hardhitter_nj

Name :Michael Jacob-Francis
fandom: Original Character
Topic: Night
Word count : 306
[ooc--All posts are for player not character knowledge only – not for your character to use in game –unless agreed upon– which is ok because all replies to challenges are meta ]



The day is done and all work and boxing training has ceased; after dinner and maybe some television or a dinner out with friends, the night time is for sleeping. Or it’s supposed to be anyway. Not where I live. Yeah, yeah, I know that Atlantic City is one of the cities that never sleep, as some might suggest that maybe I forgot to read the memo before I moved here. Uh, hello, I’m native Atlantic City resident if you haven’t figured that out yet already.

It’s not my fault I have trouble sleeping, but over the years, I have come up with many non abusive ways to combat sleep deprivation.

Tips for sleeping in Atlantic City if drugs and booze are not an option.

1. If you can afford it, rent a place that has sound proofed walls. And that’s pretty much for anywhere in the city proper.
2. Do not live close to the boardwalk. Get as far into the residential districts as you can. Trust me; the locals are far less noisy than the tourists. Sure, there is gang related activity, but almost every city has that. Not every city has tourists. Correction, they just might, but I am sticking to my first judgment call on this one.
3. If you have to live near the boardwalk, earplugs – earplugs – earplugs. I can’t stress that enough.
4. Find as music station or cd you like and play it at night, every night, along with one of those white noise machines.
5. Heavy curtains, draperies o block out the light if you are fortunate enough to be able to catch a nap in the day time.
6. It would also be helpful if there were certain family members, whose honor you didn’t obsess worry over so much.
7. Rinse, later, repeat as often as necessary.

Name:Michael Jacob-Francis
fandom: Original Character
Topic: Hindsight is always 20/20
Word count : 459
[ooc--All posts are for player not character knowledge only – not for your character to use in game –unless agreed upon– which is ok because all replies to challenges are meta ]


“I should have used the left hook, right?”

“No kid, you did just fine.”

“But I lost the fight,” Michael replied back as he began to unwind the sweat soaked tape from one of his hands. Into the laundry bag it went and then he went for the other tape, looking back to his trainer as they talked.

“Yes, you did,” Michael’s trainer, Buddy, replied. He had a real name – preferred Buddy so Michael never called the man anything but that.

“So, what do you think I need to work on then?” Into the laundry bag went the other tape and after wiping both hands with a towel, he inspected for bruising.

“You need to work on relaxing.”

“What, you mean like my stance, my shoulders, what,” Michael asked, placing one hand on each knee.

Buddy just stared at him. Some days, the kid was really thick. He loved him to pieces – like a son almost – but some days… “No, I mean your personal life. “

“My personal life is just fine. I eat, drink, and sleep training.”

“And that’s your problem – we need to relax your schedule just a bit.”

“But.”

“No buts, I’m shaving a half hour off your morning training, a mile off your running schedule, and an hour off your night training,

“But what if the other guy is bigger, better, stronger, won’t I need a one up on them?”

“You will, Mikey, you have talent. But you also have tunnel vision. You are too focused, if ever there were such a thing, Mikey. I don’t care how many times we go over a fight and ruminate in hindsight on how you could have done better. Think about it – I know I say crazy things like no sex before a fight, but have you ever even gone further than a kiss? Do you even try to seek out girlfriends or hell, for all I know, boyfriends? It ain’t like I care, but what do you do outside of training and work and worrying after your sister?”

Michael had no answer for that, as all that he wanted to do after training was go over last week’s fight and see where he went wrong. However, his trainer was yapping about his personal life and giving dating tips. What was this world coming to, anyway?

“Don’t hurt yourself thinking about it kid. Take the next two days off training and get outside and have fun – anything but training. I know your running path – I don’t want to catch you…”

“All right, all right already. Jeeze. I’m going.”

Buddy was probably right, but then again, Buddy was probably trying to relive his glory days through him, Michael thought as he walked outside and begin to walk, not run, home.

