Race for the Fallen Video - Part 1

Before you watch the video, I´d like to tell you about and thank Paul Petzrick, who edited this video. Paul and I served together for nearly 8 months during the invasion of Iraq. Through his actions, he demonstrated why the members of our military are the greatest in the world. During our tour, he never let me down when I trusted him with my life, brightened the mood when times were tough and displayed a type of generosity that can serve as an example to all.

During the invasion, we had been starving for a week because our supply lines could not keep up with our rapid advance. When I ran out of food, Paul insisted that I have part of his last ration and forced me to take some of his meal. Thankfully, we were resupplied soon after but I can never forget the altruism and generosity he displayed on my behalf while we were both starving. Though his action was exceptional, it is commonplace among the ranks of our military. Unfortunately, many combat veterans return from deployments and end up on our streets. If you display even a fraction of the generosity Paul has, who gave me so much when he had so little, then we can all eradicate homelessness among our veterans together. Please donate and support my cause by clicking on Race for the Fallen. Thank you and enjoy.

Happy 233rd Birthday US Marines! Semper Fi!



If you are having trouble viewing, please click here

Mile Stone

This past Friday, I swam a mile for the first time in my life! For the past month, I have been fastidiously working on my swimming form by following the drills in the book, Total Immersion, by Terry Laughlin. I highly recommend this book because I am now able to swim a length of a pool (25 yards) in 11 strokes while still swimming faster than everyone around me. Also, I wasn´t even sore the next day.

The most valuable lesson I have learned from this is that working efficiently towards a goal is as important as, if not more important than working hard towards it. Imagine the possibilities if you combine working hard and smart. There´s not much that can stop you then!

Feelings, They are for Everybody

As I have mentioned before, by falling off my bike, I injured my hip by landing on it while heroically maneuvering (with cat-like reflexes) Bucephalus (my bike) to prevent serious bodily harm to an idiot pedestrian who wasn´t watching where he was going. I pretty much sacrificed 3 days of limping for his 3 years of hospital checkups and rehabilitation AFTER he awakens from a year-long coma. You would think that I would get an award for my heroics; however, I was less than pleased to receive this insensitive email from an anonymous friend (we´ll just use a generic-sounding name to identify her, say first name Emily last name Chang).

"ahahahaha, I can't stop laughing at your hip story, ahahahaha, you sound like an 80 year old. and you're training for ironman? dude, man up. ahaha."

This reminds me of when people say, "Let me get you a straw so you can suck it up, Marine!" or "You´re a Marine aka a robot, you don´t feel pain!" The fact of the matter is, that though we may be superhuman, the super part is only a prefix, we´re still human and we do feel pain. So Marines, Ironpeople (being politically correct here) and Care Bears alike, we all have feelings that need to be taken into account. I hope all who read this takes this lesson to heart and helps spread the love rather than the hate (which I was recently confronted with).



PS - I promise it´d make me feel better if you donated to my fundraiser for which I am updating this blog. To read more about it click here.

Lost in Translation

I was talking in Spanish to my coworker, David, and his friend, Ismael, and I told them that I went clubbing more or less every weekend while living in New York. They misunderstood me and thought that I went to STRIP CLUBS every weekend. I´m not sure if I went up or down in their books after they found out the truth, but I concluded that I need to improve my Spanish.

Ecuador Picture Update

It´s been a while since I`ve given people at home a peek into what I`ve been up to in this beautiful country. Please see below for an update.

I attended a traditional performance by people from Loja, a city in Ecuador at the nicest theater in the country.



This is a picture of the performers, I know it´s kind of blurry (and by kind of I mean really) but it gives you an idea.





This is a picture of my new wingman. We´re being really sly while checking a girl out to our right (he´s pointing at her with his left trigger finger).



I also went to the national game against Chile in which we won 1-0.



Nobody can accuse me of being a fair-weather fan since I sat in the rain for nearly 3 hours while watching and cheering for the good guys!



