dye it

So pretty much every morning I have had peanut butter (pb) on something; toast, frozen waffle, english muffin or whatever. Now I knew pb has some fat in it but I really just didn't think about how much. Well I looked at the label tonight! Each serving is 180 calories and 14g of fat!!!!!!!!! YIKES. I threw it away. No way am I eating peanut butter again! (in comparison a whole can of chili has 25g of fat and your RDA of total fat is 60g)

Today and tomorrow I am on a liquid diet of Ensure with one solid meal. I'm trying to limit myself to about 1,400 calories each day. I weighed 144.2 earlier in the week and that is too much. Thankfully with some increased exercise and this quickie liquid diet I was 140.2 this morning.

This week I have also scrounged things around to make some of my meals. We had what I like to call 'spicy salad' with our ground turkey spaghetti the other night. Taking the left over shredded lettuce from chicken taco night and going through the fridge to add the other random left over veggies and such. So to the shredded lettuce added cucumber, green onion, carrot, pepperoncini and green olives. It had a very bold taste and really didn't even need dressing. Especially the next day when the lettuce had soaked all the juices up from the peppers and olives.

Tonight's solid meal was yakisoba noodles, carrot and broccoli. Yum! Oh, and water. HAHAHA.

Will this new style of eating stick? Obviously the liquid diet thing isn't for long term. And I am eating and drinking less garbage than normal. All I care about is that I look good, feel good and perform well. And that I don't weigh more than 142lbs ever.

Calling all readers, calling all readers, calling all readers!

Alright, looking at my analytical data for which countries visit my blog most often I have a few surprises. I can't say I know anyone personally from any of these countries but since you have shown an interest in me I would like to learn about you.

Here are the top 10 foreign countries that visit this blog or my shark pictures blog
1. Poland
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. Canada
5. Australia
6. Singapore
7. Croatia
8. Italy
9. Japan
10. Brazil

PLEASE, IF YOU ARE FROM ONE OF THESE PLACES, LEAVE ME A COMMENT OR EMAIL ME. I WOULD LOVE TO MAKE THIS AS INTERESTING AS POSSIBLE FOR YOU AND TO GAIN SOME NEW FRIENDS.

Tough Tuesday

Today's "Tough Tuesday" workout was as follows:
3 pull ups
4 push ups
5 squats either holding a 10# medicine ball and twisting at the top or just holding a 25# dumbell. Doing this equals one rep.
So me and R. did 20 reps of this and on the final rep did the exercise until failure. In thirty minutes I did 63 pull ups, 100 push ups and 115 squats with weight.
And as if pull ups aren't hard enough we did half of them pulling on the sleeves and collar of a jiu jitsu gi strung through my rings. See video for an example.
To finish it off we did bear crawls for a few minutes around the grass, some crunches with the medicine ball held between the knees, stretching AND THEN A LITTLE BIT OF ROCK CLIMBING ON MY WALL TO COOL DOWN.
"If you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth and then sit at a desk you are not going to be a champion. If you wake up, brush your teeth and go for a run, then you'll be a champion." F.S.

aveda knows

What is it about shampoo that makes it the best hair styling product?

so an alcoholic walks into a bar...

and proceeds to eat of the Mike&Ikes and Hot Tamales. Fall off the wagon much?

the best job is doing something you love

so i have an interview and test ride on tuesday to be one of those people driving around on a scooter towing a billboard.

thats right, i could be getting paid for the next 3 weeks to just ride around all day. hopefully though i don't have to be dressed like the above picture!! i think i will wear this instead for my interview>

sweet!


i also applied to be a repair tech in california for wind power turbines. so you get to climb up there and in this case be the person that checks out the fan blades and their integrity. when the job was described as being "outside in all weather 320 feet off the ground and climbing in an enclosed space" how could i not apply, i mean, that sounds like fun to me not work.

moving

Fabio Santos Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy is moving. Over 15 years in one location and now it's moving.

