The Green Blogger

Modeling Leadership

2009-05-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Leadership is a strange and wonderful thing. But what can I say about leadership that hasn't already been said countless times? I've taken courses on leadership, read dozens of books on it, given classes on it and I've been in positions of leadership. I've even taken to heart the saying that there is no training for leadership except leadership, meaning leadership can't be learned from a book, but it is learned and understood purely through one's experience with it.

I've come to learn, as anyone who has ever been in a leadership position, that one size doesn't fit all. I've had to use different styles with different people, and that's the way it should be.

Good leadership often goes unnoticed. But it can bring out the best in people, win battles, shape a nation or simply keep a person on the right path for their life.

Bad leadership never goes unnoticed. It does often get ignored, however. It, too, can bring out the best in people, but it can also be responsible for destroyed lives, frustrating work environments, and in many cases will break down the morale of a group to the point where no one even cares and the potential of the group to be a cohesive unit or the possibility of the true leaders in the group to rise up succumbs to the chaos that so quickly develops in this type of environment.

So, in keeping with the theme of understanding leadership, what about those people who think they understand how to lead, but really all they do is model what they've seen? What if it becomes obvious that they don't understand the principles behind the leadership they've been under or experienced? How does one handle that type of person?

That, I think, is one of the toughest questions to answer and one of the toughest types of people with whom to work.

One has to consider that this person is unprincipled in their leadership. They may not be unprincipled as a person, but they just don't understand the reasoning behind what they do. They are simply behaving like they thought they have seen other leaders behave. In their mind, they are doing everything right, which is normal from a psychological perspective.

And because they are the leader (in this case, they are really in a management position, not a leadership position) it's likely that they will attempt to use their position- instead of their principles- to preserve their power. There's is likely an inferiority complex involved in the person's psychological makeup, thereby creating a wall of defensiveness that is difficult or even impossible to break through.

So, I guess the real question is, how does one transform a bad leader into a good leader, or even a bearable leader? I'm not sure I know the answer to that. Every person is different. Every leader is different. And even reducing the entire debate down to rational, black and white issues that one can merely fix is entirely wrong.

But, even if the opportunity arises that you can "fix" the person, should you? Or should you just chalk up what you've learned from this person and use that experience to be a better leader yourself?

Difficult questions indeed. And unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

Arbitrary Softball

2009-05-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

I've never really been into sports. In fact, in High School, I actually lettered in Chess, as you may know if you are a faithful reader. But, I do have some experience with pretty much every sport, as it seems that sports are almost a requirement to learn while in school.

The other morning, we were told to show up for PT almost an hour early to "cheer on the unit softball team." I'm down with that.

So, I show up and it turns out that "cheer on" means "play on." Great. Just what I've been dreaming of for months: the opportunity to demonstrate my lack of athletic prowess in front of my entire unit.

Turns out that mostly everyone was just pretty average. In fact, I was able to make two RBIs and got complimented on my outfielding skills by the Battalion Commander. I don't know, maybe his expectations were low because we were picked to be on the team at random.

So, it turns out that I'm now officially on the team and we have to play a couple times a week until June. I guess we'll see how that turns out, but I'm feeling like I need to head down to the local batting cage and get some practice.

The Shadow knows...

2009-04-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a very cool day for me. I did something that confirmed for me the direction I want to take my Army career.

For the past year, I've been tossing around the idea of whether or not I want to branch out into the medical field. The Army has a great P.A. program (IPAP) and I've kind of thought I might want to cross over into that field.

Psychological Operations isn't really working out for me, and I've only been in this job for about five months. Sure, being part of an elite organization is pretty cool and the training opportunities are second-to-none, but in the end I will have very few marketable skills, especially since I don't want to go into Marketing after I leave the Army in 6 to 13 years.

So, since I have the opportunity to talk with people that actually do the job I'm thinking about, I thought I would shadow some P.A.s and Nurses down at the Army Hospital. I had to get permission and all, but that was easy.

I worked for an extra four hours after my normal work schedule last night, just hanging out with the two P.A.s and the Nurses in the ER and I must say that what I saw of being P.A. has me totally stoked for becoming one. It is exactly what I want to do.

It fits my personality, my natural talents, my intellectual curiosity, and it is virtually recession proof. I don't think I could ask for more.

So, next year, I'll drop my packet (that's Army-speak for apply) for the IPAP program and we'll see what happens. I have a lot to do until then, but I have about 10 months until the deadline next year and I am totally going to need every day of it to get ready.

Keep up with our Adoption!

2009-04-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

This is our Adoption Blog. Read it to keep up with where we are in the process.

In the meantime, I'm doing what every good parent is supposed to do and I'm preparing to be a parent as well as I can.

My current reading selection: Parenting the Hurt Child.

Great book. Really, really good. I would recommend it even for parents who have children the old-fashioned way.

Mah Rig

2009-04-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

In the Army, we all wear uniforms. There are universal standards for wear of our uniforms, like what kind of boots we are allowed to wear, and there are local standards, like what kind of cold/wet weather gear we are allowed to wear.

This standard of uniformity exists everywhere in the Army. In about 99% of all units, what each Soldier is supposed to look like every day is prescribed in some kind of Commander's SOP. This applies for the uniforms and even the body armor that we wear. (Our body armor is modular now, so we can attach different types of pouches here and there, depending on the mission requirements.)

Now that I'm in Spec. Ops., my life isn't so ordered. Oh, I still have to look like everyone else does on a daily basis, but I actually get to "personalize" my body armor, which is pretty cool. I don't mean I get to wear flair, a la Office Space, but I do get to use whatever pattern and type of pouches I want and I can put them wear I want.

So, I started with two pouches. I have a pouch that I used to keep my weapon cleaning stuff in and today I bought a large pouch to hold my Camelbak bladder directly on my IOTV, instead of having to carry it around.

I don't quite have a vision for what I want this whole thing to look like, but I think I'm getting there. When I finish it,I'll post a picture.

Has it been that long?

2009-04-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

What? Where have I been? Geez, I don't know. But topics are piling up in my brain screaming to get out. And I need to do something about that before my head explodes.

The Winner of the election is the Loser.

2008-10-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

I've been following the election very closely. For a very long time, I was pretty sure that Obama was going wax the floor with McCain. McCain has run a very poor campaign, and quite frankly, on that criterion alone, he deserves to lose.

But, what we face in this election is definitely a different direction in the country, either now or in a couple years. The party that wins will be the losers.

Let's start with the Democrats first. Barack Obama is the most liberal/leftist candidate I have ever witnessed run for POTUS. He is an absolute socialist/Marxist. (His mantra of change is not a lie- most that are voting for him really don't understand the breadth of change that he will bring to this country.) The fact is, the Democrats essentially cheated to have BHO nominated. They nominated the most far left candidate possible. And if he wins, he will also have a Supermajority in Congress with which he can pass any law his socialist heart desires. And don't forget, he's not going to stop his leftist colleagues in Congress from passing whatever they want, either. The GOP will have zero say in the matter if the Dems get a filibuster-proof Congress.

So, what kind of bills will be passed? All you have to do is look at how BHO has run his campaign to see. Free speech will be drastically limited through passage of the Fairness Doctrine. In one case, the BHO campaign tried to silence a certain campaign from talking about voter fraud because they deemed what was being said as "false." (Does that matter? Once you have the power to silence truly false statements, silencing statements with which you disagree are not far behind.) If you look at how the station in FL was treated when they interviewed Biden in a way that the BHO campaign didn't like, then you might see a glimpse of what is to come.

And you can look at the tax cut/raise stories all over, about how his campaign has started to lower the top amount that will be taxed, from 300k getting tax hikes down to now 150k getting tax hikes.

Look at his associations, and you will see what kind of people he will surround himself with in office.

And so on.

But how is this a losing proposition for Obama and the Dems? As it always happens, the Dems will far overreach with the power that we will have given them. After passing punitive tax legislation, restricting free speech, socializing everything in their grasp, the American people will finally understand what Change BHO meant.

And because of that the GOP will have an extremely easy win in 2010 or 2012. And it is possible that they might actually stay in power for a long time this time.

Now about the GOP.

From 1994-2006, the GOP held a comfortable majority in Congress. But every election, it seemed the GOP slid toward bigger government, massive spending, etc. They have completely forsaken the principles upon which the 1994 Revolution was founded. The GOP practically refuses to fight against the Democrats, which has contributed to their loss and the trashing of the "GOP brand."

If the GOP wins, then the same people will remain in office. The GOP will remain stagnant and the Democrats will be able to regroup, learn from their mistakes (which they do much, much, much better than Republicans) and come back again with a vengeance in 2010 or 2012.

So, in a way, I'm almost hoping for a huge Democratic victory. If that happens, then the GOP's house will be cleaned out of the slackers and in 2010/2012, a new breed of Republicans that actually care about why they were elected will rise up from the ashes.

Why The Right hates John McCain

2008-02-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

So, it's pretty much official now: John McCain is virtually the last man standing. Well, Huck is still around, but we know, and have always known, that he'll never make it. He's just in it to be VP or SecState or something. Thanks a lot, Huck. Thanks a whole lot.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about John McCain and been doing a little research on some of the stuff he's done. And if you read this blog (population: 3?) you know that I have a love for psychology and trying to fit things into that perspective. I think I've figured out why The Right hates John McCain.

No, it's not because of McCain-Liebermann (Global Warming) or McCain-Feingold (Campaign Finance Reform- CFR) or McCain-Kennedy (Immigration). Well, it is a little bit. As someone said, the attempt at bipartisanship was nice, but what did the GOP get out of those? (answer: nothing)

I think The Right hates McCain because they lack a perception of control over him. McCain mostly votes with the GOP. He's really not a conservative, but he is definitely a GOP. He's probably a little more to the left than W, but he is certainly a Republican. There is no denying that.

The problem that most people have over him (and they probably don't even realize this) is that they feel they can't control him, or more precisely, they can't really predict his behavior. He's not entirely consistent in his voting and legislation creation.

(If you know anything about our basic needs, you would know that the need for control is our most basic need. Forget food. Forget shelter. Forget reproduction. Perceived control is our most basic need. Without it, our health and mental state deteriorates rapidly and all kinds of other bad things happen to us.)

Take any other GOP senator. Let's say... just off the top of my head... Elizabeth Dole. I don't even have to look up her voting record to tell you that she probably consistently tows the party line and votes pretty consistently along GOP lines, doesn't try to work much with Democrats and if something came up, you could probably figure out which direction she would vote. Not every member of Congress completely consistently votes with their party, but a near totality do. You can reasonably predict the direction most of them will take on nearly any issue.

McCain, and a few others, are different. Joe Lieberman has the same problem on the Democratic side. He fairly consistently votes to the Left of Center, but sometimes, he stands up for something on the Right, and the Left then whine and wail and then things settle down until it happens again.

Basically, I think that The Right simply doesn't trust McCain. He's not predictable and therefore he somewhat messes up the little box most of them have their worlds packaged into. I personally think that McCain's leadership ability leaves a lot to be desired for this exact reason, but politicians really aren't leaders so much as they are managers. Most Americans don't really understand this, but that's another story.

What most people on The Right don't understand now is that there is really nothing that McCain loves more than his own power, which is pretty much like most other politicians (This is why CFR was passed). And to keep that power, he will need to appeal to The Right, which so far he has not done because he hasn't had to or desired to. But what they don't understand is that if he is elected President (Ha Ha Ha!) the control we would have over him, or the perceived control we would have over him, would be greatly increased. First of all, if McCain is elected, it is because the GOP elected him. If that is the case, then the GOP will have likely retaken Congress, which wouldn't send any bills to him that would anger his base. Secondly, if you remember what happened with the whole immigration thing last year, I'm sure it would happen again if McCain tried to pull any dirty tricks.

So, I think that if McCain could possibly convince The Right that he'll "be good" and tow the party line from here on out, he'd probably get a lot of mileage out of that and win a good portion of The Right back from the brink of leaving the party. The only problem is, he'd lose a lot of independents, which is exactly who gave him the nomination.

A Perspective on Political Persuasion

2008-02-07T16:27:00.001-08:00

Here's an interesting take:

Look at it this way. You've been stranded on an island inhabited by people who look like you but who have strange beliefs. They think you get more jobs by raising costs on people who provide them. They think you get less poverty by paying people to prove they are poor. They think you move toward a color blind society by requiring people to check a box for "race" on official forms. They think a jury is better informed if evidence is withheld from it. They think war is best avoided by not preparing for one. They think voter choice is improved by outlawing ads paid for by citizens (with exceptions given to the candidates themselves and newspaper editors).

Can you guess to whom it refers?

Primary Predictions

2008-01-31T17:46:00.000-08:00

If you've been paying attention, you'd know that it's basically a fight between Romney and McCain. I'm not going to go into all the details about how McCain has gotten to where he is or why this was Romney's race to lose or whatever else I've had on my mind lately. I just want to offer a few predictions as to what I think is going to happen on and after next Tuesday (Super Duper Tuesday).

Huckabee will not drop out before Super Tuesday. Everyone, including Huck, knows that he cannot possibly win. But, every vote for Huck is a vote for McCain, simply because Romney and Huckabee attract basically the same voting block. I smell something fishy.
If McCain wins the lion's share of delegates on Super Duper Tuesday, point number one will be why.
Because of this, McCain will pick Huck for VP. I suspect some sort of collusion.
As soon as it is absolutely clear that McCain is the nominee and there is no chance of anyone else getting it, the tone in the media will change. McCain will be MURDERED (no, not literally) by the MSM. No more love-fest for him. Ever heard of the Keating 5? Probably not. But you will. Did you know that McCain called his Vietnamese captors "gooks?" You will. Over and over again. Did you know that McCain had Melanoma? Oh, you certainly will. And you'll get worst-case scenarios all over the place about how he could have a recurrence of it.
If McCain's should candidacy should possibly survive the nine-month onslaught of vicious negative reporting and he happens to win the presidency, the millions of GOPers that contributed to his nomination will very quickly have a "Oh God! What have we done?" moment.

