The mutts and I survived the 27 hours in the car to make it from SoCal to eastern Kansas.  Google says it should take almost 24 hours the way I came.  Normally I'd complain about making bad time, but considering that I did it straight through only sleeping  for an hour or two once, I guess I'll consider it reasonable.  However, that 27 hours is total elapsed time, 10PM Tues - 1am Thurs.  It would have closer to 24 flat but the other 7 stops ate up a lot.  4 for gas, and another 3 to walk the dogs around.  Then the friendly man with the flashing lights that wanted to admonish me for my haste in leaving Ca didn't help either.  Nor did the 6-7 instances of summer construction which reduced the road to one lane and had me going 50-70 mph...  good thing I made up LOTs of time in AZ.  While there I got reminded that yes, my little car has a governor.  It was set high enough that I can't in good conscience complain, but still I want to... 

Anyways, headed to lunch after spending Thurs with friends in Kansas, then getting back on the road.  The plan is to be on 66 around noon tomorrow.

Yesterday when I grabbed dinner I made a conscious choice not to get soda with it, thus I made through the whole day w/o high fructose corn syrup or caffiene...  as surprisingly I only got the faintest inklings of a headache, like a shadow caused by a cloud passing in front of the sun.  I'm trying to stretch it to two days, but I feel the beginnings of a real headache coming.  I know the feeling near bliss that comes when I drink soda after not having it for a day or two is indicative of bad things*, but it's SO good...   Time to make some tea that has caffiene in it and eat some substancial in the hope of convincing my body that no, it doesn't really need artificial caffienated super sweetness to survive.

*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_addiction

This made me smile this morning.  Most may have seen a trailer for it by now, but as I don't really do much online surfing (and have only watched one or two movies in a theater in the last year), I haven't.  It made me want to go run through the woods and find a coast and howl at the rising sun (or setting as the coast dictates). 

Where-The-Wild-Things-Are Trailer

Ok, so he admitted enchanted wasn't actually the word he would use to describe his feelings about US service members*, but it was nice of him to work his thoughts on service members into one of the questions during today's press conference. Of course it was also smart politically, but rather than engage in petty speculations about that being the only reason he did it (which I don't think was the case, entirely...), I'll just say yay and move on to the real reason I'm posting about the press conference.
That being my increasingly large desire to to start yelling at whatever media distributing device is on hand when I hear what the popular media has to say that day.  This time it was the reporter that was asking President Obama about whether we will invade Pakistan in order to secure their nukes if neccesary.  He didn't  start out saying it quite that explicitly, it was more something along the lines of "Mr. Pres., can you reassure the american people that you are prepared to secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons in advent of an emergency".  After Pres. Obama spoke to the question, carefully, and with some political sensitivity, the reporter re-asked the question, actually saying "But Mr. Pres., is the US military prepared to..."  at which point Obama cut him off and siad he's not willing to speculate about all the what if's...  I give Obama credit for not addressing that directly, because of regardless of whether we do have plans along those lines, it would be rather imprudent to talk about them in the public media.  Especially as it would quickly ended up badly paraphrased in the foriegn media, specifically Muslim, and more speicfically, radical and jihadist media.  Do we really need the Pres of the US on record as saying "Yes, the US is prepared to invade Pakistan and take all their nukes", that's what that idiot was asking him to do!  Because of course that wouldn't be great fodder for the very active propaganda machine of those who love to hate us.

Anyways, before I get really going about how much I love the majority of the meda and become inchorent, let me say I really am very in favor of a free press, freedom of speech, etc., but why can't it be an intelligent press?  Oh wait, the majority of the press reflects the majority of the people, of course.  Oops, did I say that out loud...  time to tighten up on the thought --> speech filter.   Hmm... definitely time to get off soapbox before I fall off it (or am pushed off of it).


*if you didn't hear the press conference I really can't explain it, there was an odd question with mulitple parts that Pres Obama got tagged with, was funny to listen to.

No matter how startle resistant you think you are, you're going to jump a little when something suddenly and violently bangs into the opaque shower stall door right at head level...  This time I even had a sense it was coming, don't know exactly why, maybe I heard her jump up onto the toilet in preparation for the great leap, but regardless, even with the fore knowledge to attempt to suppress it, I still gave a twitch when the cat hit.  It was of course the more lithe and athletic of our cats - Nermal cat (not her real name, but the psuedonymn is nonetheless indicative of her personality and other mental attributes).