When I lived in Yuma AZ and trained with guys in a garage I came with them once or twice to Fabios' way back in 2001. Then I didn't train again until May of 2008. A 7 year absence in training...Dang.

The academy is moving just a little bit closer to my house, so I can still ride my pedal bike to it! Nice. Here are a few pics of the old building, school and moving.

One week off if gonna drive me crazy! I can't wait to compete and come back and have a new building to train in!

You are all welcome to come check it out.
Fabio Santos BJJ Academy
6156 Mission Gorge Road, suite L
SD, CA

running in the snow

0540 is the wrong time to find out you dont have any suitable (or at all) pants or tights for running in 30 degree weather, in snow, in the Cuyamaca mountains for a 6 mile run.

the funniest text all year

incoming text "hey r u up?"
my reply "i am now. whats up? u bored?"
incoming text "no. i thought the church was on fire, but it was just the boy scouts"

Classic!

lost, season 2

This pic from Iraq is the only one that I can find that close to conveys the emotion I feel right now:
@#$#@%#^$%^$$@#$#^REFERT#$^T$%Y&^%Y%^YHRGR%T%$$#RERF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel so stupid! Like why do I even try sometimes to grow and stretch myself or do something new? I'm sick of feeling stupid and worthless. And by worthless I mean in a monetary sense.

Do I have absolutely nothing that is worth paying me for? Have I ever been able to develop anything and have it last?

Obviously my telephone job interview did not go so well. I ended it feeling confused, dazed, stupid, unprepared, unskilled, muttering and just a stupid facade of an intelligent person. Have I really wasted most of my life?

I'm just stuck in this downward loserness. I hate it! Every time I try to climb out of it, BAM, beat back down. And its got to be all my fault to, that's what makes it even more horrible.

----My recent job failures-----
Iraq: Crohns, dysentery, cowardliness
UCSD: Crohns, poor stress management
County of SD: ineptitude
Nuclear Medicine: no jobs where I thought there would be. no research on my part. now I am loosing skills big time by only working one day a month for years.

I bet I couldn't even get a job working in a grocery store again, stacking oranges and apples.

I don;t feel like eating or anything. I just want to break something. Or implode and collapse into a little pile of dust.

I know I'll survive and 'things will work out' but I am more ambitious than that. I desire more. I expect more of myself. And year after year now I haven't delivered.

(Shaking my head and just throwing my hands in the air)

oh how the mighty have fallen OR stupid Prius drivers

Heading to work this morning I was merging onto the freeway and got a BIG dirty look from the Prius driver I passed. I don't know what his problem is but let me just rant a little bit....

1. I am legally able to go in the HOV or carpool lane just like you pal! So don't give me a dirty look for being a single person using the carpool lane, you are in it to!

2. Guess what!?!?!I get 65mpg on my motorcycle easily! When it was stock I was getting over 70mpg. What are you getting?

3. Don't be mad that my little 250cc vehicle is faster than your 1.5l (or 1.8l) engined vehicle.

4. Guess what else, mine only cost $6,000 brand new. And when it comes time for it to be recycled I will have less to put in a landfill than you. And let's not even get started on the material in your batteries!(lead, nickel, lithium and so on) Mine also required less resources to produce, can be parked more places and costs less to operate.

5. I watched the Topgear test, at 80mph a BMW M3 gets better gas mileage than you do. Hmmm, M3 or Prius....? That is no choice at all! Even when I am at the racetrack I get 45mpg. Yes, racetrack. Not Wholefoods parking lot or the yoga studio where I know you will be found at.

6. I have a hybrid as well. A Lexus one. That gets 20% better gas mileage that its gas only version and is faster 0-60mph.

What have you got? A roof and an over inflated sense of environmental superiority. And from where I sit, neither of those count for very much.....

Every Morning

At this time last year you could have added 18 prescription pills a day to the mix!! So I am glad for just a handful of vitamins!!

Why you gotta mess with me like that? Why?

I wish I was 24 again.....

When I think about all the crazy stuff I have done, this is another level........

