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| Monday December 4 2023 - Visit from CanWrestle | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| I had the honor of having a visit from CanWrestle (id 9693) who was in town for a match. I had a lingering cough so I skipped my portion of the match, but he asked me to be behind the scene by being his personal cameraman. His opponent was Mickey Knoxx, who has previously wrestled for BG East. I was happy to oblige and assist them with their shoot. Unfortunately, you won't get any screenshots, you'll have to visit CanWrestle's Instagram or WatchFighters for that. π Give him some time because they will be some editing and some post-processing to do. I had a supper with CanWrestle after the match and we discussed something very interesting about how social media has heavily changed the wrestling community. For example, he spoke to me about the pros and cons of WatchFighters (Let's use WF for short). Many wrestlers who don't have the build or the required looks to go and meet and wrestle guys at BG or Thunder's or any other adult pro company... Instead they can find comfort and spotlight in WF by providing their own content. On the other hand, many wrestlers have been complaining that this creates a faction and division in the community where you now have opponents that refuses to wrestle other guys if they won't record the match in order to benefit from extra revenue through selling these videos and getting commissions out of it. It's tough. Some others are complaining that why should the average joe get this limelight, but then again, if one prefers the modeled and chiseled build, they have the liberty of staying on BG and refuse any content they dislike on WF. Alternatively, this allows the average joe to realize their dreams and be a star.... but this reduces the amount of available opponents that just wants to wrestle just for fun without filming.... I do see both sides of the coin and at the same time, you have this oligarch, this now big mega corporation that is MeetFighters and WatchFighters who heavily profits from the content that their users create. The portion they take is relatively small and they do a provide a platform and a service that allows their content creators to reach out to thousands of people who enjoy wrestling. On top of that, the revenue that these creators create will probably be bigger on the long run than if these creators continue to provide their content on WF instead to companies like BG or Thunder's. I guess I could go all day long about this. I do appreciate the site, I do see the drawbacks. I personally don't use it for my content because I have a different way of providing it. I mean as you guys can see, my videos are free, but they are really short and I love to keep them that way. That being said, I still visit the WF site and I do buy usually the niche stuff from other wrestlers that I can't find anywhere else. It allows people to open their minds, expand their creativity and realize other people's dreams and fantasies as well. | |||||||||||||||
Blog ID 360  | |||||||||||||||
| Saturday July 1 2023 - Light travel: Saint-Chrysostome and Trois-Rivieres | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| I had forgotten to post this earlier. LumberG was on vacation for a week roughly about a month ago and I've decided to accompany him to a small rural area called Saint-Chrysostome. There was a lady there that has kept the 2 geese that LumberG gave away (because technically, it is illegal to keep them here in the city because they are too noisy. If a neighbor complains, the city can confiscate them). The geese were in a pack so it was difficult to approach them, but the lady has a daughter that trains this cute little duck that we were able to hold. His name is... Ciao! π  A few days later, we went to Trois-Rivieres to do a touristy visit into the park of the island of Saint-Quentin. It was nice to get away from the big city and you can really tell the difference in the noise and in the aura that emanates from everyone around there. LumberG and I took a few selfies here, but he's a bit camera shy so I suppose I won't include a pic of him here. π LumberG has quite a few animals to take care back home, so we can't really plan long trips away from them. We are expecting to do more trips like this, mixed with a short distance week-end wrestling trip once in a while. I did tell him that were due for another visit to Ottawa because he loves the guys there. π | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 350 | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday April 12 2022 - Submission Wrestling Weekend in Sherbrooke | Wrestling event | ||||||||||||||
After a 4 year hiatus, I finally attended a full-fledged wrestling event just last week-end. It was called "Submission Wrestling Weekend #2" and it was hosted by Fighting4Fun at his home in Sherbrooke where he has a basement full of mats that are very nicely laid out, ideal for competitive submission matches. By the way, Sherbrooke is a small town between east of Montreal and west of Quebec city. I think this is the first time I'm attending an all-out submission event. Events I've attended in the past or either pro, hybrid or one-on-one hotel room events where the type of match is really up to your opponent. Anyhow, I wasn't sure if I was ready for this, because I am currently carrying a shoulder pain that lasted since a couple of months. I made the mistake of racking someone above my shoulder's tolerance, but all in all, I think it went pretty well. Friday April 8 2022 I had an agreement with Fighting4Fun who came to pick me up in Montreal to drive to his house in Sherbrooke. Once we reached our destination, my host kindly made me a tour, showed me his marvelous basement and we took the opportunity to warm up just us two to prepare for the upcoming onslaught or beatings that I was going to get. π Our last match together was 3 years ago. Obviously, been an MMA expert and having won numerous medals around the world, each time I see Fighting4Fun, he just gets better and better. Mind you, he's 61 now, but age is just a number: with his experience, knowledge and skill, he is still the best among all of us. In addition, he became a teacher now of a dojo, training students and sparring his students almost on a daily basis, which kind of makes him now an unstoppable force. Fighting4Fun has this methodology where he toys with his opponent, he lets them think that he has the upper hand and then he'll make you tap when he feels he gave you enough freedom. π That is no exception for me.. however, he was kind enough to let me put on my ankle locks, my body scissors and my leg scissors on him without him resisting back every once in a while. It's basically the only 3 holds I know how to use in submission if I can't use my arms or if I determine that my opponent's arms are stronger than mine. Anyhow, Fighting4fun gave a couple of free taps, but not without him making me tap a hundred times fold the legitimate way afterwards. π After all, there is a price for free submissions... All I can do when he goes in attack mode is to defend and delay that inevitable submission. Armbars are the hold (or weapon) of choice and I'd have to say I have never received as many armbars as I had this week-end. After an hour of sparring or so, our host Fighting4Fun kindly prepared my bed so I can rest up for the full array of matches that's waiting for me tomorrow. Saturday April 9 2022 My host prepared a nice breakfast for me, the usual scrambled eggs and bacon and we continued a brief hour of sparring. I was supposed to meet up with one of Fighting4Fun's top student (apparently, M4st3rP), but he canceled due to family obligations. I was thinking "Thank goodness", because there's enough matches lined up that I would have been dead or zombified after dueling a UFC-style fighter that has a hundred times my level of experience. Around 1 pm, the remainder of the roster showed up: it consists of Kicksands, Sunny_DeLeon, CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry. The event could host 8 wrestlers, but 7 was already more than enough as we went overtime over Fighting4Fun's planned schedule. CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry had to leave shortly after arriving because they had already planned a match with another wrestler in Sherbrooke in a AirBNB. Their main objective of this first visit was to drop off the other wrestlers since they car pooled. Hence, Kicksands, Sunny_DeLeon, Fighting4Fun and myself started doing round-robin submission matches. I had already wrestled Kicksands in October 2019 in Ottawa. Back then, I was able to be in control of him in the sense that I could make him my jobber... sort of. He'd try to defend, but I felt that I had an easier time dragging him left and right. Kicksands reminded me that I made him submit to the most basic hold in wrestling: the bearhug. I actually forgot about that and looking back at the blog entry I wrote for our Ottawa encounter, I never mentioned it in order to preserve some respect and dignity for Kicksands. π It really doesn't matter now anymore, because since then, Kicksands attended martial art classes regularly in a gym, training fiercefully to become an absolute beast of a fighter. He completely redeemed himself: when we fought in our submission match, I could tell that he was no longer the same wrestler that I had fought in 2019. Kicksands' strength, skill, agility and movements skyrocketed π and I realized that I was facing an opponent that is almost as equally skilled as Fighting4Fun. The big difference is that Kicksands is younger, faster, has more stamina and has this urge, an aura of determination or revenge, call it what you want, this undying sensation to teach me a lesson for the terrible treatment I gave him 3 years ago. I could latch on my ankle locks, but his fighting heart only showed me that it takes much more than a weakly pathetic hold to beat him. He fought