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Archive for the ‘About Me’ Category

So, today I was watching an episode of the TV show “My Boys,” and they were talking about a list of 100 skills that every man should know. It’s my goal to accomplish all 100 in my life. All the items in red and crossed out are the ones that I have already accomplished.

Automotive

1. Handle a blowout
2. Drive in snow
3. Check trouble codes
4. Replace fan belt
5. Wax a car
6. Conquer an off-road obstacle
7. Use a stick welder
8. Hitch up a trailer
9. Jump start a car

Handling Emergencies

10. Perform the Heimlich
11. Reverse hypothermia
12. Perform hands-only CPR
13. Escape a sinking car

Home

14. Carve a turkey
15. Use a sewing machine
16. Put out a fire
17. Home brew beer
18. Remove bloodstains from fabric
19. Move heavy stuff
20. Grow food
21. Read an electric meter
22. Shovel the right way
23. Solder wire
24. Tape drywall
25. Split firewood
26. Replace a faucet washer
27. Mix concrete
28. Paint a straight line
29. Use a French knife
30. Prune bushes and small trees
31. Iron a shirt
32. Fix a toilet tank flapper
33. Change a single-pole switch
34. Fell a tree
35. Replace a broken windowpane
36. Set up a ladder, safely
37. Fix a faucet cartridge
38. Sweat copper tubing
39. Change a diaper
40. Grill with charcoal
41. Sew a button on a shirt
42. Fold a flag

Medical Myths

43. Treat frostbite
44. Treat a burn
45. Help a seizure victim
46. Treat a snakebite
47. Remove a tick

Military Know-How

48. Shine shoes
49. Make a drum-tight bed
50. Drop and give the perfect pushup

Outdoors

51. Run rapids in a canoe
52. Hang food in the wild
53. Skipper a boat
54. Shoot straight
55. Tackle steep drops on a mountain bike
56. Escape a rip current

Primitive Skills

57. Build a fire in the wilderness
58. Build a shelter
59. Find potable water

Surviving Extremes

60. Floods
61. Tornados
62. Cold
63. Heat
64. Lightning

Teach Your Kids (or someone elses)

65. Cast a line
66. Lend a hand
67. Change a tire
68. Throw a spiral
69. Fly a stunt kite
70. Drive a stick shift
71. Parallel park
72. Tie a bowline
73. Tie a necktie
74. Whittle
75. Ride a bike

Technology

76. Install a graphics card
77. Take the perfect portrait
78. Calibrate HDTV settings
79. Shoot a home movie
80. Ditch your hard drive

Master Key Workshop Tools (know how to correctly use)

81. Drill driver
82. Grease gun
83. Coolant hydrometer
84. Socket wrench
85. Test light
86. Brick trowel
87. Framing hammer
88. Wood chisel
89. Spade bit
90. Circular saw
91. Sledge hammer
92. Hacksaw
93. Torque wrench
94. Air wrench
95. Infrared thermometer
96. Sand blaster
97. Crosscut saw
98. Hand plane
99. Multimeter
100. Feeler gauges

31 left out of 100. Not bad if I do say so myself. Until next time.

Ciao Ciao,

Ry The Robot

I know that I’ve been trying to be more constant with my blog posting, but due to my hectic schedule and LOST, blogging on Tuesdays isn’t even on my mind. So, yeah try not to keep your hopes up about a substantial Tuesday post.

Ciao,

Ry The Robot

31. My wife is a bit… fluffy, but I like her more now than when she was skinny.

I hope that Jane doesn’t take this the wrong way. During my dating years I dated a variety of women. Looking back I was always more content with the relationships when my dating partner wasn’t a stick. I think it was because they never complained about their weight. Why is it that whenever there is a skinny girl she never feels that she is skinny enough? That is a torturous mind game that I am glad to be over with. Don’t get me wrong, Jane is HOT, but since she had to put on some baby weight she has never looked hotter. She will also have you know that she weighs less now that before she was pregnant. Life is Awesome!

32. My favorite swear word is Bastard.

Yup, that’s it.

33. I secretly love Journey, Foreigner, Styx, Rush, and Blue Oyster Cult.

I guess it’s not a secret anymore. What can I say the music moves me. Besides I dare anyone to not sing when one of the following songs come on: Don’t Stop Believing, Urgent, Come Sail Away, Limelight, and Don’t Fear The Reaper. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t rank as high as The Beatles, or Coheed and Cambria for me, but they are in my top 50. (More on my Top 50 later.)

34. I enjoy the smell of my feet.

This might gross some of my readers out, but I’m not about to pull any punches. I don’t understand it either. I mean I know they don’t always smell like roses, but they aren’t as bad as Jane makes them out to be.

35. I love making my wife laugh; it takes a bit, because she has a very German sense of humor.

I try to make Jane laugh at least once a day. Most of the time she gives me a look like, “Are you serious?” or “I can’t believe you just said/did that!” Most days I am successful. About once or twice a week I get a sincere belly laugh outta her. Now about this German sense of humor. Some of you know the high quality of comedy TV shows that we view. 90% of the time she wouldn’t even crack a smile. I’ll talk with Jane after the show and she’ll say, “Oh that was a funny episode.” Thank you for sympathy in understanding my confusion.

Hope you enjoyed the post,

Ciao Ciao,

Ry The Robot

I’ve been struggling since starting this blog, to write with any kind of consistency. Last month I was reading a friends blog and he seemed to find a wonderful solution. Kay The Hawaiian’s blog entry. The Solution is simple yet the follow through, for me at least will still prove difficult. The Strategy is as follows: have a dedicated subject for every day of the week, with a few tweaks to better fit my writing style.

