The Blog

 by Jon F. Merz

New England Warrior Camp 2012

It’s over.

As I sit here and write this, I’ve had a long hot shower and a shave. I’m back home, waiting for my wife to get back from my in-laws so we can go out with my boys and get a great dinner. I’m tired and relaxed and can’t stop thinking about how much incredible fun and power those of us who were at New England Warrior Camp this past weekend got to experience.

NEWC, for those who don’t know, was started by Ken Savage after he earned his 5th degree black belt test in 1997. As Ken tells the story, he and the others who took the test and passed that day, were taken aside by the 34th Grandmaster of Togakure-ryu Ninjutsu and told they had been given a seed. Ken decided to do something with that seed, and NEWC was born in 1998. Since that time, the Nobscot Reservation in Sudbury, Massachusetts has been our home for one weekend each Autumn where practitioners from all over come to train outdoors under the sun and stars, live in rustic conditions, and experience the unique qualities of Ed’s cooking.

In the fifteen years the Camp has run, I’ve been honored to teach at thirteen of them. I’ve met an incredible number of people and enjoyed every aspect of the Camp. We’ve done every type of training there is: from traditional weapons to unarmed combat to escape and evasion to sensitivity exercises and other stuff that will always remain for those who know.

This was the final year of Camp. For Ken, this event has been an incredible undertaking and the people he has affected number in the thousands. But all good things come to an end – and sometimes, even the best things come to an end also. Ken said it best, I think, when he spoke about going out on top – and this year certainly proved that. Ken had every Shidoshi (those ranked at 5th degree black belt and above) teach this year and those who attended got to experience something that will likely never happen again.

I usually do a recap post after each Camp, but this year is different. Frankly, what happened this year is a true treasure that I don’t think can be adequately explained with words and the memories of one man. This Camp was a shared vision of the unity that exists among practitioners of a very old martial lineage. We all owe Ken Savage a tremendous amount of gratitude for his efforts over the years to make the Camp what it has been and what it will always be for those who have attended – the finest annual gathering of Ninjutsu practitioners ever gathered anywhere, all in the quest to explore, challenge, and develop their warrior spirit.

Thank you, Ken: you are one of my oldest buyu and dearest friends; my travel compadre in foreign lands amid new cultures, “interesting” situations, and extraordinary experiences; a man I’ve learned an incredible amount from in terms of martial arts and life itself. I am humbled and honored to have been one small part of the New England Warrior Camp. You succeeded in creating not just the Camp – not just an amazing annual event treasured by all who have attended – but a enduring and lasting piece of the legacy itself. Years from now when we are all a part of the ethereal winds, those who come along the path after us will still speak of the Camp and your contribution to a living lineage that continues to evolve and grow thanks to men like you.

Gassho!

in common sense / life thoughts / martial arts / self protection / ninjutsu / Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Zazzle = Epic Fail

On September 25th, I placed an order for a single greeting card for a good friend of mine. I went to Zazzle.com because they were the only place that had the kind of card I was looking for. Pleased with what I found, I ordered the card, gave the address of my friend and figured it wouldn’t take all that long to reach them.

Boy, was I wrong.

Remember, this is a single solitary greeting card. You know, the ones you find in a CVS or something. Nothing special aside from the type of card. That’s it.

Today is October 3rd and according to Zazzle, my order is still “processing.” By processing, I’m assuming they’re letting me know that they’re in the process of selecting a particular specimen of giant redwood tree in northern California and will then lovingly knock said tree down, accompany it to the pulp mill and watch as it turned into the finest greeting card paper stock one can find anywhere on the planet. Once that’s done, they will no doubt use the ink from a rare octopus indigenous to the warm tropical waters of the Solomon Islands to write the greeting card’s saying on it and print my personal message. Once that is complete, they will no doubt use palm fronds to dry that exquisite ink. And then finally, they will mail it out.

I mean, that’s about the only thing I can imagine they’re doing since it’s been over a week and the order is stuck in never-never land.

