Happy Halloween

If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense.

Guess who get's to work part time doing Nuclear Medicine this month? Here are some hints. They are in the photo below. They have red hair. They write this blog.

ME, Rowdy! Dang, you only needed one guess!!

Finally! Making some $$ again. Took me a while to find my white lab coats but I still have a drawer full of scrubs.

I'm the Great Pumpkin

I love pumpkin pie. I've had it in place of birthday cake more than once. I'm friends with 'pumpkin pie' and 'sugar' on Facebook. Picture Mort from Madagascar saying "I love pumpkin pie. I loved it before you even knew of it." That's me.

I even have pumpkin orange colored hair.

So it should be no surprise I would eat a dinner that was actually cooked inside a pumpkin! Yep, you read that right.

A mix of meatballs, mushrooms, onions, rice and water chestnuts in a creamy mushroom sauce all cooked within a hollowed out pumpkin. In your oven for 90 minutes.

I just scraped it out into a bowl with the cooked up pumpkin flesh. It was sooo delicious and satisfying. It was also amazing the day after when I spooned it over some left over baked rosemary potatoes.

Like me, sooo unique and delicious.

I wish I had a big TV in my bedroom. It would make falling asleep in my bed easier. Right now I sleep most nights on the couch till 4am and then try to go to bed.

Ugh.

Wild Horses

I hiked down the cliff to go surfing again at Black's Beach today. Since it was sunny the nudists were out in force. Ugh. That's the last thing I want thrusted upon me, naked old men. Pun intended.

The surfcast I looked at and the reality facing me on the beach were totally at odds. Nothing surfable really. So I grabbed the GoPro and my homemade pistol grip from a few posts down and headed into the water.

I've been wanting to shoot video of my surfing friends in the water and I figured this was a good way to practice and get comfortable in waves with no one around. My ears were TOTALLY filled with sand as well. Took like a bulb syringe in the shower and such to finally clear and clean the sand out.

Let me know if you like the results! Or wanna be a surfing subject for me sometime.

my world record

A hike up Cowles mountain in 1 minute. World Record!

Throw away, do not recycle.

Of all the different types of blog posts, by far the easiest and most commonly used during writer's block is the list. Foods you like, places you've visited, people you hate. Things like that. Simple. So here is mine for today.

Bands I used to like but now despise.

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. U2
3. Linkin Park
4. 311
5. Foo Fighters
6. The Beatles
7. Green Day

Maybe 'despise' is too strong of a word. How about in this case it meaning I change the channel if 95% of their songs come on. I buy zero of their music. I have deleted them almost entirely from my mp3 player. (a NON Apple product tyvm) So just for my reader and friend in real life, Amber, here is why I don't like these bands at all. If I ever did.

1. To me, anything after Mother's Milk didn't need to be made. Everything after that sounds exactly alike. Even more commercial and processed. It can't even be called derivative as it has all sounded exactly alike now for almost 20 years. What was once new and fresh is now old and stale. I have not seen them in concert but have owned 2 tapes and 3 different cd's.
2. Anything after Joshua Tree is crap in my opinion. This is a case of a band going too far from what worked for them originally. And then thinking you are soooo very special and important. The fame and adoration went to their heads. The emperor is naked and has no musical clothes. I have seen them in concert, owned at least 4 tapes and 3 cd's.
3. I like music that amps me up quite often. I like to play that kind loud in the car especially. But where LP used to have a dozen songs I like and could crank, if I hear one now it just grates. It seems stuck in a style and period that hasn't been able to translate into my life now. On the other hand, Disturbed is an example of how to do this right. 3 cd's and a couple downloads if you include the Fort Minor side project.
4. Down. Great song. The rest is too melodic and a soundscape almost. Not enough rocking. 311 lulls me to sleep and I've heard it all too much. I dated a girl who loved 311 and I'm glad now she stole all their cd's from me. Seen them in concert and owned 4 or 5 cd's.
5. Nothing to like here anymore. Grohl's artistic taste seem unique at one time but I realize it's not totally his vision. Nirvana was awesome. Foo Fighters are not. I've never liked their music and included them only because I wanted to be able to express again that I don't enjoy hearing any of their songs. Having Dave play Satan in the Tenacious D movie was the most accurate casting ever. No concerts or cd's ever.
6. Katchup or mustard? Bacon or suasage? Coke or Pepsi? Stones or Beatles? Normally people like one and not the other. In this case I like the Rolling Stones. Not the Beatles. The Beatles were nice when I was a pre-teen and learning about rock and roll's development. Their history and catalog is wide ranging. But when it comes to singing in the car, dancing around or just grooving I want it to be the Stones. The fab four can be skipped over. Heck I'd even rather hear almost anything from the Beach Boys than the Beatles. Full disclosure, giving a girl a vintage Beatles album for her birthday once got me some dates with a girl out of my league. So I have feigned interest in the past but only in pursuit of hotness. Parent's albums, one cd.
7. Pretentious. Over wrought. Simplistic. Off base politically. Fake. Guy liner. Nothing to listen to here folks, move along. They are the musical equivalent of Hot Topic if you get what I'm saying. Nothing. Ever.

