Not that these tests really mean anything….
| You are a Social Liberal (78% permissive) and an… You are best described as a: Libertarian |
Which is as I would expect. Squarely Libertarian… inasmuchas tests like this can determine.
Hrm… seems WordPress or something screwed up the graphics… the way they were plotted didn’t make sense. I edited out the graphics and left in the basic numbers.
Ok, time for a little reciprocal blog love. I’m checking my blog stats and see that I’ve been quoted in this article by Sharon Davis. Thank you, Sharon. So as I’m reading the article the first point it touches on is isolation. Sharon refers to Judi Sohn’s article at the Web Worker Daily that discusses that very issue. It’s an issue I’ve certainly dealt with, so here’s my perspective.
Judi’s article hits on a key part of dealing with isolation: communication. I’ve learned that you must communicate; in fact, you must seem like you’re over-communicating. Now, you can’t overload your co-workers and boss such that they wish you’d shut up (they’ll tune out out and that’s even worse), but you just have to make a greater effort to let them know what’s going on with you. If people in your office use Instant Messaging, you should too. Be on all the relevant networks/protocols for all the relevant people you have to communicate with in your office (using a consolidated IM app can help with this, e.g. I use Adium). Get in the habit of using your IM Status to relay what you’re doing; you don’t have to update the minutia of your life, but it does provide some degree of “Hi, I’m active” to those that work with you. Make sure you do respond to emails promptly. Every Friday I send a weekly status report to my boss and other relevant parties at the office so they can know what I’ve been up to this past week. One thing that you can also consider is that all of these things have “time stamps”. They show when you’re working, when you’re available, how long you’ve been online, and so on. Depending how much your boss wishes they could look over your shoulder to monitor your work habits, these things can be useful to demonstrate “I’m working, even though you cannot see me”. Of course you can manipulate those things, but be mindful… too much fibbing will come back to haunt you.
While you need to communicate with them, they also need to communicate with you. You can’t expect the home office will always tell you what’s going on, so you’ll have to ask. When you’re talking to your office-bound mates, ask them what’s going on around the office. This doesn’t necessarily have to be juicy gossip, it could be simple things like “how’s the office renovation going?” or “I hear some loud noise in the background? What’s going on?” Little things like this help you keep connected to the culture that’s developing within the office walls. You can be “in on the jokes” and other things like that. It’s useful to also have visited the office a time or two so you can know the physical layout, which often is relevant to being “in” on things. You just have to be proactive at getting the information you’d otherwise naturally get if you were in the office.
But while these things cover information, they don’t exactly cover one important thing that being in the office gives us: that human interaction. I’m fortunate that I’m not home alone (wife and kids are here), so I get some human interaction in a day. But for human interaction with my office-mates, I’ve found that instead of IM’ing or emails, just pick up the phone. IM is nice for a quick exchange, but if it’s getting lengthy just pick up the phone… it’s faster in the end, and far more personable and productive. Plus it’s nice to hear someone’s voice now and again. Or if you’ve got a real tech-savvy company or co-workers, do a video chat now and again… it’s nice to see faces. And also remember, every conversation does NOT have to be pure business. If you blow a few minutes just chit-chatting about the weather or other non-business things, that’s not a bad thing. Don’t let it dominate and distract too much from work, but we have to be human, we have to develop relationships.
One thing you can also do? Look for places near your home that have Wi-Fi available, that allow you to sit and use that Wi-Fi for a long time. Every so often, get out of the house. Go work somewhere else, even if just for a couple hours. It changes the scenery. It gets you around some people (even if you don’t talk with them). And you can still take your laptop and stay connected and get some work done. I don’t do this very often because I like my wife’s cooking way too much. But it’s an option.
Honestly tho, I think the only thing I really miss about being in an office? Halloween. It’s more fun to dress up when more than your wife and kids can see you.. 😉
JR’s econo-scout (h/t Tam). I was looking at this very same setup myself: the Savage Scout, the Leupold scope, etc. but I opted to go for the gusto and instead got a Springfield M1A Scout Squad, a Burris handgun scope 2-7x-32mm, a Galco Safari Ching Sling. No bipod at this time tho.
