well done young man.

I'm disproportionately more excited for the Holidays than I usually am come this time of year.

It's weird when your interaction with Children progresses beyond the 'peekaboo, I see you!' phase. Besides him calling me to ask why my birthday is on Christmas, my nephew always has something funny to say.

Text to his dad: "Hey, tell Matt I saw Spider-Man on the lot today."

Text from his dad: "Matt is wondering if you took a picture with Spider-Man."

Text to his dad: "Tell him no I was shy."

Text from his dad: "He says 'oh, was everyone else taking a picture with him?' and 'why were you shy, it's just Spider-Man."

-Ghosts are the spirits of ONLY people who died between the Renaissance period and the American Civil War era.  The spirits of people who passed outside of the grace period are not eligible to be legitimate scary ghosts.  If you are wearing neither a powdered wig, first-generation bifocals, or knickerbockers I'm sorry, you are not a ghost.

-Ghosts may NOT inhabit any form of technology.  I know the theory goes that ghosts are energy, therefore can transfigure their energy into different energy/signal dependent mechanisms; a television, a radio, a telephone, the internet, or sometimes a 1958 Plymouth Fury.  Hogwash.  Why don't you take your fancy clothes, black silk underwears, and your techno-aparition and go back to disneyland.

-Most ghosts are pissed.  Scratch that, all ghosts are pissed.  They will not come walk into your field of dreams or contact whoopie goldberg in hopes of solving their murder.  They have two, maybe three skills:  shrieking, running through walls, and sometimes posession (if you're lucky).

-Quija boards.  Forget about them. Ghosts are too busy being pissed off.  Don't ask why they're pissed, they would rather shriek you up than spell it out for you.

I hope this helps you when deciding if you have in fact encountered a ghost, according to me, anyway.

Hey. I went to my High School 10-year reunion earlier this month. I missed a train and showed up a little late, but I had a good time talking to people I haven't seen in a long while.

I didn't do any dancing at the reunion, but I sure did watch a lot of it. It brought me to a conclusion: I don't miss the 90's. Mainly, I don't miss the booty shaking dancefloor music of the 90's. All the commands, telling you to touch the ground. I love dancing, but not dancing to be sexy about it. Of course when a song's lyrics explicitly state that you must touch the ground, down everyone goes. Not wanting to be the last jackass left standing, I used to awkwardly bend and kneel toward one knee. A lot like football players listening to a pre-game pep talk.

It just wasn't for me.

That's without even mentioning the gang violence (though it was fueled by arguably the greatest era in gangsta rap). That said, thought I don't miss the 90's, I'm glad that they happened.

I'll pretty much never get tired of this video:



which led me to this, inferior, but still related video:



I thought the Spider-Man with the symbiote would be a little more agile.

...but love to go to anyway:

1) Blick (art supplies) = I neither paint, nor draw, nor photograph, nor sculpt. But the possibilities seem endless.

2) Guitar Center = I pretty much own all the gear I'll ever want, and I don't have any impressive riffs to bust out on the showroom floor... but again, the sense of endless possibilities floats my boat.

3) Radio shack = I don't know anything about electronics, but please see above.

4) Furniture stores = Big gaudy thrones I'll never buy frequently get sat on by me.

5) The puppy store = Don't have the time for one, but a boy can dream.

6) BevMo = What the crap do I know about fine beverages? I still go straight to the beer section anyway.

Apparently Genki Sudo, one of my all-time favorite fighters, is dabbling in music... and he's pretty good! I'd give my left nut to be in this music video:



Too bad he retired in his prime because of something he read at a bathroom urinal. Strange guy, but awesome nonetheless.



WE ARE ALL ONE.

Arnold took California.

Jesse The Body took Minnesota.

Native New Orleaneans who read my livejournal (hey, it could happen), please vote for Apollo Creed as your Mayor:

http://carlweathersformayor.com/index.htm

We will be one step closer to having our country run by the cast of Predator.

Rampage has announced his retirement. From his website:

The UFC has done a lot for me but I think I have done more for them. The UFC bought WFA to get my contract & they saved my life, so I felt loyal to them. They pushed me into a fight with Chuck Liddel even when I clearly stated I wasn't ready to fight for the belt because the American fans didn't know me but I took the fight and didn't complain & after I won the American fans booed me for the first time which changed the way I saw them & it hurt me deeply.

Then before I can even get out of the cage they announced that I was fighting Dan Henderson without even asking me. After I beat Dan Henderson, I made history in becoming the first undisputed champion in MMA but was never even given the pride belt in the cage & I was never promoted as the undisputed champ. Later Anderson Silva was.