project vid

Home movies 21st century style!

I did 3 different GoPro mount projects today.

#1. I've taken my camera surfing a few times and have had surfing friends ask now to borrow it. So I thought it was best to get some sort of insurance since they don't float, waterproof though they may be.
Cut up close cell foam pool floaty plus Gorilla Glue and a little bit of scissor work and tah dah, a housing that floats.
I even tested it a couple times, shoving it down a foot underwater and it still popped right back up. And for half the price of the official GoPro one.


#2 A hand held mount, pistol grip style. This will allow me to hold the camera in my hand without my fingers needing to be on the housing. (which means in front of the lens normally). This will be good for snowboarding and in the water surf shots of others. It was less than $2 to make. And since I have the GoPro tri pod adapter I can use any of my cameras on it.


#3. The elusive narwhal. This one is going to take some work to perfect but I am pretty excited by what the possibilities are. You can imagine I won't be rocking this one though first time out on a trail! It is just so trippy to ride around with.
I need to work on the angle and counter balance a bit. Then I can dial in the camera angle. Vanity they name is Rowdy.

Once the video loads on Vimeo that will be up too!

#4 Not a project but a purchase. Got the chesty mount to try on the bike and with snowboarding this year.

Rock Star. RowdStar.

Another first.

Short vid of my first cyclocross race!

RKT=me=Scrat

Rice Krispy Treats make me end up acting like this guy.

Ciao

RIP Marco.....

Costume

If today was Halloween the most popular costume would have been looking like death warmed over either from being sick, up late or hung over and seeking a breakfast burrito at 11am.

To make your own simply follow these helpful tips.
1. Don't shower.
2. Wear yesterdays clothes or at least something terribly mismatching.
3. Hold at least one eye more than half closed.
4. Slouch and slump.
5. Have a facial expression doing its best to convey you are just seconds away from collapse, vomiting or sleeping.
6. Bed head. Crazy hair is a must have.

New Musical Theme Song

This is my new theme song. I saw them in concert this week and I'm under their sway.....
Cults, "Go Outside"
Video:

Lyrics:
I really want to go out
I really want to go outside and stop to see your day
You really want to hole up
You really want to stay inside and sleep the light away

I really want to go out
I really want to go outside and make it light all day
You really want to hole up
You really want to stay inside and not care where you lay

Well I know what's good
Exactly cause I have been there before
Yeah I know what's good
Exactly those things night cannot behold

I really want to go out
I really want to go outside and stop to see your day
You really want to hole up
You really want to stay inside and sleep the light away

I think it's good to go out
cause if you don't you'll never make a memory that will stay
I think that you should wake up
I think I want to live my life and you're just in my way

Overheard!!

Woman, "I've never unbuttoned a man's pants and heard him groan."

