Protect ya neck

The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. The hermit crab is a colorful example of a creature that lives by this aspect of the growth process (albeit without our psychological baggage). As the crab gets bigger, it needs to find a more spacious shell. So the slow, lumbering creature goes on a quest for a new home.  If an appropriate  new shell is not found quickly, a terribly delicate moment of truth arises.  A soft creature that is used to the protection of built-in armor  must now go out into the world, exposed to predators in all its mushy vulnerability. That learning phase in between shells is where our growth can spring from. Someone stuck with an entity theory of intelligence is like an anorexic hermit crab, starving itself so that it doesn’t grow to have to find a new shell.  Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”





Jalen's mom (after writing about football playoffs): .. we have really missed you guys.

SavageKitsune: I would be very happy to have Jalen come back to choke me some more.   :)

Cindy: He will be back soon. The season is almost over. He has gotten even bigger and is going to be giving us even more trouble when he returns

Kitsune: Oh great.   :-P    Unfortunately *I* will not be getting any bigger- except maybe around the belly.  That was nice for a while when he and I were the same size, but I knew it would probably only last a few months.   ;-D





Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Bellevue. Got there a little early and worked on the Southern Mantis long form fragment, then went ahead and did the 3 Step Arrow fragment.. that's the extent of my Southern Mantis knowledge, so I went on to Bung Bo Kuen.


All spars: Nelson, John, Saul, one other white belt guy.


Nelson: very technical, enjoyable roll. He has 4 stripes now, and will be purple soon! Unfortunately he keeps getting injured. Today he hurt his knee (again). (It wasn't me.... I had grabbed him first, and I was being careful with him. I know that not only does he have a lot of injuries, he does not always have sufficient self-preservation instinct to stop when he should stop...) I took an accidental crack in the mouth; now I have a wound on the inside of my lip.


John- I stayed mostly on top and mobile, and did better against him than I normally do; but he seemed rather tired.


Saul- Pleased with my performance here; I got a number of taps with various chokes.... including one at about 10 seconds in, when I grabbed a deep cross collar grip, and as he lunged at me, I looped my elbow around his head and just lifted up. I was more surprised than he was when it worked. ("Protect ya neck," he commented wryly.) He tapped me with an armbar. When we were done, he said that he always learns a lot rolling with me- which felt nice. Both he and Nelson commented that I seem to be working very tight (smile).


The other white belt guy- this was my poorest roll of the day, but even so, I didn't get smeared.


Still  reading a lot of fanfiction..... I'm going to sound like a crotchety old party here, but argh- WHY CAN'T KIDS THESE DAYS ***SPELL***??????   Why doesn't anybody grok the difference between "your" and "you're"?