Vancouver British Columbia Temple

I went to the Vancouver Temple open house today in Canada. This was my first time actually being outside of the country. I renewed and enhanced my drivers license yesterday so I can go across the border without a passport. Mom still had to bring my birth certificate because I only had a photocopy of my drivers license. My real license will arrive in the mail two weeks from now. Too bad it's not going to be shipped to my address. The people at the boarder asked us where we were from, where we were going, and why. I thought it was somewhat weird.

Draper and Oquirrh Temples are twice as big as this one. I knew this was going to be smaller because of the area which we are in. I was surprised that it's just as big as the Billings temple. I was somewhat surprised that the Provo temple is twice as big as Draper and Oquirrh. Mary Lou said the Provo was bigger than Draper, but not by how much. It didn't seem that big. Spokane is still the smallest temple that I've been in.

I think that the Oquirrh Temple is the prettiest because of the deep Mahogany wood on the first and second floors. The third floor was white. I think it's because it contained the celestial room. Draper and Oquirrh had plastic lining the carpets and barriers to prevent people not to go off the path. It was just a continuous line of people. The Vancouver Temple had ushers that guided groups of people through the temple. Plus, the guides talked about each room. I thought that was pretty cool because they didn't have that in Draper and Oquirrh

Elder Christensen, an area general authority, had us combine with another group because it was pretty small. Then, he became our guide. This happened in the chapel where the men and women sat to wait for the session to start. I think that the one of the temple presidency talks to them too. We went inside the endowment room. Elder Christensen said that the mural on the wall represents the wildlife and the landscape of the surrounding area. However, the murals in Draper or Oquirrh didn't represent the local landscape of Utah because it's all desert and doesn't have any trees. There were lots of leaves or flowers all through the temple in the chandelier, floor, and ceilings. The veil room is brighter and higher than the endowment room. Of course, the celestial room is the brightest and highest out of all of them. The closer to Heavenly Father and Christ we get, the brighter we become.

Elder Christensen testified that life after the veil is real in the veil room. I had a little glimpse of myself seeing myself on the other side going through the motions. I realized that the spirit world is going to be as real as this life. Elder Christensen ended his tour with us in the sealing room and allowed anyone to ask questions. In one of the questions, he said that if the parents have children, they also kneel at the alter. That's why there's padding all around the alter. I felt the Spirit testify to that that it's important for people who are married to go to the temple often. I think spouses who do that are less likely to get a divorce. I thanked Elder Christensen for being our guide and shook his hand when we left the sealing room.

Here's a video that I found on the temple website. One can see the little booties that people where over their shoes. That's another thing that I liked about this open house. I felt more free being led by a guide, not seeing any barriers at all, and not having this set path before us which was made of plastic.

WCFC

Hi. I'm a little sad. I just found out that Paul Tom's place is moving to American Fork on Facebook. That really stinks because I liked it where it was. It was closer than Roberto's place which I really appreciated. Roberto's place was on the north edge of Orem on 1600 North. Paul Tom's place was on 400 South in Orem. I didn't have to take the interstate his place like I did with Roberto's. I only had to take North University Avenue and turn left on West 3700 North Street which turns into 800 South Street. Then, I turned right on State Street which I passed Real Foods. I thought that was really convenient because Real Foods has gluten free foods. I can also take North University Parkway to get the dojo too. However, there is way too many cars and stop lights for me. It was faster to use the other way.

I like 3700 N ST because it has a round about. It has all of these S curves when approaching one side of the round about. To discourage people from driving on the lines like I do, they put in these rumble strips. However, think those strips make it more entertaining. So, they don't deter me at all. There was a road in Spokane, WA that I took to get to Spokane Community College. I used Upriver Drive. That was one of my favorite roads because I passed many trees and not many houses. That road has a lot of S curves too. I only passed through the lines when there wasn't any cars near me unlike in Provo. It's weird that I get attached to some roads and annoyed at others.

I went to West Coast Fight Club tonight. Again, it was a short drive where my parents live like USMMA. That's what I wish for in Provo. However, I'm really attached to Paul Tom now. Plus, I know that he's the real deal. Probably, that's what I get for living in a bigger area. I learned that Bellingham is just was big as Missoula, Montana which has 80,000 people. Bellingham has 75,000 people. It's pretty small compared to the Provo Area. I think that Spokane is small compared to that area too because it's only composed to two big cities. There is a continuous line of cities along the Wasatch Front.

