Self Motivation

Yesterday, I was very impressed with a bunch of my Jiu-Jitsu friends. I was proud to be with them.

All of us have locally-awarded rank stripes on our belts. I'm the only one to also have a Gracie University stripe that can only be earned after taking a ridiculously difficult and massive examination.

Three guys were there yesterday, on the mat, starting to prepare to take the god-awful exam. It will take months of serious practice. The drills are done in pairs, and as there was an odd number training, I got to be the fourth. We were at it for about an hour.

They want their Gracie University stripes by the end of the summer.

The sad thing is that there is no real reward for all of this, other than a feeling of self satisfaction and accomplishment.

When they get their Gracie University stripes, they will not be in addition to their current, locally-awarded rank. The fancy, new little stripes take the place of stripes these guys have already got. There is no forward rank movement at all.

Three guys at it yesterday, and a few more who weren't, are putting themselves through a lot. Their Jiu-Jitsu will improve greatly. I find it surprising that HQ doesn't give even a token reward. How about two months taken off of their next promotion time? How about one? How about the time put into all the extra drills counting towards attendance? Nope. None of that.

They are doing it for the best of reasons; self-motivation.

And they are even going to be coughing up an $85 testing fee.

8 or 13 months?

I've been laboring under a false assumption. I had thought that it was possible to gain rank in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu through two methods. This is not correct.

For a student at an outlying Certified Training Center, it is necessary to train for a minimum of 8 months and to have attended a minimum of 100 classes to qualify for promotion. As soon as this all became clear, I did my usual spreadsheet prediction of what this means for my next few levels.

I punched in my current rank, and when I received it, and added on 8 months for each of the ranks of third stripe Blue Belt, forth stripe, and for Purple Belt.

I then noticed that I cannot receive a third stripe on the date predicted, as I'll be out of town for around a month. It was necessary to move that promotion a little down the road. Strangely, the cause of my delay in promotion will be that I'll be down at the Gracie Academy training 13 times a week with the Gracies. Life is like that sometimes.

As I'm planning to make my pilgrimage to the Gracie Academy an annual winter event, I punched in both the months of November and March as defining the upper and lower range of time for me to receive a Purple Belt. Those promotions have to be evaluated by the Gracies.

Compare all this with the theoretical fastest a person can go through all the Blue Belt stripes and earn a Purple Belt. That length of time is 40 months, or 3.3 years. My total time would be 3.4 to 3.8 years. Instead of 8 months per level, my average would be between 8.2 and 9 months per level. I thought this was a good goal to shoot for.

Sadly, there just might be a monkey wrench in the gears. It turns out that my last increase in rank, which I received early in March, could not be registered until just this week. The online system prevents my instructor from issuing another promotion until 8 months after the registered date. He has tried to assure me that this will not be a problem, but I'm a nervous Nelly abut this kind of thing.

I promptly re-punched the numbers. My new, possible, promotion date for 3^rd stripe might not be late in 2014 as hoped, but rather in February of the following year. That's 12 months.

The good news is that my trip to train with the Gracies in the fall won't add on another month.

The freakish news is that something might just gum up the works a bit more that is actually very similar. Helen and I are going to be in Arizona in March. On the way down, I want to spend another week with the Gracies. That's right, I might mess up another promotion by doing extra training. That means that the level I'd been hoping to reach before Christmas won't arrive until sometime in April. That's a chubby 13 months wearing my current rank.

Add on another minimum 8 months for my forth stripe, and we're into winter again.

I'm therefore looking at the following winter to grade for Purple Belt.

So a possible Purple sometime between November 2016, and March of 2017, or 4.5 to 4.8 years as a Blue Belt. My average time per level under this prediction is between 10.8 to 11.4 months.

I could be looking at an entire extra year due to the different registration of my rank.

Likely not an issue, but I won't know until the end of this year when my real 8 month time is up.

Will I have a new stripe by Christmas, and be on track for winter of 2015-2016, or be delayed until 2016-2017?

Waiting to see. I don't wait well.