back, showing me that with his stronger arms and technical knowledge that he can toy with me and make me submit with armbars, chokes and a dozen of other holds I can't even name. To make a long story short (too late), I was no match for the much stronger and superior Kicksands. As we will see later on, Kicksands is the 2nd strongest fighter in our group, right after Fighting4Fun. However, give him a little bit more time (maybe a year or two?) and he will probably manage to give Fighting4Fun a very good and challenging run for his money. I also sparred with Sunny_DeLeon. Our last match was in October 2021, but our fight this time around was also different. When we met in October, he was already exhausted because of a similar submission event he attended. He was simply letting himself being a jobber because he had no strength to fight back, having already being subdued by a dozen matches. I toyed with him back then in a give and take session where I would lock on him hold after hold. Well, in an submission environment setting like this one, Sunny_DeLeon showed his true inner strength and I saw his fierce burning fiery heart: he is no longer a passive jobber. Still, he was easier to tangle with. I think our levels were quite a bit more evenly matched, but ultimately, Sunny has better training, skill and stamina than I did, so he eventually managed to make me submit quite a few times. At this point, I think I had 40% of my fuel reserves left for the day, starting to feel the exhaustion of back to back bouts, not to mention I had to spar with Fighting4Fun in 1 or 2 more rounds that I was destined to lose. This is where I realized that I need to wrestle in a "Defensive Passive" mode, otherwise, I would have no energy left for the remainder of my match-ups. "Defensive Passive" is a mode where you just let your opponent attack you while still defending to prevent and delay a submission, but if you do see an opening or if you opponent is also defensive passive, then you strike an attack. The other guys (CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry) came back from their private AirBNB fight and we started wrestling in long-sleeve spat shirts and long sleeve pants. Spats are the stuff that lots of bicycle bikers wear when they do long stretch biking circuits. The point here is to simulate oil wrestling... without the mess of oil. When you were these types of pants and shirts, your arms and legs are in a sense slippery because your hands will slide on this fabric, forcing you and your opponent to use different strategies to make them submit. My upper portion of the spatz (the long-sleeved shirt) was smelling a bit of sweat-to-skin from probably a previous owner/wearer. I didn't have one and I was given one, but I think someone forgot to put it in the washer before handing it out to me. Eventually, I traded my upper spatz with just a t-shirt. Anyhow, regardless of the difference in this style of fight, I believe Sunny and Kicksands made short work for me. You can see here Sunny finishing me off with some sort of choke/scissor combo. I had no chances of survival. π
Then I had my first tango with WrestlinBoi. He seems shy, and reserved, but also intimidating. When he finally reached the mats and we locked up, this is where I saw him express himself wonderfully: he is skillful and playful, he has great power in his scissors and strong arms to back them up. You feel safe when you wrestle him. He'll smile and at this point, I just melted and I only wanted to keep him near me and make the match last as long as I could. π Sunny and Kicksands mentioned that this would be "The Battle of the Scissors" ββ because WrestlinBoi sports a very strong one in his pockets. We shared the body scissors and WrestlinBoi was kind enough to let me have the title of a stronger scissor. You can see me here trying to resist WrestlinBoi's crushing thighs while trying to escape from his arm grasp as well. I actually taunted him to squeeze harder, sharing with him my fondness for scissors and that this liking allows me to resist scissors easily.
Regardless, he was still able to beat me up at the end of the match using an armbar or a variant of it. I also had a spatz match with Zodikry, who is WrestlinBoi's partner. Zodikry is stronger, but has less technical skills. However, he is very expressive and a big giggly.. a bit like me I guess π I took advantage to catch him off-guard in this match by putting him in an ankle lock that he did not suspect. This was probably one of the few wins I had this week-end. Zodikry and WrestlinBoi complement each other: While WrestlinBoi is shy, reserved and introvert, ZodiKry is outgoing, talkative and extrovert. They are an extremely nice wrestling couple. They both live in Winnipeg and they occasionally spar with Sunny_DeLeon as well, who also lives in Winnipeg. We broke out of submission in very few short lapse of moments in between sub matches, so I was able to get this full nelson body scissors on Zodikry that I usually can't get in a real submission competitive match.
This particular image is quite a bit unusual because it feels like Zodikry is enjoying the hold while I seem to be the one suffering from it. π Last, but not least, I locked horns with CanWrestle. We've met again about 9 months ago in July 2021 and he is still is more skillful than I am. We then all went for supper and when we returned, we went into our singlet matches. My memory is starting to fail me now, but I do remember that even after a meal refill, I was operating at 10-20% of my capacity so much I was exhausted. Luckily, both Sunny and Kicksands took a lot of pics to help me rebuild the images in my brain. Had they not being there, I don't think I would be able to provide the quality level of photography that they were bringing with my camera. I do remember having a 2nd bout singlet-style with at least every wrestler. Based on the photos, I guess Sunny got me in a side scissors and I seemed to have enjoyed it. π It's either that or I'm trying to concentrate so hard so that I do not submit... or that I do not fart! π
At some point, Kicksands and WrestlinBoi were dueling, but CanWrestle ended up making a commentary that made both of them turn against him. So yeah, CanWrestle's snark comments earned him a double-teaming reward. π  For more photos, you can check Sunny's Instagram, CanWrestle's Instagram, Kicksands' Instagram or WrestlinBoi85. I felt I needed to open up an instagram as well so they can link me, but I probably won't be as active as they are. I feel like a dinosaur π . My instagram is scissormtl. The only other thing I remember for this evening was that while the double-team was in progress, I jumped on Kicksands to give CanWrestle a fighting chance. Kicksands was surprised that I would shield and dared to attempt to save CanWrestle. I tried to argue that both Kicksands and WrestlinBoi have greater strength and skills over the defenseless CanWrestle... and I even later changed my reasoning saying that I just wanted to wrestle Kicksands... that I don't tangle with him enough. π I wish I could include a picture here between me and Kicksands. I later realized that there are no photographs in our album showing any tangle between me and Kicksands. All the photographers were busy. π’ Anyhow, I was defending against Kickands' attacks left and right when suddenly, CanWrestle freed himself from WrestlinBoi and came to my rescue, fighting again against Kicksands. At which point I was now facing WrestlinBoi. I manage to steal what WrestlinBoi refers to as a smurf kiss on his chest. I didn't know if I was out of line because Zodikry is his partner. WrestlinBoi later explained the terms of agreement with his partner and that my action were ok. Phew! π Around 11:30 PM, we were all spent and we called it a night. Sunny and Kicksands stayed at our host. Zodikry, WrestlinBoi and CanWrestle went back to their BNB and I had reserved two nights at a local hotel called "Hotellerie Jardins de Ville" that was a 5 minute drive away from our host. There's even a bus system that connects to it. Sunday April 10 2022 We all needed our beauty sleep and luckily, our next match was not before 1:30 in the afternoon. Sunny, Kicksands, Fighting4Fun and I went to an Italian restaurant to start building our reserves. Sunny commented about my ankle locks: he didn't recall me using them the first time we met. I answered that there wasn't a need to. He was a jobber and back then, I was doing give and take of holds that I are usually enjoyable. There was really no need to use my unpleasant ankle locks that I usually reserve for submission fights. π After we replenished our energies, we all met up around 2 pm and everybody was wearing a gi (the traditional uniform used for martial arts combat) and we got our first group picture:
From left to right: WrestlinBoi, Fighting4Fun, Zodikry, Sunny_DeLeon, Kicksands, Loserboy and CanWrestle I almost skipped this portion of the event because I needed more time to recover from all the sores of sub matches. Luckily, the overnight sleep and the Italian Cannelloni I had really boosted me, so I was back on track. Also, I've set in my mind to use only 40% of my strength, with the occasional max if I manage to put one of my three holds. The gi format makes everybody start with a white belt. If you win a match, you get promoted to blue belt. If you lose a match while having a blue belt against a white belt, you trade belts. If you another match while in blue belt, you get purple and so forth. No holds are currently barred: you can use the gi to chose your opponent or you can even use the belt to tie up your opponent, but if you do, your opponent can do the same. Hmmm... I don't look half bad in a gi π I have absolutely no training in Jujitsu or martial arts. The last time I wore something like this was a trial judo class where a girl 5 years younger than me placed me in a submission hold as I was squealing like a little girl for mercy. Hoperfully, this time around, this uniform will bring me luck...
