My wife (Beth) and I both train and compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  It’s a grappling sport like wrestling.  In Jiu Jitsu your Gi (the karate looking uniform) is a big part of the sport.  It’s a very heavy fabric with very specific features that are inspected before each match.  Many moves involve the GI, especially the jacket. I have wrapped my sleeve around someones neck for a choke, You can grab the end of both of the opponents sleeves and dig your feed into their elbows to lock up their arms and throw them, you can use an opponent’s own lapel and wrap it around their neck for a submission or simply to roll them any way you wish.

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It’s been a few years since I have had a Porsche 911 in the stable. It seemed like the right time since were down to only two sports cars in addition to the daily drivers.  I think five cars is the bare minimum these days.  “It’s only a problem if you want to stop but can’t.”  I don’t want to.  There are some less free spirited individuals in the house who have expressed differing opinions.

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I was recently in New York City for work.  I stopped by to see a friend in the area.  He said “I have something interesting to show you.”  I was pretty excited because when Mark says “I have something interesting to show you.” you know it is going to be good.  He’s a writer and his passion is finding strange and interesting things.  My personal Indiana Jones.  Many days he wakes up and just gives himself some adventure assignment and the goes searching for it.

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If you recall I went on a slightly crazy adventure up to the edge of the article circle with my adventure buddy, my daughter Natalie, 11.  We almost froze to death on a mountain just to see the Northern Lights (story here).  But we also did something we both have always wanted to do and knew would be epic, a dog sled ride.  The first thing I have to say about it is holy crap those dogs are fast.  It felt like you could blow the doors off a snowmobile if you came across one.

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I was recently giving a presentation for IEEE at MIT Lincoln Labs here in the Boston area.  The topic was one of my favorites, my new playground, Use Case 7 !  The crowd loved the idea of expanding how we access use cases and came up with great examples. and experiences, of their own.  They found many areas in their work where the Use Case 7 exercise may yield some interesting insight.

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