Interestingly boring paradox, simplly complex.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylc=X3oDMTB2Y2t1c212BF9TAzIxMTUzMDA5ODgEc2VjA2ZwBHNsawN0b2RheXE-?qid=20090625164520AAgNZ4A

is where I found this, here is the paradox, below it is my response and below that is the response of the person who was chosen as the "best" answer so far as the person asking the question is concerned.

The Paradox: There is a village where the barber shaves all those and only those who do not shave themselves. Who shaves the barber?

My answer. Given the answer below I must say that One (of seemingly few) answer to this would be that the barber must have his body shave him however someone else must control the movements of his body so that in some sense it was someone else shaving him and in some other sense he was the only person who was allowed to shave those who couldn't shave themselves while still not shaving those who could. Because it would be someone elses motions in shaving him it wouldn't be his motions shaving him but because it was his hand and He Could shave it was therefore possible for someone else to use Their muscles to control His body while he involuntarily was shaved by his own self, ish. So, does it give a perfect solution? No, but in my opinion it isn't something worth making a paradox over, if a barber only shaved the people who didn't shave themselves (as opposed to couldn't) it would make it real-life as such no one would have Ever asked such a redundantly moronic question. Yes, I hope someone with a thesis who Wrote his/her thesis on this paradox reads this and is offended! =)


The response chosen on that particular site.

OK. take a deep breath and read this slowly, because it is very tricky. First two definitions:

def 1) All and only those who shave themselves = S

def 2) All people in the village, including the barber, are either members of S or members of not-S. there is no one in the village that is a member of both.

If the barber shaved himself then he would be a member of S.
If the barber does not shave himself then he would be a member of not-S.

A barber who must shave all and only not-S can not shave any S

The barber can not shave himself, because he would be shaving a member of S

if the barber is not a self shaver then he is a member of not-S

The barber must shave himself because he must shave all members of not-S

Thus he must both shave and not shave himself

This is the paradox.

No one else in the village can shave the barber because only the barber can shave members of not-S.

This is a variation of Russel's paradox, and there are several ways to solve, or attempts, to solve this depending on how it is interpreted. I'm not even going to attempt a solution here. Someone could, and probably has, written a doctoral thesis on the subject.

laws of physics: the ever changing?

From a senior level Chrysler person: Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was David E. Cole, Chairman of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), an Engineer with 40+ years automotive experience, full Professor at the Univ. of Michigan. You have all likely heard CAR quoted, or referred to in the auto industry news lately. Mr. Cole told many stories of the difficulty of working with the folks that the Obama administration has sent to save the auto industry. There have been many meetings where this very experienced automotive expert has had to listen to a newcomer to the industry; someone with zero manufacturing experience, zero auto industry experience, zero business experience, zero finance experience, zero engineering experience, and apparently zero brains tell them how to run their business. Mr. Cole's favorite story is as follows: There was a team of Obama people speaking to Mr. Cole. They were explaining to Mr. Cole that the auto companies needed to make a car that was electric and liquid natural gas (LNG) with enough combined fuel to go 500 miles, so we wouldn't "need" so many gas stations (A whole other topic). They were quoting BTU's of LNG and battery life they had looked up on some website. Mr. Cole explained that to do this you would need a trunk FULL of batteries, and a LNG tank as big as a car to make that happen. And that there were problems related to the laws of physics that prevented them from... The Obama person interrupted and said (and I am quoting here), "These laws of physics? Whose rules are those? We need to change that (while others wrote down the name of the law so they could look it up). We have the Congress, and the administration. We can repeal that law, amend it, or use an executive order to get rid of that problem. That's why we are here, to fix these sort of issues."

Eggless Eggrolls

Confucious
Chicken
Egg Rolls
12 Count

here's the kicker

Wal-mart.

And they actually taste really good.

Egg Roll Filling: Cabbage, Chicken, Carrot, celery, onion, seasonings [soy flour, sugar, salt, dextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed soy protein, dextrose, sesame oil, spice, soybean oil, sherry wine powder [(maltodextrin, sherry wine solids, sulfur dioxide), corn syrup solids], garlic powder, chicken flavor, fermented soybeans, wheat, lemon powder, mushroom powder, ginger, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate]. NO MSG ADDED - except for the small amount found naturally occuring in autolyzed yeast extract.

Crust: Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, salt, corn starch, potato starch, vinegar, soy lecithin, less than 0.1% sodium benzoate as preservative.

Fried in Vegetable oil.