Then they had me coach TUF season 7 and fight Forrest and the fight was very controversial & normally when a fight is that close & controversial there is normally an instant replay. I can name a couple of instances. Instead they offered me the Vanderlei Silva fight which I gladly accepted even though I know it was a very risky fight for me to take because of all the drama that was happening to me at the time. I fought that fight with a jaw injury and then a couple weeks later Dana called me and asked me to fight Rashad. For the first time I said no, I didn't want to fight because it was such short notice & I wouldn't have had a long break between camp. Dana talked me into fighting Rashad anyway but Rashad refused the fight and so I had to fight Jardine as a favor to the UFC instead of getting my belt back (which wasn't even worth it to me financially).

Then I reinjured my jaw in the fight with Vanderlei & Jardine. Frank Mir gets hurt so they wanted to switch my fight from UFC 100 to the fight Frank couldn't make it to but I couldn't fight cause I needed jaw surgury. So they give Machida the fight against Rashad & they told me they want me to coach TUF season 10 against Rashad. That's why I wanted Rashad to win so bad but when Rashad got knocked out I told them I wanted to fight Machida for the belt but Dana told me if I coach TUF against Rashad that I could fight Machida afterwards cause this was a different type of ultimate fighter show they were doing. After I signed the contract Dana then changes his mind & says I have to fight Rashad & even told me what to say in the press & so my fans think I was scared to fight Machida. After all that I still never complained & I did it all.

Then this movie role came about that I have been trying to get for over a year & as soon as I found out I was close to getting it, I called Dana right away & asked to push the Memphis fight back just a month or so. I told him what this movie role meant to me. I told him that I used to bond with my father watching the tv show as a kid when my parents where still married & it represents the memories I had with my father when we lived together. My dad became an alcohalic & addicted to drugs & we grew apart. But after my dad got his life back together, I was so proud of my dad & I told him I would always take care of him in the future & make him proud of me. My dad & I are still very big fans of the show & I am basically doing this for the childhood memories I had spending time in front of the tv with my dad. Dana went on the internet & mocked me because of that & I still did nothing. Dana & I finally talked & we made up & then after that he went back on the internet & said some bullshit & he was talking bad about the movie when information is not even supposed to be released & talking about payments which is not even true could really hurt my future acting career, which could very well last longer than my fighting career. I'm not like Randy Couture. My body has been getting so many different injuries that I wont be able to fight until my forties & neither do I want to fight that long. So I feel like my second career could be in jeopardy.. so I'm done fighting. I've been getting negative reviews from the dumb ass fans that don't pay my bills or put my kids though college. So I'm hanging it up. I'm gonna miss all my loyal fans but hopefully they'll follow me to my new career & I will gain more loyal fans along the way. & all you hater fans out there can kiss my big black hairy ass! & anybody that don't like what I just said can come try to kick my ass!

I still feel the UFC is a great organization and I felt like I was very loyal to them but they didn't respect my loyalty but I wish the UFC the best. I did a lot of things for them. I wish no bad blood between us but I have kids & a family back in Memphis to provide for & thats all that matters to me!

The UFC's strict contract/politics have forced another fighter into retirement, just like what Randy tried to do when he started acting.  Hopefully things work out for Rampage with his new career, because it'd be kinda humiliating to ever go back to the UFC after this.

Owwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

This is what happens when you let two kids parade around as adults, living together without proper supervision:



Somebody call social services.

I'm not too much into the big rave/house/club/techno/electro/dNb/ festival things, but I'd really like to go to this:



Even Contender Asia's Zig Zach is doing a DJ set. PLUS, it's really just the party-side of the F-1 racing event. I like F-1 cars too! I've even been entertaining the idea of taking one of those fantasy camp type of things where middle aged white collar workers learn to drive F-1; just to see if I could do it.

Too bad it's all the way over in Singapore.

Earlier this year, I entered the "Better Body Challenge" where I had to drop as much weight as I could in two months-ish (I think I ultimately lost 16 lbs).

Today, I entered the newest Better Body Challenge which has different categories rather than just gross weight loss. I'm going for the muscle gain category.

To be honest, I think it will be an uphill battle for me, since it's calculated on your body's percentage of muscle ('fat free mass' divided by total body weight). I'm faily lean, so I can gain muscle but won't be losing much fat. I'm sure there are probably people in the competition who have a lot of muscle to gain and a lot of fat to lose which would make their percentage of muscle gains very high.