... or not. I lost against Fighting4Fun, CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi, Sunny_DeLeon and Kicksands. π I kindly asked Kicksands if I could have a freebie scissor because he was making me tap over and over even after our match ended... and because I was trying to cheat by jumping on him, but he always had his guard on and never allowed me to sneak in. He told me that I need to earn my scissors on him. They were not given for free. π So no, I never made him tap a single time in this week-end... even as a freebie. π My only win in git-format was against Zodikry. I feel like cheating. Just because of this win, I was promoted from white to blue belt. Yay! π We tumbled left and right and Kicksands took this shot that I absolutely adore. It looks very sensual, but what's actually happening here is that while Zodikry is pinning me, he's scrambling to get out of the ankle lock I had on him... I think. Without the right context though, it looks as if he is about to lean down... and uh... kiss me. π So that never happened, but I did end up biting for half a second his right nipple when I was able to flip him over and pin him down later on during this match! π€£
Many million thanks to Kicksands for capturing this shot. He also beautifully captured this next shot at the end of the match where I scissored Zodikry.
Here's another shot of Kicksands excellent photography skill where I was struggling against Fighting4Fun, trying to flip him over, but his stance and position allowed him to use my own weight as leverage, making him impossible to turn him over.
After around 3 hours of gi matches back and forth and putting together the endless amount of combinations of wrestlers, we were due for another break and went to a distillery called "Siboire". During our dinner, CanWrestle commented on how our waiter has big muscles and in a kidding manner, CanWrestle told us that he'd like to ask the waiter if he can touch his bicep. Sunny, WrestlinBoi and me all dared him to do it, but he refused, so we've decided to do it for him. When the waiter returned to our tables, I was hesitant at first, but I look at WrestlinBoi's eyes and he signaled me with a gesture to do it. So I went with it and asked the waiter: - "Uh.. sir. My colleague here ... is wondering if he can touch your bicep. You have a very impressive build." Before I could even say the fifth word of the above quote, CanWrestle slapped me on the thigh with the back of his hand and I jumped a bit. He did threaten me to take my head and slam my forehead down on the table, but in practice, that would have been awful, so I'm happy with the compromise. I think our waiter laughed and he was probably ready to do it, but we were all so embarrassed that we all laughed it off. CanWrestle also said "No! No! No!" to the waiter and brushed it off. In return, most of us increased the amount of tip he was receiving because we left the waiter (and our whole table) in an awkward position. π Both WrestlinBoi and Sunny explained to me that had I not done it, they would have done it instead, but since the waiter was only talking french, they would have a little bit more difficulty doing it. Hence, they gave me the priority. It was still nice to know that I had 2 backups that would have done this dare in my stead. This reflects and outlines the general positive mood, playfulness and happiness at our table. As we rode back home, I was in the car with Fighting4Fun driving, I was his co-pilot and in the back was Sunny_DeLeon and KickSands. I then noticed on the side of the streets a franchise selling fried chicken called "ChicKing". For some reason, the pun made me burst into laughter. KickSands commented: - "And that broke him. When I saw the name of the restaurant earlier, I rolled my eyes." I asked Fighting4Fun: - "Is the street we are driving on King Street? It's one of the main commercial artery of Sherbrooke?" Fighting4Fun replied: - "Yes it is. And there are at least three of those restaurant franchise on this street." It took me a while to contain my laughter, but I guess I can't resist a terrible pun. π When we got back from the restaurant, the schedule changed. Everybody was tired. We probably ate too much, drank too much. There were some missing gi matches that still needs to be fulfilled, but they were all canceled. We shifted the planned schedule to a personal request zone. It was filming or photography time :) WrestlinBoi asked me if I could help him do a scenario where he pins me, flexes over his victory, gets full nelsoned by his partner and I gut punch him in revenge. Hey, compared to the stuff I've been doing, this is a very easy scenario to perform. I was more than happy to oblige. In return, he allowed me to perform on him and Zodikry a separate rack on each of them. He also lifted me in a knee backbreaker with gut punching... in which I farted for real. π¨ Hey, we just ate! π
CanWrestle and I also filmed a match up that he posted on WatchFighters: https://www.watchfighters.com/posts/canwrestle_vs_lb200-chvsswdd I know.. there's a price, but please support him. π In the meantime, here's a camel clutch and a bearhug from the match. π I didn't notice until much later how bruised I am in this picture. All the sub matches left marks on my skin, but it does add some form of realism to the pic. π
We took it easy for the remainder of the evening. The wrestlers mentioned how they get recording custom requests that they occasionally fulfill and all the intricacies of the different holds, maneuvers and interests they need to cover to realize those requests. I went back to my hotel feeling not as tired today compared as yesterday. I actually felt 50% less tired than the day before, because, throughout the day, I was able to pace out my stamina between my matches more carefully, slowly calculating when I should expense more energy and when it is best to preserve it, maybe give up a bit sooner to avoid that overflow that would have drained too much energy for nothing. I looked myself in the mirror and noted all the bruises. It does not hurt at all: I have a skin condition where my skin marks easily and it looks like I'm bruised, but I'm not. I guess it's sort of a sensitive skin reaction? Most of those simili-bruises are pressure caused by the Gi when it is aggressively pulled outwards or push inwards. If the simple soft fabric of a Gi can do this, then I guess you can imagine what pressure without fabric does. π
On my back, I had larger vertical marks. The wrestlers all thought I was getting whipped... by Fighting4Fun. Fighting4Fun defended himself saying that the marks on my back was there before we started our match on Friday.... so I finally figured it out afterwards that it was caused by wearing my knapsack for a long period of time. Either I get bruises from pressure or from prolonged wearing/carrying. Monday April 11 2022 We all met one last time at our host to exchange our goodbyes for this event. I gave everybody I could a bearhug. Zodikry wanted to give me one, but I caught him in one first. π Fighting4Fun drove me back to Montreal and he spoke to me about his personal life and I shared mine as well. He is at his most humble and down to earth state among all the times I've seen him. He's still very optimistic about wrestling submission-style despite his age. His next goal is to travel to California or to Brazil to meet the many opponents that are waiting for him. He also suggested that I come back a week-end to wrestle him and his students. All in all, I had a wonderful trip. Despite being worried about the state of my shoulder, the wrestling I had was safe and it gave me a boost and signal that I am ready to attend future events. This still makes me realize that my days as a submission wrestler are numbered. I'll try to take advantage of it as most as I can, and people like Fighting4Fun and CanWrestle are there to show me that if they can still tangle competitively, so can I. Here's to hoping that I can attend new wrestling events soon and hopefully travel outside Canada. I went to see Lumber_Jack_G on my return to Montreal after the event and we had a small and light tumble. In his opinion, the bruises/scars on my chest and shoulders were making me a bit more attractive and a bit more believable as a wrestler. π | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 328 | |||||||||||||||
