All Things Rowdy

List + Article = Listicle. Or basically the easiest blog post ever, just writing a list. Things Rowdy Is Going To Do Today -Return RedBox movie -Lift weights -Mail taxes and other stuff -Garbage day -Water outside plants -Practice shooting -Play with my camera stuff -Lunch w SuperD -Watch the Oregon bowl game! -Figure out the rest of the week.....

I saw a commercial tonight from Johnson&Johnson with the main tagline of "nurses heal". Which is funny, because if you're a clinician the saying is, "Nurses comfort, physicians cure." Which aligns with my professional opinion of nurses in general. Glorified errand girls/boys, doing what others tell them. Did the nurse in the commercial place that venous access? Did they choose the medication given and the amount? Did they diagnose the disease? Nope. Not saying that nurses aren't good people and great professionals, but I think they believe a little bit too much of their own press and have a tendency to overstate their role. But then again, I'm the one who failed two years in a row to get into Physician Assistant programs, so what do I know?

Ok, in my life I've owned a few cars from brand new, but not many. A Ford Escort, Toyota Tacoma #1, Acura RSX and now Toyota Tacoma #2. The Escort was sold, Taco #1 was stolen and died in a fire, the RSX was sold for some inexplicable reason and I wish I still had it! But Taco #2 had lasted longer than almost any car I've owned and definitely longer than any other car I've had since new. Both in years and mileage. My truck hit the lottery just a while ago, 77777. Yeah, I took this pic at 77mph at 707pm as well. This truck has taken me everywhere! Deserts, snow, mountains, mud, streams. CA, NV, AZ, UT, CO, WY, ID, OR. Bikes, motorcycles, guns and anything else you'd like to haul Tommy. Here is TacoTruck and I having some fun.

I'd just gotten back from Strasbourg France, Vienna Austria and Buda-Pest Hungary. An amazing winter wonderland tour of music, markets, history, food and sights. Wow. This year? I look like I belong in eastern Europe as I'm sitting on the couch in Adidas warm-ups, unshowered drinking a quart of egg nog non stop. Oh how the mighty have fallen. But my hair and beard look better than they did then, so there's that. Right?

I've used a saying in the past, "Successful people do daily what other people do occasionally," and have found another I like to add, "Winners train while losers complain." With that in mind I actually have already started my New Year's goals a few days after I first wrote them down here. I am motivated by just wanting to do better at the things I care about. My mind, my body, my spirit, my talents. Learning a new language, working out and swimming, reading and my shooting hit each of those respectively. Yeah for me, right? Well at the same time there are also things I wish I'd never done. The opposite of doing something good all the time, especially as it seems one bad action can undo 12 good actions. So in all fairness, to present a more true and nuanced version of me, here are some things I wish I'd never done, let alone occasionally. Here you are, regrets I still feel............ Things I Wish I Had Never Done -Drink alcohol or smoke ci...

I'm not sure if I'm ready for this, but I'm moving forward on it anyways! Because it really is something I want, just need to work through my doubts. Mind gym!! What is it? A business in San Diego made an initial approach to me about sponsorship for a shooting team. WOOT! Yesterday I spent a few hours writing up a sponsorship proposal targeted for their company and I sent it off to my point of contact person this morning. Getting closer to my goal of having my shooting sports become a job. With all the attending rewards and pressures. Guess who will be practicing much much more now????????

So I just finished my recent term at Mesa College, a community college here in San Diego. I originally graduated with my BS in Radiologic Science in June of 2002. I've been to college before, I worked full time for three of the five years I went to school and I graduated with a 3.3 cumulative grade point average. In 5 years of full time class work I only ever earned 4 C grades and actually finished one term in the hospital recovering from surgery. That I had no health insurance for. And with $37,000 in student loan debt that I used solely to pay my child support while in college. I think I understand what it means to be a struggling college student. Having spent the last 10 weeks watching numerous people flail at being successful in college and listening to, to me very obvious, poor thought processes I thought I would share some characteristics of the successful college student. From my own experiences and from those struggling whom I just witnessed up close. Stop being your own ...

