Adventures
First Post!
Jan 22nd
Of the year…
Okay so the fires really weren’t all that interesting, that’s why there is only one post about them. My unit was backup to the backup so we spent the whole time sitting around and coming up with things to keep ourselves busy. If it wasn’t for the lack of barracks I would have thought we slowly evolved into an active duty unit.
As a result of the massive amount of time I spent in CA doing nothing I was unable to finish my semester in school with an acceptable grade. I ended up withdrawing and it has cost me an entire additional year in school. I only need three classes to finish this degree. One builds upon the other two and they don’t offer that one in summer school. I have to wait until fall to finish. THEN I can go to the next school. I am disgruntled about that .
On the other hand, I have been super busy with other business. Pocketnow.com asked me to be Senior Editor for AllShadow.com and it has proven to be a tremendous success. The site grew geometrically for awhile and now it’s time to supe up some efforts. It’s really fun to watch a community grow from the beginning and know that you had your hands in it.
On military side, I was recommended to compete in the NCO of the Year competition for my battalion. I reluctantly accepted. I had never been to a board before so I was a bit anxious. I over studied and aced the board. Then I competed in the Brigade board, which I won. More recently I competed in the California State NCO of the Year board and will find out Feb 9th if I won or not.
It has been a positive experience. I have greeted each challenge with positive anticipation and look forward to the next. Growth has been unavoidable through this process and in a way it become a Rite of Passage. Many of the events are easy and for the ones that are challenging I remind myself that there is only this once.
Saturday I returned from Utah after 2 weeks in a Warrior Leaders’ Course to further my military professional development. For some reason I don’t feel like I get enough of this stuff.
I joined LA Fitness a month ago and have been working out religiously. I’ve dropped 15 pounds and feel a lot better. I am not at my goal yet though. Unlike most people, I do not have a goal weight, maybe a goal body fat. Thing is, I remember FEELING great and able to do anything. Now, I am getting closer but I know some activities will give me a tough time. I ran an 11 minute 30 second 2-mile once for crying out loud. I’m nowhere close to that now, but I inch closer everyday.
If I had to nail down a goal it would be this:
- 12% – 18% Body Fat
- 12 minute 2 mile
- 300 pts (max) on PT test
- Never feel tired
- See that six pack again
- Turn some heads
Diet change has had a lot to do with it. I’ve been eating A LOT less unhealthy food and actually have a slight addiction to healthy food now. I pass on a lot of snacks because I know what they are doing to my body. I still smoke, but I’m working on that. I like the comfort of it for some reason (I know, no lecturing okay!)
I’m trying to stay balanced with the physical fitness thing. For the most part I have been doing mostly fat burning exercises. Now it is time to beginning transitioning into strength and endurance as well. One thing that I keep in mind is flexibility. I have no desire to resemble that semi truck looking dude that can’t tie his own shoe. I want some Bruce Lee/Jet Li/Jackie Chan type manueverbility.
I also got a new bike for Christmas. I love it. It is a Montague Military Folding Bike, so I can put it in the trunk for some travel. I’ve put it through it’s paces and still look forward to trashing some trails. Feels great to ride again. My brother and I went on a bike ride a few weeks ago that reminded us of our childhoods as we explored and found some new trails.
On the HOA side, things are slowly moving along. Leaky roofs, unhappy residents, landscaping is usually a mess. It’s tough with a small budget but we make it work. Elections are coming up again. Wonder if I’ll go for a third term…
Well there is a lot in this post already. When I get some time, I’ll break down some stories for ya. If there’s anything you want to hear more about, let me know in the comments!
Wildfires Day 1
Oct 25th
First off, I commend everyone that is assisting in the fire fighting effort in California. Yesterday I was alerted that my unit was being mobilized to assist in the efforts. It is kind of funny because I just dropped off my car an hour earlier for warranty work that would take a couple of days. For those of you that do not know, my unit is in California, which requires some driving.
So after a little stress moment a very sweet family member let me borrow a vehicle to come out here.
