Lil' Vader?

I had some people asking me about the "new" car I purchased.  Thought I'd do a post quick to cover this. 

I really liked the Buick, it was without a doubt the nicest car for a long trip that I've ever owned.  Don't get me wrong, I'll always prefer the SRT-4 in terms of "fun" value, but there is something to be said for luxury.  But, the monthly payment, and the 21.5 mpg average were really starting to kick my butt.

I looked around online at Camry's and Accords, but their gas mileage wasn't all that great either, and the dealers wanted an arm and a leg for them.  Then someone mentioned the Chevy Cruze Eco to me.   So I went online to search for them and research them too.  I have always liked the looks of the Cruzes, ever since I saw one while at Camp Parks in California for a military school.  I figured I'd get a manual, because they get about 5 mpg higher than the automatics do. 

The first one I found in the Omaha area was a red one, then a burgundy one, both of them being out of the question, as I don't feel the need to MAKE myself look fast.  Then, at Plaza Buick here in Omaha, there was a black one, it was an automatic, but still I wanted to take it for a spin.  The car has a 1.4L turbo, which seems so piddly reading about it, but the car has surprising get up and go.  The main complaints about the car online are "loud tires" and "aggressive shift patterns".  Well I don't know too many cars with louder tires than an SRT-4 (the KDW2's aggressive tread pattern tends to do that) and God knows the truck transmission in that thing shifts hard as hell.  So I didn't really even notice the tire noise.  It does shift aggressively, and the auto stick is slow as hell to engage, unfortunately. 

BUT, so many good things about the car.  It's like a pint sized version of the Buick, well, 4/5th size lets call it.  Comfortable, and I was blown away at just how much it did indeed look like the Buick.  In fact a lot of people don't even notice at first that I'm driving a different car now.  See for yourself:

Subtle differences, but so much in common.  Lil N' first blurted out "HEY, where did all the red dots come from in here? WHO DID THIS???" (car has red fabric highlights all over).

Not the greatest angle, but you can see what I'm talking about.  So far I'm pushing more than 35% better gas mileage, that's huge.  Pretty darn happy.  Here are some other photos of the car:

Yesterday, Yo Yo, Today, McPicnic

The kids, especially Lil N', wanted Yo Yo Berry after we ate the other night and I wasn't able to take them, so yesterday we did indeed end up in the land of yogurt and candy.  I find it rather funny that they offer "low" and "no-fat" yogurt, yet then you have about 100 of the most atrocious toppings in terms of health that you can have, might as well go the Coldstone Creamery route if you are going to do that.

As you can see, lil maN's love of strawberries continues.  Interesting how placement makes that spoon look gigantic, he just happened to be waving it around.

And today, well, despite my insinuating that they would just LOVE go get pizza and pasta at Ci Ci's, there was no turning them away from McDonalds.  All grins as we ate at the park, despite having to chase down trash every 30 seconds or so. 

It was pretty chilly for a picnic but we still had fun.  They ran around the playground slides for about 5 minutes then much like me decided that staying out there was too freaking cold.  So off we went to head for home at that point.

Still The Best Show On Television

As I was watching the final few episodes last season for Walking Dead, I found myself at times actually wondering "Hmm, this show could actually be better than Game of Thrones..." but after today's episode of G.o.T. I have once again solidified my position that, indeed, HBO has the best show out there.

To get more specific about this particular episode, I keep thinking that 'The Hound' Clegane has some sort of internal battle going on between choosing life or death at any given time.  He flees King's Landing, as fire envelopes all the ships beyond the mud gate (although one could say his fear of fire may have drove him), he calls out "the Stark bitch" at Arya Stark, as though his choice to indulge that little bit of information would somehow bring him favor from his captors.  Yet in the dank caves, when faced with ridicule, he would repeatedly call out for them to "get on with it!" and "if you are going to cut my throat, do it already!"  Along with the life/death struggle, he also seems torn with wanting to be a better person, yet resigned to the fact that he is too far gone to ever get away from being what he perceives himself, or at least he perceives others see him as:  A ruthless killer with no real honor or loyalties.  You would almost see his current situation befitting him in a lot of ways, he seems to despite the requirements of loyalty as much as he enjoys a propensity for violence.

Ah, then there is Margaery Tyrell... seemingly willing to throw herself bodily at anyone who has even the slightest hint at being king, now she is offering her hand in "friendship" to Sansa Stark.  Something seems very fishy about what she is doing.  I would like to believe her family is aware of Littlefinger's alleged plans with Sansa, however behind all the "good deeds" Margaery seems to be doing there is something that just doesn't seem right about her.  Perhaps she still sees Sansa as a threat to her self assumed inevitability to being queen, or something worse, but I have a bad feeling about her intentions.

Ah, and then we get to the final segment, with Daenerys Targaryen.  I kept thinking she knew a little more about what was being said the last couple of episodes that involved her... and her knowledge of the Valyrian language took that far further than what I'd expected.  Even just before that, as she handed off the dragon, you got the feeling that she was in complete control, and I started to think "OH SHIT, she's going to kill that guy!"  I didn't expect that she was going to take the whole city down, which was far and away more awesome yet.  That wide eyed look on Daenery's personal slave hand maiden, Missandei, basically set it all.  Sort of the "Holy shit!" followed by the unspoken "YES!!!" as Daenerys gave the commands to bring the city down.  She's becoming more and more impressive with every episode, such a far cry from the "unsullied spoiled rich girl" she was portrayed as in the beginning of the series. 

I think I could go on and on about the other parts of the episode.  I enjoy this show so much, I often wonder if it is simply a matter of never being able to fully grasp what is going on in probably 15 different storylines that slightly intertwine most often, and then go headlong into a collision at other times, with awesome consequences.  I love this show!

ESPN And The Demise Of Sportscenter

In college, I was friends with some of the greatest guys a man could ever have as friends, some of whom I'm still involved with.  While I have always been a Nebraska football fan, and a fan of other sports in general (although not as 'in the blood' as I am with college football), it was not until I was around "Gub's" and "midas" and "shoes", among other college buddies, that I truly got deep into the sporting world. 

Of course, being in college traditionally, on campus and such, means you are up at all sorts of stupid hours of the day and night, and watching Sportscenter became a daily routine for us as a group of friends.  It certainly helped that Nebraska went through arguably the greatest period of college football in the entire modern era, winning 3 titles in the process. 

belly isn't nearly as into sports as I am.  She didn't mind my raving Husker love, but I was never going to expect her to enjoy sitting with me through an hour and a half of ESPN a day, all while playing Tecmo or hockey video games on another TV side by side.  So over time, I've gotten away from watching Sportscenter, really to the point that I only see it maybe once a week, if that.  We are more into watching sci-fi flicks/shows or comedies than sports, and it is more fun to do things with other people than by yourself, so of course that became more my thing to do.

One thing I do know, however, even with my lowered viewing time of ESPN, is that Steven A. Smith is one of the worst things that ever happened to the sports network.  There are a lot of great sports broadcasters out there, a lot of really good local NBA ones I am sure too, but I really can't think of too many worse than Smith is.  His endless rants bring to mind the idea of the sound of one's own voice soothing themselves, because I haven't really met anyone that enjoys his take on really, well, anything.

Therefore it was not a surprise to see an article on Sportscenter, and what is wrong with it these days, that centers in Steven A. Smith and the horrors involved with him.  Here is the article in full:

Sports Media Watch - The End of Sportscenter

For whatever reason, ESPN let Smith back in the door in 2011. While his initial role was confined to the radio and ESPN.com, he quickly resumed his position as one of ESPN’s most prominent talkers. Now, he is an institution on the morning SportsCenter, where unnecessarily deferential anchors sit by and watch him devolve into the kind of self-parody that even “Saturday Night Live” cannot adequately capture.

 It seems that the biggest problem facing ESPN is probably centered around the entire idea of what Chris Berman is all about.  Berman was the one who created quirky names centered around the last names of specific players, especially those in the NFL.  They were quite witty and funny... back in the mid 1990's.  Unfortunately after awhile many of the other anchors decided that they needed to find their own "schtick" and therefore ESPN started to become more and more about the sports anchors themselves than about the entire reason for ESPN in the first place: sports and video clips showing sports. 

Now I can't really say that ESPN is as bad as EMPTY-V (oh, did I spell MTV wrong?).  Both MTV and ESPN were wonderful in the early 1990's.  Sure, MTV had Beavis and Butthead (such an underrated show haha) but for the most part they were still all about music and videos, and ESPN during that time was about sports and replays.  I don't even know that I've even watched MTV in the last 5 years, trying to recall here, in fact the only show I can think of I can't even name, it was that pregnant teenager show, I can't even tell you if they have any actual music videos anymore.