Media Monday – I love to be entertained. Whether it’s by music, film, video games, books or pictures. I’m a sucker for it all, and today will be the day that I share my thought with you about one or more of these.

Dissertation Tuesday – I’m not writing a dissertation, but I have so many thoughts and idea about everything. This will be the day that I preach to you about anything and everything. A miscellaneous day if you will.

Website Wednesday – I don’t know about you but I have about 300 blogs that I normally sweep through everyday in my Google reader. I’ll find one or two of my favorite and share them with you this day.

My Life Thursday – a discussion on moments, interactions, and other events in my life.

Family Friday – Being a father, a husband, and a son, there are a ton of stories to share This will be my day to share with you more about what it’s like for me being a part of this family.

Free For All Saturday –This is definitely the one day of the week that anything can and does happen. Stay tuned to see what happens next.

Learning Sunday – As the saying goes, “You learn something new everyday.” This will be the day that I discuss what I’ve learned or what I’m trying to learn.

All these are my minimum requirements for a successful blog. Tomorrow is Monday. Tomorrow will be the first day of my new scheme. May the blogosphere gods help me stick to it.

Ciao Ciao,

Ry The Robot

I swear, like most of you I bet, that this decade has just flown by. It seems just like yesterday that I was a complete moron in high school trying to find my way, and next thing you know here I am. I am just so thankful in my life for all the ups and downs that have helped me to become this very handsome and extremely happy person I am today. I just hope that the next decade will be as good to me as the 2000-2009. Here are some of the highlights through the years that helped me get here.

2000

This is the year that started it all for me. I was 17-18, this is the year that I graduated high school, got my Eagle Scout award, and the year that I entered into the adult work force. I was in a very entertaining relationship with the one that I thought that I was going to be with for a long time. Obviously it’s over and I’m not sad about it. As you know I found “the one” and I currently have a biological token of our love. In fact that relationship helped me to better understand all my future relationships. But more about that later. Kind of a whirl wind year if you ask me.

2001

This year is when I consider that my adult life finally began. I got my dream job of working at Apple computer and that laid down the tracks for my post mission life and career. I received my mission call to serve the great people of Italy, and I was rearing to go.

2002 – 2003

I spent both of these years in Italy, helping with a great missionary effort. Sure I missed my family and friends, but if you ask me to trade it in to spend time with them I would tell you to, “sit on it.” I met some awesome people that share my core beliefs and we are still close friends today. I learned from these two years the importance of being out on my own. Working hard to survive and accomplish my goals in life. This helped me so much when I returned home from my mission, in adapting back to home life, and it really prepared me for married life, and relying on my partner, as she would have to rely on me.

2004

The year that I met and fell in love with Jane. Just a few short months after returning from Italy, I fell in love. Jane was a great help to me, and I am still so very glad to have her in my life. She helped me to realize quite a few goals, including starting my post high school education, and following a career path that I enjoy, which helped me get back to work at Apple.

2005

The biggest year of the decade to me. It was the year that Jane and I got married. After a year, and some months, I finally had the courage to ask Jane to marry me. I never thought that we could pull of a wedding in just 4 months but it is totally do able. I finally moved out of my parents house, which I still consider the biggest step of growing up. This year Jane and I were able to help each other. I helped her to progress in her career, by leaving the job that I dub the “Titanic,” and move over to the “Concord.” Which in the later half of 2008 was the key to us moving to North Carolina.

2006

This is the biggest year of ups and downs for me. I was out of work for 6 months and I got down into a very bad depression spiral. I felt as though my skills were something that could help every company that I sent my resume to, but I guessed wrong. It was a stressful situation all around. I was finally asked to come back to Apple, into my old group and old position. That made the second half better, until the saddest part of the year. I got a call one morning that my Daddio had a heart attack. He is doing better now, but that was a life changing experience to me. I realized that I have his genes, and that I need to keep an eye on my health too. He is doing great now, after making a lot of changes in his life. I’ve been trying to make similar changes but it’s tough.

2007

Nothing really remarkable happened this year. I was in school full time, and was maintaining a 3.85 GPA. Life was going pretty awesome.

2008

Other than getting our podcast started, nothing big happened this year, until Thanksgiving time. That’s when Karen’s boss asked her if she would like to move out to North Carolina to work out here. Obviously we said yes. But that was another whirl wind time. We had to pack and move our whole house by December 20th. That was one heck of an undertaking. Huge thanks to Brad, and Matt. Without their help the move would have been an Epic Fail. We landed and started our life in North Carolina on December 30th.

2009

Life in North Carolina. It’s been a trip and a dream all in one. There are pluses and minuses to everything, it took some adjusting to get used to it all. Now that we’ve lived here for almost a year. I don’t think that I’ll ever be moving back to California. I know that that is the place that I was born and that my heart is, but there is no way that I would ever willingly move back. It’s like they let the loonies run the funny farm.

Of course the best thing happened to me this year. I became a father. I believe that nothing in life is greater than having a child and being able to watch them grow up, learn, and live life. I told that to Daddio and he said, “Nope the greatest thing in life is to watch your kids have kids.”

Well that’s all for my Best of the Decade. Hope you enjoyed reading it, and I look forward to your comments. Look for a new podcast episode coming in January 2010.

Ciao,

Ry The Robot.