Copa Pacifica prep

So, I have been attending every advanced class possible and open mat. I have been totally open and taking it all in. I have been taking some private lessons and just really being focused on how I learn and how I practice.

Now to even increase my preparation for the next two weeks I am upping my cardio and functional strength training.

The academy is closing to be moved to a new location the week before the tournament so I have been doing all I can to be ready. 9 hours a week of jj training, 1 hour private lesson each week, strength training once a week and cardio once a week.

The jiu jitsu training is staying the same but I am upping the strength and cardio. The cardio especially, which for me is mountain biking and running hills or stairs.

The most shocking change is going to be that for the next two weeks I am eating no candy at all, no soda, no restaurant food, no snacks. Believe it or not! But I am motivated

Two weeks. Two weeks.
-run hills or stairs 3x a week
-strength training in my garage 2x a week
-strict diet everyday. no free days
-putty squeezing for grip everyday
-no caffeine, no junk food, no soda, no candy till after the tournament
-hit every jj class available

another new blog

So, in the spirit of the blog "You don't gnome me" that I stalk, I started a new photo blog called AROUND WITH A SHARK IN 80 DAYS that can be found at http://www.arowdyshark.blogspot.com

It will just be hopefully funny photos of some of my toy sharks in various places and such with oh-so witty captioning. Not quite lolsharks but you get the idea.

2009 San Diego Supercross aka Happy Valentines Day

The supercross race was so-so. The lites class was much better. My cousin was not racing this year, so I had no one special to root for. Here are some pics of the arena, the track, us, public transport in and out and some video during the opening ceremony. Enjoy, I did.

Name that...

A friend of mine, who is surfing in Hawaii right now, emailed a bunch of his friends and asked for help in naming his wife's new business.

She is now a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese medicine doctor lady thing. Here are my name ideas for it-

1. San Diego's Center for A Thousand Points of Pain
2. Your Health; sometimes it hurts
3. Chinese Medicine Center of San Diego: To the Point
4. Poh Qu Acupuncture
5. What could it hurt?
5. Lei Lo Acupuncture

Two years ago

Two years ago I was in Las Vegas taking a class to prepare me for my job in Iraq. Iraq. I saw a show on TV the other night that had some scenes of places I had been and it didn't seem real to me that I had been there.




Two years ago I was in a crappy hotel off the strip in Vegas, preparing for Iraq. Wow.

2/13/2009

Last night I had a massage. I knew my right upper back and shoulder were 'tight' but I had no idea how much scar tissue and adhesions I had in there from over the years.

Needless to say I felt like she had beat me up by the time the massage was over. She spent a whole hour just on that one part. ARGH, I guess I needed it. I can't ever remember whimpering and moaning and wincing in pain during a massage ever before.

I slept horribly last night, I had to apply heat and Tiger Balm and I was visibly swollen in that part of my back.

So what do I do this morning? First is a 3 mile bike ride. Then a hour or hard core circuit training in the garage on my rings and box and with the medicine ball. R. from jiu jitsu came over to see my workout as he is another 'light' guy and wants to negate as much as possible the weight advantage people have over us as possible.

Fit to FIGHT!!

The rest of my afternoon is going to be candy, candy, magazines, researching a possible driving vacation in Europe (Lisbon to Rome or Rome to Oslo), candy and checking motorcycles for sale (GSXR 600 K4/5).

Lacrimal gland workout +1,000,000 OR da gratest videoh evar

Hombre

I just watched an early Werner Herzog movie, 'Even Dwarfs Started Small" and it is one of the most raucous subversive movies I have seen in a while.

I loved it.

I should have known..........

Talking about sleep, soon after Remicade that I would have had nightmares last night. Especially the one that had me yelling out multiple times and finally sitting on the edge of the bed panting and frightened.

The Cabinet of Dr. Rowdigari (2009)

One of my favorite movies is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a German expressionist film from the turn of the 20th century and one of the very first horror films made. It is about a mudering sleep walker basically. Excellent story telling, beautiful cinematography and you should watch it. Heck, even the remake from a few years ago is worth watching as it is a good homage to the original.

