not leaving on a jet plane

I should be sleeping soundly at around 30,000 feet right now. Or playing around with the in-flight entertainment system or eating breakfast... I don't know, all I know is that I am still in Pakistan.

I will be taking care of this in a few minutes and hopefully get the next plane out of here.

SPL Forces

A little over a week ago, a received a surprising instant message from my boss. She asked if I would be ok to fly to Singapore by September 5. I did some quick computations and found out that I would be flying off to Singapore not one week upon my arrival from Pakistan!

After getting some quick information regarding the new assignment and giving it some thought, I said yes. Then it hit me... it's just like being in the Special Forces! (SF teams) I just realized some similaries between our company and the Special Forces. Naturally that put a big smile on my face.

Here's why:

1. Sheer Numbers
SF soldiers are highly specialized soldiers with the necessary skills and experience to be able to conduct various missions "downrange" (military term for being in the field). Recently our company has experienced a boom of sorts of projects from all over the globe, and are trying to allocate the proper personnel with the skills and experienced to be assigned to projects that require people on-site.

2. Maintain relationships
An SF soldier's job "downrange" is not just to provide support in terms of firepower, but also to aid in fostering the relationships with the locals and gain their support. And in the business world, this also holds true. Build a reputation of excellent customer service and your business will thrive on existing and numerous potential customers.

3. Mission variety
SF team missions vary from training governments to conducting military operations in enemy territory to peace time operations. As a software development company, our work also has a similar variety from product training to development to support.

4. Theaters
This one takes the cake in my opinion. During military operations (a war or conflict has arisen or even just during training exercises) the area of operations is termed as a "theater", with commanders controlling (or trying to) whatever happens in that area. Recently our company (well, at least in our office) has used the term to divide the areas of the globe in which we have clients. So we have the Americas theater, EMEA theater, and the APAC theater.

5. Location, location, location
SF soldiers have basically operated on all the continents of globe (except Antarctica) and to the most exotic places in the world. Over the past few years, our company has also sent people to a few locations around the world from various states in the US, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Holland, South Africa, Cyprus, Israel, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

So, I will be back in home base in a couple of days, do some briefings and administrative things to sort out for a couple of days. Then gear up for the redeployment soon after.

chemical warfare

Whenever I get sick or feel that I am going to be, I take some paracetamol in the hopes of getting better but I still end up sick and aching for at least a couple of days before my body's defenses kick into overdrive and get me back to health.

A while ago I felt some pain on my tooth and was becoming more that a distraction, whenever I bite down or massage the area I would feel some pain. Luckily I had some Ponstan (mefanamic acid) with me, but I wasn't really hoping that the pain would subside given my usual experience. I took one as a force of habit or social inclination, I guess. So I forgot about it and went back to work.

Then just realized that the pain was gone even if I bit hard! It really worked!

live fire

I miss live fire exercises. I badly need one to relieve the stress I am accumulating these past few days.

Some pictures of previous live fire exercises I have attended (really long time ago):

me shooting the military issue 1911


VN M16


me and the girls


a few good men

last 100 meters

I am leaving Karachi in a few days time and I am being swamped with work.

In a perfect, normal world the developers here would create their programs and send it to me for review/approval. Of course during this process I would have to answer tons of questions and provide some level of support. However, all I ever did was answer questions and provide tips to developers. I only received a couple of programs to review as of yesterday.

And today they start flooding me with requests to review their work AND answer questions at the same time. Not that I don't wan't to help out but some of their questions are either absolutely ridiculous and makes you wonder how they became programmers, or have been answered previously... multiple times over, and asked the first time I was here.

Mind you I am leaving in a few days, and we have always been saying that my time here will only be a total of 2 months. Allan will be here for 30 days. Allan will be here until next week. Allan will be here until Sunday.

Now they start piling the work on me, talk about a bad case of cramming mentality.

to the fallen...

In any war or conflict, there will always be losses. Although painful and sad, it is a way of life and no amount of tears shall set it back. I know this may come a bit late, but it's nice to remember our friend once in a while.

To all the friends, family and loved ones of Abs I hope you find this poem as comforting as I did.

Ascension

And if I go,
while you're still here...
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
--behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
--both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
...I will be there.

Used with author's permission

© 1987 Colleen Corah Hitchcock, P. O. Box 390082, Edina, MN 55439

E-mail: missnovel@aol.com Website: www.colleenhitchcock.com

war stories

I just read Verchie's entry regarding the construction of his house and coincidentally I planned to share a war story I heard a couple of nights ago.

As having a client which both a public utility company and is owned by the government, some security measures are to be expected. Now it follows that the security chief would have had military experience to be appointed/chosen for the job, and I believe the main security guy is a retired brigadier general of the Pakistan Army. Naturally guys like this have tons of war stories, one of which was shared to an officemate of mine and subsequently related to me so some of the details of this story may be off by a bit.

