Here is in part a list of my personal history:
- My first job was in, Francoist Spain in 1958, shining shoes at local cantina (yes, I have film to prove it).
- Began studying guitar in 1962 from a classical guitarist.
- Took lessons in tap dancing and acrobatics for a short while in 4th grade.
- I landed my first light plane in eighth grade at Tacoma Industrial Airport, a two point landing.
- I studied Evelyn Wood's Reading Dynamics in 8th grade and again when I was in the Air Force in Spokane. I was in a few TV commercials in 1969. My mother even got to do a radio commercial for it. I got my reading skills up to 20,000 words per minute, with 80% comprehension (up from 280 wpm and 68% comprehension). I stopped doing this because I was reading fiction too quickly and I prefer to savor a good story over a few days or at times, as long as possible. However, the training was invaluable. I took the class again when I was in the Air Force as I have a letter saying I will get it free in Washington state for the rest of my life.
- Over the years I have studied several forms of Martial Arts, including: various forms of Karate, Aikido, combat shooting, sharpshooting, and foil fencing. Initially, I studied Isshinryu (one heart/one mind) Karate (empty hand), an Okinawan style under 10th Dan (Degree) black belt (red in color, actually), Steve Armstrong Sensei at his 54th and South Tacoma Way dojo. He was a one time Marine Drill Instructor who studied in Okinawa under the auspices of master and creator, Tatsuo Shimibuku (who came to the Tacoma dojo just previous to my starting classes so I missed meeting him). I have always believed the phrase, "Martial Arts" is an all encompassing thing, not just hand to hand fighting skills. Or I should say, "Fighting Skills" can include full warfare, espionage, and in many ways, simply making it in the world. Though I must now say, Aikido's O'Sensei had the right idea.
- I briefly studied under Yao Mun Nomad style founder, Ed Lewis (who originally studied along with me under Sensei Armstrong, starting classes one month after I began). Ed is now a Private Investigator in Tacoma. He had been head of security at Western State Hospital and has written a book about the experiences. Ironically, when the security team was needed, usually to restrain an out of control mental inmate, the public address system at the large hospital in Steilacoom , Washington would announce, "Calling Mr. Armstrong!".
- My current preferred M.A. form and Life-belief is Aikido. My original Sensei for Aikido was a tiny Japanese woman who learned Aikido from a man who learned it from the founder, Morihei Ueshiba, known as "O Sensei". She taught at Ft. Steilacoom Community College (now Pierce college, in Steilacoom (across the street from Western State Hospital) when I attended the college in 1980-82.
- My current dojo is Kitsap Aikido where I am on the board of directors of the non-profit school.
- I used to compete (Kata and Kumete) in the Pacific Northwest (Bremerton, Tacoma, Seattle International Open Karate Championships, etc.) Karate Tournaments back in the late 1960's. Although I never received more than a blue belt in Isshinryu, I have studied Martial Arts all my life. I stopped accepting belt ranks (shortly after I received my blue belt), for personal reasons related to a backlash against the American Belt Ranking System and competitive Martial Arts pursuits. When thy started giving out black belts to five year olds, belts lost their meaning for me. I gave up fighting in tournaments shortly after a friend and fellow Karate-ka, Chris Patiao slipped on his own blood in kumete at a Tacoma tournament and received a concussion. Eventually, some years later, safety become more of a concern.
- I received my letter in sports at Tacoma's Lincoln High on their School Rifle Team. My first firearms training began back in eighth grade on a private rifle team highly recommended by the Tacoma Police department.
- I practiced LSAR (Land Search and Rescue) techniques while a Flight Commander in the Civil Air Patrol while in Junior High school which include among other things, cliff climbing, advanced first aid, base support (of teams and search planes), communications, and other general LSAR techniques.
- I received my NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors) certification in 1971 for SCUBA. And as we all know, SCUBA (now so well known that the capitals are frequently dropped and just written as scuba) which means: Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. I learned from one of the developers (Bert Thomas) that helped develop it along with Jacques Yves Cousteau. Bill's Boathouse Dive Shop on American Lake in Steilacoom, Washington came to our high school at Lincoln to run a test class to see if teaching at high schools was viable. Class was around forty people including students and teachers. Bert died many years ago, trying to save the life of a student during an open salt water dive when the student swam hard for the surface. Bill went after him to stop the kid who suddenly stopped. Bill was a big guy and couldn't slow his progress. They couldn't get him to a recompression chamber in time to save his life. He was a great big jolly old guy and had been an old time hard hat (deep sea) diver. I received 71 hours of instruction from him and his instructors, nearly twice what most people get taught nowadays.