The Fairness Doctrine will be passed. Why? Because the Democrats will have a majority, possibly a Super-Majority in Congress, so even if McCain would veto it, they will over-ride it. I predict that he would sign it, as punishment to the conservatives who now are trying to mobilize the GOP to vote for Romney.
Shamnesty. Period. It will likely be the first law he signs.
Supreme Court justices? Ha! You think Bush had a hard time? Geeeez....
McCain will start his presidency with lower approval ratings than Bush had at his worst. The GOP doesn't trust him, even dislikes him. The MSM will ensure that McCain is well-hated by the GOPers that don't already dislike him. The Left hates him because he has claimed total credit for the success of the Surge, which has utterly embarrassed the Left on the subject of the war. McCain is in a Lose-Lose situation.

If it's McCain vs. Hillary, then McCain might possibly win because of the high negatives that Hillary has and the possibility of Nader or Bloomberg getting in the race and taking votes from Hillary.
If it's McCain vs. Obama, you can forget it. Obama will crush McCain. Easily. The debates will be like a train hitting a compact car.

Okay, so it looks grim now, according to my predictions. I hope I'm wrong and Romney pulls out a few victories on Tuesday so that the GOP doesn't all go into this big 5 year state of depression...

Long Overdue...

2007-10-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

After Valentino died, we decided that we needed to honor his death by saving another kitten from the shelter. And we did just that.

Denise has always wanted a little orange kitty, so we went looking for one at our shelter. And we found one. Or rather, she found us.

We were walking down the aisle of cages and all the kitties and puppies were making all kinds of noise, "Pick me! Pick me!" they were saying....

But this one skinny little orange kitten was quiet, but stared us down, cocking her head to the side and pawing the glass with one paw, following us as we passed. Of course we had to check her out and she snuggled up to us, purring, as soon as we got her out of the cage. There was no going back after that. Our fate had been decided.

She sure was sickly, though. She had worms and fleas very bad, ear mites, too, and she was so skinny that we could see her ribs through her fur. Her face was "alien-like" as Denise would say. And after we got her first round of shots, she went through this funk and we thought she wouldn't make it. She quit eating and drinking and just laid around squeaking (barely meowing). We had to feed her kitten milk replacement for a couple of days before she came around.

She's a good cat now. Denise wanted to call her Dulce (Dul-che) which means "sweet" in Spanish, so that is her name.

She's still a little small. She's got huge ears and a very long tail, so we think she'll grow into them and maybe get to be just a bit smaller than Mr. Roboto (who is HUGE now!).

Dulce's favorite trick is to sleep on my face when I'm sleeping or watching TV. And she's very playful. She loves running around the house with her little stuffed animals in her mouth, growling at Mr. Roboto any time he tries to come near her. Every other day we have to go around the house and pick up all the cat toys that she drags out and carries around with her and put them back in their cat-toy basket.

Dulce and Mr. Roboto love to play. They chase each other around the house all the time, climbing on absolutely everything and making all kinds of noise.

Farewell, my faithful friend...

2007-07-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

It is with great sadness that we had to put Valentino to sleep a couple days ago- a remarkably terrible coincidence, considering we lost Vincenzo only a couple months ago.

Valentino lost about five pounds since Vincenzo died, and we thought that it was because of some psychological "thing," maybe he badly missed Vincenzo, or he wasn't the alpha cat, so he didn't have "permission" to eat or something. We didn't really realize that Valentino had lost so much weight until one day, Denise began to notice that Valentino was looking rather bony, so I weighed him. That much weight was really more than just an emotional problem for a kitty, especially since we tried many, many kinds of cat food to see what he would like to eat, instead of the stuff we had been feeding him for so long. We found a couple of foods that he seemed to love, but after a bite or two, he would simply walk away, which is abnormal behavior for a cat.

Turns out that for the past few months, Valentino had been suffering from some kind of liver disorder, like liver cancer or some other kind of liver disease. The vet said we could aggressively treat his condition, but without guarantee of a relapse, especially considering his age: eleven. Basically, Valentino had been almost literally starving for months now, and we felt it was simply best to end his suffering. We feel very bad that we didn't catch this sooner and that he had to suffer as much as he did, but the vet did say that very soon and he would have started having seizures and other serious neurological problems. We are very glad that we will never have to remember Valentino in such a degraded position and that the last moments with him were relatively normal, him getting petted and held and loving every second of it.

I simply remember Valentino as an attention hog. He loved being petted and wherever we were, he was right there, snuggling up to us, purring his little heart out. Yeah, we called him psycho-kitty sometimes because he was so scared of everything, but that mellowed with age and while he never got completely over his skittishness, he became a very sociable cat.

I always loved how he jumped in my lap when I was on the computer, or he jumped in the bed with us and literally leaned against my side or chest, just to get petted.

He was always a finicky cat, but he loved a certain kind of cat treat and would come running when he saw the bag in our hands. I'll miss how he did that.

Valentino, I'll miss you, my friend. I know you are in better place, with no loud noises or sudden movements. I'm sure I'll see you again one day. I can't wait to pet you again.

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto

2007-07-02T17:07:00.000-07:00

Valentino, our striped cat, hasn't taken the loss of Vincenzo very well. He's been acting up, not eating, waking us up in the middle of the night and just being a general nuisance. So, the vet said that we should get another cat.

And we did.

We did our good deed for the week and went down to our local shelter and saved a kitty.

Denise wanted an orange tabby, and they had a few, but when she saw this kitty, she knew she had to have him.

He's a seal-point domestic shorthair. His brothers and sisters were all pretty much normal, average looking kittens, but he stood out, which is why I think Denise liked him so much.

So, since she picked him, I got to pick his name.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I introduce you to Mr. Roboto! We call him Robo for short. As of right now, he's about 9-10 weeks old and he is as kittenish as can be. He's into everything, plays all the time and is one of the cutest things ever.

Of course, Valentino, pictured left, didn't like him very much at all at first. Lots of hissing, swatting and running away. But now it seems they are getting along a little better. Robo especially loves Valentino's tail and the more he bites it, the more Valentino swishes it around, which makes Robo even more playful.

Most of the time, Valentino just ignores Robo, even when he's getting bit all over. Occasionally, he'll fight back by giving him a swat and sometimes a bite, but Robo just keeps coming.

It's very cute.

Something Valentino has been doing is very cute. Robo will just get on his last nerve and he'll put his paw out against Robo's chest and keep him at bay, while Robo swings away. Of course, Valentino is a 15-pound cat and he's big, so it's like an adult putting their hand on a kid's forehead and allowing the kid to swing away, hitting nothing but air. It's very funny to see, but we haven't been able to get a video or picture of it.

Robo eats like a cow. He's only been in the house for about a week now, but he eats almost a full bowl of cat food a day. We think that Valentino has been sneaking Kitten Chow on the sly, but I've not seen it and Denise has only caught him once. But Robo's got a little fat belly and he's getting big now. He's healthy and happy. I'm very glad we got him, except for the fact that cats are nocturnal and they've decided that the best time to play is in the middle of the night when the humans are sleeping.

Valentino has been doing better, too. He's not as mopey and he's been eating more, though we've kind of had to read his mind when he's hungry and put his adult indoor cat food down and then take it up when he's done, because Robo seems to like Valentino's food a bit more than his own. Small price to pay, though.

And here is a video of our boys playing. Usually, they go longer than this, but this is a fair representation of what usually happens.

An interesting case of social engineering

2007-06-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

I noticed an interesting thing the other night while I was watching television, in how certain "groups" of people are portrayed.

In African-American circles, there's a lot of outcry about how television wrongly depicts black people as this or that and how American television is actually responsible for a large portion of racism in modern America. From what I've seen and read, that is mostly viewed as borderline conspiracy theory. I'm not so sure I can say that television is responsible, but I do believe that television certainly perpetuates it, or at least doesn't do anything to abate the tide of racism that we have in our country. And really, I'm not so sure that it's television's job to conquer racism, especially Prime Time television. I certainly believe, however, that television should not be promoting racism as it appears to do on a regular basis.

In the past decade or so, a new "group" of individuals has been "showcased" on television: homosexuals. From what I've observed from the shows I've watched and the pop culture I understand, I've begun to see a bit of social engineering.

Just from what I've seen, I think that homosexuals are over-represented on television, just as much as black people are under-represented and stereotyped.

Basically, homosexuals represent a very, very small portion of the population, but they are represented through television in a large portion of shows. If you look at how often black people are represented, you will notice that black people are under-represented. Meaning, that, in real life, you will more likely run into a black person (about 17% of the population) than you will a homosexual (about 3-5%, according to most studies). In fact, it is a bit more likely you will run into say, an atheist (about 9% of the population), than a homosexual, but the representation of atheists on television is extremely small. Of course, that also leads to another question: Atheism is something you can't see, unlike race, as is homosexuality. Why is it such a big deal that some characters are determined to be characterized by something that is practiced in private? Does it really matter?

Additionally, something I've noticed is the kind of representation that homosexuals receive on television. Black people are generally represented as a kind of "token" character, like "we have to have a black person on the show, or else the show won't be believable." But, in a lot of these shows, black people are given every type of character, good and bad.

However, in all of the shows I've seen where a homosexual is in the cast, they are all cast as a "super-normal" individual. No crime. No hang-ups. Just a homosexual trying to make it through life, all the while letting everyone know that they are gay. Not only is this odd, it's completely illogical.

It is unreasonable to believe that homosexuals don't commit crime or don't encounter the same societal issues that the heterosexuals do and if they do have the same struggles as heterosexuals do, it is certainly unlikely that all of them come through it as easily or heroically as portrayed on television.

Why am I getting hung up on television when we all know television is fake? Because we don't all know that television is fake. Yes, we can intellectually understand that television is fake, but psychologically, when we are exposed to the same stimulus over and over again, fake or not, we tend to believe it as reality. We are basically conditioned by television every day of our lives.

So, am I saying that homosexuals shouldn't be portrayed on television as generally good people? Am I saying that homosexuals shouldn't be portrayed on television as much as they are? Not really. What I am saying is that it is completely ludicrous that homosexuals are being portrayed as often as they are, without all the problems that the rest of us face.

Of course, I don't watch every show on television, and I certainly don't watch every show that has a homosexual on it. So, it's possible that I simply haven't observed enough television to make an accurate statement. But, isn't that the point, that the television I do watch, about 2-3 hours a day sometimes, is approximately the same amount of television (at least!) that everyone else watches? Is it really fair that African-Americans get portrayed the way they do, usually with many issues, many times related to crime or poverty, but homosexuals are portrayed nearly as often as African-Americans, but without any of the hangups?

A Question for the Candidates

2007-06-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

Obesity is an epidemic. The cost to treat health problems related to overweight and obese Americans is now in the billions. At least 34% of Americans are overweight and 32% of Americans are obese. This number is rising all the time.

As President, what will you do to curb this trend?

Some useful health links

2007-06-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

I am trying to live a healthier life, so I've been trying some new things.

Fitness and Diet Journal
This journal is fantastic. And it's free. It is super easy to use. It is one of the best fitness tools I have ever used.
Pose Running
Well, if you have read this blog at all, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with running. I've never considered myself to be naturally good at it. Pose Running is the form taught to professional and Olympic athletes. It's not that easy at first, because there are all kinds of drills I have to do to understand the fundamentals of the technique, but I really think this is exactly what I needed to get through my running "problem."
Combat Swim Stroke
This is a bit interesting. Since I got hurt, I've taken up swimming and I got this video. It's kind of like a cross between a side stroke and a butterfly stroke (I think that's the name.) It's supposedly super-efficient and it's not too tiring. I'm still working on it, but I think I'm getting it down.
Rock Climbing
Yes, I finally went climbing last night and I loved it, as I thought I would. I recently bought a pair of climbing shoes, these, and they were wonderful! They didn't hurt my feet and they kept me on the wall like I had claws for feet. Of course, I hurt all over, but that will go away. I'll be joining the gym on payday so I can go whenever I want.

I recommend all these products.

lolcats

2007-05-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

I love cats.

I also love pictures of cats.

I recently discovered something called lolcats. A good description can be found here and here.

Originally, most were created to use on forums, which is why many of them will talk about "threads" which is just another word for topic.

So, I'd like to share lolcats with you. The first entry on the top left of my blog is devoted to websites that have lolcats on them. Visit them. You will laugh. A lot.

You will need to understand "leetspeak," though. You can do a Google Search for other lists and explanations of leetspeak.

And below is one of my favorites:

Hi, I'm Matt. I used to play Video Games.

2007-05-19T18:02:00.000-07:00

I've played video games for as long as I can remember. I played the Atari 2600, I owned an Atari 5200 and I also played the Atari 7800. Before any of that, I played the Commodore 64 and played something called The Magnavox Odyssey. I've owned every Nintendo console ever made.

I played Pong. I played Pac Man when it came out. Same for Space Invaders, Galaga, Centipede and Missile Command.

Video Games have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. And now they are not.

Basically, I think it was just time for me to grow up a little bit. I realized that my compulsion to play video games was causing me much trouble.

For instance, while I was deployed, I had a lot of time on my hands. What did I do? I played my favorite game of all time, Eve. It is, in my opinion, one of the best games of all time. I had a great group of folks I used to play with.

However, because I spent virtually every waking hour playing Eve, I did nothing else. No school work. No PT. No nothing. Instead of using the internet connection I had to get ahead on my degree, I used it to play video games. I deeply regret that.

My problem is, I get too involved. I've often thought that I might have an addictive personality, that I just get far too wrapped up in things, without considering other alternatives for my use of time.

When I got back from Kuwait, I made a decision that I would spend time with my wife first and then play video games. Or, I would only play video games a couple times a week.

Yeah.

That lasted about two weeks.

I quit playing Eve, but I started playing other games, like Dawn of War and Auto Assault. I thought I would be able to take it easy and play them just a little here and there. Within a month, I was doing the same thing.

So, after a few months, I, with a LOT of help from my wife, decided that I would simply stop playing video games. It's obvious I can't handle playing them.

See, video games of today, like Eve or World of Warcraft or Auto Assault, are designed to be addictive. Really, they activate the same area of the brain that drugs activate. Once you play, it's incredibly hard to stop. Plus, because we are social beings, the socialization that comes with online games keeps us coming back for more.

So, I made the decision that I would simply quit playing. It's been a couple months and I don't regret the decision.

