I have always appreciated a good blog. I started my IT journey long before the World Wide Web was a highly popular thing. Walls of text were the first things that I saw on the internet. My brothers and I use to use our 14.4k modem to connect with friends just because we could. Unfortunately I don’t have the greatest of memory of the details but I know we were playing games over those modem connections. This love of text and reading is what eventually morphed into my preference for simple websites that I can read.

My mom was always an avid reader. I can’t really remember a time where she didn’t have a book in the works. She also rarely sat down but that is a story for another time. This love of reading was transferred into me. I have always loved reading. I usually have a few books going at the same time. Anything from Fiction crime novels to nonfiction biographies. I will always read and I encourage everyone to read. I started reading blogs pretty much from the moment I had reliable internet access. Being that I gravitate more toward the IT world my blog readings have beed centered around that. I have always had an idea that I would write my own blog but as English is not a language I have good command of, I have held myself back. Ive written a few tutorials and things over the years but nothing like what I am attempting to do here.

While the goals of this site will be more of personal development and personal growth, you will see the occasional tutorial. I may talk about my home life, my job, or other seemingly random stuff. I plan to link to interesting things that I find, articles that I read, or journal what is happening in my life. I will use this as an online record of what I’ve learned. Hopefully that will translate into helping others.

A central part of my life is my Jiu-Jitsu journey. That is where the Mid Life Grappler name comes from. I started Jiu-Jitsu almost 5 years ago. I remember being apprehensive about starting a martial art but at that time I needed something. I started looking for something months and months before I ever got the courage to start. I would never have started if my brother wouldn’t have gone with me. He is probably the toughest person I’ve ever known. He completely supported me for probably the 1st year of training. I’ll forever be grateful for him doing that for me. We got very lucky in the school that we trained at. Stronghold BJJ was a great environment for people in my situation, middle aged, out of shape and very unsure of them selves. I couldn’t have asked for a better coach and mentor than Joe. His calm, even and positive demeanor made starting a very hard hobby so much easier. I started with a great Jiu-Jitsu coach and ended up getting a great friend. While Stronghold as a school is no more, I try to live up to the personal standards we set there and I have taken those standards with me to my new home at 313 West . Starting Jiu-Jitsu was one of the best decisions I have ever made. If you have been on the fence about doing something like this ( any martial art really) DO IT.

I have an interesting relationship with health, weight, and training. Unfortunately I love to eat, and since that is the case I have been overweight for most of my adult life. The weird part is that I’m very active. Especially the last 5 years. I hike, I bike, I do Jiu-Jitsu, I occasionally lift weights. From the outside I should be in good shape but I eat way to much. When I started Jiu-Jitsu I was almost 300#. I feel bad for my first training partners but everyone was very supportive. Weighing myself today I am 264#. In the covid year (2020-2021) I actually got down below 250# for the 1st time in probably 20 years. I was cycling 20-30 miles a day. I basically out-exercised a bad diet. I was burning so many calories that I couldn’t eat to replace them. Since the world has opened back up I’ve done less and less cycling (unfortunately) and some of that weight has come back. Many posts on here will be about my successes and failures with this struggle. I will document my ideas in this in a separate post.

Everything has a beginning.