I can only pray that ESPN doesn't get that bad.  ESPN has certainly added in a lot of self-serving programming that centers more around their sports anchors and their (at times very idiotic) opinions, but you can still find out what happens in the world of sports by watching Sportscenter.  They could easily go down the same road as MTV though, if they aren't careful.  I don't ever expect ESPN (or MTV for that matter) to be as great as they were in the early 1990's, but I also have to realize it likely has a lot to do with my age at that time too.  Your priorities change in life, not sure if Walking Dead is better than football highlights, but I do choose Walking Dead these days (or Game of Thrones, I'd say they are equally awesome).

Am I Really This Out Of Shape?

There was still snow to scoop when I got to work this morning, so I spent about an hour taking care of it.  Basically it consisted of scooping the sidewalk in front of my building, around the east side, to the doorway on that side.  Then I had to get the front steps scooped off also.  I can't believe how tired this made me.  I seriously wanted to come in, put a pillow on my desk, and take a nap.

Of course, we have a snowblower, but I am not sure how it works. I don't know if I can blame it on being a "typical guy" for not looking into it more and figuring the machine out, but I just figured it is easy enough to scoop snow by hand, why dick with that machine?  I think I'm going to figure out how it works for the next storm.  Oh, and start running again.  THAT is a  must haha.

Heat Sink Material

If you are like me, you likely have no idea what the title of this post even means... however as of today I know exactly what it is and how important it is to keeping your computer from overheating.

I play World of Warcraft a bit, and after the Pandaria update, my computer fan starting running full bore LOUD all the time.  Upon doing a hardware/software check to find out what the problem was, apparently my computer's integrated Intel i5-2310 chip did not have the capacity to handle the graphics necessary for the most up to date WoW content.

So, for Christmas, belly purchased a GEFORCE GTX 650 dedicated graphics card for me.  I kept putting off installing it, I guess because I've never really opened up a computer and messed all that much with hardware, so I was a bit fearful of trying it.  So getting to it, I made a bit of a mistake and removed the fan from the CPU, because I thought the card had to be installed by going in at an angle from the top.  I found out of course that you have to unscrew a piece of the back panel and unclip the front, then it just slides in from the side.

So I got it installed, the reinstalled the fan assembly, figured out the BIOS settings to run the new graphics card, and fired everything up.  I put the settings on the graphics card to "High", but almost immediately the computer began running north of 90 degrees centigrade.  Even setting the graphics card to lower settings didn't keep the computer any cooler.

Now you have to understand, I have never, as stated above, worked with computer hardware before, and I did a bunch of research to try and find out why this computer was overheating, when the entire point of installing the dedicated graphics card was to allow it to run cooler.  I couldn't seem to find anything related to my brand of computer doing this sort of thing, but then I ran into an article that talked about the importance of using heat sink, otherwise known as thermal grease, or liquid heat exchanger.  

The basic principle is that there are two plates that stick together, and in order to pull the heat from the CPU plate, the thermal grease will transfer that heat over to the fan and radiator fins.  When I pulled the fan off of my computer originally, I accidentally rubbed off a bunch of the compound, and that's why after I installed it, it was loose on its mounting, and why the computer ran hot as hell even with the dedicated graphics card.

I picked up a 20 dollar gaming fan, figured I'd upgrade the fan, along with some new thermal grease, and installed everything tonite.  I do have to say, Intel's mounting pins are a total pain in the ass, they don't like to stay in place as you try and twist the locking mechanisms into place.  I got everything put in, then fired the computer up.  SO much quieter, and running a full 40 degrees cooler. 

I now have the WoW graphics settings at maximum "Ultra" setting, which is pretty freaking amazing by comparison to the "Fair" settings I was running before.  My whole purpose for getting the graphics card was to quiet things down, because the cpu fan was running full bore non stop and was annoyingly loud.  Now the computer is really quiet, and the graphics are insanely good.  I have to say also, belly enjoys working on computer hardware, and I think it is a lot like working on a car to be honest.  I think the wife would really do well if she were an auto mechanic, although she's probably beg to differ :)

Moffett's Ghost!!!

Airwolf is on Netflix!!! This was my favorite show from the 1980's... I guess growing up as a little guy, always one of the smallest people in my class, I had a sense of encouragement from this show, being that, the general basis of each episode:  Stringfellow Hawk (Jan Michael St. Vincent) would get his butt kicked/threatened/harassed, or whatever other form of disrespect, then at the end he would get in his high tech Mach 1+ helicopter, loaded to the gills with all sorts of gadgetry and weapons, then open up the can of whoop ass on all the bad guys.

I do know that as I watch the show now, I notice that there is a distinct lack of action shots by the helicopter, maybe 20 total, that they use in terms of the flying and the weapons firing during battle scenes.  BUT, that is not enough to keep me from watching this show again.  Unlike some of the shows from my youth (Dukes of Hazard comes to mind), Airwolf doesn't come off as really disappointing, and I don't question my own intelligence for ever having watched it in the first place haha!  Still awesome after all these years!

Whiteout!

This is the view out my window, to the south of our building.  The view is even more obscured by snow now than it was when I took the photo a couple of hours ago. The middle of Nebraska is getting blasted really hard right now.  I usually don't have my shades pulled up in my office due to the sun being way too intense to work on my computer most days, but it is so beautiful out, and calming to watch the snow coming down.

Probably sounds odd to some, I don't know, I have always enjoyed watching snowstorms, all storms for that matter, however I would have to say a snowstorm is a lot more soothing than a 100 mph thunderstorm blasting its way through your neighborhood :D (although that is still very exciting to be honest).  

Looks like we've got about 8" of snow right now, not sure how much more we will get.  I hope it doesn't get much worse, and that the wind stays down.  If the wind whips up like they think it might, we are going to really have issues as it piles the snow in drifts in bad places, and then I might actually get a call from Lincoln about people getting stranded on the interstate.  If that happens, I'll be in a truck going about 10 to 15 mph out there to pick them up.  Doesn't bother me though, makes me feel like I can give a little back to the public, because I'm grateful to have this military job and my thanks go out to them, including all of you, for being able to continue to do something that I love this long.

"Smart Phone"?

My phone has been causing me a lot of grief this past week or so since the "Ice Cream Sandwich" update (yes, goofy name for a software patch indeed).  Basically anytime I would open up an application like Skype or Google Maps, even from a full battery, the phone would up and instantly die, without even being able to do the 15%, 10% or 5% battery warnings. 

I ended up calling Verizon today, and the first guy I got was frustrating.  It is so obvious when someone doesn't even care about their job, so I pretty much immediately asked him to skip all the typical steps that he would normally go through and just pipe me over to technical support. After that, I got to talk to "Ken", and I have to say, he was awesome, to the tune of more than 2 hours of help on my phone.

We tried a variety of "fixes", none of which seemed to work, so he recommended a complete factory reboot for the phone.  We checked my google account, backed everything up, and then reset the phone, albeit with the basic Ice Cream update.  Then we went through the set-up and talked about a lot of the features I never even knew the phone had.  Of course then I had to start downloading my applications.  Apparently "Swype" keyboard is gone?  I had to use SlideIt instead, and I have to be honest, I think SlideIt is the better choice anyway.  I was having a lot of trouble with Swype, but being a typical guy I just dealt with it.  Through all of this Ken from Verizon was pretty awesome and patient. 

So, even tonite I'm still trying to figure things out with the phone, such as how to set up my music and photo applications so they are "open" on the screens as I flip through, like they used to be.  Oh and Ken told me that most people just up and order a new battery online for 50 dollars, even though the battery is a 10 dollar warranty item for most people who are still within their contract with Verizon. 

And, getting back to the original problem with the phone... it had 70% of its power and I unplugged it, and started playing Angry Birds (wow, talk about a time consuming download initially on 3G haha) and it seemed to be doing okay, then I opened up Google Maps and BOOM the phone instantly died.  Well, at that point we pretty much realized it had to be the battery, so I agreed to order a new battery through Verizon for $10.55.  I'm also eligible for an upgrade, apparently tomorrow... as funny as that sounds.  I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but doesn't it seem like these phones tend to die right when the wireless companies allow us to upgrade? :) 

Well, back to working on my phone.  Oh, it's an HTC Thunderbolt.  I failed to mention that before!

I'm glad Ken was patient, he was awesome! 

