Extinction of the Giants

The retail world has changed, and this Christmas season has illustrated this most clearly.

Gift shopping has always played a part in the holiday. It used to be done in a landscape of department stores.

In the Victoria of my childhood, the Meccas were The Bay, Eatons, Woodwards, and Woolco. A big Sears opened very near my home, followed by Zellers, and K-Mart, and finally Walmart.

Then the closures started, brought on by financial collapse. One-by-one, they fell. Woolco, Woodwards, K-Mart, Eatons, Zellers, and now Sears.

Only two of them remain.

The Bay was founded back in 1670, and has weathered many storms. In its current incarnation, it caters to a high-end market with its reputation for quality. They seem to be hanging on, but it is only a matter of time. A casual walk-through will show a clientele of older citizens. It is not a place where the young go to shop. An aging customer base is one that can only shrink.

Walmart is the other survivor, and the only one with a future that seems bright. They are known for bullying unsustainably low prices from overseas suppliers, and painfully underpaying employees. Their only redeeming feature is that they are able to provide customers with low prices.

So where has the business gone that used to support all of these varied department-store giants.

For a time, malls seemed to be the future of shopping.

They started out as mere attachments to the giants, but long ago developed serious clout of their own. They became the main shopping experience, with the department stores as mere afterthoughts. Although still called the, “anchor stores,” in a mall, the department giants became increasingly irrelevant and less frequented.

Big stores still exist at malls, but are often specialized, such as a Best Buy, or Indigo Books.

But even this isn’t written in stone. The large non-department store chains are suffering, too, as are the malls themselves.

The business is more and more going to other suppliers than department stores, or to malls.

The current big success story is with merchandise being delivered to the home, and to other non-traditional types of retail.

Let’s say you want to buy a new item, and have a tight budget. You could buy it at the cheapest price you find in a store, or you can go online to try and do better. Within a few minutes you will be able to locate a significantly lower price, and can have the item quickly delivered to your door.

Or lets say you are after something expensive, such as an iPad. They are available many places, or online, but if you live in a big city you might decide to pick one up from an actual Apple Store. The staff there are truly expert in everything that Apple handles, and if you manage to stump them, they will instantly grab one of the even more highly-qualified “Apple Geniuses.”

Apple Stores are sometimes in malls, but are also sometimes stand-alone places. There are no checkout tills, and plenty of casually uniformed staff is available. These places just feel different.

Any staff member can perform a sale of any magnitude instantly, using their phone, and your credit card. The only thing that slows this is a cash sale, where the staffer has to disappear for a moment with your money and return with the change.

It is even possible for a customer to take something off of the shelf, and perform the transaction with their own phone, and leave the store without bothering to find a staffer at all.

These places also hold training sessions, and one-on-one problem-solving dates with experts, and full-blown courses. They are as much educational facilities as they are merchants.

Perhaps the future is a mix of online buying with home delivery, mixed with educational/retail centres loosely based on the Apple model.

I am not, however, very good at predicting the future.

I can recall the past, and in my holiday travels around town, remember the department store giants that resided in this location, and on that corner, and attached to that mall.

Nothing ever stays the same. 

General Lumpishness

I like Christmas as much as the next guy, but it sure looked to be a horror show for my training.

What with all the visiting, and being visited, and travel, and travel back, and academy closure, and Vancouver academy closure, it was pretty severe.

Part of the good news was that of the 100 classes needed to qualify for promotion, I had 81 in the can before the festivities started.

It looked as if there could be as many as 20 days without even a single second of mat time. In a similar non-holiday period of training, there would normally be 15 advanced classes. I prepared myself for there to be none at all.

The first break came when both my home academy and the one in North Vancouver announced that a normal schedule classes would start after only 19 days instead of 20. That meant that with a bit of ferry and bus travel, I would get to 2 classes instead of the much less satisfactory number of zero.

Then Marc later decided to have North Vancouver classes resuming almost a week earlier than that. This was nice, but didn’t immediately make a difference, as we might still be in the thick of family festivities.

A couple of days ago, this changed a tad as some of our scheduling shifted. It could very easily and happily shift back, but it might just get me 2 more classes.

Instead of zero classes, I might get to as many as 4. Instead of my total sticking at 81 until well into January, it could just creep up to 85. For somebody who likes to get the attendance goal done as quickly as practical, that tiny difference is nice.

A very good aspect of all this relaxation is how much my body is managing to shake off my collection of little injuries. My back was wonked back before the shutdown, and working out was slowing its recovery. It feels as right as rain now, or possibly snow. I also have an arm injury that is absolutely loving the time off. It improves with every day that passes.

I have also enjoyed a fair amount of sitting about with family, including watching a nephew kill strangers from around the world on his xBox.

