1001!

This is my one thousand and first post :)

This blog started as a way for me to share photographs and boring daily-type events with family members in other geographic areas, long before I got into jiu jitsu. It's grown a fair bit, and now averages about 500 hits a day from all over the world. I love it! And I hope you do too... whether you come for the jits, the political rants, the recipes, or whatever.

Training's been going well, since I'm focused mainly on drilling and less full on sparring. I don't have time to attend many classes, due to work commitments, but I have been getting in some open mat time almost every day.

On a political note: those Occupy people. Sheesh. I'm all for protesting things you want to change, don't get me wrong. But have a concise goal-- a statement of what you want to do about it-- don't just pitch a tent and bitch. Yes, you get people talking, which I suppose is a first step. But have a policy change in mind. It's all very well to complain that the wealthiest get wealthier and the poor get poorer. WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT IT?

A friend in the NYPD sent me this, made by someone he knows. I watched it carefully with a prosecutor/government employee/legal eye... and I was very impressed by the control and caution exercised by the police in what could have been a very dangerous situation. I know some people wonder why the protesters needed to be moved even temporarily. Well, I'll tell you a few reasons...

1. Health hazards-- pooping, peeing, food and water contamination, sexual abuses all documented (not necessarily at the same time, or even in the same place.)
2. Hazards to public workers-- when someone gets ill, shoots themselves, gets caught stealing, etc, the police and/or EMS get called in. Usually police are first on the scene. The crowds were often hostile towards the cops (needlessly! do they think the cops are among the 1% wealthiest? I laugh.) and would make it far more difficult for the cops to do their jobs in helping EMS/medical personnel get to the situation, or to take reports of thefts, assaults, etc.
3. In many circumstances, body heat scans done at night revealed that large proportions of the tents were empty at night.
4. Zuccotti Park in particular is owned by a private company which still has the right to control access to the property.

Check it out.



And, back to jiu jitsu... Jason Scully's vid on the Berimbolo sweep... kinda cool..