I think certain people with allergies to eggs might just find they enjoy the egg rolls. ;)

Honest Paul

Stories within stories, wrapped around an idea in my head, and joys of memories and personal growths over the years.

I was working asphalt when I was given the nickname "honest paul". strike that, it was 7th grade P.E., I can recall being called that by my coach/instructor as he was asking if we'd done our stretches and push-ups/sit-ups, the kid who was supposed to get us doing it came out maybe a minute before the coach came out and got us into position. Coach came out and asked us if we'd stretched, etc., and everyone said yes except me. I said no, we hadn't. Needless to say he wasn't happy with everyone else, they weren't happy with me, but I was able to sleept that night.

Some years later, post high school and my second season into asphalt repair my foreman told me to tell the owner if asked that we had gassed up the night before and that we were already on the road to the job site. As we'd just pulled up I was gassing up while he went in to the gas station to grab some food, a drink, etc. The owner called, and I told him the truth, the foreman had asked me to lie and we hadn't done anything like we'd been instructed to and were more than an hour behind the schedule he thought we were on, which is the schedule our day was planned out with. Again I was called "Honest Paul" by the foreman with more than a hint of disdain during the remainder of my time with that company.

Can I lie? Yes, do I try not to? Yes. Especially when my honor is at stake.

"When men sin in silence when men should protest makes cowards of men." ~Abraham Lincoln

As a teen I was found to be both obnoxious and hot headed. Well, I'm still a little of both, but by and large there's dramatic improvement from my personal starting point, I say this from word of others, I'm still not happy with myself 100% but I know I'm closer than I've ever been in my adult life. My behavior drove people away. I thought it was because they didn't like Me, but the definition of a person goes beyond who they are and in to how they respond, and how they communicate (both transmitting and receiving).

It turned out I wasn't communicating what I really wanted to communicate. I would lash out, over react, and be furious over the dumbest things. I knew I wasn't happy but couldn't quite figure out why or how to change it. Perhaps I'm a tough love kind of guy, but I seem to recall mom saying to me that people didn't Want to be around me because of how I responded, because of how upset I would get, how I would respond, and that yes over all I was a good person but (this is my own metaphor following) even chocolate covered in enough cockroaches would drive Any person away. She was honest. Brutally and totally honest. Did it hurt? Yes. Absolutely. Was she right? Well, mothers aren't always right (No imperfect person is) but this time she hit the nail on the head, and it felt like it was hit by a sledge hammer. It hurt. Partly because how blunt she was about it, and more so because she was right, and there was no ifs ands or buts about it, she was right and the only way I could make things different would be if I changed. I had to change because I wanted to, because I had a drive a motivation leading me on to become something I wanted to see in the mirror, because I wanted to be able to fall asleep peacefully at night without quams or thoughts running through my head of what I'd done wrong and how to fix it, as with all things that aren't broken, if it ain't broken it don't need no fixin'. Yes, grammar issues intentional, and for your enjoyment, cause some times it's just more fun to say things the fun way.

Did I change? Well, I still am. It's an ongoing process, it always is and always will be until I don't have to think about it any more and it's just natural to respond in a calm collected manner when naturally I may want to scream and shout. It took someone being bitingly blunt, and my willingness to not only ask for help from those around me, but to accept that help as well and internalize the reality of fixing a real problem was my sole responsibility, and I was the one who would be accountable when all was said and done.

So I said to him, "Barack, I know Abe Lincoln, and you ain't Abe Lincoln."

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

......Abraham Lincoln

11 General Orders

1. To take charge of this post and all government property in view.

2. To walk my post in a military manner, keeping always on the alert, and observing everything that takes place within sight or hearing.

3. To report all violations of orders I am instructed to enforce.

4. To repeat all calls from posts more distant from the guard house than my own.

5. To quit my post only when porperly relieved.

6. To receive, obey and pass on to the sentry who relieves me, all orders from the Commanding Officer, Command Duty Officer, Officer of the Deck, and Officers and Petty Officers of the Watch only.

7. To talk to no one except in the line of duty.

8. To give the alarm in case of fire or disorder.

9. To call the Officer of the Deck in any case not covered by instructions.

10. To salute all officers and all colors and standards not cased.

11. To be especially watchful at night, and, during the time for challenging, to challenge all persons on or near my post and to allow no one to pass without proper authority.

Anchors Aweigh

(verse one)
Stand, Navy, out to sea, Fight our battle cry;
We'll never change our course, So vicious foe steer shy-y-y.
Roll out the TNT, Anchors Aweigh. Sail on to victory
And sink their bones to Davy Jones, hooray!

