My roommate wetzel and I keep a few notebooks on our coffee table; to be there just in case we want to write down something amusing that comes to mind. I recommend everyone do this, cause sometimes when you read stuff later its a friggin riot. And some entries make no sense at all cause i don’t remember the context in which they were written….for example:

“I’m eating a cup of noodles savoring the salty taste of poverty”

“If you ever wondered what color a guilty dog is, it’s bright pink….by the way, there used to be an old melted slurpee in my garbage.”

“B: ‘I had a tijuana taco once, I lost 20lbs….from one taco’
J: ‘I’ll have one!!!’
W: ‘Yeah me too!’”

“The only time a conscious child is really quiet, is when he’s playing with his pecker”

“Being broke is like a never ending cycle of wearing the same fing clothes and watching the same fing movies cause your broke ass can’t afford cable.”

“I refuse to be part of your female fan club, i am not viagra for your ego!”

“simpatico”

“I love scratching my scalp with ballpoint pens, I get to walk around all day with my head covered in scribbles and no one notices!…. not just that i’m the only one who knows this notebook is covered in microscopic pieces of my scalp =D”

“sitting at home makes me write short poems”

“I sunburned my whole back side and apparently i adjust my swimsuit quite often cause instead of having regular tan lines, my ass looks like a f***ing hologram!…. but i was also burned while laying on my side and have a bright white ‘power stripe’ running down my right side - face included!… I’m the poorest excuse for a california blonde ever - I can’t even tan! You know how dumb you can be and still know how to get a great tan?! Believe me there are a million examples around LA… im so embarrassed…”

Drunk texting: “somtims i moss you so mich!”

thats all the ones appropriate to post in a non-anonymous matter. (now say non-anonymous five times fast!)

But yeah I feel like I’ve finally settled into a rhythm again with training. Thankfully I get to do so many different kinds of workouts it never really gets old, just tiring. Its also pretty cool to feel like I have so much to learn again. I’m in no way saying that I think I know everything about judo. But after a decade or so of doing a sport full time, you kind of find your own style, and though you keep learning, its usually just small details about stuff you already know.
I’m saying that if you do armbars for years, and someone shows you a new juji - thats pretty cool, it could be a nifty one that works for you. But thats very different than having to learn how to throw a punch for the first time, when your only previous experience striking is from religiously watching the rocky movies.
I guess i just missed the feeling of being completely new to something, I can literally feel my eye of the tiger light switch flip on from renewed interest and actually enjoying my workout schedule.

(if you haven’t guessed I’m watching rocky III while writing this)

Sports are supposed to be fun, aren’t they? Isn’t that the whole point? I had someone tell me once “Judo is your job, and your job is not always going to be fun.” Well thats very true, but if you’re miserable every second you’re working and just waiting for the day to end so you can have a few hours to yourself - quit your job, get a new one you like. It doesn’t matter how much you used to like your job, or even how good you are at it. Do what you love to do and not what you feel like you’re supposed to do. (of course this applies mostly to professions, hobbies, and relationships ;-)-get it!- i’m sure that IRS wouldn’t be amused by a letter stating you don’t like taxes enough to pay them anymore).

Now as an example of your job not always being fun, Leo (the strength and conditioning guy) might just be trying to kill me. First off he’s Romanian. Like romanian-from-romania-romanian, and is a former wrestling word champion. And i strongly believe that those two factors greatly contribute to him being a hard ass that NEVER laughs at ANY of my jokes.
I mean, everyone that knows me is aware of how horrible my jokes are, but he won’t even laugh at how bad it is!

The other day he had dropping to the ground and doing exercises I can only imagine being first performed by a spastic umpa lumpa with multiple sclerosis after chugging a bottle of the well tequila from border tacos.

He then starts yelling at me “Pick up the pace!”
and in what was probably close to death bed humor I replied, “You mean the picante sauce?”
Leo then looked up from his timer and gave me the most serious laser-beam-stare ever before finally saying,
“…. Never tell that joke again.”

So yeah if anyone can think of any worse jokes to torture him with, post ‘em on up.

