Trickeration or It Ain't trickin' if ya got it

I have friends past and present in different areas of law enforcement and it is always fun to talk to them about different aspects of their job. One area I really enjoy quizzing them about is the investigative side. Especially their techniques in talking to people who are hostile and actively trying to lie about something.

A favorite of theirs is when doing a street contact, like rolling up on a bum or suspicious person or whatever is to call them a fictitious name. Right off the bat. The person either agrees and you know they are instantly being deceptive or they protest they are not "fred johnson" or whatever name.

The officer then goes on to insist they are indeed "fred johnson" and to also now start accusing them of some sort of petty crime. In the suspect's desire now to avoid being penalized in the name of someone else they often give up their real identity under this type of duress. And thus by your own means of deception initially you get to a truth they were hiding. You get the idea. Accuse someone of something else to find out what they are really up to.

In my job part of what I do is ask medical histories and questions relevant to the protocol of whatever test they are having with me. Often this means no food that day and no caffeine within the past 24 hours. Also I need to know their weight for some different drug administrations.

But it is the breakfast and morning coffee they are hiding that I want to find about, if they'd had those things then I can't do their test and if I do it will be worthless. My schpiel often goes something like this:

"announce patient name in waiting room"
"Good morning, my name is Rowdy and I'll be helping you with your test today."
more random pleasantries. Check their birth date, ask them their weight and ttthhheenn have them stand on a scale. Just out of my perverse desire to let them see how much they under guessed.

As I explain the test and my role in it I then ask, "So what did you have for breakfast today?" HA! I catch people with this all the time! They start to reel off what breakfast was, then catch themselves and then try to minimize the amount of what they ate and or drank. Too late, the truth is out.

Too bad, soo sad. Time to reschedule and be honest with me next time. And in control of your inability to go 4 hours without eating.

Poster from my childhood.

When I was young I remember seeing this poster on the wall of an uncle's room. I only have two uncles and they both were fun, exciting uncles. They taught me how to drive, ride a motorcycle, shoot, race cars, hunt and so on. One of them made his place in real estate with a family business and the other of said poster became an accountant.

He was the first person I met who I thought of as wealthy I guess. He had what I thought was a big house, on top of a hill. First person I knew who owned more than one Porsche at the same time. He built a motocross track at his house for his kids. One who now is a professional motorcycle racer, in the x-games and such.

As neither of my parents went to college I was able to put two and two together and get what the poster meant even as a 12 year old. If you wanted things, you needed money. And the surest way to making money is getting more education than others. And a practical education. No MFA in our family.

I looked up to my uncles and share many similarities and traits with them. But this isn't supposed to be a reminiscence about family. It's about this poster:

If you've known me for more than a few hours you probably know I like certain things. Books. Guns. Motorcycles. Bicycles. Cars. Shoes. Sharks. Foreign travel.

So now that I have my higher education (paid off natch) what "justifications" have came of it lately?
-go fast parts for my dirt bike.
-sig sauer p220
-trek scratch 8
Yep, same old story. Second verse same as the first. Motorcycles, guns, bicycles.

Maniacal laugh. Maniacal laugh. Rowdy style!!!!!!!!!!!

Ways I know....

I'm older than I think I am.....
1. random long hairs on my back or ears. yuck! they get pulled out immediately.
2. staying up past 10pm seems "late" to me.
3. i'm listening to less current music.

I'm younger than I think I am....
1. no one guesses my real age
2. i don't have enough pants that aren't jeans to make it through the work week without doubling up. all i own are jeans and shorts.
3. i'm better with a smart phone than some of my peers.
4. i never say the phrase "'cause i'm old"

I've lived in San Diego a long time....
1. Speaking Spanish and eating Mexican food seems second nature.
2. It feels weird to wear socks.
3. There is more than one surfboard at my house.
4. I'm a weather wuss kinda.

I'm going to have Alzheimer's....
1. I don't exercise my brain much. No sudoku, crosswords or anything like that.
2. I have a diminished sense of smell early in life. An early pre cursor.
3. I've had 5 confirmed concussive events.
4. I forget what number four is for.

I had my first migraine headache.....
1. I thought it was sinus but I had no stuffiness and no snot. So it was not my sinuses.
2. Sunlight made me wince in pain. Any light actually.
3. A family practice doctor at my house for the weekend told me I had a migraine.
4. I wanted to crush my head in a vice or shove a spike through my brain or tear my eyes out. Not your normal headache symptoms.
5. My urine was copiuos and clear, so I was hydrated.

I'm like Phil Mickelson.....
1. I am not good at golf. Kidding, I'm horrible.
2. I have people. An accountant, financial advisor, house keeper and so on.
3. I live in San Diego.
4. My household is also effected by prop 30, raising my state income tax to 29%.
5. I really really can't wait to move someplace else to not deal with thhr afore mentioned #4.

Self Portrait Saturday

'Cause it's all about me.
Looking at the water falling from the sky..... With a plastic bag over my head (safety third)....And as sexy nerd nuclear medicine guy.

Paid in Full -or- Everything Has a Cost

First, one of the greatest, Eric B and Rakim. "Paid in Full" to celebrate having my student loan totally paid off and gone!


Today was a horrible day at work. A day where I was almost afraid of getting asked not to come back the next day. Yeah, that bad.

