GENERATIONS OF GRANDMA’S CAN’T BE WRONG… 

It’s sad that in this day of “Cold-Eeze” and “Airborne” and all these other new-fangled cold remedies, a lot of folks seem to have forgotten about the good old-fashioned, time-honored Hot Totty.

 Heat up some hot water in the kettle while you nuke about an ounce of honey and a squeeze of lemon juice in a mug for about 30 seconds.  Then add a shot or two of whiskey, and top it off with the hot water.  Drop in three or four cloves, a pinch of nutmeg and a cinamon stick, stir it for a second, and let the beverage sit for a minute or two before drinking ‘er down and hitting the hay.

This is a great remedy for a sore throat, and will, for obvious reasons, help give you some solid sleep.  Whip yourself up a Hot Totty next time you feel those early symptoms, and nip the misery in the bud!

PS - while in this author’s opinion the Hot Totty is a more effective remedy than the aformentioned commercial cold products, said store-bought solutions will likely be viewed in a more favorable light in workplace settings!

PSS - in a pinch, one can forgo the honey, lemon, cloves, and cinnamon.  And water. 

Posted by Jon Sewell | No Comments »

I discovered that one of the guys I train with Trey has a JuJitsu Blog, cleverly named JuJitsuBlog.com I recently read a post there:
Camaradie talking about the jujitsu class, laughing and having respect for one and other.

One of the things I love about martial arts training and particularly our school (www.kobukaijujitsu.com) is the guys I train with. I stated in a comment on Trey’s blog that I have always felt that the best friends you have are the ones you fight. Two of my closest friends are people who have fought and trained with extensively. My friend Mike and I met in a boxing ring. We were told to go in there and beat the shit out of each other. We had never met and barely even said hi. It was one of the best fights of my life and an all out war. And from it a mutal respect was formed and a great friendship. My friend Oz and have been training and workout partners for years. We have pushed each other to become stronger and better, we have fought great battles, and we have grown together as martial artists and friends.
I really think the backbone of these friendships is respect and honor. Its hard to say exactly what causes this to be formed. All I know is that it is formed and I can’t WAIT to get back to training!!!!

Side Note: I recently had shoulder surgery for a torn LABRUM, NOT labia and a bone spur. About that labia…. When I first found out about the torn labrum I was going around telling people I had a torn labia….. Caught a lotta flak for that one.
But, I’m out for 6 weeks. Tuesday will mark only 3 more weeks to go, then back in action.

Posted by Matt Bryers | No Comments »

Take a moment to watch this brief video (you must watch the end to appreciate the significance).

This video reminds me of a famous Thomas Edison quote. In his words, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

I’ve seen truth in these words at all levels. I know professional fighters who have starred in main event title fights on national television who still doubt their ability. The physical talent is there, but the mind is still trying to hold them back from reaching their true potential.

The mind is certainly powerful. There is no denying this fact. Unfortunately, the mind’s power can work in both directions. The mind can either propel you forward or hold you back. More often than not, the physical talent and potential is present, but the mind prevents the athlete from moving forward.

There are times when you need to turn off that little voice inside your head. Turn it off and go! Don’t think about what you can or cannot do. Just go. Think less and do more. Challenge yourself. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.

As mentioned in the past No Excuses article, I often see athletes who constantly search for a new and better plan. If something isn’t going right, they rarely take personal responsibility. It must be something else, right? Wrong! Often times you simply need a reminder of what REAL work is all about. Hard work is interpreted differently by different people.

For a combat specific example, we occassionally call for additional rounds of sparring when the athlete thinks he is in the final round. For example, the athlete believes he is sparring 6 rounds, but we may call for 8 or 10. Initially, you may be mentally conditioned to assume that you are fatigued in what you believe to be the last round. When you are forced to “suck it up” and continue however, you’ll often surprise yourself (and realize that you have more gas in the tank). Clearly, this isn’t something that the novice should attempt, but as you climb the ladder, you need to do more than is expected of you.

Ross

Posted by Matt Bryers | No Comments »

One of the martial arts I train in for a while was Kyokushin Karate. During that time I met a very unique and captivating man named Shihan Kenji Fujiwara. Over the years, I have become fairly close to him where I believe I can call him a friend. I now teach grappling at his school as well. He runs a Kyokushin school in Cromwell, CT. His school is now more of a traditional karate school compared to a fighting school. But Shihan is a serious badass. He was a Uchi-Deshi of Mas Oyama and has dedicated his life to Kyokushin Karate.
I was searching around on youtube and I came across this kyokushin highlight video of Shihan Fujiwara competing. Enjoy!

