My Dad died yesterday. First time I've cried in seven years.
Hard as nails, heavy as lead.
Rest now Richard the Lionheart.
In the end, Nature was merciful.
There is a lot more there, but it's mine.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Data point
In preparation for the job - going out and dealing with actual people - part of medical training involves interviews with simulated patients. One of these turned up recently with the presenting complaint of tiredness, and you had five minutes or so to write down anything you felt pertinent before going in and doing the interview.
Me being me approached it thusly - a relatively difficult stem (at this stage in training) would be accompanied with an easy diagnosis (A modus operandi D&D players will know as metagaming. Not realistic, but these exams are flawed in more ways than one anyway). So I wrote down 3 differentials - hypothyroid, anaemia and diabetes, a few probing questions for each and upon entering had enough evidence to call the correct diagnosis in about 30 seconds.
In, out, answer, win. But not really. It's a character flaw of mine that means I often think very haphazardly, racing through to the end to finish more quickly at the expense of thoroughness. 9/10 times it makes no difference.
Still isn't good enough though. Neither would 99/100 or 999/1000.
It is going to take quite a shift in direction to relearn not so much a greater attention to detail (though that is important), but more different method of approaching the same situation.
What I should have done is taken the presenting complaint - tiredness - and worked from the ground up. Pathology in what systems can produce tiredness - CVS, Resp, GIT, Haemopoietic, Endocrine, Psychological (depression), etc; take a systems review of those.
As a very wise person once told me: The diagnosis is the end, not the beginning. Do the process right, and the diagnosis will fall out.
Start at the start. I have some unlearning to do.
Me being me approached it thusly - a relatively difficult stem (at this stage in training) would be accompanied with an easy diagnosis (A modus operandi D&D players will know as metagaming. Not realistic, but these exams are flawed in more ways than one anyway). So I wrote down 3 differentials - hypothyroid, anaemia and diabetes, a few probing questions for each and upon entering had enough evidence to call the correct diagnosis in about 30 seconds.
In, out, answer, win. But not really. It's a character flaw of mine that means I often think very haphazardly, racing through to the end to finish more quickly at the expense of thoroughness. 9/10 times it makes no difference.
Still isn't good enough though. Neither would 99/100 or 999/1000.
It is going to take quite a shift in direction to relearn not so much a greater attention to detail (though that is important), but more different method of approaching the same situation.
What I should have done is taken the presenting complaint - tiredness - and worked from the ground up. Pathology in what systems can produce tiredness - CVS, Resp, GIT, Haemopoietic, Endocrine, Psychological (depression), etc; take a systems review of those.
As a very wise person once told me: The diagnosis is the end, not the beginning. Do the process right, and the diagnosis will fall out.
Start at the start. I have some unlearning to do.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
By the power of physics
Yesterday out training I had managed to get a cat to the level where I was happy with it and prepared to move up. So, grabbed a bench and decided to add that on top.
It was fucking heavy. About 5x1.5x1.5 ft of solid wood. I couldn't get it up by myself. So I dragged another bench over. Bit of lever action later and I had this second bench sitting where I wanted it.
As I arrived to start training today, couple of guys on their way back from the gym were walking past. One of them went over to it and lifted it up a little.
"Yeah. Would have taken a group of guys to get this up."
- - -
Haven't got that jump yet. I know I can cat the height (theres a nipple high box that I can get on to, I was actually hoping this jump would help me train to clear that one). In general though my cats are still quite temperamental, sometimes feeling technically excellent and sometimes I can't even get through to visualising the technique. Weird.
Got cat-pops today though. That was nice.
It was fucking heavy. About 5x1.5x1.5 ft of solid wood. I couldn't get it up by myself. So I dragged another bench over. Bit of lever action later and I had this second bench sitting where I wanted it.
As I arrived to start training today, couple of guys on their way back from the gym were walking past. One of them went over to it and lifted it up a little.
"Yeah. Would have taken a group of guys to get this up."
- - -
Haven't got that jump yet. I know I can cat the height (theres a nipple high box that I can get on to, I was actually hoping this jump would help me train to clear that one). In general though my cats are still quite temperamental, sometimes feeling technically excellent and sometimes I can't even get through to visualising the technique. Weird.
