Category Archives: Writing

Star Wars Costumes circa 1978

Posted on April 23, 2014 | 7 comments

Star_Wars_photoThis picture of me and my friends was taken in front of Henrico Theater in July of 1978 (that’s me on the far right, dressed as Han Solo).  In those days they had not invented the word “cosplay.”  We just knew that we really liked Star Wars.

 

 

 

 

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Hey Tammie, Jordan, G.E.G., Andrew, Joy…

Posted on April 22, 2014 | 2 comments

wpid-IMG_20140326_150737.jpgSo last week I gave all 200 of you — my loyal blog followers — a reason and a place to fly your flag.  And what did I get?  Crickets chirping.

This goes out to Eli, Rachel (all three of you), Rachael (had to be different, didn’t you?), Andrew, Jordan, Jayde-Ashe, Ekaterina, G.E. Gallas, Tammie, Joy, and all the rest of you creative blog-rats:

In the comments below, regale us with tales of your creative output over the last 12 months. 

Come on people!  Strut the runway, take the podium, steal the spotlight, snatch the mic, streak the stadium, bomb the photo.

Tammie and Eli, tell us how many words you wrote.  Joy, Andrew, tell us how many hours you spent training in martial arts.  G.E., how many drawings have you done?  Look, you might not get a chance to get on Letterman before he retires, so this is your chance to steal the spotlight for minute.

And….go!

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Graffiti Art Wanted

Posted on April 20, 2014 | Leave a comment

A wicked piece of graffit — unattributed — found on richmond.com

I’m in the process of shooting pictures for my upcoming calisthenics book, and I’d like to take some of the illustrative photos with really striking graffiti art in the background.  If you are a graffiti artist working in the Richmond, VA area, and you’re willing to point me to where I can find your art and allow the photos to appear in my book, please get in touch.  No cash, attribution only, but I will give full credit and include links to your website, blog, etc.

 

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What’s your CQ? Tell the World Here!

Posted on April 15, 2014 | 1 comment

Sorry, trick question.  There’s no such thing as a true “Creativity Quotient” that can be measured in the same way as IQ. But you can ask yourself what you’ve done in the last year or so that is truly creative.

What have you contributed to the flow of human creativity in the last 12 months?

Go ahead and brag.   In the comments below, shamelessly show off, promote what you’ve done, and generally prance across the stage.  We’re waiting!

What the heck, I’ll go first.  In the last twelve months I have:

  • Finished the 83,000 word rough draft of The 14th Mansion, the third and final novel in the Montenegro Cycle — coming soon! — and earned a 4-out-of-five-star review for Ghilan on B&N
  • Started the PTDICE (c) website and marketed two new products
  • Completed a spiritual and artistic How-To Book involving 21 meditations and 21 acrylic paintings (currently being shopped to publishers)
  • Written 11 short stories totaling almost 40,000 words
  • Seen my eBooks get downloaded 2,504 times and reduced by body fat by 4%.  Okay, neither of those is exactly creative, but since we’re bragging, I couldn’t help myself…

It’s easy for creative, driven people to get frustrated when their creativity doesn’t get much recognition and/or earn much cold hard cash.  So go ahead, self-promote, get a little recognition.  I’ll applaud you.  I’ll be that one guy in the back of the room who claps.

PTDICE — over 8 million random calisthenics workouts!
Check out our first product at PTDICE.com

 

 

 

 

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Training for the Unexpected

Posted on April 6, 2014 | 2 comments
How do you put a million random workouts in the palm of your hand? You buy these little beauties from PTDICE.com.

How do you put a million random workouts in the palm of your hand? You buy these little beauties from PTDICE.com. These are high quality, laser etched, 16mm plastic dice made in the U.S.A.

Are you a martial artist looking to train for the unexpected?

An adventure racer, mud runner, or obstacle course enthusiast who wants to be ready for whatever a course throws your way?

A fitness or martial arts instructor who is out of ideas for calisthenics routines, or just wants an extra resource?

Or maybe you work out at home and you’re looking for some variety?

If so, check out these beauties.

Roll the black dice to arrive at the workout type, number of exercises, and number of sets.  Use the colored dice to arrive at your list of exercises.  Then make a quick calculation using your SSM (“Single Set Max”) to figure your reps per set, and you’re ready to sweat.  The instructions are short and sweet and easily committed to memory.  Use these dice a few times and you won’t even need the instructions.

Roll.  Sweat.  Repeat.

In time you’ll find other ways to use them.  They are ripe for experimentation, a virtual playground for geeks who love exercise (like me).

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Flying Kites

Posted on March 27, 2014 | Leave a comment
Looking over my son's shoulder at a kite in flight

Looking over my son’s shoulder at a kite in flight

My memory is a little fuzzy, but I must have been eight or nine years old at the time.  My Dad was a fan of kites, and he got me excited about my first flight.  We talked about it, planned for it, and I got excited.  But when he brought home a box kite, I remember throwing a fit and saying I wanted a “real” kite, the diamond-shaped kind.  I ruined that experience for him by being a little brat.  And as ridiculous as it may sound, though I’m a grown up now with kids and grand-kids, I still feel guilty about being a little turd that day over 40 years ago.

