Love My Country, Hate My Government!!!

The country has been on a steady economic decline for many years. Were at war (or whatever political thing to say is going on since we never want to use the word War) in the Middle East, Merrill Lynch goes down. The Dow plummets to its all time record drop of 778 points today. Come to find out it is because Democrats and Republicans can't play nice with each other. An MSN article says that "Republicans blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a partisan speech before the vote. The Democrats blamed the Republicans for putting ideology before country." I think people in Washington need to grow a little bit thicker skin and loose some of the egos because it is not yourself who gets hurt when you want to have a political pissing match, it is millions of Americans. Just remember, you were not put in place to have an ego and show everyone you are important, you were put in place to be a voice for the American people and look out for our best interests.

I hear stories of how people with perfect credit can't get loans because the banks won't take the risk of giving them because of stupid stunts by our government like today. Now I know I am no financial wizard but I am positive that money does not grow on trees. So if it does not grow on trees then people have to spend it. How can people spend it, if the banks won't give it thus leading to the country never getting back up financially? Now I am not saying that passing this bill was going to fix the economy, but even single cell organism could have figured out that in this very touchy time that this would have resulted in disaster on Wall Street.

Next time you don't want to pass a bill that effects millions of lives because you want to show someone that you're more important to them, do the country a favor and go punch yourself in the face. If you have a problem going through with it, I am sure many volunteers would line up around the block to help you with that task.

I keep hearing we are over in Iraq to keep gas prices down…………ummm again the non-financial wizard I am could tell you that they have steadily been going up since we stepped foot on the soil and long before that. Or what kills me is how they sway the information on where we get oil from. When we are at War in Iraq, we get "80% of U.S oil comes from Iraq", but when a hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico, gas prices shoot up because we get "80% of U.S. oil comes from the Gulf". What's next, a monsoon hits Thailand and now prices go up because we "get 80% of U.S oil comes from Thailand".

This works perfect for the government, I wonder how it would work for me at work. I never missed a day of work, brought in tons of business, got tons of certifications I should get a raise. Or, I missed at least 1 day each week over the past year, I pissed of tons of customers, am because I missed so much work, my skill set actually went backwards, I should get a raise. Funny how ridiculous that sounds but when you put it in perspective, it is the truth.

I am tired of watching someone question President Bush about the economy and he says something like, I didn't know the economy was bad. I am thinking how many advisors do you have? I don't have any advisors and I could have told you that the economy was crap. Oh wait; he is an oil man…so $4 a gallon….his pockets sees no affect of rising gas prices and the slow drain on the economy.

The good ones always die young.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty good. Had 8 hours of sleep, which is very unusual for me as I suffer from insomnia. So, I felt today was going to be a great one until I got a phone call at 7:20 in the morning. The phone call was to give me the bad news that an old friend had tragically died in a freak accident. The friend was Gilbert Danz. He died when a support scaffolding broke and crushed him, killing him instantly. He was on the I-75/Ambassador Bridge project.

Gilbert was the kind of guy that would do anything for you. His heart was bigger than most. I worked with him at Mushin Karate dojo for years. We both taught martial arts. He also worked at the Home Depot with me. He helped me and my dad build the deck on my parent’s house one summer. I remember when we had Karate camp in the summer we used to all get cases of beer and get completely wasted then have to teach in the hot sun all the next day. It was worth it, getting drunk having fun with your friends. That was the best times, just hanging out.

Gilbert always was looking for something that would ground him; you know something that would make him happy. He had this ugly green car, I think it was a Fury or something. He sunk every dollar he had into that thing. It wasn’t worth the money he put into it, but to him it was. He talked about going into the military then the Coast Guard and this that and the other. He was always searching for something.

Then I saw him one day hand he said he had a job in construction and he seemed really happy. I think it was the brotherhood he was looking for that made him happy. Then about a year later I bumped into him when he and his wife were shopping with their first child. The look of joy on his face was a look I had never seen before. He was for the first time, genuinely happy. It was his wife and 3 kids that made him proud and smile the most, he was a family man and he loved it.
So the world has lost a friend, a teacher, a husband, a brother and a father. He was only 29 and left a wife, 3 kids, siblings and a whole lot of friends and people who loved him. Gil, you will be greatly missed.

Miss you already bro. :-(

The Training starts again!!!!!

For those of you who don’t know, I train to fight in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). I took my first fight on just 6 days notice and won in 34 seconds. Whenever the XCC gets the site up and running you can watch the video. They do have some pics (2 I think) on the site if you look under previous fights and under XCC 2 in Pontiacs Clutch Cargos.

A little background first. I get asked daily why I do it. The answer is very simple. To me, fighting is our generation’s version of playing chess. I love the strategy that goes into a fight. He is good on the ground, so I will fight him this way. He is good standing up, so I will fight him this way. He is good with his hands, so I will fight him this way. He is taller than me, so I will fight him this way. He is shorter; I will fight him this way. It’s all a game of chess. Some idiots are out there that say “I fight so I can punch someone in the face”. One they are bad for the sport. Two they will never get to the top if that is the only goal they set forth. Going into my last fight I had one plan in my head. 30 minutes before I stepped into the cage I had to change everything. My idea was that in my division (155 lb lightweight) that I would be on the bigger size. I was wrong; the guy I found out I was going to be fighting was 6 foot 4 inches and walked around at about 172 lbs. The fight always changes and that is what is so exciting. One person can be totally dominating the other and it just takes one mistake or punch or kick missed or just a few inches off target and it could be just enough to make the fight go the other way.

Some of you who read this say Mike Lu 155lbs??? I know I have walked around most of my life around 185-190 lbs and for those of you who knew me in my heavy weight lifting days I was 225 lbs with only 6% body fat. I changed a few things in my diet and changed everything in how I work out and now I am much smaller. My diet secret is basically eat every 2 hours, 100 calories or less each time (obviously low fat) then for dinner I usually have grilled chicken a vegetable and a baked potato. I lost over 100 lbs doing this. I had gotten up to 257 lbs about 2 years ago. I broke another limb and had surgery and was laid up. My parents were really sick and work was stressful as hell. I had a 40 inch waist. Now I sport a 29 inch waist. I feel great.

So what does training me for me? Means I am going to be tired and hurting everyday…….but it’s worth it to me. One of my favorites (and biggest butt kicker) is to run the stairs at Bloomer state park. I can’t remember how many stairs are on the path but someone once told me like 200 or something like that. So what do I do? At the top of the stairs I put a resistance band and some hand weights at the top. I run down with a backpack full of 45 lbs worth of weights (if I am feeling really stupid I put on the 2 lb wrist weights and 10 lb ankle weights too) on my back. I run down, and then up. Once I hit the top I drop the back pack and do various things such as 100 punches with the resistance band or 100 sit ups or 100 curls (always 100), then once the 100 is done I put the back pack back on and back down and then up and change to another exercise. I basically do that until I can hardly walk back up the stairs then I know I am done. I will do this 2 to 3 times a week. This does not include weight lifting, and going to class (Muay Thai & Brazilian Jiu Jitsu).

So maybe you will see me at Bloomer running up the stairs or puking over the railing. I will post when my next fight date is set in stone.