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

As I write this, this area is preparing for anywhere from 12 to 18 inches of snowfall in the next 24 hours, along with high winds that are going to switch directions sometime tonite. Due to this, I have been locked down at my current location, unable to go home as planned. This is because the military here is part of the state's "Emergency Management" plan, in which my part is having two vehicles warmed up and ready to go should there be stranded travelers on the roads near here.

It doesn't really bother me, I did have plans to head for home and hang with the kids tonite, plus the significant other has to work and needs any help I can provide, but our plans didn't take into account the severity of weather they are expecting to head our way. That is why we have Skype, I will be able to video chat with the little ones tonite and all will be well.

Here are our awesome hellions!!!



Of course, I get an email today asking me to inventory my emergency kit, a kit that has more than 200 items... well, that is going to wait, as I have to get diesel fuel, fill water jugs, and set up preparations for tonite's storm. They couldn't have picked much of a worse time to want to verify inventory... but then again, I learned long ago that common sense can and will butt heads with the powers that be in the military, or I suppose any large organization for that matter.

I Took The Low Road In, I'll Take The High Road Out

It is early in the morning.

0319 to be exact.

I did sleep a bit, I am not sleeping now.

Or perhaps I am sleeping but I'm just dreaming that I'm typing this? I can't really be too sure...

I'm certain I should be asleep, yes, that is a fact.

I have now had my job for 5 months, 20 days, 3 hours, and 21 minutes.

I am blessed.

Having started my job in March 2008, even though it was a temporary full time position, I figured there would always be time to get on permanent, or as permanent as 20+ years in the military can be considered.

Oh, the promises, they came... "Stay in this position, you have an excellent chance of making AGR right here"

So, myself, and others, we stayed put, we remained loyal to the establishment. For years...

Then the rumors...

"No money, downsizing, temp positions will be gone on this date, no they will be gone on this date, okay 3 more months, but that is it, use up all your leave because you can't take it with you"

Stress levels rose, although certainly there were other contributory considerations.

As far as years go, 2011 will not be one I look back with any particular fondness on. Certainly the realization that most everything you believe in is in some ways, at the very least, compromised, is a bit much to digest. I guess you could say that particular stomach ache is still causing me problems even now.

So, roughly 13 job interviews over the course of around 18 months (give or take a little from either that first or second number, either way it was daunting), the final interview, a job some 100 miles away from where we live, I did not even consider... Until 5 minutes before the closing time on the closing date to post for the job, I decided to put my name into the hat. 2 weeks later, I had the permanent position I had been looking for. To put things more into perspective, in 2004 there were 3 permanent positions posted on the military website, only 2 people total even applied. Now, for every one of these positions that comes up, anywhere from 18 to 25 people apply for EACH ONE. Needless to say, the "best kept secret" is really no longer a secret. 2012 brought about this job, although I work quite a ways from home, still though, job security in the current market is extremely important. Those sacrifices made to maintain for my family are of the utmost importance.

Tonite's meal: brought to you by Hormel chili and Easy Mac macaroni and cheese, I'd say they worked together to bring you tonite's meal in one bowl. Wanted to avoid the soda, but the can of Pepsi was screaming my name. Or screaming someone else's name. Either way it could not be ignored. Come to think of it the empty can is still screaming. Maybe that's just my imagination. Perhaps my proverbial castaway volleyball? I am alone here, a lot :)

Being alone in this facility has its ups and downs. On one hand, you don't have help with much of anything and you become completely reliant upon the graces of electronic communication to do much of anything you don't understand...

While I'd love to say the volume of "understood" far exceeds that of "not understood", I must actually admit that I still feel as though the firehose I am drinking from is running at 90% capacity. In other words, not really able to keep it all down.

On the other hand, being alone allows you to do your work at your pace, provided you have the integrity and motivation to actually get it done. This I do, for I know I need to maintain this employment. I do not want it to appear that I am merely in this job because of the money, it is a good job, with great benefits I might add, but I also enjoy what I do. There is a feeling of fullfillment taking care of the Soldiers from this unit.

As I grow tired, I want to post up some interesting finds, let us put these in the category of "time travel", and take a trip back... way back, to California, and one expensive little hole in the wall:

<

I suppose now is time that I lay my head down upon my pillow on this oh so comfy cot. Let's just say sarcasm probably doesn't reflect just how comfortable this cot truly is :) Take care, until next time... oh and the title? Three Days Grace. I enjoy their music, and some guy in Subway one night awhile back told me they had a new album out. Sure enough, they did. Oh to watch Lil maN' singing "Operate" is priceless.

Budget Mess? How Hard Is It To Fix? Really???

So, for some time now the government has been spending money that it doesn't actually have. This is what creates this 'deficit' that has now reached epidemic proportions, effectively ruining the credit rating for the actual country itself, as crazy as that sounds. What I really don't get is how it is so difficult for the government to realize that you CANNOT SPEND MONEY YOU DO NOT HAVE IN YOUR ACCOUNT!

When regular Joe Blow does things like that, he goes to jail, unless he is fortunate enough to realize he is spending too much money and actually sits down and budgets his finances vs income to even things out. This isn't exactly a STRANGE concept, there, Washington, get your ass in gear and get it done. Here's how you do it:

Let's say, for ease of mathematical equations, that the deficit is 100 billion (yah it is much higher than that, but bear with me here). Now let's say there are 10 government programs/entities that are spending that money. Again, yes, there are thousands more, but this is for demonstration purposes, and the percentages are completely made up, stick with me here.

1) Welfare 20%
2) Military 15%
3) Medicare 15%
4) Student Loans 10%
5) Food Stamps 10%
6) HUD Public Housing 10%
7) NASA 5%
8) EPA 5%
9) USDA 5%
10) IRS 5%

So, you take 200 million out of welfare, 150 million away from the military and medicare, 100 million each from student loans, food stamps, and public housing, 50 million from NASA, the EPA, USDA, and the IRS.

BOOM, problem solved. Oh, it isn't meant to be easy, and it would be political suicide for whoever did it because everyone is going to be angry and feel they got 'screwed', but the plain fact remains that this is the easiest and most responsible way to actually fix this problem.

Unfortunately the current administration is going to be too busy with this 'national health care' crap, and will likely go after guns in his second term, instead of doing what he actually needs to do, which I have listed above.

The Rules Of Sleep

It is said that the average adult needs 7 to 8 hours of sleep to function at their maximum potential. Children need more than this, starting as newborns of course, a LOT more, most of the day really, then down to 10 hours or so by about 10 years old, and gradually less on through their teen years. It is also said that as you get older, especially past 50 or so, you need less and less sleep. I am not to that point yet, so it would be hard to say.

I probably average about 6 hours of sleep a night. I should get a couple hours more, but I have always had difficulty just laying in bed forcing myself to sleep, so I tend to wait till I'm dead tired, so that my head hits the pillow and I pass out. Not the best way to get a good night's rest, but it works for me. As for D, she is smarter about it, goes to bed at a reasonable hour and reads a book for awhile, then shuts out the lights, and goes to sleep. I should likely trying to get more sleep, but it is hard to change your sleep habits. I do notice something rather interesting though: when you sleep more than 8 hours, you seem to be more tired throughout the following day, as though you only slept 4 or 5 hours the night before.

The reason for this, quite frankly, is scientific. Through vast and expensive research, I have discovered that there is a secret place in the brain that stores negative sleep. Negative sleep is when you don't get enough sleep at night. Say you sleep for only 5 hours, you would need 3 more hours of sleep to get to a full night's rest. Well the body stores that 3 hours in a special cache, and then whenever you go over 8 hours, the body taps into that cache of negative sleep, and you end up feeling more groggy and tired the than if you had slept only the required 7 to 8 hours.

By this point in my life I would probably need to sleep a full 2 years to completely clear my negative sleep cache. While in Iraq for a year, I don't think there was ever a time when I slept for a full uninterrupted 8 hours. Usually it was 4 to 5 hours, if I was lucky, then catch up with an hour or 2 later in the day, during down time between missions. This made a lot of days in Iraq seem very surreal, especially when you consider the bleak terrain, and the contrast in temperature and light, as you go from a 78 degree living area with the lights out, into a 125 degree blinding sun blast with light reflecting off the light colored sandy rocky ground. After I got back CONUS (stateside), it was more than 6 months before I got back into a regular sleep cycle again. Iraq was probably the greatest single contributor to my negative sleep cache.

So, why am I writing about this today? I don't know, I am using up leave, so it allows me to sleep a little extra, and I was thinking about negative sleep again, so what the hell, thought I'd write about it. I would say that I could be dreaming right now, but apparently the kids (the second biggest contributor to negative sleep) are tearing up the house, so I know I'm not dreaming. In my dreams, they are being perfect angels, they would never dirty up the house.

