working title

The ocean, 10 minutes from my house.
and just 40 minutes the other direction, snow. All in SD county, all within a hour's drive.
Only took a few regular sledding runs before I decided to do this.
Time for some action!
James May is Cpt Slow on TopGear. Well for the web series Off Camber, I am Cpt Snow.
Yes, objectively and subjectively it was FREEZING this morning!
HA! I beat the sunrise to Sunrise Highway. (I woke up at 440am)
pictures first, narrative later.

photo grenade

"if you're gonna do something stupid, do it how rowdy would", a true quote from one of the dads in my neighborhood. i have an army of child minions i am training to be fun machines. this one is learning the unicycle!
peeps! but plush, stuffed animal style peeps. guess what i'll be mailing to my nieces and nephews of the appropriate age?
yep, it was cold enough in san diego i had to break out my manly, warm, fuzzy socks.
ever done it in a tent? me neither. but i am going camping this weekend. mud caves, anza borrego.
bed time distractions!
yes my truck is 4 wheel drive. and yes i drive it off road. often. tomorrow i am leaving the house at 5am to go up to the snow in the laguna mountains to catch the sunrise. and sled.

plus a bonus video claymore!
this is a trail i've ridden a bunch. and even on the same bike, but not nearly as good as these kids do!

ODI Trek Satellite Team on pinkbike.com

?

How is it that there is no culturally correct means in place to dispose of religious material in a country we've been in for over a decade? This is beyond stupid and I cringe every time I hear the phrase "hearts and minds" when used in context with Afghanistan.

Having been in Operation Iraqi Freedom myself and watched the Army at work, this kind of lapse is just beyond belief. It is criminal. This really sums up to me how what we are doing there is not worth another bit of American 'blood and treasure'.

How is it that the Chinese claim Mr Lin for themselves? He is American. And if you want to be nit-picky I'd say he was Taiwanese, not Chinese. Ask anyone, and I've been to Taiwan myself, there is a huge difference. Over which battles have been fought to recognize the distinction.

Why is that homes, streets and nearly all infrastructure in San Diego are not built to handle even 1/4" of rain? Short sighted, lowest bid, "it'll never happen to me" kind of thinking.

Why can't I sleep through the night?

When will the "Walking Dead" story line more closely match the graphic novels? I mean, I do like how they are developing the characters now and am not one of the people who thinks the show would be better with just the addition of more walkers. But the pacing does need to move forward a bit faster. Bonus info: I dislike Lori, Carl, Dale and all the 'soft' people. I'm strongly in the Shane camp.

What kind of motorcycle should I get for my birthday? One that is fun and useful for the 'hear and now', or one that will be more useful for when I might possibly be commuting on it to school in the greater LA area? For some reason I'm not sure if one bike can be both...

Photo RPG

Super amazing self portrait! Of course I was stopped, I'd never use my phone while actually riding a motorcycle. Oh wait, I was on a scooter so I could do whatever I wanted. Yo quero motocyclo! (I know that's not right, it's humor)
Happy Birthday little buddy! Enjoy your new toys!


The fabulous world of Russian crime novels I sadly have missed my whole life.
I love the shower!
This is what it costs to fill up my Taco. Gas will be $9 a gallon in Norway this summer, so guess I shouldn't complain.
And this is why you rarely see a skinny nurse at your doctor's office. These were just 2/3 the snacks available to me at this office when working this week.

Reinvention Redux --OR-- Rowdy Remixed

Back in 2009 I applied for Physician Assistant school up at the University of Utah for the 2010 school year. I was interviewed and wait-listed. So I made it to the list of 50 people out of 900. Just didn't make it to the final 40....

We all know what happened to me in 2010 and 2011. In other words I would of had to drop out. And that would have been worse than not making it at all...

Now that I am 68 days out of the hospital I've already been scheming and plotting how to get back to PA school. And this time maximize my chances of getting in!

And the plan goes like this, shadow a PA I know for some more hours. Get my reference letters from two PA's and one MD, different than my references last time when it was 2 doctors and one NP. Then in the summer take microbiology at whatever school I can most easily get scheduled into and a GRE prep class to ace the exam.

Finally in fall if I have to take organic chem or biochemistry and Maybe just one semester of A&P (anatomy and physiology). Just to prove I still know my stuff and am ready for graduate level work.

This all means I would apply in fall of this year for admission in August of next year. And as there is no PA program in San Diego county I am gonna have to live away from home for two years. So I'm limiting myself to the western US. Actually I made an excell spread sheet that ranks all 22 PA school in the western states to my differing criteria.

