I miss books.

In my adjustment to the spartan life there are necessary concessions that must be made.
Space is a limited commodity and so while I do have a laptop, my library is noticeably absent. Currently it lies boxed and neglected in the attic of my parents house.

I do have some books here, but they are of the pulp fiction variety and while temporarily enjoyable, seem to lose their luster soon after a first reading only to be discarded in a pile at the back of my locker never again to see the light of day. Specifically I've been jonesing for a bit of Epictetus lately. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he's considered the father of modern stoic thought. The Enchiridion, a copy of his sayings transcribed from shorthand notes taken by one of his students Flavius Arrian, was my first exposure to his philosophy. In a nutshell it was written around 138 A.D. and was widely used as a manual for the roman foot soldier.

"Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself. abide by them as they were laws, and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them. Don't regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours."

-Epictetus, The Enchiridion


" Even as the Sun doth not wait for prayers and incantations to rise, but shines forth and is welcomed by all: so thou also wait not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to do thy duty; nay, do good of thine own accord, and thou wilt be loved like the Sun. "

" Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account! "

" Crows pick out the eyes of the dead, when the dead have no longer need of them; but flatterers mar the soul of the living, and her eyes they blind."

" It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. "

-Epictetus

Things are great today.
I was able to communicate with the lady at the pet store and got the right additives for my fish tank.
Now the guppies are swimming normally and have more or less stopped lurching around at the bottom.

Also, I have my ride back! I talked to Warrant this morning and he almost wasn't going to give them to me. He claimed that he had told me to do a physical security survey of our base and I hadn't done one. I think he saw the "I'm two seconds from filing wrongful appropriation charges against you for stealing my car sir." look in my eye because he paused for a second and then retrieved the keys saying that I should complete the survey by the end of the month.

I'm kinda pissed about the survey, but have taken good notes on my forays about the perimeter and so only need to convert them from MS Word to whatever official format our physical security department requires.

Last night was crazy crazy crazy!

Early in the morning about 0130 or so, we were alerted by our main gate about a report that one of our sailors had made a mad dash from the cabby of a Yokohama taxi in an attempt to outrun a $130 dollar fare... I can't go into too much detail but as it turns out, we had video footage of his schenanigans and were able to use it to have the cabby positively identify him. From there it was a simple thing to track his deadbeat butt down and haul him back up to where the cabby was in order to persuade him to abandon his temporary foray into a life of crime.

Wouldn't you know it, the cabby agrees to drop the charges if he pays, but the fool hasn't got the cash. Not on him, not in the bank, not available as space on a credit card, he just doesn't have the funds. So, in a last attempt to keep this kid from serious criminal charges we drop a dime to his chain of command, and let them know what's going on and that it'll only take 130 bucks to resolve the issue. Of course they agree to send someone down with the money right away and thank us for helping to take care of it a the lowest possible level. Fifteen minutes later the OOD (Officer Of The Deck) of his ship and LPO (Leading Petty Officer) from his shop show up to pay the debt and take him into custody.

At this point it's like 0200 or so and when the kids Chief and a JG show up to put the pinch on him they are less than pleased. The Chief in particular is feeling a bit "genki" as he was no doubt roused from sleep to attend to the issue at hand. All I could think of as the Chief is giving this kid the stink eye is that the kid isn't going to be able to remember what it's like to walk on land by the time old Chief is done with him.

Speaking of Chiefs, I almost slammed one a little later on in the morning. It's about 0330 and my partner and I are called to respond to three males possibly fighting at the taxi stand. There are only two of us and so we're discussing ways to secure the third individual (handcuff wise) as we whip around and hit the codes (cherries). As we pull up (the codes are off at this point) two salty dogs in civies jump up off a bench and quickly start closing the gap on our unit. My window was already down all the way so I gave them a bit of verbal judo, "Stand Fast RIGHT THERE!" and the pointer finger of justice (yeah you dirt bag), to halt their progress and give my partner and I time to jump out. Surprisingly enough the one in front stopped so fast the other bumped into him. At this point they are obviously extremely intoxicated not to mention missing the third member of their party which is good because we only have two sets of handcuffs but bad because I'm wondering what the hell did they do to the third guy. Being closer to them than my partner is (he's still coming around the unit) I introduce myself and ask for id. They both start smiling, laugh, and fumble for identification.

