Word Press

I am kind of proud of myself today! I decided I was going to learn how to get my wife a website without having someone else do it for me. Surprisingly enough I actually did it and it only took a few hours. She had the domain and after a few lessons on Lynda.com, I had set everything up on her domain to get WordPress up and running.

Once WordPress was installed on her domain I was checking out themes with her, adding pages, even posting with pictures. I really thought this was going to take a month or so of tutorials and a lot of late nights, but as it turned out, just a few hours was all that was needed and she is up and running. She has not gone live yet, but when she does I will add a link to this post.

Anyway, I just thought I would write about this as it was something I always wanted to try, but thought it would be too much trouble. Well I stand corrected, and am quite happy to be wrong.

Monkey Runner

The following is a story I am constantly asked to relate by friends, co-workers and family. I know I am no writer, but perhaps they can all come here and read it, rather than putting me through the humiliation of having to tell it time and time again. I hope anyone that reads it finds it as funny as they do, as I am still a bit sore about the whole situation and it has been over 20 years since the incident...

Monkey Runner

Ok, we have all done some stupid things in our lives and I have to say I have done more than my fair share. One of the stupidest things I have done is also one of the greatest sources of laughter for my son. He as always asking me to tell this story and for the life of me I don’t understand why he thinks it is so funny, but he does and I have given up trying to understand it.

So there I was ten thousand feet with Migs around me like fireflies... Wait that was another story… Hmm… So about 20 years ago, there I was a young man in the U.S. Navy seeing the world and generally having the time of my life. I was a Naval Aircrewman assigned to VS-21 Antisubmarine Patrol Squadron as an Antisubmarine Warfare Operator. My job was to fly in a carrier based jet and look for submarines. I had other duties while flying when there were no submarines to hunt, like running radar, forward looking infra red, electronic surveillance measures and passive\active acoustics. I really enjoyed my job, and the loved the travel that the Navy paid me to do. Our carrier (USS Enterprise) had pulled into the Philippines, Cubi Point to be exact, and we were going to be staying there for about 3 weeks while we were getting some repairs done. I was stoked as the Philippines is basically an adult play ground and I was 25 years old. Nuff Said!!

To get to the heart of the story, the Navy policy at the time was that personnel who were going to be staying longer than 2 weeks in the Philippines had to attend a base indoctrination on local traditions, customs, and culture before shore leave would be granted. I felt this was stupid as I had been to the Philippines 5 times prior and was quite knowledgeable about this port. But rules are rules and I attended the indoctrination. Well I kind of attended the indoctrination…  I was probably still drunk from partying like an idiot the night before, but technically I got away with calling it a bad hangover. I remembered parts of this indoctrination but not a much because I had my head on the desk, slobbering, and being asleep made it hard to remember much. I did hear before slipping into my alcohol induced coma that when walking in the jungle never throw anything in the jungle that may have been thrown out at you. I only remember that because it seemed so stupid at the time.  Later down the road I wished I would have listened up a bit closer.

After indoctrination I went out in town with my Aircrew brethren and put a hurting on the town, and our heads with way too many drinks. Not knowing how I got back to the boat I awoke in my rack feeling like total crap, and wondering just who and where that guy was that shit in my mouth. Feeling that food would fix me right up I decided to go to the chow hall to get something to eat. The chow hall was three decks below where I slept and man did my head hurt.   Falling down a ladder (Stairs for you civilians) is not fun, but falling down a navy ladder really smarts, as anything you are going to hit at the bottom is going to be made of steel. You probably can guess but in case you cant I fell and ended up splayed on the deck like a rag doll along with feeling pretty stupid and when I went to stand up my back felt like it was on fire. I decided that I better go to sick bay and have the doc take a look just to be safe. After about 4 hours of waiting in line with all the guys getting checked for the clap, the doc finally tells me he is not sure what exactly is wrong. From the x-rays all looks ok but he says with back injuries x-rays are not always conclusive and that an MRI is best for soft material such as disks. He gave me bed rest for the remainder of the day and then scheduled an appointment for me at the base hospital for the following day. I took the bed rest happily as I was for some reason once again hung over and hurting like hell in my lower back. I sometimes wonder if it was the hangover that caused me to slip on that ladder… Hmm… Oh well.

