Trickeration or It Ain't trickin' if ya got it

I have friends past and present in different areas of law enforcement and it is always fun to talk to them about different aspects of their job. One area I really enjoy quizzing them about is the investigative side. Especially their techniques in talking to people who are hostile and actively trying to lie about something.

A favorite of theirs is when doing a street contact, like rolling up on a bum or suspicious person or whatever is to call them a fictitious name. Right off the bat. The person either agrees and you know they are instantly being deceptive or they protest they are not "fred johnson" or whatever name.

The officer then goes on to insist they are indeed "fred johnson" and to also now start accusing them of some sort of petty crime. In the suspect's desire now to avoid being penalized in the name of someone else they often give up their real identity under this type of duress. And thus by your own means of deception initially you get to a truth they were hiding. You get the idea. Accuse someone of something else to find out what they are really up to.

In my job part of what I do is ask medical histories and questions relevant to the protocol of whatever test they are having with me. Often this means no food that day and no caffeine within the past 24 hours. Also I need to know their weight for some different drug administrations.

But it is the breakfast and morning coffee they are hiding that I want to find about, if they'd had those things then I can't do their test and if I do it will be worthless. My schpiel often goes something like this:

"announce patient name in waiting room"
"Good morning, my name is Rowdy and I'll be helping you with your test today."
more random pleasantries. Check their birth date, ask them their weight and ttthhheenn have them stand on a scale. Just out of my perverse desire to let them see how much they under guessed.

As I explain the test and my role in it I then ask, "So what did you have for breakfast today?" HA! I catch people with this all the time! They start to reel off what breakfast was, then catch themselves and then try to minimize the amount of what they ate and or drank. Too late, the truth is out.

Too bad, soo sad. Time to reschedule and be honest with me next time. And in control of your inability to go 4 hours without eating.

Poster from my childhood.

When I was young I remember seeing this poster on the wall of an uncle's room. I only have two uncles and they both were fun, exciting uncles. They taught me how to drive, ride a motorcycle, shoot, race cars, hunt and so on. One of them made his place in real estate with a family business and the other of said poster became an accountant.

He was the first person I met who I thought of as wealthy I guess. He had what I thought was a big house, on top of a hill. First person I knew who owned more than one Porsche at the same time. He built a motocross track at his house for his kids. One who now is a professional motorcycle racer, in the x-games and such.

As neither of my parents went to college I was able to put two and two together and get what the poster meant even as a 12 year old. If you wanted things, you needed money. And the surest way to making money is getting more education than others. And a practical education. No MFA in our family.

I looked up to my uncles and share many similarities and traits with them. But this isn't supposed to be a reminiscence about family. It's about this poster:

If you've known me for more than a few hours you probably know I like certain things. Books. Guns. Motorcycles. Bicycles. Cars. Shoes. Sharks. Foreign travel.

So now that I have my higher education (paid off natch) what "justifications" have came of it lately?
-go fast parts for my dirt bike.
-sig sauer p220
-trek scratch 8
Yep, same old story. Second verse same as the first. Motorcycles, guns, bicycles.

Maniacal laugh. Maniacal laugh. Rowdy style!!!!!!!!!!!

Ways I know....

I'm older than I think I am.....
1. random long hairs on my back or ears. yuck! they get pulled out immediately.
2. staying up past 10pm seems "late" to me.
3. i'm listening to less current music.

I'm younger than I think I am....
1. no one guesses my real age
2. i don't have enough pants that aren't jeans to make it through the work week without doubling up. all i own are jeans and shorts.
3. i'm better with a smart phone than some of my peers.
4. i never say the phrase "'cause i'm old"

I've lived in San Diego a long time....
1. Speaking Spanish and eating Mexican food seems second nature.
2. It feels weird to wear socks.
3. There is more than one surfboard at my house.
4. I'm a weather wuss kinda.

I'm going to have Alzheimer's....
1. I don't exercise my brain much. No sudoku, crosswords or anything like that.
2. I have a diminished sense of smell early in life. An early pre cursor.
3. I've had 5 confirmed concussive events.
4. I forget what number four is for.

