I thought I would respond to the email from Phil in my blog so that everyone can read it and I wanted to try and start writing again since I havent posted in a while.
So what has been going on. Yesterday was the triple crown grappling tournament. I think it will be the last one of that organization that I will do. They just seem pretty unorganized. People have been less interested in them because of that and as a result the brackets are smaller. My Gi division only had 3 people. Instead of doing a round robin style, one person by luck of the draw got a bye into the final round. I matched up in the first round with a good grappler. We went the full 6 minutes and the overtime 2 min without any points being scored. At first the ref raised my hand as the victor, not really sure why because although it was a technical draw, at that point the winner should be the person who was attacking more and that wasnt me. After a quick coaches discussion, the other guy was determined to be the winner, still only three people... I got third place.
In the No Gi division I did much better. There were 5 competitors and I took 2nd. I won my first match pretty easily, I think 10 or 12 - 0. Lost the final match for second, 7-0. I think. The other guy was good. But I get to hold on to my yet to be submitted streak and only having lost in a grappling match by points.
Moving on to what is probably the bigger news, I am starting a new job next week. I had been waiting to say anything because a lot of things have come up and several rounds of interviews to have nothing actually materialize. But I have made it through the rounds and next week start the orientation training for TJ Mahoney Hale. I will be case managing Federal prisoners through their re-entry on release from prison. I still have a lot to learn about the position and how it works, but basically I will be ensuring they find work, a stable living environment, meet court conditions for release and try to keep them from being the 70% the re-offend. It doesnt pay amazing, starting salary is $18/hour, but it does come with benefits, still have to see exactly what that entails and should be fairly flexible with the hours. It is also right across the street from an MMA gym that I have wanted to train at but is hard to make at rush hour, now I could easily walk there. Wednesday and Friday are the orientation. So I should now a lot more about the job after that. I think there is also a short test, so hopefully that goes well. And I am still waiting on the results of my federal background check. So I guess the job is not finalized as I have not signed anything yet or been paid, but I think this one is going to stick.
Of course as soon as one gets offered another comes along as well. In this case I think I should be able to do both. The people at TJM know that I have been working at Smart Karate and said that I should be able to make my schedule in a way that I can do both. I am going to step down a few teaching hours, but keep working a couple days a week for them. But SK has also offered me the chance to take over all their student billing duties. Something that has been being done piecemeal by two people and not very well overall. While I was supposed to start training two weeks ago and am still waiting (also was told that I am in line for another raise) it is there and I am confident that it will happen, but they are slow and not the best organized. So I am happy to keep getting paid by them, but not a company that I would want to devote myself to entirely.
However, through SK I meant another Brian who is something like the director of a youth community outreach/recreation center. Mostly targeting juveniles who are going through the justice system. It appears they are in the process of redesigning an old facility to turn it into a rec center and looking for programs to offer for juveniles who have community service or pro-social hour requirements to complete for the terms of their court decisions. I have been talking with Brian about organizing a course in traditional martial arts (TMA) for them to offer at the new rec center. I have been taking advantage of still having access to Ebsco through the Chicago School library and pulling a lot of articles on TMA and the positive effects it has on violence reduction, aggression, stress, etc and writing a proposal to get funding to teach to the little delinquents (not sure that is the right term). So that would be a 3rd albeit part-time gig. I think the idea would be 2-3 days a week. And would have to go through several approvals before we could move forward to actually planning the course. However, to make that work it would be much better if I actually had a black belt in something (the whole idea is the use of TMA over modern or sport martial arts which is where most of my training lies) and SK could help with that. I have been talking with SK about getting my black belt through them but everyone is busy and it hasnt been a priority... until now.
On top of that I am trying to keep meeting with my Chinese teacher once a week and keep the language up.
Oh and my motorcycle was knocked over twice in a week by people backing out of parallel parking spaces and not looking behind them. The first time the mirror on the handle bars cracked, $20. The second time the rear passenger peg was cracked, the rear fairing cracked and the sub-frame got bent, estimate for parts and labor $1950. And I think I should replace my helmet as well since the bike kind of fell on it. Thankfully when I came out of the restaurant the guy who hit me was trying to pick my bike back up and I was able to get his information. When I texted him the next day at first he denied it was him, but then after getting the police involved he starting being a bit more cooperative. I am trying to arrange a time to meet with him later today to discuss whether he wants to go through his insurance or pay out of pocket. I offered him to pay half and I would deal with it myself, probably sell the bike cheap and buy something new because the repair cost is most likely greater than the value of the bike and the damage does not impact ride-ability, just dont want to have a passenger putting weight on the peg.
So yea, its been a pretty eventful and busy couple weeks. Hopefully by next month money will be coming in because it seems that I have a lot of costs coming up. I also learned recently that my original student loans do not get a 6 month delay on repayment from graduation, only the new ones get the delay, so that was nice to get a notice telling me I was two months behind because the account that it was linked to was closed back when I relocated from China to the US.
But things are going well, jobs are finally (albeit slowly) lining themselves up and after almost two years (quit Wuhan ISP in August 2012, although was paid through the month till September) of no real full-time work, I'm back. I am thinking a hard year working through these three jobs and then trying to make a real push to get to the mainland for a good 4 to 6-month vacation. Been talking with Marina about trying to ride motorcycles south from the US as far to/through South America as possible in a couple months and then swinging back up. I mean after a year of full-time work I think another 6-month sabbatical is important to keep the might fresh and rejuvenated.
