Geeky week

First I discover "The Middleman" TV show. I know, at first I discarded it... after all, it is on the ABC Family channel. But then I watch it. And its GOOD! Very much in the off sense of humor, much along with things like "The, Tick", Mystery Men and others of its ilk.

This week also premiered "Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog". Joss Whedon is the man. I just finished it and it was awesome.

The "The Dark Night" came out and I watched it today. Also awesome.

Just such a good week for geekdom.

Week 8 of SBOLC III

Yah! 2 days where I could sleep in (and the promise that from now on there will be no more morning PT on Thursdays)! It felt really good to sleep in.

We went over Signaling fundamentals this week. Basically we went over the major communication systems that we, the Signal Corp, use to support Army operations in the field. It was kind of annoying that most of the material was on a system that is going to be completely gone from the entire force (including us National Guard folks) in a little over 2 years or so. We also learned that we were the last class to have this emphasis and that they were switching more to the new system for the following classes. I actually studied for this test, since a lot of the equipment was new to me though the overall fundamentals were familiar.

I have hated those Che shirts for years

Since, y'know, I actually have some grasp on history.
This guy's article pretty much sums it up.
T-shirt depicts 'pathetic and brutal legacy'

What T-shirt should you wear when you need to blend in with terrorists? Incredibly, we have an answer to that question.

Wearing this shit shows how woefully uneducated this country can be. I know some people explain it's not the person but the idea that it represents (some sort of misguided revolution), but it really comes down to the actual image, that of a murder (and a woefully incompetent revolutionary.. if you want someone to embody revolution).

Fun weekend or "Why I should check the weather before heading to the Amusement Park"

A nice relaxing weekend. Took it easy on Friday night, had a few beers, some pizza and went to see Wall-E. Cure little movie, I can see why it, like almost every Pixar movie, did so well, it plays at a lot of levels.

Saturday morning I did something I hate, waking up early, to be with some of my classmates for a 6K Cross Country run. It was a lot of fun, a very challenging course, all dirt and all up or down it seemed, and I finished in 38 flat. Killed some time, bought some beer for a party (Leinenkugel... love that beer. I got both the regular and the Berry Weiss (probably like the original more but it was still really good and popular) and joined a bunch of my classmates for a cookout. Lots of fun was to be had that afternoon and that evening.

A later start than I planned on Sunday, but it was all for the best. Driving west to Atlanta I ran into some dreadful downpours that made me glad that I wasn't heading there as early as I planned. After pulling over and confirming that the front had passed I went on Six Flags Over Georgia. Everything was reopening when I got there and I had the pleasure of just being able to walk onto most of the rides. I rode most of the coasters (skipped the wooden ones, I just don't find them as entertaining anymore) and really enjoyed 2 of them, Superman (anything where you are hanging like that is cool) and Goliath (TONS of fun, the negative g's were so cool, it was like you were floating off before plunging again). Another front did come through and shut things down for a bit (I just found a dry spot and sat and read this new John Ringo novel, Yellow Eyes (a Posleen/Aldentia war novel) and waited it out). I had a funel cake before leaving and was quite satisfied with the day.

Week 7 of SBOLC III

Wow, its been 7 weeks.. now if only I can FFWD this a bit more and its almost time to go home.
This week we wrapped up our time at the School for Information Technology (SIT) here at Gordon. We completed our last test there and have now transitioned back to the building we started in 6 weeks ago.
Still doing PT 5 days a week at the 0530 time (whee....). This week we completed the first 2 German Proficiency Badge events, the 200m Swim (7 minutes for my age group, I did it in 5:15) and the 3000 Meter (1.85 mile) Run (standard was a blazing 14:30 (7:50 mile pace... still better than the under 30 set who have to do it in 13 minutes)) which I completed in 14:24 (yep, by a scant 6 seconds. I felt like I was going to die after I finished). The run really had me concerned and I really considered it the most like to kill my GPB goal, I feel that the rest are attainable and challanging. Next up we will be shooting (yah! I like this one) 9mm handguns at targets later next week. Then sometime soon we have a "field day", with 100M sprints, long/high jump, shotput throw,(the latter 2 actually sound like fun, as far as I can recall I have never done these) then finally a ruckmarch and test of first aid.

