Another Good One Taken Away!

In this all too familiar tone I say , we lost another good man today, no not in the middle east or in the streets of L.A. But right here in my home town of Oxnard, Ca. I kind of made me sick to my stomach to get the text from my wife saying she read where Former 84 Bronze medalist shot Putter Dave Laut was shot and killed in his own home by intruders. As it turned out he was kind of ambushed while checking out noise coming from his backyard after the dogs were barking incessantly, he went out to check it out and after saying the words"What the Hell are you doing here" he was shot 3 times in the head and killed, not even a chance to be rushed to local hospital to be revived. So here we have a local legend, a family man and a great influence to young and old alike taken from the family ,Friends and associated who remembered him as a gentle giant and a peaceful man , always helping out others and always trying to be that positive in others' lives. He was a teacher, a coach and the Athletic director at one of our areas worst schools, Hueneme H.S and was working on helping athletes get physicals at the school so they could participate in Football for their school. Well later that night he was gunned down and will never be that influence of positivity that he had always bee. I remember as a 21 year old watching the LA olympics in 84 and feeling a sense of pride in Dave as this Oxnard boy was representing his country and himself on our behalf, and proudly so, he accomplished a Bronze medal in the shot Putt. It really pains me to think that his wife and child, his parents and friends will be without the gentle giant who died so violently ,so quickly, and never had a chance to say goodbye to anybody. I feel for his wife and his young child who now are left with that huge void he always filled and now it appears empty and silent. How does a person move on from this , this senseless , needless taking away from somebody who was so good, all taken away by somebody who had nothing and will never have anything but the blood of a good man on his hands. I only hope that they find the person who did this and can make an example out of him and show the rest what happens when you take away somebody who gave so much to so many and now is gone. As I said this really hurt me and made me think that we as a society are not safe, not even in the good neighborhood which Dave lived in, but we are all targets and all have to be ready for that day when we might hear the dogs barking and hear that noise coming from outside. what will we do, how will we approach this? I can only say I have lived this scenario in my mind too many times and am thankful that i have 3 large Dogs who can give me the warning I need with their barking and running about, but is this something I should pursue or just make the call and wait for a police response. I can only say that to protect family and self I am locked and loaded and will use whatever force needed to do so, but the saddest thing about that scenario is that is not how I live , not what i believe in and not how I want to live my life thinking that there is somebody out there who is trying to harm me and my family!Since I've already established that there is no God to protect us, I guess we must do it ourselves and be stronger than the scum and be smarter than the dumbasses who want to take our precious lives from us all. I am sorry that Dave Laut is gone and sorry that his family feels the sadness that they feel, but i think in his tragic death we learn a lesson, not everyone lives under the same rules that we do and to fight against a dirty fighter , you have to do the same just to compete. Well that is a fight I am not losing so i continue to arm myself against this even going as far as teaching the wife how to lock and load in case it happens when I'm not around, this is so sad but the reality of what this place has become, survival of the most prepared I hate to say, but it could be the old west all over again. i hate feeling like this but won't allow anybody to hurt those i love

