I'm still here

First of all, I'm still alive. I often think of the authors of these various blogs that don't post for several months (5, in my case) and think to myself, "Jeeze, did they die or something? Did they get in a car accident? Did they have cancer? Man, I hope they're okay."

Here's the deal on why I've become so silent on this blog. It's pretty bland, actually. First and foremost my adventure at starting a new Saulo Ribeiro BJJ association in Iowa has taken up so much of my time (and $$$). I started the association about the same time I dropped off the face of this blog. So far things are going slowly but surely with this endeavor.

The other major thing that might be most relevant to this blog is that I have incurred significant interest in my product reviews. I have been solicited by several companies and television shows to write reviews on their products or to promote their shows on my blog.

Apparently (judging by context of the emails that I get) there's a whole marketing push by certain combat sport oriented "reality television" programs to solicit bloggers to talk/write about their show. I'm not talking about "The Ultimate Fighter" contacting me, although that might be cool. I'm talking about their competitor (hint = boxing). While I might like to watch certain boxers (most of which are historical and irrelevant today) I am oblivious to modern boxing champs. How can I possibly comment on boxing when I don't have Showtime or HBO and could care less about the outcome of a boxing "reality" show? Especially when John McCain was once in the pocket of a bunch of boxing commission bigwigs and tried to outlaw MMA in Arizona.

As far as product reviews go, as soon as I get an email from a gi or other company about reviewing their product, my response is usually along these lines:

"I appreciate your interest in my thorough reviews of BJJ and MMA products. I am a scientist by profession, and my reviews are unbiased and reflect my honest opinion in light of your company's intentions of soliciting me for a review or compensation. However, time and circumstances may change my opinion of a once high rated product as better and more affordable products become available to the public.

I am not in the business of making money from writing product reviews for companies that make a substandard product appear to be something more than it is not. If you still choose to send me a product to review for your company, you can be assured that it will be unbiased and compared to other products that I either already own or have been sent to me in the past. As other companies willing send me products to review, I may revise my original review of your product in light of theirs to keep my reviews current in context."

Now, in my opinion, I am being straight up honest that if you have a substandard product I am not your boy to help you sell it. But, if a company thinks it has a good product, I am more than willing to give it a test drive. To be honest, I will give special priorty to "locally grown" products, as the U.S./global recession makes this an obvious point of economic consideration.

Okay, new BJJ school and fending off these people that want me to write them up good things for their companies that I know nothing about have been taking up most of time. What else has been happening with me and my non-contribution to this blog?

It's a long story, but I've started (along with my girlfriend - sorry ladies) to be a foster home for rescued German Shepherd Dogs (GSDs). Since August we've fostered 4 GSDs. Long story short, having one rescued GSD in your house can take up quite a bit of your time, let alone two or more. Now we've adopted our 3rd foster GSD who is named Denali. In about 5 weeks from now we will also be taking home our GSD puppy that we have bought from our breeder here in Iowa.

So, between starting a new BJJ school, rescuing German Shepherd's and having a full time job, I've been a little bit busy to follow the BJJ scene and post regularly on this blog. Not to mention all of the solicitors who back off once they realize that I won't kiss their ass just to get a free gi or something else and write a review that pimps their product. If it's good, I'll tell the public. If it's not, I will tell them likewise. Put up or shut up.

I will try to do better about posting on this blog and keeping up with the BJJ scene, or else I should probably just delete this blog and forget about it. I don't want to do that, but why have a blog if you're not going to post on it? I know like people like my product reviews, but I'm not exactly Kid Peligro as far as BJJ news goes.

~J