Why did I go for this?
Well, I’d still love to get one of the Savage rifles someday, but there’s something about the M1A/M14 platform that’s tough to beat. I knew that’s what I wanted and if I went for the Savage, I’d still want the M1A/M14 eventually so I might as well go for what I really wanted.
While the dedicated scout scopes are good, I had been reading at the M-14 The Firing Line Forums about different scopes and the Burris had come up numerous times. I can crank it down to 2x and get the same effect, or crank it up to 7x and I’ve been having fun out to 200 yards (haven’t been able to shoot beyond that yet). Yes it makes things slightly heavier, but to me that’s just reason to get stronger.
I went with the Safari Ching Sling because that’s the evolution of the Ching Sling by the creator of it.
Nevertheless, JR’s got a great setup. If you’re not familiar with the scout rifle concept, it’s a creation of Col. Jeff Cooper and you should read his notes on the concept.
More from Xavier: A Dog’s 10 Commandments. I prefer to say “pets” because this could very well apply to cats too.
Yeah, I’m a cat person but I know a dog’s in our future. Two of our cats are old. Ig is about 16 years old. She’s become rather frail in the past couple years. Very thin, these days pretty much skin and bones. We removed her collar because her fur had worn off under it (slowly growing back). When she meows, often nothing comes out (her meow is broken). On her left rear leg around the “knee” there’s been something… it was small, now it’s rather large. Vet doesn’t know exactly what it is, could just be something like calcification accumulation or it could be a tumor. He could do all sorts of expensive tests to determine what it is, but in the end the results would be the same. She’s just too old to operate, or to amputate… likely wouldn’t survive any surgeries at her age and state. So in the end, there’s nothing we can do. We just watch it grow. We watch her limp (it’s not bad, but it’s there). We watch her having a rough time sitting… she has to adjust how she sits which shifts her balance and sometimes you see her fall over. She can’t jump as high as she used to. But she can still run up the stairs after me… at least, when she’s not sleeping (she sleeps a lot these days). I’ve said that once she’s not running up the stairs after me, that’s going to be a hard day for me.
I’ve had Ig since she was a kitten. Got her in college. I recall my roommate and I going and picking her out, bringing her home. When my roommate left for Texas, Ig stayed with me. When I made my move to Texas, she came with me, locked in her carrier cage the whole 2000 mile trip, on the seat next to me in the cab of the U-Haul truck. Leaving all her kitty nose prints on the front window of my apartment in Bryan as she watched and waited for me to come home from my day of grad school whatever. And now, being here with me…. being her crotchity self but growing very warmly attached to my oldest child.
And like all living things, she grows old. So in reading the post from Xavier, #9 is what we’re doing. We just take care of her. She’s overall ok tho. Still a happy and loving cat. Just obvious that age is taking hold, and there’s no telling how much longer she’ll be with us. So we just love her while we’ve got her, spoil her while we can. And when it’s time for #10, it’s going to be one of the hardest things I’ll ever have to do in my life.
Via Xavier, I read about this “rare act of sportsmanship“. Yeah… you’ll want some tissue.
The story itself was wonderful. But is this a rare act of sportsmanship? I don’t think so. I think it’s just an act of sportsmanship (and in this case, a very awesome act of sportsmanship). What might make it rare is that we don’t hear about such things all the time. Look at the news. What do we hear about? It’s all negative, ugly, hateful, shitty things that are going on in the world. You hear it over and over, you start to think it’s the way things are. The thing is, it’s only a small slice of what’s going on in a day. Most of what goes on in a day are good things. And they’re little things, but they add up.
For example, yesterday at my black belt testing I’m walking from the parking lot to the building. I see also coming to the door at the same time are a couple people carrying a large tub of something (probably equipment) and they’re rather burdened down, no way they’ll navigate the door themselves. So I hustle up and hold the door open for them. Then as I’m holding the door, I offer to let other people in as well, but they stop and insist instead that they hold the door for me and I go first. Sure it’s a small thing — certainly not some newsworthy event — but it’s those small things, those small acts of kindness that matter.
