AMF: Yomping Rocks

It's Friday! Booyeah! Let's get started with some videos: the latest offerings from NewsBusted, and Steven Crowder. They're both likely to terrify Father Time.





Here are a few things from yesterday.

US Special Operations Command's Flickr photostream, plus a couple of awesome pictures: 1, 2

Armed Residents Fight Off Taliban (AP, BBC)

Report: Kim Jong Il Grooming Middle Son as Successor (AP)

President Obama appoints Chicago buddy to cushy London ambassadorship (Guardian)

Map reading tips for a world without GPS (Guardian) - If you need a laugh, this is your treat for today, especially if your name is Father Time.

Silvio Berlusconi's teenage girlfriend (Times) - She's cute!

Taleban are using weapons 'supplied by US' (Times) - That is, stolen from or given by Afghan security forces.

Obama approves U.S.-UAE nuclear deal (Mathaba) - Now if he'd only approve more nuclear stations for the States, we'd be in business.

Students recreate Falklands yomp (BBC) - An old feature from 2007, still worth the read. More on that in a second.

Welsh regiment's goat mascot retires (AP) - Another fun story, this one about the retiring goat mascot of the Royal Welsh Regiment. This begs the question: what do Welshmen in garrison need with a goat? Hmmmmm?

That last article has a great line in it:

The tradition dates to the U.S. Revolutionary War when a wild goat wandered onto a battlefield and ended up leading the regimental colors at the end of a battle. To this day, the regimental goat marches in front of the battalion in ceremonies.

For those who don't know, the Welsh are sort of the United Kingdom's answer to the Deep South, or Californians - a group that doesn't really fit in, and whom nobody else really understands. The comedy potential of that story is just outstanding.

Today's satellite map is the Monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian (دير مار موسى الحبشي), eighty miles outside Damascus, Syria. The monastery is featured in this month's issue of National Geographic... Which, oddly enough, inspired a very graphic dream last night. Odd. More about the monastery can be found at the Wiki entry.

So, a few quick things from yesterday.

I finally yomped. I didn't measure distance, I just walked around the compound at work for about thirty-five minutes, in boots with an ALICE pack and a little over two gallons of water, for a total of about twenty pounds, while listening to Sura 47 of the Quran. A good start.

Last night, I read the first two chapters of Goldfinger by Ian Fleming.

This week, I've been faithful about doing Bible readings and Book of Common Prayer readings before and after I sleep, as well as fifty Arabic flash cards. In addition to the prayers in the Book of Common Prayer, I've started reading a short section of the Anglican catechism each night.

I'll spend most of this weekend writing. Aside from owing my editors for my parallel writing endeavour an article, I'm going to enter the Ranger Up Writing Competition.

So... Any plans for the long weekend? If you're doing anything excellent, talk about it in the comments section. Otherwise, have a fantastic day, and a fantastic weekend, and check back Monday or Tuesday, the latter being the day when Mighty Mo might sober up.