All Things Rowdy

I started the year as Sharpshooter in ESP for IDPA and ended the year at Master and as a Division Champion for ESP in a match. I finished 16th in the national championships for IDPA for SSP division. I went the entire year without being hospitalized! I have two brand new motorcycles, a FZ09 and a CRF250L and a 300 Ninja that is no longer around. I earned my Rider Coach certification with the MSF and then the state stopped using that program. I gave up on ever having a full time Nuclear Medicine job again. Or PA school. I went to South Korea and Cambodia for two weeks! The discovery of sights and foods was overwhelming. I continued taking classes at a local community college. I finished second overall in a year long, nation wide contingency program for shooting put on by Automatic Accuracy. I finally met Simon Jack. And another wonderful family addition in Jade R. Killer came back to the USA. I got up to 148lbs, the most I ever have weighed in my life. Sadly it was...

In the past two weeks I've got to talk with different people about the problems in their lives. Relationship issues, mental health, housing, diabetes and so on. What I learned from these chats were that one, everyone has problems. It is really hard to tell from the outside what is truly going on with some people. (not in these recent cases, but some people are drama and create problems when they have none. those people are to be held at arm's length) Secondly, is that no matter what I have going wrong or whatever problem I may have at the moment I absolutely do not want another person's problems. It's funny how we are often heard to say, "Wow, I don't know how they do it? I could never do that." And I think it is because very often we're suited for the problems we face. Readers, keep your head up and endure. Miracles most often happen after the hardest trials.

If you invest in your looks or muscles or body fat at the expense of the rest of your complete being, you're investing in something with a diminishing return. Looks fade, faces wrinkle, waists expand. As a human being you are three things primarily. One a physical body. Two a brain. Three a spirit. To be your best is not developed in your meal prep, gym selfies or mirror time self admiration. But rather in the equal development of all three. And all three of them in an ongoing fashion. Do you exercise your mind, stress it and grow its capabilities to the level you work your muscles and scrutinize your diet? How do you work on your emotions? Sense of love? Faith? Character? The Y.O.U. Mutual Fund is holds three stocks of body, mind and spirit. How are you investing in you?

From a speech by John Quincy Adams on July 4th, 1821. If only it were still true..... AND NOW, FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind? Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, an...

When I was 18 I had a car and a motorcycle. I had one accident and three speeding tickets on my record. My monthly premium back then in the 90's was $250 a month. That is quite a bit in 90's dollars.... I should find a calculator on line that could adjust that to today's dollars. No matter, the point is now I still have 3 tickets on my record. Two speeding and one illegal turn. But now I have two motorcycles and three cars with full coverage on all of them. My premium today? $300 a month. Yep, just a 50$ increase with the same driving record but tripling the number of each kind of vehicle. But I only made $7 a hour back then versus my earning potential today.

Lately I've been thinking about what it would take to be world class at my pistol competitions. I know what it takes to be one of the best in the state and top 20-ish in the nation for my classification. World class though, that's a different story. But a story I wouldn't be considering if I also didn't think it was possible!! -My own bay. Twenty yards wide by 50 yards deep. Unrestricted access. A bay is my field, my court, my track. To be world class I need more time in a bay. Perfection would be at my residence, currently impossible but maybe not in the future. I'd be super happy to have one in less than an hour's drive for my own private range. Not sure what this would cost, not knowing land values or usage/zoning restrictions. $30,000? -Targets and props. I need to be able to run drills and set stages. Steel, paper, sticks, stands and movers. Some of this is a consumable, but the other stuff would last and last. Plate rack,Texas star, 4 large poppers, 4 ...

Been seeing pictures online lately of people I used to train jiu jitsu with who are now black belts. I bowed out when I was a purple belt. I'm pretty sure I had the physical and mental skills where I could have made it by this time as well. I for sure would have been a brown belt with a couple stripes. The community college I take classes at is across the park from where I used to race bmx. If there were more than 4 riders I never made the main off of winning a heat race. I only ever made the main off of low turn out. Either in cruiser or regular. I never raced bmx as a kid so racing against 10 year old experts was pretty humbling. And in retrospect irritating. I still only have a BS degree. Multiple years of trying to get into PA school never worked. Never started a different masters program. I don't really use the degree I have. I'm not complaining but most everyone I am friends with have advanced degrees so there is a tinge of inadequacy. Each year it is a struggle t...

Some cover songs I like. Chromatics covering Neil Young's Into the Black. Steven N Seagulls covering ACDC's Thunderstruck. Duran Duran covering Elvis Costello's Watching the Detectives. Charley Pride covering Hank William's Kaw Liga.

Flying the day after Thanksgiving to go see Simon. So a weekend in Utah instead of New Jersey. Though I will have to go to NJ sometime soon after to visit him as well. That Friday should be an easy airport day but the Sunday will be monstrous. Christmas. Hmmmm, the ultimate celebration of buying stuff. Maybe one of you dear readers might buy me something!?!? So with that in mind, here is my Xmas wish list. -Aimpoint Micro gun sight. $600 -Wheelie University class. $500 -Bookends. Any sort of cool metal or glass "thing" like lions, skulls, wwII fighter plane parts or whatever would make a heavy, decorative bookend.$10-100 -Megalodon shark tooth fossil. Yep, a nice big dinosaur shark tooth. $40-200 -Exhaust and FI computer for my motorcycle(2014 Yamaha FZ09). Akrapovic, Graves, Yoshimura. Slip on or full system. Coupled with a Power Commander. $500-1100. -Anything collectible from the Universal series of monsters. You know, the 30's Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf...