I watched the WCFC kick boxing class. They were doing different types of kicks to their training partners which were holding focus pads. I was pretty content because I didn't have gloves, shin guards, or wraps. I liked Coach T much better. It was in an empty "warehouse" again. However, this one was smaller. So, they had a second room which was upstairs. There were only a few of us that grappled. All of it was no gi which I thought was intresting.



I learned this escape from scarf-hold or judo-hold. I learned an easy shoulder lock from that hold to. If they wrap my arms like they did for that escape, I wrap my arms around their arms to isolate the elbow. Then, I drive my butt to my knees. It's pretty cool because it's so basic. However, I never would have thought that I could submit anyone just by doing that. We went through a little more moves which I don't want to explain.

I grappled a little with Dannie?? I think that was his name. I think our teacher's name was Eddie. When grappling with Dannie, Eddie coached me half the time. I rolled with him for about five minutes. Then, I rolled with Eddie the rest of the time. He wanted to roll with me because he saw that I knew what I was doing. He said that I'm pretty strong. I always get that from people. I think that's pretty funny because I don't think I'm all that strong. I was really thankful that he didn't squish me with his weight because he weighs about 270 pounds. He didn't put any weight on me at all when he was on top. I was really thankful for that.



He taught me this lock both from guard and mount. I saw that he put his hand on the floor while he was in my guard. So, I did what I always did and worked for a kimura. Then, he taught me this lock. I know that Brian showed me this lock from mount before. However, it wasn't so detailed. That's why I didn't understand the nature of it. Eddie said that the basics of BJJ is getting under hooks. He kept on getting mine and sweeping me. He had a really good butterfly guard. I started on knees while I was in his open guard. I hardly passed it because he kept on sweeping me. When I did, he always went out the back door which I didn't know how to prevent. I can tell that he wasn't using that much muscle on me which was good.

USMMA

So, tonight I went to Universal Solutions Martial Arts Academy, USMMA for short. I thought it was really intresting. I went because the website said that there will be some women kickboxing and grappling. I wasn't that nervous about visiting a MMA place which I've only seen on the web. It's housed in an empty "warehouse". When I first walked in, I saw a ring which was elevated with two guys were sparring with head gear and boxing gloves on. I went to where the girls were doing the kickboxing. I was 15 minutes late because Mom forgot the directions and had to go back to look at them to see where the place was located. I think it took about seven minutes to get to the place.

Anyways, I waited for the teacher whose name as Sifu Gonzalez. That was my first time actually meeting a Sifu. I like those types of titles like Sifu or Sensei. Professor is alright. Paul Tom wants me to call him Professor on the mat so he's reminded to talk only about BJJ and not about other things. :) Sifu said I came too late. I mentioned that I wanted to do the women grappling class. However, he said the instructor was in California. So, he said that I can watch instead. It was so cool. He had the music playing which Roberto played all the time in his dojo. I felt much more comfortable there because of the music. I realized that Sifu must have had the same CD as Roberto because it kept on playing the same songs that I've trained with.

It seems like the kickboxing class was just for exercise because the girls were just punching bags. A little time afterwards, Sifu asked me if I was going to stay for the Muay Thai class. I said that I would. So, Sifu wrapped my hands for me. I thought that was interesting. Actually, the wraps were pretty loose where I had lots of movement. I don't know how they actually protect hands. Then, I met Coach T who knew a lot about fighting. He was watching two beginner Koreans fight. He explained things which I never hear before about fighting. Like Micky Mouse, which means to put your gloves a little above your head to protect it. He said to have one guys shoulders high and his chin down, so the guy won't get clocked and knocked out. I was happy that he said a guy should punch straight instead of hooking or doing haymakers. He said that jabs were for trying to find where the other person is when sparring. He said that most of them should be light. However, some can be hard too to vary it up a bit. Then, the said that the cross should always be heavy. It was refreshing to hear a person that knows a lot about standup. He was humble about it because he said that he only knew what others have said and his experience from being hit all the time.

