the.Collector

If Anyone Can- Carwin Can

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:46 +0500

UFC 116 is looking to be a very interesting card for the finally deep UFC Heavy Weight Division. When Brock first started wrecking people most fans felt he would own the division the way Wanderlei Silva did in Pride (5 years as champion). Little did we know Lesnar was only the beginning of a new generation of HW’s. They are skilled, athletic, and most of all impossibly big for their abilities. Heavyweight fights are short because the fighters are more skilled and dish out inhuman levels of damage not because they just gas and fall over. Shane Carwin is a perfect example, 12 fights and nobody has gotten to round 2 with him.

Lesnar is a seriously daunting challenge in that he really has no obvious weaknesses. There are many unknowns with him (his conditioning, his chin) but that isn’t the same as a weakness. Nobody really knows how well he can take a punch but I suspect given the size of his neck and his posture fighting it is much better than most people might think. His positioning on the ground rules out most kinds of submissions, so he has clearly learned for his 1st fight with Frank “Muhr”. Even given all of this the division is so deep a long reign as champion isn’t assured for anyone.

Carwin has the ability to KO livestock as well as humans and can he wrestle. As a member of Greg Jackson’s gym a good game plan is almost a given. If anyone can knock king Lesnar off the hilltop Shane Carwin is a prime candidate. Checkout a recent interview

Rich Franklin is Human After All

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:34 +0500

I actually found this video to be a bit of a relief. When he broke his arm during the fight and was completely relaxed about the whole thing I was starting to think maybe Ace has been hitting the painkillers as a pre-fight ritual.

Franklin is the man that’s for sure.

Broke-ass Clients Video

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:37 +0500

Aside from the vulgar language this is exactly what bad clients say. I wish this were not true but it is, some people really don’t understand that Web Designers are real professionals who require real wages. This video, in terms of client requests, is exactly like a request I’ve actually gotten thank G-d I didn’t respond the way the “Designer” in this does. One way to know that the job will be very difficult is if the client keeps repeating that the job is really “easy”. If it was easy they would need a Designer.

As a Designer it is hard not to laugh hysterically at this video since I really have gotten requests like this. Although I was never offered a $1.50. I have had people ask for $10,000 worth of work for $100 dollars and that is just as bad in my view.

Sometimes it is ok if the client can’t afford to pay but knows the value of the work. In those cases I’m actually pretty forgiving. The BS that sets me off is when a potential client approaches the relationship with zero respect for a skill set they don’t possess and could never do. I wonder if architects get crap like Web Designers? In a way we do very similar things. I can just see it now:

“Um, yeah Mr. Architect I don’t like foundations, they are too expensive, so can you just build my house without one? And I saw a movie where this house was floating and could reshape itself at anytime, yeah I’ll take that. Oh and by the way, I’m going to need that house designed and built by tomorrow afternoon. The check? Oh we can sort that out after we are done can’t we?”

Rampage loses- pregnant pedestrians avoid outdoor activity in the greater O.C. area!

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:19 +0500

I should have put some money on Rampage vs. Evans! In all seriousness this really wasn’t hard to call Rampage has gone from the #1 GnP/anti-wrestler, wrestler at LHW to the most 1 dimensional mixed martial artist in the LHW division. Jackson is the guy who finished at least 3 fights I can think of with body shots on the ground. Other than Randy he is the only fighter ever able to make GnP work on Chuck Liddell. Now he is a head hunting boxer who will, if forced to, use knee strikes. Pure head hunting isn’t that great of a strategy in boxing and it is only useful in MMA when used to set up your real game.

Rampage will slide into irrelevance faster than Tito Ortiz at this rate. That sucks too because he is still one of my favorite fighters. It’s time for a change Rampage. Start with a new gym ( like AKA) and get back to your roots.