Game

I really don't like bossy video game developers. There are a lot of things that would be easy to include in a new game, but for unknown reasons are left out. Sometimes they add stuff that should be kept out.

For example; my newest game is the UFC title from Electronic Arts. It drives me nuts.

An example is the sound. I could always turn it all the way off with my TV remote, but should I have to? Audio clues in the fighting are pretty important. Hard punches sound different than lesser ones. So best to leave the sound on.

The music drives me nuts. It is obnoxious and unpleasant, but even if it weren't I like to be able to shut it off. Shouldn't that be a little box to check someplace in the settings? It isn't. The closest thing to that is the ability to choose one of several “sound profiles”. These change the levels on the fight noise, the crown sounds, and all that. In one, they allow you to shut off the fight commentary. Nice touch, as I'm sure that's going to get annoying eventually.

None of the choices let you shut off the music. The nearest is one that turns it down 50%. Not good enough.

I then went into the playlist section. You'd think with playlists you'd at least be able to play your own music. Wrongo, but you can shut off individual songs. I went through and de-selected every single song. The music still plays. Bastards.

A good thing is that they've chosen to include the women's division in the game. This is great from a realism point of view, and from marketing. The women's division is about the most popular in the sport right now.

The game also allows you to create your own fighters, but only male ones, and has a fine campaign game, but you can only play as a male. Maybe female fighter is coming down the pipe later, but it's missing right now.

They also don't let you have fighters compete outside of the divisions they've actually fought in. There are a few who are present in more than one grouping, but not many. You can't have Georges St. Pierre fight Cain Velasquez just because one is a middleweight and the other a heavyweight. You also can't have St. Pierre fight Anderson Silva, and that was a fight that was inches from being signed. Why? Because they were a few pounds apart and never shared a division.

Perhaps they want to game to be taken seriously. I can get that, but if so what's with the presence of an single, extra-special super fighter. You can unlock Bruce Lee with game play, or buy him outright.

He died two decades before the launching of the UFC. Even worse, you are able to play him as a bantamweight, a featherweight, a lightweight, or even as a welterweight. The only game fighter close to this is BJ Penn. He is available in 3 divisions. The difference being he actually fought in them.

Not only does Bruce Lee have better overall stats than the Hall of Famer BJ Penn, his ground fighting skill is rated higher, at 94 to Penn's 92. Penn is a ground wizard and Lee never was a grappler at all.

So, bad music which cannot be shut off, no way to create female fighters, no way to fight out of weight divisions, and Bruce Lee the superman.

Other than that, it's a great game.

Curric and Cheats?

I love the way Rener and Ryron Gracie are setting up their curriculum. It is their intention to organize and codify everything one needs to be a Black Belt, and to teach it all in the most logical order.

They call the first level of material, “Combatives”. This is for beginners, and consists of 36 techniques organized into 23 lessons. The premise is that these 36 techniques will contains 95% of everything needed to defeat an unskilled opponent. At this level the student wears a White Belt as they train through the 23 lessons, from beginning to end, three times each. There is no free sparring at this level.

After the student passes a rigorous exam covering all 36 combative techniques in painful detail, they are awarded a Blue Belt.

Their new belt starts out plain, and as they progress through four levels they are awarded white stripes to adorn their Blue Belt. This is when free sparring, or rolling, begins.

The first level, logically called Blue Belt Stripe One, consists of 60 techniques. It takes a year to a year-and-half to cycle through the curriculum.

Mixed in with all the other new stuff are counters to everything that was learned as a White Belt. At Blue Belt Stripe Two there are 60 more techniques, including counters to everything learned in Blue Belt Stripe One.

This is as far at the Gracie brothers have gotten in releasing their curriculum to date. Rank beyond this is based on attendance, time-in-rank, and general ability.

They get a lot of grief for presenting their material via an online video system, and for doing the testing by having the exam video recorded and submitted to them for evaluation.

I'm a 30 year veteran of traditional Karate, and recently retired from a career as a high school teacher. I can attest to the quality of the program, and to its testing system.

My favorite is the complaint that goes, “somebody could memorize the test material without actually learning the techniques.” If you think so, try it.

