A Cold Mojave Night
The weather report claims that the temperature outside is in the sixties; I'm not sure whether or not I buy that. Either way, it's going to be in the forties tonight, and I couldn't be happier abut it. I pushed through the heat during the Summer, and now I'm being rewarded with Winter in the Mojave. As far as deserts go, Winter isn't such a drawback. I may even actually go out and do some photography work over the Winter.
A few days ago, I noted in this post that I'd ordered a few items from Amazon. As generally happens with an order that big, they broke it up into smaller shipments in order to get bits and pieces to me quicker. The U2 DVD box set and the O-Zone CD arrived on Tuesday, and I received an E-Mail telling me that the books have shipped. I look forward to receiving them; also, my mother's sending me my college astrophysics/astronomy textbook, Universe*, as well as some book about Arabic that my grandmother "received in the mail". As some of you will remember, I recently listened to The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking, and I have both that book and his earlier work, A Brief History of Time; save for listening to the former on the road home and back (which is grossly insufficient for such complex concepts), I've read neither, so I'd like to read both at some point and be able to look up the idiot-proof version in my college physics textbook. Dig? It'll come in especially handy if I'm successful landing myself a gig volunteering at Goldstone. After all, everyone needs a hobby, and the Mojave isn't exactly teeming with opportunities for intellectual stimulation.
I also made an order recently from Crye Precision, makers of designer field clothing. These folks are basically the Gucci of military clothing. Anyway, I already have one of their range vests; and a pair of their field pants that I absolutely love, but that I can't get any more of at the moment because they're retooling and introducing a new product line. I saw that I could get my hands on a matching field shirt in an acceptable size (I ordered a regular, which is cutting it a little close, but the difference in fit between it and a tall isn't that drastic since I'm right on the dividing line, so hopefully it will work), so I went ahead and ordered it. I also got a Major League Infidel T-shirt, and two Dirka-Dirkastan flag patches: one for Rampage, and one for one of my soldier buddies.
It's been a long week, both at work and here at my flat. I went shopping Monday for work clothes, I've paid three bills this week, I've done a lot, a lot, of personal admin work. Here are some of the items that I added to and crossed off my list this week:
buy clothes and groceries
do laundry
pay vehicle, car insurance, and home phone bills
catch up on E-Mail (to about fifteen people)
call an acquaintance from the deployment RE: CIA employment
clean grill
bag and freeze surplus chicken
exchange defective cargo pants
check on freelance reporter application date for Jane's; resubmit if CV retention period has expired
make list of companies and employment options (nearly one hundred entries)
donate money to college acquaintance's charitable cause (and I hate donating money to charity, so me giving $75.00 for Nima's race is a big deal)
get a haircut
make new fuel log card (yes, I'm that much of a nerd)
Yet to be accomplished, slated for this weekend, are the following tasks:
synchronize clocks/daylight savings time
enter companies/employment list onto computer with company employment websites
buy gifts for The Wife and Michelle
reorganize CDs and DVDs (which are all out of sorts after the deployment and the trip home)
pack embalming book (to show one of my co-workers photos of just what a talented embalmer can do)
more laundry (I was limited earlier by lack of quarters)
So, I have a few things to do this weekend, but nothing too severe; and none of it will require me to leave my flat complex. I may also try to knock a chunk out of Legionnaire by Simon Murray; I've been working on it since the end of August, so I'd like to finish it up so that I can start another book. I may start Gifts of the Jews by Thomas Cahill, or resume U2 at the End of the World by Bill Flanagan, or Lost Moon by Jim Lovell, or... Well, I guess I have some options. I may put it up to you, the blog-reading public, to see if y'all have an opinion.
A note about the employment/companies list. Making such a list implies that I'm preparing to leave my current environment; this isn't true. I feel that, excepting extreme circumstances, I'm obligated to stay with my current employer for at least one year; if things go well, I may look to stay a bit longer, maybe up to about two years. One of the things that I learned studying tactics and strategy with the Marines is to plan contingencies, to seize the initiative instead of being reactive. Given that the minimum amount of time I want to spend in my current situation is one year, I need to have a plan that facilitates leaving that situation on time (whether I decide to leave after a year or not), and that means reapplying for government agencies at some point in the next few months; and, failing success at that, applying for other private sector jobs a couple of months after that. So, at this point, I'm identifying possible companies to look at (and, for the record, my current employer is on the list), not because I'm looking to jump ship early, but because I don't want to get caught unprepared like I was when I finished college. Bottom line? Don't read into the list - not that anyone who's readying this actually would, but that's the story.