Ok See--This Makes Me Nervous for Rampage

Fri, 28 May 2010 18:33 +0500

Here is a slightly bias but still fairly accurate reflection of the training we saw on the 3 part Primetime show. This kind of stuff really makes me wonder about Rampage’s trainers and his choice in camps. At one time Jackson was a top notch GnP fighter who happen to have smart, effective stand up. Now he is a stand up fighter who is pretty tough to take down. Most of his fights now go to decision instead of ending early due to stoppage. Personally, I see that training video (linked at the start of the story) as proof one fighter is training to go the distance and one fighter expects a 1 punch KO in the first round. Rashad’s coaches are taking a smart approach here based on Rampage’s recent history (last 5 years). Rampage on the other hand seems to be training to replicate Machida’s victory over Rashad without doing anything that Machida does. I expect this fight to go the way of Evans vs. Silva where Rashad plays the smart game and get’s his win. If he tries to stand and trade Rampage will put him to sleep quickly.

Tito Ortiz, time to hang it up?

Fri, 28 May 2010 01:45 +0500

Go here and check out the TUF episode from this past week and see why MMA is too small for Tito Ortiz. That’s right I said too small. If Tito wants to be an over-paid, whining, quitter Major League Baseball has plenty of openings. MMA can’t support crap like that at this stage.

Seriously, if you are that injured all the time stop fighting and stop wasting our time with all the talk! Tito made his mark once but that time is long gone and there are just too many guys willing to fight for Tito’s big-ego-I’m-100%-this-is-going-to-be-war-pro-wrestling-crap. The fans expect guys to really fight and not make every fight about their greatness.

The guy is a great coach and if he could just keep his ego in check could probably form one of the best gyms in the sport. The fighting days are definitely over though. Fans want competition not excuses, they want to remember the great champions of the past in their prime not whining, excuse making, attention hounds. let’s face it Tito sells fights but he doesn’t compete in them.

Troubles in Korea

Tue, 25 May 2010 21:44 +0500

If you haven’t been following this story things in Korean are really heating up in a very scary way. This time around it is highly unlikely the U.S. will be able to supply support to South Korea in any where near the capacity we did in the past conflict. I for one am watching anxiously. Let’s all pray this doesn’t come to war, but if it does I hope South Korea beats the breaks off of Jung Il Kim’s pathetic ass, catches him and executes him for what he has done to his people.

Lost is Over, Heroes is Canceled

Tue, 25 May 2010 21:13 +0500

Who cares. Heroes was about 3 seasons over due and Lost couldn’t answer everything ‘cause even the writers didn’t know what was going on. So they leave it to faith and make a magically ambiguous ending.

For me Lost was the new X-files if the creators ever told you the plot before hand you’d laugh or never watch the show in the first place. The result is masterful suspense building and an ending something like a single firecracker going off under a bucket. Something very loud, possibly big, happened but you didn’t really see it.

Heroes on the other hand was the same story over and over again.

People struggle to learn/re-learn their powers
The future is in flux and always in trouble
You can’t fix the future by changing the past, no wait yes you can!
Sylar is on a personal journey of self discovery, no now he is a bad guy again

That is all you need to know and you “seen” Heroes. It worked perfectly in the first season because everything was fresh and couldn’t be predicted, by Season 2 you can’t do it again.

Can Rampage Swim?

Wed, 19 May 2010 22:47 +0500

Is it just me or is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson seem a bit out of line here. Rampage was pretty handily beaten by Forrest who was then beaten at his own game by Rashad. I know styles make fights so comparisons are difficult but this one works. Rashad deserves some respect for out working a guy who out worked Rampage and Rampage has an inconsistent record with guys who are constantly working and being aggressive.

Wanderlei- 2 loses (KO’s) 1 win (Against a past his prime Silva)
Forrest- 1 loss (decision)
Matt Lindland- 1 win (controversial to many)
Shogun- 1 loss (TKO/KO)

Powerful, consistently aggressive strikers will always give Rampage trouble because he rely’s too much on his ability to take punishment. Defense against the guys listed above is a losers game, they will eventually grind you up.

Crazy Future

Fri, 14 May 2010 21:28 +0500

Taleb’s work as a philosopher really impresses me and I can’t help but to find him funny. The guy shows no tolerance for stupidity. Nassim Taleb somehow manages to be the most radical and conservative guy all in the same moment. I like that he is acutely aware of the limitations of his knowledge and rigidly enforces those constraints on himself without mercy. His approach is more about getting the questions right then having answers. People who value knowledge too much hate that sort of thing.

Check out the link below: http://fora.tv/2008/02/04/NassimNicholasTalebACrazier_Future#fullprogram