But back to me, because it is always about me. Got it?!?!

I don't sleep to well. I have nightmares and I wake up about every 45 minutes. Not fun. So other than melatonin and valerian root and ambien and exercise and total silence and dark as possible I couldn't think of anything else to help my sleep better.

But then I got to thinking. (Danger Will Robinson, danger!)

Times I have flown long distances, like the 20 hours from Kuwait City to Washington DC non stop, I have definitely made sure I used earplugs to separate myself from the rest of my surrounding environment so that I can rest and relax as best as possible. When flying first class various times I have also been given the little night time kit that includes a sleeping mask. Guess what? Target has nice soft little sleepy time masks you can buy!

So I did. It even came with earplugs in a little pocket over the nose part of the mask. It hurts for me to sleep with earplugs in so I don't use them for that but I did get to thinking it is a convenient little pocket for sleeping pills instead! So smart I know. About the first 3 nights it didn't stay on my head through the night and I would find it in all sorts of odd places in the bed the next morning. Finally though I have been able to keep it on all night.

Does it work? Have you ever watched the Crocodile Hunter? What is the first thing he does after he jumps on a croc's back? He throws a tarp thingy over their eyes. You cover their eyes and they are soothed, calm and less combative. That is the effect I'm going for.

One year ago

squid squid squid i know, i know.
stylin profilin im finally realizin (LL Cool J-Goin back to Cali)

A year ago I rode my 2008 Yamaha WR250X supermoto home. I was the second person in San Diego to get one. I had put a deposit down on one the day after they first were previewed on the Yamaha US website. Since then I have continued to have soo much fun on this motorcycle. Heck, the video of its exhaust note on my youtube page has had 21,205 views!! Over twenty thousand! (This blog averages about 30 hits a day and you need about 1,000 hits a day to make any money of ads)

This motorcycle does have its small faults but it really is the best small street legal supermoto made.

coach Troxel would be proud! (To keep us busy our mom would send us to football conditioning camp in the summers at Kennewick High School)
Soon to no longer be such a squid. (squid is a pejorative used to describe a clueless motorcycle rider. someone who doesn't wear gear and thinks they are fast when really they are crappy) ((I am not really a squid. That's why I can call myself one))

At the same time last year I also got another scare from my Crohns disease. A two week beat down of horribleness that began on.........wait for it..........Valentines day! I had been in email contact with my doctor, home sick from work, in and out of the ER for a day and half when it just got to be tooo much. (To much weight lost for one thing. I was 119 pounds.) So what's a boy to do who is so terribly ill? Hop on your motorcycle and take yourself to the ER! hahaha. (My reasoning was that it is all downhill to the hospital so no matter what I can at least coast there. Secondly you can park closer when on a motorcycle so I would have a shorter walk to the building. And finally my motorcycle was only two weeks old and I really really wanted to ride it. The day of my surgery in 2005 ((another crazy story!!)) I had rode my GSXR-600 for a little ride in the hills above Oakland)

Well, my time in the hospital was not fun, some scares along the way, some not fun things, horrible roommates and me just being rowdy. At one time I had plastic model airplanes hanging from the ceiling I had made, pictures on the wall, dumbbells for exercising, copies of my CT on the wall to explain things to my visitors and my laptop to watch DVDs.

I could go on and on about all the crappy things right then but why? I am happy and healthy today and still enjoying my bike.

All one year later.

I hate this freaking rain and wind.

Sun Diego, rrrrrrrriiiiiiight.

Boredom and Self Exposure in San Diego

OR: Random Rowdy 25 on my blog 'cause I don't have Facebook and I'm never going to. So there. Now for a list of things you probably didn't know about me before.

1. I shave my armpits. Not with a razor and shaving cream but with electric clippers. I think it looks better and my deodorant seems to work better.

