the groundhog day project

Bloodsport opens with a montage of violence, mostly against inanimate objects: blocks of ice, coconuts, punching bags, boards, Cut together with setup for the Kumite. Watching the film for the first time in many years, I'm reminded by the lies behind it. Like Frank Dux--the character played by Jean Claude Van Damme in this supposedly true story--said the following in Martial Arts magazine: My involvement in that tournament was part of a plan, launched in 1975, t infiltrate the criminal organizations that organized the fights. The original idea was to participate in the Kumite tournament and make a few contacts. We initially assumed I would lose, but eventually I became one of the best Kumite fighters to ever participate in the event. A 1980 article about Dux and the Kumite in Black Belt magazine opened with this disclaimer: Although there is no convenient way to verify each and every detail connected with this story, the editors have verified enough of the basic facts...

Then again , Sid's sense of ownership is problematic. He's got the girl back home, and fully expects to marry her after OCS. Secure in that expectation, he gets together with Lynette the first week of a 13-week program, and she doesn't turn down his marriage proposal until the 11th week. Lynette kind of has a point after Paula says she'd be "trapping" a guy by getting pregnant... Here's the context. LYNETTE: Would you let yourself get pregnant? PAULA: No way, Lynette. Would you? LYNETTE: Well... I never used to think I'd do something like that. But, I don't know anymore. Nine weeks just ain't long enough for a guy to fall in love with you. PAULA: That doesn't justify trapping him or getting pregnant. I can't believe you'd think that. It's real backward. Here's where Lynette starts to make her point. LYNETTE: It ain't more backward than the way these hotshot assholes use till they've had enough, then ditch us ...

Yesterday, I shaved. That hasn't been a usual thing for me for a while. I actually was thinking it had been a year and a half since last I actually was clean shaven--I trim the beard from time to time so I'm not sporting a Z Z Top beard or anything. But, Victor (former speech team president, now a fellow coach and grad student) reminded me of something I hadn't realized. Hadn't remembered . About this same time last year, I was in a photo with another coach, and I was clean shaven. Not sure why he's keeping track--though he says when I'm clean shaven I look to be about 12, so I guess it's memorable. Anyway, the thing is, my birthday was last week. And so, last year, I shaved off the beard around my birthday. Maybe--and this is a stretch, now that I think about it--I just grew out the facial hair so much through the California winter that I just needed to trim it. Or maybe, just maybe, I was feeling old. I mean, there are (were) grey hairs in my beard. I don...

Rita’s a robot. Let’s just get that one out of the way. She’s also the kind of person who will use poetry to insult a man, which is a) annoying and b) awesome. She is also a liar. Case in point: she is not easily amazed… she claims. But: You know, just saying. Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to be amazed by even the smallest thing.