BruceLeeMMA
Purple Belt
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2008
- Messages
- 2,481
- Reaction score
- 0
the eyes did look I a little fake but I thought you took those pictures and they just looked like mutants.
-
Xenforo Cloud has scheduled an upgrade to XenForo version 2.2.16. This will take place on or shortly after the following date and time: Jul 05, 2024 at 05:00 PM (PT) There shouldn't be any downtime, as it's just a maintenance release. More info here
Moving to Brazil on 05/06/2009
- Thread starter Gerbiljiujitsu
- Start date
- Status
the eyes did look I a little fake but I thought you took those pictures and they just looked like mutants.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2006
- Messages
- 1,422
- Reaction score
- 0
Hey Gerbil, long time reader of this thread and follower of your journey, from the begining as it happens!
I have a couple of guys coming to stay at the Connection Rio house i believe at the beginning of september for 4 weeks. They are friends of Jack McGee, a big guy name is Steve and the smaller guy is Jason. If you see them or train with them, pleased give them hell!!!!
On a more personal note, I know its every BJJ players dream to come there to Rio, and unfortunately Im never gonna get the experience youve had there, however, I have recently negotiated (thats how things happen when you have a wife and 2 kids!!) to really focus on my BJJ this year, I have had my purple belt since dec 2008. Im gonna be full on training for the Europeans and I will be coming to the Masters and the Seniors there in Rio next year with plan being to smash it up!!! Im trying to get 3 weeks out of it!
Keep up the blog, I love reading your adventures, look forward to hearing from you again! OSSS!
I have a couple of guys coming to stay at the Connection Rio house i believe at the beginning of september for 4 weeks. They are friends of Jack McGee, a big guy name is Steve and the smaller guy is Jason. If you see them or train with them, pleased give them hell!!!!
On a more personal note, I know its every BJJ players dream to come there to Rio, and unfortunately Im never gonna get the experience youve had there, however, I have recently negotiated (thats how things happen when you have a wife and 2 kids!!) to really focus on my BJJ this year, I have had my purple belt since dec 2008. Im gonna be full on training for the Europeans and I will be coming to the Masters and the Seniors there in Rio next year with plan being to smash it up!!! Im trying to get 3 weeks out of it!
Keep up the blog, I love reading your adventures, look forward to hearing from you again! OSSS!
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2008
- Messages
- 927
- Reaction score
- 0
Just what this house needs, two more Jack Magees stirring shit up and eating my food. =)
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2009
- Messages
- 2,444
- Reaction score
- 0
Congrats on negotiating more time for BJJ ! Good luck on that training and I'm looking forward to seeing how you do at the tournament. I'll make sure to treat the guys to some extra good training when they get here.
You must be a good negotiator, my wife still complains about me training 3 times a week and we don't have kids.
ps are you changing the name of the Kent Open to the English Open, can't remember where I heard that.
cult45
Orange Belt
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2008
- Messages
- 381
- Reaction score
- 0
lol wut
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2009
- Messages
- 838
- Reaction score
- 0
New CR Podcast -
Ricardo Liborio black belt, accomplished Jiu-jitsu/Submission specialist and head of the Frontline Academy in Olso, Norway, Eduardo "Teta" Rios. Hear suggestions for places to visit in the city of Rio de Janeiro, development of Jiu-jitsu in Norway, how he got his nickname and more.
Connection Rio Podcast
Connection Rio t-s now at OTM - Connection Rio - Cristo | On the Mat | MMA Fight Shop
Ricardo Liborio black belt, accomplished Jiu-jitsu/Submission specialist and head of the Frontline Academy in Olso, Norway, Eduardo "Teta" Rios. Hear suggestions for places to visit in the city of Rio de Janeiro, development of Jiu-jitsu in Norway, how he got his nickname and more.
Connection Rio Podcast
Connection Rio t-s now at OTM - Connection Rio - Cristo | On the Mat | MMA Fight Shop
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2009
- Messages
- 2,444
- Reaction score
- 0
(Post 1/2)
Training in a combat sport often changes certain aspects of your life. It shapes your attitude, how you interact with other people, and how you deal with pain or discomfort. Sometimes hard training can really alter your perceptions of reality.
I realized how differently I view things when I was leaving the movie theater this week. I've been having some issues with my hand going numb for the last week or two. Nothing serious, just a little tingling sensation in my hand that felt something like my hand going to sleep. As we left the movie I reached down and squeezed my pinky finger and, well, it really hurt.
