Month: October 2010

Perhaps cliché, but so true

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Talk about an interesting start to the morning.

I just woke up about 10 minutes ago. For whatever reason as I stumbled all bleary-eyed into the bathroom a phrase went through my head:

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

and I thought to myself how cliché that may be and some people groan at the phrase because of that reason, but the phrase has much truth to it. Why it popped in my head? I don’t know. Maybe all the dry fire I did just before bedtime and how I kept telling myself to not rush the draw just for the sake of getting it out there fast, because I know the more relaxed and smooth I am, the better quality the draw becomes (including acquisition of the front sight and thus getting off a good first shot, thus overall time from draw to first hit is going to be faster).

Then I read Jay’s latest posting about his recent police academy sim. What does he say? Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

And it’s not even a full moon. 🙂

While that’s a good thing to keep in mind, I thought a few other things from Jay’s posting were worth pointing out:

  • Always keep fighting. When you’re dead you’ll be dead and then you can stop fighting. Until that time, keep fighting. And frankly, that applies to anything in life, not just self-defense.
  • Practicing basics like trigger control, sight alignment, draw, etc. are all important, but there are lots of other skills we need to practice too, like reloads, one-handed shooting, one-handed reloads (esp. with your weak hand).
  • No such thing as too much ammo. Some people say they’ll only need X amount of ammo. I wonder, how can you know that? One reason I carry a double-stack 9mm is because I can have more rounds. One reason I thought about switching from my XD to an XD(m) is because there’s more rounds. You just don’t know what you’ll be up against, so why not do all you can to be prepared and stack the odds in your favor? All pistol calibers suck about the same, and 9 lets me carry more.
  • And the best thing from Jay’s post:

 

Shitty situations are shitty, but there is always a way out.

 

 

Just remember that. 🙂

 

From the road – Cherokee National Forest

/ hsoi

To bring Sasha home we had to drive 2000+ miles to Georgia and back. Spending about 37 hours on the road, we saw many interesting things.

When figuring out how to get from here to there, of course I turned to Google Maps. Punch in the “from” and “to” to go driveway to driveway. While Google put us on Interstate Highways most of the way, as we drew closer to our destination, Google took us off the beaten path. Oh sure, we could have gone through Atlanta, but interestingly that was going to be slightly longer… and frankly, more boring. If I can avoid driving through huge cities, great.

But we had no idea where the road actually was taking us.

We got to drive through the Cherokee National Forest.

All I can say is… wow.

Breathtaking.

Majestic.

Apart from Sasha, it was my favorite part of the trip. We had no opportunity to stay there or really see anything that wasn’t on the road. But I would love to someday go back to visit.

When we planned the trip we figured we’d use it as a good homeschooling opportunity. The kids checked out the map, figured out what states they were going through. We’d discuss how the plants changed, how climate changed, whatever sorts of things we’d observe and see along the way. But we had no idea we’d be given an opportunity as cool as Cherokee National Forest.

Trivett Wingo leaves The Sword

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Austin’s The Sword just played the Austin City Limits music festival this past weekend. They were all set to embark on more touring behind their new album.

Suddenly, the European tour was cancelled. Then the US dates quickly followed. Reasons were vague, but now the reason comes out: Trivett Wingo, drummer for the band, is leaving. 😦

 

On the heels of the cancellation of their European tour, Austin, TX’s The Sword are also regretfully canceling the remainder of their scheduled US dates due to the departure of their drummer, Trivett Wingo. The split is amicable and both Trivett and the rest of the band wish each other the best of the luck with their respective plans. The Sword are already working diligently to reschedule their European and US dates.

Trivett explains:

“It is with deep sadness that I am announcing my departure from The Sword. After nearly seven years and some of the most amazing adventures of a lifetime, I have arrived at a place where I am physically and emotionally unable to continue on as part of The Sword. If I could go any further, I would as I love the music and JD, Bryan and Kyle are people that I deeply respect, but I have reached a point where I just can’t do this anymore. I would like to thank the wonderful people who made this experience what it has been: the fans, the people that I have worked and all of the bands and musicians that have inspired me over the years. I thank you and apologize for any disappointment that this may cause anyone, not least of which The Sword.” – Trivett Wingo

Here is an official statement from The Sword:

“We wish Trivett nothing but the best, and it is with heavy hearts that we bid him farewell. He is a phenomenal musician and has been an integral part of this band’s success. He helped to lay the foundation that we will continue to build upon, and we wouldn’t be where we are without him. We wish he could continue the adventure with us, but we understand that the life of a touring musician is not for everyone. It’s been a hell of a ride, and we’re sad to see this part of the journey end. The show must go on, though, and will be back on the road as soon as humanly possible.” – JD, Kyle & Bryan

 

 

Bummer. There was no way I could see them at ACL because they’d be the only band at ACL I would have cared to see (other than The Eagles). But that was the only Austin show for the foreseeable future. Still, I wanted them to do well on the tours because they’re building up a strong following and I’d like to see them succeed.

