2010 is going to be a crazy year.

January is officially surgery month.

Septoplasty and wisdom teeth.

February, braces.

Sucks to be my insurance company.

Hopefully I get to play a World Series of Poker event in June/July in Vegas.  Last year I didn’t get to go because I started the new gig.

I plan on competing in some jiu jitsu tournaments for the first time.

I want to contribute to an open source project of some sort, preferably related to the php community.  We’ll see.

I have a few other surprises to be discussed at a later date.

It shall be a fun one.

Keep the haters away.

Rashad Evans  vs. Thiago Silva

I don’t really like watching Rashad fight.  His fights are typically very boring.  He always comes with a good game plan and his wrestling is typically better than anyone he faces.  He can uncoil and explode with powerful strikes, but he’d rather just outpoint his opponents.  I like finishers.  Evans isn’t aggressive enough to fit that mold.

Thiago Silva might bring out the interestingness in Rashad’s game.  Thiago is a finisher.  He is very aggressive with a brutal striking game.

I think Rashad is really well rounded and I know that the edge in wrestling is a big factor in all fights.  The better wrestling determines where the fight takes place.  Rashad will take him down often.

This is a good matchup, but Rashad will spend most of his energy tying up Thiago.  If it goes to a decision, Evans will be the victor. But,

Thiago Silva, Round 1, TKO Referee stoppage

Paul Daley vs. Dustin Hazelett

Hazelett is a cool dude with a very interesting submission game

Paul Daley is a machine with crazy power.

I’d love to see Dustin come out and flying armbar Daley in 8 seconds, but I think Daley is going to smother him.

Daley, Round 2 TKO (ground and pound)

Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen J-Lo.

This is an awesome matchup. Sam Stout has tons of experience against tough guys.

Lauzon fights a suffocating style that I love to watch.

I’m a homer.

Lauzon by Decision

Jim Miller vs. Duane Ludwig

I remember Duane Bang Ludwig when he first got into mma.  He was a Muay Thai bad ass learning the mixed martial arts game from one of my favorites, Bas Rutten.  Ludwig was devastating people.  He seemed to fall off the map for a while.  Then, he won a decision over my favorite fighter, Yves Edwards.

Jim Miller is an unknown to me.  He wins most of his fights by submission.

I’ll bite.

Ludwig, KO, Round 2.

Junior dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel

Martin Kampmann vs. Jacob Volkmann

Dan Lauzon vs. Cole Miller

Mark Munoz vs. Ryan Jensen

Mike Pyle vs. Jake Ellenberger

John Gunderson vs. Rafaello Oliveira

Looks like a quality card.  I really want to see some of the undercard matchups, so hopefully all the main card fights end in the first round.

For the first time in my life, I saw a movie in 3D.

It was amazing.

The glasses were really rockin’, ala Ronald Jenkees or Harry Carey.

The movie was… 2 hours 45 minutes long. I was admiring the various elements of 3D for nearly that entire period of time.

In order to give the movie a proper review, I would need to rewatch the film a time or two. At $12.50 a pop, I send in your donations now.

3D is insane.

I want to create something in 3D, but what.

Every personal blog I have ever followed has a period of inactivity, usually followed by an apology and a promise.

Wow, it has been a long time since I updated this thing, they typically explain.

This phenomenon occurs everywhere in life. as additional daily requirements and habits enter the mix, the least natural hops of the routine die off.

For me, I went from athlete playing 3 sports to zero. I quit preparing to compete and replaced that effort with other activities, like playing video games and drinking.

When one aspect of a routine changes, we must re-evaluate all the links in the chain.

Being away from the computer for a week has been a significant change. However temporary, it is a part of this challenge I didn’t initially consider.

Fortunately, I like this writing thing. Maybe I’ll take a hiatus and apologize and promise, but it will have to be after January 13, 2010.

I have four fans depending on me.

The Earth completes its trek through space around the sun, we reset our calendar and then proclaim that we will undo all the wrongs of the previous year.

I would wager a guess that somewhere in the 95% range of new years resolutions fail.

It is kind of cool to have a scheduled date to reflect and reconsider ourselves, yes.

I argue that we should schedule that reflection everyday, not once annually.

For the sake of ritual, my new years resolution is to pick up the guitar more than 5 times in 2010.

After a couple years of procrastinating joining a jiu-jitsu school, I finally did a few months ago.

I’ve been going a couple times a week in between random injuries, the most painful of which was a bruised rib.

I wrestled for a decade and feel comfortable on a mat.

But, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is not wrestling.  That reality took me a few months to realize.

My parents snagged an item off my Amazon wishlist, “Jiu-Jitsu University” by Saulo Ribeiro.  It has about 2000+ photos and is organized in an interesting way that I am going to take to heart.

