Me

Getting to know Sasha

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

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. 🙂

Welcome home, Sasha

/ hsoi / 17 Comments

Permit me to introduce you to Sasha:

Sasha is an 8 month old Kuvasz puppy. From AKC’s entry:

 

Bold, courageous and fearless, the Kuvasz is an unparalleled livestock guard, able to act at just the right moment without instruction and cover rough terrain for long periods of time. One of the larger working breeds, he is well-muscled and agile. His double coat features a coarse guard hair that protects a soft, fine undercoat. The hair ranges from straight to quite wavy, but must always be white.

[…]

 

Temperament

A spirited dog of keen intelligence, determination, courage and curiosity. Very sensitive to praise and blame. Primarily a one-family dog. Devoted, gentle and patient without being overly demonstrative. Always ready to protect loved ones even to the point of self-sacrifice. Extremely strong instinct to protect children. Polite to accepted strangers, but rather suspicious and very discriminating in making new friends. Unexcelled guard, possessing ability to act on his own initiative at just the right moment without instruction. Bold, courageous and fearless. Untiring ability to work and cover rough terrain for long periods of time. Has good scent and has been used to hunt game.

 

 

And… she’s the latest member of our household. 🙂

She’s 65 lbs and growing. She’s a big dog. She’s just what we wanted.

Background

Wife might be a cat person, but she grew up surrounded by dogs. Me, I had some dogs as a kid but I wouldn’t say I was ever a dog person — without a doubt, I’m a cat person. I have not wanted a dog. Wife has wanted us to get a dog since the day we got married, but I’ve always said no. A few years ago I finally gave in and approved getting a dog, but it had to be a useful dog.

You see, I don’t care for most dogs, or to be honest, most dog owners. I don’t like dogs that aren’t well-behaved, and that’s typically the fault of the dog owner. If I’m going to have a dog, it’s going to be well-behaved. I also don’t like drool, “dog smell” (be it the dog or the house smelling like dog), or a dog that views every random stranger as a friend. Thus, just going to the pound was not an option: any old random dog wasn’t going to work. Plus we had to get a puppy because we have cats and don’t need them to become a snack. Furthermore, the dog has to be substantial, because if you can drop kick it, it’s not a dog. 😉   So I gave Wife my criteria and she set about researching breeds.

Oh, one key criterion? Protection and guarding. People say any dog can provide this, but I’ve experienced far too many dogs that are rather useless in this situation. I want a dog that truly groks the notion of protection and guarding.

Wife spent about the past 3 years researching. It’d be a combination of her researching, finding something, floating the idea by me, I’d critique, then we’d get sidetracked by something in life and couldn’t act on it. But I think that all worked out well because if we acted on some of the breeds we considered in the past, I think we’d be unhappy.

Choosing the Kuvasz

A few weeks ago I was looking at the Crazy K Farm’s website (due to muscovy duck information) and found their link to a website about livestock guardian dogs. That sounded good to me, the sort of dog we’d like. I told Wife about the website and she read up on them (some for the second time). The Kuvasz breed seemed to fit exactly what we wanted, so Wife presented the breed to me and I agreed it sounded just right. So we started contacting breeders — it’s not a common breed, so there are only so many breeders. The first breeders we contacted were going to have litters but it wouldn’t be for 18 months. That didn’t thrill us, but we kept looking around and eventually found a breeder with a unique situation!

A puppy had been adopted by a family, but that puppy wasn’t working out with that family. The family already had an elderly dog and the Kuvasz pup was strong-willed and dominating the elderly one… that wasn’t a workable solution for them, so the Kuvasz puppy was returned to the breeder at about 6 months of age. So the breeder was looking for a good home for the girl. We spoke with the breeder at length about this particular puppy and she seemed to be exactly what we wanted. The breed itself has the temperament and characteristics we want, and this particular girl seemed to have all that we wanted. Plus that she was 8 months old gave a few advantages, like she’s already housetrained, crate trained, and hey… she’s big! She’s already a formidable force. But she’s still very much a puppy.

This, of course, is Sasha.

By the way, we didn’t name her. Sasha is the name given to her by her first owners, but we’re keeping it. She responds to the name, and gosh if it doesn’t just fit her well.

Bringing Sasha Home

So, opportunity presented itself. We did NOT plan on this. I had just come back from California and now had to turn around and drive to Georgia to get a dog.

Yes.

We drove.