Per the US Census 33,808 people died in the US in 2009 from fatal motor vehicle accidents. Per the CDC There were over 500,000 deaths in a year due to heart disease in 2010. And 11,708 homicides by firearm in 2010. Cars kill three times as many people per yer as guns and heart disease kills almost 50 times as many. If you wanted to save human lives, where do you think the most benefit would come from? Not a political agenda, not a reaction to tragedy but a reasonable cost-benefit analysis. You really want to save people's lives from deaths too soon? Look somewhere else before firearms as the reasoning rings hollow.

One of the nice thing about having your friends for the most part having professional careers are that their specialties can help you out. Break some toes, good thing I know a podiatrist. Computer issues? I call my man G-ride. Under medical restrictions where I can't leave the house? My hair stylist comes to the house. Develop sleep issues? Boom, I'm friends with a Stanford trained sleep specialist. Bust out your sister's teeth with a surfboard? Call up my orthodontic surgery friend who went to Harvard. You get the idea. The old adage being it's not what you know, but who you know. Kinda like you don't have to know the information, you just have to know where to find it. Well I know perfectly I hate my teeth. Their shape, their crowding, their color, their seeming fragility. If I was offered an extra two inches (take that both ways cheeky monkeys) or perfect teeth requiring nothing but brushing and flossing for the rest of my life........... Man, that'd be a...

Argh! I hate waiting for things to be delivered. And I have a handful of things out there, in the ether. Stuff I really would prefer to have right now. I have little patience for things that take weeks, if not months to get here..... -riding suit -projectiles -powder -holster -other gun stuff grrrrr, and the fastest of this stuff is still weeks out!

With the bit of self reflection about my competitive attitudes and actions still in mind I had lunch recently with one of my friends, CQ, who is pursuing a MBA degree. As usual our topics ranged from guns to jiu jitsu to corporate espionage to girls to food to school. Listening to his comments about what he is learning in his MBA and my own self analysis I have decided upon my New Year's Resolutions (NYR). Early. But they aren't really resolutions in the traditional sense, nor will I set about accomplishing them as I have in the past when I've successfully met my NYR goals. This comes from honest self reflection because the last couple of years I haven't made my NYR. At all. Let's look at why this is, come let us reason together. A goal should be Measurable, Achievable/Realistic and have a Time component. The past couple years I think I ignored this sage advice in planning my goals. I also didn't take into account who I am as a person currently. My drives,...

My shooting coach and I had an After Action Report (AAR) about my shooting for the past couple tournaments and practice sessions. The main point of it was something like this: Coach, "So do you realize what you need to work on?" Me, "Yes, I know where I am weak technically and the drills I know I need to do to improve. I also need to properly deal with my finger injury. I also have my major matches planned out for 2014 and my goals within each one." Coach, "Do you know what else I think you need to do?" Me, "No, what? Not hurt my finger?" (laughs) C, "Well why did you hurt your finger?" M, "Showing off. Trying to alpha male the other dudes around me. Make a statement. Kinda like physical trash talking." C,"And how did that work out for you? Or the times you talk trash? Or that time we went to Alabama and you were sure you were going to win and you got smoked? You realize you can't do that, that sort of thin...

I love my cat.

Yesterday on my lunch break I ate at Mitsuwa, a Japanese market here in San Diego that also has a small cafe inside it. After my meal of shrimp and rice I went and bought a bag of small fortune cookies. Not Japanese I know, but I like them as a snack. Eating them like it was my last meal I only stopped to look at one of the fortunes, which read "You will prosper today." Hmmmmm, so I go to school and on the way to class I find $700 dollars on the ground. Well, someones uncashed paycheck for that amount. Stub still attached and with a recent date. Then in Algebra/Geometry the teacher passes out a take home test and what test hits my desk? The one that is her answer key! Wow, in one hour I got a free check and all the answers to a test! But not really. I called the business on the check and they called their employee who came to school and got his paycheck from me. He was dumbstruck as to how he lost it and it got there. But I'm glad he got it back. If you're o...

