Well, it’s been quite sometime since I’ve done a blog and I need to hit it up again.  A few notes however…

I’m doing a lot of changes all around, whether that is online or offline.  Work is going, to an extent.  Though now our working hours are on a day by day basis, deciding on what the workload is.  It’s been a little bit of a bummer to be a tad bit shorter on pay, but the weather overall has been pretty nice and has alleviated the fact that I get our somewhat early in the afternoon.  Of course, that can leave me with a somewhat hermit lifestyle just so I can keep better track of my money, but oh well…hopefully all of this is temporary.

Online…still keeping that low.  It’s been up a little since every now and then I miss “24″ and have to get the replay on Hulu.  I’d also began slowly moving over to Facebook…as far as how “active” my MySpace has been, that activity has about ceased and there isn’t too much of a point for me to sign on there daily.  I get e-mail alerts whenever someone calls me for whatever reason.  Even the group that I belong in there, which was a major reason I was there, has languished and the posts that have been put up there the past three months hasn’t been really inspiring.  I am gonna keep it though…I have always said I will stay in touch, and there are still a handful of friends there.  However, for some reason or other, a huge number of people moved over to Facebook…I don’t know why, but that’s what happened.  I guess MySpace didn’t get a favorable rap overseas, but now I have my cousins and other relatives and a rather large number of Cole/Navy friends on there, and it’s pretty active there.  I only have 24 hours a day to expend my time, right?

Right now, I don’t know if I will blog after this on MySpace.  I still blog at my own website…I’ve experimented a little with Twitter, I don’t feel for it the way others do, but I’ll hold on to it for a little bit more…  I don’t blog on Facebook either…they call it “Notes” and there is something about the format that I don’t really care for.  So I may just save myself a whole lot of time and just consolidate my blog on my own website.  It’s not interactive, but I get a good amount of traffic…which I apologize since I don’t really update it, so everybody pretty much sees the same damn thing from time to time…

I figured I’d hit this up now since March is over, and this has been quite a month.  The year has started off good…and FAST!  I’m gonna be 70 in a week if it just keeps getting faster and faster as it has been.

So while not a whole lot has gone on, there have been some big things.  First, in January, Tony had went off to do some workup training before his overseas deployment with the Reserves.  I’m watching this carefully.

March has come and gone…and the anticipation was pretty wild for me.  Better late than never, Sean eventually decided (after several years) to uncement his butt, quit making assumptions and actually planned to come down here to see things for himself.  It was kind of a last minute thing, but we got that to work out.  Also, Tony’s training had wrapped up and they were permitting his group a few days off before they made final preps and would head overseas.  As good luck would have it, they would have overlapping schedules.  Also, while it didn’t happen in March, I got to see Bobbie and her husband.  We’ve both been in Dallas for some time and, also better late than never, we finally met.

It really wasn’t the best time for a visit, but the window of opportunity on a near perfect visit had long passed and we made do with what was available.  Sean arrived on the first weekend of March, with where we met up with Christine until she got out of work and hit up Cafe Brazil.  The idea was brought up on a previous meeting with Bobbie and her husband the week beforehand.

Overall this entire week, sleep wasn’t really much of anything.  I was reeling and exhausted the following week but finally recuperated to make sure the following weekend wasn’t spent in bed!  We did plan beforehand to try to do some events, specifically the North Texas Irish Festival and the Greenville St. Pat’s parade.  It turned out that there was just simply too much to do, and those events took up at least half a day.

Part of the trip was planned to look for jobs…but the “fun” factor was kind of overwhelming and we deviated from that a little.  Still, we did a little bit of that and there were some returns…which was something that I guess Sean wasn’t used to.  I dunno.  Places to go, and mainly places to eat…those were the overlying bits of the trip.  He had a decent variety of food while he was here, including some good BBQ.  Places…Dallas isn’t really too much of a sightseeing bit.  We have a few things here and there, but it’s generally a live and work city for the most part.  One sight that we decided to see at the last minute, not really a sight…but by its nature, it is…is the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  Basically, everyone is encroaching on Area 51 looking for Roswell evidence.  The government needs a place to hide UFOs and they help give Mr. Jones some cash and arrangements and you have the gigantic obscenity that is the stadium.  Made so that an entire state’s population can watch a football game while government scientists continue to poke at galactic visitors underground!