This is merely a bump in the road, hopefully just a small setback. They’ll find a new drummer and forge ahead.

Best of luck to JD, Kyle, and Bryan, and to Trivett as well.

 

Tolerance. You keep using that word…

/ hsoi

… I do not think it means what you think it means. (thank you Inigo Montoya).

I just read a story. A guy was sitting in a restaurant. At the next table some elderly gentleman was apparently speaking very loudly to his dining companion. The first gentleman was aghast because he was listening to the old man saying “the most disgusting, evil racist invective” he had heard. The first gentleman was so incensed he “was ready to jump over the booth and stab him in the eye with a fork.” While he didn’t do that, he did loudly state that he “should have requested seating in ‘no bigot'”, and the old man’s dining companion then steered the conversation in another direction.

While I cannot deny the old man’s intolerance of blacks and women, the first gentleman is also displaying great intolerance; in fact, the intolerance is so strong it aroused violent feelings within him.

The sad part is, I know the first gentleman and I believe he considers himself an open-minded progressive person. The fact he is upset at hearing someone speaking in racist tones denotes that he considers himself a tolerant and non-racist person. But it’s evident he still has his prejudices. The question is, is he aware of the log in his own eye?

If you are truly tolerant, then you are going to be tolerant. Period. That means you are going to deal with things you do not like or agree with, or could find totally revolting. THAT is toleration; dealing with things you already like, by definition, is not toleration. So if you’re going to call yourself tolerant, then you best behave that way, period. Or, be honest in your assessment and representation of yourself.

I make no bones about the fact that I’m not a totally tolerant person. I really don’t care what your skin color is, gender, race, religion, national origin, creed, hair style, clothing, if you have less than 10 fingers, the shape of your nose, your choice in music, whatever. I really don’t care.  Yeah I may not like all of it, but so what? That’s your life, you go live it. What I will not tolerate is bullshit. I don’t like bullshit, I don’t like to be bullshitted, I don’t dole out bullshit. I do not tolerate assholes. I do not tolerate mean people. I do not tolerate people telling me how to live my life and forcing their preferences and choices upon me (don’t you be calling yourself “pro-choice” then spend time working to deny me of my ability to choose merely because you don’t agree with my choices).  I will not tolerate ill-behaved children. I will not tolerate chicken being served for dinner all the time.

There are things I tolerate, there are things I do not. I will not represent myself as tolerant unless I truly am. I will not represent myself as open-minded unless I truly am. If I have a log in my eye and fail to see and remove it, I hope someone will point it out to me so I can remove it and see (myself) more clearly.

From the road – deer

/ hsoi

To bring Sasha home we had to drive 2000+ miles to Georgia and back. Spending about 37 hours on the road, we saw many interesting things.

Deer.

Tons of deer.

The rut is starting. That means deer are going to act stupid.

Lots of deer on the side of the road. We’d sometimes see singles, sometimes see multiples. And yes… it made us nervous. Driving at night, can’t see deer until it’s too late. We did not want to hit a deer and have that derail our travel. It was nerve-wracking.

But oh…. there were some awesome bucks. Big body, big racks. Oh man oh man.

 

TANSTAAFL

/ hsoi

My life has been an interesting road travelled.

20 years ago would I have thought I’d be where I am now? Apart from “happy”, no, this is nothing like I thought it would be. Heck, 20 years ago I couldn’t imagine being 20 years older — that seemed so…. old. I mean, like you’d be watching VH-1 instead of MTV! (and of course, I do watch VH-1 now and not MTV).

There’s a lot about my life that I cannot explain. Why did I take the path I did in undergrad? Why did I choose Texas A&M for grad school (well, I know some reasons, but still it seemed odd to pick up my life and move to Texas)? Got married in somewhat of a whirlwind, but we’ve been together longer than most couples have these days and are still very much in love. Lots of things like this, where there’s calculation, but only so much calculation. The rest just sorta happens and things work out, many times better than I could have ever expected.

Sasha is one of those things, at least so far. Sure we’ve been researching dogs for years to find what would work for us. There’s been a lot of calculation and figuring. But then our obtaining of Sasha just suddenly happened. An opportunity knocked and we answered the door. It was somewhat calculated, and I think we were prepared for opportunity knocking. But still, I look back and think about how many questions I should have asked, things I should have sorted through before we drove 2000 miles to Georgia to get this unknown dog (tho I said to myself that we’re allowed to drive 1000 miles back empty-handed, if need be). I feel in some respects that yes this was calculated, but that in a lot of others I just blindly dove in head-first.