| Saturday March 19 2022 - Coming out | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| So, about two weeks ago, I finally told my mom that I'm gay. I know... I'm 41 years old, my mom lives with me, I probably should have done this sooner, but you know... she's very conservative, very religious, goes to mass every day... I knew it would break her heart, but it was necessary given the tension I had with the rest of my family. We had a disagreement on how she should be handled given her semi-autonomous status and the gradual, continual loss of her autonomy. Regardless, she took it rather well... She said she knew it, she prayed every day still that I wasn't. She did ask me why I like men. And she told me that regardless of my orientation, I should still ago to church and she even mentioned that the pope once said that who is he to judge gay people? Ironically, a couple of years ago, she brushed that pope away because of that sentence, saying that he was too liberal. Hey, people do change with time. Come to think of it, even if she was really against my orientation (which I'm sure, she still is), there's not much she can do about it because she's very dependent on me. 20 years ago, I'd probably be kicked out and no longer considered from being her son, but now she needs me to do the simplest thing like renewing her medication, getting her a few groceries, paying her bills or calling the doctor to inquire about a pain she's been having because she's unable to do these simple tasks herself. For the record, she's 74. All in all, It's a big step. It doesn't mean that I can bring wrestlers at my place, but it gives her peace of mind. For example, I can now tell her that I will sleepover at my boyfriend's... whereas all this time, she thought I was perhaps walking in the village or frequenting bars and that one day, I might come back home getting beaten up, with perhaps blood dripping from my mouth or having a black eye... Yeah no worries about that, I go to bars maybe once in a blue moon, usually when I have visitors in town. I don't go on a weekly or daily basis like the piece of figment of fear and imagination she's been having. π So, what did I tell her all this time when I go meet wrestlers or when I take a flight to go to a wrestling event? Well... the usual cracked up stuff: I'm going to New York city or Atlanta for business, my work is sending me there, I will be coming home late tonight because of overtime... blah blah blah. She obviously didn't believe it, but it's not as if she couldn't do anything about it. She did inquire with my sisters, but they have always brushed the question away. Mind you, my mom is an extraordinary person for she was able to raise 3 kids on her own, working numbingly for 40 years in the same place she hated, where she was ostracized (ironically) by people of the same ethnicity. Her kids mean everything to her. She can't speak French, nor English, yet she still managed to survive, raise us and see us flourish. I didn't tell her yet that I wrestle though... are you crazy? π I do remember asking though when I was younger if it watch okay to watch people fighting on TV (not to say the word "wrestle"... you know, this could include boxing, UFC, or just a plain TV series like Batman) and she did tell me that I shouldn't. It's just not okay according to her to watch people fighting TV even if it's fake (so I guess this would include the "KaPows!" in Batman). There is still a long way ahead, but the biggest chunk is done. We don't go into specifics and that's understandable, it will still take some time. However, I no longer lie to her when I say I go out or with whom I go out with. I also no longer have to say that if I cut my hair, that it was a gurl who cuts my hair, because if it was a guy who cuts my hair, it apparently immediately would make me gay, because that's the stereotype that's engraved into her mind. π Mind you, the same applies if I hangout with friends that are guys... let alone, tumble with them. π€ΌββοΈ | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 326 | |||||||||||||||
| Sunday November 22 2020 - Lb200 | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| Initially, I called myself Loserboy because of how my first opponent called me. Hey, he was way bigger than I am. I guess I wanted to partly hide the "Loserboy" term so contracted it to "Lb". However, most sites would only accept a minimum amount of 3-5 characters as a requirement, so I added 200 as a random number which results to "Lb200". Over the years, people were confused with my name. I got rejected a few times because they thought my weight was 200 lbs, which could make perfectly sense even though back then I was between 150 to 160 lbs. Others read through the name (and my pics) clearly and didn't want to wrestle a total jobber, which I have to admit, is what the pseudonym tends to give as a first impression. I did fight over the years to demonstrate that I can more than often take the opposite side: be a heel, be the stronger one that some wanted me to be. Of course, I had that one little instance that traumatized me a bit when I asked a wrestler if we could have a match. He responded: "You have the reputation of injuring people." Wow. Um... I have no idea what has been discussed behind closed doors.  If only I could show how I can be nice and gentle on many of my holds. I've also trained a few wrestlers on how to apply moves the correct way. I'm not the best coach, but the strict minimum I have is a good start. Recently, a potential opponent just made me realize a good alternative answer behind my Lb200 username: Loserboy of 200 matches! I can be a heel, but I am a jobber at heart. I may have lost this many matches, but that doesn't mean I can't win some... And truth be told.. I never counted. It may well be that behind those 200 losses, there is a secret 100 wins!  With matches I fought during the years, some would call me Winnerboy or ScissorBoy. As new wrestling networks are being created, I've started reserving acronyms like FNBS which stands for Full Nelson Body Scissors, another of my favorite hold. I recently also tried RackerMTL, since the rack appears to attract a lot of eyes. It is a synonym of strength, even though I consider it a cheat because it is just a question of balancing one's weight on your shoulders.  Lastly, I've learned not to be concerned with what others think. You choose the name you are most happy with and if people on your profile are curious or want to wrestle you, then they'll ask you for the history behind your pseudonym. Don't judge a book by its cover.  | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 303 | |||||||||||||||
| Sunday May 24 2020 - Moving out.. | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
After 20 years of living in the same place, my family has decided to move my mom out of her current house because it will be in her best interest on the long term. She is starting to become very old and pretty dependent on her children. We also have bad experience with her neighbors that we just can't seem to get along. The world isn't perfect.  I normally wouldn't agree on undertaking such a tremendous task like this during a planetary crisis, but sometimes, we need to take risks. Big moves like these are never fun, but sometimes, big risks can pay off. Going to a wrestling event is a big risk for example. I remember at my first event, I felt lonely, knew nobody, but I discovered that there were great people out there, willing to include me in their circles and help me experience and cherish the great world of wrestling and all its wonderful people. Events and memories like these inspire me to take risks elsewhere. It's a little fire that sparks and becomes big... it makes anyone want to try out all the flavor of ice cream, uh I mean wrestling, that is out there. Again, stay safe and be patient, soon, we can all go and wrestle again. Thanks for checking out and reading my blog, I'll still continue to post minor entries on the months to come. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 291 | |||||||||||||||
| Saturday April 4 2020 - Staying inside... | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| It's during times like this that we don't realize how much freedom we have and how much we miss it when we no longer have it. Like everybody else, I'm staying inside waiting for the events to unfold and for the current crisis to pass. I should consider myself very lucky because my workplace forces everyone to work from home. Not everyone has this luxury. It also does make me more eager to wrestle once this is over. I do want to travel, meet the wrestlers I've talked for years, but never had a chance to meet.... Or meet again those that I haven't fought for years. But yeah, nobody knows when we will be able to do this again. I used to be a hermit and stayed indoors for months playing video games for hours on end until 3 AM and then realized that online RPG games were just destroying my grades back in university. So, I guess I'm not too bothered by the current state of affairs, I still play games, but in a limited way. I guess nowadays, I spent a bit more time on YouTube or other video sharing sites instead looking for matches that gives me ideas on what holds I can apply (or being subjected to) and what scenarios I could write. This gives me more time to work on the site as well. Most of the blog is up while the personals is lagging a bit behind, because it was important for me to lift myself up before I can lift others. I see people browse and send wrestling messages more often these days. It does add up to the anticipation of being able to meet and wrestle again. I guess this is also a nice opportunity to get to know your wrestlers better. I also see more people turn towards virtual matches, or send more videos and photos, which of course still will never replace the real thing, but they do ease down the tension. Those that would never reply to my messages before would suddenly talk to me all of a sudden. I guess when the world changes or when it gives the impression that it is near the brink of extinction, there is less cherry picking between wrestlers.  Hey, I'm not blaming them and I'm not complaining either.Some of us probably wish this was all of a dream... and that you would wake up the next morning and everything is nice and normal. And I'm curious: what happened to Globalfight's personals? In spite of all this, this event while limiting and dividing us physically all apart, it does mentally and emotionally bring us closer in some way. Whether it is from interacting online more often, calling them, thinking about them or wanting to meet when things go back to normal, whether it is wrestlers, friends or family. Anyhow, guys, please stay well and safe. We'll all go through this and we'll probably wrestle more or be willing to travel to wrestle more once all of this is over. We might even train and fight harder because of this. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 288 | |||||||||||||||