I had my first migraine headache.....
1. I thought it was sinus but I had no stuffiness and no snot. So it was not my sinuses.
2. Sunlight made me wince in pain. Any light actually.
3. A family practice doctor at my house for the weekend told me I had a migraine.
4. I wanted to crush my head in a vice or shove a spike through my brain or tear my eyes out. Not your normal headache symptoms.
5. My urine was copiuos and clear, so I was hydrated.

I'm like Phil Mickelson.....
1. I am not good at golf. Kidding, I'm horrible.
2. I have people. An accountant, financial advisor, house keeper and so on.
3. I live in San Diego.
4. My household is also effected by prop 30, raising my state income tax to 29%.
5. I really really can't wait to move someplace else to not deal with thhr afore mentioned #4.

Self Portrait Saturday

'Cause it's all about me.
Looking at the water falling from the sky..... With a plastic bag over my head (safety third)....And as sexy nerd nuclear medicine guy.

Paid in Full -or- Everything Has a Cost

First, one of the greatest, Eric B and Rakim. "Paid in Full" to celebrate having my student loan totally paid off and gone!


Today was a horrible day at work. A day where I was almost afraid of getting asked not to come back the next day. Yeah, that bad.

A day that made me question why I was even there. The answer? Greed. My own pure and simple lust for money and things I could buy with it. One month of work, $10,000. That's hard for most people to say no to. . . .

In the throes of my mental anguish today at work, I wondered if it really was worth it. Was the psychological and emotional bill I was paying worth the cash and things I'd hoped to gain in return?

At that moment it definitely did not feel so to me. Then the feeling of self loathing started to pile on. A recognition that it was my own greed that had brought me there. Greed and desire. Seemingly the two motivators that have caused me most of life's troubles. Had I forgotten my knowledge of 'self' so thoroughly I couldn't have foreseen this conflict ahead of time? Am I my own worst enemy?

Is it worth it? I don't know. Do I even still want to buy all of those things? Some, not others. I need a new laptop 'cause I broke the old one into pieces. Nothing wrong, it just didn't structurally hold up past two years of Rowdy usage. I'd like a new gun before they ban them all. Some motorcycle parts. That's about it...

We'll see how I feel on my last day of this assignment, February 8th.

vincint qui patitur

The title of this blog translates from Latin as "he conquers who endures."

In my years of fighting at brazilian jiu jitsu tournaments I never took gold in a division. Silver or bronze often but never gold. I am particularly proud of my silver at blue belt in the Pan American championships but it still is not gold. Almost all of my medals from brazilian jiu jitsu sit in a dresser drawer now.

For a while there mountain bike racing was my thing. And in it sometimes I did win a race overall. Especially in the Super-D category. One year I was second overall in a series for my class and won outright another. Heck, I even received sponsorship offers and was looking to get into it at an even greater level. But once series dropped that racing style and another changed their race schedule to days I could not make.

I have a nail in the wall of my garage where all my bike racing medals hang. The plaque for ending a season in 2nd overall is my favorite and means the most to me.

High school tennis I was #1 junior varsity singles and played varsity doubles. Eh, not that impressive.

BMX bike racing I never made the main event.

Cross country and trail running I place well in my divisions, often in the top 10% of a class of hundreds, but I'm far from outright winning them.

Motorcycle racing never happened.

I've visited it with multiple sports psychologists for multiple sessions. I've read a few books on winning mental performance. I love drilling and exercising and training. My diet is never a true athletes diet though....

Anyways, you can see I've rarely been more than a single match, race or game winner. Never an overall "yep, I beat everyone" kind of winner.

Vincint Qui Patitur. Until yesterday. You can see for yourself here. Across all gun divisions and skill classes I was first overall yesterday against 24 shooters.

It's just a small local thing, but I work hard and train and give up time and lots of money to be good at this. It is my sole competitive outlet, one of my favorite hobbies and important to me.

First Place. Winner. Through so many different sports, so many years of training in them to finally have found something where I've supplemented any small amount of talent to persevere and come out on top.........

It means something and I'm still basking in the glow I feel at the accomplishment. I just need to be humble, confident and continue to work hard so that it will happen again.

Veritas odit moras. -OR- Lessons learned working the past two weeks.