As you know, I've been taking a match and art class at community college here in San Diego to help fill some of my free time and for personal development. College Algebra and Digital Imaging, in which I am currently getting A's in both classes with just finals left next week. My A in algebra is a 92, so if I get a B on the final I might get a B in that class, but oh well. I've enjoyed it, even on long homework nights and I've gotten soooo much better at photoshop and definitely back to speed on algebra. A good mix of left and right brain things. This has been so much fun that I decided to register for classes in the spring as well. Some people I know shake their heads in dismay at this, going to school when you don't have to. But I actually enjoy learning and improving myself. But to what extent? This next semester will test that as the two classes I enrolled in are previous difficult areas in my life. Russian and swimming. I've dropped out of a private Ru...

Some good motorcycle news! 1. Check out this amazing footage from a guy on the 163. Next time you get irritated at a motorcycle who is lane splitting LEGALLY and you decide to be an utter A-hole and squeeze them with your car, think again after you watch this video. I can't count how many times people have actively tried to harm me while I was riding my motorcycle. If you saw a rider who had crashed would you do what this guy has done? 2. Adding a piece of quality gear finally! I know it's not really that big of deal living in San Diego, but it does get cold and rainy here sometimes and this will just make it soo much better to ride year round. What is it? A nice RoadCrafter 1 piece riding suit from Aerostich. For a cool $1,000 you know I'm gonna wear the hell outta this thing! Mine is gray with silver accents. Whereas the picture is gray with black. 3. In my quest to find something as a gap filler, I'm entering the process to teach motorcycle riding for the ...

Movie time! And there are ohhh soo many movies I want to see! And in no particular order, here most are most of them: -The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug -Anchorman Two -The Wolf of Wall Street -Out of the Furnace -The Dallas Buyers Club -American Hustle -Lone Survivor All in all December should be a pretty good movie month and it looks like I need to see about two movies per week. Wow. Fun!!!

The match mentioned where I fell down during the course of shooting? I ended up winning my division and placing 4th overall out of 18. And my classifier score is gonna bump me from C to B class in production. Saturday I shot a match entirely with my left hand only. I was 16th out of 28. So with my 'wrong hand' and it alone, I still beat almost half the people there. My injured finger still hurts. I am going to have to wait till like December 7th before I really shoot again with my right hand in competition. I gotta say, I was really surprised to have won my division and been soo high up in the overall at USPSA thursday and then to almost beat half the field saturday in IDPA with literally one hand tied behind my back. Must............. Check...................Ego..............

I'm not a genius. Or even a member of Mensa. The official IQ test I took in college had me at 138. And you need it to be 140 or greater to be genius, so just not quite there. Well this not quite genius has been bore with his blog and had no inspiration to write anything beyond my normal "oh, look at me!", kind of post. And I still haven't came up with anything different than that, so it's what you're going to get today too. Bored the other night I went to Barnes and Noble to check out books and magazines. I ended up with the usual motorcycle magazines but also a book titled "Combat Shooting" by a well known gun journalist and cop who has had to use his gun multiple times in the line of duty. An expert and well respected for decades in the field of using lethal force. In his book he talks of the value of competitive shooting to prepare you for using your gun in real life, for self defense. So I thought, I wonder if I've ever competed against ...

From a long long time ago, a friend made this for me based off a picture of me while I was in Iraq. And from today, a different photoshoped version of Rowdy. I really really need to get to work on my xmas card ideas now......

Most of us put up a wall. Some of us tear it down when we are in love. For other reasons some of us block them out, put a lock on them. Feelings, nothing more than feelings. I've been accused of, and sometimes self identify as an "experiencer". Someone who did or does things, just to see how they feel. Listing them all would be pretty confessional, and not all that good to do in a public space. But as someone who cries at poetry or the national anthem, who instantly gets ready to fight when they feel like someone is being unfair..... just..... what I'm trying to say is that I "FEEL". I feel. And as part of that feeling, I don't like weed, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine or whatever to mask, amplify or change my feelings. I want what comes from within me to a a pure fountain, a well spring of authentic "ME". Many things can elicit a response from me, and if I'm going to revel in it, feel it, show it then I want it to be as true and hones...

