Rebooting the Fly's Life
It's been a long couple of weeks. My hope is that this weekend will be a time for calm rest, compared to the bedlam of the last several. The coming week should be the first normal week I've had for a while, إن شاء الله. I went to bed at 20:00 last night, and woke up just after 05:00 today. Given that I'm not normally awake this early on a Saturday, I figured I'd finally give a sort of "State of the Fly" report. The purpose of this post is not only to update everyone on my upcoming goals and projects, but also to sort of consolidate said goals and projects into one document for my own reference.
I've gotten a little bit flustered with respect to some of my specific goals lately. I've made a lot of progress toward turning The Fly of Today into The Fly of Tomorrow since I arrived in Old Dominion in 2007. There's progress that's yet to be made, and my hope is to dedicate the next six months to finishing a lot of that work. There are also a number of projects that I want to either finish planning or complete, within a reasonable amount of time. Getting my digs squared away was a big step in the direction of simplifying my life so that I could start making this kind of progress, so now that it's essentially done, it's time to start making use of that simplicity.
إن شاء الله, this is the Fly's life for the next six months. I'll start with the operations, all of which are in the planning stages at the moment.
* * *
Operation Angle Cross
Eventually, I want to go back and do another stint in England. I intended to do this after I graduated from college, but various factors kept it from happening. The goal for Angle Cross is six months living in England, followed by three or four weeks of intense travel. This travel will include the British Isles (England, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Wight, and Orkney), the European countries I've visited previously (Italy, Germany, and France), and a handful of other select countries (Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, and Denmark). Aside from organizational and logistical planning, Angle Cross will require both more money and better physical fitness than I boast at the moment. No clue when/if it will happen, but that's Angle Cross.
Operation Angle Scout
Angle Scout is my plan for a shorter trip to Europe, two or three weeks in duration. This would include the British Isles travel goals of Angle Cross, but be shorter in duration and exclude the whole spending six prior months in England thing. In addition to planning, this one will also require money and physical fitness.
Operation Haven Stone
Haven Stone is aimed at planning for the possibility of taking a job in Wyoming. It involves moving myself and my stuff from Old Dominion to Wyoming and setting up shop there. This one will involve planning for the stuff I need to unload here, the stuff I'll need to have if I move there, the process of transporting that stuff, and the process of driving two thousand miles. Given that there aren't a ton of jobs in my career field in Wyoming, this one's a bit of a long shot, so this is mostly theoretical.
Operation Mukhabarat Kitab (کتاب المخابرات)
"Mukhabarat Kitab" (I think that "Kitab al Mukhabarat" is probably a better Arabic translation, so that's what I put in Arabic) is Arabic for "intelligence agency" and "book", so Operation Mukhabarat Kitab revolves around my goal to finish my spy novel. I actually have two in progress at the moment, but once I finish the first, the second should finish itself quickly. I currently have about ninety-six pages in Wordpad on the first, about forty-five on the second, all of which has been written since December of 2007. I figure that a "finished" manuscript will be between two hundred, and two hundred fifty pages. One of my methods of accomplishing this one is to set aside several evenings a week to write. Sometimes that's easier said than done, and blogging and articles also compete for my writing time, but I feel like I'm making good progress on this one. I'd be thrilled if I were able to complete the manuscript for the first novel within the next six months.
Operation Oasis Realm
I have goals for my time in Old Dominion. Oasis Realm could basically be titled "How I Spent my Hampton Roads Vacation", if "vacation" means "life in general". Oasis Realm consists of my personal development goals, and how I'm going to meet them. These include physical fitness goals (that will be discussed presently), financial and savings goals, professional development goals, training with Blackwater, and Arabic learning goals. This is one of those operations that's in progress while it's in the planning stages.
Operation Qisbah (قصبة)
I've talked about and posted links regarding shipping container houses, and my desire to someday build one. "Qisbah" ("قصبة") is Arabic for "fortress" - some of you may be familiar with the old Clash song. Operation Qisbah consists of drawing up the necessary floor plans and schematics for turning a bunch of shipping containers into my own personal Flytress - yes, that's a combination of "Fly" and "fortress". I may eventually post some of the plans up here, but I hope to have an established floor plan that I can put on the shelf within six months.