Homeless

After watching the Movie "Soloist" last night it made me re-think the ongoing problem of the homeless in our society. I've always been enamored with the homeless, it's a sad ongoing issue around our country and it seems to be escalating with our current economy and more people a paycheck or two away from joining the ranks of the homeless. Being a fortunate person and gainfully employed, spouse as well and make a good living doing what we do I always ask myself"how did that person get to that point" As a rule I make it a point to talk to the homeless wherever I go, various cities I've visited always leave me compelled to seek out, and not run from a homeless person. My main objective in conversing with them is to learn, to empathize and try to understand how a person could end up sleeping in an alley next to garbage and filth. At what point does a person give up and succumb to that lifestyle, these are the things I've long searched for. Over the years I've been able to correlate a few common denominators , one being drugs and alcohol , others being domestic violence, loss of loved ones or bad relationships and marriages that they were never able to recover from. Other times you have people who are generally not all there and the streets make them more so after a while. It is a very rough and tough life and have had many Homeless people tell me their stories, some by showing me bullet wounds, or knife wounds or scars obtained in a scuffle of some sort, it is survival of the fittest. So when a homeless person approaches me ans asks for money or something, and I have the time , I will always ask the same question," How did you end up here on the streets" if they are willing, than i will give them a fiver as a rule, if not, a $1. My aim is never to exploit their bad way just to try to understand how life's precious sanctuaries have been taken away ,or given up on, the lives we call normal, with four walls and a steady job and a pile of bills to deal with each month. The daily struggle for survival enthralls me and it grips me so much that it hurts me at times. When i visit my fiends in downtown LA , not too far from skid row where the soloist is based, I always see and feel the remnants of the homeless as we sit there and drink that $3 cup of coffee and that $9 sandwich and converse with each other about family and jobs and upcoming events that we share interests. WE will encounter 2-3 homeless men or woman with their shopping carts filled with their life's possessions and sometimes they ask for money, or a smoke and we usually oblige and watch them walk away with their lives in that cart. I am generally moved and touched at their plight, my friends are better at hiding it than I am, that feeling of being uncomfortable because I can afford the things that they dream about sends that guilt all the way to my innards! My obsession with the homeless runs deep and it makes me sad for them and sad for a country so rich and so wonderful in all that it has to offer, except for the few homeless, last estimate was 90,000 in LA alone but that number has grown for sure. I always had this thought that I would make a difference and do something about it, even to the point where I still think that I want to live as a homeless person for a year and then a book detailing the life and time all chronicled with my play by play and somehow have pictures taken to illustrate the plight of my journey. My ultimate goal would be to donate most of the proceeds from this book to the Homeless cause and bring an awareness to the people who have it so good. But knowing that most people do not want to see, hear or be involved with Homeless people at all seems like a fruitless proposition but the thought is still vivid in my mind. I do realize that some of these people are there on their own volition and that many mistakes had been made to get them there, but the humanistic good ,loving side of me makes me cringe to think that a person has to beg, borrow or steal to get their next meal and shelter is never guaranteed , but fought for. Because i am blessed and i have everything that I will ever need, to include family, friends and a support group that would never put me on the streets if I lost everything I have, how did those people lose it all and end up with nothing, most not even a faith in a God that apparently is off duty for these people, who know, this Country is in sad shape ,we need to care for all people ,even the ones not wearing Abercrombie and Fitch and smelling like Chanel!

Label Whores!

