The Quarterback Jinx
I have the ability to single-handedly ruin your fantasy football season. I can also ruin your opponent’s season. Want to know how? All I need to know is which Quarterback you (or your opponent) are planning on starting. Once I know this, I will obtain this QB off the waiver wires (if available) and start him myself. Within the first half of the game, I can, with almost 100% certainty, guarantee that said QB will be removed from the game due to an injury. I am a QB jinx like no other.
Let’s start with the draft. Because I was feeling super confident about my first two round RB choices in the draft (Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson of Min.), I went with a QB in Round three. I chose Marc Bulger. Within the first few games, it was very clear I had made a serious mistake. St. Louis can’t do anything right this year and they are ALL considerably banged up. Sunday was Bulger’s big come back game. He managed to throw three interceptions. He was also sacked seven times. He got a whopping -1 fantasy point. I’m just thanking my lucky stars he was on my bench.
I was fortunate enough to pick up Ben Roethlisberger in that league as well. He has been mostly fabulous. However, his bye week brought a pick up of Kurt Warner, Arizona’s now injured QB. (I also picked him up in my other league too-I should have known right there that I was doomed). He banged up his left elbow, had a miserable game, and I started wondering what was going on with the elbows!
In my other league, I drafted Vince Young. Young was supposed to be a major stud this year, and instead he’s left much to be desired. I didn’t mind though, because I had drafted Jake Delhomme as well. Jake Delhomme got a season-ending elbow injury and that was that. Delhomme had surgery on that elbow last week. I think I’ll do him a favor and not draft him next year so he can have a healthy season.
I also had Trent Green. Not only is Green out for the season with yet another severe concussion; he very well may call it quits entirely since the last thing he wants to do is be permanently brain damaged by taking another blow to the head.
With Delhomme and Green out for the season, and Warner out after playing on my team for only one miserable game, I had to pick up someone else. I was also hurting in my other league with Big Ben on a bye week since I was unwilling to let Young back at the helm. Because I am thoroughly convinced that I am jinxing these guys, I decided to pick up two different QB’s: one for each team.
I went with Jeff Garcia in my one league who ended up with 25 points on my bench (o.k. since Big Ben got me over 30 as my starter). I chose David Garrard for my other team. Guess what happened? Garrard, who needed to have a Manning/Brady-esque like game for me to even be close to winning this week, went out of the game with a knee injury about half way through the game, after getting me exactly two fantasy points. Two.
Now I’m in need of another QB, so I thought I should give all fantasy players fair warning that if you have the same QB I’ll be picking up, you might want to have a back-up plan.
And since you’re probably wondering. . . I’m in 8th out of 10 teams in one league and 7th out of 8 teams in the other league. Yes, my season has just been fabulous.
***The BBM Review is getting into full swing now! I’ve added two additional writers (who are equally fabulous), and we have lots of awesome products coming in to be reviewed in the next few weeks. Check out the new writers’ bio write-ups (Scroll down for the new guys) over at The BBM Review and make sure you check back often for great product advice, and contest information.
They Really Can Help and Shark Teeth
Lil C is going to be a witch for Halloween. It’s the perfect contrast to Big I’s Alice in Wonderland. So today, we went in search of a small broom for the little witch. No one had a small broom.
At Home Depot, we found a wisk corn broom and were standing there trying to figure out how to attach the thing to a dowel and make a proper little flight mechanism, when one of the workers there asked if he could help. We told him we were trying to make a broom for Lil C, who was busy dancing in the aisle with Big I, and instead of rolling his eyes at us since we didn’t have a "real" project, he said, "Cool, let’s go look at dowels." He grabbed us a short dowel and then we followed him back to the aisle of a billion screws and nails. He gave us the perfect screws and wished us luck.
Whether it’s a Halloween broom or a closet rod cut down to become a beater bo, those guys are always willing to help, no matter what the project. In fact, before we found the wisk broom, we told another woman that we were looking for a small broom and why. She went to the back of the store, came out with a small, used plastic broom and offered to give it to us. In an area full of a lot of not so nice people, Home Depot is chock full of them. I’m thinking they must import them from other counties.
