After four and a half years of transferring Universities, transferring courses and transferring my career goals I have finally done the deed of graduating, something I probably could've done a year or a semester earlier had I known what I wanted to do, and was smart enough to not fail a few subjects (but lets not dwell on that part), but I suppose all that played a part to get me to where I am now, jobless and still in need of study to achieve my career goal.
Onto the day at hand, that handed me my degree, with high degree weather, and what a day it was!
I didn't really tell anyone about my graduation thing, mainly because I'm not the type of person who wants to celebrate anything to do with me, which may seem ironic with me having this blog to make an account of all things to do with me, but I guess that's just the way I am. Since I didn't tell anyone about my graduation I therefore didn't invite anyone to my graduation, except for the obligatory family and girlfriend. Girlfriend!? Yeah, someone I've been meaning to blog about but haven't done as yet, but will eventually, so the little blurb is her name is Rose, she's a Christian, not married, not divorced, not a blood relative and is female.
I set my alarm for 9am, but woke up a lot earlier, at around 5am or so, something I've had a habit of doing lately, but then fell back asleep knowing I didn't need to wake up so early. At 9am my alarm went off, I turned it off and laid in bed with my eyes closed, hoping this would help restore all my energy and make me less tired. I played Muse's "Falling Away With You" to help me start my day and got up, got ready, shaved and showered, which is important for photos and events such as your graduation and soon enough the rest of the family got ready. Left the house at 10:40am or so and headed for Rose's house, picked her up and continued our drive. While in the car I got handed a gift from Rose, wrapped in tissue paper, the fancy kind, and wrapped with tape, the double stick kind.
Now what could that be?
Trying to open up a gift wrapped with tissue paper and double stick tape in the cleanest way possible is nigh impossible and ripping was to be done, and it was done good, and what was inside was very very awesome indeed. Coming off my first BJJ competition win there were official photos taken, which I took off the site and was content to have the low quality versions, but Rose, is her sweet wisdom bought the photos and framed the one of me with my hand raised in victory. The frame is very very fancy and apparently costs a lot. I spent the rest of the drive up holding the frame and marveling at how someone could be so awesome (Rose, not me).
How awesome is that!
We then headed to the city, specifically, Market City, for parking. We had Yum Cha at the restaurant on the third level which was also eventful. I almost had my lap burnt due to spilt tea, courte
sy of Rose but reacted fast enough to avoid the tea getting my lap and it hit the chair instead. I switched chairs, which was later sat on by someone else, but I think it had dried up by then as the person didn't react like I wanted them to when they sat down.
Yummy-cha
It was just after 1pm when we finished eating and I needed to get to the University to register and get my academic dress on to look like a person who was graduating. Leading to the graduation I had a fairly 'meh' attitude to it all, and didn't know anyone who was graduation as well as I had pretty much no friends in university. But lining up for my academic dress and registration I spotted a guy who I met in my first or second semester back in 2005 and somewhat befriended but hadn't spoke to since, and things hadn't change all that much. I was then fitted into my academic dress, gown or robe, whichever you want to call it, then further adjustments were made by my mum with pins to make my gown more cool looking, then the pictures began, we took our shots, then let the professionals take their shots, which I'll purchase later when they're out. A good thing about my graduation was that it allowed for us to take a family photo, something we hadn't done in a loooong time, so that was good indeed!
Being a graduate!
Fast forwarding along, we took more pictures, then headed for the hall place, to get graduated, I sat between two people I recognised over the years at UTS so we chatted a bit during the ceremony, which was long. I was in the third last row to have my name called and it sure took a while to get my name called that I passed the time by playing around with the camera overlooking the crowd, making faces and what not, hoping that when I watch the DVD of the ceremony for the first and last time I'll be able to be amused by my own antics. Eventually our row was called up and the nerves kicked in, with new shoes on which were quite slippery I was afraid of slipping as I walked to shake the lady's hand. My name was called, I tipped my hat to him, something I was practicing while waiting and walked over to the lady to shake her hand, on the way, and forgot to look at the camera as a picture was taken, it'll be interesting to see what that picture looks like, if I ever get to see it. I was then handed my degree thing and then walked back to my seat. Heard a speech from a former UTS student, and then left, heading for the refreshments to refresh ourselves. Which was packed with people, so moving around was tough, and getting to refreshments was tougher, but we managed.