Like a smoker, though, every once in a while I'll get a peculiar desire to play a game, specifically Eve. Most of the time, I'll just ignore it and it goes away. Sometimes, I'll visit the website and take a look at some of the game play pictures and I'll be fine. Those incidences are becoming fewer and fewer, though.

I've since replaced my addiction to game with several things, like working out and spending time with my wife. I've lost a bit of weight and I think my wife likes having me around now.

It's not a decision I regret.

2007-05-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Ode to our Doughboy

2007-05-18T17:46:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, 17 May, we made the decision to put our cat, Vincenzo, to sleep. It was truly the only humane option.

He was throwing up a lot, urinating on the floor and acting very odd- laying around on the floor, not eating or drinking and not using the litter box. We took him to the Emergency Vet who thought it was just an infection. After force feeding him medicine, which did nothing, we took him to the Vet on Monday morning, who determined that he had a urinary tract blockage. The Vet put in a catheter for 48 hours and all seemed fine. On Wednesday, he took it out. By Thursday morning, he was blocked up again. The Vet gave us greater than 50% odds that he would experience more blockage if he put the catheter back in and surgery was too expensive- and also had high odds that the blockage would return. Since Vincenzo had been suffering for almost five days already, we decided that the most humane option would be to put him to sleep.

It was one of the hardest moments of my entire life. I don't think I've ever cried so much or so hard. My wife was surely more heartbroken. She's had Vincenzo longer than she's known me.

Vincenzo lived a good, long 10 years. He was an indoor cat, so he lived a life of luxury and never wanted for anything. We loved him and showed our love to him at every opportunity. He will be greatly missed.

Vincenzo, we love you and we miss you. We'll always remember how you loved to hang your front feet off the sofa, or sleep on our shoes, or the scale, or anything else that you could find on the floor. We'll miss how you waddled when you walked. We'll miss how you would remind us every night to brush you. We'll miss how you followed us to every room. We'll miss how you would let us know that your feeder was getting low several days in advance and how much you loved Clean Water Day. We'll miss how you came running for one thing: tuna juice.

But most of all, we'll miss your ever-present company and just knowing that you were always around.

I hope God has plenty of tuna juice and clean water for you in heaven.

We love you.

Random Political Thoughts

2007-05-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

New Bumper Stickers

Hillary/Obama/Edwards:
Not George Bush since 1776

Guliani/McCain/Romney:
Not George Bush since 1776

Er... wait...

Those who don't trust anyone else cannot be trusted

I think I've figured out the Left/Progressives. I've been trying to figure out what exactly is the core of the Left's belief system and until now, it's mostly boggled me. But I think I've got it now.

Trust. The Left doesn't trust the Average American. Yes, that's scathing. Yes, it's a blanket statement, but walk with me for a minute as I explore this line of thinking.

Let's go with Gun Control first. The Right generally supports the Second Amendment. There are some that want everyone to have guns. They are idiots. Not everyone (criminals, mentally ill, underage, etc.) should have guns. But the more level-headed realize that it is our right to have guns and that "an armed society is a polite society." (Thank you, Robert Heinlein!) The Left, from what I can generally gather is the polar opposite. No one (except for the military and police) should have guns. Period. There is plenty of research out there that confirms that guns do not cause crime. In fact, that same research explicitly proves that if the citizenry is armed, crime is reduced, and if the citizenry is disarmed, crime increases. It's like magic! This is proven over and over again. So, what's the deal?

Well, I've already made my major point in that it's a matter of trust. The Left doesn't trust "other people" with guns. Right after the VA Tech massacre, there was a short debate about gun control and basically as soon as it was demonstrated that a single student with a gun would have stopped the whole thing, the conversation was pretty much dropped from the news. I was listening to someone talk about gun control and they stated, "I don't think I would feel safe if an entire major American city's population was armed." Er... why? Because they'd all be violent, crime-loving barbarians as soon as they bought the firearm? Hardly. It's because he didn't trust anyone but himself. Rest assured that more people carry concealed weapons than you probably realize.

This is kind of like how, for a long while, pretty much everyone believed that everyone else on the internet was some kind of homosexual, child-stalking, porn-watching pervert or something.

Let's move on to another topic: Poverty and the welfare state. What's the deal with the Left always wanting to raise the minimum wage and put more folks on welfare? Remember, welfare was supposed to eliminate poverty. I guess in one way, it did. Our poor have more stuff/money/resources than the rest of the world's poor. So, we have the richest poor in the world. But it's all relative. The poor (and the Left) measure their "poorness" against the "rich" and their "richness." The average family in poverty has a microwave, TV, cell phone and a car. The average rich family? Well, I don't know. But I can use my imagination and choose to believe that they have a better microwave, a larger TV, more minutes per month on their cell phone plan and better and more cars. Whether that's true... I don't know.

But, getting back to the point, the massive expansion of our welfare state was caused by the Left. Why? Because they didn't trust the Average American to take care of the Less Than Average American. Now, I don't know if that is really true. But what does it matter? The Left scored a huge voting block because of this. However, I am inclined to think that if The Church (yes, the Christian Church) spent more time taking care of the poor then, we wouldn't have so much of a poverty problem now. Basically, and I have no facts to back this up, I believe that The Church fell down on the job and that is why the Government decided to step up. Now, I concede that it is possible that The Church could possibly have been doing very well at caring for the poor and the government just wanted to score that big voting block, but I guess we'll never know.

Next topic: Affirmative Action. In short, the government doesn't trust the private sector to hire enough people of race (whether they are qualified or not) so the government stepped in and dictated how many of every race you must hire. Or else.

Abortion: Well, I haven't quite figured this one out. I do know, however, that calling it a "women's rights issue" is bogus. It's all about the money. Sure, it may have started as a women's rights issue, but that's not the case any more.

So, now that I've given you a prism through which to view politics of the Left, see if you can take an issue and break it down this way. See if you don't get as ticked off as I do about it.

My Dream Republican Ticket

Romney/Gingrich or Gingrich/Romney

Gingrich totally excites me. He's the most intellectual person I think I've ever seen on television. Check out the Contract with America to see some of his handiwork.

Romney is smart, looks good, has great Christian values and doesn't say "nuk-u-lar," at least I haven't heard him say it.

50% of something is better than 100% of nothing

I heard someone say that today on the radio. He was referring to Guliani, and how he is pro-choice, and how many conservatives won't vote for him because of that. Sad, really. Put it this way, you don't have to vote for Guliani in the Primaries, but you had better vote for him the general if he's the nominee. What would you want more:

Guliani, a pro-choice Republican who shares a few of our values, will be strong on terror and crime and will be a strong presence in the White House

Hillary/Obama/Edwards, pro-choice Democrats who share none of our values and will appease and attempt to negotiate with terrorists (including probably passing laws to make it illegal to detonate a nuk-u-lar weapon inside a U.S. city)

What do you get if you don't vote for Guliani because he's pro-choice? A Democrat who is pro-choice. You lose.

If you don't vote, we will lose.

The Tornado in Kansas

2007-05-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

As you should be aware, there was a huge tornado in Kansas this weekend. I heard on the radio that at the strongest point, the tornado cut a swath 1.7 miles wide. The whole town is destroyed. Luckily, fewer people died than would be expected from such a disaster.

My thoughts and prayers are with the citizens and family members of Greensburg.

But it didn't take long for the media to politicize this and how the Iraq war has caused the state to not be prepared for a time such as this. Isn't there some kind of psychological term for when everything you see is somehow related to one thing? Isn't that a form of religious fanaticism?

Anyway, the MSM reported this: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius says a shortage of trucks, helicopters and other equipment - all sent to the war in Iraq - has hampered recovery in a US town obliterated by a tornado.

"There is no doubt at all that this will slow down and hamper the recovery," Governor Sebelius, a Democrat, said in Kansas, where officials said the statewide death toll had risen to 12.

"Not having this equipment in place all over the state is a huge handicap."

"Boo Hoo! That meanie President Bush sent all my trucks and planes away and now I have nothing to help my citizens with."

Nowhere does it say how many of the actual Soldiers are deployed. I know for a fact that a lot of Guard units leave their stuff over there when the Soldiers themselves return from deployment. So, we really don't have the full story about who and what is here. It's unlikely we'll get it, too, since 1. The MSM likely won't tell us. 2. They couldn't get that info anyway because it's sensitive information. Troop strength and stuff, you know.

I'm not doubting that a majority of the Kansas NG stuff is in Iraq. But I'm doubting and questioning the reason something else.

We've been deploying the National Guard to foreign soil since Clinton was president, so for at least 10 years. They went with their stuff then, too, and brought it back when the mission was done. At what point did someone ever think, "Hey, a lot of our stuff is gone. Since we're the National Guard, and our main job is to help in times of domestic crisis, and our stuff is not here, shouldn't we get new stuff? Especially since we live in FREAKIN' TORNADO ALLEY! Especially since the EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED TWO YEARS AGO WITH HURRICANE KATRINA?"

I mean, come on. Really. No one had the foresight to think about this? I would love to know whose job it is to think of stuff like this.

I suppose, though, that it would have been a catch-22. "What? You have BRAND NEW equipment here in the States that you aren't sending to Iraq? You sent them to war and now you won't send them new equipment? You Loser."

God vs. Science

2007-05-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

There's been some talk about a couple Christian guys getting ready to debate a couple atheist guys and how the Christian guys are going to prove God exists through Science and without the Bible.

Ugh. I hate it when Christians (or atheists!) think they can do this. I have a bad feeling the atheists are going to take their lunch and walk all over the Christian guys, but not because God doesn't exist, but because the Christian guys are... well... dumb for trying this.

Let's get one thing straight. You can't prove or disprove God with science. Period. Anyone who thinks they can clearly has no idea what science actually is and risks basically making a fool of themselves. I say this for both sides. Atheists can't disprove God with science, either, because that's not the way this works.

I like to define stuff, so let me define science.

1 : the state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding
2 a : a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study science of theology> b : something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like systematized knowledge science>
3 a : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method b : such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena : NATURAL SCIENCE
4 : a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws science and an art
5 capitalized : CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

I added the bold in definition 3. Basically, science is the study of the observable, what is around us. Additionally, it uses the scientific method to describe and prove/disprove concepts, events and theories. This is not how to prove God exists.

Revelation 12:11 says, " They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony..." That is how to do it. You're not going to prove anything about God in 10 minutes. If it was possible to do so, it would be done over and over and over again. Plus, half of the Bible would be useless because we would no longer need faith. Also, if science could do it all, why would Evangelism even be a gift of the Spirit? People don't instantly get convinced that they need Christ. They get convinced that they need what Christians have. This takes time and some folks will never be convinced of that. That's just the way it is.

Anyway, science uses methods to prove concepts. There are many divisions of science, like physics, chemistry, meteorology, astronomy and the like. In every single one of those divisions, there are theories and concepts and principles that follow rules that don't change. F=MxA (Force equals mass times acceleration) is one. The Laws of Thermodynamics are others. Over and over and over again, these can be proven.

The problem is, many people think that a Theory is something that is not provable, that it is a "belief" that scientists have. (Actually, that's criminally oversimplified.) A Theory is a belief, but not because there's no evidence to prove the Theory and scientists need "faith" to understand said theory. A scientific theory is called a theory because there are parts of the theory that aren't quite understood or haven't been figured out quite yet or predict how something is supposed to act, but we haven't had the chance to prove it. A large (or small) part of a scientific theory follows the laws that should be followed, but there are some parts that are missing, and those parts are expected to follow whatever laws should apply. Okay, let's make this more complex.

Relativity. Wait! Stop! Keep reading! It's called a Theory because it best explains the behavior of an object inside a gravitational field. No one else has a better explanation, and the principles stated within General Relativity best explain what happens to objects that are affected by gravity. In fact, parts General Relativity can be proven over and over and over again and have been. However some parts, specifically relating to, say, black holes, are only predictions, since we can't actually visit or even really see black holes. However, we expect them to act a certain way, and no one has any reason to believe that they won't. That is how theories work. Okay, done with Relativity.

You can't prove/disprove God with science because that's not how He works. Besides, if God created science, why would he allow Himself to be disproved by it and if he wants us to use faith (as evidenced by the many times in the Bible it says so) why would He allow himself to boxed into being proven by a simple scientific experiment?

So, good luck guys. I hope you know your stuff because I think you are going to get trounced.

Oh, and to anyone who may think so: SCIENCE IS NOT EVIL. Period. And I'll debate anyone who thinks so... as if anyone actually reads this blog....

Some good links

2007-05-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some great links I've picked up in the past few days:

Why a College Degree really isn't about the education. This is a really great article from a Left-of-Center website, that in and of itself is pretty good.

The Force is Strong with this one. Holy Cow, I haven't laughed this hard at a clip in a long time. Yes, it's picking on the President a bit, but who cares! It's very, very funny. "Get me a taco!"

... and the Empire will be defeated by Ewoks! Yes, I had to start surfing YouTube for a bit after I saw that first one. Robot Chicken is totally awesome

There are more. I'll post 'em when I remember 'em.

I'm not as broken as I thought I was...

2007-05-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

I don't have a Stress Fracture in my right femur. I have "stress changes."

Basically, I have an area on both of my femurs (right is much more acute) that are evidence of stress to the bone: an inflammation in the periosteum of my femur, in other words. This is according to the PA that saw me yesterday.

Now, I could not find an actual medical reference to something called a "stress change." But, I was able to track down what I really have, or at least as close as my non-MD mind can figure out.

I have shin splints in my thighs. The medical term is periosteitis, but I don't know for sure if that term refers only to shin or to other bones as well.

Naturally, I am a bit skeptical. The femur is the largest bone in the body and the spot on my leg that has the injury is right in the middle inside, away from any joints. I may yet request a second opinion, but I want to see how my physical therapy goes; this starts Monday.

I did get a whopper of a profile, though. (In the Army, if you are injured and see a doctor, he should give you a sheet of paper stating what you can and can't do, in terms of activity. This is to relieve stress to the injured part and allow it to heal. It can range from "Run at own pace" to having nearly all activities curtailed or prohibited.) Basically, I can't run, jump, stand for more than 20 minutes, march, forced march or do any kind of heavy leg activity, like flutter kicks or "froggers." So, looks like swimming is going to be my exercise, along with biking.

And I still can't climb rocks. My profile ends on June 3rd. You can bet I'll be climbing that night.

