Wednesday, June 30, 2021

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor VI: Getting burned

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UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor VI

Correct result 23/44 52.27% 
Correct score 4/44 9.090% 
First team to score 23/44 52.27% 
First player to score 2/44 4.545% 

152 points

I somehow gained a point with no winning in any category. A change maybe?

Monday, June 28, 2021

Monday Bullets: 'Legend in my own mind' 2005

Monday Bullets: 'Legend in my own mind' 2005

• Seems to me, based on the Blogger profile photo at the time, that troll was likely within an extreme part of a well-known, politically correct group.

• He seemingly viewed my non-personal, worldview disagreement with him, based on my writing, as a personal assault on his worldview.

• Rather than friendly dialogue, he chose to fiercely attack.

• The article he reviewed, had nothing directly to do with any politically correct movement.

• A philosophical deduction is that often people want to avoid intellectual dialogue, because of emotional fears of perhaps receiving data that may begin to change his/her mind, or least cause a reconsideration of certain premises and propositions.

• In other words, a person often has an emotionally-charged, intellectual life agendas, for the sake of personal happiness, that he/she does not want challenged.

• Add another 5 to 10 degrees Celsius here in my loft, I imagine. The sunroom, especially.

• With Netherlands, Croatia and France being knocked out of Euro 2020, I am too 'embarrassed' to post my prediction statistics.

• But, I am still above 50% for correct results. Better than the last Euro...

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor V: Get the Hintz off to Winnipeg

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor V: Get the Hintz off to Winnipeg

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor V 

Correct result 19/32 59.37% 
Correct score 4/32 12.50% 
First team to score 18/32 56.25% 
First player to score 2/32 6.25% 

127 points

Excellent dinner, last evening @ downtown Vancouver/False Creek to get the Hintz off to Winnipeg for their move. God-willing, I will take advantage of the offers to visit them in their bigger house and see the Jets. Sophie, with her Mother's looks, singing skill and aptitude for drama, along with her Father's scientific abilities, may become a 'Bollywood' star? 

Dean reasons that with climate change downtown Vancouver is becoming more like California...

Sunday, June 20, 2021

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor IV: 100 points


UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor IV

Correct result 15/26 57.69% 
Correct score 3/26 11.53%
First team to score 15/26 57.69% 
First player to score 2/26 7.69% 
100 points
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I was up late the two nights with the fires, so I needed enough sleep to make it to church today. Therefore, I did not see much of the matches live, but it was a good day for me.

Saturday, June 19, 2021

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor III: Back to outdoor fires

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor III

Correct result 13/24 54.16% 
Correct score 2/24 8.33% 
First team to score 14/24 58.33% 
First player to score 2/24 8.33% 
86 points

Overall, my picks have been decently good. There is as always, the rare times I do participate, no betting. It seems to me the UEFA Euros generally have more good teams participating than the FIFA World Cup, and are more difficult to predict.

Back to outdoor fires

Last evening

As the pandemic becomes more controlled, it has been very good to be back once again at the farm of my good friend, Cousin Buff. The farm being his family home, business and host of several Hollywood films over the years. 

Some anonymous, for the purposes of this website, Facebook comments from when I posted this online: 

Anonymous 1: Where is this...Marshmallows...Looks like date night 

Anonymous 2: DMF farms. Highly reviewed last Christmas!




Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Wednesday Bullets: Knife attacks

 

• Cited from You Tube: I tried to stab a United States Marine and 20 year Law Enforcement Officer with full intent and energy.

• This video was linked from Bare hand techniques vs Knife

• Website cited in regards to that video...

• Here is a very interesting take on the whole issue by Sal Mascoli in this recent video from Funker Tactical:

• Website cited...

71.1% of knife attacks are led with the free hand and this dramatically alters the dynamic of the attack along with your initial reaction.

• The website points out that knife attacks will often consist of the 'grab and stab', in other words, the attacker usually grabs the victim with the left hand and viciously stabs many times with right. (Or the reverse, if the attacker is left-handed)

• I worked out with this video today. It is good learning. I will continue to do so and agree that 'grab and stab' is a serious threat 'on the street' (out in the world), if one is knife attacked.

• I am thankful to report after scanning the website, not the first time, mind you, and working out with the video, that my knife defences are reasonable.

• I too use a two-handed grab, leading to an arm lock (s), with often one hand higher and the thumbs are always down.

