Creative Interview with Conor Charlton

I'm sitting here with Northern Irish writer and actor, Conor Charlton on a cool November morning. He's been up since 6 am and got up to train Muay Thai. I ask him about his discipline and whether this is a regular routine and he replies with a smirk "When I can. Today was a bit more about sweating out the naughtiness of the weekend. My best buddies and I went out for our pre-Christmas, Christmas drinks." His eyes smirk as much as his lips, in a way which talks of untold tales. "Should you be admitting that in an interview situation?" "Perhaps not, but perhaps honesty should be seen as the best policy. I also believe in working hard and playing hard, so I try to keep things balanced." I ask him why he's applied for the position and what makes him qualified. "I love content writing. I've been doing it since March 2021. Most of my work has been for clients on Fiverr. I've written about a wide variety of topics, martial arts, business practices, history, food and drink as well as the hospitality industry. On one occasion someone asked me to write a thousand words on LED Video walls. I ended up going on a deep dive and wrote him two thousand, enough for multiple articles. He tipped quite generously." "So it's fair to say you enjoy researching and take an interest in a variety of topics?" "Yes, absolutely. I'm curious about so many subjects. I think the most creative people tend to be, as the curiosity allows them to understand the world as a whole." "Interesting. What about business, what do you know of it?" "Well, I recently left a customer management position in one of the Big 4. I also obtained a PgCert in Business Analysis and Consulting over lockdown through Ulster University, so I have a good understanding of the various analysis tools and how they might be applied. I've written content articles about the business world before, including one which was ghostwritten for Forbes." "Forbes? That's quite impressive. Tell me about the article." "The article was to accompany a podcast episode, that looked at how business and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu overlapped. Gordon Ryan, considered one of the greatest grapplers of all time was the guest. He talked about patience, progression and analysis. Allowing your competition to make moves before you capitalized on their mistakes. Sometimes micro-movements can have big effects on your business and your position within a fight." "That's a bit different. I can see that you can't speak Spanish?" Conor pauses here to take a moment to think and reflect. There's a fleeting look of somberness. "Yes, I don't have many regrets, but I lived in Barcelona for about twenty months over a three year period. I should have spent more time going to classes and talking to South Americans and those from other parts of Spain. Catalan people are notoriously closed and also speak Catalan, which may be a beautiful language, but is much less useful than the wider spoken Castellano. I don't like to make excuses, but due to the loss of my father, I was going through a period where I focused more on the playing hard than the working hard." "That's tough, though I thank you for your honesty again." "You're welcome. Life can be that way sometimes." "Where do you see yourself in five years time?" "I'd like to be more successful in everything that I do. I also intend to have a house of my own. It's much easier to be on the property market in Belfast compared to various other spots in the UK, but it's not without its challenges. I think I'll still be content writing in some form, as it'll help feed into my fictional writing as well. It worked for David Simon and he wrote The Wire, arguably the greatest television programme ever made. Can you tell me more about the role?" At this point, I gave Conor a breakdown of the type of work we carry out, satiating his curiosity. A link to his work. https://charlto.blogspot.com/2022/11/interview-with-gordon-ryan.html

