TMI Beard

What do you love most about the martial art you practice? What do you enjoy most about training in that style?

Well, actually I’ve had a few classes before, here and there, including a seminar from the legend Relson Gracie himself. It was amazing. But this time I mean to start a practice. Mondays and Wednesdays at a Pedro Sauer/Gracie Jiu Jitsu lineage school lead by James Finizio (very nice guy). And I’ll probably alternate with Aikido practice on Saturdays.

But for the purpose of this effort (I want to do some class recaps for bjj to help me remember the techniques and my progress) we will consider this practice #1:

Practice #1: 03/30/15

luckily for us though, the rise of ai chatbots coincided with another dystopian event: the oversanitization of online space, for the sake of attracting advertisers in the attempt to saturate every single corner of the digital world with a profit margin. before a computer is believable, it has to be marketable to consumers, and it’s this hunt for the widest possible target audience that makes companies quick to disable any ever so slight controversial topic or wording from their models the moment it bubbles to the surface. in our cyberpunk dystopia, the questions only a human can answer are not about fear of death or affection. instead, it is those that would look bad in a pr teams powerpoint.

This is one of nature’s most anatomically perverse of all beasts. A FISH, like a carp or a bass or a beta is a fish, but it bent its body straight up only to bend its head permanently back down. It stretched its skull into a pipe. It tapered its tail like a lizard, specifically like a chameleon. It can also move its eyes independently by the way, you know, like a chameleon. Fun fact, it can change color to express its mood, like you know whatever does that. It doesn’t properly swim anymore. It buzzes its few remaining fins like an insect’s wings to float itself around at a snail’s pace. It lives its whole life clinging to coral branches or seaweed, which means it decided to become a “tree dweller” in an environment where gravity didn’t even matter anyway. The males get pregnant. They make noises at each other by rubbing some of their neck bones together. Every day, EVERY DAY a mated pair does a little dance and a little neck bone song so they remember which two seahorses they were. They’re a beautiful precious obscenity. Nothing so adorable ever made such a strong case against a logical creator.

They have as little skin and meat as they could get away with. Their skeleton is almost all they are.

Hello, world.

My name is Revvy. I’m a martial artist, and I’m here to share my journey with you.

I first started training in Cuong Nhu in 2005, with a small group at my church. I immediately fell in love with martial arts. In 2016 I got a new job, moved, and restarted my training at a new school after taking a few years off to focus on school. Then in 2020 the pandemic derailed training once more, and shortly after that in 2021, so did surgery on my injured wrist.

With time lost to the pandemic and injury, I gained weight and lost confidence in myself. But old keys don’t open new doors. I’m doing my best to be humble, empty my cup, and work myself back up. There is always more to learn, and I’m not going to let the state of my body keep me from continuing to grow as a martial artist and as a person.

Gordon Ryan vs Andre Galvao - 2022 ADCC

Amit Elor (USA) vs Zhamila Bakbergenova (KAZ) - United World Wrestling Championships 2022, 72kg final

Francis Ngannou hits a scissor sweep on Ciryl Gane - UFC 270

His wife, Yukiko, was also a part of this; she is often credited with suggesting the plan. The Sugihara family was held in a Soviet POW camp for 18 months until the end of the war; within a year of returning home, Sugihara was asked to resign - officially due to downsizing, but most likely because the government disagreed with his actions.

He didn’t simply grant visas - he granted visas against direct orders, after attempting three times to receive permission from the Japanese Foreign Ministry and being turned down each time. He did not “misread” orders; he was in direct violation of them, with the encouragement and support of his wife.

He was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in 1985, a year before he died in Kamakura; he and his descendants have also been granted permanent Israeli citizenship. He was also posthumously awarded the Life Saving Cross of Lithuania (1993); Commander’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1996); and the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2007). Though not canonized, some Eastern Orthodox Christians recognize him as a saint.

Sugihara was born in Gifu on the first day of 1900, January 1. He achieved top marks in his schooling; his father wanted him to become a physician, but Sugihara wished to pursue learning English. He deliberately failed the exam by writing only his name and then entered Waseda, where he majored in English. He joined the Foreign Ministry after graduation and worked in the Manchurian Foreign Office in Harbin (where he learned Russian and German; he also converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church during this time). He resigned his post in protest over how the Japanese government treated the local Chinese citizens. He eventually married Yukiko Kikuchi, who would suggest and encourage his acts in Lithuania; they had four sons together. Chiune Sugihara passed away July 31, 1986, at the age of 86. Until her own passing in 2008, Yukiko continued as an ambassador of his legacy.

You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.

People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives….The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation—and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.

The stone next to him bears a quote from the Talmud; “He who saves one life, saves the entire world.”  

Super big #shoutout to my #covid19 exclusive training partner for the last 6 months, @trcarro39 It takes a lot of #character to keep it up with a great attitude like @trcarro39 has had every night without having other white belts to beat up on every now and then 😂. And for me, I think it really helped my technique to have a partner that I could try things on and have a second to think about what I’m doing rather than just trying to survive like I tend to do with upper belts. I really enjoy the mentoring aspect of it too. Exploiting the holes in his game and then helping him figure out how he can improve, watching him grow and get better, make microadjustments 😂 and even submit me sometimes… #priceless 🤩

btw: she’s in the upcoming Black Widow movie 😍 and—

People who received cash were able to access the food they needed to live faster. Nearly 70% did after one month, and maintained greater food security throughout the year. The recipients spent more on food, clothing and rent, while there was a 39% decrease in spending on goods like alcohol, cigarettes or drugs.“

It’s almost like people self medicate to survive intense stress like, idk, not having the cash to live anywhere but outdoors. People who are extremely poor do not want to be poor, we WANT to be safe and have autonomy in our lives but capitalism makes that impossible for some people.

But if you get that $5000 all at once and then nothing for the rest of the year, that’s enough to get an apartment for a month, and your meds, and food, and clothes, and then well hey you can look for a job (and you have a mailing address, wow!).