A friend of mine want to start practice Jiu Jitsu. For this reason I was searching some information about Jiu Jitsu to help him to understand this old form of martial arts. I hope this information will also help you.

Danish Jiu Jitsu

This is a squidoo lens about jiu jitsu as I, a Dane, experience it. My training, my techniques, seminars I go to, and my philosophy regarding jiu jitsu. In Denmark, the primary form of jiu jitsu is nihon ju jitsu, so that’s my focus.

First Day In A Jiu Jitsu Class

A girl’s introduction to martial arts and Jiu Jitsu.

Jiu Jitsu Unleashed : Unleash The Art Of Gentleness In You

Learn the art of Jiu Jitsu, basic moves, techniques and etiquettes.

History of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

If ever there was a model for the Jiu Jitsu lifestyle then Rolls Gracie was it, son of the founder, Carlos Gracie, and an instructor at the Gracie Academy, his passion for life and Jiu Jitsu was unquestionable – inspiring people on and off the mat everywhere he travelled.

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About a month ago, there was a day that offered perfect weather. I would say it was about 55 degrees and sunny. Coming off a cold winter, this was just what we were looking for. I was outside just walking around, when Laura decided to join me. We talked for a little while and decided to have a seat on an area of mulch. It was warm and dry. We continued talking and after a while, we ended up laying there looking up at the sky. That’s when she said, “Wouldn’t having a hammock be really cool?” It was like a light bulb went off in my head.

Yesterday, I wrote about getting some stuff at Home Depot. What I didn’t write was about the hammock I bought. I wanted that to be a surprise. I also needed to set it up and take a picture of it before I wrote about it. Well, today was the day for that.

Pawleys 13 foot cotton rope hammock with pillow

The hammock I got was the Pawleys 13 foot cotton rope hammock with pillow. It was just the one I was looking for. There were a few more expensive hammocks, but they weren’t as large. This one is 60″x84″. That’s pretty big. I also like the rope because it’s really comfortable.

When I took this hammock out of the box, it looked kind of short. I really thought it was too small. I went out to the “hammock spot” and hooked everything up. The middle of the hammock was about 2 1/2 feet off the ground. I was very excited to try it out, so I got into position and kind of jumped on it. Well, I think I should have gone more slowly, because I landed on the ground. The hammock stretched out a good amount. I had to get up and adjust the chains; actually, I had to remove the chains. I just hooked the hammock directly to the hooks on the trees. After that, everything was cool. After the initial stretch out, it hasn’t stretched any further, even with both of us laying on it.

Is it tough to get off a hammock once you are on one? Well, not physically, but mentally it is. Once I had it all set up properly, I lay down on it, just to see how it felt. A half hour later I had to pull myself up before I fell asleep. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s a sweet feeling just laying there listening to the birds chirp.

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1. Only plant Boxwood.
2. Only plant in the spring.

There you have it. Now, let me tell you what the heck I am talking about.

I know I have probably said this before and have trouble following my own advice, but I really mean it this time. I am only going to plant Boxwood from now on. No matter how “deer resistant” you think a shrub is, it probably isn’t. Everybody says that Holly is deer resistant. Guess what? It isn’t. Deer like to nibble on the ends of the branches. It drives me up a wall. I had to go out today to pick up some of that deer netting to put over the Holly bushes. As far as I know, Boxwood is the only shrub that’s deer resistant (well, besides Juniper), and I am going on personal experience here. I have never had a deer nibble on any boxwood shrub I have ever planted. Everything else…yeah.

The next lesson has to do with when to plant your shrubs. I have planted in both spring and fall, but spring planting works out much better, in my opinion. See, if you plant in the spring, the plant has time to grow and mature its sensitive little twigs that were over-fertilized by the nursery. All that new growth has time during the growing season to harden up. If you plant in the autumn, all that new growth dies. Period. It just does. Those nights in mid-January that offer us those wonderfully chilly sub-zero temperatures do a wonder on new shrubs. I have about six Boxwood shrubs sitting outside in the dirt right now with dead top halves. It’s pretty funny to look at. Top half brown, bottom half green. The good thing is that I expect these plants to take off this year and will most likely grown right through the dead areas.

Okay, since Home Depot had Boxwood shrubs in stock and it’s spring, I decided to grab a few today. Actually, I grabbed eight of them. I am going to plant three of them in that new mulch area next to the driveway and five of them in a row almost under the porch in the back yard. They are going to look really cool when they grow larger.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the Green Velvet Boxwood is “a hybrid of Korean Boxwood (for hardiness and compactness) and Common Boxwood (for excellent leaf color in both summer and winter).” You can read the rest of the description here.

Here is what I bought today.

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I had a small Home Depot list going on, so I thought I would do a little shopping today. This morning, I told Laura that I was going to head up the Glastonbury to get some stuff and she informed me that the night light bulb went bad last night. We like to have a night light in the hallway to avoid falling down the stairs when it’s dark. I put that on my list and off I went.