1. I can be angry or upset but I can still be nice. I like things to happen a certain way, the way I imagined. Or for someone or something to happen when scheduled. If not, then my initial response is to be unhappy. Angry.

No matter how peeved I get, no matter how much I am screaming out curses inside my head I can still be nice. They seem like ideas that are impossible to hold inside a person at the same time and maybe they are to an extent.

But I find if I acknowledge my feelings and then consciously determine my response to them, things go better. For my and who I'm dealing with. This is a new revelation to me.

2. Equal measure real and fake. Again a theme of duality. Guess who is a Gemini? In this case it is lighting. For the past year if I wanted sunlight I got sunlight. If I wanted to be inside, I was inside.

Like a cold blooded lizard I could control my sun exposure by moving about at will during the course of the day. Being a wage slave has taken this away from me. For the 9 hours I am at work during the day I see about 18 minutes of sunlight and then only through a distant window.

Computer monitors, LED track lighting and fluorescent bulbs light my day, if they are even on above a dull dim.

I've found I need exposure to the outside in greater amounts than I've been receiving. Sunlight. Air. Just being "outside".

(i went to college in a town with long winters and would visit a tanning salon every two weeks or so all through out winter. it made a difference markedly in my sense of well being)

3. I like chatting. I may not be the best conversationalist as I often can only talk about myself 'cause I'm no longer 25 and think I have all these great original ideas or philosophies. Or need to talk about the mystery of life and what it all means.

But I do like to just talk and talk about stuff. Find what is interesting to the other person and talk about it. The past two weeks I don't get to talk to anyone except in short bits and it is 95% about work.

Hmmmm, reading the three things listed you could get the impression my work day is spent mostly alone, in dim artificial light, not getting to talk about anything but business and feeling slightly irritated to angry. You'd be pretty correct.

4. I'm a fast worker. I value speed above over almost all else in completing a task. I hate waste and inefficiency. Zoom and bust stuff out and then rest. Processes and people should be set up to get stuff done in the easiest way possible.

The failing of this often leads back to #1. I can work at a very fast pace for 8 or 9 hours a day but if I have to do it because I'm loaded down with extraneous duties, busy work, redundancies or to make up for other people slacking?

Well something is wrong and should be changed. Forget tradition, culture, inertia and fear. Make changes! Improve.

Freedom Part II

My student loan will be totally gone as of noon, tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!! That $42,000 had been hanging around my neck for the past 10 years.

Truck and both motorcycles paid off.
Credit card paid off.
Student loan now gone.

That just leaves the house. Oh the house....... Two years till something new. Something new. Yearning. New.

Now I just need a year's worth of food and water stored. A generator and 20 gallons of stabilized gas stored.

Financial Independence. Preparedness. Provident Living.

(and I'll be super duper thankful on February 8th at 4pm when I'm done with the current hectic, crazy job)

Freedom

Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?
Patrick Henry

We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has placed in our power... the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Patrick Henry

The great object is that every man be armed.
Patrick Henry

Only free men own weapons, slaves don't.

That dang pancreas! aka Medical Aphorisms

There are a couple of general medical or surgical rules you learn through the years of school and clinical experience.

1. Better is the enemy of good. When something is good enough and you go, "mmmm, I think I could make this better by (fill in the blank)", chances are you are about to really mess it up. If something is good, leave it. You will most likely not be able to make it "better".

2. Generalists know nothing about everything. Specialist know everything about nothing.

2a. What do you call someone who lied, cheated, took drugs and slept their way through medical school? Doctor.

3. No test/procedure/surgery is too complex for someone else to order it. Tell me about this one. I've been the patient in these scenarios and I've been the person tasked with doing the test requiring Herculean effort. It's pretty easy to ask for something crazy when you don't have to do it.

4. Never get surgery on July 1st. (or even go to the hospital at all in the first two weeks of July if you can help it) This is the date all new, right out of medical school 'doctors' start their internship. You do not want to be in the hospital their first two weeks on the job if you can help it.

4a. The 3 most dangerous things in medicine: a med student with a sharp object, a resident with an article, and an attending with an anecdote.

And the grand daddy of them all,

5. Eat when you can, sleep when you can and don't mess with the pancreas. This is like the golden rule of healthcare. Take today for instance, I only have a 30 minute lunch period and it falls in about a 45 minute window of time. I could care less about whatever free lunch is being brought in. If it doesn't fall in that time zone and I chose not to eat then I WILL be screwed.