Tony came in later in the week and that was good to see him.  We hit up a few favorites that we’ve enjoyed since he’s been here, but haven’t visited since he is now a fellow Dallas area resident.  Humperdink’s, Atheneos and Cheddar’s were our eating locations while Tony was here.  As well, we got a little shooting in.  This was good for all of us.  Christine and I were still working out shooting in our schedule and Christine hadn’t shot since Tony last shot before he left back in January.  Sean lives up in MA…enough said!  Tony has done some shooting, I’m sure…super advanced commando ninja stuff, like Navy quals and failure drills.  So this was his opportunity to touch up on what he personally felt he needed and in a more relaxed atmosphere.

As quickly as it happened, it went.  Sean went back up to MA, fully appreciating what his home state has and what Texas lacks, lol!  Tony is overseas, starting up his deployment.  Christine and I continue to have our “Sales…” moment, complete with speed of darkness, super loud second hand wall clock and flicker flourescent bulbs.  This was the beginning of the month…it would now be until the end of the month before the next event showed up.

It was meant to be a birthday present…but identity theft happened, and now I wish I had an Audi Q5.  Just kidding…but yeah, someone decided to be “me” on Paypal…so I’m in the process of paying back Christine!  Basically, it was time to do some shooting under the eyes of those more skilled than we.  Nothing really new, though a few things are almost always inevitably learned.  I do stuff like this to see how I stack up, or refine…I actually like the small scale informal stuff, like what dotted my calendar last year.  That’s what it does, but I always have a bigger picture involved.  It’s basically a “Welcome to My World” experience!  Turns out, that experience went a lot deeper…and in the end, much more satisfying.

So the birthday present, that I owe, was basically Christine meeting Paul…a real American hero and a badass in the truest sense.  That was the basic nutshell…big deal, huh?  But everything that came with it was awesome…she got to meet and make a few friends, in turn she made a name for herself and has become…dare I say…far more conceited!  Me, I’m just my super awesome humble self.  The last shoot we had, I only had 100% accuracy…which sucks, I usually do 180%…I need to work on my slacking technique and attitude.

As all the luck in the world would have it, Christine’s car (which we rode out there) dumped and died…her transmission.  Not a good thing when you’re out of town.  Welcome to the real world…she thankfully now has a job that makes it relatively easier for her to deal with the finances for this.  I told her at first it will majorly suck, watching all that money just vaporize.  In the long run, it’ll be good…you dealt with the problem on your own.

Well, not really…the guys we were with did some banding to help make things right.  Paul got on the phone to his wife, who went to CTU Mode…I mean, CMMDU (Counter Man Made Disaster Unit - it was political news about a week or two ago, go search it if you’re still drawing a blank)…and vectored us to a transmission shop.  Paul go to the tower that he usually uses and they towed Christine’s car to the shop, where it would be almost a week to complete repairs.  Paul had his right-hand man grab one of his trucks and loan me the keys for the weekend.  He said anything else, let him know…but I did my hardest to make sure that Paul did no more favors for us, too much to ask of him…and I barely asked, he did it on his own.  One of our fellow shooters said he met another shooter that flew in to Dallas and immediately went to see if we could grab a ride.  The answer was no problem, and no our issues were seemingly under control.

I am somewhat used to this…how friends went the extra distance to cover and help their peers while in the Navy.  It was good to “be back”…and Christine was impressed with it all herself.

So yeah, Christine as usual made a name for herself…and some of the shooters were convinced that we were more than we were letting on.  Not really…I was the former Sailor and Christine is just my younger Sister…  But I guess that was really all that I said.  Every since Christine bought her gun last year, I tried to make sure that she knew how to use it and how to make good shots with it.  Last year paid off…despite being surrounded by pretty good shooters, Christine was comfortably intermixed with the varying skill levels.  She did well with either hand, and even with a Glock 19 that Paul loaned out for her to try.  There was a hostage round where Christine fired some accurate hits without striking the hostage, as far as anyone could see.  In this stage, she and I did really well…the active Army guys that were present didn’t do so well!

During our stay, we decided to hit up some unique places to eat…we were there for a handful of days, so it really wasn’t a big deal.  But we hit up a local seafood cafe as well as a fast food joint specializing in chicken fingers.  Both amazingly good…which is one of the good things about being out of the city.

