Bill Cammack

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Wasted Days…

I know where I should be, but I’m not there. I know where I want to be. I want to be in several places at the same time. I want to stay here and be there. Focus. Attention divided. As of yesterday, she’s in Mexico… Mexico City, to be exact. I don’t want to be in Mexico, but I do.

I wasn’t invited to Mexico, hahaha I wasn’t even THINKING about Mexico until I received her communication last night. Now I can’t stop thinking about Mexico. I see buildings that I’m not sure are there. I don’t even know what Mexico City looks like. I keep imagining that Denzel Washington movie where he’s avenging the kidnapped little girl. I’m suspicious of the people on the street that I’ve never seen with my own eyes, but I know she can take care of herself. I’d expect to see THEM in the hospital before HER! :D

Meanwhile, I attempt to minimize posessions. Physical posessions, not relationship posessions. The more stuff you have, the more you’re bogged down. The more stuff you have, the lower the percentage becomes of that stuff you actually use. Perceived Necessity needs to become Efficient Reality. The less stuff I have, the faster I can move. The faster I can move, the more places I can be practically at the same time. The less stuff I have, the fewer places for my keys to hide.

I’m not going to make it to Mexico….. Even if I did, she’d be gone by then. Even if I did, I have no way of contacting her where she is. I’d be rolling the dice, taking my chances that I’d walk down the right street at the right time, and she’d recognize me out of context instead of saying “That Mexican guy over there looks just like Bill”. If I had the time, money and desire, I’d do it… just to see what happens… just to walk down random streets wondering if fate, destiny, chance, luck or good fortune would place me where I want to be… Just to see her reaction [or lack thereof! hahaha]. Just to FEEL my own reaction… being there… instead of here.

“There” changes. Mexico City’s only good to me because she’s in it. That’s not really fair, because I don’t know anything about Mexico City, but the point is that when she leaves, she takes my fascination with her.

Amongst other things, I’ve decided that for the new year (2007), I’m going to do a daily text blog.

The blog is named “Wasted Days”. I don’t know why. I just like that name. Well… I think I DO know why, but the reasons aren’t tangible right now, so there’s nothing to say/print/type about it.

I thought of doing a daily videoblog, but that’s just ridiculous. :D Maybe a weekly videoblog, but text I can handle on a day-to-day basis. Meanwhile, I’ll brainstorm my video projects for 2007, including ReelSolidTV, EMS, SU, HWD, AAM and whatever else occurs to me in the near future.

Welcome to 2007… The Wasted Days…..

Penelope Trunk: “For example, sixty percent of women with MBAs are working at home, and an epidemic number of women are leaving corporate life when their children come. Women approaching age thirty face these statistics.”

Children are incredibly influential on women… biologically… This was used a lot in passing over women for promotions because the company didn’t want to lose a manager to maternity leave. That’s probably been changed now, by law, but there’s a tremendous effect on women simply when they realize that they’re pregnant. Their focus and priorities change immediately, as they well should. I think a lot of women underestimate their ability to handle the situation differently from men. Obviously, since men don’t get pregnant, there are no internal biological changes tugging their lives in a different direction than “career”.

Work and Family by 30 is a pretty lofty goal to begin with. Work should be pretty easy, since the average person who doesn’t get left back in school graduates @ 21, that leaves nine years to get it together….. assuming that the person is content NOW with the career they have because of what they took in college, which they decided on when they were 17 years old. Family, on its own, is easy as well by 30… at least getting INTO family is. I don’t know about age/divorce correlation, so I’m not aware of how many couples married before 30 are still married by 40.

Doing both together is a longshot unless the woman knows ahead of time what her plan is and is able to focus on and be effective in starting/maintaining a satisfying, progressive career while looking for and corralling “Mr. Right”, who happens to A) want to get married to her and B) have kids with her. This is why it makes sense that women would leave the workforce entirely or work at home, because it’s much tougher to work on Family after 35. They can get back to Career when their family life stabilizes….

… hehe assuming they’re not already pregnant again. :)

My friend Carlos trains in Jiu Jitsu under Renzo Gracie.

Last night, we took a road trip up to Mohegan Sun to cheer, support and watch Renzo fight Carlos Newton as a Superfight @ the IFL World Team Championship Finals.

There were quite a few Renzo Gracie Academy T-shirts in the arena:

http://www.renzogracie.com/news.aspx

Here’s mine:

The trip was a great way for me to end 2006. We met up in front of RGA in Manhattan, and took about a 5-hour chartered bus ride (thanks to endless traffic) up to Mohegan Sun. The group hustled to get food before the fights started, then it was ON! :D

They’re going to show the fights on Fox Sports Net (FSN) sometime within the next week or so.

It’s a different experience seeing professional fighters get knocked out “in person” from watching it on television. I think it’s because on television, you’re getting whatever they show you and in person, you get to check it out with your own eyes… with nothing but air in between you and the fight. I think there’s something that you lose by watching the fight on television because they broadcast impossible views of the action. They have cameramen standing @ the ropes using zoom lenses, AND they have computer-operated cameras floating over the action. It’s impossible for you to think of what’s going on as an actual struggle between actual human beings, because the angles keep changing and you’re right on top of the action, where you couldn’t possibly be if you went to a fight. I noticed this when I looked to my right, towards the big screens that were showing what the cameras were shooting. It was necessary at times, when the action was on the mat and facing away from me, so I had no idea who was doing what. That’s when the camera angle was really useful. It was still surreal… like I was watching something else. Diverting my eyes from the screens and back to the live fighters gave me a good idea of the difference between the two experiences.