I caught a whiff of their breath as the wind changed and almost fell over, thankfully it changed again and as the fog cleared I could make out via the id cards they handed me that one of them was a Chief. Judging by the way they were bobbing and weaving as they stood there I'd guess they had a higher alcohol volume than those badly flavored sissy la la drinks you can get about two fingers of for three bucks during happy hour. At this point I'm thinking to myself that they don't look aggressive at all and probably rushed the unit as we pulled up because they thought it was a cab. My partner is coming to the same conclusion I have, and we both take a quick look around to see if the guy's we were sent here for are somewhere else close by.

When asked what happened to their friend, they say he stumbled home but that they are TAD (temporary assigned duty) from another base and they can't remember how to get to their ship. We ask about the reports of fighting and they both look a bit confused and say that they didn't report a fight, but had called security to ask for a CTO van (the Courtesy Turn Over van takes drunk sailors from the main gate to their ship to avoid them falling down a dy dock in a drunken stupor, but had secured a few hours earlier). Normally we wouldn't do this, but since it was early and not a lot was going on and these guy's obviously weren't going to make it on their own, we let em slide into the back seat and dropped em off in front of their ship.

All in all it wasn't a bad night. Nobody got shot, nobody got hurt very badly. This one guy did get cut on a bit, but from what I could make out it wasn't very deep and he had it coming.

Do you think my blog is to "Busy"?

I was noticing all these other blogs that I go to and none of them seem to have really changed their templates.
Of the ones that have changed, they seem to have progressed in more of a minimalist direction.
Maximilism, that's what my blog seems to lean towards.
But is that really a bad thing?

The following post was sent to me via email by an old friend Steve Smith.

Med School:

First-year students at Med School were receiving their first anatomy class with a real dead human body. They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet. The professor started the class by telling them, "In medicine, it is necessary to have 2 important qualities as a doctor. The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the human body." For an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt of the corpse, withdrew it and stuck his finger in his mouth. "Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students. The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns sticking a finger in the butt of the dead body and sucking on it. When everyone had finished, the Professor looked at them and told them, "The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my middle finger and sucked on my index finger. Now learn to pay attention."

Had another award winning night last night...

Basically it was like every night for the past few weeks except that it's starting to get a bit warmer, people still had some yen in their pockets and everybody was feeling a little big genki. We had a few people acting all drunk and disorderly, a fire, and of course the obligatory racist bastard claiming the only reason he'd been arrested was that he was a white guy in a black bar. He was hassling the bartender and who asked us to remove him. We weren't going to apprehend him at first but he became violent and pretty angry when asked to finish his drink and move on out to a different bar, so they slapped him in restraints (cuffed his dumb arse) and brought him in to HQ to determine the level of his alcoholic stupor and arrange for someone from his command to take custody of him. It's nothing that goes on his permanent record, merely a way the Navy has developed to make sure drunken sailors don't become the subject or victim of a mugging, raping, shooting, or fall in a dry-docks on the way home, get run over in traffic, etc...

They got him back to HQ and he began calling on those of us who were white to back him up and get him in contact with our watch commander. He kept saying we had to stick up for him because we were supposed to stick together. It turns out he's done things like this a lot in the past and they Navy was actually processing him for separation. As we ever so lightly placed his daintily restrained form into a unit to transport him back to his command he left us with to many cusswords to remember in this post and a promise that he was going to talk to "The Man" (Our Capt.) who was white, and that he'd see us all going to mast before he left the Navy.


As he rolled off into the blackness still fire-mouthed and bitter at being llightly placed and daintily restrained, all I could think of was "Why do they have to run off and join the Navy..."