As with all great things…it was time to close up the show.  It’s been fun and outstanding, Christine didn’t want to leave…but how many of us wanted to anyways?  A fellow shooter, Derek, had offered us a ride back on his rental car…a Prius.  Interesting!  Happy, yet exhausted, Christine conked herself out in the back and Derek and I made conversation that made the drive feel like half an hour.  Didn’t accept fuel or food…once again, these guys are tremendous in gratitude and feeble in cost.  Now back to civilian land, lol.  As Christine put it…it would be, yet again, a “Sales…” moment.  Well, we all keep in touch as usual!

So, amazingly fast, the year is now 1/4 over and April comes in.  There’s not a lot to do.  But Christine was finally in the presence of some true American Badasses…I mean, there is Tony, Sean and myself…but, well…

Lol!

So yesterday at work, I was filing away some work orders and I had to write down the date. I found myself, every singe time on every single work order, having to deliberately write in “Aug” as I was feeling myself about to write “Oct”…

Weird. And some of you already know what happened to me last October. Two more months to go.

Been a while, huh?

Well, let me start off by congratulating Anthonie on not only wrapping up yet another deployment, but in a marriage that started not too long ago.  I wish him and his wife all the best.

As some of you know, I am undertaking a task that is bound to reap worthy results later.  Unfortunately, the time crunch that is involved is borderline excessive and I have already had to make some adjustments because of the costliness of the bit of pursuing.  More to follow…

…later this year…

…why the heck is it already June?  It was just New Year’s last week!

A lot of things going through my mind…

…some of it, recently, is Disturbed’s fault!  Their newest CD came out earlier this month and the song “Indestructible”…

…I have never connected with a song so strongly in a while.  It sounded pretty good to begin with and then it really hit me when I got around to looking at the lyrics.

At that point, this song so strongly described the USS Cole in my mind…it was about the perfect song for the ship.  The music composition, the lyrics…about perfect.

So I just had to put that out.  MySpacers will see it’s my profile song…and will probably remain that way for a while.  Appears Tony has put it as his as well.

Anyways, I just got a bit of good news and some fame.  As some now, I am a Glenn Beck fan.  Every year lately he has done a summer and Christmas live show tour throughout the country.  Well, he is doing his summer tour again…Unelectable ‘08.  This is in response to so many fans saying he should run for President and he took that idea and came up with a comedy show for that.

He’s currently on tour now, the last show stop announced was here in Dallas.  It was a little confusing that Dallas just sort of popped into the radar while every other stop was pretty much being sold for about a month.

This morning, Glenn let out some details.  In response to the fact that he doesn’t hit that many locations in the US, or some people can’t get the money or time…he has decided to do a simulcast of the show.

The Dallas, TX Unelectable ‘08 show will be simulcast to about 350 theaters nationwide, live and in high definition.  So yes, there is a probable chance that you will see me plucking my hair or securing Glenn’s exit with a sniper rifle…and that’s a joke for all those theater people thinking they need to put a bulletin up to ban me from the show!

If you’re in the Dallas area you’re welcome to come along, there are still tickets available last I checked.  Everyone else around the country (even in the metroplex, Dallas and Mesquite will receive the broadcast as well), tickets for the theater broadcast go on sale next Friday (unless you’re a coveted Glenn Beck Insider, then it’s this upcoming Monday).  Both the live and movie tickets can be bought at Glenn’s website, the live show now and the movie show on Monday for Insiders, Friday for everyone else.

It’s on July 17 at 7:00P.  Won’t disclose my seating location for all you Christopher Assassins that are fans of John Wilkes Booth.

I’ve already been told by one friend they have seen the trailer already…

I believe the hype! We are running out of oil! We need to grab those compact fluorescent lightbulbs, build windmills in our backyards and install solar panels on our roof! We are running out of oil.

Sure, I previously scoffed…but it really takes personal suffering for some people to fully grasp the enormity of the problem, this includes me.

So what was my turning point? It was the test firing of my new Beretta handgun. A few hundred rounds were put through to ensure that everything was in order. Firing it was very familiar…it should be, it’s was an issue handgun for me for about four years.

As the round counts got higher I started having problems. My slide was not locking back at the last round fired. I decided it was just one magazine…till the slide failed to lock on the other magazine.