| Monday February 17 2020 - When a friend hangs the towel... | Some thoughts | ||||||||||||||
| I had a wrestling friend who is in his mid-40s. Very good shape for his age, he occasionally takes martial arts classes. We used to wrestle about two or three times a year. He told me recently that his wrestling days are finally over. What? He's more active than I am and he's still young. How did it come to this? What happened? Part of the chores required for his daily work consists of lifting boxes and his doctor finally told him that it has taken a very big toll on his body.... especially his back. The doctor also told him that wrestling is also no longer an option. It's incredible how everything can change all of a sudden... in one day, in one week or in one month. Life throws a curve ball at you and suddenly, you need to let go one of your deepest or greatest passions. I told him that we could still meet to perhaps, take it easy, trade light holds... maybe cuddle? We'll see how it goes. I guess the summary of this blog entry is that you should take advantage of life and enjoy wrestling while you still can... Keep your wrestling friends close and keep in touch with them often. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 283 | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday January 28 2020 - Roller-coaster | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| Ooof... Quite a roller-coaster isn't it? First, I change my job after staying 9 years at the same place, and then the site goes down. I should consider myself lucky. Had this happened a few years back, I probably would have been very distraught and very stressed. It's just recently, this one pep talk that my ex-colleague gave me that kinda triggered a sudden change on how I view things... He told me: "Listen, you live in North America, not in some third world country where you work under 30 bucks a month in a coal mine, a factory or in sweat shops bleeding your hands making running shoes. I was like you, afraid of change, wanting to stay at the same place all my life. Looking only for stability. Then I discovered that there are plenty of good things out there, way greater than the things you have right now. Change is good, but even if it is bad, you live in a place where you can easily stand back up and try again." When the site went down, sure, I was shocked, but I realized that this was my opportunity to rebuild it the way I should have done it 10 years ago. I'm also in a country where I can share my views and opinions freely. Had I created this site in my country of my parents' origin, I probably would have been marginalized, jailed or maybe even executed. Hence, I find it important that the site lives on so I can show others who cannot express their views and opinions that they can fight for it so they can one day do the same thing as I do. If my site can bring them some ounce of hope, joy and happiness, it's absolutely worth it! On the main page of the site, I used the analogy that the site is like a store front. Someone throws a stone and then a Molotov cocktail and then, you need to temporarily close your shop, repair your store, build something that (hopefully) repels stones and cocktails. Over the past two decades, I've seen so many sites being closed or destroyed in the IT world that I knew this was coming soon or later. As long as I'm ready for it and as long as I can still pick up the pieces and rebuild it, then I'm fine with it. The web is like a game of cat and mouse. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to build it and very few people actually recognize how much work it is. But the few people that do realize this have sent me great messages of support. I even had a message from a developer who wanted to help rebuild the site. I have letters from people ready to give donations and others who are willing to provide any type of assistance to bring the site back online. All of this means a lot me. It's more than what I need to concentrate and dedicate myself this year to bring Bearhugger.net back for everyone!  By the way, while the blog may seem to be back online, keep in mind that many links to pictures and clips are broken. I'll try to restore this as soon as I can. My top priority though is still the Wrestling Personals. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 281 | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday September 3 2019 - Beardrooler comic | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| If you have a moment, have a look at Beardrooler's comic entitled "Wrestling Story #1". Beardrooler drew this all by himself. He's very talented in my opinion. He contacted me last week and told me that the comic was actually based on me. He was inspired by one of my video clips. *blush* I was really touched... After reading it, I did notice that he did use the Full Nelson Body Scissors as well as the Full Nelson Grapevine. Two of my favorite holds. I seldom employ the Sleeper because of my lack of training and proper use for it, but it does make for a good ending for his comic strip. I guess, like me, Beardrooler has an affinity for size differences. I asked Beardrooler what gave him his inspiration. I thought it was the clip with Timnbama, but to my surprise, it was actually the Clip against Wrestle123. That made me realized that I do have quite a few videos with Wrestle123 (id 8009) that I haven't posted yet. Hence, I took some time today to upload this Fireman's carry with a count out pin under [  Clip ID 381. ] | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 264 x 4 | |||||||||||||||
| Saturday June 29 2019 - In progress: Cubby vs Loserboy | In progress | ||||||||||||||
| After 7 months, I've decided I'll take some time to sit down and write a scenario for the match I had with Cubby (id 4578) in November 2018. The last match I wrote before that was in December 2018, so it's not too bad. Usually, it takes me a whole year before I splurge out a new scenario. Anyhow, It's done. It took me 6 hours to sort/pick/resize the pictures, write the story, re-arrange the sections, do a few editing passes and put it all together. Phew. I've sent it to Cubby for approval and I'm waiting for his reply. The story might still change depending on his feedback. That being said, I won't post the match publicly yet until he gives me the "ok". For this blog entry, I took the liberty to include four pictures that has different frame shots than the ones I've included in the match. Since my camera was configured to shoot rapidly in a short time lapse, I usually pick anywhere from two to five pictures of the same hold in a set of twenty. What happens with the other shots? Well, I take another one or two to post it here and I discard the rest. They are usually trash because the hold was being prepared, someone closed their eyes, I was doing a weird grimace or I ended up laughing or smiling too much. Mind you, you'll notice that in the pics I select for any given match, I still smile too much, but that's because I really don't have any other pics I could use to replace them. And wrestling is supposed to be fun anyway and you guys know that I don't take myself seriously when I write these scenarios or take the pictures.  WolfJobber (id 8490) once told me that my wrestling matches scenarios are very campy and I absolutely intend to leave them that way. So here are a few: we'll start with me putting on a Reverse Indian Deathlock on Cubby. What better moment to show who's the boss? I really love Cubby's expression here.
I'm probably very obnoxious with this nipple hold on Cubby, but he is really irresistible and I don't find that many wrestlers that are into nipples... so... I'm gonna take advantage of it.  Plus, Cubby seems to cooperate very well, expressing sorrow in an otherwise pleasurable hold.
I know what you're thinking. Does Cubby even fight back at all? Well, of course he does. Here, Cubby shows his newfound strength by lifting me up and carrying me around. *blush* Cubby can always lift carry me anytime wherever and whenever he wants. 
Finally, Cubby combines his knee backbreaking skills with a little claw on the gut! For him, I am light as a feather. He pulled this out with ease.