A day that made me question why I was even there. The answer? Greed. My own pure and simple lust for money and things I could buy with it. One month of work, $10,000. That's hard for most people to say no to. . . .

In the throes of my mental anguish today at work, I wondered if it really was worth it. Was the psychological and emotional bill I was paying worth the cash and things I'd hoped to gain in return?

At that moment it definitely did not feel so to me. Then the feeling of self loathing started to pile on. A recognition that it was my own greed that had brought me there. Greed and desire. Seemingly the two motivators that have caused me most of life's troubles. Had I forgotten my knowledge of 'self' so thoroughly I couldn't have foreseen this conflict ahead of time? Am I my own worst enemy?

Is it worth it? I don't know. Do I even still want to buy all of those things? Some, not others. I need a new laptop 'cause I broke the old one into pieces. Nothing wrong, it just didn't structurally hold up past two years of Rowdy usage. I'd like a new gun before they ban them all. Some motorcycle parts. That's about it...

We'll see how I feel on my last day of this assignment, February 8th.

vincint qui patitur

The title of this blog translates from Latin as "he conquers who endures."

In my years of fighting at brazilian jiu jitsu tournaments I never took gold in a division. Silver or bronze often but never gold. I am particularly proud of my silver at blue belt in the Pan American championships but it still is not gold. Almost all of my medals from brazilian jiu jitsu sit in a dresser drawer now.

For a while there mountain bike racing was my thing. And in it sometimes I did win a race overall. Especially in the Super-D category. One year I was second overall in a series for my class and won outright another. Heck, I even received sponsorship offers and was looking to get into it at an even greater level. But once series dropped that racing style and another changed their race schedule to days I could not make.

I have a nail in the wall of my garage where all my bike racing medals hang. The plaque for ending a season in 2nd overall is my favorite and means the most to me.

High school tennis I was #1 junior varsity singles and played varsity doubles. Eh, not that impressive.

BMX bike racing I never made the main event.

Cross country and trail running I place well in my divisions, often in the top 10% of a class of hundreds, but I'm far from outright winning them.

Motorcycle racing never happened.

I've visited it with multiple sports psychologists for multiple sessions. I've read a few books on winning mental performance. I love drilling and exercising and training. My diet is never a true athletes diet though....

Anyways, you can see I've rarely been more than a single match, race or game winner. Never an overall "yep, I beat everyone" kind of winner.

Vincint Qui Patitur. Until yesterday. You can see for yourself here. Across all gun divisions and skill classes I was first overall yesterday against 24 shooters.

It's just a small local thing, but I work hard and train and give up time and lots of money to be good at this. It is my sole competitive outlet, one of my favorite hobbies and important to me.

First Place. Winner. Through so many different sports, so many years of training in them to finally have found something where I've supplemented any small amount of talent to persevere and come out on top.........

It means something and I'm still basking in the glow I feel at the accomplishment. I just need to be humble, confident and continue to work hard so that it will happen again.

Veritas odit moras. -OR- Lessons learned working the past two weeks.

1. I can be angry or upset but I can still be nice. I like things to happen a certain way, the way I imagined. Or for someone or something to happen when scheduled. If not, then my initial response is to be unhappy. Angry.

No matter how peeved I get, no matter how much I am screaming out curses inside my head I can still be nice. They seem like ideas that are impossible to hold inside a person at the same time and maybe they are to an extent.

But I find if I acknowledge my feelings and then consciously determine my response to them, things go better. For my and who I'm dealing with. This is a new revelation to me.

2. Equal measure real and fake. Again a theme of duality. Guess who is a Gemini? In this case it is lighting. For the past year if I wanted sunlight I got sunlight. If I wanted to be inside, I was inside.

Like a cold blooded lizard I could control my sun exposure by moving about at will during the course of the day. Being a wage slave has taken this away from me. For the 9 hours I am at work during the day I see about 18 minutes of sunlight and then only through a distant window.

Computer monitors, LED track lighting and fluorescent bulbs light my day, if they are even on above a dull dim.

I've found I need exposure to the outside in greater amounts than I've been receiving. Sunlight. Air. Just being "outside".

(i went to college in a town with long winters and would visit a tanning salon every two weeks or so all through out winter. it made a difference markedly in my sense of well being)

3. I like chatting. I may not be the best conversationalist as I often can only talk about myself 'cause I'm no longer 25 and think I have all these great original ideas or philosophies. Or need to talk about the mystery of life and what it all means.

But I do like to just talk and talk about stuff. Find what is interesting to the other person and talk about it. The past two weeks I don't get to talk to anyone except in short bits and it is 95% about work.

Hmmmm, reading the three things listed you could get the impression my work day is spent mostly alone, in dim artificial light, not getting to talk about anything but business and feeling slightly irritated to angry. You'd be pretty correct.

4. I'm a fast worker. I value speed above over almost all else in completing a task. I hate waste and inefficiency. Zoom and bust stuff out and then rest. Processes and people should be set up to get stuff done in the easiest way possible.

The failing of this often leads back to #1. I can work at a very fast pace for 8 or 9 hours a day but if I have to do it because I'm loaded down with extraneous duties, busy work, redundancies or to make up for other people slacking?

Well something is wrong and should be changed. Forget tradition, culture, inertia and fear. Make changes! Improve.