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Ride the Wave


Don’t base your idea of happiness on others and what they have achieved. Life is full of forks in the road and we need to be happy with the choices we have made.

Ride the wave.

 

Recently, I had the opportunity to go down to Costa Rica for about a week. It was a great experience and to risk sounding cliche….it was life changing. While there, I spent a lot of my time just being in the moment. I enjoyed great food, great company and even took a surf lesson.

It was the moments after that first time surfing when it hit me. I was sitting on the edge of the jungle under a small thatch roof pavilion; looking out at the ocean. The conversation had died down and we were all sitting there on benches made from driftwood. It all sort of ‘clicked’ and came together. I felt like I found myself. I understood that what I was doing in that moment was exactly what I was supposed to be doing. It was a little moment of nirvana/enlightenment. I had achieved my inner ‘Dude’

My challenge now is: how do I keep this vibe going while I’m back home in Buffalo?


Sunday, June 2nd 2019 is going to be the first ever Dudeism services in Buffalo, NY! Fellow Dude, John W. and I are starting up a Dudiest congregation. We are still working on the official name, but that will come in time. Feel free to join us! Use our contact form for more info.

 

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Judo Goes On A Hike (Preview Video)


The Future of Barefoot Buffalo


Recently, there have been a few main distractions in my life. Not really distractions, as these are hobbies. I have been thinking about how I can focus on these more.

I have been performing with the improv group ComedySportz Buffalo and this has been awesome! I get paid to make people laugh which is a great gig. Definitely part of my personal legend.

I have also embarked on a journey of blacksmithing. I have set up a forge in my backyard/shed and I have begun making small items. I feel like this is an avenue for a side gig.

With the good weather right around the corner, I am gearing up for camping, buahcraft and hiking. I would like to create some YouTube videos of this. This too could be a nice little side gig. I have a preview of one here: https://youtu.be/VfS0qBkZfgs

Therefore, I would like to announce that I am going to include Wandering Cat Forge and Long Dog Bushcraft to the Barefoot Buffalo world. These two activities are a large part of me and Barefoot Buffalo IS me.

I’m excited to have a place to share all of my new adventures. Stay tuned for more content!

… finally

Long days and pleasent nights,

ShoelessJoeK

PS I didn’t mention the Diligent Loiter world because that is separate from.the Barefoot Buffalo.

Doing Little Things to Boost Self Esteem


Recently I have been swamped. With the formation of Diligent Loiter Entertainment, LLC I haven’t had time to be me and do all the fun hobbies I enjoy: Blacksmithing, Magic, Music, Woodcarving, Podcasting…the list goes on. Well, this has taken a toll on my self esteem. I don’t understand why it has, but it has. Maybe it’s because I’m trying to do too much and expect too much from myself. But, that’s not the focus of today’s blurb. Today is about what you can do to help boost your self esteem using the skills and hobbies  you already have.

I’ve been focusing on boosting my self-esteem lately. What I’m doing is looking at the things I enjoy doing. For this example, it’s playing guitar. I really like playing the guitar; one thing I’m not too happy with is my singing voice. I feel that, even though it’s confident, it’s not as musical as it could be and my range is rather limited. So! To combat this, I’ve been learning songs that fit my vocal range and sound. I have been told that I sound like the singer from Social Distortion so…I have been learning and playing a bunch of Social Distortion! My vocal range/singing style is very similar to his and when I play a Social Distortion song I feel good about it. It actually sounds like it’s supposed to without trying too hard. This boosts my Self Esteem and I like that.

Now, I’m going to start looking at my other hobbies and see what I can do to help myself feel better about those hobbies and me as a person. Sometimes, taking a step back and re-evaluating what you like to do then approaching it from a “this is for ME” standpoint instead of “this is what I want OTHERS to see” point of view is the best option. It’s your life and you should live it your way. I have forgotten that recently. It’s something we all do from time to time.  We want others to look at us in awe of what we can do, when really, all you need to be is you!

Long days and pleasant nights,

 

Joe

Whitesville Marsh Fishing Camporee


Over the Father’s Day Weekend, Nicky and I went camping with the Boy Scouts of America. We went to the Whitesville Marsh Fishing Camporee as leaders for Troop 736 out of Angelica NY. Here are some pictures showing all of the fun we had!

