Here’s my full review of Star Wars The Last Jedi. If you haven’t seen the movie yet don’t watch this.
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The Foundational Core of All Martial Arts
Posted by Sam Kressin in Martial Arts, Opinion, Training Journal
In this video I explain the foundational core of all Martial Arts!
Ready Player One: Book Review
Posted by Sam Kressin in Book Reviews, Opinion
Here’s the basic premise of the book. The story takes place in the future and it’s pretty dismal. A guy named Halliday created a virtual world that sounds like something similar to “2nd Life” called the Oasis. This virtual world works by putting on a pair of special classes that project the images directly onto your retina and this world is suppose to be so amazing the real world looks like a fog compared to it. Everyone on planet Earth is addicted to this thing. After Halliday (the creator of the Oasis) died he left a message to the world about a final easter egg he has hidden inside this virtual world. Whoever discovers this egg is the heir to Halliday’s entire estate. Halliday, a scholar of 1980s pop culture, has left several clues leading to the final easter egg all these clues pertain to Video Games, RPGS, Comic Books, Television Shows and Movies from the 1980s.
The book shines in it’s meticulously researched references to so many obscure facets of 1980s culture. The book even mentions the RPG Game Champion’s, The made for T.V. Special Ewoks and The Battle For Endor, D&D’s creators Gygax & Arneson, Atari’s Joust and a large amount of late 1970s and 1980s trivia I never even knew about. As far as the story goes the book starts out really slow and it was a struggle to get through the first quarter of it after that the story takes off and I couldn’t put it down till I got to the end of it.
Now here’s some of the stuff in the book I didn’t like or I felt just didn’t make much sense.
- Everything in this virtual world costs money. You can’t even go to another planet without paying a teleportation fee. If that’s the case why would it be so awesome?
- The book claims the entire virtual world is free and open source. If that’s the case anyone would be able to build their own version of the game independently of the original. In fact it would make more sense for the IOI the evil corporation competing to find Halliday’s easter egg. To pool all their money into building their own version of the Oasis since it’s all open source then marketing more effectively that the original.
- The Hero of the story Wade is broke in real life and he’s broke in the Oasis he can’t go any place cool inside the game. Yet he still spends all his time playing it. Then when Wade needs money to accomplish the rest of his objectives in the game the book conveniently hands him all the money he needs.
- If this virtual world is so amazing why are so many of the characters going inside it just to watch old 80s films such as War Games? Why would anyone bother looking at stuff like that rather than the beauty of this virtual world. In other words the characters in the story are leaving the real world to go inside this virtual world only to ignore the virtual world and view things from the real world.
- The audiobook version is read by Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame. In his reading of the book Wheaton successfully makes the main character Wade sound like the most pretentious douchebag of all time.
Overall it was a good book and while I couldn’t put it down I will admit by the end I was ready for it to be over. I had heard more obscure 1980s trivia than I ever wanted to know.
Play Vs Work
Posted by Sam Kressin in Martial Arts, Opinion, Personal Journal
“Play not work is the end of life. To participate in the rites of play is to dwell in the Kingdom of Ends. To participate in work, career and the making of history is to labor in the Kingdom of Means. The modern age, the age of history, nourishes illusions. Work is serious, important, adult. It’s essential insignificance is overlooked. Work of course must be done. But we should be wise enough to distinguish necessity from reality. Play is reality work is diversion and escape.” – Michael Novak The Joy of Sports
Darkwalker on Moonshae (Forgotten Realms-Moonshae Trilogy, Book 1)
Here’s a quick run down. The Moonshae isles are an archipelago located about 400 miles southwest off the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms. In this book an evil shape shifting beast of demonic origin called Kazgaroth takes on a human form to gain command of the Northmen a group of war loving roid raging men who want more than anything to raid and kill the Ffolk an agricultural monarchical society of pussies that live in the southern Moonshae islands. Thanks to Kazgaroth’s completely psychotic influence the Northmen wage war upon the Ffolk not just to fight it’s armies but kill all it’s people. Massive war breaks out between the Ffolk and the Northmen. Tristan an expert dog trainer who loves hunting and has a crush on his sister who although was raised by his father does not share a blood relationship to him has been judged by his dad as unworthy to rule the kingdom. Therefore throughout this adventure Tristan fights to prove his worth to his father and win the romantic affection of his sister while discovering some of his own talents and abilities.
I give this book an overall rating of three stars two for an awesome title and cover and one for having all the cool things I listed show up in it. Beyond that it was just ok.