My hotel room hates me

I just can't figure out whether it is trying to trap me or keep me out. As it stands in the past 3 weeks I have had the following problems:

• Getting locked in the bathroom. Yep.. Nothing like being trapped right after a shower by a door where if you turn the handle it just spins. And of course the door opens inward (yes, I was contemplating my "Fox Mulder door kicking skills" as I reached the point of frustration/"don't even want to think about telling this story when explaining why I missed formation". After about 6 or 7 minutes of vigoriously yanking on the door it finally popped open.
• Power circuits have blown twice so far, driving me to leave to seek AC and entertainment options.
• My front door stopped working. And even though I knew it was a door problem I had to tromp back to the front desk (driving a mile, parking, waiting in line) to get a new key issued that of course did not work. Then wait another 50 minutes for the guy to come and verify that, yep, the door is broken. Have him remove the lock and wait another hour for him to come back with a new lock.

So right now its 2 (or 3) to one that the hotel room doesn't want me in there.

Happy Fourth!

I know that I am happy to be back in DC, at least for the weekend (not looking forward to the drive back to GA on Sunday). To see my family, roommates and well, home. Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th.

Zonk

I learned a new word today. Zonk. Somehow its an Army thing that once in a blue moon the commander of a formation will call "Zonk" and the activity will be cancelled. Today it happened at a Battalion level run that we were supposed to have this morning. (had to wake up 50 minutes early so that I could be there for accountability, stretching, etc)
Come 0530, the BN Commander (a LT COL) called Zonk and it was mass chaos as everyone raced for their cars.. it was awesome. Like a good soldier I went back to my room and went back to sleep, I have a long drive later today to bring me back to DC.

Movie Roundup

Since I had a nice slack weekend and of course I was bored (though here at BOLC III I have way more toys available) I hit the movies (and watched a few from Netflix).

• Get Smart - I actually really enjoyed this movie. The casting seemed right and it had just the right level of campiness.
• Wanted - Pretty pictures. Yeah, thats the best compliment that I will give it. Plot could have been better and it was fairly entertaining as long as you completely shut off your brain and just rolled with it.
• There Will be Blood - Bleh. Long. Boring. Not really sure what people saw in this movie.
• No Country for Old Men - Long. Good. Definitely reminds you of the extremes that people will go through for money.

I have also been downloading Doctor Who (god, I really enjoy this show... still can't believe that I am saying that (I always thought that the fans of Doctor Who were the way too dorky, and this is coming from me so that says a lot)) and have started rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.... It's finally been long enough that I can watch the show and not have perfect memory of how the episode went.

4 ugly words

I don't normally post much on politics, but hey, I am a native Washingtonian and it's in my blood so here are 2 things that have been bouncing around my brain.
As one of my favorite comedians of all time would say, "Now, I don't want to go off on a rant here"

1. "He's not MY President". I remember starting to see/hear these words early in the Bush Presidency (or even the more delusional, "Jeb Bartlett is my President"... way to separate fiction from reality there y'all). I know that you may have voted for the other candidate but here is the harsh reality, (the very necessary reality for the continuation of American democracy). That person is YOUR President. Unless you change citizenship to another country just because you voted for the other guy does not, I repeat, not, make the duly elected leader of your country not your President. That is the beauty of the system, if you don't like the person that was elected in accordance with the laws of the country then be even more active (and vote) for the who you think will do a better job. It burns the very core of the system to understand that while you may not have voted for that person, the majority (or otherwise given our peculiar Electoral College system (and BTW, its the law of the land... want to change it? Elect people who will)) of your fellow citizens have chosen to be OUR leader for the next 4 years. Make fun of him, question his policies, and downright disagree with him all you want (Freedom of Speech, wonderful thing about this country), but you undermine the entire system when you pretend like he isn't your President (it's embarrassing, for you, when you act like a petulant baby). And as a note, if that other guy wins? You are going to find out how whining/babyish it sounds when the Republicans start using it (though this Libertarian will never let those childish-antidemocratic words ever pass his lips).

2. Stop this Impeachment shit (and I am talking to both parties). Both sides in the past 16 years need to fracking grow up. Being President means making decisions. Sometimes they are wrong, sometimes they are right. But if you really can believe that people are so callous with decisions that have such wide-reaching impact then you have never really had Responsibility for much more than a paperclip, let alone the lives of others.

Rant mode off.

