Journal

Evan Tanner was an MMA veteran with a 32-8 record and a turbulent past. He made his return to the UFC in the beginning of 2008, fighting against Yushin Okami after being out of the running for two years, during which he went through a really dark time, battling alcoholism, getting fat and going broke. One day he decided that it was enough, and with the help of some friends climbed out of his hole and got back into the gym. Joe Silva, the UFC matchmaker, was so impressed with his story that he offered Tanner a fight on the UFC 82 card against Okami, to give the well-loved Tanner a goal to work towards. He took hold of the opportunity with both hands. He started maintaining a very detailed blog, opening up about his alcoholism, his fears and his doubts, but also about the lighter and more positive side of his life, his training, his friends, his travels. He showed the public a vulnerable side that was both loved and hated by many. He seemed, at least to me, to be much more comfortable being himself – a soft-spoken, friendly man – rather than the super-star MMA god that a lot of good fighters get turned into for marketing reasons. Even though he lost his fight against Okami, he remained a crowd favourite, and was offered a headline fight against Kendall Grove at the TUF 7 finale. The fight went the distance and the win was awarded to Grove, and still Tanner remained a crowd favourite.

Apparently, he decided to go camping in the desert-like Palo Verde mountains on September 2nd. Supposedly, a few days later he sent a text-message to friends saying that he had run out of water and gasoline for his motorcycle, after which authorities were informed to try and find him. His body was found on monday.

.: In Theatres Soon
Fast & Furious, shit yes.
Cthulhu, shit yes.
Terminator: Salvation, yes.
Punisher: Warzone, yes.
Body of Lies, yes.
Babylon A.D., yes!
Max Fucking Payne! !!!
Righteous Kill. Cool.
Know1ng,…maybe.
I.O.U.S.A. as well, of course.

.: Gaming
Gaming is going rather well. Sadly, not everyone has been able to attend since we started, but hopefully that’ll change coming weekend. I’m getting back into the swing of things and I’m taking what I learnt during my last D&D campaign to this SR campaign and so far it’s working. I’m also forcing myself to take a bit more time and offer the right amount of flavour without getting bogged down. I need to play up the paranoia better, though, especially since nearly all of them have decided to retain their SIN. Point of improvement there. Mental note: write a synopsis for Dennis and Eva.

.: Headache
I had to tell my co-workers about my headache attacks today, in order for them to be prepared in case I have one at work. It’s interesting, some people just can’t wrap their head around it, they kind of joke around with it even though I’m as serious as cancer. I can’t blame them, but I wish I could.

.: Development
Some things I want to concentrate on; .NET, Flash, Ajax. In that order. God, I wish I could force myself to find a good way to learn Flash, that’d be sweet. If you go back through my journal entries I think you will find that I’ve said that many times before in the past, and my lack of initiative on this front is really bugging the shit out of me, but whenever I start I’m so turned off by the tutorials. I want to program shit in flash, not make the butterfly move around the screen! I don’t care about the butterfly, fuck the butterfly.

.: Butterflies
I remember very vividly that when I was young and I was still living with my father, there was a large tree in front of our house in which, during summer, massive amounts of white butterflies mated. (I think. Seriously, I was four years old and they were just, sort of sitting there. What the fuck do I know.) Anyway, massive amounts of butterflies. Since then pollution has caused their numbers to seriously dwindle. Only recently do you see a few. I think I see, maybe, two butterflies a year, which is sad. In Italy I saw a bunch more and was fascinated by the myriad of colours and sizes they came in. Later, I was convinced to go to the zoo, which I’d rather not do on general principle and had, by far, the most fun in the butterfly house. See-through butterflies for the win.

.: Fight Club
Mental note: don’t listen to the Dust Brothers while in public transport. You remember the scene where Tyler and Jack are in the bus going somewhere? Jack’s narration says something to the effect that now that he’s in fight club he starts looking at people differently. Today I could feel the fuck-offedness creep across my face as I was listening to the Dust Brothers. Weird, innit? I guess I should listen to Mike Flower Pops or something. It occurred to me how important that film has become in shaping me. Not that I’m anywhere near the overzealous, back to primal kind of guy, but still, I got a lot of ideas and I have made a lot of changes since seeing that film. Most of those things have gestated for a while before coming to the fore. A good example is my sense of minimalism and acceptance of particular Spartanisms.

.: MMA
The other day I couldn’t finish my MMA class. Actually, I couldn’t even finish the warm-up. They worked us pretty hard, and while I was doing circuit-training and was running up and down the hall with a 200 pound guy in a fireman grip, I felt nausea overtake me and I had to stop. That was frustrating. I’ve not really felt 100% for a while now. Later, we did a lot of striking, which went well and it’s necessary, but I’d rather focus on wrestling, to be honest. I think it’s something that I’m lacking, especially take-downs and control. I never did any judo, which really would’ve been a big boon. I’ve considered taking up judo, but it’s really something you should take up when you’re younger. Still debating it.

.: Inheritance
Jody and I are busy taking care of everything resulting from my mother’s passing. It’s not easy, to be honest, and it requires quite a bit of investment to get everything legalised. There are some life-insurances that need to be passed down to us, for instance, which requires an investigation into the legitimacy of our claim as heirs. On top of that, the bill for the cremation and everything surrounding it came in. Dat was even slikken. My mother had an insurance, but there are some complications with that due to the funeral agent we chose. Hopefully there won’t be too many further complications.

Also, my sister has been offered an apartment that she seems very happy with. I’m glad to hear it, since now the real clean-up can commence. I can’t wait to throw shit out and reduce the clutter and drag from this much [big] to this much [tiny]. :)

.: Headphones
It bugs me that this nanny-culture has gotten to the point where I can’t buy headphones that could burst my eardrums if I crank my iPod up really loudly. The headphones that are supplied with the iPod have a sound-dampner on it, that, even when I put the iPod on full-blast, hardly drown out the sound of traffic when I’m sitting in public transport. Very, very annoying. I noticed it, too, with the headphones supplied with my PSP, and a pair I tried out in a store a while ago. I have some older headphones that still allow the loudness, but they’re getting old, the wires are wonky and the sound quality isn’t what it used to be. Ugh.

.: The Guts
A bit of Eva-like TMI; when I eat, say, a bowl of porridge and a banana in the morning before I leave for work, it’s amazing at what it does to jumpstart my bowels. I basically feel hungry all day long, but generally I feel better. Sadly, I’m still a bit of a boob, and I don’t always take the time to have some proper breakfast; sometimes I walk out the door with barely a glass of water in my stomach. I shall have to start an Improvement Project to see if I can make some changes in this regard. (An IP worked wonders for my push-ups.)