Got cat-pops today though. That was nice.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
More lessons
Spent the past couple of weeks trying to get some parkour in everyday. Seems to help a lot better than the once or twice a week I've been doing so far, the continual reinforcement helps. Started following my 10-minute room timer a bit more rigorously too and hence I'm sorer than I've been since my gym membership expired.
On Monday I had managed after a few tries to pull off a wallrun in my five fingers which I wasn't able to get in my 5-10s. After a rather poor session today I decided to go back to it and improve on it. Took me a long time to get it again. Maybe 30 tries. Got pretty dissapointed early in the process, but my technique improved a lot in the interim - lesson: even the failures are useful. The step became a lot more solid and I walked up a lot easier each time. The try on which I actually got it I was tired (and a little angry, which might've helped), but still got a solid hand to it (the grip is difficult because its slippery metal, requires a bit of contact or a dyno up to the next handhold. I'll work on the two-hands to the wall next, and then to the dyno I think.) and clambered up.
Best part about that wallrun was the landings though. A lot of drops onto concrete in five fingers and no pain whatsoever. Landing technique is improving.
On Monday I had managed after a few tries to pull off a wallrun in my five fingers which I wasn't able to get in my 5-10s. After a rather poor session today I decided to go back to it and improve on it. Took me a long time to get it again. Maybe 30 tries. Got pretty dissapointed early in the process, but my technique improved a lot in the interim - lesson: even the failures are useful. The step became a lot more solid and I walked up a lot easier each time. The try on which I actually got it I was tired (and a little angry, which might've helped), but still got a solid hand to it (the grip is difficult because its slippery metal, requires a bit of contact or a dyno up to the next handhold. I'll work on the two-hands to the wall next, and then to the dyno I think.) and clambered up.
Best part about that wallrun was the landings though. A lot of drops onto concrete in five fingers and no pain whatsoever. Landing technique is improving.
Friday, September 11, 2009
God.
Fairly controversial title that.
A few experiences and discussions with some of my more theistic friends led me to stumble upon the following real/rational-isation. The only analogy I can think of describe it is part of chaos theory, which pretty much defeats the purpose of making it easier to understand, but the actual thought is pretty easy to get a handle on anyway. Still, onward with the analogy.
From the wikipedia entry: "Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamic systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions." Normally called the butterfly effect, small changes = large effects.
This leads to a principle - if you have a large number of end behaviours and don't comprehend the underlying formula, the behaviour is random. If you know the formula (and the initial conditions), the behaviours aren't random. This is the 'God moves in mysterious ways' argument.
- - -
In ages past, all natural phenomena were explained by being due to various Gods. As science offered a natural explanation of them, the domain of God was reduced. I don't see them as being exclusive. My concept of God is one that is synonymous with the concepts of natural law. God is everything, and therefore the interactions between everything - from this come omniscience and omnipotence - this is the theistic argument. Humans, some other primates and dolphins all have a consciousness (self-awareness here) contained within a few cubic inches. The universe itself has a consciousness of sorts in its cyclical nature; from the simple things like day/night which can be accurately predicted to the minute, to the complicated ones weather which we struggle to predict even a few days in advance.
I do not say that this universe is aligned with a particular moral compass. It is aligned with a force of a kind though, an incomprehensible arrangement of natural laws which would take another universes worth of computers to predict, though ultimately I think is a structured place - and I have no qualms about calling that force God.
NB: This doesn't leave much wiggle room for me on the subject of a soul. I don't know about it: most times I am a determinist, but occasionally when I am a little more conscious I feel there is a little piece of will - part of self but not of self - like being comfortably at home in another country - struggling to push a domino one way or the other inside my head, interrupting or assisting the chain already in place. I haven't had enough experience to call it though.
A few experiences and discussions with some of my more theistic friends led me to stumble upon the following real/rational-isation. The only analogy I can think of describe it is part of chaos theory, which pretty much defeats the purpose of making it easier to understand, but the actual thought is pretty easy to get a handle on anyway. Still, onward with the analogy.
From the wikipedia entry: "Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamic systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions." Normally called the butterfly effect, small changes = large effects.
This leads to a principle - if you have a large number of end behaviours and don't comprehend the underlying formula, the behaviour is random. If you know the formula (and the initial conditions), the behaviours aren't random. This is the 'God moves in mysterious ways' argument.