Waking up that next morning without a hangover was nice but damn if my back was still hurting. It was not quite as bad as the day before but it was still not good, and the worst part of it was I could not straighten up all the way. What the hell was wrong with me? I looked and felt like an old man. Crap I was only 25 years old and I was walking around like I was 80.  I went down to sick bay, waited in line again, and finally saw the doc. He gave me some Motrin and then directions to the base hospital and that was that. I tried to ask the doc how I am supposed to get there but he closed his door in my face and I was left standing there hunched, hurting, and scratching my head. Well I was a highly trained sailor and this was not rocket science, so I popped about 5 Motrin’s headed to the base bar to get a quick couple of Crown and 7’s and then off to the base hospital. Easy peasy, or so I thought…

Getting off the ship was a pain in the ass, as the fantail quarterdeck was closed and everybody was funneled into one long ass line off the port side of the ship. Once again I was in a damn line waiting! Looking back at my time in the NAV as it was affectionately called, it seemed we were always waiting in some kind of a line. For chow, for movies, for hair cuts, you name it there was a line for it. I remember hearing a saying that went something like “The good ole Navy is all about hurrying up to wait” and man was it true. In fact it was so bad many guys went around looking for lines just for something to do.

My turn comes to depart the ship, I am granted permission, and I am history. I get to the enlisted club pound down three Crown and 7’s and am feeling no pain. My appointment at the base hospital is at 1500 (3 PM for you civilians) which left me about an hour to get there. I asked the bartender how long the walk is and he starts laughing and tells me that it is on the other side of the base. Shit… This base is huge, and I have no car, plus my back is killing me. Well, not really killing me as the Motrin’s and drinks are doing their magic but I still can’t stand up all the way and there is a dull throb in my lower spine. I ordered one more drink for the road and began my trek.

I was not feeling too bad, as I walked thru the jungle on the road to the hospital. I still couldn’t straighten up all the way, but most of the pain was gone and being half in the bag helped pass the time on my walk. So you remember when I said at indoctrination they mentioned something about not throwing things back into the jungle if something is thrown at you from the jungle? I am glad you do because I sure as hell did not remember it and wouldn’t you know today was my lucky day! I was just minding my own business hobbling my way thru the jungle when all of a sudden something hits me square in the back of my head. Shit that hurt! I look down and see a good hand sized rock at my feet. I pick up the rock looking for where it came from but for the life of me can’t find any target to kill.  I am just getting madder and madder looking insanely for someone to throw this rock at, and finally with all my might I sling the rock in the most possible direction it could have came from. That was not the brightest thing to do and let me tell you why...

The jungle is not just trees and vines like all the movies show and I made a big mistake throwing that rock back. Those words at indoctrination were just now coming back to me but it was way too late. It wasn’t but a couple of seconds later when this little punk ass furry monkey comes out of the bushes holding a rock that I started to understand my mistake.  As if that was not bad enough, it was when about 45 more of his cousins joined him the gravity of the situation became quite apparent. Lucky for me I had liquid courage on my side, and being the highly trained soldier I was, I decided retreat was not an option.

My initial battle plan was to scare the little bastards by running toward them and looking as ferocious as possible. As a side note, right after I passed out at indoctrination they also mentioned why you don’t throw things back (Because of Monkeys) and they said never to bare your teeth to them as it is a sign of extreme aggression. Well I made both mistakes and you know what? They weren’t wrong. In fact they were right on the money. As I made my drunken charge, the monkeys decided that they had numbers on their side and they unleashed hell. I ran smack dab into a full frontal assault of monkey rock slingers, and let me tell you their aim was not half bad. I took 2 shots to the face 1 to the stomach and about 9 to my legs before I decided retreat was not to bad an option.

Running from a battle was a bit embarrassing, but running hunched, rock smacked, and drunk was even worse. All my training did not prepare me for this, nor did it prepare me for what was next. You see the battle was still on! To my horror the monkeys did not understand the meaning of retreat and continued to chase after me slinging rock, crap, and whatever else they could pick up along the way. And to make matters worse they were screaming and bringing more of their damn friends into the fray. This was getting serious and I still had a half mile to go. I could see the hospital up on the hill thru the trees but I was not making quick progress.

Keeping my head low was not a problem in my hunched condition, but running faster than the 70 or so monkeys that had now taken up the fight was not easy. I was only able to maintain my distance but not widen it, and the damn monkeys were not letting up. That half mile was the longest of my life, and all the while I was being bombarded by whatever those little bastards could grab while on the run. I finally made it up the hill to the hospital with the monkeys in tow up until the last 10 yards or so, and thankfully the little crap slingers retired back to the jungle.

My humiliation would not be complete with out an audience would it? Heck no this was my lucky day and I was not going to get away with just getting my ass kicked by a bunch of pissed off monkeys.  You see my retreat had stirred great notice from the hospital staff and all were our on the smoking deck to witness my loss of pride and the battle. I arrived red faced, bloody, beaten, and with numerous cuts to an audience of about 30 doctors, nurses and patients laughing their asses off at me. I just stood there rock beaten, bleeding, blushing, and wanting to curl up and die.

