A hose up your nose for the mace in the face!

That's right, today we qualified to carry O.C. (pepper) spray. I've been sprayed twice now, and let me tell you this time was much easier than the other. Although our instructors didn't want to admit it, the stuff we're going to carry here, which is also what we qualified with, doesn't hold a candle to the raging wildfire that they shot us with in Texas. Don't get me wrong it still hurt; but well, it's like this...

Have your momma hit you in the head with a frying pan, it's gonna hurt. Then have Sammy Sosa hit you in the head with a angry red, fresh off the stove, so hot it's white in the middle, frying pan; and leave it there for ten minutes.

I think you get the picture now, both of em hurt, but one's just an entirely new level of pain.

Had an interesting night last night. I was able to secure a crime scene and observe an NCIS agent in action. The circumstances surrounding the whole situation were exceedingly unfortunate but are something I'm going to have to get used to.

What can I say, some days are good, some days are bad.
Life goes on and I'll be there to write the report when it's over.

My orders came in but they didn't include a dog...

This is a mixed blessing indeed. On the one hand I didn't want an MWD and having one would have added a lot of hours to my work day. On the other hand Bomb dogs save lives, and if I could have been a part of that I'd do it gladly. As things go my orders have been cut without a canine, however my department career councilor is looking into where the dog orders were dropped in the hopes of getting them back for me. Either way I'll be happy, but not having a dog will definitely free me up to develop professionally in other areas.

HOLY CRAP!
I was browsing the net while composing this post and came across this. It's a new film called "Sky Captain & the World Of Tomorrow" and it's being touted as the most stylistically original picture since 'Being John Malchevich'. Whether you like this sort of thing or not, do yourself a favor and go the above link then The Film/trailers to see a slice of it's CGI goodness. Apparently the actors for the film were shot on bluescreen and almost everything else in the movie was added on via CGI.

The bottom line:
If you like Errol Flynn, Buckling Swashes, Crimpson Skies, Metropolis (either one), The Old James Bond, The First Batman, The Words Stylized, Erstwhile, Intrepid, and Futuristic in the same sentence, or Angelina Jolie With An Eye Patch -harr harr harr, then there's only one thing to do... You've got to see this movie!

It's been a busy few days...
I took my advancement exam and think I bombed it horribly, I took a bit of time to start working with a dog handler from the kennels, and think I have secured a position in the MWD department, as their administrative aid. For the most part, work is pretty normal; a few fights, a few destructions, you get the picture. There was a death yesterday, but I can't really talk about it as it's still under investigation.

O yeah~ The Vikes won their season opener against Dallas! And lets be clear here, by win I mean they whipped 'em like a five dollar mule.

I was able to help save a life tonight...
It should be clear that the hero of this story is my friend who jumped into that polluted cesspool of a bay to save a sailor who was going under. Everybody involved in the evolution helped save his life, but if my boy hadn't dove in after him it would have been all over but the crying.

As I was working on a Christmas leave chit at HQ, a call came in for "man overboard". No it wasn't a drill, the man had fallen approximately sixty feet off the fantail of a carrier before he hit the water. We scrambled our units to the nearest point of land and I arrived in time to see my boy MA2, responding in a patrol boat. The victim was going under, so this dude straps on a life jacket and dives into the water after him. He secured the victim but the boat began drifting away from him. The bowhook riding with him, who was brand new to the position, didn't know how to coxswain (drive the boat), so I switched radio channels to her network and began to give her instructions on what levers to push and how to turn the wheel. With no experience in coxswaining it was too dangerous for her to get close to our people in the water, so she drove the boat over to the pier I was on and myself and an MA1 jumped down onto the craft. From that point, I was able to pilot it over for the rescue where she held it steady while the MA1 and I pulled first the victim then our patrolman out of the briny deep.

Warm woolen blankets and EMT's later MA2 was relieved to shower off the crap he'd been swimming in and the victim was rushed to the emergency room while I stayed behind with the bowhook to help tie up some loose ends.

Two years ago, people thought I was insane to leave the security of my old life and run off to be a cop in the Navy. Every once in a while I'll think the same thing myself and then something like this'll happen and it just makes me smile. Pulling that guy out of the water tonight; yeah, I know I made the right decision.

I'm studying for an exam tomorrow.
I've gone over a lot of the material, but there's just so much information they'll be testing us on. It's 11:57 pm here and the test is at 0730, but before you accuse me of cramming all night instead of sleeping you have to realize that I work nights so this is when I'm normally up and instead of wasting my last few hours doing something stupid I've chosen to go over a few chapters again, and again and again...

Also, I recieved confirmation today that I will be going to a C-School when I detach from this command in order to train as a dog handler for my next duty station. It's not really the career choice I would have made for myself, but sometimes things like this happen and you just have to roll with it.

At least now I'll get to have a dog.

Tonight at work we were trying to convince The Big Wheel to try out for the upcoming "Tough Enough". His first objection, "This is stupid. What would I be called." We thought about it for a moment, then a moment longer and finally decided that we'd spend the rest of our break creating his character and special moves.