We have been sitting around all day pretty much just waiting to be sent somewhere. Now I understand that a good part of the fires are under control but I do not understand why we are not being sent to help with the other fires. I was actually excited to get to do some proactive work but we have no activity going on.
Just my two cents worth of a gripe. On the other it is good to be with the guys again and laugh and joke around again, my favorite past time.
To The Ranch!
Aug 26th
It has been a long time but it is about time I got out of town for a bit with no agenda. So the phone goes off and so do I. Hopefully the weather will be good and nights quiet. It seems a little hard to break free at times. People seem to just try and track you down no matter what. At all times, it’s like they take turns tag teaming ya. Here you go! It’s your turn go get ‘em!
Not this weekend. Hell or high water solace awaits!
NCO of the Year Part III
Aug 16th
I actually slept good that night. Rise and shine time was about 0530 which left me enough time to not have to rush. I did the usual: brush teeth, shave face, stand around and talk to people… After getting dressed and doing some final checks I headed off. Since my tire was about to explode the Commander let me use his truck.
I barely made it out of the parking lot when I was nearly T-boned (broadsided) by a little oriental guy with a bunch of kids in his car as he ran the red light. Good thing I wasn’t in a rush, or we’d all be rushed off to the hospital. Traffic wasn’t so bad on the drive there. Even though I HATE McDonalds there were no other places with breakfast food, I pulled through for a coffee and mcmuffin (it didn’t satisfy)
The board was held at battalion and battalion’s building was next to a Reserve’s center. It seemed like everyone from both units had duty that weekend as there were no parking spots for several blocks. No sweat, still on time. Inside of battalion was a family day event. There was a big inflatable jumper, a band, some speakers and representatives from various commercial interests.
All in all about six to eight guys showed up for the board. I was still reading from my review sheet now and then but altogether anxious to get it done. This was the first board I was attending and the last board I had proximity to was on active duty and they really sweated the guys. There was no A/C in the main part of the building where we were waiting so the sweat started coming.
After a little while the Sergeant Major brought us into a room for a written test. It was partially multiple choice, part fill in the blank. I love multiple choice! He gave us an hour but ten minutes later I was done. After the others had finished we were again asked to wait around outside. That is how it is in the Army, hurry up and wait. Since I was in no hurry this day the waiting wasn’t so bad.
After about 30 minutes the board was ready and started taking people. The first four guys took anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes during their board appearances. Meanwhile the rest of us were still outside sweating. My coat was tight (the one from basic) and I was really starting to get anxious, I just wanted to get it done.
My turn to go in: I walk up to the door and knocked like I was trying to wake the dead, BOOM BOOM BOOM. “Enter”, I marched straight in and reported to the board president, the Sergeant Major. They had me do some facing movements and then sit. Then I started freezing, the A/C was on full blast in this room. All the sweat was turning into a cold nuisance now. The board members started with some conversational like topics so I took the opportunity to slip in some jokes. This is perfectly okay because it is part of your candor. I’m not talking about Knock Knock jokes or ‘three guys walk into a bar’ but casual humor, just enough for some chuckles.
When the questions finally started I was relieved. I knew the answers, a few times I answered before they were even done answering the question. There were about 5 questions I didn’t know but I didn’t let that phase me, I’m human. At the end the Sergeant Major closed his notebook of questions and asked if I had somehow got a hold of the questions in advance. Nope, after the main interview there was some very positive feedback. I walked out of there feeling like I smoked it.
Later that day I found out I won. That felt good. Hey look at me I won (waves hands) I’m not done yet though. Next up is the Brigade board where the caliber of NCO I will be competing against is higher. From what I understand it will be similar to the first except with qualification, PT test, road march and a land navigation course thrown in. Should be fun. All those things are what I am good at.
NCO of the Year Part II
Aug 7th
Traffic going into the LA area gets increasingly worse and worse the closer you get. In comparison to Phoenix Metro Area drivers LA drivers do drive quite a bit faster. I think it has something to do with the lack of snowbirds. Phoenix freeways have improved over the years but no matter what they do there are always those older people who think its their job to drive in the fast lane and slow everyone down, thinking they are doing everyone a favor. My advice to them is to reread the driving manual for AZDOT. It does say “Slower Traffic Keep Right”.