(verse two)
Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh,
Farewell to college joys, we sail at break of day-ay-y.
Through our last night on shore, drink to the foam,
Until we meet once more. Here's wishing you a happy voyage home.

The Sailor's Creed

I am a United States sailor.

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and I will obey the orders of those appointed over me.

I represent the fighting spirit of the Navy and those who have gone before me to defend freedom and democracy around the world.

I proudly serve my country's Navy combat team with Honor, Courage and Commitment.

I am committed to excellence and the fair treatment of all.

Navy Mission

The mission of the United States Navy is to protect and defend the right of the United States and our allies to move freely on the oceans and to protect our country against her enemies.

There has been doubt as of recent

I thought I would relinquish the doubt...

Does God get angry?

Is he the type of person with whom you may shudder and fear?

Does he get upset?

think on this and how often you may hear this reading the new testament...

"With whom I the Lord am well pleased"

What does that say about the people he's not "well pleased" with?

Well, by it self not much, but if you're LDS or have an LDS bible on hand turn to the topical guide and look up "please"

In it you'll find listings upon listings of "please" and times when the Lord was pleased with people and maybe 25% of them are times when he Isn't well pleased. Leave it to modern revelation to remove any doubt from what is meant by that.

D&C (Doctrine & Covenants) 63:11 reads:
"Yea, signs come by faith, unto mighty works, for without faith no man pleaseth God; and with whom God is angry he is not well pleased; wherefore, unto such he showeth no signs, only in wrath unto their condemnation."

"with whom God is ANGRY he is NOT WELL PLEASED..."

Does that mean he is angry with anyone he is not well pleased with? Not necessarily perhaps, but it does mean he does get angry.

Enough to the point that like Laman and Lemuel experienced he will allow a person to have visions and manifestations to their condemnation. What happens when a person has visions and manifestations of to that degree and they still turn away? outter darkness anyone?

Curioser...

There are some things in life I appreciate that I think make me odd, and some things in life that absolutely drive me nuts and I don't care what others think about how those things drive me nuts.

I appreciate people who do things well, whatever it is they're trained in if they do it well then I have a great appreciation for them, assuming it's a positive thing that they do.

I disdain those who try to do something because they're intrested in it and play it off like they're professional in it.

Canon does extremely well at making cameras, Nikon as well (yeah, bet you didn't expect me to put a plug in for a camera I prefer not shooting on but honestly I'd rather shoot on a Nikon than an olympus and a canon rather than a nikon and a mamiya over a canon and a linhof over a mamiya).

These two companies along with their uppers do very good at making cameras that do so much and make the life of the photographer much easier. The trouble is that it makes it so easy that some people who think they have the abilities of a good photographer but really don't, well, it makes them think they're professional. There are several people I know who have companies and extremely expensive gear and absolutely no education in photography, I returned a camera to someone and had used it in Manual when the person is used to using it in an automated mode...The person wasn't sure what to do with it really.

Photographers with companies who don't know what a histogram is, how to meter, how to expose, how to adjust depth of field, how to google "salt prints", aren't photographers, they're people with expensive cameras. A camera is no more a photographer than a person is a photographer, software isn't a photographer, neither is film (digital or analog). A photographer is someone with a creative eye and a scientific side that bends light to their own wants and needs. A photographer is someone who sees something how it could be, makes it that, and then makes it look even better (IN CAMERA!) than people thought it could look and then does very minor adjustments in either the digital or analog darkroom (for those who are still scratching their heads a digital dark room is photoshop, an analog dark room is what Ansel Adams worked in laboring for hours and days, at times even weeks before getting the one perfect print from a particular negative).

Those who photograph and charge for their photography and have no education in it and show no level of professionalism in the realm of the quality of their original captured images down the names of photographers that deserve better recognition from having earned it and flood the market with photographs that are undeserving of the price attached.

Sorry

That's been building for a while.

I wish against wish

I hope against hope

that people would drop the AirForce bit and let me focus on Navy, it's still what feels right and no amount of persuasion will change the fact of what my prayers have led me to...

Unfortunately no one getting this is one of the people I'm referring to and I can't mention it to the people who I'm thinking of because there's a strong possibility we might be able to clear up the issue with my lack ot security clearance if I can play along with them for a bit.

Oh the politics of family life.

lol

Caffeine doesn't make me eccentric

being me does

Math does work out after all

So, two of the smartest people I know couldn't figure it out, but it's ok they're better with english anyway ;)

I figured it out though. You do need both the weight and the volume to figure it out.