So much of what we do and who we think we are are based on labels! The clothes we wear, the car we drive and the neighborhood we live in all somehow determine where we stand in society... or so most think. I sicken at the thought of people today "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality to feel that they can fit in. The age of $250 True Religion Jeans is upon us all and infuriates me to the boiling point. the fact that a pair of 501 Levi jeans is over $50 now is very sad, but those aren't cool enough for kids or adults to wear anymore, they'd rather look cooler, or think they look cooler in a pair of jeans that look like some Northern Californian sprayed Pixie dust on them and said it was ok to dress like a woman, even if you're a man? The fashion world seems pretty much dependant on Hollywood for its guidance. If Britney or Jalo are wearing something it is now cool and accepted, regardless of how hideous it may be. Then you have the people driving cars they can't afford and have to look good when they are on the road to the $12 /hr job and the nice BMW with the cool wheels, probably leased and the kids at home wear walmart and second hand clothes to compensate for this... nice ? But with all of this being said there is something about a good quality pair of jeans, or car, or athletic shoes that somehow justifies is price. To be able to afford nice stuff is not a crime, to think that you must buy nice stuff and become a label whore is something different altogether. Here is the disconnect with people, the guy who buys a $25k Harley Davidson and ride a few thousand mile per year to the local watering holes to be seen on Harley, the love of riding is not there but the culture of the Harley Label is more important than the ride itself, for me being an avid motorcycle rider is a crime, ride hard , fast and plenty and stop when you're done riding and eat and relax, not 4 times along the ride to show off how shiny your overpriced toy is. This mentality to look cool, and then perceive yourself and cool and part of any culture for the sake of belonging to something that is perceived to be "cool" is as a Man , counter-productive. The difference between me and say my co-worker who owns a Harley is this, when going out for a ride I would say, "gonna ride 33 this weekend" the Harley rider will say," gonna take the Harley out to Neptunes the the Rock store, then meet my other Harley buddies at the coffee bean, did he forget to mention , "the Harley" pretty bikes but useless for doing any real riding. By the Way , My Ride is a 2007, GSXR1000 with all of the necessary upgrades and the areas faster riders as the pilot, enough said about that, there's more technology in my rear Ohlins shock than on any Harley made...period. Today's young kids are really in trouble and have been bitten by the fashion bug frenzy. have 2 teenage boys, one will buy the cheapest most practical school clothes, a pair of Vans that he likes and some black t-shirts and call that his school wardrobe, the younger of the boys will then go out and buy some 514's ,a pair of DC's a quicksilver tshirt or two and call this his school wardrobe, oh and he has a pair of true religion knockoffs he has failed to return to a friend of his brothers, so he is the label whore in our house. All things being equal I must say that certain things I like are very expensive, but almost none of them are household names outside their element, like golf equipment, Taylormade and Ping are a few clubs that i play, now some newMizunos, none of which are the most expensive in their field,nor the most popular however all respected names in the field of golf and functional for the game. For my motorcycles always get the best shock on the market, best pipes and brakes, all which serve a purpose and keep me safer than the stock equipment, my car is a stock white pickup which serves me well and hauls my motorcycle in the event of a long distance hookup that allows me to drive it there and unload. live in an older house, my childhood home that I bought from my mother and am content living there, not fancy but functional. Very simple clothes, hate to dress up and just seems that being cool was never an option, living within my means and my tastes has always taken precedence with me. I live very simply and very practically, i have owner nearing 20 motorcycles in the past 11 years and this is my only true vice if i have any at all, i love my bikes and have fallen in love with my 07 GSXR1000 that has been with me longer than any bike I've ever owned, I've always upgraded to the new model which explains the high number of bikes, that and my wife had owned 6 of those 20 bikes. So i am a simple guy with dual income , nice living, can afford the nicer things in life and sometimes get them because I like something, but never have i used somebodies' ad campaign or seen somebody have something that I said I had to have because a certain person wears it, drives it or would be seen differently if I owned it. Being somewhat practical and being my own person may sound boring and nondescript, but the reality of it is that succumbing to somebody Else's social structure is a marionettes string away from being the puppeteers main attraction. Think, live , breathe and exist in your own space for crissakes. a label will never determine who you are, but could show others how hard you are trying to not be the real you. When others start paying my mortgage , then i will care about their opinion, til then, keep trying to find the real YOU!

The Same

Driving back from lunch the other day I noticed a group of 4 teenage boys riding BMX bikes, all the same type, same seat height, the boys were roughly the same size and were all wearing the same colored black baseball hats. I was at a Red Light and sitting there watching this all transpire, the boy stopped after the crossed the street and were yucking it up and laughing at each others witty banter, just kids during summer with nothing else to do but be kids,, yet they all looked the same with no regard to individualism just stuck on whats hip and cool and looking like 4 twin brothers with very little fashion imagination! After the light changed to green I drove by them and tried to snap a picture to add to this piece but could not snap it off before being obscured by other passing cars. So the day went on drove back to work and finished the workday. As I was driving home and hitting the road I saw another group of 4 teenage boys, about the same age as the boys on bikes but obviously different kids altogether on skateboards, all wearing black beanies, black pants and some skater t-shirts in roughly the same shade of clothing and sharing the same demeanor of coolness and carefree lifestyle and enjoying the summer sun as they legged out distance on the streets and sidewalks . Again the young culture all wearing what skaters or BMX-ers wear totally disregarding free expression of any color, or freelancing whatsoever and all store bought and overpaid at some local skate shop. But seems sad or different to me that here the youth of our time lacks any imagination or freedom to express themselves at all. Times that make our kids conform to uniformity and to fit in is so important that is seems that it has left the Young devoid of any self expression whatsoever unless it status quo and keeping up with their buddies in everything that they wear, they do and represent. Too damn strange and I witnessed it all in the same day!!

