Kingsquared

When I woke up this morning I was thrilled to be walking around in 65 degree weather at 3AM until I realized that it was only going to get warmer from that point forward

Even though I live on base it still feels like a third world country – my power is so unstable the lights in my room brown out every 30 seconds

If you’re reading this you’ve obviously been here before. Seldom does this website get random visitors so I know most of my audience. You’re aware of my temperament. You know that I like to rant and I fly off the handle with ease. This blog (in its various incarnations) has been a venue for my frustration for the last… 7 years? Lately, I’ve noticed a change that makes it harder for me to deliver my normal shtick. I’ve become “The Happy Guy.”

You’ve seen that guy in the morning. It’s early, the sun isn’t over the horizon, and this guy is wide awake and ready to go. He’s walking at a brisk pace and is probably smiling about something. Why in the world would anyone have something to smile about so early in the morning? He hums and whistles little tunes to himself and talks to almost everyone he sees. He is quick with the “good mornings” followed by smile. His smile, unlike yours, isn’t forced this early in the morning. He does it because he is “The Happy Guy.” His voice is booming – he is trying to wake you up. He says things like “isn’t everybody here a giant ray of sunshine”. You want to stab him in the neck – stupid “Happy Guy.” He thanks all of the servers as they load his plate with breakfast. He doesn’t like breakfast but he’s a “Happy Guy” and he is excited to face the day ahead so it doesn’t bother him. You hate breakfast – you want to have coffee and cigarettes and go back to bed – this “Happy Guy” is really getting on your nerves. All day long you see him smiling, joking, and laughing with anyone and everyone. Sure, this “Happy Guy” swears every which way to Sunday and he has his gripes but as soon as they are out of the way he is back to being happy. You want to stew on your unhappiness and hold it close – he lets it go as fast as it’s out of his mouth. You envy “The Happy Guy” but you know that you could never be like that…

How in the world did I make this transformation? I have a fantastic fiance waiting for me at home, I’m going to get married later this summer, and I have a new job and a new future on the horizon. I’m also tired of being sad and angry. It’s so much easier to smile the day away – much to the chagrin of everyone else. Frankly, I’m glad to be the happy guy. I’m glad I made it out of my rut. Sadly, it leaves me with much less to write about. I’m sure I’ll think of something.

A few weeks ago I wrote a single post titled approved. Here is the rest of the info.

Over the last six years I’ve been dreaming of ways to exit my current career field and continue on in the military while doing a different job. A few weeks ago my wish was finally granted. I was approved to be an Aircraft Loadmaster. This is, without a doubt, one of the best jobs in the entire Air Force. My training starts this August and I couldn’t be more excited.

I have no idea what airframe I’ll get but it really doesn’t matter to me – I’m just happy to leave the maintenance world BS behind and move to the ops world BS. At least there I won’t be the bastard child of the base.

A battle over who to blame for rising health-care costs is escalating, as groups seek to pin the problem on each other and say none of the health-care legislation under consideration does enough to solve it.U.S. spending on health care reached $2.5 trillion in 2009, according to federal estimates. It is expected to jump to $4.5 trillion in 10 years. Insurers contend that they must pass on ever-higher bills from hospitals and doctors. Hospitals say they are struggling with more uninsured patients, demands by doctors for top salaries, and underpayments from Medicare and Medicaid.

Nearly every mainstream analysis calls for medical costs to continue to climb over the next decade, outpacing the growth in the overall economy and certainly increasing faster than the average paycheck. Those higher costs will translate into higher premiums, which will mean fewer individuals and businesses will be able to afford insurance coverage. More of everyone’s dollar will go to health care, and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid will struggle to find the money to operate.

The health care that we are currently providing in Medicare and Medicaid doesn’t cover the actual providers costs. The cost of all health care is set to rise over the next 10-15 years. The 2nd and 3rd largest portions of the federal budget are Medicare and Medicaid.

Why haven’t we done anything about this emerging threat? Simply put, its a political landmine. Over the last few weeks both sides have argued in all channels and have said that they can’t agree with each other. Isn’t the job of the legislative branch to protect the best interests of the American people? Shouldn’t they put their political interests aside and do the right thing – cut spending where they can and improve service where it is failing?

