All Things Rowdy

I know it, I preach it to students that if you want to get really good you need to stick with just one gun for a year of competition. My plan, and what I dumped a bunch of money into was to shoot Limited for all of 2018. Shoot major power factor, shoot a single action gun, shoot a high capacity division and make Master in it. Things to be learned from all of those items. But then I shot my Carry Optics gun today for the first time in 9 months and realized how much I enjoy it. So now I'm torn... Which division to put my focus into for 2018.....

I do love a long hot shower..... As I have large tiles in the shower with repetitive patterns in them I now see two things in the shower with me, all the time, in any direction I look. A clown's face and a snake's head wearing a bishop's hat. I guess it's a good thing the inside of my shower isn't patterned to look like clouds in the sky or who knows what I'd see??

I'm totally at peace with buzzing my hair super short, myself. Yep, I do look uglier with my hair all buzzed off. But I like it that way, so the end. I did it the first time on a dare in college when I had typical long 90s grunge hair. It felt very weird. Then I got into jiu jitsu and it made physical sense to have short hair. Then I was super poor and saving $25 a month by cutting my own hair was helpful. Then I moved to Yuma Arizona where it was suppppper hot and it just made me feel cooler temperature wise. So here I am now. No real reason to do it other than it's just how I like it.

When you get malaria it never goes away. You can have bouts of it years and years after first contracting it. The same goes for a disease I suffer from, Newosis. Newosis is a powerful brain and mood disorder where you're frustrated and disconsolate until you've either done or acquired something new in your life. Normally it takes a fairly large dose of new to put it into remission. I'm feeling an onset of it, probably a strong case.

The new Star Wars movie has show times starting at 9am on opening day. Nine in the morning....

Normally when someone wants to tell you about their dreams they start off with, "I had the strangest dream last night." Which has lead me to conclude that pretty much every dream that everyone has is strange. Neurological back wash is how I'd describe them. But last night I had a regular dream. And it was so regular that the two times I awoke during it I made a real effort to go back to sleep and reenter the dream. What was it? I had some sort of entry level job at a natural history museum in a large city. And my dream was just me going to work and interacting with co workers and trying to do well at my job. That was it.

I don't think there is a single, not one, male who couldn't be found guilty of sexual harassment. Every single one of us has said or done something that could have been construed as harassment at one time in our lives.

In my shooting competitions the top skill classification is called "Grand Master" (GM). To achieve this ranking you have to shoot 6 different skill tests with a score within 5% of the very best. In other words you need to be 95th percentile of everyone who is doing it. By the membership numbers that is about 2% of the people who compete. More people have summitted Mt Everest. I usually shoot one or two of these skill tests, called classifiers, per month year round. And to make it a little harder they don't just take your 6 best of all time but only your 6 best of your most recent ones. Looking at my history for example you'll see that I've shot more than one 100% level classifier but they were long enough ago they don't count to my current classification percentage. (I'm paraphrasing this as it's a little more complex that how I describe) I've always had the goal of making GM in the back of my mind. And now I get this tingling feeling I'm i...

I still think I made more working at the hospital than I've paid to one.... No way I've paid more than that out of my own pocket. I'm sure the insurance company feels a little differently though! What a rough business. Beyond that, here is an email for an expensive out of pocket blood test I had with the result of remission to mild. That is good news! I can accept that on a cold Tuesday morning.

"It will all work out", isn't the same thing as "It will be easy."

Henry is a word like yuppie. High earner not rich yet. What most people don't realize is there is a huge difference between being rich and having a high income. Doctors who are doing great make over 500,000 dollars a year. Any decent lawyer makes 200,000 a year. I made over 100,000 a year just as nuclear medicine technologist and as a radiation safety officer. Rock stars, professional athletes and movie stars now we're talking about millions of dollars a year at the top. But every dollar any of those people earn is for something they did. A surgery, a case, a performance. A wage for for a service, even if it is a very high wage. But that doesn't make you rich. You know what rich is? Rich is having something else make money for you. Rich is receiving income unrelated to your physical performance. Rich is capital gains. Rich is commercial or residential rental property income. Rich is having the employees of your chain of restaurants or gas stations making money for you...

When making a purchasing decision economists say we gauge how much money to spend by using two methods of thinking, relative cost and opportunity cost. Researchers say that most of us use relative cost when deciding how much money to spend on an item or service. "Well if we're gonna spend 900 on new dryer why not 1,200 and get the super nice one?" Normally it is comparing one thing to another and convincing yourself that spending more is worth it, relative to the amount you're spending or to an alternative but similar item. Usually you find a way to rationalize an up-sell, either from a salesman or from within yourself. More rarely they say do we gauge things from the idea of an opportunity cost. Relative is a 'this-vs-that' kind of question while opportunity asks you, "what instead of this altogether?" I'm feeling a little melancholy and broke today, which has me thinking opportunity costs of the thing(s) I spend the most money on. What did I...

