Zion National Park

First two days of the trip so far. Yellowstone is next.

My new camera

Here are some test pics I took yesterday trying to work with my new camera. I gotta say, I do enjoy the melding or artistic and technical in taking great photos. These are not great, but I am learning. Practicing. Growing.

Something odd this way comes.

But not wicked, unless you mean it in an 80 skater/surfer vernacular way, then yes something "wicked" this way comes.

Possibly.

1. I still am extremely interested in going to graduate school in Israel for a year, for a MA in Diplomacy Studies and Security. And to begin doing something about it, not just dreaming, I have enrolled in a Hebrew class here locally. While the program I am interested in is taught in English, if you're going to live somewhere you better speak the language.

With this I'll of had formal education in French, Spanish and Hebrew. With on the fly, in the moment learning of Arabic, Japanese and Russian.

2. I was vaguely offered a job in maritime security. Ride on a cargo ship and shoot at pirates. Not sure about it. Part of me is very drawn to this and the other part not so much. I'm conflicted. The length of the contract is the biggest unanswered question I have.

3. My neighbor who had to move to Cambodia suddenly for a family member has offered me multiple jobs there in Phnom Penh. The main one as a radio host at his brother's radio station. Evidently they are in great need of a foreign announcer. He even said I could live with him for virtually free.

What an odd grouping of offers and possibilities that have come my way recently. Again, harking back to my childhood, if this were a Choose Your Own Adventure book, which would or should I choose? One, two or three????

Time. Space.

My grandmother grew up in rural Idaho. Her family did not have indoor plumbing until after she graduated from high school. All of her food was cooked on a wood stove. They did have indoor electricity though.

I can not imagine a life lived, for decades no less, with no indoor plumbing and having to cook all of my food over a fire essentially. Wow.

Talking with one of my friends he mentioned how his grandparents must have felt when they saw their first airplane. They lived in rural India under similar circumstances. To still be collecting firewood each day and then for the first time see human being flying through the sky. Wow.

From the book "Turning's Cathedral" by George Dyson: The fundamental, indivisible unit of information is the bit. The fundamental, indivisible unit of digital computation is the transformation of bit between its two possible forms of existence: as structure (memory) or as sequence (code). (it is a very thinking heavy book, but if you're interested in how computers and nuclear weapons were developed hand in hand, check it out!)

I didn't own a computer until 1996, my freshman year of college. Some hand me down from my dad's office where it took 20 floppy discs to load Windows onto it. Needless to say I can remember an educational period before computers. I never had to turn in a paper in high school that was typed and printed from a computer. They were all hand written. Heck I even tried a computer programming class in high school and it was in Basic. Essentially writing simple mathematical formulas to solve word problems.

I dropped out.

My recent birthday and reading the aforementioned book have made me somewhat nostalgic. Reminiscing on my growing up this makes me wonder what things I have seen happen in my life that someone now takes totally for granted.

In no particular order or significance are I remember a time before....

-the internet
-diet coke
-compact discs
-laptops
-ABS on cars
-car seat and seatbelt laws
-atari
-debit cards
-digital cameras
-grocery store self check out

Almost everything people take for granted now that developed in my lifetime is the result of the shift from an analog life to a digital life. A world where numbers DO something rather than just MEAN something.

(______)1-derful

I am (something)1-derful today. Yes, it's my birthday today and I officially enter a new decade of life. Wow. Here is hoping it is one of the best yet for me. (not like i have soo many)

And now for prezzies! Super D gifted me with an amazing camera set up! A new Nikon D7000 and three lenses. Wow. This thing is awesome. And I really enjoy the mix of creativity and technical ability in photography. It is a fun thing! I haven't really got into photo editing and creating stuff with photoshop as I'm still learning and growing. But I love it. The only excuse for a bad picture now should be "me".

D from Texas is such a unique gift giver! She has given me such cool, interesting gifts over the years. Some of my coolest old monster movie things have come from her. She must really browse etsy to find these things. And I greatly appreciate it. But this year she went big! Wow, who has a sister in law like this?

I now am the proud owner of an iron sculpture of my name, Rowdy, about 3 feet wide and almost 1 foot tall!! My rowdyroom, aka the garage is sooooo much more "me" now with this new addition. Thank you D.

Today's plan is to just chill and rest for a bit. Then eat a peanut buster parfait from DQ for lunch. After that head to La Jolla Shores to hopefully snorkel with sharks. Then a nice dinner out at Shogun Kobe.(a benihanas style place)

Even though I despise my chronological age I am thankful I am fit, healthy and able to have all this fun today.

To all the others born today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

What price for a dream?

When I was 16 I wanted a Honda VTR 250 Interceptor as my first motorcycle. As a compromise to keep me from most likely running away to join some fictional motorcycle circus I thought existed in my mind, my parents and I compromised on a Yamaha YSR 50.

I found a new one for a great price and my dad and I drove the 4 hours to go pick it up. I was sooo happy. I loved that first motorcycle and I still do. But like anything under appreciated by the masses at the time they now have become rare, cool and collectible. It also doesn't help that they were used up like cheap disposable motorcycles for tons of new racers.

What I bought for $1,000 back in the day now is $2,500 for a good condition, stock one. Heck, I just found one on CL up in Loma Linda. At what price do you give in to your childhood dreams and nostalgia? Is $2,500 a cheap dream or an expensive one? (later in life I did buy a VTR250 and a FZR400, the motorcycles I most wanted as a kid. I outgrew the VTR and the FZR stranded me multiple times with electrical gremlins so they both had to go)

(picture from the actual ad and exactly how mine looked back in high school)

I've also lately been dreaming about graduate school in Israel. Trying to figure it out. But at what price do I chase that dream? I was prepared to move away from family for two years for PA school. But this is a foreign country. And not the same level of guaranteed employment either. When I went to Iraq for work the plan was the same thing and I feel like I failed there. This would be redemptive.

At what price do you follow a dream? At the expense of your family? Hobbies? Life savings? I'm not sure I know the answer to that or could come up with it on my own.................

I feel!

I feel soooo, just....., incredibly alive. Or normal. Or healthy. I just am abuzz in a way I haven't felt in a long time. And it is nice. Could it be my Crohns is truly in remission? Could it be endorphins from exercise? Could it be opening my birthday presents a day early? All of the above and more?

I've been moved to tears with joy today and that is a powerful feeling.

To celebrate, here are some goofy pictures of me. =) Try not to smile.