r-list

Animals I have seen this week
raccoon and coyote roadkill
coyote only 10' away mountain biking
four foot rattle snake only 20' away mountain biking
some other snake i almost landed on after jumping my mountain bike

Things I need to do on the internet but haven't
buy 5 tickets to the World Superbike Race that will be in Utah end of May
register for the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championships in June
finish my property tax adjustment
my timecard for work
renewing one of my licenses for nuclear medicine
buying new bolts for one of my motorcycles

Things I have eaten for the first time this week
kobe beef
kim chee
lychee ice cream
acai smoothie

Movies I have watched for the first time this week
Let the Right One In
Bigger, Faster, Stronger
Kiss My Snake

Jobs I have applied for this week
Health Physicist for Customs in San Diego
Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) in Afghanistan
Nuclear Medicine Tech in Hawaii
RSO in Hawaii

update

-i am within 2 to 3 pounds of my target weight for the Mundials. no worries on making weight.
-my fzr might be a lost cause if a working stator can not be found as they do not make them anymore.
-i am still wearing just board shorts to bikram yoga, i can't bring myself to wear tiny shorts.
-i received a "we thought we would call you first and see if you wanted it" phone call for another job back in iraq and afghanistan.thoughts???
-i applied for a radiation safety job with Customs Border Protection (border patrol) in San Diego. will know something in 90 days.
-i will start EMT school on june 1 if nothing else pans out.

"You want to get rid of all the white trash in the US, advertise a free Toby Keith concert on a casino riverboat! It will sink from the weight of the mullets and all the white trash in America would be gone." Dave Attell

music i like right now

7 random photos of me

In last week's poll, this was the winner. So here you are, as requested dear readers, 7 random pictures of me.

Leon Phelps gives advice (PG-13)

"Alright, next caller. Yeah, that was good. But if you have like a special lady friend and you would, ummm, like to be more than friends this what you have to do to get freaky deaky.
Fellas, deep down inside you know what the ladies want so just give them what they want. They want something they can sink their teeth into and just get their mouth all over. It's like a psychological thang, ya dig?
So, to get at her drawers you gotta first go through her mouth. How do I do this you ask, me, The Ladies Man??
One word, Heavenly Cupcake. They are like frosting with sex. Or whatever. Good luck with your lady friend caller and if I was you I would buy a dozen, but I know what I'll be snacking on later. And it's not this carafe of Courvoisier!"
www.heavenlycupcake.com or just go downtown.

hot hot yoga-OR-another reason to wear manties or speedos

Long long ago, I ran the first San Diego Mud Run and finished quite well. Fifth in my age and 45th overall out of 400 some!

Well in my uber self confidence before that race I took a bet from my friend and realtor M. that I would run the race in a speedo and half shirt. For $20. So I did. If ever you are running a race and want lots and lots of room at the starting line, wear a speedo and a half shirt if you are a male. Ladies, I think this works opposite for you, sorry. (shout out to AB who just ran the Boston Marathon in 3:12 and is a mother of 3!!)


So, what might be the other reason to wear speedos or manties? Bikram yoga aka "hot" yoga. As an adjunct to training for the Mundials I decided to ad bikram yoga into my training regime. Today was my very first day and I showed up like a total newbie with no towel, no mat, no extra clothes and in long board shorts and a t-shirt. Wrong answer Rowdy! You need two towels, ice cold water, a change of clothes, a yoga mat and as little clothes as possible.

90 minutes, 105F in the room, no breaks and only 3 sips of water later I was done. It totally raised my body awareness of where I am "weak" as it relates to Bikram yoga. Always nice to have goals. I can imagine I will loose some weight to as you sweat like cccccrazy! I will for sure go once a week till the tournament.

In other awareness.... I was not the only beginner guy in class as a few girls had brought 'yoga dates' to try it out. You know, the guys who are buff and bad in the gym, all concerned with their looks and their numbers. At the beginning of class we were all pointed out as newbies and told what to do and not to do. Blah blah blah. I read your website, I know the class etiquette. So I am looking at these guys who all appear to be in excellent shape. Hmmmmm, sounds like a contest doesn't it? That is right! I totally thought to myself, "I don't care how I do against anyone else, but I am going to C R U S H these guys."

And I did. (humble smile and small shoulder shrug of 'awww shucks') I crushed them so badly they had to leave the room and none of them could even do the whole class. To be fair though, there were parts I could not really do as well. But I didn't quit, I didn't leave the room and I got a shout out from the instructor that I was doing certain things great. Heck, even in chatting after class no one could believe it was my first time. (thank you bjj for all you've done to my body ((just not when you've hurt me)))

But Rowdy, what about the manties/speedo? Well, the dude (and I use the term loosely) taught the class in nothing but a necklace and some weird sweat pant like material diaper/boy short kinda thingy. Yeah.