He asked me if I had a mouth guard. I said I had one; however, it was back at home. So, he asked me to put a paper towel in my mouth to line my teeth so none of them will get chipped if I get bumped. It was intresting having a paper towel in my mouth. It felt like a flimsy mouth guard which didn't impede on my breathing. I don't want to describe the drills which we did because that would be really boring. I just worked with a guy on checking and countering kicks. I was pretty bad at it. Then, we all went into the ring. I worked with a girl who looks like that she's fought before. Her hair was all in braids which were bundled up in a bun. I like that idea because my hair always likes being pulled. However, I only had it in a high pony tail today. She said that she redoes the braids every week.

We worked in the clinch position. We work on trying to reverse the attacker by throwing her into the ropes. It was intresting. At first, I let her do the move without much resistance because that's what I've been taught to do. However, Coach T said that I really should be really resisting. I felt bad for the girl because she was five feet tall. She was pretty athletic though. I know that it was much harder for her to throw me than me to throw her. At the end of it, we were working on pummeling and trying to throw each other onto the ropes. Afterwards, she said I improved a whole bunch at from the beginning of class. I said that my BJJ training took over. I was just keeping my base while pummeling. I learned how to pummel in the fighting class in Spokane. It was weird to pummel with giant boxing gloves on. They kept on getting in the way. If I had it my way, I would only train with MMA gloves on. However, I haven't trained with those before. I just want to be able to grab things.

A Very Long Ride

Man, I'm tried. Try being in a car at 6:30 in the morning to 11:30 at night with an hour dinner break in between. I traveled from Provo, through Portland and Seattle, to Bellingham, WA. Ugg. I'm just exhausted. Plus, it doesn't help that I didn't go to bed last night either. I spent much of the trip sleeping. Good thing I had a the whole back seat to myself. I had to juggle my bags though because all of them were on the backseat with me. Good thing, I could put all of them on the floor. It was a pain to get out though. I found Kara, my driver, through the ride board in BYU. We had another passenger, named Sarah, who needed to go to Portland. That's why I went through that city. So, I took the long way to get to Bellingham. I'm very happy I get to fly back on Tuesday. :)

I Passed O-chem!!!!!!!!

I am so happy right now!!! Why?? Because, I just found out that I received a B- in my 352 O-chem class!!!!!!!! This was my third time taking it. The spring sucked because it took it with stats and Micheal Pease's martial arts class. Then, I took it during the fall. That really sucked because I was ten points away from a C. Dr. Ham wouldn't give it to me. I spent so much time studying for this class. These last two weeks from last Friday, I tried to spend entire days studying O-chem.

Well, I have to run. I would write much more. However, I have to study a little for my BOM final, clean, pack, hopefully train a little at the dojo. I'm going to spend all day literally in a car because I'm going to Bellingham, WA to visit my family. I'm getting a ride from a girl. One of the riders lives in Portland, Oregon. So, it's probably going to take me more than 18 hours to arrive in Bellingham. Ugg. That doesn't sound like fun. :( Good thing, the girl wants to leave six AM in the morning. However, I'm probably not going to bed early because of all the things I have to do. Stupid Stargate and The Simpsons. I love watching them!!! However, I watched to much of them today. I should have been productive instead of wasting time.

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

I was there in the conference center when he gave this talk conference. It was really awesome!!! It really reminded me of hellfire and damnation. :)

My Professors

This is to my infectious disease professor for a my student rating. I didn't think about posting what I wrote to my professors until I wrote to Dr. Sowby. That's why you don't see any to Dr. Bronson or Brother Ostergar. I pretty much thanked Dr. Bronson on how he learned my name during the first week. He and Dr. Sowby are the only professors in BYU that my know my name. That's a dramatic change from SCC because all my instructors except one knew my name. However, the classes in BYU can be three or four times the size of the classes I had at SCC. My class sizes were the smallest I've ever had in BYU so far. Dr. Bronson's class is less than 100 students. Brother Ostergar has 62 students in my class. Dr. Sowby's class was the smallest because he only had 29 students. My class was his only class because he's retried. When he moved up here from Fresno, California, some people from BYU asked him if he could teach. So, he said yes and teaches the infectious disease class.