Name:Michael Jacob-Francis
fandom: Original Character
Topic: The morning after
Word count : 175
[ooc--All posts are for player not character knowledge only – not for your character to use in game –unless agreed upon– which is ok because all replies to challenges are meta ]



Michael had a pounding headache and it felt as if he had been out drinking all night. It was anything but that, it was his second professional bout last night and he got totally hosed. No if, and, or buts about it, he got the snot beat out of him – but it was a good fight! It was a close one and by the last round, they both looked and felt like hamburger.

Just as the sweet symphony of aching eyelids, sore muscles, and tender knuckles couldn’t get any worse, the phone rang.

“Maggie, voice lower…please. Thanks. No, lost it, but I gave it my best shot, I always do. Of course, I look like a wreck. When does your plane touch down? Ok hold on …8pm, no wait, 8 am …want mom and dad there? Ok, just me. But swear you are going to go visit them before the weekend is through. …Maggie, swear … ok, good see you then.”

Well, his workout-training schedule was shot to hell, for this morning anyway. He had planned to do a full workout, but a stern look from his trainer last night in warning, made him think twice. The morning after a fight, he could afford to rest, he said, but Michael protested. He stretched out at least and did a yoga routine, which was playing on the sports channel. He had to do something.

He couldn’t just waste a morning relaxing, but maybe Maggie’s call was a sign to do just that. Yes, after he got back, it was back to bed and nothing but movies and light snacks. That, along with the Ibuprofen and muscle pain gel, by tomorrow, he should at least be feeling up to work – even if he didn’t look like a top model for a little while.

Name:Michael Jacob-Francis
fandom: Original Character
Topic: Topic: Talk about one thing you hope to do in the upcoming year that you have never done before. It could be something significant or something trivial.
Word count : 221
[ooc--All posts are for player not character knowledge only – not for your character to use in game –unless agreed upon– which is ok because all replies to challenges are meta ]


~What you want most, so far, you have already achieved and you hate thinking about anything other than moving forward with your goals. You want something so bad you can taste it, that feeling of want, need, and desperation to achieve. It eats away at you, that if you stop at any time to enjoy the world around you, you might miss a step and fall off your carefully planned life. You will be a champion if it is the last thing that you ever do and damn those that would drag you down. ~

Two weeks left before his next fight and Michael was ready, like now, as in yesterday type of ready. He felt like a bull in a cage and the cowboys at the rodeo were tormenting him to keep his fighting spirit alive.

Hate was a strong word for Mikey. However, there was a feeling of disgust at life in general when his goals were stalled or the waiting period was too long. He could wait two weeks, but he would never stay still. He would always use everything in his environment to his advantage, if it helped to further his training.

As for a goal in the new and upcoming year, Michael’s answer was the same as it had always been –become a world champion boxer.

Name:Michael Jacob-Francis
fandom: Original Character
Topic: If you could change just one aspect of your society, what would it be?
Word count : 242
[ooc--All posts are for player not character knowledge only – not for your character to use in game –unless agreed upon– which is ok because all replies to challenges are meta ]



I think that I would change the athletic programs for schools in this country. Make it work for al the kids and not just those who were born to excel at it. Because let’s face it, with the exception of those blessed with a healthy appetite for competitive sports or obsessed with the “thin is in” look, the rest of our society’s children are desperately out of shape.

They should make gym fun and not the torture chamber it can be at times. Ever stop to wonder why so many kids try to get out of gym class ...well except for that whole trying to get out of showering with the classmates business. I don’t blame’em there.

But really, make it so they pay attention in a positive way; keep an eye out for bullies, occupy their minds as well as their body in the same hour; the brain is a muscle too. Find a balance and for the love of all that is good, stop making fun of the students you are in charge of when they can’t quite make the grade just yet …jeeze.

*realizes he just veered off course*

Hmm, anyway, now it may not appeal to everyone who is out of shape and I am not judging that at all, you know. But given the right circumstances at an early age, I think most kids could carry what they learned in gym into their every day adult lives.

Name : Michael Jacob-Francis
fandom: Original Character
Topic: Dance
Word count : 150
[ooc--All posts are for player not character knowledge only – not for your character to use in game –unless agreed upon– which is ok because all replies to challenges are meta bio sheet-a work in progress (more than just current bio page, which is a basic summary). ALL comments are considered meta- but she is available for specific in game rp -- if needed]


I don’t like to dance. Ok, I do. But not like most people. That whole grouping together and groping…way too distracting. I like the club music where you can dance on your own and at most dance somewhere near the person or group that I am with.

