the-gooch.net Blog

1. Let’s celebrate!

Wow, it’s been a while since my last update, and I apologize for leaving you all hanging out there, like lonely little flags, staked and fluttering desperately in the middle of wide open field… (nice imagery, right?) Yeah, right, who am I kidding? You all have exciting, action-packed lives and are probably much too busy to wonder, “When’s The Gooch gonna update his blog? I’m thirsty for more Gooch News.” Well, just in case someone out there is wondering why it’s been so long, it’s because I’ve been busy. Really busy. I can’t reveal the specifics of why (depending upon your clearance, I may have to kill you if I do… just kidding, there’s just too much to mention), but let’s just say that if I could measure my free time on one watch, and my busy time on another, my busy watch would be running like a stopwatch and the other would be like those school clocks on a Friday afternoon, right before school lets out for Spring, Christmas, or summer break (I swear, those damn things are rigged to run slower at the end of the day!!!). I even tried to start studying, but all my busy time got in the way. “But you have time to blog?” some might question. To that I’d have to answer, “It’s easier to write for 3-4 minutes, work for a few solid hours, then come back to write for 3-4 minutes than it is to do the same with studying.” Make sense? Besides, writing is cathartic.

Anyway, you may now be asking, “What’s the cause for celebration? Get on with it!”… OK, OK, OK… Well…
1. This Sunday marked my 15th anniversary of military service. It’s amazing to think that in less than 5 years I’ll be eligible to retire, which basically means that I’ll be a little freer to pick who can tell me what to do. LOL…
B.)I’ve paid-off my two major credit card bills (or will have by the end of the month), which, minus my 3% loan for my car, makes me totally debt-free. Woot!
Next, my 1.5 mile run has been clocked at 11:53, which is more than a full minute’s improvement over what I was running when I first got here. I’ve pretty much met my “minimal goal” on that, which was to get in the 11-minute range, and am now going to reach for that 10-minute marker (watch out, Brianna, I’ll be nipping at your heels, pretty soon, and giving you “flat tires”! hahaha!)
Lastly… Huh, I forget what I was going to put here… Hrmmm, if I remember, it’ll be listed next, if not, you’ll just see me skip over to the next topic and I’ll leave you wondering…

2. I’ve found holiness…

While walking back from another building, earlier today, my attention was caught by an odd-looking rock. One might say that I was drawn to this rock, that I felt a compulsion to investigate this rock. Could it have been the mystical rock-spirits, or even the faeries of the Middle East (hehehehe… this is an inside joke, and I apologize for thrusting its mystery upon all of you not on the “in”… If you’re curious, just let me know and I’ll tell all). So, I stopped my strut (OK, it wasn’t really a strut, but that sounds more poetic, doesn’t it?) and went back to this rock, picked it up and found that it had a hole in it. This was neither a drilled hole nor a hole that another rock left when it became dislodged from the main rock, but a hole left there through some other process. This is my “holy rock”. When I go home tonight, I’ll clean it up and photograph it for you. Who knows, maybe I’ll uncover some sort of image of the Nativity embedded into the structure of the rock and outdo that person who auctioned off the “Virgin Mary Toast” on eBay. I wonder why you never hear about images of Satan or demons and crap appearing on things? Would any buy a Beelzebub Bread or a satanic squash? Hrmm, I’d have to cruise the back alley markets looking for such hellish delights, I suppose. Nahh, I’ve got my Holy Rock and that’s good enough for me. ^{Note: Photos of the “holy rock” are delayed due to the fact that I promptly fell asleep after I got home last night.}

3. Mas musica…

In my never-ending quest to discover new music, I, ironically, come across older bits of music that I enjoy and often wonder why I never listened to them before. This post’s case-in-point is: Blue Man Group. I’ve heard of them, before, and thought that they seemed interesting, but never gave them much thought beyond that. Well, I was browsing around on a media server here and found a video for one of their songs, “Sing Along”. This song grabbed my attention because I’ve recently been turned on to Dave Matthews’ music. No, not to Dave Matthews himself, pervs, to his music. It’s good stuff, and I really like it. Anyway, his performance in the video is great, the song is great, and it inspired me to purchase the Blue Man Group Complex Tour DVD. I’m really enjoying this DVD and highly recommend it–I even bought the audio version of it and enjoy that. There are about 5 songs on there that I’ve added to my fictional “Best Overall Songs” list (this list does not really exist, except in some little folder in my mind). I was bored a little while ago and made myself into a “Blueman” using a cheap-O editor. Have a look:

Blue Gooch

4. 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS…

Aha! I remembered my fourth point from “Let’s Celebrate!”: I only have 40 Days left here!!! Awesome. Can’t wait to get back home. This deployment has been interesting, I’ve met a lot of great people, and learned quite a bit, but I won’t be sorry or sad when my plane takes off in May. No-sir-ee-Bob.. Oh, and a final note… This blog is not too picturesque because I haven’t had much time to organize, resize, and upload my photos. Sorry. I’ll write up a new blog over the weekend and show all of you some more interesting sights. Until then, here’s my favorite piece of art that I’ve seen since going walkabout in Doha. It’s made of inlaid wood, measures about 3ft x 4ft and costs about 3500 Riyal (close to $1000)! Cheers!
 

I want to take this home with me….

1. Meet my friend, Abbie… Abbie Normal.

Like Joey, from the series Friends, when he finds his “Hand Double”, I have found my “Thumb Double”. I have what may be called double jointed thumbs, in that I can hyper-extend my thumb into awkward positions by will. I found out that my friend Ana (see my earlier post) and I have the same type of hyper-extensible thumbs. Too cool, or weird, depending upon your point of view. #;^D (After talking to my Night-shift counterpart, I found that he has 1 hyper-extensible thumb, so that makes him either half as cool or half as weird as me…. I’ll leave that decision to him… LOL)  

Here’s a pic of our thumbs, in the “normal” position, which should be known to everyone with a “normal” thumb.

Now that you’ve seen the normal thumb, here’s what a hyper-extensible thumb can do:

That sure beats the typical “kung fu grip” that most thumbs are limited to, doesn’ it? Yeah, you know you’re jealous…

Now, I know you’re all brimming with excitement and full of questions, so I’ll answer, up-front and honest, the most frequently asked questions about this condition:
Q1.    Does it hurt?  A: It hurts like the dickens, but like all the Greats, I’m willing to suffer for my art… I mean, no, it’s kind of liberating having a thumb that goes that extra inch and serves as a nice little conversation piece when you’re trying to impress that cutie at the bar and your drunkenness has caused you to forget all other topics of discussion.
Q2.    Man, that’s weird. How’d you learn you could do that? As a kid, I remember friends showing me their freaky little tricks where they bent their wrists all the way back on their hands, holding their hands straight while bending only their fingertips, etc… It was by chance, I guess that I was moving joints to and fro and found that my thumb was extra flexy. It may comfort you to know that I was never able to flip my eyelids inside-out, though.
Q3.    Can you teach me to do that? Sorry, my young padawan, like chloromidians and the force, you cannot gain this ability, insofar as I know, but must be endowed with it at birth. Do not fear, though, for I will put my talent to good use in protecting the galaxy in the name of those hyperflexibly-thumb challenged. (yes, I’m uber-geeky like that)
Q4.    Can you get that fixed? What the deuce!? That’s like asking me to trade in my 2005 Volvo S40 T5 for the same car but without the T5 engine… Sure, it’s sturdy and dependable, but it’s just not as cool and exciting. I like my cool and exciting thumbs!
What’s cool to know, though, is that Ana and I are not alone in our thumb abnormalities. My friend, Brooks, has some interesting thumbs, too… Volvo S40 T5 for the same car but without the T5 engine… Sure, it’s sturdy and dependable, but it’s just not as cool and exciting. I like my cool and exciting thumbs!What’s cool to know, though, is that Ana and I are not alone in our thumb abnormalities. My friend, Brooks, has some interesting thumbs, too… 

 

2. Dude, where’s my stash???

 

Last month I tried to grow a moustache, in honor of “Moustache March” (was hoping to get a head start). For roughly 28 days I let the ‘stache grow, but all I got for my efforts were these mini-whisker things (keep in mind that this is 28 days-worth!!!):

 

. 

It was pretty sad and it frustrated me like you wouldn’t believe. Seriously, this is just about 4-weeks-worth of total moustache growing for me… I wasn’t frustrated because I wanted a moustache, but because the dang thing wouldn’t grow. It’s that whole “forbidden fruit” concept–I don’t necessarily need/want it, but it pains me that I can’t have it. LOL!!! Oh well, now I know it simply isn’t time yet for me to try on the ol’ Magnum P.I. look:

 .

