A collections of things I’ve seen in the blogging community in the past week, January 13-19.
Great Blog Posts
Katie from A Skirt on the Mat wrote Gender Issues in BJJ and Why We Need to Talk About Them. It’s an interesting article, admittedly about one of my favorite topics.
One of the New Years Eve rapists was kicked out of a tournament recently. Georgette has your scoop.
The jiu jitsu community lost a black belt – Mauricio Zingano. Sylvie on 8LimbsUs shared some words about his life and his death.
One of my favorite bloggers, Grappling Girl, wrote about being rude to strangers – and how she has a hard time verbally confronting strangers. In some ways it reminded me a lot of the conversation above – the comments on my blog about the “Why Women Should Do BJJ” video.
And I missed it last week, but there were several blog responses about the men’s only gym in Japan – here’s one take on it – it’s thoughtful, though I don’t know that I agree with it.
Great Conversations
Why Women Should Train Jiu Jitsu Messages. Wow – this conversation continues to get better. Really. Several new voices have come out of the woodwork and added really cool thoughts to this.
I really liked Shannon’s comment regarding the above conversation, and whole-heartedly agree with it: I’m also thrilled to see people intelligently discussing the fact that there is a real threat present in this situation and that there are many ways to say no – trying to leave a situation being one of them.
Great Comments and Commentators
Because I value excellent conversation, I want to start recognizing those who have added to the discussions, or new folks joining us!
New Girl was concerned about leaving too-long comments, and apologized after some very long, but very thoughtful comments. It made me change my comment policy – so ramble on, folks! So long as it’s on point and not too scattered, feel free to leave longer comments!
I’m a bit late about sharing this, but I’m really excited to read any and all of Susan’s comments. She’s a fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who added some really fascinating cultural comments to the What Do You Wear article. She added some interesting perspective based on both her experience as a lactation specialist, as well as her time in Congo.
Note: New Girl and Susan are currently tied for most comments – with only FIVE comments. That’s right! The top position is ripe for the plucking! Comment on, folks!
I want to welcome Zeke, Mark, Shannon and Jamie to the conversation! They left some really interesting, thoughtful and deep comments on the Why Women Should Train Jiu Jitsu Messages above.
Also, I found my counterpart – Jamie – how could I not love someone who starts with this comment: I’m a non-athletic, 45lb overweight, 37-year old 2-stripe blue belt who has been training 2 times a week (2 hours every class) for 5 years. Also, when I’m not training, I work at a desk job and spend my non-work, non-BJJ time reading books, watching 15 hours of TV a week, eating cheesesteaks (I live in Philadelphia), playing video games, playing board games (Jiu Jiu and I share a passion for Pathfinder) and sleeping. In other words I have a very sloth-like, gluttonous life. OMG IT’S MY TWIN!
Jamie left her impressions about the video based on her background with Brand Management. “As an expert in Brand Management with 15 years of advertising experience I can say that this is a very good ad.” She goes on – and elaborates wonderfully!
Don’t Forget!
Throughout January I am having a comment and referral contest. The prize is an issue of Groundwork Magazine! You can win simply by commenting the most this month, or by linking to my articles most! Check out the details here.
Who is currently in the running? Top referrers are currently Georgette, Slideyfoot and SkirtontheMat. Top commentators are Susan and New Girl, tied at 5 comments. That’s right. You can push yourself right to the top with only a few thoughtful comments! I added a widget to the front page so you can monitor!
There’s a women’s only seminar in Seoul this Sunday, January 26. It’s being given by the only female black belt in Korea. I hope you guys can make it!
Jiu Jiu’s Question: What else has been going on the blogging universe that you want us to see?
HaHa! I won’t fall for your tricks, Jiu Jiu! You know how competitive I am and there you go enticing me with competition! But if I win the contest, then I’ll have to give you an address. . . There goes my secret whereabouts…the location of the Shark Cave. Nice try, but I’m a little too savvy for your antics! ; ) (I believe this counts as one comment.)
Ah, but you have fallen for my tricks already. Mwa ha ha. Yes, you are now in the running. By the way – I have a pair of jiu jitsu pants for you…I only need an address…
Bwahaha – I missed this thread. DIdn’t know I was making so many comments.
Shark Girl – what type of shark are you? I made my dh learn to scuba dive. As with most things he doesn’t look at all athletically inclined but he took too it much faster than I did – at least in the breathing department. The part he failed, though, was the hand signal for shark. I saw a rather large shark swimming very close to him and signaled again and again “shark” but he didn’t get it at all. Good thing it wasn’t a Great White or hungry, but of course we weren’t diving in Great White territory anyway.
He did the same thing when I talked him into roller blading – got it faster than I did. He didn’t get the braking part though and missed my frantic signal about the giant sand patch when he started accelerating out of control down a hill. Instead he hit the back of a parked truck. That incident worked better than all my nagging to get him to learn to brake wear a helmet.
My dh won’t do Martial Arts so I can’t comment on the section about Martial Arts with your partner. My son doesn’t like BJJ and has moved on to Lacrosse – or at least he’s going to give it a try. We still wrestle sometimes but he weighs more than I do now so I really need to learn the BJJ techniques for survival at home.