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Hey I posted a post on our blog right here!

Be warned and forewarned though, it's a little intense. If meat makes you queasy, viewer discretion is advised.

How not to waste 2 years.

Got my test results today and I was successful. I wish I could write that I got a B, for example, but the scale they use at the DLI doesn't translate to a standard academic rubric. For the record I got a 2 in listening and a 2+ in reading on a test that runs on a scale of 3 (I think) so it looks like Uncle Sam can't get out of that lucrative signing bonus he owes me.

Next stop, Texas.

PS: Thanks for the prayers and support!

Whoa.

Just tasted prune juice for the first time. This was not my reaction, I can tell you that.

The second rule of Fight Club? Figure out how to post two videos in one post.

Knuckle Sandwich on Rye

A few months ago, I started training in the Army hand-to-hand fighting system. That's right, as a part of my training out here, I've elected to come to work a 5am thrice a week to roll around on a mat with sweaty dudes.

It's a blend of Brazilian ju-jitsu and wrestling and focuses on ground fighting as opposed to the punches and kicks you see in the movies. It's pretty basic at this level and it emphasizes three basics. First you have to close the distance between you and your enemy, meaning you have to aggressively engage him and get as close as you can to him thus nullifying his punches and kicks, and ideally, taking him to the ground. Then you have to fight for position, meaning you have to be in a dominate body position and you get there by using you strength and technique and using his weight and imbalance against him. Once in a dominant position you can proceed to finish the fight using chokes and submissions (at least at this level.) Anyway, as a part of our certification process and to test our mettle, we were required to be choked into unconsciousness. It's important for us to recognize how our bodies (indeed, how we ourselves) react in such a situation. Anyway, here's me getting choked out:

I was also required to close in on one of the instructors who would punch us full-force. My job was to avoid/absorb the blows and put him in a standing position where he's off balance.

Anyway, the whole thing was actually a lot of fun and the workout was great. I thought I had endurance before, but seven minutes of fighting drills and "ll be sweating like I just got out of the shower.

Anyway, on that note...

Miss you guys.

My answer, Emily...

How cool would this be?

Ryan, I'm looking at you.

Quoth Hamlet...

"When sorrows come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions."

Looks like I'll have to buy my G8 GXP used.

The Raccoon Mafia

Yesterday morning at about 0445 I was on my way to work driving south on the CA 1 when a raccoon darted in front of my car. I hit him. I was a bit bummed out about it at first, but after remembering Dad's past run-ins with these guys, I didn't think twice about it.

Until this morning. Our recycling had been ravaged and raccoons had pooed on my Subaru. Although there are raccoons a'plenty in our neighborhood, they'd never bothered us until last night. Coincidence? I'm sure.

"We gots a message from Rocco da Mask! Dat palooka you whacked was made. There's gotta be consequences!"

I thought Halloween was a month ago...

International Lionel Richie Day

How will you celebrate this year?

The Goodguys win one!

Of course you all already know...but yay!

I'm on duty tonight so I've got to watch everything. Keen.

Edward

The End of an Era

GM announces the closure of Dad's old plant.

I guess the plant's been open since 1919. With gas at the prices it is, I guess things'll have to change.

(That reminds me, I need to buy a bike. I'll post about that next week.)

Anyway, any thoughts Dad? Regrets? Shout outs to Janesville?

-Rusty

MREs, Candy and the Black Market

Let's talk about MREs. For the uninitiated, MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) are precooked prepackaged (in some cases, pre-chewed and digested) meals the army uses when they are in the field. You can buy them at Army Surplus stores if you'd like an example. They come in a heavy plastic brown bag and break down further into maybe 5-7 pouches, each a processed food item.Your typical MRE might have say... Italian Chicken with shell pasta. In addition to your entree, you get a small pouch of trail mix, an envelope of powdered electrolyte drink, a pouch containing a palm sized piece of wheat snack bread, a pouch of fortified cheese spread (with bacon) and a fig bar. Ideally, the MRE contains 100-1300 calories to sustain soldiers in the field who are burning more calories, but with so many pouches of snackish foods the Basic training soldier typically turns quickly to economics and trade.