 

 

A Delicious Borsch Recipe


Holy Crap. Look out. It’s a Borsch recipe from someone who’s heritage didn’t have Borsch!

I can normally get all the ingredients from the local grocery store for under $25. You WILL have leftover ingredients, so get creative and come up with some other meal ideas with the extras!

 

HoKay. Below is the ingredient list (For the spices, I just do what feels right throughout the process)

 

Ingredients:

1 lb Stew Beef (or beef chunk, trimmed and cubed)

1 teaspoon each: dried basil, groun black pepper, smoked paprika

2 teaspoons sea salt

2 Tablespoons of olive oil

6-8 cups beef broth (more broth = more soup! I use two boxes of Wegmans organic or Swanson broth depending on sales)

1 medium to large onion, diced

3 Carrots, diced

1-2 Celery Stalks, diced

3 Large Beets, diced

2-3 Large Potatoes, cubed to about an inch

2 cups shredded cabbage (1/4 of a cabbage) (I slice mine by hand, it’s good enough)

2 Tablespoons fresh dill, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

2-3 green scallions, diced

 

FOR THE SAUCE!

1 medium onion, diced

2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed/sliced/diced/minced/whateva

1 small can (like 1 cup size) tomato sauce or puree

¼ Cup of Ketchup (you read that correctly)

1 cup water

¼ teaspoon each: salt, black pepper

 

 Directions:

Here. We. Go.

  1. Coat the bottom of a large pot (I use a Dutch Oven) with some olive oil.
    1. Warm that sucka up over some low-medium heat.
    2. You’re about to sauté, not deep fry.
  2. Drop in the beef and cook thoroughly
    1. Add some salt and pepper to taste
  3. Once the beef is done cooking, remove from the pot and place in a bowl for later.
  4. Start sautéing your mirepoix (onion/carrot/celery mix)
  5. Once it’s all nice and cooked up, add the beef back into the pot, add the beets and add the broth
  6. Add a little more salt and pepper, add some paprika if you feel inclined and add some dried basil.
  7. STIR IT UP! MmmmMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmmmMMMMMmm
  8. Get that thing back up to a nice simmer, reduce heat to low and let it ride/simmer for the rest of the time.
  9. Set a timer for 45 mins.
  10. When the timer goes off, start making the sauce!
    1. Put some olive oil in a frying pan
    2. Sauté the onion and garlic until golden brown (you know what’s up)
    3. Add the tomato sauce/puree, ketchup, water, and salt/pepper
    4. Simmer until the sauce reduces down to a nice marinara consistency (probably about 10 mins or so)
  11. ADD THAT SAUCE TO THE POT!!!!!
  12. While you’re at it, why not add in those cubed up potatoes, they look like they could use a good soak.
  13. Set a timer for 10 mins.
  14. When that timer goes off, add in the cabbage, fresh dill, fresh parsley, and scallions.
  15. STIR IT UP! MmmmMMMMMMmmmmMMMMMMmmmMMMMMmm
  16. Set another timer for 5 mins.
  17. When the timer goes off, turn off the stove, remove from heat and cover.
  18. STIR IT UP! MmmmMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmmmMMMMMmm
  19. Let it sit for at least an hour.
  20. It should still be warm enough at this point so dish it out and enjoy!
    1. You can serve this delicious meal garnished with a sprig of fresh dill if you like to be fancy.
    2. If you want to go old school Russian hardcore traditional style, add a dollop of sour cream or mayonnaise on top.
      1. I know this sounds weird as hell, but I tried it with the sour cream and it was REALLY Freaking good.
        1. It kinda made it taste like a baked potato
        2. The sour cream will sort of separate out and look gross as little sour cream balls. It’s normal.
          1. It still tastes great.
            1. So good.
              1. MmmmMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmmmMMMMMmm

 

*To make this paleo, swap out the potatoes for some rutabaga. You just need to boil the rutabaga separately for about 20 mins before adding it into the soup*

If you have any questions, feel free to ask below. If you have any comments or suggestions, also, pop them down below!

