R and R

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 your chosen version a political issue.

I feel this way for everyone, whether we hold the same views or not. Whatever you believe in, go after it whole body and soul. But I think everyone from the individual to society as a whole would be better served if we first made sure we were exercising our responsibilities to these rights, than clamoring about them in general.

The sensations of Summers

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 probably slept in 20 hotels this summer. Muggy, strange food and hotel rooms. Yep, that's summer of 2014. And I like it.

But it is definitely different than what you expect summer to be "sensory" wise when you live in San Diego. I think I've been in the ocean 3 times this year......

Google it!

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 using the proper terms for human anatomy when a kid is growing up. So the euphemism for a penis when we were kids was "popper". Our mom was always telling us, "Stop touching your popper!" You get the drift. So when I searched the term 'resetting popper', you can see why it would cause the smirk on my face. What is it though? A steel target for shooting that falls over and then sets itself back up again automatically with a spring. $130 for the small or $210 for the large which is onsale. I'd take either. Specifically MGM Auto-Popper Standard Shape or US Popper. (cue Beavis laughing)

They are always on my mind....

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.

List it Rowdy!

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.

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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, Colorado, New Mexico
-South Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma
-Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri
-New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut
-North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama

Don't stop!

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 really isn't that important. But to me it is, as I had to work hard to accomplish this goal and to not give up. I started the match poorly and really had to be perfect for the remaining 70% of the match. And I did.

So the good lesson to be learned from what really felt like a huge setback in the match is to buckle down mentally, sharpen up physically and focus on the process of doing the task at hand as well as I could for the remaining time I had. Shake off whatever is making you think you're behind and instead focus on what you're doing now and I know you'll end up better off than you think.

Very first match, August 25, 2012.

The match this weekend in Michigan where I bumped to Master.

Master's Degree

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 divisions after two years of steady shooting in this sport. And I've been ohhhhhhhhh soooooo close to making master three times this year.

Now maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, as I've only been doing this not quite two years from zero experience to where I am today. Maybe it's appropriate that I am not Master in either of the sports yet. But looking at the amount of time, money, training, attention and such that I've put into my shooting I should earn a "Master's Degree" by my birthday in 2015.

If not sooner.