When the Smoke Clears

That’s what I am.
My friend/blog-daughter was getting married this weekend. I had it all on my calendar. I was ready. The gift is sitting here in the floor next to the comfy chair in the library. It has been there for three weeks. The shirt is just back from the cleaners, the pants ready [...]

Answers from Yesterday:
1. Key Largo
2. To Have and Have Not
3. The Big Sleep
4. Action in the North Atlantic (hey Homefront, did you really know that one off the top of your head? That’s an amazing guess)
5. Maltese Falcon
6. So I Married an Axe Murderer
7. North by Northwest
8. Pacte Des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf… [...]

Alright, I’ve been memed.
Certain biologists think it’s funny making me do more research.
Pick out ten favorite movies, then look them up at IMDb. In the overview at the top of each movie’s page, there are “Plot Keywords,” usually five of them. (Plus more, if you click the link.) Take the first five, [...]

In the tradition of Richmond, another question from Anatomy & Physiology:
A patient complains of numbness of the scalp and forehead and shows no blink reflex when the eye is lightly touched with cotton fibers. This suggests damage to?
a. the opthalmic division of the V nerve
b. the maxillary division of the V nerve
c. the [...]

I still have some labwork to do along with some additional paperwork to finish my course, but I took the final exam for a 2-semester upper level Anatomy and Physiology class this week.
Made a 98%.
I’m a good guesser.
So in the tradition of Richmond, and her crazy Mensa Calendar, here’s one of the [...]

The Special Quote for this week comes from a conversation overheard in the elevator near the school:
I don’t know… I kinda feel bad that I skipped my Ethics class today.
Well at least the professor is getting through.

Random thoughts from this side of the exhaustion line:
Saw the cabin in daylight today. Weeks of heat, rain and neglect mean the bit of yard is much more jungle-like. The open spaces between the trees are growing in fits and starts.
Today was Butterbar’s Birthday. There was nothing I could do to surprise him. He’s [...]

Home from the Field. Tired. Pained. I followed, I led, I bandaged. There were a couple of serious incidents as well, but, hey, my own humvee and driver? Sweet. I know I’m supposed to be the jaded adult, been on plenty of these things, blah blah, but it was a brand new humvee. Of course [...]

The Interweb tubes spawn creativity, exchange of ideas (pr0n), but most importantly they disseminate information. Raconteurs impart stories leading to others joining in the fray and sharing their own knowledge.
Eric of Straight White Guy (like any of my readers don’t know who he is) was eating a sandwich recently next to a field of [...]

This whole peek-into-life thing of blogging continues and yet you know that on occasion real world demons pop up and force people out and away from their online chronicles.
It has happened to two good bloggers recently, worlds apart in what they write about. For both, I am sure something cropped up. Frank the Tanked [...]

But not for houses with children, or people who are accident prone and want to keep their fingers:

I can’t find it on Amazon, but to everyone out there… consider this on my wish list.

Completely unrelated to the military or IT or medicine…
but I’ve met Caltech Girl. We’ve hung out a little. Heck I even scored well on her self induced quiz considering how short of a time we had together. I gather intel. What can I say?
But make no mistake, a conversation with her could easily [...]

There’s something building… it’s stirring up inside me like a calling back to a fight I had hoped to walk away from the first time, after the first shoves.
Yes, the press and the left are exploiting this Walter Reed scandal as if it is proof positive about the inaction of the current administration. From [...]

Christmas and birthdays are coming up fast… this particular card nerd/history buff might be highly entertained by:
This copy of The Compleat Gamester dated 1734. Older than my favorite country.
I want to read this thing.

So here’s the issue. I’m aging. Hell, we’re all aging, but I don’t like having it thrown in my face by science.
I keep up with the elites. I carry my own ruck (most of the time). I work out alongside them in the gym showing them up on benchpress and pullups. My eyesight is [...]