That’s quite alright, though, because it was a pretty weird feeling after drinking something to lick my lip and feel those hairs there… Ewww!!! To all of you out there that can grow a moustache and do grow your moustache, more power to ya!

 

 

3. Over the hump… It’s all downhill now, baby!!!

On 11 March, 2007, I had reached the 60th day of my deployment! That’s right, it was technically the half-way point of my deployment. From that point on I can start counting backwards, watching the “Days ’til I return” grow ever smaller. That also means that I have to start prioritizing and getting things taken care of… Things I want to complete before I leave here:

a.) Study for MSgt (yes, I still need to open that dang PFE)

b.) Get going on my final class for my degree (I think I have all of the software, I just have to buy the textbook)

c.) Finish a web-based Troubleshooting Guide for my job (this is coming along rather well…)d.) Run the mile-and-a-half in under 12 minutes (I’m styaing in the upper 12-minute range right now, but good news is that I’m not slowing down)

I think all of these goals are achievable, but it’s going to take some real effort. Sadly, I may have to start hanging out in my room more often and not being as sociable. That sucks for me, because I truly enjoy hanging out with people, meeting new people, and generally having a good time. Priorities, right? Ughhh… Decisions decisions. To be or not to be… Over the river and through the woods.. Yeah, whatever…

 

 

 

Playing what you’re dealt…

The fact that I have some free time while deployed gives me the opportunity to try out all sorts of different things. Right now I’m playing Texas Hold ‘em on a somewhat regular basis with some friends. Our games have become so regular, and we’re having such a great time that we decided to create our own little website (have a look). We’ve even gone so far as to create nicknames for ourselves, based on lunch menu items at our Dining Facility (that’s natural, isn’t it?). Yeah, we were having such fun with the efforts of the lunch staff to keep our meals sounding interesting that when the first nickname was adopted by Will we decided that each of us needed to adopt a nickname after our own noteworthy hands. So, as we play, our nicknames are: Will = “Noodles Jefferson”, [I had this originally posted as "Dave", but I have no idea why... Despite my knack for forgetting names, I've never even called Dan Dave...] Dan = “Monte Cristo”, Paul=”Shepherd’s Pie” and I am now “Harvard Beets”. Incidentally, we each have a signature hand:
Q/2 = Noodles Jefferson
2/2 = Shepherd’s Pie
3/2 = Monte Cristo
7/2 = Harvard Beets
As you may have noticed, each of these “hands” has a two in it, which is why we’ve named our poker group the Deadly Deuce Dealers of Doha, or D4. That’s right, people, there’s never a dull moment here.

50, the hard way…

That’s right, friends! Another milestone has been reached and day number 50 is here and gone. Being away from everything familiar is pretty stressful, but being here, with the great people that I work with helps out quite a bit. There’s rarely a day that goes by where someone’s not doing something to keep our spirits up. Camaraderie is at a very high level here despite the long hours and sometimes chaotic workload. Also, goals give you something to strive for; they’re that light at the end of the tunnel. My own personal goals, for when I leave here, are to lose weight, improve my fitness (the one does not necessarily follow the other), and study for MSgt. The first and second are sort of kind of going along well, but the studying has taken a back seat to nap-time and recreational reading time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I need to get on that… 70 more days to make the best of!!!

All we are, is dust in the wind, dude…

Last week I experienced my first “overseas dust storm”. Now, this was not a bad dust storm, and I was neither nearly swept away nor was my skin almost scraped from my skin by the ferocity of the silicate particles. Nay, friend, the only odd thing about this day was thatit looked as if the sky and everything around you were being viewed through yellow-tinted glasses. Oh, add to that the facts that there were no flies to be found (a minor nuissance right now) and that the air smelled of freshly turned earth and that would cover the total novelty of that particular day.

Further along the dusty trail…

Hooray!!! I finally made it off base. Actually, I’ve been trying to get off-base and see the local countryside for about a month now, but something’s come up each and every time. I was starting to wonder if it was destiny telling me that I could not go off base, then I remembered that I don’t believe in that. LOL… Jason, Tarsha, Russell, Ana, Leroy… At the Doha Pearl…

Here are a few pics of my time off-base:

This is Jason, our fearless driver… He was weaving in and out of traffic like he’s been here for ages.

Some of the sights: