(Insert something witty here)

Alright so a couple of things regarding the picture above. First and foremost that me holding a bottle of Leinkugels Honey Weiss beer in my hand, and yes I am in Japan while holding it. It was like sweet honey nector to my lips. Not completely sure where it was aquired from, but I did not care one bit. Any piece of home is home enough from me. The second point I wanted to explain is the mustache. As you all might have noticed unless you were very blind, I am in fact growing out a mustache. Why is this you may ask? Well, we are calling it the "training stache." I have many things on my plate, and room for a girlfriend is not really one of them. So, I grow out this ugly little lip rug to totally deter them away from me. Even if I'm flirting with them, I simply do one of my Ari Gold nose rubs, and then I'm reminded that even if I played my cards perfectly, this conversation will not close with me getting a phone number, etc. No fear, come this march I will be shaving this bad boy off until the next time I need another tool of motivation.

I couldn't think of anything clever for this week's blog post title. I will leave it up to the reader to decide what is best put there this week. Pretty normal week I think for the most part. Scratch that, nevermind. On Monday I had an optomistrist appointment. I needed it to help complete my dive physical. The whole physical isn't completely done, but it getting closer and closer. Anyway, I saw the optomitrist for the first time, and he went and dialated my eyes. Personally my eyes are a touchy thing in the first place as I'm sure most people would agree. They are kind of important, and I get flincy when they're being as jagged around with as they were. So he put in the drops, and sent me on my way for 20 minutes for the medicine to work. I walked into the pharmacy to do my job, and I could not read a medicine bottle to save my life. It was a rather scary feeling. Turns out though that the eyes are good to go, duh.

Wednesday I woke up and decided to PT that afternoon. So I sat at my computer for an extra half hour on youtube watching motivating videos. A lot of Ari Gold clips, but some other stuff too. When I walked out of my apartment at 0500, I quickly noticed something was wrong. There was white stuff all around me. It had been a long time since I've seen this white stuff. We Wisconsinites call it "snow." In the course of the night it snowed 3". I heard rumors that Sasebo shuts down at the slighest sight of snow, so I had to call the Good Chief to be certain if work was cancelled or not. Much to my dismay the clinic was the only command on base open because it was "critical." Of course no one showed up except for the drug addicted assholes who were tweeked out on their vicodin, tramadol, and percocet. Luckily though I was sent home at noon. What did I do instead of going straight home like I was supposed to? I went to the gym and got some.



Thursday I was on duty at Hario. It sucked, but I got to watch a lot of good movies like First Blood, the Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior, and the first part of The Sting before I feel asleep. As a side not I watched a lot of decent movies this week. I also watched Dirty Harry, Beverly Hills Cop, and House of Sand and Fog. Very good selections for Cal. Oh, and I finished watching The Sting. There were no incidents Thursday night.

Friday night was quiet. I didn't do anything really worthy of mentioning. Saturday was a little different story. First of all I watched "The Hurt Locker." Extremely motivating movie, and if everyone else asks me what EOD is, I will just refer them to that movie. After the movie though Kristoph called me and asked him to join me downtown at the bars. Darryl was going to just stay at my place that night because he had duty in Hario and he was there to watch the movie with men and my old roommate, Nick. Well, Darryl was conned into being the DD. I got to the bars and hit it hard. I'm not going to tell you how much I spent, but it was a only a two digit number.

The pictures above has a small side story. We were leaving, and Darryl gets this funny idea to tell me we can't leave until I do 3 pull-ups. This is the only one I can muster. It was that good of a night. I knew it was that good of a night when I woke up the next morning. Despite my pounding head, I still made it to run a personal swim workout with LT Doyle. She swam 3 sets of 15min consecutive swims, and each set she her PRT score faster and faster. I doubt LT Doyle would ever see this, but keep the good work.

Sunday night I played a little poker with the dive locker. Kristoph invited me to hang out with those guys. Pretty good time. Plus I came out on top $10 which made for a successful night. Those guys didn't get ridiculously over the top how the guys at the clinic get. I liked it. That wasn't the highlight of my Sunday though. Before I left to play poker I ended up talking to Katie McMorrow. Now if the name McMorrow sounds familiar it should because my big brother Bob's last name is McMorrow. It is Bob's niece. I knew Katie way back before I moved to Tennessee. Well, when I was in Virginia was the last time we talked. I asked why she was up so late (it was 0300 in Wisconsin at the time) and she asked the same thing, "it's 4am where you are!" Apparentely I didn't tell her I was in Japan! She was really fun to talk to, but I think she was just being nice.

That brings me to this Monday. Why am I writing a post on a Monday? Well, because today is MLK Day, and I didn't have work. Though I was on call I didn't get called in. That is good and bad. Good for obvious reasons, but bad because the only reason I left my apartment was to febreeze my car. If I would have been called in I would have a) thrown out my garbage and b) went and PTed. Oh well.

Morale is high as always. I'm going to just keep on keeping on. Looking forward to another motivating week...and the half marathon on Sunday. Dun dun dunnnn

Hard Charging Motivator

Believe it or not, but I don't have a single new picture to post. Everyday my camera just sat on my kitchen counter. It sat there as if it was looking at me, and every morning I would look at it and fly through the ensuing day to calculate if I would need it or not, but the day was always boring enough for me to decide against bringing it. I'm not saying my week was boring, but it was just not as photogenic as most other weeks.

Today was Sunday. For the first time since I can remember I honored our day of rest respectfully by taking a nap. I could have easily slept well into the night, but I had to wake up and write this blog, iron my uniform, and pack my lunch for tomorrow. Shouldn't take too long except I'll probably get caught up in facebook, end up skyping someone, and wanting to read and/or study. Either way this nap felt really good, and I really truly do love my bed.

My weekend wasn't that boring though. Friday night Darryl and I went to watch Avatar. Since I first heard about this movie I silently laughed inside about it. No way did I think it sounded good, looked good, and consequently I never bothered to factor in time watch it. Then I listened to the Court of Public Opinion. When it only made 2 million less the second weekend than the opening weekend the People have spoken, it was worth seeing. Folks all over the clinic were talking about it, and I finally bent to go see it. As my Work Center Supervisor, mentor, and friend HM2 Oldenburg said, "it will be one of the better decisions you will make all week to see this movie." He was so right. I was very impressed with the movie. Everything amazed me, and I was watching the 2D version! It was one of the real rare movies where I was so captivated and into it, I would flinch at fight scenes and I actually cheered out loud when the protagonist became victor. It really drew a reaction from me which is one of the staple requirements to deciding if a movie is good or not.

Of course every movie succeeding Avatar will be second-best at best. I followed it up with "Inglorious Basterds." I was not impressed at all. I think "Pulp Fiction" will be the only Queintin Tarentino movie I'll ever like. Maybe I walked into this movie with different expectations, but his dialouge was too long-winded for me, he took too many factual liberties at the climax, and as good as Brad Pitt was even he couldn't save the whole movie. I had to give it a thumbs down.

My third movie of the weekend was "Jennifer's Body." It is the new Megan Fox movie. That is the only reason why I picked it up in the first place, but let it be known I watched it twice, the first and last time.

This past week really forced me to learn time management. With advancement training, physical training, my job, swim club, and the basic wear'n'tears of living I have been extremely busy. This next week won't be much better since I'm now throwing MWR basketball coaching on top of the fire. Luckily I won't be a head coach this season, just an assistant, but I still have to be there for all practices and games. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, it actually just what I wanted. I want to be as busy as possible to keep my mind off of missing home. A sacrafice will probably be poorer communication back home, but I want everyone to know I'm thinking about everyone, and more letters home mean more time on my hands. That is good and bad.

As we know I'm doing the Stew Smith online PT Club program. For a 12 week course I pay $200 and he sends me individual workouts, I am given his personal email/cellphone, and he is always very quick to reply. This is good, except this next week's workout will maybe kill me. These next 12 weeks (because last week was week "0") will probably rival some of swimmings hardest. Lots of dryland, some pool, but holy shit is there a lot of running, and he wants it timed too! My diet of smaller but more frequent meals is going great too. I eat 5 small meals throughout the day. Last Monday I weighed myself at 244lbs, and at the end of my last workout on Friday I weighed 236lbs. I doubt that was 8lbs of water weight either. I drink about 140 ounces of water a day.

