All Things Rowdy

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

-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

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

"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.

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...

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 ...

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

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 ...

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.

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.

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

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:

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.

-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

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.

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

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.

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!

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!

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...

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.