I knew that an LED bulb was the way to go, especially for this application. Since the night light is so far away from us when we are sleeping, the light the bulb gives off doesn’t need to be necessarily “pretty.” I think LED bulbs have a long way to go in that department.

The only thing I was concerned about was whether or not the Depot had any LED night light bulbs.

When I got to the store and the bulb area, I didn’t see any of the bulbs I was interested in. I actually had a 4-pack of the regular incandescent bulbs in my hand and was ready to stand up to put them in the cart, when I saw the little LED bulbs to my right. I think the 4-pack of incandescent bulbs were $3 and change and the 2-pack of LED bulbs were about the same. When I read that the incandescent bulbs had a life of 3,000 hours each and the LED bulbs had a life of 50,000 each, the decision was a no-brainer.

The really cool thing is that each bulb only costs $.25 cents per year to use. Now, you please tell me if that’s a good deal or not. I have absolutely no idea how much it costs to run a night light. I am sure there are some hours involved here because people don’t really keep night lights on all day long. Either way, $.25 sounded good, even if it was creative marketing.

Here are some photos of the LED night light bulbs.

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I mean, seriously…there are some reality shows that I just can’t shut up about, but for me, those are limited. I am sure there are a heck of a lot more people out there who love TV more than I do. I know I could write a whole post just on that Fifth Gear T-Rex on Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. If you haven’t seen it, check out something like it here:

Yup, that T-Rex would certainly have a post of its own.

Anyway, if you have a lot to say and you like to write, please write a comment letting me know. Show us some of the stuff you’ve written before. Hey, maybe you can make yourself famous. You could even be like this lady…

Woman using a laptop in the snow on the side of a mountain

PS – It doesn’t only have to be about TV. It could be about movies, the internet, radio, or whatever. It just has to be exciting and awesome.

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Sure, we didn’t give you much warning, but I think this site is going to be much more fun for you. The old site was just someplace I would write about myself. Now, I am going to try to include you.

We think we are on to something a little more relevant here. We are going to have a bit more fun anyway. If you participate and have a great website to link to, we may be able to help you out with that in the future, so all hope is not lost.

Sit back and come join the fun.

Party

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Anyway, the other night, while I was watching “Bad Girls Club,” I came up with this great idea. I thought that I would start up a blog so I could discuss all the shows and movies I love so much. I mean, how much fun would it be to bounce theories off one another about “Lost?” I’m sure we could all use a few good answers about what the heck the Dharma Initiative is really doing on the island and why Ben killed the whole group.

I’ve decided to allow registration on this blog and to let users write blog posts. We’ll see how that turns out. Please behave.

Skater dude

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If you click the show links above, you can check out the shows I am talking about.

Cow sounding off

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Initially, we planned to make a quick trip up to Bob’s Discount Furniture in Manchester. We need a whole lot of furniture. We need to furnish the entire bedroom, dining room, living room, my office and some odds and ends elsewhere. Needless to say, this is going to be tough.

If there is one thing in life I am cheap about, it’s furniture. I have no idea why. Perhaps because it’s not screaming “necessity” out at me. I mean, what’s wrong with sitting on an up side down bucket? Ahh, history. It’s not in my nature to go spend thousands of dollars on something that is just going to sit there. It’s not like a couch is going to help mow the lawn or a coffee table is going to clean the gutters. Geez, furniture is one of those things that looks good, but doesn’t do too much else. I need some sort of purpose with the stuff I buy.

Regardless, it needs to be done.

We drove up to Manchester to visit Bob’s. This is one of their larger stores with a whole “used” and “damaged” area in the back. There is furniture galore back there. It has dings, dents, cracks and anything else you can think of. The place is huge. The whole front area is reserved for the brand new furniture.

We walked in and were presented with a nice bedroom set. I liked it, Laura kind of liked it. As we walked on, we saw some things that she liked and some that I liked, and vice-versa. I am not sure we were in agreement, but we probably could have been if we stayed longer.

As we walked around, I noticed a candy station. I walked over to it and started eating the caramel chews. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I put some in my mouth and then shoved some in my pocket. I then took some other candy and stuck it in my pocket. I am not sure who was controlling me, because I certainly don’t eat candy like an idiot (which I was at the moment). Laura was looking at me in disgust. She had a look on her face like, “Give me the keys, you are being abandoned.”

Upon discussion, we decided that we would leave Bob’s. Nothing really jumped out at me. I mean, it’s a great place for couches and stuff, so we’ll go back for that. We’ll get a few couches and maybe a Bob-O-Pedic matress set.

We got back in the car and decided to head over to Raymour and Flanigan furniture. I have always heard good things about this store. We were nearby, so there wasn’t much deciding to do…the only factor was that we were now in the middle of rush hour and I hate cars. Whatever.

We walked in Raymour and Flanigan and were greeted by a nice sales lady. It kind of reminded me of a used car lot. I still had caramel chews in my mouth, so I couldn’t really talk. She started laughing at my grossness. When I was ready, I asked if their furniture was solid hardwood. She replied that it was, but there were a few pieces in the back that we should steer clear of. OK, fine. That’s fair.