Another is the claim that you could get some experienced Jiu-Jitsu guy to take the test for you. Unless he's a student of Ryron and Rener, he won't pass without putting in a lot of work ahead of time.

For example; in the test the candidate can't just do a fine Americana Armlock, he has to do it Rener and Ryron's right way. All of the steps as shown by Rener and Ryron must be there.

He starts from the mount; grabs his partner's wrist with one hand; shoots his other hand underneath as his partner's arm nears the floor; applies pressure as the arm hits the floor; his partner taps.

He just lost 7 points, and he's only half way through a single one of the 36 techniques. This looks like he's on the way to about 500 deductions. The limit for passing is 20. Keep in mind that this is a guy who is doing a fine move, just not a fine Gracie move.

During testing, the techniques are divided into 4 groups, and each group is recorded within a five-minute time limit, and each must be done in a continuous shot. No editing, or the whole thing is rejected.

To cheat on the exam sounds like a lot of work to me.

Let's say you manage to cheat the exam somehow; what do you gain? You've put in a lot of work and ingenuity, and sent the Gracies an $85 exam fee in exchange for a Blue Belt. By walking into any martial arts supply place you can buy a belt for about $10. Why not buy yourself a nice, Black Belt instead?

At the higher levels, the tests for Blue Belt stripes are much, much harder. I spent a year and a half learning the precisely correct Gracie material, and it still took me a couple of months of cramming to get ready and to perform the exam.

I've earned a University degree, and have a Black Belt in Shotokan Karate, and my Gracie Blue Belt Stripe One exam is harder than any test I've ever taken. It was harder than any five exams I've ever done put together.

If somehow, by some miracle you manage to cheat through all four levels of Blue Belt, you're still just a Blue Belt. These are common as dirt, and really carry no status at all. Purple really means something, and is sort of the equivalent of a Black Belt in other arts.

Evaluation for Purple Belt, and then again at Brown Belt, and again at Black require in-person evaluation by Rener or Royce Gracie. How are you going to fake that?

Test season

Our Jiu-Jitsu group is going through test mania right now.

Usually, White Belt people go through their exam for Blue one at a time. A big group is when a pair are ready at the same time.

Last night, two started the process, and another finished the last part of hers. We also have another guy who is done and awaiting his results, and another in mid-stream. There are also several others about to start.

I predict a large number of Blue-Belt-wearing additions to the advanced class.

They'll be in for a shock.

It is nothing like the White Belt class. The material comes in at a pace similar to a waterfall, and assumes a certain level of mastery.

As they are trying not to get swept away by all of this information and technique, they will also be introduced to free sparring.

Let's say it's you. You've been training for more-or-less a year, and are wearing a brand new Blue Belt. You get paired up with one of the old hands. The instruction is given, “keep it light...just have some fun.”

You achieve the mount...”that was easy”...and go for an American armlock...everything is going fine...and the armlock is gone and he's on top of you...it seems impossible to get him off....then you do...”he let me do that”...

Time for a new partner. You get another old hand. The instruction this time is different, “keep it real.” This is explained to mean do it like it really mattered; do it with serious intentions, but nobody gets hurt.

This time you don't have a clue what it happening most of the time. You tap out over and over. This time you know that anything you manage to do is something your partner was allowing.

You might freak out about this, but you shouldn't. Ask your partners what happened and they'll be happy to show you. It can be like private lesson.

In a few months the newby will be just fine. If they had a swollen head from achieving their lofty new Blue Belt, it will be quickly back to size.

They'll also start to see the difference in skill signified by the little white stripes that are on some of the other people's Blue Belts.

They'll also get to see how much fun it can be to roll around on the floor like a bunch of kids.

Yay, me

Last night, I was happy that Scott had managed to save a significant piece of the advanced class for rolling. I like rolling.

Then he announced that one person in each group had to grab onto their belt with one hand and couldn't use it.

I hate stuff like that. With one arm against two, the restricted partner went into defensive mode. The other automatically played attacker. No submissions occurred, and nothing else interesting either. If you go into full defense no matter how many arms you have, it's hard for the other person to submit you.