I'm going to Texas for a week at Thanksgiving. I have family coming for Christmas for a week. And then I want to move out of the state by like May or June. All these things are on the books. On the other hand I feel I need a part time job. What are the chances of getting a part time job that lets me keep my holiday plans and won't look bad when I leave another job after less than a year?????????????

My vision is definitely deteriorating more rapidly than I'd ever imagined. I'm not gonna go blind anytime soon but my loss of visual acuity is severe and hasn't stopped getting worse once it started just 4 years ago. Glasses of course are and have been the answer. That's not what gives me pause though, just the fact my vision hasn't leveled off. Just worse and worse year after year. Reflect on the pause button for a second. Cassettes, cd, dvd, digital they all have a pause button. An indeterminate time of stoppage but that was user controlled and then you jumped right back in where you left off. So to say life is on pause I think would be a misnomer. I don't feel in control of the time frame and I'm not quite sure where in my own personal song I'm going to be jumping back in. Feels more like shuffle instead. Career restart and change is tied to the timing and money of both selling this house and moving to a new place. This is not the time to spend 10...

I seriously wake up each morning wondering if we're at war with North Korea yet. And each morning I'm both surprised and relieved nothing happened in the night to provoke either side.

Arkansas. All of the quartz and none of the gold.

I tried watching some of the 9/11 specials that were on TV in the past few days. I couldn't keep watching them once they got to the actual attacks. All it did was overwhelm me emotionally and made me cry. So I turned them off.

The one night I want to make sure I get a solid 7 hours of sleep and take a Unisom to help me out is the night it totally doesn't happen. Instead I sleep in three sets of 2 hour blocks and the expected diarrhea from the contrast I drank for my CT scan kicks in with a vengeance at 4am. Fun!

some flashback friday pictures for you.

It is going to be hot and humid this week at the local IDPA match. So they waived concealment as a requirement. Essentially no vest is what that means, gun out in the open. I think this is silly. Why? Well it's IDPA, drawing and reloading the gun from concealment is part of the game and an essential part of it. How is that weather dependent? Two. You're already outside in the heat and humidity for the 4 hours or so that the match takes. If it is to hot for a vest it is probably to hot to shoot at all. Finally, the amount of time you wear the vest is minimal. If you only put it on when you shoot that is about 12 minutes of time during the match. Yep, 12 minutes out of that 4 hours you're already there in the sun, feeling the humidity you'd be wearing a cotton vest. Just another example of how things are changed to make stuff simpler and easier for no logical reason. "It's really hot out!" Harden the freak up.

With all the race/history/statue stuff going on maybe the South will realize they lost that war and start acting like it.

I didn't give myself the chance to be a good or bad parent. I was just an absent one. Which was probably worse. And nothing I do now can make up for then.

So if I did get out of shooting their would be no reason to keep probably 1/3 of the stuff I have in the safe. I'll brain storm through this and see what would possibly stay or go should I take a big step away. Shotguns: Mossburg semi auto. A tactical shotgun. CZ over and under hunting/skeet gun. Hmm, I'm probably more likely to go hunting that get in a gun fight with a shot gun. 'Burg would go. Rifles: AR-10 AR-15 in 5.56 AR-15 in 9mm AR-15 in .22lr I'd keep the 5.56 gun and the .22lr. I'd probably add a 5.56 bolt gun. So sell .308 and 9mm ones. Pistols: Shield P10C MkIII 22/45 Model 64 in .38spc Glock 34 complete Shadow upper and RMR optic SP01 Shadow Accu Shadow Tac Sport in .40sw STI 1911 Shadow 2. Wow. Kinda scary when you type it all out. hahahaha. Turn the Shield into a Glock 43 for my ccw gun. Keep the P10C as my nightstand, winter carry, CCP gun. Keep CO uppper. Keep 1911. Keep Accu Shadow. Sell 22, sell revolver, sell G34, st...

Not as sure anymore what sort of positive return I'm getting in my life devoting soo much of it to shooting competitions. This would all be so much easier if I was able to keep a decent job. I haven't worked a regular, full time job at one place for more than a year since 2004. Let that sink in, for 13 years I've only had part time jobs, most of them not in my degree field, and with over year long gaps of unemployment. Now that I'm trying to be a productive member of the work world I'm seemingly locked out. Specialized degree. Don't work in my field any more. Expired professional license. No previous work experience beyond j-o-b level stuff, nothing career level.

The scene, I'm sitting in a gas station parking lot facing out of the car's open door. I'm clipping my fingernails, the clippings falling to the ground. Passerby: You could do that over the garbage can. (sternly) Me: This is Kansas, right? Passerby: Yes. Me: (Just stares)

I wonder how much it is hurting my job search to have "Firearms Instructor" on my resume when looking at regular life type jobs....

