Global Warming

Cant we all agree to just disagree and then move on?

There is so much talk and disagreement about global warming (better labeled global weirding), which in actuality should be called climate change (because people don't do shades of gray in our progressively stupider society). The thing is that the climate models have so many variables and so many assumptions and so little data to calibrate them that in many cases its no more accurate than a dartboard (the Monte Carlo method of modeling, i believe its called). Of course the people (who like I said are dumb) cant understand the models, much less understand what modeling even really is (it TELLS the future, PREDICTS reality, or verifies FACTS, right?), and even much much less understand that models are based on assumptions, guesses, and simplifications of the much more complicated reality.

For every climate model scientist who thinks we are in great danger there is another climate model scientist (paid or unpaid by corporate devils) who will point out any number of assumptions made and claim this invalidates the model. Let's get past this part of the arguing and focus on something more tangible.

When it was shown that acid rain was devastating our forests and killing mountain ecoysystems, we decided to stop releasing sulphur dioxide. Since 1990, a 40% reduction in acid rain has been achieved thanks to legislation. The goals set for 2010 were achieved in 2007 and the cost ended up being half of what was projected. Why cant we just do more of this?

Thus, the challenge:

1) I challenge you to walk 50 ft in an urban stream and not see a large piece of garbage. Why don't we focus energy on preserving our urban waterways? I can quantifiably prove to you that there is garbage in our streams and i can show you the negative effects it has on us. Think about it this way too: would you let your kids play in the stream? What if the water was clear and there were no car tires in the water? Your answer probably changed to yes, even though the visible pollutants are the least of your concerns. Our urban streams are toxic. Wouldn't it be nice to have streams our kids could play, catch fish in, and generally learn from instead of watching TV shows about streams?

2) I challenge you to look at statistics of asthmas and other respiratory illness occurrence in major cities. Compare those to areas where people drive less and tell me there inst some correlation. Wouldn't it be nice if it literally was easier for us to all breath? Wouldn't it also be nice if our commute could also double as fitness (or even, what if we listened to audio instruction on learning a language, making it a 3-way winning situation)? Our kids would be able to breathe, we would be healthier, and we would all be able to communicate better.


3) I challenge you to visit a landfill, a wastewater treatment plant, or a factory animal farm. Then I challenge you to somehow preserve the shock-and-awe of what we are doing to our natural resources (i feel like senseless rape is a pretty good descriptor, since its not consensual and we don't even appreciate it). Use that energy to waste-less. Consciously think about your power usage (do you sleep with lights on? If so, we cant be friends), water usage (but i NEED to shower in the morning to wake up AND at night to go to bed), and garbage creation (1 bag a day). Then, make some minor adjustments (one light at a time, 1000 gallons a month, 1 bag of garbage a week, 1 bag of recyclables a day).

We may never truly know whether or not we are affecting the climate, but we can damn well be sure we are affecting our waterways, our health, and the local environment around us. The thing is that if we focus on improving areas such as these last 3, then the climate problem, if there is one would go away. And if there is no climate problem, well then, we will have still improved our quality of life...which as it stands now, is not something we want to do. How does that make sense?

Day 1- Ok, the real day 1

The race car bed, while it looks cool, actually feels kind of like sleeping on a race car (i.e. not comfortable). At 1:30, when the rooster crowed, I definitely heard it. He must have been on eastern…china’s time zone. It wasn’t even close to being light outside.

Anyway, when it became light outside, we got up and rejoined the group back at Julietta’s house (oh, I how I love that home). She had some breakfast breads, refried beans, fresh cheese, Jugo Naranja and Jugo Pina (OJ and pinapple juice). So so good. (I pretty much spent the week eating my food and anyone else’s who didn’t clean there plate and who was in arm’s reach).

It being Sunday, we went to the local church. Everyone in the community was so welcoming. At one point during the service a song was playing and people spilled out of the pews to hug and greet each other. It was like the exchanging of the peace except it was way more friendly and way more chaotic.

Post-church we went to the lot next door for more eating, some soccer, and just generally hanging out. More awesome food! This is where I learned a particular something called Tomatillo sauce. A Tomatillo is a small, green, unripe tomato. When you mix it with equal parts Jalapeno, it makes the most potent of sauces…and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Once the gathering was over, we headed back to the house where we assembled a tent for the kids to have class in. then, we basically just had free time. We walked up a nearby hill and found a huge pink church. Then, we wandered around until close to dark.

Colby has brought a camera with him on the trip to take video. Have of his video appears to be random clips while the rest is part of a promo video he wants to make. He keeps saying inot the camera urging us to say the tag line… “You should be HERE!”

