by pokerzen » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:49 am
The only "fight" I ever got in was decidedly 1-sided A friend of mine and I were on a high school track and field trip in Toronto. As we were 14 at the time we thought it would be cool to go sneaking out of our hotel and wander around the streets at night. Great idea. We cut through a schoolyard and were surrounded by a TO young punk street gang. They separated us ... threw me to the ground, broke something over the back of my head and took my money. I sprinted my ass back to the hotel and called police. I had no idea where my friend was but he did make it back okay ... in a bit better shape then I was in. I wound up sitting with my supervising teacher in the hospital until 4 in the morning for them to fix me up. It looked a lot grislier than it was ... as head wounds bleed massively. It looked like the top of me had taken a blood shower ... the top of my shirt was soaked and there was blood all the way down to my waist in parts.
Within 2-3 weeks I was into shotokan karate. (The only type offered in my small town at the time.) When I moved to the city a couple of years later I enrolled in kenpo, which is a pretty wicked little martial art. I continued training in kenpo for about 7 years.
I've never had a problem since. I've busted up quite a few fights since then. I've got a stupid hero complex which causes me to throw myself in when I see trouble brewing or someone about to get hurt. This has been a little scary from time to time ... knowing how to handle yourself doesn't ensure that you're not going to get hurt ... and it doesn't ensure that you're a better fighter than the other guy. I would say though that I've interjected myself into over a dozen situations and been able to defuse them all from becoming violent. The most recent was a couple of weeks ago in Niagara Falls ... I was walking back to my hotel room at about 3AM from the casino ... there was a crowd of rowdies in front of a hotel along the way and it looked like they were about to pop into a brawl. I (cautiously) made my way up to the edge ... there were a couple other sobers there to help, and I was able to split one of the antagonizers off from the others ... assuage the guys ego a bit (yes you could kick his ass ... I know that ... you know that ... we don't need to prove it ... blah blah blah.) and the whole thing ended.
I could go on about my theories on violence but I think it's safe to say that I hate that shit, and made the decision a long time ago to work against it. I would fight if I felt I had to at the time, but I've always been able to settle things without it. It helps to be able to see a little deeper and understand what's actually going on when tensions are running high. It feels better to me knowing that I do this not because I can't handle myself ... but because I can choose whether I want to do it that way or not.
<Big_Leon> start with the RAZZ tourney?
<pokerzen1> when did the razz tourney start?
<Big_Leon> starts in 2 minutes
<Big_Leon> just drew seats
<pokerzen1> too late then
<pokerzen1> damn damn damn
<Big_Leon> no, it's not too late gogogogogo
<pokerzen1> what's the tourney number?
<Big_Leon> 55852225
<Big_Leon> password is - irunbad i think
<Big_Leon> irunbad
<pokerzen1> made it
<pokerzen1> okay now how do you play razz?
<Big_Leon> i have no idea