When you train hard in Brazilian Jiujitsu or Judo, having a broken finger or toe is not out of the ordinary, but typically when it happens you at least KNOW you've broken your something. Sometimes your hand gets caught in the uniform and other times it just lands awkwardly on the mat, you don't have to do something wrong, it just happens sometimes. What makes my pinky finger worth talking about? Well as I poked and prodded at the broken area I realized that the bone is actually jutting against the skin. Now that I know the bone is there, I'm constantly preoccupied with touching it, prodding it and trying to will it back into place. Unfortunately it's not moving back into place, and although it's mildly amusing, it is equally annoying.
Only in a combat sport could you break your finger, not know it, and then be both amused and annoyed. This means I'll be taping my finger for the foreseeable future in attempt to keep the last digit on my pinky finger. Otherwise I'm injury free. My collarbone is feeling much better, I'm not having any rib problems, and my knees are doing well...overall I don
Training in a combat sport often changes certain aspects of your life. It shapes your attitude, how you interact with other people, and how you deal with pain or discomfort. Sometimes hard training can really alter your perceptions of reality.
I realized how differently I view things when I was leaving the movie theater this week. I've been having some issues with my hand going numb for the last week or two. Nothing serious, just a little tingling sensation in my hand that felt something like my hand going to sleep. As we left the movie I reached down and squeezed my pinky finger and, well, it really hurt.
When you train hard in Brazilian Jiujitsu or Judo, having a broken finger or toe is not out of the ordinary, but typically when it happens you at least KNOW you've broken your something. Sometimes your hand gets caught in the uniform and other times it just lands awkwardly on the mat, you don't have to do something wrong, it just happens sometimes. What makes my pinky finger worth talking about? Well as I poked and prodded at the broken area I realized that the bone is actually jutting against the skin. Now that I know the bone is there, I'm constantly preoccupied with touching it, prodding it and trying to will it back into place. Unfortunately it's not moving back into place, and although it's mildly amusing, it is equally annoying.
Only in a combat sport could you break your finger, not know it, and then be both amused and annoyed. This means I'll be taping my finger for the foreseeable future in attempt to keep the last digit on my pinky finger. Otherwise I'm injury free. My collarbone is feeling much better, I'm not having any rib problems, and my knees are doing well...overall I don
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2009
- Messages
- 2,444
- Reaction score
- 0
(Post 2/2)
Changing Subjects:
It is election time here in Brazil and although I do not totally understand what is going on, there are some really interesting observations to be made. Besides all the typical propaganda that is associated with any political campaign, I have noticed that there are a lot of commercials that appear to be sponsored by the government. What strikes me as odd about these commercials is they have a lot of people running for the same position giving 5-10 seconds blurbs about themselves running in succession. I am not sure what they are saying on the commercial, but it is weird to have half an hour segments of television filled with micro commercials by political candidates.
In addition to the odd commercials, there are signs everywhere. Each political candidate is assigned a number. The length of the number seems to correspond to the position they are running for. I do not know how many different positions there are, but the numbers are plastered all over everything...it is very odd.
I can easily see how the signs would get out of hand with this many people running for office. There appears to be one thing that keeps the sign placement in check, at least on the main roads. I do not know if it is a law, or just the candidates protecting their investments, but each sign has an attendant. I know that labor here is very cheap, but it blows my mind how every 50 or 100 feet there is a large sign on the side of the road and then someone standing, sitting or laying right next to it. Here is a photo of what I am talking about
As you can see from the photo, the attendant does not need to hold the sign, nor do they really have to pay attention to who is looking at the sign. In most cases the attendant is sleeping behind the sign, or between two signs. It is very common for the attendant to have two signs in which case they will lean them against each other, making a little tent to block the sun, and then fall asleep inside the tent. It is very odd and I can only imagine how much money is spent on sign attendants. There are literally a hundred of these signs between Barra and Recrio (a couple miles). Can you imagine if this was common practice in America and does minimum wage apply to this?
Changing subjects again:
There is no photo to address my next subject and if there was, I probably wouldn’t post it. A couple of times a year the ocean water levels rise a little and back flood the sewer systems in Barra. I'm not talking about sewage coming up through the toilets, but I am talking about the most God awful smell you have ever experienced. I am at a loss for words as to how to describe how terrible it is...but I will try.
