Travis, Author at Devilish Smirk

The Life of a Storyboy

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Prologue: Sourdough

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13.
Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th.

This is not a safe space for anyone with either condition.

Luckily, it works both ways.

I recently learned that if you replace “-phobia” with “-philia”, Triskaidekaphilia is the term for loving the number 13.

If you think 13 is lucky, you’re in good company.

Mindset is everything.

It's me, hi.
I'm the lover,
it's ME!

The Very First Night

It takes us nine months to breathe on our own.
Earth TtTime on earth is the real womb.

Birth marks the spot.

Friday, September 13, 1974
Year of the Wood Tiger

Travis Carl Garrod
Opened thighs at 8:34 p.m.
Providence Hospital
Anchorage, Alaska
The Last Frontier
The 49th State

San Francisco 49ers
Sourdough Sam
Levi’s Stadium
Super Bowl LX
NFL
SAP
Super Toilet Bowl

Generation X enters the chat.

Sourdough Swift Kick Starter

I was born and raised in Alaska.
“Sourdough” is slang for a longtime resident of Alaska, unencumbered by winter.
I lived there 17 years before moving to the lower 48 in 1992.

13 Takes Flight to New Heights

On August 13, 2025, Taylor Swift was the special guest on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce. They talked for two hours.

Several segments caught my attention, but the The Art of the Easter Egg changed everything. They briefly highlighted superstition, numerology, and the number 13.

Taylor gave a simple, yet important example:

Taylor’s favorite number is 13.
Travis’ football number is 87.
13 + 87 = 100.
Keep it 100.

All three of them professed their love for the number 13.
Jason asked Taylor what it meant.
She said, without an engagement ring, “It means we’re family.”

The August 13 episode set a Guinness World Record for concurrent viewers: 1.3 million.

Of course that caught my attention.

After hearing the numerology and 13 bit on New Heights, I made a list of my Friday the 13th birthdays since 1974.
There are eight total.
1974, 1985, 1991, 1996, 2002, 2013, 2019, 2024.
Taylor and I have six common Friday the 13th birthday years.

I followed the golden thread to each year to see where it leads.

It took me less than five minutes to realize I discovered a silky golden web of curious connections.

The connections kept coming. I couldn’t turn it off.

Much like the Energizer Bunny, I kept going and going (and going) down the rabbit hole.
In the early hours of August 24, I had an epiphany!

Wait...what?
Double take.
Is this real?
Triple take.
Holy shit!!!

I thought to myself,
I've only ever felt this good in dreams.
I found the missing key!
Finally!
The New Heights podcast
was a multidimensional message in a bottle.

I’ve now discovered that my entire life is sourdough bread crumby.
Very, very, very crumby.

Turns out, I’m a sourdough crumb dumpster.

The Golden Thread

One single thread of gold tied me to you

invisible string
Taylor Swift
folklore

I’ve always loved the number 13.
I was born on Friday, September 13, 1974.
I’ve loved the number 13 for a long time.

13 hits different when you’re born on Friday the 13th.
13 hits especially different when you turn 50 on Friday the 13th.
13 has even more significance when your September 13th birthday is exactly 13 weeks before Taylor’s December 13th birthday.

I just made that connection last year while Swifties clowned for RepTV (on which I think I can shed some light, metaphorically of course).

I turned 50 on Friday, September 13, 2024.
Thirteen weeks later, Taylor turned 35 on Friday, December 13, 2024.

For 39 weeks each year, our ages are 15 years apart.
For 13 weeks, our ages are 16 years apart.
31…13…uh oh.

In 2013, both of our birthdays landed on Friday the 13th.
Taylor turned 24 (12:12)
I turned 39 (13:13:13)

Looks like a triple golden birthday to me.

But wait, there’s more!

Speaking of golden birthdays, I turned 13 on September 13, 1987.
14 days later my oldest, younger half-brother was born September 27, 1987.

13 + 87 = 100.
Keep it 100.

If you think it’s weird now, 13 is just warming up.

Friday the 13th Part III: 3-D

As far as 80s horror, Friday the 13th has always been my favorite.
The first one I watched was Friday the 13th Part III.
It was the only one filmed using 3-D technology.
It was theatrically released on August 13, 1982.

Wait, what?
August 13?

Taylor likes to sew kids' purses and blankets.
Nice stitch; I think there's been a glitch.

The movie terrified me the first time I watched it. Part III introduced Jason Voorhees’ iconic goalie mask. I was obsessed. As a young boy, I played hockey and I was a goalie.

