Things I Learned This Week

1. 24 Hours Just Isn't Enough
Sleep surely takes up anywhere from four to nine of those hours. Usually it's somewhere in the middle, like six. 18 hours left to my own devices may sound like plenty of time, but really, it's not enough. Not when you drop in a shift at work - anywhere from two to seven hours - and time doing domestic duties like washing the dishes, preparing meals and spending quality time with The Missus.

A day like today is the perfect example. Sarah's at work, which means dinner is on me. Additionally, I have a ton of writing to do, but a shift opening the bar also beckons, a shift that quite frequently turns into getting home six hours after I left. Mix in walking the dog before and after work and I'm left with a two or three hour window at best to get my work done.

Bottom line: I need another two or three hours in the day ... or someone to pay me to write so I don't have to go to work any more.

2. I Have Limited Abilities at Predicting the Future
Unfortunately, they're limited to knowing when certain people won't show up for work, not anything useful like lottery numbers or what the next big money-making invention the world will stupidly scoop up in massive quantities like the ShamWow is going to be.

Thankfully, I'm smart enough to use this gift to my benefit, getting out in front of the call-ins I know will happen to ensure that my phone doesn't ring as the desperate scramble to cover the vacated shift goes down.

3. Fedor to the UFC Isn't Happening
Honestly, this one really bummed me out for a couple days.

You would think that with the demise of Affliction, the UFC would be a slam dunk for the dominant Russian heavyweight; the organization with the deepest pockets and best collection of fighters to challenge the man on an eight-year winning streak.

Not so much. Too many hurdles and too much animosity and mistrust between all the parties have led to Fedor remaining a pseudo-free agent and the UFC all but washing their hands of trying to lure him into the fold.

This is precisely why I refuse to recognize him as the best Pound-for-Pound fighter on the planet: he doesn't really want to fight the best guys out there.

4. How Do You Not See This?
Read an article in this month's GQ about a Wisconsin high school student who convinced the boys in his school he was a girl over Facebook and got them to send him intimate snapshots if you will, only to turn around and use said pictures to blackmail them into having various relations with him.

The article is outstanding, right up until the moral outrage of the parents and the shocking reaction they have to the lack of trauma this has caused "the victims." I use quotes not to diminish the situation, but how much of a victim are you if you're the one snapping the self-portraits and sending them off to random "girls" over Facebook?

Open your eyes parents: these aren't your childhood years! Your 13-year-old knows more about sex now than you did at 21 and there is at least a 50/50 chance that he or she has already gone around the bases a time or two.

And don't blame TV and movies either; it's as much your fault as it is the cast of Friends or various Hollywood hits.

5. I Might Be Getting Married Again
No, Sarah and I haven't gotten divorced and yes, we're technically married, but it turns out the process of getting that made legal here in Canada could end up being more hassle than just having a second quickie ceremony at City Hall might be.

After all, it's not like you can just start checking the "Married" box on applications and forms without some kind of legal record of said marriage being on file somewhere. Translating our Spanish documents and going through the various steps on that path could be costly and lengthy, whereas standing in front of a Justice of the Peace and exchanging "I Do's" a second time would be quick and painless, not to mention a funny story for down the road.

I'll keep you posted.

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Making Moves, Taking Steps

I know I've said it here before, but I really should have been on Bleacher Report years ago.

Having the backing and name recognition of a major site like B/R is opening doors and providing opportunities that certainly wouldn't have come my way otherwise.

Not only is the site helping my work circulate to more and more people, yielding an average of 500 reads a day, but I've been able to secure my biggest interview to date, UFC Light Heavyweight and Winnipeg native Krzysztof Soszynski.

Add to that the syndication and partnership agreements in place with CNNSI, Fox Sports, CBS Sportsline and both Strikeforce and the WEC, and you have the makings of all kinds of fantastic opportunities collected under one roof.

This whole time, one of the stated reasons that I've covered sports as much as I do is to get a chance to go see sporting events for free. In the Bugs & Cranks days, I would have been pumped to watch the Jays play without it costing me anything.