I can rank schools based on 1.distance (closer is better) 2.if the GRE is required or not (no is better) 3.how many classes if any I'd need to take to meet entrance requirements (none or the less the better).

Without giving too much away a rough list of possible schools, in no particular order, is this:

University of Washington, MedEx Seattle Washington
University of Southern California, Keck Los Angeles (Alhambra)
Loma Linda duh, Loma Linda California
Red Rocks CC, Denver Colorado
Stanford School of Med, Palo Alto California
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
San Joaquin Valley College, Visalia California
University of Colorado Anschutz, Denver Colorado
UC Davis, Davis California
Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona California

Wish me luck!

random Rowdy

Thinking of buzzing all my hair off like I had it in this pic. But.........growing a beard. (let the hate mail begin!)
The pic for my 'don't drop the soap' post of a few days ago. Nook and the bath tub!!
I see you, thinking it's all morning time and stuff.
2 whole wheat english muffins, 3 brown eggs, 2 avocados, cheese, onion, 4 slices canadian bacon. Yeah, that should hold me for a few hours.
Ah Easter. I love they give me a preview in the store of what 4' of Peeps will look like on the shelf. Delicious.
Why play if you aren't in it to win it? Just for the fun of it? HA!

Eugene O'Neill and Abbott Laboratories

Beyond the Horizon, "Supposing I was to tell you it's just Beauty that's calling me. The beauty of the far off and unknown, the mystery and spell of the East which lures me in the books I've read, the need of the freedom of great wide spaces, the joy of wandering on and on-in quest of the secret which is hidden over there, beyond the horizon? Suppose I told you that was the one and only reason for my going?"

The customer service people at Abbott do not have access to a complete database of where Humira is distributed. They will look on a country by country basis per request. They do not recommend leaving it out of the fridge for more than the length of time it takes to get it injected. Yes, you can buy more than two weeks worth at a time, but the expiration date is variable and you wouldn't be able to control which batch you bought to extend your supply's shelf life. They do have tips on traveling with it, but they are as complex as shipping radiation. Which I have.

Golden Handcuffs Medical Edition

I swear I must be crazy, to let something that currently is 80% irrelevant to my life bother me sooooooooo much.

Ambition filled me as I went to sleep last night for today's activities. I was going to go to jiu jitsu to watch early class (since I can't practice due to the infected cut on my wrist), then go to yoga at noon and finally off to the shooting range to get a little practice in with my .22 target pistol.

But as I awoke this morning and moved into my day the ambition melted off me like late spring snow in March sunshine.

A quick internal assessment and I think I know the cause of my downturn.

Go back a few posts and you will read my wistful remembrance of working in the Middle East. And if you are a family member you know my long love of international relations and my study of world conflict. Which got me thinking, why can't I get back into this field?

But then it hit me. Why can't I go to jiu jitsu? Because of a medical thing. And why am I super susceptible to things like that? Because of the medication I take. Which is a shot, that has to be kept refrigerated, and given every two weeks.

That realization has for some reason totally bummed me out. I just can't see how I can ever have any sort of long term 'adventure' away from my house if I have to be tied to a medicine that I need every two weeks and I have to store in a refrigerator. Hardly something I can stockpile, take with me, store correctly or heaven forbid skip taking.

I did email the drug manufacturer today asking where it is available out of the US, if I can buy it ahead of time in say a 3 or 6 month batch, how long it can be stored and how long it can be out of refrigeration and still be viable. I wonder if I'll get a real answer back.

What makes my day to day life great has for some reason now turned into something that I see restricting my future. But it is a future I don't even see existing. I'm physically much healthier than I have been in easily two years!! But I'm not where I want to be and things keep getting in the way, slowing me down.

Am I focusing on the wrong things? Should I be trying harder? Should I quit?

So why does it bother me so? Does this even make sense? Have I gone off the edge mentally? This is ridiculous to be my age and wonder like this........

stinkin' thinkin' ---OR--- take that you crappy Prius!

So I fill my truck's gas tank up 5 to 6 times per month at normally 16 gallons a fill up. That gives you $384 dollars per month in gasoline. But I only get to drive 1,536 miles on that as I average 16 miles per gallon.

Meaning I pay $0.25 for every mile I drive. A quarter. Or one dollar lets me drive 4 miles.

Now say I buy a used motorcycle that costs $3,000 and drove it for 1,000 miles of the nearly 1,600 I drive per month. And a motorcycle that gets 45 miles per gallon.

A Honda CRF230L like this I found on CL for $3,300 gets 55mpg.
Whereas the truck costs me $250 to drive 1,000 miles a motorcycle like the above would cost $89. A difference of $161 per month.