Finally the laughter ceased and one of the nurses led me inside, tended my numerous wounds and let the doc know that I was there. The doc took the MRI and gave me a good lecture about the monkeys in these parts and let me off the hook just a bit, telling me that I was not the first to come running up the hill with a war party of Monkeys on their heels. The doc was however a bit surprised to see it happen again as he had informed the base indoctrination personal to include some remarks about what not to do around the monkeys of the area because of these embarrassing incidents. I listened but just shrugged my shoulders and feigned ignorance, hoping he would drop the subject. That was not to be the case with this doctor. He then asked me “Did you go to base indoctrination?” My reluctant answer was yes, and I tried to explain that I was sick during it, but the doc was tuning me out fast. His next comments were something like I bet you were probably sick with the same brown bottle flu you have now, meaning my current drunken state. The doc saw the truth in my eyes, grabbed a pad from the desk and took down my commanding officers name. He promptly dismissed me and that was the last I saw of doc but it was not the end of the story.

The Navy has been dealing with idiots like me for many more years than I am old, and on this score I took one more beating. I was charged by the base doctor for destruction of government property.  You heard that right, I was put up on charges for hurting myself. I had heard of this, but never believed it to be true. It seems that since I was given the information to avoid this whole mess and since I did get injured to some degree by those damn monkeys, I did for all intensive purposes hurt government property. My commanding officer awarded me with the loss of a half months pay for six months, and restriction to the ship for the rest of our port of call. Funny how the Navy awards punishment, I always thought that was pretty comical. The money being taken away hurt, but truth be told, I was about done with the Philippines and its rock slinging monkey bastards.

The end

Going High Speed and Low Drag!

I have been working the last few weeks on minimizing the amount of gadgets I take with me on my business trips. Namely my laptop! It seems that just a few years ago I was so happy to pack this around with me, as it was my only real connection to the virtual universe. Now with smartphones and the advent of tablets I am finding I can leave my laptop docked, and just take my phone and tablet with me on trips. If needed I have an app on both that allows me to connect to my docked company laptop and use it as I would normally as if it was actually with me.
Technology and how fast it is progressing is really fascinating to me, not to mention I truly believe it is our races stepping stone to trying to get back the feeling of being one in the neither...
I know I am a geek!!

Under The Radar

I have always enjoyed being able to see, hear, and be a part of things without actually having anyone know I am there. I am fascinated with stealth, and passive data acquisition. I think a large part of this comes from my Navy training where I was trained in electronics, but then given the chance to fly in a carrier based jet that was designed for the hunting of submarines. The technology along with the methodology was absolutely the most engrossing subject I have ever had the privilege to put my mind to. It was mind boggling the amount of detail it took to do the job I did then. Not only was the flying in a jet off a carrier a tremendous rush, but the pace, tempo, and sheer stress of doing the job of hunting submarines was beyond anything I have done to date.

I find myself now constantly putting myself under new pressures, just so I can work under that kind of stress again. I have put myself through college and just finished my Masters degree all the while working full time at over 100 hours per week. I am now contemplating looking in to my Doctorates, but finances will dictate whether I go that route. For some reason it seems important to pay off my last school loans prior to adding more...

I am now out of the Navy but still crave having the sensors and resources to monitor, record, and track things in a passive format. I do use civilian equivalents such as radar detectors, radio scanners, and even a cool app called Waze, but it is just not the same... I hear the government is building a super listening post out in Utah or somewhere like that. I would love to be an analyst again on a project like that!

Oh well...

A Tired Mind, A Tired Body = A Rejuvenated Soul

I need pressure! I work better under it, I get bored without it, and I am tired of just wasting my time. I finished my MBA a few months back and now I am restless again. I have considered a Ph.D (Piled Higher and Deeper) in business, but have decided to brush up on a few things first, and to pay off my last student loans first.

So to begin I am going to go back to re-learning my math. Math has always been tough for me and going through graduate school had me really struggling with math. I really want to beat this multi-headed snake down and I think now is a good time to start. Also I want to learn Spanish and I have the Rosetta Stone program and just have not used it. It is time for that also. Lastly, I really need to get back in shape! I have let that go for far too long!

So today Sunday, February 19, 2012  is the start day for my relighting a fire under my ass and getting back on track to leading a more constructive life, and adding more to my plate. Grad school may be over, but that does not me that life needs to be a constant vacation. I do have a job, and there are challenges with it, but I need more and now it the time. Not to mention to connect better with this universe and put more positive energy out I need to put more positive energy into myself if I am ever going to be of use in this reality.

