It's a family tradition.....

My family has some history of being "sharp". Like members back in the day making money hustling pool and card games. Or just general business acumen for the ones doing more legitimate work.

Being a slave to my genetics, I carry on that tradition on a small scale. Parking pass for vehicles at school, $35. Parking pass for motorcycles, which I do ride to school probably 60% of the time, $17. They look identical and it is easy to transfer from my truck to the motorcycle and back.

I do smile inside each time I park my truck at school and see that pass, making some long dead relative proud.

Knowing my limits

Well I dropped out of Russian this morning. I found my language limit by exceeding it. I can pick up Latin/Romance languages pretty well but the structure of both the Russian classes I've tried to take doesn't lend itself to my learning.

It was pretty humbling to become aware of something I can't do as normally I can eventually be pretty successful at most things I try with effort and intelligence. I know now that Russian is not one of them, at least formally taught.

I'll still continue personal study of it, hopefully getting to tourist level of proficiency. I already speak English and Spanish. I know words and phrases and basics of Japanese and Arabic. I guess if I knew which country I was moving to in 2 years I could focus better as well.....

Anyways, the point of this post was to let you know I did not go to bed happy last night, due to the slap in the face of my intellectual limits.

6 years

6 years of writing in this blog, 2 years before that in another blog. I'm tired of writing.

Sochi Style

In honor of the 2014 terrorist winter olympics I am doing my own rowdy-esque triathlon today.

At 730am I ran a 5k in 27 minutes. So just barely over an 8 minute per mile pace. Not to bad for someone who rarely runs.

At 1100am I went on an hour long motorcycle ride off road down near the border. I got a flat tire, but within 3 miles or so of the truck. Just a small delay and a friend changed my tube for the price of a yummy lunch at TJ's Oyster Bar. Don't go, it's horrible.

Finally, at 630pm I'll be up in Oceanside shooting a pistol event with the focus tonight for me not on winning but on accuracy.

So there you have it, the Sochi triathlon as done by Rowdy.

Riding Rowdy

Prevert, not like that. More like, "it's not an adventure unless something goes wrong," kind of riding rowdy. Lower case r rowdy.

So out and about with Mysterious Eric today, riding on some quasi legal trails near the border and guess who should get a flat tire about 3 miles from the truck?

Yep! Little old me. Mr Laissez Faire, just go with the flow, nothing wrong will ever happen. So what did I do? I rode that motorcycle till I got to the road and waited for Mysterious to come pick me up.

Packing my bags!

Ok, so you know I am outta San Diego every weekend in February. All for different "work" stuff in nuclear medicine, motorcycle rider coach training and shooting.

Well more of my shooting competition plans have been firmed up for spring time now and here is where it stands...

Feb: North Carolina State Champs. Smith and Wesson Indoor Nationals in Massachusetts.

March: Arkansas Mountain Valley IDPA Regional.

April: Arizona State IDPA Champs in Tucson.

May: The Masters in Alabama.

June: Carolina Cup in North Carolina.

July: nothing as I'll be in S Korea for two weeks.

August??

September: National Championships in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Good thing I have a nice suitcase, 'cause I'll be using it. =)

Prophetic

A few times in my life I've had dreams that I'm 100% positive meant something. Terms like prophecy and revelation are pretty powerful, so I hate to use them but this dream felt very similar to what I imagine that type of experience to be.

I had one such dream in college, one after college and one in Iraq. A lifetime of nightmares and three dreams that spurred daytime actions. In two cases immediately.

Without the weird narrative that often is an annoying accompaniment to someone telling you their dream I'll just give you the lessons I feel I was supposed to learn from my dream.

-Things will not always be easy, sunny, organized and nice.
-You need to have the courage to act. Quickly and decisively.
-Bad things still happen to good people.
-The anguish you experience in a bad situation is only made greater by lack of preparation for hard times.

I think that last point is the real take away. Prepare yourself in life for the difficult times. Not for the easy ones. And I mean this in practical terms as well, not in some Nietzschean philosophical way only.