Posted by Matt Bryers | No Comments »

This is the first of many posts regarding opening, running, and operating an internet business.

For the last 5 years I have been running an internet business. I always believed there is a ton of money to be made on the net, I just need to figure out how. I spent a lot of time, research and made many, many, MANY mistakes trying to find ways to do it. I have tried many different avenues, ideas, and concepts to try and pull it off. Over the years, somehow I have become successful at it. I have run and sold off some great sites. I still do maintain about 70 sites and have multiple streams of revenue coming in from them. It has given me some great luxuries and has really helped support myself and my family. The cool thing about it is, I did it without really any investment. But, it wasn’t all fun and easy. It’s can be a real pain in the ass, but it can also be very rewarding.
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Posted by Matt Bryers | No Comments »

Blessings on all of you recently married or soon to be married people…

Posted by Mike | No Comments »

Here’s (what should be) an easy SLED. Don’t get late fees! I just called to get a late fee removed from an account that I paid a week late. It wasn’t late because of funds shortage - I just forgot to pay it.

Dumbass.

Fortunately the pleasant woman at the call center was able to remove the fee. I’m pretty sure she said something along the lines of “Well, you don’t have too much dumb, so we can remove this.”

Posted by Mike | No Comments »

It’ll be a bit before I set any strength goals. I’ll wait until my life settles so I make some reasonable goals.

But one fitness goal that I’m finally going to knock down is the James Joyce Ramble. I’ve been running it for years, but this is the year to do it with sub seven minute miles. I’ll post back when I’ve got some sort of training schedule.

Posted by Mike | 1 Comment »

Taking a cue* from Jon, I’ve been plowing through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. It’s been mostly plane and train reading, which is perfect. It’s the kind of book that necessitates periodic interruptions (and the occasional nap). And since it’s about rethinking the way we find balance in our lives, it’s also the kind of book that’ll probably come up on OpSLED more than once.

One very small point covered is that when stuck, just look at the problem. Don’t try to solve the problem, just look at the whole scenario. Not, “what is wrong,” but just “what is it?” If you skip this step, you’ll try to solve a problem that wasn’t broken, or apply a solution that fixes the symptom but not the problem. Or you might find out that there isn’t actually a problem at all: It’s not supposed to work that way**.

So how is this relevant? Well, it turns out I might be a cat person after all.

My fiancé (yes, that is still fun to say, even if it annoys all sorts of Seinfeldians out there) recently brought up getting a cat. My initial response was that I’m really not a cat person; I’m a dog person. So this immediately led to thoughts about how getting a dog isn’t really feasible due to work/travel/etc. So getting a pet just wasn’t possible at this time. Unless it was the famous goat riding jousting monkey that we’ve been talking about since high school.

And I had the obligatory thoughts about how cats are sinister and dastardly and just generally the Iago of the animal kingdom. All the things that a dog person would naturally think.

Of course, she had arguments on the flip side: cats are cute and fuzzy and cleaner, etc. But I wasn’t biting (unlike an ungrateful cat).

But the reading got me thinking, and I started to identify why I wasn’t a “cat person.” I couldn’t think of a reason. It’s not that the critters don’t have their drawbacks. That was never the problem; dogs can be a pain in the ass too. It’s just that I’d set up a giant divide for myself, and it was a crappy divide. It cut out 50% of the fuzzball pet joy. So I’ve divided to chuck it. And now there’s twice as many pets out there to make us happy! Great!

* so I just found out that the correct spelling is the billiards cue, not the “get in line” queue. Opsleds, big and small!

** This reminds me of selling cars. I had an older couple come in insisting that new brakes didn’t work because when they drove the breaks were always shuddering and thumping, and they’d had this problem in multiple newer cars. It turned out that they were engaging the anti-lock breaks nearly every time they came to a stop. I had to explain that (1) the shuddering is actually helping you stop, (2) it doesn’t mean that you should take your foot off the brake, and (3) probably you should drive a little less aggressively.
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Posted by Mike | No Comments »

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

Yep. ‘Nuf said.

Posted by Jon Sewell | 1 Comment »