- - -
In ages past, all natural phenomena were explained by being due to various Gods. As science offered a natural explanation of them, the domain of God was reduced. I don't see them as being exclusive. My concept of God is one that is synonymous with the concepts of natural law. God is everything, and therefore the interactions between everything - from this come omniscience and omnipotence - this is the theistic argument. Humans, some other primates and dolphins all have a consciousness (self-awareness here) contained within a few cubic inches. The universe itself has a consciousness of sorts in its cyclical nature; from the simple things like day/night which can be accurately predicted to the minute, to the complicated ones weather which we struggle to predict even a few days in advance.
I do not say that this universe is aligned with a particular moral compass. It is aligned with a force of a kind though, an incomprehensible arrangement of natural laws which would take another universes worth of computers to predict, though ultimately I think is a structured place - and I have no qualms about calling that force God.
NB: This doesn't leave much wiggle room for me on the subject of a soul. I don't know about it: most times I am a determinist, but occasionally when I am a little more conscious I feel there is a little piece of will - part of self but not of self - like being comfortably at home in another country - struggling to push a domino one way or the other inside my head, interrupting or assisting the chain already in place. I haven't had enough experience to call it though.
Friday, September 4, 2009
5 days
Sat in on 8 surgeries this week with a somewhat... cavalier surgeon who let me take the knife and do the cutting on three of them - after I had demonstrated enough anatomical knowledge to know what to avoid. Excised 3 BCC/SCCs (types of skin cancer for you non-medical types) and did the suturing on the last one, as well as some stitches elsewhere. He said my cutting was good ("perfect", actually, though I think that means I just came through the right layers in the right places), though my suturing needs work - if the stitches are placed unevenly on each side then one ends up shorter than the other and the wound doesn't close well, and that can mean infection. Need to go back to the cadavers to work on my stitching, methinks. It's amazing the differences between living and dead bodies like the strength/turgor of the skin; and even between different living bodies, how some head wounds bleed torrentially and others not at all.
Finally signed my transfer papers to the infantry. Hopefully looking at the November-December IETs, and maybe some advanced courses later in summer if all goes my way. Which it probably won't. But resting will be good for me anyway.
Had the best training session since my Canberra trip about 2 months ago. Turn vaults at speed are wikkid fun!
Following my Canberra trip I had more money than I expected left over, noticed that I needed more power, and wanted to keep working on my strength as my gym membership was about to lapse. I jumped on the website of Australian Kettlebells (apparently they have an actual store/gym in for you Melbournites) and bought me a weight vest and agility bands. A mate was having a play with them whilst I was having a light training session in a tree - he had looped it round a pole and was running towards a drink bottle. A play session turned very, very intense and soon we were running and swearing and digging our fingers into the gaps between slabs to get a hold and let us keep moving. Once we hit that, we switched and moved it further away. For the last round, we decided every failure would mean the bottle was moved an inch further. My first attempt was going well, I was about 10cm out of reach and attempted to leap towards the bottle only to have the band snap off my waist, hook round my ankles and drag me ignominiously along the concrete back to the pole. Right before attempt No. 2 I had a little zen moment - I was going to run, then swear and slap that bottle down. I ran, and with a mighty "You cunt!" - smote that bottle upon the concrete.
Finally signed my transfer papers to the infantry. Hopefully looking at the November-December IETs, and maybe some advanced courses later in summer if all goes my way. Which it probably won't. But resting will be good for me anyway.
Had the best training session since my Canberra trip about 2 months ago. Turn vaults at speed are wikkid fun!
Following my Canberra trip I had more money than I expected left over, noticed that I needed more power, and wanted to keep working on my strength as my gym membership was about to lapse. I jumped on the website of Australian Kettlebells (apparently they have an actual store/gym in for you Melbournites) and bought me a weight vest and agility bands. A mate was having a play with them whilst I was having a light training session in a tree - he had looped it round a pole and was running towards a drink bottle. A play session turned very, very intense and soon we were running and swearing and digging our fingers into the gaps between slabs to get a hold and let us keep moving. Once we hit that, we switched and moved it further away. For the last round, we decided every failure would mean the bottle was moved an inch further. My first attempt was going well, I was about 10cm out of reach and attempted to leap towards the bottle only to have the band snap off my waist, hook round my ankles and drag me ignominiously along the concrete back to the pole. Right before attempt No. 2 I had a little zen moment - I was going to run, then swear and slap that bottle down. I ran, and with a mighty "You cunt!" - smote that bottle upon the concrete.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Lessons
Wow. Long time no posts. To sum up - I've been doing more work in trees and outdoors - haven't been to the gym in quite a while - the beep tests evolved into a 4-5k run 6/7 which is considerably less boring. More regular parkour training has been much more enjoyable and I have been progressing at a snails pace - but still progressing. In all, various things have been happening - exams and training, none of it really worth writing on; and no workouts to share as they haven't been planned or recorded.