The smell was so bad that it woke me up out of a full sleep, and when you get closer to the lagoon it gets even worse. The smell permeates everything and if you actually had to cross the bridge last week it could make you gag. People would run, holding their noses, trying to escape that smell. It was so bad that after eating last week we took a cab from the restaurant back to the house so that we could avoid the bridge between Lago do Barra and Barra Tijuca.
Let me be clear, this is not just the area that we live in, but the whole portion of the town...it was terrible. I distinctly remember thinking that the human nose will adjust to any smell in 14 seconds...this odor, this, stench had to be a living breathing creature that changed every 14 seconds, because there was no escaping it.
Thankfully the stench passed as the tide went back out, but what absolutely blows my mind is that we saw people fishing in the lagoon the very next day. I have seen many people fishing with nets, scuba diving and boating in the lagoon and I understand it is part of their life, but I just knew for sure that after that it would be a month before anyone dared to venture into that water...I was wrong. The very next day I saw two guys snorkeling in the lagoon with spear guns...wow. This rivals the most disgusting thing I have ever seen...
Just to give you a frame of reference, the most disgusting thing I have ever seen took place in Iraq. We were stimulating the Iraqi economy by employing the Iraqi locals to do menial work. This included everything from operating dump trucks to the emptying of port-a-potty’s (the portable bathrooms).
The Iraqi's always needed supervision and one day while we watched a man empty out the portable bathroom with his sewage truck he opened the front of the stall and entered in to replace the disgusting blue water that is supposed to help mask the smell of feces. As we all watched in horror, the man took off his hat, got down on his knees, reached down into the toilet hole and scooped up a big handful of the blue water. As we all stood there shocked, unable to say anything, the man splashed the blue water on his face, in his hair and on his chest. He continued doing this until he thoroughly “cleaned” his whole head and face...we were beyond words.
At least this Iraqi man only splashed this water on his face...these fishermen in the lagoon were using a snorkel...umm...hello? I understand a man has to eat, but I would be eating bananas, oranges and anything else I could pick off a tree. Hell, I would track down the gamba and have roasted opossum or skunk (still open to debate on that) for dinner.
On that note I will bring this blog to a close. Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry for the images I am sure you are having right now.
See you next week
The Gerbil.
Changing Subjects:
It is election time here in Brazil and although I do not totally understand what is going on, there are some really interesting observations to be made. Besides all the typical propaganda that is associated with any political campaign, I have noticed that there are a lot of commercials that appear to be sponsored by the government. What strikes me as odd about these commercials is they have a lot of people running for the same position giving 5-10 seconds blurbs about themselves running in succession. I am not sure what they are saying on the commercial, but it is weird to have half an hour segments of television filled with micro commercials by political candidates.
In addition to the odd commercials, there are signs everywhere. Each political candidate is assigned a number. The length of the number seems to correspond to the position they are running for. I do not know how many different positions there are, but the numbers are plastered all over everything...it is very odd.
I can easily see how the signs would get out of hand with this many people running for office. There appears to be one thing that keeps the sign placement in check, at least on the main roads. I do not know if it is a law, or just the candidates protecting their investments, but each sign has an attendant. I know that labor here is very cheap, but it blows my mind how every 50 or 100 feet there is a large sign on the side of the road and then someone standing, sitting or laying right next to it. Here is a photo of what I am talking about
As you can see from the photo, the attendant does not need to hold the sign, nor do they really have to pay attention to who is looking at the sign. In most cases the attendant is sleeping behind the sign, or between two signs. It is very common for the attendant to have two signs in which case they will lean them against each other, making a little tent to block the sun, and then fall asleep inside the tent. It is very odd and I can only imagine how much money is spent on sign attendants. There are literally a hundred of these signs between Barra and Recrio (a couple miles). Can you imagine if this was common practice in America and does minimum wage apply to this?
Changing subjects again:
There is no photo to address my next subject and if there was, I probably wouldn’t post it. A couple of times a year the ocean water levels rise a little and back flood the sewer systems in Barra. I'm not talking about sewage coming up through the toilets, but I am talking about the most God awful smell you have ever experienced. I am at a loss for words as to how to describe how terrible it is...but I will try.
The smell was so bad that it woke me up out of a full sleep, and when you get closer to the lagoon it gets even worse. The smell permeates everything and if you actually had to cross the bridge last week it could make you gag. People would run, holding their noses, trying to escape that smell. It was so bad that after eating last week we took a cab from the restaurant back to the house so that we could avoid the bridge between Lago do Barra and Barra Tijuca.
