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Solaniis Rex
03 April 2012 @ 01:47 pm
I recently picked up a new pair of running shoes. I decided to finally try
out the Vibram Five-Fingers (shouldn't it be Five-Toes?) and went out to
find a set. I won't bore you with the details of that adventure, just know
that along the way I ended up with the complete series of the late-80s
Beauty and the Beast (don't judge me, it's Sarah Connor and Hellboy).

Anyway, on to the important bits...

I tried on the shoes, and they weren't too bad of a fit. I apparently have
oddly shaped toes, but they're close enough that I can still wear the
shoes. And so I did. For about a week I'd wear them in the house and
wlaking around, just to get the feel of them. All was good and happy.
Then I decided it was time to do some actual running in them. So I packed
them in my bag and took them to PT. This may not have been the best idea,
but there was no turning back, it was time to do 2.5 miles. It wasn't so
bad in the beginning, but there was one simple flaw. I walk on the balls
of my feet, so that's how I got used to moving in those shoes. And while
running on the balls of ones feet is not impossible, it is very different.
In fact, it takes a lot more of your calves, due to the added impact from
running vs walking. I don't know if any of you have run for 2.5 miles on
the balls of your feet before, but if you're not ready for it, your legs
will begin to spread mutiny. I finished the run just fine, but it didn't
take very long for my calves to rebel. They were creaming at the top of
their lungs and refusing to do any work. For the next three days, walking
was something of an issue. But I learned my lesson, don't do that again
(at least until I've built up more practice). And now I'm running with
them again.

The great thing about these shoes is that they force into better running
strides. Under normal circumstances, I tend to start to slow down and move
into a jog. This is no good, it causes aches in my back and all sorts of
knee pain. But the shoes remind me instantly not to do that as there's no
cushion under the heel. So when I get tired, I can slow down a little, but
I have to keep my stride. And keeping the stride means I go faster than my
norm for being tired. And, yes, it does require more energy, and I am more
tired when I finish, but that's okay. I've got the better form, now it's
time to get the better stamina.

The part that fills me with energy and glee, however, is just what the
results are. Yesterday I timed myself on a mile run with these things.

*7:15*

That's a huge deal for me. I haven't run that fast since I joined the Air
Force. Not since I was running cross-country in high school. I know it
could just be a good day with a mix of a little more pep and a little less
pollution in the air or something, but it is totally motivating. These
days I'm usually happy to get it down to 8 minutes, so I'm all kinds of
happy about this. I just need to up my distance to a 1.5 mile and make
sure I can keep this pace, then perhaps even improve it a little, and I
will be kicking my own ass!

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Hope everyone else is having as great
a day as I am (even if KU lost)!
 
 
Solaniis Rex
29 March 2012 @ 11:44 am
The reason I haven't been on as much lately as I'd like to be is that the
great and powerful people have decided that LiveJournal needs to be blocked
at work. An unfortunate decision, but there's not much I can do about it.
I can sit here and try to say that it's not like I spend much more than a
few minutes a day on it, but there are likely to be others who would
whittle away an entire day or two (or seventy-five) on it. So I accept the
rules, but since I should be able to post through email, I'm going to see
how that goes. I think I tried it previously, but don't recall off hand.

In the meantime, I'm still out here in Belgium. I spend a lot of time
visiting the neighbor countries. Most of my free time is spend either in
the Netherlands or Germany. Which may sound like a long way, but I'm only
about 15 minutes form where the three countries meet. Now, if only calls
across the borders could be a little cheaper. Oh well. I've got about a
year left here and hope to be finding out where I'm going next sometime
soon. I think Colorado or Utah would be nice, though my biggest goal is to
avoid Alabama and Mississippi. And as always, my fingers are crossed for
Antarctica!
 
 
Solaniis Rex
11 January 2012 @ 12:23 am
There are people out there who take sleeping for granted.  I know, I've met them.  These people have the ability to say "I'm going to sleep" and in the time it takes them to crawl into bed they're already sleeping.  It's like they have a switch they can just flip.