Later on I finally disassembled the mags and peered inside before cleaning. Did I mention I had to jab the followers out of the magazine with a pencil eraser for them to come out? Loading was not a problem, unloading I saw bullets getting hung up. A look inside the magazine body showed some traces of oil around the bottom third of the magazine walls…the rest of the magazine walls were bone dry. Surely, Beretta was planning ahead and resorted to only using half a drop of oil to lube the inside of their mags…this would allow them to manufacture more mags and conserve for the oil crisis. Duh! When you’re a big manufacturer like Beretta, you are in tune with the reality of the world!

Solar power it is!

Lol, all joke aside (yes, it’s a joke…don’t give me your stupid CFL lightbulbs, I’ll make you eat it!)…the handgun is nice and familiar. Next weekend we’ll see if my lube remedy fixes the problem.

When I finally got to hold my new pistol for the first time, I was swept with quite some emotion and memories. One of the more prominent things I did in the Navy was watchstanding. That has always had both its great satisfactions and fits of rage. I wasn’t merely standing out there with a gun. I was always evaluating my performance, looking for better positions and equipment, those hours would be mixed in with several moments of brainstorming trying to look at myself from different perspectives and locations. Minimizing vulnerabilities, maximizing angles…then more soul-searching thoughts, many a times I was wondering what I was still doing on the ship and why was I fighting what seemed to be an impossible uphill battle sometimes.

This is the only weapon I currently have that has brought all the memories and emotions back to the present. Well, good thing this isn’t really a carry gun…matter of fact it’ll be last resort as far as that role! More on why I bought it in the first place later…though I will leave with a quote I read from someone I respected (I was in the process of getting the pistol when I saw this, so this wasn’t what convinced me)…”My feeling on the M9 is this: it is currently the standard issue military sidearm and as such should be mastered by all serious firearms trainers, servicemen, and fighting age Americans…period.”

Kind of on topic, though I’ve been bouncing everywhere so far on this post, is the “why” as far as my time in service. I thought it was interesting, because I had a small conversation with a friend of mine regarding that. No names for now because she may be reading this and I’m only going to take a snippet of what she said, which without heavily rewording it or stringing it to a fuller conversation, will make her sound pretty ignorant. That wasn’t the case…but here goes.

We already know I have friends in multiple flavors and welcome virtually all talk and opinions until they start getting pretty extreme. The way I was raised as I child to the way I was “raised” as a Sailor has made me who I am, along with looking at my experiences throughout those years in my life…all of that has shaped me.

My friend understood that I made the choice as far as my service and couldn’t understand why. She didn’t understand why guys like me were willing to fight, but respected my answer when I replied that I love the country and feel a duty to its people to serve them. She said she couldn’t serve, she could barely take out the trash! Ha ha… But was glad since she needed people like me to take the steps forward.

Told you that sounded shallow…but it isn’t, I have omitted a significant amount of the conversation because it broaches a topic that I am not going to make public, at least at this time.

Getting my handgun the day before, now the rest of the day I had that conversation in my head. It isn’t the first time that I have been asked of my decision to be a Sailor, nor will it be my last. I’ve been asked multiple times from multiple people. I have various answers and depending on the day, my mood and who I’m talking to I give out one of those aspects.

I guess I’ll put some down for the record.

I had decided in 4th grade that I was going to be in the military, and that decision never changed up until I reported into boot camp. I knew I wanted to help people, but in typical Filipino train of thought…those adults in my life thought it my way to go as a doctor, lawyer, airline pilot or some other sort of uber profession. That never clicked with me. Destruction and war did…I know that makes me sound like a psycho, though those that know me know I’m not a psycho…those that are my friends know that I am…I think everyone knows what I mean by this sentence, lol! If not, don’t misconstrue.

I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the US Air Force…I felt I could help by taking down the bad guys. You know, typical boy thoughts and all…well at least back then, when we had GI Joe and more manly type stuff out there. Not this Sponge Pants and Rocky Montana shows, or whatever they’re called…

At about the same time I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to fly because of my poor vision, I became aware of terrorism. Somewhere, I came across a documentary of the events that happened in Munich and that absolutely crushed my heart. I was still an honor kind of guy, and while I understood the unconventional tactics of ninjitsu to an entusiast degree, it didn’t seem to be the low blow type attacks that I saw in that show. Now here’s a trivia tidbit, because I wasn’t very well versed in the whole world and all…I had no clue the origin of the terrorists, so it was several years before I ever connected terrorism with the almost norm of the Middle East as our current events play out.