If you put that savings against the cost of the motorcycle, then in 19 months you have paid for your 'ride' in just gas savings alone. And in my case you are only riding for 66% of your months driving. Which in out climate is totally doable.

And if you get something more fuel efficient you could have your motorcycle paid off in a year's time, easily done as many motorcycles get over 60mpg.

On This Day, Five Years Ago

In the New York Times this morning there is an article about America's reduced presence, budget and desire for sustained military engagements in the Middle East. The main picture was of an airbase in Kuwait that I have been to many times.

The picture just held me. I picked up the paper and peered closely at, seeing what I might still possibly recognize. Saying to myself, "I've stood right there!!" Feelings and memories flooded back.

On this day 5 years ago I was finishing up my last bit of training stateside before going to Iraq to work for a year as a civilian defense contractor.

Two things come to mind right now. First that I was only there for 3 months. I feel like a total failure, coward, weakling for not being able to stay the entire year. Yes, I know that I was hospitalized multiple times here in the US during the same time frame and would of had to come home regardless. But still, those feelings linger and are able to bubble to the surface with full force.

Secondly I had a dream while I was there that still haunts me. A very prominent person in my life came to me in the dream and said, "You're not done here." That's all I can remember. Him standing before me, saying those words. And I believe it means something.

Staring at that picture this morning brought all those things back. All the sights, sounds, smells and experiences. I feel drawn to that area. I actually want to go back there. I don't know why, I don't know how. But I do. I want to be back there seeing and doing.

But my reasonable, rational mind is stuck on what to do with these feelings and desires. All it can see are reasons not to do such a thing. Maybe it is all just a bit of undigested potato, a la Scrooge.......

I'd post pictures of my time there, but that computer died and I have no photos at all of my Iraq adventure. Just close your eyes and imagine, like I am...........

San Diego Sledding!!

And in other weirdness......

-I thought to myself today, "I am just like my mom!!" when I cut my finger with a knife in the kitchen and bled all over the place and on my clothes before I even noticed.

-I went to a neighbor's birthday party for their kid today. Of course he liked the toy cars and motorcycle I got him! But the funny part was looking around and being the only white guy in a room of 18 Asians. I didn't mind at all, just a funny visual to me, especially as I have red hair.

-I have to take two weeks off from jiu jitsu due to an infected cut on my right wrist. That also due to the medication I take for Crohns is gonna take a while to heal.

It's OK if I drop the soap....

But it would not of been OK if I had dropped my Nook tablet into my Valentine's night bubble bath.

(I tried to upload a pic from my phone of said occurrence but am experiencing technical difficulties)

Are you Pinterested??

OK, all my male readers tune out. Females, stay with me.

Or as my buddy Strongbad would say, "Dudes to the left for highfives, girls to the right for makeouts." Or just email him for advice.

Now that I have your attention, I'm talking about Pinterest. Yes, what has been described to me by one person as "crack for women, it should seriously be illegal."

Well I gave something, the zombie V-day cards, to Super D to 'pin' to her 'board' or whatever the secret code vernacular is for you you Pinheads! HA. I just made that up.

Pinheads: noun. All the women in the world who are addicted to Pinterest. ( I kid, I kid ) Or as I read on a different blog, these ladies are all very Pinterested in the things they 'pin.'

Guess what?? The material I supplied is now her most 'repinned' thing.

Pinterest. Good enough for women, made better by a man.

hehehehhe hahahahahha!!!

Urban Dictionary: rowdy

A copy and paste from urbandictionary.com of my real first name, Rowdy. These seem pretty much spot on. And I didn't even edit or create any of these....

1. rowdy

A southern expression which means getting either crazy, wild, or drunk. Most likely all of the above.

Example: "We all rowdy and bout it bout it from the south nigga" -Magic & Master P "Ghetto Godzilla"

2. rowdy
crazy, loud, fun,
"u is rowdy, man"

3. rowdy

aggresive, sexually or physically
"your friends are a bit rowdy tonight"

4. rowdy

A stuffed dog from the television program Scrubs.
And all the time he just sat there like Rowdy.

5. rowdy

Anything exhibiting characteristics that could blow one's mind instantaneously. Basically, straightforward awesomeness.
"Justin Timberlake's new music video is way rowdy."
"Can you believe how rowdy Samantha's new haircut is?"

6. Rowdy

A Southwestern/ West Coast slang adjective used to describe a fun, social, enjoyable, crazy person/ thing/ event/ situation.
A regional word when used in this context..similar to Crunk, ballin', fresh, ill, sick, sweet, hype, etc.
other versions of word include; rowdiest and rowdyness
"This is gonna be the rowdiest weekend in Mexico ever!!"
"They've been drinking and getting rowdy since 8 a.m."