Multiple that by a thousand and you have how excited and amped I would be to go to an MMA show with a Press Credential hanging around my neck. D'you know what's even more exciting?

Those opportunities are out there and already coming my way. I'm just not in a position to take advantage of them just yet.

But I will be soon enough and then weekends will be spent catching planes and watching fights, interviewing a who's who from the world of Mixed Martial Arts and pushing this burgeoning career of mine to that magical place I've been waiting for all along ... a place where I get paid to watch fights and write about MMA.

The first step is always the hardest and I've now passed that milestone.

Time to run with this thing.

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Too Sore to Type

That's what happens when you launch into the first fourteen hour gaming session you've had in years on a dreary afternoon. And to think, I was originally supposed to work all day yesterday.

UFC Undisputed cripples your hands and leaves you wanting more. As I write this, I'm already thinking about the next move in the career of my created fighter. For those of you wondering, the answer is no; I'm not using an in-shape incarnation of myself to pummel people.

That guy wasn't that good, so I retired him and made Urijah Faber as a lightweight instead.

After waiting a couple months to pick up the game, I can see what all the hype and accolades were about. This really is a pretty incredible game that works for both hardcore MMA fans like myself and button-mashing addicts who don't know Rampage Jackson from Janet Jackson.

To me, the best part is that unlike various other combat sports games, you can't just pick up the sticks and crush everyone; you're fighter has to learn and grow and improve or else he'll end up next to Spencer "The Fury" Kyte on the retired fighters list.

Time to go and further develop my fighter ... and my Nintendo thumb.

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Things I Learned This Week

1. My Resort Doesn't Like Customers
How else can you explain the (a) lack of ability to show the UFC fight cards in our bar at Kelsey's and (b) lack of advertising around the fact that the golf course we operate in conjunction with apparently having UFC 100 last night? The local dive was packed so tight that Sarah and I couldn't find a seat, yet our bar was completely empty. Super.

2. UFC 100 Kicked Ass
Last night's centennial UFC event, though actually UFC 105 if you're counting, was awesome and led me to bring 10 Things over to Keyboard Kimura this morning. Go read the piece to get all my thoughts.

3. Back to the Drawing Board for Baby Names
For two years, Sarah and I have agreed that we were naming our daughter, should we have one, Charlie. Found out yesterday that my brother and his wife have selected that name for their soon-to-be-born daughter. We're always one step behind those two and it's getting ridiculous.

4. I Have No Time for Complainers
Walking the pug this AM, a lady who owns a place up here, but lives in Calgary was out back bitching about the hike in condo fees and whatnot associated with owning her condo here. Does it suck that you're being asked to pay more for a vacation home here than you pay for your mortgage in Calgary? Maybe, but you have a vacation home! Cry me a river... and for once I'm not talking Justin Timberlake.

5. Hello, Hip Hop?
It's me, Spencer. I need you to make an appearance on the popular music scene once again and I'm not talking about your current incarnations like The Black Eyed Peas or Soulja Boy. I'm talking to you Talib Kweli and you Mos Def. Call The Roots, tell them to quit doing Jimmy Fallon and put some serious and legit Hip Hop back on the airwaves or you're going to put me on indefinite hiatus from the music I love.

6. Another Move is in the Works
Not quite sure when and not quite sure where to just yet, but we're definitely getting out of Kimberley sometime soon. As beautiful as it is here, Sarah's job isn't anywhere near as fulfilling and rewarding originally anticipated and since I can do my thing anywhere, why not load up and ship off somewhere that we would actually like to settle down long-term?

That's it for this week's new nuggets of knowledge.

See you back here for more Albert next Sunday.

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Can't Wait Until Saturday Night

So I'm watching Dana White's UFC 94 video blog on YouTube earlier and he's asking everyone he runs into who wins this weekend's GSP vs. BJ Penn fight and I'm shocked.