Graduated!Unfortunately, the whole throwing our hats into the air as a group could not be done as it is deemed a potential hazard so we had to resort to doing it by ourselves. With the wonders of the continuous shot function we were able to capture this pretty well with nice results.
However, a second throw, with the plan to throw higher didn't prove too well with the high winds that day...
After mucking around more, taking random photos and the like I had to return my gown and revert to being normal David again. As normal David we all went shopping, Rose got shoes, I carried the shoes and then we had dinner at Wagaya I think was the name, which had cool touch screen ordering menus, which my brother and sister had fun with, ordering all our meals. Following the graduation dinner we walked around Chinatown, as they had their Friday Night Markets open, Rose and I wandered up and down, then found a spot to sit and relax while waiting for my parents to finish shopping. We were called to the Y2K place for dessert, so all that walking helped get dinner digested and our bellies ready for more. Rose and I shared a mango pudding and green tea icecream thing. Rose thought it fun to give the pudding a face, before we devoured his smiling face.
After dessert we went home, to end what was a tiring, yet enjoyable day.
Having finished university some months back the whole graduation excitement was lost on me, but being there on the actual day made it cool. Now I have the next phase of my life to look forward to, which involves more study with a Masters degree which I better get in to. The weather was alright, and being indoor most of the time was fine, and rain didn't happen until late into the night, and by then I was safe at home. So that's one graduation down, hopefully another to go, let's see where life take me, hopefully to a place called Home...
Today was my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition that I have participated in so far, and it was quite an experience indeed. I was originally going to enter a competition a month earlier but fell sick during the week and didn't feel physically ready to compete, that and I didn't really have $50 to pay for the competition. Then along came this competition, run by our trainers and they really encouraged us to compete so I figured this would be the best time to start my BJJ competition career.
I decided to enter in the under 61kg adults division, which was the lowest weight division possible, and I knew I was pretty light from all my Wii Fit sessions so I knew I would be able to make weight just fine. However, it wasn't until the last week that I re-weighed myself and found I was over the 61kg weight limit by a few kilograms, leaving me worried. Fortunately there was a 3kg allowance because of my Gi that I wear, so I could weigh up to 64kg. So I tried to eat a little less before the Sunday, and that didn't really help that I had a birthday party to go to last night, I didn't expect a lot of food but there was tonnes of food, and good food to boot but I didn't eat much. Anyways, all that worrying was for naught because I weighed in at 62kg this morning, and my Gi weights 1.6kg, so I was fine.
We (my brother and I) got to the venue all the way in Five Dock, to Five Dock Leisure Centre, which I had never heard of before, and I'm sure neither you have, but all you need to know is that it's far away and my sense of misdirection kicked in and we got lost for a little bit.
OH! We also got to find out who we are wrestling against the night before online and how many people are in our divisions. And my division consisted of two people, David Ung, and some guy named Jerome from some club called Boxing Works. So basically, if I beat this guy, I win gold and can claim victory over my weight division! Or just victory over this one guy, but I digress...
We got to the venue, signed in and watched our friends fight in the kids/teen division, of which two of our club members were in. They both won handily and came first for their respective divisions, raising the bar in the process. After the kids got out of the way it was time for the adults to roll. I thought my match would've been first but nope, it was going to be later, after the more bigger divisions wrestled their matches.
So I watched other matches, like my brothers, in the 61-67kg division, he ended up losing to a cuff choke, and in the end lost to the guy that came first in the division. Other club members won and lost as well but since you don't know them I won't talk about them for your sake. Eventually it was soon time for my match and I didn't know whether to be nervous or excited or both or neither but in the end I didn't feel either, I was just lost and somewhat ready.