So, to fit in what do you think I should wear?
The blue speedo?
Or the black shorts?
They want hot yoga, I'll give them hot yoga!

jiu jitsu warfare

Alright, the IBJJF World Championships (Mundials) are June 5th and 6th up in Long Beach, CA. Getting a silver medal in the Pan Ams means I am going!

Here is my war-plan:
Sunday: Off
Monday: Cardio 1 hour, open mat 2 hours
Tuesday: Am bjj class, pm bjj class
Wednesday: Am bjj class, strength training
Thursday: Am bjj class, pm bjj class
Friday: Bikram yoga, strength training
Saturday: Bjj class, cardio training 1 hour
(15 hours total)

This is an easier schedule than my Pan Am prep but I am just going to up the intensity of things, rather than the duration. A focus will be on my grip strength as well. Cardio is mountain biking or trail running. Strength training is Ginastica Natural or my "garage" workouts. The "hot" yoga once a week is a totally new addition but I know I will need the increased flexibility and it will help with injury prevention.

My weight is within 3 pounds of where it needs to be, so I won't adjust that severely until a week before though each meal will include protein from now until then. The last week I will cut down to about 1,300 calories a day, stop going to bjj class after Tuesday, have zero refined sugars and get most of my carbs from fruit and veggies. As usual no soda, no caffeine and no fast food.

I will also get a massage 3 weeks and 1 week out from the tournament to help get things straight and ease the knots and cramps I know I will have.

Fit to Fight!

I don't know if I am thirsty or not now....

I dont have personality, I am personality

If you hold anything to it, as far as Briggs-Meyers is concerned I am: INTJ

even Tony the Tiger teases me!

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) it takes a long time to go through the belts. Of the people I have know to do other arts you can be a black belt in two to three years. Not so in BJJ. It takes 6 to 10 years to be a black belt in BJJ.

The belts in BJJ are white, blue, purple, brown and black. To advance you have to be able to "do" just going to class isn't going to get you there. As there are no forms or katas to memorize and then do on your own, you have to be able to perform against other people who are definitely resisting. And since it is grappling you can pretty much go all out, so unlike point or touch fighting you are feeling it.

Within your time in each belt there is a way to measure your progress. This is done by putting a stripe of tape on one end of your belt. Four stripes means you are pretty close to being done at that rank. I am a blue belt with no stripes.

And therein lies the rub. I medaled in my class at a national tournament, I roll well with people close to my size and I am very consistent about going to class. I have been a blue belt since September of last year. No stripe in 8 months...... (this is especially disheartening as I wanted to be a purple within 2 to 3 years of being a blue)

So who or what should mock my lack of progress or recognition?

The old triple "t", Tony the Tiger, T.T.T..

"Earn your stripes" he says.................
Stupid tiger doesn't even have any fangs. Him and his goofy grin telling me what to do............

tuesday

things i heard today

"Ah, now we can't see if you're here or not when we knock and you don't answer!"-the 10 and 7 year old neighbor kids when they saw me putting up mirrored tint on my garage windows.

"No, grab my pants harder"-during jiu jitsu.

"Hmm, odd"-me looking at the result of trying to take a picture of the sun directly with a digital camera.

"There is nothing on the radio I like. We can listen to their music."
"NO, they can listen to OUR music!"-conversation before I turned up the car stereo nice and loud so I didn't have to listen at the stoplight to the crap coming from the car next to me.

"He was always so quiet. I never would have guessed."

The title is what you always hear the neighbor say in interviews after the subject has done whatever crazy thing their craziness drove me to do.

This morning I was making breakfast and I was looking out the window and saw a bird in the trees that caught my eye and I thought, "I wonder what kind of bird that is. Where is my Field Guide to Western Birds book?"

I found it pretty quickly and after thumbing through a few plates my best guess is it was a Mexican Jay (too late for a 4/20 joke) that I had seen. I then thought to myself, "Hey that was kinda neat. I wonder if like bird watching or whatever would be fun. I should check a book out from the library or get a pocket field guide so I can do this more often. I think I even have binoculars somewhere."

That was when I had realized I had taken one step closer to official craziness.

What to all the world's weirdos have in common as a hobby?
Bird watching.

I bet she says that to all the guys....

My dentist yesterday told me, again, I have the strongest bite she has ever seen.

End of an Era II.

My previous "End of an Era" post was about when I sold my surfboard in anticipation of moving to a place I would be snowboarding. Well, that did not happen and I have ended up surfing like twice in the past 5 months or so. All my old skill is totally shot.
I went from this:
to this:

Another era has now come to an end, the era of the home rock climbing wall. The cool climbing wall C. G. and I built in my garage in 2006 has been largely ignored for over a year so I put it on Craigslist. (anything in my house that doesn't get used in a year gets tossed out. Except for books, movies and music. anything else is fair game for CL or the trash can.)