Then there was the first World Trade Center bombing, and Oklahoma City. I didn’t follow what happened in New York, but followed intently Oklahoma City as that actually stopped my Algebra class in high school as we watched the aftermath on TV.

All that was seen was a crater and shredded remains of a building. People were asking questions in class…without blinking an eye, I remember telling them simply it was a vehicle bomb and some other specifics. They asked how did I know…I dunno, common sense? Turns out almost all that I surmised was true.

As high school progressed for me, I became more and more concerned about terrorism. I don’t know why…I wasn’t a big news nut, but I just had a feeling it was going to be prevalent. Try warning fellow high school classmates about terrorism in the 1990s…yeah, oh well…at least I was entertainment for some of my peers. At this time, I was aware of an Islamic extremist threat and viewed them as a growing threat…I just thought they were still smaller than the terrorists involved with OKC.

Times changed and with piloting out of the question (and not seeing a strategy that required aerial dogfighting), Navy SEAL it would be for me. It would be more fun to do FBI and find the domestic terrorists, but I couldn’t be swayed out of the thought of the military still. So off to the Navy it would be for me.

I didn’t do anything SEAL related mainly because I thought I still wasn’t ready, I wasn’t as fit as I should and I wanted something in electronics (this was one of those stereotypical Asian/Filipino things as well), and needed a fallback in case I didn’t make it through BUD/S.

As my fellow classmates new, I wanted to be an FC…and was very specific with my FC rating, either Tomahawk or anything Aegis. For some reason, I felt these would be important at the right time.

All throughout, I’m still doing my security/terrorism ranting and raving. This was back in 1998 and 1999…even in the Navy, nobody really cared about terrorism except the crap they read from the instruction book.

Even when I first reported on the Cole, just your typical slide shows here and there and your lessons…very disappointing. So what a twist of fate it would be that I would be on the ship when terrorists detonated their boat and killed 17 of my shipmates.

For my friend…the carrying of Chief Costelow while he was still alive only to find out he later died, along with 16 others…is more than enough reason for me to fight. If that wasn’t a good enough reason, September 11 followed eleven months later.

I abandoned my prospects for BUD/S, Naval Academy and any other thing that I was working on in the Navy. It became my life’s passion to stay on that ship and make sure nothing like that ever happened again. Putting aside six years of my life for my country and people, I put aside most anything else of my Navy career for the Cole and her past, present and future crew.

I think it showed, I ended up being a part of a lot of things concerning force protection on the Cole that normally isn’t handed to lowly third class petty officer radar techs. I wasn’t content on just standing there with a gun. I did not freeze in 30+ knot headwinds on the bridge while it was raining/snowing on sea and anchor.

In my normal job I tried to be better…I didn’t want some other watchstander telling me how my radar should be run or what I should be looking for. I wasn’t some uber golden knight, it was tough and tiring physically, emotionally and mentally. I’d been beat on plenty of times and plenty of times was calling it quits. I was ready to pull my “Cole Card” and just stomp off the ship, repeatedly over and over again, from Pascagoula to 2003. I never did, I stayed on her for the longest possible moment and I finally stepped off with a ship that was “All Secure” and left it to the rest.

Throughout my time in the Navy, I got to talk with numerous people as far as why we joined the Navy. Most of the time I kept my mouth shut, my response was starkly different from some of the more shallow and self-serving answers that I got. It is no wonder I looked at things a little differently. I’m not saying most everyone in the military joins for sucky reasons, but they are out there and they are still my fellow Americans in uniform, some do their job well in spite of their beliefs.

We have an obligation, as a government, to protect the people of the country. We can talk about government interests and all that, you are arguing with the wrong person…go write a letter to your President and Member of Congress for that. We take their guidance in a military, and sometimes political, viewpoint…setup the method for success and win. As a country, we are inherently good and try to spread that goodness throughout. Whether you believe in internationalism or isolationism, as well as all ranges in between, is your call. We’ve been deployed to kick butt as well as deployed to save and comfort, off our own shores to the furthest distance to the United States.