Interview with Gordon Ryan

This was originally written for Jordan Edward's Business Jiu Jitsu podcast. You can check out his website here. Some might find it strange that there is a correlation between the principles of business and the principles of a grappling based martial art such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but for Gordon Ryan, arguably the greatest submission grappler on the planet, this correlation is a lot more obvious. Over the last ten years, the 26-year-old New Jersey has spent countless hours on the mat. As a teenager, Ryan would travel all the way from the Jersey town of Monroe Township to Renzo Gracie’s Academy in Midtown New York with teammate and older brother figure, Garry Tonnon. There he would grow in both skill and mentality under the tutelage of both Renzo and philosophy PhD graduate, John Danaher. As the pound for pound grappler on the planet and current ADCC champion, Gordon has made what most would consider a fortune in both prize money and in instructional DVD sales. This success has largely been rooted in following Danaher’s own personal philosophy – “Just focus on being the best in the world and everything else is easy.” With this philosophy, he has cultivated a “never give up” mindset. This mindset can be seen in many of Ryan’s competitive matches. Back in 2017 at fourteenth Eddie Bravo Invitational event, Ryan faced off against future teammate Craig Jones. Unlike most other BJJ tournaments, there is no point system in these events and competitors must submit each other within a ten-minute round, or go to an overtime position, where one athlete is given a dominant position to mount an aggressive submission attempt. Here, Ryan found himself in Jones’ armbar, a move in which the attacker uses their hands to control of their opponent’s wrist, whilst using their legs to clamp over the defender’s face and chest in order to apply pressure on the pivot point of the elbow in order to break the arm. Most would choose to “tap out” at this point, but Gordon snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. With 10,000 dollars on the line and an undefeated EBI streak up to this point, tapping simply wasn’t on the menu for Ryan. He explains “Mechanically, because he didn’t have me in a static position, you keep working towards an escape. Same thing in life, essentially as long as you can keep moving forward in life and have a goal in mind, you’re eventually going to get there. I mean it’s going to be a rocky road but my goal was “keep working towards an escape, eventually get the elbow off the breaking fulcrum and eventually you’re going to be out and you’re going to be in offence again. Same as anything in life, work towards a goal and eventually you’ll get there.” Ryan would make a series of micro movements ““you have to keep making those micro movements and keep moving and figure a way out of it. This is something I’m looking to explore and get to the heart of it.” Ryan escaped, then submitted Craig with a deep rear naked choke, with the footage being witnessed by millions of viewers online since. This victory has done wonders for his own personal brand. Encouraging thousands to purchase his instructional videos. He speaks about this in a way marketers can understand - “You have to be entertaining in some way. Whether it’s on the mat, or inside the ring, or off the mat”. Much like the legendary boxer, Mohammed Ali, Ryan aims to be entertaining both on and off the mat. “Historically those who are exciting in and out of the ring are the most financially successful.” This has led to Ryan getting into social media “beefs” with rivals, whilst also sharing some polarizing political opinions. Despite insisting on the importance of not getting caught in the persona, he insists his aim is to “spread common sense and logic”, or encourage thought processes in “how a normal, successful person should think.” This pride in doing things his own way, and the willingness to lose sponsors if they attempt to prevent him from voicing his opinions. On both the mats and in social media comment threads, Gordon likes to apply similar tactics – “When you cause a dilemma – you put your opponents in a position where they have to choose the lesser of two evils but either way you are making them work for you.” On the mats, Gordon has done this to the highest level and made it look easy and when it comes to trash talking, when someone insults him, he will present a dilemma so that the insulter has no choice but to look stupid This concept of creating a dilemma is maybe a particularly passive aggressive way to manage a business relationship, but in the event of a hostile takeover, it may be a tactic worth considering. Gordon’s Kiwi-American coach, Danaher presented this idea during a cameo appearance on the Showtime drama “Billions”. By navigating a conversation in two ways and presenting a dilemma it may be possible to win negotiations. BJJ coaches often train their students to work as if they are following flow charts, when an opponent makes a decision, a relevant counter can be made. Over time, these moves can become ingrained in muscle memory through repetition. In business, this may be a bit like considering leverage and control, before applying it on the relevant pivot points of any negotiations or exchange. In business and Jiu Jitsu, this understanding of leverage comes from practice – whether it is a case of practicing outside heel hooks until 3 in the morning, or researching different aspects of a business. As both a dominant grappler and entertaining personality, Gordon has come to understand his own leverage within the Jiu Jitsu market. The Jiu Jitsu organizations are aware that from a financial perspective, he doesn’t have to compete. His earnings have put him in a position where he never has to step on the mats again, but his popularity means that he may well bring more eyes onto a big event than anybody else. Like many other successful people, Ryan has felt the squeeze of high state taxes issued in New York. Consequently, it’s a bigger hassle for him to fly across the country to compete for $15-20,000 than it is to stay, train and make another set of bestselling instructional videos. If they are to entice him to draw in the spectators, they need to provide the necessary respect “The King” deserves. He understands though, that respect is a two-way street. He applauds BJJ fanatics founders Mike Zenga and Bernardo Faria for their honesty and openness in conducting business. Although the sport has moved from stale high school sports halls to arenas, in part due to great broadcasters such as Flow Sports increasing the number of spectators, the Jiu Jitsu community is a relatively small and tight knit one. There is a small amount of money being fought over between competitors and organizations. If Gordon can develop a relationship with someone who isn’t mean spirited or self-centred, he can be happy. There have been various setbacks with the new gym setup in Puerto Rico and Ryan will be contemplating his business decisions over time to come. Although he isn’t overly keen on developing a gear brand in an already overly saturated market, he is interested in learning the technical side of the marketing and the technology involved. Ultimately though, he is prepared to take risks - to be successful in BJJ or business – expect your arm to get broken in half and you still have to win.