First each gallon weighs 7 lbs, so you take 42 gallons and multiply it by 7lbs. = 294lbs

The tricky part is that it says each cubic foot is 52lbs. They're trying to trick you into associating cubic feet with lbs, but really they're two different variables being used for a conversion from one way of measuring a material like converting a persons pay check into hours and hourly rate over the course of a large time frame (large time frame being the 42 gallon barrel).

So, what's this mean? A 42 gallon barrel weighs 294lbs, but it's cubic feet is a percentage of that weight. 294/52, as it takes 52 lbs of material to compose 1 cu ft the correct answer is 5.7 as the math turns out the whole number is: 5.653846153846153846153846153846(infinitely in the 153846 pattern)

and because they rounded up the correct answer is A, 5.7.

does this math seem wrong to you??!

One type of lubricating oil weighs approximately 52 pounds per cubic foot, or 7 pounds per gallon. A 42-gallon barrel will hold approximately how many cubic feet of such oil?
5.7
6.0
7.4
10.8
29.5

tell me if I'm doing this wrong.

7 pounds per gallon = 52 pounds per cubic foot.
42 gallons = 294 pounds and also = 2184 pounds per cubic foot....

I figured they got 6.0 as their answer by dividing 42 by 7, but that doesn't seem like the right answer in light of the given information, unless somewhere when they were talking about cubic feet they meant cubic inches...

new toy i found

Canon is releasing a new toy on the amateur photographers market

Canon EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR Camera (Camera Body
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/613611-REG/Canon_3818B001_EOS_Rebel_T1i_Digital.html#Memory

cool things about it?

shoots 1080p video. =) yup, the good stuff. It also shoots stills, 15.4mp per raw file.

Downsides? SD and SDHC only, no CF card compatability, CF is still faster and has larger sizes available than SD and SDHC, it also has a better success/failure rate than SD/SDHC has been known to have.

It is going to be released in May some time. So, technically right now it might be available since it's like 1:15 am on May 1st!

Oh, other cool thing? $799 new for the body. It's comparable to the xti/xsi for when they came out but it blows them away in both features and mp's.

ASVAB

if you were curious... There's been some discussion as to what scores translate to... I've gotten a bit confused describing my AFQT score as Tom thinks it's one thing other people thinks it's something else, so here I'll put in my line scores for the whole bit and see if we can't clear some things up. :)

The AFQT score is a percentile score, 99 is the highest possible percent one can receive on the ASVAB and I got a 94, hence all jobs open to new enlistments are potentially available to me assuming I get security clearance...

That breaks my standard scores down to:
General Science: 59
Arithmetic Reasoning:62
Word Kmowledge:64
Paragraph Comprehension:61
Mathematic Knowledge:62
Electronics Information:65
Auto & Shop information:61
Mechanical Comprehension:67
Assembly of Objects:64
VE (summary of word knowledge and paragraph comprehension):64
Coding Speed:60

Those are the general catagories of the ASVAB, assuming you get 60 on each of those you get pretty much anything open to you, such is my situation.

Army breaks it down into these catagories, and Army as well as others afterwards I don't know what the abbreviations stand for, though you can probably find it on www.about.com

GT:128
CL:130
CO:132
EL:132
FA:132
GM:131
MM:131
OF:132
SC:132
ST:131

Air Force has the following
M:97
A:94
G:94
E:92

Navy/Coast Guard has the following:
GT:126
EL:248
BEE:245
ENG:123
MEC:190
MEC2:193
NUC:255 (nuclear, notice I tested highest in this)
OPS:252
HM:185
ADM:126

Marines have the following:
MM:132
GT:132
EL:128
CL:128

I understand for certain positions there are more tests involved, such is the case with intelligence positions and I think nuclear (though I'm not sure with nuclear, or other branches of the military). What I do know is I haven't seen a "qt" though I have seen "gt"s.

For those who are interested in the actual numbers here they are, from what I understand the Air Force basis their scoring out of 99 possible. Positions in the Navy are based off of combining scores from different line items, to go Nuc you need something like a 320 when combining your AFQT and Nuc, combining those with mine I have a 349. I'm not sure what the line items are out of with army, marines, navy, and coast guard as they're all above 100 in my case and some are well over 200. My father-in-law is calling an old friend he served with, he was a 2-star stationed here at Hill AFB and he's gonna see if he can't weasel some things around for me, if he can more power to him, and if he can't that's ok because I wasn't too thrilled about the Air Force though a lot of people say they're the ones who get pampered. (they go up in multi million dollar planes, they have to be pampered cause if they fall asleep at the wheel aint no one wanna pay the insurance premium hikes!)...