• My double handed grab and arm lock (s) to control an arm, in agreement with the video not to use 'karate' style blocks which leave one too open to being stabbed numerous times.

• I will tend to use a double-handed grab and  arm lock and elbow strikes to the head and neck, (possibly knee strikes as a follow up) simultaneously, more so than a controlled takedown using locks to control.

• I am thinking more multiple opponent scenarios, than a police officer or solider versus one opponent, perhaps.

• I also, as noted in my article on marital arts, would use more of a side stance.

• I agree with the video and webpage, that one should expect to be cut and hurt in any confrontation with an aggressor holding a knife.

• I agree with the video and article to run if possible. That is, run to safety if possible.

• Be alert enough to hopefully have a legal, defensive weapon semi-ready for use, before the knife (ambush) attack occurs.

• Be wise, if you are in an area where you could reasonably be ambushed, carry legally and use responsibly.

• The grab and stab is difficult to defend. I think a key is to turn to the side stance, move the attacker off the line of attack, and as much as possible defend the multi-stabs as if there was no grab.

• Another deadly variation with the use of a free hand is to fake a punch, or actually punch with the left hand and then follow up with a barrage of vicious stabs. (Or reversed if the attacker is left-handed)

• Again, as difficult as it would be, a double-handed knife defence needs to be followed, as would be the case if the attacker has a bladed weapon in each hand.
---

• The latest (Dr.) Russell Norman Murray statistics from academia.edu




  


Tuesday, June 15, 2021

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor II: My stats are down but I have not choked like the Leafs

Photo: Wembley Stadium.com

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor II: My stats are down but I have not choked like the Leafs

Correct result 7/12 58.3% 
Correct score 2/12 16.66%
First team to score 6/12 50% 
First player to score 0/12 0%

41 points

Sunday, June 13, 2021

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor I

Photo: Wembley Stadium.com

UEFA EURO 2020 Match Predictor I

Correct result 6/8 75% 
Correct score 2/8 25% 
First team to score 5/8 62.5% 
First player to score 0/8 0% 
36 points

I am once again, as a rarity, playing a football prediction game. This time officially from UEFA. So, far, so good. Some other rare results from over the years are documented on the bottom right of this website.

Friday, June 11, 2021

Horrible house guest etiquette

Horrible house guest etiquette

Image 1: Just About Flippin Anything 2: June 7 2021

A local Maple Ridge restaurant recently closed for good. The food was only okay, IMHO, which is below average for this area.

My rating influenced by the time I was there, several years ago, with a group of local neighbours and someone 'lit his pants' at the dinner table.

Horrible restaurant guest etiquette

Image 2: Today

Wednesday, June 09, 2021

Wednesday Bullets: Medical Report & The Price of Being Macho?

Wednesday Bullets: Medical Report & The Price of Being Macho?

Photo from today 

• Continuing somewhat from yesterday's theme .of being macho. 

• I had a phone appointment with my MD, today. 

• As I thought my left hand has nerve damage due to weights and stretching during my martial arts workout.

 • I have three other good friends with fairly recent hand injuries, two of them related to weights workouts. 

• The price of being macho?

• My MD told me not workout with the left hand, until the somewhat numb, ring finger and pinky heal up.

• I tried the heating pad on low for a few nights, but my hand soon became sweaty during the day, so that is out.

• It is probably a month or so working out with the right hand only.

• More walks inside and outside and jogging indoors.

 • Okay, so I am not one to share many photos. But I have noted over the years that my UPPP and Rhinoplasty surgeries were assisting in scaling me down over time. 

• Not always a steady decline in weight but, usually less fat.

• This is combined with a low carbs and low sugar diet and medically putting the right things into the body.

• I have never been a large meal eater or a person with even an average daily calorie intake.

 • Me today in my sweat pants after a long walk.

 • Never a candidate for a boy band on so many levels..

Tuesday, June 08, 2021

Tuesday Bullets: Arne posted this street fight

Tuesday Bullets: Arne posted this street fight

Photo: Vancouver 2018 


• Thank you to Arne, the Norwegian Benny Hill for posting.

• Not sure if this is a real event or fictional (theatrical). I briefly looked for it elsewhere, but could find nothing.

• I won the fight against three in downtown Manchester, England on December 24, 2000.

• But I was still bottled by one of the thugs that threw a (wine?) bottle at me from a significant distance.