Spent this past week in Canberra training with Eliot. It was a solid five days - more solid than NatSoc last year even though the days were shorter- probably because it was just us and sometimes a few locals, so there was more training and less sitting around socialising.
It was a good holiday though - learnt some things and thought I'd share. Though most of them are personal so I'm not sure how much good it will do you :P.
My problems are still largely mental blocks. Mental blocks of the illogical kind since the pain isn't really a major concern of mine and serious damage is rare. Talking with Eliot about it all he said two things - one of which I had realised already but not enough to articulate and another one I don't think I'd considered.
One other thing I noticed lacking was my precision strength, and to a lesser degree balance. This makes some sense considering my history, in the gym I (and most people I think) are more inclined to work upper body, and considering most of my leg work is long distance running, my legs are relatively weak in the power and strength areas. This limits jumping distance (especially considering my above average bodyweight) and I think to some extent coordination... as I don't imagine endurance work assists development of fine motor control as much as strength and power.
On a completely unrelated note - I learnt a couple of ways to euthanise animals. I asked my folks how to do it properly- both of whom have done a lot of it in their time - after I recently killed a roo by bludgeoning it on the back of the head after it was hit by a car. Summary:
Lastly - some inspiration: +Barnz 08-09 and Trace Elements Melbourne 2008 videos. Watch, and be amazed.
Spent this past week in Canberra training with Eliot. It was a solid five days - more solid than NatSoc last year even though the days were shorter- probably because it was just us and sometimes a few locals, so there was more training and less sitting around socialising.
It was a good holiday though - learnt some things and thought I'd share. Though most of them are personal so I'm not sure how much good it will do you :P.
My problems are still largely mental blocks. Mental blocks of the illogical kind since the pain isn't really a major concern of mine and serious damage is rare. Talking with Eliot about it all he said two things - one of which I had realised already but not enough to articulate and another one I don't think I'd considered.
- Drilling. A lot of the fundamentals I can do and do well (or at least passably), but not instinctively. This creates some breaks in flow when trying to string a bunch of movements quickly together and causes me to glitch when approaching new/different obstacles. I had figured this would disappear with general training, but E pointed out drilling which makes a lot more sense in terms of getting comfortable specific movements - especially things like cats which can be pretty varied depending on obstacle size/type/approach/exit (to precision or arm).
- Learning to fail. A lot of the mental blocks I think may stem from the 'what ifs'... If I clip here, what will happen? If I don't make the jump, what will I do? Eliot mentioned that a lot of the better Sydney traceurs (Rhys/Antek/Sammy etc) practiced their bails and breakfalls, how to slide down walls they fail to precision/arm and land well from poor angles. Pays off double - not only because when accidents happen you can turn them around, but also being confident that you can means you attempt things you otherwise might not - and often succeed them, as tends to happen.
One other thing I noticed lacking was my precision strength, and to a lesser degree balance. This makes some sense considering my history, in the gym I (and most people I think) are more inclined to work upper body, and considering most of my leg work is long distance running, my legs are relatively weak in the power and strength areas. This limits jumping distance (especially considering my above average bodyweight) and I think to some extent coordination... as I don't imagine endurance work assists development of fine motor control as much as strength and power.
On a completely unrelated note - I learnt a couple of ways to euthanise animals. I asked my folks how to do it properly- both of whom have done a lot of it in their time - after I recently killed a roo by bludgeoning it on the back of the head after it was hit by a car. Summary:
- Crushing the skull is probably the best for the animal - if its on the road and still alive carefully running over its head is probably the most humane.
- Next most humane is breaking its neck - though this is exceedingly difficult to do on anything much larger than a rabbit simply due to the amount of force required.