Robbie Lawler says BJ Penn.
"Little Evil" says BJ Penn.
Jamie Varner and Urijah Faber say BJ Penn.
Even Japanese dudes who can't speak English (Caol Uno and Kid Yamamoto) are picking BJ Penn.

Thankfully, WEC featherweight champ Mike Thomas Brown was last on and gave GSP some love.

Now, I'm going to be covering this bad boy big time in the next couple days over at TLOS and you have to check it out, but seeing fighter after fighter stand there and say BJ is going to beat GSP has me worried. What if they're right?

I've had GSP at the top of my Pound for Pound Rankings since he beat Jon Fitch and while BJ has been sitting at #4 this whole time, I just can't see him winning this fight. What is it that these guys know that I don't?

I mean, I could see Little Evil and Caol Uno picking BJ because he beat both of them, but what is everyone else's excuse?

Regardless, I know who I'm picking and I can't wait until Saturday night...

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10 Things I Learned This Week

1. Holy Stressful Batman!
These wedding plans and headaches are driving me bonkers. Our former agent has a bunch of our arrangements all banged up and that is making our life wicked stressful, as we want to have everything planed and organized and ready to roll soon so we can just kick back and count down the days. Tomorrow should be a telling day, as we're supposed to be talking with the Regional Manager to sort some of this stuff out. That being said, we've been waiting to deal with him since Wednesday...

2. I'm an Awesome Server / Bartender
Yeah, I'm tooting my own horn again... so what? We're in a bit of a lull period right now on the hill with Christmas and everything being done and people trying to save a little cash this month, but still I manage to make $100 every day without fail. Now, sometimes that means I have to work five or six hours, but considering no one else is really pulling in that kind of money consistently, there can only be one conclusion... I'm Awesome!

3. Good Old Nintendo Thumb
Remember when you used to spend hours upon hours playing Nintendo and your thumb would develop that soreness that verges on becoming a full-blown callous? I'm dealing with that right now thanks to two days spent finishing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and six amateur fights on Fight Night Round 3. Impressively enough, I'm still banging out articles galore this week too.

4. Missing Magazines
Sarah and I signed up for some magazine subscriptions a couple weeks back through one of those "Get 3 magazines for $6" type of deals. Canadian Living arrive a while back, but we're still waiting on Self (for her) and GQ (for me), except they were all supposed to have been sent out at the same time. Something tells me that our friendly local post office either (A) put them in the wrong mailbox and the people didn't bother returning them or (B) decided to keep them for themselves. I hope I'm wrong on both fronts, especially because I want my Jennifer Aniston issue of GQ!

5. Speaking of Jennifer Aniston...
We're back around to Season One of Friends - we watch them in succession - and I have to admit that I really miss that show. There hasn't been anything that has made me commit to watching it every week on the sitcom front since Friends left the air. I know it's kind of hokey and whatever, but for my money, the stupidity of Joey Tribiani will always be hilarious.

6. False Promises
So a while back I told you about me getting a proofreading job with Fight! Magazine. I don't think it's happening... I emailed the Editor a couple weeks back and have yet to receive anything back. Was it just a case of telling a disgruntled reader what they wanted to hear or did I slip his mind? I'm not sure, but one thing I do know is that they could still use me because there are more mistakes in the current issue...

7. Elk are HUGE
Saw a bunch of them driving home from Marley and Me this time last week and sweet merciful crap would those big bastards ever do a number on our poor '93 Honda Civic! I mean, we wrote off the Corolla smacking into a deer, so I could only imagine what kind of carnage would ensue slamming into one of these monsters. D'you know what's worse? There are caribou and moose that are around these parts and even bigger still...

8. Sharp as Marbles
I don't expect to be surrounded by MENSA candidates working in a restaurant, but some of the brilliant questions that get shot my way are amazing. Questions: How do I make lime water? Is France on the ocean? What's a jiggaboo? Answers: mix bar lime and water, sort of and a very derogatory term for black people that if you say again I'm going to knock your teeth out.