However, I think if I thought about it too much, I would have over-thought it and it wouldn’t have happened.

Sasha needs work. She needs more work than a puppy should at her age. She’s got some things in place, but there’s a lot that isn’t… and maybe even needs remedial work. For instance, while this morning I saw some progress in getting her to walk on a loose leash, she never once responded to “sit” (always had to push her butt down).

But like the saying goes, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. I knew there’d be work involved. I didn’t know there’d be this much work involved, but I’m committed. Does it annoy me a little bit? Yes, but mostly because I question if I did my homework well enough and if I truly knew what I was getting myself into. But I look at that cute little doggie face and I melt. It’s like any labor of love in life… like kids. It’s more than you bargained for, but that also means the payoff will be well worth the investment. 🙂

From the road – dude at the payphone

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

To bring Sasha home we had to drive 2000+ miles to Georgia and back. Spending about 37 hours on the road, we saw many interesting things.

Before we left town, I checked our travel route to see what states I’d be rolling through and what the local laws were with regards to concealed handgun carry. All was good, no problems nor real issues for me to contend with. Good.

Whenever we’d be out and about, especially when we’d pit stop, Wife and I always worked as a team and minded things. While we didn’t expect any problems, why risk inviting problems especially on the road so far from home? Plus we had a specific purpose for this roadtrip, and we didn’t need to have anything get in the way.

I did realize at one point I had been using my “predator” face. Eyebrows down, stern look, piercing eyes, being big and emanating “don’t fuck with me, else I will fuck you up good”. I caught myself and changed from monkey brain “bash skull with rock” mode to a better strategy: ABC, Always Be Cool. I would smile most of the time, but sometimes you have to just “be cool” and give a nod (downward, not the upward “tick”), look folks in the eye, be friendly, say “Howdy” or “Evening”, but still be strong. Stand up straight (and with my cowboy boots on I was 6’5″ tall), emanate strength, but not “asshole”. This was especially important for me because well… let’s be honest. I’m a big tall half-Asian guy with long hair — I look out-of-place in the rural Deep South of the USA. So I’m already going to attract attention and stares, I should emanate that I’m friendly, deserving of respect and will return respect in kind, and there’s no reason to bother me nor my family. Basically, leave me (us) alone.

However this all changed in Tyler, Texas on the drive home.

It was around midnight. We needed gas and bathroom break (including some place that would have grass for Sasha to use). Most of the gas stations lacked one of the 3 criteria so we kept moving on, but we were quickly running out of town and opportunities so I took the next place I could. When we pulled into the fuel bay I noticed a person at the payphone outside. I couldn’t tell if male or female (tho likely male from their size). Hoodie pulled up, very “urban” in dress. They were on the phone, back to the doors, but sideways leaning into the little payphone box so people taking the main traffic route in and out of the store couldn’t see them, but they could watch everything.

I kept my eye on “the dude”, and my suspicions got worse. He wasn’t acting right. If someone was truly on the payphone, they would be using the payphone… you know… talking on it, not just holding the earpiece to their face. While I couldn’t actually see what the dude was doing, you couldn’t hear dude’s voice (you could hear the voices of others walking in and out of the store), nor were there any other mannerisms of talking like use of hands or just animated body movements. So, something was just wrong.

We did have children in need of a pee, so Wife kept her alert up as did I, and they all went into the building to go to the bathroom (other people were around and it was pretty well lit). I kept watch over dude. As soon as I finished filling up the tank, I immediately took Sasha out of her crate so she could pee and poop. I kept watching dude. Maybe he was listening to someone drilling a hole in his eardrum… I don’t know, but it just didn’t sit right.

As soon as Sasha finished her business, it was right back into the car. However, just as I was opening the door for Sasha to get into the car, I see Wife and the kids coming to exit the store. I stopped Sasha and told her “Look! Here comes Momma!”. Sasha turned and started barking. Girl has a big bark, and while I could tell this was a “Hi Mom!” bark, it’s still scary.

Dude jumped.

Big time.

I know Sasha was doing her business, dude was watching us. I wanted him to see big dog. I wanted him to see strong dog. I wanted him to second guess anything he might be thinking.

And I certainly had my sheepdog mode active.

While I got Sasha into her crate, Wife kept an eye on dude. I had to focus on Sasha, and Wife told me while I did that, dude “hung up” and went around the corner of the building. We had seen a car there (a typical “urban” pimpmobile sort of thing) and figured it was his. No…. the car remained, but dude was nowhere to be seen.

