Catching up to speed

[aadler]

 
The last week has kept me busy, but not with much that requires a lot of explanation. I’m still running every day, still gradually increasing my pace. I do better on the track than on the treadmill, but treadmill training improves my free-run performance. I’m already managing a minute and a half better than qualifying time; if I can maintain or improve that, and do likewise on my push-up/sit-up scores, my next APFT should be a breeze.

I got quite a bit of pleasant feedback on “X-Factorial” (my pinch-hit for gen_remix), and allowed myself to relax for the week following. Now it’s time to immerse myself once again in “Queen’s Gambit”. I kep talking about that, but talking isn’t doing; “done” is when it’s finished. (Or, where I’m concerned, when the draft is completed. Sure, editing and polishing will still have to be done, but I’ve never had any problem with that. When I get to the point where I write END on the draft, I’m there, the rest is just clean-up.)

Still no direct word from my unit regarding immediate plans, but there was something in the unit newsletter that may pertain. Apparently they’re canceling individual and small-group deployments just now, so that we can mobilize as a complete company in the near future. If that means that the people who would have been going to Iraq in January (and I might have been one of them) will definitely not be going, then I plan to try and extend my tour here. This is a good duty station, and a year — instead of six months — is a good enough way to pass the time. Take mid-tour leave for a wedding and honeymoon, go home at the end to relax for four to eight months, and then return to Iraq (or Afghanistan). I like that idea much better than the uncertainty I’ve been facing. And it’ll give me more time to polish my Farsi, get an official language proficiency score, and maybe start learning some Arabic. It’s a plan.

One of my LJ friends asked me if I’d seen the flap about the postings by “Scott Thomas” in the New Republic. Yes, I’ve seen the reports and the challenges to those reports. My opinion? Idiotic fiction. They guy may or may not actually be a soldier, but the stories he’s telling are ridiculous. However vicious or stupid an individual may be, in the field we’re loaded down with so many rules of engagement, laws of armed conflict, cultural sensitivity guidelines, and human rights directives, nobody would tolerate such behavior from a fellow soldier because doing so would get them in trouble. The reports are an anti-militarist’s wet dream, which should be more than enough to give the game away that this is shock propaganda, nothing less.

Like millions of people around the world, I pre-ordered the final Harry Potter book. Unlike most of them, I’m still waiting for it to arrive. The vicissitudes of military mail delivery. So, even though it’s doubtless old news by now, I’m still doing my best to remain spoiler-free until I can read it for myself.

And that’s all for now.