On call and feel like a nap? Take it! Next thing you know you will be there 20 hours non-stop. (St Agony, I don't miss taking call at your hospital in any way!)

For me, at work this week it is all about #5. Even though I'm still losing weight working, down to 140 now, I'm all about eating whenever I can throughout the whole day and making sure I'm asleep by 10pm.

Work, Sugar and Weight Loss.

Long time readers will know of my intestinal health problems and how that combined with my sports history has made me very conscious of my weight. I weigh myself about 3 times a day on average. Thankfully gone are the days where I had a chart on the wall near the scale to record data when I weighed myself like 8 times a day. I'd record the time, weight, time to recent food or exercise or bathroom visit. Make a huge graph and plot it all out. Those days are thankfully gone.

But the number on the scale still interests me, so I still do it. I mean, if I lose a bunch of weight and don't feel well it could give me a tip off my Crohns is acting up.

Two facts long time readers will know is that I love sugar and I don't work a regular job. Well how do these all go together????

I've been working a full time job for a week and a half now. This requires much more critical thinking in a day than I've had to do for years. Previously my thoughts were limited to things like "how fast should I be going right now?", "what's for lunch?", "I wonder if I can make that?" and so on.

Now I have all sorts of serious things to think of, under a time pressure and with little to no margin for error. Where does all this thinking happen? My main brain in my cranium. What you probably don't know is what makes my brain runs so strongly. Not just mine, but everyone's brains.

Sugar. Yep, it's science. Your brain runs on sugar. Wanna do a PET scan to look at a person's brain? Then give 'em a shot of fancy radioactive glucose. Sugar. Normal brains use it for fuel. Everything you eat gets converted into sugar for your body to use. (hopefully otherwise it might be fat later)Glucose is the ONLY fuel that runs your brain.

So here I am, working like crazy for at least 8 hours a day, thinking. Lots of thinking. Just pouring that sugar into my brain for it to work right. Then coming home, lazy and tired of thinking so I slam some poorly choiced comfort food down. And dessert. I mean, breakfast and lunch are healthy by anyone's standard but my dinners are not, not lately.

Day 1 of job, 145.5 pounds.
Day 7 of job, 141.2 pounds.

In seven work days I've lost 4 pounds even with out doing any of my regular exercise. But I have been sleeping for sure 7 hours a night, drinking 1 liter of water at work a day and probably eating 1,000 calorie dinners each of those seven nights. Easily getting in a thousand calories when I get home at night.....

What am I gonna be by my last day February 8th? 137lbs?? (which is my self proclaimed ideal weight btw)

SD represent

So, for my readers who are sadly not in San Diego nor have visited, then maybe you need a little explanation on my new background.

Every city has its "thing" food wise. As I lived in the Bay Area (San Francisco) before, coming to SD seemed like entering a culinary wasteland.

Then I found the California Burrito. A carne asada burrito with pico de gallo, cheese and papas fritas at its most basic. And once again for you readers not socal knowledgeable carne asada=fried flank steak, pico de gallo=chunky salsa and papas fritas=french fries!! Often either/and/or sour cream and guacamole are added into the mix as well.

A true San Diego invention and food classic, the California Burrito. Perhaps only rivaled by fish tacos......................

Freak, now I'm hungry. What's your city got??

recent results

For a local IDPA match I won my class and was 4th overall out of 34 shooters in all divisions and classes.

For a national competition I shot the fifth (5th!!) time I ever competed I was 170th out of 416 shooters in my classification and 393rd out of 1,244 shooters in my division. There were a little over 2,600 shooters in the competition in toto and I haven't figured out my overall placing yet.

I still have much to work on, currently the psychological game of being able to have consistent and repeatable performance. Also increasing my accuracy in the speed at which I am shooting. But having only been into this for 5 months I think this validates my efforts and expenses into this and shows my intrinsic potential.

What have you done?

What have you done for a cause you believe in lately?

Me? I wrote my state senators in a nice, calm way asking them to reconsider their gun control proposals for something different. I wrote my national senators as well. I joined the NRA yesterday. I try to be a responsible, educated gun owner.