Anyway, after a good dose of asphalt I finally arrived at my unit. I got out of my truck and took a look at my tire. Apparently I was being watched over because my bad tire had no tread, no rubber on it anymore. It was just the wire mesh where it meets the road.
With all my careful planning there is always one thing that gets overlooked. Most of the time it is something I can do without but as Murphy’s Law states, the more important the occasion the more catastrophic failure you can experience. The tire going bald to the mesh doesn’t count as catastrophic because it didn’t blow and I still got there so the universe found something else. I had forgotten my shiny dress shoes in AZ, it was LA rush hour time and the closest Clothing and Sales was going to close in an hour and it was 45 minutes away, don’t forget the tire was ready to die.
Luckily my boss was there and volunteered to take me in his vehicle. So after a nice little rush hour drive my uniform was set and all that was left was some studying before the big day.
I got ready for sleep and jumped into my cot with the study guide. Instead of front to back I would open to the table of contents and pick a subject I didn’t know that well. I fell asleep reading…(to be continued)
How Live Search made my weekend better.
Mar 30th
This past weekend I had National Guard drill again. First formation was on Thursday but because of an important interview I arranged to meet the unit at Ft. Irwin, CA instead of at the Riverside Armory like I usually do. This presented some complications for me because Google Maps (my used-to-be favorite online map) showed the route as 2 – 3 hours longer than the drive to Riverside and I would have to drive up the 15. The problem with the 15 is it connects the LA area to Las Vegas so on Fridays everyone and their mother is on that road heading north, the same direction Google was telling me to go. Google was telling me it would be just under 7 hours but I knew better. Plus I did not want to drive on those roads on a Friday for that long. See, I live in Phoenix so I know there has to be a better way. Something has to be more direct.
Google’s Advice
Now Yahoo has a neat feature that allows me to add additional destinations and it will route through those. I could play with the route a little bit to see if I come up with better times and distances. I know in my head that the little highways are 55MPH to the computer telling me how long it would take, but in reality you can easily do 65MPH without any issues. Unfortunately, Yahoo was not giving me the route I wanted. It was telling me the same thing Google was. Except Yahoo was more up to speed on those road conditions and said it would take almost just over 10 hours. Way too long.
Yahoo’s Route
Yahoo’s interface is heavy on the AJAX and Flash for an interface, which is bad because it doesn’t like my keyboard for some reason. I have to hit a key around 9 times before it registers in the text field. Yahoo is a step ahead on options as it allows multiple destinations and live traffic for most cities.
Playing with Yahoo
I added Parker, AZ as an additional route and Yahoo gave it up this way. The route above was calculated at above 10hrs! This would not do either. I tried many different cities between Phoenix and Ft Irwin and nothing was coming up right. Phoenix -> Kingman -> Ft Irwin was even worse. I had a feeling I should try something else.
Live Search – Shortest Distance
Live search returned the above route at 6 hours and 27 minutes. I knew this to be more correct so I took a closer look at what lay along the way.
Using the aerial view I could see some greenery along the Colorado River. A section of the road between Blythe and Needles ran along the river so I figure this might be a scenic drive.
    
As you can tell the green fields are part of the Colorado River Indian Reservation. It had been awhile since I had an adventure and I figured I could have one along the way and explore some new territory. All in all Live Search provided the best tools and features, it will be handy to use for route/trip planning. Yahoo Maps did allow for multiple destinations which the others did not, but the AJAX/Flash interface is cumbersome (Yahoo fix the typing problem!). Google Maps is great for around town, quick and simple but not feature rich.
My drive ended up being more enjoyable than the map could say. A good part of it was nice winding canyons and valleys that occasionally touched on the river. I arrived at my destination within 20 minutes of my planned time (I stopped for gas and food). I even arrived with enough time to do some training. I am glad I took this alternate route. It made the weekend much better, and left me with a better understanding of the area.
The Moral of the Story is:
Always check 3 sources for information before embarking on a trip. You might discover something you didn’t know or find a better route.
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