working title

The ocean, 10 minutes from my house.
and just 40 minutes the other direction, snow. All in SD county, all within a hour's drive.
Only took a few regular sledding runs before I decided to do this.
Time for some action!
James May is Cpt Slow on TopGear. Well for the web series Off Camber, I am Cpt Snow.
Yes, objectively and subjectively it was FREEZING this morning!
HA! I beat the sunrise to Sunrise Highway. (I woke up at 440am)
pictures first, narrative later.

photo grenade

"if you're gonna do something stupid, do it how rowdy would", a true quote from one of the dads in my neighborhood. i have an army of child minions i am training to be fun machines. this one is learning the unicycle!
peeps! but plush, stuffed animal style peeps. guess what i'll be mailing to my nieces and nephews of the appropriate age?
yep, it was cold enough in san diego i had to break out my manly, warm, fuzzy socks.
ever done it in a tent? me neither. but i am going camping this weekend. mud caves, anza borrego.
bed time distractions!
yes my truck is 4 wheel drive. and yes i drive it off road. often. tomorrow i am leaving the house at 5am to go up to the snow in the laguna mountains to catch the sunrise. and sled.

plus a bonus video claymore!
this is a trail i've ridden a bunch. and even on the same bike, but not nearly as good as these kids do!

ODI Trek Satellite Team on pinkbike.com

?

How is it that there is no culturally correct means in place to dispose of religious material in a country we've been in for over a decade? This is beyond stupid and I cringe every time I hear the phrase "hearts and minds" when used in context with Afghanistan.

Having been in Operation Iraqi Freedom myself and watched the Army at work, this kind of lapse is just beyond belief. It is criminal. This really sums up to me how what we are doing there is not worth another bit of American 'blood and treasure'.

How is it that the Chinese claim Mr Lin for themselves? He is American. And if you want to be nit-picky I'd say he was Taiwanese, not Chinese. Ask anyone, and I've been to Taiwan myself, there is a huge difference. Over which battles have been fought to recognize the distinction.

Why is that homes, streets and nearly all infrastructure in San Diego are not built to handle even 1/4" of rain? Short sighted, lowest bid, "it'll never happen to me" kind of thinking.

Why can't I sleep through the night?

When will the "Walking Dead" story line more closely match the graphic novels? I mean, I do like how they are developing the characters now and am not one of the people who thinks the show would be better with just the addition of more walkers. But the pacing does need to move forward a bit faster. Bonus info: I dislike Lori, Carl, Dale and all the 'soft' people. I'm strongly in the Shane camp.

What kind of motorcycle should I get for my birthday? One that is fun and useful for the 'hear and now', or one that will be more useful for when I might possibly be commuting on it to school in the greater LA area? For some reason I'm not sure if one bike can be both...

Photo RPG

Super amazing self portrait! Of course I was stopped, I'd never use my phone while actually riding a motorcycle. Oh wait, I was on a scooter so I could do whatever I wanted. Yo quero motocyclo! (I know that's not right, it's humor)
Happy Birthday little buddy! Enjoy your new toys!


The fabulous world of Russian crime novels I sadly have missed my whole life.
I love the shower!
This is what it costs to fill up my Taco. Gas will be $9 a gallon in Norway this summer, so guess I shouldn't complain.
And this is why you rarely see a skinny nurse at your doctor's office. These were just 2/3 the snacks available to me at this office when working this week.

Reinvention Redux --OR-- Rowdy Remixed

Back in 2009 I applied for Physician Assistant school up at the University of Utah for the 2010 school year. I was interviewed and wait-listed. So I made it to the list of 50 people out of 900. Just didn't make it to the final 40....

We all know what happened to me in 2010 and 2011. In other words I would of had to drop out. And that would have been worse than not making it at all...

Now that I am 68 days out of the hospital I've already been scheming and plotting how to get back to PA school. And this time maximize my chances of getting in!

And the plan goes like this, shadow a PA I know for some more hours. Get my reference letters from two PA's and one MD, different than my references last time when it was 2 doctors and one NP. Then in the summer take microbiology at whatever school I can most easily get scheduled into and a GRE prep class to ace the exam.

Finally in fall if I have to take organic chem or biochemistry and Maybe just one semester of A&P (anatomy and physiology). Just to prove I still know my stuff and am ready for graduate level work.

This all means I would apply in fall of this year for admission in August of next year. And as there is no PA program in San Diego county I am gonna have to live away from home for two years. So I'm limiting myself to the western US. Actually I made an excell spread sheet that ranks all 22 PA school in the western states to my differing criteria.

I can rank schools based on 1.distance (closer is better) 2.if the GRE is required or not (no is better) 3.how many classes if any I'd need to take to meet entrance requirements (none or the less the better).

Without giving too much away a rough list of possible schools, in no particular order, is this:

University of Washington, MedEx Seattle Washington
University of Southern California, Keck Los Angeles (Alhambra)
Loma Linda duh, Loma Linda California
Red Rocks CC, Denver Colorado
Stanford School of Med, Palo Alto California
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
San Joaquin Valley College, Visalia California
University of Colorado Anschutz, Denver Colorado
UC Davis, Davis California
Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona California

Wish me luck!

random Rowdy

Thinking of buzzing all my hair off like I had it in this pic. But.........growing a beard. (let the hate mail begin!)
The pic for my 'don't drop the soap' post of a few days ago. Nook and the bath tub!!
I see you, thinking it's all morning time and stuff.
2 whole wheat english muffins, 3 brown eggs, 2 avocados, cheese, onion, 4 slices canadian bacon. Yeah, that should hold me for a few hours.
Ah Easter. I love they give me a preview in the store of what 4' of Peeps will look like on the shelf. Delicious.
Why play if you aren't in it to win it? Just for the fun of it? HA!

Eugene O'Neill and Abbott Laboratories

Beyond the Horizon, "Supposing I was to tell you it's just Beauty that's calling me. The beauty of the far off and unknown, the mystery and spell of the East which lures me in the books I've read, the need of the freedom of great wide spaces, the joy of wandering on and on-in quest of the secret which is hidden over there, beyond the horizon? Suppose I told you that was the one and only reason for my going?"

The customer service people at Abbott do not have access to a complete database of where Humira is distributed. They will look on a country by country basis per request. They do not recommend leaving it out of the fridge for more than the length of time it takes to get it injected. Yes, you can buy more than two weeks worth at a time, but the expiration date is variable and you wouldn't be able to control which batch you bought to extend your supply's shelf life. They do have tips on traveling with it, but they are as complex as shipping radiation. Which I have.