How to discredit a kook or a kook movement

2007-04-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

1. Allow someone like Rosie O'Donnell to speak for your movement.

-End-

Oh, wait. Just kidding. I'll continue.

1. As above.

2. Allow said representative to say something totally insane. “I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes—7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.” credit: www.popularmechanics.com, 30 March 2007

3. See this story. "'Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange above to buckle. Bolts holding the structure together also melted, leading to the collapse,' California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said."

Voila!

Of course, no one in the MSM will actually make this connection and O'Donnell will continue to roam free, making even more ridiculous assertions.

This is all I am going to say about her. She doesn't deserve my blog time any more than she's already gotten.

A Prediction

2007-04-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, I want to predict something. I know I can and probably will be wrong, but if I'm not, I at least want to be able to say that I predicted it.

As far as I can see, the political atmosphere is like this:

The Democrats desperately want to liked by the rest of the world and don't care what the Republicans think about them. They (Democrats) use the whole "the world hates us because of Iraq" thing and the media gives them way too much airtime for it. Nothing America does will never actually be the right thing to do, according to the rest of the world, which is why the Democrats take that tone, too. The rest of the world has disliked us for one reason or another since WWII, whether it's because we're such a young country and are so powerful and rich so early, or because we just have the best looking girls, or just because Donald Trump is from the US, and not, say, Germany.

The Republicans desperately want to be liked by the Democrats and don't care what the rest of the world thinks about them. They (Republicans) don't understand that this sort of inferiority complex is actually a media bias and have yet to understand that about 95% of the media favors Democrats. Nothing any Republican will ever do will ever be right, even if they actually compromise or agree with the Democrats. Therefore, the Republicans will always compromise their values in order to score points with the Democrats, only to find themselves at square one... again... and then trying to figure out what happened. Just remember, the Democrats don't care about being liked by the Republicans. They just want to be liked by everyone else that isn't American.

So, enough funny stuff. Keep my expert analysis in the back of your mind as you read the rest of this, though.

Basically, Iraq is going to come down to a hellacious nightmare. (Not there. Here.) We're going to fight about it for the next two years, until the next president is elected, which will probably be a Democrat.

I predict that at some point, Russia (and maybe a few other countries) will seize on all our infighting and "volunteer" a bunch of troops in order to "help" us with Iraq. This will happen once the Surge has been reasonably effective.

After we get the message that Russia wants to help, the next administration (likely a Democratic one) will take credit for restoring the world's faith and trust in us and will gladly allow Russia to put some troops in Iraq so that we can bring a large portion of our guys home. It's a win-win. Everyone else likes America again, the Democrats shove this down the Republicans' throats, who agree to allow the Russian conglomerate to take a larger role in Iraq just so they can show the Democrats how bipartisan they can be.

Once the transfer is complete, Russia will "suddenly" become friends with Iran. You can guess where that will lead: an Iran/Russia-ruled Iraq.

Remember that Russia has been the sort of go-between for Iran and the rest of the world. Russia has played it cool with them, offering to help the rest of the world sort out the different impasses we've had with Iran.

So, there you have it. I hope I'm wrong.

Getting the Chair...

2007-04-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

I had my semi-annual teeth cleaning the other day. I'm lucky. I have good teeth, like my dad. Yeah, I don't take care of them like I should, or so says the dentist, but I've never had a cavity.

So, I was in the grocery store today, pondering the experience in my dentist's office and I remembered that I needed some refills for my fancy-schmancy flosser thing. It's the Reach Flosser, the one you click on the flossers and click them off when you are done. Ah, forget it, here's the link.

Anyway, I'm sorting through the multiple flavors and my choices basically this: mint, another version of mint, some other kind of mint and unflavored. I don't like mint anything. I don't like mint candies, mint toothpicks, mint-flavored gum and whatever else kind of crap can be flavored with mint. I don't know why this is. Maybe it's genetic. Or something.

So, I'm standing there realizing that I'm just going to wind up settling for the unflavored flosser refills when I have this great idea. Why not have other flavors of flossers? Heck, it's only string, right? Why not a fruity flavor, like strawberry or pineapple? Or maybe pizza flavor? Why not steak flavor? (I'd love to have steak flavored anything, really: Ice Cream, Fitness Water/Sports Drinks, Toothpaste, Cereal, you name it. If there was anything else out there that was steak-flavored, besides steak, I would have it. My whole house would essentially be a carnivore's heaven.... until my wife came home and made me take it all back to the store, of course.)

There's always been this old joke about why cat food is always flavored the way it is and why there is never any rat-flavored cat food.

I gotta say that if these tooth-care companies wanted to increase business and sell more, they should definitely make more flavors of their products.

Yeah, I understand why toothpaste is "Minty Fresh" and mouthwash basically tastes and feels like you are gargling with sulfuric acid. I mean, I wouldn't want to have to talk to someone whose breath smelled like pizza or steak, either, so that makes sense. But, come on... can we get a decent flavor of those flosser things?

Here's a question for the candidates:

2007-04-27T05:14:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure that we will be withdrawing from Iraq within the next couple years, whether the job is finished or not. I am thinking more and more that the Democratic Congress will essentially force the President to sign a war funding bill with an exit date attached. If that doesn't happen, it is a distinct possibility that we will get a Democrat for President. I think they have all promised, on some level, to withdraw us from Iraq. If that happens, the "insurgents" in Iraq will likely find a new place to attack. My guess is Afghanistan, where will wind up "losing" there, too, in a matter of years.

So here's my question:

After we withdraw, what do you intend to do about Al-Qaeda and terrorism?

They/It will come here. Our borders are like a sieve, and anyone who thinks that Al-Qaeda hasn't taken advantage of that is a fool. (If even 1% of the illegal immigrants that have crossed our souther border are Al-Qaeda...) Many places I have read think it really is just a matter of time before we see another serious act of terrorism in America. Since Al-Qaeda isn't a country that we can attack, how will we retaliate? Half-jokingly, if we withdraw from Iraq, it will be come the next country Al-Qaeda occupies, much like pre-9/11 Afghanistan so does that mean we will invade Iraq again?

Two new additions to this Blog

2007-04-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I want to add two new features to my blog, to which I would like to contribute on a regular basis.

They are:

If I were the President...

and

Here's a question for the Presidential Candidates:

I can't say how often I'll be posting in those two lines of thought, but I will try to go for about once a week at minimum.

Hand over foot over hand over foot...

2007-04-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

So, in my mind, I would like to think that I'm an avid rock climber. Yes, I did some indoor rock climbing a little less than two years ago and I loved it. I never went back, but the experience has always been one of my favorites of my time here in Texas.

After I came back from Kuwait, I picked up some weight, maybe about 15-20 pounds (partially from getting my wisdom teeth out and not being able to exercise for almost a month- complications....) and I needed to lose it. So, I started running more. And more. And not much happened.

I decided that I needed a new hobby since I no longer play video games. (Oh, wait... I'm going to have to blog about that, too.) I already have a lot of experience in Karate, so I didn't want to do that all over again, so I figured I'd take up something that is healthy and fun. Rock Climbing it is!

So, I made that decision and on the day that I was going to go down to the local rock climbing gym, I had a doctor's appointment because my right thigh had been hurting for a while, and a few days of rest didn't get rid of the pain.

Turns out, because of all the running I've been doing lately, that I likely have a stress fracture in my right femur. Don't know for absolutely sure, but I have a Bone Scan on 1 May, possibly earlier if I can get squeezed in because of a cancellation.

So, I can't run, I can't bike, I can't climb. I'm just supposed to take it easy for 30 days or more.

But, I can swim and that's cool. I've never done any kind of athletic swimming before. So, every day, I go down to the indoor pool and I swim for 30 minutes. It is much more enjoyable than running, and it's better for me, too.

So, hopefully, I can get through this low point in my physical health rather quickly so I can get on with my life. I've got some stuff I need to get done but I can't do until I get better.

Yes, I did run that Triathlon

2007-04-23T19:27:00.000-07:00

Way back when, I said I was going to run a triathlon before I was 32. Well, that did happen. Sort of.

Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) actually did sponsor a triathlon, and I did compete in it. However, it's not exactly like you would think.

It gets so ridiculously hot in Kuwait that they didn't want to risk anyone becoming a heat casualty, so they ran the Triathlon in three parts, with teams of three- one person doing each event.

Of course, I jumped on the opportunity to do this. So, I found two other Chaplain Assistants and we did it. It's been quite a while and I don't even remember their names now, but I had a girl and a guy on my team. She swam and he ran. I biked.

There were something like 48 teams that registered and we came in like 16th or something, if I remember correctly. So, we didn't do too badly. It was fun.

And I got another T-Shirt.

Pacifism isn't what you think it is...

2007-04-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite conservative pundits that I have ever known is Michael Graham. (His blog is on my links section.) Back when I lived in SC, he was a radio host on the local station. He was funny, irreverent, but really, he was very, very smart and he knows the business of politics. He's never run for office, that I know of, but I know he has participated in a few campaigns.

So, moving to the point. Somewhere, he got involved in the VA Tech massacre discussion and said something incredibly profound and now there's a bit of a backlash. To make a long blog short, he simply asked the question why no one in VA Tech actually did anything to stop the killer. During that brief time, where he killed 32 students and then himself, he came into contact with dozens, possibly hundreds, of students. And not one of them did anything to stop him.

Apparently, no one tried to talk to him. No one tried to physically apprehend him. No one tried to rush him. No one tried to band together, a la Flight 93, to end his murderous rampage. That is an important question, I think, because it says a lot about what our parents are teaching our children.

In this discussion, he's been placed in the line of fire by a Lefty group, Media Matters. They posted a story, linked in Michael's blog, to what he said and what others have said.

One comment summed up what I think is the crux of how many people feel about violence. "I've never met a parent who did not teach their kids that it's OK to protect themselves and others. My wife was a pacifist and she and I raised our children to never fight, unless there is no other option." Sure, it sounds nice and makes you feel good. But it's dumb.

I've been trying to think of a word for stuff like this, for incomplete thoughts, or positions held about a certain idea that are just so out in left/right field that they are actually dangerous. The best I can come up with is "Not Thought," as in, not thought out, or not educated enough about a topic to be able to think something through. Tune in to future blogs for other Not Thoughts.

First, let me define Pacifism. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines it as:
1 : opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes; specifically : refusal to bear arms on moral or religious grounds
2 : an attitude or policy of nonresistance

So, right off the bat, this is not pacifism. It's non-confrontationalism. Or passiveness. Or just plain wimpiness.

The problem is, pacifism equals no violence. Period. Gandhi was a pacifist. MLK Jr. was a pacifist. They faced personal danger and death many times and at no time did they physically defend themselves. At any time, their opponents could have killed them with no resistance from Gandhi or MLK Jr.

What the person in the comment above is talking about is nonsense. See, in an effort to shield their children (and everyone else) from violence, they have not taught them how to use violence to actually defend themselves. No Karate. No Concealed Weapons permits. Heck, they probably don't even watch the Three Stooges. So, when the time comes to actually defend themselves, they are impotent, incompetent and inept. That is, of course, if they can actually discern when the time is right to defend themselves.

In a effort to pacify others, these so-called pacifists have taken away or paved over a person's primal instinct to defend themselves. (More on that later....) For years, this person has been taught that in no situation is violence appropriate. What do you think is going to happen when the "acceptable" time to use violence occurs? If a person has been trained to not defend themselves at any time, that is exactly what they will do. Furthermore, as we humans are terrible at determining risk to our own safety AND we see others as we see ourselves, it is unlikely that a pacified person will actually know when a situation is dangerous enough to actually defend themselves. And if the situation warrants a defensive action, well, the person has no tools to do so.

But let's go deeper than just conditioning. Let's move into the brain for a moment. There is a part of our brain that separates us from our dogs/cats/fish. It is the fore-brain. It is in the fore-brain that we rationalize, that we set goals, that we experience guilt and have the ability to socialize with others. Our dog can't do that on the level we can.

All animals have what is called the mid-brain. This is the instinct part of our brain, where we have fight-or-flight, or where we process certain instances of danger and how we determine that we are hungry or need to reproduce. Humans are the only animal in the world that can override their mid-brain... because we have a fore-brain.

It is the mid-brain that causes a snake to bite you when you step on it, or a dog to attack with no warning when you enter its territory. It is absolutely instinctual for an animal to react violently when its life is threatened. There is no overriding this because they don't have the capacity to do so.

(Also, as a side-note, nearly every other animal, maybe except for primates, has some method of self-defense: Fangs, teeth, claws, horns, antlers, hooves, etc. Humans have no such defenses. Don't tell me about punching and kicking, either, since most folks have no idea how to do that right without hurting themselves. Our primary method of self-defense is... yup, you guessed it, our fore-brain, since unlike animals, we can generally discern what is truly life-threatening and what is not, unless of course we have been conditioned otherwise.)

Another thing that separates us from animals is that we are virtually the only animal on the planet that kills its own kind. Snakes don't kill other snakes of the same species, even though they could. Dogs rarely kill other dogs. Virtually no other animal will kill another animal of the same species because the most important facet of an animal's being is the perpetuation of the species. There's some really fascinating reading on this subject if you care to go into it. I won't for the sake of time.

That said, in our mid-brain, we understand this. Call it what you want- spirituality, lawfulness, common sense- but we just know that it is wrong for us to kill another human being. It's deeper than that, but if you strip away all of the rationalizations, you basically will come to, "It's just wrong!" with most people. But remember what I said about our fore-brain?

As humans, we can override our mid-brain with our fore-brain, just as our mid-brain can sometimes override our fore-brain. This is why we are virtually the only species on the planet that will kill another of the same species: because we can rationalize it away.

So, where am I going with all of this, and how does our fore-brain overriding our mid-brain have anything to do with pacifism? Simple: we can become pacifists because of our fore-brain.

In other words, it is counter-instinctual to be a pacifist. I'll leave you to figure out the ramifications of the points I have just made. As you may be able to tell, you can go many directions with this.

But specifically pertaining to this point about what was said way up there about raising kids to be pacifists, by continuously overriding instinct, almost irreparable psychological damage has been done to a person. Judgment is altered. Reactions are altered. Discernment of risk is altered.

And that is one reason why no one stopped the VA Tech massacre... even when he stopped to reload.