We quickly finished up in the car and bolted out of there.

My guess? Drugs. Maybe he was on the phone and making a deal. Maybe he was waiting for someone to sell to, or waiting for someone to buy, or waiting for a pickup. Or maybe he was mentally off. Or maybe he was acting and we were on Candid Camera. Who knows for sure.

But it doesn’t matter.

He raised the alert level in both Wife and myself. And while nothing serious happened, I tell you…. doggie started earning her steak right then and there. 🙂

Lessons?

Always trust your gut. Better to be safe than sorry.

Always Be Cool, except when it’s not time to be cool. (yes yes, paraphrasing Dalton).

And big bad-ass dogs are great. 🙂  Trust their gut.

Updated: Talking about this situation with the kids, I learn that Oldest was watching dude too and had observed he was not talking on the phone at all. He said he saw the receiver was still hung up on the phone, dude’s hands were in the hoodie’s front pocket. So like I said… dude was doing his best to act one way and make people think he was doing something, but in reality he was doing something else. He was acting “not normal”, and that was reason enough to go code orange.

And, I’m glad to see that Oldest is taking to things too. He’s always been a defender, so it’s great to watch him honing his skills, especially of awareness and observation.

Sunday Metal – new Anthrax

/ hsoi

Check it out. A brand new Anthrax song called “Fight ’em ’til You Can’t”

Joey’s singing.

And apparently a new album is coming… I assume with Joey singing, but it’s Anthrax so who knows. 😉

Getting to know Sasha

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Now that Sasha’s been at the house a few days, there’s been a lot of learning.

I mean, a LOT.

And mostly, it’s us learning, not her. 🙂

It IS exactly like having a child. Well not exactly. Dogs can come with instruction manuals, kids don’t.

I’m wondering what sort of baggage Sasha has. Been talking things over with a friend of mine and I’m coming to the conclusion that something from her previous owner wasn’t right. I don’t know. Did they neglect her? Did they not give her the attention, socialization, and training that a Kuvasz needs (especially as a puppy)? I mean, I know for a fact when she went back to the breeder that her coat was not where it should be, and we need to continue the rebuilding of it. So that’s an indicator of something not right, that the original owner didn’t do (some) things right. But to what extent? just what specifically? No way to know.

Bottom line: girl has baggage.

*sigh*

But she’s not a lost cause. I mean, that our family has been accepted? That’s a good sign. There’s no question from how she behaves that she loves us and adores us and knows we’re her flock to protect. I know that we have “alpha” over her since I can fully manipulate her, we can brush her, I stuck my fingers in her mouth today to remove a rock she picked up (wasn’t going to struggle with “drop” commands, just had to remove it) and I didn’t get bit. I exert alpha when she needs it, and she submits. So I suspect we’ll be able to make this work, but it’s going to take time.

She knows commands like sit, stay, down, come, drop it, leave it, and a few other things. But she isn’t perfect in obeying. Why? I’m not sure. Sometimes I suspect she’s intentionally disobeying because she’s decided working is more important (e.g. she’s guarding the kids and my telling her to “come” would require her to leave her tactically superior position, and she’s decided she can’t do that for whatever reason). Sometimes I think she’s trying to find our boundaries. And sometimes I think she’s just not conditioned to say “how high?” when I say “jump”, each time, every time, all the time. So, I’m starting to work with her on all the basic commands…  let’s go back to remedial work and establish the ground rules. I’m seeing progress, because she’s responding to “come” and “sit” much better this evening than she did before. We’re up to 10 seconds on stay and I betcha I could do more, but baby steps at this point. When I took her outside today, I’d have her got potty then start to work on “loose leash” walking. That’s going to take more work.

Just have to work on it every day. Just have to schedule in time for work and practice every day, at least twice a day.

But apart from all this work and baggage? She’s a sweet girl. Very loving, and has shown a silly, clown side too. I do adore her. I have no regrets (yet?) about this. It’s a lot of work, and it’s likely going to be more work than normal because we’re going to have things to undo and/or reestablish. But you know… the things you do for love. 🙂

From the road – bathrooms

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

To bring Sasha home we had to drive 2000+ miles to Georgia and back. Spending about 37 hours on the road, we saw many interesting things.

Typically when we have to take the kids into a public restroom, it’s just a typical bathroom.

But when you’re on the road, I guess people have a penchant for getting laid while travelling. Almost every bathroom (men and women) had condom machines… typically right above the urinal. Youngest was too short to really see, but no question that Oldest got an eyeful while he stood in the stall.

And then, there’s bathroom graffiti.

Oldest hasn’t said a word to me one way or the other, but I’m sure all sorts of questions (too embarrassing to ask Dad) are now rolling through his head. 🙂