I like finding things with my name, Rowdy, on them. I buy shirts and crap off ebay when I find stuff with my name on it. Or like my motorcycle helmets I get a graffiti artist to tag my name all over them. I like having some style to my "things" quite often. Especially little things, where the style doesn't impact performance at all. Cause really, performance is the first priority, but if I can keep it aaaaand have some style then I'm down for that. I wear a holster about 5 or oh 50 times a week. For hours. Normally holsters are plain black leather or plastic. Mine are always Kydex, basically a fancy plastic. Hmmm, a piece of gear I wear all the time, it already functions perfectly but is visually kinda boring. They don't say "rowdy"in any way. Obviously that needs to change asap! I have a holster with a Flying Tigers, P-40 Warhawk mouth painted on it. I have another with white flames I drew on with whiteout. I've painted them FDE and shiny silv...

If you are sensitive, stop reading now. OK, you were warned. What is the main US action in the war on IS? Airpower. How is IS dealing with this event? First, they have decentralized much of their C2 (command and control). Secondly they have adopted in clothes and vehicles as much as a civilian look as possible. Finally and most importantly in combining the first two they have dispersed and blended into the general populace as much as possible. Some of this is helpful for us and some of it is not. And by us I mean the people aligned against IS. But first let's do a little history. Looking at the 6 Day War that Israel won and Desert Storm that was a US success a major if not the key factor in winning was the use of airpower. An air attack of a short time, against a known, identifiable enemy. Air superiority, quickness and intel all lead to success on the actual battle field. Now we have an air campaign where we no longer are quick. The enemy's actions reduce our intel a...

I can't focus on the things I should right now. I'm stuck thinking about dumb things or things lower down on my priority list. But yet that's where my focus is. Thinking about how hot I am and the drought in California. Thinking about travel. Thinking about a spot on the deck with water damage. Or by the shower. Or a torn screen. Or the shutters need painting. Thinking about cracks in the stucco. Thinking about how I did soo poorly at the end of the season. Thinking about the three gun issues that are keeping them from being 100% right now for competition. Thinking about how far I feel I am behind everyone else in Arabic class. Thinking about how to work more hours and make more money. Thinking about how unorganized parts of the house are, the pantry, the spare bedroom, the garage, the sideboard, the bookcases. It's like a million mosquitos are around me. They may not have bit me but their prescense is enough to drive me crazy. Instead of thinking I should...

I'd make either a bad azz COIN guy or play for the other team and be a pretty good jihadi. Blue or green team. I'm a small arms expert. I have a valid western passport. I'm comfortable in foreign countries. I know more than one language and am learning Arabic currently. I have a science degree. That's a lot of things the jihadi team would really value. Too bad for them, though!

Ok, I've paid for professional training for quite a bit of things in life. -swimming -motorcycling -car racing -surfing -shooting -photography -languages -fitness -brazilian jiu jitsu I'm sure there are others but I can't remember quickly. No matter, these experiences have taught me the value of learning something from a pro. I mentioned on FB earlier in the week how I feel sad about neglecting my photography. Watching a mnt bike movie on tv last night had me missing other stuff, not necessarily biking. But definitely I've missed doing jiu jitsu and riding motorcycles more than I have been. With that in mind I'm excited desert season will be happening soon (though I don't have a dirt bike, just Super D does....). And with that class coming up, my skills should be getting a little better as well. And since I like learning I found two other motorcycle related schools I'd like to attend, and with these in the San Diego area it makes doing so much ...

Oct 4th I go to the Sacramento area to shoot the CA state IDPA championships. Oct 11th I'm up north of Fresno for a weekend at Rich Oliver's Mystery School for some motorcycle training w Super D. Oct 25th I go on a road trip with the guys to Prescott AZ to shoot a small sanctioned match there to finish off my season. Nov 22nd I go to Utah to see baby Kirk over Thanksgiving weekend. Now that is going to be wild! Dec 22nd I go to Austin TX to hang out with family there for the holiday week. Wow, that's a lot of flying and driving coming up. This has really been a road warrior year for me!

So I'm up to at least my third gay stalker now in the past 10 years or so. The gay couple who live next door to me tell me it is because I have red hair. Evidently there is some big fetish for red heads from gay dudes. First one was in college. Guy was good natured about his crush on me and was always flirting with me but never made me too uncomfortable. He was horny and thought I was cute and never let me forget about it. Funnily enough he ended up with a girl I dated casually in college. I doubt it lasted..... Second one was up in the bay area before I moved to San Diego. There was a lab tech at the hospital I worked in who would follow me around, giving me the eye all the time. You know, the visual undressing. He would follow me around while I was on the floor giving injections and try and strike up small talk. He asked me out on a date every month and every time I turned him down. I started having my girl friends come to work and have lunch with me but he was undaunted. I h...