After a bit, he changed the rules a little. Both partners had to latch onto their belt with one hand and only use the other. Now we're talking.

Neither went into a defensive mode. We struggled along trying to submit our chums.

What you might not realize, is that most of our submissions cannot be done with one arm against a resisting opponent. Take the basic submissions. Rear naked choke is “possible”, but you can't generate much squeeze with one arm. The guillotine choke can't be done at all. A kimura armlock needs two hands, as does an Americana. Not only that, but the trapped arm is pretty much protected from attack.

The only obvious attack route would be a triangle choke. It would be difficult to set up, but if it is then 90% of the finish is leg work. For me it wouldn't work at all. A triangle requires two legs that have two knees that can handle significant pressure. I'm one knee short right now.

Quite a puzzle to solve.

We rolled.

I managed to work a one-arm collar choke of my own invention on Rob. He tapped. Against Tawha, I planted a crushing one-hand choke I learned down in Torrance, and she tapped. Finally, by moving slow and steady like a boa constrictor, I managed to line up a one-handed armlock just seconds before the rolling ended.

Turns out that nobody else scored with anything except triangle chokes.

Yay, me...

Promotion Night

It was the biggest night of promotions we've ever had.

Generally, in Jiu-Jitsu, only one person ever receives a new belt or a stripe on any given day. The only exception to this was back in early March, when three stripes were awarded on one evening.

Tonight, four stripes were given out. Three people received their first, and Scott picked up his second.

We now have 3 Blue Belts without stripes, 5 with one stripe, and 2 with two.

Having a stripe on a Gracie Blue Belt is about the equivalent of receiving a Brown Belt in an art like Karate. Having two stripes is just a tad short of being equivalent to a Karate Black Belt.

These promotions are a very big deal.

New Guard

Until last fall, our Jiu-Jitsu group had a very limited view of the world. Only our instructor, Shawn Phillips, had ever had first-hand contact with the Gracies.

Then, three of us went with Shawn to train with Rener Gracie down in Seattle for a couple of days.

That winter, I trained at the main Gracie Academy in California for awhile. During that time Shawn and Cosme came down for a few days of instructor training.

Now, it's almost summer. Shawn and Scott recently went to see Ryron Gracie for one day down in Washington state.

Just days ago, about 20 of us attended a seminar with Rener Gracie right on our doorstep over in Richmond, BC.

Parallel with this, as a group we've largely left our progress totally in the hands of our instructor. He does a wonderful job, but soon this will not be enough.

Two years ago, I already moved to take more responsibility for my own training. Of course, I continued to train with Shawn. I made a point of never missing any classes if at all possible. I also trained twice each week solo, or with some willing partner.

My goal was to eventually take the extremely demanding Gracie University rank exam. I also wanted to be ready as soon as possible. I also had numerous private lessons with Shawn. I shaved months off of my preparation time.

After a year and a half, I'd been through all of the material. I was way ahead of shedule. It became time to get ready for the exam itself. I liken this to cramming for the world's biggest algebra exam. The course was done, but it was time to study for the test. I was fortunate that Madeline was at about the same place in her training, and also wanted to prepare. We worked together for several months, and then successfully completed our exams.

Now, there are about half a dozen Blue Belts who want to take this same exam. They have all either been through the material, or are about to. Attending class won't be anywhere near sufficient. It is their own cram time. It will take months.

They've touched the wider Jiu-Jitsu world, and want to move forward. They are no longer undergraduates. They are martial artists in their own right, responsible for much of their own training and progress. The rewards can be significant.

Primarily, they will become much stronger Jiu-Jitsu players.

It's an exciting time for the group.

It will be an exciting time for those individuals.

Seminar with Rener

Saturday was the first ever Rener Gracie seminar in the Vancouver area. He was up here to work Brendan Schaub's corner at a UFC event, and had enough spare time to run two 2-hour sessions.

It all happened at the Steveston Martial Arts center. This is a beautiful facility that seems to be associated with a recreation facility. We used the center's Judo hall. It's the first time I've ever trained on such a beautifully sprung floor. You'd swear we were in Japan.