After vacation and observing some things around me I think I've identified some pretty clear strata of what rich really is ranked by according to what you purchase. So from least rich to most rich, according to Rowdy, here are the levels. -You eat more restaurant food than food prepared at home. -You have a house cleaner or gardener, or both, on a regular basis. -You have more vehicles than drivers in your home. -You've owned an exotic car. Not just the base model in a premium brand line. -You fly first class. -You have a second home for vacation purposes only. -You have an airplane or helicopter. Maybe a "share" in a private jet. -You have a yacht. What prompted this was seeing some amazing yachts around the Greek coast. If you have a yacht you probably have all the things in the list below it, but I doubt very many people skip the intermediate step and just go ahead to yacht.

All apologies to Run DMC for paraphrasing their lyric but you get the idea. The top skill classification in USPSA is Grand Master (GM). To reach it you have to have shot 6 standardized shooting tests, what we call classifiers, within a 5% value of the very best shooters in the USA. Your six classifier scores have to average above the 95th percentile. Needless to say only about 1% of the people who compete ever reach this goal. I'm currently around 90% and have been as high as 93%. For me to reach GM this year I need to shoot 3 classifiers at 95% or better. These classifiers are most often included in local matches as they are smaller and easier to set up than other courses of fire. And normally everyone is trying to shoot them well to advance their classification. Because of my major match travel schedule it looks like I'll only be shooting 4 of these classifiers the remainder of the year. I've got just 4 chances then if I want to make it happen this year...............

When we were kids our dad would get soo pissed at us if we broke a sprinkler head with the lawn mower. That'd make me mad today as well. But......... When we were kids we had to rake up every last leaf. Eh, now I just wait till they're thick and then drive over 'em with the riding lawn mower. Good enough for me. When we were kids dad would get mad if we shot the fence with bb or pellet guns. He'd be mad if we threw knives or throwing stars into the fence. Now? I still do that stuff and don't bat an eye lash. Just don't split it wide open and I'll survive. When we were kids we had to either rake the grass clippings up or use the bag attachment and dump it out all the time. My house I just consider the grass clippings more like yard decoration than nuisance.

So went to the dentist today to check out my broken crown prior to going to Greece for two weeks. Good and bad news. First the bad news. I have at least two cavities, both on either side of the tooth with the crown. And they are not tiny either. And my teeth have shifted considerably from when they were straight with invisalign. I kinda feel like I wasted two years and three thousand dollars. Now the good news. I have a dentist here. I only broke of a large portion of the porcelain crown, the metal structure underneath is intact. So I can go to Greece with my "broken" crown on and just keep gluing it back on as needed. When I return it will be temp crown, new crown and getting fillings filled. I hate my teeth and my mouth.

4th of July, 2007. The day I got home to San Diego from Iraq. I slept. I shaved my beard off. I drove a regular car in traffic with real traffic rules. I hiked to the top of Cowles Mnt. I was startled by fireworks noises for a while. I had amoebic dysentery and a week later would be hospitalized with a fever of unknown origin. But I was home. In a free country, fresh from a war. I loved 4th of July before, it's in my top three holidays. (Thanksgiving is #1, then my birthday and then Independence Day!)But now I feel it and love it even more. I've seen the ups and downs of the US, its people and its perception around the world. I'll be eternally thankful for the sacrifices and strength to follow their convictions of those Revolutionaries. Pic, me July 4th, within hours of arriving home.

where I considered quitting shooting and taking up tennis. It is soo hard and sooo frustrating to get perfect technique for some things and then be able to do them perfectly, at full speed. It's both maddening and disheartening. I've been googling country and racquet club memberships for the past hour.

Beards. You know who has them? 1. Terrorists. Whether they are Chechens, ISIS, followers of Che, ultra right wing Jewish settlers, the Uni Bomber, Black Panthers, Hamas and so on. People who instill terror in other people for a political motive. That's who has beards. 2. Lazy people. They have a beard simply because it is easier than shaving. These people also never make their bed or wash their truck. 3. People without access to hot water, razors, soap and a mirror. People who've been kidnapped for a long time, certain other prisoners, people with jobs in remote places for extended time periods. Basically forced upon them by hardship and circumstance. 4. Closely related to some of the other categories, but religious figures or even religious nut jobs, depending upon your adherence to their teachings. Pick your historical, mythological or other poisoned stereotype and put it here. 5. The cruelest and in my observation most prominent, the compensatory beard. A beard is a...