9. Exciting News from the UFC
Dana White said earlier this week in a press conference that he's working on bringing the UFC to... wait for it... wait for it... VANCOUVER! Sarah has already been informed that regardless of date and cost, I will be in attendance at this event.

10. College Football is Equal Parts Awesome and Annoying
There were some great games this week - Texas and Ohio State was outstanding - but in the end, when all was said and done, there was controversy and it annoys the bejesus out of me. How there still isn't a playoff system in place to determine one unquestioned champion is beyond me. Yes Florida won the BCS Championship, but Utah went undefeated and crushed Alabama. And they still ended up 4th in the AP Poll!

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My Christmas Has Arrived!

UFC 92 takes place in Vegas tonight and I can't tell you how pumped I am about it, even though I won't be sitting in front of a TV screen watching it live.

As odd as this may sound, I've been waiting for this night for quite some time now, as there are a number of fights that I really want to see.

I want to see the Light Heavyweight Title match between Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans.

I want to see "Rampage" Jackson returning to the ring to take on Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva for a third time. Hell, I even like a couple of the undercard fights a great deal.

But the fight I like the most is the battle for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title, pitting The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 coaches Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira against each other. The reason I can't wait to see this fight? I hope "Minotauro" breaks something of Mir's...

Mir comes across as that guy who thinks he is the greatest at everything. He's the guy that always has the better story. You made a hole in one, he made two. D'you know what I mean?

So all through the buildup to this fight, Mir has been going on about how his ground game is better than Nogueira's and he's going to break his bones and blah blah blah blah blah. The best response - and most accurate one too - that I've heard to Mir's over-confidence came from Sarah the other night when we were watching the Countdown show on Spike:

He got run over by a truck and didn't break any bones!

In the words of Kurt Angle, "It's true, it's true!"

When Nogueira was a kid he got run over by a truck - it mangled some of his insides and left him in a coma for six days, but no bones were broken. Doctors didn't think he would be able to walk properly, yet alone be an athlete...

"Minotauro" has never been knocked out and he's never submitted to anyone. He's 34-4-1-1 in his career and those four defeats came at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson. Mir is 3-2 in his five fights since returning from a horrific motorcycle accident and dropped a fight to the recently dropped (though re-signed now) Brandon Vera.

Some will say, "Well he beat Lesnar," referring to current UFC Heavyweight Champ Brock Lesnar and while it's a valid statement, Mir got totally bull rushed to open the fight and managed to get a leg when Lesnar got careless. While I doubt that would happen again if the two were to square off, I know Nogueira isn't going to make those kind of mistakes.

Bottom line: it's gonna be a helluva fight and a helluva card.

For a full preview of the card, check me out at The Love of Sports.

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10 Things I Learned This Week

Week #1 in the new digs has been hectic, entertaining and a little nerve rattling at times. It has also been educational and here, as always, is what I learned.

1. A Bar is a Bar is a Bar

Filled out all my Kelsey's paperwork Wednesday and dove in head first working a training shift Thursday. Low and behold, pouring beer is the same in British Columbia as it is in Ontario. Who'da thunk it? Right now, the place is a ghost town, but I'm getting hours and that's the key for right now. The people will come... hopefully.

2. Making Sushi is Easier Than You Think

So we learned last night and let me tell you, it was delicious. An old friend of Sarah's and his girlfriend gave us the tutorial and helped us down the loads of rolls that amounted from four of us spreading rice on nori for the better part of an hour. Now, our rolls didn't look quite as nice as the ones you'd pay to have made for you at your local sushi bar, but this was our first time. Like everything else, the first time is kinda dicey and you get better with every try.

3. Stuff Everywhere

The truck arrived yesterday afternoon with all our goods and now there is stuff everywhere in our condo. That's not such a bad thing, except that, well, where the hell do we put this crap? With the landlord's gear still sitting around here for another week or so, it's kind of hard to fully establish our setup with bedrooms full of furniture and cupboards full of leftover food. Good thing we never eat at the dining room table - it's now become the storage center.