Tired

I know that I haven't written much lately on my Army training. I would write if something really interesting were happening, but so much of what I have done here for the past 5 weeks has been the norm for me. i.e., lots of computer stuff that I have already done or that is so trivial at the level that it is taught that I pay attention enough to pass the tests, quizzes, and hands on exams handily but in reality my brain is stuck in low gear and not engaged. I will quickly say that I understand why the Army and the Signal Corp put together this plan of instruction, that for the uninitiated this is an excellent grounding in fundamentals that will prevent those new to the field to not be completely overwhelmed. But for about a 1/3 of the class this is not the case, many of them are in the same mode as I am in. Some of us are able to help the newbies but sometimes our help can be a hindrance, since we are so accustomed to working in this field and on problems of higher organization/complexity that we can make things too complicated. For a bunch of these people this is the first time that they have had a command line interface, dealing with a computer based on memorization and logic as opposed to clicking on the GUI (graphical user interface) that is old hand to a lot of us (I have been dealing with computers and programming them since I was in elementary school, which makes it over 20-25 years).
So instead we listen, maybe try to get a tidbit that we don't know and engage in the longest running game in the Army, trying to stay awake in class (this being a techie school it might as well be sponsored by Red Bull and Monster). I finally understand how the Infantry folks felt during BOLC II, feeling that they were paying penance and just checking another box. I do remain hopeful that the last 3-4 weeks plus the field exercise provide some mental stimulation since they cover material that is not really encountered in the civilian world.

Of course I am finding it a bit easier to stay awake now that I am on post finally. The extra 20 minutes of sleep in the morning, the overall more relaxed morning and afternoons (and even the occasional noon nap) are making this a little more tolerable. It has helped me recover from NO, which took quite a while given that my poor body was not used that, both the staying up late (4AM EST) and the drinking (oh the drinking... boy can my family put it back).

To give an idea how ready I am for the 4th holiday (they give us the 3rd as well) I just paid someone $150 to take my CQ (charge quarters) shift on the 4th (its a full day shift on a holiday, but well worth the cost). He was already going to be here and I desperately didn't want to be here in GA, now that is capitalism at its finest. I am so ready to go home, see the improvements to my Condo and just relax away from the Army a bit.

And as a side note... $7000 in damages to my poor Prius. Hopefully I will have her back in another 3 weeks so that I can ditch this dreadful Dodge PT Cruiser. I miss my GPS, cruise control and a vehicle that doesn't turn like a beast.

New Orleans

Hurricanes. Hand Grenades. And a slew of other drinks and miscellanious shots. Walking along the mighty Mississippi while eating a Beniate from Cafe du Monde. Hitting the poker room at Harrah's (did well when I was sober. not so well when I wasn't). Strolling down Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. Staying up too late and sleeping in. Family. Seeing my cousin marry a great girl. So many great highlights to an awesome visit to the Big Easy.
It was too short and I didn't want to leave, in particular when I had to return to Georgia.

Crash

It happened in an instant. Just long enough for me to glance to the left, see the car and exclaim, "You are not about to do this." Then a crash. The damn Private was cited for failure to merge by the MP's (military world is wierd (at least to a reservist like me). Nothing like the police saluting you before begining the investigation), USAA found him at fault and I now have a rental. A quick trip to the ER since my neck was twinging found nothing wrong in t
I hate this town and all the driving around. 9 weeks til I can go home to DC where I drive 3-4 times a week and mostly for short trips, not the 40 some odd miles I have been doing daily lately here in Augusta.

I hope they can fix the damage, I love my Prius.

4 weeks here and a carcrash and witnessing a stabbing. God I hope this trend ends.

Violence

It's funny. I have lived in/near big cities my whole life (DC, Boston, NYC, Houston, SF) and serve in the National Guard but I have never really encountered any violence in my life. Until Saturday night. I decided to get out of my room and check out downtown Augusta. Set up in a bar, listened to music and observed the crowd.

This one group caused me to notice them, as some of their members were admitted to the bar and some were denied. They drifted away.

About half an hour a group (3 or so guys) of that party returned and continued to argue with the bouncer. In a blink the bouncer gets jumped, with them smashing a bottle on him and then shoving him down and were kicking/punching him. In a flash (as I turned to let the bartender know that their security was getting attacked) the Bouncer then stabs one of the assailants. Assailants run away (saw the ambulance down the street as they arrested the bouncer). I am the only witness to the events leading up to the event(it happened so fast I barely had time to notify the bartender).

I am so on the bouncers side... with the original assault and the odds he was completely justified in response. In a poor situation, not defensible nor with anything resembling good odds (and support quite a bit away).

A very odd end to a Saturday night.