But you can't get my genes out of me. Unless I spit in a tube for you. Which I did and paid $99 to do it as well. The big things I wanted and I think most people want to know are, what diseases do I have a genetic disposition to? What other health info can be gleaned from current levels of consumer testing and understanding? Where is my ancestry from in the world? Any other knowledge just seems like a bonus. Well in full rowdystyle blog exposure here are some of my results! Ancestry. From maternal and paternal line it looks like I am pretty much exclusively Northern European, specifically Scandinavian. Maternal Line Paternal Line Through which I am evidently related to Leo Tolstoy. Here is the real kicker, the health part. There is a reason they make you sign so many wavers and consents, because you might not like what you learn. In my case, looks like Alzheimer's is in my future, sadly. There are huge ethical issues to knowing and sharing this information, so I h...

For a school project we needed to do a self portrait as a superhero, superstar, supervillian that sort of thing. Well how my hair was I thought I could pull off a wolverine pretty well. Keep in mind these first pictures were shot by myself, in the garage and very quickly done up in photoshop. Now what I did as a rough draft is OK. I could clean up the selections I did in photoshop and be done. Probably get a B. But who wants just a B? Not me! So I had a friend take some of me posing as Wolverine earlier this week. I was sooooooooooooooooo self conscious. I almost came home and cried in the shower. It felt that weird, seriously, being something I'm not and having people watch. Way worse than how singing gives me goose bumps all over. I'm not gonna show you any pictures from that session here, but you will be able to check them out on the photo blog of mine next week. I promise you they are pretty amazing. And you'll be able to see how I incorporated them into my pr...

$250 later at Petco, $125 later at the SD County Humane Society and two days worth of my time I came home with a kitten. He is almost 6 months old and his name is "Mr. Oliver Hammond". Mr Oliver Hammond likes being petted, playing with his feather toys and chewing on fake plants. He probably also likes eggs as he wouldn't leave alone last night as I was eating some. He doesn't like classical music, getting picked up, sleeping in his bed or dogs. His birthday is May 1st. For a shelter kitty he seems just about right and I'm happy to have him in the home. When he isn't incessantly bugging me to play or pet him. But that's way better than a cat who ignores you. Right?

-I got the results back from my genetic testing. So I have some things to more fully write about the results from my experiment with 23andme.com. I'm almost exclusively Scandinavian in my ancestry. And I'm pretty sure to get Alzheimer's. -The cat. Yep, came home with a 5 month old kitten today but not the one I expected at all. The one I wanted, and several others like him just didn't win me over in person once I got to spend time with them. But Mr. Oliver Hammond is in confinement in the upstairs bathroom right now to get him acclimated to his literbox, food and scratching post. He is a pretty cute black and white cat you will see lots of pics oh him soon. -My photoshop project for class that has me re-imagined as Wolverine. I'm surprisingly wolverine-esque. -Thanksgiving plans. Gonna be going to St George to see family for 3 days and I'm taking guns and motorcycles for family to play with. The neighbors with 6 animals will stop in on Mr Oliver. -My fir...

Here is a kitten I am going to go check out at a shelter today. He is a 4 month old Russian Blue. I hope he acts like he likes me so that there is some sort of bond to really make me wanna adopt him. And I totally goofed up my match in Arizona this weekend. Being a showoff I was doing pull ups on a roof beam during the morning briefing. Well that somehow lead to me doing one finger pull ups and there was a loud POP noise from the middle finger of my right hand. Yep, torn pulley injury to the middle finger of my right hand. It was just enough to take me out of my game. And it's gonna take 3 months to heal. Good thing the shooting season is over for a while, but still.... you gotta shake your head at me and what I do sometimes. All the time.

You already know the story, but I had to quit national level competitive brazilian jiu jitsu due to my two year health and surgery nightmare. So after that I stumbled upon competitive pistol shooting to deal with that outlet, the need to compete against others. Hey, It's like I'm run my the four F's of the sympathetic nervous system. I need to feed, fight, flee and "fool around". So rather than let it build inside me and do something crazy to let it out, like go to Iraq on a whim, I put a lot of attention into my shooting competitions. I exercise for about 3 hours a week. I practice 4 to 6 hours per week. I spend lots of money on it. I'm dedicated to improving, and winning. I heard the term "tactical athlete" and I think that's an apt description of myself. I am not like the average guy who shoots competitively for fun. Fat, old, smoker, slow, doesn't practice, never improves. I'd rather die than do something competitive half-azz. ...