There were about 75 people present. Our school made up the single largest contingent, with over 20 of us taking part. The morning class was wonderful, and focused around submissions from the mount. It was all BBS1 material, but there were enough refinements and details to keep those of us who were familiar with the main techniques interested and learning.

The other session concerned a back mount position called “Triple Threat”. This went well beyond BBS1 level, and included higher level material. My brain over-filled.

Between classes there was a group photo, and a line up for individual shots with Rener. Afterwards, he rolled with a few of the higher ranks present.

On my way out, I passed another hall full of noise and power where Kendo was being practiced. I would have loved to pop in and watch, but had a ferry to catch on a tight timeline.

For most of our people it was their first contact with any of our association's Chief Instructors. Experiencing his level of knowledge and smooth teaching style they could not help but be impressed.

Pretty good for a day trip.

Old knees

It's doctor day for my knee. Helen came along. She always thinks of things I should ask, but that don't occur to me. Had my MRI about a week ago, and time for the results.

The verdict is pretty good. No ligament or tendon or cartilage damage per se. She called it wear and tear; the first signs of osteoarthritis.

No surgery, so no stupid wait lists. She also said that I won't wreck things by crawling around at Jiu-Jitsu. My knee will be uncomfortable, but I knew that. Ice will continue to be my friend.

I am booked for physio next week to help things along, and to strengthen muscles that will help my knees cope. Going to start taking glucosamine as well. Many swear by it, and it couldn't hurt.

In the short term I'll be back training, including a Rener Gracie seminar this Saturday. In the longer term I can expect my knee to improve; dare I hope for back to normal. In the long, longer term I guess my knees will be giving me increasing grief over the years.

Stupid oldness

PartnerPlanning

The big seminar with Rener Gracie is only 9 days away. It has become the big topic of conversation. I'm looking forward to it greatly.

For maximum enjoyment, people need to think about how they want to experience the training.

Do they want to meet and train with new people, or do they want to learn the most at a technical level?

If one wants a social experience, there is nothing to prepare for. You go, and after the first movement is explained, you just grab somebody to partner with. This would be fine, but you never know what you're going to get.

For maximum learning, I think it is wise to arrive at the seminar with a compatible partner already arranged. That way, you can more easily concentrate on the material presented.

For me, it's Jiu-Jitsu first and social second. I would far prefer arranging a partner ahead of time. Any of our Blue Belts would be a great match.

I haven't done so already as my knee is currently an issue. If it isn't significantly better by seminar time, I wouldn't be a great partner for one of my friends. If things mend up, I'll grab somebody closer to training day. If anybody approaches me to team up, I'll agree but make sure they are aware of my knee.

The sessions will cover Mount Submission, and Triple Threat Back Attack. The first will be moderately demanding on injury, and the second as easy on knees as anything we ever do.

I think this time I'll get Rener to autograph my belt. That shouldn't hurt my knee much.

Evolution

Our Jiu-Jitsu group is evolving quickly.

Back in September, there was a seminar in Seattle taught by Rener Gracie. Four of us went down.

In two weeks, there is another Rener Gracie seminar, this time in Richmond. About 20 of us are signed up. Granted, it will be possible to pop in for the day and still get back that evening by ferry, whereas Seattle required we spend two nights in a hotel, but still.

Last night, at our advanced class there were over a dozen of us on the mat. I believe that is a new record.

Currently, I am the only student with a two-stripe Blue Belt. Within the next couple of months this could change. Our 2 one-stripe guys are planning on testing for a Gracie University promotion. There are 4 more without stripes, who are due to receive their first locally-awarded stripes.

There are also a large number of White Belt students ready to make the move up to Blue. One has already recorded his exam, and is awaiting his results. There are about 5 or 6 more ready to start filming anytime.

Cruse4567

Skagway again. Went into town with the gang.

Rode the stretch golf cart shuttle off the pier, and the $2 bus to town. Ventured alone when the rest headed for the quilt store.

Hit the bank for $200, as Helen and I are out of American cash, and bought a Dr. Pepper and a cap. Wandered a bit more, then got the bus back to the pier.