Restaurant Review Sites

This was originally written for Fiverr client Foursquaregroup Restaurant Review Sites It goes without saying that almost all of us use the internet to check if a restaurant we’re thinking about visiting is actually worth eating in. We’ll pick up a smartphone and check out the reviews of a restaurant simply by throwing its name into a search engine, or we might look for cafes in the area, particularly if we’re travelling. Maybe we want to find the best curry house in town, or we want a decent fry up to soak up a hangover, we’ll need to know the best greasy spoon in the area, in those cases, we are highly likely to use reviews to guide our decision. These review sites allow the average food muncher to pretend they’re a judge on Master Chef. There are of course an upside and downside to these sites. People like using social proof to know if a service is worth their hard-earned coin, so much so that 92.4% of customers use business review sites to aid their decision-making process. This means that if you get good reviews, you should see more custom. The downside is that opinions are much like backsides. Everyone has one. A single negative review can have way more than swathes of positive ones. Either way, it’s best to know what the review sites are, how they work and what they charge. Google Business Google is the most used website in the world. So much so, that the name of the popular search engine has been a verb that almost all of us have used in daily conversation for well over a decade. Don’t know something? Google it. Need to know if a restaurant is any good? Google it. There are an estimated 5.8 billion Google searches conducted every day. Google Business is another way that Google monetizes its dominance as the search engine. Whilst other review sites might appear on the first page of results and require you to click into the page to see the details, Google Business will show a restaurant, the address, phone number and Google user reviews are all available to see from the first search of a restaurant’s name. The main pros of Google are its ease of use and the coverage it provides. Whilst other websites, such as Trip Advisor and Yell still have to employ whole teams of search engine optimization (SEO) specialists to get their pages up the rankings, the reviews entered by Google users will appear straight away upon conducting the search. The cons of Google that unless someone directly googles the name of your restaurant, you may need your own SEO expert, website or marketing team to get high in the rankings. You might also struggle if the name of your establishment has a common name. If you’ve got an Irish bistro pub and your surname happens to be Smyth or O’Reilly, anyone looking to see if you’re good enough might end up a little confused. On the off-chance that someone uses a less popular search engine, such as Bing or Yahoo, they may be less likely to see the Google reviews. Google My Business is free for the standard listing, whilst local listings are $10 a month and premier listings are $75 per month. The local and premier listings should mean that should a Google user enter search terms which might apply to your listing, you are more likely to appear before other non-paying businesses. Local users may also encounter ads as they are browsing the web which pertains to your restaurant. It’s very easy to set up a Google account and a listing for a business can be completed within a few minutes. This listing will allow you to receive and respond to the reviews customers leave so that you can show that you are both active and customer-focused. A Google listing gives your customers a super easy option of placing an order. The drawback of a Google account is something which pertains to pretty much any review site – you’ll need to make sure the information is accurate and kept up-to-date. Yelp Founded by two former PayPal employees, Yelp has been around since the early days of mainstream internet use and has over 178 million unique visitors per month worldwide. According to one study, 49% of the reviews on-site pertain to restaurants. Another US study suggests that Yelp is so influential that for every one Yelp star, a business can see an increase of 9% in revenue. After Google results, Yelp is one of the first sites which pop up and will pop up first for the 11% of people who don’t use Google as their search engine. To add your site to Yelp, it is recommended to do the following: 1. Search for your business to make sure it's not already listed 2. If your business is not yet listed, click Add your business to Yelp 3. Enter your business information in the provided fields 4. Click Add business This is free to do but has optional paid advertising, that provides you with an enhanced profile. This can have a higher cost-per-acquisition compared to other PPC advertising such as Google or Facebook. Yelp has various pros and cons. The vast majority of people trust the reviews on the site and its large online presence means that it has great exposure and a high ranking on Google. On the other hand, various studies have shown that Yelp has a significantly high amount of false reviews (estimated between 15-20%). This has led to Yelp using a review filter system to remove the fake reviews. The downside of this is that it can also filter out positive reviews. Annoyingly, even if you haven’t claimed a Yelp listing, a business can be listed and you may receive reviews whether you wish to or not. Another con is that Yelp can be quite pushy which has seen Yelp in various legal battles over the years. Accusations of extortion and aggressive advertising have been made against the website giant, along with suspicion about whether premium sites hide negative reviews has circulated. Facebook Facebook is still the most popular social media platform on the planet. It’s particularly used by older folks who have more disposable income for nice meals out. As with Google, Facebook users can review restaurants out of five stars and holds 19% of all customer reviews online, just behind Google, Yelp and Tripadvisor. The main pro with Facebook is that you can build a page for your business, add directions, contact details, pictures, and menus and provide regular updates in order to boost engagement. Letting customers know of upcoming events and occasions on the platform can be one of the best ways to get bums on seats and stay on the radar of your locals. According to Hootsuite, 2 out of 3 Facebook users visit a local business at least once a week. For your business to receive Facebook reviews, you will need to create a page for the business. Facebook’s directions are as follows. 1. From the Pages section, click Create New Page. 2. Add your Page name and category. 3. Add your Page's bio and click Create. 4. (Optional) Add information, such as contact, location and hours, and click Next. 5. (Optional) Add profile and cover photos, edit the action button and c; ick Next. 6. (Optional) Invite friends to connect with your Page, and click Next. 7. Click Done. Facebook recommendations are public and one con is that they cannot be set to private, so if your cuisine is too niche, or not up to the standard customers are used to, this can do some reputation damage. However, on the upside, Facebook makes it quite easy for businesses to respond to both praise and criticism. The messaging service is a great two-way communication system to deal with queries and complaints directly. Like Yelp and Google, having a business page is free, but in order to receive benefits beyond having an “organic presence”, you’ll need to spend money on Ads. Facebook ads are by some metrics the best-performing ones, as you can target specific demographics based on location, age, gender and interests. You can also generate business leads by using competitions and giveaways to gather email addresses and build marketing lists. Additionally, you can monitor and improve your reach by using data from Facebook Insights to see what content works and what changes can be implemented in the future. Whilst it's a drawback that almost all of these review sites have, to make the most of the Facebook bonus, you’ll need to have staff with basic tech skills to monitor, update and respond on the platform. You may also want to have a budget to make the most of advertising options. Trip Advisor Another site that dates back to what some regard as the golden years of the internet, Trip Advisor is a travel site that offers comparison shopping, bookings of transportation, lodging, travel experiences and of course, restaurant reviews. Despite it being initially geared for those on holiday or doing some business jet-setting, Trip Advisor is, much like the other sites, often used by locals praising or admonishing services. Trip Advisor makes some things easy to gage, like price $ – fast food, self-service $$ – casual, sit-down service $$$ – more formal dining $$$$ – most expensive, special occasion Its great design is one of the reasons that the site has become so popular. Trip Advisor has become so popular that it has an eye-watering “390 million average monthly unique visitors” and whilst most of this traffic is in the US, it makes sense to ensure that your business is listed and performing well on the site. As with Yelp, there may already be a listing for your business on Trip Advisor, but I you need to add a new Trip Advisor business listing, you’d need to follow the following steps: 1. Fill Out the Form 2. Enter Your Business Information 3. Enter Your Map Location 4. Add Your Contact Information 5. Provide Property Details 6. Describe Your Property 7. Add Your Profile Photo 8. Hit “Submit As you may have guessed, it is free to place a listing on Trip Advisor, but premium listings cost a bit more. One pro of Trip Advisor is that restaurant guests can update pictures of the décor, food and overall experience directly to the site and as they say, “a picture paints a thousand words”. This particularly benefits you if your food and furnishings are particularly photogenic. The Rest Whilst Google, Yelp, Trip Advisor and Facebook are the most dominant review sites there are a plethora of other, smaller platforms. OpenTable, Zomato (also known as Urbanspoon), Zagat and Gayot are all slightly more niche review sites, but if you are looking to get the most eyes on your restaurant without spending any money, it might be worth your while to have a listing on all of these sites. If you’re quick with a computer and comfortable with ctrl + c, you could feasibly repeat the information used on your Trip Advisor listing on these sites and create listings in the space of an afternoon. It’s also worth noting that in the day of the social media influencer, you may want to get on the radar of food bloggers, TikTokers and Instagrammers. This however may be another story, for another time. In general, though, do your best to get your pages set up on the key four and regularly updated. Try and keep your descriptions neat and accurate and upload the best photos for the biggest impact.

