Come on, two more... oh, nevermind.

Yesterday I decided to hit up the gym and met my Chief there. This dude, since he decided to talk a big talk and talk crap to me I decided what our routine was going to be. I said fine, you want to call me a pussy today we are going to work out chest and tri's.

"Uh, alright... but my stomach has been killing me, don't mind me if I have to take off in the middle and use the restroom."

"Haha, alright."

And since you wanted to talk smack we will be doing chest and tri's until our muscles give out. Well he didn't believe me until after the first few sets. What we ended up doing was upping our sets by one and keeping the same reps with 6 excersices for each muscle group. So instead of 3 sets of 10 benchpresses we did 4 sets, but I followed it up with time limits between sets. Basically by the time one of us was done with a set it was 45 seconds, so time for the next set. Here's what we did:

4 Sets of 10

Chest

• Flat benchpresses
• Incline benchpresses
• Incline fly's
• Incline cable fly's
• Decline cable fly's
• I don't know what it's called so I will call them the Motivated Enduring Combat Killers (MECK) which consist of skullcrushers, immediately followed with lying chest extensions (awkward excercise), and flat benchpresses.

Triceps

• Single cable tricep pulldown's
• Single cable tricep extension
• Tricep pulldowns, palms up
• Tricep pulldowns, palms down
• Tricep extensions
• MECK's

Okay, in all it took about an hour... This mofo was complaining 10 minutes into it.

"Damn bro, I am sick today," Haha it's alright... I am not an expert, by any means... I was dying too.

Either way it hit that point where my muscles just weren't working, got past the pain and entered the disabled threshhold. Like when I went to dry myself off from the shower I had trouble getting my back due to my triceps vibrating in disability like they were crying out for rest.

So back to the main point... My chest feels like someone held onto it for dear life for 8 hours, that deep fiery feeling everytime I move. FUN! :)

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

After having this game for 9 years, I finally decided to play through the Single-Player Campaigns. Yea some people like to read, some like to write, some not do any of the above but I like to play games, this way I can see the story that is being told... Although I do want to develop the attention span to sit patiently while scanning pages in hopes of jumping onto the next best page I ever read. Aside from the jokes, I have read some of my six book Stephen King novel and do love it but just don't have that desire to crack it open.

Warcraft III is a real-time strategy game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. This basically means you command units to fulfull the missions at hand. It may sound easy but there is a lot of strategy involved. I played through this campaign and it took me a good week of on and off playing to beat the game! The story was awesome, it shed a lot of light on what I was actually doing and interacting with in World of Warcraft, so it was pretty thweet. I decided to start on the expansion, The Frozen Throne, and thus far I have done one side mission with the founding of Durotar.. which took me a good two hours (I was really REALLY ready to move on! (I want to scream that right now but people would think I'm crazy)).

Wow, having a game for six years and now playing it, you ask? Well here's the thing -- Warcraft III comes equipped with a very powerful, unique, and user friendly editor which allows you to create custom games. You can literally make movies if you want.... .... .... ........ seriously, people make cinematics. For the most part people strive on making the next best competitive map that can be distributed online, via Battle.net (the online client), like Dota. DotA... wtf? It's Defense of the Acients, an AoS (Aeon of Strife) map that originated from Starcraft -- it's a map that allows a five versus five online battle between heroes that are intriquitely developed. This isn't a review of this map but as an example of the impact Wacraft III's editor has had on the community, this custom map is now partial to official tournaments which people actually win money through, it may sound silly but the gaming industry is booming and is now socially excepted. So with this powerful editor at my hands I have spent countless amounts of hours downloading and creating custom maps. I have played really horrible maps and really addicting maps. For some reason the single player campaigns never intrigued me, until now.

I sat through intesne gameplay and not so intense and frustrating restarting-the-map gamplay but all in all I am glad I finally played through the real game. It was a great experience and now I am excited to play The Frozen Throne, just so I can see where this story goes.

Ease of difficulty:  

It requires a lot of strategy and some missions are rough, especially for first time RTS players.