Gun Control WTF

Why is Gun control still an issue, the right to bear arms is as old as this country if not older. Yet more nut jobs are trying to make it harder or sometimes impossible for law abiding citizens to purchase guns and ammunition. I as a law abiding citizen feel appalled hat if I so choose to own guns and ammo I get treated like a terrorist and criminal for trying to do so? Why the paranoia ?but some of our politicians still think that legal, good standing Americans can and will go berserker and do something retarded, I mean technically we all have that capacity right? But still here I stand an American citizen with great standing in my community who owns firearms, , legally!!!!But times are different now and the rules have changed since 9-11 and since the crime rates and gang terror has elevated to record numbers. Hey the bottom line is ,K can buy a gun, legal or otherwise in 20 minutes, that is the reality of it all, I can!!! Well with that being said So too can the criminals, the criminals that aren't going to the gun shops and filling out the paperwork , and background check, they wouldn't be able to buy guns this was so they usurp the system and buy them the same way that meth addicts buy their drugs, corner store drug store, no, corner store drug addict! much the same as guns are purchased from street arms dealers where a new or great gun can be purchased for 2-500 dollars easily with no paperwork or background check. Look the bottom line is this faux protection plan to protect Americans against criminals by making it more difficult to buy guns is hurting the people it is intended to help, the law abiding citizens. The criminals are essentially immune from this interrogation as they can and do get unmarked, unregistered handguns and firearms. The problem I have is that the Govt that tells us that gun control is the answer and the outdated methodology only hurts and hinders those people such as myself who would never use a firearm unless It was a matter of self preservation, but yet we go out in this cruel world and be subjected to people who do not share the same moral fabric that I and 98% percent of Americans hold true. We then become the victims to carjackings, robberies, rapings and muggings most held at gunpoint or weapons of some sort and none of these damn weapons are legal or registered . So the victims once again are the law abiders' who don't carry guns on their person as they are not going to use them for anything other than home protection or target shooting,sport shooting but shooting at another human being is never the objected target for this 98% . that 2 % that does miss use is now housed and paid for by us, The Taxpayers of USA in the forms of Prison sentences and better health care than most Americans can get today. If I were a criminal, I would definitely think twice if I didn't know the car, or person I was about to Rob had a firearm or weapon on their person, like the old West, the fight would be fair but NO! We imprison the scum, reform them and send them back into Society for a second chance to get away with the crime this time, Prisons are no reformatories, they are Criminal schools of higher learning to teach hatred and pain and misery to be bestowed on as many honest people as possible! Justice is a magazine clip away, but we are the hindered and we are the perceived ill for wanting to have a fighting chance.

Keeping it real!