That old kite got rolled up and put away, and there it stayed until my childhood home had to be emptied for rental.  That was three years ago.  Pop had passed, Mom was moving to the old folk’s home, and everything had to go.   Clearing out the junk from in the back of a closet, I found it standing there and I couldn’t throw it away.  Along with it I found several other kites that my father had purchased with the hope of flying them with his kids, grand-kids, and great-grand-kids.  I put them all aside and waited for for the right time.

wpid-IMG_20140326_150737.jpgYesterday I got them all out.  Although the old box kite turned out to be too old and damaged to be flown, the other kites were in fine shape.  They say I’m a wordsmith, but there just aren’t any words to express how much fun it was to spend an hour or so flying kites with my son and grandsons, to stand in the sun and pass down the simple joy of watching a kite soar into the sky at the end of a piece of string.

wpid-IMG_20140326_154048.jpgIn an hour or so they are leaving for Japan for an extended stay of several years.  These are the kinds of memories that keep you going when times are tough, that keep people connected across the miles, the kind of experiences that, no matter how hard the winds of the day-to-day may blow, keep you tethered to what’s really important in life.

 

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Tires for Fitness eBooklet Now Available

Posted on March 23, 2014 | Leave a comment
Check out our first product at PTDICE.com

Check out our first product at PTDICE.com

Our first product is now available for sale at PTDICE.com.  Check it out.

Written by yours truly and starring my son Robert, it’s an eBooklet (18 pages fully illustrated with color photos)  called “Tires: Auto Tires for Solo and Group Fitness.”

We’ve spent years playing with auto tires at my martial arts club.  Wouldn’t you like to see which exercises are the best, how to find and select tires, how to clean them, and how to use them?

 

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Specialization

Posted on March 14, 2014 | Leave a comment
Specialization

Yes, I made one of those tacky pictures with the words on top. So sue me.

I love this quote, and I’ve always fantasized that I could someday be that Renaissance Man in the mold of Jefferson, Melville, or London.

On the other hand, I understand that specialization is necessary.  Another one of my favorite quotes is the old maxim, “To find water, dig one well.”

Sometimes wisdom doesn’t make any sense.  Like a Zen koan, the truth is between the tension of opposites.

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WWI Combatives and Wrestling — Starring my Grandpa

Posted on March 9, 2014 | 4 comments

Update 1/5/20:  My club still uses the flag but we’re now called Cabal Fang Temple, and we’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational charity.  Visit our website or purchase our 12-week personal growth program at Smashwords, Amazon, B&N, or wherever fine e-books are sold.

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Forrest J. Mitchell Jr. in his WWI uniform
B. 01-Sept-1895 – D. 25-Mar-1953

Yesterday, while helping my mother go through some old pictures, I found some amazing shots of my grandfather’s training during World War I.  The thing I noticed right away was that they solved the outdoor wrestling problem — too much dirt and not enough mats — the same we do at my martial arts club.  But I digress.  More on that later.

My grandfather was Forrest J. Mitchell Jr.    He served in the Army during World War I, joining the day after the war started on April 7, 1917. He was with Battery A, 111th Field Artillery, 29th Division and stationed at Camp McClellan, Anniston Alabama, and Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.

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See Grandpa there on the far left? Somebody circled his face and drew an arrow.

I have no idea at which of the two training grounds these photos were taken.  He was shipped overseas from Camp Upton, Long Island, New York, serving his time in France.

WWI_Wrestling2

Working the Body Scissors and trying to do something with that arm…

WWI_Wrestling1

Getting ready to pounce.

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Classic scramble for position. Looks like the man in the dark pants might be about to go for a leg attack of some sort.

As you can see by the three wrestling shots on the right, they just spread out a tarp on the ground and got to work, which is the same way we do at my club — the Order of Seven Hills.  It worked ninety-seven years ago and still works today.  Mats?  Who needs mats?

Looking at these photos gives me a feeling of connection to a man I never new.  Although he died eight years before I was born, here is another thing we could talk about if we could sit down together.  That and the art of wordsmithing of course, since he was the owner and editor of a newspaper in Clarksville, VA and I’m a writer.  It’s fun to see we have some things in common and have had some shared experiences, even if they’re small.  I like to think he’d be proud of me if he got to know me.

Just to give you an idea of just what combat training was like in 1917, take a gander at the montages below.  World War I was so steampunk.  On the one hand you have men wrestling, riding around on horseback and in wagons, and wearing their Smokey the Bear hats.  On the other hand, you know that they had poison gas, machine guns, primitive submarines, those freaky rhomboid-looking tanks, and bi-planes (there’s one in the second montage).  You just can’t make this stuff up.

Anyways, rest in peace Grandpa.  It’s nice getting to know you, even if it’s just a

EPSON MFP image

Check out the human pyramid on the upper right!

little bit and from far away.

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Horses? Bi-planes? Wagons? Less than a hundred years ago and now we’re using drones.

WWI_Montage1

Is the picture on the center-right over-exposed, or are they standing in snow? Looks like they’re wearing fur-topped boots…

EPSON MFP image

Letter to Grandpa from General Pershing

 

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What are PTDICE and where can I get some?

Posted on March 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

PT1mockupOver at the PTDICE (c)  website we now have a mailing list option if you want to be notified when products are in stock.  You can also go check out the mockups and prototypes and whatnot, as well as find out how they work, what they’re for, and all that good stuff.

Bottom line:  PTDICE put a million random workouts in the palm of your hand, and can be used to create a new workout in seconds.

 

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