I'm missing that switch.  It can be really annoying sometimes.  When I was in school it would get to be bed time and I'd lie there.  On a good day it would only take a few hours before I fell to sleep.  On a bad day I'd look at the clock and realise that in a few minutes the alarm would go off and I hadn't been able to sleep a wink.

It's not that much different these days and that leads to some really long days.  Sunday night I went to bed, but couldn't sleep.  Hour after hour until it got to the point that it was no longer worth it to try.  So I got back up and watched a little TV until it was time to get ready for work.  At first I figured I'd be alright, I just had to make it to the end of my shift and I'd plop in bed and fall right to sleep (it's usually easier when I'm exhausted).  But it wasn't so easy, I had forgotten that I had a paper due for college that night.  Thankfully, I finished it and then promptly fell to sleep waking up refreshed the next day.

But it's not always so easy.  I'd had a similar situation only in that instance my sleep was interrupted.  I had just enough sleep (four hours) so that I couldn't fall back once I'd been awoken.  This lead to me staying up for another day.  Some people out there complain when they only get six hours of sleep in a night.  I would ask those people to try going three days with even less than that.  I've gotten used to it and rarely complain until I physically can't function any more.  Thankfully the longest I've ever been up is four days in a row.  That's when things start getting weird.  But we'll keep that story for another day.
 
 
Feeling: tiredtired
Groovin to: Movie - Bugsy Malone
 
 
Solaniis Rex
08 January 2012 @ 06:19 pm

Look, I'm still alive!  I know it's been a while.  I think the last time I wrote anything was in September when I ran until my legs vowed vengeance upon me and my whole family.  How are you wonderful people doing these days?

What's new in my life?  Well, I am once again studying for my promotion test.  As always I'm expecting to make it.  I'm also taking college classes these days.  Slowly working my way towards a degree in Criminal Justice.  I can't say I'm a fan of the online classes.  I much prefer classroom style, where I can ask questions and feel like the professor can actually teach me something.  Watching an online video and writing a paper on it just doesn't make me feel like I'm learning anything.  Still, it's getting me towards my degree, and maybe once I get back to the states I'll be able to take some 'standard' classes and feel better about it.

As far as work goes, things are the same as they always are.  I'm still working on radar systems for NATO.  Tomorrow is likely to be a stressful day.  The network I do all my work on has been down all last week, so tomorrow my boss is going to ask me what progress I've made, and I'll have to tell him none.  He'll get upset and say it's 'cos I'm a half-assed bum (he once accused me of not even coming in to work).  Still, I know I was going through training stuff, and I have evidence that I notified the network guys things weren't working, they're the ones that haven't done anything about it.  So, I just have to try to keep calm and remember that in one more year I'll be on my way out of here and to another base.

 
 
Feeling: goodgood
Groovin to: TV - Chuck
 
 
Solaniis Rex
26 September 2011 @ 06:23 pm

As I awoke this morning I had a thought sitting in the back of my mind, and while my eyes were adjusting to the light of the waking world this thought pushed its way to the front.

"This is the last day of leave before you have to head back in to work. What are you going to do with it?"

"Well, I already slept in, so that's checked off the list. How about watch a movie and surf the internet?"

"Not good enough, when was the last time you went out and pushed yourself on a good distance run?"

"I guess it's been a few weeks, I've mostly just been hiking while on leave."

"Then today's the day, it's not like you have anything else to do."

So, I checked my email and threw on some running clothes (I've learned that the people around here prefer I wear clothing while running, so I try to be polite). Then I snagged my fancy-pants GPS watch from its charger and headed for the door.