2000 mile round trip. 18 hours straight there, 19 hours back (pit stops lasted a little longer on the way home). We drove out, met with her and the breeder for a few hours in the evening. Stayed at a hotel that night, then went back the next morning for another meeting, paperwork, and driving home. So, a lot of driving in a little time.

But it’s been so worth it.

At first, she was in guard mode. She didn’t know us, so she properly kicked in as we expected her too. But after a little time she warmed up to us, but was still wary. While the drive home was long, I think that helped her accept us. She was well-behaved the entire drive back. We would talk to her, pet her through the bars of the crate, and just lavish as much love on her as we could. I am working to establish myself as Alpha, and so far that seems to be setting in. Good thing too, as she’s wicked strong.

We let her trot around the house, on a leash, to explore and get to know her new home. After about an hour we introduced the cats. They aren’t sure what to make of her, other than it’s a big thing with teeth. But they do seem curious of her, just well… understandably on edge. 🙂  Sasha tho, she just wants to play with them. One of the cats got cornered and got very defensive, and Sasha took that as an offer to play. Cat wanted nothing to do with it, but seeing Sasha act as she did I take as a good sign.

As of now? I think she’s accepted us as family. We’ve received kisses. She watches everything we do: when I walked into the kitchen, she kept her eye on me. Movement outside? She was right at the window. I’m sitting on the couch with my MacBook Pro in my lap to type this, and Sasha is resting on the floor at my feet.

I think she likes us. 🙂

She’s receptive to our commands. She has a huge tail wag when she sees “Momma” (Wife). We’re able to hug her, pet her tummy. I also think she’s got a special protection mode going for the kids: when they move about she watches them, and when they come back to her she expects a little hand sniff to say “OK, we’re all fine”. It’s all very good. Even the cats are starting to mellow out in the same room (tho at a safe distance).

I know some people will look at us as crazy for going about things as we did. Picking a particular breed and settling for nothing less than our criteria. Using a breeder (tho this wasn’t like typical breeder purchase… it’s more like a rescue). Driving 2000 miles in 54 hours. But you know what?

You do crazy things when you’re in love. 🙂

Yes… I admit. I’m in love. Maybe I wasn’t a dog person, but Sasha… she’s changed me.

Now, we need to go to PetSmart. Got a few supplies to pick up.

More classes

/ hsoi

Yesterday I was out at KR Training helping with the Basic Pistol 1 and Beyond The Basics: Handgun classes.

A few observations from the classes:

  • BP1 was probably the most female-heavy class I’ve participated in. 75% of the class was women, and I think that’s fantastic.
  • Most of the BP1 students had never fired a gun in their life, or at most perhaps shot a shotgun or rifle once as a child.
  • It’s great to see so many people so willing and so interested in personal protection. It also shows there are still people out in this world that care to take responsibility for themselves.
  • But yet while I see an increase in women in beginning classes, I don’t see so many in more advanced classes. For instance, in BtB:H there was only 1 female shooter. Not sure why that is. Intimidation factor? that is, feeling those classes are more “gung ho” and “testosterone oriented” in nature? I mean, you just don’t see a lot of women getting involved in Force-on-Force training, likely because perception is it’ll be some sort of UFC-like beatdown. Sure, sometimes it could be that, but typically it’s not… it’s just a lot of role-playing and isn’t all that physical — more mental than anything. Still, here we are. It’s a curious thing to think about and see how we can get more women involved at higher-levels of training.
  • Shooting is always more enjoyable when the weather is awesome. 🙂
  • I’m seeing a lot of XD(m)’s now. One guy had one of the new .45 ACP models. M&P’s are popular too, Glock’s are present. Other things are just waning. One guy shot BtB:H with a Kahr, which I thought was pretty cool. If it’s going to be your go-to gun, you should train with it.
  • Lots of guys were shooting with the XD gear that comes free with the guns. Admittedly, that gear is better than nothing, and fine for such a class. But yes, you have to move beyond that gear, especially if you’re going to carry. Yes, we have a Comp-Tac bias.
  • While BtB:H wasn’t about performing reloads, learning how to reload is an important skill. We teach reloading in other classes, so come on back for that instruction. 🙂
  • A few repeat students were back for BtB:H and they shot well. Testimony to Karl’s instruction, and the student’s hard work.

Really, a good day. Good classes. Good students. Good weather. Can’t get much better.

Glad to be home

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Spent the past few days in California on business.