Book Review

2007-04-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

Crazies to the Left and Wimps to the Right. Sounded like a fair assessment to me. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that everyone on the left is a nutjob. Nor do I think that everyone on the right is... right. We need both sides for balance. Our country would not be the great nation it is today if it weren't for contributions from both sides. The problem is, when one side thinks that everyone on the other side is wrong or stupid, then we have a problem.

Anyway, I bought this book because the title really spoke to how I've been feeling lately about our politicians. It's an easy read; only took me about two or three hours to read it.

But, honestly, it's not that great. Most of the stuff in there I already knew and it's not really a 50/50 split against the Left and Right. It's probably about a 75/25 split against the Left. Near the end, there's like three or four chapters where nothing is said about the position of the Right on the specific subject.

Basically, it wasn't an idea book, which is really what I'm after. And I should have known that from the title. In fact, I had another book in my hand and I was trying to decide between the two and now I am sorry I didn't pick it up. I don't need someone to tell me that the media is biased or that the Right just wants to be liked by the Left. As much reading as I do on a day to day basis, I could have written the book myself.

However, if you don't consider yourself to be informed... er... well... Let me put it another way, since most people really do consider themselves to be informed...

If you don't spend much time surfing the web for politics information (at least a few times per week) or if you don't listen to talk radio very much, I would recommend this book, but only if you really just want to bolster your anti-left thinking.

My Reading List

2007-04-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here are the books on my reading list.

Freakonomics
Resurrection
Rock Climbing: A Trailside Guide (I'll have to explain why I've taken up Rock Climbing in another blog... which reminds me, I have so much to talk about!)
What If? (Bargain Bin. Looked interesting and I have a secret love of history.)
Crazies to the Left of me, Wimps to the Right (I read this yesterday, and I'll review it later today.)

So there you have it.

Do I really need that?

2007-04-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

Advertising... what has it become and how stupid can it get?

Advertising has always been a curiosity to me. I mean, I understand why companies advertise, but the methods have made me wonder what what going through the heads of the folks in the advertising department.

As far as I can tell, advertising has one specific, overlying goal: brand recognition/awareness which makes the consumer comfortable with the product. The reason for brand recognition/awareness is obvious: you won't go out and buy something you don't know exists. So, companies get their product out there with clever placement, specifically going after that target consumer. Commercials and ads are refined to make a convincing argument to that target customer to purchase that specific product. The whole process is very complex, so I'm not going to go into it. Plus, I'm just a layman, so I'd probably screw it up.

The other benefit of brand recognition is making the customer comfortable with their product. In our primal brains, we tend not to venture into unknown territory. When exploring an unknown area, we experience anxiety and certain parts of our brain don't function as well as when we are uncomfortable with our environment. (I've just stated a lot of oversimplified psychology, so do a bit of research on something called schema if you want more information.) If you don't believe me, think about the last time you bought soda.

Most people buy the same soda over and over again. Why? Because it tastes good, right? Well, maybe. But, I'm willing to bet it's because that's the soft drink they have bought for a long time. Next time you are at the store, instead of grabbing that Pepsi/Coke, go for the store brand or the alternate brand, like R/C cola or something. When you are reaching for that alternate cola, notice how you feel about it. You second guess yourself. You wonder if you are making the right decision. You hope you will like it. And you'll think about that bottle of cola in your cart the whole time you are shopping- and it only costs a buck! If you don't like it, what have you lost? A dollar? The time it took you to buy the soda and take it home? Negligible consequences, but for a lot of people, the brain doesn't see it that way.

So, companies spend lots of money making sure your brain knows the name of the product they are trying to sell, so that when you go to buy a product in that category, you will pick their product over another product because you are familiar with that company's product. Plus, if they can present a great argument for you to overcome your dissonance (another psych word) about choosing a new brand, you will buy from them and cease buying from their competitors. Coupons work this way. A company overcomes some of a customer's anxiety about buying a new product by compromising a bit. Once you have the product and are using it, unless it just absolutely sucks, you'll continue to buy it because you are familiar with the product- until you get a coupon from a competitor.

So, I said all that to come to the actual point: what the heck is going on with advertising these days? I see so many ads and commercials that are just absolutely pointless and do not convince me to buy a product. (Maybe I'm not the target consumer, so it doesn't work on me....) In fact, many advertisements just make me say, "What? Is that supposed to make me want that?" I'll use an example from when I worked in a grocery store so very long ago.

A bread company, Merita, I think, delivered their bread every other day to my store. On the side of their truck was their slogan: Baked while YOU sleep. I've never quite understood why that was supposed to make me desire their bread. Was I supposed to be impressed that their bread-baking employees were working while I was sleeping? Or was I supposed to get the idea that their bread was somehow fresher than everyone else's bread because the magical bread fairies that only came out at night made their bread fresher? I never figured out how that worked. (One could argue that by having such a dumb slogan that I remembered the brand of bread over other brands and hence, the advertising worked.... except I've never bought that brand of bread.)

Okay, another thing that gets me: children and babies in advertising. Again, maybe I'm not the target audience, so maybe I'm just not getting it. But, I hear lots of commercials on the radio ("Come shop at my daddy's store for the best prices!") and I see quite a few commercials on TV that, quite frankly, just annoy me. And in some cases, they just plain freak me out.

Quizno's had an ad campaign a while back where they had this talking baby promote their food. I like Quizno's, but I refused to eat there while that talking baby was their spokesperson. Maybe it's just hard for me to suspend disbelief, but I know that a baby can't talk, and I know a baby can't eat Quizno's. Despite all of that, I simply don't see how a talking baby can convince me to eat at Quizno's. I don't know... maybe I just take stuff too seriously.

I'll likely write a part two to this at some point in the future, but for now, I hope you can get what I'm saying. I know that pretty much every concept for a commercial has been done already, so many companies are getting desperate for the consumers to recognize their name. I just don't understand how some of the ideas made out of the board room.

Madam Speaker, come back!

2007-04-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm a little late, but I think there's a couple things I could say that haven't been said yet.

If you haven't heard or read any of the story about the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) going to Syria and Israel, do some research. The whole story is funny, really.

What you haven't heard in the media is that the whole visit is completely illegal! Read this for more clarification.

The other thing that's not been mentioned anywhere that I've seen is the grave protocol error that she committed. See, in Muslim countries, women don't talk to men that aren't their husband. At least that's the way it's supposed to be. While America shuns the treatment of women in the Middle East (and rightfully so), they aren't exactly up to our standards just yet. Yes, in some parts of the Middle East, women can vote, and if I remember correctly, there are a couple women that have successfully run for office in Kuwait, but that is rare.

One more thing: the Democrats seem to think that getting everyone to like us is of prime importance. That really goes to show their lack of leadership. Ask any successful leader in any capacity, and he/she will tell you that if you strived to be liked by everyone, you will get nothing done. Basically, the very opposite will occur. Everyone will see through the sham and you will be liked by no one. Decisiveness and consistency are two of the most important leadership qualities and it seems that our politicians (on both sides) are lacking in both areas.

This is really a dead issue now, since this happened so long ago, so I'll just end it here and hope that she comes to her senses and doesn't decide to visit Iran...

My Political Slant

2007-04-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

I think it's only fair that I post my political leanings on my blog (as if anyone reads anyway...) so that the reader can have a fair idea of where I am coming from when I post something political, like my next post will be.

I am a moderate conservative. But, I imagine most people would equate the word "moderate" with "reasonable," so that they themselves are moderate and everyone else to the right and left of them are Kool-Aid drinkers. So, by moderate, I mean that I share some standing with the conservative side, but I also share some standing with non-conservatives. ("Liberal" is apparently an offensive word to liberals, and I refuse to call them Progressives.)

I do listen to talk radio. If you didn't know any better, one would say that makes me unequivocably a right-winger. I listen to Air America when I can... stand... it. But I can barely stand to listen to the top two conservative hosts, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

See, there's a saying: "Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine." I've heard a couple variations of that saying, like replacing "things" with "people" and completely removing the clause about wine. If you've ever listened to those two guys, they mostly talk about people. Rush isn't so bad because he at least has some entertaining discussion on his show. But, Hannity... I can barely stand to listen to him when he has someone on his show with whom he disagrees. He baits them, he personally insults them and the dialogue basically degenerates from there.

Anyway, the two radio hosts I like the most are Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, in that order. There are lots of reasons I like them, but mostly because of their discussions, and Beck is soooo funny. He's got his own show on CNN, and that's very good, too.

For my own personal views, I try very hard to come up with views of my own. I read a lot, and I try to make sure that my views aren't just stuff I heard on the radio or read somewhere. I really try to evalute my opinions against other viewpoints. I do use what I hear and read to shore up my views, but I really try to evaluate my own views against other views, agreeing and opposing.

But, that's all I'll post for now. I'm sure you'll get a good idea of where I stand if you read more of my stuff.

When's that Global WARMING going to happen?

2007-04-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

It's snowing. In Texas. On Easter Eve.

It's been snowing all day long, though it started as sleet this morning when I took my wife to work.

My wife took some pictures and video of the whole thing. Here is the video of my Easter greeting. We were supposed to go out tonight, but I think that is not going to happen. We'll just stay in and watch a Pay-per-View movie or something.

Happy Easter!

Upcoming Blogs

2007-04-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

These are the next topics I'd like to blog about:

1. Advertising... what has it become and how stupid can it get?
2. Madam Speaker, please come home. We miss you. Well, not really, but you're making a fool of yourself.
3. Lance Armstrong beat me in the Tour de France. How is that possible? I'm so surprised that this happened!
4. Positive and Negative Consequences. How raising kids and house-breaking a dog are almost exactly the same thing.

I've got a couple more, but I can't remember them now. I'll edit as I remember. Hope to see you soon!

The New Me

2007-04-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to say that our cruise to Mexico was nice, except for the sea sickness. That's not really something that can be controlled, so don't let it scare you away.

Starting this week, I'm going to start blogging a couple times a week. Every once in a while I have some thoughts that go through my head that I would like to flesh out, and it just feels good to put it all on paper.

I'll probably have a routine to stick with for regular blogging times. I'll work that out soon.

Inbetween, I'll probably post stuff like what movie I saw recently or something like that.

I'm looking forward to starting this again!

Cruisin' to Mexico

2006-11-10T14:30:00.000-08:00

My wife and I just recently went on a Carnival cruise and we had a great time. There were some problems, like sea-sickness and the time at one of our stops was cut short, but overall, it was a nice relaxing time and I'm glad we did it.

This whole thing started several months ago while I was in Kuwait. Actually, in a way, I guess you could say this whole thing started about 5 years ago with our first cruise. We cruised from Cape Canaveral on a Royal Carribean boat to the Bahamas right before I joined the Army. And we fell in love with cruising from that experience.

Anyway, while I was in Kuwait, we talked at length about what kind of vacation we wanted to take when I finally went on leave upon my return. Of course, it was almost a no-brainer. But, we also wanted to be sure that we left our options open. Sometimes cruises sell out, so we'd need an alternative.

We came up with a couple plans: a few nights in Vegas, a few nights in San Antonio or Austin and a cruise. We started watching ticket prices for the cruise and saw different cruises go up and down in price over a 2-3 week period. At one time, a Norwegian 7-day cruise was going for about $199 per person, which is a really good price. Of course, every cruise line will add the taxes and port fees on, so the price of the cruise itself is really the only variable. Expect that whatever you pay for your cruise per person will most likely be doubled by the time everything is said and done. No taxation without representation, huh?

So, we waited and waited. It appeared as though almost all the cruises for the major lines all left on or about the same day, a Friday or Saturday. Our goal date was either 3 or 4 November to leave. As the time approached, we watched the prices go up and down, availability sell out and then open up again.

Then, on 3 November, we decided to visit a travel agent. We walked out with an incredible deal of about $130/person for a 5 day cruise. Total price was just over $500. Sure, we waited until the last possible second, but we were prepared to go another direction with our vacation plans should this one have fallen through. Moral of the story? Sometimes procrastination is good. Call it Strategic Procrastination, if you will. But, also keep in mind that cruise companies don't make any money on the price of the ticket. They make money in other ways, that I will point out.

From Fort Hood to Galveston takes about 5 hours driving time, in good traffic. Our travel agent told us it would take 3. Luckily, we like to get everywhere early, so we left for our 1600 final boarding time at 1030. It didn't help that every single Biker in the Western Hemisphere had converged upon Galveston for some kind of rally that exact weekend. After dropping off my wife and our luggage at the cruise terminal, and then parking in the lot and high-tailing it back to the terminal, I literally had 5 minutes to spare. No worries, though. The Bikers made everyone late and the cruise departure time was delayed by probably 2 hours. Doesn't make me feel any better by getting there when we did.

Off we go. Our first day was rather uneventful. The boat looked very large on the outside, but when we got inside, it just didn't feel that big. On a good note, though, we expected to get the center-of-the-boat closet sized room, but we were actually upgraded to a room on the side of the boat with two portholes. Plus, the room was only a bit smaller than the average hotel room. Quite a nice surprise.

We unpacked, went to dinner and explored the boat. There wasn't anything we hadn't really seen before: lots of opportunities to spend a lot of money and a lot of people trying to use the elevators to get their rooms upon boarding the boat, when the stairs are right next to the elevators and they could have skipped the elevators, taken the stairs, been unpacked and dressed for dinner by the time the elevator got to their floor.

Dinner each night was pretty much what we expected. Very classy, lots of exotic food and desserts. My wife and I both used dinnertime to try foods we have never tried before. The most memorable was the Escargot. (Hint: It tastes like clams. Really.) There was a formal night. Everyone looked great. My wife looked awesome.

The point of a cruise is much like the point of a flight somewhere. You are just going somewhere to do something and then coming back. Except that with a cruise, you are on a boat and you get to eat and drink as much as you want (food is free, drinks besides water and juice are not) and you get to participate in all the activities on the boat, most of which involving spending exhorbitant amounts of money with little or no return. Can of Coke: $2, Glass of wine: $10, Game of Bingo: $10, etc... Like a movie theater, a cruise company doesn't make any money on the admission, they make money on the other stuff you buy once you are in the door.