Meanderings

Honey thinks she might be pregnant...

Her period didn't ever come... She's cramping when she shouldn't be... Nausea... Spotting...

Yeah... Dunno. Last time we thought this she was lactating and we found she had a tumor...

Honestly though, if she is....

The kids nickname is gonna be "oops!" lol

jk I wouldn't say that

outloud

Don't ask me how my day went

Just don't.

Yes, I made tape. I wasn't terribly worried about it. It's funny though, they got my height last time at 67 inches, at the recruiters it's at 67 1/2 inches, and today they figured me to be 66 1/2 inches. Somewhere and some how I'm shrinking I suppose. They figured my neck to be 17 1/2, funny, it's been measuring 18 and 18 1/2 for a month now. Go figure. My belly measured 40 inches, which is what they've been measuring me at there at the recruiters office. Long and short of all this information? I came in at 24%, which for now is close enough.

In previous posts I've said how I did on the ASVAB, my AFQT (general overall score, highest possible is 99) was a 94. Not bad. I attribute this to an affinity for useless information combined with 4 years of schooling under my belt. The issue of getting such a high score is that it's cost me in student loans, the government doesn't like it's employees having debt upon entering. The general cut off for security clearance is around 25k. I have right around 20k in student loans. Add what we owe on our car and that puts me over. Add what we owe on credit cards, and well, good night. So, clearance isn't an option for me, and won't likely be for at least two years. All the speeding tickets when I was younger aren't helping, neither was having my large speeding ticket go to collections right before I paid it off (it was retrieved from collections but that doesn't matter, high debt with a history of something going to collections is a bad combination with the military).

So, that cuts out 75% of the jobs I'm interested in, Intel, Nuclear, and much of the like. Are there positions open for other things that don't require clearance? Yes, the soonest opening is for a corpsman. Honestly I'm not sure if I'm even remotely interested in that though. A corpsman is just this side of a Dr., and can be assigned to ships, medical ships, batallions, and marine groups, etc. The issue? I'm not so sure I like blood, or needles. Sure there's the possibility of doing really well in my "A" school and making it as a radiologist type, but I'm still not sure.

What to do

what to do

?what to do!

Friday is when new postings for May (first of the month) might be opened up, if not then the following week. They're going to call me if there's another opening that I might be interested that opens up. The debt thing is the same across the board with all the other services so it doesn't really matter who I try with, I won't be able to get clearance with any of them for a while yet. So, for now, and until further notice I hurry up and wait.

Wowzers! I'm blogging again, I had to pick my wife up off the floor as she saw me blogging and passed out! ;) jk

It's been forever since I've updated this... So, what's happened recently?

My next older brother got married, I borrowed a friends camera and shot over 2000 images of their wedding for them. It was a lot of fun. Maybe it was because I was shooting a camera that really maximized my abilities (obviously it wasn't something I can afford, as what I Can afford doesn't match what I can do very well most times...), maybe it was because the people were listening to me when I was giving directions (other weddings I've shot people ignored me, thereby adding to the frustrations as shots don't happen unless people listen and do, as anyone who was there could tell you, if everyone listens it can all be over Very quickly, it was so nice), maybe it was because I've had more experience doing other things and where everyone listened so well (possibly because I'm older, bolder, and have a much better idea having more experience in photography and having been married myself now too), no matter how you look at it I really enjoyed it. The first time I've ever enjoyed it like that. I was kind of dreading the wedding part of shooting it before hand (engagements are always fun though it's the weddings I've dreaded in times past) but when it came to it, well, it was just fun. The day was long, I passed out long before midnight, which for me is nothing shy of a miracle lately.

My next older sister is officially legally d'd from her ex. It was an exciting day friday when the mass text was sent out. There were people sighing sighs of relief across the country. =)

I lost 16 pounds. Not all of it was this month, but in the last 2 I've lost 16 pounds and about 3 inches from my waist. Which is a good thing too as I'm going into the Navy. Speaking of which. Tomorrow, sunday, I'm going up to the recruiters so I can be taken up to MEPS and get taped. I'd already gone up previously but couldn't be accepted as I was over weight, my body fat percent was up to 28 and it needs to be at 25 or below, but by the time I'm done in RTC it needs to be down to 22 or lower. For those who don't know... MEPS- Military Entrance Processing Station. RTC - Recruit Training Center. So, monday I'll be going from the hotel over to MEPS where they'll tape me, and then I'll be able to pick my career. I've been considering a Nuclear field, but I'm pretty sure if there's a Media opening I'll be taking it. When I go into RTC will be dependent on what field I take and when they have an opening in that field. So, I'm not sure when that will be, but I'm sure it'll be easier for me to put another blog monday night that has all the info people are wanting to know.