So I do some private firearms teaching, via word of mouth. I have a competitive rate at $25 per hour, per person. So I teach a lot of 1's and 2's. Which is fine by me as I like giving individual attention rather than running a line of shooters. I spent the morning today teaching a doctor mostly how to change his grip and better determine where his focal plane should be during various actions. A good morning as he adapted to the changes and there was visible results on the target in a positive direction. Success! With that bit of cash from spending a morning teaching I was then able to buy today: -2 mag pouches for IDPA for my 1911 $30 -Kershaw pocket knife $40 -3 shot package of B-12 injections $50 All little things I wanted to do for a while but was able to do without showing any $120 effect on the bank account. And that makes me smile as well.

Looking at the next long term move, at least in the discussion phase these are the towns that get brought up and why or why not they'd be acceptable. The basic requirements are that 1. It be a larger town for that particular state. 2. It have an international airport in less than an hours drive. 3. It have all the religious buildings less than an hours drive. 4. The presence of family within a two hours drive. 5. Acceptable venues for food, entertainment, outdoors, shopping and hobbies. 6. Consideration given to the natural and cultural environment of the greater area. 7. Presence of universities and higher education. So in no particular order: A. Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin area. Not on the list but definite plus of the area are the housing prices and taxes. It would also be easy to reconnect with San Diego friends. One of the things missing is proximity to family by car, though the airport and number of flights from that location could help offset that. B. Austin, Georg...

I had a good Father's day but I think it was also another sign I'm getting old. Super D gave me a gift early. I didn't receive a card from anyone. Only J texted me, no calls or any contact from M or K. I chit chatted with my dad for a bit on the phone. I had a simple dinner that I wanted. No formalities, no extra communication, no special lovin'. Just simple, brief acknowledgement. I think the fact none of that bothered me in the moment is a sign of getting older. Accepting things more quickly and easily comes more readily as one matures I guess. I now have a sweet Yeti cooler for matches and stuff now. So Happy Father's Day!

Something has clicked in my shooting and shooting of matches. Reviewing my "big" match performance from the recent two months shows a nice trend: Arkansas State IDPA: SSP Division Champion Mississippi State L10/PCC/CO Championship: 2nd place overall L10 Double Tap Championship: 9th place overall Production Arkansas Section Championship: 5th place overall Production, high state resident I have the Mississippi State Production Championship this coming weekend and then 6 weeks off. I'm feeling no pressure going into this next match. For good or bad. But I've never had a string of this many good finishes in a row before, ever, at any skill level. Time to keep pushing!

So three weeks ago or whenever it was I went to the ER in Mississippi for upper intestinal bleeding. It was from my small intestine so I ended up pooping out all that blood. And lots and lots of it. Well that has a very specific smell. And I know it well because in my old nuclear medicine job we used to scan people with gi bleeds all the time. Well ever since having to experience my very own gi bleed, every time I pass gas or poop I smell that gi bleed smell. Even though my poop may be "normal", I smell that smell. And it is disgusting.

So I came in 9th place at the match I wrote about a few posts back. A good showing and accomplished what I wanted. The "I guess" title comes from a thought I had this morning. Which was "I guess I should be happy that without having a real job I am still up and showered and ready for my day at 7am." It's as if I'm basically retired but am still physically capable. Well as much as any Chrons person can be expected. I;m really excited for vacation next month. I want to have some good quality time away. A re-connection to fun.

I'm getting really tired of sleeping from 930pm until 1230am and then waking up and having my body think that's enough and just fine. I'm also getting really tired of not being able to sleep unless it is perfectly quiet, completely dark and just the right temperature. This is causing to me to fall into a cycle of using over the counter medicine to sleep at night to try and get 6 hours of continuous sleep or long periods of wakefulness in the middle of the night where I am unhappy, uncomfortable and unsatisfied. I do a good job of getting exercise. I don't drink alcohol. I have low stress in life. I try to avoid drinking anything with caffeine after around 4pm in the day. I do my best to go to sleep and get up on a regular schedule. I rarely nap. So I'm doing a great majority of the behaviors one should do for good sleep. The only one I don't really follow is less screen time within an hour of bed. I normally cut off my electronics usage about 15 minutes be...

So tomorrow is a very big day for me in my shooting career. It is the first time I'm in a super squad of people shooting the same division as myself. So I'm with my division's heavyweights for the very first time. Two, this is the first match where I'm also shooting against big name people in my classification. For you who don't know, division is related to what gun you shoot. Classification is how good you are. So I'm in a Production gun division and of the skill classifications from highest to lowest there are Grandmaster (G) then Master (M) which I am, then A, B, C, and D. In Production Master at this match there are 4 big name people in my sport. This is my very first match ever where I get to have the chance for direct competition with them outside of a National Championship. (Where I historically under perform) Tomorrow is the day to show I can shoot with and beat the best. This is a real chance to shine, to make or break my reputation as someone goo...

Things I won't miss for even half a second when I get to leave Arkansas 1. high humidity 2. the bajillion bugs 3. the prevalence of fried everything and dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables 4. rural poverty on a large scale 5. inordinate pride in where one was born, race or things southern 6. a state capital without an international airport Things I will possibly miss 1. cheap gasoline 2. a pleasurable experience at the dmv 3. general friendliness to strangers/ the sir and mam effect 4. the house I live in 5. simple, normal gun laws 6. beautiful sky scenes of clouds and color

As I look around the house there are some things that'd be nice if I did them but they seem just overwhelming when thought of as a group to do.... And a lot of it is Home Depot related... 1. Install a cat door in the garage. $150 (4 hours) 2. Install gate door squaring kit on three fence gates. $110 (6 hours) 3. Apply weed-n-feed treatment to yard. Apply fire ant treatment to yard. $50 (1.5 hours) 4. Apply layer of mulch to beds and garden. $300 (8 hours) 5. Build planter boxes for garden. $200 (6 hours) 6. Buy new car. (4 hours) And then of course all the regular crap I do during the day for fitness and shooting practice. And mow the yard and do dishes and stuff. I basically have a week's worth of all day style projects to do. Maybe I can get Super D to help me, that'd motivate me more to try and plan all this stuff out. Or at least buy the materials and have them on hand. Sigh.

I was trying to think of how many languages I know even just a single word in while I was bored driving from Atlanta to Little Rock today. Here is what I could come up with: American English British English Spanish Arabic French German Russian Italian Norwegian Swedish Latin Hebrew Brazilian Portuguese Vietnamese Japanese Korean Mandarin Yep, 17 languages in which I know at least one word.

I have a lot of road trips for matches now through Sept where I'll have to start flying again for the USPSA Nationals then in Utah. The beginning of the year I had to fly to like 4 matches. Flying is almost always about $450 a ticket, $250 for a rental car, $300 for a hotel. So right away just the three basics of it are a thousand dollars. But now that I have a big string of ones I drive to I have to run the numbers again and see if it's cheaper. So I still have the $300 for the hotel. Unless it's close enough I can cut a day off but that only happens about 1/3 the time. So I'll leave it as a value. Zero for rental car. So that leaves gasoline as the equivalent to the plane ticket. Say I have to drive 400 miles to a match one way, at 18 miles per gallon that I get in my truck that is 22.2 gallons of gas at $2.25 a gallon for a total of $50 each way or $100 total. Fly to major, $1,000 at least. Drive to major, $400 at least. That's a big difference! As I think ...

When I left San Diego for Arkansas I had a list of things I thought I probably wouldn't enjoy about Arkansas. Well something that wasn't on that list at all is definitely number one. And it is BUGS! For the past year I have had some sort of constant bug bite or 40 before I learned what chiggers are... Seriously, it may be where I live in the state or the pass times I'm involved in but the number of freaking bugs and how much they bite me is what I hate the absolute most about Arkansas.

I just saw what looked like a husky mixed with a chihuahua. Freakishly wrong.

Video showing just part of a match, from the point of view people have when they watch.

Not too far from Hemmingway's ocean side house lies the famous club El Floridita. Tennessee Williams was a very frequent visitor. Memories  of 50's Cuba were suppressed after the revolution. So it's only with a little digging do I find some of the interesting history behind what I  saw just in a day trip to Havana.

Short video showing initial land fall over Cuba, and leaving the airport headed to the touristy part of Havana.

Remember how I paid $50 for a bow tie? A trip to the fabric store and $8 later I have all the material amd interfacing for 5, yes 5, bow ties. Check out my new spring line!

Yep drove this car down to zero bars of gas. I had 0.30 of a gallon in it when I filled it up. To the very edge my friends....

Never a good injury two weeks before a National match....

0700 eat breakfast 0730 do laundry 0800 answer emails and browse forums and such 0830 exercise 0900 shower and dress 0930 Kroger for Humira refill and food. Toys R Us for SS present. Cycle Gear for part. Gas fill up. Oil change. 1130 Home for lunch 1200 dry fire 1230 pack up truck and head to range 1430 head home from range, clean up 1500 rest. review practice. work on Tactical Journal article 1600 head to airport to pick up Gordo and SS

Continuous Quality Improvement. What are you doing, all the time, to get better? In the realm of my shooting world this is what I did to get better today. -Tore my D1050 totally down, cleaned it and installed new parts. Adjusted it for the bullet I like and will be using all year. -Did physical exercises for strength and some stretching. -Dry fired for one hour at a good pace working on skills I on which I need improvement. -Developed a load for the bullet from my notebook and set it aside for accuracy and chronograph testing. The weather also looks like it is getting a small break, so I'll probably go to the range soon as well. USPSA Optics National Championships in a few weeks.