The History of Muay Thai

This article was originally written for Fairtex Canada but was a Fiverr client. The article can be found here. The History of Muay Thai Muay Thai is famed for being one of the most dangerous competitive contact sports in the world. Like almost all martial arts, it has a rich and colourful history. The earliest physical evidence of boxing in Thailand dates back to the 13th century. The first Thai army was founded in 1238 to protect the government and the residents of the northern city of Sukhothai. Soldiers trained in hand-to-hand combat, using weapons and the body as a weapon. Modern day Muay Thai and Krabi Krabong developed from this training, but due to ancient records describing the art’s origins becoming destroyed by the Burmese, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment Muay Thai was first practiced. Various styles of kickboxing have been practiced throughout mainland Southeast Asia for centuries. The majority of these eastern fighting styles, are believed to have originated from tribes migrating south from China into the modern countries of Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. It is likely they needed to fight for survival and gain the land they wished to occupy. Muay Boran and the Chupasart Muay Boran, a broad term used to describe the pre-cursor to sport Muay Thai was most likely a peace-time art practiced by soldiers of King Narusean, ruler of the Siam Kingdom and developed for the defence of the country. A manual known as the “Chupasart” was believed to have been written to detail the basis of Muay Boran. The manual emphasized the use of different parts of the body, as if they were the weapons used by the warriors in battle. • The hands were akin to the dagger and sword • The legs and knees were much like the staff and axe • The elbows replaced a mace and hammer to inflict blows on foes • The shins and forearms acted as armour to defend against blows During Narusean’s reign, interest in Muay Thai as a sport first occurred. Records from this period show the use of “powder-coated cotton thread” wrapped around boxer’s hands, additionally the mongkhon head-dress and Prajad arm bands were worn by the fighters. This showed a move away from the Chupasart manual and made room for the art to have a sport and recreational use. The first documented display was recorded in 1687 by French diplomat Simon de la Loubère, sent by King Louis XIV for him to write A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam (Du Rouyame de Siam). Prachao Sao After Narusean’s death, King Sanphet VIII, nicknamed Prachao Sao, or “Tiger King” reigned from 1697 to 1709. His love for Muay Thai was so great that he was rumoured to disguise himself to compete in village contests against local champions. This was a time of peace, Prachao Sao ordered his soldiers to train in Muay Thai in order to stay occupied and ready. This is when the sport became the national pastime of the country and became associated with betting, foreshadowing the present state of the sport. Nai Khanom Tom During the 1767 invasion of Thailand, Burmese troops captured a resident by the name of Nai Khanom Tom from the ancient capital of Ayutthaya. Seven years later, royal presentations of hand-to-hand combat took place between Burmese and Thai boxers and Khanom Tom was granted the opportunity to fight for his freedom by the King of Burma. On his first day, Nai drew attention of the crowd with a captivating dance known as the Wai Kru, a gesture of thanks to the fighter’s teacher. The Thai fighter attacked his opponent with elbows to the chest to defeat him. The match was then declared unfair, with the referee claiming that the pre-fight dance utilized “black magic” and caused his opponent to be distracted. The Burmese king, Hsinbyushin then forced the Thai boxer to fight another nine Burmese men, who the Thai warrior handily defeated utilizing all eight of his limbs to do so. Fast punches combined with powerful kicks, knees, slicing elbows and throws were used to throw his opponents off-guard, completely outclassing them with unparalleled skills. Hsinyushin declared that “every part of the Siamese is blessed with venom”, an expression that has been connected to Muay Thai ever since. Khanom Tom was granted his freedom and a choice between money and two Burmese wives. Reasoning that money could be made easier, he chose the beautiful wives, whom he took back to Thailand, where he lived as a teacher of the art. To remember him, Nai Khanom Tom Day is celebrated on the 17th March every year, meaning that “National Muay Thai Day” and St. Patrick’s Day fall on the same day, thereby confusing Irish Nak Muays worldwide! Modernization King Rama V, or King Chulalongkorn was hugely passionate about the importance of Muay Thai and worked hard to develop it nationally for both self-defence and recreational purposes. During this period, Muay Thai schools and centres throughout Thailand began to appear. Many of these camps were given the last name of their teachers as a source of honour and fighters would adopt this name as their own, a tradition that still exists today. He encouraged the holding of tournaments all over the country and the winners were from time-to-time made bodyguards to the king. Around 1910 he formally organized Muay Boran by holding fights at the funeral of his son and celebrating the victors. In 1913, The Suan Kulap College in Siam added British boxing to their curriculum, in what was the first recorded reference of the term “Muay Thai”. In the years that followed, Muay Thai began to spread globally. During World War One, when Thai fighters were stationed in France and other parts of Europe, where they would have Muay Thai fights to raise morale. French pugilists would often spar with their Thai comrades and soldiers would teach other skills from their own arts. In 1921, two years after the end of the war, Suan Kulap college erected their first permanent boxing ring. This ring was used for both Muay Thai and Queensbury rules boxing, which was added to