My oldest sister just moved into an apartment. Well, her whole family is moving up from a ways away and they're looking for a house up here but they had to move out of their old house because it already sold and the people buying it will be moving in fairly shortly, so, today we helped them with that. Last week we helped them move a bunch of stuff into a storage unit. Funny thing is that I thought the truck last week was big. I was wrong. The one today was HUGE! Well, bigger than last weeks and all in all it was a lot of fun, her hubby has a pretty cool brother that I had some fun conversations with, and for the time they're in the place I think they've got a pretty decent deal. They were really nice in how they did it, they got gift cards and gave them to everyone who helped them move. Today I picked an Itunes card, sadly when I got the info inputed into my computer at home it wasn't 10 minutes later that I'd used the card all up, but I got a bunch of songs I've been wanting to get! :) THANK YOU! Oh, and the cool thing, the music I downloaded was then immediately available in my ZUNE software, and when I connected my Zune it was instantly uploaded it to it, unlike previous versions where you'd have to burn a CD then rip it in order to get it onto a non-"i" product. Mac-in-crap is finally realizing they get more business when they work with other products. I wonder when they'll figure out how to configure their permissions issues so that macs and pc's can work together on a network properly, as it is mac's see pc's just fine and adjusting "permissions" on a pc is so simple and flawless that it's easy to let macs in, but macs don't let pc's read them at all in my experience, most of which has occured at work over the last 9 months.

What else has gone on? My Oldest brother had another baby, well, his wife did. Oddly it was on my next older brothers wedding day/night that she was induced.

My middle older brother is moving, they'd just come up for the wedding and it was nice to see them again, for the first time I remember I saw him in his class A uniform, I even got some pics of him. It was good to see them, like so many of my siblings they live "far" away and I don't get to see them as often as I'd like, I suppose two have lived fairly close all along, but three have lived further away and it's been hard. Oddly enough I'm saying this right before joining the navy and who knows where I'll be when I finish RTC and "A" School.

So, what's going on in my life? Oh, nothing much. lol

My old best friend got married just about 6 months ago... His wife is due in september.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I remember

I remember a time when I made a double batch of cookies. They were my favorite recipe of chocolate chip cookies. Meaning it was the recipe from the bag of the brand of chocolate chips that I really liked. I was making them for my brother before he was leaving for Arkansas, he was going to be there for a couple years with minimal opportunities to contact us. This was when e-mail was just really starting, we were on dial up, I think I had an e-mail account with Juno at the time (an account I haven't used for years at this point)... Anyway, I knew he was going to be traveling with a lot of people, so I wanted them to go as far as possible, which meant I couldn't just make a few big ones (like I would have liked to have eaten myself....lol) but instead I made a TON of little ones, so many in fact I think it took one or two bread bags to hold them. Yes, he carried them on the airplane in bread bags. We also were able to see him off at the terminal at that time. (If you haven't flown in the last ten years you might not know that you can't get through security without working at the airport, on an airplane, or unless you have a ticket, some exceptions....but not many....apply).

With that in mind.

I'm making cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. And I'm making some that are really tiny. Now I call them diet cookies. One of these little cookies can satisfy a grown man on a diet for a day. They're kind of like Lembas bread for those with a sweet tooth.

Unfortunately I'm more like a Hobbit, so they're going to be taken in to work so that my diet doesn't get destroyed by 'eating one, then sneaking 20 more....' lol.

The funniest part, they're oatmeal chocolate chip, but I didn't have a full bag so half of them are oatmeal cookies while others are oatmeal chocolate chip cookies...

:)

Becoming the Bull

"Grab a bull by the horn the old addage goes

No one tells you where to go from there!"

So, what I have to mention deals nothing with that song, it's just a song I have stuck in my head, fortunately I'm glad it's stuck there as I really enjoy the song and it gives me reasons to google/youtube it and listen to it again, and again, and again. Lol...

The whole reason i'm putting this up? Well, I've lost ten pounds so far. My belt is cinched up a notch tighter (and it doesn't hurt to have it there, it's just where it's closing up at now) and I've put an inch onto my neck from 17 up to 18 now.