Let me be clear, this is not just the area that we live in, but the whole portion of the town...it was terrible. I distinctly remember thinking that the human nose will adjust to any smell in 14 seconds...this odor, this, stench had to be a living breathing creature that changed every 14 seconds, because there was no escaping it.
Thankfully the stench passed as the tide went back out, but what absolutely blows my mind is that we saw people fishing in the lagoon the very next day. I have seen many people fishing with nets, scuba diving and boating in the lagoon and I understand it is part of their life, but I just knew for sure that after that it would be a month before anyone dared to venture into that water...I was wrong. The very next day I saw two guys snorkeling in the lagoon with spear guns...wow. This rivals the most disgusting thing I have ever seen...
Just to give you a frame of reference, the most disgusting thing I have ever seen took place in Iraq. We were stimulating the Iraqi economy by employing the Iraqi locals to do menial work. This included everything from operating dump trucks to the emptying of port-a-potty’s (the portable bathrooms).
The Iraqi's always needed supervision and one day while we watched a man empty out the portable bathroom with his sewage truck he opened the front of the stall and entered in to replace the disgusting blue water that is supposed to help mask the smell of feces. As we all watched in horror, the man took off his hat, got down on his knees, reached down into the toilet hole and scooped up a big handful of the blue water. As we all stood there shocked, unable to say anything, the man splashed the blue water on his face, in his hair and on his chest. He continued doing this until he thoroughly “cleaned” his whole head and face...we were beyond words.
At least this Iraqi man only splashed this water on his face...these fishermen in the lagoon were using a snorkel...umm...hello? I understand a man has to eat, but I would be eating bananas, oranges and anything else I could pick off a tree. Hell, I would track down the gamba and have roasted opossum or skunk (still open to debate on that) for dinner.
On that note I will bring this blog to a close. Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry for the images I am sure you are having right now.
See you next week
The Gerbil.
D
david5
Guest
the gamba you saw wasn't a skunk, but they do call skunks gambas too, if that makes sense?
D
Deleted member 56619
Guest
Wait...the Iraqi splashed his face with the water from INSIDE of the toilet? Like, the water inisde the hole that you shit in? Did I read this wrong?
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2009
- Messages
- 2,444
- Reaction score
- 0
you are 100% correct. You read this correctly, the "cleaned' his face with the blue water from inside the hole.
My time in Iraq, my time growing up, my time bouncing at a strip club and being a teacher are a book all of their own.
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2006
- Messages
- 239
- Reaction score
- 0
I saw a special on Iraq where a local was using the sewage waste coming off an American camp to water his farm. I do have to say his vegis looked like they were growing real well.
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2009
- Messages
- 2,444
- Reaction score
- 0
You can check out my bio at Great Grappling or you can read my explanation here
(sorry had to shamelessly plug my site)I was always pretty serious about BJJ. Even as a white belt I was training 4 or 5 times a week. I ratcheted it up a notch as a blue belt and rescheduled some of my college classes so that I could get in there 7 or 8 times a week.
But it was after I graduated from college and realized that I needed to do something with my life other than bouncing at the club. Bouncing, for me, was a cool college job, but as far as a career it wasnt what I had envisioned for myself. I have a Physical Education and Health degree and I love Brazilian Jiujitsu (with the added bonus that I'm pretty good at it). It just seemed like a natural progression, I'm glad it worked out.
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 16,828
- Reaction score
- 0
You can check out my bio at Great Grappling or you can read my explanation here
I was always pretty serious about BJJ. Even as a white belt I was training 4 or 5 times a week. I ratcheted it up a notch as a blue belt and rescheduled some of my college classes so that I could get in there 7 or 8 times a week.
But it was after I graduated from college and realized that I needed to do something with my life other than bouncing at the club. Bouncing, for me, was a cool college job, but as far as a career it wasnt what I had envisioned for myself. I have a Physical Education and Health degree and I love Brazilian Jiujitsu (with the added bonus that I'm pretty good at it). It just seemed like a natural progression, I'm glad it worked out.
Nowhere does it say how old you are
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2009
- Messages
- 2,444
- Reaction score
- 0
Nowhere does it say how old you are
touche sir! 28, 29 in two weeks
- Status
