On my way to the office I picked up my favorite cinnamon muffin from Dunkin Donuts.
I passed a gas station and took the following photo.



Look at the front left tire and you can see it is out of place.

I wonder what kind of gas this gas station is serving.

Afa "The Wild Samoan" has summoned me to put an end to those laughing about his WXW Wrestling website.

At this point I would like to elaborate a bit more about Afa, AKA Pops and my relation/connection to the WXW Wrestling family. As matter of fact I decided to create two separate entries, this one more of a personal nature and another one more about the portfolio view of the newly created WXW Wrestling website.

Facts about Afa

Early in Life:

Anoa'i was born in Samoa, but his family relocated to San Francisco, California in the United States of America when he was young. At the age of 17, Anoa'i enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

Wrestling career

Upon leaving the Marine Corps, Anoa'i began training as a wrestler under family friends Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia, later receiving supplementary training from Kurt Von Steiger. He debuted in 1971, wrestling his first match in Phoenix, Arizona. Anoa'i subsequently trained his brother Sika, and the siblings formed a tag team known as the Wild Samoans.

Throughout the 1970s, the Wild Samoans competed for the Canadian Stampede Wrestling promotion, where they received supplementary training from Stu Hart, and for numerous National Wrestling Alliance affiliates. In 1978, the Wild Samoans traveled to Japan and competed for the International Wrestling Alliance, winning the IWA Tag Team Championship.

World Wrestling Federation

In 1979, the Wild Samoans joined the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where they were partnered with manager Lou Albano and renamed "Albano's Wildmen". The "wild" nature of the brothers was highlighted by their unorthodox behavior, which included communicating only in unintelligible grunts and consuming unprepared raw fish during interviews and on approach to the ring. While in the WWWF (renamed the World Wrestling Federation, or WWF, in 1979) the Wild Samoans won the WWWF World Tag Team Championship and challenged Bob Backlund for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship on several occasions. They left the promotion in 1980.

The Wild Samoans wrestled in Mid-South Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions before returning to the WWF in 1983 and regaining the WWF World Tag Team Championship. When Sika suffered an injury, the tag team was supplemented by Anoa'i's son Samu. The trio remained in the WWF until 1984. Anoa'i returned to the WWF for a third time in 1992 as the manager of The Headshrinkers, Samu and Anoai's nephew Fatu. Anoa'i remained with the WWF until 1994.

Later career

Upon leaving the WWF, he began training wrestlers at the Wild Samoan Training Facility along with his brother. On March 31, 2007, the Wild Samoans were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Samu and Sika's son, Matt. He was the wrestling trainer for Darren Aronofsky's 2008 film The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke.

In Wrestling

Nicknames

The Dream Maker, The Godfather of Professional Wrestling, Pops, The Wild Samoan

Wrestlers managed

Headshrinker Fatu, Samoan Savage, Samu, Headshrinker Sionne, Yokozunal

Wrestlers Trained

Afa, Jr., Batista, Court Bauer, Black Pearl, Melissa Coates, Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes, Billy Kidman, Chris Kanyon, Kishi, Rocco Rock, Jeff Roth, Havoc, RO'Z, Samu, L.A. Smooth, Snitsky, Umaga, Virgil, Yokozuna.

Coming to the USA

I immigrated to the USA from Germany in 2000. Back then I studied pharmacy and computer science in the university of Berlin. I had my own computer business that helped paying for my bills and tuition. I didn't come here to find a better life since I already had that in Germany. A personal decision I made back then to come to the USA, seemed to be the best solution at that time.
Starting a life in the USA without any connections at all proofed to be difficult. I had to learn english which I had pretty much down within about 5 month living in the USA. Simply out of respect to the country I am living in I needed to learn the language. In my own country it kills me to see people immigrate, live in Germany and don't speak a single piece of German. To me that is unacceptable.
Trying to get a job was a nightmare. I had to listen to things like: "We don't know how good your education is in Europe", "You are over qualified", etc. Basically a bunch of crap. At that time I was just hoping to just get a chance to proof myself! I had to work low wage jobs to get around.
Even at the DMV in New York as I tried to exchange my German drivers license the person and I quote said : "The Europeans cause a lot of accidents and they do not switch drivers license over from Europeans". This answer really came as a surprise considering that in Germany we have to wait until we are 18 years of age, go through 3 month of driving school and pass a written test the size of a book. In all my years driving I have not had a single accident. After all Germans have a special bond to cars :) !

Pro Wrestling and meeting Pops

Before coming to the USA I loved watching pro wrestling since Wrestlemania IV. I always wanted to try it and went to a pro wrestling school in Germany, Kreuzberg. With all these crappy jobs and no job opportunities for me in the USA I decided to give Pro Wrestling a shot, at that time I was 6'4" and 275lbs. I looked for a pro wrestling school and narrowed it down to the Skull Crusher School in Florida and the Wild Samoan Training Center (WSTC) in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 2000. I took a trip down to Pennsylvania and visited Afa and Lynn and what a great experience. I felt home the minute they talked to me. I also met David Bautista (Batista) who came by to say good bye to Afa and Lynn to leave for the Kentucky WWE development camp. I decided to move down to Pennsylvania and attend the pro wrestling school. This was my best experience in the the USA so far. I actually felt worth something, doing something I liked doing and actually had a goal, which before I didn't have in the USA.