- My first parachute jump was in 1973, when I was seventeen. I quit jumping after a minor, but painful diving accident where I had to argue wholeheartedly with my parachute to open in what is called a "cigarette roll function" (malfunction), a compression type twist in the canopy that doesn't allow the chute to open once deployed. I got it open but then landed hard at an odd angle. I walked away but had trouble walking correctly for the next two weeks..
- I became a USAF certified Parachute Rigger and Rubbergear Specialist/Survival Equipment Technician in 1976. I had a Secret level clearance for working on Nuclear weapons systems, with an HRP/PRP rating (this required for me to to my job on the flightline and at the alert facility, that I knew my job, had the clearance, and a partner who also knew my job). I left the service as a Buck Sergeant (E4) by which time I had received several awards, certificates, a Good Conduct Medal and a retention offer that I respectfully declined to instead acquire a college degree and perhaps, one day become a writer. I was accepted into the OSI right at the end of my enlistment and finally decided on college instead.
- I received an "early out" from the Air Force to attend college. I eventually received a Bachelor of Arts and Letters from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington in Psychology with a minor in Creative Writing for Fiction, Play, Script and Screenplay writing.
- I worked off and on in personal protection services (as bodyguard) and was happily accepted into the OSI back in 1979, by the base OSI Commander, though I ended up turning them down in the end. What bodyguard work has to do with the OSI, though, I don't know; they don't carry firearms which, in knowing personally some of the guys they were after at that base, I thought was nuts. Acting as bodyguard included guarding a woman for a week who was being sought as witness to a murder committed by the Carbone Crime family in 1974 (which I'm writing a screenplay about), guarding a handicapped high roller after having flown into Spokane, Washington to bet on the horse races, and guarding my own mother and little brother (who was and did die of liver cancer in Manhattan, NY in 1975) while living in that city.
- The year I fulfilled my military contract, I sold all my firearms (I had dabbled a bit in "weapons speculation" (now retired) and reloading, and I bought a computer with the money from my weapons collection. Mostly it was my turning my back on going into espionage and the ill felling I got supporting a group in the military whose job it was to "melt cities" as we said. I'm fine with killing in war individually, or killing the enemy, but indiscriminately killing entire cities with innocents in them caused me some serious ethical dilemmas. I only got through my time in the military because my shop chief had told us just to focus on our supporting life saving issues in being parachute riggers and rubbergear specialists (for life rafts, environmental suits, thermal nuclear flash barrier curtains, etc.), The rest is history.
- I was a Cable TV Public Access Producer at Viacom Cable, in Seattle, WA for a while. This lead into my filming horse shows (as my wife was a horse trainer/riding instructor) for sale and at shows, as well as producing a 25th Anniversary documentary on the 1960's TV show, "Lost in Space". I also shot a phenomenology film for my Psychology professors at my university.
- I was the subject of an hour long BBC documentary about myself and my wife at the time (mother of my son) in 1990 to document a program in the psych department at the University of Washington. My wife ran one of the computer labs and I help out there as a volunteer on their computers and built environments to make using the systems easier. They had to hire artist types for the work and they weren't all savvy on PCs back then.
- I worked at the University of Washington Medical Center's Information Services department and wrote a word processing manual for them that almost got published by Digital Press and would have gone out with all their systems worldwide. Until they realized I was telling people how to bypass their bugs in their software which would stop you dead for hours at times. Years later I found that two hospitals (UWMC and HMC) were still using the manual and loved it.
- I have had many experiences in many other areas if my life, but modesty and prudence (and jurisprudence) and a paper I signed when I left the Military (now expired after 25 years), all kept me from going into more detail. Don't worry though, I plan to write a nonfiction book or screenplay about it all someday covering the many parts of my life that could be of interest to information, archival and police agencies.
- I published my first paid short horror fiction story in an east coast horror quarterly in 1990 for $28.
Wisdom that Life has bestowed upon me:
- We're a communal; species so we tend to want to keep things going. Those who fight against that for only themselves are few and far between actually. They also tend to take charge because sociopaths function well in leadership positions. So it skews how things look in reality and thus, people argue religion is needed or we will self destruct but really that is a disingenuous simplification because after all religion prefers the ignorant.
- When you borrow something from someone treat it like it is far more valuable than it is. Because, though it may not be to you, it may be to them, and if it isn't to them, they may find your treatment of it making you worthy in the future of even better treatment by them.
- Morals vs. Ethics - Morals relate to Religious Ethics. Ethics relate to a secular orientation.
- Jealousy vs. Envy - Jealousy has a sexual component to it. Envy has to do with desire without sexual elements.
- There's two things you need to know about me. If I ever say, "Anything you want", run. And, if you ever try to harm me, never put your hands on me. Don't even touch me.
