9 things you didn’t know about Rick

Editor’s Note: Updated April 9, 2021; August 26, 2022; May 9, 2023.

One

I have a very old and dusty black belt. In college, I got bored with lectures and tried the campus karate club. I figured [incorrectly] my parents wouldn’t be disappointed about me dropping out of pre-med if I was getting back to my cultural roots. Early on I sparred with the sensei, a fifth-degree black belt and former member of Japan’s national team. I didn’t volunteer, he picked me. As any good Bruce Lee fan would do, I went at him as if he had disrespected my family name. He knocked me out.

I spent the next five years training twice a day, seven days a week, preparing myself for the opportunity to take that bastard down! He never picked me again (he was scared, I’m sure of it), but I got good enough that I was selected to try out for the US national team for the 1988 Summer Olympics. I withdrew when karate was pulled from the Olympics in favor of tae kwon do (the Olympics were in Seoul, Korea that year).

Two

My dad’s family was interned during WWII. While I’m yapping about my cultural roots, I’m proud that my dad is such a good citizen despite the way his family was treated during WWII. Like most Japanese Americans, they were forced to give up their family business and home and shuffled off to an internment camp. They were imprisoned at Camp Amache in Granada, Colorado.

In stark contrast, my dad’s older brother was serving in the USAF as a tail-gunner in a Douglas A-20 Havoc making incredibly dangerous bombing runs over Germany. My dad not only found a way to live with this, he went on to serve in the Korean War and raised me to also be a good citizen.

Three

It’s good to be a Michigan Wolverine. Having done my undergrad at UC Irvine – no football team, less than 30% of students living on campus – I was blown away by the school spirit in Ann Arbor! Football games were all-day events that consumed the entire town. Tickets to basketball and even hockey games were almost impossible to get. And it wasn’t just sports. My MBA class “adopted” a girl who had cancer at the local children’s hospital and over 100 of us showed up on the day she was released after a chemotherapy session. UM taught me what school spirit really is. To this day, when I wear Michigan gear, whether on a trip to Costa Rica or just to my neighborhood King Soopers, I can count on someone saying Go Blue!

Four

I once waited tables at Sizzler. But my day job was as an economic research analyst in Silicon Valley. I’d interview a bunch of people at high tech companies about the supply and demand for computing devices (eg, network cards, routers, firewalls, etc.), build a forecasting model, and publish a report. Companies would buy those reports and I’d get paid with royalties. I didn’t get paid anything until the report was published, so I needed a part-time job working nights and weekends. That’s how I ended up waiting tables at Sizzler, which was easily my most hated job. Every minute of it. I hated the uniform, which included a beret for no good reason. I hated my manager and the way he drooled over the waitresses. I hated the way some people barked orders at me and then left an insulting tip. Ugh, I’m getting mad just remembering this stuff!

Five

I survived a major earthquake. I was working the dinner shift at Sizzler on October 17th, 1989. I remember because that’s when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck. The building started shaking, dishes and glasses were flying off shelves, hanging pendant lights swung into walls and shattered. By the time everybody had moved into doorways or under tables, the quake was over. It only lasted 17 seconds, but was strong enough to collapse part of the Bay Bridge, the upper level of a double-deck freeway, and several buildings in the Marina District of San Francisco. It killed 63 and injured over 3,700.

In the immediate aftermath, I drove a couple home because their car had bounced around in the quake, high-centering itself on a concrete planter box. When I got back, I was reprimanded for leaving the restaurant during my shift. Fair enough, I hadn’t actually told anyone I was leaving, but I hated the job anyway so that became my reason to quit. I survived on Top Ramen until my next report published!

Six

I volunteer with Colorado Trout Unlimited. I grew up in a river city so I was already a fan of Denver and Golden before I moved here. I love the sound of a river, the cold and clear water you find in its headwaters, the way it scours its banks and cuts its channels, the fact that it supports habitat for fish and wildlife (and people!). So much so that I was a volunteer board member for Colorado TU, the state’s largest river conservation organization, for over a decade.

The accomplishment I’m most proud of at Colorado TU was making the Protect Our Rivers license plate a reality. I created the petition and collected signatures, helped draft the bill, testified in front of the House and Senate, worked with an artist on the design, built the website that allows people to get the plate, and worked with the Colorado Department of Revenue on monthly and annual reporting. With each plate, $25 goes to Colorado TU and is reserved for river conservation projects. Last I checked, the plate was already on over 3,000 vehicles!

Seven

I’m on a plant-based diet, which according to me is different from a vegan diet in that it allows a small amount of “lean and clean” animal products (plant-based, not plant-exclusive). I still eat pizza, sushi, and an occasional steak. The trick is to be smart about it – vegetarian pizza, organic beef, wild fish, all in moderation. I did it because in 2017 I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I couldn’t believe it and demanded a second test. My A1C, the measurement of one’s average blood sugar over the past 90 days, was 6.7. That’s enough to skip the pre-diabetic stage and go straight to diabetic. Facing a lifetime of finger-pricks and multiple prescriptions, and having just seen the documentary What the Health, I went 100% vegan that very day. Four months later and 18 pounds lighter, I went back for another test and my A1C was 5.5. Normal. Not pre-diabetic. Normal. Basically, I ate my way into diabetes, then ate my way out of it. Since then, my A1C has stayed normal and I’ve settled into a more sustainable, plant-based diet.

Eight

I own a preschool. In 2019, my wife and I achieved a long-time goal of gaining some financial independence by purchasing the Cornerstone Montessori School in Golden. It’s the same school our boys went to, so we knew it and the staff very well by the time they graduated. Once we learned the former owners were ready to retire, we jumped at the opportunity. Depending on the time of year, the school has a staff of 20-25 and enrollment of 100-130 students (ages 18 months to six years old). My wife left a 15-year career in digital marketing to become the full-time Administrator and I’m the “maintenance guy.” Keeps me out of trouble on the weekends!

Nine

I try to be environmentally conscious. As you might have guessed from my time with Colorado TU, I’ve got a bit of a “green streak” in me. I’m big on recycling and reusing, LED lights, my electric snowblower, cordless tools with rechargeable batteries, planting trees, and so on. In 2020, I went a little bigger and had a solar system installed. We have a 9 kW system with 29 solar panels, more than usual because of my garage workshop. In 2023, I took delivery of a Rivian R1T, the first electric truck in production. Far and away, the best vehicle I’ve owned or driven – puts a smile on my face every time I drive by a gas station!