Character History -

     She awoke without moving, nostrils flaring slightly, involuntarily, someone had entered the room. Nobody that quiet can be up to any good, she knew this automatically. Calming herself, eyes closed, she purposefully began inhaling through both her nose mouth, rewarded a moment later with the scent of industrial strength laundry cleaner. Freshly washed gear?
     Another recruit. Possibly with a message? No they'd been to quiet. Was she late for a watch? No, not her night. They weren't moving whoever they were. Was she mistaken? Could all this be some sort of dream. No, no dream. She'd been in this rack for two years now spent countless nights staring at the ceiling, listening to nothing but the atmo as it bounced of f the walls. The room was not empty, whatever else it was this was definitely not a dream. Was it perhaps a test? Perhaps.

THE ROMANCE OF ORIENTAL BONE CHINA...

Lorna is one of my Mom's oldest friends. I can remember my mom visiting her around when I was maybe six or seven although I think they've known each other for longer than that. She had this huge old dog, Grover, who was part wolf part husky. Grover was just plain huge but at the same time such a baby. My brothers and I were pretty small at the time and this dog would actually let us try to ride her. Needless to say it never went to far as the body mechanics of a wolf mountain are far from conducive to bareback riding, but it was fun to try and Grover never seemed to mind.

When I found out I was coming to Japan, I asked Lorna if there was anything over here that she wanted and she mentioned a bone china tea set. Not realizing that it's not like we're living in the early 20th century where the quality of what she could get here was better than what she could get stateside, not to mention that this is Japan not Hong Kong, and that she'd probably pay more over here for a set of the same quality as she would for one from a department store over there, I agreed without hesitation. Now that I know better I haven't really burst her bubble because I think she's involved in the whole romantic idea of getting a set of bone china from a young sailor in the orient.

Hmmm. Now that I put it to words, it does make me smile. Reminds me of growing up and visiting Grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner when she'd pull out all the china my pop bought her from when he was stationed over here. My Grandpa on the other side would do the same thing, but with china my uncles had picked up when they were over here. Sort of tweaks at the heart with warm fuzzies, remaining me of a kinder, purer time.

Could it be that I'm falling prey to the same romance of oriental bone china? Perhaps I should pick up a set for myself as well...

My MA1 got the wrong message on my punishment and rather than giving me the two weeks without a car, he also added a bunch of other crap that was supposed to be only for the guy ho was driving the police unit. I went through with it tonight, but asked him to check with Warrant because I didn't think the other guy's punishment was supposed to apply to me. He's a pretty stand up guy and said that seemed pretty fair and promised to check into it further.

One of the extra punishments was a foot patrol perimeter survey. I thought this was going to really suck, but it was actually quite nice. Japan is a beautiful country, and the perimeter of a naval base contains a lot of shoreline. The moon was out, the waves rolled in and we hoofed it about halfway around before getting called back in to take care of some other stuff. We were going to do the other half tonight, but it's payday and it's not going to rain, which means we're probably gonna have our hands full with drunken sailors, drunken cheating spouses who's better halves are out to sea, and anyone else who feels like wooping it up because it's the first decent night in a week and they have some fresh yen in their pocket. That being the case I don't think they'll have time for us to finish the perimeter survey, but I can always hope.

Saw some interesting stuff last night...
I was on patrol outside the base and we saw this kid not really "covered" in blood, but pretty bloody none the less. To make a short story long he and a guy from his ship had words over who was or wasn't going to drink these two shots of tequila and he ended up putting the other guy's head through the plate glass door on a standing beer cooler.

OK, So my meeting with the Warrant went pretty good. He pretty much said the charges were a bunch of BS but since it was a LTCDR who sent a personal email about it to the CAPT of my base, and the CAPT sends it on down the chain, there's not a lot he could do to help us out. I understood that and told him I wasn't interested in trying to sea-lawyer my way out of it, but rather wanted to take responsibility for my actions and accept whatever came along with it.

As crazy as it sounds, I think this may have been the single best thing I've ever done at this command. Before this nobody in the upper chain at my command really new who I was and, while this may not have been the best way to get to know them I think they now have a grudging respect for how I handle business.

The thing of it is that I was really torn about how to go about this. As Madchatthew mentioned in an earlier reply I have a bit of a history of abusing the rules in every way possible to weasel my way out of trouble. The thing of it is that the command has no jurisdiction out in Japan where this LTCDR saw me. Furthermore they can't legally do anything to me as I was in civilian clothes in a personal vehicle on my own time. If Japanese Police had caught me the story would be different, but without them the Navy really wouldn't have a legal leg to stand on if I wanted to push the issue and get a JAG. I'm a different person now than I was when MadChatthew and I went to the tech and as foolish as I feel putting it to words have put a round-turn on my evil ways and am trying, these days, to be as honest and upright as possible.

