MMAMadMan

I just became a contributing blogger for www.fightingdaily.com under the moniker of MMAMadMan, and I am oddly excited about it.

It just gives me an opportunity to talk about my favorite sport and offer my insight (as if I have any) into the sport.

Go read it...if you're an MMA fan. :p

My formerly favorite breakfast...

Chorizo.

It is delicious, spicy, and great with cheese, sour cream, and taco sauce.

Today was the first time I had ever looked at the ingredients...I almost heaved.

Not that any type of sausage doesn't have some particularly disgusting ingredients...most sausages are actually wrapped in intestines, but I can handle that.

The beef chorizo that I made for breakfast this morning is comprised of salivary glands, lymph nodes, and spices....

I'll say that again: SALIVARY GLANDS AND LYMPH NODES.

Basically I just allowed a cow to spit mucus into my mouth, and enjoyed it because of some paprika and other spices.

GROSS.

I think that's the last time I eat chorizo.

I have apparently been tagged.

I'm not usually one to repost things like this, but my wife sent it to me, so I figured I would humor her.

I would tell you who I tagged, but you really don't care.

So here is what you get, 10 random things about me that you may or may not know.

HERE'S HOW YOU PLAY:
ONCE YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED YOU HAVE TO WRITE A BLOG OF TEN WEIRD, RANDOM THINGS, FACTS OR HABITS ABOUT YOURSELF.
AT THE END, YOU CHOOSE FIVE PEOPLE TO BE TAGGED, LISTING THEIR NAMES (AND IF YOU WANT TO, WHY YOU CHOSE THEM TO BE TAGGED).
DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE THEM A COMMENT "YOU'RE IT" AND TO READ YOUR BLOG.
YOU CAN'T TAG THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU.
SINCE YOU CAN'T TAG THAT PERSON BACK, LET HIM OR HER KNOW WHEN YOU'VE POSTED YOUR BLOG SO HE OR SHE CAN READ YOUR ANSWERS.

So, my ten things:

1. I am the biggest MMA fan on earth. I will watch any MMA fight available to me at any time. I watch MMA fights on YouTube daily, and I don't think I will ever stop.

2. I am an accomplished martial artist, holding multiple black belts. I have fought in a massive number of full contact MMA fights, and I have much better than a winning record. ;)

3. I have broken my toes so many times that when I move my big toe on my left foot, the middle toe moves too...but none of the other ones.

4. I have lived in Missouri, California, Nevada, Louisiana, Kansas, and Germany. Soon, I will add a sixth state in which I lived when I spend three months in Arizona for work.

5. I have a son who was born two months premature that defied all odds and required no assistance whatsoever, regardless of his very low birth weight. He is a gift from God....and so are my other three children.

6. I once had a pool stick broken over my head. I still carry the scar. :D

7. I have talked to roughly 500,000 people over the course of my sales career. I did the math, and that is not an exaggerated number.

8. My wife is currently suffering with a disease called Cushing's. It's scary, but God will provide and we both believe that she will be fine.

9. There is a video on YouTube of my youngest daughter farting on me...it has 7,301 views. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVswlR08ECg

10.

I play guitar and sing.

Touching....

I occasionally browse around major news sites in hopes of finding something interesting, and I rarely succeed.

Today was an exception. I actually read a story full of hope for humankind that demonstrates that some people walking this planet actually care about others. What a wonderful concept.

To make a long story short, a woman who was in need of a kidney transplant mentioned her plight in passing to her local Starbuck's barista and the woman's response was to go get herself tested to see if she was a match. Sure enough, she was, and openly offered what was basically a complete stranger one of her ORGANS.

If this is a Starbuck's ploy to garner the favor of the public because of their wise hiring decisions, I will be absolutely disgusted, but that does not seem to be the case. What it appears is that one human being was willing to offer another human being a functioning part of her BODY and expected nothing in return but friendship. The fact is, I am shocked and amazed...pleasantly.

So nice to see a story like this after a day like I just had.

COOL

Vogue Cover

It seems interesting to me that this cover provokes controversy. People are in an uproar because Mr. James here supposedly looks like King Kong holding on to a damsel in distress. To me (perhaps because I am an undereducated buffoon), this appears to be a picture of an aggressive professional athlete who is showing his personal style, while standing in the presence of a beautiful woman who is exhibiting her personal style.....