Now, at this point I hadn't really given much thought as to how far I should run. I've got an eight mile course that I occasionally do, but I was feeling like stepping it up a notch. A couple of miles into it I came to the conclusion that I would go for ten miles today and see how I felt, perhaps do a little more if I was doing well enough. The first few miles went great, but around mile four or five my pace started slowing down a little more than I preferred. That's alright, though, just means it will take a little longer. I reached the end of the first eight miles at around 1:28, and came to the conclusion that I could definitely do those last couple of miles, so I made a turn away from my house and kept on going.

Everything was fine. Everything was dandy. Then I noticed that this was a trap. I had gone too far, I could see the turn around point down the road just as my watch signalled me of the ten mile point. I was now about two miles from home. I could either stop now and walk home, or I could keep going. I had tricked me into this, so I kept running. I hit the turn around point and started heading back.

My pace had slowed down quite a bit by this time, but I kept on going. After all, I couldn't give up, there was a plan hidden in all of this. I learned what that plan was as I approached my house. It was just under twelve and a half miles so far, all I had to do was head down that stretch of road over there and come back to make it an actual half-marathon. Was this my secret goal the whole time? It was indeed.

In the end I managed a time of 2:35:14. It's a personal record, my only other half-marathon being in the 2:45 area. I congratulated myself for shaving ten minutes off my time and sat down. This may or may not have been a huge mistake. Instantly muscles everywhere were screaming at me for what I had done to them. So I downed a litre of Aquarius (kinda like Gatorade) and went to lie down on the couch for a couple of minutes, knowing that I'd need every ounce of energy I had left to make it up the stairs to my shower. And those stairs, while steep, wouldn't be so bad if I only had to go through them once, but the water heater was acting up. So after noticing that the water refused to warm up, I had to go back down and have a chat with the heater, then head back up again. At this point muscles were aching that I was pretty sure I didn't even have, so after the shower I crawled into bed did the occasional stretch for the muscles I knew how to, and just waited until I could once again stand up.

Still, as much pain as I was in, I was proud of myself for doing it. So, have any of you out there in interwebs-land surprised yourself by running farther than you originally thought? How did you feel afterwards?

 
 
Feeling: exhaustedexhausted
 
 
Solaniis Rex
04 September 2011 @ 01:32 am
I don't know where we were or what was going on. I just knew that the world around us had been plunged into chaos. I'm also not sure if who I was with was just a dream of Jane or if it was once again Erin wearing the appearance of Jane. I'm tempted to assume the latter, but wasn't lucid enough in this dream to be certain.

We were huddled together, my arm around her. Whatever the chaos was that we were escaping from / being taken to it seemed to me that things were getting bad. I turned to Jane and as we hugged she whispered in my ear "I will always be here for you, but we can never be together."

I'm not sure exactly what she meant, but I guess it's important. I'd prefer that Erin not use Jane's visage, but she knows that it's one of the best ways to make sure she has my full attention.
Tags:
 
 
Feeling: blahblah
Groovin to: TV - Warehouse 13
 
 
Solaniis Rex
01 September 2011 @ 11:45 am

Which television show continues to get worse every season and should just get cancelled already?

View 941 Answers



The News. It comes on multiple times a day without repeats, so it's no real wonder why the writers seem to have difficulty coming up with something upbeat or even interesting as often as they used to. I'd say that The News really jumped the shark when it came up with that whole Watergate storyline. After that there were a few good ones, but nothing that could really compare.
 
 
Feeling: mischievousmischievous
Groovin to: CCR - Run Through the Jungle
 
 
Solaniis Rex
29 August 2011 @ 02:32 pm

Have you or a friend ever been bullied? How did you get through it?

View 859 Answers



When I was in elementary school, I would usually get through bullying with humor. I learned that if you confuse a bully it will give you an opportunity to leave the area.

I was a little less complacent, though, when I'd see my friends get bullied. I would stick up for them in various ways. In the sixth grade a friend of mine (Jo) constantly had his money being taken from him by one of the other students (Gary). Upon finding out the details of this I had a plan, one that ended up being a little too devious for my own good.