Mexico 2010!

Day 1- Travel Day

Another trip was about to begin. An early flight of course meant laying in bed not being able to sleep interspersed with nightmares of waking up 5 hours late. Nonethelss, I made it to the UCF house to get a ride to the airport (Hunter rules!). We got to the airport, checked in (they gave me a ticket with Robbie’s name, so that had to get cleared up), and then met with some other group members. Ally, a new friend, wanted us to all check-in together and do everything together, but we had already checked-in, so we went through security and waited at the gate like good little international travelers.

As departure time approached, we were apparently missing one of our group members. There was frantic texting and calling. There was a virtual play-by-play of her location as she got to the airport, waited in line, and then tried to get a ticket. Alas, they had closed the flight though. Stephanie wasn’t getting to Mexico City today. Once we got on the plane, we met Santiago and his mother. They were on standby, and luckily (for them), someone had overslept. Santiago was a surpriseingly calm and quiet baby up to the point that his mother was filling out her customs form. Robbie successfully aquired the proivelidge of holding the baby during this paperwork part of the flight. He was a whole lot less fidgety sitting in Uncle Robbie’s lap.

Once we got to Mexico City, we had to eat. Oh, and also we had to wait 4 hours for everyone to get there too. So, our first meal came from some strange place called McDonalds, where the two quarterpounders seemed expensive. Of course we didn’t quite understand the exchange rate just yet, so had no idea how much money we had spent. There was much eating, some napping, some wandering around the airport. We found a nicer looking resteraunt with nicer looking hosteses. We asked them some importsant questions in our terrible Spanish. “How many pesos for margaritas?” They laughed and finally answered. “How many pesos are beer?” Another answer that meant nothing (exchange rate problem again). “How many pesos for your phone number?” Didn’t ask that, but you can imagine.

Finally, around 5, the entire group was in Mexico (minus Santiago’s original seat owner). We somehow just ran into Alfredo and Daniel. So, we loaded up and off we went. The commute was roughly 2 hours. We arrived in the darkness to see that Alfredo’s green truck (that is older than me) appeared to still be sitting on good tires and operational. That thing is amazing!

We ate a small meal and then pretty much just split up and were assigned to stay with local host families. Me and Robbie were sent to live with Oscar and his dad Oscar, or as they say in Mexico, “Oscar y Oscar.” Robbie got the guest room, which meant that I was to be in Oscar’s room. Upon further inspection, this meant that I was going to be sleeping in a bed shaped like a race car!

First Tourny- Budweiser Jiu-Jitsu World Cup 2010

So, last saturday I competed in my first Jiu Jitsu tournament. It was called the Bud Cup, and it was hosted at the Cabarrus Arena. Although I really only ended up competing for 25 minutes total, it took all day and was a long time in the making.

I have been doing Jiu Jitsu now for about 7 months. If you dont know what it is...look it up on wikipedia. The important thing to know is that it is similar to wrestling with submission involved. A submission is when you have someone in a position that will result in extensive bodily damage or unconsciousness unless they "tap out," which is the universal sign for "please dont keep doing that...it really hurts and/or its making me sleepy/ my brain needs that blood." tons of fun.

So, last monday, I started the week by weighing myself. I was planning on competing at featherweight (under 145 lbs), so i had to eat less food that week to make weight by Friday. I love to eat, so eating less while still training was a slow, annoying misery. Come friday though, I had lost about 6 lbs and weighed in at 144 (weigh ins were at this hotel, where they had registration in a conference room and the actual weigh-in was in a room, in a bathroom, with this older guy...yeah, insert joke here). After weigh-ins, i ate a turkey melt, french fries, and ice cream. so good.

So, come saturday morning, it was time to compete. I had registered for two divisions at featherweight (gi and no-gi beginner) and one division at lightweight (145-155). At the NAGA tourny I watched, gi was last, so that is what I was hoping for. On this day though, gi was done first. The thing is, I dont even own a Gi! A gi is a jacket and pants used for jiu jitsu...its actually a weapon you wear, since you can choke people with it. Its as if someone said, "hey, jiu jitsu would be more fun if instead of being strenuous it almost killed you! Let do this while wearing a coat and pants, to help us sweat more!" I only train in no-gi, but the tourny was one price for as many divisions as possible. So, i borrowed a gi from a friend and training partner (mma great Kurtis Cloward) and went to ONE CLASS to learn the basics. So, as of saturday, i was putting on my gi for the SECOND time ever. Luckily, my training friends helped me tighten my pants and tie my belt (which I had to find in the lost and found, since Kurtis' belt was blue, the next level up in skill) right before I was to compete. In my first match, I got taken down and pulled guard at the same time (i am going to bold words to google for pictures of). Nonetheless, I lost 2 points. I had a few triangle choke attempts, fended off some collar chokes from my opponent, but then the 5 minutes ran out. I lost 2-0. Lame

Then I proceeded to wait a small eternity for the gi divisions to finish. There are something like 5 skill levels and 6 weight classes in each Men's, Women's, teens, and Master's division. The combinations are extensive....so it took FOREVER.

