Stop reading treble clef for a decade...

I used to play violin up into high school, but was always solidly mediocre at it, so I gave up in the interest of other classes.  12 years later, and I broke down and ordered a cheap mandolin to try and learn to play while I'm here (much to the dismay of my tentmates, I'm sure.)

(Yes, flannel penguin sheets. I can't help how awesome I am.) 

The silly thing actually looks fairly decent, but the g-string (giggle) leaves a little to be desired. It just doesn't seem to resonate quite like the rest.  I'll probably mess with things a little, but I've got a feeling it's just the way the low notes are going to be on this thing.

Anywho, the couple hours I spend plucking around with it (after a good half-hour to tune it... double strings are fun...) were a great exercise in frustration. Not only are the calluses needed to play tiny thin strings long gone (12 years will do that,) but my brain seems to have forgotten which finger goes where on what string to make the note that the little dot on the paper is supposed to be.  I described it to one of my tentmates as feeling like somebody took apart that really complex lego set I put together years ago, and I lost the instructions for.  I know how it's supposed to go, and my brain remembers bits and pieces, but it can't quite put them all in the right order.

I'm hoping that by the time I go home, I'll at least be able to play more than "Drunken Sailor" (seriously... that took like 5 minutes to get down, and it's like cheating... until you go the right tempo anyway.)  Regardless, it's something to pass the time, and at least I didn't drop much cash on the instrument in case something happens to it.

Post Holiday Day

Amazingly had some down time for Christmas, spent it playing D&D and watching Serenity, and the bad guys were kind enough to refrain from lobbing rockets or anything at us, so no bunker time!

Back to the office now though.

(Speaking of Serenity, I got Firefly: A Celebration for MandaFern as a surprise gift. Apparently it's good, she's blaming me for likely not sleeping tonight and being very tired for work tomorrow. If you're a Browncoat, it may be well worth checking out.)

Happy Holidays!

From the 'Stan!!

Don't Worry!

Intrepid reader(s)! I'm still here, just haven't had much time to get much up on here. Give me a couple weeks though, and there'll be more photos and junk.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From Afghanistan.

Batting average of .333 with knives today...
(The turkey wasn't bad, but the knives were.)

Check Ride

So I got to leave the office a couple weeks ago and head down to KAF.  Part of it was getting my "check ride" to get fully licensed on the M-ATV.  My TC was our maintenance section commander, who happens to be a CW4.

Those of you that have spent time in the Army know the reputation Warrant Officers have, especially when you get into the CW4-5 territory (the one in question should be making his 5 any minute now...)  Needless to say, this was going to be a memorable "check ride."

The mission, as a whole, was uneventful, but driving a finely tuned 15+ ton piece of Wisconsin engineering through downtown Kandahar City is not something you'll likely forget in your life.  Afghanistan has no driver's licensing system, and the locals are used to having military convoys rolling around, so they treat us like any other traffic (despite the fact that we will win any wreck... the trucks are armored after all.)

I can pretty confidently say that this was possibly the only time in my career that a check ride will involve the TC telling me to "Close the gap and don't let that $%&*# get in! Run him off the road if you have to!"

As for the truck, I did tell my buddy that works for Oshkosh that they need more cup holders in those things. His response was "yeah, I keep telling them not everybody is 5'6" either, but they don't listen."

New Coffee Cup!

The red part changes to match the level of hot coffee in the cup (or when the coffee gets cold, it turns black too... which is about the same anyway...)

It's the little things that count.