I think it is time for people who want something better, different or more to their liking should focus less on calls for their rights than first making sure they have fulfilled those right's responsibilities. Want a different president? Or mayor? Then vote. Study the issues. Read the pamphlet. Volunteer for a campaign. Donate money. Feel your civil rights are violated? Make sure you're being a civil person. Have a job, pay your taxes, don't engage in criminal activity. Be a good member of your society. (This does assume you live in a modern democracy, sorry) Think your gun rights are being infringed upon? Then be a responsible owner. Don't take trash out to shoot and abandon it. Don't store your firearms where someone can gain access to them. Practice. Don't like the definition of marriage? Instead look at your own marriage first. Loyal, helpful, equal partners, serving. Are you doing the things yourself to make a great marriage before you try to make y...

Each summer seems to have one major sense associated with it in my memory. Summers spent mostly mountain biking smell like dirt, feel sun burned, gave new scars and similar things. Very different from say a summer spent mostly at the beach. Salt, parking, sand messes, a different kind of "in tune with nature" vibe. Here in San Diego where we have deserts, oceans, over a million people and no real mountains you can spend summer outside in a lot of different ways. For me a lot of the summer has been spent traveling to different states and countries. And a couple days of week outside for shooting stuff. Muggy I think would be my word for the summer. Korea and Cambodia were hot and muggy. Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma were muggy. I spend a lot of my day outside, in the sun, standing around in different places. Wherever I've been this year, this summer, it seems that muggy is the constant. And probably food not cooked at home. And hotels. Oh man, I've proba...

If you were to check my search history you would see some interesting things in there.... or at least somethings that might make you snort in either laughter or derision. "Vibra prime". Nope, not a search about sexy time stuff. It is a gadget to load up primer tubes. With the hope it is faster than doing it by hand. $45 at most online places. Better than hunting and pecking them 100 at a time like I do now. "Why is my poop bright green?". So yeah, like lots of people I gotta sneak a peak at what is being flushed down. And boy was it bright, neon green a bunch lately. What the heck would be the cause? Food coloring in some of the things I was eating and drinking. Purple soda. Black licorice. Some other candies with those colors. All of them can cause you to have vividly green poop. Now you know. "Resetting popper". This is only funny if you are my mom, dad or brother. Why? When we were kids I guess parents weren't as forward as they are now about ...

Lately I've been bombarded with thoughts and memories of my grandparents. For the most part as a kid we spent one week a summer with them from age 5 to 17. So I really only spent about 3 or maybe 4 months with them growing up in total. But man if it didn't have a lasting effect! Grass, trees, fish, clouds, cars, houses, smells, foods, words, songs. It seems daily I have something hit me that is a catalyst for some strong, often nostalgic memory of my grand parents. I think about them every day, multiple times. It makes me want to take what is good about them I remember and incorporate it into my life. Especially when the day comes that I get to be a grand parent. I want to matter. I want to make those kinds of memories. I don't want my family chain broken or forgotten. I want to be like them and even better.

With all my traveling this year and a book I just finished about the Iraq war I thought I would list some things down before I forget them. They will be every place I remember going in Iraq off the top of my head, without consulting my journals from the time. And every US state I've touched the ground in, as obviously an airport transfer doesn't count. Everywhere I remember going in Iraq. -Marez and Diamondback in Mosul -Talil -Taji -Cedar 1 and 2 -Balad -Basra -Green Zone -Kirkuk =Tikrit -Spiecher -Bismyah -Slayer, Propserity, Liberty -Biap -Hillah -Nassariya Man, I know I went more places in Iraq but this is all I can remember. **************************************** Every US state I have been set foot in. Again, off the top of my head that's 27 states so more than half of them number wise and definitely a majority of the US in territory/square miles. -Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii -MOntana, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona -Wyoming, Utah, Color...

I've had a lot of set backs in my life. A life long, chronic, serious illness. Multiple divorces. Bankruptcy. Job loss. And the list goes on. With all of these set backs I've learned quite a bit about myself as a person and about handling things in my life. Sometimes I learn good things and sometimes I've learned things not very helpful, like I can be kinda dramatic and over emphasize the negative things when I first learn of them. But then I also grab my mental, physical or emotional shovel and start digging my way out of the hole. Slowly, surely. The post below is about a goal I made for myself in my shooting sports development. Well I am proud to say I MADE IT! Yep, I won my division at a state match in Michigan this weekend and I am now promoted to MASTER in the pistol division I shot. According to the membership stats, only 3% of the people in IDPA make it to the Master classification. And I did it in almost exactly two years! In the grand scheme of the world this ...