Hi Dr. Sowby,

I loved your class!!! This was one of my favorite classes I've taken so far at BYU. Thanks for showing that vaccines are actually effective and that raw milk is potentially unsafe. I've been reading an alternative health website for a little over a year now. He's been saying that vaccines are unsafe and the swine flu was a hoax. He says that mumps and the chicken pox vaccines don't work. He says that's why there's been outbreaks. However, I know that's not true. I believe that they are relatively safe too. I trust your knowledge about vaccines and on how they control infectious diseases. I believe that you wouldn't lead your students astray. I loved the Dr. Seuss poem you recited during class. I love your sense of humor. I really appreciated that we got to watch videos in class and how we had weekly quizzes. That made the class a lot easier. Thank you for being fair on the quizzes and tests by allowing us to discuss them. Thanks for teaching me things that has changed my views about health care for the better.

UFC 112

I didn't like the UFC main card fights tonight. They were both standup and didn't have much going on. I liked the last UFC better. Silva was pretty stupid because he just degraded and mocked Maia. Silva just ran around the ring for most of the rounds. At first Mia got scared. By the last round, Mia wanted to get back at Silva. However, Silva was still to good. Silva should have just knocked Mia out. However, he just ran around the ring frustrating Mia and the audience. Mia got pretty banged up though because he nose broke and his eye swelled shut. Silva's face looked fine. BJ Penn didn't look so hot either. All he did was jabs. He kept on following Edgar because Edgar was really darting in and out of range. He was busy all five rounds. The guys who I was with was screaming that BJ should take the fight to the ground because he's good on the ground and has a black belt in BJJ.

Best of Divine Comedy

I need to go to bed right now. Last night and tonight, I've been staying up later. Stupid computer. It always loves to distract me. That's why I was so thankful that I was studying in the McKay building all day today. O-chem is pretty boring now. If I was at home, I would have gotten on the internet and wasted time. However, I only had my I-Pod with me. So, I was forced to do my O-chem without distraction. Hopefully, I can keep it up for the weekend and next week. I need all the time I can get with my studies. I did something fun today among all the studying.

I went to the Best of Divine Comedy tonight. It was so much fun. It wasn't the funniest show that I've seen, but it was really good. I loved it when they did a skit of Harry Potter, Avatar, and Stomp. One of the actors was really good as Snape. He talked just like him which was really cool. All the other actors were not really like the other characters like him. They made fun of the current movie that was released a couple years ago. It's where Snape kills Dumbledore. I squawked a lot. The majority of the actors are majoring something other than theater. It really reminded me of how much time I put into BJJ. I'm sure they have put so much time creating, blocking, and rehearsing the skits.

It's really cool how they play popular music while throwing Tons of glow sticks in the crowd while they are changing props. I made a necklace and caught a huge big ball made out of glow sticks. While picking up some candy on the floor, a whole bunch of candy it me hard in the face. So, I sucked on candy throughout the whole show. Plus, I found a phone near my backpack. I knew that it wasn't any one's from the show because it started ringing during the show. Someone behind me looked confused and silenced it. I'm going to turn it in to the Lost and Found on Monday.

Stupid O-chem

Ugg. I had to miss BJJ tonight because of O-chem. I have so much to do by Monday. Dad said to suck it up and do everything I can so I can pass this class. So, I skipped BJJ so I can work on O-chem. Ugg, I counted the problems that I did so far. It's really disgusting. I've only done 12 so far. Stupid O-chem. It takes forever to do. I've been worked in my notebook 1 pm to 6:45 pm. Then, I decided I needed a break from O-chem because I was fried and tired. I'm still tired. I want to get through chapter 27 by tonight. I don't know if I can do that at the rate I'm going. Yesterday, it took me two hours to work on four problems. This is why I skipped BJJ tonight. I found out that my notebook is due on Monday. I thought it would be due on Tuesday. I still have to get through and understand chapter 28 and 29. Then, I need to copy chapter 22. Ugg, this sucks. Then, I have a quiz and a take home portion of my infectious disease test which is due on Tuesday at noon. Plus, I found out that John Bytheway is giving a lecture on Tuesday too. I would love to go to that too. However, Tuesday is such a bad day. Hopefully, I'll have time to go to the temple tomorrow night. I haven't gone for a couple months. I might have to copy chapter 22 on Sunday. Hopefully, not. Like I said, stupid O-chem. :(

BJJ, Chess, and Karate

This is part of a conversation that I'm having with ZenHG who's David. I wanted to post my response because it took me an hour to write it. David asked me, "Do you think of things as 'Kimura' or 'Triangle' or 'Crucafix??' I try not to think in those terms; I think it is best to train yourself, as you said, to look for what you have and go with that. You will find what flows for you, it may appear to be one of the above, but ultimately thinking in those terms - thinking in general - hinders you."