My brother recorded the match, and was more into watching the match than recording the match so excuse his cinematography, we should've brought a tripod but oh well, at least I got my first match on camera. For those who don't know anything about BJJ (which I think is most of you hybridites) I'm willing to record a commentary over the video so you have an idea of whats going on, and there's a few things I'd like to point out but can't be bothered to do in text form because it'd be weird, but I'll only do it if I get a substantial amount of interest from you, and a good microphone I suppose.
But for now, watch, enjoy, and try to understand whats going on.
Triangle choke finish!!
Just incase you didn't know, I won the match and hence became number one in my division, continuing the Gold Standard for SPMA (our club). I was so lost in the fight that I forgot to put my mouth guard on, and ended up leaving in my Gi, and it fell out when I won and stood up, which suprised both my brother "what the hell!?" and I. After the match I was so tired, and basically collapsed, my legs were dead from the triangle choke and my arms were gone from all the pulling and controlling my opponent, even now my forearms are still dead tired, if I stretch or put pressure on them it just burns! You can see how tired and lost I am in the video, but happy to have won, and in a convincing fashion no less!
I was so tired I couldn't open the cap to my bottle at times, it was hilariously bad. But at the same time was a lesson in conditioning, I've got to work on my conditioning so that next time there are more than one person to fight I won't be so darn tired if I make it past the first round. I've also got to work on my arm and leg strength too, so they don't tire out so fast. I also suffered a little injury too, at some point during the match my foot got cut, presumably by his toe nail or something. Which is another injury to add to the list of my injuries (yay).
The cut without the blood
At somepoint our club members found the time to get together and take a group picture, which was cool, and was my first group picture as well, and helped make me feel more like part of the club, so going to competitions like these are great for building friendships!
Some of the group!
After a bunch of waiting through the other White belt matches, then blue belt matches, purple and brown belt matches it was time for the awarding of the trophies! Since my division was first I got to receive my trophy first, and it felt pretty great hearing my name after the words "First Place", I also got a pair of shorts too, that I can use for training, they likely cost over $50 so that pretty much paid for my $50 entry fee I'd say. Then I had to sit through all the other trophy winners, which took a while. But I got to talk to my opponent more, he had only been training for 5-6 months apparently, and I suppose like all people who have lost he requested a rematch, to which I replied with a hearty "Ha Ha".
As things wound down and people were leaving I got a picture with my club instructor and MMA fighter Anthony Perosh, I wanted one with our other head instructor Elvis Sinosic but he was busy talking and I was in a rush to get home and eat something, and that something turned out to be McDonalds in the form of a double quarter pounder burger.
So my BJJ career is off to a good start, with one win and no losses, and an earning of a pair of shorts, I'm on my way to becoming a champion! Can't wait for the next competition to burst my ego. (Don't worry, I don't think too highly of my win)
So awesome I don't need to look at the camera
Watching the television last night on one of those channels that have the news over and over, probably ABC or SBS there was some report about some nations joining forces or something, big stuff, but not big enough for me to remember the details BUT the one detail I remembered was seeing a person in the bottom corner doing sign language.
Which got my mind thinking, if two deaf people from two different countries (preferably with different languages) met each other, would they be able to communicate through sign language alone?
Someone find out for me, then we can both learn something interesting!
Sign language is something I wouldn't mind trying to learn, I already use my hands for many things, I might as well add another talent to my hands. And it'd be the one time I can talk with my mouth full without seeming rude or disgusting, unless I'm talking with food in my hands...
Over the last nine months now that I've been doing my Hybrid Martial Arts I've had my fair share of bumps and bruises as one would. And this blog is a list of the injuries I've had so far, with many more to come I would assume.
I remember after my first few weeks of training I discovered bruises on my arms while taking a shower, this would then become the start of a long string of injuries to all different parts of my body. Bruises soon disappear and no one ever sees my arms anyway, so I wasn't too worried about my bruises.