My knee was still so happy, I strolled along to our ship. Currently I'm viewing all the docked ships with the town and mountains in the background.

Skagway is swell.

Maybe it's a good day to do a knee overview.

We are on two one-week cruises, with an unloading/travel day at the end. We are 11 days into the total of 15.

On 9 of the 11 days I tried very hard to baby the knee.

That's recently been bumped up. Yesterday and today my knee took me into town. In Juneau my knee visited a mine. On both days my knee went dancing.

The verdict is that it isn't doing bad. There is still a lot of ice usage to keep swelling down, which works great. I believe that it is getting better ever so slowly. Knees are like that. This encourages my ice use even more, as swelling retards healing.

We still have visits to Hoonah and Ketchikan coming up. I might just visit both. I didn't go see either last week.

I'd also like to dance every remaining evening. Dancing is great, and is usually a highlight to all our cruising.

........

Tiny Hoonah today, and I've decided to stay aboard.

The ocean on this trip has been painted with swathes of yellow tree pollen. Neither we nor the locals have ever seen the like. Hoonah shows ot more than most. There are floating tide lines of it, as well as the bay in general, and the shoreline in particular. The beach has a bit of a yellow tinting.

........

Heading south a couple of hours out of Ketchikan. Bernie and I are doing our usual early morning coffee-and-sit-about.

We saw a whale breech a bunch of times in rapid succession, and another farther away do it a few times more. They jumped 14 times between them.

Sometimes the early hour is pretty cool.

....and now it's almost noon, and I'm just back from town. Made it to Creek Street, which was my upper-limit goal. Helen kept going towards the totem park when I turned back.

My knee is on ice, but is only slightly swollen. A great day so far. I went wild and bought a tshirt, a bottle of Coke, and a mood ring. Haven't had a mood ring since I was a kid.

It thinks I'm calm and romantic.


 ........


 All that was left was a lovely day at see, and then being unloaded in Vancouver. I hope the people sleeping in MY cabin tonight appreciate it as much as I did.

Cruse7123

 It is go-look-at-a-glacier day. The ship manoeuvres as close as it can, and we oooh and ahhh from onboard. Helen is running around like a crazed squirrel.

I'm mostly waiting for breakfast. I must be dead inside.

 ........

Seward is the end of the line. A few, like us, stay on for the reverse trip back to Vancouver, but only a few. The vast majority leave, to be replaced with a new bunch.

It's mind blowing to think that many will be home in Texas, or New York later today, and some back to work tomorrow.

As a result, Seward doesn't experience the same kind of swamping that the other ports do. They get at most one ship per day.

Most of the cruise passengers never go to town. They are picked up or dropped off by busses and trains from Anchorage and never tour the town.

Dare I call it the most realistic Alaskan town we visit, and which is seen by the smallest number of cruise ship passengers. A paradox; it remains real only because few cruisers see it, while most who came here looking for an Alaskan reality miss it altogether.

I would love to toddle into town, but best not. In fact, of our party of five, only Helen and Lola are going ashore. They are going to the quilting store, in the real little downtown.

We docked a little before 5am, and leave tonight at 8:00. It takes a full day to swap out the passengers. It will be fun seeing them wandering about all glittery-eyed. Cruise ships can do that to you.

........

Back to the glacier we go. Not many early folks about at 4:30am. I guess getting to Seward to board is more tiring than sailing out of Vancouver.

Last night's dinner was the same as the one we had last week. We have all developed favourites already.

A very cool thing is that we have reached a new level of comfort here. All five of us are equally content together or apart. After dinner together, we split up and headed in various directions. Lola and Bernie went wandering, Helen had a swim, I went to the show, and who knows what Phyllis got up to?

........

Juneau. There's some mine that Helen wants to go see, and she doesn't want to go alone. We all know what that means.

I'm going to a mine.

...and I'm back. Helen is in town shopping a bit.

We grabbed a taxi on the dock who took us up about 2 miles to the mine/park place. It was lovely, and felt about as if a hundred miles from civilization.

Had to walk a bunch to see things, and then got a cab back driven by an Irish fellow.

