December 10th, 2008
I was just standing in my kitchen, eating a banana, listening to Economics 113: American Economic History, from University of Berkeley, taught by professor Brad DeLong. When he said:
In its native state, if you are relatively poor, the climate of Northern New England is none too healthy. For us, because we are, after all, East African Plains Apes, designed to live in a place where it’s ninety degrees at noon full-time year round. We’re not supposed to be wearing suit coats, let alone winter coats and gloves. We’re supposed to be frolicking around in the grasslands, using our height to look at small animals we can hunt and plants we can eat.
This is what I’ve been saying! Monkey Diet!
Posted in Gorillas, food, health | 6 Comments »
December 9th, 2008
I think that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu needs a shorthand notation of the movements and positions.
Too many times I’ve tried to read text-only blog entries about positions and have had them stop making sense halfway through. For example, people will start talking about an attack from side-mount and then talk about moving your hand to attack, but forget to talk about which hand they mean. The one by their opponent’s head? Or the one by their opponent’s hips?
The thing is, I know I do this, too. I take notes on classes and I know that if I passed them to someone else, they would be lost.
I was asking Susi about how ballet teachers write down their movements they make during a dance, and she told me about dance notation.
So, my proposal is, invent a BJJ shorthand notation. Anyone want to help?
This is a type of dance notation. The image is from Wikipedia.
Posted in BJJ | 5 Comments »
November 19th, 2008
Lately I’ve been thinking about offense and defense in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and this is what I’ve come up with: There is a definite line that divides what you are doing into either an offensive or a defensive move.
I know there is nuance in this, there are aggressive-defensive moves and defensive-aggressive moves, but at some point you have to chose to defend or attack.
The nice thing about BJJ is that when you are defending, it is really hard to attack. So if you can keep pressure on, keep blitzing your opponent the entire time. It is easier to setup other attacks.
For example, if you are going for a person’s arm and then you are having trouble getting them to stop defending it, you can apply a weak choke attack to get them to free their arm so you can revert to your first attack.
This is what I am calling Binary BJJ, if you are defending (0) then you cannot attack (1).
The pressure that attacks cause is what separates this sport from chess. It is a lot harder to relax and think about what would be the most efficient attack you could make when you have a forearm cutting off the blood to your brain. The defense is a lot more urgent, and there isn’t as much time to mull over your next move.
Posted in BJJ | 2 Comments »
November 13th, 2008
In keeping with my new monthly challenge, I hereby challenge Hank Paulson to a vale tudo / cage match.
If he excepts the challenge, I would like the winner to receive 800 billion dollars of U.S taxpayer money. If he is victorious, he could use the money to bail out his larcenous buddies at Goldman Sachs… oh wait, he did that already…
“Let’s get it on!”
Posted in eCONomics, p0l1t1x, poopculture | No Comments »
November 12th, 2008
I just returned from Florianopolis where I was staying with Luiza and Paola. They were super-hostesses and I really enjoyed my time with them. We went to the best pizza place in the world, it is called Pizzaria Cica. If you ever go to Floripa you should go.
I went there for the 2008 South American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu championships. I was a little nervous going into it, as I was recently promoted to purple, as I’ve mentioned before, but I was really pleased with my performance.
The results: I won my division, and got second in the absolute.
Here is a video of the last few seconds of the finals in my division. I’m the one applying the triangle choke. 
Also, on the road there, the road works people blew up a hill, which was really cool.
Posted in BJJ, Brazil, Travel | 3 Comments »
November 12th, 2008
Hooray!
Google Maps finally has walking directions for Porto Alegre!!!
This is especially good here, because all of the streets are one way and not laid out in a grid, but more like crushed Chex Party Mix®.
Posted in Google | 1 Comment »
November 5th, 2008
I’m really happy about this for a lot of reasons. Maybe the opinion of America in the eyes of the world will improve.
I’m also curious about what will be Bush & Co.’s evil swan song. Just keep following the money, I guess.
Posted in p0l1t1x | 3 Comments »
October 31st, 2008
My lovely sister-in-law Louisa sent me this.
It had me LOL-ing in the morning.
Kids Halloween Candy Code
Tags: funny
Posted in art | No Comments »
October 25th, 2008
The weirdest thing just happened. Right after I wrote that post about wanting to be able to save my BJJ game: I got my purple belt! It came a huge surprise. My instructor Flavio Ferreria gave it to me after a seminar that he and De La Riva gave here in Porto Alegre. I’m super-grateful and honored.
Posted in BJJ | 9 Comments »
October 25th, 2008
I just had a chat with my BJJ friend Tran Nguyen from London. He just received his purple belt (Congratulations!) and he mentioned how it was nice to receive it so that he could “save his game” like a video game.
That is exactly how I feel. I don’t really want a new belt for a new belt’s sake. I’m more concerned with getting to the “purple level” in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game. That way I can save my game and if I move, or get injured, I can come back to the game and start from there, instead of spending another couple of years as a blue belt. I don’t need the strokes from the higher graded belts, but I would like the insurance policy.
In other news, I started boxing this week, which I am really enjoying. I started because I am trying to drop a couple of kilos for the South American BJJ championships next month. I think this is the magic bullet. A friend of mine, Sergio, who is an American who has been living in Porto Alegre for a long time, is helping me train, and it is incredibly hard work. My back is pretty sore, but it is really fun.
Posted in BJJ, Boxing, health | 2 Comments »