I've had cuts on my feet, and the ways I got them were quite weird, though I only remember one, which was from someone else while wrestling with them. Apparently, they somehow, using their toenail, assumingly on their big toe, dug it into my foot and cut it. Which I didn't feel at the time, until I looked at my foot and saw blood. But cuts heal pretty fast and didn't require major medical attention. I've also had a cut on my hand, which I've now forgotten how I got, except that I know it was from training.
My other toe injury was similar to my toe tombstone blog back in March, where my toenail bent backwards, except this time it was only the top part, so I was easily pushed back down and is currently healing itself. Must remember to keep my toenails cut short.
Other cuts included my elbows, the first time due to elbow training where we practiced elbow shots on a pad, to the point where it started to bleed, showing both my seriousness in training, and silliness at not knowing when to slow down. Those healed up eventually, but soon enough, getting thrown onto the ground during training, landing on my elbows and scraping them lead to scraped elbows, eventually leading to scabbed elbows. Those heal okay over time too.
Then there are cuts that matter, because they're seeable and generally don't look very pleasing. The only seeable cuts I've received were to my face, the lips to be exact. The first time it was cut was when I was wrestling a rather aggressive person, who I've continued to wrestle, despite my not wanting to wrestle him at times. At some point I was on my back, and he was on top, he came down with an elbow to do a move and must've mistimed or something and instead came down with the elbow to my face, specifically my mouth. He looked up and said "You're bleeding!!", I touched my lips and saw a lot of blood, and got up to clean it out with water. Its quite amazing how much blood can be in your lip, my instructor took a look at it and said "It was alright", but then he would've seen much worse himself, I hadn't. But basically I had a piece of my lip skin hanging out, which stung when water was applied. That took a while to heal up.
Other occasions with a busted lip were of less drama, either me bumping into someone with my face, or them bumping into my face causing the lip to bleed. I've since started wearing a mouth guard to give my mouth a bit more protection and to protect my lips a lot more. Don't want to hurt my lips!
The other type of injury I've had are ones that no one can see, and only I can feel, those being that of pain. I've had both my arms stretched out a lot due to arm bars, possibly leaving my elbows to deteriorate slowly but surely, but most people are good with arm bars and won't crank my arm to the point of breakage. Though one time at training someone had their arm broken, resulting in a visit to the hospital.
I was once thrown onto my head, which hurt, a lot, and probably rattled my brain. So I try to be very cautious with takedowns and the like now. I've also hurt my pinky toe, due to a takedown where the guy was trying to take me down and I tried to stop it and post with my left foot, but it kinda got stuck and my pinky toe got stretched backwards, which hurt, a lot.
One submission we do a lot in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are chokes, usually finding someway to constrict a person's breathing and causing them to submit. These are probably my favourite kind of submissions, but not favourite to receive and often after training, I would wake up the next morning with a sore neck due to the chokes I've received.
Last, but not the least is my most recent injury. One that I wanted to avoid since getting into this martial art, and that is cauliflower ear, which if you get a lot of, results in a pretty ugly looking ear, all puffed up and whatnot. The way you get this is if you suffer blows to your ears, or pressure put upon them, which can happen a lot during wrestling. I had always been careful, or at least tried to be careful and protect my ears as best as possible but at somepoint I developed a little 'lump' in my left ear, but it was very small and I thought it was nothing of concern, except that when I put pressure onto it, it would hurt. So sleeping on my left side was often difficult because of the lump. However, this got worse last night, after training, while I was at bible study I reached up to feel my left ear and felt what was a pretty substantial lump, at some point during wrestling I must've put a lot of pressure on my ear and the lump grew big. This lump, is basically a blood clot, so it was filled with blood, I didn't want it to hang around anymore or else it would've settled and I would've had a slightly fatter ear than my right ear, something I didn't want.