187 LBS

Not bad, considering I was at 216 on April 20th.

Bye Bye Beret, So Long Velcro, HELL YAH HOOAH!!!

The Army Times reported yesterday that the beret will no longer be the authorized headgear with the combat uniform, as it will be replaced by the patrol cap as the default headgear. And as though the news couldn't get even better? VELCRO IS NOW OPTIONAL!!!

ACU Changes Make Velcro Optional, Patrol Cap Default Headgear

Army Chief of Staff Martin E. Dempsey and Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond F. Chandler III are currently my two favorite people in the Army! THANK YOU for doing something the last chief of staff utterly refused to do: LISTEN TO US, talk to the guys in the field, and acknowledge that certain aspects of the combat uniform are a huge mistake.

Now if only we could get an actual combat uniform pattern that actually works instead of making you stand out in any foliage like a sore thumb? I'll take my good news in 3's please haha.

Finally Got The Bicycle Out

I ran 5.5 miles a couple nights ago, and yesterday was still feeling pretty sore (probably a little to do with the PT test a day before that) so I decided to take a day off. Then I got to thinking about the fact that I had not yet even been out on my bicycle yet this year.

My mom had borrowed our silver Dodge Neon for a few days because she had hit a deer, so her vehicle was in the shop getting repaired. Then my sister let her borrow her blue Dodge Neon, which is a bit of a nicer Neon than ours. So rather than have my mom drive the silver Neon back up to our house from the farm, I decided I'd ride the 20 miles or so down to the farm on my bicycle, load up the bike into the Neon, and drive the Neon back up here.

Thankfully there was a pretty decent tailwind coming out of the north to help push me along as I headed south towards the farm. The first 12 miles or so I was able to hold about a 25 mph pace, which is a bit ridiculous (normally I run 14 to 18 mph average on my longer rides). The highway I was riding on has very nice long rolling hills, nothing too incredibly steep and long sections of straight level road too.

But, then I turned east for the last 10 miles, and I was getting hit pretty hard by that north crosswind, and the hills on that particular highway are a lot steeper and more difficult. The next 10 miles or so dropped my overall speed back down to a more normal 18.4 mph. I turned onto the gravel road for the last mile, and WTF the county had put down a bunch of crushed white rock instead of gravel... well, needless to say my bike with its skinny tires didn't last long, as 105 psi blew out of my back tire after about a half mile of travel up the road.

Not even 30 seconds later, my mother drives by in the blue Neon, I wave, she waves and honks and keeps going, despite my waving frantically to stop her. I pulled my phone out and called her, asking why she didn't stop??? "Oh, I never even saw you" she said. Uhm, okay, but you honked and waved? I sure hope my mom isn't getting Alzheimer's disease or something haha.

All in all a decent ride, and I do have 2 spare tubes here at the house. I generally just use new tubes, they are about 5 bucks a piece and I don't have to deal with the bullshit of repairing tubes and having it only work about half the time. My overall results from today's ride?

Distance: 22.3 miles
Time: 1:12:26
Average Speed: 18.4 mph
Max Speed: 37.5 mph
Temperature: 83 degrees
Wind: 10 mph (gusting to 15) from the North/Northeast

Best Uniform Option = Marine's Pattern?

It is widely acknowledged within the Army, perhaps more so on an informal scale, that the ACU uniform with its digital pattern is a failure. The current deployment uniform, the multicam, is not meant to be an actual long term solution to the problem. So what exactly is the solution? I tend to agree with this opinion piece:

Marine Corpse Has Obligation To Share Pattern

Once again, the Army is shopping for the best possible camouflage pattern for combat soldiers to replace the Universal Camouflage Pattern adopted in 2004.

For more than a year, soldiers in Afghanistan have been wearing MultiCam. But officials say that’s not a long-term solution, which is why they plan to field-test a number of options with the goal of choosing three: one for woodland, one for desert and one for transitional environments.

Among the best options is the uniform worn by Marines, known as MARPAT. Through a series of tests, both scientific and anecdotal, it has stood out for not standing out.

Trouble is, the Marines don’t want to share it.

The Corps has already fought off advances by the Air Force and Navy to adopt MARPAT look-alike patterns. Navy SEALs have a MARPAT-like uniform, but other sailors aren’t allowed to use it, either. This is madness.

I've felt this was the best uniform since my wife wore it during her stint in the Marines. The uniform has no freaking velcro either, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Army is ignorant enough to continue to use velcro in some capacity, despite how poorly the crap performs in the field.

Missed It By THAT Much!!!

PT Test completed.

Goals:

80 pushups
90 situps
12:30 2-mile

Outcome?

72 pushups
80 situps
12:25 2-mile

Missed the pushups by ONE... freaking muscle failure as time ran out.

Not overly disappointed, I was so damn tired, well, fatigued for some odd reason, and the humidity during the run was utterly oppressive, the temperature wasn't too bad, but it was hard to breathe that air.

Would still love to do 100 pushups, 100 situps, and a sub 11 two-mile, at some time, but the older I get, as I pointed out in an earlier post, the more unlikely it is that it will happen.

Range Fire!!

So, tomorrow begins a 3 day range fire exercise for our unit. Should be fun. I actually mean that, I really look forward to firing the rifle. Not so much the pistol, sorry to say I am sort of bad with a pistol, although I have gotten better. With the rifle though, I grew up shooting birds with a Crosman AIR-17, a bb/pellet gun that looks like an M-16.

My first time firing a real M-16 at Ft. Benning, the drill sergeant chewed my ass. "Your fundamentals are all fucked up, just fuckin' ate the fuck up". Then he saw me shoot, and I was damn good, after that it was "Well, your shit it still be fucked up, but you keep firing like that and it don't matter none!". I was one of three people out of 51 in our platoon that shot expert (36 or higher out of 40) on the range on qualification day.

Since then I have earned the Expert In Competition badge in state competition. You can wear the EIC badge in lieu of the actual marksmanship badge, which is pretty unique, only a few people each year earn them.

Belly and I fired 100 rounds of .223 (5.56 civilian style) at the indoor range for familiarization tonite. That should help out some this next few days. Well, time to pack up. Wish me luck!

Happy Memorial Day

Just wanted to take a moment to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice this Memorial Day. You will not be forgotten.

Blast From The Past: Gravel Flop

On my 7th birthday I was given one of the best gifts a boy could ever have gotten: a chrome frame Mongoose BMX style bicycle, with mag wheels, and two "Suzuki" button up pads, one on the handlebars, one on the crotch bar. My cousin Carl, who is about 10 years older than me, gave it to me, through my father, who had to weld the frame in an area that had broken.

What made this sort of birthday present even more spectacular was that, growing up on a farm, I had endless possibilities when it came to BMX activities, from riding the bike down to the creek to go swimming with friends, to ramping the bike off of all sorts of different items to see how much air I could get.

It was the latter that got me into trouble one day. I was probably 9 or 10 years old at the time. It was a hot summer day, the kind that would find me riding around on my bike at the farm, wearing only cut off jean shorts, and shoes/socks. For the days event, I had set up an old car tire and some boards leading out of the shed, and I would ride to the back of the shed, then get up a head of steam, and ramp off the boards.

This was working quite well, so I added another car tire to try and get even more air. I rode again to the back of the shed, peddled with all my might, ramped up the boards, lifted on the handlebars, and UP UP in the air I went... much higher than previously.

The next thing I knew, I was hitting the ground in a very painful belly-flop, knocking the wind out of me quite literally. With no shirt on, the gravel tore into my skin, so the secondary screaming pain after getting over the initial shock was the horrific burning where the tiny rocks had embedded into my skin. I can remember looking up through a tear stained gaze and seeing my front wheel bouncing along further down the driveway, and it was then that I realized what had happened: the front wheel had come off in mid jump. And unlike what most people figure would happen, the bike did NOT embed itself into the ground forks first. With the front wheel gone, the bike lost stability, and went sideways, throwing me off.

I ran up the driveway to the house sobbing uncontrollably, and my grandmother, always the caretaker, immediately started tending to my chest and stomach, using cotton balls and... RUBBING ALCOHOL! Third horrific painful shock of the day. Not sure if you've ever had someone put rubbing alcohol on a fresh cut, but it is not in any way pleasant. I would recommend hydrogen peroxide next time. I sat in the house for a couple of hours, watched cartoons, nursed my wounds, a big portion of which was my pride. About 2 hours later I went out to get my bike, thankfully it wasn't damaged, but it took me nearly 20 minutes to find my tire, which had rolled all the way down the interior driveway and across one feedlot into the bushes.

