UFC, Agents, Twilight and Pot.

I only have randomness for you this week.

Chuck Liddell lost this weekend at UFC 97 and I think his time is done. He never learned to ground and pound. He never learned Jiu Jitsu, he stopped using leg kicks. He relied on his speed and the barrels of TNT at the end of his arms to knock people out with brutal efficiency for years, becoming an MMA Legend. So why is he done now? Performity of MMAJunkie explains it best and opened my eyes to why Chuck has lost four of his last five fights.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/14604/performifys-picks-for-ufc-97-silva-vs-leites.mma

“Counter-punchers traditionally have a very steep fall off at the end of their careers. They build their primary fighting style on the fact that their speed and power enable them to punish opponents at every opening. When their hand speed reduces to the point that they can no longer effectively counter, they cannot usually shift their lifelong striking philosophy to become a lead puncher. When their power reduces to the point that those counters are no longer devastating, not only are they reduced in what they can land and forced out of their comfort zone in striking due to the speed change, but when they do land they do so with such reduced power that their whole game unravels abruptly. The best example of this fall off comes from Roy Jones Jr.; he was without a doubt one of boxing's career greats, but he hit an absolute wall in 2004 and dropped three consecutive fights despite being favored to win in the first two.”

Chuck has always relied on only his hands to do his dirty work for him and that served him well for years. But age hits people who rely solely on speed and power much harder than it affects people who rely on a wide variety of skills, like, say, Randy Couture.

I continue to slog away, approaching another twenty agents and receiving another five rejections and fifteen silences. I found some fantastic writers forums with thousands of members “Absolute Write Water Cooler” and have received some good feedback on my query letter which I have implemented and plan on sending out to another twenty agents this week. Hope springs eternal. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Spanish is finally coming along where I can converse with people in stores and understand their response and questions. Not always, but it’s getting there. Now, understand, I can speak with my teacher Montse in full sentences and we talk movies, politics, how was your weekend, what are your plans, how are things going… etc, but that’s with a teacher who knows to speak slow and not use slang. But I can tell her anything I want to tell her and she can explain anything to me. But speaking with a teacher and speaking with a man of the street are two completely different things.

In “I am a such a girl” news I actually devoured the second and third book of the “Twilight” series and enjoyed them.

Minor spoilers ahead.

The second book contains almost no vampires and instead focuses on their eternal enemies the werewolves. It was nice to see Bella hanging out with a guy who didn’t sneer at her and chuckle at everything she said. It was refreshing to see her new friend be younger and not have eighty-five years of maturity. In fact, pretty much everything about the werewolves is exactly opposite the vampires in this book.

Very long lives seem to bring wealth. The vampires in this story have millions. The werewolves are a poor Native-American tribe. Vampires are cold to the touch, the werewolves in human form run a hundred and eight degree temperature. Vampires are generally slight where the werewolves’ human forms generally run close to seven feet tall and built like a bodybuilder. The vampires are always calm and in control. The werewolves constantly have to watch their emotions or explode into wolf form. One of them in a fit of rage actually scarred his fiancé. With vampires you’re in danger of having your blood sucked out, with werewolves you’re in danger of them going into a rage at the slightest mistaken comment and tearing your head off.

As with anyone who is willing to write millions of words, Stephanie Meyer’s writing was bound to improve and it has. The second book had me enthralled. The origin of the werewolves was a well told tale and by the third book when Edward returns, you don’t know who to side with. The young werewolf friend Bella has made becomes annoying in a perfectly reasonable and realistic way and by the end of the third book you want her back together with Edward (the vampire.)

Admittedly, she gets a little long-winded on the explanations of events and the descriptions of how beautiful Edward is get a little excessive so I just skim those pages and flip through three or four pages in a row to get back to the action. It’s written for teens so I accept that it’s written this way.

If you can slog through the first book, the second and third books are worth it. Not highly recommended, but recommended.

In totally unrelated news, Wendy sent me this link which I found amazing. Written by a policeman.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norm-stamper/420-thoughts-on-pot-vs-al_b_188627.html

“There have been no documented cases of lung cancer in a marijuana-only smoker, nor has pot been scientifically linked to any type of cancer. (Don't trust an advocate's take on this? Try the fair and balanced coverage over at Fox.) Alcohol abuse contributes to a multitude of long-term negative health consequences, notably cirrhosis of the liver and a variety of cancers.”

And

“Over the past four years I've asked police officers throughout the U.S. (and in Canada) two questions. When's the last time you had to fight someone under the influence of marijuana? (I'm talking marijuana only, not pot plus a six-pack or a fifth of tequila.) My colleagues pause, they reflect. Their eyes widen as they realize that in their five or fifteen or thirty years on the job they have never had to fight a marijuana user. I then ask: When's the last time you had to fight a drunk? They look at their watches.”

Read the whole article.