7. rowdy

An adjective for anything that can be described as good or great. Typically used in the phrase, "That's rowdy!" Originated at the University of Florida in 2003 and has slowly worked its way up the southeastern US.

Deathray Bubble Gum

Oh, what I meant to type was "Happy Valentine's Day!"

My 1st World Problems....

-When the housekeeper comes at 8am instead of 10am, waking me up early.

-Using enough sunscreen.

-Deciding which car/vehicle to drive during the day.

-Not having enough closet space.

-Deciding where to go out to eat each day for lunch. So tough and you have to do this every day!

-Yoga and jiu jitsu? Or mnt biking and working out? Gosh, what to do to stay fit?

-Europe or Asia for summer vacation?

-Wondering about retirement savings.

-Would I really look better with laser skin treatments?

My wireless router should be called Wall-E

Man, I just added another device to my household that uses and abuses my poor little old wireless router.

So now I have these things all pulling at the pants leg of the poor little guy:

-TV
-Xbox
-iTouch
-iPhone
-2 different Kindles
-3 different laptops
-Nook for the latest and greatest addition to my signal stealing family.

Yeah, that's right 10 different things all fighting over the love and attention of one little box with blue lights.

Fact or Fiction

I normally do not like to read fiction. I don't want fake. I want real. Non-fiction.

If I do read fiction it is the 'classics' or something really worthy of the effort. I read for knowledge, and that is entertainment to me. One look at my 4 book cases and you'd get the picture.

But there is one fiction book I like and actually re-read about every 5 years, Horn of Africa by Philip Caputo. Dude's won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting, so it is really no surprise that his realistic fiction appeals to me.

One of the antagonists in Horn of Africa is quoted as writing in his journal, "The ultimate power is to be yourself so totally, that other people do not even exist to you."

I like this, but it is open to many interpretations, some of them strongly negative. But I chose my own focus. And in the focus of living my own life, being my own self I have realized I despise Facebook.


And so with a few keystrokes I killed it. And I already feel myself becoming more and more "rowdy".

The Cabinet of Dr Rowdigari

In the most awesome movie, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (wiki or imdb it!) there is an "amazing somnambulist" under the control of Dr Caligari.

His name is Cesare. The past few days, I have been Cesare.

I am just drawn down to zero. I slept almost 12 hours Tuesday night, not waking until 11am. Last night I slept 10 hours and then a 2.5 hour nap this evening.

I even look tired. I hope this passes.......

"unique up on 'em. get it?"

I'm sooo mad at myself. I want to be able to go a million miles an hour at jiu jitsu but being only 9 weeks home from surgery, I just can't. My body totally shut me down and I didn't even wake up till after 11am today! Disgusting.

To help myself feel 'right' about my day I ate this instead of giving in to a craving; banana, whole peach, strawberries, super green food, lowfat milek all made into a smoothie.

The few days with my high school buddy turned out really good. I think we had a lot of fun and no awkward periods. I mean, how bad can 3 days in San Diego be compared to February in Spokane?

The flight simulator that made me nauseous for about 4 hours, he and Killer rocked it though.

All my SD readers should know where this is!!

You've heard of the Easter Bunny right? And Santa Clause? Lesser known are things like Father Time, who brings you gifts on New Years Day (who has never visited me btw. must be 'cause I never stay up celebrating) But even lesser known is the Valentine's Day Bird.

Yep, the Valentine's Bird. He brings you a basket of candy and a cool little toy or gift. Just like the Bunny does on Easter. Valentine's is about love and he visits you to show you that you are loved with a little candy and gift reminder.

I know and you know that the day is like 6 days away, but he came early to my house this year and left this:

Reunion with Rowdy

So a friend from my high school days is here visiting me currently in SD. It has been a lllllloooooonnnnnnngggg since I've talked to anyone from those days and I've actually never been back to the town or state I graduated hs from.

It has been a pleasant surprise. He still lives in the Pacific Northwest and this is his first to San Diego. He is only here for two days so this is my rough plan to show him around, as we've already gone through the "so whatcha been doin' all these years?" conversations.

Day 1
-breakfast burritos
-driving tour of La Jolla
-stop at Torrey Pines
-visit the Midway
-quick walk of downtown/Petco Park
-lunch out somewhere, probably Mitsuwa Market
-fishing off the OB pier
-

Day 2
-Belmont Park/Mission Bay
-Sea World
-Balboa Park with stops in the Air/Space and automotive museums
-vietmanese lunch
-out to dinner for mexican

I think that should give a guy a decent fun overview of San Diego. You just never know do you?