So I've been in Florida the most of the past 5 days, with a one day detour to Cuba. I went to Florida to shoot their state IDPA match with a friend from CA. I've only been to Florida for tourism once before, Universal Studios for two days. Being there a few extra days this time was nice and I thought of going to the Everglades and see alligators and other wildlife. Or go to the Keys and just see that area. Maybe even do a half day of catch and release shark fishing. What ended up happening was some going out to eat, the match for 3 days, going to the movies, going to the Keys for an afternoon and a whole day in Cuba. There seems to be a lot of worry and misinformation about going to Cuba as an American in 2017; so let me share my experience and research with you. -Flights are out of Miami or Fr Lauderdale. You can go on Delta, Jet Blue, American Airlines or regional Latin American based carriers. Flights are cheap, anywhere from $115 to $200 at the most. The flight isn...

Squad from this weekend's match in Florida. Signed my first autograph this match. I wasn't even close to winning, making 8 mistakes. Observe, analyze and reinforce before USPSA Optics national championship in two weeks.

Having a drink on the streets of Habana/Havana Cuba. My E Hemingway quest is almost complete.

I went to Cuba Thursday during a lull in my Florida trip with DO. It was easy and I was never hassled. Please go and do it as well before the first McDonald's or Hilton shows up.

Another article published!

Dr visit went well. Pharmacy called and has an armful of drugs for me. And by this time next week I'll know if I have Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. And when I got home and had two huge breakfast burritos at 10am well I'm kinda beyond caring what I'll have for lunch. But I do care about going to get some live fire practice in on a few skills before leaving Wednesday for Florida State IDPA championships and Cuba.

Off to the Dr due to bug bites. Yeah.

If you have bug bite itchy skin I TOTALLY recommend taking a warm bath, soaking in it with coconut oil and baking soda. You will have calmer skin and be itch free for 12 hours. Trust me, I live in bug kingdom and get bit all the time.

I moved to Arkansas the first week of April. So I'm very near to having been here 11 months. I think I can do an initial review now of some things without having to wait a year exactly. -I haven't made any friends here in the way I'm used to. No one to train with. No one to ride motorcycles with. Nunca. I'm pretty isolated here, physically and emotionally. -All of the promised sponsorship things have failed to appear. No training sessions, no travel, no match stuff, no regular job. Pretty much left to my own except by my holster guy. Who is awesome. But the things I wanted, the intangibles to make my shooting better and raise my professional profile weren't delivered. What I have gained is membership at a place I can practice in a way I never could in CA. I'm not panicking, but I am disappointed about this. -Bugs here are crazy. Not even in SE Asia or the Middle East have I been attacked by bugs like this. Bugs are the real rulers of AR. -Mexican food as...

Arkansas has a park where you can dig for diamonds! Couple people a week find one so it's worth the shot every once in awhile.

I like problem solving. I just have to remind myself which problems require a slow approach and which are worthy of focus and rapidity. Getting my AR10 to shoot good groups has been a problem. Just because I am aware of it though doesn't mean I should move it to the top of the list.

I wish I had a reason to dress nice as everything in Banana Republic looks awesome to me right now. Secondly I bought another, my second, bow tie today. I had no idea they were $50 and there were so many patterns!!!

My service as a Cub Scout den leader is challenging for sure but those moments are all outweighed by the fun ones.

So I handle guns on a daily basis, either for work or sport or personal reasons. I have a CHL/CCW and carry a pistol about half the time I go out in public. I've never had to pull my pistol out or even feel assured it was there the entire time I've been in Arkansas. But man if I sure don't see a shooting, robbery or murder every dang day when I check the news for the state. Crazy, I don't understand it. And I hope to not be a part of it. But I don't drink or do drugs. I am not out after 11pm. I don't live in an area with a lot of people or with a low socio-economic level. So pretty much the gas station or the atm are about the only places I need to worry.... Still, just always is surprising to me to read the news here and see the level of this kind of crime....

The sound of rain makes it very hard for me to sleep.

Check out my tv show, The Right Stuff, Saturdays on The Blaze network.

Looking at one of my Cubs shooting a Nerf gun with an eye patch all I see is Snake Pliskin from Escape from New York.

Wow, i just watched 16 Candles some thirty years after I first watched it. I understand so much more now about the mid 80s!

Well I made A class in Limited division this week, so that's good. And off shooting the classifiers, not just 'cause I'm M in Production. I had a couple in the 80s and a couple in the 60's. Gotta get more in the 80s!

That's really the biggest question in life right now. Well at least after how much will be owed in taxes this year. That's immediate question number one. Looming larger though, is where to move next? Arkansas is OK and all, but about one year in I can tell it's not the place to be forever. Or even 5 years. Probably 3 on the outside. In my scheming world it would go something like the following. Part of this I guess is with the caveat that I don't succeed at my goal of turning shooting into some sort of real paying gig. Or at least more paying for itself and I make money off it in a secondary way. Should that really happen then I don't know what to think or where to move........ Somewhere in Texas? Putting that aside in my mind it goes something like this: Jan-Jun 2016. Live in Little Rock and do as planned. Jul-Dec 2016. Live in Little Rock and do as planned. Do more research on prospective US cities and areas for future move. Jan-Jun 2017. Live in Little ...