Jason was stitched to my birthday and a goalie! It’s fair to say, I was fascinated by Jason Voorhees. I’ve watched every Friday the 13th movie before and since.

I fully believed Jason would spare me if we ever crossed paths. He’s always felt like a silent guardian. We’re basically brothers.

Jason and Travis together, always and forever!

Meow

Superstition & Intuition

"The crowd is your king."
Thank you for that, old (hypothetical) friend.

Truth hits different.
Truth is a frequency.
Truth is a vibe.
Truth will fuck your shit up and keep walking.

Who would've thought a random blog I wrote on November 16, 2015 would be a linchpin for exposing truth a decade after it was published?

That’s some crazy alignment.
Anyone can do this.

I started writing 10 years ago.
I’ve been getting bready for this for a while.
Decades.
Five actually.

This story spans five decades.
1974 – 2024
50 Years
2025 and 2026 get honorable mentions.

52 years
13:13:13:!3

I had a lot of time to develop my 5UPERP0WER.

I call it IMAGINATION.
Some call it DELUSION.

Truth be told, I'm an expert in both.
Whatever it is, it's been a blast piecing this story together.

2015 anchors this timeline.
2020 could have been an ending, but fate determined otherwise.
(That’s when an Extra T (or two) was added.)
2022 (Enter Revised Ending)
2023 (Enter Tight End)
2024 (Enter TTPD)
2025 brought Trump back to remind us all why this was necessary and that karma is real.
2026 – Four dates to keep in mind: 1/1/26, 2/13/26, 3/13/26, 11/13/26.

The end is extra tight.

What a different a decade makes

After 22 years in Milwaukee,
I relocated to Arizona in 2014.

Within a year, I was a living Phoenix cliché.

I started a hobby blog.
Posted my first story
about cats and dogs on
August 31, 2015.

I spent several years exploring a passion I never pursued.
I did it for my inner child.

In August 2025,
everything became crystal lake clear.

Now that I’ve learned what I know, I can say, unequivocally, timing is everything.

I’m joyful and eager to share my story with anyone who’s…

…ready for it.

Happy crumb hunting…

If you're interested to follow this story to see where it goes, go like the Devilish Smirk page on Facebook.

Let the games begin!

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5UPERP0WER

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Today is August 31, 2025.
10 YEARS AGO TODAY, I POSTED MY FIRST BLOG
ON DEVILISH SMIRK

I am currently working on a Devilishly Clever something
to share the results of this 10-year project.
More to come, but I am very much looking forward to sharing.
With that, I leave you with a snippet from earlier today.
Still nailing down the date.

It’s never too late to dream.
You can always discover, create, tweak, fine-tune, evolve, enhance, and achieve dreams.

However, there’s a caveat.
It’s work,
and not necessarily work you get paid to do.
At least, not at first.
It’s work that might pay off down the road.

Your imagination becomes exponentially more active
the more you open, stretch, strengthen,
and train your imagination.

Imagination training is exhausting for an activity
that doesn’t involve physical exertion.
The only thing you lift is your spirit,
which ultimately lifts you.

Whatever you do, do not abandon your dreams,
even if you pause for five years.

I haven’t made a penny with this hobby.
This was pure passion.

I didn’t start this for money.
I did it because it was so f***ing fun.
The only reason I’m here today is because
I poured my heart and soul into something
I was deeply passionate about;
my own life.

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The Good Old Days

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Back in My Day

Remember when the most major disruption to a classroom was an inconvenient case of chickenpox or headlice?

1980

In first grade, I was the kid with chickenpox. One morning, I showed up to school. By early afternoon, I was covered with itchy red dots, confused, and sent to the nurse’s office.

In the nurse’s office, I experienced a minor blip of panic. I understood that I was sick, contagious, and I had to leave the school as quickly as possible.

The school called my grandma to come get me, and even though the adults were calm, my wild imagination had me convinced I was going to die.

The nurse explained that I had to be removed from school to protect my classmates. My mind was eased as the nurse informed me that having chickenpox was common, and after having them once, I would never have them again.

My grandma picked me up from school and took care of me until I was well enough to return, and that was that.

Headlice, on the other hand, is a whole other beast. When someone in school had headlice, the kid went home immediately. Shortly after discovering a case of headlice, the school’s nurse visited all classrooms to inspect the students’ heads looking for additional cases.

As kids got the all clear, classes resumed. Eventually, the infected kid(s) would return without guarantees that the lice wouldn’t.

Ah, the good old days.

Fast Forward

It’s March 2020 and chances are your local schools are currently closed. Businesses are longing for days when a workplace hiccup was someone spreading a common cold, strep throat, or the latest strain of influenza throughout the office.