Our first "fun day at sea" was not fun at all. There was a storm blowing through the Gulf of Mexico and the water was very, very choppy. It was so bad that my wife and I both got seasick, as did many/most of all the passengers. It wasn't possible to walk anywhere without seriously swaying and possibly losing your balance.

To be continued...

My First 5k

2006-01-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

So, my first official distance run was a 5k (3.1 miles) that occurred on Thanksgiving Day. It was called the Gobble Wobble Run, but most folks have since called it the Turkey Trot. It started at 0600 on the other side of camp, which means I had to get up at 0500 for personal hygiene and get on the bus at 0530 so I could get in a decent position before the start. It was supposed to be a day off. I should have been able to sleep in until any time that I wanted. But nooooo. I had to participate in this race.

So, there I am at the starting line, 20 minutes early. At first, there weren’t too many folks out there. But, about 10 minutes to start, it was shaping up to be a regular human traffic jam. The “appeal” of the run was to be a T-shirt for the first 600 finishers. Of course by now, you should know my goal was to get the shirt, not necessarily to place. All I had to do was come in at least 600^th and I would be happy.

My first observation about the race wasn’t about the race, actually. It was the music. During any kind of “official” Army athletic event, someone is always designated to play some really good music to get everyone feeling good. Usually, soldiers pick the music. This time, there was a bit of difference. The local workers (Third Country Nationals, or TCNs) picked the music and it was especially bad. I think they were playing “The Age of Aquarius” or something equally awful. I mean, I hadn’t heard of any of the songs but one, and it wasn’t even a good one. So, it was definitely an interesting start to the event.

Before the race, folks started to get up to the starting line and I was already there, so I didn’t have much to move. By luck, I looked behind me and someone I went to AIT with and I went over and said hello. We had a brief conversation before I wrestled my way back up to where I had been before.

And then the race started. And I didn’t move for nearly five seconds. I had seen this occur on TV and in movies, but I never experienced it for myself. Once I started moving, I really thought everything would clear up. I was wrong on that. For the first quarter mile, I would say, I was ducking and weaving, dipping and dodging to get around folks. It’s hard to pass when everyone is so close together. We were only on a two-lane road and that many people took a while to thin out. I would say that probably up to the first third to half a mile went really slow. So slow in fact that when I got to the first mile marker, my time was over nine minutes, which is really bad, even for me. Still, everyone else had the same problems I had, so I wasn’t feeling too bad about the whole thing. I thought, though, that once the first mile was out of the way, the race would go better for me. I was wrong about that.

Almost immediately after the first mile, we made a right turn into a wicked crosswind. In addition to the wind, the third half mile was completely uphill, probably a 2 or 3 percent grade. By this point, I realized that I was being passed a lot more than I was passing. I ran the second mile in a bit over eight minutes, so it was a bit of an improvement, especially considering the wind and the incline.

The third mile was rather uneventful, but it was difficult, not just because I was almost done with the race, but because I made an effort to not be passed by anyone. I did my best to speed up and run as fast as those wishing to pass me. I was able to hold most off, with only a few breezing by. Judging by my finishing time, though, I think speeding up probably got be back to my original speed, instead of getting me any faster.

Apparently, one of the units here got the idea that they would run this race for PT that morning. So, a whole unit ran the race in formation, calling cadence the whole way. It was rather motivating for me. They weren’t running fast, but all those soldiers yelling were a great impetus for me to keep driving forward.

And the race ended at the quarter-mile track, right where we started. I finished in 26:30. Not a terrible time, really. It averages to a little less than 9 minutes per mile, 8:50 to be exact. I didn’t finish last, like I did in the Track Meet, so I guess I could say it was improvement.

So, we lined up around the track to get T-shirts. After I was there a couple minutes, that unit runs right up on us and past us to the registration desk. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. This turns out to be significant later.

While we’re lined up to get registered and get our T-shirts, some person yells from across the field, “We’re almost out of shirts. If you want one, come over here.” Well, what do you think happed? Yup, everyone beat feet over to the registration desk. I made my way across the field, but by the time I got there, it was pretty much a free for all, like food being handed out to starving people. It was unfair, really, because there were a lot of folks who finished in the top 600 that did not get shirts. And there were a lot folks who finished well past the 600 mark that did get shirts, including that unit that ran around to the registration desk and picked up a shirt for each person in the unit. I did not get a shirt. I’m not even sure I deserved a shirt, but I’ll never know for sure.

I went over to see my commander, who had a shirt. He noticed that I didn’t have a shirt and asked me what happened. I explained and he freely gave me his shirt. I noticed that he ran this race in a T-shirt from some other race, so something tells me that this was just another shirt to add to his collection.

The winner of the race ran the 3.1 miles in 17:10. So, I’ve got about 9 minutes to knock off my time before I can get to that point. I don’t think that will happen anytime soon, but I will work on it. After all, no one takes off that much time from their run at one time. I’ll simply be happy with taking a minute or two off my time.

The Amazing Race

2005-11-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

No, I’m not talking about the show. I haven’t been able to see the show since I got here to Kuwait. I’m talking about the race I entered today, 12 November.

As I said in an earlier post, I want to run a triathlon before I turn 32 in July 2006. Well, what better way to get prepared for it, besides training for it, than to race? So, I told myself and promised my wife that I would enter every race 10 miles and under. I’m not expecting to win much, if at all, but the competition would do me very good.

I never ran track or any such sport in high school or college or anywhere else. The only reason I know anything about track events is because we had a track team in high school, and because of TV. I’m not familiar with the events or even if there are any rules to these types of sports. I know the distances, though, so at least that’s a start. I know that 400 meters is once around the track, or a quarter mile. If you are not used to it, the quarter mile is a tough nut to crack. It’s hard to run, especially on a track.

So, wouldn’t you know it, less than one week after arriving here, there’s a track meet. Not just a race, like running down the road through the post. A full-blown track meet. A man swears to his own hurt, right? So, I was obligated to run in this thing. I asked my First Sergeant to sign me up for the longest event they had, which I figured would be the 1 mile run. There is no way I could run the 100 or the 400 or any of those other quick events. I’m not going to take part in a relay, either. I’m simply not fast enough in short distances. Some people are just built that way.

The day of the race came, and wouldn’t you know it, I had to work late. The race started at 1800. I didn’t get off until after 1700. Now, the camp is very small, but it far too big to get anywhere quickly on foot. I wanted to catch a shuttle, so I started walking. The shuttles are supposed to run every 15 minutes or less. Where I left work and where I live is about 1 ¼ miles. At a quick pace, I can cover that in about 15 minutes, if the ground is good. But, alas, the ground is only good for the first half mile. After that, it becomes rocky and sandy, the perfect combination for slower walking and the possibility of injury if one is not careful. I figured I could walk until a shuttle comes and then catch the shuttle the rest of the way.

The shuttle never came. I walked all the way to my barracks, for about 20 minutes and never saw a single shuttle. By the time I got to my locker, I was sweating and I still had to change and go back to the track! I changed and headed back out the road. Still no shuttles. By this time, I only had about 10 minutes left to get there. I wasn’t thrilled about running the race anyway. I knew I wouldn’t run as fast as the folks who were there because they thought they could win. By this time, I’m getting the “Well, maybe…” thoughts in my head. “Well, maybe it would be okay if I missed this one. I did have to work late after all.” “Well, maybe it’s for the best. I’m kinda tired from that long walk.” You know the drill.

By the time I got to the second stop, the shuttle picked me up. It’s not a fast shuttle, but it’s faster and a lot less frustrating than walking.

I got to the track and get off the bus at exactly 1800. What do I hear? “On your mark! Get set! Go!” Another case of the “Well, maybe…” But, I thought I would at least see what was going on. I worked my way around to the other side of the track and waited until the race was finished. It was over in about 5:30. That’s one mile, mind you. Almost immediately after the race concluded, they announced that if anyone wanted to race in the final heat, head to the infield of the track! Saved!

I talked to the race coordinators and they hemmed and hawed about letting me race. I was a late entrant (My First Sergeant didn’t sign me up after all) and they already had five competitors and only five lanes. So, I asked several times, simply explaining that all I wanted to do was compete and that I didn’t expect to win. They conceded and let me in the race, but not as an actual competitor. I could run, but basically only under the condition that I didn’t win, which I knew I wouldn’t anyway. So, I made my way to the track.

And then they told me I couldn’t race. They told me that if I even finished the first lap ahead of any of the competitors, it would mess up the timing (I don’t know how) and it would be bad for the race. I assured them that if any of the competitors were going to run any of the laps in 1:30 or under, it wouldn’t be a problem. I again explained to them that I simply wanted to race. They thought about it and agreed. For the final time.

What struck me as the most odd is how friendly the racers were. They all had a front row seat to this spectacle and when I was finally given permission to race, albeit behind one of the racers instead of next to them, they were all quite happy, actually. They were very supportive, said I had a lot of courage and just told me to have fun that it wasn’t all about the winning. I guess it was easy for them to say that because they were going to be the ones that were doing the winning, but whatever. But all of them gave me high-fives and hand shakes and a very warm welcome. I think this helped me relax and settle down a lot.

And we’re off! The race itself was uneventful. I ran the first two laps in 1:40 each. I don’t remember what my third lap was, but I finished with a time of 7:15, which is not altogether bad (1:48 per lap average; my third lap must have been terrible, like 2:00 or something) for a non-runner like me. Sure, it’s not earth-shattering, but it’s about a minute faster than what I thought I might do. And, only the fastest guy lapped me, and then only on the final turn. The others had no chance of lapping me. And I actually did come close to overtaking the last guy in the second lap. He was within a few meters, but the third lap has always been my worst for some reason, so he was able to pull ahead (or I just fell behind).

One thing I did notice is that the crowd cheered for me just as much as they cheered for the guy that won. They all pulled for me and yelled things like, “Come on gray!” (I was wearing my gray Army PT shirt.) and “You can do it! Stretch it out!” I had never experienced that kind of thing before. It was a small crowd, but it made me feel very good about myself and those around me. I can see how major sports figures can get addicted to the cheering of the crowd.

So, as the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and I took that first step tonight. I have passed the threshold from someone who runs to being a runner. And, I even got a T-shirt.

"Leave your veapon on zee plane."

2005-11-12T21:03:00.000-08:00

When posting to a blog, the site records it in chronological order, in the order it was posted. In this case, I wrote both of these entries before I had any kind of reasonable internet access and I am going to post them out of order so that they will appear in chronological order. So, what you are about to read is really the first of two entries, posted in “reverse” order. In other words, this post is about the first ½ of my travel and the second post is about the other ½.

Well, I’ve got to say that I am considerably impressed with my trip to Kuwait so far. Everything I’ve ever experienced in the Army told me that I would have to wait inordinate amounts of time just to get where I am now. I am delighted that for once, this has not been the case.

Flying to an area for the Army has been grueling in the past. My experience with this is not considerable, mind you, but my two experiences heading out to train in Louisiana have been par for the course with everything else that I’ve experienced in the Army: hurry up and wait.

For instance, in March, when I flew to LA for training, our unit was required to muster at in the company area, draw weapons and head out to the deployment facility. Our initial meeting time was 0200- and that is in military time, meaning 2:00 AM. We obtained our weapons, loaded up on busses and headed out to the airfield. We arrived at probably around 0400. We actually didn’t fly until almost 1200. So, we waited for nearly eight hours until flight time. What did we do? Eat, slept, read, and talked. And I still haven’t figured out why we couldn’t just draw weapons at, say, 0800. Everyone I’ve talked to says that this is normal for the Army when deploying: show up hours early to wait for hours to fly for hours to wait for hours to catch the connecting flight or sit on the tarmac.

But, I am pleased to say that this experience has been different. For one, this was my first real deployment, and my first experience at the deployment facility at Ft. Hood. Once we got through the initial deployment ceremony, which both my wife and I say we could have skipped without real consequence, we headed out to the airfield. We were supposed to head out at 1600, and we actually did, but it took a little while to load up all the busses. I expected to get to the airfield and wait for hours, upwards of five or six before we actually left.

Without being too verbose, I was pretty impressed with what the Army had waiting for us over there. USO, Salvation Army, and other non-profits just waiting for us to encourage us and give us care packages. There was even a woman there whose entire job was to hug every soldier. And that she did. I think I got two hugs; one in the chow line and one when we left to get on the plane.

We arrived at the airfield at around 1700. We were on the plane at 1800. So, basically, we had enough time to eat, visit the different booths and head back to the briefing room for the briefings. Impressive, I tell you, considering what I was expecting.

From Ft. Hood, we flew to Bangor, Maine. I’ve never been to Bangor. I don’t think I’ll go back. Nothing wrong with the airport, it’s just that I’ve spent enough time in the north. I left Ft. Hood when it was in the mid 70’s. Bangor, Maine was in the low 40’s. Forget strike one. You are just out. It was good, though. We didn’t have to stay on the plane, so it wasn’t all that bad. We stayed there for a little more than an hour so that the plane can fuel up and restock the food and then we took our six hour flight to…

Germany! This is where I am writing this from right now. We arrived at about 0630 CST, which is 1430 Local, I think. Uneventful flight, really. I slept most of the way. I partially woke up for a second and dreamed I saw The Thing from Fantastic Four. Turns out, that was the in-flight movie, but I didn’t realize it until we landed.

The most amusing part of this trip has got to be the announcement that we were in Germany. See, in Bangor, we were told to leave our weapons on the plane, and disembark to the terminal. Everyone was happy about this. When we arrived in Germany, a German guy got on the intercom (we didn’t even know there was a German guy on the plane) and gave us our announcements (Local time, weather, etc.) with a German accent. Believe it or not, it sounded like it was out of a movie, more than it sounded real. I thought I was watching a James Bond movie for a second. In fact, one of his final comments, “Leave your veapon on zee plane…” was so amusing, half the plane repeated it, accent included, in a mocking, comedic sort of way. So, just imagine about 40 or folks (the number within earshot of me) saying that several times.

Well, now we have about a four hour wait until we board the plane for Kuwait. This means we’ll get there around midnight, local time, which is one of the worst times to arrive. I would much rather arrive in the daytime when the sunlight and the unfamiliar surroundings assist in my battle with the intense urge to sleep.

I’ve heard great things about this deployment. And I have to tell you, if the rest of the deployment goes as smoothly as the trip, I am in for a pleasant experience.

The desert is full of sand!