Finally, it was time to go again. I checked in for no-gi featherweight, and then was called to check in at no-gi lightweight also. They at first balked at this, since both divisions would be going at the same time. Me and the other guy (who actually had beat me in no-gi) suggested they just schedule us for both divisions, and if there was overlap we would forfeit. turns out, we were first in lightweight, so off we went. Now I was going against the same guy I lost to in no-gi. Lame. Guess what happened. I pulled guard, but they called it a take down. I escaped, and got taken down again. Time ran out with him in my guard. I lost 4-0. He never even attempted a guard pass or a submission. as mentioned...lame. (on the sorta bright side, i accidentally elbowed the guy in the mouth. he wasnt wearing a mouthguard so i busted his lip. he then bled on me. the referee reminded me to shower later, since i had blood in my shirt. would i have forgotten to shower if he had not told me? who knows.)

So, at this point i had competed in two levels that werent really mine, and had lost both. i was getting annoyed. finally, it was time to compete in no-gi at my weight class. So, the match started, and I did a better job defending the takedown. I managed to get under the guy's shoulder for a body lock on his side. I was about to dump him hard, when we got close to the crowd, so we had to stop. then we worked in the clinch some more and he was about to get a single-leg when I ended up in the crowd. Another restart. Finally, with about a minute to go, I got a takedown. I held on and stayed in his guard and won 2-0. It was no submission, but it felt good.

Next, I faced the guy who had beaten the guy who had beat me twice. All the guys were super quick, strong wrestlers. So, he got the takedown. Then, he passed to side control. I managed to get back to half-guard. In the process though, he started working on a submission. He had my arm trapped over my head, so it was not good for me. I got a lockdown on one of his legs, but that didnt alleviate as much of the punch-choke that I would have liked. I relaxed, and eventually I surged up and got my arm free, back to regular half-guard, minus the choke attempt. Then, time ran out. Another loss on points...maybe 4-0, but nonetheless I survived a pretty mean choke and submission attempt. I count it as a morale victory.

I thought I was done, but apparently, the winner that match went on to go for 1st and 2nd. This meant that I would get to compete for 3rd. As I sat in the chair exhausted, the ref asked how much time I wanted to recover. I asked for 2 days. He told me I could have 10 minutes. So, I waited. One of the guys I train with came over and asked if I really wanted to go again. I told him "yes and no." I wanted to get third, but I would have preferred not to move from my seat for a long time. He understood.

Last match time. I remembered watching this guy before. He was super fast. I felt like I was in trouble. I wanted to sit down at the start to avoid the takedown. (ala Eddie Bravo) I stood though, and he flew in like M. Bison for the double leg takedown/ slam-my-head-into-the-mat move. The crowd flinched and made noise to reinforce my pain (i did the same actually, in unison). We were near the edge though, so i had to then crawl back to the middle to start again. On the bright side, I had full-guard. So, like other wrestlers, he did nothing from my guard. He put his head low in my chest a couple time, head butting me on the way down. Finally, I sat up, noticed he was sitting up too, and then hip bumped to get the sweep, ending up in mount. He went from strong and flexed to relaxed and weak. Its amazing how much he changed when I was sitting on his chest. It felt real comfortable. I tried some submissions, but nothing really came through. Then, I think he escaped, and in the scramble, we ended up like we started, in my full guard. Then, he sat up too much again, so I did sweep number 2. Man that felt good. Back on top, he decided to roll, so I took the back (back mount). From there, I sunk in a pretty tight body triangle. He didn't like that and I could hear him grunting from the compression of his torso. He tried to roll a couple time, but with a body triangle there is nowhere to go. I proceeded to attempt a rear naked choke a bunch, but he held my hands and tucked his chin, so I wasn't able to get it. I won 12-4. No submissions, but man did it feel good to get third and to win my last match.