Enter coronavirus or, more specifically, COVID-19, and COVID-19 isn’t playing around.

However, it’s not the end of the world.

A Storm of Uncertainty

A lot has changed since the clock struck 2020. While rampant viruses are nothing new, COVID-19 has quickly captured the world’s attention.

In the past week, not a day has gone by without a new development that one-ups the previous day’s developments. In the past week, worldwide statistics continue to rise, while almost anything, everywhere, involving a crowd of 10 or more people, has effectively been shut down.

We’re witnessing measures we’ve not witnessed in our lifetime. Naturally, the wide-ranging responses from around the world are causing varying degrees of unease in communities everywhere.

People from all walks of life are weathering the same storm of uncertainty, and it’s the uncertainty swirling around COVID-19 is causing people to worry.

As such, people are reacting differently.

What’s the Big Deal?

Nobody wants to catch COVID-19.

It may not seem like a big deal to you, and that’s an incredibly fortunate space to be. Consider yourself lucky.

The measures being taken right now are proactive. Taking proactive measures is a better spot from which to combat COVID-19 than waiting for mandated reactive measures. That’s why we’re treating this like a big deal. Nobody wants this to become a bigger deal.

COVID-19 is more contagious than the flu. Unlike the flu, people don’t have symptoms of COVID-19 for several days after being exposed and they are contagious during that time.

COVID-19 is deadlier than the flu. In Italy, there simply aren’t enough ventilators to treat the amount of people who need them. That’s not where we want to be. However, without taking measures to prevent widespread infections, we could be.

There currently is no vaccine for COVID-19. This is more dangerous than the annual flu, folks. As we speak, countries around the world are working to develop a vaccine.

As of this writing, there are no guarantees that once you have had COVID-19, you’re immune to COVID-19. We’d like to believe that once our bodies resolve a COVID-19 infection, that we’d be immune. The fact is, at this point, that’s not a 100% guarantee.

That’s why this is a big deal, and nobody wants this to be a bigger deal than it already is.

What Can You Do?

Mitigating the spread is the ultimate goal.

If there’s one thing we can all agree on that’s it. That’s the thing. It’s time to strap on your commonsense cap and draft yourself to join the easiest call to action we’ve ever be called to do.

Limit yourself to only leaving home for what’s necessary. Some don’t have the luxury to adhere to voluntary house arrest without an ankle bracelet, but those who can, should.

If you must leave your home, adhere to social distancing guidelines.

This will end one day. The more who participate, the sooner that day will come. Until then, stay as safe and sanitary as possible.

This isn’t a drill. We all know someone who isn’t taking this seriously. Don’t let them shame you into making a fatal mistake.

Sure, it’s entirely possible you would fully recover from COVID-19, but the same cannot be said for others. It’s not about any of us individually. This is about others, and it’s on all of us to flatten the curve.

Behave like you have chickenpox with the risk of recurring headlice.

All any of us can do is play our small part in a bigger effort to get our daily lives restored to how they were before this mess began.

We’re all in this together.

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Getting Back on the Workout Wagon

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Down & Out

Even for the most athletically inclined, getting back into an exercise routine after being out of the game for an extended period of time is an obstacle.

In my case, that period of time has been over five years.

Actually writing that feels like failure. It doesn’t feel good to say, or read. That means it’s out there for anyone to see – strangers, family, friends, or otherwise.

It’s like admitting an addiction to complacency and laziness. But that’s the first step in any recovery, and that’s the purpose of this post: Personal accountability to myself.

All we are is how we behave (or respond) in any given moment.

Hi, my name is Travis, and my lazy game is on point!

I say that tongue-in-cheek; I’m not completely sedentary. I have a dog and she requires at least two walks per day. What I’m saying is, it’s been over five years since I’ve gone out of my way to workout.

It’s high time for that to change.

Physical Setback

In February 2014, I ruptured my Achilles tendon while playing volleyball. It happened on a Sunday night. By Wednesday afternoon, I was in surgery.

I had physical therapy, but I haven’t been back to a gym since. It took eight months to not limp anymore.

Mental Setback

Leading up to the injury, I had memberships at two gyms and had two personal trainers. I was in the best shape of my life and that all came crumbling down with one misstep on the court.

Three months later, I moved to Scottsdale and my life was flipped upside down.

I never climbed back on the workout wagon.

Suddenly, it’s 2019 and I’m left wondering, where has the time gone?

