MMA Ratings Financial Hurdles

A few people have asked me about if and how MMA Ratings makes money. The short answer is it doesn't, but there's some interest in the details, so I'll do my best to elaborate.

MMA Training: BJJ

Last Saturday I was too sick to take the Standup MMA class at Steve Sohn's. But I had Tuesday off from work so I took the Jiu-Jitsu MMA class.

It was a great class. Sensei Greg teaches this class as well and does a great job demonstrating and teaching a progressive series of offensive and defensive maneuvers.

Hanukkah At Babcia's

We went to Babcia's for Hanukkah. We ate lots of good food, and played games.

More pictures below:                             

W3Schools

I recently implemented social bookmarks on MMA Ratings. It was quite challenging for me since I only wanted the bookmarks to appear on select posts. I found what I was look for at MarkenMedia.

However, I still wanted to customize things. Its amazing what a little searching can do. Sure enough, whenever I need help coding, I wind up on W3schools. Now my javascript lays out my bookmarks in a neat table complete with transparency. You can check them out here.

Neil Young at Madison Square Garden

My cousin Adam hooked me up with a ticket to see Neil Young at Madison Square Garden.

We were right up by the stage in the standing general admission section.

Standing for over 5 hours was rough, and I didn't know, or care for either of the two opening bands, but Neil Young put on a great show.

He played a bunch of songs I never heard before, but I really liked all the songs I knew and some that I didn't.

Henry's Birthday Party

We went to Norwalk Seaport Association for Henry's birthday.

More pictures and video below:                     

MMA Training

I started taking an MMA class at Steve Sohn’s Krav Maga Training Center where Eason trains.

I was disappointed when they replaced their parent/child class, but I figure it's a good opportunity to practice.

Thanksgiving 2008

We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house again. Everyone wrote what they're thankful for and hung it on the Thanksgiving tree we made, then we read them after dinner.

More pictures and video below:

SM&NC Truck Show

We went to the truck show at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center.
                             
More pictures and video below:

Halloween

For Halloween this year we went to a parade at Eason's school. After that we went to the Halloween Ragamuffin Parade in Hoboken. Then we went to a Halloween party at the Hudson River Museum.

More pictures and video below:

Boo At The Zoo

We went to Boo at the Zoo at the Bronx Zoo.

More pictures and video below:                                                               

The Elections Ae Depressing

A few weeks back Aviva wanted to watch the vice presidential debates. I watched about 15 minutes and decided I didn't want to watch any more. Firstly because it was already clear to me that I was voting for Obama over McCain. Second, I could see where Biden and Palin were each going in the debate. And lastly, it was depressing because as ridiculous as Palin sounded I knew that there are people out there that no matter what they heard would only hear amd think "those democrats are going to raise my taxes." It was depressing that no matter what happens there are people that won't vote for Obama because he's black. It was depressing that the people that will vote for our next president are the same people that elected Bush after witnessing his presidency for four years.

Today I got this email as proof.

Marc's House Part II

We spent more time with our relatives at Marc's house.

Check out the pictures and video below:                                                             

At Marc's House

We went to Uncle Marc's house and spent some time with Zoe and Harrison.

Check out the pictures and video below:                                                             

Natural History

We went to the American Museum of Natural History with Uncle Harry, Harrison and Zoe. We saw Cosmic Collisions in the planetarium and Sea Monsters in the IMAX.

More pictures below:

Rye Beach

We took Eason and Andrea for one last chance to play on the beach until next year.

More pictures below:

Rosh Hashanah

We went to Babcia and Djiadek's for Rosh Hashanah. They put together a great spread and we had a great time. Eason showed them the Tootie Tah song.

More pictures and video below:

I think I watch too much MMA.

Aviva and I were talking about the presidential debates. She asked me who I thought did better. I said I thought Obama won 29-28, but I thought it could be a split decision.

Bronx Zoo

We went to the Bronx Zoo with our friends. The kids did the Flora the Explorer activity, and a whole bunch more. At night Eason helped Aviva bake an apple pie.

More pictures below:                                                         

MMA And The Appeal Of Violence And Violent Competition?

In the recent episode of MMA Nation, Luke was talking about Violence in MMA, and why it is attractive to so many.

So I want to address the question, why do I like MMA and what is the appeal of violence and violent competition?

Violence is simply a reality of life, regardless of to what extent one might try to avoid it. Whether its the possibility of having to defend yourself and your family on the street, to defending your country, to wanting to punch that annoying person in the mug so they'll just shut up. There is just no way to avoid that reality.

Site updates at MMA Ratings.net

I've recently made some updates to my MMA Ratings website.

Apple Picking

We went apple picking at Silverman's Farm. After that we went to the National Helicopter Museum.

More pictures and video below.

MMA And Sports For Me

I recently wrote a letter to a radio show host who was questioning how people could like MMA and not team sports. I thought I would post an excerpt here:

Fiona's Birthday Party

We went to The Little Gym of Jersey City for Fiona's birthday party.