God Help me...

but this actually seems like a good idea (even though every Libertarian bone in my body is screaming to say so)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/05/AR2008060503434.html

Announce a schedule of gas tax hikes of 50 cents every six months for the next two years. And put a tax floor under $4 gasoline, so that as high gas prices transform the U.S. auto fleet, change driving habits and thus hugely reduce U.S. demand -- and bring down world crude oil prices -- the American consumer and the American economy reap all of the benefit.Herewith concludes my annual exercise in futility. By the time I write next year's edition, you'll be paying for gas in bullion.

Only caveat would be that every cent collect be sunk either into public transportation or into new energy research (peak oil has me REALLY concerned), maybe in a ratio of 70/30 (since the transportation is a short peg and people like seeing quick results. The other is a longer plan hence while it should be getting as much as it can you must face political realities). I am talking seriously tight oversight to make sure this happens, no pork barrel shit that so often occurs. EVERY SINGLE CENT.

The current American attitude of ignoring it until a crisis is too dangerous with this one (sometimes I think we should have selected the ostrich as our national bird, as we seem stick our head in the sand and ignore the problem as much as we can), we MUST come up with a solution and lessen our dependence on this region of the world (and that doesn't even take into account of not wanting to send any more of my fellow Soldiers (or myself) back to that god-forsaken region).

The current solutions that I have seen all involve a "and then a miracle happens" (as a SF fan I call this the Star Trek technobabble solution... where they face this insurmountable problem and all of a sudden the engineers/science officers whip this technological solution right out of their asses (they even had it inserted in the original scripts, where the writers would make a note for the technology continuity folks to insert a solution)) scenario where we somehow solve our energy problems. They all seem to fall under, "we can defeat any problem put in front of us" and that really scares me, since this problem is so big and affects every aspect of our lives that it scary to think about its impact. This problem is so ginormous that we have to start tackling it now as well as come up with ways to stretch and husband what resources we have. This problem is why I am not really worried about Global Warming (lets ignore that solving this will definitely curb the other "problem"), this problem is far more likely to end with fights over what resources there are remaining, with some of those fights eventually ending with bright flashes and enormous fireballs.

The American Way of Life (TM) (as defined by the silly dream of everyone having a huge house in the suburbs, 2+ cars etc) is dead if we don't start making corrections, though I would argue that its going to change anyway (heck, the overall impact of this dream is what got us to this problem in the first place. 3 (maybe 4) people do not need a 3-4k sq ft houses). But hey, its been well established that I hate the suburbs/exaburbs. My fellow Americans, be they on the far right, the far left, and that so helpless and clueless group in the middle (that the ones on either side feel is their responsibility to shepherd) will drive me batty/be the death of me yet.

Honest to God, I actually have dreams (and fantasy's) where I can solve this energy problem. (though all those seem to involve miracles as well)

hat tip to CDR Salamander

Hot enough?

All I can think is thank god this training is indoors, since its been awfully hot (Cat V days in military terminology, the worst and most dangerous category). My "Flow" (yep, that's how they broke us up, into "flows" (basically 27 per flow, an A-Flow and B-Flow). Not platoons, not squads, not something military sounding, but flows.......) is working on basic electronic foundation stuff. Resistors, capacitors, inductors, AC/DC. I am having flashbacks to end of high school/first year of college, the last time I really thought about this stuff. Luckily its coming back, but you can see that a lot of people struggle with it.



Friday was an "Organization Day". Basically a picnic. In almost 100 degree weather. Lucky us. Though it did allow me to sleep in late (didn't have to show up until 930... a nice switch from the 0530 during a normal day). And we did get out early.



Friday night was definitely interesting. I went to an indoor football game (hey, the tickets were free) then headed a couple of blocks over for the downtown "First Friday." Basically its an event where the businesses downtown stay open, there is street food, different vendors set up and there is music. Very fun (and a very different set of food in my stomach, teriyaki with payaia).

I sampled some more of the local food over the weekend. I hit this place called "Sconyers" and was quite pleased with the BBQ there. They had a big master plate (1/4 chicken, 2 ribs and a healthy scoop of pork and beef BBQ plus sides) that pretty much sent me into a food coma. Good thing I went for a 6 mile run in the morning (wow did that wipe me out as well! 1 liter of water right before and completely drained my camel-back on the run) along the canal here in Augusta. Not as nice as the C&O canal but it is also a more functional canal than that one.