While I loved all the countries I visited and really got a kick out of the people I met and the friends I have made, this country is so much better for its diversity and the ability to hold that diversity together and is rather inspiring as a united people. Not united, that diversity becomes very fragmented and people shouldn’t lose sight on that.

It is a shame that I can talk to people and talk of the period of about 1900 as the greatest generation of this nation. A pity, the greatest generation award should continue to move in time. We should be the greatest generation, but let’s not fool ourselves.

Finally, I remember many times where I get asked, being a person in uniform, when will I quit fighting and go for peace. I’m not a big fighting person if I don’t have to, and I tell them to go and bug the otherside first…we’re more than willing to do the whole peace thing, believe me.

Violence isn’t the answer? Haven’t left the United States have you…in som places of the world, violence is the ONLY answer. Shouldn’t be our first resort…but we definitely shouldn’t kid ourselves.

I had gotten to visit my cousins and I’ve gotten to see the contrast in my way of growing up versus theirs. I’m not saying I couldn’t live in their shoes, but there’s a lot to appreciate. You want racism, I got Filipinos that blow me off when they realize I can only speak English.

I have every reason to be grateful to this country, to owe it at least six years of active service…a service that elapsed through an eventful time in history and one that I will never regret. It has brought out the best in me, as well as the worst…but that’s my yin yang balance. While it may not have been intended for it, it doesn’t matter to me. Being one that is with Glenn in the belief that you should question everything, I can stake a lot of my success in that. I didn’t let idiots on the ship step past me, otherwise things could’ve been plenty worse…no, I like to think I left the ship in a very sound status as far as security.
I am awarded with a newer appreciation and understanding of the real world, the training and responsibility of people and machinery that my friends at home can only shudder at the thought of me having control of, some little creature benefits for being in uniform…but ultimately also having some of the greatest friends anyone can ever have. Military friends are just in another league, even seeing a military person out in public nowadays who I never met before…it’s far more rewarding than a civilian.

Not saying civilian suck…but do not ever underestimate the camaraderie of those who have served together. It is a strong bond that will last longer and stronger than many other things that will fade in life and in time.

Here I am in Texas, doing somewhat the same thing. Keep the home safe, the ratio of sheep to sheepdog is more disproportionate here. Is there some things I wish I could’ve done better? You bet. To me, from the bombing on…my mission and guidance for my objectives and how best to serve has been heavily swayed to a personal level. I feel that in that aspect I probably didn’t do as well as I should. But overall I’m satisfied…I looked forward since childhood and tried to discern what type of person I was and how I could best channel those skills and that drive, and I think it turned out well in the end.

Eh, I guess it never is easy to really talk about what nurtures the drive to serve without some moderate digression…at least for me.

Random parting shot…graphic wise, that American Idol PS3 game is an utter disappointment! Paula would fit right at home as a cast in a Silent Hill game.

…to never pull of a joke like that again!

It happened on April 1st. Ramon mentioned how it was April First and that we should get someone good. I just rolled my eyes. April Fool’s jokes…pleah.

As we had our breakfast breaks I thought about it and figured why not. I pulled out my phone and more or less wrote the message that I had reenlisted the week prior and had received orders to ship out to training before being deployed overseas. Nothing really big, I thought. I scrolled through my phone book and sent it to a good number of my friends and hit “Send.” I thought nothing of it as I wrapped up my breakfast and went on to work.

Throughout the course of the day I got bombarded by message replies. Parties and get-togethers were already being arranged by some people. Some buddies up in VA were already messaging everyone else of my pending arrival. The word was out, Chris was back in uniform and ready to KATN.

Feverishly, I began letting everyone know that it was a joke. In no way did I ever envision that it would be bought so well. It was nuts. Even got a phone call from Michelle, and well I’m glad I wasn’t in Virginia!

Heather yesterday told me that I should’ve stuck with the joke and went to all the parties. Wow, my head was reeling just imagining how deep underwater I would be if I ever did that. I may be tough, but all the collective masses putting their heads together to plan a come back makes me shudder. Even Heather flicking her scissors in my general direction temporarily put me on alert!

However, I did get two people calling me out right away. Moni and Agnes came on my phone and didn’t buy it! Well, I don’t have any prizes, lol… But yeah, I think that will be the last April Fool’s joke I’ll make in a while, lol.