Just because you hear it on the news over and over doesn’t mean the world is a horrible ugly place. The media makes their money off being ugly, perhaps relegating 30 seconds at the end of a broadcast to some “feel good” story… and so your balance and outlook gets skewed. The world is mostly filled with good people doing good things in a day. Turn off the fucking TV, and get out and look at the world around you. Stop letting TV and other media shape your worldview: go shape your own based on getting out and immersing yourself in a life of your own. Force yourself to have a more positive filter and outlook on life. You might just discover good things aren’t so rare.
So the blog’s been quiet because I’ve been away from the computer. As I noted before, I spent most of today down in Houston taking the first (of many) tests towards my 2nd degree black belt. So, here’s the post mortem on the day’s events.
I drove down by myself (many people carpool) because I wanted to get a gauge on the drive. I’m hoping in May and August to ride my motorcycle down there (about 150 miles one-way), so I wanted to get a handle on location, issues, and how long it took traveling at a reasonable speed (e.g. on my bike I like to take it slow and easy… enjoy the ride, not be in a rush). I’m looking forward to the ride. Couldn’t ride today because the weather was threatening some ugly rain and while if I’m caught in the rain on my bike that’s one thing, I’m not going to knowingly ride into an unsafe situation.
When I first walked into the facility, it felt weird. The vast majority of people there are brown-black belts working towards their 1st degree black belt, so they are all unfamiliar faces… a vast sea of them. But I saw the other black belts there and some of those faces are familiar (apart from the other folks from my school that were also testing). It’s somewhat like a family reunion and kinda cool that way, to see your distant relatives again and to meet some new ones, so to speak. You go through a lot with these people, and shared experiences can bring people together.
The testing itself was very curriculum oriented today. My test was run by Kwahn Jahng Nim Alex Suh (7th degree) and he ran through our entire curriculum at a very intense pace. The test wasn’t necessarily that physically taxing (due in part to a lot of people and limited space, so you’re crowded), but it was mentally taxing and you really had to stay on your toes and move fast. I actually liked that because it’s different; sure the physical stuff is good, but it’s nice to get a good brain workout now and again… it shows if you really know your stuff and can call it up on demand, because someone on the street coming to stomp your head in isn’t going to pause to let you remember how to defend yourself.
I was worried about my performance due to my ankle. Well, the ankle held up, but in part because I just didn’t let it get abused. I didn’t do a lot of the jump spin inside crescent kicks because those kill the ankle (the impact from landing, the torque from the twist/spin). But I did come out of there with a matched set of blood blisters on the pad of each big toe.
So how did I I feel I did? I did ok. It’s not where I want to be… I usually perform better than this, but I know why I wasn’t on top of my game: other pressures and stress in life, some inner-turmoil about my future in Kuk Sool Won (which has been resolved but caused me to not train as much as I should have the past few months). Here’s what I need to work on:
Some good things:
The relaxation and breath control stuff is big for me. It’s about efficiency. If you’re tense and using more muscles than needed you’re going to wear yourself out faster. You’ll use up your energy supply, you’ll need more oxygen, and just be overall harder on your system. The more relaxed, the deeper your breath (i.e. abdomen, and very deeply), the better you fare. I’m getting quite good at managing this.
Some random things:
All in all, not a bad day. During my drive down I decided that this test, being my first of the cycle, is going to be my baseline. It’s going to set the tone of my training and how my testing will go from here. I will only go up. And I’ve got homework to do to get me there. 🙂
Tomorrow I head to Houston for the day. I’ll be participating in my first test towards my 2nd degree black belt.
In Kuk Sool, testing for black belt ranks is a lengthy process. It is comprised of multiple tests, each test taken once every 3 months. I will probably undergo 6-8 tests before promotion, but promotion isn’t based soley upon number of tests taken as there are other factors (e.g. instructor recommendation/approval). But I went ahead and marked my calender for the next 2 years as there’s no reason not to.