 

Fair Trades: A Lesson From my Father


The year was 1993. I was seven years old. I was into Power Rangers, baseball and cartoons. I loved cartoons. I learned a lot from watching television as a kid. Growing up, I was the type of kid to try everything I saw on TV in real life. Not just the crazy stuff, but the life skills as well. I remember watching an episode of a cartoon that was teaching how to trade things. I couldn’t believe what I was learning. I knew what trading was of course. I would trade my cookie for someone’s gummy bears at lunch, or I would trade my M&Ms for someone’s Skittles, but I didn’t realize that you could trade things that you didn’t want or need for things that you wanted! This was a huge revelation. I knew a kid who lived up the street from me who had an Etch-A-Sketch. I had always wanted one. I thought that I would try trading the kid for it. I liked all of my toys; even though they were mostly hand-me-downs. I didn’t want to part with any. Then I saw it. A little red toy bicycle from an action figure set. Nothing moved on it, it was just one solid piece of plastic, but it would have to do. I really wanted that Etch-A-Sketch. So I waited in my front yard until I saw him go outside to play. I called him over to my yard to see if he wanted to play. That’s when I began showcasing my little red bicycle.

I took the 1.5 inch tall 3 inch long toy and began playing with it like crazy. I even let my friend play with it too, so he could see just how much fun it was. When he was playing with the bike, that’s when I said, “You know… you can have that bike if you want. We could trade for it!” He asked me what I meant and I said, “We can trade toys! I’ll give you this cool little bike and you can give me your Etch-A-Sketch” He wasn’t too keen on the idea of giving up his toy so I went to work selling how awesome this bike could be. I went over to the picket fence in the front yard and started doing “Jumps” from post to post with the bike. I said, “See, the bike can do jumps and everything. You’re Etch-A-Sketch can’t do jumps” He agreed with me and eventually I was able to get him to trade his awesome toy for my not-so-awesome one.

I was so proud of myself. I was able to take a worthless toy and convince someone to trade a treasure for it. I was King of the World! For about 20 minutes. I went to the backyard and sat on the swing. I was playing with my new Etch-A-Sketch when my dad came out to see what I was up to. He asked me where I got the Etch-A-Sketch from and I told him the story of what transpired to result in my having a cool new toy to play with. That’s when the cruel dark fist of reality came crashing down on my soul.

My dad told me that what I did was wrong. I pleaded with him that it was a trade and he WANTED to trade with me; he WANTED the little red plastic bike. My dad taught me that in order for a trade to be fair, both sides need to get equal value. My toy bicycle wasn’t worth the same as the Etch-A-Sketch. The kid up the street was not getting a fair deal. It was a hard concept for me to learn, but I came to understand what he meant. My dad told me that trades are like a scale. On one side you have what you are giving up and on the other you have what the other guy is giving up. You want those scales to even out. He also told me that trades can be uneven in value if the items mean something to the other person. For example: if the kid had the same toy set that they bike came from but he had lost his bike and wanted to replace it so he could have the whole set again, then it would be a more fair trade. But since that wasn’t the case I was wrong for making that trade.

My dad made me go down to the kids’ house and explain that I was wrong for making the trade with him. That it wasn’t a fair trade. It was one of the hardest things I had to do that year. 1993 taught me many things, how to swindle kids out of cool toys but also that it’s totally NOT cool to do so. It also taught me that doing the right thing usually pays off. Fast forward four months to Christmas morning. Guess what was under the tree.

 

 

 

 

 

This toy is similar to the one that I traded for the Etch-A-Sketch. 

 

Paleo/Fitness update 7/23/15


This is just a quick update.

Nicky and I are both working towards getting into shape. The goal isn’t to be body building elites, its to just be fit and not succumb to the pitfall of obesity.

I saw a stat that said less than 1% of obese people will ever reach a healthy weight again. I also saw a stat that said only 6% of smokers will quit and I did that so…Time to be the1% BABY!

I’m almost under 280 for the first time in over 3 months. This feels good.

Next post will be another “Life’s work” “Personal Legend” post about the “Wave of Awesome”

Thanks for letting me be a part of your life.

Joe

Time to go Paleo


I have not been the cleanest of eaters. In fact, I have let my body go to shit. I need to air that out and admit to it before I can change the fact that I’m a buffet molester.

The reason I was able to quit smoking was because this time, I was doing it for me. Not anyone else. That is the same approach I’m taking to my new weight loss.

When I quit smoking, I exchanged cigarettes for junk food. Now, I’m ready to lose all the weight I gained.

Time to be honest. I currently weigh 292 lbs. and I look like this:

I don’t want to get “ripped”. I don’t want to get “sexy”. I just want to be healthy and fit.
This time, I’m doing it for me.

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