Very painless in every way. Now I'm on a lounge chair looking out the windows overlooking the town.

Revolution

It is time for a revolution at Coast Martial Arts, our local Gracie Jiu-Jitsu school.

Our Blue Belt class has been largely content to receive training as it has been presented by our instructor. The teaching is top-notch, and clearly fits the students' needs, but it is geared towards solid learning.

I bet you can't see how that's a problem. Let me explain.

Of our ten Blue Belt students, 4 are starting to express a desire to take the Gracie University exam. This requires an entire different type of training. The nearest example I can give from the normal would be getting ready for a college final exam. The professor has already taught the material, and it's up to the student to study.

When I did it, I'd been doing extra test prep as I went through the course, and it still took me over an extra month of cram time before I actually performed the first exam section. I'd call one cram month to be a minimum, and two months would be much better.

The good news for our current folks is that there are a bunch of them interested at once. They can form a sort of study group, and can drill the material over and over together.

Interestingly, there are 3 more who are ready, and who could also become part of this team. That would make a group of 7. I did it as part of a group of 2, and know that more would have been much better.

The only possible glitch would be that for bureaucratic reasons, it is most efficient for future rank progress to do the Gracie University exam after earning a locally-awarded rank stripe. Of the potential group of seven, 3 have such local belt stripes.

 

Of the remaining 4, two are currently due local stripes, and a third will come due in about a month. The forth is greatly overdue, but missed a couple of years of training, and has only spotty current attendance. I bet if he were to join the exam/cram team, his attendance would tighten up greatly. There are no guarantees with these kind of local promotions regarding when they are awarded, but it looks pretty good for all 4 of these folks.

 

If all go for it, it would be a team of 7, all with local stripes or soon to have them.

 

For the 3 of not part of the group, it would also be beneficial. I'm that only one to have completed this exam, but it would be a wonderful review to be involved in. The other 2 folks have the test in their future, and working alongside the team would only help their readiness as well.

 

Call it two months of cramming, and by the fall we could see 7 students with shiny new Gracie University rank stripes on their belts, to add on top of existing locally-awarded stripes. They will have caught up to me, which would be great. It would also be wonderful for future new Blues to have such a large reservoir of seniors who are fully knowledgeable of the first level of Blue Belt material.

 

I hope they go for it.

 

I would.

Cruise456

Today we are at the most bizarre of the Alaska stops.

The cruise line calls it Icy Point Strait, but there's really nothing there. A couple of lines got together and had a stop built. An old fish cannery was all gussied up and filled with a museum and lots of shopping opportunities. A bunch of forest and ocean excursions were organized, and a mile-long zip line installed.

The didn't even bother to construct a ship-sized wharf. The tourist are all transported to the shore by tender boats.

There is a small village a couple of kilometers away out of sight. No Diamond stores there. The tourists vastly outnumber the 860 locals, but few ever wander into town.

Only Celebrity and Royal Caribbean stop here, and only one ship per day. It couldn't handle more.

........

Juneau is the largest of the quaint wee places we visit. Lots of cruise ship crap stores (jewelry), but with more of a real town attached.

This is the first stop where I've wandered ashore. Walked about a kilometre in to a drugstore and, of course, back. Popped into a few places along the way. No real issue with the knee, but it's on ice now.

........

Skagway today. It's my favourite stop. This is the only place with an important, if brief, role in history.

After its days of Gold Rush glory, it largely withered away until the cruise industry re-injected it with economic viability.

There are lots of funky old buildings, and a graveyard full of Gold Rush villains and heroes.

So there's the usual cruise shopping, funky streets to wander, and two decent museums.

I usually do most of that, which doesn't really take much time. I also go on a big run here; something pushing 20 k. This time it's not happening. Even the "streetwalking" could be an issue. Gonna just be a stay-on-boarder, which is fine with me.

I think Helen is worried that I'm not enjoying myself, but that's just crazy talk.

Hmmmm. Turns out that after shopping Helen headed to the wrong pier full of ships. She had to regroup and find ours, on the other side of the harbour. Her sense of direction is special.