I really like you, but.................................

I think we need to stop seeing each other. Let me explain. In my adult life I have had a few hobbies that I really have gotten into.

In middle school, high school and during college I played tennis. Right after high school and again in recent years I've been into mountain biking, going places just to ride, racing a bunch. I even have worked at bike shops. And now as a subset of mnt biking I've been racing bmx bikes.

Surfing brought lessons, trip to Costa Rica, wet suit and so on. Rock climbing! Oh my, I even had a climbing wall in my garage for two years. And all the gear that goes with climbing. Pounds and pounds of it. I've never been at a loss for hobbies and I always seem to stick with them for years or until I am better than the average person and at a high intermediate skill level.

And of course there has always been motorcycles. And there always will be. That's a life thing. Not a hobby.

Which brings us to brazilian jiu jitsu. I started informal training in jiu jitsu back in 1998. Then I started doing some formal japanese jiu jitsu training. Finally found a Gracie affiliate in Oregon 3.5 hours from my house. Then in 2000 I moved to Yuma AZ and found some guys to garage train with along as some occasional trips to San Diego to the Fabio Santo academy. I moved to central CA in 2002 and just stopped training.

Girls, what can I say.....?

Then when I came back from Iraq in 2007 I was searching for something to renew me. Something to connect with. And my mind came back to brazilian jiu jitsu. I trained with the wonderful friends I made there from March of 2008 until August of 2010.

And then my Crohns nightmare you know about. I switched teams/academies during this time period to the Atos school in San Diego run my 8 time world champion Andre Galvao.

Well I am in my second week back of training and the school had belt promotions today. We all stood there as Andre gave a speech about training and the school and then began talking about me. Me! He spoke of a student who was one of the first people here when he arrived, someone who had many medical problems and surgeries who kept trying to come back and was never able to. Someone with an amazing amount of determination. How he loves to teach someone with that attitude. It made me blush. It made me feel warm inside and also a little self conscious. Undeserving of his praise.

But then I got to thinking. This guy is a world champion many times over. He has trained with thousands of people and devoted his life to jiu jitsu. If he says something about me I have to believe it. And as I realized I should believe in myself and the determination he sees in me I asked myself, "what am I doing with it?"

What am I doing with my talent? My drive and determination. My love of competition. My health and physical fitness? Should I be doing more to improve my jiu jitsu. A jiu jitsu lifestyle? Through some soul searching and hard honesty I want to come to the answer of "yes."

I need to let some other hobbies and distractions go. I like them, but I need to break up with some of them. I need to take what someone who is a master at something I am involved in, who sees potential in me and move forward with it. Leaving other things behind.

Bmx is gonna disappear. I will still ride a mnt bike for fun, but maybe not as often. I will eventually have a motorcycle again, but it will be something slow and fun. For the joy of riding in itself, not a pursuit of speed and aggression. I'll surf less. I'll still have things I like to do away from jiu jitsu, but they will get single digit percentage levels of my focus in comparison to jiu jitsu.

My extra exercise, my diet, my timing of activities during the day. All those things and more are now going to serve at moving me forward in jiu jitsu. I really like you all my other hobbies and interests, but I think I want to 'just be friends' and make jiu jitsu my main squeeze.

Pun intended.

Who are the people in my neighborhood?

There was a recurring bit on Sesame Street where various people would sing the song "Who are the people in your neighborhood" and they would meet people and then guess their career and then sing a little bit about it. Plumbers, grocers, librarians and such. An example of such:

Which got me thinking, who/what career are the people in my neighborhood? I think you'll find the results surprising. All of these people are people I know by name and live within 4 houses of me.

The people in my 'hood are:
a MRI technologist
a dental hygenist
an optometrist
a food scientist
a mortician
a OB/GYN doctor
a pediatrician
a pulmonologist
an internvetional radiologist
a nurse anesthetist (two of them!)
a pharmacist (two of them!)
a physical therapist
a nuclear med technologist (and it's not me!)

It seems my neighborhood is entirely, or at least 95% in the medical/health field. Who would have guessed!

A picture of me with a stethoscope to prove I can fit into my 'hood. I guess a white lab coat or scrubs would have to be our hood's gang colors. HA!

Wednesday's Wheels

2012 Triumph Bonneville SE in blue and arctic white. This is my lust right now, and I don't care who knows...... Now where did I put that extra 8 grand I had just laying around.....??

Style. Modern classic. 55mpg. Easy two-up riding. Cruise the streets or 80mph on the freeway. British made. Simple and simply beautiful. Fun would be job #1 riding this!!