my weekend

Friday afternoon I got a haircut. I encouraged Morgan to give me a "crazy stylish" cut, but I am not sure I like it. There is a sharp deliniation between short hair and long hair. So it needs product and the correct input/style or it does not look right at all. I will probably end up just shaving it all short and going back to what I did for years. It looks ok, but it is requiring too much effort on my part to stay looking good, and for me that just isn't worth it.

Friday night was dinner at The Fishery in La Jolla. They cook seafood better than anyone around. Downside is they don't "serve drinks with high fructose corn syrup," so you can't get any kind of soda with dinner. Wine, water or this very nasty strong ginger drink. Yeah, I asked for a Coke and the waiter said the above quote about non-sugary drinks.

Saturday was spent at Sea World. Sharks, rays and dolphins. All great fun and I didn't get sunburned.

Saturday evening was spent with my buddy Jack Johnson. He sang a few songs for me. We had a good time together. To bad he also invited about 10,000 other people. I thought it was a private concert. Ha ha. It was a good concert and I am happy I have now seen him live. So it was Culver City Dub Collective (who I like), Rouge Wave (ehh, so so) and Jack Johnson. The concert was a green one. You were encouraged to car pool, buy a carbon offset, lots of non profits there and so on.

Sunday is church, a home cooked dinner of ground turkey spagehti, an easy walk with our guests and going to take pictures of exotic cars for M.

What did you do??

damn gophers

they are destroying my front yard.
I've tried traps,repellent on the surface, drowning them with a hose down the hole, poison bait left in the tunnels, the poison smoke bombs in the tunnel, re sodding my lawn in two big places.
i was free of their @$#%&%^*! mounds of dirt for 4 days, now i have THREE new ones.
this is not good!! (cue Bugs Bunny saying, "of course you know, this means war")
so now i think i need to get a professional rodent killer........... argh. not happy, not happy at all.

Faixa Azul

TODAY I WAS AWARDED MY BLUE BELT IN BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU FROM FABIO SANTOS!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM TOTALLY HUMBLED BY IT AND THE WEIGHT OF IT IS HEAVY ON MY SHOULDERS (OR HIPS).
I STARTED AT THE ACADAMEY MAY 10 OF THIS YEAR AND GOT MY BELT TODAY, AUGUST 27, 2008.
TRAINING 3 DAYS A WEEK AT LEAST, EVERY WEEK FOR FOUR MONTHS. WOW. (but I really had been training off and on with friends for years. this is my first real formal bjj instruction)
THOSE WEREN'T TEARS, MY EYES WERE JUST SWEATING.
my jiu jitsu lineage is: > Rickson Gracie > Fabio Santos > Me

Dreaming

IF I get into the graduate program I want and IF I then graduate from it, this is the graduation gift I want:
Tissot T-Race MotoGP or one of its variants

Coming Attractions

August
Jack Johnson concert
DD, D's sister, and friend visiting

September
Indianapolis MotoGP race
my first visit to New York City, NYC
D's birthday

October
J's bday
M's bday
trip back up to The City (San Francisco)

November
new James Bond movie
anniversary #1
M moving up to Teacher

December
K's big big bday
knowing if I will be interviewed for U of U PA program

wr250x supermoto ride to Otay mountain peak

From sea level to 987 meters elevation. Riding my 2008 Yamaha WR250X supermoto. A fun dirt road that was miles and miles long. At the top you could see all over the county and many of the colonias in TJ.

Of course there is a big Border Patrol presense, seeing their vehicles, helo landing areas, holding pens and such. A fun ride I want to do again.

Weeds Season 1

I only have one direct neighbor, the house being open on all the other sides, so I don't look between our places that much. There really is nothing between our places, you can't get down there and it is just kinda wild and left to do whatever happens. It was actually warm enough I turned on the AC last week and when I was outside looking at the AC unit I saw how overgrown the "yard" was on that side of the house.

Can you see the one weed that is over 10 feet tall!

It took me over a hour to clear all that out. Ugh. What is the benefit to home ownership again?

Part Time Model

Yes she could be.

Listen and smile.

That's the name of the game

Hi, my name is Rowdy. I'm my own action figure.
Earlier this year, I posted about all the bones I have had broken. Not the ones I broke on other people, because that would be a boringly short list.
When D was fist getting into mountain biking I told her that my mountain bike had hurt me more than motorcycles, rock climbing or jiu jitsu. Well, the past few years I have not been riding my mountain bike with that kind of frequency or aggression. If I was, it would continue to bite me, hard.

HARD. Like the hard elbow I took to the bridge of my nose today in jiu jitsu. Probably not broken, if it is it's a very clean break.