Within a few days the gravel had worked its way out of my skin, and there were no real lasting ill effects of my nasty spill. One of the more interesting notes about all of this was that when my uncle Nick was about my age, he had ridden a 10 speed for the first time down the really steep gravel road south of the farm, didn't know how to stop, and had taken a far worse spill than I did. He believes he still has gravel embedded in his skin to this day. Youch... glad I wasn't going that fast.

Ever Wonder What 20,000 Paratroopers Look Like?

This photo was taken at the annual four-mile Division Run May 16, 2011, at Fort Bragg, N.C. All of the divisional brigades were home for the first time in a long time, which allowed more than 20,000 soldiers to participate in the run. Reminds me of years ago while in basic training at Ft. Benning, when all of the soldiers participated in a 5 mile run. While it looked pretty awesome, these types of runs are like hell on earth if you are near the back of the formation, when the "accordion" effect kicks in, with people stepping on your heels. Still, impressive sight.

TV Worth Watching?

As most people with children know... as parents, you are stuck watching a variety of programs that range from mildly entertaining to overwhelmingly irritating. As I compiled a list of shows that my two little monsters watch on a regular basis, it occurred to me that they have pretty much ultimate control over our television set, except for maybe 2 hours each day, where bell draws the line and takes over (which still irritates lil N' who, by her body gestures, thinks of this as the end of the world).

Anyways, I figured I'd come up with a rating scheme, only as scientific as what my own brain can concoct (so not all that scientific). Overall Kids Appeal is how much my two little ones seem to like the show, Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults is how well grown ups can handle the shows plot and characters, and Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults is how well grown-ups can handle listening to the music without being completely annoyed, especially by the really crappy catchy jingles that get stuck in your head. Higher scores are better, on a scale of 1 to 10.

Nick Jr

Olivia
Overall Kids Appeal: 9 - Lil N' LOVES this show, I'd say it is one of her top 3 right now. Lil maN doesn't pay much attention to it unless (you'll see a theme here) there is singing or dancing or both going on.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 8 - Now, mind you, this isn't comparing this show to something like Myth Busters or Saturday Night Live or NCIS, this is a comparison strictly between kids shows listed here. Olivia actually does have a generally interesting plot as kids shows go.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - The theme song is easy to listen to, and they don't have much in terms of repetitive music within the show.
Fresh Beat Band
Overall Kids Appeal: 10 - both little ones LOVE this show, as evident by the breakdancing they get into during certain parts of the show when the actors are singing and dancing.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 7 - I would have given this a far worse rating early on, when all Nick could do was overload us with commercials about this show, but watching it isn't nearly as bad as the commercials indicated.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 4 - The songs are pretty dorky, and some can turn into a juke box of the mind, that gets irritating.
Dora The Explorer
Overall Kids Appeal: 8 - Both seem to enjoy it.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 6 - while some of the stories are just plain ignorant, such as, lets save the magic babies, who, by the way, can fly, but we have to transport them through dangerous areas on the ground in a stroller, they aren't horrible by any means to watch.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 6 - somewhat catchy but not as irritating as most.
Go Diego Go
Overall Kids Appeal: See Dora
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: See Dora
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: See Dora
Dino Dan
Overall Kids Appeal: 7 - Lil N' enjoys it, Lil maN doesn't really pay attention.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 4 - I don't know why but this show annoys me, I can't really sit through it unless I'm doing something else.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 7 - not much musical content other than the theme song.
Little Bill
Overall Kids Appeal: 3 - neither seem to get into this show.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 2 - To say a kid's show is boring is probably a general consensus on most of these shows, but Little Bill goes beyond boring to just plain dreadfully bland. It is hard to believe Bill Cosby has anything to do with this show, the writing input is just awful.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 4 - Mostly a collection of urban elevator music.
Max And Ruby
Overall Kids Appeal: 5 - Lil N' seemed to like it in the past, but lately I haven't seen them watch it much.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 4 - It never changes much: Ruby is trying to do something to get a badge as a bunny scout, and Max appears to be screwing that up, but no, wait, in the end he was actually helping. This is the general theme of almost every show.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 5 - not heinous, not appealing, just sort of there.
Wow Wow Wubbzy
Overall Kids Appeal: 9 - both seem to like the show
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 8 - catchy fun show, with inventions and funny adventures.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - even with the end of show songs that are on, they are light hearted and fun.
The Backyardigans
Overall Kids Appeal: 8 - made up adventures in the back yard for a group of goofy characters, both kids like that.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 8 - ever changing stories, enough new episodes to keep things fresh.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - each show has new songs and dances, the theme song isn't all that appalling.
Yo Gabba Gabba
Overall Kids Appeal: 9 - I don't know what it is about this show that gets both kids excited.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 7 - So there is a giant studded red dildo as one of the characters, something that would likely have baggage checkers wondering what DJ Lance is up to at the airport, even so, the stories are kind of funny in a "WTF?" sort of manner.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 7 - "There's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy!!" The "WTF?" is in effect again, in a good way.
Ni Hao Kai-lan
Overall Kids Appeal: 7 - Lil N' likes this show more than Lil maN.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 5 - "Uh oh, so and so is mad. Let's find out why". This doesn't seem to change much. There are also problems with the overall presentation of "Chinese" to Americans, considering that the language isn't labeled correctly.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 6 - Songs within the show aren't all that long, so it is just the theme song you have to endure.
Wonder Pets
Overall Kids Appeal: 8 - This was a 10 at one time for lil N', now they both watch it but not with the intensity that she used to.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 7 - Aside from wondering WTF the parents of these animals are up to, and how social services doesn't take their kids away, the different stories about baby animals in trouble aren't all that bad.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 7 - "What's gonna work? TEAMWORK!" Catchy little jingles that are funny to repeat.
Team Umizoomi
Overall Kids Appeal: 6 - It may be just a little too advanced for them.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 5 - I don't know what a dress that creates patterns is all that useful for.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 5 - two four six eight lets do the Ubi Shake? Dumb.
Miss Spider Sunny Patch Friends
Overall Kids Appeal: 4 - Not sure why, they just don't really care for this one.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 5 - plenty of characters, centered around silly catch words like "everybuggy" and so forth.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 7 - Not a lot of singing during the show, just the theme song to deal with.
The Upside Down Show
Overall Kids Appeal: 10 - lil N' LOVES this show, but it is on so late she doesn't get much of a chance to ever see it.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 8 - bell would probably disagree, but I find this show to be stupidly funny.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - Even the theme song doesn't contain a lot of music.
Blues Clues
Overall Kids Appeal: Story of two shows... 10 for Steve, 6 for Joe, even for the kids it is that way.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 8 for Steve, 2 for Joe. Something about Joe is just... insincere, he comes off as totally fake.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - "We just got a letter, we just got a letter" It was fun to watch lil N' sing this song for probably a year.
Oswald
Overall Kids Appeal: 4 - too bland for even the kids.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 3 - the show is... sort of depressing.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 5 - I never even see the show anymore, not sure if it is on or not.

PBS

Sesame Street
Overall Kids Appeal: 8 - lil maN LOVES it, for some reason lil N' isn't into it all that much anymore.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 8 - while my attention span isn't as short as the kids' is, the 1 to 3 minute short scripts aren't bad.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - enough differentiation to help make it through for just about anyone.
Super Why
Overall Kids Appeal: 7 - here recently lil N' has been getting into this, may be an age thing.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 4 - I can't find much to even remember about the show, this is one that sort of disappears into the background for me.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - Again, can't remember how the music goes.
WordWorld
Overall Kids Appeal: 8 - lil N' likes to announce what it is she is looking at.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 5 - I understand the theme but it gets old pretty quick.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 6 - theme song is a bit irritating but not overly offensive to my ear sensibilities.
Martha Speaks
Overall Kids Appeal: 5 - kind of boring
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 3 - see above, if it is boring for them, it is really boring to me.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 5 - can't even place the theme song right now.
Curious George
Overall Kids Appeal: 5 - aside from lil N' getting a kick out of the monkey doing something, not much to go with here.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 5 - stories are diversified enough to keep from getting a lower score.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 7 - songs aren't all that catchy.
Sid The Science Kid
Overall Kids Appeal: 9 - singing and dancing gets both of them involved.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 7 - classroom activities are diversified, along with home settings.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 6 - theme song gets a bit long.
Clifford The Big Red Dog
Overall Kids Appeal: 4 - neither seem too much into this.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 2 - boring
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 7 - can't even place it
Barney And Friends
Overall Kids Appeal: 8 - *sigh* they love it
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 1 - sorry barney, there is very little I can find about your show that is intellectually stimulating.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 1 - VERY annoying, just plain dumb.
Caillou
Overall Kids Appeal: 2 - again, neither seem into it.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 1 - whiny kid needs a spanking if you ask me
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 4 - annoying
Bob The Builder
Overall Kids Appeal: 7 - construction equipment and building stuff, what more can be said?
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 6 - hell Robot Chicken did a spin on it, that has to count for something.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 6 "WE CAN BUILD IT"
Dinosaur Train
Overall Kids Appeal: 9 - both love it.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 8 - decent storylines, and a paleontologist at the end to talk about the dinosaurs in the show? not bad
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - catchy and fun