Once she was perched upon the bar above the sliding door, she meowed rather piteously as she of course now wanted to be on the other side of the shower in the little windowsill.  To let the cat jump over you or to pick her up with wet hands.. that was the question.  I generally let her jump, this time I chose to pick her up.  Her response to my wet hands was a fair amount of squirming.  In the future, I will let her jump and just make sure to not be under her in case she misses.  I determined today that standing naked under a stream of water while holding 8 lbs of squirming, scything kittenclaw death above your head is not a good idea...  while no actual incident occured, a sudden mental picture of the potential catastrophe(s) meant I didn't need to actually experience it to come to this realization.

Anyway,  Wikipedia says startle response is enhanced by quick movement near the face.  Wikipedia has spoken, mystery solved, going to try to go get some sleep now, soon as I displace the previously mentioned grey furball from my lap...

And I can't say I miss them...  nope.

I was the officer of the day at my unit yesterday, not particularly exciting, and actually rather cold as the uniform of the day recently went to short sleaves.

I can take some consolation in the fact that I probably was responsible for turning off something like 50 lights amongst the various buildings I looked through.  The lights in the supply warehouses and maintenance bays tend to get left on, and not just for the weekend.  Hopefully not too many of those lights had been on for weeks, but who knows, two of the units tenanted in our area have been gone for weeks, so...  since it's a different duty every night, the sheer waste of it doesn't have time to build up night after night and make people feel guilty/motivated enough to takes the time to actually go find keys and unlock gates and buildings to turn them off*...    and thus they just stay on...

anyways, I tired, go crash now,  got <3 hours of sleep**    ::wave::



( Why is it that my footnotes seem to be longer than the original post, it's almost like it's indicative of my thought process )

I've been back a week and haven't really said Hi to anyone, haven't called anyone (ex. my parents), or emailed anyone...  and it was nice.  A little selfish, but I just wanted to relax, sit on the sofa, and be HOME.  I watched several hours of a Dr House marathon instead of the superbowl, read some braincandy, played with the aminals, etc. etc.   Lest you think I've been a total slacker (who me?), I actually have gone to work every day this week (for at least 2-3 or three hours everyday, very taxing ::nod::), I got a new (to me) used car over the weekend, took care of misc return stuff (laundry, exciting paperwork), and have puttered around being al least minimally useful while at home, but...

I guess I should say HI to everyone and rejoin the real world ;P

I will endeavor to reply to the individual emails today and generally catch back up on things as well as let people know when I'll be in Va this month.  And maybe I'll get to the gym and walk the dogs too...  how about 2/3... now which 2... damn... 

On the down side, the tendinitis, or whatever it is, isn't getting better, I think that perception was the result of a good day*.  It's really not that bad, I just know what it should feel like and what my range of motion should be, and my right arm is neither right now.  So I'm sure I'll have to tell the medical officer (think GP), that no, it doesn't really hurt much/very often, no it doesn't impair my ability to do my job, YES I want to see a specialist anyways.  I'm guessing I'll end up going to a physical therapist for a little while, which is fine, as long as someone can tell me what, why, etc.

    On the up side, I am indeed embarking on the final phase of the trip home shortly.  We'll fly out of Kuwait tomorrow morning and after a no doubt long and painful set of flights I will end up home again late Tues the 27th** (which will be the morning of the 28th by current timezone...).  It'll be am Weds probably by the time I actually get home.  Also on the bright side is the fact that once I do get home I don't have to be back to work till Monday.  That'll be nice, but I just want to get there NOW, for this to be over with and to be home already.  It was almost easier when it was a week or two off, there was still stuff to do, things to focus on, now it's just indeterminate waiting, and it's driving me nuts...  ok, I'm back to whining, so guess I'll call it quits.

  Hope everyone had a good weekend, and look forward to seeing some of you in Feb.

    Talk to you all in a couple days when I'm back online.


*the workout didn't feel anywhere near as good as the one preceding the post where I said it was getting better.  The run not only wasn't as smooth, it just wasn't.  After a mile at that pace I realized I wasn't doing 3 no way no how... went and did the rest of the workout and came back to finish the run.  I think I need to work on finding a good balance in my cardiovascular workouts, something I can do consistently w/o felling like I'm trying to kill myself  ;P

**as I described it to Megan, imagine traveling with 15 people, not all of whom are particularly bright nor do you really like.  Oh wait, I'm sorry, multiply that by X10, I meant 150 people... we stop in a couple places along the way, generally it works out that there is a stop in Europe and another in the NE once you cross the atlantic.  Sounds like it'll be Germany and Bangor, Maine.  Everyone thinks we'll get a chance to have a beer in Germany, we'll see, I've heard it go both ways, depends on a couple things.  Since most of this crew hasn't had alcohol since R&R which was generally July or earlier, they're all kind of desperate for that first beer...  not sure at an international airport is the time to let them all indulge said craving, but they are all adults... right?  Either way thankfully not my decision.

