Gimme Blog Fodder

As the handful of regular readers here know, I'm currently down in Texas/New Mexico doing Mobilization training for the Army, and will soon be heading into Afghanistan.  I've started another blog, Dirt Pusher's Journal, to document stuff as it goes on, and to help me try and keep a better form of a journal this time around.

Problem is, I don't know what kind of stuff people want to hear about.  So, if you can give me some ideas in the comments, and pass the word around, that'd be awesome.  It's often a lot easier for me to write stuff if somebody plants an idea in my head.  I'll do what I can, keeping with OPSEC and the standard rules and regs, but feel free to put whatever you want down there.

Pastafarianism in the Military

I'm kind of breaking one of my self-imposed rules of life, and talking about religion.  Normally I avoid it (well, sober anyway,) because one of my biggest pet peeves is people forcing theirs on you, and one of the 8 I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts specifically says that's one of them.


However over at Venganza.org (the official site for the Church of the FSM,)

Here’s a guest post by Justin Griffith.  Justin is well known for his fight against the idea that “there are no Atheists in Foxholes”.  He was recently profiled in the New York Times for his activism.

Justin goes on to talk about how he actually managed to get a Drill Sergeant to smile in basic when he tried to confiscate his Holy book and his struggle to get the Big Army to realize there are honest to goodness Atheists in the ranks.


I have run into similar situations.  My current paperwork simply says "No religious preference," however as many have noted, just about everybody assumes that's just the same as Christian non-denominational.  My dog tags tell a different tale however-

However this last June I went through Soldier Readiness Processing.  This is basically a day when they go through all your records and see how squared away it is in the event you get called up for active duty.  Part of that is making sure you've got all your stuff in order in case you buy the farm, including you have the correct religious preference listed so they know what to do with you.


So I go in to talk to the Chaplain, and he looks at my form, looks at his list of "approved" religions, and says "I don't see this on my list.  Is it some sort of joke?"
"No. I'm Pastafarian."
"Well this is a serious thing.  If you die we want to make sure we don't upset your family.  You have to be serious about this."
"I am serious."
"Well, it's not on my list."
"Fine, just leave it No Preference.  Close freakin' enough." (It had been a long day, and it was my last station.)


It still does tend to be an issue.  It overwhelmingly feels like the leadership can't wrap their heads around the idea that some people simply are not religious(or fictitious Drill Instructors...)  At the same time, if you are one of those people, you don't really seem to get equal treatment to those who are.  Throughout Basic those that regularly attend a religious service basically get a couple hours off every week to go to their chosen service.  In my experience those that didn't go got to have a barracks party (cleaning for you civies. Due to this, I usually would go to the Catholic service, just for the time off.)


Maybe more Atheist soldiers will step forward and claim Pastafarian for their religion and we can get the Army to actually recognize it as a "religion."  It could be the simplest way to finally get some form of (non)religious equality for not having a religion.  There's definitely the numbers...

Defense Department statistics show that about 9,400 of the nation’s 1.4 million active-duty military personnel identify themselves as atheists or agnostics, making them a larger subpopulation than Jews, Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists in the military.

Speaking of all this, I'm hoping to be officially ordained in the Church of the FSM, but I'm tight for cash, and it's $46.  There is, however, a Tip Jar over on the left... maybe I can get commissioned as a Chaplain...

Hmm... Not in the "Big" News Sources...

 Apparently this happened earlier today-

Almurisi, described as a burly man, emerged from a bathroom in the back of the plane and "walked briskly" toward the front, where he began yelling unintelligibly and pounding on the cockpit door, police and witnesses said.

 "He was walking very fast all the way up to the front," said Angelina Marty, 35, of San Francisco, a passenger on the plane. "He kept walking faster and faster and faster. He was screaming something, and the lady in the row across from me who had spoken Arabic said, 'That's Arabic,' and she had translated it and said it was roughly, 'God is great.' "

(bold added for emphasis)

Ah, good old political correctness.  I guess printing "Allahu Akbar" would just be in poor taste.

At least it sounds like everything worked out, although I wonder how long it'll be before we hear he was on the "no fly list," yet they let him on the plane to help "build the case..."

Well that's about as irritating...

...as a pair of 60 grit chamois...

Apparently you can't vote for multiple parties in the WI primary even if you don't just get lazy and simply check one.  The computer rejected my mix of Republicans and Libertarians, despite only voting one person per office.

Party line voting is retarded.

Lost in Translation

So apparently at a certain chain-type sandwich shop, "no tomatoes" is code for "no lettuce, but I love thick juicy slices of tomato."  Who would have guessed?

Meh?

Trying to think of something to write, but I just can't think of much at the moment.  Lots of little disconnected thoughts bouncing around my head, varying from hopeful daydreaming to mild frustrations.  Need more coffee I guess.

Did go to the range this morning with Cro, burned off a few hundred rounds of .22lr, and a few mags of .45acp. Nothing serious, just stress relief after a couple weeks of playing army with our respective units.  It's kinda sucky wearing the uniforms and messing around with the guns doing "army stuff" and not actually shooting things, especially when you're gunnies like us.
(On a side note, it's amazing how many people we've run into in the Army who genuinely are not gun people.  I know LE tends to be the same way, but I can kind of see that.  For a cop, his gun is ideally the last thing he's going to use in his daily job, but for a soldier, we'll not so much.  Yet there's still guys in the military that don't fully grasp how an M16 works.  Not that it's hard to understand, but they just don't take the time.)