But i dunno, I think an active life eventually becomes engrained in your brain. So though these people wish for that kind of life, if they ever start “livin’ the vida lazy,” they must go nuts or get stir crazy after a while.
who knows, its just a theory.
But if you’ve always been lazy, like it, and never had a reason to change, I suppose you never will… at least that seems to be mochi’s position:

Whatever. Hate on my choices, hate on my blog posts, but here’s a marilyn monroe quote that’s stuck with me: “When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, than I’m already better than them.”

weird….

oh and here’s a video that I forgot to put up before of when I went the the OTC in San Diego. They made an exception letting Mochi on the compound but she wasn’t happy about not being allowed out of the car. Its super late and random to put the video up but I just figured out how to use my flipcam since getting it in 2008! Better late than never

Funny thing is they offered the fight to me the first day I came in to learn boxing. I’ve been doing boxing for about two months now, my coaches don’t want me doing any muay thai until I have the boxing down to avoid “developing bad habits.” The cool thing is, having a judo background has helped a lot with boxing. I’ve been told wrestlers have a problem telgraphing whether they’re gunna strike or try a take-down because they change levels; but since judo teaches takedowns from such an unright posture its hard to tell what’s coming.

For grappling I’ve been training at Hayastan, Main Event Gym for boxing, and The West Coast Training center for judo. I’ve not only been teaching at the WCTC, but also at Gomper’s Middle School in Watts. Here’s a video of my kids there after only their 3rd judo practice

They’re really doing awesome, I think there’s a lot of undiscovered talent for fighting there. My sister was a student teacher there and was commenting that so many of them get in trouble for fighting that not only would they have the right mentality for it, but judo could give them a lot of the discipline they need. The only problem is we can only have a limited number of kids because the school can’t afford mats and we were only able to borrow a few. So we’re not able to advertise judo to the whole school, and have only been letting kids in that have satisfactory grades in Mr. Gonzales’ (my sister’s masters teacher) classes.

If you would be inclined to donate funds for mats, please contact my mother through her blog.

Also I’ve been dabbling into grappling competition here’s a video of me fighting a girls who’s a professional fighter.

I’m in Tunisia at the moment preparing for the judo world cup taking place here. I just came here from the sr. nationals which I won this past weekend. Its kind of weird being back on the judo schedule, ya know flying from place to place and having a lot of alone time to kill. And since the flipcam is my new favorite toy, here’s a little tour of my room

My job is pretty much to fight and teach, both of which are quite enjoyable. I’m starting an after school judo program at the middle school my sister Jen teaches at in Watts. And not only do I think it will benefit the kids enormously, but I planning to use it as a feeder program for the West Coast Judo Training Center, where I teach and train on the weekends.
Thanks to the poplarity of my mother’s blog we have got a good number of judo gis donated for the kids, the WCTC is letting us borrow a crash pad and we’re also being lent a small number of mats until we can find the funding for ones we can keep.
If by any chance you are compelled to help out, my mother is organizing the funding for the program, and can be contacted through her blog

I’m been trying to keep this on the DL for a while, but I am kind of multitasking leading up to this Olympics. I’m not only teaching and doing judo, I’m also working on my own MMA career as well. Not only do I think career-wise it’s a good investment of time, but if I play my cards right I think it will help American Judo gain popularity a lot more than an Olympic gold medal would.

I was having my first striking lesson at Main Event Gym in Glendale/North Hollywood/Armenian Central and they already had me giving interviews for my first fight projected to be in august. Striking is going really well so far and I couldn’t ask for nicer and more patient coaches to help me. I’m sorer than I’ve been in a while just because of the difference in striking workouts from what I’m used to; but hopefully I’ll fall into a rhythm with this new training schedule sooner rather than later.
They even had me take some of those super serious fighter pictures, where I had to try my damndest to hold that face before bursting out laughing.

