Please take a look at Articles on self-defense/conflict/violence for introductions to the references found in the bibliography page.

Please take a look at my bibliography if you do not see a proper reference to a post.

Please take a look at my Notable Quotes

Hey, Attention on Deck!

Hey, NOTHING here is PERSONAL, get over it - Teach Me and I will Learn!


When you begin to feel like you are a tough guy, a warrior, a master of the martial arts or that you have lived a tough life, just take a moment and get some perspective with the following:


I've stopped knives that were coming to disembowel me

I've clawed for my gun while bullets ripped past me

I've dodged as someone tried to put an ax in my skull

I've fought screaming steel and left rubber on the road to avoid death

I've clawed broken glass out of my body after their opening attack failed

I've spit blood and body parts and broke strangle holds before gouging eyes

I've charged into fires, fought through blizzards and run from tornados

I've survived being hunted by gangs, killers and contract killers

The streets were my home, I hunted in the night and was hunted in turn


Please don't brag to me that you're a survivor because someone hit you. And don't tell me how 'tough' you are because of your training. As much as I've been through I know people who have survived much, much worse. - Marc MacYoung

WARNING, CAVEAT AND NOTE

The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books. Please make note that this article/post is my personal analysis of the subject and the information used was chosen or picked by me. It is not an analysis piece because it lacks complete and comprehensive research, it was not adequately and completely investigated and it is not balanced, i.e., it is my personal view without the views of others including subject experts, etc. Look at this as “Infotainment rather then expert research.” This is an opinion/editorial article/post meant to persuade the reader to think, decide and accept or reject my premise. It is an attempt to cause change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs and values as they apply to martial arts and/or self-defense. It is merely a commentary on the subject in the particular article presented.


Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.



“What you are reading right now is a blog. It’s written and posted by me, because I want to. I get no financial remuneration for writing it. I don’t have to meet anyone’s criteria in order to post it. Not only I don’t have an employer or publisher, but I’m not even constrained by having to please an audience. If people won’t like it, they won’t read it, but I won’t lose anything by it. Provided I don’t break any laws (libel, incitement to violence, etc.), I can post whatever I want. This means that I can write openly and honestly, however controversial my opinions may be. It also means that I could write total bullshit; there is no quality control. I could be biased. I could be insane. I could be trolling. … not all sources are equivalent, and all sources have their pros and cons. These needs to be taken into account when evaluating information, and all information should be evaluated. - God’s Bastard, Sourcing Sources (this applies to this and other blogs by me as well; if you follow the idea's, advice or information you are on your own, don't come crying to me, it is all on you do do the work to make sure it works for you!)



“You should prepare yourself to dedicate at least five or six years to your training and practice to understand the philosophy and physiokinetics of martial arts and karate so that you can understand the true spirit of everything and dedicate your mind, body and spirit to the discipline of the art.” - cejames (note: you are on your own, make sure you get expert hands-on guidance in all things martial and self-defense)



“All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” - Montaigne


I am not a leading authority on any one discipline that I write about and teach, it is my hope and wish that with all the subjects I have studied it provides me an advantage point that I offer in as clear and cohesive writings as possible in introducing the matters in my materials. I hope to serve as one who inspires direction in the practitioner so they can go on to discover greater teachers and professionals that will build on this fundamental foundation. Find the authorities and synthesize a wholehearted and holistic concept, perception and belief that will not drive your practices but rather inspire them to evolve, grow and prosper. My efforts are born of those who are more experienced and knowledgable than I. I hope you find that path! See the bibliography I provide for an initial list of experts, professionals and masters of the subjects.

LUCK

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

I was reading a story when I realized that luck is a big thing and it plays a huge role in our lives. Assuming luck is really just luck and not some deeply unconscious program our brains run hidden from our conscious thought and consciousness. 

When I consider “luck” I think that I achieve some goal that comes from what seems like chance. It seems to me to be a development that comes in the absence of any obvious design on my part or the part of influences and stimuli in my environment. 

Example: One day while on military leave from my Marine duties I was driving down a main road, Flomich Avenue in Holly Hill Florida, that was a through drive with many/frequent side roads controlled by stop signs. Suddenly I had this instinctual urge to slam on the brakes and within a moment or two after a pick up truck traveling fast flew through the stop sigh, rose off the road a foot or so and landed hard across my road of travel landing on the road opposite the one he ran the stop sign. If I had not stopped suddenly and seemingly by some chance or luck that truck would have hit my on the drivers side traveling at high speeds, over thirty-five or forty mph, and slammed directly into my car in all likelihood taking the top half of my body and car off leaving me and the car, dead, dead, dead. Was it luck? Was it chance?

This was not the first time nor was it the last when lady luck seemed to favor me toward the living rather than allowing me to enter the realm of the dead. Is it luck, coincidence, serendipity, fate or karma? 

Or is it about perceptions and experiences collected that trigger such seemingly mystic triggers that cause us to act when it seems there is not real plausible reason to act and in these cases saving my bacon? 

Maybe the training and practice I got as a Marine along with some other stuff actually programmed my vigilance triggers and caused me to possible detect, maybe I heard the engine off to my right and it sounded like it was not stopping to my unconscious, something that triggered my response and action to stop quickly, you think? 

I remember another day when I was assisting a driver of a huge and heavy 155 self-propelled howitzer to load up on a low-bow trailer to be hauled back to its barn. I was standing up on the area over the trailers fifth wheel, where the trailer attaches to the semi-truck, when the howitzer pulled up on the back trailer incline raising its two foot circumference barrel high overhead when the driver shoved the hatch up, raised his upper body and head out where I could clearly see him and then motioned me to move. I thought that I had safety and shook my head and motioned him to continue. He wouldn’t and insisted I move so - I moved. He then gunned the tank and whoosh came down the barrel and slammed to a halt about five inches above the very spot where I was standing, Luck? Chance? or what? 

Is there really luck or is it just programming in our subconscious that we just happen, luck again, to listen to in taking actions or is it truly luck, chance or serendipity? 

I tend to think it is exposure to many things, perceptions, distinctions taught and learned and changed accordingly, a type of continuous curiosity through an analysis of things into the synthesis or creation of new things and thoughts and ideas and theories that over time program our instincts and procedural memories so that when certain observations from our sense inputs to our orientations to the outer world perceptions vs. our inner world accumulated perceptions to synthesize appropriate sub-routines/functions to work zombie-like toward actions, deeds, and decisions that either achieve a goal that seems to be “good luck” vs. a lack of these traits to be “bad luck.” 

I believe luck comes from our efforts or our lack of efforts to accumulate and formulate various sub-routines, memories, perceptions and functions that either the brain has or does not have thus dictating our experiencing good luck or bad luck. 

What do you think?


Bibliography (Click the link)

1 comment:

Brandon said...

You should read Black Swan by Nassim Taleb. If you haven't already.