No matter what you believe in, what have you done to forward the cause you feel strongly about?

Free men own weapons. Slaves don't.

Come, let us reason together....

So for the next 4 weeks I am working a Nuclear Medicine gig full time. This has its positives and negatives, like anything, and I find myself feeling apprehensive about tomorrow. And the next four weeks.....

I'm going to treat this post like a white board and just try to work it out for myself. Come to some resolution about my feelings and how to adequately deal with them in a successful manner.

What am I afraid of? What is bothering me?
-I haven't worked a full time nuclear medicine job in 7 years.
-I'm the sole technologist there, no back up.
-Being able to be productive, to maintain a work flow that is good for the patients and the office. No overtime.
-Paperwork. This particular job site is more paperwork intensive than I've ever dealt with so I feel a pressure due to the newness of it and the volume.
-I can't remember anyone's name. I forget the processes of all the other crap that goes into this job as far as charts, scheduling, billing and all that stuff that I get asked questions about.

Things I simply just don't like. But can not change.
-The almost two extra hours of my day spend commuting.
-It is too cold to ride a motorcycle to work.
-Just the change this brings to my life right now. I'm not used to being someplace, everyday, at a certain time, dressed a certain way, to be responsible for soo many different things. For weeks on end this time.
-At work I have zero view of outside for 8 hours.
-Only a 30 minute lunch and the rush of a schedule that requires me to bring my lunch and eat on site. I prefer to have a real break, away from the place. And to eat food that is more than what I pack in my lunches.

OK, what is good?
-The pay. I am going to make a great amount of money. Which I will then donate, spend and save. I like having money. Almost $400 a day after taxes, I'll take that!
-Their equipment. Everything at this place is new, clean and fairly up to date. Their camera is especially high tech and new.
-The person who I am "subbing" for isn't dead or out of the country. Should I REALLY get messed up, I can call his cell phone. (but I don't want to 'cause then I look bad)

Good stuff? Don't have to worry about that. It is good and will take care of itself.
Things I can't change? Well I've just got to come to terms with them. And they will mostly be solved by time, repetition and exposure. Soon they won't matter at all.

And what about the things that are making me nervous? Frankly, I can't kill a patient and that would be the very worst thing. As I sit and think about it I just don't want to look dumb or incompetent to people who don't know me. I don't want that to be their impression of me. I want to do a good job and put a high value internally on doing so. Even if just for myself.

But as my mom just told me on the phone while we talked about it, "Hey, it's better to be paid to look dumb than to be doing it for free." HA! Gotta love her.

I think with lots of positive self talk and the experience that will come with getting this next week done and complete it will all be OK. I've spent the last week training so starting tomorrow I am on my own.... The test begins. By week's end, I should be good. Just gotta get there.... Just keep swimming. Keep it together.

Unique Christmas Stuff 2012

So from D and K and Jx2 I received some very unique Christmas gifts.

1. A custom temporary tattoo! A tattoo of a bear surfing on a shark, smoking a cigar and shooting a machine gun. For ultimate effect I think I am going to put it on my lower back, "tramp stamp" style.

2. A Creature from the Black Lagoon night light. This D quite often gets me something related to the classic monsters I like and it always gives me a smile. A similar t-shirt is on its way as well from her. I don't deserve such kindness....

(ps-yes, that is a dead shark in a jar on my dresser as well)
3. From Jx2 a good sized canvas with some family photos from European travel printed on it. Cool. Just gotta finalize its spot in the house.

You always have enough time to be nice.

Lately I've really noticed the power of being nice. Pleasant in nature. Friendly to strangers.

Ferris says that life moves pretty fast, but it doesn't move so quickly that you can't be nice to people.

Be. Nice. It is actually easier than being mean, snippy, nasty, self important.

3 pounds in one day

Totally food poisoned by an ill advised 0630 stop at Jack in the Box yesterday. Resulted in 24 hours of agony. And a 3 pound loss in body weight due to "spewage".

Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem......

....for retro motorcycle customs. Hahahaha. That's where my epic ride today took me, on a pilgrimage to the three holy places in southern California for old bike stuff.

