Small World

A few days ago I ran in to a friend of mine from a course I went to in Alabama a few years ago. I told I'd stop by her office here so we could catch up. Last time I was here I ran in to another of my friends from that course. I didn't particularly enjoy that class, I thought the curriculum epitomized the way the Air Force has its head in the sand regarding the current conflicts, but I liked my classmates.

The other crazy small world moment was when I looked up at one of our TVs. As always, AFN News is a funny funny thing. A little bit of all the cable news networks so of course we, the steely eyed killers, are watching Rachel Maddow's show. And I knew the guest. Cool. I'd actually helped proofread for one of his books.

So I emailed him to let him know I saw him on TV again. I guess he's doing more MSNBC these days than Fox, even though he got his TV start as a regular expert on Fox News, because he's not a fan of enhanced interrogation methods. I'll add that he is a former Navy SERE instructor and counter-intelligence expert and not just some overnight pundit.

Anyway, he's working on a new book and sent me the manuscript. Nice. I don't think I'll get paid, but I will get a mention in the acknowledgements and learn a lot in the process. Nice resume bullet too, maybe.

I also heard back from our career field manager at the National Guard Bureau that he may be able to argue for central funding for a list of training courses I sent to him (along with justifications in both fiscal and mission-driven terms). That would be great. My goal is to meet our Active Duty counterparts where they are going in terms of training rather than try to just catch up to where they are now. Ironically, due to the crazy operations tempo, it may be possible for us Guard guys to pull that off since we have a slower deployement pace. We'll see what happens.

Today's other big even was wearing a clean uniform. My other uniform wasn't dirty or smelly really, just dusty. But it was my only Army uniform so it was the only uniform I'd worn up until this point. Not ideal. Fortunately I got some spares from a buddy.

Unfortunately, the spares came in a variety of sizes. I was able to piece together one set that was almost right. The pants fit fine. The shirt is a medium extra-long. We may joke about being knuckledragging Mongo-types, but my sleeve is apparently not that much longer than my inseam. It wears more like an ACU tunic than a normal ACU top. Close enough for now though.

Usually I only wear the uniform jacket when walking to and from work and to and from the chow hall anyway. Otherwise I'm happier in my t-shirt. Especially cause now I have my super awesome merino wool t-shirts in a close-enough-to-work-with-the-uniform color. Good times.

I also had to cut off my first callus of this trip. They form. They get torn off. Once they start coming it can be easier to just cut them off and make it clean. A new one forms and all is well.

I've also been informed that my posts are more interesting this time around. I think I'm a little more relaxed, the environment is a little less spooky, and I'm taking some notes during the day to log things that I think are worth sharing. Maybe that's it. I don't know.