One day, at lunch, I took Jo and we confronted Gary and I told him that my dad was in the military (as were a number of other kids' in the school) and that if he didn't give the money back, we could call in the MPs. He gave the money back, it was almost too easy, and by that I mean it would have been too easy had I not suspected already what would happen next. And when I tell you that at that school we would keep our backpacks, coats, etc on a rack lining the hallway right outside the classroom, you'll probably figure out what happened next, too.

After recess that afternoon, I told my Jo to check his bag and make sure the money was still there. It wasn't, so I told Jo to go in the classroom and I'll deal with it. He went in and I opened Gary's bag and there it was, a wad of ones that still had the markings I drew on them. So, I took the money, placed it back in Jo's bag and went in. I told Jo it was now back where he left it and sat down for the rest of class.

Of course, at the end of the day as we were grabbing our stuff and going home I heard Gary get upset. I knew it was probably about the money and prepared for him to lose his temper. Words were thrown amongst us and his temper, if not lost already, flew away. He landed a quick kick in the one spot that guys (even 12 year old guys) consider very sensitive. According to the story told to me afterwards, I then picked him up (he wasn't a small guy) and threw him into the wall. I just remember after the kick, I blanked out for a moment and found myself crouching in pain on the ground.

Jo had left before that and so had his money. Gary had never bothered either of us again. And I didn't get in much trouble since I don't think any of the teachers had seen anything.
 
 
Groovin to: Vangelis - Blade Runner
 
 
Solaniis Rex
23 August 2011 @ 02:28 pm

What’s the coolest way you’ve celebrated your birthday?

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This one is kind of a toss-up between 2001 and 2006.

I spent my birthday in 2001 as an extra on the set of SpiderMan. I was there for the full week and got a chance to talk to Sam Raimi and Willem DeFoe, and to just have fun being a part of the filmmaking process.

Then in 2006 I spent my birthday in the gunner turret of a humvee on a multi-day convoy. It was the first time I fired my weapon (an M240G in this particular case) in a combat situation. A very different type of exciting, but still, it was an experience to write home about.

Other than that it was simple things like sleepovers, movie nights, and cookouts. Including one cookout where none of us really knew that much about grilling and our lack of resources led us to using a screwdriver as a hamburger flipper, it all turned out good, though.

There was also that time we stayed up all night playing You Don't Know Jack and watching movies like Story of Riki and Friday the 13th.
 
 
Feeling: indifferentindifferent
Groovin to: Atticus Ross - The Book of Eli
 
 
Solaniis Rex
22 August 2011 @ 03:08 pm

What is the scariest horror flick you’ve seen?

View 1318 Answers



I'm not really sure what movie scared me the most. I can say that the only movies that have given me nightmares are not horror in any way. You may be surprised to learn that list is:

2001 - A Space Oddysey
Battle Beyond the Stars
TRON

And I wouldn't necessarily consider them scary, they just had an effect on me when I was younger. Even when I was a kid and would sneak and watch a horror film I would get bored by the stuff that was all blood and guts. I needed an interesting story and characters that were worth survival. This led to the choice, either I was too engrossed in what was going on to really be scared (though I would be able to think up a plan to get out of most situations presented), or I wouldn't be paying enough attention for it to scare me.
 
 
Feeling: productiveproductive
Groovin to: Lacuna Coil - My Wings
 
 
Solaniis Rex
11 August 2011 @ 08:56 am

If you could, would you set a zoo animal free? Which one and why?

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Does the guy who sits in the front of the zoo counting all the people that go in count?

He totally looks like he needs to be set free.
 
 
Groovin to: Vincent Black Shadow - Don't Make Me So Mad
 
 
Solaniis Rex
22 July 2011 @ 11:12 am

Which book would you want to see turned into a videogame?

View 866 Answers



I must admit that I have never found myself reading a book and thinking how they need to make a video game out of it.

I especially never thought that about Dante's Inferno, but they did it anyway.

So, in that vein I present the following books to be made into action games where you must battle everything you see to the death to save the one you love (just like Inferno).