It was cool traveling with the RGA students. I don’t train, so it was interesting being around people that learn from one man in particular, and they were going to watch that man compete. I don’t know that there’s anything like it I can think of right this minute. You’re not going to see an NFL coach or NBA coach get on the field/court and get busy. Their time for that is over. Now, they just tell people what to do. Renzo Gracie has been fighting and STILL fights. There were a couple of other guys from the school that fought on the IFL card. A couple of female RGA students drove up as well. Wives and children of the students attended also. Looking around at all the green shirts, I could see a community of people brought together because of something they love to do, and someone they love to train with.

It was also interesting watching guys “gas out” in person. You can’t see it so much on television. On TV, you can see their facial expressions, or they spit out a mouthpiece, or you can tell they’re breathing really hard. There must be intangibles that you get from being in the same room with someone that’s doing a physical activity… Indicators that tell you extra things about them that you can’t pick up through watching the same thing on television. It was like you could SEE less energy “on” them. The punches got slower. The movements got slower. The hands stayed lower and lower. Guys started relaxing in clinches… This one fight, the guys literally laid around for 3 rounds (15 minutes?) and then, SOMEHOW, a decision was given out even though neither one of them did ANYTHING to the other one. It was really lame, and the crowd was booing like crazy. Those guys weren’t gassed.. they were just lethargic from the opening bell.

OTOH, MOST of the fighters were doing what they came there to do. There were some really good matchups and mostly good endings to the fights. This one guy was beating the living tar out of this other guy for like 2 1/2 rounds, then he happened to get caught ONE TIME with ONE PUNCH and got knocked out COLD. I mean, COLD. You could tell he was out before his body hit the floor. It was odd, because he had been so animated the whole time, and in one split second, it was all over. He was well on his way to a victory on the cards. All that animation just STOPPED. If it hadn’t been for gravity, he would have remained in the air, stiff… shut down. They took him out on a stretcher after stabilizing his neck as a precautionary measure, but he was waving his arms before they took him out of the arena to the ambulance. That’s always a good thing…. waving arms… not ambulances. :D

The Renzo Gracie / Carlos Newton fight went to the cards, and the judges voted for a split decision win for Renzo (Pronounced “Henzo” because of Brazilian origin). Later, the students returned to the bus and I slept the two hours it took us to get back to Manhattan. I had a great time and it was a unique experience… going to the fights with student, admirers and fans of Renzo Gracie. I’m glad Carlos invited me. :D

So I’m talking to this chick, and she’s telling me she thinks her baby knows what her name is. The baby’s only a few months old, so there’s clearly no way this is possible.

Babies don’t come out of the box equipped with the ability to parse statements in the language of their parents. This means that it’s just as easy for the baby to select someone’s name from a bunch of gibberish which happens to be English for me to select someone’s name out of a sentence spoken in Swahili. I do not KNOW Swahili, so I would have no idea of knowing which bunch of syllables is a proper name. I wouldn’t know which words represent verbs and I wouldn’t know which words represent nouns. I’m not saying “if I were a few-months-old-baby”… I’m saying RIGHT NOW! :D I would have NO IDEA what someone is saying in a language that I don’t understand. The only way I would have a chance is if the name in that language is similar to a name in English, the language that *I* speak and understand. That comes from years of hearing and understanding people’s names as well as having a grasp of the English language, as well as being more than a few months old.

This is why you can teach babies any language you want. They don’t come out with abilities in English, Swahili, French… none of that. The baby learns language from whomever teaches the baby language. First of all, babies don’t understand that people are called by NAMES at all. That’s a construct. If people called each other by numbers, this same person would swear that the baby knew that that set of numbers pertained to her. :D Every time someone uttered those numbers in that sequence, the baby would think they were talking about her. This assumes that the baby understands numbers. This assumes that the baby understands sequences. This assumes that the baby can parse sentences. This assumes a lot of things that just aren’t true.

I’m sure women would LOVE TO BELIEVE that their children know their names the first time the doctor slaps them, hahaha but it’s just not true. Also, it assumes that people call that woman the same thing over and over. What if people call her different things in front of the baby? I’ve gone to a few places where someone foreign to American customs was not aware that Bill is another name for William. They had NO IDEA that both of those names refer to the same person. These were GROWN PEOPLE in service-industry jobs. Why is it that they had no idea it’s the same name? Because it’s not in their custom… It’s not what they grew up with. They also wouldn’t know that Chuck is a name for Charles or that Dick is a name for Richard (Dick Nixon?). Similarly, babies don’t come equipped with the understanding that when someone utters several syllables in a row, or even worse, one syllable made up of a couple of consonants and a vowel, that it’s a representation of ANYONE, including their own mothers.

If you believe this is true, feel free to record someone saying your name over and over, and see how many times your baby thinks that recording is talking about you. :D Maybe have someone hold your baby and have them say your name over and over and see how many times your baby looks in your direction. Better yet… have someone say your name in Swahili, since you think babies understand languages they haven’t been taught yet right off the bat! :D

I don’t know how long I’ve been under…..

Damein & Bill head down to 59th street & 3rd avenue in Manhattan, NYC to interview Phil, the owner of “Phil’s 1908″ men’s clothing store.