This past weekend, I made the trip to Quilotoa where we hiked around the rim of the volcano for 5 hours (not fun, though beautiful).













With regards to training, it is no joke. The level of oxygen here will humble anybody at first. 3 days after I got here, I ran for a short distance and I have never felt so horribly after a run in my life. It was also probably at half speed of what I usually run. In addition, I am out for the next few days because I injured my hip. I was biking to work today and a stupid pedestrian didn´t watch where he was going and I took a fall on my hip.

This is a picture of me and my bike, Bucephalus, who is true to his name and a mighty steed indeed. I obtained the rainbow scarf at the Loja show. The rainbow does not mean what it means in the States. Rather, it represents the indigenous peoples of Ecuador. Since I´m pretty much indigenous now, I thought it would be a great safety measure while biking in the busy streets of Quito. Obviously it didn´t do its job since Idioto Numero Uno couldn´t see it.



My swim workouts have been a little uncomfortable. I was abruptly stopped when I tried to go swimming in my normal trunks because they were not allowed. They told me that I had to buy one of their smaller, tighter pairs and since I was so determined to go swimming that day, I obliged. Let´s just say I´m a little more streamlined when I swim these days...



Until next time...

Fundamental Issue Regarding America

I was recently watching a movie in which there was an underdog hero who trains very hard to reach a certain goal. This movie got me thinking. If there were more than a 5 minute segment of the hero´s workout regimen (inspirational music and all) that accurately portrayed the acute pain on the days after a workout, the strict discipline in performing mundane drills and tasks, the huge time commitment and all the other sacrifices necessary to reach the level of success, that we´d have to see products like this on our shelves?



We are better than this America!

My First Week in Ecuador - A Pictorial

Here´s a pictorial of my first week in my new country. I am amazed at a number of things such as how beautiful it is, how nice its people are, the diversity of it´s climates and at how few stares I am getting on the streets because I´m a gringo (maybe because the people are so nice).

One of the first things you notice on the flight into Quito is how close to the ground you are as you land. The airport is literally in the middle of the city and there are buildings right up until the runway. It´s a little unnerving if you didn´t know this (I didn´t know it but I wasn´t unnerved simply because I have nerves of steel and nothing scares me). This is a picture of an airplane from my street.



Of course, since Ecuador is a Spanish-speaking country, I´ve been spending some time studying the new language in my free time.



As with any new culture and environment, there are many new things to get used to, such as how dogs are above humans on the food chain.



Along the way, I´ve become a die-hard fan of Liga, the 2nd best soccer team in the world (after the South Korean National Team of course). This is a picture of my friend Pablo and me at the Liga/Boca (crappy Argentine team) game.



For my first weekend, I was invited to Cotopaxi National Park. We made camp at a place called Hacienda San Agustin de Callo (a not too shabby place).



A view of the courtyard from my room.



The first thing we did was to go on a hike to an area that had a great view of Cotopaxi.



Here, I´ve made it pretty clear where exactly Cotopaxi is located. Should you need further assistance, please click here.



While on the hike, we ran into some strange characters. See if you can figure out who the ass is (hint: the ass is looking at the non-ass).



Also along the way, I got so hungry that I couldn´t contain myself. I wasn´t sure if the berry was safe to eat, but at least the guide seemed to approve.



After the hike and some mountain biking, we went back to the hacienda to enjoy some nice scenery.









The next day, we went horsebackriding through a scenic route.





After the ride (and some urging and convincing), I consented to take up some Ultimate Fighting, Ecuadorian-style. Let´s just say only one of us made it out alive.



In my downtime I spent my time reading some books. I´ve taken a liking to Ayn Rand so on the first night I read The Fountainhead and then towards the end of the trip, Atlas Shrugged.



I only hope that the rest of my stay in Ecuador is as fun and as extraordinary as the past week has been.



I am updating this blog in order to raise awareness for my fundraiser¨"Race for the Fallen." Please visit the following link to support and read about why I am supporting this cause. Thank you.

Jericho Project - Race for the Fallen