoughts on Geocaching and Fitness

Another of my multitude of interests/passions is the sport of geocaching. For those of you who don't know, it is a sport involving the use of GPS technology to locate hidden containers. The containers are sometimes hiding in plain sight (which can be a challenge as you try to find them without drawing too much attention to yourself and giving away the existence of the cache to outsiders who may then potentially destroy or otherwise ruin the cache) or are often hidden in more remote areas (such as woods in parks, etc). There are over 1 million caches located in various places around the world. There are even some caches that require specialized equipment to retrieve (rappelling gear, caving gear, SCUBA, etc). The game is really about the thrill of the chase more than anything else. The containers, if they have anything in them at all, typically have trinkets in them that will appeal more to small children than anyone else. So, for the most part, you find the cache, sign the logbook to prove you were there, and move on to the next one, logging your finds on geocaching.com, which keeps your totals and various other statistics. The game has taken me to many very cool little places that I would never have known existed if I weren't playing. This is another activity I am very excited to do with Zach when he gets to an appropriate age.

On the fitness front, I am continuing with BJJ twice a week and am trying to incorporate some other things into my regimen such as P90X, Insanity, and Kettlebells. I am in my early 40s now and am determined to make this next decade the most fit of my life. I want to be as healthy a husband and father as I can be. The hard part is carving out the time to do something each day. It is so easy to find other things to do. I have BJJ tonight, but tomorrow night my plan is to do a workout of some sort. I will keep you posted.

The Dilemma of Mike Portnoy

I was reading today about the dilemma that Mike Portnoy finds himself in. Portnoy, for those of you who don't know, is probably one of the most highly regarded drummers in rock music today. He was a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. On December 28, 2009, the band Avenged Sevenfold lost their drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan to a drug overdose. Sullivan had long idolized Portnoy and he was asked by the band to come into the studio with them to record the album they had been ready to start on. Portnoy did so and was then asked to go on tour with them to support the album. Portnoy took a hiatus from Dream Theater and went on tour with Avenged Sevenfold.
Not entirely sure what went on during that tour or if any promises or overtures or such were made, but in September 2010, Mike Portnoy made the announcement that, after 25 years with the band, he was leaving Dream Theater. The real shocker came in mid-December, 2010 when Avenged Sevenfold makes the sudden announcement that the band would no longer be working with Mike Portnoy.
Shortly thereafter, Mike Portnoy reached out to Dream Theater about rejoining and was summarily rejected by the band via their attorney. So, it appears that Mike Portnoy finds himself on the outside looking in on both ventures.
There is a lesson to be learned here. Maybe more than one lesson. 1)Dance with what brought you. 2) If promises or overtures are made, get that stuff in writing!

BJJ Class 1/22/2011

Had another good class this past Saturday. Worked on techniques and escapes from the mount. Jose is now a newly-minted blue belt, so congratulations to him. Hope to have my blue by end of the year. Hopefully by the time Zach is old enough to begin martial arts, I will be a purple belt. In a short time, training has made such a difference in my life I am excited to share that with my son.

We reviewed the traditional armbar from the mount:


I worked with Jose' on this and got something I never fully understood cleared up-the hand placement. I had never understood how hand placement would impact which arm you were attacking. Jose' explained it in a way I had never seen and I understand now that it is whichever hand is closer to your partner's face is the direction you will spin to. Very cool.

That night I watched the UFC FIGHT FOR THE TROOPS show on Spike. Was sorry to see Mike Brown and Mike "The Joker" Guymon lose their fights as it leaves both of them definitely on the bubble in terms of their futures with the UFC. Matt Mitrione continued to roll along with another brutal knockout. Cody McKenzie's Guillotine Express got derailed as he got choked unconscious by Yves Edwards. Melvin Guillard knocked out Evan Dunham in a real shocker. Guillard looks the best he has ever looked and could be in the lightweight title mix with another win or two.

BJJ Class: 01/20/2011

I am so excited for Zach to be old enough to begin martial arts training. That is something that has become such an important part of my life I am excited to share the journey with my son. Had a great BJJ class last night. Steve taught and Scott, Diana, Evan, and I were in attendance. We reviewed techniques from the back mount.

The Rear Naked Choke:
That is a technique that I am very familiar with but there are still nuances that can stand refinement. I applied it on all three other students. Scott has a very large neck so I had the most difficulty with him and was tending to get the trachea more than the carotids. I had the easiest time getting it placed right with Diana.

Collar Choke from Rear Mount:

This is a technique that I am familiar with as well. Again, applied it on all three students. Again, due to neck size, Scott is the most difficult to choke.


The Single Wing Choke:
This was an attack I was not familiar with. I liked it though. It gives another collar choke option from rear mount. Again, I had the easiest time with Diana

Armbar from Back Mount:

This was an attack that I am somewhat familiar with but it is a very awkward transition for me at this point. Something I will keep in my arsenal, but probably not a "go-to" move from the back for me, at least for now.

Did resistance training with Diana, playing guard and guard passing. Pulled guard first. Kept her in my guard and pulled off a scissor sweep and a kimura/back sweep. Threatened triangle choke and armbar to keep her guessing. When she pulled guard, I pulled off a knee-over pass to both sides, a single-under pass, and a double-under pass. When doing the single-under pass, I really concentrated on staying tight with the pass and stacking. Ended up teaching her the scissor sweep.

Did resistance training with Evan, again playing guard. It was pretty much a stand-off. We are pretty evenly matched size and strength-wise. I pulled off a scissor sweep when pulling guard. He tries to muscle his way out of situations rather than using technique or finesse.

A really good class, all in all.

Welcome To My World!

I'm Matt, and this is my blog. I have attempted to be a consistent blogger in the past with varying levels of success. I tend to start off strong and then slowly fade as other things get in the way. My wife Julia is a much more diligent and successful blogger than I am, but this is my attempt to get better and stick with it. I have a lot of varied interests, including reading, writing, dogs, fitness, technology, politics/world affairs, ice hockey, cooking (particularly grilling and smoking), hiking/geocaching, fire/rescue, and mixed martial arts. All of these topics (and more) are likely to come up in this blog at various times.

I have two additional interests, however, that are passions. The convergence of them has created the title of this blog. I am an enthusiastic student of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (thus the grappling portion of the title), and I am about to embark upon the most life-changing adventure of my life. Yes, fatherhood is on the immediate horizon!

Julia and I are in the late stages of adopting a boy from China. We are estimating we will be traveling to China to pick him up around May. He is 17 months old and, according to all reports he is very healthy and very much on track developmentally. He is presently living in an orphanage in Beijing and his orphanage name is Yu Jian Dong (which apparently roughly translates to "Winter 2009" which is when he was found), but we are going to name him Zachary Clark Miller. A picture of our son Zach is below:



Needless to say, we are very happy and very excited to finally be parents. Our preparation and travel to China will all be chronicled in this blog as well as our family blog, which can be viewed here