This journal is closed. None of my friends use LJ anymore and the only person whose posts I read is Warren Ellis and I can just read his site.

I had never heard of RickRolling people until today. I wish I'd heard of it sooner, as I was always a big Rick Astley fan.

I guess I haven't done an update post in a while, so here's a quick update:

1) My next fight is looking to be April 5, here in Calgary for Legacy Fighting Championships. I've been training hard and working my ground game something fierce... I'll have more info soon, as we should know who I'm fighting within the next week or two.

2) I've buggered my shoulder up in training. I think I have a slight rotator cuff tear (according to some self-diagnosis help from the Interwebs). I'm going to have to give myself another few days before going back at it, unfortunately... Very soon I'll need to be training at 100% and I don't want a lingering shoulder injury the whole time.

3) There's been mention of a 5 day fighter camp to be held out in Canmore near the end of February/beginning of March. I'm SUPER excited for that... 5 days straight of working on my game full-time will be a blast. The team has some great guys on it, and it's going to be a lot of fun!

4) I'm working pretty much exclusively from home now. This means a couple of things: a) I can fit training sessions into my day more easily and b) I get to spend my days with Sara, which is awesome!

5) New company! I'm often approached by people, once they find out I'm a web application developer, about having a web site or application built. Until recently I've been turning them away, but now Sara and I have decided to start a small web development company, since we're able to work side-by-side. She's been working her graphics design skills for the last little while and is producing some fantastic stuff! We've decided on "Anomaly Concepts" as the name (a nod to a company I ran in the mid-90s called "Anomaly Graphix"), and will have a portfolio site up soon.

6) The first site to be released under our Anomaly Concepts company is going to be the Emergent Fighting Arts site. The EFA is the team of fighters I belong to. The site is currently under construction, but you can get a secret sneak peek of it at www.emergentfighting.com/news.php. One of Anomaly's focuses will be on the fight entertainment industry, as I'm continually making new business contacts every day and many of these people have... well.. less-than-appealing web sites.

Now that I've got Facebook importing these posts automatically I'll probably blog more frequently... I've had some ideas for things I'd like to write about, but am still thinking about how I want to organize it.

location: Home, basking in the warm glow of my 4 screens music: Wolfsheim - Approaching Lightspeed tags: anomaly, championships, concepts, emergent, fighting, legacy, lfc, rick astley

Instructions:

1. The first article title on the Wikipedia Random Articles page is the name of your band.

2. The last four words of the very last quotation on the Random Quotations page is the title of your album.

3. The third picture in Flickr's Interesting Photos From The Last 7 Days will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result.



Yoinked from hawkstone

tags: meme

Well.. saw kyohazard and hawkstone do this and I couldn't resist. Sara's making hers right now, too :P

mood: cheerful music: Oliver Shanti - Sangha's Love For Amithaba tags: meez

1. Who eats more?
Usually me. Except for when I'm cutting weight for a fight. Then it's about the same.

2. Who said "I love you" first?
That would be me :)

3. Who is the morning person?
I guess that wouldbe me, since I'm always the first one to get up (usually 5-6am).

4. Who sings better?
I sing FAR more often. And dance. I'm VERY good at both. Just ask Sara! :P

5. Who’s older?
Me... but by less than a year.

6. Who’s smarter?
Oh goodness... I think we're pretty close there, depending on the subject, of course. If we're discussing ways to cause permanent injury to someone, I think I have the upper hand :)

7. Whose temper is worse?
That's gotta be me. I've definitely improved over the years, though.

8. Who does the laundry?
It used to be me... but Sara's taken over that, and it's much appreciated!

9. Who does the dishes?
Usually Sara gets to them before I get a chance. I don't mind washing dishes, though.

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
Sara does. I like to be closer to the door.

11. Whose feet are bigger?
Definitely mine.

12. Whose hair is longer?
Sara's. Mine is pretty damned short these days :)

13. Who’s better with the computer?
Likely me... I've had more experience building them and setting them up, etc.

14. Do you have pets?
We have three completely jerkassed cats. They're so cute.

15. Who pays the bills?
Right now I pay most of them, but usually we split it pretty evenly.

16. Who cooks dinner?
We usually share this... Sara makes some amazing sweet potatoes and I grill a mean steak.

17. Who drives when you are together?
Me. Sara doesn't have her license. I also hate driving, but will do it when I have no other choice.

18. Who pays when you go out to dinner?
Usually me, by design. ;)

19. Who’s the most stubborn?
Hmmm... that's tough. If I've decided on something, I cannot be assuaded otherwise, so I guess it'd have to be me.

20. Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
Usually me... cause I'm usually the one in the wrong ;)

21. Whose family do you see more?
Mine. Ugh. Although not so much anymore.

22. Who named your pet(s)?
I named Tony and Gorby, Sara named Keita.

23. Who kissed who first?
Surprisingly, that was Sara! She actually caught me a little off guard!

24. Who asked who out?
That would definitely be me. I chased and chased! But I was determined, and I succeeded! :)

26. Who’s more sensitive?
Hmm... I think we're both fairly sensitive, but we're both pretty reasonable about it.

27. Who’s taller?
Me :)

28. Who has more friends?
I dunno... I'd have to say we're pretty equal there. We hang out mostly with each other.

29. Who has more siblings?
It depends on if you count half-siblings. I win that game, but it changes the numbers for both of us :)

30. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
There's no one really "in charge" of the relationship... but I'm usually the more aggressive one.

It's been a long time since I posted in here! Seems like Facebook has taken over as my main method for communicating with the people in my life, but I figured I should make a post here.

As most of you who know me know, I have been doing martial arts for some time now, and have even taught some classes. Now I've decided to go one step further and step into the ring (or in this case, cage) to test the skills I've practiced over the past few years in a professional sporting event.

My first professional fight will be on November 3rd with the King of the Cage organization. They're a large organization with a lot of exposure. I'm hoping it will go well... I'm definitely looking forward to it! If any of you would like to attend, tickets are available now through me, and they're only $40. They've changed how the seating works, so the $40 tickets can get you some great seats! It's at the Stampede Corral here in Calgary.

My second pro fight is not set 100% for sure yet, but is scheduled for November 24th with the Legacy Fighting Championships. They're a newer, smaller organization than KOTC, but I'm looking forward to getting in on the ground floor of a new organization, and might even be able to scoop a title early on, provided I enjoy it.

Anyway... I'm off for a wander down to Chinatown...

"The head of the LucasArts, the game division for "Star Wars" series creator George Lucas, told AFP a Wii game that lets players wield virtual light sabers is on the horizon."

Well... you know I'm all over that one.

music: Grand Buffet - Real Cool

Well... I had my performance and salary review here at work today. It went... amazingly well!

I heard no bad things and only praise and encouragement to keep up the good work. I was skeptical about things on the raise front, as I had a fairly substantial raise last year (8%, I think), but this years was far more promising at 10% right now, and in another 6 months I'll get another salary review, with the aim of raising me an additional 10%. I wasn't expecting to get exactly what I was going to ask for... especially without asking for it, but I'm sure not complaining! I guess my estimation of my current market worth was matched by my employer's, as they're pretty intent on keeping me. That makes me happy, cause most days this is a pretty sweet place to work :)

location: The office music: Tricky - Ponderosa tags: review, salary, work

What follows behind the cut is a letter I wrote to myself exactly one year ago today. I found it quite awesome how everything that I spoke of worked out far better than I could have imagined. Here's the letter:

( Click here for the letter... )

Hah! Man did I ever hit the nail on the head with pretty much everything! Sara and I ARE engaged (although it was me who did the proposing because *I* wanted to ;) And I *was* divorced by the time I asked). It's going so much better than I could possibly have imagined!

The cats are all good and I haven't strangled them yet. They're still some of my best friends in the world :)

Still at ECO, too. Got that sizable raise and am hoping for something good at this year's review.

The school one is really funny, because I *just* started a class up at Dennis' recommendation at the beginning of April. It's been a lot of fun and I'm kind of kicking myself for not doing it earlier.

I *did* put a bit of weight back on, unfortunately. Not a huge amount, but more than I wanted. It is coming back off, though, now that I'm working out regularly again and not eating total crap all the time. While "wooing" Sara, I needed to show off a certain culinary prowess... unfortunately, that didn't help my waistline too much ;) Now that the wooing (food wooing, anyway) is over, the weight has started to melt off again :)

This was a really good idea (writing myself a letter in the past) and I can't believe how great it turned out. Definitely something I recommend.

Anyway, I best get at it... I've got a lot of work to get done today!

mood: amused tags: futureme

You can't hide secrets from the future with math
You can try but I bet that in the future they laugh
At the half-assed schemes and algorhythms amassed
To enforce cryptographs in the past

Above is the chorus from MC Frontalot's title track from his new album. One of the reasons I like him a lot is because his rhymes are often about future computery stuff... in this case data encryption :)

If you wanna check him out, the track is freely available at his site here: http://frontalot.com/index.php/?page=store
(Direct link to mp3 here)

location: home, thank christ music: MC Frontalot - Secrets From the Future tags: frontalot

I stole this from allfourseasons's journal for those of you on my list that aren't on hers.

Alanis does a cover of Fergie/Black Eyed Peas' song "My Humps".

mood: amused music: Alanis - My Humps

Man... I love Shatner.