And there, folks, is yet another update on my life. Even though it's not on the list, one of my goals for the weekend (and I'll have three days to do it) is to put three or four new news posts up - including the aforepromised+ post about Somali pirates!
* That book on Amazon is a much newer edition than mine; I purchased my copy in September of 2000, and it was already obsolete by the time I took the next course in Winter of 2003. I used the same book anyway, of course; I probably bought three quarters or less of the "required" books in college, and several times I took courses that had redundant textbook requirements. I'll write a post about it someday.
+ No, "aforepromised" is not a word, but you'll probably survive, so don't sweat it.
A few days ago, I noted in this post that I'd ordered a few items from Amazon. As generally happens with an order that big, they broke it up into smaller shipments in order to get bits and pieces to me quicker. The U2 DVD box set and the O-Zone CD arrived on Tuesday, and I received an E-Mail telling me that the books have shipped. I look forward to receiving them; also, my mother's sending me my college astrophysics/astronomy textbook, Universe*, as well as some book about Arabic that my grandmother "received in the mail". As some of you will remember, I recently listened to The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking, and I have both that book and his earlier work, A Brief History of Time; save for listening to the former on the road home and back (which is grossly insufficient for such complex concepts), I've read neither, so I'd like to read both at some point and be able to look up the idiot-proof version in my college physics textbook. Dig? It'll come in especially handy if I'm successful landing myself a gig volunteering at Goldstone. After all, everyone needs a hobby, and the Mojave isn't exactly teeming with opportunities for intellectual stimulation.
I also made an order recently from Crye Precision, makers of designer field clothing. These folks are basically the Gucci of military clothing. Anyway, I already have one of their range vests; and a pair of their field pants that I absolutely love, but that I can't get any more of at the moment because they're retooling and introducing a new product line. I saw that I could get my hands on a matching field shirt in an acceptable size (I ordered a regular, which is cutting it a little close, but the difference in fit between it and a tall isn't that drastic since I'm right on the dividing line, so hopefully it will work), so I went ahead and ordered it. I also got a Major League Infidel T-shirt, and two Dirka-Dirkastan flag patches: one for Rampage, and one for one of my soldier buddies.
It's been a long week, both at work and here at my flat. I went shopping Monday for work clothes, I've paid three bills this week, I've done a lot, a lot, of personal admin work. Here are some of the items that I added to and crossed off my list this week:
Yet to be accomplished, slated for this weekend, are the following tasks:
So, I have a few things to do this weekend, but nothing too severe; and none of it will require me to leave my flat complex. I may also try to knock a chunk out of Legionnaire by Simon Murray; I've been working on it since the end of August, so I'd like to finish it up so that I can start another book. I may start Gifts of the Jews by Thomas Cahill, or resume U2 at the End of the World by Bill Flanagan, or Lost Moon by Jim Lovell, or... Well, I guess I have some options. I may put it up to you, the blog-reading public, to see if y'all have an opinion.
A note about the employment/companies list. Making such a list implies that I'm preparing to leave my current environment; this isn't true. I feel that, excepting extreme circumstances, I'm obligated to stay with my current employer for at least one year; if things go well, I may look to stay a bit longer, maybe up to about two years. One of the things that I learned studying tactics and strategy with the Marines is to plan contingencies, to seize the initiative instead of being reactive. Given that the minimum amount of time I want to spend in my current situation is one year, I need to have a plan that facilitates leaving that situation on time (whether I decide to leave after a year or not), and that means reapplying for government agencies at some point in the next few months; and, failing success at that, applying for other private sector jobs a couple of months after that. So, at this point, I'm identifying possible companies to look at (and, for the record, my current employer is on the list), not because I'm looking to jump ship early, but because I don't want to get caught unprepared like I was when I finished college. Bottom line? Don't read into the list - not that anyone who's readying this actually would, but that's the story.
And there, folks, is yet another update on my life. Even though it's not on the list, one of my goals for the weekend (and I'll have three days to do it) is to put three or four new news posts up - including the aforepromised+ post about Somali pirates!
* That book on Amazon is a much newer edition than mine; I purchased my copy in September of 2000, and it was already obsolete by the time I took the next course in Winter of 2003. I used the same book anyway, of course; I probably bought three quarters or less of the "required" books in college, and several times I took courses that had redundant textbook requirements. I'll write a post about it someday.
+ No, "aforepromised" is not a word, but you'll probably survive, so don't sweat it.
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