On the up side, the shop just called, and my wheel's done.  That'll make this next week go by faster I hope.

Biking grumbles...

First off, when taking your bike with you on trips away from home, don't forget your floor pump if you're running Presta valves.  You only want to use a mini-pump in an emergency.  That's not the kind of workout you're going for.

Secondly, busting a spoke and finally finding a bike shop 15 minutes after it closes is possibly even more frustrating.  At least my tire wasn't flat I guess, just a bit wobbly.

Hopefully I can beg and plead and get a wrench at one of the shops at home to get it fixed before I head back down here next week.  There's just too many trails around here too explore.

-
Hopefully back to a more regular blogging schedule by July...

Fear

The La Crosse River State Trail skirts around the lot the armory sits on, so after work I went on a little bike ride (only 15 miles total...)  It's a beautiful trail from the little I've seen, a classic rails-to-trails project, so nice and gradual slopes, elevated above the surrounding marshes and swamps.  Definitely worthwhile checking out if you're in the driftless area and like bicycling on groomed trails.

However, in that short little ride, I ran into quite possibly the most frightening moment I've experienced to date while rolling along on two wheels.  I have been cut off by numerous cars, layed out my bike and slid along the pavement to avoid bouncing off a 1-ton Dodge pick-up, nearly had a knee sacrificed to appease whatever evil daemon is responsible for Mini-coopers (their mirrors are right at my knee when I'm on a bike.  It missed it by about 2 inches.)  I've had moments on technical single-track where you have a fraction of a second to realize that "keep both wheels under you" is actually some damn good advice, especially when you're looking at both of them above you and the nice big rock is quickly approaching.  I have bombed down hill on a fire road at nearly 30 miles an hour, noticing a fallen log crossing the road with only enough time to bunny-hop and hope.  I have nearly smoked a handful of trophy whitetail bucks, and countless numbers of their womenfolk while speeding through the woods.

I have had quite a few close calls in my time riding.  But nothing has made my heart jump and cause my butt to make as tight of a fist as seeing that skunk right next to the trail with his tail in the air, and his backside pointed right at me.  Nothing to do but pedal faster, hold your breath, and hope.

(Thankfully it was just posturing on his part.  The only bad smells at the end of my ride was my own stink from riding 15 miles in 90+ degree heat.)

Excuses

Nothing's really jumping out at me to talk about today, and it's the first day in like a week where it's relatively warm and not raining, so I'm going to put the boat on top of the car and head to a lake.  The wind is gusting pretty well, but meh.

Might get some motivation to take some pictures or something later though.

Whoo.

Army hasn't changed much, still lots of sitting around and waiting to do something.  I gather it's not quite like that for the higher ranking guys (like E6+) but still lots of that for us enlisted pukes.

But between standing around doing maintainence on humvees and taking the kayak out again, I seemed to have burned the back of my neck and arms/shoulders a little... stings a little now, but I usually tend to burn once pretty good early in the summer, and then not much after that.  Glad I'm getting it out of the way earlier than usual this year.

Of course, now that school's out for summer, hopefully I'll get some more range time, especially on the weekdays when regular people are working and I've got the range to myself.  I guess I'm saying look for a little bit of an increase in gun content in a few days or so.

Self Portrait

A doodle/photo deally I made last night during Rogue Trader...

Feels kinda self portrait-y, with finals week and all. High school senior year was so much more fun.

Arithmagic

I was typing up my notes sheet for my Stats in Geography final tomorrow, and somehow mistyped "arithmetic" and ended up with "arithmagic," thus fitting an entire semester of stats into one single word.

Nice Rack!

Finally got all the parts and set it all up.  No guns with the tax refund this year, just an easier time playing outside.
Got a good deal on the Thule setup, and I'm pretty impressed.  The hardware that came with the J-tubes for the boat are pretty cool/innovative, the bow and stern tie-downs have little ratcheting pullies, and the straps in the middle have rubber covers over the metal parts to keep from scratching up the kayak.  The bike tray also beats the living crap out of the old trunk rack setup, I got my XC rig up and locked down in a matter of seconds.  Hopefully this is just more motivation to go out and do more stuff.

Light Postage...

Combination of real life and college pilling up on me.  ArcMap decided to crash and then refuse to load my project, and I'm still completely lost in my stats class.  I hate stats.

Anyway, hopefully I can get some content up relatively soon, especially since the weather refuses to stay warm enough for more than two days.  Don't want to dump a kayak in 40 degree water...

Well over 24 hours and I'm still breathing...

So that's a good sign. Robb Allen mentioned that he ate one, so he's due to keel over at any moment too.  I had one after doing some cartography work last night, because I was hungry, I like bacon, and I'm trying to cut down on carbs (heh).  Overall it didn't strike me as anything too exciting, really more like some lazy person just slapped some stuff together, figured it's different enough to sell, and threw it up on the menu.  I wouldn't say you should avoid it due to the potential "health hazards," but the price is, in my mind, not worth it.  It's like $5 and is quite bland for a fast food product at that price level.  Maybe I'm just spoiled by all the $1 value menus...