the school’s curriculum. In 1923, the Suan Sanuk Stadium was built. This international stadium was the largest Muay Thai stadium to be built for the time and held both Muay Thai and Queensbury rules boxing bouts. This was a move away from traditional courtyard fights. During this period and the reign of Rama VII, or King Prajadhipok that Muay Thai began to become more modernized. In 1926, Kru Chua Chaksurak was teaching a demonstration in Sydney, Australia and was forced to wear gloves for legal reasons. He returned to Thailand and acted as a strong advocate for adopting gloves. As a result of his advocacy, rules began to become standardized. Much like Queensbury rules, time limits and rounds were added. Much of the new ruleset was centred around enhancing safety and protection from the hard-hitting blows. Along with the gloves, fighters would wear groin guards. The old hemp khat chueak (hemp rope bindings) that hardened their hands and made them dangerous were discarded. Referees would also look to ensure fighters were safe In 1928, Chia Khaek Khamen died whilst fighting in Bangkok, prompting King Rama to pass a gloves only law. Although this decree largely only affected fights in the city, these tighter regulations would allow Thai boxing to be organized and managed better, thereby increasing its appeal to an international market. In 1927, the gambling act permitted gambling for boxing and other combat sports. Gambling is generally illegal in Thailand, but its legality only caused to increase interest in Muay Thai. Fighters wages are typically fairly low, so big bets allow them to bring home more cash. The downside of gambling is that it is known to cause more corruption amongst judges, potentially making them rule unfairly. In the decades that followed, more and more stadiums were erected including Rajademnern Stadium, opened in 1945 and the legendary Lumpinee Stadium, opened in 1956. Both stadiums would adopt the formal Muay Thai rules set by the Education Department in 1937. They specified dress: boxing shorts, gloves, groin guards and the traditional mongkon, along with time limits for rounds. There would be five three minute rounds per match, with a two minute rest in between. Previously, rounds had been timed with holes drilled into coconut shells, being left in tanks of water. When the shells sank, the rounds were over. Admission fees in stadiums were often used to fund the Thai military, a practice which remains today. The 60s and the Birth of Kickboxing In the late 50s and early 60s, Thai boxers began to have matches against Japanese karate experts. In 1964, three Kyokushin karatekas travelled to Thailand to take on Nak Muays. Although two of the karatekas bested their opponents, Kenji Kurosaki, an influential kyokushin practitioner was knocked out with an elbow. Kurosaki would study some of the Thai techniques and left Japan for the Netherlands, where he opened up the legendary Mejiro gym in Amsterdam. This was around a year after a fight between Thai boxer, Samarn Sor Adison who had beat his Japanese opponent, Tadashi Sawamura in Tokyo in 1963. Just as Kurosaki did after him, Tadashi chose to learn some of the Thai techniques including kicks, knees and elbows. This led to Sawarmura becoming a star in the growing sport of Japanese kickboxing, which had been born out of the early Muay Thai vs Karate bouts. Kicboxing though, was a sport that many Thais held a bitterness towards, feeling that the Japanese had “stolen” their sport. This animosity was only exacerbated by Japanese promoters holding many fixed fights which had pre-arranged outcomes with Thais losing, or pitting Nak Muays against much heavier Japanese fighters. Despite this tension between the sports, Muay Thai’s popularity would continue to grow both internationally and within Thailand. For much of the sixties, Apidej Sit-Hirun would dominate rings across the country. Sit-Hirun was a welterweight dynamo famed for kicks so powerful that they could break arms. His success would help to inspire what many consider the golden age of Muay Thai. The Golden Age of Muay Thai International interest in Eastern martial arts began to grow in the 70s as a result of Bruce Lee’s popularity and the Hong Kong produced kung fu films, meaning more and more audiences were exposed to Muay Thai and other arts. This broadened interest, coupled with Sit-Hirun’s success led to the so-called “Golden Age” of the sport. Lasting roughly from the early 80s, to the late 90s, this era would produce many of the legends of the sport. Highly skilled and highly charismatic fighters like arguably the greatest Nak Muay of all time, Samart Payakaroon and Dieselnoi, a fighter famed for his ferocious knees would draw fans from all over the country. National stadiums were jammed full, ready to gamble and be thrilled by these incredible fighters. Huge purses of up to 200,000 baht being fought for. It brings us roughly to where whe are today. Present Day and Future Muay Thai Between the growth of MMA organizations like the UFC and the hugely popular action films starring Tony Jaa such as ‘Ong Bak’, Muay Thai has exploded in popularity. Muay Thai was seen as one of, if not the most effective striking sport and fighters such as Anderson Siva and Mauricio Shogun Rua displayed the sheer efficiency the art has in combat. Additionally, the internet has had a big part to play in this growth, as fans can follow their favourite boxers around the world, live-stream events and even study techniques through tutorial videos. It is highly likely that the sport will continue to grow, with more organizations promoting fights, some even returning to roped-hands or 4 oz MMA style gloves instead of the larger more Queensbury rules gloves. Meanwhile in 2016, the Olympic committee granted provisional recognition to Muay Thai. This means that the sport can apply to become part of the Olympic Games after three years of receiving an annual monetary fund of $25,000. Who knows? There is a chance that we may see Muay Thai become an Olympic sport in the future!

