I AM A BAD BLOGGER

I have broken all the rules on “how to be a good blogger”.

My biggest sins:

• I have not created any content
• I have not linked to or shared anything
• I have not responded to any comments on my blog
• I have not responded to any posts on any blog
• I have not read any other blogs
• I haven’t even logged on to my blog account in the longest time

To the readers of this blog (if there are still any):

I am extremely sorry. I just haven’t been very good at this blogging stuff. With BJJ being the main focus here, it’s been pretty difficult keeping this up…my experiences in the past 54 weeks have been frustrating and discouraging. Hope that changes soon.

Made a new blog

Me and AG bought some turtles a few weeks back, so I’m starting a new blog about them. It’s Yet Another Turtle Blawg. Check it out!!

Updated my Blogroll, again

I read more blogs than were in my blogroll, so I updated my list that you see on the right column.  Added about 20 links…

Yes, I read that many blogs.  Not all of them post a lot and I read them while commuting around NYC and when ever I have to wait (in line, for AG, whatever…).  I use Newsgator on my smartphone, which downloads the latest posts to the phone and I can clip (save) the posts that I would like to save or comment on (when I get a ‘net connection).

And don’t even get me started on the podcasts I listen to - there’s also way too much.  I used to listen to podcasts during the 40 hours at work and while commuting and everywhere else.  I basically don’t listen to the radio or major label music, they suck anyway.  I get my news off podcasts and the web.

So, there we go

Fotki.com is not 100% dependable

I’ve blogged about this before. Noticed again today that some of my pics aren’t showing up in my blog.

Well, I shouldn’t really complain since I’m using their free service, but their pic hosting just isn’t 100% dependable.  If it were, my pics would never disappear from my posts!

Anyway, I think I’ll start a Flickr account…

If pix aren’t loading, let me know

a growing blog?

Been a bit too busy lately working on a reaction paper for school…

…Anyhow, I didn’t notice this until just now… http://botd.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/growing-blogs-439/  - - Scroll down, all the way to number 83…Yeah, that’s this blog.

So on July 9, 2007 I made it to WordPress.com’s Blog of the Day list of Growing Blogs. I guess this is a milestone. Thank you, thank you.

BJJ blogs I enjoy reading

I read a lot of BJJ blogs. Actually, I subscribe to them and read them while I’m commuting. I use NewsGator to manage my blog (RSS) subscriptions and to synchronize the feeds with my cellphone, so I actually do most of my blog reading off-line, when I’m underground in NY’s subways.

Anyway, I was going to do a write-up about each of them, but I’m really bad at doing reviews. So I am updating/will be updating/have updated my blogroll & links instead. If the blog is listed there (in the sidebar on the side), I read it and enjoy it. Even if it isn’t a BJJ blog.

And there’s been an explosion of sorts with BJJ blogs. When I started blogging in late 2006, I could barely find any. Now the number of blogs out there has expanded tenfold. So if you have one, let me know, as I always have time in my subway commutes to read another good blog.

Blogging delay excuses and updates

This blog IS called B Stuff Etc - a blog about Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, B-School, and (snow)Boarding. But I haven’t blogged much about anything but BJJ lately. I guess BJJ lends itself to more frequent blogging…

B-school. I’m still in it and I’m still studying. Lots of stuff have happened. I am now in my internship, on leave from my Big Pharma peon job. Studying part-time, with three subjects and at this very moment I am goofing off from studying for my Business Law midterms (I just finished midterms for my other two classes). I’ve been wanting to blog about b-school for a while now and haven’t found the time to do it (although I blog frequently about BJJ. priorities…). And I will blog about my unfair internship soon.

Speaking of which, check out these two cool internship blogs, wish they’d post more frequently as I greatly enjoy their content: Angry Intern and Unfair Internships.

Snowboarding. It’s summer. I can’t afford to chase winter. I’m too poor to plan any big trips for the coming winter. If there’s even a winter coming… Last winter wasn’t really a winter.

So that’s it for now for my other non-BJJ updates…

Fotki.com picture hosting problems

I started using Fotki.com not too long ago to host my pictures for free for this blog. It has worked great but lately I noticed that many of my pictures have “disappeared” from my posts.

This started happening around the time when they were named a finalist for CNET.com’s Webware 100.

The quotation marks on the word “disappeared” is there because my pictures didn’t really disappear. The URL path for the pictures location (the code as I call it) was changed by Fotki. So I painstakingly copied and pasted all the new codes from Fotki for each of my pictures that appear in this blog. Problem solved, pictures were back online.

Then I noticed that Fotki.com now advertised itself as a free unlimited host for pictures for sites, blogs, etc…

And then I noticed that my pictures were missing again and that the URL codes were changed, yet again. So again I painstakingly changed all the links in my posts.

I truly appreciate the free hosting that Fotki.com is offering, but please, please, please stop changing the damned code already. I imagine that maybe after they were named in CNET’s list, they went through some redesign and decided to do free hosting for websites and blogs, and that involved changing their codes and such. So I do hope that all this URL changing is over. I’ve wasted enough time already just updating my old posts…

All my pictures should be up again. Please let me know if any are missing. Email me at bstuffetcblog at gmail dot com

20 Fundamental Moves of Jiu-Jitsu

Jason at Smash Pass put together a great post today. Check it out here.

Catch-up: BJJ classes 69-71, ADCC, and internship

I’ve been rather busy lately and haven’t been able to post anything for over a week now. Here’s my catch-up post for what’s been happening:

I was finally offered an internship last week and as a result I’ve had to make some very difficult decisions. I’m making a bold move in leaving my job to take this internship. It’s what I’ve wanted to do. It’s easy to talk the talk, but when it comes to leaving my job - - which pays for school, in which I’m comfortable in, am paid for, and have a great boss to work with - - to take an unpaid internship and face so much uncertainty, the first steps taken to walk the walk is very difficult. I’ve decided to take the internship part-time and have settled for a 3-day, unpaid work-week schedule. I’m hoping to have found a paid position or internship by the time the fall semester starts. If not, I’ll study full-time and really worry about what to do about getting an income again.

I’ve gone to three BJJ classes since my last post. I don’t remember much about them now, but I do remember drilling one of the first techniques I learned in BJJ, armbar from the top of North-South & a few other alternatives you can do from there and a few side control escpaes. (If I find time, I will post pictures of the techniques with my snowboard instructors) With my summer class schedule, I will be going to BJJ mostly on the Monday and Wednesday one hour classes - these classes are too short. Next term, I will definitely fix my schedule so I can go to the longer classes. I started out by going to the one-hour classes twice a week and learned some, but I didn’t really start to get better until I started going to the longer classes. Can’t wait to have those classes regularly again

I’m very close to hitting my one-year anniversary of learning BJJ and the 6-month mark for this blog. Yay for me!!

This weekend, I went to watch the 7th (2007) ADCC World Championships in Trenton, NJ. It was a wonderful two days. Marcelo Garcia is really the best fighter to watch. Xande Ribero, Kyra and Rolles Gracie, Leo Viera, and Jeff Glover all gave spectacular performances. Actually, I don’t know all the fighters names - many of them were really great, most of them were impressive and truly inspiring. Am at work as I’m typing this, and damn, I really want to roll!!