The best thing about visiting California? Leaving. 😉

Actually, I think California is beautiful. I love driving 17 over the hill… lots of fun. One time my rental car ended up being a Ford Mustang, so the drive was even more fun. This time, my rental was a Chevy HHR, so the drive was not as much fun.

Speaking of the HHR…. well, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. So, I’ll be silent on this issue.

Was a good trip. Got much done. Exciting things ahead.

But now, back home, and back to a normal life…. tho I can tell, it’s been anything but normal here in Austin while I was away.

If you want to do this, turn to page 24.

/ hsoi

Remember “Choose Your Own Adventure” books?

It’s great that real life can be that way too. Life can be an adventure, if you view life as a journey. Sure we’ve got destinations in mind, things we’d like to see and do along the way. But I’ve enjoyed life more since I gave up only viewing life as a destination (e.g. “Where do I want to be when I turn 30 or 40 or 50?). In fact, often some of the best times I have in life is when I just stop worrying about it, dive in, and enjoy the journey for whatever it is. Just ask Wife… even if we’re driving and get lost, we never sweat it… we view it as an opportunity to see somewhere we haven’t before, so while we work to right ourselves towards our destination, we still take in the journey that we’re on.

Why ramble as such?

Well… two things are presently rolling through my head, that will change the course of my journey.

The first is simple. While I’ve been wanting to look into practicing Aikido, I drove by a boxing gym the other day. I got a taste of western boxing while I attended Warrior’s Edge, and I liked it. I find when I’m deciding what I want to do at home for a workout, often I gravitate towards doning the boxing gloves and shadow boxing and working out on the heavy bag. So… a spark has reignited. Will I take the Aikido path, or the boxing path? We’ll see. Thinking it all over.

The second? Well… can’t talk about it right now. But if it happens (and hopefully it will), it’ll change things for the whole family. 🙂

Rocky Patel Sungrown

/ hsoi

In the batch of cigars W brought to me, another one was a Rocky Patel Sungrown. I believe a Toro, based on the size and shape.

I used to always prefer smoking cigars this size, but I realize that it’s a little too big for me… just more than I typically care to smoke in one sitting. That said, I’d like to compare a Sungrown in this Toro size to say one in a Petite Corona or Robusto to see how it compares out. I’m no cigar aficionado, but I’d reason that size would affect the experience to some degree.

Anyways, how was it?

A bit of a “harsh” start, very spicy and peppery. Kinda enjoyable, but a little rougher on the mouthfeel than I like. But after going through the first quarter, the cigar really mellowed out. Still spicy, but not as peppery. Very full-body with a lot of nice thick smoke. Blowing rings, not a problem. Burned well too, pretty even, didn’t have to fight to keep it going. I probably finished two-thirds of the cigar, stopping only because I need to come inside and get to some other business.

I’ll say it’s a good cigar, I liked the thickness of the smoke, I liked the body, but I am finding I prefer smoother and less spicy stuff. I didn’t really enjoy the first bit of the cigar, but as it mellowed I enjoyed it more and more. A reasonably enjoyable experience. I wouldn’t be opposed to smoking another (good thing, as I have another), but in terms of preference? Probably not what I’d go to first off. BUT, that’s just my own palette and preference.

My First Dove Hunt

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Finally got to go dove hunting.

I’ve known G for many years through Scouts and church. He’s an avid hunter and has been working on me for some time to go dove hunting with him. Finally it was able to happen.

He hunts at this property just outside of the city limits, which turns out to be close to my house. I met the property owner tonight and turns out he too goes to the same church. Neat. He owns a few acres and the doves love to fly through there. So we can sit back, relax, and when the doves fly overhead, off we go.

Unfortunately, the doves were very slow tonight, and when they did fly they were flying very high. Still, I went through about 40 shells, and managed to bag my first dove. 🙂 For sure I got one, I believe I got a second. In total we were able to take home 7 doves, and probably shot 9-10 (2-3 were unable to be recovered, tho we tried). G’s a fantastic shot.

Despite it being slow, it’s not always about bagging something. Sometimes it’s just great to get outside, hang out with friends — make new friends. If we can shoot a little, have a beer, and bag something, all the better.

The cool thing? They let me take home all of the doves. We field dressed them all and G taught me how to do it. Dang, that’s easy and takes very little time. Was also neat to see what the doves had been eating. Most had been eating seed: millet and sunflower. One had corn, another certainly had been eating something in the field. All of the meat is in the fridge, and I know what I’ll be having for lunch tomorrow. 🙂

Fantastic time. Looking forward to doing it again!

Who designed this?

/ hsoi

Wife’s car (2003 Mazda MPV) started dying yesterday. Electrical.

Pulled the battery, tested with a bad cell, bought a new one. Installed the new battery and put a multimeter on it: car off, 12-13 volts, car running, about 12 volts. Alternator dead?

I’ve replaced alternators before on older vehicles, but on this car? Geez! I’ve always marveled and cringed at this engine compartment. Heck, getting the oil filter off can be minor surgery. Turns out that getting to the alternator on this car is major surgery, something that can take an experienced mechanic with the right tools 3-4 hours. You have to take a lot of the bottom-end off the car.

*sigh*

It’s not a job I want to attempt, so off to a nearby shop. I’m fearing what the labor bill is going to be.

Remember when I wrote a few days ago about simplicity in design?

Rocky Patel Edge Missile

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

My buddy W is in town. He came over last night and brought some cigars.

I smoked a Rocky Patel Edge Missile.

Wow. I think I may have a new favorite. Excellent cigar. Very smooth. Good draw. Rich flavor. I do think I’m preferring Maduro wrappers.

Good stuff.

Wish me luck

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I’ve been reluctant to post about this because not only does it feel a little personal, but I’ve had so many false-starts (read: failure) that I feel if I fail again I’d like it to be my own business. But I’m wondering, if I make it public, maybe it might put some extra pressure or motivation on me to hang in there and make it a success.

I’m trying to lose weight.

Background

I’m 6’3″ tall and presently weigh about 225#. It’s the most weight I’ve ever carried around in my life. Of the three body types, I’m closest to ectomorph. I’ve got a long tall frame so most people don’t believe I need to lose weight. But if you look closely, I’ve got a growing gut, and certainly there’s growing flab spread over my entire frame. While no one would really look at me and say I was fat, certainly I’m carrying around more flab that my frame should have.

I’m not happy about it.

How did this happen? Food is more than nutrition. It’s comfort, it’s pleasure. I love to eat. While I was good about holding my weight around the 200# mark for quite some time, the past some months I’ve packed it on because I’ve been eating. My life is good, but it’s full of stress. Generally the solution is to address the stress directly, but when you cannot you seek other ways to balance out the bad with something good… and food provides pleasure for me. After a brain-frying day of work, sitting in front of the TV for 30 minutes to let my brain disengage is nice. Couple that with a beer and some chips and salsa, and I might scarf down 500-700 calories right there. Then my level of physical activity has dropped the past some months since I stopped attending martial arts classes on a regular basis, and while I want to go check out Aikido I haven’t yet due to lack of time (other things have been priority, all that stress). So I’m taking in more calories than usual, and burning off fewer calories than usual, and the result is obvious: weight gain.

I don’t like it. I don’t want it. But I’ve struggled to deal with it.

Struggle

I’m aware of my issue. It’s simple caloric intake: taking in more than I’m burning off. My overall nutrition is good, I’m overall healthy (doc always gives me a clean bill of health, better shape than the vast majority). There’s no real issue of what I’m eating, it’s a simple matter of amount.

I’ve tried to cut back on amount. I’ll succeed for a little while, but eventually my body screams that it’s being deprived, I handle it for a while, but then other stresses rear up and I fall off the wagon. And I repeat this cycle and always feel bad about it. Plus, depriving myself of the comforts that food brings just adds additional stress, and it’s a big snowball effect.

I will say, I have gotten better about amounts, about minding how much I put on my plate, to stop before I feel full (because that’s a mighty large amount). I accept I’m not 18 any more and cannot eat like I did when I was a teenager (tho my brain still wants to). So management concepts are better, but still consumption is more than it should be.

I don’t like to deal with fad diets or well, any sort of diet, because I know it’s a passing thing. You need to make a lifestyle change that you can accept, live with, and live with for the rest of your life. It must be a long-term thing. While things like Weight Watchers or NutriSystem are solid in their concept, I don’t want to be tied to their food. Besides, that means I have to eat their food — and Wife is an awesome cook! I’d hate to have to eat some packaged crap and be deprived of Wife’s cooking.  But I will admit, NutriSystem did appeal to me, mostly because I appreciated the simple aspect of portion control that they provided. I thought about perhaps doing it for a month just to see how the portions looked, how a 200-250 calorie setup would be. But I never pulled the trigger on it because of cost and deprivation of Wife’s cooking. 🙂

But a friend of mine has been losing weight for while. Slow and steady, but solid. I became aware because sometimes we’d go to lunch and he’d mention having a “light day”, so we’d just eat at Subway. I saw how much it was working for him, and how little effort he really had to make. It wasn’t a massive lifestyle change, but it was manageable. So I was curious and finally asked him about it.