Cocktail Garnishes

This was originally written for a Fiverr buyer. I have been unable to locate where! Cocktail Garnishes Cocktails are sometimes seen as the fine dining of the alcoholic world. Just like a beautiful meal from a fancy restaurant, dressed with delicious sauces and herbs that we eat with our eyes, if a cocktail looks gorgeous, it’s going to enhance our drinking experience. Unfortunately, sometimes a busy bar doesn’t have the time to dress a drink with rose petals and apples cut into the shape of fans. Additionally, these things can also eat into the gross profit of the bar too! Fortunately, there is an answer for this time and money issue: dehydrated fruit garnishes. They are typically made from citrus fruit wheels, slices of berries but apricot or pineapples can also be used. Even dehydrated chilis are making their way into drinks to give the spice lovers some heat! These zesty treats add texture, colour, scent and even flavour to drinks, whether they are more elaborate cocktails, or simple gin and tonics. By putting the fruit through the dehydration process, the flavours become more concentrated as the water evaporates. These garnishes last for weeks and typically use the whole fruit, reducing the waste that a bar might have to get rid of at the end of the night with unused fresh fruit slices or dead flowers. This dehydration saves the bar from having to keep its own compost heap out back and makes cleaning the bar a little bit easier – fragments of rotting fruit don’t need to be kept around anywhere! This is all true for the drinker at home too. Having dehydrated garnishes delivered to your door saves you from having to clean knives, chopping boards and surfaces – all things which can be a little bit irritating to do during a relaxing night of home drinking and potentially even more irritating during the morning after! What makes these dehydrated garnishes extra special is that they can be seasoned with herbs or spices to make pairing them with drinks even better. Basil, oregano, cumin, chili powder, turmeric and cinnamon can really bring out some flavour profiles you may not have considered. Cinnamon-orange wheels really add a dimension to margaritas and other tequila-based drinks you might not have considered, whilst dehydrated grapefruit topped with a touch of cumin can bring a new lease of life to classics such as daiquiris, cosmopolitans and even the humble vodka-soda. Ultimately, for a bar, these garnishes are super handy, dehydrated garnishes are an inexpensive way to enhance a guest’s experience, whilst for the home user, a neat way to experiment without creating a kitchen-based logistical headache!

 

Ration Week Challenge (trigger warning: crude humour)

I’ve got a little bit of a habit of taking on dumb challenges.  These usually involve restricting one’s diet, or daily habits.  Unfortunately, for the most part I fail horribly at these challenges.

In 2016, I took on the Sober October challenge, where the challengers have to give up drinking for a month to raise money for Macmillan Cancer charity, but I upped the ante.  If I raised £50, I’d also give up chocolate, £100, I’d give up meat, £150 go full vegan, £200, I’d also throw in.. masturbation.  I started it only weeks into living in London and had no idea how hard going vegan was.  Even the larger Sainsbury’s in North London didn’t have any vegan ready meals, their “free from” line typically had lactose powder or egg in some or another.    

I lasted about 3 weeks in and was purchased a “Golden Ticket”, this meant a night off the challenge, which I then took advantage of, indulging in a lamb curry, a rake of beer and was relieved of my burdening balls.  Not through a hand shandy, but well it’s amazing how charming you can find yourself when your centre of gravity is progressively lowered and you have a few beers in the hatch.  After this point, I kept finding myself purchasing tickets to enjoy a whole rake of forbidden fruits.  Surprising the m-word was the last thing I enjoyed in any respect.

Ration Week

This year, I took on Concern’s Ration Week Challenge, where participants have to subsist on the same ration package that a Syrian refugee has to live on.  This meant the following:

·        1.5 kg of rice

·        80g of chickpeas

·        200g of red lentils

·        1 tin of kidney beans

·        1 tin of sardines

·        400g of flour

·        5 different spices

·        10 teabags

·        1 clove of garlic

 

To incentivize participants being pushier with their sponsorship drive, certain rewards can be unlocked for hitting milestones of sponsorship levels – a certain amount of protein, vegetables, a tin of tomatoes, milk, etc. all come into the equation.  Certain amounts on certain days might give you a teaspoon of honey, or coffee.  I wasn’t a big fan of this side of the challenge.  Whilst I’m glad that I raised about £230 for a charity with relatively low admin/marketing/operational costs declared, I think expecting people to donate more in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis means that the rewards are for those with more affluent friends. 

The Week Itself

As you can probably tell though, whether they earn the rewards or not, someone who has an active lifestyle and is used to having a lot of fruit, bread and meat in their diet is probably going to struggle.  Perhaps as a consequence I cheated, multiple times. 

The ration packs are barely enough for those refugees who aren’t constantly moving, as a result of being “kept” in camps or some substandard housing.  Their energy requirements are fairly low and they are somewhat likely to cook together in the shared accommodation.  Other refugees would be likely to have it far worse - having to do insanely dangerous journeys, crossing boarders, getting on cramped boats and risking their lives facing off against the authorities and harsh conditions.  You only have to do a Google or YouTube search to see how horrendous the conditions are.  What these people may have may be even scarcer.  

So in that respect, I felt pretty bad cheating.  The week was designed to get an idea of how rough it could be without the middle class first world privilege many of us have and yet.. this skinny-fatboy dropped the ball multiple times.

If truth be told, I was unsure of how committed I’d be from the get-go.  Rather than start it on Sunday morning, I started it from about 5.30 PM on the Saturday, with the intention of ending it 8 PM the following Saturday.  That meant I could load up on a massive burrito bowl, beer and little cheese and ham crackers.  Sunday came along and I mostly ate rice, though blew my bean allowance that evening when I went to a local Tex Mex place called Boojum, had a a bowl of rice and beans.

Eating food from restaurants, canteens and cafes was allowed, if the meals contained only the ingredients you had from the rations.  This meant, whilst the burrito bowl was a slight stretch as I had a small amount of hot sauce on top, it was “legal” within the “ruleset”.  Same as the lentil soup which I ate several days from the work canteen.  Or at least, I think it was because I don’t know what was in it despite lentils – possibly tomatoes, or onions and I hadn’t “earned” my vegetable allowance because my friends have financial commitments beyond boosting my ego on a frivolous dietary-based charity challenge.

So for Sunday through to about Wednesday morning, I ate rice, lentil soup, more rice, rice and beans, the worst ever falafels ever made from the 80g of chickpeas and a few bits of flatbread, by basically mixing flour and water. 