This week has been an off week. I am enjoying the down time, working on school, and each day I find a new injury to let heal (the head butts to my face caused bruising under my eyebrows...weird). What an awesome experience. The most fun I have ever had in such a short time (25 minutes of total mat time). BJJ record lifetime: 0-1, 0-1, 2-1

We all should be giving more

Christmas time is about giving, right? But why? Its as if dying for the sins of man really only entitles you to a month (maybe two tops) of behavior in your honor.

Why dont I give the rest of the year as much as I do at Christmas? Many will point to the economy in answering this question and say something along the lines of not being able to afford it. These are the same people who would point to something else, even if the economy was raging and they had just receieved a Christmas bonus. Maybe for me, its just easier to give at christmas, because well, everyone else is doing it. (Disclaimer: although I often try to convince others to follow me by stating "everyone else is doing it," I dont generlly subscribe to that reasoning myself).

Make no mistake about it. I am rich. If you own a car, or have ever even driven a car, you are rich. I own a BIG car. If you are reading this, most likely on a computer, you are rich (if you are reading this printed in a newspaper, let me know....because that would be really cool). I own a computer, have access to 100s more at school, and am still considering getting a new one. I also own a cell phone, which is basically a computer also, and its a pretty low end phone. Even aside from the car and computer examples, if you have never really struggled for housing or food, you are richer than most of the rest of the world. Every night I sleep in a warm bed and eat until I am full. I am rich.

As a rich person, I think I should be giving more. So, I have decided, that whenever anyone not as rich as me asks me for money (or help), I will give it to them. There are obviously some details that need to be established (how rich am I? how rich are they? Whats the maximum amount I will give?), but for now, I can see where I need to be involved. Whenever Bojangles asks me to give to Toy for Tots, I give. Whenever the Salvation Army rings their bell and I have cash, I give. Whenever one of my friends asks me to volunteer with them, I am there.

It remains to be seen whether or not this will cause me to descend into poverty or rise to greatness.

Part 3

Part 3

Jerrod told us that we were going to run down Camden until

its dead end brought us to Tryon. It looked like a small street with no traffic on it, so we figured it would be a short sprint. The short sprint turned into about a mile sprint before I called Jerrod back to find out how close we were. Part of me really wanted to know where the end was while the other part of me wanted to talk on the phone and give me an excuse not to be running. Pretty much as he picked up, we arrived. Inside Dharma lounge we found a bar behind which sat a giant gold Buddha with headphones on. As we entered, we saw some people doing Yoga, and we were invited to join. At this point, we had run a significant amount, so as the instructor gave us poses to assume, I realized that sweat was falling off of me. Also, the cooler floor combined with my warmer body made for a nice condensation spot where I had been. After about 5 minutes of Yoga and stretching, he gave us a secret word, and onward we ran.

Our next stop was a set of 18 ft tall statues that depicted the creatures who used to pull Dionysis’ Chariot in Greek Mythology. The only giant statues of creatures I knew of in Charlotte had to be the Panthers outside the stadium (Jerrod confirmed). So, we hopped back on the light rail. Actually, we hopped on an old school trolley that happened to be driving on the light rail’s system. The old timey guy “driving” even asked us for tickets. We showed him our old ones and that seemed to be good enough for him. Once on the trolley

we realized that it was a sort of special tour trolley and the other 4 people aboard were tourists from out of town. They saw our race numbers and our exhaustion and asked what we were doing. They thought we were running some kind of race, but couldn’t figure out why we were on the train. We explained the whole situation, much to their enjoyment. Then we asked to be let off right when we were back in uptown, for another good 1 km sprint to the stadium. Once at the stadium, we had to count the number of named on the pedestals below the panthers. The names represented people who has donated money. X number of columns of names times Y number of names per column times 2 pedestals equaled 2096 names. Two places left to run to!

The clue talked about “canned” beer. So we ran to Cans, a bar in uptown. Once there we learned of our challenge. Lets back up to the day before. AJ and I were trying to figure out what to expect by looking at what we were told to bring to the race. The list of supplies was fairly simple: 1) water 2) a $1 dollar bill 3) snacks. Once we went inside Cans, we found out what it was that this dollar was for. We gave the guy our dollar and he put it in “The Mike Tyson Challenge”…a punching bag attached to some flashing lights and a hydraulic. We had to get a certain score to be able to move on. The bartender assured us the score wasn’t hard to get, but that we just had to hit it solidly. At this point I am laughing internally. It wasn’t coincidence enough that the cross-fit place mimicked mine and AJs training in jiu-jitsu. It wasn’t further coincidence either that I spent a lot of time at school doing Yoga. Now, I was being asked to punch a bag, something I routinely do for 6-7 hours per week, minimum. To make things weirder, I had been thinking about these

games the week before, wondering if they were accurate and if it was worth the money. So, I was excited to do it! Without any real warm up, I stepped back, raised both of my hands in front of my face (in case the bag decided to hit back), and hit the bag with a right cross. It took a little while to count up to my score. I slowly grinned larger and larger as the number climbed past the minimum we had to achieve. I almost set the record for the machine. (I still grin, imagining if I had tried some exotic punch like a spinning backfist or a switch cross, which generate much more power but are harder to land on a moving target).