Ticket for Cuba is purchased. It's a done deal!

My dad tried to teach me that love was putting someone's needs before your own. That action, even more than the idea, is what love is in the long term. Emotional love versus physical love. I can dig that. Want to show love? Then put the other person first by what you do and say. Then a college girl friend had me read the 5 love languages book to gain some self awareness. (lots of girls in this time frame tried to get me to do a bunch of self improvement stuff.......... humph! where are they now?) Over time my idea on this has changed that I'm now pretty sure my love language is quality time. So for me, I don't need to feel like you've put me first. But I do need to feel like you want to spend time with me. Doing stuff. Happy Valentines Day! Reflect on all the different types of love in one's life and think about what you can do to share, grow or improve it. Love for yourself, a family member, God, country, fellow man, your enemy or the person you want to be wit...

Got to go to the cutest little girl's first birthday party this past weekend. I love this little nipper soo much!

How can something from ten years ago still feel sooo fresh?

I have quite a bit of logistics to deal with in the next few months. Well actually most of this year! But in the closer future it goes something like this: today:fly to slc,arrive midnight, get rental car, spend night at parents feb 10: go to family, get hotel, misc feb 11-2: family feb 13: return lr feb 14: pick up mysterious at lr airport 5pm feb 18: return mysterious to lr airport 10am march 1: fly to miami. get car, drive to homestead march 2:fly cuba and back same day march 3-4:shoot fl state idpa match march 5: return lr march 8: jojo simon arrive lr airport 5pm march 14: return jojo and simon to lr airport noon march 23: fly to orlando, get car, drive to lakeland march 25-26:shoot optics nationals march 27: return to lr march 28: fly to las vegas, get car, drive to st george march 29-30: shoot Area 1 match march 31: drive back las vegas, fly to lr April, May and June look similar with two to three major matches I have to fly to in each and family travel mix...

So I watched the pre release version of the first episode of the TV show I'm on today. Funnily, I do not look 10 pounds heavier like I'd always heard. It's weird seeing myself on tv, that's for sure!

Everything, let me repeat everything, you do on the internet for free you are paying for it with your personal data and loss of your privacy.

There's a pretty elite basketball league in s central LA, the Drew League. While I'm not really into basketball their slogan is awesome. No excuses, just produce. No excuses, just produce.

I remember hearing a comedian doing a routine where the set up before the punchline was "Never trust a.....". This week the joke of "Never trust a fart when you have the flue", has been played on me ffaaarrrrrrr to many times. It's not funny any more.

I noticed a dead owl by the side of the road in my neighborhood and thought I'd like to preserve its skull. So I took its head and brought it to the house and thought about different ways to do it. Well I started on it today and had to stop, it was just too disgusting of a smell and process. Maybe if I'd started the moment after it was killed but weeks later was far tooooooo late. Gross-a-most! An hour later and I can still smell that yucky smell. Barf.

Employee A to Manager: There's a dog on the dining patio. I think it belongs to a homeless guy. Manager: OK. Employee B to Manager: There's a homeless guy in the bathroom. He's been in there a while I think. Employee A: I don't think it's right to have a dog on the dining patio unattended. Manager to Emp B: Go to the bathroom, get the homeless guy out bring him up here. (the front counter) Emp B goes to bathroom and brings Homeless Man to front counter. Manager to Homeless Man: Hey, what can I buy you for lunch? A chicken sandwich, fries and a Dr Pepper? What will your dog eat? Homeless Mans reply is to quiet for me to hear. The manager gets him lunch, he was treated with respect, they even looked after his dog. Everyone was nice and respectful. It really touched me as an example of Christ-like service.

There are soooo many travel things I need to book and confirm this month. I feel they're getting away from me and I'm going to have made a terrible mistake in oversight. -rental car and hotel for utah for this weekend -flight, hotel, car, cuba flight for Miami first weekend in march -flight, hotel, car for central Florida third week in march -flight, hotel, car for Utah last week of march of Area 1

In the 1970's I had swine flu at the end of that pandemic. I remember being very very sick. During the early 80's I remember the Alar apple scare, the killer gas radon in your basement and the Tylenol poisoning deaths. Heck, in middle school I bit into a Twix candybar and there was a paperclip inside it. Laying perfectly flat between the cookie and the caramel where some factory worker had laid it in jest while bored at work. So I was sick once in a flu pandemic and got to experience some early food tampering. Strange yes, but what's that got to do with today? I don't know. I just know I have a horrible sinus cold/infection and I'm totally laid up, unable or unwilling to do many of the things I wanted to do today. And probably tomorrow. It's going to be slowwwwwwww going this week.