More to follow...



Well it has been a few weeks and I have to say I have accomplished nada! As with all things time tells all and so far time is saying "Your a slacker!" I know I am and I really need to start putting that thing called will power to work. I kinda feel like the little engine that could... I just need to start saying "I think I can" and then saying "I know I can..."

The Unchecked Pursuit of Pleasure

It is my belief that our quest for pleasure in an unchecked manner will eventually be our undoing. We as a race are constantly driven to have better, more, and faster. I feel that this unchecked pursuit of pleasure has to be halted or our planet and ultimately our race will be in serious jeopardy.

I have issues with people willing to point the finger at government saying fix this and fix that, all the while putting themselves in huge amounts of debt. Also all the money we spend on pro sports, places like Las Vegas  and other big ticket items causes me to wonder just how we can blame our government for things falling apart, when we individuals do nothing to help.

We are a spoiled and hypocritical lifeform. Given the choice to better ourselves and planet, or drive big motor homes, spend billions on pro sports, and build cities to pleasure our minds and bodies. We unfortunately choose the later... I understand the need for pleasure as an outlet for our stressfull lives, but really? I mean our schools are suffering, our old are treated like trash, we have starving people in the streets, and we are raping our planet of precious resources and yet we continue to blame the government for not fixing everything.

If I were Presedent I would address our country and the world telling all that the time is now to either put up or shut up! We as a race need to learn humility, be more  altruistic, and learn to moderate our pleasure based needs. And if we choose to ignore this understanding then we need to quit bitching about all our problems as we have the choice to do something about it.

In summary we are our own worst enemy. We can still change. If we decide to continue along the current path, then  we have no one to blame other than ourselves when we end up like the ancient  Roman empire killing itself due to its own decadent lifestyle. We still have a choice people.

The "Neither"

Energy is a strange thing... I marvel at it, and think about it all the time. Where does it come from? Where does it go to? Our world is so filled with opposites and it is the middle ground that really fascinates me. I call this middle ground the "Neither" because it seems that it is neither here nor is it really there. But it must exist as this "Neither" is a place of transition for everything in our lives. For day to become night, for up to become down, for hot to become cold, and for birth to become death all must transition. This transition I believe happens in the "Neither" region from where all energy begins, and all energy goes. It is my opinion that our individual energys once belonged in the "Neither" and in the "Neither" we were completely connected to everything in the universe. We, if you can refer to us as we,  were part of the overall energy of the universe and conscious of our  being a part of it. This feeling of complete connection and absolute understanding can only be described as being at one with our God. I truly believe the "Neither" is where all energy begins and where all energy ends. It is in this place that we came from and eventually we will go back to. 

So to recap my understandings. Everything is energy, including us. We are all connected by energy to everything in the universe. Our current level of conscious limits us from feeling our complete connection to the universe and thus being able to travel back into the "Neither" where all energy comes from and goes to. We know somewhere deep inside our being that this place exists and all our lives we long for being reconnected to that which allowed us to be everything, and everywhere. The "Neither" haunts us, as when we were a part of it we truly were conscious of our being a part of God. In this current reality we are still connected but in a limited way. For whatever reason each of us has been separated from the "Neither" to live in this "Rubber Room" as I like to call it and live our lives feeling lost to that feeling of oneness we experienced in the "Neither".

I firmly believe that our race is trying to re-gain that feeling of oneness that we experienced in the "Neither" again in our current reality. We are using technology as a crude tool to gain that feeling again, and our technology is slowly giving us the ability to connect each of us to each other. Where we once had a very spiritual connection to our planet, nature, and the universe as a whole. We now are using technology to connect our minds to each others. In the "Neither" we had this experience but in this reality we are trying to recreate it  with the internet and other technologies. Everything is going faster, and we are constantly looking for better and better ways to connect. I feel that in the not so distant future, we will all be part of a hive mind, and that in a limited way we will have created in part that feeling of total connection we shared in the "Neither".

In closing I would like to state that I sit here humbled by the vastness of our universe. But knowing that our reality and our universe is entirely comprised of energy helps me to understand my place in it. I may feel alone at times, but when I think of my relationship to the universe from an energy perspective, I feel better. We may be trapped in this "Rubber Room" and probably for good reason. I do not think from an evolutionary standpoint we are ready to wield the power that the "Neither" would lend us, as we would probably blow ourselves and the rest of the universe up. I for one am content to visit the "Neither" in my dreams, recharge, and live my life trying to understand the reality we call our universe.