Tactical Athlete

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.

In photos, Rowdy as tactical athlete.

Me MeMe

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!

Rowdy Cooking and Rowdy Math

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 $400 for one thousand rounds of the type of 9mm pistol ammo I like to shoot.

Looking at paying $300 per month at a minimum for ammo and theeeeennn I was also paying a hefty shipping charge on top of that, often up to $100 a month.

All this rowdy math lead me to making a rowdy cooking decision. Yes, "cooking" is what I call it now that I am making my own ammunition! Yep from a professional factory to me doing it in my garage. With all the attendant pluses and minuses. But what really sold it was the math. One thousand bullets is $100. One thousand primers is $35. A pound of gunpowder is $20 and I can make 1K rounds of ammo from half a pound, so $10 in gun powder. Tack on $50 for hazmat and shipping fees and my total cost of materials for making my own is $195 buying for quality, not low price.

By doing it myself I save at least 33% versus buying it from someone else. Store bought ammo is 30-40cents each time I hear a "boom". Doing it myself has averaged 18-19cents each time I hear the same boom. The cost to get into this means it won't really start paying for itself until about 7 months have passed.

Like your first time making a cake though, it just quite isn't as good as how mom makes it. Making your own ammo is more akin to making Thanksgiving dinner rather a box mix cake in 6th grade home economics class. (Does that still happen??) My first few batches of ammo have not been trouble free.

Eventually I'll have my recipe and cooking down then I'll be like Gordon Ramsey of this stuff! I probably won't spend any less per month, but I'll definitely get more out of it. And winning matches not with only my shooting skill but using ammo I made myself has a certain appeal to it.

Xmas Inferno

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 without blogging makes one....

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, I'm probably interested.

I've had family here this whole week as well. So lots of going out to eat, skipping a day of school, talking and just having fun. The whole process of "what do you wanna do?" with visiting family and them saying, "I don't know, whatever you wanna do" makes me think about the things that I do and how they're not really compatible with spur of the moment hanging out.

You have to know how to ride a motorcycle. If you're just learning it's still fun but it's not like we can just go ride.

You have to like shooting guns or want to know how. Again, another activity that requires a certain skill set and disposition.

Water sports. Here you need a wet suit, especially this time of year. Then you better be comfortable snorkeling, swimming or surfing in the ocean. I don't go to the beach just to lay out.

I only have one pedal bike for either road or mountain, so can't really share that.... Though now I'm thinking rather than hike up Cowles (it's near my home and I like doing it) we should rent beach cruisers and cruise the boardwalk. That should give my family a quintessential San Diego experience and still have a little bit of physical activity.

So yeah, this week has just been the normal of school, gun stuff, eating out, movies, photography and just being ME.

The rest of the story...

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.

Shower -vs- Rain

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. rain does not wash your car. check your clothes, shoes, floor mats, car or anything. and don't forget you shouldn't surf for a few days after a rain due to all the "washing" it does.
-rain is random. if you like rain, you can't just get it when you want. nothing about the time, duration, intensity, direction, droplet form, none of it can be made to match your desires.
-99.9% of the time, you are clothed during rain. because you have to be.

And now for my personal favorite, and still champion, the Shower!
-it can be warm or cold. to your specification.
-it cleans you. legitimately.
-endless ways, from the simple classic wall mounted nozzle to handhelds to multiple jets you can customize how you want your shower experience to feel. be. you get to control it.
-you're naked.
-if you're stuck inside it's way better than a lot of other indoor activities.

Clearly, the shower is better than the rain.

Tough Poetry

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.

The things that happen at work.

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've gotten lots of white coat treatment before actually. it's gotten me to the front of the grocery line and out of speeding tickets and free lunch and so on.)

-I often get asked strange questions. The ODDEST question ever, of a non sexual nature, has to be the guy who asked me yesterday, "Will playing the theremin mess up my pacemaker?" Wow. Like I imagine 95% of the people out there, you don't know what a theremin is, but due to my love of old movies I do. Rowdystyle. So yeah, I imagine standing next to an electric field like that could be a bad thing. 1 in 1,000,000 question.

A patient was worried about passing out when I started her IV. Her biggest concern, "What if I fart when I pass out? I've done it before." Uh, not sure where to go with that...... Soo many things......

You can find the humor, and I guess beauty, of humanity in almost anything if you look. I'm happy to have found some in my work day.

Inside/Outside

From the photographer's point of view. (Foxbat Photo)

And the entire match from my POV.

Winner

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?

You be the judge.

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????

Ready. Aim. Photography!

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!