Duke Nukem Forever

I AM ALSO BUYING THIS GAME.

...although from everything I've read, they've been talking about releasing this game since '98. This video, however, seems to have been released on December 19th. The graphics also suggest its legitimacy.

StarCraft II

I AM BUYING THIS GAME.

...and yes, one or two of those videos are from the original starcraft, but I just got YouTube happy and wanted to put a bunch on here. Enjoy, or go away.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Yes, I realize this comes a few days after Christmas, but since I beat New Year's and included it in the well-wishing I'm not technically late. Anyway, here's to the end of the worst year I've ever known, and to nothing but the best for everyone in 2008. Train hard, fight hard, party hard, and be safe out there!

HVJJ In House Tournament.

So on top of my car, and my finals being this week, I'm starting to feel sick. I'm not going to elaborate on this too much, I just needed a second to bitch and no one is around that feels like listening to my bitching.

I've had a headache for the past week or so, I've gotten about 4 hours of sleep in the last two days, I can't eat anything worthwhile, and my weight seems to be stuck. I don't know why, maybe too many fucking pistachio's?

Anyway... I do have some good news. Brian had a tournament last night at HVJJ. Just a small, in house thing that consisted of maybe 10-15 different grapplers, only two of which were not Brian's students (I think). Brian had me roll in the experienced division with the likes of Karl and Brian Kim, where I was heel hooked once and got caught in two straight ankle locks. Man, do those guys like to attack the legs.

Anyway, I also went with guys who's time training more closely matches my own. I won that division, hitting two triangles and a 10 finger. My first match was with B-Man, Marine Joe. Joe has the body structure of a guy that I don't usually like to try and triangle because he's very big in the shoulders which makes it difficult to fully close. This time, it was there and I had to go for it. As usual, I couldn't close it. I got it as tight as I could and tried to get a good angle and hope for the best. I wrapped his leg and squeezed my knees together as hard as I could, but he wouldn't tap. I tried again to pull my shin into my foot but it wasn't going anywhere. At this point I knew if I was going to get it, I had to get a ridiculous angle on him. I pulled myself to his leg and when that again didn't do the trick, I went passed his leg and under him. By the time he tapped, I was almost past his other leg. That man is a monster.

My next match was with my new friend Brennan, a guy who trains in Highland. He's very explosive and strong, but I caught him with a 10 finger when he dropped his head shooting a double. I managed to jump guard and get the tap after he rolled me around a few times and almost shrugged me off. I was actually looking for the front naked, which I always am, but I'll settle for the 10 finger I guess, heh.

After him I rolled with Kevin who is a Town of Poughkeepsie police officer. That guy is strong, intense, and has great control. It is very difficult to do anything to him, especially from your guard because he stays so tight. It's frustrating, but I'm sure it keeps him out of a lot of trouble with others as well as me. Anyway, not much happened and time ran out with him in my guard. We did a two minute overtime from the feet, and he shot a single. Kevin can't make it to every class because of his work schedule which worked out for me. Had he made the last few classes he would likely have quickly taken me down. But, I pulled my leg out from between his legs and kicked out to the side. I knew I wanted to do this at some point during the evening and I was pumped! I jumped for a flying triangle, and for the first time in my experience, he stayed upright. I didn't slow down though and kept working. He shifted me to one side and I transitioned to the omoplata while he still stood, which drew from Pantene "Oh my god, a flying omoplata!" At that point we hit the mat and Kevin timed it well enough to pass himself over me and get out of it...and get points for passing my guard. I managed to scramble before he could clamp down on me, and I caught him in a triangle for the win in OT. Yay, go me.

I even won a prize! Brian bought a bunch of jiu-jitsu and MMA related books and DVD's for the winners choose from. Yes, I'll end that sentence, and this one, with the word "from." I picked Randy Couture's Wrestling for Fighting or something that sounds like that - the book is still in my car so I can't look. I haven't had the chance to look through it yet, but it should be pretty cool.

Anyway, I've taken my little break from studying and paper writing. Back to work. Be safe out there...