So now you see the crux of the situation. Here I am in a position to threaten the command with a JAG and get the whole thing put behind me except that:
1) I really was (for the most part) doing what the LTCDR claimed in the email.
2) If I lied to get out of trouble then I really hadn't changed that much after all.
3) I prayed about it opened my Bible and asked God what the right thing to do was and he actually specifically answered me. As it turns out I had opened to Proverbs 16:2 which says "We can always prove that we are right, but is the lord convinced."

So, to make a short story long, I rogered up to it and took my medicine like a man. Things turned out pretty good after all and although I can't drive my car for two weeks that's a whole lot better than I was expecting. The guy driving the police unit also went up to the Warrant with me and he ended up getting a month of perimeter foot patrol out of the deal. That may not sound so bad, but we work 12 hour shifts and are the largest naval base on this side of the world. Needless to say between the two of us he definitely got the short end of the stick.

I got a call from my Operations officer today. He said that someone called in to tell them that I was drag racing against a police unit out in Japan this morning. I have to go see him tomorrow morning and they won't tell me what actions if any they intend to take or even the extent of what I'm being acused of. They won't tell me who called but I have a feeling it's someone who knows me, recognized my car and wanted to "hook me up." The Warrant said they called in my plate number, but if they claim I was drag racing like hell then how did they copy the plate? They also said I was driving with passengers (I wasn't) they misidentified by name the driver of the police unit and said that there were passengers in it as well. Like I said they were trying to hook me up and stretched the truth of the matter to the breaking point. Anyway, I have a feeling this will really screw me because my command has a history of taking little things that would be ignored if they happened to anyone else and really making an example out of the people who do them simply because we belong to their command.

Living in Japan, I had the unique opportunity last night to talk with a Japanese National at some length about the hostages that are being held pending Japan's removal of it's forces from Iraq. My friend basically said that he did not think Prime Minister Koizumi is wrong to stand firm against cowardly threats, but in the same breath said that he believes the three will die tomorrow.

In order to fully appreciate Japan's position, you have to realize that this is the first time they have comitted troops abroad since WWII. The families of the three and many other Japanese are protesting Japan's involvment in Iraq even though they are there in a humanitarian capacity only.
-More on this later, it's been a long night.

In my stereo now I have a sublime/cake mix that makes me want to speed all the way to Tokyo. I can't explain why but these two groups just complement each other. Here's a list of songs on the CD.

Sublime - What I got Cake- Comfort Eagle Sublime - April 26, 1992 Cake- Meanwhile Rick James Sublime - No Woman No Cry Cake- Sheep Go To Heaven Sublime - CrazyFool Cake- Symphony in C Sublime - BadFish Cake- The Distance Sublime - Ebin Cake- Walk On By Sublime - Why Can't We Be Friends.:

Koulouria, My Favorite Cookies Ever

1-cup crisco 1-cup sugar 1/2-cup milk 1/2-c orange juice 4-eggs, well beaten 1-egg white (for brushing the top of cookie) 1-tsp. baking soda 2-tsp. baking powder 1-tsp.vanilla 1-pinch salt Crushed Candycanes 5-6-cups flour

Preheat oven to 350" Cream crisco and margaine with sugar. Add well beaten eggs. Dissolve soda in orange juice. Gradually add dry ingredients with the liquids and vanilla. Dough will be soft, add enough flour so you can handle it without sticking, Chill.(I chilled mine overnight, handled really easy.) Take a small piece of dough the size of the walnut and roll it into a cigar shape. Takeit and twist . When placing on cookie sheet, sort of press the ends down so they will not untwist. Brush the tops of the cookie with the egg white and water mixture, add about a Tbsp or two to make egg wash. Sprinke the tops of cookies with crushed candy canes Bake at 350" for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Name my fishies! The tank is up and running and today received it's first inhabitants, two sucker fishes (Jeraldo and Rivera) and six other little brightly colored fishes of dubious origin. (I think they're guppies, but don't know for sure.) At any rate there are three male and three female and all six of the little biters need names. Ever wanted to put in your two cents worth about life, step up to the soapbox cause this is your lucky day. To vote, simply leave your suggestions in the form of comments and if I get more than six replies then I'll very democratically take the six that I like best.