2005-11-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, so my luck has run out. All those good things I said about how the flight was running so smoothly? Well, forget them. Our layover in Germany was six hours, not four! And the only thing it had were the mandatory duty-free shop and the gift shop. Oh, and I could use their internet services on their terminal to send email for a Euro or two. At least I was with friends and colleagues, so it wasn’t so bad.

It was a nice experience, actually, because I got the chance to spend some time with some of the great folks in my unit. If anything, that is always a good thing.

So, back on the plane. The jet lag is already hitting hard. Or maybe it is the fact that I’ve been awake for nearly 24 hours. Say what you want, but there is only so much one can sleep on a plane. Of course, the airplane food is typical airplane food and they continually feed us, like every two or three hours. I did get to watch Fantastic Four in its entirety this time.

So, after about five more hours on the plane, we land in Kuwait! Yeah! Well, maybe not. Because of the extra long layover in Germany, we didn’t arrive in Kuwait until about 0300 or 0400. I was in the back of the plane, so the baggage detail and the folks sharing my section of the plane were the last to disembark.

So, off we went. After we drove in the desert for hours (I fell asleep a couple of times, so my estimation of time is a little off. We could have been driving in circles for all I know), we finally arrived in a different camp where we were supposed to arrive. Apparently the other unit that was with us was supposed to go there. We dropped them off, checked in, had lunch, went through a couple of briefs and went on our way. Back on the busses!

Hours later. (I think anyway. Again, I fell asleep, so my estimation of time is off.) We finally arrive at our destination. Everyone stinks. We’re hungry, tired and aggravated, but happy to finally be done with the traveling. We locked up our weapons and then headed to our new home for the next year.

So, nearly 48 hours of travel with maybe three or four hours of sleep. Plus jet lag to boot. I hope you can feel my pain because all I can feel is the call of my mattress.

Chess is Life

2005-10-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

As I said in a previous entry, I love chess. Chess has been one of the loves of my life since I learned how to play in middle school. All during school (yes, high school, too), I played in tournaments and played chess at lunch and after school or before school, or whenever I could find time to play. I even had my own portable chess set. I still do, though it is not the same set I owned in school.

I still don't really know what drew me to the game. I just remember my best friend Kim teaching me one day after school as we waited for his little brother to get out of elementary school. (Middle school got out about an hour before elementary school, so we would walk over to the elementary school and wait with his mom. My neighbor's mom would all take my brother, me, her son and one of our friends home after school, so this was a very nice arrangement for the time being.)

And honestly, I am one of the best players I have ever met. Not the best, mind you. I was never state champion or anything- though I did beat him in a game after school one day- but I was, and am, very good.

Of course, after we graduate from high school, adulthood takes on a whole new meaning. What we think will matter to us, no longer does. And the things that we thought nothing of suddenly become big factors in our lives. And so, I pretty much gave up chess for most of my twenties. I guess I could say that I didn't really give it up so much as I really couldn't find anyone to play. This is not from a lack of searching. I searched in the phone book, I went to the library, I looked as far as I could for a chess club in my city, but to no avail. This was before the heyday of the internet, of course (Did I really just say that?) so it was not as easy to connect with folks as it is now.

But despite the lack of cultivation for my love of chess, it has always had a place in my heart. Sure I challenge the occasional player now and then. But, I don't do it for the challenge. I do it for the memories. I just love the game, and even though every person but one I have played since high school has become fodder for my record, I still love the thinking and the strategizing. I especially love seeing others strut around and saying just how good they are and the smacktalk they spout before I utterly crush them.

Sigh. I'm getting all teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Who was the person that beat me, you ask? It was my Command Sergeant Major (CSM) for my unit. Like the nerd that I am, I brought my chess board to our company picnic, not to challenge anyone, really, but to give the option in case someone wanted to play something besides volleyball and spades. I set it up and walked away. Like a worm on a hook. And I got some good bites.

Two guys challenged me in the few hours we were there. One just played. The other was rife with the huffing and puffing and "What'cha gonna do about that huh?" and made all kinds of sudden noises when he moved his pieces. ("BAM!" "SMACK!" Batman would have been proud.) It was the most humorous game and most satisfying win I had had in a while.

Then, right before the end of the day, I caught a couple guys talking to the CSM and kinda looking my direction, as if I were the playground bully and they were tattling on me. A few minutes later, the CSM challenged me to a game. And well, you know the end of the story. But, I played valiantly... but stupidly. Usually, when I play a game against someone who I know I can beat (which is everyone?), I don't really try my hardest. I don't give much thought to my moves. I don't have a problem with making a questionable move because most chess players don't pick up on it and if they do, don't do what is necessary to capitalize on it. In addition, I'm a good enough player that even if they do capitalize on my intentional mistake, I can make up for it with a little more effort.

My CSM was different. I played very, very well in the beginning. I secured the middle. I pinned his pieces. I made him work for his position on the board. And then, I got cocky. I pulled an intentional mistake because I didn't feel like thinking too hard. I lost a bishop. And then he forced a queen exchange. (For the uninitiated, the queen is the most powerful piece on the board. Most players can survive a point deficit if they have their queen. Forcing an exchange magnifies any kind of point or position deficit because the other pieces are minor pieces. Having one more bishop or knight isn't so much a big deal when both players have their queens. When the queens are taken out of the game, every piece counts.) And from there, it was downhill. Yes, I took a lot of time to think about my moves from that point on. But it was too late. The damage had been done and I had limited my own options because of my refusal to play well. He beat me fair and square and I will be sure to return the favor in Kuwait. But I realized on that day that life is much more like chess than any other game in the world.

I once heard that the number of possible positions on a chess board is equal to the number of atoms in the universe. Sounds far fetched, true, because that's a lot of atoms and the chess board has only 64 squares and 32 pieces. But, the spirit of the saying is accurate. In that same vein, I realized that the process of life is very similar to the game of chess.

In chess, you have three phases of the game: beginning, middle and end. Beginning is obvious. The very end is obvious. But sometimes, the boundaries between the three can be blurred. Some think that middle game starts when the first piece is taken. Others think that end game starts once a majority of the pawns are taken. But, the controversy, if it can be called that, is symbolic of life itself.

See, when you begin a game of chess, you have only ten pieces that you can move: eight pawns and two knights. Even then, it is really only adviseable to move about four of those pawns (the King, Queen and two Bishop pawns) because those four help control the center, which is where most of the action in middle game takes place. The pawns represent youth, I think. How well you start your game in the beginning, how effectively you free up your minor pieces for movement determines how well your middle game is going to go.

There are folks out there who say they can play chess. But that is really all they know how to do. They know the movements of the pieces and that is it. There is no forethought to the movements, no realization to what each piece enables or prevents the other pieces to/from doing. There is a lack of understanding of the consequences of their actions. For instance, the most popular first move in chess is moving the King Pawn two spaces, to e4 or P-K4. This should be countered with only a couple of moves, one being e5 or P-K4 by black. (There are other good counters, but this blog is long enough as it is.) You would be surprised by how many of my opponents answer my P-K4 with P-KR3, or something as equally impotent. (If you are one of those, I am sorry, but that is a terrible move. Go read a chess book.) They moved the King Rook Pawn because they could. There was no thought to the fact that it was a wasted move and it will not allow any movement of their minor pieces. By making that move, they've handicapped their middle game and allowed their opponent at least one unopposed move.

Moving out the minor pieces (Bishops, Knights), is called developing them. The minor pieces represent the middle parts of our lives. How well we capture the center of the board, how easy we make it for our own pieces to move around to board to attack and defend all depends on how well the first two or three moves went. By wasting the opening moves, a player is handicapped for the middle of their game/life because they cannot use the minor pieces to their potential. Sure, they can move the pawns out in mid-game and start moving the minor pieces out, but look how much time has been wasted! By this point, I've already got a plan for checkmate... and I've probably already announced it!

And then finally, end game occurs. For some, there is no end game. Their game ends in the middle because of poor play and checkmate occurs in less than say, 20 moves. But some play a good game of catch up and we make it to end game. But their opportunites are limited. By this time, most of their minor pieces have been taken and they are on the run. The game is closing in on them and there are few places for the king to hide. "Check" has been announced a couple times, probably, and that sense that the end is near is beginning to grow.

And all of this because of less than five moves in the very beginning? Well, sometimes. Some are just outplayed. Others, like me, make one dumb move and never recover. But I honestly believe that we rarely have the chance to fully understand the consequences of our actions. I fully believe that, like chess, our opportunites in the middle and end are made by how we play in the beginning. Some pull it out by being smart in the middle. But playing badly the whole game rarely ever scores a win in the end.

I somewhat see myself in this. I squandered my youth. I didn't go to college until I was about 20 and I went part time for about seven years until I joined the Army in 2002. For a long time, I really thought that I had handicapped the rest of my life because of the inaction and mistakes of my youth. But, my middle game is really shaping up, let me tell you. I've been doing well for myself. I got promoted to E-5 much earlier than most people and I am on track with getting my degree in about a year, after working so hard the last two or three.

I'm never going to have the same options open to me that I had ten years ago. But in a manner of speaking, I'll have more because I feel I have been able to recover my middle game before it was too late.

Leaders make the world go 'round

2005-10-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen the most recent episode of The Apprentice, showing on 27 October, the following blog contains spoilers. Read at your own risk of being disappointed that you heard the ending before you saw the show.

Another of my favorite shows on TV is The Apprentice. It is the only reality show I watch, besides The Amazing Race. I like The Apprentice for several reasons, one of them being Donald Trump.

(I only watch the reality shows that I would actually want to be on. I used to watch Fear Factor, but I realized that if I wanted to eat bugs, I could just step outside of my own house. Plus, I'm not a pretty boy, and I'm probably too old for the show anyway.)

I personally think Donald Trump is one of the finest leaders of our time. Sure, he can make lots of money in a little bit of time, but I think that his shining talent is his leadership ability. He is one of the few people that I have seen that knows and understands leadership, politicians included.

See, on the show, I think that we at home have a bit of an unfair advantage. Essentially, we see what the producers of the show want us to see. All of TV is like that. So, even though The Apprentice is a reality show, most of what we see is staged. For tonight's task, we saw two tasks that lasted over the course of a couple days, but all we saw were highlights that lasted a total of maybe 30 minutes. TV provides a perfect projection of hindsight for us. For instance, when Jen proclaimed that she could sell 8 speed guns, that ordinarily would have just been smacktalk. But, it was actually engineered to be an allusion. How many of the show's contestants made claims of some sort, but because their team won, or for whatever other reason, it was never thrown in their face or shown on the show? I guess we'll never know because it didn't matter.

Anyway, Trump fired more than half of Excel tonight, four members in all. I don't even remember their names, except for Jen and Josh, and only them because I was sure one of them was going to be fired tonight. But, this is the way I wish he would run The Apprentice. From the first episode there have been several contestants that just needed to be fired from day one. But, I guess because of contractual obligations, he is not able to fire all of the incompetent ones straight off. You know the ones I'm talking about. They are the ones that you just know won't go the whole way and it is pointless wasting everyone's time dragging them along for the ride.

But, in a way, I understand and agree with The Donald's way of doing business. I've watched every single episode of The Apprentice since day one. And for some reason, I get the idea that most or all of the contestants on the show have not. For instance, I know that Mr. Trump cares less about the interpersonal relationships- or lack thereof- than he does about the success of the task. There have been at least two times this season and countless times in the previous three seasons that the Project Manager (PM) has brought someone into the Boardroom because of personal reasons (read: drama) when in fact, this person did not actually contribute to the loss of the task. And nearly every time this happens, the PM gets fired, not the contestant who causes the drama. And while it is shocking when it happens, the strategy that Mr. Trump is employing is very, very smart.

Ask anyone what their definition of leadership is and you are likely to get varieties of answers. You'll hear that leadership is the ability to influence others. You'll hear that leadership is the ability to create more leaders. You'll hear lots and lots of different answers. But, one of the less-discussed aspects of leadership is being able to get to the root causes of failure and fix it, despite personal feelings.

I think, nay, I know that Mr. Trump understands how complex human interactions are. He knows that personal feelings get in the way of reality. And he clearly likes a few of the contestants. (There was one last season, Chris, that he had quite the affinity for, but he fired him because the guy had anger management issues, which caused problems during a couple of the tasks.) But, despite his personal feelings for the contestants, he is able to pick out who is the guilty party in the failure of the task.

On at least one occasion this season, Markus, a total weirdo and non-Apprentice material, was spared the axe because the PM brought him in because of personal feelings, not because of job performance. Markus' time will come, but only when he slips up and is responsible for the failure of the task. And a good PM will know that time. As long as Markus continues to not be responsible for the failure of the task and only provides drama, I predict that he won't be fired and that the PM who drags him into the Boardroom will be. This is too bad, actually, because many talented contestants have met their doom because of this. But, they deserved it for letting personal feelings about a contestant get in the way of why the task failed.

So, I don't really watch The Apprentice because of the great tasks or the drama. I watch because every episode is chock full of great leadership tips which I sincerely enjoy. Plus, I'm taking notes so that when my time comes, the only thing I'll hear is, "You're Hired!"

Desperate Housewives is making me desperate for another show

2005-10-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

I've read that DH is a phenomenon among women. I've heard that women love that show because they can connect with one or more of the women on that show.

But, I can tell you, as a man, I love DH. The first season had me hooked from the first show I watched. I didn't originally watch it on my own. My wife wanted to check it out, so, in an effort to spend time in the same room as her, I watched it. Now, it is a family favorite.

No, it's not better than CSI. I would hope that you would stop reading if I even insinuated that.

But, DH is a pretty good show. The first season had a lot of good stuff in it. I think that the writers had a lot of good plans and some good leads on the plot. There was a lot of mystery surrounding all of the characters and it seemed they used good character development instead of hokey plot devices to create a good story.

But now it seems like all the mysteries are solved. We know why Mike is hanging around. We know what happened to Mary Alice. We know what happened to Dana. It seems as though every mystery that made the show interesting has been solved.

And now, DH is not the same show. Since the Applewhites moved in, I'm not sure I like the show as much as I used to. (Pointless Trivia: Alfre Woodard, who plays Betty Applewhite, also starred in Star Trek: First Contact. So maybe there's hope for the show after all.) Not so much the Applewhites, I guess, but their advent to Wisteria Lane represents a change to the show.