My biggest hope for tomorrow is my ankle making it through. My left ankle has been injured a couple times and doesn’t always cooperate. I’ve been on a diet of Aleve all week to ensure the inflammation is minimized. Depending how my ankle feels it can hamper my ability to kick, both kicking with that foot (and the impact it receives) but moreso using that foot as the planted foot and rotating (e.g. 360º spin kicks). Things that torque the ankle aggravate it the most (yes, I have an expensive brace that I’ll be wearing, but it only does so much good). What makes it worse is the association rents out a volleyball facility for such mass testing, and so the floor is some sort of urethane-coated wood, which doesn’t always play well with bare feet. Granted I don’t want to be slipping everywhere but I also don’t need loads of friction keeping my foot planted and dragging while I try to move. If my ankle can make it through tomorrow, I’ll be alright.
More later….
As a software engineer, I’m fortunate that my job lends to telecommuting. I’ve been doing so in a formal capacity for almost 9 years and dealing with telecommuting in some manner or other for my entire professional career.
Often when people hear I telecommute I get two responses: 1. Wow that’s so cool, I wish I could do that, 2. But I couldn’t do that because of distractions. Do you want to know what I’ve found to be the keys to successful work at home?
My Springfield Armory XD’s all came with “traditional” notch-and-post 3-dot sights. They certainly work, but I wanted to try something else. I ended up putting a set of XS 24/7 Express Big Dot sights on one of them, but it hasn’t worked out for me. I was able to try a couple handguns with a red fiber optic front sight and an all-black rear sight, and that seemed to work well for me, so I’m currently in process of getting the XD with the XS Sights changed to use some Dawson Precision sights (red fiber front, fixed all-black rear). We’ll see how it works out.
What made the Dawson’s, at least when I tried them, work so well for me was the red fiber optic was like a bright beacon and my eyes couldn’t help but focus on that front sight. That’s exactly what you want in your sight picture. You generally have 3 things in your path of view: rear sight, front sight, target. Your eyes can only focus on one of those things, so they need to focus on the front sight (Kathy Jackson over at Cornered Cat has a nice write-up on this). One additional thing is that you don’t want other things in your sight path to distract you. Thus the plain and simple all-black rear sight. When you have 3-dot sights, now you have 3 dots to have to sort out in your head. It may be easier if your front dot and rear dots are of different colors (some do this), or some people paint the front post a bright color. Whatever works, the key is distinctive contrast so your eyes find that front sight.
One additional thing about 3-dot sights is there may be confusion about what to line up. Do you line up the top edge of the front post with the top edge of the rear post? Or do you line up the 3 dots? Depending upon your particular sights, when you line up one, the other may be slightly misaligned. Allowing for a simple sight setup means there’s less to juggle — let the front sight draw your eye, let the rear sight just be passively in your sight picture, one thing to line up (top edges), off you go.
So a couple days ago I took a Sharpie to the rear dots of my other XD’s and blackened them out. Yeah it’s not perfect, the black’s aren’t quite the same black, and your depth perception can still pick up the recess of the dots, but they are far less distracting now. My eye goes right for the white dot on the front post, and there’s a lot less clutting the sight picture up. I like this.
I should have done that a long time ago. Well, better late than never.
Updated: As I write this update, I’ve had the Dawson sights on for quite some time. For me, they work great. The notch size and post size are good in relation to each other to give you a clear amount of airspace when lining up the sights. The sights are also very crisp and sharp, so again the sight picture looks very crisp and sharp. The rear sight, being plain black, stays out of your way… it’s there in your field of vision, but it doesn’t draw your eye nor distract you, but it’s around for as much as it needs to be for a rear sight. The red fiber in the front sight is, as I said, a bright beacon. Your eye can’t help but get pulled to it. It helps you find the front sight quickly so you can get on target faster. It’s just a clean sight picture and it does the right things for your eyes to allow you to shoot faster and more accurately. I’m quite sold on this setup.
From Dale Gribble:
I’ve taken two oaths in my life: one to the NRA, and the other to Nancy Hicks Gribble, née Nancy Hicks. I stood in front of God and all my friends vowing to be an honorable and truthful man. So I’m not going to lie to you [Sheila]; I have felt a small, insect-like attraction for you. But my wife is the greatest woman there ever was!
Love you, Sug.
Stuff From Hsoi 