Wednesday morning came and I had what is referred to as a “head fog”.  Something that almost all participants experience.  Whether this was from a calorie deficit, lower than usually expected caffeine level, or a lack of nutrients is unclear, but I felt rough.  There was a guy on the Facebook group for the challenge who was encouraged to pack it in as he had a physical job and had fainted on it.  I myself had a bit of Street Theatre to work, essentially storytelling facts about Belfast’s martime history.  I dropped two lines.  Hard.  Stared confused, like a rabbit in the headlights and had my fellow actor pull me out of the quagmire I found myself in.  I did recover and after the first minute or so belted the rest of it out strongly, but I was gutted of how bad that went.  Drama within drama.

A free breakfast – sausage rolls, beautiful brioche bun bacon butties, coffee and shortbread were on offer.  I couldn’t refuse.  I comfort ate and felt simultaneously worse and better for doing so.  I went back to work and then in the evening, I went to a producers networking event.  I stuffed myself with more free food. 

Thursday and Friday morning meant free breakfast and milky coffee in work.  I wasn’t passing it down.  After all, the rest of the day, I had rice to subsist on.  Or more lentil soup with no bread.  In fairness, I still managed to train Muay Thai once on Thursday, then twice on Friday, but by then, my energy levels had essentially been rejuvenated to having a calorie allowance somewhat closer to my usual intake.  Even though, the Friday sparring session was a bit closer to boxing Eeyore, than Tigger.

Today (Saturday) I’ve cheated again.  Starting the day with a mocha.  I then ate rice, kidney beans and a pancake made using the aquafaba of the kidney bean can, along with of course water, flour and (cheating again) an egg.  A teaspoon of honey that I hadn’t “earned”, made it great.  

I’ll probably not eat again until dinner tonight.  This is largely because if I’m sticking anywhere close the rules, all I have left to eat is rice and maybe a tiny portion of lentils.  Some participants have “given” m their “allowance”, because they either didn’t like lentils, or eat less in general.  The idea is that refugees share and some family members eat less than others as they do everywhere.  Like I found with the vegan side of doing Sober October, meal prep is a little bit boring and irritating, so if you’ve not done a dry run of some of the dishes before the challenge began, you may not be bothered or have the energy to make a mess of a kitchen during the challenge itself.  Consequently, you virtually end up fasting a good portion of the time.  Or at least, you learn to stop unnecessarily snacking.

Roll on dinner tonight, although every good restaurant that does “European” dishes appeared to be booked out and we’ve gone for a well-respected Indian establishment. I love Indian food, but being that the main carb staple is rice, I would have preferred somewhere with chips, spuds, or pasta on this occasion.  I’ll be so glad to see other carbs, meat and SAUCE that if my mother wasn’t there, there’d be a real danger of me using the peshwari naan as a fleshlight under the table.  Almondy, coconut goodness for all.

Take Aways

I love food.  It’s one of my favourite things in the world, but as someone who knows they may need to have a more “aesthetically pleasing” body – i.e. hint of an ab or two, I’ve been aware that I may need to change my diet up, especially as I drift past my mid 30s towards my middle aged years.  Additionally, if I ever want to get those bucket list MMA/Muay Thai fights, I would ideally fight at a weight 10-15 kg less than my usual walking weight of 92-95 kg.  Getting in the habit of diet restriction in advance of that will be beneficial in knowing what to expect.

Having dabbled with this, I will look to make more vegetarian and vegan dishes.  I typically consume meat at an unhealthy amount, sometimes as much as 3-4 times a day, past the point where the protein is beneficial and towards the point that it’s probably clogging arteries and quickly turning into fat. 

I may try ration week again, or look to experiment with food a bit more.  It was very impressive seeing what people taking the challenge made with what little ingredients they had.  There are some real MacGuyver home-chefs out there.  If I do try it again, I may give myself the full rewards from the start, rather than trying to stick to the “sponsor me” bonus system Concern try to push.  This might make me a bit more compliant overall.  Even if I can justify “Refugees probably wouldn’t turn down free food”, it is still slightly defeating of whatever purpose I can instil upon the challenge.  Ultimately though, to quote a one-time Family Guy character, “I play by nobody’s rules by my own, and sometimes not even those.”

Lastly, despite the guilt of failing/cheating, I am obviously have a slightly larger glimpse of what it is like for those who have only limited amounts of food.  Whilst short of the war in Ukraine turning into WWIII, full blown climate change, or the apparently maniacal oligarchs pushing late-stage capitalism onto all of us several levels worse than they already are, I am unlikely in my lifetime to experience hunger, or starvation to the extent that refugees do, or even some of the poorest in our society.  Whilst the “check your privilege” trend which emerged in online discussion a few years ago was often irritating and cringe-inducing to even those of us whose political opinions are largely on the left, I have another moment where I must accept with gratitude the privilege which I have.  This might mean I aim to give a little bit more towards those that I think need it most, or I’ll feel more justified in my constant shitting on the established elite.  I just hope it doesn’t make me any more insufferable than I likely already am.

The I'm back on Facebook again post, 24 02 2022

 FINALLY BIG NASTY HAS RETURNED TO..

Ahh, I would love to say "I'm over Facebook.." that I don't check it every day or have it open as a tab open almost as soon as I open a computer. Or that I don't check the app every time I see a glimmer of a notification, often one which I have already seen, but just didn't click the right box for the notification to be removed. All of these would be lies, however.

Despite this, being Zucc'd does do me some favours. I definitely reduce my contact time with the platform, argue with people less and reduce the risk of damaging what slim hope I have of a successful career.. in almost any field.

Which is something that I wonder if I'm worried about from time to time. Given that we appear to be out of the COVID frying pan, into the fires of a potential WWIII, something I doubt will happen, but makes us all uncomfortable enough as we already deal with rising inflation, lack of rising wages, fuel costs, housing market nightmares and all that other late-stage capitalism, wealthy getting wealthier, poor getting poorer foulness we keep seeing.