I probably will be far off from winning, but I think I just want a new goal. More than just gaining muscle mass, I think I'd like to work on my overall strength, explosiveness, and muscular endurance. I'm generally very weak for a guy my size.

We took a test on a body analyzer (whose accuracy I'm a little skeptical of) and here were my stats:

- Weight: 145.6 lbs (actually two pounds less than the lightest I was for the last contest)
- % Body fat: 12.7%
- Fat Free Mass: 127.0

Which means that to even qualify for any kind of prizes (cause we all know that winning prizes is what it's all about) I'd have to get my ratio of 'fat free mass' to body weight from 87% to 93%.

I did the math, and it sounds kinda impossible. Not sure if I can do it, but it's fun to play with my body (teehee).

I just gotta break outta this box...brb

Jason Chambers vs. Spencer Pratt.

I hope this really happens:

http://urdirt.com/2009/09/11/dream-spencer-pratt-from-mtvs-the-hills-to-fight-human-weapon-jason-chambers/

The new trailer for the Contender Asia season 2:



I'm actually pretty excited. Interesting that there are two U.S. representatives, and they're actually good: Duane Ludwig and Kit Cope. I expect Duane to do better than Kit though.

You could maybe make an argument that Malaipet is the third U.S. rep since he's lived here for over ten years.

I'm feeling uncharacteristically romantical today.



Maybe because I've been listening to this song all day. Great song, kinda strange video.

I got my permit last month. This past weekend, I took two days of those CHP motorcycle safety classes and passed with flying colors. Things got ugly, as I let my uber-competitve side out and tried to out ride everyone in the class. Silly as it is, when it comes to stuff like that I don't just want to learn, I need to be THE BEST. In approximately a week and a half, I'll have an M1 motorcycle license (of course, my license will be no better than all the sucky people in my class who through my graceful riding were made to look like uncoordinated swine).

Am I going to get a motorcycle? No. I'm getting a Vespa.



Off topic: I don't know why, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when pretty girls use their looks to get things from men. Maybe it's because I do the same thing. Maybe I've gotten by on my looks my entire life. Maybe I just don't like it when people try to give me a taste of my own medicine. Maybe.

YOU don't think I get by on my looks, do you? *flutters eyelids*

I didn't take this video, but I think we were standing about 5 feet over to the right of the camera person.


After Friday, I'd have to say that Elefant is one of my favorite bands to see live. The reasons being twofold:

1: They put on a very good show.

2: Their fans.

The reasons I like the fans are twofold as well:

a) They dress up like they're going to a club (heels, dresses, dress shirts, etc...). I never go to clubs, so it's fun to see the silly getups.

b) They all seem to be very short, which makes my viewing experience much easier.

Here's a video of me hitting pads in Thailand. I pretty much look like crap because I'm super tired. It's the only traing footage I have because that day I stayed in the ring hitting pads longer than everyone else and someone was finally free to use my camera. So that makes me feel a little better about it.



I actually only ate pad thai once while I was there, and it was just okay. I think I prefer it when it's prepared american style (extra grease).

Speaking of style, I think that the very classic 'thai style' of doing muay thai doesn't suit me. I'm trying to do it their way in the video, what with my higher than usual guard, mini hop step before kicks, and flatfootedness... all things they told me to do and I followed because I didn't want to be disrespectful.

In general, the thai trainers didn't like how I do things saying that a lot of what I did was 'okay for boxing, no okay for muay thai.' They made me stop using shoulder roll defense, slipping, bobbing and weaving, and head movement in general. I felt akward when I tried to be more 'classic' but when in Rome...

I think I'd fit in better style-wise in a dutch kickboxing gym. Hopefully my next big training trip is in Holland.

Yesterday I fell up stairs.

Granted, I was sprinting upstairs skipping two steps at a time with stuff in both hands. In one hand, I had my coffee. In the other, a hard drive. Like a good sound man, I took all of the impact on my knee and arms; saving the drive and my coffee from any harm.

I was really flustered for a good 20 or 30 minutes afterwards. I wasn't hurt at all, I was just really surprised that I tripped and fell. I NEVER fall. This wasn't just a little stumble either, I completely ate it. It wasn't a cute little fall, like a baby taking his first steps who neatly falls on his butt. This was an ugly, multiple-phase fall where I probably looked like I struggled and teeter tottered in midair before finally just giving in to gravity and twisting at the last minute to save a hard drive. You win this time gravity, you cold, cold bitch... I'm sorry gravity, I'm just upset about falling down and stuff. Friends? Cool, let's never fight again.

But seriously, who falls upstairs in this day and age? I blame the economy, and this guy: