Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Review: Ladies' rashguard and spats by Detales

I'm so excited to review this rashie and spats for you ladies!  This rashguard is already my favorite (and I have a fair collection, trust me.)

Kristin is the proprietor of a new company, Detales, focused on making grappling gear for women..  Detales Clothing has two lines for Brazilian jiu jitsu, one for wearing under other clothing called FirstGuard, and a nogi line designed to stand on its own as your outfit.

She very generously invited me to try out whatever I liked, so I picked the short sleeved rashie and capri spats from the nogi line.  Initial impressions right off the bat were awesome.  The material is not the super stretchy thin show-every-bump cling-to-you stuff, but something a bit thicker, very smooth and pleasant feeling, and less stretchy (but still plenty stretchy in a good way.)  It's thin enough for comfortably wearing under a gi but thick enough to wear all on its lonesome (no board shorts over top.)  The material is antimicrobial and 92% polyester/8% spandex.

I liked the seaming (looked like racing stripes to my idiot self) and the fact that if I have a hangnail (or as I later figured out, if I have to bite off a fingernail midroll, don't hate) it didn't seem to catch and snag the fabric as readily as some thinner stuff like Underarmor.  After lots of wear I can report those flat seams don't irritate or rub (I can't even feel them) and they haven't displayed any loose threads or gotten abraded that I can see.

According to Detales, each item in the no gi training section "is designed to maximize comfort, flexibility and durability to enable you to train hard, and often, in style. Each item is constructed with a thicker top-of-the-line high-performance athletic fabric that effectively absorbs sweat without being see-through."  My experience says this is true.



For reference, I am 5'2", 138 lbs, 34C-28-39.  I consulted with Kristin on the sizing, and she sent me a medium rashie.  MY FAVORITE EVER because it is the perfect fit, and more importantly, SHAPE.  Why do I rave so?

Because most rashguards are cut straight up and down (LIKE A MAN'S BODY) which ends up being sort of loose around the mid-body/underboobs/waist, with a tight-feeling hip area (because they're all cut so long, I guess so you could tuck into the pants?)  What happens next?  The tight longer part doesn't like being tight so it migrates upwards to the waist, giving me an obvious flash of fishbelly white skin during every roll no matter how I tuck it in.  Ugh.  Whereas this rashie is cut to flare a bit from waist down and isn't nearly so taut... so it follows my curve there, and stays down amazingly well.  Sorry I don't have better photos, this is selfie-time.  I'll post more if I can remember to get more taken.

I like the plain black, it goes with everything (ba dum bump.)  Am I the only person who occasionally pays attention to pleasing combinations of grapple gear?  Sometimes I will wear Meerkatsu's rainbow unicorn rashie with his peacock spats-- but sometimes it's nice to offset with a solid color.  I do hope Detales comes out with ranked rashies though; I will absolutely buy a purple. :)  The seaming is also very flattering to my shape.  There's no tag inside, just a sublimated, small D logo on the back at the neck and on the front over the chest as seen above.



I also dig the spats tremendously.  They're capri length, with more good seaming.  A nice wide/flat waistband prevents muffin top.  I can't believe I'm calling attention to this, but some ladies will know of what I speak.  Look right below the curve of my tookus.  There's cellulite, in there/on there, and it doesn't look that smooth "in the flesh" so to speak.  But this fabric is very forgiving and kind, in case there's anyone else out there with cellulite.  I usually want craaaaazy patterns on my spats because I'm not a fan of board shorts and I want camouflage, but it's not necessary with these.  Smooth and not excessively tight and not too warm, either.

Fit, for my particular shape, is a little problematic.  Kristin sent me a large, which was perfect (again I have a 28" waist and 39" hips and it's all in the ghetto booty.)  But the waistband of this first version has no drawstring, and it is a bit of a hip-slung, low rise cut.  VERY comfortable, but the first time I squatted down low, I could tell I looked like a plumber from behind, so I did have to wear board shorts on top.  Kristin tells me future production runs will include drawstrings as well as another cut that is higher-waisted.  This is awesome customer responsiveness and amazing investment on the part of a small business.

DETALES Gi/Kimono Patch

(Gi patches are only $4.50.)

The FirstGuard line offers compression shorts, an athletic bra, and capri spats, made of 84% polyester/16% spandex (thinner and stretchier).  They're available in royal blue, medium gray and black (except the spats which are gray only.)

The no gi line is black only.  My rashie is $36 (worth every penny, I can tell you my cost-per-wear is headed into the pennies range and I've only had it two months.)  The spats are $53 and again, very worth it especially if you are not so round in the rump.

I have machine washed on hot and machine dried on hot every time, and both nogi and gi training have made no appreciable difference in terms of snags, threads, pilling or anything.  Both spats and rashie still look brand new, with zero shrinkage.  I encourage you to reach out to Kristin for sizing questions, though, so I didn't take measurements.

LOVE! :)  And I love encouraging women-led small business too.

Monday, July 28, 2014

listening to...

I have three new gis, one of which was used and no longer made, from ebay, and one of which is sold out.. but I plan on posting a brief review of all three here...

Right now I'm working on big answer at work and here's what I'm listening to right now.  Hope you have a great week.



You've got your ball
you've got your chain
tied to me tight tie me up again
who's got their claws
in you my friend
Into your heart I'll beat again
Sweet like candy to my soul
Sweet you rock
and sweet you roll
Lost for you I'm so lost for you

You come crash into me
And I come into you
I come into you
In a boys dream
In a boys dream

Touch your lips just so I know
In your eyes, love, it glows so
I'm bare boned and crazy for you
When you come crash
into me, baby
And I come into you
In a boys dream
In a boys dream

If I've gone overboard
Then I'm begging you
to forgive me
in my haste
When I'm holding you so girl
close to me

Oh and you come crash
into me, baby
And I come into you
Hike up your skirt a little more
and show the world to me
Hike up your skirt a little more
and show your world to me
In a boys dream.. In a boys dream

Oh I watch you there
through the window
And I stare at you
You wear nothing but you
wear it so well
tied up and twisted
the way I'd like to be
For you, for me, come crash
into me


***************************

Who got you off when you got yours?
Who was the first to spill your soul?
Who got you off? Well, I'm the one
Dreamed of doing it day and night
Oh sweet like candy to my soul
Sweet you rock and sweet you roll
Oh I swear over and over
It's you like a wave into me

When you come crash into me baby
Please come crash into me
Come crash into me
In a boy's dream
In a boy's dream

No miss you all (?) what runs your way?
Who runs up side you and begs everyday?
Who's watching you through your window?
Night Comes
Who celebrates with the moon?
That you're like a wave come again

Come and crash into me baby
And I come into you
In a boy's dream
In a boy's dream

Oh now it's here I build my soul
I swear, friend, don't you know
I'm bare boned and crazy for you

Oh when you come crash into me yeah
And you come into me
And you come into me

Hike up your skirt a little more
And show the world to me
Hike up your skirt a little more
And show the world to me
In a boy's dream yeah
In this boy's dream

(Dixie Chicken outro)
I'll be your Dixie chicken
You be my Tennessee lamb
And we will walk together
Down in Dixie land

Crash into me
Crash into me
Crash into me
Crash into me

Oh I wanna play with you



And I'd give up forever to touch you
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't wanna go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
When sooner or later it's over
I just don't wanna miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

Monday, July 21, 2014

Spicy sesame noodles, for Bobby :)

I made these for the academy potluck which was held immediately following the big promotion... wow, they turned out really good and super easy.  You can make them more or less spicy as you like, and adding more veggies or some shrimp or chicken would make this a full meal.  Original recipe (before my alterations) and photos found here.

TPW_1367

16 ounces noodles (I used spaghetti noodles) cooked and drained
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar
8 cloves garlic, minced
4-6 tablespoons rice vinegar depending on your taste
6 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon hot chili oil or more...
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sriracha sauce (or other sauce, like sambal oelek)
6 tablespoons canola oil
8 whole green onions, sliced thinly
1 each red, yellow, green bell peppers, seeded and diced (can substitute or add pea pods, celery, carrot, water chestnut, sliced almonds, cooked, peeled shrimp, etc.)

Preparation Instructions

Whisk all sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.

I poured some chili oil and canola oil on the noodles and stirred well, leaving it sit in the serving bowl for about 3 hours before the meal was served.

Pour sauce over warm noodles and toss to coat, immediately before serving.

Sprinkle with add ons and toss.

Serve in a bowl with chopsticks. Yummy!

TPW_1363

Monday, July 14, 2014

Faixa Roxa 7.12.14

I started training jiu jitsu inadvertently, because I began training in kajukenbo before I got married in the spring of 2008 and jiu jitsu and judo were part of the curriculum.  (I learned sort of a triangle, and the rudest closed guard break ever, the one where you dig your elbows into the meat of their inner thigh, but the knee-cut part of that pass was part of my bread-and-butter for years.)  I was off and on with kajukenbo because, after all, I was planning a wedding and the reception was at our house.


But in June I started training for about 3 weeks with William Vandry, a Machado bb here in Austin.  Then I went on my honeymoon, and came back in July, had an ugly interaction with him, and left his school.

I started training at the Relson Gracie school under Phil Cardella and Christy Thomas in August 2008.  Got my blue from Relson in January 2009.

And July 12, 2014, I got my purple from Paulo "Coelho" Brandao, 5th degree under Royler, and Donald Park, also a Royler bb.  :)


I won't even try to list everyone I'm grateful to.  That would be insane-- every single person I've watched, trained with, talked to about jiu jitsu has taught me something.  But special mention goes, of course, to certain folks who have had more influence than others....




My instructors-- left to right, top then bottom-- Donald (make every rep your best), Paulo ("Red hair!"), Jordan "Wristlocks" and the "Jordan Pretzel" Silverman, Jim "Captain America" Shipman, and Tim Kennedy (he of the patriotic singlet)... I'm lucky to have you.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Also past instructors Phil and Christy and Richard Giberson and Josh Lauber at Relson's, all my foundational stuff is because of you, and Richard Power and Kirk Smith... super influential!

Henry Akins (HUGE!) Darren "Keebler" "C-L-E" Branch. Hillary Williams, Marcelo Garcia, Bernardo Faria, Emily Kwok, Val Worthington, Ryan Hall, John Ouano, James Valentine, Charlie Liu, Sophia McDermott Drysdale, Sonny Nohara, Alvis Solis, Griff Sombke...

Robert Reed and Tom Krausz for getting me into this crazy business...  past and present teammates: Scott Reis, Courtney Fuqua, Rebecca Varady, Dan Dau, Vidush Rana, Roy Olivarez, Scott Reed, Marc Morales, Anthony Rodriguez, Doug Connolly, Ivelin Ivanov, Zade Samuels...

Friends at other schools (brothers from another mother/sisters from another mister):  Devlin Kostal (where are you!), Andrew Leftt, Aparna Modi, Chuck Hardin, Sam Browning, Chrissy Linzy, Elyse Goldberg, Julia Johansen, Peter Sanchez, Tara Talanco Varon, Kat Harrison, Mike Calimbas, Mike Donovan...

And my sponsors, Steve Turner at Black Eagle, Christopher Lane at Happy Kimonos, Matt Kirtley at Scramble, Mike Ripberger at MMAOutlet, Justin Garcia at Rough Zen/Jungle Gym, Neal Fletcher at Bullshido, Vanessa Bush at SubMISSion, ..

You've all supported me and made beautiful marks on the paper of my jiu jitsu life.   Which is an enormous and precious majority of my real life, and my dream life.  THANK YOU.

Cheers to the rest of the journey! 

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Advice for people training jiu jitsu about when it's paranoia and when it's not....

I received an incredibly disturbing email telling me a story about a relationship in an academy.  It went something like this.

Whitebelt meets brownbelt.  Brownbelt (BB) helps whitebelt (WB).  BB crushes on WB, asks WB for a romantic relationship even though BB is already committed elsewhere.  WB says no, let's be friends.  BB tells WB at one point in TKD as a teenager, they intentionally hurt a person they trained with "on accident" because that person wouldn't date them.

Later on, BB tells their mate that they're in a relationship with WB (not true) and BB's mate attacks WB verbally at the academy.  Instructor gets involved, tells mate to stop.  WB no longer trains with BB.  But now BB hurts WB's friends when they train with BB.