Audi A4 vs. Ford F-150

So I'm driving along in my automobile, always with somewhere particular to go. I think it was the first snow fall of the season and I was pretty happy about it. My day got started with a quick stop at Pop's to say hello and pick up a cup of coffee, and then I was on my way to the laundromat to...well, you can guess why I was going there.

About 2 miles down the road, at about 10-15 miles per hour, a big red Ford F-150's brake lights came on. Everyone was driving really slowly and cautiously...but apparently I wasn't driving cautious enough. As soon as my foot glanced the f#$%^&*ing brake pedal the ABS kicked in and I had completely lost control of the car. I must have slid 20-30 feet trying to pump the brakes and steer clear of the truck. I managed not to hit him straight on, which probably is why the air bags didn't deploy, but my baby has significant damage nonetheless...

The story wouldn't be complete if I didn't show you a picture of the truck...

I know I should be thankful that there isn't any damage to the truck...I'm also thankful that the guy I hit was a friend of mine. We played hockey back in and before high school together; his old man was my coach for a while too. Anyway, I've just started the whole claims process and so far it seems to be going pretty smoothly. It is going to take some time though. I was hoping that it'd all be done in a week, which it might have been, except Matt's Auto Body is a happenin' place apparently, and they're booked up until January I think. They did say they'd take care of me and get my headlight fixed so that it is drivable, but once they're ready to take me on to complete the work it is expected to take five days.

This happened the day after my birthday. I can't wait until 2007 is over. This has been the shittiest year of my life and the same can be said for many other people that I know. Some have had bigger problems than I, and some a bit smaller, but just about everyone I know can't wait until this year is over. New Year's Eve is the only cheat day I have left before I weigh in on January 12 for NE Grappling VI, and I'm going to party hard and kick 2007 the fuck out of the door and sing for better times to come in 2008.

R.I.P Sammy Vasquez

The entire MMA community has suffered a great loss, but none so great as the Vasquez family. Condolences to the friends and family of Sammy. Read the article on Sherdog.com.

Ring of Combat XVII

Q: 20-25 people sat in a car for a round trip of around 8 hours for a minute and ten seconds worth of action?

A: You're damned right we did.

Be ye warned: This video will take several minutes to load. If you're that interested, go do something else and come back in a few.



There were many other fights on the card, but I'm not going to post anything concerning any of them. Congratulations to Brian for winning the Ring of Combat Beasts of the NorthEast lightweight tournament! Below are some pictures that came after the fight. Enjoy!

Mon Oreille

I'm done seeing the doc for now with regard to my ear. He did say that he wanted to see me in a month or so just to check up on it, but he's happy that it's as drained as it's going to get and it isn't infected. Infected has an entirely new meaning to me now since I've been watching 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. Great movies, although certainly not for the squeamish.

Anyway, the ear seems to be as good as it's going to get. The Doc says that I'm good to start working out again, but doesn't want me doing any sort of heavy lifting. As far as returning to the mat goes, he definitely doesn't want it getting hit or rubbed. After the slicing I went through my ear is so damned sore and throbbing that I whole heartedly agree with him. I may go to jiu jitsu just for the instruction, but I'm certainly not going to be doing any rolling for a while. Anyway, that's my blogging update for today. Be safe out there...

Cauliflower Ear

So, I just had the nastiest case of ear madness so far. My father who is an E.R. tech at Vassar Hospital took a look at it after I asked him if he could drain it for me (I've never done it before, and I also don't have needles or syringes with which to do it), and he said "I'm not touching that." I didn't really think that it was that big of a deal, but he convinced me to come into the ER to get a referral to an eye/ear/nose/throat guy. So I did, hoping that they would just drain it there and I wouldn't have to go through the entire referral process and all. When I got the cut on the back of my head, the guy who put the staples in for me was into martial arts; I was hoping to get him as my doctor and have him treat me, but that wasn't the case. I did see him, and he was morbidly impressed. I was hoping that he'd tell the doctor I had that he'd do it himself if my doc wasn't confident about it, but even he told me that he wasn't going to mess with it either.