The first is the fancy, expensive, "oooohhhhh" one, Dues Ex Machina in Venice Beach. And when I say expensive I mean it, like $200 flannel work shirt kind of craziness. A hipster's wet dream basically but you'd need Brad Pitt's income. I bought two t-shirts at $47 a piece.... I know, don't say it.

The bikes in there were exuisite in their paint and preparation. The 'fashion' and 'scene' sense were spot on. While not something I am totally into, I was definitely digging it while there. Let's call this one Medina.

Check them out HERE

And onto Mecca. The Garage Company in Inglewood. (this time it IS up to good) Oh my.... I was dead in my tracks walking through the front roll up door. It's like a Smithsonian storage shed of motorcycling from 1960 forward.

RZ500 V4. 5 different RZ350 s. Bimota DB1. Leathers from Spencer, Chandler, Bostrom. A plated XR750. Shelves piled high with parts. Three foot tall stacks of 15 year old Cycle News. Motocourse books from like 1982 onward.

Sigh. It's a good thing I rode my motorcycle on this adventure, rather than driving my truck. I could have spent 6 months of disposable income easily. Easily.

Check out The Garage Company. And talk to him about the transition from being in Japan to the US when you stop by for a unique motorcycling history lesson.

Finally the lesser of the three, South Bay Triumph in Redondo Beach. Home of some cool in-house customs but especially the new handmade Norton Commandos.

Finish the day off with some delicious bacon, onion ring, bbq sauce hamburgers and the freeway slog at rush hour back to San Diego made it all seem worth it. Definitely glad I made this pilgrimage. We'll see if it prompts any offerings to the God of motorcycle modifications............

Always scheming, planning, thinking, plotting....

Looking at travel pictures from last year, talking to people who've lived in other countries, going around san diego and seeing the same old people and just seeing the same old things my wander lust is really kicking in.......

So I am definitely doing more research on one of the 2013 activities listed in an earlier post, riding my motorcycle in Mexico. Just like a 3 day Baja trip sometime this year. Hopefully that satisfies me.....

I got some interesting Christmas gifts I need to show on the blog. One is a canvas with various family pictures on it. Like a picture painting. Very cool. The other is a Creature From the Black Lagoon night light and accompanying t-shirt. And finally a custom made temporary tattoo of a cartoon bear, surfing on a shark, shooting a machine gun. I think I am gonna put it on me 'tramp stamp' style for the ultimate in hilarity.

I start a 6 week job on Monday the 7th. I've already figured out roughly how much I'm going to make and have it budgeted in my mind like this:
-10% charitable donation/tithing
-30% savings
-$1,000 motorcycle parts and clothes
-$2,000 gun stuff
-$1,000 misc

February 9th is the Tough Mudder race and I am not as prepared as I was 3 weeks ago. The new job has me working at all of the times my bootcamp is in session so I need to work out on my own. Self motivate. Rawr, this is gonna be a challenge. But I can't let my sister beat me. I'd rather die first.

First week of the new year!

Tuesday- watch football, eat snacks, walk on beach, hang with family.
Wednesday- dirt bike ride. shooting practice.
Thursday- motorcycle ride with friends up to Dues Machina motorcycle shop in Venice Beach.
Friday-? Go lobstering? Picture tour of SD?
Saturday-shoot IDPA up in LA with a good, big, serious club.
Sunday- work on Cub Scouts
Monday-first day of training/work at the new job.

How are you spending the first week of twenty thirteen?

PS-I smell like fireworks and taste like chocolate still from my NYE activities. Sounds pretty good, huh!?!?!?!?!

results w/video

From my last shooting competition Dec 29th:

Tactical Rifle or Shotgun: 5th out of 16.
Production Pistol: 9th out of 28.

Overall: 10th out of 99 with my rifle. 39th out of 99 with my pistol.

steel1212 from rowdy matt on Vimeo.

There were different divisions based on your gun, but no delineation for skill level. Open class, as it were. So me, who has only been doing this for 4 months (albeit with much practice and dedication) shot with the experts and help my own for the most part.

This Saturday I am going up to shoot against some of the best people in California at an LA club. Game on!

This picture for some reason reminds me of the old western radio and tv show,"Paladin", whose tagline was "Have gun, will travel."