Why are people so damned sensitive? Why does every image need to be scrutinized so intensely? Why does there need to be a racial connotation to everything that happens when more than one race is involved? Why do we perpetuate this social concept that white people and black people are so inherently different?

EASY ANSWER: We aren't all that different, and it is media coverage of so-called controversies such as this one that divide us all on racial lines. I don't believe that racial equality and social acceptance of racial equality is something that we are incapable of as a nation. However, I believe it is incredibly difficult to create any kind of that acceptance and loving for one another when people are on national newscasts claiming that this black man looks like a gorilla holding a pretty white woman against her will.

I'm offended at the connotation. I'm offended that these two people couldn't do a photo shoot without people raising their eyebrows. I'm offended that people don't look at this and say "cool picture" instead of "what is that angry black man doing to that happy white woman?".

LeBron and Gisele: Kudos to you for doing something that has never been done before.

Media: Get a life and stop perpetuating outdated and ridiculous stereotypes.

Me: Go to bed, it's freaking late.

One more thing...all I want to know is if LeBron and Gisele are happy with the cover photo. If they are, then will everyone else who has a problem with it please just shut up?

:D

Long days - long nights

I have been spending a copious amount of time at work, and I often come home with an attitude. I wish I didn't, but when I come home to "could you do this?" and "daddy, can we do that?", my responses are pretty curt, and I feel bad for being such an emotional burden to everyone.

I have lived with a sleeping disorder for the whole of my life. Most people are on a sleep schedule of roughly thirty minutes of falling asleep, thirty minutes of REM sleep, and thirty minutes of waking up and then starting over. I, on the other hand, fall asleep instantly, dream persistently, and then wake up feeling exhausted pretty much no matter how long I sleep.

Sometimes I am in such a deep REM state, that I will get up and maneuver about the house in a complete dream state, occasionally waking up to find myself in other rooms of the house and having no idea how I got there. Some people think that REM sleep means restful sleep, but to the contrary, there is so much going on in my dreams that I am getting very little restful sleep.

I also remember most of my dreams.

In the end, when I do not get at least eight hours in, I wake up absolutely exhausted and I suffer most of the day because of it. When I wake up, I have this dog who looks at me like I'm insane for having slept so much, and who taps her tail at me like an impatient nun waiting to rap my knuckles if I do not provide an immediate reconciliation to her displayed desire.

So, I do that...run the dog outside. Sometimes, because I am not awake enough to even venture outdoors, I take a shower first, which only serves to further irritate the dog so much that upon getting her outside, she attempts to rip my arm off bolting through the door.

Then I head off to work...where I talk to roughly 30 people a day who hate my absolute guts and who tell me to bugger off. (The life of a sales guy.) By the time my day ends, it is VERY difficult for me to be in a good mood, although there are hundreds of things for which I should be infinitely more grateful.

The roughest part is that my relationship with my wife has been suffering of late because of my long days at work and my restless sleep, which is compounded by a newborn baby and a particularly rough few weeks of dreams that are so vivid I might as well be awake. She wakes me up to ask me to take the dog out in the middle of the night, and I verbally rip her head off for daring to wake me up when I'm trying to sleep. It's not her, it's exhaustion. I want to recognize her difficulties more effectively, but somehow at 3 am, I have very little in the way of diplomacy or understanding. I am a jerk.

By the time I get home in the evening, I am wiped out both mentally and physically, and any of my wife's attempts to get me to do anything extra serve to do nothing but irritate me. It's as if I am offended that she needs me...and I know that isn't right.

Since I'm sure she'll read this at some point: I am sorry, honey. I know I'm wrong, as usual. lol

It's frustrating having so much going on in our lives and having no means by which to affect the parts of our lives that are driving us crazy...all we can do is wait and pray, and attempt to control our rampant emotions until things start to level off a bit...and by "we" I mean "I". :D

Obama's Pastor

I was just watching CNN, and I see that people seem to be incredibly concerned about some fiery sermons that the pastor of the church that Barack Obama attends (or used to attend) once gave.

It seems interesting to me that the sermons mentioned are not particularly recent, and although they are highly inflammatory, I honestly can not see why that is such an incredible issue in the minds of the media, at least.

I am a church going, Christ following, bible reading individual, but I would be absolutely offended if I was judged based on anything that my pastor said that wasn't popular.

I am irritated with the media for seeming to assign responsibility to Barack Obama for things that another man said.

How desperate are we for news right now?

ISN'T THERE A WAR GOING ON SOMEWHERE?