The only thing that matters

I've been telling pretty much anybody that will listen that I'm trying out for roller derby. Some people are confused, some look at my like I'm nuts, and the rare breed jumps on the Slamazon train and becomes a great source of support and inspiration. Some of my best advice came from one of the dudes in the picture over there. I'm 5'11" and not a small girl. He makes me feel like a petite little thing. He's a big hunk of man meat, that might make you want to think twice about passing him in a dark alley. He's a total sweetheart, but don't tell anybody I said that.

So, in that picture, you'll see a guy on his knees. That's my guy. In this type of fighting, when you take a blow to the leg, it renders you "wounded" and you must fight from your knees. I don't claim to know much about this type of battle, but I know that they are hitting each other with bundles of rattan, that he described as somewhere between wood and lead pipe. It's rough enough to put dents in the metal that they're wearing.

Well, my source of inspriration won that fight. He beat that dude from his damn knees. The photo arrived attached to the following email:

The only thing that matters is tenacity. Everything else is just noise.