Signal BOLCIII Continues

Tired.... I think that defines me right now. My time is warped to this evil wake-up time (we have to be at the PT field by 0525, which means that I need to be up by 0440 (40 minutes earlier than my 0520 wake-up at BOLC II). PT is trending toward exactly one hour, ending just in time to salute the flag for reveille at 0630. I ran it yesterday (its been almost 18 months since I have led PT... though I did a passable job), a 3.2 mile run around Barnes field. Today was all muscle failure, definitely feeling it later in the day. I passed the PT test on Friday (though I felt really ill taking it... I think I will be refraining from real food the DFAC (Dining Facilities)) with a score of 222 (on a 300 point scale, 180 is passing (60 in each event)) for a while from there, it did not agree with me.

And HOT.... I was so lucky for my BOLC II class, the weather at Benning was so mild and reasonable. But it caught up to me here.... Its 70 degrees when I head out for PT. Staying in the 90's during the day with high humidity. I break out in a sweat walking from my classroom to my car.

We have already started to take tests. I passed our first one, with a staggering 100% (yah me!). I know that they will get harder but its a good start.

I have also started training for this little thing, the German Proficiency Badge.. I think it will look good on my uniform and lets face it, with a german last name like mine it just sounds like something that I want to try for it.

PS, Energy Drinks are interesting. Since I have been so tired I have tried out a few, and one, Rockstar low carb, honest to god made me jittery (though it may have been the combination of the drink I had a bit earlier). I didn't even want to drive, I had to head over to the gym to burn the caffine out of my system.

Signal OBC (Officer Basic Course)/BOLCIII

A long drive home (13 hours... don't think I will ever do that again, but after a bit the lure of my comfy bed called to me). A wonderful relaxing 4 day weekend (some long walks, good meals and seeing my friends and family (and seeing a pretty girl)) I again set off to Georgia for the next phase of my training on Tuesday. 8.6 hours later I was wandering around Ft. Gordon (Augusta GA), first trying to find housing and then to check in with my training unit.
The worst thing was learning that my housing was going to be off base..... way off base (like 16 miles away from the main gate). Going to make the mornings worse since it means getting up so much earlier. The place is a commercial suite place, not too bad but kind of isolated.

Getting to the base for the 0530 check in time was an interesting rush (since I had never made the trip before estimating the time and the traffic on the base (and the ridiculous low speed limits) made it a narrow arrival. My class is 49 Army soldiers (5 women) and 5 international (2 from Kazakhstan, 1 from Turkey, 1 from Lebanon, and one from somewhere around there). LOTS of paperwork today.

And on another note.... SOOOO HUNGRY... they are weighing and taping us tomorrow so I choose to keep the calories down today.... 600 calories.... definitely a fasting day for me. We have to wake up early to make the 0520 time for tomorrow....

Memorial Day

I think that as a soldier this day means more to me than those who haven't served. For a lot of Americans its just another day. But when you put on that uniform (be it my US Army uniform or any of the other services, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines or Navy) and then see classmates head off to war it means a bit more. I haven't kept in touch with everyone I trained with and I continue to hope/pray that nothing has happened to any of those brave men and women, the odds are that if not now, then eventually one of them will pass away.

Its always the saddest part, that the military takes the best of America and that sometimes those brave men and women are sometimes not returned in the same shape (or not returned at all).

I hope that everyone takes a little bit of time to pause and to remember those who have paid the highest price to protect this country. They represent the very best and it was only through their actions and their fellow soldiers that we stand where we are today, able to live freely in the best country in the world.

BOLC II - Last Week and Final Thoughts

So the 7 week adventure/endurance expercise draws to an end.


Equipment has been cleaned and turned in, a whole day is allocated to cleaning weapons, goodbyes are exchanged (though in the standard Army tradition of schools very few will keep in touch). Though you will probably run into them later at other schools or at the oddest places. We had our final release run (4 miles at a 8:45 pace) on Wednesday, met the DCG of the base, and then made sure our paperwork is inline.

BOLC II has been an interesting and frustrating experience. I can understand why the Army added this course. It brings people from all commissioning sources, everything from those with extensive enlisted experience to wet behind the ears straight out of college (and the academy). Everyone comes to their branch with different experiences and this also forces the different branches to mingle (we had pretty much every branch here that has to attend except for Legal) and work with each other to build cohesion as well as cross-train each other. I would say that I came out a stronger soldier, but I think that there are things that they could have done differently that would have further enhanced the leadership building that these new leaders require.

A short 12 hour drive home (HAH!) and then I can relax until Tuesday, when Signal BOLC III starts.