I have lived my entire life as a person who always tries to do the right thing, tries to be a good Husband, son, Brother and friend to all. Hopefully i have succeeded more than failed in this dept. ,but the one thing that i can truly say is that I am the extreme realist, always have been always will be and have at times been deemed"negative". that in itself usually gets me going and I point towards the world today, the topics that drive us and keep our attention. Things like Michael Jacksons death and the fact that we still sensationalize this pedophiles life and death as real news, it's not, Jobs and mortgage payments are real life trajedies but we as americans live in that social unrealistic bubble and want to stay there! Move the hell on with it, the we have the damn Reality shows which are anything but heavily scripted bullshit, American Idol, survivor, americas got talent is just a dose of the dumbing down of our American culture as a whole. Oh shit,Paula Abdul doesn't want to come back because she won't make 20 million to sit there in here drugged out state and make slurred ridiculous comments, Fuck! like this bitch had any talent back in the day and has even less now, woo hoo she could dance a little, so could michael and look where his dunmbass ended up..... Worm fucking Food! she is on that overdose path as well...I hope. But aside from the ridiculous programming on the tube which I can't watch anything but Documentaries , the food channel ,or sports anymore, I am really saddened for the youth off our present and their futures. what do they have to draw upon for real guidance, all they know is cell phone, myspace ,facebook and the inability to be able to construct a real sentence because they text their way thru life. Then they expect the world to be handed to them lacking any real work ethic or true understanding of the word "work" I guess watching Cribs, or the" real world" or Kardashians doesn't show that in its' episodes so they won't learn reality there, or from their parents whom they rarely speak to anyway nor listen do when they do. We as Parents need to step it up and make sure that we let our kids fall and preach to them the trial of their paths of inactivity and unrealistic views, and for goddamn sake, quit trying to be your kids' best friends and say NO on occasion , it Will serve you better and them better in the end. but we owe them 18 years of our best so that the following 60-70 of their lives they can blame us for anyway. So as i look out to the world, i see a huge cartoon and burlesque show of ridiculous unabashed lack of awareness and understanding for what is real and what it worthy of our time and efforts! Sometimes i try to establish a rationale that times are different and times are harder for kids, but as i see it the choices are more the lack of imagination is higher and technology has made our young lazy and inept at acting on their own and making rational decisions based cause and affect and taking ownership of their lives and becoming accountable for their own successes! But if, "ifs and buts were candy and nuts ,we'd all own our own candy store. Time for us to stop the dream ,and start making it a reality, a reality which requires a sense of grounding that most of us do not have the potential to adhere to. Every problem has a solution, every problem is a lesson waiting to be learned. Some problems may be a tasks we don't want to deal with , differentiating this is the magic key!!!! Keeping it all real takes some of the managable variables out of the equation! Good Luck and Good Mental health

Thoughts A Plenty

Things are going very well in my life, things generally do! I guess I try to avoid drama at all costs and that has made my life a better place to be. I've already done the major bullshit in my life and made the major mistakes already, having learned from them as a 46 yr old dude who never wants to grow up. I guess I really have trouble finding flowery or overly positive things to talk about, My life is one positive asset that I try to keep to myself in a sense and don't like to brag other than the fact that I do live a very good, happy lifestyle! That being said I surround myself with purely positive people and try to interject the same in return. I don't like to always be a negative Gus but so much around this world pisses me off, I try to put a positive twist on things but my opinion always gets in the way, I always expect others to see the Forest thru the trees and get thru the hangups that life throws at us sometimes. As I may have previously mentioned I am the oldest person in my crew of friends, most of which are my sportbike riding friends that all gather as many times as possible, most living in the Greater LA area ,I'm 70 miles away from my friends but we always seem to get it together for rides or for desert action on Quads and trucks. Again I am so very fortunate to have an incredible family and friends and we share so much goodness and great times doing so many various things, it's amazing. I have been watching a lot of Food network lately, as a matter of fact I'm blogging here as I watch the Iron chef and take mental notes on food and flavor profiles I always take away something from it and utilize it on the next home cooked meal ...somehow i always do. Made oatmeal for the first time in m life and thought it was out of this world, must have been the natural vanilla bean from mexico, and the dash of cinnamon and brown sugar added to the boiling water then carefully added the oats , damn tasty. But as I said I' always open to new things and always open to improve upon preexisting things in my life, so Im always open to anything at anytime, this I feel keeps me young. I really do enjoy this Blog and my Twitter, it allows me a shot at being a self venting machine to use as an outlet and it makes me feel better, kinda like a best friends shoulder that is always there, this is an outlet that is always here for me and my thoughts and ideas are always on , well the ones that I want to share the really good stuff is in the personal space vault and sealed for whenever. My head is so abstract and yet so simple , things are always open ans shut ,or so they seem to me,I guess I'm searching for that open mindedness everywhere ,where the solutions to a problem are but one thought away from closure, but thats me and my thought process, can't say that I'd understand my angle if I were looking from the outside looking in at myself. But damn, i try to be respectful, and understanding and tolerant of others ' difference ,It just seems to be getting harder the older and wider I think I get?? Well that there is always up for discussion but either way I am probably a quick quip away from a headshake and a Fuck You from somebody somewhere ! But pleasing anybody is never the first thing on my lifes' Docket, just the ones that i love , and they allow me a certain leeway that most people would consider being Spoiled, I do , therefore I am! Good night , Iron chef judgement awaits!!! Night All !!!