Well, maybe karma did come back to me. I dropped the ball big time…I missed a massive opportunity as far as some tactical gear goes. One of my buddies, always looking out for me, came across a piece of kit I was looking at getting and at a deal that was just simply too good to pass up. He shot me a line yesterday and let me know what the deal was. I agreed I’d call him before noon the following day and let him know if the deal would be a go. Of course, that night I decided I would go for it.

Have I ever mentioned my memory sucks? Good. Suffice to say, Christine let me know of my grave error later on and I let the deal of the year slip past my fingers. You can ask Christine, I was verbally punching my face just about all day today!

Before I realized my mistake, we were at the Dallas Auto Show. I went previously on Saturday as well and checked it out with John and his wife, but had a tight schedule so I only got to see some highlights with them. Today, I went with the intention of covering the entire show with some thoroughness. My initial impression of the show was positive, being probably the best one that I’ve been to, and this was my third year. Stay tuned for pics and a video detailing my adventure!

Interesting was the fact that the Mesquite Police had a recruiting area in the Dallas Auto Show this year. Pretty neat. MySpacers will get to see my new profile pic of the MPD Fembot Tricycle. I know…that’s not what it really is called.

My top fives from the auto show this year are the Nissan GT-R, Audi R8, Dodge Challenger, Cadillac XLR-V and Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Concept nod goes to the Jeep Trailhawk.

Then, while it was already planned ahead of time, going to the shooting range just seemed to make sense to vent my frustrations of missing out on the deal of the year. Thinking there may have been the chance that everything works out, I saved some money and bought a mere hundred rounds of ammo. Christine did the same…after standing around for about five minutes while the counter person left. To most, Christine still doesn’t have that look of the desire to shoot guns, lol!

After my frustrations and the fact that it was mid-afternoon, decided not to bother getting rifle ammo…wouldn’t have time for that anyways.

So to the pistol range we went. As we setup, we once again found the day’s “mouthers.” These mouthers are the guys that seem to like to hear them talk and usually do not have sufficient substance to complement said talk. It’s not just the fact that they’re talking, but also what they’re talking about and how they’re talking. I’m a good veteran of hearing these crowds over the years. Navy people can probably get a good example of this. It’s called your local VBSS team. I’m not throwing everyone VBSS under the bus, but let’s just say that my time on the Cole that there were more fingers on my one hand than there were members of our VBSS team that I felt genuine enough that they were competent enough AND I didn’t have to worry about. Statistically though…yeah.

We figured a good medium was the 15 yard range and we setup there. Turns out that one of the mouthers was in the military. He wasn’t so bad, though. Once he got to shooting he wasn’t talking much. Nonetheless, his 7 yard group was over twice the size of Christine’s 15 yard group…and she lost our contest and had to buy me ice cream!

Well, we didn’t really care. He was quiet and I was just bored and looking around and he was close enough I could see his target. Eventually, though, a group of guys showed up next to us and setup for the 15 yard line. Okay, now these went past the category of mouthers and they were now civy-VBSS. Lots and lots of talk and lots of oh check out my Rock River AR with Larue Rail, TangoDown foregrip and ACOG. Blah blah blah blah blah. I couldn’t even hear myself yelling at ME for missing the deal of the year!

I already told Christine they were going to suck at shooting. And they did. One guy started firing some good groups until I saw the profile of a 1911 in my peripheral. Sure enough, he picked up either a Glock or a Ruger that they brought and I was able to stand by my statement. We had setup some tactical targets which would be more forgiving for Christine as I refined a few tips to her and watched her accuracy go up…but she still had to buy me ice cream!

Buy now, the civy-VBSS team posted a new target that had multiple two-inch diameter Shoot-N-C’s scattered throughout. They couldn’t even hit a six inch circle earlier…

Shots were fired as they fired at every part of the paper’s surface, every part except the two inch circles. Everytime a round would hit they would comment, “Good shooting!” It’s only good if you consistently do it, otherwise it’s dumb luck. Then they remarked at how hard it was…see comment about six-inch target above. Then they made the comment, “Yeah, this is where a laser would come in handy…next time I’ll bring my laser.”