So my Bachelors of Science degree is in Radiologic Science with a focus on Nuclear Medicine. That's it. I tried two years to get into graduate programs all through California and other states for Physician Assistant and was never successful. Kinda galls me. Looking back at my shooting career I've realized I'm basically earning a Master's degree in pistol shooting. Two years of my time at a minimum, about $20,000 in costs, lots of assignments(local matches), special projects (state wide matches) and a thesis (the national championships. Heck the skill classifications even kinda follow a similar flow. In USPSA it goes from lowest grade up as D, C, B (which I am in two divisions currently), A, Master. This organization doesn't get as much of my attention as IDPA does so I guess I just have the equivalent of an Associate's Degree in shooting USPSA. For IDPA in ascending order they go Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert, Master. I'm expert in three different div...

Successful people do daily what other people do occasionally. I think that is turning into a pretty valuable saying for me, I seem to use it often now. On FB super early this morning, 3am, I posted about some upcoming travel for shooting and how I was still tired from international travel and was kinda dreading the constant stream of it I have facing me. The fact that it is for competition means it is work, not fun. I have fun, but I have more fun winning. I've only been first place twice this year, 2nd place four times and then a few really bad results. Hoping for better results I switched divisions I compete in, looking for that top spot. Due to the equipment I run this requires some learning of new techniques and skills. Couple that with the fact I've not been able to practice at all for weeks and I'll be using a new gun with my first match in just two weeks, well I better get a move on! I want to be successful. I want to follow my own advice. Here are the things...

I can go places OK with time adjustment but coming home kills me. Sleeping few hours and very much at the wrong time. Yesterday my "sleeping" for the night was 5am to 1pm. Tonight's sleep was from 9pm until 1am. Arranging one of the ugly skeletons in my closet, I don't mind taking something to sleep. Even to the point that some might consider an inappropriate dose. Two Benadryl to sleep is no biggie. It's just like taking two or three Tylenol PM. Unisom can be doubled up as well. And of course all of these can be combined with Melatonin, heating pad and some Dramamine thrown on top. Or Nyquil. And if I had some prescription pain or anti-nauseousness medication that'd make the cocktail all the better! And by better I mean Kapow knock you out effective. It is ugly, but there, now you know a horrible foible of mine. When my life is made into a special on the History or Biography channel they can say I occasionally abused sleeping medication. But at the same...

Ok, so I've been home from SE Asia for about 7 hours and it's time I wrote some of the trip out, so I don't forget it. Of course I'll elaborate more as the week goes one with pictures and stories. -Flew the non-stop JAL from San Diego to Narita for the long leg of the trip. Everything else was trains, metro, ferry boat, high speed rail or local airlines. -Lots of transit in the trip. Pretty much it was travel a day, see something the next day and then move to the next place. Probably 7 different hotels in 14 days. -Got to see people K knew in Korea. Had dinner with them, hung out, and so on. Very nice for all I think. K speaks Korean, and that was beyond value. -Got to see my old neighbor in Cambodia. It was almost like he hadn't even moved across the Pacific Ocean. V (neighbor) speaks Khmer and again, invaluable. Super D and I can cover European languages just fine but man, Asia is a different story, especially if you are off the beaten path and away from g...

Oh man, things to do before leaving for a long vacation.......... -learn my new phone. get it set up, synced to my car, learn it's short cuts, down load all my apps. adjust the freaking personal stuff too, as it vibrates like you wouldn't believe! DONE -take my laptop in for repair to be done while I'm gone. a cooling fan has totally died and I don't want to fry my computer any more than I already have. -fix the bolt catch on a AR DONE -write up a comprehensive to-do list for the girl watching the house and cat. Mr Oliver seems to like her, so that's good. -buy some food and new toys for Mr Oliver to enjoy while I'm gone and for the sitter girl to entice him. I don't wanna come home to a shredded couch cause he was pissy the whole time. DONE -make a copy of my passport, credit card and driver license to have in case I lose everything or it gets stolen -begin to arrange things and clothes I want to take. especially photographic gear. DONE -pay...

I was talking to a shooting mentor about sponsorship and valuation and he asked me what my time is worth in the other things that I do in life and apply that to the payment amounts I want from sponsors. OK, so what is my time worth then? As a bicycle mechanic it is worth 10 dollars per hour. Everything I learned in doing this was as a person into bikes, a racer and on the job training. Stacking produce for a big grocery store my time has been worth 14 dollars per hour. I worked at this job for years and years and again just learned everything on the job. Teaching folks how to ride a motorcycle safely, for which I have a lifetime of enthusiast experience and 50 hours of training from the CHP my time is worth $22 hour. My degree is in nuclear medicine and if you want me to do that for you I charge between $40 and $48 per hour. I went to college for 5 years to get this degree and I have 5 years of full time experience doing it. Hmmm, so if my time is worth anywhere from 10 to ...

So I shaved my beard off totally and gave myself a haircut that is just short, not buzzed all off. I consider that a good compromise. Now for the bad results. Working on my grip strength I have jacked up my left (support) hand. Wrist hurts, palm hurts, little finger hurts. So I guess it's a good thing I'll have two weeks off from training to try and let it heal as much as possible in that time. The national championships is the second week in September, so you know I'll be going crazy in training the second I get back! Boot camp, eye exercises, dry fire, professional training and lots and lots of live fire. Last year I was 10th in the US, this year I wanna be 5th or better!