As a shadowy cabal of ex-KGB hypercapitalist-cult-of-personality-fiends start rubbing up the old-imperialist-corporation-driven-industrial-military-complex West the wrong way over another country which seems inextricably forced to be that unfortunate piggy in the middle, who knows what to expect. I could sit and watch another bunch of lectures on why NATO shouldn't have been there, what these Neo Nazi Russian resistance movements were paid to do by the CIA (just like the Cold War days) how the US built Putin, or even *Shudder* that Peter Hitchins tripe my "I'm at most center-right" pal wants me to watch ontop of the thousands of hours of JBP nonsense he is insistent on. My head would be pickled. Besides that, even if I can criticize our capitalist overlords for days, at least they tend to give is a semblance of freedom of press and speech, whilst allowing LGBT+ groups to exist relatively unscathed. I'll stick with "the better the devil you know" option if I have to pick a winner.

Who knows, maybe it'll come and go.. like Crimea part 2. Horrible for civilians who end up being collateral damage, but to the rest of us just human sacrifice-statistics that we're so used to going "well, that's horrible but life goes on.." about. It's not good, but let's face it - that is how human beings appear to be. These things aren't a serious problem until they are literally on our doorstep. Our minds are probably built in a way to protect them from the countless horrors committed by the human race itself, particularly in the information age that we are bombarded with this stuff until we are desensitized beyond belief.

Really hoping China doesn't get any Taiwan ideas..

I just wish we could have things sorted out the old-fashioned way, with Putin pretending he's not a coward by stepping up to fight the Mayor of Kiev in a one-on-one no holds barred slugfest. If Putin comes to Ireland, I will chase him around a field with a lump of dogshite at the end of a golf club. I have two copies of the EA Games Classic, Freedom Fighters and I have beat the game on the hardest setting on numerous occasions.. even if I would fail the missions countless times before getting to the next level.

Though according to other reports, one of the towns just about safe from a nuclear attack on London is Winchester.. so maybe we should go there till it all blows over..

In my own news, I'm still tinkering away at the corporate day job, the multitude of side jobs, maybe making a few short films this year, maybe acting in the bigger projects of other people. It's cold and it'd be nice if these storms could chill out for a bit so I can walk up a hill or something, get a bit more vitamin D to shake the glumness of a failed relationship that never was, but I'll still get to training just enough to counteract the dirty Tim Horton breakfasts which follow them or reduce the fat saturation a good night on the homemade Old Fashioneds seems to encourage.

That'll do with the pretentious dribble for now. I've probably said something that will give the aul algorithm something to put me in the dunces corner for another month so I can reconsider my choice of vocabulary. If not, it's probably about time I set up a sweepstakes, everyone throws in a pound and names the day I get my next Zuccing. Winner gets the lot.

Tuesday Tunes - Daft Punk Split

 I haven't got too much to add on the subject, because I was never crazy into DP.  I liked them, but I didn't follow them, deep delve into their music or see them live.  I remember first hearing this song as a kid and having no idea who it was but loving it and the accompanying video

Then I went through a minor phase of listening to them, 2ManyDJs, Soulwax etc. when I was going through the nu-rave/electro-indy phase of 2007-2010.  

What I do find interesting is that no-one knows why they split.  Was it a deep rivalry or competing styles, "creative differences" or was it as I suspect the fact that they had done it all.  They had made films, become memes, won awards, had millions of dedicated fans all over the globe, defined genres and created the music they had wanted to make for almost three whole decades.  Maybe they were "music'd out".  Will we see them creating more music in time to come?  Who knows.

Monday Morning Memedown 22 02 2021

Well I am nakard today.  We've got a bright shining day here in not-so-typically-sunny Belfast and I am drained.  Possibly from not enough sleep and forcing myself to get up and exercise too early, or possibly a little bit too much late night podcasting whilst consuming wine and hot toddies.  In either case, this is a slightly half-assed memedown because nothing of great import appeared to happen in the memeworld the week past.. unless I'm missing something.

 

Monday Morning Memedown 15/02/2021

 Well for all of you in a relationship folk, I hope you enjoyed Valentine's Day and got all the lovin' you needed.  I'd imagine the rest of us carried on like it was any other day, so a few teary-eyed wanks, eating too much and retro video games for me.  Let's hope the chocolate is cheap today.  

On the meme front though, Valentine's Day has provided a few as has Gina Carano's firing from the serialized Star Wars spin-off, "The Mandalorian".  Carano's history of transphobic, anti-mask entirely questionable right wing rhetoric forced Disney's hand in dropping her like she was hot.  This has consequently spawned a variety of memes on both sides of the poltical divide as to whether they were right to do this, whether she was a victim of "Cancel culture", or if she was as I believe, the recepient of "Consequence culture".   Certainly, when you compare having conservative leanings to being born a member of the Jewish race or religion and thinking that being scrutinized for holding a beliefs which often promote racism and bigotry is the same as being forced into a concentration camp for your ethnic heritage are the same is at best ill-thought out and poorly constructed and at best down right fucking stupid.  Either way, Carano has appeared to learn nothing from the experience, jumping into bed with political pundit, Ben "I'm not a Nazi because I'm a Jew, but Palestinians are savages who should be exterminated" Shapiro straight after being let go.  I'll leave that left-wing-aligned, bashing the right stuff until the end.  I'll start with a meme that I created, though to lampoon my constant ability to fall into online arguments.

Right Wing YouTuber post during S1 of Mando:

The Right Wing YouTube post Carano Firing:

Let's not forget the whole Trump Impeachment trial falling on its ass, the same week that (for a completely seperate unrealted trial) a lawyer on Zoom couldn't get rid of the cat face filter.