I’ve emailed them twice and finally got a response. Their response said: “We’ve upgraded the shipping on your order to the fastest available method, and we’re working with our production liaison to ensure that your order gets produced and sent out to you quickly. Thank you for your continued patience!”

Awesome. They’ve upgraded the shipping. They apparently didn’t try to find out exactly why it has taken eight days to produce a single greeting card. As of right now, that card is still stuck in “processing” hell.

I wrote back, of course, asking why it took eight days to create a card. I haven’t gotten a response yet.

I can only imagine how bad the service must be for other things or larger orders. I used Zazzle in the past and found them to be decent. But this experience has left me completely unimpressed with their systems and their operation as a whole. If you can’t make a greeting card inside of a day or two, then you shouldn’t offer the things in the first place.

My advice: get your custom greeting cards done elsewhere.

UPDATE: After tweeting this post, Zazzle contacted me in response to my question. They said: “It appears the card did not pass quality assurance. We will be shipping the card with express shipping.” Quality assurance? It’s a greeting card. Bizarre. Obviously there was a serious breakdown somewhere in the chain. I still have no idea when the card will be actually done “processing.”

in common sense 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Pity Parties

By Jon F. Merz

Ever been to one of these? It’s where something doesn’t go right and someone decides that the universe is against them and gets all “woe-is-me, my life totally sucks.” Usually, this is accompanied by a post on Facebook or Twitter; sometimes, it’s a blog post or a magazine column. Sometimes those posts on Facebook get a bunch of “likes,” or comments expressing sympathy. This is the party aspect of it. Misery loves company, apparently, and pity parties certainly seem to spring up more often than not. (Personally, I think we need more positivity parties…)

I’ve been seeing them happen a lot lately – especially with midlist traditionally published authors. As the indie publishing revolution has made it easier than ever before to become published, a lot of traditionally-published authors who never achieved serious bestseller status are pissed off. They see new unknown writers selling thousands or tens of thousands of ebooks and pocketing the 70% royalty that Amazon offers and they get seriously annoyed. Some of them bitch publicly about it. I read a column recently where the author was upset that one of these newer writers had the gall to state that he had “fun” when he was writing, whereas the column’s author found writing to be a painful and grueling experience. The remainder of the column was very much more a commentary on what a sad life the column author had, rather than what she was doing to make her life better.

Maybe you’ve even thrown a pity party from time-to-time. Things in your own life have been seemingly bad or you haven’t achieved everything you set out to accomplish. You start feeling a sense of hopelessness or maybe experience a crisis of faith. I certainly know – I’ve been there. Around this time last year, I was about to face a whole lot of very potentially serious issues. And in my present life, I still have yet to accomplish some of my larger goals. I understand how easy it is to focus on all the bad stuff and ignore the good that always exists in a life.

But the thing about a pity party is that while they seem to help momentarily, the party should never go on for too long. Otherwise, like any real party, the neighbors get annoyed and call the cops to complain. And then cops show up and shut it down. Meanwhile, you’ve been partying too hard and you still have to get up the next morning and go to work. And when you wake up, your head is pounding and you feel like total garbage.

Likewise, if you allow your pity party to go on for too long, you run the risk of trapping yourself even deeper in the mire of your own doubt. It becomes harder and harder to pull yourself out of the swamp and get back on the path toward kicking all sorts of ass.

I’m not saying that it’s not okay to allow yourself a brief bit of self-pity from time-to-time. A change of perspective can sometimes illuminate a path or tactic that you may not have previously considered. The key, though, is to acknowledge that things aren’t where you want them to be and then actually DO something about it. Instead of wallowing in the swamp and moaning about your predicament, haul yourself out of it and take positive action toward changing your life for the better. The action doesn’t have to be huge; it just has to be action in the right direction.

Each and every step will bring you closer to eventual success. Don’t sabotage your progress by wasting energy on a pity party.

One step. One action. One vision.

By the way, if you haven’t seen the new digital series THE CONTAINED yet, be sure to check it out here – we need your help to make it a reality! Thank you!

in authorpreneur / common sense / general / health / life thoughts / martial arts / self protection / ninjutsu 0 comments