I'm trying to think how to answer your question. When I grapple, I pretty much don't think at all because things can move way too fast for me to sit and think about things. Most of it is muscle memory. With all the attacks, sweeps, and defenses I do, I have to call them by their names so people know what I'm talking about. It's much easier to ask how to do a certain move like finishing a rear naked choke by knowing the name. It's like asking how to do a round house properly.

However, I heard that when I get better, I should be thinking three moves ahead. My instructors have equated to BJJ to chess. In a chess match, I can anticipate what my opponent will do in response to a certain move. I have to think three or four moves ahead so I can be proactive and attack the king. However, I still need to look at what my opponent is doing and determine what he or she is doing is a big enough threat that I need to respond. One can set up traps in chess just like in BJJ.

However, BJJ is much more dynamic than chess. In chess, each person takes a turn. So, moves will always work. However, a person will always try to defend an attack when I'm attacking. It's hard trying to pull of a triangle when someone is countering it. I've learned that there are counters to everything. One has to be creative.

I know many attacks and some defenses, I'm just trying to learn how to pull them off with an active resisting person. This is why I love open mat. This is where all of my learning and experiences come together. I've learned that just rolling is the most important thing one can do in BJJ.

That's the thing I don't like about Karate. Pretty much all of it is theoretical. We hardly get to spar to put our techniques to use. I know some of them we can't do on a real person. However, one need to learn how to pull off moves with active resistance. If one trains in karate for self defense purposes, one can have a guy suit up in this big protective suit and have the girl practice self defense techniques that can hurt the guy.

What's up the low block?? No one will block a kick with their arm. If one goes for the leg, one needs to make sure one is going to grab on to it instead of blocking it. Why teach it as a block then instead of a grab? My teacher says that any training is better than no training. Probably, that's why karate people can still defend themselves from untrained attackers.

What will happen if they wrestled in high school?? Probably a wrestler can pin a girl pretty easily and rape her if the girl doesn't have any ground training. I still have trouble controlling beginners who are guys. They have so much more upper body strength than me.

Yesterday, I watched a little video from Fight Science. It's where it shows a lady being mounted by a guy. The lady protects herself by grabbing onto the guy's throat and squeezing. That in turn can damage the trachea. I don't think that a guy would allow the lady to that to him. I would think that the guy would start ground and pounding the lady or pull his head away. A trained guy would have done an arm bar.

Trying to Catch Up

I worked on O-chem today. I skipped Family Home Evening too because I knew that we were going to tie-dye shirts for the Wardstock which will be on the last day of classes. I'm going to take my O-chem test at that time. Plus, I forgot to buy to a white tee-shirt. I didn't want to dye any of my older white tee-shirts because I use all of them for BJJ. After finals, I might go to Bellingham for a week because I can get all of them done early. That would be fun because I haven't seen my family since Christmas. I would write about the tournament; however, I need to go to bed. I don't want to be sleepy tomorrow. I still have lots of O-chem and some infectious disease homework to do. I'm sad that I forgot to check in blackboard for my infectious disease class this week. I checked in on Wednesday. However, I forgot after that. So, I was docked five points. That really sucks.

Paul Tom Needs to Find a New Place

Man, I'm really tired. I would write about the tournament; however, I'll probably a good hour to write about it. I don't want to write it it parts either. I'm just really tired and ready to fall asleep. Paul Tom's Academy is moving somewhere in 30 days because he just got an eviction notice today. It turns out that the owner of the building sold it. So, Paul Tom has to move out. I'm going to miss that wonderful shower! I love it because it has wonderful water pressure. In Anaconda, Montana, we had really, really, good water pressure. Plus, I didn't have to worry about the water running out because we had a big water heater for a three story apartment complex. The apartment that I live in now has crappy water pressure. The little farm house in Three Forks Montana had even crappier though.

Paul Tom is going to California for a week to have fun with his family. I'm sad about that because I love talking with him. Today, he said that any of his blue belts should beat a black belt in any other martial art. David was worried because a man in his group therapy wanted to grapple with him. The guy is a brown belt in Japanesse Jiu-Jistu. David pulled three different submissions on him. Well, of course, he would win because the guy never spends time on the floor. That's the same thing with Goju-Ryu karate.