Last week was fun stuff – 3 day field exercise in the middle of the week. A full week after the start of this exercise, and I still haven’t figured out why the hell I had to go to the field. I did nothing, but I did nothing while awake for the majority of the 72 hour exercise (over 60 of them.) One thing I did do was attempt to explain that no matter how big a wire you put in front of a 15A fuse, if you draw more than 15A after that fuse, it’s going to blow. That isn’t a generator problem, that’s a You Are Far Too Stupid To Grasp Even The Most Simple Electrical Theory Problem. Someone figured that out, eventually – and did exactly what myself and another non-idiot suggested. They of course, took full credit for the solution.
The official word on my promotion came during the field exercise – and I’m a GO. Date of rank will be 1 Oct 2006, a Sunday – so I will be pinned SGT on 2 Oct. My intention right now is to fly home for the long weekend to see my family, and of course the beautiful and amazing Amanda. I’ll need as many smiles as she can give me as the next 5 or so months of my life will like suck. From late October to late November I’ll be at the Warrior Leader’s Course, then it’s time for Thanksgiving followed by getting prepped for our rotation at the National Training Center. I don’t wish to risk taking leave over Christmas and being stoplossed as a result, so I have to make sure I will be able to take two 4 day passes on the key weekends I need (Christmas itself, and Natalie’s wedding.) This could of course backfire, and leave me with a large number of leave days after a stoploss which is not as much a problem as it seems.
That last statement deserves some explaination. I stand to have around 50 days of leave saved up when I am supposed to get out of the Army. That’s a good chunk. If I get stoplossed, and deploy for a year, I’ll probably have a full 60 to 65 days. When we get back, I will take all 60 days of terminal leave and go home to get settled in. I won’t have to worry about work, just getting things sorted out – like looking for a job, getting enrolled in school, and eating good food. The Army will still be paying me. At the end of that time, I’ll return to Ft. Benning and finish clearing out of the Army at which point I may resume life as normal.
Lately I’ve hit the movies a few times. If you like martial arts films, get yourself to “Fearless”, it rocks. I didn’t mind “Flyboys”, though some nitpicked that it was a bad movie, it entertained me. I want to go see “The Black Dhalia” and “The Prestige”, and that’s about all that holds my interest at this moment.
As soon as I pin on SGT I am going to try and move out of the barracks. I lack lease history in my credit report, and apparently my motorcycle insurance is higher for that (according to my insurance company anyway) – it is valid though, as I have no property lease history at all. Right now I am also completely out of space in my barracks room. Even if I did buy a Mac Pro right this red hot second, there’s nowhere for me to put it here. I’d like to get some video processing power, and see what all the fuss is about wrt to Apple’s huge displays. I don’t think I’ll have a problem with any of it myself.
Right now I have no good way to mount/store my video camera when I’m recording motorcycle rides. Keeping it in my tankbag causes problems due to the sensitivity of the stop button, and the power switch. I’m going to have to come up with some way to mount the camera where I can easily manipulate the controls, while keeping it out of the wind and soaking up vibrations – all the while keeping it out of my way when I’m riding. That might be a challenge, but I’m up for it.
I’ve taken a few photos lately, so here they are.