In any case, a soldier (don't know his rank) went to his commander (I'm not sure if it was the brigadier or his subordinate) for a few days leave for some reason or other. However, this particular soldier's leave entitlement has been used up completely and the commander couldn't just give him time off. The soldier pleaded, but the commander was adamant in his decision. Seeing to end the conversation, the commander said to the soldier "OK, if you get me an Indian tank... I will give you your leave", knowing fully well that the soldier would be hard pressed to get an enemy tank.

After a few weeks, before the requested date of leave this particular soldier came driving down the road on an Indian tank! Shocked, his commander could do nothing but approve his leave.

Still in disbelief, the commander asked how in the world did the soldier get the Indian tank. The answer... he traded for it!

reload

I had a quick thought of renaming my blog to "The Friction Circle". If you do a google search you might understand what a "friction circle" is.

I first came upon this concept while I was into racing (well, I am still into it), especially karting. And during the times I wanted to start a blog, I wanted to use this title. It is a good concept on its own, can be applied psychologically and sounds cool hehehe.

Anyway, I decided against it as I am not a "racerdude" (as much as I wanted to be) but a "wardude"... through and through.

into the eyes of the beholder

We had a senior manager of my company visiting for a couple of days here on site and invited us to dinner with the IT and project manager of our client. Before proceeding to dinner he wanted to do some shopping for his kids and wife, and as all westerners do when they go to a third world country (I suppose) is to buy some pirated CDs (I think it should be paraphrased as low-cost alternative CDs to be politically correct). Needless to say is that he got a whole bunch of music CDs, DVDs and some software CDs (I couldn't resist getting a couple hehehe).

The area we went to was pretty nice. Nice in the sense that it was "local", not the commercialized malls we city-folk are used to, but more of a bazaar type of thing. A whole lot of traffic buzzing around: people, cars, bikes, buses, and I don't remember seeing a donkey though. The streets were loittered with people selling all kinds of stuff: food, clothes, bags, rugs, scarves, the whole nine yards. Kinda reminds me of the old Divisoria back home.

With all these people going about their business I noticed one girl as we walked towards the CD shop area. It's weird since she was wearing one of those traditional black Arab dresses where you can only see their eyes and I have seen a whole lot of women wearing this. But I was really caught by her eyes, although I only looked into them for at most a couple of seconds. It was beautiful!

I don't know why, maybe because she had on some eyeliner that accented her eyes wonderfully or that by looking just at that area of her face you tend to notice the elegance of flow from the eyes to the bridge of the nose and the cheekbone barely showing from the edge of the cover of her face.

I was two feet away, and could have extended my hand and say "Hi, I'm Allan. Why deprive everyone the sight of your face yet tease them with your eyes?".

That is, assuming she really is beaufiful... hahaha!

this or that

Choices:

1. Upgrade the hell out of my M4
2. Buy a new M4
3. Buy an M14
4. Buy both the TM and G&G M14
5. Buy new war gear
6. Buy tools
7. Buy my dad's car
8. Buy a new car
9. Buy an old car
10. Buy a big bike!
11. Buy a house/condo
12. Get my room "refurbished"
13. Maintain status quo

sisig rice

Last night I had the sudden craving for sisig rice. Especially City Jam's sisig rice.

Unfortunately the owners of City Jam closed it's doors (indefinitely) to pursue greener pastures. The good news is that the owner is a good friend of mine and that they will still be preparing the same food, although for a different market.

Maybe I can get an order from him one of these days... after 14 days that is.

man down!

I initially planned to do the running program of JM during my one month assignment. However, I decided a few nights ago not to push myself to do it and postpone. It's not that I'm too lazy to get up and do a few laps, I just don't want to injure myself.

I've had a bad knee since graduating college, and I just don't want it to get worse. I had it looked at around a year ago and did a couple of weeks of rehab (not that kind of rehab!) but it's still bothering me until now. I have been pretty bad to my knee in terms of taking care of it: climbing mountains, playing basketball, going to war, etc.

I'm not using this as an excuse though, I'm highly motivated to get into tip-top shape. I have to get some professional help with this bum knee though. It will just have to wait until I get back or figure out a way for me not to turn into a lazy blob until then.

happy blog

JM mentioned in his blog that I have "a completely happy blog". That made me think, do I really have a happy blog? And does that reflect on my current state of being or my life during the blogging period?

It looks like I have a happy blog. Even when I post some of the shitty things that happens, it doesn't seem to look like a rant (I think hehehe). And that it doesn't affect me too much and I just try to deal with it. I guess I'm just that kind of person.

So is this a happy blog? I would say more of a "psychologically positive inclined" blog.

forever!!!!

Some idiot spammer posted a couple of comments in one of my previous entries so I decided to delete them. I was a bit pissed off, as they didn't seem to have the proper respect for people's blog. The fact that a "bot" could have posted the comments was more displeasing.