After spending grueling and painful hours in the WSTC center I finally graduated a bit over a year later in 2002. During that time I gained new life long friends. Afa is a never ending fountain of knowledge and wisdom inside AND outside of the ring. Afa (Pops) and Lynn (Moms) took me in as I if I would be their own. I have seamlessly been integrated into the WXW family. I really got the family feel which made all the difference, helping me to overcome the hard time away from my family in Germany. The chicken from Moms is truly PRICELESS!
During my time in the WSTC I offered to create their website. Afa said, sure son, show me what you got. I cooked up a nice website. I left for the development camp in Kentucky in 2002 and have been in touch with Pops and Moms ever since, they are family :).
Somebody else took over the care of the WSTC website since I didn't have the time necessary to update, etc.

Afa Summons the PixelGrinch

It wasn't until 2009 as Afa sent me an instant message (IM) and wrote "Son people are laughing at my website, can you help me, Doc". He started calling me Doc as I fixed up everything computer whenever there was a problem, back in Pennsylvania. Some call me geek, Pops calls me Doc.
By that time I have been away from wrestling for several years, yet we stayed in regular touch. At this point of time I have already established my graphic design and web design business. So I went over to the WXW Wrestling site and checked it out. The content was fine and maintained by Vale, his daughter, it just needed a nicer face/presentation to go along with it. As I always say you can only once make a first impression.
I said let's do it, and that was when Pops summoned the PixelGrinch! I examined the website and the process Vale used to update/maintain the site.
I went to work and had no idea what a big project it turned out to be. On top of it doing it for Pops was like doing it for myself. After several months of designing and coding the result is a website for WXW Wrestling that is truly unique, clean, user friendly and easy to navigate. I can reassure nobody is laughing at Pops website now. The site is completely cross browser compatible and looks the same in all modern web browsers. Vale can now login to the site and make changes on the fly from anywhere in the world on any computer without additional software. No more asking others to do this or that, absolutely in charge. All changes Vale adds through the back end are shown instantly on the website. This will also have the nice side effect to be much more time efficient so she can spend her time with other important tasks.
Thanks Pops for summoning me and thanks Vale for being such a fast learner.

Following a view tunes I love listening to when doing my daily work:

I moved into my new office. This also the reason that there were no new posts about my work. The major part of the move has been completed and the equipment is ready for action. I am still waiting for the internet service to be activated. At this point over a month has passed by since I placed the order at Verizon Highspeed Internet Services. They determined that there are problems with the line and they need to send out a tech which I have to wait for almost 2 weeks from now. What a shameful demonstration of Verizon and horrible customer experience.
There is a Wifi point available in this building but it is so unreliable that I can not effectively use it for my daily work at all.

Update: December 20th, 2008

I will spare you the details, all I will say is I haven't seen such carelessness and ignorance towards customers in a long time. Every person I talked to, up to management had a different story. All it was a simple activation of highspeed internet. The lines where already in the office. On the phone for hours, calls mysteriously dropping when placed on hold, and so on.
1 1/2 month have passed by and Verizon has not managed to get me online. My patience has run out and I cancelled the whole thing. Verizon lost my business for life. As a matter of fact I also cancelled everything Verizon. I cancelled my Verizon home internet and wireless plan. Good bye Verizon!

It is time to see the family again. I will travel to Germany for the next two weeks. Not a lot of time but better than nothing.
I am looking forward to see my family and finally get to eat my favorite foods and sweets.
I will report back from New York in two weeks.

Follow Up: 11/23/2008

Time has gone by way to fast. I will be flying back to New York on Monday morning.

I have always neglected the fact that I should have my own blog. Initially I got the impression that a blog is a tool to get the word out or smash it with advertisements.

I never had to struggle for work or finding clients, so there was no real need to get the word out. I admit the beginning was tough as it can get but it all progressed and started following the principles of mouth to mouth. The quality and professionalism made the round over the years. I am one that can be trusted 100%, works like a horse, doesn't mind to put in an hour free of charge for a client, conducts himself professionally, is loyal, honest and treats EVERYBODY with respect. A handshake from me is as valid as a contract. Why do I mention these things, because in business nowadays these are rare qualities. I have pretty much seen it all throughout the years and am quite disappointed what route the business world has taken. It seems to me that the primary focus of doing business is how much you can screw over somebody else in order to reach the maximum amount of profit.

Friends and clients alike told me if you do not need a blog to get the word out, then do it for us. We love what you have to say and we are interested in what you are doing. I don't want to get mushy here but that kinda touched my heart. People actually care and that is what changed my thinking about blogs significantly. I haven't really thought about it that way, that you can use it as a tool to stay in touch with friends, family and clients. Well, said and done I decided to work on my own blog and invest the time necessary to make it happen.

From here it all starts and I hope you enjoy my blog.

Thank you for your time.


Bert Austin | PixelGrinch



ps.: Please don't expect me to put my past work into this blog. I will start all fresh from now on and only certain things will be added that are dated prior to the date of this post.