2. I don't like chocolate.

3. I had my left nipple pierced for a year. I now know what a natural endorphin pain killer high feels like.

4. I don't like to touch raw meat and have a box of latex medical gloves to wear when handling raw meat in the kitchen. This only happens about 50% of the time though as this 'thing' or 'phobia' or 'weirdness' hasn't totally taken a deep seat in me.

5. I have never seen the movie Titanic.

6. If there is something on Ebay with "rowdy" on it, I normally buy it. I have tins, beer signs, clothes, books and license plates from 4 different states that all say Rowdy on them.

7. I have had more than one concussion.

8. I didn't learn how to swim until last year, 2008.

9. I have been shot at. More than once.

10. When I travel do a different state I buy a case of Nallys Chili (Thick) and bring it back to SD with me. Even if I have to take it as a carry on onto the plane. I always get extra TSA screening on my bags when I do this. But I looooove this chili and it is not sold in So-Cal.

11. I will watch a rented DVD on fast forward the whole way through if I think the movie is boring or I don't like it.

12. I wrecked my first car at age 16 in an end over end roll. I have never been in another big wreck. I've spun off the road a few times doing minor damage and that is it.

13. I never ever wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row. I don't use the same shampoo two days in a row. I don't use the same toothbrush two days in a row. You get the idea.

14. I have killed a rattlesnake by throwing a rock at it. Then I skinned it and gave the skin and rattle to R.D.'s little brother.

15. I have spent 28 days in a hospital in one stretch.

16. I am absolutely terrified by scary movies. No Jason, Freddy, Boogeyman, Saw or anything like that. If there is a psycho killer, knifes, blood or any sort of jump out and scare you BOO type thing, I refuse to watch it. My imagination just takes hold of things like this and runs wild. "Real" stuff that is scary doesn't bother me though.

17. I can't parallel park worth a darn.

18. I barely graduated from high school but I have taken a formal IQ test and scored 138. I think it was all about motivation.

19. The very first time I wakeboarded I got up the very first time and rode all around the lake. I was jumping the wake my 4th time wakeboarding.

20. I have half a fake front tooth from running face first into playground equipment. As an adult. This came in really hand when the first day of a new job I was going my great white shark impression on a Big Hunk candy bar and ripped out the fake part, leaving me snaggle toothed the first 3 days on the job.

21. My first fist fight was around age 8. My last was around age 28.

22. I have had my driving privileges revoked twice. Good thing I have lost them as many times as I have also.

23. I've bought prescription drugs in Mexico.

24. I don't have a nickname. No one has ever really given me one and none have ever stuck.

25. Building plastic model airplanes was one of my greatest joys as a teen.

To Whom It May Concern

Dear Reader-

After discussing the 6 P's in the previous post. What, you don't know the 6 P's? Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Moving on.........

Due to popular demand I feel I need to clear some things up for some folks. As you know I did not get accepted into the school program I wanted. That really was supposed to be the icing on moving to Utah. I had so much wrapped up into the school thing though that I am kinda off track now.

Sooooooo, here we are today. People have been asking me "what next" so I'm gonna break it down for ya.

I have kiddos from a previous marriage living up in Utah. Once I left living Arizona I was able to live fairly close to them and had for years. Then in 2005 when I was in the hospital and getting another surgery beat-down they moved to Utah. I ended up moving to San Diego. So the separation began.

Now years later I really really really want to be living back near them. But you can't move without "stuff".

So to move, some things need to happen.
1. Dr. D gets a job that is a lateral move pay-wise. (the U job was not even close & it is still in discussion as to whether it is a real position)
2. I would need to get into PA school. I've already been rejected.
3. I would need to get a decent job up in Utah. (One of the EH&S jobs I applied for)
4. The property management company would have to say we could get an amount for rent that makes it easy to subsidise the remainder of a mortgage on a lower Utah salary.

None of these things have happened. I still really really want to relocate and be closer to my kids. But it is totally not working out how I planned. I mean, really the worst case is staying in SD and everything stays the same as it is now. I have applied for some jobs here in SD. Wherever I get a job I will be happy, here or there.