I love that cell phones now are basically cameras you can text with. And that have apps for messing around with your photos. If I didn't already have a million interests I'd really pursue being creative with my phone even more. My instagram account would probably be a little more intsta-interesting as well. (rowdymatt if you wanna follow me, i'll follow back) Sitting in algebra today I did the "frustration" meme you see below, so I thought I'd share some others I've made with the same app in the hopes of cracking just the slightest of smiles on your, my readers, faces. Enjoy!

Well I did some rowdy math and that lead to some rowdy cooking. But not probably how you think. Oh wait, if you're reading this then it probably is exactly how you think! As a competitive shooter I have to practice often to stay sharp. Much of that can be what is called dry fire, kinda like shadow boxing but shooting. Still though with about 6 matches per month at around 120 rounds each and weekly practice sessions of up to 200 rounds that equals about 900 some rounds of ammunition per month that I regularly shoot. Let's just call it an even thousand to make the math nice. I potentially shoot 1,000 rounds of 9mm. If i were to buy that locally it would cost 20$ per 50 rounds. That's $400. When I buy it mail order in bulk the best price I can get is $300 for one thousand rounds. And when I guy custom made competition grade ammunition the price varies widely, even though I use the same company, from $220 to $400 per thousand. So best case is about $300 and worst case is $4...

Long time readers will know of my disdain for Xmas (I refuse to even write Christmas unless required). It's not my thing at all and no need to rehash all the reasons why. But this photoshop project of mine for school I think pretty accurately conveys my emotions towards this holiday. What do you think?? What can I say, but "Bring on Thanksgiving!!"

A week further ahead in time? Ha, and you thought I was going to write "weak". But I am surprised that during a week where I was in San Diego, healthy and in a good mood that I did no blogging at all. Odd it seems but I have been doing this for 6 years on this blog alone, so I guess the magic is fading... I've been up so some of the normal Rowdy things but nothing that should really surprise anyone. Monday I spent most the day prepping part of the garage to set up the equipment and begin making my own ammunition for practice and competition. I really resisted this for the longest time for various reasons. But now that I have a set up, I'm very excited to "roll my own." I think I'll find a certain pride in winning by shooting something I put together myself. And it's a technical process, a creation. I kind of like to call it "ultimate guy cooking", assembling gun powder and such into something. If it goes boom, has wheels or burns fuel, ...

Brains!!!!!!!!!! So if you'd like to know the story behind this picture then you need to check out my dedicated photography blog, Ready Aim. Just me and my pet zombie.

I grew up in Oregon and Washington so I know weather. I've experienced the deserts, from Arizona to Iraq. And the cold mountains of Patagonia and Norway. But right now I live in San Diego California. Year round 68F average. 8" of rain a year. Temperate, mild, unchanging. I've often said San Diego makes you a weather wuss when it comes to clothes, driving and just general coping to anything but nice sunshine or a light chill. So when it rained earlier this week I was not happy. Ugh, I dislike rain. But as I came in the house on Wednesday I said to myself, "I'm gonna go get in the shower, I hate this rain." Hmmmmm, leaving the rain to go stand in a spray of water. Contradictory? I think not; let me explain why the shower is better than rain 9 times out of 10. First, the challenger. Rain. -it's cold. i've been rained on at the equator from malaysia to costa rica. rain is cold. the air may be warm, but rain never is. -it get's things dirty. ...

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd; And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still! excerpt from "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Byron. And you really owe it to yourself to read the first half of Paradise Lost by Milton. Take it from a secret, but tough, romantic.