Should WB tell their instructor or does it make them look paranoid???


TELL THE INSTRUCTOR!!!!

hell, tell the cops.  Please.  Save your poor teammates who wander around with sore arms, ankles, shoulders, knees and wonder what got into that BB.

I don't know what else to do.  Advice???

Sunday, July 06, 2014

Nick Schultz trial update

I will add to this post as I obtain more information next week:

Just checked on the DC Courts website and here's what I see.

A few explanations: I don't have contact with the misdemeanor prosecutors so I can't ask questions yet (it's Sunday folks) but I will try.  A dismissal by Praecipe is new to me.  Google tells me it's basically a motion to dismiss.  Looks like there was a motion to dismiss based on Double Jeopardy filed by the defense on June 9, then a motion to hurry things up by the defense June 11 (I'll get copies of these)... then the state dismissed a charge or two (filed the motion on the 26th and the court acted on it, same day, not sure but it looks like two charges were dismissed)... Had a jury trial that day (not uncommon to handle some charges with a motion to dismiss and then move forwards into the trial phase on the same day) and looks like he got a not-guilty from a jury.

I don't know what more to tell you.  The last entry (top of the list) is confusing to me, I don't know why there would be a "non jury trial" scheduled in relationship with this case, unless it means there was one more charge hanging around, which was separate from what got tried on June 26, but it, too, was dismissed by the prosecutor (that's what "nolle" refers to... a "nolle prosequi".)

Also sorry it's so light, I copied and pasted into a word document first to narrow the boxes so it would fit and I don't know how to quickly/efficiently change the text color, so please, forgive me.

Docket Date
Description
Messages
06/26/2014
Event Resulted - Release Status:
Event Resulted - Release Status:
The following event: Non-Jury Trial scheduled for 07/09/2014 at 9:30 am has been resulted as follows:

Result: Dismissed - Nolle
Judge: BUSH, ZOE Location: Courtroom 210
06/26/2014
Case Disposed - Jury Trial Not Guilty
Case Disposed - Jury Trial Not Guilty
06/26/2014
Charge Disposed - Dismissed
Charge Disposed - Dismissed
06/26/2014
Charge Disposed - Dismissed
Charge Disposed - Dismissed
06/26/2014
Praecipe Dismissal Filed
Government's Dismissal By Praecipe
Attorney: MACHEN, Mr RONALD C (447889)
06/11/2014
Order Entered on the Docket
Order Entered on the Docket-The Court directs the Government to file a Response to the Defendant¿s Demand for Jury Trial within fourteen days (14) of the issuance of this order. Signed in chambers on June 11, 2014, by Judge Zoe Bush. Copies emailed and mailed to parties. JLT.
06/11/2014
Order Entered on the Docket
Order Entered on the Docket-The Court directs the Government to file a Response to the Defendant¿s Motion to Dismiss for Violations of the Double Jeopardy and Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment within fourteen days (14) of the issuance of this order. Signed in chambers June 11, 2014, by Judge Zoe Bush. Copies emailed and mailed to parties. JLT.
06/09/2014
Motion to Dismiss Filed:
Motion to Dismiss for Violations of the Double Jeopardy and Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment and Memorandum and Points and Authority in Support Filed:
Attorney: GARDNER, GREY A (502108)
06/09/2014
Motion Filed:
Defendant's Demand for Jury Trial and Supporting Points and Authorities Filed:
Attorney: GARDNER, GREY A (502108)

Saturday, July 05, 2014

Bulging disc...

Xrays show long term degenerative changes in my cervical spine unrelated to BJJ... MRI shows a bulging disc impinging on my spinal cord at C5/6.  I had an epidural cortisone injection last Friday which helped with the pain, but the neuro symptoms are way worse (my arm is often painfully tingly, feels like I've grabbed an electric fence, and sometimes it hurts in my forearm, lats, and fingers).  I will go back to the doctor asap next week, and I'm considering spinal fusion surgery.  Would be interested in hearing peoples' experiences with neck injuries....

Anyway, that's why I'm not blogging.  It just hurts to have my right arm in a typing position, and I have to type all day every day for work, so there's little to none left for ya'll right now, I'm sorry :(