What’s On My White Board
Posted by Sam Kressin in Billy Robinson, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Catch Wrestling, Martial Arts, Opinion, Personal Journal, San Diego Martial Arts Seminars
Not too long ago I posted here about how useless and annoying white boards are when it comes to martial arts coaching. Since I am also guilty of having a white board in my private studio I thought I might as well post a current picture of what it looks like. Below is a brief and somewhat incomplete transcription of everything on it. What you’ll notice is I made a lot of lists. This is because the brain is attracted to organization and order and people have been trying to organize techniques for training purposes since the dawn of martial arts. In reality nothing in fighting is organized and response needs to be based on real internalized skill and application not just a theoretical list.
- UPCOMING EVENTS that have not been updated in nearly 2 years! Yes at one time I would write upcoming events such as seminars, workshops, we use to even set up training sessions with other gyms whose owners / coaches I’m friends with. Nowadays if something’s coming up I’ll just email everyone or tell them in person.
- Below UPCOMING EVENTS is BILLY’S SADDLE RIDE This is a list of techniques Billy taught me and wanted me to have down all pertaining to the Saddle Ride. I wrote them up there nearly 2 years ago as a reminder. Maybe I should practice that stuff.
- Next to UPCOMING EVENTS is Sparring Rounds. I have two younger kids training with me 17 / 18 yrs old who I required to do 50 rounds of sparring before I would teach them anything more in boxing. As you can see I checked off about 10 or 11 rounds before I just stopped keeping track. Today they’ve done hundreds of rounds and have learned a lot of new stuff.
- Next to SPARRING ROUNDS is Triangle Finishes. This is a list of about 7-8 ways to finish a triangle choke once you’ve captured your opponent in the position. Triangle chokes are one of the most difficult submissions to get really good at and also one of the easiest submissions to get caught in so I like everyone to have a real thorough knowledge base of it.
- Below TRIANGLE FINISHES is a list of fundamental boxing techniques I required those two young kids to learn first before doing their 50 rounds of sparring. It would be a good idea to make everyone do all that stuff again.
- RIGAN WORKSHOP Is a list of techniques we learned while attending a Seminar with Rigan Machado nearly two-years ago.
- Below RIGAN WORKSHOP is Submissions. This is a list of 6 submissions you can do from a triangle position in the event that you cannot finish the triangle. This was required knowledge and I’m pretty sure everyone who trains with me has forgotten all of it.
- Below SUBMISSIONS is the number 185. I have a client that trains with me privately once a week. He trains regularly at another gym chalked full of triangle masters. One of his goals is to be able to hit the triangle more often in sparring and get caught in the triangle less often. So I’m making him rep out a very specific triangle set up and finish one thousand times! So far he’s gotten to 185 yes we are still keeping track of this I’ll let you know what happens when he gets to a thousand.
Generational Bashing
Posted by Sam Kressin in Opinion
It seems to be a tradition for each preceding generation to bash the next one. Grant Morrison wrote about this in his book Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
Photo Credit: Uncredited photo retrieved from https://twitter.com/grantmorrison?lang=en on 10-1-15
Why You Should Not Use A White Board When Teaching Martial Arts
Posted by Sam Kressin in Martial Arts, Opinion
1. Inorder to improve you will need to learn by doing.
2. White boards make people feel like they are in school or a formal educational setting. School is boring and formal education isn’t fun.
3. The class becomes too cerebral the white board will take you out of your body and put you back into your head.
4. Those who are inclined to learn the white board way usually are already very good at understanding mechanics, concepts and principals on an intellectual level but unable performe their understanding physically.
Double Dragon
Posted by Sam Kressin in Martial Arts, Opinion, Personal Journal
I remember when this game was in every 7-11 and Arcade across the nation. There’s nothing cooler than two guys with blue and pink jeans some vests walking through the streets taking out a Gang with the side kicks, hair grabs and knees to get the girl friend back from the Big Boss.
Awesome Robert Johnson Manga
Posted by Sam Kressin in Comic Books, Opinion
Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary
Posted by Sam Kressin in Book Reviews, Comic Books, Opinion
The Karate Kid: Daniel Son Is The Real Bully?
Posted by Sam Kressin in Karate, Martial Arts, Opinion
The Karate Kid has for a long time been one of my all time favorite movies. I saw the film in the theater and it blew my mind. Now with this video out I don’t know what to think. It changes everything. Is Daniel really the Bully? or is this just an example of how someone can spin just about anything to mean something else.