The only negative is a general feeling of lumpishness. A run up and around the university was considered, but then put off until just perhaps possibly tomorrow; or not.

Hurts

I would say there are five levels of physical condition when training in Jiu-Jitsu. I don't mean ability, or fitness or anything like that. There are five levels of injury or illness.

The best category to be in is when nothing is wrong at all. In this state, a student can train fully and can happily roll without any concerns. This is the state that we all like to be in. It's actually rarer than you'd think.

When things are a bit rougher, you fall into the category where you need to take more than normal care. Something has been injured, and is in danger of re-injury and could therefore become worse. This is annoying. Training when youu are like this is usually not a problem, but rolling should be modified. I can't tell you how many times I've rolled with some little thing hurt that I've brushed aside. Almost always, it gets yanked on, or crushed, or something happens to make the injury worse.

Arm or shoulder hurt, but you think you can still roll? Go ahead, but tuck that arm into your belt and DO NOT USE IT FOR ANYTHING. If your partner starts to grab at it, tap immediately.

I've found that the very best thing to to is to only roll with your absolutely most trusted partners, and only after letting them know the situation. Most will be happy to help. I could roll for hours with Tawha, or Tobias, or Elizabeth, or Rob, or a few others, and never feel in the slightest danger, and it would be just as fun as any rolling out there.

The next level is when you've managed to get yourself a real injury. The question should be, “can I at least do the lesson?” If so, go right ahead, hopefully with a trusted partner that you've spoken to ahead of time. Any use of the injury should be minimized and modified, and there should be NO ROLLING AT ALL. You need to heal, and you'd better let your body get on with it.

Level four is when you can't train at all. The injury is just too much, or perhaps you are out due to a cold or some other such contagious thing. Mustn't make the others sick.

If this is how you are, you should ask yourself the question; “would it be better to stay home and watch TV, or to do Jiu-Jitsu, and watch the lesson.”

I am not claiming that viewing from the sidelines is anything like being part of the group and actually training, but it is a lot more educational than not being present at all. This presupposes that sitting on the sideline would not be a physical problem in itself. You should not be present if you might be about to barf, or if your back can't handle sitting for very long. Would watching be worth the effort and time invested? Your instructor certainly won't be expecting you to be there, and might even think you're weird for showing up.

The crappiest level is when you are too damaged to even handle sitting and watching, or just too full of bacteria and germs. Stay home, or in the hospital, and do so without guilt. If you shouldn't be in class, then don't be. Be content in that you are doing the appropriate thing, even if it sucks.

At various times, I've been at every one of these levels. I've stayed home, and watched from the spectator seats, and trained without any rolling, sometimes had to roll with care, and even sometimes been fine-and-dandy. It seems that my usual state is somewhere between no-rolling, and rolling-with-care, with occasional forays into fine-and-dandy.

The other thing that it takes a long time to really accept is that it is better to err on the side of caution. If you don't then best you can expect is that you will be making your healing take longer than it should. Think about how bad the worst oucome could be. Just what condition could your kimura-injured arm end up in, or your knee that doesn't want to bend, or your cranked neck? A bad outcome might not merely mean an extended period of healing, but rather to permanent damage.

Don't take unnecessary risks. It is far better to miss a few rolls, or a few classes, rather than to risk your health and perhaps have a shortened Jiu-Jitsu career, which would mean thousands of classes and rolls that you will then never experience.

Dance? Fight?

There are a lot of analogies thrown out in relation to Jiu-Jitsu.

Some are trying to illustrate a point, such as one I recently heard that Jiu-Jitsu is like baking.

If you are making cookies, you can’t force things. You can’t use muscle to make the recipe better. You have to put in the appropriate amount of each ingredient. The baking itself will take time, and you shouldn’t try and rush it. You can’t decide that you want it to happen twice as fast, so you crank it up from 300 degrees up to 600, and expect things to work out.

A fun picture to ponder.

Sometimes an analogy is trying to illustrate things by finding similarities between activities, and extrapolate others. I find this type to be more enlightening.

I have my own take on the sometimes stated comparison between Jiu-Jitsu and dance. Just what similarities are there, really.

I contend that Jiu-Jitsu shares many characteristics with ballroom dance in particular.

Just how can you be a great dance partner? Do you force your partner around? If you do, then you are a truly horrible dancer. Nobody watching will want to dance like you do.

Do you decide to move whenever you want, or should you follow the rhythm that you are being presented with? If they are playing a waltz, and you insist on doing a cha-cha, you will not look good. If you do try and follow the music, and you insist on missing the timing, your dance will be absurd.

Let’s say you like to dance by picking up small partners, and physically moving them around, pushing them and sometimes just lifting them about. Perhaps you can have some ugly form of “success” with that, but what happens when you end up with a partner as large as yourself, or even bigger. Maybe they won’t like being pushed, and you might just pop out a hernia attempting to hoist them into the air.