Ok here are the two choices; 1. Shave my beard and keep my hair. Or.... 2. Shave my head and keep my beard. You decide!! Let me know what you think. I'm going crazy and need to do one or the other.....

Or email me at that email address. Yep, I've been on the internet since like 1996 when you could still have a 5 character name on AOL. (Thanks for all the free discs btw AOL!) Today it seems most people use something for their email that is directly related to their real name. First name and initial and so on. That was very rare early on, as the idea of anonymity and just the frank novelty of it all lead most people to choose, shall we say more entertaining options. And I was not immune to that kind of decision making. Whether AOL, Hotmail or whatever here are some not so choice email/screen names I've had over the years. Rowdy1 KoolAide27 Rowdzilla Nuclearsugarbomb Rowdystyle Rrrrowdy Redrowdy I think "nuclearsugarbomb" is probably the best of the worst..... What were some of yours?

Win #1. Went to a family wedding out of state last week and got to watch two very sweet people get married. They even wrote their very own vows that I felt really showed how they think about each other, in the best way. Me and the bride! Win #2. Had a local match to help tune up for a very big match this weekend in North Carolina. I won overall and my division. I've been having some equipment issues so I really need this to go well.

Well I have been quite a few places in the world but I've also moved quite a bit as well. Why does it matter? Well if everything goes right, in a year and some I'll be making the big move to Dubai. So this makes me retrospective on where I've lived in the past. So in chronological order, pretty much every place I've lived. Some of these places I've lived more than once so they just show up in order the fist time I lived there. Klamath Falls Oregon Merrill Oregon Missoula Montana Kennewick Washington Walla Walla Washington College Place Washington Yuma Arizona Fresno California Modesto California Turlock California Pleasanton California San Diego California Baghdad Iraq So I've lived all over the western US and I've been to more than half the states in the US now as well. Aaaaandddd like 16 foreign countries. 2016-17, Dubai. 2018 for 6 months Norway. Then end of 2018, watch out Austin Texas as you're most likely next on the US list!

I'm always a fun time at the airport. As they'd say in the south, which I recently learned, when they're ready to fight "I'm gonna turn this place into a car wash!" Well that's what I got to say about Dollar rent a car when they tried to strong arm me into a damage claim for the car I rented. Not something I tolerate well and to which I eventually prevailed. First time and last time, you damn retards at Dollar rent a car. Flying with a firearm is always a crap shoot when it comes to customer service at the gate. (An aside, I have a nephew who has taken to calling himself "The Customer" to reference the fact he is always right! hahaha) Well in the process of declaring and checking my firearm guess what I get? A message of "Explosives Detected" for my bag! You can imagine the fun time that equals with TSA. I just a little, they actually handled it in a very professional manner. But right after I'd just been in an attempted fraud...

I really am sometimes an utter moron. There are slices from my actual MRI though from a few days ago....

Brain MRI results in. I'm just dumb I guess.... TECHNIQUE: Study performed per protocol. FINDINGS: There is no hydrocephalus. No extra-axial collection is identified. There is mild scattered paranasal sinus opacity. There are polypoid structures at the floor of the right maxillary sinus measuring up to 18 mm, which may represent polyps or retention cysts. There is no acute infarct. Nonspecific 8 mm focus of increased FLAIR signal inferolateral to the right thalamus, of uncertain etiology. Given its location and configuration, this may represent an atypical perivascular space. Subtle symmetric increased FLAIR signal at the medial aspect of both temporal lobes and inferomedial frontal lobes is favored to represent artifact; doubt that this is pathologic (less likely). Pituitary gland is not enlarged. Cerebellar tonsils measure approximately 4-5 mm below the foramen magnum, which is borderline for Chiari I malformation. Gradient sequence is unremarkable. IMP...

OK, just bought the plane tickets for the trip this July to South Korea and Cambodia!! Business class of course. And with this trip my passport will be full! Yep, I will have filled it up with stamps and visas before it expired. UH Huh Uh Huh UH Huh!!

A recent "investigation" of one of my neighbors reminds me of why I hate my HOA and HOAs in general. Though I have had one HOA I didn't mind, it was in Windemere on Mt Soledad. So fancy schmancy and you got what you paid for. What do I NOT have in my current HOA? No park. No weight room. No pool. No gate. No security guard. The smallest of grassy common of areas. Garbage pick up. Oh, and "roof insurance". All that for $170 a month. What crap! And no one enforces the CCRs, we get no amenities so I just don't see the point at all. It will take a lot of inducements to get me to join one again.

In the current election in San Diego, the incumbent Sheriff is running unopposed. So I am doing a write in campaign to run against him. If you want a different choice, write in my name for Sheriff of San Diego County when you vote. Rowdy Bricco.

So it was thought I had a high blood level of lead from being in the shooting sports. I do not. Thankfully. But in the routine visit to discuss this my general practitioner has a mild concern. Concerning? My brain. Some loss of balance, some confusion, some loss of cognitive ability. Initially we thought lead poisoning. Negative. Then low testosterone, which I've had in the past and been treated for. Negative. Saturday morning at 7am I'm getting an MRI of my brain. And yes you will see pictures!! Update: First off, I have had like 4 documented concussion in my life. With at least two probable. I'm not sure if that's excessive. Who knows? Certainly not the NFL. And for a while I had really bad positional vertigo. Oh and my grandma died of a brain tumor and my mom has a benign brain tumor, though that sort of thing isn't genetic is still seems weird. Examples of loss of cognitive ability are things like being asked "can you bring me two boxes off the coun...