The scorecard reads like this
Motorcycles
scrapes
bruises
wind knocked out

Jiu Jitsu
?broken nose?
serious mat burn X2
broken toes X5
broken RT radial head (right elbow)
concusion
bloody nose or two

Mountain Biking
broken right wrist X2
seperated right shoulder
3 serious skin abrasions that scarred
puncture wound chest
numerous cuts, scrapes and bruises

So, if I was out hardcore riding my mountain bike like I used to, it would still be in the lead. The supposedly most dangerous thing,motorcycles, that I have been doing longer than any other of my hobbies, has injured me the very least!! Looks like jiu jitsu has taken the lead.

A single step

I submitted my application to the Physicians Assistant program at the University of Utah today.

In December 2008 I will know if I am to be interviewed.
In January 2009I could be interviewed.
In February 2009 I could be extended an offer.
On May 18, 2008 I could be starting the program.
In August of 2011 I would have my Masters and be a Physicians Assistant.

Now it is out of my hands for 4 months and I can just study and wait.....

Mistaken Identity

When I came back from Iraq and was in Georgia doing my out processing, I kept getting the eye from the wait staff at a place I was eating dinner by myself. Finally one of them came up to me and said, "are you an actor or somebody famous?"

I don't know if it was some sort of gay come on or a legitimate question, but I answered "no, I am not. But thank you."

I don't know if they thought I was Seth Green, Rick Schroeder or the guy on CSI Miami. Ya got me....

Yesterday I was eating at a Thai place for lunch in their outdoor seating area. When I went to leave I saw some neighbors inside eating so I knocked on the window and waved. Evidently I am a vague and indiscriminate waver, as some girls at another table thought I was waving at them and they got all twitterpated over it. Did they think I was somebody else as well??

I think I just look like me. I mean, I can look good sometimes, but really, do I look like someone famous?

more life imitating art

San Diego Gothic



American Gothic

Realism

I took this with a little ELPH digital I take most place. I just love the light, color and motion of this photograph.

It is the wallpaper on my laptop currently.

To Live and Die in San Diego

In talking with my Dr.s at Kaiser they were impressed with how well I am doing after my crazy hospital stay and Crohns problem earlier this year. We talked about how I am not on any medications really and what I thought might be the reason why I am doing so well.

My reply was, "Motorcycles and Jiu Jitsu. I just need to fight and ride."

East County Supermoto Ride

Today me and 5 other supermotojunkies went for a ride in East County. A bit of a freeway slog till we started, but oh well. First up was a 7 mile dirt road up Viejas grade. Then it was 79 to Lake Cuyamaca to Julian. Then down to Santa Ysabel and off to Old Julian Highway and Wildcat Canyon past Barona. All in all a great day. A few fast guys and a few total beginers but no one crashed and no one ran out of gas.

There were 2 Yamaha WR20X's and 4 Suzuki DRZ-SM's.

Mathematics is the Language of the Age

For fun some random numbers about moi

1-piercings I have ever had.
4-marriages. 2 civil and 2 temple.
12-foreign countries I have been to.
14-US states I have visited.
215-centimeters left of small bowel in me
15-motorcycles owned
4-guns owned currently
28-days straight in hospitals
1-car wrecks that ended upside down
5-skydives
5-chicken wings eaten in my lifetime
144-the greatest number of pounds I have ever weighed
158-mph I have ridden a motorcycle
18-hours straight on a plane, Kuwait to US
12-number of traffic infractions in my driving career
30-different house I have lived in my entire life
8-number of schools, K-college, attended
4-computers owned in my life
1-fake tooth
48-liquid ounces of Kool-Aide drank in one try
3-different pairs of crutches I've owned
2-magazine stories published
42-people I've kissed

speaking of eating odd things...

I went to a (fingers in Tommy Boy quotation style) restaurant called Wings-n-Things.

Some background information. I don't eat fast food at all. I rarely eat beef. When I handle raw meat at home I wear latex medical gloves. I trim every ounce of fat off of anything I eat and will spit food out onto my plate if it is too fatty. And I have maybe eaten 4 chicken wings in my entire life. And those have all been consumed in the last 5 years, two of them at a Superbowl party in 2004 and one at Oggis Pizza last year and one at dinner in Utah last week. That is it.

So after my motorcycle ride today I was super super hungry. The group suggested this ""restaurant"" called Wings-n-Things and I tried not to instantly balk and pretend to vomit. I went along. At least it wasn't Hooters and their owl meat. (I'm talking to you M!!)

I ordered the 3-strip combo. I had to break my boycott and drink a Coke product (ARRRGHH). So you get some carrot and celery sticks with ranch, 2 pretty good bread sticks and then 3 chicken strips cooked the normal way but then totally soaked in that vinegar/hot sauce thing that coats most wings. Not a meal I think anyone would have picked me eating. But I did. All of it. I might even go again....