  I think it was just coincidence/happenstance based on when I ate and having crashed in the middle of the day for a little while, but the run on the treadmill last night was one of the best in a while.  Probably most satisfying since the one the whole run culminated in the last 1/3 mile sprint that just felt SO right  (didn't have to push, it just flowed, REALLY fast, felt great).  This wasn't that it was satisfying not because of some cool perception or the way it ended, but rather the entire run just felt good, not great, no endorphin rush, no feeling of transcendence or any other weirdness, rather just a solid run that felt good because the pace was good, and I met exceeded my goal w/o killing myself.  Was a pleasant surprise.  When I went last night and the night before I had to struggle to make the time goals, had to work to motivate myself to push through the run.  This one, I got on the treadmill and off I went.  Did a time analysis at 1mi, 1/2 way, and 2mi, and said well damn, I can do this in 19 min, not 20...  and as I said, it didn't feel like I was killing myself.  So sure enough, with 5 secs to spare, hit 3 miles.  To pull it down below 19 I had to do the last 1/2 mi in 3 minutes, and again, felt good.  I felt like I still had something left after finishing, I wasn't digging deep to  whole it was a good run.

On similar health notes, the tendinitis in my right arm is getting better... finding new and interesting way to stretch it out until I go find a specialist/physical therapist and make them look at/explain the best way to stretch it so it feels like the other one again.  The inclined sit up thingee and my trademarked lemur pull-up (named by LtCol Reid who just shook his head after calling it such and continued with on his way...).

I'm still scheduled to get home late the 27th, and I'm looking to head out to the east coast sometime during the work week following the Valentines weekend.  Unless you know of something specific happening during the work week/someone is not going to around the following weekend I wasn't going to sweat exactly when I got there.  If anyone has ideas of what I should do other than, or how to improve upon my plan  try to see as many people as I can in a short period of time, I'd be interested ;P

And the random, reedrover just posted and it's about... what else goats.  I just want to say this reinforces the fact that goats are the superior ungulate.   I mean either goats in Nigeria are stealing cars or a witch turned into a goat after stealing the car...  (witches there have apparently chosen goats as THE animal to turn into)...  either way, goats are mighty.  I mean either they're the only ungulate committing grand theft auto, or they're so cool witches turn into them when could choose leopards or something else big and bitey... says it all ::nods::  

Oh, and as an aside, the people writing the article don't know goats very well I must say.
   "But of course goats can't commit crime."
         Who are they kidding?

And in case you didn't know, LJ's mascot is a goat,  Frank the Goat , and they even had a State of the Goat address

What more proof do you need...

Rather than highjack the post  reedrover made about the speechreedrover (full text located is located in the linked post), I figured I'd expand upon it here.

( Much meandering )

 callmetc  posted about it as well. 

( And yet more meandering )

Edit:  Grr, hurried off after posting this w/o doing the normal error checking (had to rush off to the "Yes, we're all still alive gaggle and get the word that no, we're still not leaving till the 24th...), so didn't realize the last bit I typed in about the second post somehow didn't update before I hit submit.  If it seemed incomplete and kind of blah, it's because it was.  Fixed it.

Edit #2:  found this opinion piece, thought it was interesting.  I think we all picked up on the inclusion of the term non-believers in his speech.  I know I didn't pick up on the significance of the second one (ironic as I'm in the military, specifically the MC no less).  I don't think it's nearly as significant as the first one, and while I think it probably was intentional in it's inclusion, and has special meaning, especially to older audiences that more keenly remember (read were alive for) the Vietnam era (what does than even mean...?), is he overstating its significance... don't know.

NYTIMES two-little-huge-things-obama-said

Of course, I haven't posted last weeks random, or any week before that, but at least week I started tracking some of the random, so theoretically you may get to see that as well.

( Self perception of injury )

And I filched/stole the below articles from this post from fishy1 

via salzara_tirwen  : Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy

Numbers assume complex, multi-dimensional shapes in my head...For languages, I do something similar in terms of thinking of words as belonging to clusters of meaning so that each piece of vocabulary makes sense according to its place in my mental architecture for that language.

( Interesting articles about the mind )

And finally

Removing Roads and Traffic Lights Speeds Urban Travel

( More pointless pontification, lol )

Some of you probably already realized I've had some more free time as I've been lurking in journals and emailing more.  A little over a week ago my replacement arrived, and a couple days after he got here, I was sitting here at at about 2pm, and realized, I didn't have anything I NEEDED to be doing.  Was very, very nice.  In fact I haven't done much of anything work related the last 36+ hours except answer a couple emails, pass on contacts, and generally give sage advice about Iraq and intel, lol.  Turn over is done, and that's something for which I'm grateful, less because I'm no longer responsible for this, that, and the other (though that is nice), but more because it means I'm SO close to being home.  Unfortunately there is some travel stupidness, so looks like we're getting stranded at the intermediary staging point in Iraq for a couple days*, but c'est la vie, it's on the way home.  I should be back in California late the evening of the 27th, and that day can't get here fast enough.