The time line as I saw it went like this
1. The President put a mandate to congress to come up with a plan
2. Congress hemmed and hawed and didn’t come up with anything concrete (many points were made and argued but no progress was made)
3. Republicans complained that the President didn’t provide leadership on the issue
4. The President, in absence of a clear plan, provided his own take on the situation
5. The Republicans complained that they didn’t like it
6. A health care summit was chaired by the President to move the process forward but the issue remains unresolved
7. The Democrats do not want to commit to a plan for fear of political suicide – if it fails, they are out of jobs and the other side wins

Basically, if the plan or lack of plan fails the Republicans “absolve” themselves of blame. If they procrastinate long enough they can pin all of the blame on the other party.

Who suffers? Every single tax payer in America suffers.

Its a huge issue – most economists will agree that when ceilings and controls are put into place less of the service will become available and quality will decline (do a search on NYC rent controls).

There is a lot of “fat” in the system and some people are making money – people are allowed to make money in a Capitalist society. I’m against inefficiency and waste.

I want everyone to be able to afford basic health care.
I want providers to provide that health care without doing so at a loss.

If we can’t do that – maybe we should cut it out – all of it. Social security should go too. People depend on that stuff – it is their livelyhood – people will die without it or we can go broke trying to provide it.

There are hard choice to me made by Senators and Congressmen – now is the time to make them – before its too late.

It’s time for March Mustache Madness. This year, I won’t be participating. I will turn 29 this year and I am still completely unable to grow any mustache other than a molestache. It’s simply not possible for me to do. By the 7th day I am too ashamed to look in the mirror as I brush my teeth in the morning. What am I doing to myself? Why do I look like a complete child molester? Why can’t I grow handlebars?

Oh well, for those growing out a supreme ’stache this year I salute you! I wish I could join in. Here’s to a month of awesome mustaches! I wish I could be like the rest of you and completely ignore my pride or physical appearance. Sadly, I am too vain to do so.

I’ve been unable to find the intensity in all of my workouts. I’ve changed some things around with my schedule and my routine has been vastly altered to break up the monotony. On cardio days, for some reason, I’ve had a hard time pushing myself. I’ve been plagued with minor joint injuries over the past two weeks. My feet find every odd shaped rock and every uneven space in the ground to land. I’ve had three or four partial ankle sprains and I’ve got a few quasi-stubbed toes. I keep on telling myself to take it easy and loosen up those joints… the intensity never comes when I get stretched out.

I might need to take a cue from my dog and start taking something similar to glucosamine. I had to Google the word because the dictionary couldn’t find it – Wikipedia says that the effects are no more than those of a placebo in multiple studies. Apparently glucosamine is widely used in veterinary medicine and it works (for the most part) but humans aren’t so lucky. Maybe there is another way to help loosen up the ankles and knees. For now, I’ll continue with the stretching and try to prevent further injuries. I just wish I could do all of that and bring the intensity up.

It was approved today. This photo is the best representation of how I felt when I found out I was approved.

I was this excited

That’s all I know (and all I’m telling) for now.

Yesterday we get a call.
They ask if we have a certain item.
We tell them we do.
They tell us we might need to ship that item.
We ask for the location.
They don’t know the location.(How did they know we need to ship it if they don’t know where it might go?)
We tell them its due an inspection prior to shipping.
They tell us to take care of it.
We do and wait.
We call throughout the day for updates.
We need to know more info to proceed further.
No information is flowing our way.
The item might go back to storage today.
They still don’t know anything.
Why did they call us in the first place if they didn’t know for sure?
Oh yeah, knee jerk reaction.
I have so little faith in the management.

A few days ago I left on another trip and to be the “fixer.” We did what we had to and I put some stuff on a pallet. We thought that we were going to get out today but it wasn’t meant to be. I’m stuck here for yet another day but at least we found a way to get around the base. (I’m at this wonderful place called Al Asad). We were waiting for our flight today and we got about as far as roll call before we were told the bad news. We went up front and they checked us off the list. We were hyped because we were ready to go. Not more than ten minutes later they announced that our flight was canceled. We had to get our rooms and linens back. I don’t have enough clean clothes for another day – I guess I’ll just have to be the smelly guy. Leaving my base is cool and all but trying to get travel around this country sucks.

On a normal year of which I’ve had 2 in the past 8, Super Bowl Sunday is always the highlight of my week. This year, as I spend it in the desert, I missed out on two pieces of the puzzle: commercials and beer. Unfortunately, I fell asleep earlier today and missed out on the beer. They had a special mission to Iraq and brought enough beer so that everyone could have two of them and I fell asleep. I fell asleep.

I did catch the commercials courtesy of YouTube. Here is my favorite one (in case you missed them too).

This one holds a special place in my heart –

And, because I hate autotune –

sorry about the formatting, I don’t know enough about wordpress themes to fix it