All Things Rowdy

First two days of the trip so far. Yellowstone is next.

Here are some test pics I took yesterday trying to work with my new camera. I gotta say, I do enjoy the melding or artistic and technical in taking great photos. These are not great, but I am learning. Practicing. Growing.

But not wicked, unless you mean it in an 80 skater/surfer vernacular way, then yes something "wicked" this way comes. Possibly. 1. I still am extremely interested in going to graduate school in Israel for a year, for a MA in Diplomacy Studies and Security. And to begin doing something about it, not just dreaming, I have enrolled in a Hebrew class here locally. While the program I am interested in is taught in English, if you're going to live somewhere you better speak the language. With this I'll of had formal education in French, Spanish and Hebrew. With on the fly, in the moment learning of Arabic, Japanese and Russian. 2. I was vaguely offered a job in maritime security. Ride on a cargo ship and shoot at pirates. Not sure about it. Part of me is very drawn to this and the other part not so much. I'm conflicted. The length of the contract is the biggest unanswered question I have. 3. My neighbor who had to move to Cambodia suddenly for a family member...

My grandmother grew up in rural Idaho. Her family did not have indoor plumbing until after she graduated from high school. All of her food was cooked on a wood stove. They did have indoor electricity though. I can not imagine a life lived, for decades no less, with no indoor plumbing and having to cook all of my food over a fire essentially. Wow. Talking with one of my friends he mentioned how his grandparents must have felt when they saw their first airplane. They lived in rural India under similar circumstances. To still be collecting firewood each day and then for the first time see human being flying through the sky. Wow. From the book " Turning's Cathedral " by George Dyson: The fundamental, indivisible unit of information is the bit. The fundamental, indivisible unit of digital computation is the transformation of bit between its two possible forms of existence: as structure (memory) or as sequence (code). (it is a very thinking heavy book, but if you're ...

I am (something)1-derful today. Yes, it's my birthday today and I officially enter a new decade of life. Wow. Here is hoping it is one of the best yet for me. (not like i have soo many) And now for prezzies! Super D gifted me with an amazing camera set up! A new Nikon D7000 and three lenses. Wow. This thing is awesome. And I really enjoy the mix of creativity and technical ability in photography. It is a fun thing! I haven't really got into photo editing and creating stuff with photoshop as I'm still learning and growing. But I love it. The only excuse for a bad picture now should be "me". D from Texas is such a unique gift giver! She has given me such cool, interesting gifts over the years. Some of my coolest old monster movie things have come from her. She must really browse etsy to find these things. And I greatly appreciate it. But this year she went big! Wow, who has a sister in law like this? I now am the proud owner of an iron sculpture of my name, Ro...

When I was 16 I wanted a Honda VTR 250 Interceptor as my first motorcycle. As a compromise to keep me from most likely running away to join some fictional motorcycle circus I thought existed in my mind, my parents and I compromised on a Yamaha YSR 50. I found a new one for a great price and my dad and I drove the 4 hours to go pick it up. I was sooo happy. I loved that first motorcycle and I still do. But like anything under appreciated by the masses at the time they now have become rare, cool and collectible. It also doesn't help that they were used up like cheap disposable motorcycles for tons of new racers. What I bought for $1,000 back in the day now is $2,500 for a good condition, stock one. Heck, I just found one on CL up in Loma Linda. At what price do you give in to your childhood dreams and nostalgia? Is $2,500 a cheap dream or an expensive one? (later in life I did buy a VTR250 and a FZR400, the motorcycles I most wanted as a kid. I outgrew the VTR and the FZR strande...

I feel soooo, just....., incredibly alive. Or normal. Or healthy. I just am abuzz in a way I haven't felt in a long time. And it is nice. Could it be my Crohns is truly in remission? Could it be endorphins from exercise? Could it be opening my birthday presents a day early? All of the above and more? I've been moved to tears with joy today and that is a powerful feeling. To celebrate, here are some goofy pictures of me. =) Try not to smile.

What the targets see when I step up to the line. IDPA match. CDP-SS. from rowdy matt on Vimeo .

What is possibly the most offensive question you can ask a woman? "When are you due?", when they are not pregnant. A close second and much related is, "Have you put on some weight?" Ask these questions at your own peril men. There is what I have found to be somewhat of a male equivalency, "Is that gray in your beard/hair?" I thought I was dressed pretty sharply today, new hair style and such. I got a lot of great comments about how I looked today. But................... Then from some guys I got the, "Is that gray in your beard? Man, you must be old," kind of thing. Doesn't matter how many other great compliments I received, it was the ones that pointedly made me 'old' that just made me bristle inside. Female readers, never mention a man's gray hair. I think this was part of my past week's attitude smack down. My shooting coach told me the best thing to come of me getting beat so badly was that in his opinion I was...

I've been stung by a stingray at Scripps Pier coming in from surfing. Boy did it freaking hurt! As bad as the times I've broken my ankle to tell the truth. Shuffle people, shuffle! While that may have been a low point in the ocean for me, today I had a high point. Or two! Couple of sea lions decided they wanted to make friends with me while snorkeling in La Jolla Cove. And of course I got pictures and video, duh! I'm sure my old friend Sammy the Safety Seal told them all about me, so I'm in their good graces. (Sammy the Safety Seal was a program in elementary school where I grew up to teach kids not to play in irrigation canals lest they die.) As you can imagine it is pretty cool to be out in the ocean and having a mammal your size come and check you out. I saw dolphins off in the distance as I entered the water but by the time I swam to that area they were gone. Still, this was pretty cool and I am going back again soon!

