Tuesday, December 2, 2014

We have went through a ton of changes over the last couple of years

I forgot I even had this blog. It was registered under a different email and somehow I was writing my other blog and this one popped up. Wow have things changed since I last wrote. First our product line has really firmed up. We are selling the staples of our line, Duroflash, Collapsible Cones and Traffic Batons and shipping almost everyday. Then we have the line of knives etc we are selling. We have been doing really well with the new items and our volume is up. We just moved to a new warehouse with more office space. We are doing a lot of direct import orders for some well known customers in the USA. Our specialty seems to be LED Lights. We are doing light bars and some special trucking lights that are the customers own designs. We also have branched out into some special direct import items in the Pet Industry. Over all it looks like things are going great for us. We are really looking forward to 2015.

Got my Blue Belt last night.

So I got my blue belt last night after almost 2 years of 4-5 times a week at BJJ practice. It was kind of interesting. 6 of us (5 who have been together for almost 2 years) received their Blue Belt Promotions last night. There was not a lot of surprise as we were all told going on in who was going to be promoted. To be honest my feelings were a little mixed. I think I was feeling overwhelmed and maybe emotional when I got my first stripe. I worked very hard for that stripe and it meant a lot more to me then I thought it would. I thought I would have some of the same feelings but that is not the way I felt. I think part of the reason I had the feelings I did was because I was expecting those feelings, and also it was a not a surprise, so raw emotions were not triggered. The other could be because of the anxiety of having to spar with everyone in the class and then getting whipped by them and thrown by the Black Belts. I have always been an anti hazing kind of guy so when I saw my first belt promotion about 18 months ago I was kind of taken back. The instructors told me if I was around long enough to get promoted that I would have a choice of being whipped or not. In reality when the time came I knew I would have to take the whipping. No matter what they say about leaving your ego at the door goes out the window with the Peer Pressure of those going before you taking the beating and then you having to face the piper. To be honest because I am older I know that they did not hit me as hard as they hit the younger guys. I still got welts and bruises and I would be lying if I said it did not hurt but all in all I think that I had to participate. I know not all gyms do this and in fact it seems like fewer and fewer academy's do the whipping. I guess the bottom line is if you don't like the culture of the whipping then you can switch academies. Also I was truly impressed by the congratulations on receiving the Blue Belt. Not only from those there but from others I have worked out with or known in my short 2 years. The congratulations all seemed heart felt and genuine and there is a real sense of camaraderie in the BJJ Circles that you don't seem to find in other places. White Belts through Black Belts alike all seemed to be sincere in their congratulations.