Man, "It's all about BBQ sauce."

read that however you want. =)

Things I learned today.....

#1.If you were good at something once, you will probably be good at it again. I worked my first day back in Nuclear Medicine today in over 2 years! I was very nervous about starting IVs on patients. The 4 I started today I got all first try. So here is hoping and praying I do that well next week as well.

I just work today and then two days next week, that is it. With no idea when I will work again in the future. But today felt good and while nervous about doing good next week, I know it will be OK.

#2. If you surf Black's Beach on a overcast October afternoon, you will have the waves to yourself totally and only have to see 2 naked dudes.

I don't care if the waves were only 3' and that I caught more inside that outside. I surfed Black's today and I had it to myself. San Diego awesomeness.

#3. Good food is something to really be thankful for when you get to eat it.

#4. If I'm riding a scooter and I'm passing you, well then you are freaking slow!!

#5. For not being in shape and having a year off I seem to be doing lots of new physical things! I had my first downhill race earlier. Tomorrow I am having my first cyclocross race up in Indio.

And then in November I will go snowboarding in Colorado for my first time.

And in December I am going to do my first triathlon in Palm Springs.

#6. I can fix just about anything wrong with a toilet.

There ya go, the six things Rowdy learned today. And I didn't even have to sit in a class room or take out a student loan to do it.

more riding...

I'm in the gray t shirt. Other R is in the black t shirt.

one of two

this is the first of two jumps i wanted to make before the year was out. one more to go!

Triple Play

Killer and I went and did a little off roading at Corral Canyon OHV east of San Diego. We did one of the easier trails, with only two sections requiring spotting and stacking of rocks. We both drove and both did things harder than we had before.

The coolest thing though was we were driving slow down a fire road and right in front of us a cougar/puma was loping down the trail! Once we got a little closer he ran across the front of us and into the bushes. It was soo cool! How many people see one of these elusive creatures in real life? Not many.




The family that surfs together.... brings home sand together! It was a fun time for sure. We all had a good laugh, only a few people got sun burned and only one of the group got hit in the head with a board.

Quote from the evening, "Lord of the Rings is like sunshine and pictures of smiling kitties, everybody loves it." So yeah, I went to watch the Fellowship of the Ring movie while a symphony and choir did the musical parts live.

It was a very mixed bag of folks in attendance, predominantly female which surprised me. But the crowd was also very appreciative and let the performers know their pleasure.

The easiest thing to do in life is seldom the right thing to do.

I love Killer and Jaguar more than I love myself. I love them more than I love my material possessions.

I have a successful physician neighbor who recently said, "I wish I had your life." In the context that I don't have a real job and am daily engaged in some sort of physical activity or hobby. He wants all of the fun and what seems to be no responsibility. Funny thing is, I'd like to be a successful doctor with credentials from Stanford.

But I do have them and they weigh heavily on my heart and mind. So in doing some preparation for something else I have going on I felt a strong, peaceful feeling in my heart to help Jaguar and Killer. Monetarily.

The consumer, selfish side of me was super torn but the sincere, spiritual side of me was firm and resolute. I could reduce my physical possessions and in turn help them in a way they cant currently help themselves.

So in two days I was able to sell my motorcycle. It was all I had to sacrifice.

Now I'm able to help Jaguar with her upcoming marriage in January and Killer's mission as well.

I'm not a saint. This is/was not easy for me. But it really felt like the right thing to do and came together soo quickly and for the right reasons. I hope through my sacrifice I'm able to better two other people's lives.

the 808 kick drum makes the girlies get dumb..-Sir Mix-A-Lot

Just like my Session 8 makes riding fun! But I think I want to upgrade it to a Session 88. Twice the fun!?!?!

Peter Parker's Pictures

Ever wonder how I get my super cool shots of all the super cool things I do? Now you know.

A GoPro and creative mounting ideas.

Speaking of which, I plan on going snowboarding more than once this year so hopefully I can get some good shots then as well!