(yes, that was the earth you felt stop turning for a moment. get over it.)

Odd things

Maybe it is because I am starving, but here are some things I have noticed lately.

The bathroom air freshener where I am working today smells like Black Cherry Kool-Aide with lots of sugar. I am not supposed to be feeling thirsty when I am urinating. That is just WRONG.

My spanish teacher has NO IDEA what peanut brittle is! How does that happen? I mean, yeah she was born in Mexico but she went to college here in the US. Who doesn't know what peanut brittle is?

Update

Work-I am back to working as a registry nuc med tech. Just a few days a week, but it is alright pay, close to $50 a hour. Though it has been a few years since doing this job with any regularity, it all came back pretty quickly. I am 7/7 on starting IVs first time and haven't had to refer to notes too much when doing things.

Spanish-Last night was a difficult lesson but the blame is all mine. I don't study it at all and just try to go off my natural talent. Well, natural talent has taken me 15 weeks and now it is time to work harder. Though the class is only two more weeks and I don't think I will be moving on.

Motorcycles-I haven't done anything cool or fun on one in a while. When is my next track day with friends???!!! But the MotoGP race at Indy is only one month away!!! I can't wait to be there and I think some of our friends from here will be there at the same time. Cool.

Church-I am now in the Elders Quorum presidency. I have missed the last 2 Sundays so I am sure they will be glad to finally see me this Sunday. Still working at the Temple each Tuesday night as well. But this is getting to be a pain and somewhat annoying on a personal level, so I don't know if I will make it past this year as a worker there.

Jiu Jitsu-Another promotion for someone else. Of the people I started with no one is a blue belt yet, so we will see who is first to get it... Things have been so crazy I have not been able to train how I would like and with no tournament to motivate me, it has just all been about what happens at class. All of my training is loaded into 2 or 3 days all one after another. But at least my weight is steady now at about 138 pounds.

No news will come about PA school until December and no news about being closer to J K and M will happen till early next year. And I still haven't shaved my head. Yet.

utah parte dos

Friday was my meeting with the admissions person for the PA school I am applying for. That meeting went very well and I learned where I need to strengthen my application.
Dinner with J, K and M that evening at my 'rents was salmon and ribs!! Yum Yum. I think I have eaten more red meat in the past 3 days than in the past 3 weeks.

Saturday was helping my dad put his new treadmill together, hiking up to Donut Falls and then to the top of it, swimming in the pool, dinner again but this time at Cafe Med and then watching a horribly good movie on the SciFi channel.

A couple things though, there are no sugar coated pastries raining down upon you at donut falls. Not even a biscuit or scone!
If you get in a pool noodle war with M, come ready to rumble. I have a cut on one side of my face and a bruise on my other. (though I am undefeated in camel fighting)
Cafe Med was a surprisingly friendly LGBT restaurant. They were flying the rainbow flag all over the place. I wonder if my dad knew... But the food was definitely tasty.

Sunday consisted of church, resting and eating. Isn't that the Webster's definition of Sunday?? My mom and I played a version of Scrabble where if you spell an animal you get 50 points added to that word's score. Our combined score at the end of the game, both of us using all of the tiles was over 1,300 points!!

My dad sang a solo in church and was amazing. Genetics totally missed me on the musical talent thingy. Oh well.

Weather on the east coast messed us up and our flight was delayed 4 hours. So we were not home till 11pm instead of 7pm. Which makes a big difference in how you feel when you get home and wake up at 530am the next day for work. But don't take my word for it, try it yourself!

Overheard...

"Nursing is about caring, medicine is about curing." To me, that is like the difference between a waitress and a chef.

Know what I mean?

Utah

So far it has been a productive trip, though I feel I have a rain curse following me. When I went to Wyoming and South Dakota earlier this year it rained unexpectedly. Friday morning it rained for hours in Salt Lake City. Odd. I almost felt like I was living back in Arizona and it was monsoon season...

My rental car is a Kia Sorrento. I don't think I would buy one based on my rental experience. It is too softly sprung with a long delay between pushing down the gas pedal and meaningful acceleration. The seats are not shaped for someone my size either. They actually seem to be made for a typical big fat american, not a short trim one. I am more 'Asian' sized than I am 'American' sized.

The information meeting at the University of Utah was good. I learned quite a bit about how applicants are selected and the process you go through to get into their Physicians Assistant program. I would like that to happen, but only so much of it is in my control. But I will at least submit the strongest application I can.

Today, Saturday should be a hike to Donut Falls, swimming, a belated birthday lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant and just general goofing off. All fun!!

When I return I have 3 days in a row of Nuclear Medicine work to do!! I guess I will have to refresh myself quickly as it has been over a year since I have done that type of work and almost 2 years with any regularity...But I will do good, it will just take some time.

deeb deeb ba deeb that's all folks!