Last Olympics judo didn’t even make it to on TV. It was on live internet stream on the NBC website. Even if I won a gold instead of a bronze I really don’t think the amount of exposure would have been that much different. A few more highlights might have been shown than of the bronze medal run, but that’s about it.
I mean USA fencing just won more medals in this last olympics than in all the past games combined.
Oh, you didn’t know that? Neither did most of the USA sport watching demographic. How would a similar switch in USA judo’s fortune be any more televised?
But think of this, what if by 2012 I’ve already had several title fights? Been all over spike tv, and to the disgust of my mother, made maxim’s top 100? What if while doing this, the kids program in Watts is a huge success? If there’s an MMA star/good samaritan fighting in the Olympics you better believe its gunna get way more hype than someone you never heard of, winning a gold medal in a sport you’ve never heard of. It would be forgotten about as soon as the olympic season was over.
You know what made Apollo Ono famous? Dancing with the Stars, not speed skating. Yes the speed skating got him the but the show, but the show made him a household name. Why was speed skating all over the tv and media in this past winter games? It wasn’t because people cared about the sport. its because Steven Colbert told them it was cool! And had a hilarious picture in spandex on the front of Sports Illustrated.

I guess what I’ve been trying to say, is people care much more about hype than about actual results. I’ve been kind of afraid to make it a known fact that I’m doing just as much MMA training as judo, for fear my funding my be cut, and that the National Governing Body as well and my old coaches having an even lower opinion of me. But just trust me, this is a good thing. I’m going to make it work, and I dare you to doubt me.

I mean it sucks that this whole drama happened, but I still think that if some prick did break into my place I would have loved to see their face fall when all they found was dog food, dirty underwear, and a couch from 1952.

Then there’s reason number 7 which is I don’t have Microsoft office on my computer yet and am too spoiled to type in a format that isn’t the epitome of personal computing

but thankfully thats the last reason why I haven’t been blogging. I’m just gunna type this shiesta straight into the internet and save it later when I do get Microsoft word.

Now that I am blogging again I could try to fill you guys in on whats been going on these last many eventful moths. But I think I’d just rather let people go on speculating, gossiping, or just not give a shit about what I was doing.
I’m also going to make a conscious effort not to be just repeating everything I’ve doing and daily dramas. I miss just writing down entertaining observations while living an unconventional lifestyle.

my mom said this to me once “Everyone lives their lives in a state of emergency”
That said I’m going to do my best to keep from freaking out all the time and not take myself so seriously. But at the rate my boyfriend’s dog is farting this morning I really think I should relocate soon before suffocating.

and I’ve decided to start a new section of my blog called incredibly random picture of the day
is that my sister jennifer doing yoga on the wii fit, in a dress, in the livingroom of my mom’s house, in front of a christmas tree?
I think so!
Did I swear never to show anyone this picture?
entirely possible!
Is jen gunna flip her lid?
Without a doubt. But I’d like her to remember I still have pictures of the downward facing dog pose so don’t get too mad, it could have been worse than the sun salutation- besides, you look cute!

As for training, it’s going good. I’m sore and feel like crap so I guess that’s a good sign. It’s Sunday though so no workouts. Despite the fact I got a nasty cold over the weekend, I’m chillin and watching that start wars marathon on spike, (episode V the empire strikes back is on– by FAR the best one, and don’t you dare name one of the new movies as better or you’re getting shanked with a sharpened toothbrush) so I’m pretty content.

Its getting pretty cold here already, and since big jim refuses to put the heater on till November, I’m wearing three jackets and boots on the couch…ugh, I miss LA!

Oh my God! Luke just chopped off imaginary darth vader’s head off while training with yoda in the degaba system! But the mask comes off and its HIS head! What does it mean luke?!?! Awww what a horrible time for a commercial break! Lol.

Ooooh..wendy’s commercial… I want a frosty!

The Patriots also just lost to the Jets, and Jim said he’s gunna kill me during my three workouts tomorrow. How is that my fault?! Whenever he’s mad about getting a bill, or his tube coming loose and floating across the lake, it’s somehow MY fault; and I have to go running.
Whatever, if his misery corresponds to how hard he makes me train - putting gun powder in his cigars could be the push I need to do one-handed handstands with yoda on my foot while stacking rocks with my mind… …hmm…. How does one get a hold of gunpowder…?