Oh, and when they taped me a week ago my waist was down from a 42.5 to a 40, beyond that I've lost 3-4 pounds since then (part of the 10 lbs that I've lost total) but I'm not going in to get taped until next monday so I can see a 2 week difference with my current diet. The funny thing, I'm only REALLY working out 2-3 times a week (though I'd rather be working out 6 days a week, I just haven't yet due to things popping up, etc), but the calorie restriction combined with daily situps and regular exercise is doing a ton for me! btw, I'm still eating like a pig, I'm just pigging out on fruits and veggies, they're unlimited calories, as such my stomach doesn't ever cramp etc and I feel healthy rather than feeling like I'm off kilter. Salads for dinner. Who'd have thunk.

24 hr fitness

I've been working lately on working off the chub from my belly. As well as building my neck size. Larger neck sizes allow for larger waists of people trying to get into the armed forces, well, at least the Navy, I'm not so sure about other branches. Needless to say since I didn't make it my first time through MEPS I've been trying to work down the weight so I can get through the next time, and every monday I've gone in to the local recruiter I'm working through who's been doing courtesy tapes for me to help me monitor my progress.

Today I taped an 18.5" neck and a 40" belly. As opposed to my 18" neck and 42.5" belly last week. Which puts me at 23%. A good 2% below the cut off for my height.

So, Nick, my recruiter, is calling up to MEPS today to see if I can't get retaped up there since they may have been taping me to ARMY standards and not NAVY standards when I went through the first time, as such I should be able to make it through if they tape me correctly. What does that do? Allows me to get into DEP (Delayed Entry Program) sooner while I wait for the day when there's a slot for me at RTC (Recruit Training Center) for the career that I'll be able to pick (picking it upon entry into the DEP).

The long and short of it? I may not have to wait until April 27th to go back to MEPS to get taped, which may allow for me to get a position before someone else snags it up, it also gives me a firm grasp on when things are happening and how long my "A" School will be so I can be better prepared for everything, hopefully with more time for memorization pre-RTC. =)

Master of Shrubberies, or large dead objects needing to be felled...

I was asked to help with something last night... It was something to be done today. It left me with scratches up and down my arms, and large piles in several lawns. It used to produce pine cones and pine needles. It hasn't for many moons... Many moons more than I've been married to my wife... Needless to say, it has been on the list of "trees to remove" for some time now, and today it's day came. Today being saturday though, it's late enough this will be posted Very late saturday/early sunday. Whatever. It happened this morning/afternoon.

Last night I started by trying to get a gas-powered chain saw to start for me. It had a larger bite, longer arm, as well as a more powerful motor than the two electric chain saws I had potentially at my disposal. So, I considered it. It wouldn't start for me, I tried and tried but it never even gave as much as a putter for me. So, I hoped that one of the two electric ones would work for me the next day, and or that there was one somewhere that I knew nothing of.

Morning came and I started up the tree, breaking off the little branches that were on the main branches, well, as many as I dared reach for from the main of the tree. Anyway, I climbed within 10 feet of the top before I considered the first part of my task done.

Next I began to try to use a chainsaw on it... Well, funny thing is I first put it to a branch and it made it half an inch into it before the blade stopped turning all together. So, we tried the next one and I began cutting the branches from the main of the tree 2-3 feet out from it and began climbing up the tree cutting the rest off like that. Yes. I was climbing up a tree, 3 stories high (where I was at was 3 stories high, the tree went up more than 10 feet above where I was at) with a chainsaw (electrical, power cord tied onto it so I wouldn't have to make any more trips up and down than were absolutely necessary). Then we tied a rope to the top, from a ladder we cut the first segment down where the last chunk of the trunk was much much easier.

Such was the day, four hours and many tired muscles later the work was done. Well, mostly, aside from clean up, and cutting down the other branches that stemmed from the trunk. Well, there's also what needs to be burned from it still too.

Anyone wanna come over and have a hotdog roast?

ASVAB

So I went up to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) on monday, came home today (tuesday) having failed. I'll leave that as a cliff hanger while I get to why I failed. I arrived monday afternoon and proceeded to being entered into their system (photo, index-fingerprinting) etc, then proceeded to take the ASVAB. Honestly it was easier than most tests I had in college. There are a couple parts of it that I was scratching my head on at first, but in the end I got it all figured out fairly well, time wasn't even an issue for me once, most of the sections I got done in half the allotted time. The coding section was something that worried me as I heard about it before I went up to MEPS, but honestly I enjoyed it, it wasn't bad at all. Overall I would say more than 75% of the test dealt with things that interested me in one way or other. As you might imagine I did fairly well on it. 94. (99 is the highest possible, after 80 most all jobs are open to applicants regarding ASVAB job reqs').

I got my results, called my recruiter (who when I told him my score was super excited and told everyone in the recruiting offic how well I did, funnily enough he predicted my ASVAB scores from how I had done on the Pre-ASVAB that I'd takena week or two prior). Then I took the shuttle to the hotel, waited for a semi-pointless meeting (they tell you to be nice, behave at the hotel as well as MEPS and give a run down of what to expect, aka play a DVD). By the end of the DVD I'd heard everything said in it 3-4 times previously so nothing new was being covered.

I woke up earlier in the morning than the wake-up call (which never came oddly...), got ready and went to MEPS. by the by, I am leaving out meals and exercise from this, I Did in fact eat while I was there last night and today, as well as exercising while I was up there. lol I arrived there (with close to 35 others, 2 of us going into Navy while most of the others going Army with a few going marines) and began "processing". I went in and check-marked boxes on two pages (this is After having waited for 30-45 minutes for someone to come in and do this for us), got my blood pressure taken (I was apparently nervous as they had to do it twice because the first time my pressure was too high and relaxing Did help, though I was nervous the Entire time) did the forms then began the fun parts. My hearing test went very well, I expected my right ear to be my bad ear but it turns out my left ear was worse, both ears however still have very sharp hearing (I have the tests to prove it!, well, MEPS does...lol). Next was the blood drawing, the lady looked at my left arm, after 2 minutes couldn't get a vein to appear she asked me "do you have deep veins?" (I'm sitting there thinking, "Gee lady, if I was an RN I'd be able to answer that but I'm a photographer, what ISO do you usually shoot at during an indoor sports game?") and I tell her I'm right handed so my right arm is stronger and has bigger veins. So, she went for the right arm and got it the first time without digging. She had asked if I had an issue with needles, I told her "as long as you're putting that -> end in and not that end => in then I'm fine (the needle to fill the vial is 3x bigger than the needle that goes in your arm) she chuckled and said "if I was putting that in I'd have a problem".

Then was the vision test. I pulled out having 20/20 still, and my depth perception turned out well. I got lost on the last line of the last section and lost my focus completely but pulled it back together and did fine. Then was the urine test. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to pee in front of someone else. "no pressure" right? lol...... yeah... Anyway, got that taken care of. Then I had to wait for the physical, I ended up being one of the last 2 to get it done but did fine on it. I didn't get to meet with a Navy Liason though because I still needed to get taped. For my height their info says I should weigh no more than 176.... I haven't weighed that little since high school (8 years ago). The other option is to have less than 25% body fat. I measured in at 28%. At then end of RTC (recruit training command) it has to be below 22% (given the amount of exercise you do there it's not so much a problem to work down 3% while you're there, but were I to try to work off 6% while there could prove problematic which is why they do it how they do). I did go to the Navy Liason office and speak with a couple people there about career options, possibilities of getting in May. Depending on what career I choose will determine when I can go in to RTC, but I get to back in on April 27th to see if I've "cut the fat". It's really more like I need to get my waist size down and possibly build my neck up a little. The bigger the neck the less your waist affects you...... So, yeah, I failed cause I was too fat...lol but I'm already working on getting that. I've dropped from 220 to 218 already. I need to drop down to closer to 200. Honestly I wouldn't mind getting to what I was at in high school, but I don't think that will be as likely to happen until the end part of RTC at the absolute soonest. Weight wise at least.

So, April 27th I'll go in, sleep in a hotel the night of, the 28th I'll go in and get weighed and taped, assuming I'm within 25% I'll speak with a Navy Liason and pick my career and shipping (to RTC) date. I did test well enough to do Nuclear reactor positions. Fortunately with those they're in higher demand, have a $40,000 sign on bonus and to extend another 3 years after the initial 6 (6 required minimum) they give you another $120,000 bonus. Unfortunately only two types of ships in the Navy have nuclear reactors so my ship choice is limited leaving "A" school (2 YEARS of "A" school mind you, hence the 6 year minimum commitment) I would have the choice between two types, Modern AirCraft Carriers, and Subs (medium subs don't have Nukes onboard but have nuclear based propulsion and tend to travel to the "cool ports" where as large subs carry nuclear ordinance as well as skipping a large number of "cool ports" due to their massive size. Oddly enough an AirCraft Carrier Battle-group contains 2 subs (typically), so regardless of choosing Sub or Carrier I'd be next to one anyway. I'm still leaning toward Journalism Photography or News Media, but depending on how things fall I may go for the Nuke training anyway.