Have a 72 hour kit, Bug-Out-Bag or whatever you want to call it. Be prepared to just grab and go and be self sufficient for 3 days.

Save 10% of your income for the future. Have cash at the ready for immediate emergency use.

Store gallons and gallons of clean, drinkable water.

Understand yourself and the limits you feel comfortable with in ensuring your personal security. Then pursue this level to the maximum.

What person being warned of a danger wouldn't then also warn his neighbors????

My Cell Phone

I've had my current cell phone for almost two years. A miracle length of time for me, as I've only had a cell phone since about 2000, so 13 years and in that time I've had 14 cell phones.

This one has three cracks in the screen from corner to corner and a through and through crack on the back side of the case. And as I'm sure you're asking this out loud right now, no, I never get the insurance. Ever.

But now it's finally time for a new phone. So why blog about it? Well earlier in the week someone said to me, "you know a lot of different kind of people." As I thought about it, they were right. Thinking back on those 14 cell phones let me list the professions/defining characteristic of people who've been in my phone.

-professional motorcycle racer x3
-professional mma fighter
-fighter pilot
-drug dealer
-surgeon
-escort
-astro physicist
-college professor
-seamstress
-go go dancer
-SEAL
-mercenary
-tattoo artist
-gunsmith
-professional musician/singer
-lawyers x3
-computer programer
-heroin addict
-someone known only as "pookie", from Vegas

There you have it, just a sample of the diverseness in types of people I've known through the past years.

Rambling February

OH man! February I am gonna be all over the map doing all sorts of different things!

Feb 7,8,9 I am in Palm Springs, California for some nuclear medicine continuing education so I keep that license.

Feb 14, 15, 16 I am in Boone, North Carolina for a state IDPA championship shooting match.

Feb 19 I might have some photos exhibited as part of Fashion Week San Diego.

Feb 20-23 1 I am in Springfield, Massachusetts for the Smith & Wesson Indoor National Championships for IDPA.

Feb 24-March 2 I am in Camarillo, California for motorcycle safety foundation training for that job.

So in February I gotta be smart for nuc med. I gotta be fast and precise for shooting. I was also told I needed to win by my sponsor. No pressure. And I was asked to submit photographic work for a showing during San Diego Fashion Week. So a little creative pressure as well.

All February I gotta travel all over, performing, thinking, winning. I think I can handle the pressure!!

Not Only Am I President....

I used to be a member too. Of what? The Explorer's Beard Club.

Capturing Light. Like A Boss.

Ok, how about like an assistant manger, who if he just put the time in on weekends could probably get promoted. Ummm, yeah, I'm gonna need you to come in on Saturday Peter. (if you don't know this, we're not friends)

So I guess I should plug my photography blog, Read.Aim.Photo!. If you're interested in seeing more of my creative side and less of my adventure side, please by all means check it out.

Cat Lady-Guy

For Christmas in my stocking Santa gave me a book entitled Guys Can Be Cat Ladys Too or something to that effect. I do gotta say, I love the little guy!

Flash Rowdy

Throwing out an Instagram styled blog post, here are some flashback Friday photos.

Ride in the New Year

Since I didn't stay up till even 11pm on NYE full of liquor and debauchery I got up before 7am, when it was still like 45F outside, to go on a little bike ride. Jumping in the new year!

I hadn't ridden my pedal bike on any sort of fun, free ride type trail in a long time. By the end of the morning I was starting to feel confident again with my jumping.

Ride on, 2014, ride on.

Grades

I got straight A's my last semester. Algebra A. Digital Imaging A.

Starting January 28th is tennis and Russian. Pretty sure I'll get an A in tennis with no more effort than showing up and playing each class. What about swimming you say? After I thought about it I didn't want to swim for 90 minutes at 5pm and then go sit in a Russian class until 10pm. That's a recipe to over eat and fall asleep in class.

Russian is the most important of the classes. I'm happy to add tennis so I'll still be doing something physical. And I'll be able to go and play tennis, then come home and eat and such. Then later I can go back focused and in regular clothes for Russian, ready to pay more attention that I probably would have straight from swimming.