Long day.

Woke up late, lecture, exam, get some coffee, join the Army, go play games...

Yeah, somewhere in that mess I raised my right hand again.  Days of carefree civilian life are no more, and the amazing beard will have to go.  (Ok, it's National Guard, so once a month and the assorted deployments will cut into the carefree civilianness.)

Primarily the biggest thing that'll change will be my facial comfort in the winter months though.  Naked faces are cold faces.  Otherwise, it's a great way to convince somebody else to pay for ammo and training, right?

New Toy!

Got a Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet today. It's fun, mainly got it for photo editing, but I'm actually writing this Post with it.   It's neat, but I definitely can type faster than I can write with a pen and paper, especially since I'm one of those people who usually writes in all caps, but it is a good way to get used to using it.  It came with a copy of Corel Painter Essentials 4.0 as well, but I have noexperience with that program, but I'll probably install it and play around with it at some point.

Although I do have to wonder, if April showers bring May flowers, what does April snow bring?   A week ago it was over 80°, and today it didn't get over 38° . My state is broken.

Slow Postage

After the combo blow of a link from Tam and another from Say Uncle, I've definitely had an increase in readers the last few days (last Friday had as many visitors as I usually get in a month alone...) It's tapered off a bit, but today still had twice as many visits as has been the norm for a while, and I wouldn't mind keeping some of you guys around.  It is nice to see people actually reading and passing my rambling pseudo-nonsense around the interwebs.

Tuesdays however, are almost always my day off.  Classes in the morning, and the weekly game day at the local comic/gaming shop.  Gotta push the little army men around the table and throw dice at each other (and a bit of 40k roleplaying later in the evening.)  Lots of fun, my Angels of Vengeance once again dropped from the sky and slaughtered, and my Guardsman sniper for Dark Heresy somehow managed to get an auxiliary grenade launcher for his close range gun.  Kinda the 40k equivalent of an M4 with a 203 at this point.  I think it cool.

Anyways... the whole point of this mess.... if you're new around these parts, Tuesdays are like my Sundays as far as posting goes, so don't be alarmed.

Obligatory 40k pic... still can't get the highlights on the armor to photograph right though, it's not that strong in person. Sandolphon, Master of the Deathwing, Angels of Vengeance Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.

Today...

I woke up bright and early, got in my car, picked up a friend (who's never gone to a big-ish gun show before) and drove across the state to a giant convention center, where 400 tables were spilling over with guns, ammo, knives, and all sorts of fun stuff.  There I bought an old military rifle that would be the envy of any Afghan herdsman, yet the gov't has deemed to be outdated, and instead of melting down, sold off to us lowly civilians.  Afterwards, we went across the street to a restaurant where I ordered a big thick chunk of undercooked meat, topped off with a second meat, just to "enhance the flavor."  The only things missing were fireworks and a 4th of July parade.

Despite the current economy, state of affairs in Washington, and all the bad things going around, sometimes is nice to remember exactly why America is &%#@ing awesome.

That time of year.

In true Wisconsin style, April was flung upon us with a beautiful day with a high of 81F.  So of course I was in classes most of the day.  Hooray.

Anyway, got home, and drug out the hard tail, my trusty Trek 6500,

dusted off the proverbial cobwebs, lubed up the chain and cables and pedals, and went for a short re-familiarization ride.  The standard "there's a pedal around there somewhere, clip dang it!" ride mixed with a touch of "crap am I'm out of shape."

The other fun thing is not only remembering which gear lever does what, but getting over the muscle memory of my usual commuter's brakes.  I easily put the most miles on my beat up old pseudo-track bike;

BIG track ring in front (55 tooth I think...) and a little 16t cog in back, and only a brake up front.  The way to get this rig to stop fast is to slide off the saddle and get your crotch like two inches away from the stem, putting all your weight into that front wheel.  Brakes on the rear make things a bit different to say the least...

I also was thinking about how the price/use relationship on these two bikes is so unlike my guns.  With the exception of .22lr, I easily put more rounds through my most expensive centerfire guns than my cheaper ones.  The bikes, on the other hand, are a completely inverse relationship.  The Trek is by far the most expensive of the bikes I own, but probably gets the least amount of use, where the Kabuki cost me maybe $150 (I put new wheels on it last year) and I use it nearly everyday, as you can tell by the shape of the steel frame.  Three Wisconsin winters have been hard on the girl.  One of these days I'll take it apart as much as I can and give it a good sanding and paint job...

Also, note to all of you people in those big four-wheeled driving contraptions: on your steering column's left side (as you look at it from your seat) is a stick.  It's pointing to your left, and can move up and down.  Moving it up will let those around your machine know you plan to turn right, and down signifies left.  If you would like to avoid bicycle shaped dents in your side panels, try using them.  If your turn signal is on I'm much less likely to try to cut past you as you linger, seemingly lost in thought, at an intersection.