It all kind of seems like the writers had a great plan for some great characters for the show, but didn't expect the show to last past the first season, or they played their hand too quickly. (I just remember Babylon 5 which had a lot of mystery to a lot of the plot and the shows writers were able to make the mystery last the entire 5 or so seasons!) I just think that the writers for DH should have either introduced some deeper mysteries or should not have solved all of them in the first season.

I'm not really hooked so much anymore by the allure of the show. I still like the show and some of the ideosyncracies of the characters, and well, the women are quite hot, so that makes it easier to watch. But unless the show makes a turn-around soon, I'm not sure what the fate of that one hour on Sunday night is going to be.

A step in the right direction

2005-10-23T00:32:00.000-07:00

So, I want to run a triathlon.

Yep, you read that right, a triathlon. Not the Ultimate Super Ironman Triathlon of the Century (TM), mind you, but maybe an Olympic Triathlon (1.5 km [0.9 mile] swim / 40 km [24.9 mile] bike / 10 km [6.2 mile] run). There are many types of triathlons. Learn more about them here.

See, I've had a weight problem pretty much my whole life. There are contributing factors, like the fact that I am very sensitive to processed sugar, which I didn't find out until last year, and the fact that, well, until I joined the Army, I did very little exercise. Yeah, I was lean for a while in my 20s. But I always felt keeping up with my weight was a constant battle. I hated running. I never really swam, and I always thought biking went out once one becomes a teenager. During my 20s, I lifted weights a lot (which is why I have large arms now, even though I don't keep up with it) and I did aerobics for cardio. I enjoyed aerobics, but it just didn't do it for me. (Going to the same place everyday, hoping beyond hope that the "good" instructor is there, because otherwise the class is just going to blunder through the session, and, well, having to pay for it... it just doesn't make for a great experience in the long run.)

In addition to my weight problem, I also hate sports and I'm not really an outdoor person at all. (I kinda got lucky genetically because I'm built like a medium-sized football player, so folks are shocked that I didn't play in high school. Then I hit them with the 1-2 punch that I lettered in chess, but also have a black belt in Karate. Yeah, I'm a geek, but I can kick your tail pretty easily.) So, I'm not really that competitive, sports-wise, especially when it comes to team sports. But, my own best competition is myself, my own mind and body. That's why I think I would love to try a triathlon.

Like I said before, I hated running. But that was because I was bad at it. Well, I actually never even tried it. So, I was a... runnist, I guess. But when I joined the Army, I had to run. They don't give us much of a choice. So, I had to adapt. My first step was forcing myself to love running. You'll never understand it unless you've had to do it. I still don't really enjoy running like I would like to, but I tell you, I love getting out there and sweating like mad, running fast and finishing a long run is one of the best feelings I've ever had.

Where I was stationed in NY, Fort Drum has all these little backwoods trails that everyone would run on, and they were great. There was this one trail that ran right along a river bank. I hated Fort Drum, but I miss that trail. Five miles of the best and most challenging running I have ever done. I've never gotten the runner's high that I've heard so much about, but maybe that will eventually happen.

But, I think that I've been missing something in my life and that is competition. I am reasonably motivated, but I don't think I have the drive in my life that I need to succeed. I was never really taught about goal setting when I was a child, so it wasn't really part of the way I think, until few years ago. And I think running a triathlon will accomplish a lot for me.

Now, I'm not a great swimmer. I never took swimming lessons when I was a kid. The only experience I've ever had with water is at the beach and a couple of water survival classes in the Army. But, how hard can that be? I know that swimming even 50 meters is a challenge for me now, but that is just where I have to start. When I joined the Army, I couldn't even run half a mile without stopping to walk. Mr. Miyagi: "First learn walk, then learn fly."

I own a bike that I ride three or four times a week. I've really learned to enjoy that. I've found that riding a bike is very similar to running except it is not as high-impact. I've discovered that my running has greatly improved because of my bike riding. Plus, on days that I don't feel like running, which is more often than not, I have no problem riding my bike for 10 or 12 miles.

And running. My rose and thorns. I love running because it destroys fat. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that once I finish running, my workout is done. Whether I do a fartlek run or an LSR (Long Slow Run), I know that I've accomplished something physically, psychologically and mentally that day. If I do nothing else but sit on the couch and watch reruns of CSI on Spike TV, but I ran in the morning, my work is done.

Am I a great runner? Heck no. My form is terrible and I just don't run fast enough. I have a hard time estimating how fast I should keep my pace so that I can keep that pace through the length of the run, which boils down to I don't push myself like I should.

So a triathlon will be the best for me, I believe. It'll be challenging, and it's also a social sport, but not a competitive team sport. Plus, I've promised myself that I would run one before my 32nd birthday, which is in July of next year. I'm going to Kuwait in a couple of weeks, and I think I'll have a lot of time to practice while I'm there.

As I train, I'll post updates of what I did and what worked and didn't work.

My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

2005-10-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

As I begin to seriously realize that I really am about to be deployed, I have begun to think about what could happen while I am over there. Am I concerned about a suicide bomber? Mildly. Could the base be mortared or rocketed? Possibly. It's even possible that I could be selected for a mission in Iraq at some point and have to leave the comforts of my original destination. As cool as that would be, I can think of something that is a bit cooler.

Meeting the President... or someone in the Administration.

Now, I don't know if he will ever come to Kuwait and see us, but it is possible. And of course, it is even less likely that I would even know he was there until he was gone. And then it is even less likely that I would be selected or given the opportunity to see him, and even less likely I'll have the chance to actually meet and talk to him. But, of course, the fantasy question that everyone asks is, "If you could ask [God, The President, The Pope, that ex-girlfriend] one question, what would it be?" The other three, I'll have to get back to you on that. But, I think I know what I what I would ask the President.

It wouldn't be, as many in the MSM (Main Stream Media) would like, "Why did you lie about the WMDs?" That's just dumb. It's insulting to ask such an insulting question of a head of state, even if I did believe it. "When do we leave Iraq, Mr. President?" Another dumb question. I could come up with scores of dumb questions that have been asked of the President, but none of them have really been asked of the President so much as they have been asked to the American people about the President. I get the idea that the MSM doesn't really care about the wildly complex answers it would get from what they think are simple questions.

See, during the last six years, or at least since the GWOT (Global War on Terror) started, I've had one steady complaint about this administration. That is, why the heck doesn't it defend itself and set the record straight? The MSM hammers this Administration night and day, week after week with questions to which they know the answers, and then proceeds to spew those answers to the American public in broken facts, and out-of-context reports. And this administration just takes it. And it drives me up the wall.

Now, before anyone says I'm just some kind of Kool-Aid Conservative Kook, or whatever, I'm not defending this Administration. I do not believe that the president has been up front with the American people about very much during his two terms. He's not leading from the front. On a lot of things, this administration is guilty of the same things I have accused the MSM of doing: leaving out facts and not closing loops that need to be closed. Honestly, I get the idea that President Bush is like a kid on Christmas Eve: he just can't wait for his term to be up so he can get away from the soap opera that is his Presidency.

But I digress.

My one question to the President (or ranking member of the Administration) would be, "When will we start hearing the good things that have occured in Iraq?" See, I would bet my running shoes that the average American can tell you the name of the prison where Iraqis were abused, the name the leader of Al-qaeda in Iraq, approximately how many Americans have died in Iraq or maybe even able to tell you how much the war in Iraq resembles the Vietnam war, even though they are vastly different.

However, I will also bet very, very few Americans can tell you the name of the recipient of the Medal of Honor in this war. Even fewer would know that he died in combat and even fewer can tell you what he did to deserve the highest military honor that can be given.

I will bet that the average American can tell you that the Army missed its recruiting goals for FY05. I'll bet they wouldn't be able to tell you that the Army actually recruited more soldiers this year than last- by more than 1,000 soldiers- and that the Army greatly surpassed its re-enlistment quotas. You won't hear that the reason the Army missed its quota is because they set a goal of 8,000 more soldiers to be recruited than last year. You'll only hear that the Army missed it's recruiting goals by 7,000. The last time the Army missed its recruiting quota was in 1998. I didn't even know that until this year... because there was hardly a peep about it in 1998.

I could go on and on about the great things we have done in Iraq. I've heard them myself from my comrades-in-arms, who have come home and returned to Iraq more than once. Hearing my buddies talk about the war in Iraq and hearing the news talk about it makes me think I'm not hearing about the same war.

Is all going well there? It's hard to say. Even news organizations that claim to be "Fair and Balanced" report the exact same as the rest, with just a little bit different language. I don't think for a second that Iraq is all balloons and flowers. I know we've had our setbacks there. Great and grave mistakes have been made. But I also know it's not a quagmire like the MSM would hope.

Anyway, I could on and on. My point is this: I know this Administration knows what is going on over there. I know that it would take next to nothing for them to set up even just a website to recognize the great things that are happening. I just don't understand why they don't do it. And that would be my fifteen minutes of fame.

Criminal Minds (CBS) is the new CSI.

2005-10-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

For me, anyway.

I don't watch a lot of TV. Or, I should say that I'm not loyal to too many shows. I do watch quite a bit of TV, but most of it is the typical male, non-commital channel surfing. I watch some older shows like Seinfeld, Star Trek TNG/DS9, and other shows that I used to watch regularly when I was single. But lately, I just don't have the time to invest in a show. I can't just watch a show at random. I want to be drawn. I don't want to religiously watch a show mindlessly... as if that statement makes any sense.

CSI is my favorite show on television. At first, yes, I was captured by the whiz-bang effects, the camera "movements" and the interesting science. But, I've really found that, after the two knock-offs (Miami and NY), which have the same effects and all, what draws me to the show is the characters: Grissom, Warrick, Sara, Nick, Katherine, and especially the coroner and Brass. Even the minor characters have a great interaction with the main characters. It's almost as though the show lucked out in a way because the chemistry is just fantastic. And it is really just that. CSI: Miami and CSI: NY have the same everything except the characters, yet I can't stand CSI:NY (even though I love Gary Sinise) and it wasn't until recently that I actually started to like CSI: Miami. I could go on about CSI: Miami and the things that bother(ed) me about it, but that is another blog.

So, I've started to watch Criminal Minds. And I love it. It's one of those few shows that I look forward to every week. It's intriguing, suspenseful and has a lot of information. And then there are the characters. I don't even know all their names yet and I like them. They aren't paper cut-out stereotypes. The nerdy genius guy is just that, but there's more than that. He has the same social shortcomings that can be expected, but he's not annoying or cutsie about it. The woman is smart, but she's not like Callie Duquesne in CSI: Miami: impossibly sexy and hardly realistic. Even Katherine in CSI is sexy, but believable. The white guy is slick and professional, but it's not forced. The black guy is macho and cool, but he's down-to-earth and smarter than he lets us realize. And agent Gideon is like Grissom. He's just got layers, like an onion. He plays a great part and he's a natural. And the chemistry between all of them is fantastic. There are no/few special effects and not a lot of action. It's all plot and character, which is why I like it.

Now, do I believe that all the stuff that they talk about is true? It's hard to say. It all sounds believeable. I don't know if bombers are perfectionists. I don't know if kidnappers are "collectors." And I don't know if an FBI agent, according to tonight's episode, could actually accomplish a kidnapping without getting caught. But, I want to believe it, and that is what makes good television. And when I don't have the dissonance in my own mind that, "Oh man, that's never gonna happen," or "That can't be true," then I can simply enjoy the show. And that I do.

All I can say is that I hope I can get CBS in Kuwait.

2005-10-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

I deploy in about 3 weeks. I am very excited. But, my wife has been hounding me to tell her what she (and all our friends) should send me in the way of stuff and entertainment. So, here is my list:

Napster Time Card
AAFES Gift Certificate
EVE Online Time Card
Ostrim Meat Sticks
Small amounts of cash
Paperback books (Current preferred authors: Ted Bell, Vince Flynn, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child)
Downloadable Movies (www.cinemanow.com is the first one I've found, but there are others out there)

I will add more as I think about it.

Do not send food. I will not eat it. There is plenty of food where I am going. I do like certain kinds of snacks, but I will post what I want.

The SCOTUS debacle.

2005-10-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

(SCOTUS stands for Supreme Court of the United States)

I think Harriet Miers is a bad choice. Because she is a woman? No. Because she once donated money to the Democratic Party? No. Because she is a Bush crony? No.

She is a bad choice because I think the President flinched. In other words, I think he put Miers up there because he thought that the support of the religious right, the same folks who he thinks got him elected, would be so strong, that the Senate would have to confirm her. I don't think he trusted the conservative base and the Senators enough that a mildly controversial nominee, someone that the Democrats really hated, would be approved. Believe it or not, I think this says more about the 55 Senators than it says about the President.

I get the idea that Bush is behaving like my wife when I say something stupid in front of a bunch of people: he's kicking the conservatives under the table and giving them dirty looks to get them to shut up. "Can't you get that she's going to overturn Roe v. Wade?" "Just trust me," he says. Well, I don't know if that is what I want.

See, I'm all about overturning Roe v. Wade. But why should I be shortchanged on every other issue simply because that is the issue Bush is pushing? It's like Bush is acting like a liberal on this. He is appointing a judge to the Highest Court in the Land simply because she is going to act like an activist judge on one issue.

I mean, how do we know how she is going to rule on, say, the Patriot Act? How is she going to rule on Prayer in School? The environment? I mean, if Bush is appointing her to SCOTUS on this one issue, and willing to bypass the others to get her confirmed, what is the point?

I think we can have our cake and eat it, too. I know that there are many more qualified folks out there that could fill this spot. I also know that most or all of the folks on that list would be willing to overturn Roe v. Wade... in time. I just don't understand why Bush won't give us the best of both worlds.

Stepping into the fray

2005-10-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would be a blogger. I know that blogging is the "new media" now, but I never really had a desire to start blogging.

But every once in a while I have thought or something that I want to write down, but don't really want to share with anyone specifically. I guess this is kind of a diary, which I never thought I would start.

So, this is my attempt to step into the new world.

Read. Enjoy. Comment.

Just a warning, though: SPAM and advertisements will be deleted. Do not attempt to sell your crap on my blog. Sell it on your own blog.