Operation Ulysses
Operation Ulysses was an ambitious plan that I started developing right after I moved to Old Dominion. I was very unsure of my job, I was another two thousand miles further from home than I'd been at Zoo Station, and I was trying to figure how I could get out if things really tanked. It consists of three phases. The first would involve six months with Raytheon Polar Services in Antarctica. I used to work for Raytheon, and when I was trying to escape from Raytheon in California, I figured Raytheon at the South Pole might be a better opportunity. The second phase would consist of six to twelve months teaching English in an Arabic-speaking country. The third phase would have essentially consisted of what's planned for Angle Cross. I'm not really working too hard on developing this one at the moment, but I'd like to have a solidified plan within six months.
* * *
I have one other plan that hasn't been named yet. I've mentioned the desire to expand my infamous history archive CD-ROM, and due to some goading by the Crypto King, I think I'm going to expand that into a bona fide website. It will focus on more than just the archive, though, and it will include a number of different sections on a number of different topics. Very ambitious in scope, but I think I've done most of the ground work already.
I've also mentioned that I've been swimming at the YMCA lately. I had hoped that this last week would be the first week of my self-developed pre-BUD/S Warning Order workout, but as I mentioned, the last two weeks have been pure chaos. Within the next two weeks, I'll start my physical fitness plan. Blogger seems to hate tables, so I'm going to post the plan in the sidebar and hope for the best. At any rate, it should be a real kick. Once it's actually started, I'll be sure to report in on how it's going. It may be slow going at first, but I'm hoping for excellent results by the time the first phase is over. Assuming everything goes according to plan, I hope to follow on with the BUD/S Warning Order workout, phase one, then phase two, and maybe, maybe, I'll do the Navy SEAL Workout. But for now, baby steps.
Beyond the physical fitness aspect, and the aforementioned Blackwater training, I'm also going to be setting aside two or three evenings per week for studying Arabic. With all of this time spent writing and studying, my hope is that I'll be able to spend less money. Saving money is a huge goal for this six month reboot, because I'll be needing several grand for one thing or another within the next couple of years. I had been making progress on this goal, and now that I've made an investment in the market and carried out some necessary repairs on my truck, it's time to get back to this.
So, the plan is to get organized for all of this during the remainder of October, and officially kick it off at the beginning of November. Six months of that will put me at the beginning of May. What do you folks think, monthly reports from here on out? Is anyone still actually reading this... ?
I've gotten a little bit flustered with respect to some of my specific goals lately. I've made a lot of progress toward turning The Fly of Today into The Fly of Tomorrow since I arrived in Old Dominion in 2007. There's progress that's yet to be made, and my hope is to dedicate the next six months to finishing a lot of that work. There are also a number of projects that I want to either finish planning or complete, within a reasonable amount of time. Getting my digs squared away was a big step in the direction of simplifying my life so that I could start making this kind of progress, so now that it's essentially done, it's time to start making use of that simplicity.
إن شاء الله, this is the Fly's life for the next six months. I'll start with the operations, all of which are in the planning stages at the moment.
Operation Angle Cross
Eventually, I want to go back and do another stint in England. I intended to do this after I graduated from college, but various factors kept it from happening. The goal for Angle Cross is six months living in England, followed by three or four weeks of intense travel. This travel will include the British Isles (England, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Wight, and Orkney), the European countries I've visited previously (Italy, Germany, and France), and a handful of other select countries (Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, and Denmark). Aside from organizational and logistical planning, Angle Cross will require both more money and better physical fitness than I boast at the moment. No clue when/if it will happen, but that's Angle Cross.
Operation Angle Scout
Angle Scout is my plan for a shorter trip to Europe, two or three weeks in duration. This would include the British Isles travel goals of Angle Cross, but be shorter in duration and exclude the whole spending six prior months in England thing. In addition to planning, this one will also require money and physical fitness.
Operation Haven Stone
Haven Stone is aimed at planning for the possibility of taking a job in Wyoming. It involves moving myself and my stuff from Old Dominion to Wyoming and setting up shop there. This one will involve planning for the stuff I need to unload here, the stuff I'll need to have if I move there, the process of transporting that stuff, and the process of driving two thousand miles. Given that there aren't a ton of jobs in my career field in Wyoming, this one's a bit of a long shot, so this is mostly theoretical.
