IFS Press Conference & Tea Party

Hey, Everyone!

On Saturday (2/19) I was at a Press Conference for the International Fight Showdown. As a member of the Press!That's a picture of "The Home of the IFS" (where the Press Conference was being held) just before everyone showed up and things got crazy. I'll be going back there again on April 9 for the weighing and match-ups and then I'll be headed to Pico Rivera on April 10th to report on the actual fights. Speaking of which...

IF YOU WANT TICKETS TO WATCH THE INTERNATIONAL FIGHT SHOWDOWN ON APRIL 10TH IN PICO RIVERA, CONTACT ME. I'M SELLING TICKETS AT THE PRE-SALE PRICE OF $30 (they'll be more at the door!--if there's even any left!!). E-mail me at littlezotz@gmail.com if you're interested!

I rode up with David Huey ("the voice of Muay Thai"), Gary Finnerty (WMC board of directors & ref), Jonathan Atkinson (pro photographer & motion capture guy), and Kenn Scott (Raphael in the first two TMNT movies). Great guys, all of them.

I also got to interview Baxter "One-Armed Bandit" Humby, William "The Bull" Sriyapai, the 2010 IFS champs, and several of the amateurs fighting for the 2011 championship. I don't want to talk TOO much about that though because then you'd have no reason to read my upcoming articles!

Then, yesterday, I was here:

Weatherwolde Castle. The home of my friends William & Tara. My other friend, Krista, decided to have a tea party there.
That's Krista on the left.

Anyway, I took my friend Paris with me!

That's Paris on the left.

There was a bunch of food (that I couldn't eat) that looked really pretty/good:

And the tables and place-settings were amazing too...

And lots of fabulous/fun ladies...

Mom, Me, Tara, Cynthia, and Lucia

Lauren, Lucia, and Paris: youngest ladies at the party!

It was a lot of fun. And the first day I wasn't working in over a week! (Ladies, if any of you are reading this: I have more pictures. E-mail me if you want them).

In other news, if you haven't been checking, I have more articles up at WordPress Pro Business!

That's all for now!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Edit: The IFS website is both http://ifsshowdown.com and http://ifspro.com Sometimes one works better than the other!

Rebel Exists

Hey, Everyone

I made $32.80... For the entire month.

Pathetic. I hate myself.

The whole of that money was from the same wonderful client (and I'm extremely grateful to him!--especially for paying in advance) and the articles he hired me to do are due tomorrow. So I'm going to try to keep this entry short.

Anyway, I've also been super busy this past week talking to/interviewing lots of interesting (and very nice!) people for US Combat Sports:

• Gary Finnerty
• Roxy "Balboa" Richardson
• Goran Karamfiloski
• Kason Chan
• Joe Schilling
• Mike "All World" Ryan
• Al Franco

All of them very interesting and very helpful and just all-around awesome to talk with. And they made for some GREAT interviews. I've got to get back in contact with a couple of them to double-check a few last details, but I think I've got the makings of some really great articles to submit in the very near future. Unfortunately, USCS is a little bit strange when it comes to how they pay their writers. Basically, since they're an online only Combat Sports News site, they pay their writers based on how many hits their articles get. Like a dollar per person or something (probably less). The minimum I could get paid for each of these stories is $2.00 and the maximum is $100.00. So...pardon me in advance to my friends, family, and whoever else reads this blog, for spamming the heck out of these articles once I get them posted. I'm a sad, sad, person who's desperate for the sweet, sweet, coin. Thank you for understanding.

Last bit of news has to do with my "Subject" line: Rebel Exists.

A couple of wise-ass friends of mine have joked that Rebel doesn't actually exist and that I'm just taking pictures of Ziggy from another angle and saying she's an entirely different cat. Because "I never see them together!" Well...that's because they hate each other. :\ Anyway, this morning, I saw them NEAR each other out the kitchen window and I decided to take a really crappy cell phone picture to share with everyone:For those of you who are new to my blog, Rebel is a feral cat that hangs out in our backyard. She has half a tail and is either a full or half sibling of Ziggy's (same mom). Our area has a whole big trouble with feral cats (which you can read about in other entries) and Ramiro (my guy) and I work to capture them and have them fixed.

This is Ziggy--the cat people confuse with Rebel because they're both white:
As you can see, Ziggy has her whole tail. Also, she's pretty much ALL white (except for her tail and that spot on her head). Rebel is very spotty. Hopefully that'll help everyone tell the difference. :)

Here's a cute picture of Robert & Ziggy (Ramiro & my cats) from the other night:
Robert will be 2 years old in April 2011 and Ziggy just had her 1st birthday in October 2010. They were both born in our backyard. For their whole stories, see my blog entry that has their (and their mothers & siblings) Catster pages: http://littlezotz.blogspot.com/2010/08/our-cats-are-on-catster.html

We also take care of Ramiro's sister Sarahe's cat, Ringo:
He likes bags.

In other news, I'm still in pain, I haven't been sleeping, and when I do sleep I have terrible nightmares. Also, I updated my LinkedIn page! Feel free to connect with me. People have been leaving me really great reviews. It's so nice that even though I feel so SO crappy that people still think so highly of me.

And that's all the news that's fit to print in the Life of Lauren these days!

Until next time...

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com