Today I went to see the doctor to get the blood drained out, which the doctor did, but only found there to be a little bit of blood inside, according to the doctor it'll take 10 days to heal, so I'll try to limit my physical activity over the next 10 or so days. Which is quite difficult, with a (un)friendly bout with Andrew Ha tomorrow and my third stripe grading on Monday for BJJ, followed by Thai Kickboxing grading on the Tuesday, and a BJJ competition that I want to enter at the end of the month, I'm going to have to protect my ears very well. I'm not a vain person, but I'd like to keep my facial area generally intact, not for my sake, but for yours, since you guys have to look at me from time to time.
My goodness it's been a while, a long while! There's so much to blog about and I've got so much time to do it, but too lazy to do so. But here we go, hopefully I'll be able to throw up everything my mind can remember from the last month or so. Lets roll out to get the lol out!
August 14th, Simon Ha's funeral service, which I shan't dwell on for too long, except that it was sad, but I'm very glad he accepted Christ as his Lord and Saviour in the end. After the funeral we went back to the Ha's house for what I like to call the after-funeral party, just because it was so laid back, with food and drink and socialising it just felt like a mini party. Anyway, in the previous few weeks there were talks of me fighting Dewey Griffin, who has been wanting to fight me for a while and what better time to fight than after a funeral. I accepted his challenge and we both took our shoes and socks off, got our fancy shirts off so they wouldn't get dirtied (I had a singlet type thing on underneath), got my gloves on and got ready. With a crowd of well dressed people I didn't want to look bad, but didn't know how things were going to work. I knew Dewey had flexibility of gymnastic proportions and could kick faster than I could punch, but I just didn't know how hard we were going to go...until he kicked me in the leg.
From then on it was basically me trying to punch him, but not in the head because of the no head shot rule, which I found hard because I was taller than him, and needed to reach lower to punch him, leaving me open to get kicked, which I got a lot of. Also, having not sparred in over a month I wasn't doing very good in the standup exchange, so if anything Dewey looked a lot better fighting me when we were trading kicks and punches.
After he axe-kicked me in the chest, which didn't hurt, but provided a nice thud to make the crowd go "oooh", I decided to try take the fight to where I would dominate, that is, the ground. So we took each other down, and ever so slippery like a snake Dewey managed to get on top, and mounted me and began raining down punches on my head, though lightly, the referee Adam stopped the fight as there were to be no headshots. I remembered at this time how tired I was, and how much I wanted to rest, the adrenaline must've got to me, but there was no rest to be had. With the intent to keep the fight on the ground I took off my gloves, no longer needing them, and so did Dewey, despite my telling him he didn't need to, but he didn't hear me. We locked up again and I found myself on my back, but this time I had Dewey in my guard, and in my legs were wrapped around him, protecting me from his attacks, this was where I worked best and due to his inexperience with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) I locked a Triangle hold on him, which was basically my legs wrapped around his head and one of his arms, choking him slowly, however it didn't seem to be on tight enough so I tried to go for an arm bar instead, but soon found that wasn't working (I haven't yet gotten an arm bar on anyone in training), I then attempted to transition to an Omoplata, which is a shoulder lock but having never really pulled the move off before Dewey squirmed out and we started again. Eventually we locked up and I caught Dewey in a Guillotine, which sounds like what it does, my arm was wrapped around Dewey's head with my forearm in his neck, my legs were wrapped around him and then I slowly began to tighten and pull, cutting off his head so to say, forcing the submission, and rendering us both extremely tired. I got up and found a cut on my arm, most likely from rolling onto the concrete, which was nothing really. My other elbow suffered a grazing, which was a bit more painful, especially when you apply water to it, you know the feeling.
So I won in the end, in what was a fun fight. And now I face my next challenge, that being Andrew Ha, where I feel I have a losing chance, if only because he has the strength advantage. It's such a shame I never got to wrestle with Simon Ha though, because that was something I really wanted to do at some point, but I guess that'll have to wait until we get to heaven. In the mean time, his brothers will do.