No…this is where all of you get off the lane, move over to the THREE yard lane with your six-inch target and start there and move up to the five, seven and so forth distances. You don’t make some electronic gizmo make up for your crappy handiwork. Remember a while back when I went with a couple of coworkers over to George’s Area 51 and did some shooting? I was tagging targets with open sights three times the distance that Alpha Team was with their RDS systems, they should’ve been able to hit it faster, more accurately and more consistently. Oh well…

Needless to say, Christine and I got our entertainment as her group was about 1/4 the size of our loud-talking neighbors and I had the group the size of an orange…so Christine would get me ice cream.

Earlier in the week, I had the opportunity to attend another drill from an LE officer who even got the opportunity to help train the Iraqis in firearms proficiency. There were eight of us in various modes of tacticalness, I suppose. To my surprise I believe I was the only person with a stock weapon. We did some drills with the pistol, and it appears that as far as experience level I was at the bottom rung. I was definitely not catching up with the lingo, stories of training were shared but I really had none to give out except my Navy times and other somewhat informal events like this, and I think I’m the only person that hasn’t done some form of competition.

That said, it appears I was ranking up there…only trailing behind an active shooter in training, competition and drills. I forgot what he did though, but he showed up with his own bullets that he loaded…that’s about all I remember. We ended up doing four competitions in the end. That guy one two, then I came up won a prize myself. The final competition, our lone participant with a 1911 had the upper hand over us and won first prize, with me coming in second and receiving a prize as well.

I take that as an accomplishment. I don’t want to be stuck up on myself but I don’t know what I did that made me valuable…truly…while I was in the Navy. I know it’s a mix of heart, attitude, logic and all this other fuzzy principles. I know my time in CAP and Police Explorers honed it some…but I said honed, not taught.

In a world of books, Internet forums, sites, magazines and here there everywhere and the seemingly endless “my gun and gear is blacker than yours” (and for those that are not tactically fluent, but are racially fluent, this is meaning the black gun, black gear, etc…so don’t give me your speeches and moans). I was here, welcome to learn. I said nothing and expected lots, and I received lots. The guy running the show challenged me. Most of the guys to my left and right were not talkers, mouthers or VBSS clones. I don’t spend a lot of time sitting around learning techniques and gear flavors of the week. It was important to do that in the Navy because third-class Firecontrolmen don’t know a single thing about ATFP, I was the most clueless idiot and I should never have a gun. Yup.

But now I’m out. Not saying I’m staying static, I need to evolve. But the need to follow the fads and spend money on “research” isn’t there anymore. Want to know my research? My research is about twenty minutes a day, in my head, while I eat lunch. I figure out the solution…THEN I will find (not research) to find the means to accomplish my solution.

Is this close minded? Most likely. But I am a civilian right now and that’s no excuse, except that it seems everyone’s buying into everyone else’s info, ranging (very rarely) to a pot of gold all the way to complete crap. That’s because nobody wants to figure it out anymore, let’s just Google it or go to our favorite forum and listen to what the 11-year old airsofter who has convinced us that he is an 80-year veteran and served in all military branches, all SOF units and even created a few that are stationed in the underwater island of Atlantis.

I think the tactical world is unfortunately being a big fad. Here’s the thing…look hard at yourself. Any tactical conversation you have…are your answers to questions really and truly yours…or are you just reflecting someone else’s. Sure there’s a time to relay (as skill and experience would offer)…but you’re missing the point. Is it really your answer?

Lastly, Glenn has emphasized this as well. To really be honest with yourself, you have to question everything. EVERYTHING. So is this technique or concept, you’ve been able to reinforce it for years and you are dead set on it. There are a lot of things that I have realized and am sure of…I still constantly question and evaluate. For a year or two, I made the mistake and got a little lazy of answering questions with answers that came from someone else and stayed with principles with very little thought. I’ve been trying to change that…strangely, I am getting much better. Don’t have to agree with it…but if everyone agreed, then no one is thinking.

So for my website’s blog, I think I can add the category of “Seanism” to this blog. Many Cole Sailors around my time frame will know Sean, so that’s really all that needs to be said. While Christine was posing one of her random (grotesque) medical questions, I…in the spirit of Stu’s skits…came up with my own random (slightly) medical questions:

In those shooting video games, if you shot a pregnant terrorist in the abdomen/crotch, would you receive a “Headshot” score?