So what has been going on. Yesterday was the triple crown grappling tournament. I think it will be the last one of that organization that I will do. They just seem pretty unorganized. People have been less interested in them because of that and as a result the brackets are smaller. My Gi division only had 3 people. Instead of doing a round robin style, one person by luck of the draw got a bye into the final round. I matched up in the first round with a good grappler. We went the full 6 minutes and the overtime 2 min without any points being scored. At first the ref raised my hand as the victor, not really sure why because although it was a technical draw, at that point the winner should be the person who was attacking more and that wasnt me. After a quick coaches discussion, the other guy was determined to be the winner, still only three people... I got third place.
In the No Gi division I did much better. There were 5 competitors and I took 2nd. I won my first match pretty easily, I think 10 or 12 - 0. Lost the final match for second, 7-0. I think. The other guy was good. But I get to hold on to my yet to be submitted streak and only having lost in a grappling match by points.
Moving on to what is probably the bigger news, I am starting a new job next week. I had been waiting to say anything because a lot of things have come up and several rounds of interviews to have nothing actually materialize. But I have made it through the rounds and next week start the orientation training for TJ Mahoney Hale. I will be case managing Federal prisoners through their re-entry on release from prison. I still have a lot to learn about the position and how it works, but basically I will be ensuring they find work, a stable living environment, meet court conditions for release and try to keep them from being the 70% the re-offend. It doesnt pay amazing, starting salary is $18/hour, but it does come with benefits, still have to see exactly what that entails and should be fairly flexible with the hours. It is also right across the street from an MMA gym that I have wanted to train at but is hard to make at rush hour, now I could easily walk there. Wednesday and Friday are the orientation. So I should now a lot more about the job after that. I think there is also a short test, so hopefully that goes well. And I am still waiting on the results of my federal background check. So I guess the job is not finalized as I have not signed anything yet or been paid, but I think this one is going to stick.
Of course as soon as one gets offered another comes along as well. In this case I think I should be able to do both. The people at TJM know that I have been working at Smart Karate and said that I should be able to make my schedule in a way that I can do both. I am going to step down a few teaching hours, but keep working a couple days a week for them. But SK has also offered me the chance to take over all their student billing duties. Something that has been being done piecemeal by two people and not very well overall. While I was supposed to start training two weeks ago and am still waiting (also was told that I am in line for another raise) it is there and I am confident that it will happen, but they are slow and not the best organized. So I am happy to keep getting paid by them, but not a company that I would want to devote myself to entirely.
However, through SK I meant another Brian who is something like the director of a youth community outreach/recreation center. Mostly targeting juveniles who are going through the justice system. It appears they are in the process of redesigning an old facility to turn it into a rec center and looking for programs to offer for juveniles who have community service or pro-social hour requirements to complete for the terms of their court decisions. I have been talking with Brian about organizing a course in traditional martial arts (TMA) for them to offer at the new rec center. I have been taking advantage of still having access to Ebsco through the Chicago School library and pulling a lot of articles on TMA and the positive effects it has on violence reduction, aggression, stress, etc and writing a proposal to get funding to teach to the little delinquents (not sure that is the right term). So that would be a 3rd albeit part-time gig. I think the idea would be 2-3 days a week. And would have to go through several approvals before we could move forward to actually planning the course. However, to make that work it would be much better if I actually had a black belt in something (the whole idea is the use of TMA over modern or sport martial arts which is where most of my training lies) and SK could help with that. I have been talking with SK about getting my black belt through them but everyone is busy and it hasnt been a priority... until now.
On top of that I am trying to keep meeting with my Chinese teacher once a week and keep the language up.
Oh and my motorcycle was knocked over twice in a week by people backing out of parallel parking spaces and not looking behind them. The first time the mirror on the handle bars cracked, $20. The second time the rear passenger peg was cracked, the rear fairing cracked and the sub-frame got bent, estimate for parts and labor $1950. And I think I should replace my helmet as well since the bike kind of fell on it. Thankfully when I came out of the restaurant the guy who hit me was trying to pick my bike back up and I was able to get his information. When I texted him the next day at first he denied it was him, but then after getting the police involved he starting being a bit more cooperative. I am trying to arrange a time to meet with him later today to discuss whether he wants to go through his insurance or pay out of pocket. I offered him to pay half and I would deal with it myself, probably sell the bike cheap and buy something new because the repair cost is most likely greater than the value of the bike and the damage does not impact ride-ability, just dont want to have a passenger putting weight on the peg.
So yea, its been a pretty eventful and busy couple weeks. Hopefully by next month money will be coming in because it seems that I have a lot of costs coming up. I also learned recently that my original student loans do not get a 6 month delay on repayment from graduation, only the new ones get the delay, so that was nice to get a notice telling me I was two months behind because the account that it was linked to was closed back when I relocated from China to the US.
But things are going well, jobs are finally (albeit slowly) lining themselves up and after almost two years (quit Wuhan ISP in August 2012, although was paid through the month till September) of no real full-time work, I'm back. I am thinking a hard year working through these three jobs and then trying to make a real push to get to the mainland for a good 4 to 6-month vacation. Been talking with Marina about trying to ride motorcycles south from the US as far to/through South America as possible in a couple months and then swinging back up. I mean after a year of full-time work I think another 6-month sabbatical is important to keep the might fresh and rejuvenated.
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