Semi-Charmed Life

Weekend Recap

Had a great weekend. These past few weekends I have been waking up exceptionally early and this past Saturday was no different. I woke up at 8am and took care of some dry cleaning. Afterward, I made my way to my doctor's office in the city to pay off a bill I owed at my doctor's office. I then headed off to my gym and I doubled up on classes, doing a no-gi class followed by the mma class. Getting to the city and coming back was a little annoying because my subway, the Q train, was not running and I needed to take the bus from Sheepshead Bay to Prospect Park and take the train from there.

It was still early when I got home from training so I decided it'd be a perfect time to fix the flat on my bike. In the past few months I've been plagued with a persistently flat front tire on my mountain bike. At first I thought it was just horribly bad luck but after the last flat this past Saturday, I realized there was no way anybody could have this much bad luck. After a quick scan of the inside of the tire, I discovered it was a tiny metal prick that was sabotaging all my tubes.

After repairing my flat, I met up with Bobby to chill for a bit. I love how Brooklyn is so bike friendly. I biked to Bobby's house, then both of us biked to the theater because neither of us could drive our cars. I was hesitant to lock our bikes outside the theater for two hours, but to my relief our bikes were still there after the movie ended.

Machete was every bit as awesome as the trailer. A naked Jessica Alba and topless Lindsay Lohan? Helllll yeeaa.

I ended up meeting up with Bobby again today and ate at some pizza spot around his area. I never there was a pizza spot like this in this part of Brooklyn: Totonno Pizzeria Napolitano. The pizza here is good! The best part is, it's so close!

Marcel Garcia vs. Ben Askren

Marcelo Garcia is just light years beyond everyone else in bjj. He completely dominated Ben Askren, an NCAA D1 wrestling champ, Olympic competitor and an undefeated 6-0 mma fighter and made him look like an inexperienced novice.

I don't mean to take anything away from Ben Askren though. He is an awesome competitor and fighter and the roles would probably be reversed if MG entered his realm.

TGIF – GSP Edition

Had a great day today. I walked into the gym and saw Georges St-Pierre on his way out from training. I've seen him at my gym a handful of times but each time he was in the middle of his training and I did not want to disturb him. This time though, I caught him at a good time and what's even luckier is that I just so happened to have my camera on me (no, I do not have a camera phone unfortunately).

After training, I met up with Andy and Jein at St. Mark's and had dinner at Cafe Mogador. Great food, great company, great training, great night!

It Will Never Work!

I love reading stories like this:

Interpreting criticism

Heartfelt criticism of your idea or your art is usually right (except when it isn't...)

Check out this letter from the publisher of a magazine you've never heard of to the founder of a little magazine called Readers Digest:

But, personally, I don't see how you will be able to get enough subscribers to support it. It is expensive for its size. It isn't illustrated... I have my doubts about the undertaking as a publishing venture.

Link to the full letter here

Of course, he was right--given his assumptions. And that's the except part.

Criticism of your idea is usually based on assumptions about the world as it is. Jackson Pollock could never have made it as an painter in the world as it was. And Harry Potter was rejected by just about everyone because for it to succeed the way kids read would have to change.

The useful element of this sort of criticism isn't that the fact that people in the status quo don't like your idea. Of course they don't. The interesting question is: what about the world as it is would have to change for your idea to be important?

In the case of Readers Digest, the key thing that changed was the makeup of who was reading magazines. Most of the people (and it was a lot of people) who subscribed to the Digest didn't read other magazines. And so comparing to other magazines made no sense, except to say, "this is so different from other magazines, the only way you're going to succeed is by selling it to millions of people who don't read those magazines." And Starbucks had no chance if they were going to focus on the sort of person who bought coffee at Dunkin Donuts or a diner, and the iPad couldn't possibly succeed if people were content to use computers the way they were already using them.

Keep that in mind the next time a gatekeeper or successful tastemaker explains why you're going to fail.

Ryan Hall vs Hermes Franca at Grapplers Quest at UFC Fan Expo Boston 2010

An unfortunate side of sport bjj is the butt scoot. I would rather two players fight from their feet and jockey for position from there. Or pull guard if you have to, but don't butt scoot! Regardless, Ryan Hall has such a sick guard. Good production on the video, but they should show the points on screen as well because it's hard for me to follow.