Saturday, July 30, 2011

A Wet Head

Today I am in the process of reshaping my beret.  As anyone I did basic training with will tell you, my beret and my head have waged a never-ending battle.  Then, the dress regs changed and we were allowed to wear the ship's ballcaps off-base.  Yay!  My beret slid to the bottom of a drawer, biding its time, waiting for the chance to make my head look ridiculous.

Well, today I pulled it out in preparation for our journey to England, where we shall be on training for the last four months of the year.  Apparently they don't like ballcaps, so back to the beret it is.  Now I've been sitting in my chair reading, with a soaking wet beret on my head so as to reshape it.  This time, I've learned a few tricks and seem to be winning.  However, it is a canny thing, that beret, and I shall have to keep a close eye upon it.

This week as been slow, as I've mostly been readying my packing/repacking lists and sorting plans for England.  True, we don't leave for another month, but I've got leave back home in between and a chance to swap out some of my kit for things at home.  Frankly, being away from home is a pain in the butt when you've got to prepare to travel to a third location.  That and some days have just been wasted.  I didn't get as much writing done as I desired, but this weekend shall be the time I make up for it.  Hell, Wednesday I didn't do a think.  I sat in my chair after supper to read for a half hour while digesting, and woke up hours later and crawled over and into bed.  Very sad, but at least I felt great the next day.  Sometimes you gotta listen to the body.

I also tried more barefoot-style running.  After that first time, my calves were screaming in protest for the next three days.  This time, not so much, though experience told me to stretch a bit extra afterwards.  That and my legs didn't feel like a group of dwarves had surrounded them and beaten them with warhammers, so maybe this style of running is for me.  More data will tell.

That's about it for now.  Have to get to some more writing.  My recent successes (read: useful daily word counts) seem to beget success.  This is nothing new, as with many things, the more success you have, the more you are spurred to do it.  Happens all the time with painting models.

With that, I leave you to write words and fight with my beret.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Some random coolness

I have nothing for today, must write not blog.

For your pleasure, the Millennium Falcon, 'cause, why not.


This bit of coolness brought to you by my lack of werewithal to bring you actual content.


But it is cool, isn't it?

Sunday, July 24, 2011

A day of victory

Today was what I like to think of a day of victory.

On the writing side, I bashed out over two thousand words.  In a mere two hours.  I took my laptop to the park near the Admiralty House museum on base and sat in the shade and just slipped into the zone.  It was good but reality did come calling.

On the professional side, I passed my Naval Engineering Indoctrination board.  Actually I passed it last Wednesday, but I'm including it here because I feel pretty good about the whole weekend.  Since it's my blog, I can do that.  :-)

I even tried an experiment when I did my workout today.  I've been reading about the concept of 'barefoot running' lately.  Now, you must know, normally I hate running.  Can't stand it.  It's too slow (and I admit I'm no sprinter) compared to my beloved bicycle or inline skates, it's too boring unless you can find a trail to run, and frankly, it tends to hurt.  After a friend sent a few articles about running barefoot, using the body's natural running stance (more of a midfoot hit rather than a heel hit), and looking at some interesting shoes (Vibram Five Fingers - www.vibramfivefingers.com, not endorsing, just passing the interest), I decided to try the whole idea out.  I went to the track over by the base hospital and spent the first ten minutes of my run barefoot (on the grassy part, not interested in the gravel portion, thanks), then put shoes back on and continued for the remainder.

Observations; I found that the barefoot stance was more natural, and wasn't as jarring as a heel hit that one uses with a more traditional running shoe.  I definitely used some muscles that haven't been used much lately (hello calf muscles!), but it was very interesting.  I can honestly say it didn't suck as much as I find running normally does.  That said, the track was still boring.  I'd be interesting to try a trail, but would want some shoes and before I actually lay out money for these odd 'foot-gloves' I think I'll continue my experiment for a while. 

The benefit of running for me is that in the military, it's an easy piece of kit (i.e. shoes) to take with you, and you can do it anywhere, from a treadmill to a flight deck. 

Add to all of that some laundry done and I think I'm going to toast myself with a nice, cold beer.  Tomorrow is another day, and another good one for writing.  Now if only it wasn't so thrice-cursedly hot.