Uncharacteristically of me, I thought this was cute.

Mark Your Calendars

Jeremy Horn's Elite Fight Night is coming up on 01 May 2009 at the Davis Conference Center. Two killers, John Sharp and Steve Sharp are fighting in this show. You know when the Sharp's get in the cage you're going to witness something incredible. Check out the fight card here. Please come out and support the local shows. At the last Fight Night I had girls night out with a couple of friends, while the guys went to a movie. Hah!

There's A New Sheriff In Town

Yes, that's right. Let's just leave the circumstances behind this picture out of it. Oh, and beware the next time that you stick a cheap fake moustache to your face. You just might get a tiny bit of a rash where the moustache once laid.

NinPeepJitsu

Did you guys happen to see the Washington Post Peep Diorama Contest? It's wicked cool - go check it out. Here are a couple of my faves:

The contest inspired me and I decided to create my own Peep diorama. I'm calling it NinPeepJitsu, a.k.a. The Diorama of Awesomeness.

Oh yes, I have better things to do than hand paint Peeps to look like ninjas, I just didn't do them. And yes, I did google "ninja weaponry" to get the designs for the sai and throwing stars. And FYI, the one Peep is supposed to appear to be zip-lining from his secret ninja spot for a surprise attack. Hello!

Packing

Today I attended a 4 hour class on gun safety and gun laws that is required to obtain a concealed weapons permit. I went with 5 other guys that I work with. One of them showed up with this shirt:
But from what I observed today, happiness is correcting the state licenced teacher on gun terminology and ammunition types. I've never seen my friends so pleased with themselves. They were like little school boys showing me their pistols and revolvers and such. "Hey Vaness, wanna check out my Ruger SR9 9mm pistol?" or "Hey Vaness, I have my AR 15 in the trunk. Wanna go to the range and shoot it?" It was such a great day.

Have You Seen This Sock?

Because I'm pretty sure that it grew legs and ran away. I can't find it anywhere!

Happy Birthday, Old Man

Who expects a birthday lunch on April Fools Day at a welding shop?

Happy Birthday, Camrann! I can't get enough of your awesomeness. I hope that this year brings you more fun and happiness than you expect to see in a lifetime.
The pic below is of BenG lighting the best damn double layer carrot cake the world has ever seen. No lie. The recipe is in the Gourmet cookbook, and contains coconut and crushed pineapple. Go check it out. You won't be dissapointed. I'm salivating just thinking about it.
And look at what was the backdrop for luncheon...
The pirate flag that we spent an hour at the Nicklecade trying to get last year!

Submission Challenge

Last Saturday I participated in a submission only grappling tournament down in Orem. And I totally got first place in the women's middleweight division! I'm embarrassed at how excited I was that I won. I was exceptionally nervous prior to the tournament and now I can't wait until the next one. The best part was having the support and encouragement of almost my entire team. So many of them were there participating and watching. I don't have very many pics. We were all busy running to each others matches. The camera was unfortunately forgotten.

Thanks to Miyo for the following couple of pictures.

Getting the takedown with a head throw.

Attempting the triangle choke. Transitioned from there into an armbar for the tap.
My first place trophy: A sweet mini samurai sword. Awards
With my AWESOME coach, Rob. I wouldn't be any good without him! Please excuse my haggardness.
I love this pic of Steve Sharp and Noah. Somehow they ended up in the same weight class. WTF? I know! Noah was making Steve look Fun Sized. Back: Denver, Kevin, Me, Coach Rob, Camrann, Ricky, Curtis, Matt and Riley

Front: Steve, Robert, Ben and Josh.

Most of the team placed, if not first. In the Intermediate Lightweight division our guys received first (Denver), second (Josh), and third (Riley). It doesn't get any better than Team Absolute!