Oh, then there is boxing. Now that’s dancing. You don’t think so, huh? Well, you try avoiding a left hook and see how fancy and agile you become. You become a regular Fred Astaire or Gene Kelley. I know! It’s like I didn’t believe it either, but between my sister and my trainer, both telling me over and over…

Maggie made me learn Swing Dance.

She still owes me a favor for that. Not that I will try to collect. Sometimes you just have to suck it up when you do a favor for family. It’s just what you do, you know?

Name : Michael Jacob-Francis *
fandom: Original Character
Topic: What do your ancestors mean to you?
Word count : 297
[ooc--All posts are for player not character knowledge only – not for your character to use in game –unless agreed upon– which is ok because all replies to challenges are meta. The bio sheet-a work in progress and not on front page yet( will be more than just current bio page). ALL comments are considered meta- but he is available for specific in game rp -- if needed]



Hmm, well I know that I was born in the year of the rooster, my mother’s parents were Chinese and my father’s parents were of French decent. I could tell you the entire history of China and France, what it means to be born the year of the Rooster. I could quote statistical and geographical facts on both countries and I still wouldn’t be able to tell you more than what my parents have told me about their own parents. It wasn’t a lot to be honest. .Ancestry has been a hush-hush issue in my household for as long as I can remember, as are a lot of other subjects.

I tried doing a family tree once and my mother and father went all kinds of quiet on me. Out of respect for them, I don’t push.


But honestly? It would be nice to feel a closer connection with those who came before me, other than just a passing reference at the dinner table by slip of tongue. Must be nice to know who your great-great grandparents were or even great-great-great. *shrug*

In some Chinese families, ancestor worship still abounds. Excusing the fact that I am Catholic, even if I wasn’t, I have no names to set up on high and revere.

On a larger scale, I come from two very different nations, two very different racial profiles and you know what, it’s all good. In reality, God watches over us all. We’re all from the same family, in some way, shape, or form. I can look to you, you , or even you, and see your family tree to get a glimpse of what my own could have been –or maybe not. I don’t know.

Sorry, some days, getting a handle on my ancestors, is tricky business.

Name : Michael Jacob-Francis *
fandom: Original Character
Topic: Write about a Summer memory
Word count : 353
[ooc--All posts are for player not character knowledge only – not for your character to use in game –unless agreed upon– which is ok because all replies to challenges are meta. The bio sheet-a work in progress and not on front page yet( will be more than just current bio page). ALL comments are considered meta- but he is available for specific in game rp -- if needed]


I have approximately twenty-five summers to choose from. Hmm, Oh, I know. The Summer I got my braces and I learned how to surf. What? People on the East Coast do surf, you know. Ever hear of the ECSC? No? Well, it’s all good.

It was my mom’s idea – there I was, budding thirteen-year-old boxing trainee, with plans of becoming the first teenage Sugar Ray Leonard, when all of the sudden, it was decided I need braces. See here, I will smile for ya – not bad huh? Twenty-five hundred dollar’s worth of modern orthodontics and my parents weren’t about to mess all that up with my continuing love for the ring and gloves. Ma…I mean mother, she decided surfing would keep me active enough to curb my desire to start throwing down punches.

Wrong answer but what are ya gonna do, you know? I still practiced boxing solo when they weren’t around. I think it was my mother’s hope that I’d end up falling in love with surfing instead. She always said I had too pretty a face to muck up in the ring. But I think that’s a mother’s prerogative working there and all that.

Because honestly? I always wondered if she had ever figured in the thought that I could drown out there as well. I had more scrapes and bruises that summer, trying to get the hang of surfing, than I had up until that time, in boxing – not to mention the embarrassment. There’s a reason we wear wetsuits and not just trunks out there in the water.

One wrong shift and off you go, butt over teakettle with your trunks ending up out only God knows where in the Atlantic ocean – you with the birthday suit, dragging your sorry thirteen year old bare butt back to shore. Man, that was a great Summer for me. But I think I nearly gave my ma...I mean, mother, heart failure. I still love boxing, surfing, and my mother still looks for ways to make me quit the ring.

It was good times, though – good times.