Anyway, I guess I can understand it...along with all the fluid built up in there, I was loosing circulation. I didn't realize it, but parts of my ear were turning white, and other parts still had bruising. There was swelling that not only wasn't going down, was getting worse. I met my Dad for his birthday dinner on Sunday evening, and met him again when I went into the ER Monday night. He noted that the swelling was worse, and I hadn't been training at all in between. The swelling had increased, and was cutting off circulation. Crap.

So, today I went to the specialist and he wouldn't drain the damn thing either...he sliced my ear open in three different places. He put holes in my ear! He then proceeded to wrap my head in gauze as tightly as he possibly could; he had put some stuff in the cuts he had made so that they wouldn't close and the ear would continue to drain on its own. Great.

Now, I look like a Crypt or Blood who accidentally put his bandana in a bleach load. Obviously I can't train, but he warned me against sweating or showering, as this would make the bandaging fall apart. Also, increasing my heart rate would only bring more crap to my ear that would have to drain as well. This means I can't even go for a run if I want to.

So on Thanksgiving Day, I'll be meeting up with him in the morning to take off the bandages. No training, no running, no nothing. I really don't even want to go outside looking like this, heh. I do have plenty of homework to catch up so I'll be busy, but this really, really sucks.

What's New

Just in case anyone actually checks this out for updates on everything Janicik, I figured I'd take a minute to write some words.

I think I'm finally starting to get my shit together. The apartment is looking more and more like living space instead of a storage unit, I'm catching up on my school work, and I'm training again. I'm not training quite the way I was; some days I know my head just isn't in it. For the most part, however, I'm back on the mat.

I'm not doing NAGA. I was planning on it originally, but then shit happened and I changed my mind. As it turns out, even if I wanted to do it, I'm in no shape to. During training, I thought I was safe from a key lock that I was caught in because I had slipped my elbow in and there was no strain on my shoulder. What I didn't realize, was that the strain that would have been on my shoulder transferred entirely to my elbow. It hurt, and it still hurts. It doesn't keep me from training, but it I definitely do not want to risk getting caught with that in competition. I will soil myself from the pain if someone gets even close to that and, as a result of competing against me instead of training with me, they'd do what they had to do to get me to tap. I would do the same.

The real kicker is that my right elbow isn't the problem. About a single week ago, the same thing happened on my left arm, but the popping noises that the joint made were audible to Brian who was a good 20 feet away. It didn't hurt immediately, but I knew I was in trouble. Over the next couple days it swelled like a balloon and the pain increased exponentially. This will take a very long time to heal. I'm hoping that by icing it daily and pumping myself full of ibuprofen a few times a day, I'll be healed in 9-10 months. Shitty.

Not so shitty as Cliff. His leg is worse. We've gone on a couple runs even though we both probably knew it was a bad idea. Turns out that it was a VERY bad idea. The situation has worsened, and Cliff is thankfully trying to completely eliminate running from his mind for a good year. We're all hoping that won't take that long, but we're not really in the driver's seat, or the runner's shoes, on this one.

School for me is another topic all together. I don't want to get into it right now other than to say to everyone who's interested that I'm still here and I'm going to finish the semester as well as I can. I've said that before, but I'm telling myself as often as possible to simply man up. There's nothing else I can do.

So there you go.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I've decided I'm a Rangers fan. I figure that accusations of disloyalty are warranted, but at least I'm coming back into the Ranger fold and not rooting for the Islanders ::shudder::. The reason I started rooting for the Devils when I was younger was because everyone around me was a Ranger fan and I wanted to be different. Although I remained a Devil's fan when the Rangers won the cup, and have since then, I'm over that being different for the sake of being different fad I guess. Also, I find that getting to the Meadowlands is easier than getting to the Garden, and cheaper. Now that the Devils are moving further south in Jersey, it won't be as easy. Plus, why the fuck am I rooting for a New Jersey team? I hate New Jersey.