I heard about myself the other day, said somewhat mixed with humor and exasperation, "You really only can be yourself, can't you?" Want some context? I was turning left out of a parking lot, in front of three No Left Turn signs, in the exact same spot I'd previously gotten a ticket for that exact offense. Aaaaannnddd I just got a letter from California DMV telling me my license is in jeopardy. Plus you know how that effects my motorcycle teaching job...... What's the point? Well I'm pretty simplistic. I just want to get a chicken suit, light it on fire and jump off the pier. I've got to be Rowdy, because no one else will do it for me. My birthday was yesterday and I got a gift I wanted. A nostalgic gift. A record player!! And a few great records as well. It took a few minutes to get it all set up but when that needle first dropped.......... oh I knew this was a great gift. Now the day after my birthday I'm beginning to show some of my Rowdy-ness. ...

6 days until I'm another year older. 9 days until I getta see Killer. 25 days until I get to see Benson's baby bump. 29 days until I go to Juice Box's wedding.

Not sure if it's in the national news right now, but San Diego has some pretty good fires going right now in north county near a lot of residential and commercial areas. You can actually see the smoke from my house, so I went out on the balcony and took some pictures. Of which a selection are below and the rest on my photography blog.

Focusing on the Negative.... St Louis has more burned out, broken down, blighted areas of urban decay than I've seen in any other American city. Half a mile west of where the Cards play is horrible. Missouri is full of bad choices. From smoking, to food, to drinking to no exercise. Reading doesn't seem to be that highly valued of a skill. The weather. The slow driving and lack of real signage. Someone hit my rental car and didn't leave a note either. Everything closed at 8pm. The constant teasing about being from California. I grew up in Oregon and Washington, please. I'm much more "mountain man" than I am "beach boy." I got second place from something beyond my control. I was winning and then a stage was thrown out. The new aggregate scoring placed me in second. Not happy that someone else could effect my score. Two words. American Airlines. Morons. Focusing on the Positive.... People in service industries were very nice. Once I ...

30 for 30 is the general title of some pretty cool sports documentary films in association with ESPN. I like to watch them on ESPN Classic or Netflix. Especially the football related ones. And with today being the first round of the draft, well let's just say they all inspire this post. This month I have been doing 30 crunches or whatever per day. Some sort of abdomen exercise and that is a surgically induced weak point in my body. 30 for 30. I've decided that next month's personal 30 for 30 will be a little more ambitious. Ambitious, not crazy as I have three out of state trips in June. I want to run 2 miles for 30 days straight in June. No make ups allowed, if it's not 30 days straight and not two miles, it's failure.

Get up at 430am on Friday to be at the airport at 530am for a 720am flight to St Louis MO. Arrive in StL at 330pm if no mishaps along the way, like in the DFW airport. Fingers crossed.... Then drive the 35 minutes to my hotel in south St Louis. Check and unpack. Trying not to accumulate 5 room keys in one weekend. I'll get a quick snack and drive to an indoor shooting range not far from there to get some trigger time in. I'll keep going south to the Pear Tree Inn on Drury Lane (sounds like a nursery rhyme in that) for early registration and check in for Saturday's match. After checking in I'll go out to steak dinner with some of my southern IDPA friends. The trip back to the hotel and some dry fire practice and capped off with a long hot shower. Maybe some benadryl to sleep if I'm nervous. Saturday is up at 7am for a light breakfast and drive to the match. The match is from 830am till 6pm. I'm going to be squadded with folks I've only met on the intern...

If you didn't really like the first list, here are some other birthday gift items for you to consider: -A Dremel tool and attachments. $60-$120 -Classic gold rim RayBan aviator sunglasses $160-200 -class from Wheelie University. $500 -movie passes. oh man there is soo much out I want to see. $10-$80 -Titegroup gun powder. 1, 4 or 8 pounds please. $20-$300 -a bigger cameara bag, probably like a backpack style one. $80-$200

In my main shooting sport these are the skill classifications from lowest to highest: Unclassified, Novice, Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert and Master. There is a separate class called Distinguished Master for people who've won the overall at the national championships, but as only like less than a dozen people have that classification, no reason really to include it. I am Expert in three different gun divisions. So when you see me posting about winning, it is as the best expert shooter in whatever gun division I happen to be shooting in. First place expert. You already know I'm semi-pro. Kinda like a good college football player or a minor league baseball player. Just one good year of performances from being a pro in the majors. Or in this case as a Master class shooter with a good level or support for my competition. (I thoroughly appreciate those who help me out currently!! Academi. Automatic Accuracy. The Blue Bullets.) In the way my friends in law school didn't shav...