I'm gonna run the risk of repeating myself, but I'll do it again anyway: Cubby gives me hope that handsome wrestlers his age and generation can still show respect, honor the agreed schedule and travel hours to have a match with you. Cubby is a a very good and kind wrestler, so I hope you guys will get a chance to wrestle him too one day if you ever make it to Florida. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 252 | |||||||||||||||
| Sunday June 2 2019 - Quebec: After 6 months | Recent matches | ||||||||||||||
| My last match with EvilDark was actually in December 2018. We usually meet once a season, so I'm way past due. Our last winter has been brutal so I didn't want to risk traveling where trains, buses and planes are the perfect places to catch another cold/flu strain. Luckily, summer is at doorsteps, so I took a quick train ticket and spend a week-end in Quebec City. I've decided to walk a bit from the train station to my friend's house, but I accidentally lost the new elbow pads and one of the trunks I've just bought because my bag was open. Stupid and silly me. I've learned not to dwell on it. It's just gear that I can buy again. For the first time ever, I am now officially heavier than EvilDark. He weighs 160 lbs and after eating his soup, I was weighing 165 lbs. Ooof. I guess that now makes me the heel, which is obviously something EvilDark would never accept. Incidentally, to make fun of it, he started rubbing my belly and calling me Buddha... rubbing it would grant him a wish: the wish for the St. Louis Blues to beat up the Boston Bruins in hockey in the Stanley Cup finals. That unfortunately didn't work because the Blues lost 2 to 7. It's only the third match of the series though, but Boston now leads 2-1. I guess rubbing me gives you bad luck. Anyhow, EvilDark kindly took me out for a bike ride along the St. Lawrence river for a 22 km (14 miles) hike. We were lucky enough to do this on one of the best sunny and warm day this year. Yet, it was not too warm, not too cold, and we had a nice breeze to cheer us up and move us along. It's not the distance that was a challenge though, it is rather Quebec's steep inclines, large hills that makes pedaling up and down quite a workout. EvilDark also purposely took this road to send me a subliminal message that I need to take advantage of this hopefully beautiful summer to lose a couple of extra pounds.  Back to his place, we switched to wrestling gear and tumbled around. My previous match with Scontca allowed me to understand better how to apply figure-four head scissors. That little rotation or tilting to the right does wonder. That being said, I've probably put EvilDark in his longest head scissor session than I've ever did in the past 15+ years we've known each other.
One thing I really appreciate from EvilDark is his constant creative thinking. He always find new ways to torture me. Take this cobra clutch body scissor combo for instance. It is an absolute heavenly thing to be crushed in...
You can take a look at the video in [ Clip ID 374. ] Evildark really shows you how to make the most of a good body scissors. You'll also see my hysterical laugh from the pain... yeah, I know, I'm weird, but the pain you get from body scissors is something that makes me laugh. If you do a quick release, it will cause a pain spike. Your ribs are then sore for a short amount of time. There can be a long term impact if not done properly, but EvilDark is a scissor expert, so the pain is almost always short-term. We also tried something a bit different: I've put on the Phantom of the Opera theme song and EvilDark squeezes me in a body scissor at the same level as Christine's intensity of her final chant. Actually, the higher her pitch, the stronger the scissors. Near the end, the pitch goes quite a bit high... It's quite funny. It's better to experiment about it than to read about it obviously. The week-end went very fast and the next thing I know is that I was back on the train towards Montreal. I've suggested to EvilDark that he comes up to Montreal next time so he can have a match with Sylvain (id 2636) and Vicious (id 5128). Maybe I can get Marty (id 6169) in, too. This last pic shows that I've already arrived in Montreal's central train station.  So what am I doing now? Writing this blog entry, of course, before I forget it... By the way, this is the longest my hair and beard has ever been. It takes 2 months to grow this, that's because of my genes obviously. I'm trimming and shaving it all down in 2 days. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 249 | |||||||||||||||
| Friday February 9 2018 - Growlr and Tindr | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| I've been a like bit more active on applications like Growlr and Tinder recently.. just giving it a try and a bit more love to it. A friend told me that these applications are sometimes used by wrestlers as well. They simply put in their profiles that they only want to wrestle or would like to be directed towards wrestlers. It apparently works very well for them. In my case, I'm starting by posting a single sentence in my profile: "Looking for cuddling or wrestling." When people ask for more pictures, I actually end up pointing to my blog. It's really funny to see how the majority of them gets scared right away and they no longer reply. That's fine by me. Wrestling is a hard criteria to satisfy and if they can't understand the wrestling persona I'm adopting and the fun behind it, then perhaps those people are not for me and they are better suited for people that fits their interests. I have to admit, it doesn't help that in some of my pictures, I just flex like an idiot or I do that threatening stance where I am about to punch someone... or that mean look that I always do in most of my pictures. It kinda reminds me when this wrestler told me, "Ah, that's the look you do in your pics." He made me lose my concentration and I ended up bursting in laughter. He shortly made me tap after that.. the cheater! But it was all in good fun. Anyway, in the very few I've met through these online applications and the very few that accepted me for who I am, at least one of them ended up registering on MeetFighters and you know what? It's one baby step at a time and it feels good. It's telling someone that there's no fear to experience your passion no matter your location in the world and no matter how different you think you are from the rest of the world. There will always be communities catering to what your heart holds dear. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 182 | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday January 16 2018 - No fest for me this year... | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| I won't be attending the Wrestlefest of NYC this year. This is a decision I might regret because I've been contacted by quite a few wrestlers that I would like to tumble with again. I also received messages from new wrestlers that I would have wanted to wrestle. A combination of work and family commitments are telling me that it would be a wiser decision to stay in Montreal for the month of February. However, things are looking very good for a possible travel in Atlanta for the 22nd Clash of the Titans in end of May/beginning of June 2018. I'll try to post more about this soon. Meanwhile, for all attendees to the fest, I'll be missing you guys and I hope you guys will have lots of fun. Think of me by putting on those bearhugs, scissors and don't forget about those racks too! | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 179 | |||||||||||||||
| Saturday November 25 2017 - Uncommon holds | Some pictures | ||||||||||||||
| I'm uploading today images from uncommon holds... meaning holds I rarely post online. Not because I don't want to post them, but rather because I'm a bit unoriginal and usually post the same stuff... you know, my typical bearhugs, scissors, racks, you know them. So to make things slightly different, take for example this Figure-Four Leglock. I locked it on MustangCowboy (id 11699) since it's his absolute favorite hold. He actually reversed it, so I'm the one who's supposed to feel the pain.. at least, I have to try to sell it. I think I'm smiling so no, I'm not really doing a good job. It's a bit hard to sell it if this hold actually tickles me and makes me laugh.
You usually don't see me put a Schoolboy Pin... well, actually I did post one previously, but just one. This pin is courtesy of RochesterRasssler from Globalfight. You guessed it, that's his favorite hold.
The Reverse Indian Deathlock is actually a common hold with me, but I don't usually post this because it's hard to get the right angle for it. Needless to say, I am quite happy with how it came out with MarcWrestler (id 3658). I also like the expression I'm using. Now I'm halfway there to become the heel that many want me to be.
Last, but not least, here's VinnyDevine (id 3389) in action with Ted's Diabiase finisher: The Million Dollar Dream, also known as the Cobra Clutch. Vinny also posted this on his Globalfight profile so I felt it was safe to post it here.
