2014: Like Riding A Roller Coaster

It's New Years Eve which means time to do my year in review blog. This is going to be a short blog because outside of a few bright moments this year has been uneventful. I'm going to highlight some of the bad moments and some of the good moments (yes despite me bitching about how this year sucked I did have some good moments).

Bad Moments- This was the worst year for me in chasing. A combination of a slow season and bad timing financially resulted in only 5 chases with 3 of them in Tennessee. I had to postpone my yearly chasecation due to lack of severe weather activity at the time of my scheduled trip. I was also left empty handed in the tornado department despite coming close on April 28th and June 3rd. In early March the water pump went out in my car while I was on my way to Franklin to help Mira Lee and her girlfriend Akiko Numata move into their new apartment. The timing sucked because it happened one month before chase season got underway and I was stranded due to a mini winter storm that moved through Middle Tennessee making travel hazardous. Despite spending approximately $400 in towing and parts needed to replace the water pump I was reduced to chasing locally in my car. $400 in my chase fund spent to fix my car.

Good Moments- Despite no tornadoes June 3rd was a good moment for me this year. It was my first chase with new chase partners who are an awesome bunch of people (Christian Johnson, Jake Riley, April Cullers, and Jason Bernal), I added another state I chased in (Nebraska), and we convoyed with a pretty cool group of chasers (Steve Worthington, Stacy Valentine, Lisa Dimmitt, Jeromy Carter, and Aaron Gilliland). I did see multiple gustnadoes this day; in fact it was the first time I've ever seen gustnadoes on a chase. All in all a lot of funny moments came out of this chase. Some of which Steve has on video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AOePsF2dmY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8intircsfjs). I got in touch with my oldest sister Ruth which was a special moment for me. She was the last sibling I was able to make contact with. It all culminated to an almost 4 hour skype chat in which we talked about our lives growing up as well as sharing some stories about my father who died when I was young and never had the opportunity to meet. It was a chat I wished that it didn't end and I'm hoping to make a trip to California to go visit her. I also knocked out a state I had never visited before when I made a trip to Indiana to attend The Indiana Storm Chasers Convention and a night of shenanigans with a bunch of noobs in Indianapolis. That night ended in noob poisoning but I had fun.

There you go, this year was full of ups and downs (as the title stated). I hope 2015 will be more on the upward side especially in chasing.

Messing With Sasquatch: Welcome To The "Hater" Generation

The Urban Dictionary defines a hater as a person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person. Hating, the result of being a hater, is not exactly jealousy. The hater doesn't really want to be the person he or she hates, rather the hater wants to knock someone else down a notch.

Now this is what I've noticed on social media...people have paper thin skin. They cannot handle any criticism (no matter how constructive) from a friend or an acquaintance without feeling butthurt. All they want is positive feedback, and when they don't get it they either a) throw a bitch fit, b) throw in the towel and try their hand at something else that will bring them good feedback, or c) assemble an army of close friends to go after the individuals who dared to say "this sucks" or "you could do better." The most common phrases I hear when this type of drama goes on is "haters are going to hate" or "don't let that hater put you down, you're doing a fantastic job."

**Just a word of caution if you are offended by offensive language then I wouldn't recommend reading the next part of the blog because this is a subject that has me pissed off, and I've seen enough on social media over the past several days to help fuel the venom I'm about to spew on this matter.**

Since when does offering up constructive criticism label you as a hater...are you fucking kidding me?!?!? That's what pisses me off about this hater horseshit, instead of listening to the criticism and the advice given afterwards the butthurt individual's inner-defense mechanism goes off and a fuck you contest ensues between the butthurt individual and his/her friends as well as the critic and his or her friends (throw in the occasional spectator with Michael Jackson eating popcorn memes). I get it people are assholes, but once in a while those assholes do offer up good advice on how to improve whatever job or hobby it is you're doing. And I also know that in the virtual world of social media people act like they're a bad ass with a dick as long as a yardstick when in the real world they're the biggest pussy you will ever meet.

Here's a word of advice for all the butthurt individuals out there who may stumble upon this blog.....man the fuck up. Stop taking shit personally and actually listen to or read the negative feedback that could help improve your skill at whatever it is you do that you are passionate about. This type of feedback is coming from people who share the same passion as you do and are 10 times better at it, and for the most part they see potential in you and they want you to succeed.

You may think I'm a dick with the way I wrote this blog, but hey sometimes you gotta bust somebody's balls in order to get the message across.

Messing With Sasquatch: Tornado Alley Closed For Business

It's been over 5 months since I've done a blog....well nothing has gone on for me to write up a blog. I could always rant about the never ending chaser drama but if you heard it before you're not missing much it's same horseshit drama (pissing contests between chasers, photo thieves, one brand versus another, blah blah blah Rico Suave).

After what was an awesome 2013 chase season for me where I got to see my dream tornado with the Rozel, KS event I was ready for what I expected to be a dream chase season. I finally got a car and my drivers license, I decided to give live streaming another try switching from ChaserTV to TVNweather, and put back money for a two week vacation. Well mother nature and life in general had other plans.

The water pump on my car went out in March; I had to spend close to $400 on my car in total just to get it running again. More repairs need to be done in order for me to comfortably drive it out to the Plains so I was forced into having to buy a plane ticket for my trip. That ruined my plans for a two week vacation because I couldn't afford it. Then I had to scramble to find new chase partners for my trip because the chasers I previously chased with were unable to host me during my week and a half long trip.

As bad as those misfortunes were the absolute worst was the fact that this year sucks as far as tornadic activity goes. This year is rivaling 1994 as one of the quietest storm seasons on the Southern and Central Plains. You can literally count the number of tornadoes in the state of Oklahoma with one hand. As I'm writing this blog I should be on my way to Oklahoma City for the start of my 10 day vacation, but nothing good is in the forecast that is worth me taking the time off. This makes the second time in two weeks I had to postpone my trip and needless to say I am pissed off about it.

I'm not privileged like the other chasers who can chase any setup they want to. I have to work for a living, and since I'm a single man I have to fend for myself which financially doesn't give me a lot of leeway to chase every major outbreak that goes on especially with me living 12 hours away from Tornado Alley. I have to plan my trip far in advance storms or no storms....so having to postpone my trip twice due to the lack of decent tornado producing storms is frustrating and I'm going to fucking rant about it.

This year should make all the chasers who moaned and bitched about the last two chase seasons yet still saw tornadoes appreciate 2012, 2013, and 2014 (if they were lucky enough to score) more than they ever will publicly. It's almost the end of May and I have still yet to see a tornado this year. Nothing I can do about it other than to "quit my whining" and see if the month of June finally breaks through for the year.