Wuthering Heights
The Metamorphosis
The Great Gatsby
Romona and Beezus
Crime and Punishment

And just because I'm horribly evil...
Star Trek - Kobayashi Maru

'Cos nothing's better than a game that you can't win, no matter what
 
 
Feeling: contentcontent
Groovin to: Tangerine Dream - Tangram
 
 
Solaniis Rex
18 July 2011 @ 03:36 pm
Wonderful stress.

I know everything will go relatively fine, but I think I'm a little stressed about how tomorrow is going to go.

Here's the situation, we've got a new American coming in and it's my job to pick him up and get him situated. Normally no big deal, but this guy has a big family coming with him. If there's one thing I'm certain about, it's that you can't fit three adults, three children, and all their luggage into a little sedan. So, I'm borrowing a co-worker's van to get them. So, tonight I drive that one home, and wake up super-early in the morning to drive out to Brussels (hopefully avoiding much traffic).

Then once, I've got them all loaded up we head back this way, I get the family all set up in the hotel and we see if there are any rental cars available. Then wednesday is where we drive out to another base so he can in-process. Bare in mind that none of these drives are any less than an hour and a half assuming a complete lack of traffic.

It's not something I should worry about. Maybe there's something else stressing me out. Either way, Thursday is a holiday and Friday is the mail run and nothing else, so at least it will be a nice weekend.
 
 
Feeling: anxiousanxious
Groovin to: Christopher Young - Penance Stare
 
 
Solaniis Rex
14 July 2011 @ 08:21 am
I'm told I have the potential to do better, to be more than I am. And I agree, and while I do perform above my peers, it would appear that I don't perform high enough above them.

When I was in school, I had a lot of teachers that would grade me based on what they perceived my potential was. Not based on how I did compared to others, but their own expectations of me personally. This led to my often times getting lower scores than a number of other kids. The problem was that those kids didn't understand the subject at all. All I really understood as a child was that no matter how hard I studied, I would still get lower marks than the kids who couldn't remember how to spell their own names.

I could go on several tirades about how that was a horrible thing to do, and I even think that's where most of my esteem issues come from, but that's not what I'm here to talk about today. Today is where I talk about how weary it can make me sometimes.

The other day, our team lead was looking over some of my work and wasn't too happy about the quality. I personally think I did well considering I'm still new at this language (a strange form of java), but he told me that he was disappointed and that section was of a quality he'd expect from [someone we'll call Sgt Williams] and he knows I can do better. The issue is that [Sgt Williams] is of higher rank and supposed to have more expertise than I. So, while on one hand one could take it as a compliment when being told that they are performing to the quality of those at a higher level. But how are you supposed to take it when you're berated for only performing at one higher level, and not even higher than that?

Some days I am weary and only strive for mere excellence.
 
 
Feeling: tiredtired
Groovin to: Bear McCreary - The Cult of Baltar
 
 
Solaniis Rex
04 July 2011 @ 10:52 am

How do you celebrate Independence Day in your country?

View 1006 Answers



Um... At least the question didn't ask how you celebrate the Fourth of July in your country, in which case I imagine most responses would simply refer to working, as it's a Monday.

It's interesting, though how many other posts seem to accuse this wording of the question as being Ameri-centric, and while I can see why they'd think so (given the date), it's a valid question. This wikipedia article shows us that plenty of countries celebrate an Independence Day. Perhaps not on the same day as the US, but nonetheless the question is about how it is celebrated in said country.

Anyway, I've arrived off-topic again. My answer to the question is "cookouts and fireworks"
 
 
Solaniis Rex
04 July 2011 @ 10:37 am
There isn't a whole lot going on out here these days. It's summer and if you've ever worked with a European, you may have noticed that during the summer they disappear. So, if you work in a building of Europeans, it gets real empty and quiet. Not really a bad thing, but it also means there is little to do.