Up and Down

What he followed was something called the UpDayDownDay Diet Plan. Now, the notion of following some faddish plan turns my stomach, but this doesn’t seem all that bad. It’s a simple premise that’s quite do-able, and the logic behind it is sound. No fad, no “cleansing”, no products to buy, no change in food or diet or much of anything. I like that because having to make a radical shift is generally a path to failure because it’s a radical shift and those things can be hard to stick with over the long-term. Of course, this still requires a change, it still requires dedication, it still requires self-discipline.

What I think is different about this for me is I examine the problems I have and reasons for past failures. I’m hoping my body won’t have serious deprivation issues — especially when I start martial arts study again. If I do feel a need to have a bowl of chips and salsa, I can do that, just on the up day. It doesn’t totally take away the comfort aspect, just regulates it. But in the end, overall caloric intake goes down.

Will I succeed? I don’t know, but I want to. This seems better than other approaches I’ve tried in the past, so why not give it a try.

Goals

My goal? I’d like to get down to 190#, but that’s only a guide. What I want to shed is fat. If I stay at 225# but I drop fat and gain muscle instead, that’s fine. I won’t be doing any serious weigh-lifting tho, so I figure at least 200# and then see from there…  190# is probably likely. If nothing else, 190# is a good initial tangible target. Once I reach it, I’ll see where I am in relation to my more nebulous goals.

One tangible goal I have, yet I can’t put a hard number on when that point will be, is I want to be able to have a slim enough stomach so I can easily carry AIWB. 🙂  The gut pushes the holster out, thus pushes the bottom of the holster (muzzle) into you and just hurts. That’s a big motivator. I’ve put my AWIB holster on my desk as a reminder. Speaking of reminders, I added notes to every day in my iCal calendar to note “up” days and “down” days. That should help.

I would love to drop it overnight, but so long as the loss is steady and constant I’m willing to take the time. If I can feel good about my shirtless appearance come next summer, that’ll be great. I mean, at a rate of 1-2# per week, might take me 6 months or so to drop it. Of course, I also feel I need to get back to formal martial arts study and practice, not just for the enhanced physical activity, but I’ve been “all work and little play” and I need to bring some of that balance back into my life. Hopefully tho as well, that will help the weight loss not just from the enhanced calorie burn but if it can provide some stress relief then I can use that instead of a before-bed-snack.

So… wish me luck. It’s a journey, and I want to succeed. I wouldn’t be surprised if I fail, but so long as I pick myself back up and get back on the wagon, that’s alright.

First Week

I started composing this post last week. I just dove in and made the decision on 15 September 2010 to start on this, so the 16th was my first down day.

My friend told me the first week would be brutal. Frankly, it’s not been that bad. Not easy, but certainly not brutal.

I have already lost 5 lbs, and I know it’s not water weight because I’m drinking a lot of water. The past some weeks (even prior to this) I got back on the exercise wagon. I might just do a session of calisthenics, I might do time on the treadmill, I might go work out on the heavy bag, but whatever it is that I do, it’s more expenditure of calories. That’s good.

I haven’t felt my body screaming that I’m depriving it and felt a need to gorge. In fact, on my “up” days I’ve found myself still wanting to eat less! Not a bad thing.

The hardest part so far has been, of course, the down days. Overall it’s not bad. I mean, I budget in a beer… how bad can that be. 😉  But after my last “meal” of the day, I know it’s going to be probably 12 hours until I eat again, and that is a bit of a mental and emotional blow. But the upside is the point of the program: it’s only at most a day away, and really, the 12 hours isn’t that bad since most of it I’m sleeping away.

All in all, it hasn’t been that bad. Wife and Children are all supporting me. They find it odd to look at Dad’s plate on a down day and see so little food on his plate, but they know I want this and are helping me (even if it’s the kids lovingly calling me “Tubby”). 🙂

So far, so good. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m sure I’ll blog about it from time to time. Maybe the public pressure will keep me motivated.