A New Goal

Metaphorically speaking, you can’t walk a mile in someone’s shoes until you run a marathon in your own. It just so happens, I’ve run actual marathons. Three, in fact.

I was about to turn 37 when I decided to run my first marathon. I wanted to accomplish something physical; something that required a certain level of discipline with a rigorous training schedule.

Plus I wanted a tangible reminder that I was capable of accomplishing something when I committed to and focused on a goal.

When people finish marathons, they get a medal. A marathon was an obvious choice. I wanted a medal, and I actually have four!

Between November 2010 and October 2011 I ran three full and two half marathons. The first was Seattle in November 2010, then Anchorage in June 2011. The third was Chicago in October 2011. Both half marathons were fit into my training schedules for Anchorage and Seattle.

Note that not all half marathons produce a medal. Plan accordingly.

There is a purpose to this marathon tangent. When I decided to run Seattle, I read an article that suggested to pick a destination, register, and announce your goal to your friends and family. First, you have a vacation on your calendar. Second, you’re committed, and any deviation from your goal results in having to go back on your word.

That’s one hell of a motivator.

A Labor Day to Thanksgiving Journey

That’s what this is; my public commitment to myself. Between now and December, I’m joining a gym and I’m going to milk the hell out of that membership.

Sadly, this commitment involves no vacation. It involves going to a pop-up gym that shares a parking lot with the grocery store I frequent.

Why Now?

I turn 45 in two weeks. On September 13, 2019 I’ll have completed my 45th lap around the Gregorian calendar.

No congratulations or apologies are necessary. That's not a goal I met. It's more of an achievement anyone can accomplish if they live this long.

Earlier this summer, I set a goal to join a gym by September 1. That’s tomorrow. I tried joining today, but discovered a minor set back straight out the gate.

This particular gym has 24 hour access, but not always staffed. It’s Saturday and they were already gone. Then, I noticed it isn’t staffed on Sundays, and Monday is a holiday.

F.M.L.

The Universe is testing my resolve. After five years of no workouts, the day I muster the energy to start, I couldn’t!

All that did was make me more determined than ever. So I wrote this story.

With any luck, come December, I will arrive at a renewed and improved mental space, which is usually the result of a vacation anyway.

That’s my ultimate goal.

Now I’m really looking forward to the challenge.

The benefits I reap are in direct proportion to the effort I give.

Who knows, after this experiment is complete, maybe I'll be back on board to give a marathon at 45 a shot.

Baby steps, Travis. For now let’s try fitting back into those suits you bought when you moved to Scottsdale in 2014.

That, my friends, is how you hold yourself accountable to a goal.

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No Application For This Job

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The Opportunity of a Lifetime

We’re all pioneers of our own unchartered path. We stumble, trip, fall, crawl, bitch, and argue our way through life’s present conditions every day.

Life is a job for which there’s no application. You are your own boss and that’s all you need to be. It’s a position that requires continual personal growth in order to succeed.

Opportunities knock all the time, but it’s not always easy to know which ones to grab. Right or wrong, every opportunity is a chance to learn.

The more we learn, the better we become. Sometimes, being better requires us to feel worse than ever before.

You’re the Boss, Applesauce

You’ll always hold the top spot in your personal business of being alive. It’s a lifelong position for which you were chosen to sit at the helm.

I can’t tell you much about life, but one thing is clear: Life gets infinitely better when you don’t go out of your way to make other people miserable.

Our minds are terribly complex, and they aren’t horribly difficult to use, but we have an uncanny ability to complicate the simplest things.

We should embrace and encourage a free and fair world as if it’s our collective purpose.

Newsflash! That is our collective purpose.

If you’re capable of leading by example, then lead by example. It’s your only job, after all, and you never know whose life you’ll touch.

First, the Good News

All of us have the ability to inspire others. Inspiration is powerful. We see, hear, touch, taste, feel, and draw inspiration from the people we meet and the passions we pursue.

Life is an adventure worth remembering and there’s a lot to miss. Pay attention to everything around you and notice the puzzle pieces hidden in plain sight every day.

Life is a puzzle without borders. No frame will ever contain the full picture, and you have a lifetime to create your masterpiece.

Remember the past, live in the present, and don't be future blind. Envision your future. Dream about your future. Imagine your potential.

Remember to watch your step. Keep your head up and your mouth closed. Look ahead with your eyes open.

Be aware of your surroundings. Listen carefully to others. Think before you speak. Listen deeply for your truth. Recognize opportunities. Know your options. Make decisions. Die another day.

Now, the Bad News

Life is no ordinary puzzle. It isn’t built in a day and takes more than a week. Life can, however, fall the fuck apart in an hour.