***
Last week, when Big I told me she had a cut in her mouth, I assumed that she had burned her mouth on something hot, or that she had cut her gum on a sharp piece of chip or something. When she was still complaining the next day, I took a look. There, inside her mouth, were not one, not two, but the beginnings of three new molars. I almost fell over because I didn’t realize kids got 6-year permanent molars. A quick trip to google taught me otherwise; but I was still surprised considering that between my two girls, they sprouted five molars in one week. That’s a whole lot of teeth, and a whole lot of cranky too.
This week, Big I started complaining that her gums were sore behind her bottom front teeth. Both of those teeth have been loosening up lately so I thought it was just from the impending gap. Big I opened her mouth and what did I see but two permanent teeth coming up right BEHIND her bottom front baby teeth. They have just broken the surface so it’s not really a big deal, but once again, I panicked. A quick visit to the google tooth fairies told me that "shark teeth" are actually quite common and that they may come completely in before her front two fall out. After the baby teeth leave, the tongue will move those permanent teeth up into place.
Big I has always had perfectly straight teeth. I’m sensing there will be braces in her future, as she must apparently suffer from the same small mouth (I know-hard to believe right?) that her mother has.
When the Saints Come Marching into Your Living Room
My daughter goes to Catholic school. I am not Catholic. Many things about the Catholic church confuse me to no end. That’s why when Big I brought home the important assignment of choosing a Patron Saint for an All Saint’s Day service, I was completely lost. As I often do, I called another Mom who happens to be Catholic to help me out. She explained to me that the students can pick any saint they want. They can choose one that has their name. They can choose one that has a feast day near their birthday. Pretty much anything goes.
In addition to researching their saint and finding some connection with the saint, the children also have to dress up like their chosen saint and do an oral report. Did I mention that I can’t sew? Getting a karate patch to stay on my gi is about the extent of my skills and that doesn’t mean I don’t stab myself half a dozen times. Needless to say, this project was causing me great stress.
When Big I brought the assignment home, I immediately turned to the internet. I found many helpful web pages, but finding a saint for Big I was not going well. They told us to try to avoid saints whose entire life was tragic, and those who had lives that ended in stonings, beheadings, etc. It’s not exactly an easy task. Then I found Saint Catherine of Bologna or Catherine de Vigri. She is the patron saint of art/artists and was also a writer. I told Big I a little about her and she took great interest. Unlike many of the saints who suffered horrible deaths, Saint Catherine of Bologna died of an illness, so I didn’t have to give her any scary details either. I chose to leave out the visions of Satan that Saint Catherine apparently suffered, telling her instead about the holy visions she also had.
I hadn’t shown Big I anything on the internet about Saint Catherine of Bologna. I hadn’t told her about any of Saint Catherine’s paintings, only saying that she was an artist, which is why what happened the other day is so remarkable.
Big I came home from school, and as she often does, she sprawled out on the floor and started drawing. She usually draws princesses and fairies, and an occasional pirate. But on this particular day she drew this:
I asked her what she was drawing and she said, "Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus." Hmm, that’s different, I thought, so I asked her what made her decide to change up the usual repertoire of princesses and princes. She said, "I don’t know. It just came to me in my head." I was impressed with the halo’s around all of their heads (something she hadn’t done before in any drawing) and thought the picture was definitely a keepsake.
It was later that evening that it occurred to me that the drawing Big I did was familiar in some way, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
The next night I went to the school for an informational meeting about the Saint assignment. I couldn’t help but feel entirely out of place. While the other Mom’s were crossing themselves, I sat there wondering how we were going to raise our daughter. Would we raise her Catholic? Was I always going to feel like an outsider? Would I forever be sitting at informational meetings because I was completely lost? Would I always be afraid to say "Oh my God" in the presence of the other Mom’s, and what if I swore? I was getting myself all worked up and stressing entirely too much.
I came home and went back to work on researching Saint Catherine of Bologna. I was searching for images so I could get an idea of what kind of costume I was going to have to come up with when I found this (image from www.csupomona.edu):
This is a painting that Saint Catherine of Bologna did after she had a vision. Because I thought maybe I was reading into it a bit much, I sent both pictures via email to a friend of mine who teaches in a Catholic school. It gave her chills too. The blue head covering, the halo’s, even the angle of her nose, mouth and the blushed cheeks, all seem eerily similar. I mean, I know Big I is only six, and her drawing certainly looks like it was done by a six-year old, but the similarities that do exist between the two are just amazing to me.