May 1. If you're a communist or socialist, it's May Day and your out protesting for the workers of the world to unite. If you're at the other end of the spectrum and a full blooded American then you're celebrating the death of Usama bin Laden. Me? Not so much the first, definitely some of the second but mostly the fact that it's Mr Oliver Hammond's 1st birthday today! Rescued him from the shelter as a curious little 6 month old kitten and today he is now an actual cat. Happy Birthday Oliver.

Yep, it's that time of year again. The rowdiest of birthday wish lists for the upcoming day on May 21! Here ya go, a rowdy guide to what sort of gifts I'd dream of seeing to assuage the awfulness of my ever advancing chronological age. -An Atlas belt for shooting. Any color. Probably a small as I'm a 31" waist. Here - THIS Vintage shark book on Ebay I remember from my childhood. -Akrapovic full exhaust system for my motorcycle, 2014 Yamaha FZ-09. HERE. -If I get the exhaust then I need a Dynojet Power Commander as well. Here -A genuine fossil Megadolon shark tooth. From this dude. -A used play style dirt bike, as super D has one and I don't. Super D acutally has more two wheeled things than I do, motor or non motorized..... A used Yamaha TTR 125 LE would be best. (electric start, big wheel, disc brake version preferred) Like THIS one in San Diego CL for $1300. -More sheets and cardboard spacers for my coin collection. -Private Arabic lessons. I...

I have never done heroin, cocaine or lsd. I have never been in a band in front of thousands. I've never "dated" a super model. I can't imagine the type of buzz/high you must get from these sorts of things. I have been in life or death situations. I have sky dived, swam with sharks and stood near a volcano. I've ridden my motorcycle over 160mph. Yeah, you can say I have had my own share of adrenaline, "buzz" or whatever from what I have done in real life. But there is one thing I get a buzz from that can't be replicated from drugs, people, fame or danger and that is getting a new motorcycle. It gives me like 24 hours of hand shaking excitement. So with that now said, check out the latest "high" to make its way into my life.

Three weeks roughly until I can see the new Godzilla movie. Happy birthday to me!!!

Job interview, self help books and well meaning parents have all stressed that you need to have a 5 year plan. Otherwise you are just lost and much less likely to accomplish your goals. Now for some, everyone living in Ocean Beach, goals and plans aren't that big of deal. But I like crossing things off the list, meeting my own personal expectations. With that, here is a roughed out 5 year plan for myself. 2014-continue to teach motorcycle safety class. continue pursuing professional shooting career. 2015-earn my Teaching Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) certificate. learn the arabic alphabet. 2016-move to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Oman or some such place. 2017-continue 2016 plan and include learning of Arabic language. 2018-return to the US and buy a spread near Austin Texas. There you have it, my roughed out 5 year plan.

I am the third grandchild in my mom's side of the family. I have two older female cousins. It was their mom who gave my mom the idea to name me Rowdy. As often happens in families, grandparents have nick names. From either familial, cultural or ethnic sources. Think of all the Nana, Oma, Opa, Granny names you know. Well my two older female cousins took to calling our mom's dad "Pop Pop" as it was an easier to pronounce derivative; Grand Pa turning into Grand Pop turning into Pop Pop. I don't think I knew my Pop Pop's real name until I was like 10 or something. I don't think I've ever heard another grand father called this name, but he took to it and wore it proudly. And all of his eventual 20 some grand kids called him it for his entire life. I think my dad gets called "Poppa" by most of his grand kids. I should ask my mom, she'd know for sure. Either that or "Grandpa B" from some of the older ones. I don't know, hahahah...

So one of my part time jobs right now is teaching the Basic Rider Course so that people can get their motorcycle license in California. The basics of riding skills and safety. So it was unnerving last night to see this dead body under a plastic sheet. LINK TO STORY I've been on a group ride where someone died in an accident. I know multiple people who've been paralyzed from motorcycle crashes. But seeing that dead rider last night and then the S Korean ferry incident in the news; which was made stronger for me since Killer is living in S Korea, made me think about the effects of death and dieing in my life. Which really is sparse, so it I feel kind of nervous. None of my friends or class mates died growing up. In high school two people I know had distant family members die, whom I'd never met, but I went to the funerals out of support. These were the first funerals I'd attended. In college my paternal grandparents died. I didn't see them die, I wasn't in...

This is my cat. He is cute when he's sleeping. Some other times as well.

Ok, I think I have a pretty good idea of where I want this July's jaunt to be conducted. For sure South Korea because I can use Killer as guide, translator and so on. Having him be able to speak and read Korean will be invaluable to experiencing S Korea in a way I wouldn't other wise. See the DMZ, Seoul, the mountains, the southern fishing villages and some islands. Next stop, Taiwan. I've just had a long layover in Taipei as my only previous Taiwan experience. And I'll do anything to avoid mainland China. So a mix of the urban in Taipei and then natural beauty with all the canyons and hikes and such in the rural parts of the island. Finally, Cambodia! I have a neighbor who is ethnic Cambodian and he lives there currently. I just texted him about the possibility of visiting in July. So once again, having a guide and language speaker who lives in country and that I already know and have a friendship with. Phnom Phen, Angkor Wat, killing fields, Pol Pot. Yeah, I t...