Anyway, www.blogspot.com has a pretty neat deletion process. A confirmation screen comes up and there is an option to "Delete comment forever". Hehehehe.... sounds to me like "Yeah bitch! In your face... delete forever!!!" hehehe

Sorry about that... just venting :P

I got it bad

I was just browsing through some of my friends' blogs and I had to double-take on what I think I read.

Instead of seeing "View my complete profile"... I read is as "View my combat profile"!!!

Damn!

unintentional

If you check my photo gallery as posted previously, you will notice that I currently have 2 albums set up. As I was checking it I noticed that the identifying photos show pictures of booze! Hahaha, I swear I didn't make it like that. I just put a whole bunch of pictures and it just turned out the way it is!

I dunno if it means anything.. hehehe

booze!

upload galore

As I was browsing the net and reading through some of the forums I frequent, I discovered a great website. Check out www.putfile.com or www.putphoto.com.

I've been looking for a free photo web hosting site that could hold a whole bunch of my pictures, which are more often than not more than 500kb in size. Yahoo photos worked for a while but the quality of the pictures are somewhat compromised. And you only have 30MB of space, so what happens is that you "rotate" the pictures/albums you may be able to post.

I wanted something more like an internet hard drive. I know the web real estate is expensive and I am not willing to spend however a small amount just to post my pictures. My photos are not of studio or print quality, their just for friends and personal use.

The website is pretty nifty. No limit on the size or number of photos, no limit on the bandwidth, its free, and you can upload photos in a number of ways. Via the website or via Windows XP's web publishing wizard. Pretty cool!

Check out my albums -> www.putphoto.com/vistan

a time for peace

I almost forgot to post this, but better late than never.

The last weekend before I left for Karachi (again), the troops and I went to war in Kapitolyo (as per my and JM's previous post). Everyone was there, except for one guy. Verchie.

We were wondering why he wasn't warring with us. This guy previously had the objective of going to war at least 3 days a week! War freak? Hell yeah! Even back in college, "the war" in him would surface from time to time. Sometimes it scared us a bit, but we got used to it after a fashion. Man, you should see this guy shooting the real deal! Scary little mother.

His reason, he was in peace mode. What the shit? Peace Mode? This coming from the war freakiest guy I know? A guy who is ready to go to battle without his primary weapon... even his secondary weapon! Hell no! Something's wrong...

And I think its a girl. Although he mentioned something to the effect of "War before chicks" or that the girl he's going to be with has to accept that war is a part of him and in no way is it going to be compromised. JM had the same problem too (sorry man, this will be the last thing written about that subject). And knowing Verchie, he just might as well succumb to defection. Peace mode my ass...

Psych warfare is a scary thing.

keep moving!

JM and Verchie are currently involved in a “running” program, and according to their blogs, seem to be benefiting from it. I’ve been planning to get back into shape once my stint here in Karachi is over, and my one-month stay here is a perfect fit for the running regiment I got from JM.

I figured this month could be a staging period for when I get back home and do some real fitness workouts. Besides, it beats doing nothing and literally being a couch potato. So I gave it a shot last Friday.

I accompanied the cook to the gate, who was leaving for home after serving me a great dinner, deciding to run in the compound’s cricket field. En route, we were followed by one of the guards so I wondered what his reaction would be when I started running off. In any case, I set my timer to 15 minutes and began my run.

It turned out that my guard was a wuss… hehehe, just kidding.

I started out pretty well. 15 minutes? No problem! After a while I started sweating and feeling the burn, then I saw my timer and I was just 5 minutes into my run! I started thinking that I may not last the distance, but I set the though aside and kept running. My pace started to slow down a bit, partly a tactical decision and due to fatigue. Halfway through, I kept a monotonous thought of just doing it. Just keep on running.

5 minutes left and I was getting really tired. I even starting thinking if I would make it back home. Now, I don’t know if it was the fatigue or the sandy surface I was running on or the fact that I was in Pakistan (which is near Iran AND Afghanistan for those who don’t know) when the soldier in me kicked in.

I imagined that I had to keep going, as a part of life or death. Stop and the enemies get you… mission over. Failure was not an option at this point. So I didn’t and I finished my 15 minute run without stopping or walking. 4 more weeks….

an ode to war

Sorry.

As much as I wanted to post something more than war, I am posting war related stuff today. I had some things in my mind the last few days worth blogging but I didn't have free time until today.

I just met up with Dale at his office and got the book he bought for me. It was Tom Clancy's Guide to the Special Forces. Coolness! With the Warrific Day last Sunday. It seems that my warring mode is going to be in full swing for the next few days (weeks? months? hehehe).

Anyhoo, I also got word from JM that my gun is misfeeding. Darnits! Again! That bitch is giving me a whole lot of headache for no kills yet (I think)! It was misfeeding on me once last Sunday but was remedied by a couple of sprays of silicone oil. I hope more silicone spray will settle her. Maybe she'll telling me to upgrade her and get more "fips". I'm already counting the costs....