I work for a staffing company, so I travel around to all sorts of different medical place in San Diego county for work. In this time I get to see and hear lots of different things as my "scenery" is always changing. The only real downside to it is I don't work enough to be consistent. So it feels more like an annoyance than something I should be doing. Oh, and I'm a pretty gregarious person and I'm often the only person in nuc med when doing these jobs. So I'm just left to myself. But I'm a people person! hahaha. Every once in a while things cool/funny/interesting happen that brighten my day, like hopefully anyone's job, so let me share some recent ones with you now. -I walked to my truck in scrubs and white coat over my arm. After pulling up to exit the parking lot, one which required paying to use, the attendant just looked at me and said, "oh, never mind" and just raised the arm for me and let me leave without paying. Score! (I'v...

From the photographer's point of view. (Foxbat Photo) And the entire match from my POV.

After my top ten finish at the National Championships in September I was hoping for a good result here in the California State Championship. I'll let the picture speak for itself. Suffice to say I'm Expert now in two different gun classes. Big Arizona match on November 2nd. Time for another trophy?

I felt like dressing up for a presentation of a photo for my digital imaging class, so this is the outfit I wore: Now I know a few things, like that I am older than most of the other students. I also very rarely dress up to go out in public. I look very much the arrested development man-child in my flip flops, cammo cargo shorts and surf company t-shirt that is my normal uniform. So when I wore the above outfit here is a collection of things I heard that day: "Whoa!" "Faculty or student?" "Looking fresh!" "So what are you going for, sexy male librarian?" (I had my glasses on at this point) "Excuse me sir, do you work here?" And the list could go on. People even treated me differently in that more people talked to me in class. People I've never talked to in photo class asked me to review their work and give my opinion. Wonder what I should wear tomorrow????

With my class and swelling sense of creativity I've created a blog solely to my photo "brand". So if you're interested in the finer art side of Rowdy. Of if you want to see if you'd like me to take any pictures for you, then please check it out. My photo blog, Ready Aim Photography!

-Take my truck back in as the fan switch AGAIN stopped working. It is either 'high' or nothing. -Pick up my motocross bike as it is finished getting new tires, sprockets, chain, filter. -Go get my b-12 injection at the Running Store. -Refill my Humira and get that shot. -Go to school and do math as it's impossible for me to do homework at home. Study yes, work no. -Install the fuel injection controller on my Ninja 300. -Garbage, laundry. -Run 3 miles at the beach. -Practice shooting for the upcoming CA state championships this weekend in Sacramento. Think I've given myself enough to do today??

I've always wanted to know more about my insides. Chalk it up to having medical issues my whole life and then working in the medical field myself. Add a little bit of self-centeredness and genetic testing was bound to be something I couldn't pass up. Enter 23andme, a company that will send a kit to your home for you to get genetic information about your ethnicity/family tree and/or your genetic health issues. I chose a test level that would cover both, family history and medical history. (or is it medical future?) The kit came to my home quickly and it is pretty simple to do. Wait 30 minutes from eating and such then spit lots into the tube. Shake it up, seal it up and send it off. Then wait. So while I'm waiting for the results with much expectation, I took some surveys on the company's website. Very clearly and repeatedly do the warn you that you could possibly learn information you will not be happy to learn. And was learned, you can not forget this knowledge. ...

Why am I at my computer? Shouldn't I be in DC, touring around and seeing stuff I've never seen before? Yep, that was the plan. You know the saying, "plan to work and work the plan?" Well the part of my plan that included buying a departing plane ticket for the trip wasn't discovered until too late. Post 9-11 security changes mean you can not buy and fly the same day anymore. A 24 hour minimum is required between purchase and flight. So if you're only gonna be gone for 3 days that kinda makes the trip impossible. Darn. I'll have a good weekend none-the-less and my return flight was credited to me so I'm only out it for the hotel fee. Somethings just aren't meant to be!

Unedited, original pictures from driving around last night.

I like small motorcycles. I find them easier to touch the ground, easier to ride fast, cheaper to insure, less cost to run and just generally more fun. The dictum, "I'd rather ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow" is often proven correct to me when ridding "small" motorcycles. Well today I learned why sometimes I need a faster motorcycle. And as faster and bigger are often synonymous when talking about speed of a vehicle, I needed a bigger motorcycle today. Coming home from work I did my normal, legal, lane sharing move up to the front of the line at a light leading onto the 8. As I'm sitting there the BMW X5 suv to my left edges forward and towards me. I look over then the middle aged white guy is gesticulating wildly at me. In a threatening way. When the light turns green I figure I need to move out quick as this road rager is not happy. And I was right, as the light turns green he goes all Mario Andretti on me and tries running me down. I...