Disney

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Overall Kids Appeal: 10 - can this be an 11? It is both their favorites. Thank GOD for the DVDs on long trips.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 8 - plenty of "goofy" characters.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 8 - theme song may be catchy but it is fun.
Handy Manny
Overall Kids Appeal: 8 - Tools that talk, building stuff, they like that.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 6 - a bit boring but enough characters to keep it from getting overly so.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 7 - theme song is all there basically is for music.
Imagination Movers
Overall Kids Appeal: 8 - was a 10 to lil N' at one time, thank GOD not so much anymore.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 3 - I find the stars to be really annoying, especially the boring uncle character.
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 1 - HATE the theme song, and the music is really really annoying.
Special Agent Oso
Overall Kids Appeal: 9 - lil N' loves it.
Overall Storyline Appeal To Adults: 3 - stuffed bear that is apparently dense as a brick but somehow is a super hero?
Overall Ability To Endure Music For Adults: 1 - they get stuck in your head like a nail pounded into your skull, did someone just stab my earhole with a musical knife?

So, yah, our kids see quite a few of these 'educational' shows each week. Doesn't seem to hurt them at all, lil N', by all accounts, is apparently the smartest person in her class at daycare.

Dropping The Lbs

At the beginning of April, I was at 216 lbs... again. That has been my highest weight, and it has happened 3 times in the last couple of years. Each time has generally served as a wake up call to get my ass in gear and start eating right and working out. The other two times I did so so, once down to 200 lbs, the other time down to 195 (was back at 210 within like 30 days each time).

Well, today I'm at 190. This was after my 5.5 mile run around the Chalco Hills trail. I would like to continue to get my weight down to about 180 lbs, I feel a lot healthier at that weight. I certainly feel a lot healthier now than I did at 216 lbs. Kind of weird being able to pull about 2 inches of belt through.

Oh and my Corcoran tan jump boots are kick ass!

Freakin' Birds!!!

I went outside to cook something on the grill about 2 weeks ago, and opened the lid to find a huge mess of a bird's nest inside. Then upon going to the underside of the deck, I find another birds nest there. Tore everything out, 24 hours later, the bastards had began building nests again in both places. So the grill got cleaned out again and is now in the garage.

Despite pulling the nest down from under the deck probably 15 times now, they continued to try and build it over and over again. So, someone suggested that I try something new, something so completely idiotic that I just had to attempt it, if for no other reason than to have a good laugh, or at the very least confuse my neighbors:



Well, I'll be damned, because believe it or not, this tactic appears to have worked. Who'd of thought that drawing a huge set of eyeballs (along with the added nose and toothy grin that I thought completed the ensemble) would scare the hell out of birds and keep them from building a nest under the deck? I sure didn't think it would work. I suppose this is better than Plan B, which was to get the pellet gun out and start blasting the SOB's!!!

Age VS Maximum Score

I guess it is only natural that I follow up my last post about PT with a related piece. In this particular occasion, I am talking about "maxing" the PT test, something I have done every year for a long time, and twice a year since I have been active duty. As I have gotten older, however, I am now finding myself questioning my current fitness regimen, because as we grow older, the chance of injury becomes significantly higher, and I sometimes wonder if the heightened possibility of getting hurt, or developing a chronic injury, is worth the risk, considering that scoring a 250 with a lot less work would be acceptable and keep me just as gainfully employed.

My main chance for injury is of course running, I push myself hard to maintain my abilities, and the other consideration is that, if I were to quit running as much as I do, I would have to alter my diet in order to avoid gaining weight. I already eat quite a bit less than I did when I was younger, but that is strictly to maintain my current weight. I find that losing weight is a hell of a lot harder than it ever used to be, and without running the weight off, I fear I'd gain a chunk of fat. I just love food too much. Of course, proper stretching goes a long way, as does a proper diet. I suppose the 250 score would be a piece of cake, but dammit I want to continue aiming for that 300.

New PT Standards?

The current Army PT (physical training) test has remained unchanged since 1992, and relatively the same since 1980.

2 minutes of push-ups
2 minutes of sit-ups
2 mile run

While the current test may seem a bit old, it is still a very good indication of overall physical ability. That being said, there are changes now being made to the PT test, and they make little sense. “There are no warrior tasks and battle drills that require us to run for considerable distances,” said Frank Palkoska, director of the U.S. Army Physical Fitness School. “We look at the ability to start, stop, change direction, get up, get down — those tasks that soldiers have to perform in full spectrum operations are exactly what we are training them to do.”

Problem? Well, since when is fitness required to mimic what a soldier is going to do on the battlefield? Physical fitness and combat readiness may be related to one another, but as far as preparatory tasks, they are distinctly different. Let's take a look at the annual "combat readiness test" that they are looking to institute:

A new annual "combat readiness" test includes running 400 meters — about a quarter of a mile — with a rifle, moving through an obstacle course in full combat gear, and crawling and vaulting over obstacles while aiming a rifle. Soldiers also will have to run on a balance beam while carrying 30-pound ammo boxes and do an agility sprint around a course field of cones. Soldiers also will have to drag sleds weighted with sandbags to test their ability to pull a fallen comrade from the battlefield. The combat test might be given before deployments as well as annually, but that has not been decided.

Now, I have no problem with them doing such a test, provided this particular test is not the overall graded test that measures physical fitness. Another issue? Just how the hell are individual units around the United States supposed to standardize the results for a test like this? It appears that this test will not be the standard for PT. The proposed replacement for the actual PT test, something called the "APRT", or Army Physical Readiness Program, consists of:

60-yard shuttle run measures lower body muscular strength and anaerobic power, assessing speed, agility and coordination

One-minute rower (variation of a sit-up) measures total body muscular endurance and assesses total body coordination

Standing long jump measures lower body muscular strength and assesses lower body power

One-minute push-up measures upper body muscular endurance and assesses trunk stability

1.5-mile run measures lower body muscular endurance and aerobic capacity and assesses speed stability

The article went on to state that the military is concerned about "...injuries resulting from distance running over long term periods." Uh, hello??? Did any of these people making these changes actually run organized track at any time in their lives? Distance running does not nearly have the injuries that you get from doing events such as... oh, let's see here, the standing long jump, and sprints, such as, oh yah, a 60 yard shuttle run. Shin splints are not nearly as debilitating as pulled groins, ACL tears, sprained ankles, and other injuries commonly associated with sprinting and leaping.

Then there is the opinion that the current PT test "does not work" because such a high percentage of soldiers are failing under the current standards. BULLSHIT! The problem is that leadership does not stick to training programs that force soldiers to maintain physical fitness, so regardless of what particular idiotic new PT standards you want to institute, as long as you continue to have lethargic leadership when it comes to fitness, soldiers will continue to fail the PT test. Unless of course, as happens in many cases, the leadership simply "pencil-whips" the PT score cards to make it look as though they have a much higher rate of soldiers actually maintaining the standard.

I have no doubt I can learn the new APRT test if they do indeed decide to implement it as the new standard for PT, it just annoys me that the Army believes that fitness MUST duplicate what the unit will do in combat, because there is little to no ability to maintain any sort of standard for such a thing, considering that there are so many different jobs that soldiers do in combat.

On Comments And Worms

I'm working on updating this blog into having more military look, and as I was going through doing a little updating here and there, I noticed a few comments I had never read. Sometimes as I read the comments, I click on the names to see what that person has as a blog. More often than not it is a dead blog or link. Well, what I didn't realize is that the comments aren't set up in such a way to weed out malicious websites, as in, worms, viruses, trojans, the general crap that someone with nothing better to do with their time than create something that attempts to destroy your computer. So, as I clicked on one name... suddenly a strange website popped up, and the all familiar computer-lockup, and that tell-tale 4 color fake Microsoft shield in the lower right hand corner... CRAP!!!