Coach with the prodigy, Ben Garner.
The whole experience was really great. I know that I could have done better though. I was holding submissions that weren't working too long and I was really timid on the takedowns. And I swear that I forgot half of what I know. But now I know what I need to work on and what to expect for the next tournament. And yes, you guys can come. June 6th. Yeah!

Can't Get Enough Sharp

Congratulations to John Sharp for his awesome first round KO against Cody Udy last Friday at Jeremy Horn's Elite Fight Night. It was wicked! This was his long awaited return to the cage and it was an awesome win. I can't hardly wait for John's next fight. What a warrior. Dave Komarov was also on the fight card and won by submission: rear naked choke. What sucked was that I was down in Orem weighing in for the grappling tournament which was taking place the next day, and I missed Dave's fight. I saw the submission from the lobby of the Davis Conference Center as I was going through security. I heard it was a good fight though. I'm so proud of Team Absolute!
Go and check out awesome photos of John's fight at Miyo's blog. Set 1 Set 2. One of my favorite photos of all time is the second one in set 2 where Rob, Cam and The Wrecker are all congratulating John. What a joyful moment. My little heart absolutely loves that image. Great work, Miyo!

Happy St. Patty's Day To Ye

I decided that tomorrow I'm going to go Ye Olde Village Baker for lunch and having a corned beef and cabbage sandwich. Because that's what you do on St. Patrick's Day, eh. Oh, and then I'm going to listen to a truckload of Dropkick Murphy's and Flogging Molly. Yeah, and then lift up a stein and sing loudly and off key. How about ye?

Going International

Is my awesome cousin, Bjorn reading this? If so, how in the world did you find this? I'm hoping that it's you and not some German creeper with the same name. I'd love to get back in touch with you!

Fight Night Recap

On February 20th, the Throwdown ETC in Orem put on another fight night. Both Steve Sharp and Camrann Pacheco were fighting again. They were AWESOME! I'm so proud of my guys!

Camrann was up against Olly Bradstreet and won by split decision. It was a really great fight to watch if you like jujitsu. Cam had Olly in his guard almost the whole time and was working submissions from there. Cam had a wicked triangle on Olly at the end of the second round but Olly was saved by the bell. Seriously, this guy was purple and gurgling. Cam's jits is tight! Man, I love Cam.

Steve was fighting Dayne Aristizabal, a wicked jujitsu fighter. I've seen him fight at the last couple of Throwdown events and submission grappling tournaments and have been really impressed with him. When I heard that he was taking on Steve, I was really excited for that fight to happen. This guy has got to be fearless for him to have had only two fights prior and then taking a fight with seasoned Steve freaking Razor Sharp. Hello! I admire him for that. Steve ended up getting a knockout at the end of the first round. They stood up the whole round. It was awesome. Great exchanges.

Anyway, you can read more about it here at Absolute MMA's blogspot. Also check out Miyo's incredible photos: Cam's fight Steve's fight

Jeremy Horn's Elite Fight Night is happening on March 27th, 7:30pm @ The Davis Conference Center in Layton. Absolute MMA has a couple fighters in it. John Sharp (Steve's bro) is fighting Cody Udy and Dave Komarov is up against Eric Tilletson. I'm anxious to see John's fight. This guy is so great and just stepped in last week to fill in for one of our other fighters. He's been training hard and I just know that he's going to come out of this with a win. Let me know if you want to come. If I get tickets from the gym our fighters get more money. So support Absolute fighters!

Grumpy Pants

I had a recent house guest. She thought that my little eye mask was hilarious and decided to take some flattering pictures with my camera while I was sleeping.

I will snap you like a chicken! Waking up is hard for me.

Also, it may appear that I'm naked, but I'm not. I'm an active sleeper and don't think twice when I wake up with one of my arms through the head hole on my T-shirt and my top sheet wrapped 4 times around my leg. Or when my mattress is hanging three feet off of my box spring. Or when I wake up on the floor with one leg still on the bed. Oh yes, it happens.