Like mentioned above there is advancement training. Our advancement exam is in March, and we have classes Monday-Friday for about one hour to help us group study. I am attending. In fact I'm teaching 3 classes this month. You could say I'm awesome like that! Picking up 2nd class my first attempt is quite an uphill goal, but it isn't impossible. Time will tell on this one though. The harder you work, the luckier you get and failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

Ah yes, my job. First I will tell you that this past Wednesday I was lucky enough to be INVITED by the EOD senior chief to visit the locker. I believe I talked about in the last post how we were sitting next to each other at dinner and we got to talking. Well, he remembered me when he was visiting the clinic later that week. So I went, and things sound very encouraging for me. They were leaving to go somewhere they couldn't tell me (badass), but were going to be back in late Febuary. In that time I should get things in order regarding my package, etc which is already in full-swing. They made the process sound very easy and fast to submit a package. It was a good visit.

Well, fast-forward to Friday. I'm on my 72 hour special liberty for my PRT success, and I'm in the clinic because I feel weird when I'm not there talking to Dr. Margraf about PT and EOD. Chief Bennett, my LCPO, comes looking for me. It was an informal talk, but he asked me if I didn't want to be a pharmacy tech anymore. I told him I didn't, and he said that other people or noticing that, and he asked me how I felt about that. I told him that they should know that I don't want to be tech anymore, but they shouldn't have to notice it in my work. He agreed and told me to work on that. I told him I'm glad he knows I'm working on taking the steps to not be a pharmacy tech anymore, and I'll fix myself. The moral to this story is I have been slipping up at work making mistakes I shouldn't normally make, and leadership is noticing. The biggest reason for this is in fact I have my head somewhere else, but thanks to Chief's talk I will get my head out of the clouds/my ass and remember the facts that right now I am a pharmacy tech and I should act like it.

Due to all this excitment I will be not going to school this semester. Some things had to be cut, and education was one of them. Sounds really messed up, right? Hear me out, I have my reasons. My parent command, Naval Hospital Yokosuka, has altered the way they are doing tuition assistance. This was halfway through me routing my chit which was done the normal way. My chit was sent back to me. It was the holiday season. People went on leave, my department head had a kid and went on leave for that, and the bottom line was there was a lot of red tape. Chits are being signed off by one person, the CMC. Classes start in 14 days. To get everything routed up again and play the waiting game, just isn't worth it to me. College classes will always be there. The current projects talked about above won't. I'm sure I'm breaking Mom's heart if she reads this, but she needs to understand that I think I'm doing just alright without taking introduction to biology right now. I have other projects I am ranking more important right now. There are obtainable goals that need more of my time that can be knocked out faster, for example my outstanding voluteer medal. My change in career package, advancement training. A ph.d who is an E5 (my pay grade) makes the same as the GED drop out E5. For the time being I'll be the navy's bitch for another 5 years at least.

Alright, time for me to wrap this up. It was a good talk. Morale is up though I worked myself up in that last paragraph (cause I know I'm going to get shit for it), but that is okay. I'll talk to everyone later!

Happy New Year!

This is the first post in the new year, decade, fiscal quarter. Pictured above is the view from my balcony. Fireworks go off every night from this hotel/touristy area, but not like this. (Obviously) Japanese people really do not celebrate Christmas since it's a Christian holiday. They do however take New Year's very seriously. Lots of parties, but also a type of holiday to have a family dinner together. Americans just use New Year to get lit up, but here it's a little different.

So there I was, planning on going to Fukuoka for the holiday, right? No, it didn't happen. John's girlfriend's mom called him personally and asked him to celebrate with their family (which here is a big deal), and Matt's girlfriend wanted to go with us (but Matt didn't want to take her). Moral of this story? Women ruin plans. Because the two guys I was going to go with bailed, I had to engage plan B. What did I do? I stood duty. This time it wasn't out of charity how Christmas was. Maybe there was a monetary trade-off, and he agreed to take one of my duties later this month. I still had a problem, before I agreed to take a friend's duty, I agreed to invite some other friends over to my place for New Year's Eve. So there I was with 7 bottles of wine, butI had to be a good little boy because walking into work at 0630 smelling like a distillery is always discouraged. Luckily my friends present (pictured above) were thirsty and drank most of the wine and they acted like it. The guy, Nick, threw up all over my bathroom but he was a good sport and cleaned up his mess before I made him do it. The long-haired girl, Christina, broke not just one, but 2 wine glasses. The second glass wasn't even hers, it was mine, and it's because of this I thought it was safe, but no. I left it for 20 seconds to get some food and I'm not sure how she did it but there is shattered across the floor. She was really upset/embarrassed so all I could do was laugh it off. Next year I'm going all plastic.

Maybe because I was the most sober one at the little party I was the most irritated. I live 30 minutes from base/downtown. There is a train that can be taken which is about a 20 minute walk from my house. I have a spare bedroom with a futon and blankets and a couch. There should have been no reason for Christina's parents to insist that she come home that night. She was the drunkest of them all! Shawana, the other girl, had her Dad pick her up that night too! Maybe I have some sort of disease or funky smell on me I don't know about. My point is, they assumed unnecessary risks when they didn't have to. It was dumb. Okay I think I'm done venting on this one.

Watching the fireworks go boom and bang made me think though. I got a little nostalgic with some goosebumps and my eyes got a little wet. Here I was in Japan celebrating 2010. A decade ago was Y2K, I was in 8th grade. Never would I have guessed I would be celebrating this holiday here. I look back, even 5 years ago and I see where my life has taken me, and for the most part I'm happy with it. Some speedbumps here and there, but which road doesn't have those? Looking back was almost as exciting as looking forward to this ensuing year. You better believe I'm motivated and ready to go. There is so much to do, and I feel like I'm putting myself in a position to accept and take-on these challenges. I will never say it is easy, but I will say it will be worth it. I'm proud of myself I guess is what I'm trying to say.

Last night I went out to finally celebrate New Year's the way it ought to be. I started the night with $100 and woke up with $6. Had a really good time though. The stars aligned just right,

strangley enough I was sitting next to the EOD locker's senior chief at the resteraunt/bar we were at. Pictured above is the record holder for woman's largest chin. Thing was massive, and I dubbed her Ms. Jay Leno Chin. Since it was cooler I had to rock the Slapshot jersey, and it never is short in getting some good comments.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new era. I'm not just talking about the 2 month long mustache brigade marathon. This paragraph is talking about something different. My Stew Smith PT program officially kicks off. I'm pretty excited for it. Who is Stew Smith? He is the guy who invented the perfect push-up we all see on TV. He is a former navy SEAL naval academy alumni. Dr. Margraf highly recommended his program. For 12 weeks it's $200 and I'm given personalized workouts weekly. I'm given a diet to follow, his personal cellphone number (though I don't call), and he emails are usually returned within an hour. After this 12 weeks I plan to do my PRT for the EOD package, but still keep up with the program until I hear back from them. Time will tell on this one, and looking at his 1st week workout, I'm in for a beatdown.

The advancement exam is in 8 weeks. I have yet to study, but that is normal. I will have to put that on my to-do list. I've volunteered to help teach advancement classes too which start this week. My tuition assistance headache is starting to go away. It's actually kinda easy, but just takes time to register for everything and gain permission, etc.

Bought new running shoes and are in the mail. My new work shoes came in the mail, and they look really sharp. I'm hesitant to wear them though because they are chloroframs. My current work shoe is leather, and there is nothing sexier on a uniform than nicely shined leather shoes. I'm still waiting for a CD to come in the mail I ordered on my way back from Singapore. All my barstools came in though. Finally got around to picking up a kerosene heater at the housing office. It was free, and kerosene isn't that expensive compared to the electric heater I would be using. Oh, I also bought light module's for the rooms in the place. I no longer have to walk around my bedroom at night with a flashlight.

Things are looking good. Morale is high. No incidents, ship moored as before.