Replayability:

Honestly, I really enjoyed it but, playing it again would be a neucance.

Graphics: 

For when they came out, they were awesome.

Audio:

The entire story is fed through an audio script, very nice. Battling becomes annoying at times

with the same death noises repeating.

Story:

Awesome! Like I said it allowed me to catch up with the lore. Great adventure either way.

Overall:

An awesome adventure. I recommend this for everyone, as I do for any Blizzard game!

What games are similiar to this?

• Command and Conquer (C&C) and all it's franchises
• Krush Kill N' Destroy (KKND)
• Dune
• Age of Empires (AoE)
• Starcraft
• Total Annihilation (TA)
• Civilizations
• Empire Earth
• Populous
• Homeworld
• Kohan
• Age of Mythology (AoM)
• Savage
• Dragonshard
• Machines
• Earth 2150

Resources: Blizzard Entertainment Website, Warcraft III break down

Some randoms

Thanks for the comments, mom and my wife :). It was a pretty moving experience -- getting packages from the kindness of peoples hearts... it's crazy (in a good way!)

Anyway this is a little randomness post, maybe I can make it an exclusive bit on here, and it will involve me pointing out random thoughts and or visuals. Here it goes:

• Cracked wrists -- Like seriously, my wrists are bothering the crap out of me. I think it's an allergic reaction to the types of gloves we use when dealing with patients. Of course hand sanitizer and soap doesn't help with moisturizing so my way to solve it is by putting bacitracin on it.
• My Volcom wallet -- Has been made fun of so many times. People say it looks like a girl wallet. I have even had someone say 'Only someone from California would carry a wallet like that.' This somebody had no idea I was from California. He was right.
• Afghani Flies -- You haven't had problems with flies until you experience Afghanistan Flies. They are the most persistent little buggers ever. Literally, you will shoo them away from you and moments later they land on the same spot you shooed them from, they only fly away for 2 - 6 seconds. The most annoying part about it is they land on the same location every time, for me, they land on the top of my head. It's one of those feelings where it disturbs the least amount of feeling but once you experience the feather-like sensation it will send shivers throughout your body.... annoying.
• Polacks -- I have never in my life experienced an influx in Ski's. Well around here in Afghanistan it's almost cool not to be named Ski, and I am talking about other nations' uniformed members as well. It is getting to the point where I don't even pay attention when I hear someone calling out for 'Ski'. Damn Polacks and their 10-letter last names that end in Ski.
• Baby room -- My wife and her mother, my mother in-law, decorated the bay's room and it looks amazing. Our little girl is going to be so spoiled.   

< Click for bigger version >

 Ski - In reference to Polish last names that end in ski.

Gifts that keep giving

More like Prout High School, thank you very much.

I carried on my normal business for the day, you know waking up and doing morning deeds except morning for me is mid-day/night, and I run into a buddy of mine who tells me I have a bunch of packages and they are taking up space in the mailroom. My inital reaction is to shrug it off as I feel like he was just messing with me. I then begin to brush my teeth and another one of my buddies gets out of the shower and explains that I have packages I need to pick up and that with the amount I have and the dimensions of the boxes I will need a car to take them back to the barracks. Holy crap, I guess my friend wasn't lying.

So from all the excitement of the unknown it brightens my day knowing that I have mail and I happily trot into work. First thing I do is hit up the mail room, obviously, and am pointed to a pile of boxes on the floor with my name on them. Turns out these boxes were put together by a woman who is associated with a care packaging service for members of the armed forces, completely surprising and out of left field!

To my surprise, an exciting surprise, these boxes contained a plethora of items that can be useful for not only me but anyone who is deployed. I am talking random goodies like Beef Jerky, toothpaste, blankets, pillows, crackers, games (fricken Texas Hold'Em!!!!), socks, towels, etc... So much stuff it's rediculous! Now that I think about it my room mates are going to hate me, lol, when I bring all this stuff back -- need to make some room in our already makeshift living arrangements. Anyway, the best part of the packages are the letters that came with them. It literally took me an hour to read all these letters from the Seniors of Prout High School, Rhode Island -- Mark are you up to this?