• My fault was fighting too defensively, as I was too concerned about being knifed or stabbed with a screwdriver. (Local knowledge was punks carried screwdrivers)

• I kept my distance and I was unhurt by the punches from three, but because I did not move in and take them out, I was cowardly bottled. (A friend had left me to fight alone after I stepped in to assist him).

• To be clear, I absolutely do not seek violence. I obey law and order from the state (Romans 13, 1 Peter 2).

• A few weeks after the Manchester brawl, I emailed a former American operative (hitman?) with a website, that stated I needed to flee in that situation, but there was nowhere to run, and there was up to 30-50 punks it turned out.

• All buildings were closed.

• Or my other option was to take people out, he stated.

• I changed my approach to martial arts and street fighting going forward.

• After I was bottled, I switched to weapons training. (legal knives, legal bats, legal carbon fibre knuckles, etcetera)

• I switched to even more street fighting techniques and less karate.

• I studied several videos and books.

• I sparred with people for years, adding these newer techniques.

• I switched to some key chokes and grips.

• I was eventually trained online with two courses from a New Jersey, MMA trainer.

•  IMHO, my punches and kicks were as quick and powerful as my trainer's, but I added as key, rear naked chokes, guillotine chokes, triangle chokes, limited grappling, more elbow strikes, and throws to my martial art/street fighting style.

• If this video is real, this younger man is significantly trained and proficient.

• He did far superior in his fight than I did in my Manchester encounter, because he fought offensively against the untrained and he did not face a weapon.

• But, I have vastly improved.

• I did do that well in my karate, orange belt testing though, in my teens.

• My analysis of the video...

• Twice the 'marine' turns his back on his opponents, he should have instead walked backwards to his vehicle to keep an eye on his opponents.

• As he is very trained, he can easily defeat his opponents, but he should always consider that his opponents might resort to weapons to 'save face'. (As happened to me)

• I hear a foreign language, perhaps French, when the 'marine' returns to the car after being pushed. (A US marine? Hmmm)

• The car plates of the opponents look European...

• The 'marine's' opponent1 foolishly has a very open stance. He instead should be turned to the side with both arms/hands up as a defence. (This fight looks a little too clean for me, but I absolutely do not know it is fictional/theatrical).

• The 'marine' strikes opponent1 with a straight punch it looks like. The attack made easier by the man's open stance.

• The opponent1 should have his hands up to deflect in-part the straight punch.

• My defence at this point, very much changing my style from the Manchester incident, would be to deflect the first punch and counterattack immediately.

• At the same time I would need to move my head out of the way.

• My MMA trainer from New Jersey is an expert on head movement and emphasized this in training. I have added more of this to my style.

• He challenges people on the street to punch him in the head and rarely is hit.

• Another option for the attack against opponent1 is one of two left arm locks (or right arm locks, if the 'marine' punches with the left hand) that I actually learned in my karate days as a teenager. 

• I foolishly should have used these in the Manchester fight, but again was concerned about getting too close and getting knifed or stabbed with a screwdriver.

• I also had three people trying to hit me at once.

• Both of the arm locks I practice work well with the left arm locking and a right elbow strike, or perhaps a hook punch to the jaw.

• In can even work well leading to a very effective guillotine choke.

• But dodging that first straight punch is easier said than done with someone as young and fast as this 'marine', that is likely someone from Europe or Eurasia.

• It is reasonable though to turn enough, with arms up, to not take the punch at full force.

• Opponent2 is struck by a front kick, which might indicate the 'marine', has karate training or like.

• I am particularity muscle thick in the stomach area (so said two nurses and MD), and higher up. I am likely to just be stunned by a front kick and therefore able to strike again.

• Not a good strike versus me, IMHO.

• A front kick is not my choice in a fight, it is more of a 'jab' kick. Not a finishing move.

• It is delivered too high by the 'marine', if used, it is better to be targeted at the stomach to wind someone or to strike someone in the genitals.

• Followed up by finishing moves or move.

• I would face a front kick with a side stance. I also practice, taught by my MMA trainer, a deadly takedown move using a gable grip on a caught foot, perhaps from a front kick, or roundhouse kick.

• Easier said than done at the speed that 'marine' is kicking though, but his front kick should not be faced with an open stance by opponent2.

• But, if my gable grip defence from my mentor worked, I would sweep the remaining leg, from the front or back, while simultaneously pulling the attacking leg as hard as I can.