I absolutely wanted to make a post today because it is a symbolic post for me. It is the last day I am making a blog entry from my old apartment. I'm now moving on to a new place. Almost all my boxes are ready. It's a new milestone in my life and it's a good time for me to reboot and to start over. No worries, this blog will remain unchanged and I will still continue posting new stuff. Be-Bear (id 2910) came to me and said: He gave me a long and warm embrace, and through this hug, I saw the 8 years we've been together as boyfriends, as exes, as friends and finally as roommates. All the great moments we've had together slowly passed through my mind: the cuddles, the fun times, the match, the trips, the laughs we've had together... We both would have wanted this to last longer, but we've both agreed that it is best if we both part ways and move on with our lives. But these memories will forever be imprinted in me. Hey, I even have this clichΓ© pic we took in Mexico to remember him.  Be-Bear had a wicked sense of humor and his personality matched mine very well. In the least, we part on good terms and he suggested that we see once every two weeks to hang out. Sometimes, life is about making the hard, but the right decisions... | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 165 | |||||||||||||||
| Sunday July 2 2017 - BeastMtl vs Loserboy | Scenarios | ||||||||||||||
| I took opportunity of our three day Canada day week-end to write down a scenario/story for one of my previous matches. As I mentioned in a past blog entry, my match with BeastMtl (id 10067) was the one I wanted to write next. I got the approval pretty quickly from BeastMtl, so you can now access it under Match ID 330. Here are two images that I couldn't include in the story. This one below is a full nelson camel clutch combination, one of my favorite combo holds to be caught in. It has to be done properly though because you can easily burn or pinch the skin due to friction between your arms and the opponent's shoulders. Needless to say, BeastMtl applied it like a pro. I didn't put this pic because I felt that I already had a good set of camels included in the match.
This hold below is very technical. It's that professional armbar submission you often see in UFC. The angle was just inappropriate. I either should have placed the camera differently or I should have asked for a photographer to take this picture. We were only us two, so my friend the tripod was the only unresponsive and immobile photographer...
To finalize the set, here's a nice sleeper that *is* included in the match. I selected this one because I like my struggling expression... hehehe.
Believe it or not, despite all the moves being placed on me, I do get to put a couple of holds on BeastMtl for about a little bit less than half the match. In any case, you probably know the drill by now. In the matches I invent nowadays, I most often get to throw in a few attacks before I get completely overthrown and overpowered. I need to change this format, but sometimes I lack the inspiration. It's also because I enjoy this style. I have to respect my nickname after all.. In any case, I hope you guys will enjoy the match as much as I enjoyed writing it. Next up in my queue is the match against CanWrestle (id 9693). I need to sit down for a couple of hours and write it down. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 136 | |||||||||||||||
| Wednesday April 26 2017 - No harm done :) | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| So, apparently, one of the guys I've wrestled at the Clash got some trouble because of what I have posted about my bruises in my blog entry about the Clash of last year. I did not explicitly mentioned in that particular blog entry who gave me the bruises, but I suppose people that attended the event were able to deduce who it was. So, let me rectify that in the heat of the moment, bruises happen in wrestling, they are accidents and they are NOT intentional. Whatever I had that day was very minor. I do not hold any grudges against the opponent that gave me those scars or bruises. In fact, I will certainly wrestle him again in the future. I've known him to be a formidable wrestler and I also know that it was not his intention to hurt me either. The only reason I even talk about my bruises is to encourage you guys to take steps to be careful with your opponent. Safety first. In wrestling, we always do our best to protect our opponents from harm. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 129 | |||||||||||||||
| Monday April 24 2017 - Home setup | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
This is my home setup (or workstation). It consists of one desktop connected to two screens in extended mode and one laptop that I always take with me during my wrestling travels. When I come back from a trip, it goes back here and I re-sync up everything. On the back, you'll see a couple of my trophies from the Clash. The mostly hidden Stormtrooper unit near my head is actually holding my Monica Lewinsky medal, which I am not ashamed at all to have or to show off (even though my shoulder is hiding it partially, not on purpose, I swear! You can still see the white, red and blue ribbon though). You can then spot the toys that uncovers my geeky video game side: there's Pikachu on the left, a fake Mario mushroom near the top and the T-shirt I am currently wearing is Ryu Hayabusa's eyes from the first Ninja Gaiden on the NES. The pile of DVD spindles, covers and envelopes you see is very old school, I know. The binders actually contain a lot more DVDs. I need to convert all this crap into content I can access from external hard drives. Most of these DVDs contains data I almost no longer use. This was at the time where I ordered entire WCW/WWF seasons just to access two or three shows that actually have bearhugs in it. There's also near the mushroom one of my few remaining VHS tape. I just looked into it and it's JPWA's February Fallout. It's worth nothing now, not to mention that my last videotape player is now broken so I can no longer read what's on that tape anymore. If you see the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary book on the right hand side, underneath it is that broken videotape player (it's actually a VHS tape to DVD converter), plus two DVD players (who uses those anymore?). Yes, I guess I'm due for a cleanup, but these old clunky devices are great to hold my monitors in place. In case you're wondering, the red thing on the left is a safe that contains... Mars mini-chocolate bars. To make a long story short, I hide these chocolate because my roommate Be-Bear (id 2910) is diabetic and he'd often go in my room to steal chocolates.... Sounds like a lame excuse, I know. On the middle screen that has characters that look like it came from a Matrix movie, it is simply running Bash on Ubuntu on Windows 10. The right screen is currently on my blog and the left screen is on the main page of bearhugger.net - it is currently showing the Top 30 vote ranking contender stats... nothing important, really. Near my elbow, you'll see another DVD spindle, but under it is three external hard drives of 4 TB (Terabyte) each. They contain both personal and site backups, backups of backups, software, shitty games, multimedia content (video, music, photos) and a lot more junk. Not shown in this photo under the desk is two more external hard drives of 4 TB. You can never have too many of those... Plus, memory is so cheap nowadays that I got one for free when I opened a box of Frosted Flakes cereal ... Just kidding. The books holding the screens make my setup very ghetto and unstable. A friend asked me if I would be afraid of earthquakes making my screens fall... I actually never been through one yet with this current setup, so I can't tell. Beneath the screens, keyboard and mouse is more books and plastic containers that elevate my setup. Yes, this is a standing setup. I already sit about 40 hours a week, so I prefer to stand up when I use a computer at home. I also like to think that standing makes my body scissors (and consequently, my head and leg scissors) stronger. When I actually do work on the site, I would usually only do it with my desktop and invest about 30 minutes a day, mostly on the main sections of the site which consists of approving profiles, entries and images, replying to mail and occasionally adding new content. On week-ends, I could spend anywhere between two to six hours depending on what I do, but it is not uncommon that I would take a break and not touch the site for a couple of days, or a whole week-end. On my blog, for example, I spent a hour today updating the title animations you currently see at the top of this page and on the other ones (pics, clips, matches, bearhugs, etc.). It seems like a lot of time for something minor, but for me, every detail counts. It's what makes the site different and not taken from a template like every Facebook, Tumblr or Instagram account. You'd think after 18 years, I'd put this away, but no, I've already put so much into it and it represents a lot of my time and sweat, my life and my passion so I'm not ready to let it go. I'll stick to it for quite a long while and I know I still have a long road ahead. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 127 | |||||||||||||||
| Sunday March 5 2017 - 2 matches | Recent matches | ||||||||||||||
| I met Vicious (id 5128) again yesterday. He was all out to work on part 2 of our previous match, mentioning that some people told him that I should get a punch in the crotch (a fake one of course, thank goodness) or be caught in a Tree of Woe. It was too late for a ring rental. Rentals are usually made at least a week in advance, that way I don't disrupt too much Bella's schedule... so instead, we met for the traditional 4 hours match. I told him to take it easy this time around, and in any case, he was recovering from a flu. According to him, a combination of coughing and me applying a body scissors may have caused some muscle pain near his ribs. Oops. He'll take it easy for the next weeks. I did tell him that pics aren't necessary each time we meet, so we simply laid low and relaxed, occasionally trading a few holds. Vicious was kind enough to let a one week beard grow. In my honest opinion, he looks great with one... but then again I'm biased and as far as I'm concerned, a lot more people prefer guys that are clean-shaven. I guess I'm part of those weird guys that thinks the opposite. I won't be seeing him sporting any beards soon because his working field requires a bit more professionalism, hence, the razor comes daily into play. Booo. Today, I had a 2 hours ring rental with BeastMtl (id 10067). Both pro and sub were on the menu, but trial and error was also part of the goal. It was a good time to experiment. It helps that BeastMtl has a very imaginative mind, capable of improvising and coming up with new holds. BeastMtl had the great idea of taking shots first... because the last two times I met him, we wrestled sub and we were then too tired in the end to take pictures. After having learned our lessons, we've decided to take the camera out and BeastMtl was a very good sport to do traditional shots like the bearhug, the rack and the camel. BeastMtl prefers his bearhugs with the arms in, because the opponent is helpless and he cannot defend himself (like hitting the opponent's head with the arms for example). I suppose you could still use a head butt... but I'm sure I would hurt myself in the process. Both BeastMtl and I agreed that this bearhug was particularly a very nice shot compared to the other ones that were taken:
I obviously won't let BeastMtl go away before putting him in my infamous rack.