Immediately shut down the computer and restarted but it was too late, the damage had been done. As the programs loaded I got an actual warning message that the Windows firewall was disabled, there was no way to turn it on, and MOST of my anti-virus software (I run 4 active at all times) had shut down.

When I went to click on CC-Cleaner, one of my programs for fixing problems... I received this:

This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this act

This was at about 8 a.m. this morning. I worked it for about a half hour, couldn't get much done because I had an appointment coming up at 0900, then I noticed that, oddly enough, Ad-Aware remained running, and that basically saved me. I ran Ad-Aware on a complete sweep while I went to my appointment, when I came back, it had found the W32.Sircam.Worm virus and quarantined it.

The problem? It had deleted out the portion of the Windows registry associated with running most .exe files. So I shut down the internet, borrowed belly's mini-laptop (keep forgetting what they call these, palmtops?) and used that to look up issues while I attempted to up a fix, as I opened my own laptop in safe mode, then in safe mode with prompt, then regular mode after I found (by some miracle) an actual windows registry fix after both belly and I worked on this for probably 3 more hours.

Anyways, I have deleted to offensive comment, and as part of my updating I plan on putting in some better defenses against that sort of shit. My apologies if anyone else got hit by this.

DITCH THE FREAKING BERET ALREADY!!!

So, last year, June 2010, the Army Times ran an article about the beret, and how then Army Chief of Staff General George Casey stated “I can count on one hand the number of guys and gals that have stood up and said, ‘I hate this thing.’” I remember thinking to myself "Well Sir, with all due respect, you need to get your ass out of the Pentagon and actually TALK to some soldiers who actually do shit in the field if you honestly believe that idiotic assessment of that piece of crap headgear!!!". On cold days, when doing my job, it wasn't unusual that I had to have 4 total pieces of headgear to meet all the expectations of different places I might be. The kevlar helmet for training in tactical vehicles, the fleece cap for cold weather outdoor training, the patrol cap for in garrison training, and that stupid beret for formations and formal events.

Apparently, as General Casey has now retired, it has taken the new leadership a lot less time to begin some actual intelligent thought about the problems with the current uniform and how to make REAL soldiers happier with what they are wearing day to day. Hell 90% of soldiers can't even wear that stupid beret correctly.

Controversial Beret Could Be On The Way Out

New Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond Chandler is making one of his first actions an overall assessment of the uniform, including removing velcro, which was another completely IDIOTIC idea to begin with. "Ahoy mate, see me sneaking up on this enemy soldier, wait a moment, as I reach into my pocket and RIPPPPPPPPPP the velcro open... CRIKEY, he's spotted me!!!". The velcro doesn't hold up for shit, and the name tape and branch of service tapes end up grabbing at the shoulder velcro in an irritating repetitive action whenever you are doing work that causes your arms to cross your body, or basically just about any type of work you might do.

As far as the ACU pattern, which has never worked (unless you were perhaps trying to hide in a field of white rock), the Army is looking to field 3 variants of camouflage: woodland, desert, and a transitional pattern for everything in between (whatever the hell that means?). I don't get why they don't admit "Okay, we f'ed up, hey Marines, can we just use your uniforms, minus the eagle, globe, and anchor???".

But, one thing at a time, and right now there are very few things as annoying as the beret. I don't mind it for the class A uniform (the new dress blues are hideous though, I must say) but for day to day use with your combat uniform, the beret is freaking useless, an irritating two handed device designed to impress only the most idiotic of officers.

My Marathon Partner, RIP

Many of you remember that I ran a marathon in May of 2006, right about 5 years ago. It was the second year that, on the same day the Boston Marathon is ran, they ran the Boston Marathon in Iraq at Ali Air Base (Camp Adder). I was looking to run the relay version of the marathon, where we get 4 people to run a little over 6 miles each, adding up to 26.2 miles total. Well, 2 of the people who were going to run with us ended up going out on a mission a day before the marathon and were unable to come back.

So, being the eternal optimists we are, Bob and I decided, hey, what the hell, we will attempt the entire 26.2 miles and see just how far we get. Both of us figured that we'd make it maybe 17 to 19 miles before we'd end up quitting. I ran one 12 mile practice run to get ready, and I don't think Bob even did anything close to that, he basically ran it without any long distance training. We both ran quite a bit on a regular basis, but nothing more than 3 to 4 miles every other day or so.

The first 14 miles or so we ran together. The duct tape that I had over one of my nipples shortly thereafter fell off. I began to feel the inevitable chafing across that portion of my chest. After 14 miles Bob fell back slowly and I continued on. At 22 miles I actually fell down, cramped up horribly. The Italians soldiers were running the medical portion in that area of the race, and attempted to make me stop, but hell no I wasn't going to stop with only a few short miles to go. I got up, and with a determined grit of my teeth, began jogging again.

Somewhere between 21 and 23 miles, Bob passed me up. I did not notice him, likely due to the delirium of fatigue that I was going through. At 25.5 miles, or a mere half mile or so from the end, I nearly fell down again, caught myself, and forced myself to continue. I swore to God that I would NEVER ever try such a thing again, that "Please God just let me finish this one, and I promise you, I will not be so foolish as to attempt another". My friend Yvonne met me shortly thereafter, and jogged along with me to the finish line.

It was there that I saw Bob, and knew that he had defeated me. I was not bothered, despite the pain and exhaustion I had to laugh at the fact that I had never even seen him pass me up. We both entered the clamshell tent nearby, designated for race finishers, and I remember saying "Holy hell why is it so cold in here???" and Bob and I laughing when we realized that, it wasn't cold in the tent, it was actually above 100 degrees outside. We hadn't noticed the temperature being so high because of the gradual acclimation that occurs when you run, from 67 degrees when we started the race at 6 that morning to the crispy high midday southern Iraq temps that are common that time of year.

Over the rest of the deployment I shared that special bond with Bob, a smile in passing, it wasn't that I was a best friend of his, but that we had both attempted something utterly foolish in all respects, considering the difficulty of running a marathon even WITH training. After the deployment I saw him a few times, always reminiscing about that day, even if a word was not spoken, a knowing nod and a smile in passing, maybe half a dozen times.

It was with utter disbelief and a profound sadness that I received word of his passing away, at a mere 26 years old, while home on leave from his fourth deployment. He had lost some 30 lbs mysteriously in the last few months, and was home on leave to see the birth of his first child, a daughter named Blair. Tests at an Omaha hospital proved inconclusive, and he was set to go to Ft. Bragg for another battery of testing. He never made it. It was by his 1 month old daughter side that Bob took his last breath.

Guardsman Dies On Leave

At times like these I look at my own life, and reflect on where I have been, and develop a new appreciation for those I love and cherish, and for my friends, even co-workers. Life can be harsh and unpredictable at times, but it can also be short, too short. I've run another marathon since then, and will likely try more, but nothing will endure like the memory of that first 26.2 miles, the uncertainty of trying such a thing, and the sheer foolish audacity of two young men attempting such a feat without training. I never knew you as well as I likely should have, Bob, but I will always cherish that 4+ hours of self induced hell that we spent together that day in Iraq, where we both discovered inner strength we never knew we had. Godspeed to you, my friend, you went too soon :(

Irresponsible Rude Obnoxious Loud People

I'm sure everyone has been to a movie theater, a quiet restaurant, even libraries, and dealt with this before: the asinine self centered prick (or female prick I guess) who talks loudly on the cellphone without regard for anyone around him/her and then acts insulted and offended when someone actually "calls" them on it (sorry, couldn't resist the pun).

Well, Amtrak users dealt with this for 16 hours on a trip that left San Fransisco on its way to Oregon, before someone finally said something, to which the offensive cell phone user became belligerent, and the train ended up stopping just so police could remove her. Now, mind you she had been talking on a designated quiet car the ENTIRE 16 hours of the trip before someone finally said ENOUGH and confronted her:

Loud Cell Phone Talker Removed From Train

Quiet cars on Amtrak trains are designated as CELL PHONE FREE areas by obvious written signs, I'm not sure I would have been able to deal with it for 16 minutes, much less 16 freaking hours. I, like many others, are cheering on her removal from the train, because so often these people label themselves as "victims" despite their complete and total disregard for anything remotely resembling respect in dealing with their fellow man.

I think she should have sat in jail for 16 hours myself.

New Era

Nebraska Football.