Operation Mukhabarat Kitab (کتاب المخابرات)
"Mukhabarat Kitab" (I think that "Kitab al Mukhabarat" is probably a better Arabic translation, so that's what I put in Arabic) is Arabic for "intelligence agency" and "book", so Operation Mukhabarat Kitab revolves around my goal to finish my spy novel. I actually have two in progress at the moment, but once I finish the first, the second should finish itself quickly. I currently have about ninety-six pages in Wordpad on the first, about forty-five on the second, all of which has been written since December of 2007. I figure that a "finished" manuscript will be between two hundred, and two hundred fifty pages. One of my methods of accomplishing this one is to set aside several evenings a week to write. Sometimes that's easier said than done, and blogging and articles also compete for my writing time, but I feel like I'm making good progress on this one. I'd be thrilled if I were able to complete the manuscript for the first novel within the next six months.
Operation Oasis Realm
I have goals for my time in Old Dominion. Oasis Realm could basically be titled "How I Spent my Hampton Roads Vacation", if "vacation" means "life in general". Oasis Realm consists of my personal development goals, and how I'm going to meet them. These include physical fitness goals (that will be discussed presently), financial and savings goals, professional development goals, training with Blackwater, and Arabic learning goals. This is one of those operations that's in progress while it's in the planning stages.
Operation Qisbah (قصبة)
I've talked about and posted links regarding shipping container houses, and my desire to someday build one. "Qisbah" ("قصبة") is Arabic for "fortress" - some of you may be familiar with the old Clash song. Operation Qisbah consists of drawing up the necessary floor plans and schematics for turning a bunch of shipping containers into my own personal Flytress - yes, that's a combination of "Fly" and "fortress". I may eventually post some of the plans up here, but I hope to have an established floor plan that I can put on the shelf within six months.
Operation Ulysses
Operation Ulysses was an ambitious plan that I started developing right after I moved to Old Dominion. I was very unsure of my job, I was another two thousand miles further from home than I'd been at Zoo Station, and I was trying to figure how I could get out if things really tanked. It consists of three phases. The first would involve six months with Raytheon Polar Services in Antarctica. I used to work for Raytheon, and when I was trying to escape from Raytheon in California, I figured Raytheon at the South Pole might be a better opportunity. The second phase would consist of six to twelve months teaching English in an Arabic-speaking country. The third phase would have essentially consisted of what's planned for Angle Cross. I'm not really working too hard on developing this one at the moment, but I'd like to have a solidified plan within six months.
I have one other plan that hasn't been named yet. I've mentioned the desire to expand my infamous history archive CD-ROM, and due to some goading by the Crypto King, I think I'm going to expand that into a bona fide website. It will focus on more than just the archive, though, and it will include a number of different sections on a number of different topics. Very ambitious in scope, but I think I've done most of the ground work already.
I've also mentioned that I've been swimming at the YMCA lately. I had hoped that this last week would be the first week of my self-developed pre-BUD/S Warning Order workout, but as I mentioned, the last two weeks have been pure chaos. Within the next two weeks, I'll start my physical fitness plan. Blogger seems to hate tables, so I'm going to post the plan in the sidebar and hope for the best. At any rate, it should be a real kick. Once it's actually started, I'll be sure to report in on how it's going. It may be slow going at first, but I'm hoping for excellent results by the time the first phase is over. Assuming everything goes according to plan, I hope to follow on with the BUD/S Warning Order workout, phase one, then phase two, and maybe, maybe, I'll do the Navy SEAL Workout. But for now, baby steps.
Beyond the physical fitness aspect, and the aforementioned Blackwater training, I'm also going to be setting aside two or three evenings per week for studying Arabic. With all of this time spent writing and studying, my hope is that I'll be able to spend less money. Saving money is a huge goal for this six month reboot, because I'll be needing several grand for one thing or another within the next couple of years. I had been making progress on this goal, and now that I've made an investment in the market and carried out some necessary repairs on my truck, it's time to get back to this.
So, the plan is to get organized for all of this during the remainder of October, and officially kick it off at the beginning of November. Six months of that will put me at the beginning of May. What do you folks think, monthly reports from here on out? Is anyone still actually reading this... ?
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