Who Does My Websites
Posted by Sam Kressin in Opinion
A lot of people ask me who does my websites. I was managing all of them solo with the help of a friend until the beginning of 2015. After several of my WordPress sites got hit with viruses multiple times I had to do something about it. I brought in Jay from Your Web Designer. I had worked with Jay a few times in the past now I needed someone who could stay on top of it and keep my sites running and virus free. He manages everything now. Since brining Jay on board I waste less time fiddling around with setting up and designing websites and I’m able to focus more on creating cool content and drawing. After clearing all the virus and malware Jay moved all my sites to a faster more secure server then redesigned a bunch of sites that needed over hauls. We built everything all in Joomla with the exception of 3 websites I still need to be on WordPress. After that we came up with a plan to further secure my sites and we moved the Joomla sites to a separate server from the WordPress sites. WordPress is so popular and used by so many people today those sites get attacked a lot. We also back everything up each day. In addition to all of that I’ve been sitting on a number of urls for the past several years. These are urls I bought for future projects. Now instead of just sitting on these urls Jay built websites for all of them. I now have around 20 or so web sites! But we are constantly upgrading and improving each one. Even though you may only currently be aware of 4 or 5 of my web sites right now like http://sandiegocatchwrestling.com or http://samscontact.com or the site you are reading now I have many more completed websites I’ll be rolling out soon. Until then if you need help getting a website up here’s Jay’s contact info.
Star Wars Land?
Posted by Sam Kressin in Opinion, Personal Journal
I’m honestly considering forsaking Star Wars completely and no longer being a fan of it. It’s ruined and I’ll never be able to enjoy it again. I will sell off all my Star Wars T-Shirts and toys and other stuff then move on with my life. Star Wars Land within Disneyland? Does an entire land of Star Wars really have a place within the original Disneyland? I always thought Star Tours was cool but it was only one ride and it fit within the theming of Tomorrow Land. Disney is for the most part an IP farm now that doesn’t even animate the majority of their own cartoons. Watch park tickets rise towards $200 a day once this thing goes in and crowds sore to record numbers. I came across this Ramones album titled, “Brain Drain” when I was in highschool. I found it while thumbing through a bunch of CDs in some used records shop. I thought the cover art and album title were cool. I use to listen to this song from the album posted below over and over again it’s about not looking back. Star Wars has reached that time.
Grant Morrison’s Supergods
Posted by Sam Kressin in Book Reviews, Opinion, Personal Journal
I just finished listening to the unabridged audio edition of Grant Morrison’s book; Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
Because I am a slow reader and like to listen to books while I am drawing I prefere to listen to books I get on Audible instead of reading them.
Supergods is a 480pg book about the history of comic books the development of the comic book industry and a biography of the author Grant Morrison’s live as a comic book creator, including his philosophy approach and process to writing.
If you don’t know who Grant Morrison is check out Batman Arkham Asylum
Some of my favorite parts in the book are Morrison’s breakdowns of Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight Returns” and Alan Moore’s “Watchmen.” Both are books I’ve read several times over and Morrison sheds light on a number of incites I had never thought of or picked up on before. I also like how Grant Morrison describes his approach to comic book writing as more of an observer or visitor who watches things unfold as they happen and records them. Grant Morrison’s description of a quest for the shamanic experiences as he formulates new stories ideas is another really interesting concept. Over all I really enjoyed the book.
Posted by Sam Kressin in Opinion
Great podcast on a great topic. “Risk” has long time been considered Megadeth’s worst album prior to “Supercollider” and Brian LeTendre comes on to defend it! I love this. Megadeth has long time been one of my top five favorite bands of all time and they are in my mind and always have been the best of the big four.
“Martial Arts WITHOUT punching makes no sense...”
— Ancient Scrolls of the Unknown Masters
From the ancient scrolls of the lost realm of the unknown
Posted by Sam Kressin in Martial Arts, Opinion
Posted by Sam Kressin in Opinion
Garbage Pail Kids were awesome in 1985-88 but brining it back in 2015 doesn’t work because it’s lost all it’s authenticity and relevance. Remember GBK was a parody against Cabbage Patch Kids. And it’s been decades since we’ve seen folks literally beat each other down to get one of those dolls. The creators of this comic are not the disgruntled artists of old lashing back at mainstream popular culture but merely modern day fan boys paying homage to their Rosebud of years past funded by executives trying to cash in on the same sentiment. Similar to how Beavis and Butthead was awesome in 1993 but when they brought it back in 2011 it didn’t work.
Posted by Sam Kressin in Opinion
Here’s what I think about this before I even start to think about criticizing what this guy did. I asked myself honestly if I could do the same thing? Could I read one thousand Archie comic books and then write a one hundred chapter book on the subject? At this point, I would say the answer is no. Although I’ve tried several times, I have actually never read an entire Archie Comic book from cover to cover, therefore I don’t see how I would ever be able to read a thousand of them and we haven’t even got to the part about writing an entire book on it.
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