And it continues.... Freaking A. I got a ticket for speeding, 66 in a 50 zone. Jeopardizing my job teaching motorcycle safety when it's time to renew my certification. So increase in insurance premium. Paying money for the ticket itself and hopefully traffic school. Then the possibility of losing my job at my renewal. I lost a $50 gun part out in the sticks during a practice session. A mistake by an officiator at my shooting match on Saturday up in LA cost me the win. I lost by 2.71 seconds. The penalty the guy who "won" didn't get, but clearly earned, would have been 3 seconds. More importantly it cost me $100 in sponsor rewards. Needless to say I am not happy. My cat no longer plays fetch with me. He has clearly made it known he wants to live outside during the daytime. So we spend a little less time together playing. Better for him, but a little sad for me. Yep.... Spring Break. Woooo. Hoooo.

So I've been seeing in the news people who've died in an accident being described and an aspiring something or other. Jane Doe was an aspiring marine biologist. John Doe was an aspiring actor. Well if I were to die by accident in the near future I'd like the news to say, "Rowdy B-----, an aspiring astronaut, big game hunter, photographer, Nobel Prize laureate, Olympic silver medalist, Rhode scholar, novelist and professional shooter died today when he choked to death when he aspirated a white cherry Slurpee at an Allied Gardens 7-11." It's silly, almost everyone is aspirational for some great thing. But if you haven't achieved it you shouldn't really be recognized just for your desires. If I die before my parents bury me near my grandparents. Play the Battle Hymn of the Republic at my funeral. And split my $300,000 life insurance policy equally between J, K and M.

Let's see, where did we leave off? Forgetting stuff? Check. Super sick? Check. Bugs in my food? Check. Rained on? Check. And in the past few days I can add missed get togethers with friends. Losing an important gun part. Same said gun having a mechanical failure. And my reloading press is acting up. And I still need to do three oil changes of vehicles. Now I can add getting a ticket for 66 in a 50mph zone. So my third ticket in as many years. Which for most of my adult driving live has been normal, one ticket a year since ever was. But now that I got a job as a contractor for CHP to teach motorcycle riding and safety classes well................ Let's just say that I got my first paycheck in the mail today and probably my last. I was told when I was hired my driving record was at the limit of acceptable. Getting this kind of speeding ticket just in the first month of work is going to result in my getting "let go". Great. Not. What good has happened? Go...

So far my spring break has been all spring broke! Monday-I found a dead hornet in my bottle of root beer at lunch. After they forgot my order, of course, and I had to wait 30 minutes for a tuna sandwich. I didn't notice the hornet till I'd rolled it over my teeth and tongue a few times in curiosity before spitting it out. Then I went to shooting practice and my new 120$ worth of target stands worked worse than my $12 home made ones. And I forgot my chronograph and couldn't get a lot of the data I really wanted to gather. Finally my custom gun, which just had to be sent back for trigger work, stopped working properly again. Tuesday-Rain. Contractor to fix stuff at the house cancelled. No breakfast due to a medical test in the am. Which then took 50% longer than advertised. And they had to poke me three times for the IV. And I had to vomit and nap for hours afterwards due to the side effects of the more than quart of oral contrast I had to drink. I wanted a nice lunch...

Ok, so I've been to some interesting places. Kuwait, Qatar, Israel, Morocco, North Vietnam, Malaysia, Iraq and so on. Each of these places has had some "issues" in the past with war, terrorism or conflict. Well it seems to be forgotten now, but so does San Diego. And thus I have my next photography project! Some of the 9-11 hijackers and plotters lived in San Diego! So I am going to go to where they lived and studied and take pictures then superimpose their faces on top of them. Just the type of thing to get me interested and feeling creative!

Two of the three are some of my favorite existentialist writers. Dostoevsky is a close third. It's been said all problems are ones of time and/or distance. I think this was said before the advent of modern banking or they would have added gold in there as well to complete the triumvirate of components in the problems we all face. My "crisis" this morning is the dreaded to do list, like half a year's worth hanging over my head in a way Damocles would understand. (if you're not getting the references, read more) All of the stuff I feel I need to do: -get a paint and drywall guy to fix three areas in my house damaged by water from the broken water heater. $?? -make an appointment for three different medical procedures. a MRE, colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. $free! -synch my work, shooting, travel and school schedules. i fear i have some mistakes in them.... -get the shutters on the west side of the house painted $500? -hotels, flights, rental cars for all m...

Professional shooter. That's the job I want. In getting closer to that goal, here is a pretty close mock up to the new shirt I have to/get to wear to claim different prizes and such. That whole contingency thing mentioned a few posts back. Oh and my full name is on the back across my shoulders in orange.

I don't fly across country to come home empty handed. North Carolina was 1st place. Massachusetts was last place. This weekend in Arkansas yielded a 2nd place in a tough field. I got a sweet etched glass trophy, nicer even than the one I got at last year's national championships. Which lead to this funny post on fb and me being called "California" and "California Kid" all weekend. Hearing it in their southern accents only made it even funnier. And since I've also been called "Hollywood" due to my constant filming with the gopro, here are some action shots. 'Cause I'm an action man.