Adventure Race: Part II

Urban Adventure Race: Part 2

“Do you know what Finnish company is the leading cell phone manufacturer?” After taking a picture of A.J. (to prove our existence at the checkpoint) and getting samples of licorice (that unfortunately tasted like licorice), we texted “Nokia” to the special number. The answer was correct and we received a follow up clue, directing us to a place that was famous for “canned” beer (there is a bar in Charlotte called Cans). We knew where that was, and we didn’t want to immediately go there, so we headed off to a restaurant who’s name meant “Life” in Greek.

Jerrod was having a hard time with the clue, but we knew the location. A new development just outside the perimeter of uptown was being built and it was called The Metropolitan at Midtown. So, we ran toward it. Then we jogged toward it. Then we walked. It was crazy far away. A.J. was in much better shape so he could have run the whole way, but he couldn’t carry me at the same time. Just before we got to midtown (and after passing other racers coming from that direction), Jerrod figured out that Zoe was one of the words meaning life. Fortunately, there was a Zoe’s kitchen, just another couple miles off in the distance (or so it seemed). Once we got to Zoe’s, our challenge was to pitch a meal item to the server. Being a server, this was pretty easy. Ironically, “being a server with limited menu knowledge where I work” actually became a skill usable in the race.

The follow-up clue to this challenge was to go back to The Crowne Plaza hotel and find a room that corresponded with a long mathematical equation that was given us. The answer: Room 1126. The Challenge: Paper Turkeys to be given to kids at the children’s hospital. I forgot to fold the paper in half when cutting out the hands, so I had to cut a second set of 4 to make the full set. The people next to us were cutting each hand separately. That must have taken forever. See glorious turkey picture.

Upon exiting the Crowne Plaza, we looked across the street to see where we had started the race. It was now evident we had planned poorly, being back so close to the finish line with so many clues and challenges left. We ran towards the center city to find the light rail to take us to Southend. We hoped that on the way Jerrod would solve the text about a gym, a clown, and our southernmost point.

The light rail was something of an enigma for us at first. We walked up onto the platform and stood there to wait. Then it occurred to A.J. that we were probably supposed to pay. I hadn’t seen any method for giving anyone money, and being out of breath and less patient than normal, I was content to ride the train for free unless it was obvious how to pay. A.J. further insisted that we try harder to give the city money, so we rode an elevator down one story. We arrived at the underpass for a road. No office. No kiosk. No “put money here, take ticket there.” I sprinted back up the stairs worried about missing the train (nothing like a race to make me lose common sense). After much searching, we found a ticket dispenser and we paid and got tickets. Jerrod told me they have troubles with people not paying to ride. Seems silly to me to rely on honesty for public transit funding. Are turnstiles really that expensive?

Jerrod eventually came through with the clue. Before we actually got to the gym though, we got off the light rail in a rather “industrial” area. Jerrod told me on Google Maps it looked like not such a good place. Had it been dark, it definitely would have been uncomfortable. Once we got near where we thought this place was, we saw a kid’s gym and at least two other locations that could have been answers to the clue. We couldn’t find the Ultimate Crossfit (the answer). A group of racers began to amass, all of us sort of lost, but sure we were in the right area. One person would run around a corner and we would all run to the corner to find out where they were going (which was wrong). Then someone else would run across the street so we would all sprint to their location to find another closed business. It was quite comedic. Finally, we saw someone leaving a door at the end of the park, and we all ran there, and we were right

“Pukie” the clown is apparently the mascot of this place called Ultimate Cross-fit. Sure enough, when we got there, we did some crazy exercises that would indeed make me vomit had I been out of shape and doing a one hour workout (which may or may not have been harder than running around the city for 3 hours). Interestingly enough though, the exercises were similar to what I have been doing in my Muay Thai/ Jiu-Jitsu training.

Once set free from this gym, we sprinted back towards the light rail in search of a Lounge that had shared the name of the fictional science project from the show Lost (in hindsight…that’s kind of funny…Lost).