Anyway these kids made me smile, apparently every single one them is stressed from college applications and some of them did a lot of talking about random things which cracked me up. This shipment is amazing and I want to thank everyone who coordinated this and spent the time and money to do such a selfless act. I will be e-mailing this Mary who coordinated it all!

Just know that packages put smiles on everyone faces, it's amazing what the little things can do to you when you are deployed.

Anti-malarial dreams...

So part of the requirements for deploying to Afghanistan is to recieve anti-malarial medications from your parent command so you can stay safe from malaria... obviously. There are two kinds, Doxycycline and Mefloquine, I take Mefloquine and am fortunate because it's only a weekly pill as opposed to its predecessor, Doxy is daily.

With Mefloquine it is stated that some side-effects are vivid dreams, you are thinking 'Yea yea, whatever' you know? So was I. The first week of taking it I was waking up abruptly, sweating, heart pounding, thinking 'What the hell?' It didn't happen all the time but it was a little uncomfortable. Second week, the dreams started becoming more and more vivid almost like I was there - you know those dreams you get where you wake up and you have feelings that stick with you all day, from the dream? Yea like that stuff.

I had one dream that my wife and I were able to squeeze our unborn child out of her belly and just talk with her and play with her for a while... trippy, as when she didn't want us to play with her anymore she curdled up into a fetal ball and sucked herself back into my wife's belly button. Don't even ask.

The trippiest one so far, which is the whole reason why I am writing this, was a psychodelic one... like hippie shit. I was a hero, some sort of agile combat expert, and was venturing through waste high waters, like a swamp environment, when all of a sudden was attacked by an alligator or what my mind percieved an alligator to be as it had like four eyes and two mouths. I was able to wrestle it's every move, even in it's hunting grounds, like I was laughing in it's face, and eventually flipped the abomination alligator to it's destiny... death.

After this fierce, but quick, battle I waded through the waters and became annoyed with the limited movement of the thick swampy waters and was able to summon and dolphin which aided me in the speed I needed to reach my ultimate destination... wherever it was. I grabbed the flipper, owning the dolphin, and picked up speed as it swam perilously in and out of the not-so-thick waters, now.

Eventually I was able to unequip the dolphin and glide above the water at impressive speeds. All of a sudden my vision became obstructed as a huge cobra, huge as in unrealistic... like 40 feet tall, arose from the waters and spread it's neck appendages. These appendages sparkled/glittered in any and all the brightest colors you can imagine and with every move I made the scales hit a different angle of light, reinforcing the distracting gleams. Still, I approached this enemy with confidence. Quickly, it struck at me but I was able to dodge it with ease as I maneuvered my way around the serpant, almost like I was mocking it. Then, I was impressed and quite fearful when I noticed this ungodly creature could spit subdued crosses, yes crosses, like religious crosses, at amazing speeds, almost like they were being fired out of a minigun. I can remember the sounds and the speed of these crosses when the barely missed me, thunking in the waters and sticking in the murky muds of the swamp. I continued to circle around the beast, still hovering above the water, and was able to maneuver to the rainbow-cobra's hindside. From this side it was a guarantee that I could gain the killing blow and I did... ran right up it's spiny back and somehow gorged right into the vital mappings of this intriguing monster.

I woke up right after making the killing blow with the mindset that I just destroyed a 40 foot rainbow cobra that shoots crosses.

Now tell me these meds don't mess with you.

Care packages

Are definitely morale boosters... and weight boosters as well.

In all seriousness though, I have received two care packages from my dad. Good guy, gotta love him. Because of this I now have an assortment of magazines, pounds of junk food, coffee, sheets, and a pillow. Now for the average take-everything-for-granted American, it sounds unappealing and worthless. I'll tell you what, it makes a world of a difference when you are away in a country you know nothing about, let alone deal with mortar fire, death and dying patients, chalky air environments, massive amounts of dust, dryness, cracking fingers, knuckles, toes, and skin, long working shifts, co-workers' moods, job knowledge, walking half a mile to work/home, etc...