Essentially, Saulo’s idea is that a white belt’s goal is to learn to survive in all positions.  That is a concept that I really needed to hear.  I feel comfortable when we are drilling, but as soon as I get put in an unfamiliar position, I’m a fish out of water.

I dug into Saulo’s book and one rolling session later, I already know it has made me so much more aware in those out of position moments I frequently find myself in.

When rolling, I’m going to be the most frustrating, surviving bjj player I can be.  That’s the plan anyways.

The book has been eye opening to me.  There is a decade of learning material in one $25 book.

Thanks mom and dad.

Chalk another win up to the use of Amazon Wishlists.

When I first started this content creation marathon I talked about nagging friends and family that smoke until they quit.

I want to make it clear that I know quitting is ridiculously difficult.  I also know it’s impossible for someone to quit smoking for anyone other than their own desire to stop smoking and live a healthy life.

A couple weeks ago I watched Dr. G Medical Examiner – 5 Ways Not to Die, or something like that.  #1 was smoking related deaths, 440,000 annually.  It was like 1am in the morning and I felt compelled to call all my friends who smoke.

One of those people told me last night that they are going to quit.

I know saying it and doing it are two entirely different plateaus in the quitting process, but this particular smoker was one who has rejected the idea entirely.

I know I’ve been a bad influence on a lot of people at different points in my life.

Now I’m on a crusade to counter those negatives.

Thursday morning, I spoke with my brother, who had already made it home for christmas.  He said the day had started out hectic at our parents house:

• the roof was leaking from the 24+ hours of rain
• my dad had just spilled coffee
• our mom had just called.  she was upset and having issues with her car a few miles outside of town and needed someone to come help her.

I can only imagine the chaos, as I was headed to work 70 miles from their home.  I would be making the trek there later that evening.

30 minutes before I left work for the holidays, I get a message from a close friend.

Are you OK?

Please tell me I heard wrong?

Did your mom pass away?

My first reaction was, Ha, no way.  But, then my mind started creating the possibilities.

I responded with, “I hope not”.

I immediately pick up my phone and look for a signal.

I call my brother.

Ring… Ring… Ring… “The Verizon customer you are trying to reach has not setup a voicemail box”.

I’m holding my breath at this point.  Fighting off the urge to 100% panic.

My mind is racing through all the scenarios.  The last I knew was she was having car problems, parked on the side of the highway and upset, waiting on my dad to come help her.

Are my family members avoiding my calls until I’m physically present?

What did I last say to my mother?

Will I ever want to celebrate christmas again?

How could I possibly deal with this?

I call my sister.

Ring… ring… ring… “Hello”.

I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I was attempting to gauge her voice for any hint of sadness.  There was none.

I’m calmer, but have convinced myself maybe she doesn’t know yet, either.

I call my mom’s cell phone.

It rings and rings and… “Hi Tim”.

My imagination had nearly caused a stroke.  I’ve never been happier in my life from hearing a hello.

It took the rest of the day to recover from the anxiety that 10 minutes of confusion had created.

After informing my friend she was fine, I asked him:

Are you going to be in town for the holidays?

To which he responded:

Are you going to stab me?

I did get new kitchen shears for christmas.  Just saying.

I bought this domain a few years back with the idea of dissecting some basic groups of motivations and categorizing small blurbs of my thoughts into each of them.

It seemed to make for a very interesting, artistic reflection of my daily life after I had collected a few hundred posts.  But, I learned most motives aren’t so simple. They are all interconnected.

If I’m motivated by financial gain, is it really that extra buying power that is driving me to work harder to reach that goal?

Does that filter down to some greedy desire to be rich?

Or am I actually interested in something more genuine.

Each thought needs a lengthy, non-interesting back-story or they become open for interpretation and I’m too insecure to defend them all.

Christmas has always been a fun time for me.

I used to love getting presents and being surprised.  My parents have always gone way over the top to make their kids happy.

My dad has always said, “you can spend $10 on me, thats the limit”.

Mom would act thrilled to death if I drew her a stick figure on a napkin with a crayon.  She’d hurry off to find a frame, if I actually were to be so lame.

They’ve sacrificed a lot for us and sometimes I fail to show appreciation for it all.

Reciprocating the joy they’ve given me all of these years is my simple motive this Christmas and everyone after.

All families are crazy, show them love anyways.

Approximately 2 million views with 12,000+ comments.  Both of those figures are pretty amazing to me.

I’d suggest buying both of his albums. Ronald Jenkees (2007) and Disorganized Fun (2009).

Checkout his Youtube channel, too.