My new gadget came in last week. I am now the proud owner of a Galaxy Tab 10.1. It's as fancy as I need it to be. Mostly I just use it for reading books and playing flash games. I also need to look into what kind of PT tracking software there is for it. Currently it runs Android 3.1, I have no idea how upgrades will work when 4.0 comes out, but since I'm satisfied with the current version, I won't worry about it.

In other news, I manned the beer tent at my unit's Independence Day celebration. I learned that Corona is exceedingly popular out here, and that we couldn't give Rolling Rock away. I think the best response to the Rolling Rock I got was, "I wanted beer not Sprite!"

Also, as the days move on, it gets closer and closer to the point where the bookstore disappears. In case I haven't mentioned it, there is a bookstore about 20 minutes from my house that I would regularly hang out at. I like it 'cos they have a coffee bar where I can get my Chai Lattes and they're the only place where I can find books in English (though reading others might help in learning the languages). Sadly, they're closing down soon. For a bit they had signs up saying that yesterday would be the last day, but I guess it got a week's reprieve or something. I'll find out the new closing day next time I'm up there.

In any case, time to find some work to do...
 
 
Feeling: goodgood
Groovin to: Howard Shore - Silence of the Lambs
 
 
Solaniis Rex
23 June 2011 @ 03:16 pm
Once again, I didn't make the promotion cutoff. I'll check back tomorrow to find out how much I missed it by. In any case, it's time to start studying again. Only this time I'm going to have extra material. The last couple of years I've been PFE only (there's two tests, PFE and SKT), but now my career field has SKTs. So I'm going to be taking both tests next year.

Maybe with the new rewriting of the SKTs they'll be more relevant and therefore easier to learn. We'll see. I'll have to contact the First Sergeant and see about getting those books.
 
 
Feeling: disappointeddisappointed
Groovin to: Christopher Young - Resurrection
 
 
Solaniis Rex
22 June 2011 @ 09:39 am

If you could find out what happens after you die, would you want to know?

First question listed was submitted by [info]jammybuggers. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.)

View 1372 Answers



If we're talking about an overall view, then yes. I'd be interested to learn as a definite what the world of the afterlife is like. For example, early on Judeochristianity taught that Hell was where you went to give penance for your sins, and that once that penance was complete, you can move on to heaven. Then during the dark ages, the scare tactics came in and it was changed to that if you died with a single unforgiven sin, you spent the rest of eternity in hell. Also, the question of Heaven is out there. Is it the same for everyone, will I meet people I knew here, etc.

Now, if we're talking about what specifically will happen to me, I'm not so sure I want that knowledge. If you know you're getting the good ending, you get complacent and not do anything. If you know you're not getting it, you'll give up and not do anything. I just want to know that so long as I put in the effort, I'll get something better than oblivion.
 
 
Solaniis Rex

Which of your favorite childhood stories would you like to make into a game? What kind of game would it be?

View 291 Answers



I don't know about childhood stories, so much as the TV shows I would watch when I was a kid. I used to figure out how to make a game out of most of the shows and movies that I loved. It usually wouldn't take too long before actual games came out of them, and it was always fun to see if they came up with the same ideas I did.

Now along the lines of fairy tales, I guess you could make an attachment for the Wii that's shaped like a slipper and play Cinderella (just don't let the kids actually mangle themselves in order to win). Or there's also Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater. Which, I imagine would be a lot like PacMan.
 
 
Solaniis Rex
19 May 2011 @ 07:57 am
So, I was playing around with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" and I rather enjoy it. Of course I'm likely going to wait until the 10" model comes out and pick that one up. But I was thinking...

I keep getting these mysterious emails claiming they will give me an extra 3 inches (usually spelled "iNchez"). If I can buy the 7" model and use this magic email to "Extenned" it the promised length to make it 10" I could probably save quite a bit of money. And since those say it's for my manhood, it's all good. After all, what's more manly than fancy-pants techno-gadgetry?
 
 
Feeling: tiredtired
Groovin to: CJ Bolland - Sugar is Sweeter