Allow me to back up a moment: In basic training one isn't given a lot of time or a lot of choice concerning food. Granted in the chow hall soldiers can select from as any as 5 entrees and side choices, not to mention an alright salad bar. However one typically has a mere 7 minutes to wolf down their food. This tension, combined with a logical lack of any and all junk food and a blanket ban on any food outside the chow hall (i.e. no between meal snacks) makes the typical BCT soldier somewhat edgy about his/her food.

Back to MREs. Soldiers can get pretty picky about MREs even though we're not allowed to choose our own. It's a lottery with the lucky winning the popular choices (Beef Ravioli because it has stellar side items) and losers taking what's left (Tuna on pita bread because it's measly.) On top of that, and again, although it's ostensibly prohibited, there is a lively market for trading sides. Fortified peanut butter often trades slightly higher than it's counterpart cheese spreads (in plain, bacon or jalapeño) and Hooah Bars (like an Army Powerbar) run much higher than carrot pound cake but are roughly equal to mint chocolate brownies, which are pretty rare. The trading of entree items happens more rarely but it's not unheard of. Some soldiers go so far as to trade their entrees away for a pair of wheat snack breads and a fortified peanut butter, but this is rare as it will likely leave the trader somewhat hungary.

Now rarely but occasionally a package of M&Ms or Skittles will be inside a MRE. Some platoons are allowed to eat theirs in spite of aforementioned ban on junk food. In our platoon, however, we are not allowed. Sadly only the naive (like myself) ever really turn candy over to the drill sergeants. Part of the Gimbel tendency to rabidly avoid trouble, I suppose. Most soldiers who find candy secret it away under their body armor, into their briefs or, if they are foolish, into their pockets. Pockets are for the foolish because of the random contraband shakedowns that happen on occasion.

Yes many like to eat the candy but there is also a vigorous black market for goods of this nature. I have heard, for example, that a Snickers bar will go for about $8 and soda runs for about a dollar an ounce. Getting it is the tricky part because you have to know a private with PX privileges.

Anyway, all this explains why you guys have to curb the impulse I know you're all feeling to send me care packages fulll of crispy snack crackers, chewy cookies or scrummy fudge. Fight the impulse! Your letters will have to suffice. As soon as I get home you can bet that I'm gonna whip up a batch of fudgy brownies with walnuts first thing. Yum!

~Rusty

The $140,000 Buyout of '08!

Read the story here.

Well Dad? It's a lot of money? What does the UAW say? What about people you know at work?

Also...Happy Pancake Tuesday.

With Lent starting tomorrow ("Ash Wednesday") that makes today PANCAKE TUESDAY!

Happy Super-Tuesday!

That's all.

Just on my mind.

Mill this over...

"Unsurprisingly, the game is also faring well on Xbox Live, with more than 2.7 million gamers having had a go online--over a third of the 7 million total registered Live users. Forty million hours of online games, which adds up to 4,500 years, have been played in the first week across the globe, with almost 30 million achievements unlocked."

That's the quote. The in-laws internet is somewhat unreliable.

It just amazes me that FORTY MILLION man-hours were played in the first seven days. That might be enough time to build a pyramid, or at least Stonehenge. And yet we spent it fighting for online glory and water-cooler bragging rights.

Second thought: bullet-hole stickers. What exactly are they trying to communicate? The world may never know.

Biffed it...

So I chewed up some gravel today. Yum. Took a bad step on wet brick and bashed the dickens out of my shin. Owa! Really, it was a boneheaded move; i was valuting a wall whilst on my morning run. The round wound on the lower right was about 3-4mm deep. It still hasn't stopped oozing.

Here's the same wound eight hours later. Still hurts. I'm thinking I'll probably get some vicious bruising. We'll see.

Speaking of orange soda...

...I just finished a short shift at the chinese buffet. Good times. About half-way through my shift a handsome young lad made it about ten feet from his seat before he burst in a huge explosion of vomit.

He had just finished a pint of orange...juice.

Close enough anyway. As I mopped up the mess, I couldn't help but think of karma.

-Rusty

Oh the picture. Fanta was actually invented in Nazi Germany when the Coca-Cola GmbH ran out of syrup (imports/exports being restricted) so they came up with a fruit drink from various biproducts of other food-manufacture processes. The poster is a modern invention and, dispite what you might read, and the company was only as complicit in Nazi attrocities as any corporation active in Germany at the time. If you believed eveything you read on the internet, you'd believe that the Coca-Cola company was the driving force behind Nazism, but I guess people don't like big corporations.