A word of caution: The sadistic side of life constantly delivers blows of sadness, anger, pain (and others) that have the ability to break you, but only if you let them.

Generally, we have ideas of what we want and where we’re headed, but it’s not always clear how we’ll get there.

All the while, we’re distracted by self-induced stress (of our own creation) and every other obstacle we cannot control. It’s up to you to know the difference. Detours are inevitable – a lot of them – and it’s easy to get lost.

Everyone gets lost.

It’s not a matter of if, but when. It’s going to happen – if it hasn’t already. When it does, you need to do the finding. Nobody else can do that for you.

Others may support you, but that’s the extent of what they can offer. You’re not their project and they aren’t yours. Care about others, but worry about yourself.

Feeling Alienated?

Communication is the heart of humanity. Bring that to every table when you pull up a chair.

I was pissed off, angry, and pessimistic for a minute. Pessimism has one benefit; it helped me understand how debilitating a bad attitude can be. It didn’t take log to realize I was becoming the type of person who irritates me.

That’s what underrepresented, overlooked, or ignored underdogs eventually realize.

If pessimism got anyone, anywhere, everyone in the world would be on top of the world!

We all have a lot more in common than we think. It just takes a little effort and a few questions, and a willingness to listen and learn.

It pains me when people summarily ignore entire groups – be it age, scene, politics, race, religion, whatever – all because they’re uncomfortable.

Poor things.

Learn to cope with being uncomfortable.

It isn't that hard; we were all twelve at one point.

Heartbreak and hardships are guaranteed in this life, but struggles develop your soul. Pain has a purpose.

Empathy enables us to unite in powerful ways.

Making connections is easier to do when you allow your true self to make first impressions. Anything less is a waste of time.

Show up to your own life and act accordingly.

I’m Feelin’ ’92!

I grew up in Alaska during the culmination of the Cold War. I was born a month after Nixon resigned. By the time I graduated high school, the Berlin Wall was mostly dismantled, and the Soviet Union had collapsed.

Later that year, I began my college experience. Bright eyed and full of hope, my generation was ready to change the world.

Optimism sure is cute until years become decades.

The American Dream halted construction and the crews were sent home.

News, news, words, news, fake news, satire, words, words, Twitter!

Good morning, America! In today’s news, distraction is the main attraction. Now, for our top story, “Politics prove the human capacity for hypocrisy.”

People can develop their most hateful opinions about issues that don’t affect them.

Painful events that remind us that life isn’t fair can be our most valuable teachers. When pain strikes, it’s debilitating, but it’s important to never give up.

Tragic events don’t feel beneficial at the time those events occur, but they help us prioritize what’s important to us, and can often bring clarity.

I’ve done a lot in my life I cannot shout proudly from a mountain top, but I continue learning from the culmination of my mistakes. As well, I can’t say I have any regrets.

Life has a way of correcting your alignment with its course.

I’ve faced, accepted, and owned the crazy things I’ve done. Meeting and getting to know others who open up about the things they’ve done, that society has no business judging, motivates the hell out of me to tell as many stories as I can.

I do what I do because I’m always evolving. I’ve changed my mind countless times about things I thought were true.

Creating a Wake

Life isn’t an accident; life happens on purpose. Some people cause a wake, and others leave an unsettled aftermath.

We crawl before walking, and walk before running. We leave tracks connecting where we’re at, where we’ve been and where we’re from.

Everyone has experience worth sharing. Some won’t, and others will, but nobody can walk a mile in someone else’s shoes until completing a marathon in their own.

You are your #1 priority. Timing is everything and your time is now. Always look after #1. Know how to put yourself first, without being selfish. The more you help yourself, the better you’ll be helping others.

Pay attention to your state of mind. Don’t lose sight of your goals, sacrifice your happiness, or devalue your worth.

Always exercise your mind. Spend your spare time doing things that make you feel something.

Be better than good. Good things happen to good people, but being good is only the beginning.

Actively participate in life. Stay aware of your surroundings. Treat others with kindness. Honesty is the best thing for sleeping well at night. Know yourself by being self aware at all times.

There’s nothing more embarrassing than getting caught up in some bullshit, so stay out of it.

Always ask why. Question everything to understand anything. Curiosity won’t kill you, but lacking it will.

Do everything with confidence. Confidence is sexy. There’s a difference between being confident, and being a dick.

Laugh. Every. Day.

Be someone you’re proud to promote. You have exactly until you die to become the person you’re proud to be.
Travis Garrod, Devilish Smirk

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