4. Still...

This place is really starting to get that home feeling. The kitchen is full of our stuff, the dog has finally realized that this is his house and not just some place we're shacking up for a week and we're all ready to get started on the office once the bunk beds go. We've got the new desk, some artwork for the walls and a whiteboard so we can continue to pretend that we're an organized couple that adheres to schedules.

5. UFC 90: Letdown

Not only did I have a horrible night predicting the fights - I think I managed three winners on the whole card - but to have the Anderson Silva / Patrick Cote fight end the way it did was an utter disappointment. Cote became the first man to make it to the third round with "The Spider," only to blow out his knee advancing on Silva to open the round. One thing everyone needs to take away from last night though is that Thiago Alves is legit! He hammered Josh Koscheck from start to finish.

6. No Word of a Lie...

There are deer everywhere. I know I've mentioned it over and over and Sarah has started to think I'm a total nutcase because I'm so fascinated by these stupid creatures, but they're literally everywhere and it still amazes me. They don't even flinch when you approach them. In fact, they turn and face you, sizing up whether they want to take you on or not. I need to get over it and I know it, but for one more week, I'm still awestruck by Bambi's peeps roaming my neighbourhood.

7. Smoke Free

10 days, no darts. That's the longest stretch in some time and I actually haven't had a single moment where I've thought, "You know, I wish I had a smoke right about now." Not one. How awesome is that? Now I just have to get back to the exercise portion of things and we'll see if I can't shed this spare tire that resides around my midsection.

8. The Big 3-0 Doesn't Bother Me

I was asked last night if I'm nervous or scared about turning 30 on Thursday and I thought I would share my answer with you here. I've got the girl of my dreams, a career aspiration that I'm passionate about, another job that I actually enjoy that keeps some money coming in, a great dog and a killer place. I actually love the way my life is right now and hitting some supposed aging milestone couldn't change that.

9. Back at the Virtual Felt

Since we're not quite at the point of setting up the office - stupid bunkbeds - I've taken to wasting time back at PokerStars on Sarah's computer. Cool fact: she installed it herself because the future Mrs. Kyte likes her some poker too! Seriously, I got me the best woman in the world - we spent the afternoon unpacking watching football and the WSOP.

10. We're Watching 13 Going on 30

Honestly, I love Jen Garner; she's cute, she's fun, she's usually entertaining. This thing? Horrible. Might actually crack my Top 10 for Worst Movies Ever. Cute little premise, but I mean really... horrible. This is me returning the favour for an afternoon of football and poker.

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My Name Is Spencer and I Have a Problem

I am seriously addicted to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.

All I want to do is immerse myself into everything I can get my hands on that deals with MMA.

The last two books I've read?

A Fighters Heart by Sam Sheppard and Title Shot by Kelly Crigger, both dealing with people becoming deeply involved with the world and culture of MMA.

I write at least one post a week for The Love of Sports that has something to do with Mixed Martial Arts, whether it's a preview of an upcoming card, profile on a fighter or an editorial on Saturday's Kimbo Slice v. Ken Shamrock bout like the one currently posted.

My current computer addiction of choice is World of Mixed Martial Arts by Grey Dog Software. Basically, I play Dana White (pictured) in a fictional UFC. It's like NFL Head Coach for MMA junkies like me and I can't get enough of it.

It's not limited to the UFC either; my thirst for knowledge and information encompasses all the US-based organizations, operations running out of Canada, the various incarnations overseas and in Japan, everything.

My favourite show isn't even on TV; it's MMA Live, a weekly Internet show from ESPN.

And don't forget Operation: 185, my workout regimine that will be rekindled once we set up shop in Kimberley. That too is MMA-based.

Hell, I even watched - check that - suffered through Never Back Down the other night on PPV because I (1) couldn't sleep and (2) it's about MMA.

When you're willing to watch really bad movies just because they have a remote connection to something you enjoy, that's when you know you have a serious problem.

And that's why I say to you, "My Name is Spencer and I'm an addict."

Hi Spencer...

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