Wrestling Name: "The Hurt Locker"
Wrestling Moves: The Captains Mast, NJP (Non-Judicial Punishment), The Court Martial, The 45-45, The Rear Admiral, The Keel Haul, The "BCD" (Bad Conduct Discharge), The Square Knot, The Bends, The Scuttlebutt, The Bulkhead, The Upper Deck, The Field Day, The Anchor Chain, The Salty Dog, The Needle Gun and The Deck Seaman.

Well, it's official. I'm going to Bahrain...
There is some confusion about my job though and I need to get it straightened out. Apparently the billet they slotted me to fill is as a dog handler and I neither have nor want the necessary training this would require. Don't get me wrong, dogs are fun pets, but Military Working Dogs are an entirely different animal. Also, once you're in that job community it's hard to break out of and there are a lot of things I want to do in the Navy that don't include a canine.

MAGNETIC POETRY! I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!
You can find it on the web here, but I will be adding it to my site as a permanent link sometime in the near future.

I'm trying to save up some cash and so have been laying low for the past few weeks. Not much exiting is going on over here. I watched AVP last night. Character development was pretty non existant, but lets be honest you don't watch a movie like that to find out a particular characters motivation. If they see you they kill you, that's enough motivation for anyone.

I want a puppy.
I was reading a post by Petunia about walking her cousin's dog in the park and it made me regret not being able to obtain a mutt of my own. I'm not looking for a super expensive dog, nor any great mastiff with bloodlines that lead back to the dawn of black and white T.V.. Rather I'd prefer a puppy from the pound, smallish to medium size, and good tempered.

The way things are right now though I won't be able to get a dog until I get out of the service. O well. T-Minus 3 years, 3 months and counting.

This is one of my favorite pics in the whole world.
Back when I had one, it hung in my cube.

I was hanging out at a furniture store today while The Big Wheel was taking care of some business, so I used the time to my advantage and snapped this photo with my cell-cam.

Haven't updated for a while becuase I've been doing other mundane type things.
It's coming up on the hottest part of the year over here and my section has shifted to working nights. I love the fact that we escaped the heat, but also I feel halfway bad for those poor suckers who rotated to days. It's like I've always said, if it was fun they wouldn't pay us.

My baby brother has been back from Bosnia for some time now so I called to see what he was up to. As it turns out he is moving up in the world and has taken a management position within his company.

Also, I called CanOpenner even though I check up on his blog often enough. He's doing good but has, as it were, bats in his belfry. That's a story for him to tell though so I won't ruin it by blabing here first.

Not normally the type of guy who gets into eating cream from a colon, tonight I made an exception... And people wonder why I say Japanese junk food is so much fun to eat.

My life has been really boring lately.
I went looking for ghosts last night with a friend who knows of an old POW Camp for Koreans. There are a lot of local legends surrounding it but we didn't find any ghosts, or perhaps they didn't find us... :(
I can't say I'm surprised. After hearing all the stories about floating heads, bodyless footsteps and blood chilling screams from behind, I can't help but feel a bit robbed by the whole experience.

I put this together a while ago and am still working out the bugs. For those of you who are interested, here is a Virtual Tour of a park near the base I work at.

While waiting for a meeting with our Senior Chief after work this morning, my roomate and I entertained ourselves over breakfast.

Also I did submit a new dream sheet today with totally new choices for where I want to go. My top choices were to areas where I'd be guarding important people in potentially hostile environments, after that came a few places in Europe and also an opening on the central east coast.
If I get any of these I'll be happy, so now it's a waiting game for a week or so to see if I was picked up for any of them.

My ride is now tinted and sporting some tunes!
Towards the interest of posterity, I've documented the Cinderella like audio conversion.


Laugh if you want, but you should have seen what I was listening to before.



My temporary $14 speakers and mp3 player.


What have we here? I puzzle over the connections which are nothing like the wiring harness that came with my stereo. Notice the gecko floormats. I like em, my friend says they're too girly. What can I say to that, if I was looking for validation from a car I wouldn't have sold my monster to buy this tin can.


I know there's a lot of electrical tape over connections, but don't worry that was just a temporary thing until I can sort out some electrical problems with my acc.


The satisfied smile that can only mean no traffic and sweet melodies.

The weekend is here! The weekend is here!
I've got a new car to play with, the weekend is here!

That's right. Instead of waiting for the skyline, I broke down and bought an Escudo. I've never owned anything quite like this before, but find it to be the perfect vehicle for Japan. It's short, but has surprisingly good leg and head room for the driver/passenger. If you want more than two people in it though things do get a bit crowded. The guy I bought it from neglected a few things on it's upkeep, which I don't mind so much as fixing it up gives me something to do on the weekends.

To Do List of crap that needs fixin...

1) Install Stereo - It's stereo was sawed/ripped/cut out by some wayward youth a few months before I bought it.
2) Window Tint - I have a home tint kit for the back windows. After reading the instructions that came with it (they were in kanji) the basic idea seems to be to get more of it on the window than on me, in theory this should be no problem.
3) Touch Up Paint - It's a 4x4 and has lots of little scratches and scrapes.
4) Spare Tire - The spare tire is dry-rotted and flat. Thanks to my old car this shouldn't be to hard to replace as I have a tire man who knows me by name and is always happy to hook me up.
5) New Windshield Wipers - Don't know how that cheap-O went without new wipers for so long.