Especially when your jujitsu coach is on Facebook:
May
19
A few weeks back I did a short interview with the guy from the BJJ blog “Punch Kick Choke”. Here’s the first question and you can follow the link at the end to read the rest of it.
So, Mr. Fletcher- your name strikes fear into the hearts of ninjas everywhere and makes grown LARPers cry in shame. Tell us a little about the man they call “Phrost.”
Well for starters “Phrost” just a username I’ve had for about 10+ years now and at this point I’m kind of stuck with it. I tried to change a while back but the people on Bullshido vetoed the idea.
Honestly, I’m not really that interesting. I’m a judge with the Kansas Athletic Commission and the ISCF, and I have a humorous 0-2 MMA record. The last guy I fought posted the footage on YouTube and the comments are overrun by people who have sand in their nether-region because of what we’ve done on Bullshido. They’re good for a laugh at least. One of them read: “Is that Bill Duff?”
I was a Sergeant in the US Army and ran the Signal/Communications section for a Military Intelligence battalion. I smoke cigars, generally eat like crap and hate doing cardio; so I’m no physical specimen in any sense. I play too many video games in the little free time I have. Basically I’m just a geek who likes fighting; both as a fan and a participant. I use semi-colons way too much; like this. I believe that we’re all compelled to violence in one form or another, and it’s much more healthy for us to express this by kicking someone’s ass (or at least trying to) in the relatively safe and controlled environment of a Combat Sport, than it is to deny the impulse only to have it emerge in an anti-social or even criminal form.
Besides, kicking someone in the head is just good family fun.
I’m also a Skeptic, and I capitalize this for a reason as a “Skeptic” is someone who uses critical thinking, logic, and science to arrive at their own personal knowledge of things. This is different than the more common use of “skeptic”, meaning essentially “someone who doubts everything, regardless of credible evidence. I’ve come to the conclusion that most people simply don’t know how to think; not what to think, how. And I believe this is the root cause of why so many get victimize by frauds and scams.
So in a nutshell I guess I’m a sanctimonious, condescending prick with a love of fast food, guns, America, and violence; or in other words, a true product of the Reagan years, minus the religion. (I’m an Atheist.)
And the rest, you can find here:
Aug
26
This is something that was brought to my attention, in passing, as a subject of discussion on Bullshido.
To preface this, Kyle Maynard probably doesn’t describe himself as a hero. And for what he’s accomplished, Kyle Maynard could even be considered somewhat badass.
Here’s what I posted, slightly adjusted for audience.
There’s two sides to this story for any logical, rational person:
1. Guy with a ton of physical handicaps busts his ass to be good at something. Cool!
2. Guy with a ton of physical handicaps that prevent him from fully participating in a sport feels he’s owed the right to exploit the rules, drag down the sport (literally and figuratively), and get a disproportionately large pat on the back for not just resigning himself to being a punchline for jokes that end with “Phil”, and “Matt”. Not Cool.
IMO it’s a product of our fucking Oprah-ized, spoiled suburban culture that everyone now expects a pat on the back for busting their ass to achieve something or overcome obstacles. It’s like nobody recognizes that that’s the @#(#ing point of life, and everyone has their own challenges to face. You’re not a !@)$ing hero for doing the best with what you’ve got, you’re a human being.
Kyle Maynard grappling Have our standards sunk so low? Do people really need to be told they’re heroes for doing their best at something? For going to work 5 days a week? For getting up in the morning?
Jesus *^_!ing christ. Don’t crap on real heroes like that. Kyle’s an awesome guy, but he has his limits. Trying to bring people down to the same level because of your own limitations is an asshole move in any context.
The word “hero” these days has no meaning. This is the phenomenon that describes Jessica Lynch as a “hero” for doing little more than getting captured.
A hero is someone who does something well beyond the exceptional. They’re someone society is supposed to be able to point to as an example of what we all should be in a perfect set of circumstances.
Don’t the types of people who push this “everyone’s a unique and beautiful snowflake” crap get the fact that everyone, by the very definition of the word, cannot be special?
Very few people have the character traits and strength of will to be heroes, and that’s a good thing. We need heroes who sacrifice themselves for just causes, we also need the plain-old-people who wake up every morning, go to work, come home, and repeat the cycle until they’re dead. Because without these people whose lives are the rule, we wouldn’t be able to distinguish those who are truly the exception.
Want to know what a real hero is? read this.