Check out more pictures and video below:                                                     

Playland Park

I took Andrea, and Eason, and his friend, to Playland Park.

More pictures below:                                                            

New Equipment At The Y

The Rye YMCA replaced all their old Cybex free weight and universal type equipment with some cool Life Fitness stuff.

I haven't tried everything out yet, but overall I'm very pleased. So far the biggest highlights are:
• dumbbells up to 95 lbs. (from 85)
• more adjustable benches
• fly machine cables rotate 180 degrees

Long Weekend At The Bungalow

I took some time off for labor day weekend. We had a great time.

More pictures and video below:

Camping At The Bungalow

Our friends came up to the bungalow and we had a lot of fun camping.

More pictures and video below:

My Mom Can Knit!

My mom's been making these bags in her spare time. I think they're really cool. You can buy them at Knitting Through Life.

More pictures of other projects below:

Eason's Magic School Bus Shirts

My mom made Eason these The Magic School Bus t-shirts for his birthday.

More pictures below:

Eason's Birthday Party

Eason had his birthday party at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center. It was a great party. Eason really wanted a "science" party. All the staff there were very accomodating. The room they gave us was spacious, which was good, because he had a lot of friends there.

Then we all went to the planetarium where they put on a show about the solar system. This show is supposed to be for older kids, but Eason is so interested in the solar system that we really pushed for it. It turned our to be very ambitious for his age group, but plenty of the kids were very interested.

After the show, everyone spent a few hours in their great playground.

Lisa's Unveiling

Aviva and I went to my aunt Lisa's tombstone unveiling. My uncle Marc was there with Adam and Jesse and my aunt Debbie was there with Zoe.

I have a lot of fond memories of Lisa. I remember when I met her. I was very young and she was very shy. Over the years she really opened up to me and I think we were very close at times.

2.49

I just received my first check for MMA Ratings from one of the advertising networks I'm working with. A whopping $2.49.

I guess it's a start.

Grips And Friction

Today at the Rye YMCA I was doing back, biceps and rear delts. One of the members asked me about my grips. I told him all about them. They are Versa Gripps. The way they are designed they are great for both push and pull exercises. They wrap around your wrist with velcro and the wrap only extends as far as the beginning of your fingers, where your calluses would be. At the end of the wrap is a small ridge. For pushing the ridge helps to balance the bar in your palm. For pulling the ridge helps secure the bar in your hand. The friction helps you hold weight that your naked grip might not be able to maintain. This is especially helpful for exercises like dead lifts, barbell rows and shrugs. I highly recommend them.

Playland Park

I took the kids to Playland Park. They had a great time!

More pictures and video below:                          

Oakland Beach

We went to Oakland Beach with a bunch of friends to watch the fireworks at Rye Playland.

More pictures below:                                                       

Zoe's Fancy Birthday

We went to the Goldhawk Lounge for Zoe's birthday party.
                               
Check out the pictures and videos below:

Sherdog Hat

Jordan Breen sent me a Sherdog hat. Andrea and Eason love it. Maybe I'll get to wear it some day.

More pictures below:

Bungalow Fun (In The Lake)

We went to see  Treasure Island at the Forestburgh Playhouse. Then we had fun playing in the lake.

More pictures and video below:

Weekend Fights

Last weekend was a big one for MMA. If you’re not an MMA fan you’re really missing out.

11 Push-Ups

Since I turned 37 recently I thought I'd test myself with some push-ups. Since I already did 40 push-ups with Eason on my shoulders last week, I was a little more ambitious this time.

Check out more pictures and video below:

37th Birthday

I had a nice birthday. Aviva took us to Mighty Joe Young's for dinner.
                               
More pictures and video below:

JibJab

My buddy Alan from work sent me this cool Birthday eCard.

New Routine

I finally did some cardio for the first time since the race. I've been so lazy. I meant to run while I was at the bungalow, but I had two weekends up there and I didn't run once. My laziness definitely showed in my performance today. I used level 10 on the treadmill, but it took me 25:13 minutes to run 3.64 km. I only averaged 5.38 mph (11:08/mile). I did climb 461 ft.

Fun At The Bungalow

We had so much fun with Andrea at the bungalow.

See more pictures and video below:                                                      

4th Of July

We went up to the bungalow for the fourth of July. Aviva gave me a hammock as an early birthday present. I love it! We had lots of fun all day and stayed up late to watch the fireworks.

More pictures and video below:

Stamford Museum & Nature Center

We took the kids to the Stamford Museum & Nature Center. It was a lot of fun.

More pictures and video below:                                                       

Equinox

My friend Chris, who incidentally gave me the pictures from the corporate challenge, hooked me up with a week pass at Equinox.

The timing was perfect since Felipe wasn't around this past week. It was a great week of working out. They have lots of different brands of equipment including Cybex, LifeFitness and HammerStrength, and all the the equipment models were great. The layout was cool. The dumbells went up to a respectable 110 lbs.

The place was clean and the staff was friendly. Working out in the middle of the day definitely had it's benefits.