Not ALWAYS a desert dweller!

Now, just because I have spent a lot of time in the Southwest and speak so highly of the beauty of New Mexico and Arizona does NOT mean that I am all about the dry, arid climates! Attached are some pictures I have taken of some beautiful "beachy" spots I have enjoyed. From growing up in "America's Finest City" (known as San Diego, CA), to living a few years on Catalina Island, to a trip to Puerto Rico, I LOVE the ocean and life around the water! So enjoy some of these scenic pictures taken in some of the most beautiful locations I have visited. And I promise to see if I can dig up some old pictures of me with my long hair in my teenage years...! Yikes! I don't know if anyone would really want to see those! :) But I thought it would be fun (if I can find them!) to post some old pictures of beach trips from the early to mid- 1980's...

OH! and since time in the sun usually means a sunburn now and then, I have provided my favorite sunburn picture for you to see...

OH! (Part 2) If you look at the picture of Avalon Harbor and the houses looking down at the pier, you will see an apartment building circled in red. That is the apartment that we used to live in! Wow!...Still trying to remember WHY we left...! LOL :)

Talk soon!

Chuck Norris? Really? I mean, CHUCK NORRIS?!

Does anyone out there have a pre-teen boy that quotes odd, off the wall facts or claims of how awesome Chuck Norris is??? My son and his friends walk around our house spewing out things like, "There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris' computer. Chuck Norris is always in control" or "When the Boogieman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris" or "Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird". I had no idea what they were talking about and why the fascination with Chuck Norris all of a sudden. Well, I found out that these comments come from a website that my son found with his friends. The web site is called Chuck Norris Facts, and my son and I went onto the site the other day and I have to say...some of the things on there are down right hysterical! My favorite? I definitely have to say it is this nugget..."Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise". I guess all this interest in Chuck Norris just proves the old adage, "If you wait long enough, things come back in style"! :)

Ok..."Why the burning buildings?" you might ask...

The newly added videos onto YouTube are the continuing efforts of my son to make a movie. It is kind of a long story, but basically after bringing home a miniature building from a school project, father and son quickly saw the necessity to find a way to blow up this building. (OK, call it "male bonding"). But then we thought it would be fun to film the demolition of said building. Well, filming the demolition of the building naturally lead into using that footage for a movie! So we got the idea to make a movie with my son Daniel and a couple of his friends. And then some months ago we did some "Special Effects testing" by seeing if we could rig a model rocket launcher (electronic detonation source) to a sandwich bag full of gun powder to make a realistic flame up or "explosion". If you look at the old YouTube footage, you will see we had some trial and error but finally figured it out and ...Success! So this last weekend we went out (armed with our pyrotechnical knowledge base from out last experiment) performed the actual demolition. This time we combined sandwich bags of smokeless gun powder (current gun powder used for reloading modern firearms) and some black powder (gunpowder used in old muzzle loading firearms- produces more smoke and flame) and strategically taped the sandwich bags and "pellets" of black powder to different places along the back of the building. Then we used a string soaked in charcoal lighter fluid to ensure the flame caught on to all the "explosives". It was really feeling like the prep work for imploding a building! And the results? We have to say we were both pleased! And for those of you who may be concerned about safety (both fire safety and personal safety) we chose a dirt area devoid of brush that could catch fire, had plenty of water and a shovel just in case, and were safely removed from the ignition source. Hence the model rocket launcher- although the wires DID get a little melted! :)
AND a special THANK YOU to our friend Sharilyn for participating with us and helping us to film!!! You made it so much more fun by being there and only laughing at us, and not with us! :) You ROCK Sharilyn!!!

More Movie making fun!

For those of you who have been asking about the status of Daniel's movie making endevour...well, we had somewhat of an actor's strike! Actually Daniel and his buddies were so busy on summer vacation that no one really had time to do much. But we are still progressing forward! Special Effects for Daniel's movie project are on YouTube. In fact, if you click on the YouTube profile for "Roadkill07", you will see all of our videos! (Don't worry- there are no road kill pictures or video on there!) While you are on YouTube you can Subscribe to see when we update! And I would like to give a special THANK YOU to Sharilyn, who helped film today for the movie project. YOU ROCK Sharilyn! :) Talk soon!

Why "Mesilla"...?

For those of you who do not live in the Southwest or spent any time in New Mexico (or aren't up on your Cowboy history), I wanted to explain why the name "Mesilla Marksman". I do not claim to be an expert on history, but as my interest in the Southwest and New Mexico grew over the last 6 years, I discovered that the town of Mesilla New Mexico has a lot of history. From Billy the Kid being sentenced to be hung in 1881 at the local courthouse, to the nearby Fort Selden, where Douglas MacArthur spent some formative years as a young boy, there is a lot of history in this area. While I was a Sales representative for my company I used to drive all over the "Land of Enchantment" and this was one area I always enjoyed. The people were always nice and friendly, and the food was great! (If you are in the area you MUST eat at La Posta restaurant! I would recommend the sour cream green chili encheladas!) So when it came time to create an "alias" for SASS/CAS, I decided on this name to pay homage to a place with a rich cowboy history, and since my name is Mark and a "marksman" is a good shot, it all kind of fit! So, now you know a little bit more about why I chose the name that I did and you might have learned a little history! Talk soon!

The Roadkill Tracking is going away...

It is with deep sadness that I am announcing that my yahoo website is going away. Yes! I know this will be sad to some of you, and to others of you it won't mean a thing! But with recent increases in Yahoo monthly rates (yea, I was paying for that site!) and the fact that I do not drive all over God's creation any more not being in Sales any longer, I am going to be phasing out the website ( http://www.trackingroadkill.com/ ). But don't think I am giving up on roadkill all together! Notice the name of my blog...I will always have an affinity for the study and observance of all things dead along the roadside- especially while I live in the Southwest. I know it sounds odd, but the "Scientist blood" that I inherited from my father has created a curiosity factor about some things. (Yes, my dad was a consulting Micro-Paleontologist...He looked at teeeeny tiny little dead things under a microscope!). So roadkill will still impact my blog from time to time for those that desire to revisit that subject! Talk soon!

First SASS event!

Well, I finally did it! I finally "bit the bullet" and joined SASS and then joined the local group here in the Phoenix area (ACSA - Arizona Cowboy Shooter's Association). My son and I went to the local club shoot on Saturday and I played cowboy with some very nice people! What a great time!!! The people were fantastic and very helpful, and the day flew by- despite me being very nervous! Why was I nervous?! I'm not so sure...I have been shooting for a while and know how to handle a firearm. But I guess the thought of having ALL those people see me miss a target was humbling. But hey, I am probably one who can use a little serving of humble pie now and then! :)

Anyway, I thought I would post this and put it up for any and all to see.

See you soon!

Welcome to my blog!

This my brand-spankin' new blog! I am new to this, so let's see how this turns out!!!