Boycott the Olympics

Study the issues for yourself, but I am boycotting the Olympics and the primary sponsors. I have nothing against most of the athletes or the idea of international sports competition. But this is a unique opportunity for the whole world to tell China they are on the wrong path as a nation.

What this means is during the time of the games I will not watch any TV channel at all that shows the games or news about the games. Nor will I buy any magazine with any positive reference to the games in a cover story. I will also change radio stations the minute I hear anything promoting the games.

As for corporate sponsors I will buy no products at all during the month of August with the IOC, Olympic rings or other identifier promoting the Olympics. In parenthesis you will find an alternative for spending your USD.
The primary corporate sponsors you would see in the US are:
-Worldwide Partners-
Coke (Pepsi)
GE
J&J
McDonalds (why not use this time to quit fast food totally)
Panasonic (Sony)
Omega (Rolex, Tissot, Tag Huer)
Samsung
Visa (Mastercard)
-Olympic Games Partners, Sponsors and Exclusive Suppliers-
VW (Honda, Toyota)
Adidas (Salomon, Simple)
J&J
Budwiser
UPS (Fed EX, DHS)
Snickers
Staples (Office Depot)

Think of how China treats it's citizens, people visiting, business practices, relations with its neighbors, foreign investment, espionage against the US and the history, ethics and policies practiced today by China. I think what you will find will let you in good conscience boycott anything to do with the Olympic Games in China and the companies that stand to profit by them.

Send a message, vote with your TV remote, your wallet and your voice.

Anacapa 2008

One of the Channel Islands off of Oxnard, Anacapa is an hour ferry's ride from the Ventura/Oxnard port and is a great destination for some serious kayaking. The camping is very primitive. Launching and recovering the boats is done from an elevated pier and challenging. There are tide dependant features and wind and swell conditions can change rapidly. But in about 2 hours of paddling you can see calm bays, boat under huge arches, surf waves, go into caves so dark 3 headlamps barely illuminate it, squeeze through narrow slots between rocks so close you scrape both sides of the boat, be inspected by sea lions and just generally have an unique and adventurous kayaking trip not many have.

Some non action photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/7795507@N02

Anacapa 5 lists

Kayaking and Camping on Anacapa Island

Top 5 Worst
5. Not finding the restaraunt we wanted to eat at to finish off the trip.
4. The poor quality of disposable waterproof cameras and not owning a neat digital camera that is waterproof.
3. Facing the tent door the wrong way and becoming a holding pen for all the dirt blown through the campsite.
2. Having to make two trips from the dock to the campsite to get in all of our gear.
1. Not realizing that August is part of the sea gull breeding and chick season and having to share our campsite and immediate area with hundreds of birds and squawking chicks.

Top 5 Best
5. Showering with water heated on the stove.
4. Winning at Phase 10.
3. The light house tour from one of the coolest NPS rangers ever.
2. Hearing the words, "That wasn't so bad, I'd go camping again."
1. Shooting the gap between the islands and making it! Something I had failed to do on the 2006 trip.

San Diego's Youngest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt

I am proud to say I am friends with KH, we both were SD County workers for a while, he is an awesome teacher and I was there the night he got his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from our teacher, Fabio Santos.

KH said it was the realization of a lifelong dream. From starting training at 12 to being a black belt at 22. A feeling like no other in his life as he spoke through tears of joy. Imagine starting the day with a rough day at work, locking the keys in your truck to geting called into the academy and then BOOM. What an awesome suprise from Fabio for K.

Congratulations man!!

religion

Library clerk 1: You owe $5.00 for damage to the Hezbollah book you checked out.
Me: What? I don't drink coffee, I'm Mormon.
LC 1 to LC 2:He says he doesn't drink coffee, he is Mormon, what do I do?
Library Clerk 2: (looks at Hezbollah book with stain on a few pages) Well, I don't know if it really is coffee or not. But he still has to pay.
Me: So, I don't drink coffee, you are charging me for a stain you don't even know what is but you are calling it coffee anyways and I still have to pay?
Library Clerk 1: Yes. Please just try to bring a dollar next time you are here.

Wow....no respect.

Tag I am it!

From my sister, who loveingly tagged me gently. Not like the slap my other sister would have used. =)

1) Four places that I go to over and over: the shower, the garage, jiu jitsu, grocery store

2) Four of my favorite places to eat: Phils BBQ, Oggis Pizza, Le Thail Basil, home

3) Four places I would rather be right now: somewhere outside of the US, a supermoto trackday, warm ocean water,

4) Four TV shows I watch: Top Gear on BBC America, Ninja Warrior on G4, World Extreme Cagefighting on Versus and Spongebob wherever.