I'm really craving change. Having traveled the world, lived in many different states, changing jobs often and having varied hobbies I've just seen soooo much that it is hard to settle for routine. Same ol' same ol' for year after year. So I shaved my head today and am going to grow a beard. Just to do something totally radically different with my personal appearance. I don't care if most people thing I look less attractive with a shaved head. I don't care if it makes me look older. I don't care if my beard might have some gray in it and hide my strong jaw line. I just wanna do something different and changing hair is a great active/passive way to do that. What's the difference between a good haircut and a bad one? 6 weeks. And seriously trying to figure out the whole graduate school in Israel thing as a possibility. If you're a long term reader or know me in real life you know how I can be when I want to do something off the wall. It gets into ...

I'm researching graduate programs in Israel. Front runner is a Masters program at Tel Aviv University in Security Studies & Diplomacy. -Taught in English -One year program -$17,000 in tuition for the program -location, location, location If you were sitting next to me you would hear the wheels spinning making a noise similar to the gear driven cams of a racing motorcycle engine. I was willing to give up a year of my life in Iraq for something to move me forward in life and I'm thinking is maybe the best idea... I could sell my truck, my two motorcycles, most of my guns and pay for the year almost completely if I lived super cheap. And come out on the other end with something to make a career out of, to use my brain and my talents. A dream come true in other words.......

Photo set I took at the super cool, oh man I had to visit it twice in one weekend, motorsports museum at Barber in Birmingham Alabama. Cover your keyboard motorheads and drool on it HERE!!

I've had some shooting success lately in competition. And I was pretty vocal about it as well, prideful. Well we all know what comes after pride, the fall. And I got the smack down big time in Alabama this last weekend. Not quite Deliverance level but it felt like it in the moment and losing is very hard for me to accept. And lose is what I did. I was 12th of the 14 experts and far off the front of the pack. The lower the score the better and my class winner had a 191. I shot a 260. Yeah.... Actually the top 5 in my expert division would have been on the podium in master, the highest skill classification. The stages were not super challenging but the guys shooting were shooting well. Very well. So while I may occasionally be a big fish in the small shooting pond of San Diego, I now have a better idea of what it takes at a national level to be competitive. I feel like I was the best Lithuanian basketball player at the Olympics who then had to play the Dream Team. More practice...

One of my motorcycles is what is now called a 'dual sport'. Basically a motorcycle you can ride in the dirt and on the pavement, legally. Some try to do both just OK while others are much better at one side of the equation than the other. My Honda seems to be set up fairly close to the middle. Pretty good at either dirt or street but not superb at one to the detriment of the other. So I spent 8 hours getting car sick in the back seat of a truck, sleeping in my sleeping bag and eating not one regular, cooked, normal meal for three days so that I could do an epic dual sport ride, originally planned from St George Utah to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Monday morning found us under some bad weather none of us packed appropriate clothing for, so with a quick consultation of maps and forcasts we picked a new route that would hopefully take us out of most of the bad weather and yet still be a fun ride. We only got lost a few times but we had 140 miles of super fast dirt roads...

Or as Bartleby the Scrivener would say, "I would prefer not to.", in regards to my dreaming. I've been officially diagnosed by a Stanford trained sleep specialist with Nightmare Disorder. As a child I don't think I had any more or less nightmares. It wasn't until the past 10 years that I developed some serious sleep issues, mainly that I can only sleep about 45 minutes before fully awaking. Also the number of nightmares that woke me yelling, panting and frightened really increased. Going to bed was not a pleasant thing for me as I barely slept and would only be in a sleep state that allowed dreaming/nightmares. You're not supposed to dream within minutes of falling asleep and continue to do so until you wake up. You're not supposed to wake up screaming, sweating and in fear. I do all of these things and without medication do them on about 5 to 6 hours of "sleep" per night. My nightmares follow two main themes. One is that someone or somethi...

There are some things I just can't resist. Things like not proof reading my blog entries. Ellipsis. Oh, how I love to use them.... Alliteration is also another. Brunettes. Motorcycles. You know, the regular stuff. So.... today it seemed as if all my day was spent dealing with double yous. Dubyas. W. W. W. Weather. It was windy and warm today when I went out for shooting practice. 9am and it was already 95 degrees and blowing my target stands over every few minutes. I may never regret a work out or practice session, but I sure would have picked different weather. Work I tell you, it felt like work. Weirdo. I hate to say it, but yeah, I am one of those weirdos who can go to a movie alone. In the middle of the day. To a Bollywood movie. Alone. Weirdo. And now writing amnesia has set in and I can't remember the remainder of my W items from the days wanderings. Rest assured, relax and resign yourself to reading again at a later date. Now it's off to chow down at a fo...

Four of the ten days I spent in Texas were at the Texas Tornado Boot Camp. A camp to get your skills at riding a motorcycle better, whether beginner or expert. Or like me if you're somewhere in between. Four days of excellent food, more riding than your body can handle, cool new people, great instructors, good physical facilities and just a super atmosphere for fun. A typical day went like this: 8am: breakfast, hot or cold, meeting 9am-12 noon: non stop motorcycle riding and drills. all focused on what you need to get better. Noon-2pm: sandwiches and all the Monster you can drink. plus shooting guns and possibly blowing stuff up. from .22 pistols to .50bmg sniper rifles! 2pm-6pm: more riding. more drills. free riding on any track. 6:30pm: Super Pole! a mini race to see how you're progressing. against yourself or others if you want. 7:30pm: another home cooked meal, all you could eat. 9pm-11pm: more riding if you want. ping pong. pool. bon fires. beer drinking. or nur...