OH man, where have I been?!?!? It's been over a week with no entry, how have any of you awesome readers survived?? Well basically I was in Tulsa Oklahoma competing in the national championships for the shooting things I do, International Defensive Pistol Association. (IDPA) I competed as an Expert in the Stock Service Pistol division and finished 10th. Yeah, tenth best in the US of A!!! wow....... One of my great shooting friends here in San Diego was actually first in our class/division! Keep your friends close and your competitors even closer.... hahahaha. Spend 5 minutes of your life watching it here, Looking at the results, well first things first. Often people say, and I'm very guilty of it as well saying "Oh, I could have done better," and so on. Well actually, if I could have done better I would have. So stop making excuses. Again, looking at the results I had stages where I was one of the top 3 shooters and others where I was like 20th.... (cringe) S...

Whoever you are, Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous, thank you for your comments. Having a little bit of interaction is what helps motivate me to continue to write and post. Thanks!

On the way to school yesterday was the closest I've ever come to being killed by another car on my motorcycle. Now I've made my own mistakes and almost paid dearly for it, but in all my years of street riding this was as close to the biggie as I had ever come before. Large busy intersection at Friar's Road, heading west right before getting on the 163 north. 850am, I'm in front and as the light turns green I do a quick scan left and right and take off quickly. If I'm going to lane split my way to the front, which is legal mind you, then I like to get away quickly. Doing my part to reduce congestion and waiting. No cars have to wait for me and I don't have to wait for them. A question, what is the number one cause of accidents for street motorcycles? Too much corner entry speed. Not an issue here. What is the number one type of accident where a car hits a motorcycle? The car turning left and doesn't see the motorcycle going straight across the intersectio...

Gojira just needs a Santa hat and I think I got this years Christmas card!

So here is an unedited before image as I took it at Torrey Pines three days ago, near sunset. And here is the same image after applying my new Photoshop skills. I think I like this program. Way more fun that just putting mustaches on everyone like I did for two days when I first started learning the program. But still, I'd prefer to get as much right as I possibly can inside the camera and do as little post processing as possible. But if you want a mustache added to your pictures I'll still gladly do that too.

So in the past decade I have owned these cars: 2002 Toyota Tacoma I bought brand new in Arizona. It was stolen in Modesto in 2004 and replaced with a... 2004 Acura RSX that worked great for autocross, long trips and living in the Bay Area. My lifestyle seems to require a truck so... 2009 Toyota Tacoma parte dos found its way to my house. And I still have it and drive it 4 years and 75k miles later. Ten years, three cars. For the past decade in my household there has also been a..... 2006 Lexus RX400H, luxury hybrid suv. But I was abusing it like a truck, so the afore mentioned purchase. Gone. 2007 Porsche Cayman S. Amazing car but required more dedication than expected to own. Gone. 2011 Mini Cooper S. Still in the garage, but it's not "mine". Ten years, three other cars. Hardly conspicuous consumption and not near the level of motorcycles I've had in the past decade. That would be something like, hmmmmm Honda VTR250, Yamaha R6, Suzuki GSXR600 (times two...

Last Pala IDPA match I was second overall out of 40. Last Pala steel match I was 3rd out of 120 shooters. Today's Prado IDPA match I was 5th overall out of 54 with a major error. Last USPSA match I shot I was 2nd overall in Production out of like 16 people. So pretty much in Southern California I am always gonnna be in the 90th percentile of competitors overall. But I am not elite level for the nation. The potential really is there for me to be one of the top ten pistol shots in the US. I'm working hard at it, but I still need to do more. Better. I need to execute the fundamentals, on demand, perfectly, every time and at speed. In exactly two weeks I'll be sitting in the banquet for the national championships for IDPA. I'll let you know how it goes...... Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Hall.