I’m thinking that maybe this assignment is speaking, not only to Big I, but to me somehow. It just seems too coincidental that Big I drew what she drew when she drew it. Perhaps we’re having a little saintly intervention in my living room; but I think it’s quite clear that we chose the right saint for Big I.
**The latest review is up at The BBM Review. Especially if you’re a woman, check it out. The review includes information on how you can win a free pair of shoes or athletic clothing. Check back frequently as the site will be adding a new writer or two in the weeks to come, and we’ve got some cool product reviews coming up!
The Great Kata Debate
There seems to be a constant underlying debate amongst martial artists. How relevant and useful is kata? It’s certainly no secret that many practitioners of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) find kata to be archaic and dated (and that’s putting it nicely). Yet traditional practitioners of the martial arts continue to learn kata, and place great value in its practice.
Being a martial artist that started learning kata during my very first karate class, it never even occurred to me that the martial arts could exist without kata. To me, it has always been the backbone of what I am learning; and as one of my instructor’s calls it, "the vehicle" to greater understanding of technique. It’s not just that either. Repetitive kata has the ultimate goal of the practitioner entering a state of mushin (mind no mind), which loosely translates into your mind being so free from thought that you just instinctively react to what’s going on around you. Simply put, mushin means "don’t think." One purpose of kata is muscle memory, another addresses the mental aspects of combat and just being. Kata, although not nearly all of my training, has constituted a large proportion of it.
Then I started hearing the debates, which are really more along the lines of "kata is stupid." Critics of kata say that it is only a "dance" and not a means to learn technique or self defense. Critics may possibly be equating kata to this:
I don’t post this video to make fun of this child. That is certainly not my intention. He is quite obviously doing what he was trained to do. What exactly he was trained to do, I’m not quite sure; but this is most certainly NOT kata as it was intended. Kata is not a kiai (spirit shout) sequence that emphasizes every single move. Kata is not getting into positions that make absolutely no sense. Don’t believe me? Just watch a video of any great karate master. Their kata looks nothing like this. Of course, one must keep in mind that this is obviously taking place during a tournament and many tournament participants are much more into putting "bling" into their moves than they are about performing a traditional kata.
In his book "Living the Martial Way," Forrest E. Morgan, Maj USAF says this about kata:
"Proper, traditional kata training provides a distillate of all the essential elements for developing kiai (which literally means to concentrate or focus the life force). It emphasizes the solid stances and correct movements that build haragei (the physical art of controlling and moving from one’s center). A qualified instructor will always stress moving from the one point, relaxing at key points, and lowering your center of gravity. With this kind of practice, you can’t help but build a strong hara (literally: belly, the area where one’s soul resides). Breathing in kata always centers in the tanden (abdomen). It is properly coordinated with the techniques, so kokyu chikara (breath power/internal power as opposed to external power) grows as each day passes.
But most importantly, kata is the quintessential exercise in kime (focus). It emphasizes coordinating and focusing physical energy in each technique, and teaches a student to concentrate his mental energy and focus it into the physical movement. Properly disciplined, traditional kata training even conditions the warrior to commit and focus his spirit through commanding the directions in which he points his eyes.
No, you can’t use a kata on someone who attacks you, nor will a properly executed, traditional form do much to win you trophies. But if you want to develop kiai, if you want to learn to destroy attackers utterly and completely, if you want to learn to defeat an enemy with a single glance, you’ll practice kata with utmost seriousness."
Kata may have been hidden in dances in the past. Kata may look silly to a beginner or to someone who knows nothing about it. Kata alone is certainly not an all-inclusive martial art. Traditional martial artists certainly aren’t going to break into Nai Hanchi Shodan or Chinto during an encounter in a parking lot; but those who train in traditional martial arts know how inherently important and fundamental kata is to their training.
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Thanks to E.M. for bringing my attention to this video.
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