Captain Baron von Awesome's Awesome Blog!

I decided Tuesday that it is time to leave the country for a while. If nothing else, I can get away from some shit and clear my head, not to mention see some friends I've not been around in more than two years.

Hooray for frequent flyer miles, although the trick now is to figure out how London and/or Amsterdam are going to work here. I've been spoiled the most recent times I've been over there, because my friends have picked me up from the airport in Aberdeen and that was that. This go round, though, I think I may spend a day or two in London to visit a friend. Her advice on how to get to her place from the airport seemed a bit spotty, so I will need to figure something out.

At any rate, I hate flying, and I went off an a phobic-nerdy-philosophical tangent yesterday. I'm considering writing emails to a few folks in the unlikely event that something horrible happens - that's the phobic part. Then I started thinking about how best to implement this: have them programmed to be sent a week after I'm supposed to return, send me a reminder email in case I forget to cancel them, and then various ways to encrypt them and do password validation so that the correct folks get the emails and the remaining files aren't left to be pored over in the future.

Then I thought, what is so shameful or secretive about the content in these emails that I can't go out and say what's on my mind to those people right now? I mean, why wait until there's no chance for anything but final words to say what's important to someone?

Obviously, I think too much. :) There's no person or specific content that got me thinking about this; it's just the principle of the matter.

When I was in the hospital after the wreck, life seemed so simple. Faced with being almost dead or physically and mentally maimed, the inertia and fear of change that gets in the way of living fully were stripped away, and decisions seemed so simple. I hope I can get that mindset back, although without the cost the first time around. 

Hm. 

Posted by superflyc at 12:21 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I did the hardest workout I have ever done in my life tonight. Sunday is essentially a belt test for the lowest level of Krav Maga students, and tonight was a prep course for it. I'm still new and not at all up for the test, but it was a good training exercise to see a lot of the techniques, not to mention an ass kicker.

I used to think that running up and down the parking garage was onerous. Not any more. Today's class started with:

50 jumping jacks

50 pushups

50 squats

50 crunches

And then series of exercises that involved breaking out of holds and countering with elbows and knees, some of which involved getting tossed to the floor. Interspersed between these were sets of 50 lunges, jumping lunges, other jumps, planks, and other fun stuff that left me breathless. All kinds of punches and kicks followed. Since you have a partner, you spend half the time throwing the attack and the other half holding a pad and getting pummeled.

Breathing is key; I almost passed out twice from getting whacked in the chest over and over again. Exhale on the hit, or you're screwed.

The instructor called this an 8 in terms of intensity, with the average class being a 4. I believe it. I'm toast, but mission accomplished: I thought about nothing but getting through each set for the entire time. It's active Zen, I guess. 

Posted by superflyc at 09:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I had a great shindig last night for my birthday. Thanks again to everyone who made it out. :) There were all sorts of folks who showed up, including many from my college days. It was great to see them. I have one quibble with the day, but it's minor and for the best.

This week is going to be interesting. The cat was let out of the bag last night when a well meaning friend asked me about what jobs I was looking at in front of a colleague. For the record, I am hoping things work out with my current position, but some issues need to be addressed in order to make things tenable.

With a surprise offer already on the table, it's going to boil down to quality of life versus cash and career development. I'm more flexible on the middle one than on the others, so I'm off to brew coffee and figure out how to word an email to my boss outlining my concerns. Having two very bright people* with strong wills butting heads isn't pleasant; I hope we can come to a compromise. I'm tempted to call it the "95 Theses", but that's probably a bad idea. :) 

* yeah, I said it. Deal with it; it's true. :) 

Posted by superflyc at 07:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Years ago, I looked into Naval Intelligence as a career path. Fortunately for everyone concerned, my language skills encompass neither Chinese nor Arabic, so they were less enthusiastic than I'd orginally hoped and I've spent a productive 10 years doing programming in the civilian world.

This is good, because at the end of the day, I'm not a fan of top down authority. I was reminded of this quite vigorously yesterday, and have spent the time since reinvestigating a question which seems to keep cropping up on a regular basis.

There's a lot to be said for quality of life, but there are other factors which are equally, if not more important when considering one's situation. Suffice to say that these other factors are being noisy lately, and it's time for some serious discussions with a few people.

Posted by superflyc at 05:20 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I read this article on Sunday and thought it was very interesting. In a nutshell, it describes what happened to Joe Darby, the soldier who turned over the infamous Abu Ghraib pictures and brought the fiasco to light. Despite promises of anonymity, he was outed by Rumsfeld on television, resulting in his family having to move from their town due to the hostility generated by his actions, not to mention a visibly irate Charles Graner during the sentencing.

So, it's not the first time the government has gone after its own people, and its not the only time that blind zealotry has caused people to lash out at someone for doing the right thing. That doesn't make it less annoying and saddening, though. God forbid someone do the right thing and stand up for the ideals supposedly represented by our flag. That's treachery! Morals be damned during wartime, son! Yeah, I'm repeating the obvious and stuff that others have said with far greater eloquence, but hey, it's my $.02.

And I have rehearsal tonight. I've been spoiled over the last 5 years or so with my old band. We had... 6? 7? rehearsals during that time span. I've done mercenary work with a few bands, as well, and had probably less rehearsals than that. I've fallen into the professional musician mentality of counting dollars from paying gigs, not rehearsals. This new band is breaking in a new guitar player, so that's part of it. I just hope the focus is on song structure and not solos. I like playing music, but I like getting paid to jam even more. Rehearsals should be all about structure and tricky parts, but that's just me. Let's see how it goes. They are all good guys, and the front man has an awesome stage presence.

Posted by superflyc at 07:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday on the way to pick up presents for my nephew, I heard an interview of Jim Wallis on BBC World Service. I thought it was interesting, and heard it again on my way home from dinner, prompting me to do some more thinking on it. In a nutshell, he's a progressive evangelical preacher who's had the ear of Bush and Blair and is fairly prominent in politics.

What gets me is the juxtaposition of "progressive" and "evangelical". I hear "evangelical" and at best think of well-meaning social conservatives, and at worst am reminded of intolerant sheep with a nice streak of hypocrisy. Anyone from the South can relate to the "Guns 'n' Jesus" mentality that is quick to praise someone as "a good Christian man" and just as quick to beat the shit out someone for being different.

That's unfortunate, because I've never seen anything inherently wrong with religion. It's all in how it's implemented. People are quick to point out all of the evil done in the guise of being pious, but there is quite a bit of good that comes out of it, as well. For every zealot out there slavishly devoted to doctrine, there are people who have faith and do good works.

I was interested in listening to Jim Wallis because he seems to fall into the latter camp. He has a social agenda that focuses on poverty and human rights, which is refreshing. In the last 20 years, it seems that the role of religion in American politics has focused on the proscription of abortion and gay rights, which really seems to miss the point. Given that this is a religious country and that religion and politics are inextricably entwined, I think shifting the focus to something more positive is a good thing. I think the Religious Right is a scary phenomenon, and wresting power from them is a good thing.

At any rate, it set me to thinking about it all. I think it's possible to be able to critically think and at the same time have a faith. I also think it's possible to have morals without being religious. I'm somewhere in the middle; I reject the notion of a personal god that interfaces with us on a level that we understand, but I can't help but wonder at the existence of a removed higher power. Either way, I figure that I'm responsible for myself, and to a degree, those around me. I like hearing about movements like the Religious Progressives, though - and I'm well aware that they're not a new phenomenon. 

End Sunday morning ramblings - and yes, I could have been faster on my ride. :) 

Posted by superflyc at 09:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)