• The attacker still will hit the ground as well...

• This is a devastating defence, if used successfully on a few levels as far as potential damage to leg, knee, hips and head.

• Unless one is 'Bruce Lee' or 'Chuck Norris' like, consider mainly using low kicks and saving high kicks as finishing moves when the opponent is exhausted.

• The 'marine' uses an impressive sweep against opponent3, which is made easier because the opponent has a stance not prepared for attack but only offensive, seems to me.

• I work on keeping my feet apart to avoid sweeps and also takedowns from grapplers that come at me from the shoot.

• The 'marine' next does a quick, very impressive throw against opponent4, I will admit I have not practiced that move.

• But, I do not like how the opponent lands...too securely. I do not want a feet first landing for an opponent in a street fight. 

• My throws would be, like the gable grip leg defence, aimed  more at a direct knockout using the environment, as opposed to a takedown. 

• Not sure the opponent2 wanted to fight any more. He should have stayed further back and ended up being punched with a straight punch and two hook punches.

• The headbutt on opponent1, is an excellent move and is one that I practice.

• Again, the headbutt can be defended by having a side stance.

• Overall, the 'marine' would be a significantly difficult opponent, largely due to the speed of his attack, but the results would be less clean versus opponents well-trained with street fighting techniques.

• The results could also be less clean against opponents physically larger and more muscular than the ones he fought, but he is an impressive fighter for sure.

• Because he did not knock his opponents out, or at least  knock one of them out, to scare the others, he did risk facing a weapons attack.

• This problem pointed out to me by the former American operative, after my own incident.

Sunday, June 06, 2021

Argumentum ad Populum: Ex

Photo>>>On the road 2018

Argumentum ad Populum: Example 

A few years ago @ a church apologetics conference, a proponent of libertarian free will implied there was no point in me disagreeing with his famous expert because this expert was like LeBron James doing layups.

I replied that I did not play basketball... 

This same kind gentleman also falsely stated, in my humble opinion, that compatibilism equaled hard determinism.

Tuesday, May 19, 2020: Reply to Miss Cia: Soft determinism, indeterminism, hard determinism, fatalism 

search: hard determinism

Pojman states that hard determinism holds that every event is caused and no one is responsible for actions, whereas soft determinism holds that rational creatures can be held responsible for actions determined, as long as they are done voluntarily and without force or coercion. Pojman (1996: 586). 

P.S. Greenspan writes that compatibilism holds to free will and determinism being compatible. Greenspan (1998: 1). In my view, hard determinism, sometimes called determinism, is a view where it is reasoned there is a primary cause, but there is no legitimate, human, secondary cause, or self-cause, for thoughts, desires, will, acts/actions. In theistic compatibilism, God is always the primary cause pf events, and there can be secondary causes for events including human. From a non-theistic view, the primary cause of events could be considered nature, and I suppose some would state 'science', evolution or fate, as examples.

FEINBERG, JOHN S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.

GREENSPAN, P.S. (1998) Free Will and Genetic Determinism: Locating the Problem (s), Maryland, University of Maryland.

POJMAN, LOUIS P. (1996) Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company. 

STACE, W.T. (1952)(1976) Religion and the Modern Mind, in John R. Burr and Milton Goldinger (eds), Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, London, Collier Macmillan Publishers 

Saturday, June 05, 2021

Only exists in the mind

Jun 3rd, 2021 2:33 pm

Cited 

The sculpture is titled "Io Sono" or "I Am" in English, but it really isn't anything. Unlike the great I Am, it neither currently exists, nor has it existed in eternity past or future. The invisible sculpture "I Am" exists "in the mind of its creator," artist Salvatore Garau, only.

• In my humble opinion, other things that might only exist in the mind...

• Vancouver Canucks management reasoning the club will be a Stanley Cup contender within two years.

• Toronto Maple Leafs management believing the club can win the Stanley Cup with their present core. (Lost my faith in that regard)

Wikipedia: Leafs

Thursday, June 03, 2021

Happy Birthday with over 9 thousand

Cute photo, and it will be interesting to see within this child's lifetime how far artificial limb and regenerated limb technology will advance. 

Conservative and Christian people can often make reasonable opines and complaints in regards to declines in western society; but on the bright side is the increasing scientific and medical knowledge over time. 

Again, Happy Birthday!