( Random meme yoinked from Darkfyre_muse )  

Edit:  Updated to indicate one word answers as I was informed that was the actual point ;P

    There are still details about the convoy this afternoon we're trying to coordinate (trying to meet the Iraqi Army HMMWVs off base and link up to drive to another base together), and the network drive that had 75% of the intel shops locally archived data is still looking like it's a total loss (long story, including rant about why it wasn't backed up),  so why am I optimistic, energetic, almost hyper, and generally happy almost giddy?  Probably because I'm still kicking ass and taking names  regardless of the obstacles (no not literally, there's not much of that going on here anymore, and even when there was, I wasn't the one doing it).

  I really have to guess that it also has to do with the fact that I left at like midnight and was back at 4am and am working like mad, and your body responds to that kind of stress, so while it may not be adrenaline, I'm sure it's one of those other fight or flight survivaly type hormones that is currently buoying my outlook on life.  Another indicator is that I haven't had any caffeine, and I really am wired.  Anyways, off to figure out final details so I can go hop in an MRAP and take a ride to an "intel sharing meeting" and see if the Iraqis can place nice across province boundaries.

Update:  It's weird to go spend an entire day doing stuff, come back and see nothing new in LJ.  LOTS has happened in my life, something should have happened in all of yours too.  We'll ignore the fact that it's still AM there and I made my post in the middle of your night...  I guess part of it is that I normally sleep some of the day as well, so I'm used to being more in sync with you all    ::shrug::
As to the meeting, once we got by some intitial man drama and posturing it all settled down to business.  Of course that that is seen through the filter of my bias, which probably is significant considering I'm an introvert from a totally different culture, but anyway, in addition to issues with cultural nuance, they still often have a very zero sum mentality that 30 years of dictatorship has ingrained in many of them, and then there is the fact that that their current government is developing in some areas.  Overall though it really was good, they talked operational coordination across province boundaries, and what made me really happy to hear was the discussion on warrants and getting endorsements to extend their jurisdiction.  When we got out here a year ago, there were no functioning court houses, so it wasn't a question of what kind of jurisdiction a warrant had, we were working to just get the security situation stabilized long enough that the lawyers and judges would come back to work in the hope that a warrant could be issued at all... 

Hit refresh on a thread before you hit reply and submit.  Because if you're like me, you may have opened the window three hours previous and are now just getting back to finishing it after checking up all on the office fires that require managing*.  Had I hit refresh, I would have realized Darkfyre_muse had already had snuck in since I opened the thread and stole all my points.  She's insidious like that.   ::nod::
   (We'll ignore the fact that since we were replying to a comment on one of her posts it was really hers to answer, I mean where would be the fun in that) 

Hmm... or I could try to just finish each thing in succession as I start them instead of doing like 5 things at once...  nah, why change now ;P

  *not enough resources to put them all out, and some you need to let burn, you know, kind of like doing controlled burns as a preventative measure.  So basically you end up juggling a couple things in the background...  what exactly you're juggling depends on the day, sometimes it's couple tennis balls, the next day one of them might be made out of crystal, then there are the interesting days, when you feel like that extreme juggler dude, you know the one I'm talking about, you've seen him juggling a bowling ball, a running chainsaw, and a flaming club (or whatever ludicrous combination it was this week).

And for probably the 30th time this deployment, I got back into the office earlier after being gone for part of the afternoon, check my classified email, catch up on a couple things, then take a breather and check the personal email on unclass expecting to see people online or have received some emails etc., and immediately wonder why there is so little activity...

Oh, yeah, it's Sunday, that means most people aren't at their computers...  how novel...
I do seem to remember when there was this shiny part of the week that was different than the other parts...  I think you even looked forward to that part of the week, like it was somehow better than the rest of the week...

( More musings... )

standing outside at 4am w/o a coat or gloves in 40 degree weather so you can use the sat phone to call your wife because it gives a better connection than the available landlines.

As a bonus I got to say hi to kaelikat</lj> , teky4lf</lj> , dreaminglady</lj> , reedrover  and dizzyllamaonce I got through.

It's nice to hear people enjoying the holidays.

   Not bad all things considered.

( You know what's below the cut by now. If you don't want to go swimming in the turbulent stream of consciousness, don't click ;P )