This was the first computer I ever had (back when I was about 8 years old!). I later got the C64 and even the 128 briefly. Never went to an Amiga, though.

music: Central Intelligence ft. YTCracker - If Ya Wanna tags: computer, vic-20

One of the biggest problems with CPR is that you have to put your mouth on a stranger's. Apparently this is no longer an issue, as leading experts are now saying that the interruption of chest compressions to perform the mouth-to-mouth breathing actually causes more harm than it does good. Reportedly, the majority of people whose hearts stop beating suddenly have been breathing normally prior to this and that means there is enough oxygen in their blood to keep them alive until paramedics arrive - provided continuous chest compressions have been performed until that help arrives.

Click here for the whole article (WebMD)

music: Why You Wanna Get Funky With Me? - Del tags: cpr, life saving

Man... I like hiring new programmers, but I HATE interviews!

Take for instance the gentleman I had the unfortunate task of interviewing today:

1) Shows up late for the interview and looks annoyed even having to be there
2) Speaks and understands far less English than he claims to (couldn't understand basic interview questions- resume claims "great interpersonal, communication and presentation skills")
3) Is aggressive to the point of rudeness
4) During the simple "test" becomes almost so enraged as to start slamming the keyboard (despite the #1 thing on his resume being "remain calm and focused in stressful or conflict situations")

Why would you even bother showing up if you're going to behave that way??

In any case, I hope my afternoon interview goes better than the morning one! Yikes!

tags: interview, work

... if only because it looks all fucking "future". It actually reminds me a bit of Tron.



Emotiv Systems releases EEG caps and SDK for brain/computer interface (from MIT's TechnologyReview.com)

music: Nerdcore Rising - MC Frontalot

Hi everyone,

Well... I'd been kicking around the idea for some time, but when my current teacher suggested it that kind of cinched it. I've decided to start a martial arts class at the Dragon's Den in Inglewood (just on the other side of the bridge on 9th Ave SE). It'll be mainly Chinese martial arts (San Da/San Shou - freefighting) with some good cardio conditioning. Anyone from beginner to experienced is welcome. The classes will be very small... only 6-10 people!

Typical class structure will be:

- Warm up and stretching (some conditioning exercises here, too)
- Single person drills (Learning basics, practicing technique)
- Two person drills
- Free-flowing two person drills (like sparring but only using a specific technique set)
- Sparring (various levels of force and both point sparring and continuous)

Gear needed:

- Standard boxing headgear (I like the red Everlast ones from Wal-Mart ~$50)
- Mouth guard (~$10)
- Gloves (MMA style are ~$70... cheapo puffy gloves ~$20 are acceptable, though)
- Athletic cup (A metal one is likely best, if you have any interest in doing tournaments)

Costs:
$60 per month, paid in 3 month blocks (3 post-dated cheques)

Class times:
Mondays (starting April 2), 7 - 8:30pm
I'm also available (for no additional fee for my students) on other nights by prior arrangement for sparring/practice/workouts/conditioning at my apartment downtown. We've got a fitness room with enough room for two people to fight (I've used it for this for four years now and I can count the number of times someone else was using it at the same time on one hand), a large (if extremely antiquated) weight machine, and in the summer we have a semi-private park to use.

If you've got any questions, please feel free to ask! If you know anyone you think might be interested, by all means let them know!

mood: karate music: Peanut Butter Wolf - Hip Hop Essentials tags: martial arts class

music: Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show

I've seen this pop up on a couple journals now and it's been a while since I did any of these stupid meme quizzes:

Isaac Mendez You scored 29 Idealism, 54 Nonconformity, 87 Nerdiness

I need painting supplies. Congratulations, you're Isaac Mendez! You're a talented, creative, artistic soul with a few demons you've been working to overcome. You are really passionate person and you are not afraid to express yourself or your emotions. Your best quality: Creativity and artistic talent. Your worst quality: A possibly addictive or indulgent personality

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Idealism You scored higher than 99% on Nonconformity You scored higher than 99% on Nerdiness

Link: The Heroes Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

mood: sleepy music: The Herbalizer - Let it Go (f. What What)

Here's a couple quick ones I've done the last day or two.

tags: art

Well.. as of Sunday, alym0use and I will have been together for a year! To celebrate, we're going out for dinner to a Russian place in town I've wanted to try for some time.

http://www.skazkacalgary.com/ is the place and it has a menu online. I think I'm gonna eat me some Moscow Sturgeon! Never eaten sturgeon before!

Also, I love my job... I work right above a fairly decent hair salon, so it's very easy for me to sneak out and get a haircut. I shall not only be out in a fancy place tonight, but with my recent new clothes/ties (I've started wearing a nice shirt/tie to the office) purchase and a snazzy (yes, I said "snazzy") haircut *I* will be fancy!

Tomorrow promises to be fun, too... one of alym0use's coworkers lives in our building and has invited us for Chinese New Year dinner! Her fiance is Korean, so they're doing a Chinese/Korean meal. Should be fantastic!

Enjoy your long weekend, everyone!

music: Spamtec - APM