We started walking around and I began noticing a strange trend…this furniture was obviously made by the same makers of Bob’s furniture. We saw many similarities, one not being the price. It seemed that they tacked on a few thousand dollars and upped the quality slightly, but it appeared that whoever made Bob’s furniture made this as well. I may be wrong, but that’s the way it looked.

You should have seen me, I was under the tables trying to see if they were made of real wood, pulling out drawers to see what kind of runners were used, wiggling things back and forth, checking the quality. Things were just OK. If I had to choose between the two, I would head back to Bob’s and save some money. I think both places offered similar furniture that would last about the same amount of time. This, of course, is my very uninformed opinion.

Laura and I looked at each other and decided to wash our hands of both places. We knew of one place that really makes us drool…Pottery Barn up at Evergreen Walk. Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ bout.

We walked in and picked out a bedroom set. Yup, it was that easy. It’s the Hudson Collection that can be seen here. We already knew the quality of furniture that Pottery Barn sells and really didn’t need to inspect it. Every time we go in this place, we look at the stuff, so it was really easy. The only problem is that the Pottery Barn furniture prices are in a whole different realm than the other two places.

OK, moving on. The end of the year is coming and I need office furniture. We walked to the back of the store and I picked out a nice little item called the “Rhys Console Table.” This is a perfect little place to put my fax machine and printer. Also, I can use the drawers for random things that are currently sitting on the floor.

Rhys Console Table

Then, we looked through the catalog and found a nice desk called the “Aris Large Desk.” I have had my eye on this for some time. We bought the console table and are having it delivered. I had to wait to order the desk online, because that’s an internet only item. I did that last night. They are going to deliver that in a few weeks.

Now, all I need is maybe some sort of shelving unit and a chair. That’s it for the office.

We were pooped from furniture shopping, so we left.

I have been meaning to stop by L.L.Bean to grab some more waffle shirts. I have two that everyone already makes fun of. One of them is salmon colored and has a picture of a salmon on it. Since I am a trendsetter, I ignore this fun poked in my direction.

As we were walking to the car, I asked Laura if she wanted to go to L.L.Bean for a few minutes. I mean, it was right in front of us. What the heck, we went to the store.

Hey, wouldn’t you know it, they didn’t have any waffle shirts. What they did have is some awesome “Corduroys”, some really cool “Two-Layer River Driver’s Shirts” and a really marvelous “Merino Wool Sherpa Sweater” that I have been looking to buy for about 10 years now. Oh yeah, I also picked up this amazing black “Fitness Fleece Jacket” that was calling my name too. Don’t you like my use of attributive adjectives?

Boy, what a night. At least I learned a lesson from all this…which is…I need an SUV. I am sick of paying for shipping.

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The room that the gym was in downstairs is the perfect size for it. I am not sure what type of home gym it was, but it fit well. The room doesn’t have all that many uses, besides perhaps a nice table and chair set to drink your morning coffee.

I think I have mentioned before that we like to walk a lot. We are now up to about 3.6 miles per walk. We found a nice new neighborhood the other day. I think I am going to bring my camera next time because I am getting great landscaping ideas. The only problem with walking is that it doesn’t build up muscle. I have had the same body for the past eight years. After going to the gym every day for the five years previous to that, it’s a little disappointing.

For over a month now, I have been researching different types of Bowflex home gyms. I really like Bowflex and have read about them, watched videos on them and even tried one of them out. The only problem that I find with Bowflex is their infomercials. They don’t help the company any. I thought those infomercials always cheapened the brand.

Recently, I looked on Craigslist for some used Bowflex machines in the Hartford area. I came across a few and emailed the owners. I received responses from two of them. The first response was from an owner of a Bowflex Ultimate 2 machine, which is the best one Bowflex offers. The owner and I went back and forth a few times via email and decided to meet. He offered to bring it to the house.

On Friday, I went up to Manchester to meet him at the storage place to check out the Bowflex. I liked what I saw and we squeezed it into his truck. It weighs quite a bit. We brought it to the house and set it up. I am very happy that it was already assembled, because I have heard stories of 9 hour assembly times. He said that when he put it together, every single nut and bolt needed to be attached. That, to me, is not fun.

Bowflex Ultimate 2 home gym

If you read any reviews online about the Bowflex Ultimate 2 home gym, you will notice many people saying that it is a quality machine. What impressed me was the weight and sturdiness of it. It is very solid. The tubes and pipes are very thick gauge material. Everything seems to be gym grade. Using the machine is ever better. The cables glide very smoothly and the resistance of the power rods is much better than I ever expected.

We already did our first workout on it yesterday and I think we are in some discomfort. Getting off our butts always seems to have that effect. I downloaded the entire owner’s manual that offers all the instructions on how to do each exercise as well as several sample workout routines.

Now, all we have to do is stick to it and in a few weeks I expect to get a call from Bowflex to be in their next commercial.

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