Finished product in 2006:

My empty walls now. They need some serious attention in filling nail holes, patching demo damage and other construction wear and tear:


Using a big nail puller with extreme prejudice almost always results in a wound:

Birthday wish list revised

1. subscriptions to either Foreign Policy, The Economist, Reason or Men's Journal
2. a class at The California Superbike School
3. a Ruger Mini-14 or Glock 19
4. a 6" travel full suspension all mountain bike like a Giant Reign, Santa Cruz Heckler or Blur, Specialized Enduro
5. Little Chief smoker
6. another language class at Language Door (Braz. Portuguese, Italian or Japanese)
7. hand crank radio
8. anything else someone would want to give me, I appreciate everything.

D.I.Y.

-drained my ear at home for free
-I made homemade BBQ sauce from ingredients at home, and it was delicious
-pizza dough from scratch
-homemade mozzarella cheese
-instead of buying a 10' ladder that cost $160 I made some scaffolding out of $26 worth of wood to hang the pictures, and rigged it off the stair rails
-oil change and chain adjustment on the WR250X done at home

Poway death march on Iron Mountain

Mountain top repose
I sweat easily
No, you are not the boss
Just stand up there
West side is the best side
Good thing there is a helipad nearby, we're dying
The crew
Reason #4 it's a death march
Reason #3 it's a death march
It's portable. Kinda
The sign is wrong, snakes are NOT important
Iron Mountain
The trees of treachery
7 miles, 3 hours. Two dead beetles, one dead lizard. One gallon of fluid drunk.

To whom it may concern, David A., Blast from the past, "But I'm president of Selena's fan club!"

Running into some people from my early days, a la the way-back machine that is the internet (no Sherman or Peabody needed!) and my mysterious readers in far-away lands (are you just looking at the pictures?) I thought I would throw my contact information out there for you. Make our communication a two way street.

Email me:
ultra_rowdy@yahoo.com

fix me, please

Looking at about $500 for a new stator. The price of owning something unique........

But if I sell my Stumpjumper, the FZR 400 and maybe the M1 carbine then I can totally put a downpayment on a Ducati 848 (if i get a better job) or the sweet mountain bike I have been looking at.

Do I hear $300, $300? Do I hear $400, 400?

How much would you pay for 4 pieces of original art work hanging in your home? Not prints, not lithographs and not reproductions but oil on canvas originals. I think they look great!

"We could paint that"

And I put my money where my mouth is. $150 later we had 4 respectable paintings to hang in the house. Each canvas is about 24"x36" and we were done in about a hour.

ART!

pod people and so on

I don't have an ipod. I'm not on Facebook. I don't have a Blackberry. I am not totally anti-technology as I have a LCD TV, a hybrid SUV, a GPS system, XM radio and such. But I am just not part of the larger personal electronics/music/communication/social zombie culture. I mean, I was on AOL starting in 1996 and I did have a cell phone in 2000 and I was on Myspace when it originally hit (living in the Bay area I was definitely more in tune with that stuff at the time).

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, though I am not on Facebook and such, I do get stuck doing the quizzes and such from there time to time, like the "25 Random Things About Me" from a few months ago. Well, here is the latest thing I was tagged for. Read it here or don't read it at all.

What is your current obsession? Every ache or pain or cut or bruise I get.
What is your weirdest obsession? I wear latex gloves to touch raw meat most times. I don't use the same deodorant, toothbrush, shoes, cologne (you get the idea) two days in a row.
What are you wearing today? Black Quicksliver zip up hoodie, t-shirt from a jiu jitsu tournament, underwear, house label boot cut jeans from Pac-Sun
Why is today special? I spent it with people I enjoy doing something new.
What would you like to learn to do? How to get whatever I want.
What’s for dinner today? No idea.
What’s the last thing you bought? Canvas for a painting I did.
What are you listening to right now? The sound of the dishwasher and the wind outside.
What is your favorite weather? Sunny. Hot. Sunny. Hot. Sunny.
What is your most challenging goal right now? Training for the Mundials in June and EMT school.
If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? Only one location? Rome.
Favorite vacation spot? Anywhere new!
What would you like to have in your hands right now? The keys to a Ducati 848 or BMW Z4M.
What would you like to get rid of? Any useless old crap around my place I don't need or use that I haven't gotten rid of all ready.
If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? Klamath Falls to see my grandma before she dies.
Which languages do you want to learn? Arabic, Thai, Chinese, Japanese.
What one fashion item should every man have in his closet? Nice jeans.
Who do you want to meet in person? A person I haven't met yet.
One thing that you would snitch out of someone’s garage, with no regrets? A heavy bag. Or possibly their motorcycle.
What’s the favorite thing in your own garage? The rock climbing wall I built, but don't use often anymore.
What is your dream job? Getting rid of all the bad people in the world. Or having the skill and talent to write for $$$$. Yeah, that's four $ signs. Why have a dream job if it also doesn't make me rich?

Auriclis Hematoma

I don't need no stinking lidocain. Or ugly cauliflower ear for that matter. I would say this is the DIY version, but as you can see it was a set of magical, skilled and disembodied hands that really did the work.