If your dancing won’t work with every size of partner, there is something seriously wrong with it.

There is another cool secret about the ballroom/Jiu-Jitsu comparison.

The lead in dance is normally a male partner. They get to spend the entire time deciding what moves the couple will perform, and when, and where they will go, and who gets to walk backwards or forwards. That is not what a Jiu-Jitsu person should be doing.

Let’s say you want to get an arm bar to submit your opponent, his hands are not in an ideal location for you to get that move, so you struggle and strain to try and get everything to where you want it. Of course, he is resisting what you are up to, making you work even harder, but you want that arm bar and keep working. You get so focused that you missed about a million other things that presented themselves during all that effort and struggle.

The follower in ball room is usually a woman. She doesn’t get to decide on what happens in the dance at all. She has to sense her partner’s intentions, and conform to them totally. Her partner is supposed to give clear indicators, but even if he doesn’t she has to move as if he has.

We’ve been dancing for a lot longer than I’ve been doing Jiu-Jitsu, and I still have no idea how my wife does it. I pick the moves, and do my best to give her the correct signals, but it doesn’t seem to matter; she is always there...in front of me...flawlessly. She even lets her mind wander while doing this magic trick, and sometimes asks me what type of dance we’re doing, as she is perfectly performing it.

In Jiu-Jitsu, one should strive to be like the following partner in dance. You should be not the one who decides how your partner will be submitted; they are.

If they present a kimura, do that. If it’s an arm bar, fine. Collar choke, triangle, leg lock; if they present it, you will take it. Instead of picking something, and trying to make that happen, you respond, as if following in a waltz. You suspect an arm bar, and move appropriately, they counter, and rather than wasting effort to try and force things you switch to what they are currently presenting. Not only are you more likely to succeed, but will do so with far less effort and energy consumption.

If you want to see all of this executed perfectly, watch the fights of Royce Gracie in UFC 1 through UFC 4.

You will see the smallest competitor burning his way through the events doing exactly what I’ve just described, at least in the first two events. In UFC 1 there were 8 competitors, and in UFC 2 there were 16, and nobody could handle Royce Gracie.

In UFC 3, there was again a field of 8 fighters, but Royce only fought once. His opponent was bigger and stronger and fought like a crazy man. Royce broke all the rules about energy conservation and tried to take his opponent out early by forcing the action. Eventually, he caught him, but not before he totally exhausted himself. He won the match, but was unable to continue in the tournament.

Returning in UFC 4, Royce fought as a perfect Jiu-Jitsu student once more. Again there were 8 competitors. In the final match, Royce faced wrestler Dan Severn. Royce weight about 175 pounds, while Severn was up around 250. Almost immediately Royce was on his back, with Severn wrapped up in his guard. For almost 16 minutes, that’s where it stayed. Severn drove is crushing weight down on the smaller man, apparently in total control. If Royce had tried to get out from under, he would have failed, and would have exhausted himself. He held on, struggling under that power, waiting for Severn to decide how he wanted to lose. Suddenly, it was there, and Royce shot in a triangle, forcing Severn to tap out, or to pass out.

In those 4 events, Royce won every match when he moved like a female ballroom dancer, and had to retire after the single match when he dared to take the lead.

Yet another reason to want to fight like a girl. All you have to be able to do is to dance like one, too.

Switching Religions

Computers drive me nuts. They are cranky and cantankerous, and incredibly short-lived.

They start out nice and zippy, but within days they start to clog up with nonsense from all the software, and begin to slow. It has always been true that this was far less true of Apple machines than of Windows devices.

Windows computers only live an average of three years before they need replacing. Apple ones last at least twice as long, and often much more.

Apple also includes more than enough software bundled up with their machines to handle every normal task, whereas Windows computers do not.

The obvious solution to minimize all these issues would be to select an Apple computer rather than a Windows one.

What stops me is the cost that Apple charges for its stuff. I would gladly pay double the money to get a computer that lasts twice as long, but they cost a lot more than that. I would pay more to get the software suite, but the Apple price is higher still.

My current Windows laptop has started having all sorts of issues. So far, I have been able to bully it into doing most of what I want, but not everything. I could probably struggle it along for a while longer, but am not feeling so inclined.

Apple has recently come out with a new version of their Macbook Air. It is their lowest-priced laptop, and I am sorely tempted to make the plunge.

I used to game with my computers, and liked access the huge number of titles available. The Apple side had nothing like it, but I am no longer a computer gamer. I use my machines for normal grown-up kinds of things like word processing, spread-sheeting, and going on the web. All of my mobile devices need to communicate well with whatever computer I am using, and they are all iPads and iPhones. They work seamlessly with Apple computers, while it's a struggle to get them to function consistently with a Windows machine. Today my iPhone and computer are refusing to talk to each other at all.

