En Passant

Another sunny day here in ”Koowait" as many Okies say.  Not a whole lot going on, although yesterday was pretty windy at times.  As I sit here and watch the TV picture skip, jump and shake we now know it's not due to the wind yesterday... AFN just sucks.  AFN (Armed Forces Network).  It does suck.  The only perk is you get the pay-per-view events free.  Unfortunately I don't enjoy watching the "Ultimate Fights", two half naked, sweaty and bloody dudes rolling around in a loveless embrace does not appeal to me.  Maybe there will be something worthwhile come on and I will have to eat my words.  The worst thing about AFN is the commercials.  As well all know most people hate commercials unless it's the Super Bowl.  Well... here we have commercials but they are ALL military related.  You think it's bad hearing about erectile dysfunction... try watching a cheesy low budget Army commercial on Information Security.  I would rather watch two half-naked, sweaty and bloody dudes roll around together.  They are awful... just awful and you can't get away because they're on every channel.  And for some reason all the movie channels have Arabic subtitles.  Why?  I don't know.  I didn't know a lot of Arabic people watched AFN Europe (that's where our signal comes out of).  So for instance, I was watching "Inglorious Basterds" the other evening and like half of that movie has subtitles.  Subtitles piss me off anyway because I'm not watching a movie to read... that's the point of the movie YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ.  Not only is there subtitles to convert from French and German to English but there is subtitles to convert from French, German and English to Arabic.  You can't even see what's going on cause subtitles cover up 2/3 of the screen! 

En Passant - French: "in the pawn’s passing"

Everyday that goes by I realize more and more how closely the US Military and the world resembles chess.  And we are just a pawn.  If you are familiar with chess the pawn is your most invaluable piece.  Some may say owe well you couldn't win without your pawns... well if you are good enough you probably could.  Pawn’s are great for testing the water and making mistakes.  They never really have a big impact on the chess match.  They are the most prevalent of the chess piece in turn making them the least valuable.  They are the most restricted on movement making them the least lethal.  They are also the most simple design making them the cheapest to manufacture.  We (my unit) are a pawn.  Probably not even a whole pawn.  Maybe more like a piece of one pawn.  Maybe the whole Oklahoma National Guard makes up one pawn.  I'm not sure but we are very pawn-like.  I am laying this foreground to better explain the mission change that has come down the "ole shit pipe".  In the coming weeks the QRF mission my Battery (company sized element of less than 100 people) has been fulfilling will be transferred over to a new incoming unit.  It's a Military Police Unit from I don't know where.  We will do a RIP (Relieve in Place) and TOA (Transfer of Authority) and immediately following we will move to Camp Beuhring...  That is the shitty part.  I'm pretty sure if you've read any of these blogs you are aware of what I think about Camp Beuhring.  Anyway we are going to reform as a firing battery and actual do artillery stuff.  I don't know why yet and I probably never will.  I'm not going to talk about it anymore because it could be top secret important stuff since the 160th FA is involved.  Not.  It actually just makes me mad talking about it. 

Saturday the 17th Austin and I are going to attempt a half-marathon just down the road at a neighboring Air Force Base.  We talked about running the full marathon but decided against it.  SGT Stricklin (one of the guys in my platoon) is going to run it but he is a freak.  His lungs are abnormally large for his body type.  Again I'm just doing it for the t-shirt so hopefully I finish! 

Our workout from last night...

16 SEP 2011 - Going to Beuhring

Bench Press @ 225# X 3 reps

Ball Push-ups (alternate medicine ball from left to right hand to increase instability) X 10 reps

Dips @ BW X 10 reps

We did these exercises for 7 sets.  We were attempting 10 sets but I couldn't go anymore… I hit muscle failure.  So after the seventh set we did some abs where we spent most of our time talking.  It was a pretty good little workout, I'm definitely sore today!