ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF...

Brief introduction, you'll get to know me as I ramp up posting and running off at the mouth... I'm 46 years old, in my lifetime I have lived in the ghetto, in the burbs, downtown, uptown, on the wrong side of the tracks, I've been homeless. I've lived on a Spruance-class destroyer, in a tiny apartment in Yokosuka, Japan, in a vacant warehouse, a van down by the river, a double-wide trailer, a big ol' house, a little ol' house, too many hotel rooms to count. Born and raised in Arvada, Colorado, called Arvada home base for 40 years, until I moved to Phoenix, AZ to marry my dream girl.

I've always had pretty cool jobs,I like working... I've done nearly every aspect of construction, from roofing, framing, drywall, plumbing, electrical, you name it. I spent quite a few years in the emergency construction/restoration business, coordinating and project managing disaster response on jobs ranging from a residential fire to Hurricane Katrina. I was a fireman for ten years, and was pretty good at it. Taught classes on the effects of fire on buildings and structural components, auto extrication, truck work, firefighter self-rescue, RIT operations and too many fire academies to count. I spent a few years as a project manager and operations manager for an environmental response company, overseeing all of the really hairy or high-profile gigs. Everything from a $5 million crude oil spill to a rolled over tanker full of ANFO (explosive slurry used for strip mining) to bio-hazard (suicides, crime scenes). Full disclosure, and more details to come later, I promise, one of my income generators during my misguided youth was the sale/distribution of various controlled substances and other criminal enterprises...

While my wrestling career in junior high and high school was mediocre at best (in five years of wrestling, I wrestled about 7 varsity matches (filling in for sick or injured varsity guys) and amassed a final record in the neighborhood of 20 wins, 60 losses, lol...  I wasn't focused, I wasn't dedicated, I just went figuring it would help me be a better fighter, since I averaged a fight every couple of weeks.  I'd say I was bullied, but I had a demeanor, look and mouth the engendered the ire of the "cool guys" and "jocks", so it was mostly mutual...  Fast forward to 2020, and you have a guy who's a wrestling coach, been a DIE-HARD fan of MMA from the very first UFC, and spent almost 20 years as a bouncer in some very interesting places.  So you'll see plenty of content on this blog about combat sports, anecdotes from my bouncing career, and opinions on the value of being able to fight, when to fight, and what I try to teach my son and other young men about having a fighter's mindset in life... 

 I'm a lover of music, with wide-ranging but strongly opinionated tastes. Elvis? Hell yes. NWA? Yep. Thrash metal? All metal? Horns up sucker! Merle Haggard, Avril Lavigne, Agnostic Front, EDM, the Rolling Stones... Luke Bryant ain't country. Rappers who wear sweater vests or dress like Jake from State Farm ain't gangster. 

I have been a military history dork since I was a youngster. When everybody else was writing book reports on Judy Bloom books in 4th grade, I was writing book reports and essays on the Battle of Leyte Gulf and Erwin Rommel. I have a tattoo of the P-51D Mustang on my bicep, because it's the most beautiful thing ever created at the hands of man. I play the mobile version of World of Warships religiously, and run a two-fleet Armada called USN Armada. Anything related to military history from WWII to the present gets me going... 

I am a hard-right, Constitutional Conservative. I have strong opinions on what's great about this country and what's really, really, wrong. Our culture in America is broken, and I fear that without a course correction to steer us back to the basic foundation of faith, morality and American Exceptionalism, we risk handing our children a nation that looks nothing like the one our Founding Fathers intended. There will likely be a lot of posts on this subject, as I am starting this blog in the midst of the greatest societal upheaval this country has seen since the Vietnam-era protests (although today's "protests" look like they will potentially engender a far more damaging cultural shift as they attack the very fabric of what has made this country great while claiming they do it in the name of social justice). 

Most importantly, and hardest to walk out every day, is my identity as a follower of Jesus Christ. That He looked at all of us and our affinity for sin, knowing that even after He was nailed to that cross, we would continue to sin and STILL gave His life to redeem us is beyond my comprehension. I am a youth leader at my church, with anywhere between 15-40 middle and high schoolers on any given night. They love me, and trust me, because I am always honest about my failures and bad choices in my past. I am thankful every day for the love and protection of my God, and for everything He has given to me, taken from me, and taught me. If you do not know Jesus Christ, but would like to, I relish the opportunity to share The Good News with you, just ask! 

So that's the abridged version of who I am and what I do. You can generally count on this blog to be populated by posts related to everything you just read, hope you enjoy what is to come, I'm looking forward to sharing my heart, my opinions and a bunch of history with complete strangers on the interwebz. 

Caution: May cause severe allergic reactions in those who support or espouse any leftist/Communist/Socialist/ANTIFA/anti-Christian ideologies. Reactions include, but are not limited to, hives, nausea, headaches, uncontrollable tears, incomprehensible screaming, Trump-derangement Syndrome, tearing up mom's basement in a rage, incontinence. Please consult your physician or your holistic shaman/healer/mid-wife/hippie neighbor for essential oils and incense if you experience any of these symptoms. It won't help, as a lobotomy is the only medically effective way to treat the underlying disorders associated with this condition. See y'all out there!