The good news is that no instant decision is necessary. My current Windows computer isn't down for the count.

No Commute

So today the ferries are messed up.

There is a 45 minute delay listed on the BC Ferries website for the boat that I need to take, with the only explanation being, “Mechanical difficulties with vessel.” There is no other explanation, and the Vancouver traffic radio channel didn’t even mention a thing about any delay in their ferry report.

This means, at best, that the boats would run 45 minutes late all day. If this were the case, I could still get into North Vancouver to train. If the delay were to remain at exactly 45 minutes, the beginner class would still be possible in addition to the advanced session. Getting home would also work fine, and I’d make it to the evening advanced class here at home.

However, travel on the ferry has to line up with the city buses, which a 45 minute delay totally messes up. This would have me missing my connections, which would add at least a half hour in each direction. That means no beginner class in Vancouver, and possibly even make it impossible to get back home in time to get to our local advanced class. This version of events has me giving up a local class in exchange for a day of worry, ferry riding, and bus riding, all to gain a single similar class in the city.

Unfortunately, the ferry corporation hasn’t seen fit to give any sort of assurances as to the “mechanical difficulty,” being fully rectified. What if the delays continue to grow or, heaven forbid, the ferry should break down altogether? This could see me stranded for hours until they manage to hobble together some sort of service. I might miss all of today’s classes everywhere, and have wasted an entire day; only getting home late at night.

All of this makes it clear that going riding the ferry is a very bad idea today. Going to the city is off the table. Staying home, and attending our local advanced class this evening is what is now on the planning board.

Flying Away

Getting to the Vancouver Airport is always the start to any of our long-range trips, and that starts with the puzzle of how to get to the ferry. This time around it was easier than usual, as our neighbour Ruth was kind and gave us a lift into Sechelt at 7am to eliminate one of our bus segments.

After our farewells, the bus rolled right in on time, and whisked us express-like to the ferryboat terminal. I had oatmeal and coffee onboard.

We caught the bus on the Vancouver side promptly, and even got seats. That’s a real treat when hauling luggage, even though our bags are incredibly small.

A few years ago airlines started charging fees for checked baggage, and more people switched to “going carryon.” Helen and I already travelled this way, due to the convenience, but now the battle for storage space had begun. People were taking duffels and even full suitcases aboard.

Airlines clamped down, and started aggressively measuring people’s carryons, and made offenders check oversize items, for which they charged hefty fees. This turned into a cash cow for the airlines. To maximize profit, they periodically shrank the size allowable for carryon bags.

Height and width have shrunk, but it’s the restricted thickness that is the killer. It isn’t too hard getting a bag that fits the first two restrictions, but have fun finding one that is under 9 inches in depth. We did.

The airlines also allow each person a “personal item.” These are things like laptops, or purses. They also have maximum dimensions, and we carry ones that push this to within a fraction of an inch. We are legal, but barely.

This means we have a shockingly small amount of cargo that we can carry. Suppose you were to go on a three-week trip to Europe, to be followed by a two-week cruise in the Mediterranean. How many pairs of shoes would you take? Be honest. Walking shoes, certainly, but how about runners, or sandals, or dress shoes, or pool shoes; how many?

I have a single pair of shoes, which I will be wearing onto the plane. None in my baggage at all.

Everything else that we take is reduced in a similar fashion. We have few clothes, and they are all of quick-dry material as we wash as we go.

So anyhow, we rode the bus from the ferry to downtown Vancouver. Our flight wasn’t until late afternoon, so we were crazy early. We do this in case of snags, which can easily arise in a trip with as many segments as ours.

We spent time wandering in the big underground mall attached to the Skytrain station. The new charging phone case that I’d gotten from China had packed it in only a few days before. The Apple Store had the precise one I wanted to take the place of my dead Chinese one, so I bought it. I immediately put it onto my phone, and ditched all the unnecessary packaging.

After a while of wandering and using the Apple Store wifi, we caught the Skytrain out to the airport; another lovely trip.

We wandered almost the length of the international flight section of check-in desks without finding any for Westjet. It was far too early, but I did find a check-in kiosk. These only work if you don’t have any bags to check, which is us. We got our boarding passes, and we headed through security to our gate.

There was a much-improved system of loading stuff for the scanner. There was a moving conveyor, and plastic tubs to load and to unload. I barely beeped at all. Soon we were at our gate, and even had power plug-ins to use, and free wifi.

Boarding was smooth. Our seats were in row 5, which is just behind the expensive seats. This meant a bit of extra space slopped over into our spots, and we were the first people the crew served.

After the fancy people of course.