GZGGGgRRRAAAA
long day
I almost had to impound this little old ladies car tonight. It's yearly Japanese inspection had expired, making it no longer legal to drive. I explained this to the lady and asked her just to turn around, but she insisted I was wrong and she was right even though the sticker on her windshield and her paperwork clearly sided with me. When it finally sunk in that I wasn't going to let her pass she asked to speak to my manager and so they had a unit come and escort her and her car into our HQ so they could more closely examine her paperwork. In the end I was right and she was wrong. (Rob, there's a lesson in that last sentance somewhere) but the watch supervisor had a heart and after thouroughly educating her on the errors of her ways let her go on her way. I was glad to see she got out of it without an impounded vehicle, but part of me still wanted to run around her in circles screaming "I told you so!"

Tracy as she danced with James I’m home tonight, chilling and grooving to some new Tracy Chapman that’s fresh off the web. Watching your incense as backlit by black light in slim threading tendrils it billows to cover the room. She had just begun Crossroads and for the briefest of moments I caught you like a memory drifting along with the scent of sandalwood and poetry. It occurs to me suddenly as I’m sitting here relishing these fleeting few moments of Zen intent on your smoke as it curls through the darkness that I should render the last of them to immortality. And so I write to you, Remember me to Arizona. -Asa

I'm off to go beach combing today!
It's a little on the overcast and crappy side, but not so bad besides that.
I finally bit the bullet and bought an aquarium the other day.
I've been jonesing for one for the past six months but have never made the leap and decided this payday was the day. The tank I purchased is pretty sweet. It's about 32x10 with beveled front corners. I picked up the rock that day and have everything ready to go but didn't want to pay 50 or 60 bucks for a few pieces of coral to throw in there as well. So, I'm going beach combing for some interesting driftwood and the like and then will sterilize the crap out of it and hope that it doesn't kill my fishies.

In an attempt to maintain the emotional distance necessary to avoid becoming to attached to the subjects of such a risky endeavor I've named my first two fish Axel and Rose. That way if they turn belly up or take that long slow swim to the bottom I'll have the strength to carry on with my vision of a happy aquarium and remove the debris that offended them to death in order to move it into balance.

Had a going away party for a good friend last night. He's been in Japan for ten years now, is married to a Japanese national and doesn't really want to head stateside. You can all laugh if you want, but something I've noticed in my travels abroad is that culture shock when returning to the states is often more severe than it is when you go from the states to a new country. Not sure why this is, perhaps it's because we forget all the little nuances of American culture that have been dropped from our daily routines during the process of our adaptation to another culture. Or more specifically perhaps it's our distress at being slapped across the chops with having lost a part of what makes us Americans without ever having realized we'd even lost it until that point.

In short, we expect to be different and not fit in when we move to Japan, or England, or Italy, but never realize that we will be equally out of place when we return stateside.

Cherry Blossoms I happened upon
while I was walking home.

All in all it'll be worth it all when I get home. When I cross that last mountain, lay down my heavy load. Tears of joy will fill my eyes and I'll just sit right down and cry. Cause all in all it'll be worth it all when I get home. -unknown

More Cherry Blossoms I saw on the way home this morning. Yeah the photos are a bit on the small n crappy side, but they were taken with my cell phone so I can't really bitch too much

people bitch about me not updating my blog on a daily basis. Sometimes I'll be out of comission for a bit just because I don't feel like looking at a computer. Yesterday for instance I went to work at 1600 and didn't get home until 0930 this morning and that was only because I fell asleep in the dentists chair and even though the dentist understood completely, I took that as a sign perhaps I needed a few winks before finishing my errends for the day. I realize that's only 17 1/2 hours, but you have to realize that about 15 of that was actually spent walking a beat.