My excuse for the lack of blogging is not that Facebook took me away (even though I do enjoy Facebook quite a bit), but the fact that I haven't had internet at my house for about a month now. I was "borrowing" the internet from my neighbors at my duplex and then they moved. I've just been too lazy/busy to get my own internet access after that. But I'm hooking it up this week.

VD

Valentine's Day.............HELLO!

I don't know if you know this but I LOVE being single. I really do. Not that I wouldn't jump on the chance to be in a relationship or get married, but I am really quite content with the fact that I am single. I haven't always felt that way, but I'm really happy about some changes that I've made lately and I'm really loving my life. I'm well aware that this paragraph sounds exceptionally cheesey, but I don't really care.

So as I think about Valentine's Day and my lack of romantic involvement, I dwell upon the idea that I couldn't settle for anyone that wouldn't know me so well as to get me the box of candy that I saw at Target the other day. It was a holographic picture of Darth Vader and above his head it said, "I Am Your.........", and then you move the box slightly and it's a picture of Anakin with ".....Valentine" underneath him. It was awesome. Yes, I am also well aware that I am a total dork, but I'm ok with that.

Awesome Quote

"He is so disciplined that he makes disciplined people look lazy."

-Joe Rogan on GSP after his fight against BJ Penn

Holy Hot Dang: Fighter Edition

It doesn't get much better than Georges St-Pierre. He's one of my favorite fighters. He's probably everyone's favorite fighter. And he's not too hard to look at either. He just seems like a really classy guy compared to some of the thugs out there. Check out this recent article. I appreciate the way he wants to help out the image of ultimate fighting. Also, go to this page, which is Georges home page of his website. Just open it up and wait there. A French rap song will start playing and for some reason I find it hilarious. It's just so bad. I need to somehow find out what it is and download it because it just lightens my mood tremendously whenever I hear it. I crack myself up. Sheesh.


So anyway, check out UFC 94 this Saturday on Pay Per View. Georges St-Pierre is going to be defending his welterweight title against B.J. Penn. It should be a really good fight, even though I'm confident that GSP will be winning the fight in the first round. Ok, maybe early in the second. In any case, it will be epic. Let's have a discussion about it later.

Eye Candy

Chris, Ben, Levi, Rob, Camrann, and Robert

Some of my favorite men! I took this right before the fights started last Saturday night. Update on that coming soon! In the meantime, check out Miyo's excellent photos of Robert's and Riley's fights. She was front row to the cage. Lucky!

Confession

I park in the same spot everyday at work. I back into a space on the far side of the upper parking lot. The reason for this is because the conformation of the parking lot makes it so that I feel like a race car driver when I'm leaving. I peel out and make a hard right to avoid the little island next to me and then a hard left hugging another island, then a hard right to the exit of the parking lot and then crank left immediately onto the drive. It's awesome. And I get mad whenever someone snakes my spot. People ask me all the time why I park in that same far away slot even when the parking lot is empty and I never tell them for fear that they will see how brilliant my parking spot really is and want the thrill that the parking spot will inevitably give them. So don't tell anyone.

Gerald McBoing Boing

I was introduced to this cartoon by someone who had a Gerald McBoing Boing tattoo. I'm a big fan of Mr. McBoing Boing. And I'm pretty sure that it's the greatest last name ever. If I were to marry, I would want that last name. Or McCool. Or McQueen. Obviously it's got to be a Mc something.

On a somewhat related note, I have to ask why all boys are naturally gifted with the talent of making sound effects? I grew up with all brothers and they were amazing at imitating a huge explosion or the sound of a machine gun. I always tried to join in but my machine gun noise (no matter how long I practiced privately in the confines of my room) was more like just saying rat-ta-tat-tat. I'm ashamed. I think there is a sound effect gene that is only found on the Y chromosome.

Awesome Quote of the Week

"I love hot dogs! I don't even care what's in them.......crack, babies, whatever."

-Ben (at Jeremy Horn's Elite Fight Night)