I've broke 5 tools today at a cost of $40 to unsuccessfully remove and replace a $3 part on my $1,800 reloading press. And I feel like I'm getting a cold.

I spend a fair bit of time on different forums related to competition and shooting. Some questions can only be answered by someone with more or different experience than yourself. But honestly, I'd say 60% of the questions asked could be answered by just reading the rule books. So read the rule book.

For most of my online shopping life, it's been delayed shipping that's caused me more irritation than anything. Evidently this is not going to change.

Did every store I visited today just want at bold $65 dollars from me today? All but Dollar General! Petsmart, yep. Dillards nope but only because they didn't have what I wanted. Target, yep. Toys-rus, nope my desired not in stock there either. Kroger of course they did. Haircut was only $5, so that felt like a bargain! Which a $5 haircut you don't have to apologize for most definitely is! I didn't get the face sunscreen/moisturizer I wanted at Dillards so I bought something else at Kroger. I didn't get the primer tubes I wanted at Bass Pro because they didn't have any so I also put back $75 in impulse stuff I'd picked up while looking. Basically I spent 4 hours driving around doing errands and such to spend $200 today. OK, I did get a free sandwich at ChikfilA and it was great! And most of a free dinner at Outback tonight, thanks to a sponsor's gift of a gift card!

Like the famous line goes, "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" Well, I probably am at only 5' 7". But for a Star Wars themed Cub Scout thing we're having I am dressing up in another person's stormtrooper costume. They're my height, which is nice. Sadly they are twice my weight. So not only am I too short to be a stromtrooper evidently I am too thin as well. And of course I'll post some pictures for you!

Thank you to my sponsors and family.

Sixty eight dollars to replace every spring in my 1050. If you think about how much I reload per year, that's not too bad of a deal.

If I were to have a magic wish that would change one thing about Arkansas I would eliminate all bug the bite people. I'm really tired of always having some sort of bite from a creepy crawly.

02:54 and I'm awakened by the cooling fan for the dvr box and my tummy rumbling from a fairly large dinner of Mexican food for Taco, or in my case Tamale, Tuesday. I wish I wasn't such a sensitive sleeper. It has to be completely dark and completely silent and still for me to sleep solidly.

I've never been super awesome at wheelies on a motorcycle. And now at my age the idea of throwing myself on the ground for fun is less and less appealing. I mean, I'll take it as a matter of course in doing something and it happens, but not going in knowing it will. So instead I will be perfecting my bicycle wheelies instead. As I kid I could ride a wheelie around the block on my bicycle. Today I'm lucky if it's a few bike lengths..... Should be a fun diversion while it's kinda chilly outside and I'm inbetween training evolutions during the day. -I do have pictures of me doing wheelies on a motorcycle and a pedal bike, just on my phone, not on my computer where I published this from.

Fitness isn't really essential for my sport. Like bowling I guess, hahaha. But fitness never hurts and makes the rest of life more fun. And I think push bikes, to use the UK term, are fun. And if you're a new reader I was a bike mechanic for years as a part time job before college and later during a transition. It's 68f during January, the sun is out and I have access to a bike. The fun makes itself!

Ahhhh, a picture of the time I climbed Mt Whitney; the tallest mountain in the 48 states. What a grueling day it was for most of us in our party. A rowdy epic for sure.

Since I've killed all my social media stuff I'm still in the habit of being on the computer or my phone for like 4 hours out of the day but with much different things during that time. Eventually I'd like that time to be cut in half but until I make that happen here is how I currently kill my time while on my phone or online -Wordfued game on my phone. I have like 6-8 games going all the time. I'm pretty good, if you want to play me it is "rowdstar" when you want to add me. -Golf solitaire on my phone. Thanks mom. -Duolingo on my phone. Absolutely the best language learning app out there!! I'm doing Spanish and Norwegian. -Blogger app on my phone so I can more easily do this while out and about and at the spur of the moment. -Shooting and competition forums. Mostly lurking on all but Enos, where I post fairly regularly. Rarely on my phone for this. -Movie preview, trailer and spoiler sites. -Genealogy work. -Motorcycle news, racing reports ...

The first, I made a conscious decision without being under any duress or influence of narcotics (which I don't use anyways but it makes it funnier) that my lunch today will be an apple and salad. Oh and mineral water. That judder you just felt? It's ok, the world is turning again. Secondly, I received an email this morning asking where to mail my plaque from the Florida State USPSA Championships a few weeks ago. Evidently my 3rd place overall division finish/first A class was awarded something. I'm still very unhappy with third, but this is a pleasant surprise. That will make going to the mail box in a few days worth the walk.