Now, by all means, I am not complaining; just putting it into perspective that aside for all the shit a normal person thinks they deal with, all of what we deal with changes person forever. I don't care who you are. There is no coming back from this place with the same mentality as you came in with.

How do care packages play a part in this? Aside from all the crap we have to deal with (refer to the short list above) care packages just make it all better. To know you have family, friends, and loved ones thinking about you and spending time and effort into packing junk into a box and going out of their way to develop a more comfortable environment that they won't be a part of is completely selfless and totally appreciated.

So dad, and Debbie. Thank you so much for what has been sent thus far. I love you both and am very happy to have you as a father and step mother.

Oh and just one more thing... cookies... good but next time make sure a piece of bread or slice of an apple accompanies the cookies to retain moisture. For the most part the integrity is worth salivating over but the wrong amount of pressure to the touch will crumble the amazingness. Not that I don't scramble to pick up the scraps, along with licking my fingers. It's just that I know the intentions of a good cookie is that of softness and that fresh-out-of-the oven feeling/look to it.

Very well done and put together though, I must say.

So yea, care packages... they rock!

Give me a break...

Our job here is for one reason, and one reason only; Enduring the utmost amount of persistance into maintaining a better state of health, and if that is not possible then to offer information and or direction, for our patients. I can understand feeling like you are out of the loop when tons of activity and movement clouds your workspace but sometimes observation entails expectation.

What am I talking about? Since both of my Shift IC's are off today (tonight) that made me in charge, next highest rank always gets tagged, so upon my arrival to work I get handed a plethora of pass-down information... okay, nothing surprising about that. Anyway, one of the information consisted of a landing time of when a patient was arriving, which no one knew the ETA of, by the way, and the others were about patient transfers that were to happen at a later time, cool, I got this. So upon me settling into work another colleague walks in and I begin to explain to her the plans for the patient transfers and ask her if she will be okay staying behind. Communication was straight forward, to me at least. Soon after the agreeance was in place there is a call at the front desk and it just so happened to be the information on when the patient was arriving... 10 minutes, shit! That means we need to be out on the flight line... now!

The Doc wanted to join so she asked: "Is is here now?"

"Yes ma'am. Let's get going."

It seemed clear what we were doing as everyone else was hustling around getting gear ready and flying out the door to the flight line. Proper protocol is to grab a radio, huge indication that something is happening... huge.... maybe because we never grab radios and do radio checks just for the hell of it.

Anyway, we pick up the patient and continue with our night. Eventually the time came to pick up the transfer patients and we end up equipping the ambulances with the proper gear when I decide to go in for the radio. This colleague of mine approaches me, all serious and quite emotional: "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure," we walk outside.

Her complaint consisted of how she didn't know anything that was happening and that, me as the Shift IC, 'well not really the Shift IC but, whatever,' failed to sit her down in a breifing room with a projected map and a laser pointer guide to go over the executive plans for the night... monotone voice, excessive slapping of the paper map, that underminding look while pulling down the glasses to emphasize my point, and all. She also brought up that I should have asked her if everything was fine at the front desk and if she could man it while we do our jobs. Sarcasm aside, me being the nice guy I am, I side with her just for the mere sake of peace in the workspace, plus arguing with her is like arguing with a brick wall. The things I did agree with is that I should have told her about what we were doing when picking up the patient, the first one that we only had 10 minutes to prepare for, but, then again common sense would have alleviated her worries about where her crew was. The fact that I picked up a radio and did radio checks, alone, should have proved everything that was going on. Well looks like I need to start breaking everything down to this girl. My thoughts: How is it that YOU are the ONLY one who doesn't know what's going on?

So, me being the independent leader that I am (is it so bad that I assume that you know your job well enough to do it?) I now understand that some people may need to be told what to do and or explained everything whether or not it effects the given circumstances (like, to me, patients are what really matters, and they were taken care of without problems occuring).

Like the title says...