One of BeastMtl's favorite hold is the camel clutch.
Oddly enough, it's after I placed the camera away that BeastMtl came out with absolutely excellent action poses and held me in all sorts of amazing holds that I would have wanted to capture.. but, meh... It will be for another time. As the name implies, BeastMtl is pretty strong. In pro, he lifted me with ease in an Argentine Backbreaker (that's the rack that is done on one shoulder, the one that is done over both shoulders is called the Canadian Backbreaker). He also got me in a rare inverted bearhug and then an even rarer reverse-inverted bearhug. When we were doing sub, I stopped doing my leg locks on him because his legs are so strong that he just reverses the hold in such a way that it hurts me instead. With boots, it's just worse. I'm tangled, can't get out and have to work hard to get my legs and feet free before I do anything else. He's also one of the few guys I've fought where my body scissors with full nelson are kind of useless... until he gets very tired. Then, maybe I can get that one little submission in there, but that is, yes, kind of a cheat. With a nickname like Loserboy, you'd have to expect me to cheat once in a while, right? Hehehe... I was taking a few profile shots of me since I never took them with this somewhat unconventional combo of a gear for a ring... It's more a sub's gear than pro, except for the boots and kneepads. BeastMtl did tell me that some of my poses were a bit clichΓ© and common (like the one with a foot on one rope), so I've decided to try out something a bit different.
I'm actually quite happy with this one. I probably should replace my current profile picture with that one above, but then again I'm going to scare the shit out of many wrestlers just because of my leather gloves. However, overall, I do look less menacing and somewhat playful, don't you think? I'm thinking now that I should have also taken a side shot where I'm shooting a hadoken fireball from my hands... but that artistic photoshopping business (or silliness) will be reserved for another time. I'm writing this down as a side note, but I just realized that I completely missed adding a blog entry about my match with Anonymous on Monday Feb 13 2017. I can't talk about this much, because his domain on journalism requires him to be a bit hidden from public view (how ironic!). All I can say is that he toughened up by a LOT since our last match and that I now recall that I should not give him free full nelsons... This is where I am facing down on the mattress and he climbs on top of me and latches his full nelson behind me. With a weight of 260-270 lbs on me, I obviously can't do a thing... and for some reason, that makes my opponent extremely happy. | |||||||||||||||
| Blog ID 110 | |||||||||||||||
| Sunday August 14 2016 - Montreal Gay Pride Parade with Gaymer Zone | Blog entry | ||||||||||||||
| So, I participated today for the first time in a parade. This is the 10th Montreal Gay Pride parade and I heard that we made history because the Canadian prime minister (along with many other political figures) was there to walk with us about a few cars down ahead of our float. Apparently, no other Canadian prime minister before this one ever did this... I actually didn't know of this until I went back home after the parade was over. Anyway, this parade was an event I really didn't want to miss. I mean attending it is one thing... but being part of it for the first time is completely different. I canceled off my train and replaced it with a bus ticket in order to get back from Ottawa to Montreal earlier. That way, I would have enough time to join the crew for the float I was part off. It made the difference between returning to Montreal at 1 pm or returning at 10:30 am. I walked along with many of the players from the Gaymer Zone because I felt they best reflect some of the other things I like to do. The Gaymer Zone encourages people to get out from their living room and play the games socially with other players at the dance club/bar right here in Montreal. Half the players play competitively in games like Super Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur, etc... but the other half plays Just Dance, a game that detects your movements and requires you to follow a set choreography. This is not a strict segregation, most players will mingle on both sides. I have to admit that I've been playing a lot of Just Dance lately, in fact, I did it for the past year and I do it mainly because of the Gaymer Zone. Walking (and dancing) with them was a way to show that I am supporting them and that I'm encouraging other gay gamers to join this very friendly community. This also has obviously the added benefit of making you move and stay in shape and be social at the same time. I also have to confess that I was a bit fearful and anxious about what the crowd was thinking about us. Truth be told, I never really looked at the crowd because I was busy following the on-screen choreography instructions for the game. I heard a few giggles, but most of the time, the crowd were cheering at us and this gave us such a great and amazing boost. My only rant during the parade was that we've set the playing console to randomize the song and the system kept choosing a lot of bad bad songs. Most of the guys at the Gaymer Zone are experts on songs like Gibberish, Blame, Cool for the Summer, Circus Extreme, Chihuahua, Ievan Pollka and I'm an Albatroz, but none of these were ever randomly selected during our parade walk (dance). Instead, we get stupid songs like the William Tell Overture (it was even picked twice!?!) that was never really designed for a dance in the first place. I think the solution to this was to create a Sweat Playlist and include the Top 10 or Top 20 songs the group was comfortable with... and have the randomizer choose from that playlist. I'll try to suggest this to the organizers next time. In any case, we did occasionally get good songs, like this one called "Fancy" (I unfortunately really suck at this one). The Gaymer Zone posted this video of us dancing to it: The official Facebook page of the Montreal Pride organization also posted the full length recording of the parade. Our float is at the third minute where we dance to "Drop the Mambo": The owner also posted a series of photos which can be accessible by clicking here, but I'm pretty sure a facebook login is required. Honestly, I look terrible in the pictures. There's only these two I felt I looked okay:   Honestly, the photographer had a difficult task at hand with everyone doing weird gestures and grimaces to accompany the choreographies. Playing Just Dance is already a tough thing to do... doing it in public is a greater challenge, but the biggest challenge is that sometimes, you need to run after the pickup truck.... so you have to dance as you run!!! It's like Just Dance on treadmills! That's one of the best workouts ever! You probably won't see me well in the videos, because several players were also wearing green along with a green headband. Green reflects the base color of the Gaymer Zone, but I'm thinking next year to have a custom made t-shirt with their logo on a black background because I felt I was the only one in their group where you can see huge amount of sweat running down from my neck to the bottom of my t-shirt (so.. if I wear black, you probably won't see the sweat very well...). I don't know how they do it, but the elite players in this community are so good that they don't sweat when they dance! The Gaymer Zone community exists since at least 3 years ago. The owner, Mike Savoie, is one of the most dedicated person I've ever seen, putting all his time and commitment to this organization. I don't think anybody else can give as much heart to it than this exceptional guy. | |||||||||||||||
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