I have followed it for my entire life. I can remember my father jumping up and down and yelling at the TV as Jarvis Redwine ran down the sideline, when I was like 6 years old, and how my father crashed to the floor when Redwine was called for a penalty for taunting the defensive player as he went into the end zone. I remember all the heartache of watching Oklahoma somehow come from behind to defeat Nebraska so many times. (happened last year, blah! haha)

The last few years it has been Texas that has been so difficult to play, as they have had Nebraska's number an astounding 6 times in a row and 9 of the last 10. The Big 12 Conference's apparent love affair with Texas created a lot of rift between Nebraska and the conference members, and last year of course, Nebraska and Colorado both bolted from the Big 12 to greener pastures, with the Huskers ending up in the Big 10 and the Buffs going to the Pac 10.

I was all for this, screw the Big 12, their commissioner Don Beebe, whiney Missouri fans, stuck up Texas fans, jealous Iowa State fans... but as we come closer to the fall 2011 season, I am somewhat saddened by the thought that my beloved Huskers will no longer be playing in Lawrence, we will no longer have the Jayhawks coming to Lincoln, or the NU vs OU showdowns that, despite a lot of blowouts in the last 20 years, have had some of the most incredible games ever played (see last year's Big 12 Championship).

But that is the past, there isn't much anyone can do about that. For Nebraska it was a no brainer, and not just the athletics. We can basically look past that for a moment... for Nebraska this is a major move academically, the Big 10's research prowess is legendary, and Nebraska can only get better with the addition into the fold.

Volleyball is going to be incredible, with arguably the top 4 programs in the nation being in one conference. It will bring an array of teams that you don't normally see in Lincoln, and Nebraska will be traveling to places annually and making new traditions and rivalries.

But there will always be part of me that longs for those old Big 8 days, listening to the radio in the dairy barn with my father and grandmother as the Husker football teams of old marched methodically along to another showdown with Oklahoma, and yet another chance at a national title. Ah the memories.

How The Heck???

I do not understand how single parents do this... I've been up to my neck in laundry, cooking, bedtime, etc, for two nights, and that is WITH D's help here and there (she is busy with her 'at home work' job) and still I'm behind... I would say I CANT WAIT FOR THE WEEKEND but my weekends aren't off haha. Sunday and Monday, most likely will be my next days off, one can only hope?

Geeeesh!!!

I'm Not A Kid Anymore

I sure do love my little ones, and of course my better half. Sometimes it is surprising how long the years have blown past. Here we are now, and I'm so blessed with where we are at, good job, D is working now also, getting set to put the other little one into daycare. Things are really good. I think sometimes I have dwelled a little too much on the negative, I think as we get older we should become more content with where we are and I'm learning to count my blessings. I have done a lot in my life, been around the world, all over the USA, and lucky enough to have the most patient and amazing young woman by my side through the most hectic times, always giving me a smile or a word of support. For that I am thankful. That and my family.

Sometimes though I really miss being young and carefree... the world seems safe, simple, and less complicated... and for that reason I know I have to be the best father that I can, because that is the memory I want my children to have.

Kick Ass!!!

Not sure if the news is true, but if that bastard is gone, freaking AWESOME!!!

Would have been better to get him alive, but Bin Ladin dead is better than him alive on the loose.

And... my assumption from years ago was wrong, I thought the guy was actually dead years ago.

Hopefully this is authentic! Kick ass job, whoever got him!

A short one for now.

Let's just say I have to wonder how it is that some people have completely lost their minds, like, seriously, this is crack cocaine with meth, baby jesus will cry for a month at least:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/2353538790.html

"This is a serious speed machine,not for the timid."

You don't say? Perhaps because if you are even in the slightest bit timid, you are going into severe depression from the extreme amount of severe ridicule when anyone sees your car.

So...

"WTF? Where have you been?"

Well, not doing what I should have been doing, but that is all changing.

Let's just say this month was... interesting :)

And maybe it is time to crack this old monster open again, for old time's sake.

After all, doesn't everyone need a peek inside my head now and then?

Why The F Are Simple Things So F'ing DiFFicult?

So, I bought this Lenovo laptop recently, it has been very nice, except for a couple of annoying things, the speakers aren't that great, but I can live with that, the most annoying aspect has been the ridiculously flakey touchpad. It will suddenly go into what can only be described as 'drunk mode', in which it stops going where my finger is going and jumps all over the page, sometimes not moving at all. No idea why it does that but this is why, generally, I tend to keep the mouse connected.

So, moving on...

I am typing along two days ago and the F key suddenly pops off. Ooookay, no biggie, I click it back into place, keep typing, when it flies off again. WHAT THE F, F KEY?

Okay, this happened on occasion with the Toshiba I used to have, but not until about 3 years into owning that one, a key failed here and there, I replaced it, no biggie. Except this has been what, 3 months? Should be covered under normal use in the warranty. So I go to Lenovo's website and get a phone number and call it.

"If you'd like to bla bla bla press 1, if you'd like to bla bla bla press 2... " on and on for like 18 different choices, I picked warranty, and got pushed into another automated query, picked another choice, then another automated message, this time telling me to go to a website. BLARGHHH!!!

Hang up, redial...

I hit zero immediately, boom, I'm talking to someone in a sweat shop in Asia. I hang up.

Try again, this time I pick sales, because I know damn good and well that companies are not stupid, they always have real good old Americans doing their sales, unless they are stupid in which case they also outsource their sales to some warehouse in Asia too.

Sure enough, boom, I'm talking to an American. I start explaining, tell him I don't want to talk to someone in Pakistan, he says "Sure, I'll get you to the right person" and boom I'm listening to the automated message telling me about the website.

BLEEPITY BLEEPITY F BOMB G D F BOMB!!!

Call back again... I pick parts for Thinkpads, and I end up speaking to someone with a heavy Indian accent yet again. *@#(*$@, oh well, let's give it a shot. 30 minutes later, we've finally done 30 seconds worth meaningful conversation, and I find out that, per the Lenovo warranty, they will not send out a keyboard unless I send my keyboard in to them first. WTF??? I don't need a god damn keyboard, I need ONE KEY. Plus the keyboard will likely be refurbished, not new. My keyboard is like 3 months old, so basically it IS new.

"Ve'll solly sor, ve can nut just send vu vun key, ve must send vu da keyvoard"

Now, I can replace the keyboard myself if I so desire instead of sending it in, but they put what basically amounts to a lean on my credit card until I send MY keyboard back into them upon replacement, unless of course I send my entire laptop in per the warranty instructions, which could take 6 to 8 weeks. Yah, like that is going to happen. Neither is acceptable to me. I will not give them my credit card number, nor will I go without my laptop for 2 months. At this point he is just reading verbetim from the screen so he gets hung up on.

SERIOUSLY? ALL I WANT IS AN F'ING F KEY!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So I call back, this time I want to talk to a manager immediately. I am put on hold, guy who answered comes back, manager not available but he has CHRIS on the line. The guy who answered was helpful, Chris on the other hand sounded like he had 100 better things to do than his job. So they talk back and forth, bla bla bla, what if he wants to do this, bla bla bla, so on... I finally put them on speaker phone, and then they finally settle on some website where they say I can find a local service center, again Chris sounds like he's been smoking weed all day, and I can hardly hear him, finally I tell both of them I found the website and I hang up on them.

So, the premise here is that I can have the local service center order the keyboard, I just stop by, they take my F key and replace it with the other F key. Viola, simple, easy, right?

Wrong, call the service center here in Omaha, they take forever to answer, I get put on hold, they finally come back and take my info, they say the same thing, no guarantee that I'll get a keyboard that isn't 'refurbished', then they say they have to research it and they'll call me back. They do call back 40 minutes later, and oh what good news they have... *insert sarcasm here* "Sir, per the terms of your warranty, all service must be done on this model on a mail in basis only, we're sorry!"

WTFGD@*(#(#*$(*@#$(&@(Y(YW*GQWEUBPWUIOGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

IT IS ONE KEY, IT IS THE F KEY!! ARE YOU F'ING KIDDING ME?????

So, "F" it, I went to ebay and I bought a complete keyboard online for $19, shipped from, where else?? ASIA. Hong Kong to be specific. No shipping charges it says, but I'm sure I've likely been fleeced of $19, despite his superb trader rating. We shall see.

Seriously though, ALL I WANT IS THE F KEY. WHY do things have to be this difficult!!??? Even car dealerships aren't this stupid. This would be the equivalent of replacing the entire motor because the spark plug needs replacement.

So, anyone got an F key for me? Because I can tell you this much, Lenovo and their warranty can certainly go _uck themselves.

Testing 1 2 3

Trying a post from the cell phone. Ze intornet on ze fone ist gut!

That is all for now