School is going good. I seem to tutor a lot of people in my break between classes for algebra. Good to help people who are struggling and need to get better at math. Photoshop/Digital Imaging is teaching me soo much I didn't know before. Like how to give people mustaches. hahahaha. School does try my patience, and I often feel like a fish out of water but I am glad I am going. Next semester I'm thinking a continuation of some sort of photography thing, writing of any kind and tennis. Oh and I do have an A in each class currently. Just like before, I got out of my Bachelors with a 3.33 gpa.

I'm seriously having I guess what is my mid life crisis. I need to just steal $13,000 from savings and buy a Porsche convertible. Probably a Boxster for that price. Yes, yes I know I already had a way better car, the Porsche Cayman S. But it was 40+ grand, cost $2,000 in tires every 6 months, a $350 dead battery and then someone keyed half the car and my insurance company paid for a subpar repaint. But after all that's happened this week, of which I'm not writing any of it here, I am seriously needing it.

The difficulties I am having working between PC at home at Mac at school with Photoshop, cameras and memory cards is driving me to a cursing, blinding rage that could heat the sun it is so hot. Nothing is working in concert with the other, recognizing, formatting or saving across both platforms. And this is mission critical, so I'm about to go freaking crazy and smashing everything electronic around me into a million pieces!

- Kicking Tail and Taking Names At a fairly big local match, over 100+ shooters I was 3rd overall. When I checked the scores I beat my chest like King Kong (more on him later) and jumped around the living room. I love celebrating in private when I do well but in public I prefer to just smile big and say thanks. - Sex and the Movies I've rewatched some movies from when I was younger and just now noticed the huge sexual undertones in them. The late 70's King Kong had a lot of monkey lust for the girl I never picked up on when I watched it on TV as a kid. Breakin'. Yeah, a movie in the 80's about break dancing that my brother and I saw in a sketchy part of town. The theater was packed and the usher told us "no dancing in the aisles." But what the heck, the dudes in that movie are sooooo ghey!! Again, never saw it as a kid. Finally the one that always gets mentioned, Top Gun. Yeah, that volleyball scene is pretty homoerotic in a way I just didn't pick up...

Crazy? Delusional? Tormented? The results came back for my sleep study regarding my parasomnias. Negative, which means normal. There is no biological reason while I sleep to 1. have constant nightmares that wake me, make me yell out and sometimes paralyze me and 2. the number of times I wake per night and that I only sleep for 2 hours or less at a stretch most nights. Leading me to think if my night troubles don't have a physiological origin then they must have a psychological one... I used to think dreams were just "neurological backwash" for lack a better term. Poorly tuned, static filled images in one's brain television. But normal people don't have the number of nightmares I do. Or wake up as often as I do. If it's not my body it has to be my mind. So what is going on in my mind?

Well my first week of college is in the books! Haahahaha. OK, not my first week ever, as I have a bachelors of science already so I've "done my time" as it were. Just taking two classes, introductory algebra/geometry and digital imaging. Math is pretty simple but the teacher is a trip! Seems like freshmen community college students are like the 8th graders of the university world. Guess that would make anyone who has been doing it for years a crazy, mean, weird, old lady. 'Cause she is! At least I leave that class feeling pretty smart about my math ability! hahaha. Digital imaging class is a mix of photography and photoshop. Using a DSLR I have down fairly good for a hobbiest but I've never used photoshop. Until $450 (student discount!) later and now. Here are the first two things I did at home, just using youtube tutorials, never having even seen CS6 until doing these. I gotta say, I really enjoy being around lots of people. Having deadlines and requiremen...

Nope, not a trip to the waterpark but rather snorkeling. Well, it started as snorkeling but the water was turbid and the swell was kinda up, so not really the best shark viewing conditions. So from that we decided to go do some basic free diving. Swim off shore to a buoy. Relax. Find the chain connecting the buoy to the ocean floor. Relax. Three good breathes. Submerge. Equalize your ears. Start going hand over hand down the chain to the bottom. Relax. Slowly exhale continually and ascend to the surface. Repeat. Like so: Wanna know something really cool? Of the three of us that went today, there was basically a 20 year age difference between all of us, from JB to me(RB)20 years, and 20 from me to DB. But we all were able to get along, share knowledge, help each other and have a good time. It's not really your age, it's your attitude!!