I'm lost, but I haven't stopped walking. I still know where I wanna go, just gotta find a way to get there. If ya know what I mean.......

p.p.p.p.p.p.

So I have applied for two different EH&S positions dealing with health physics and as a mobile PET/CT tech.

If I end up staying in SD, then that is what happens. It won't be the worst thing in the world, just not what I wanted. A real job, here or there, would be nice.

I might go write a bit today as well....

I'm used to disappointment

Time to walk my own talk. Copied from the email I just received, "I regret to inform you that you are not among those selected to have the opportunity to matriculate in the University of Utah Physician Assistant Program."

Not even wait listed. Wow. A whole new level of rejection for me to experience.

ps-it's raining today as well.

9 letter victory

I know my header photo is Scrabble themed, but that is just because I thought it was unique composition when I was playing around with a camera. I never list Scrabble in any of my hobbies but secretly, I really enjoy playing and am perturbed if I score less than 300pnts in a game.

As a fun variant I like to play with 9 tiles rather than 7, all other rules standard. This just opens up so much more and tonight I found a new one for me. "Gaze" was the vertical word and underneath it horizontally I spelled "raconteur" and turned 'gaze' into "gazer". Sadly I was one space from a double word square but still, I was happy to pull out a 9 letter word from the tangled recess of my mind.

Does liking to play Scrabble make me a nerd? Don't answer.

The doctor who has done the in-vitro for the woman who just had octuplets should be charged with malpractice!!

1,000 words indeed

I love this picture.

now what?

I was only scheduled to work 3 days this month. Tomorrow was one of them. Notice I used the past tense, was.

No patients tomorrow equals no work. There is only one patient, one at all, on the books for what I do so maybe I can work one of the remaining two days this month.

Just my luck, I get an unexpected day off and it is supposed to rain tomorrow. But today when I am tired, busy at home and have a very sore elbow it is beautiful outside.

Rar!

They asked me which animal I identify with at my interview and I said, "a shark." If only I had seen this picture before hand. I would have hesitated to tell them shark even less.


LET'S GET READY TO RUMMMM....BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you know what they say about redheads....

You don't? Neither do I! So here are some pics of me with my hair other colors. And styles.

When in Iraq...
I can rock the 'hawk
Medium length blonde/red
Kitchen beautician brown. Eyebrows included?
Short blonde.

One in Twelve

My Monday was spent in downtown San Diego serving as a juror. Rather my civic duty required me to serve as a potential juror, as I was never selected to be a juror and was dismissed from the panel at around 4pm.

While pacing the jury pool room in boredom I noticed they really did have a complete cross section of the SD population. I don't think there was any race, religion or socio-economic class not represented.

The case dealt with child molestation. Great, just want I want to sit and listen to for possibly days on end. But if it was me, and I'm innocent of something nasty I would want good jurors. So I kept and open mind and listened.

Initially I was not selected for the first 21. (one of the questions dealt with your experiences dealing with police officers. i think 75% of the 40 people in my selection panel had DUIs!) After the first wave of dismissals I was an alternate and then bumped up to being "#2". (i guess they really do know me!!)

Sample Questions:
What is your occupation and educational background?
Are any of your friends in law enforcement?
What has been your personal experience with law enforcement officers? (here is where the whole room confessed their DUI fondness)
Have you ever served in the military?
Do you have any children?
Do you know of anyone who has been a victem of molestation or been accused of molestation?
I answered all of them truthfully and plainly with nothing extra, no embellishment or wandering confusion of "umm" or "I don't know" or "gee".

Almost as soon as the new group I was in was finished being questioned I was dismissed. I wasn't asked any follow up questions or made to clarify anything as almost all of the other potential jurors who were eventually dismissed had, nothing. There has to be an art to jury selection and I really would like to know what it was about me that would cause me to be instantly dismissed......?

Brighton Resort, Utah

driving up Big Cottonwood Canyon, no avalanches that day
gps says i'm there!
i have never fallen getting off the lift
"laid back, with my mind on my money and my money on my mind"
so yeah, i got fur on my hood. and?