NB: This one I found interesting. A lot of media treats the neck as a rather fragile structure (which it is compared to the stresses that you hear about breaking it - falls and the like. Consider an 80kg man falling from a height of ONE meter generates 784N of force. I did a brief lit search for the amount of newtons generated by skeletal muscle (a broad question if there ever was one) which turned up nothing; but logically I would assume since the same amount of force needs to be generated by the body to raise the centre of gravity 1m - an amount of force generated by the entire body working in unison. Trying to generate the same amount of force by a small muscle group in your upper back special-forces-movie style seems surely difficult. Caveat: Most people can probably jump higher than 1m. I would imagine that most (direct, rather than subsequent infection) deaths from falling also occur from distances higher than 1m. Regardless of the physics, Dad said he struggled with anything larger than a ferret.
- Cutting its throat. Most humane in a laboratory setting (i.e. killing lab animals...though I believe they are killed by injection these days. Not likely you'll have your hands on those substances, anyway.), though my father always used to carry a carving knife with him for roadkill until he was pulled over by the police one day. Method: Grip the base of the mandible tightly and fully extend the neck. Feel for the lateral masses of the atlas (deep and inferior to the mastoid processes), and cut from above tracheal cartilage back to the lateral masses. By fully extending the neck you allow the blade to pass above the body of C1 and sever the cord, which stops the pain of bleeding out. Violence of action is very important, as quicker movements will cause less pain.
- Stun/Bolt gun. Method is to place the gun on the skull and fire the piston in - ideally penetrating enough of the frontal cortex to kill the animal instantly. However, if the gun isn't fully in contact or the animal moves its head the pistol can recoil, only wounding the animal.
Lastly - some inspiration: +Barnz 08-09 and Trace Elements Melbourne 2008 videos. Watch, and be amazed.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
1:28.4
Is my new 500m ergo sprint PB.
Happy with that considering I've been sedentary for the past 3 weeks after an AC injury, tired, dehydrated and sick after the last army weekend. Also done at the end of a gym session, after muscle ups and one-legged deadlifts @60kgs.
Feeling like I want to break 1:22 on a row.
Kicking around the idea of getting a part-time job as a personal trainer.
Started running the beep test daily, as whilst at uni I don't run and think it may be holding me back some.
Started gymnastics more frequently and slowly getting some saults down.
Still not sure what I'm chasing parkour-wise. Enjoying it immensly when I train, but training is still pretty unscheduled and uncommon.
Peace.
Happy with that considering I've been sedentary for the past 3 weeks after an AC injury, tired, dehydrated and sick after the last army weekend. Also done at the end of a gym session, after muscle ups and one-legged deadlifts @60kgs.
Feeling like I want to break 1:22 on a row.
Kicking around the idea of getting a part-time job as a personal trainer.
Started running the beep test daily, as whilst at uni I don't run and think it may be holding me back some.
Started gymnastics more frequently and slowly getting some saults down.
Still not sure what I'm chasing parkour-wise. Enjoying it immensly when I train, but training is still pretty unscheduled and uncommon.
Peace.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Flight of Ideas
Life has been very good lately. Due to exams and assignments and the like I havn't been getting as much physical stuff as I want to done lately, which while sad on its own I guess, has been buffered by the amount of stuff that I have been learning. Second year is more intense, but infinitely more interesting, especially as you start to head into the next level of detail. Principles are beginning to become more important which suits me fine - rote learning is something I have always had a problem with, but my reasoning is starting to come more into play - which has provided a happy boost to my self-esteem as I begin to realise, 'Hey, I could actually be good at this.'
Heard a nice story too about an emergency registrar who had a patient present completly blue after being hit by a car on his left side. The registrat worked out it was a flail chest and grabbed the nearets object (a pillow), pushed it into the flail segment which immobilised it, and allowed him to ventilate on his right lung. Very cool.
Training has been different of late. I've been doing weighted muscle ups lately (locally known as man-ups), by best 1RM so far being with a 20kg dumbbell between my feet. Still struggling to get a consistent muscle up on rings however, I think due to technique being largely 'pull hard and hope for the best.' I've also taken to climbing trees, which has helped my upper body strength immensly as my arms have to work at all the odd, natural angles one dosn't find in the more inorganic gym. I'm beginning to find I train parkour more often now too, and also more spontaneously, and I've decided when my gym membership runs out in June/July, I'll make the call as to whether I want to renew it, or move all my training outdoors. We shall see.
But yes, life is good.
Heard a nice story too about an emergency registrar who had a patient present completly blue after being hit by a car on his left side. The registrat worked out it was a flail chest and grabbed the nearets object (a pillow), pushed it into the flail segment which immobilised it, and allowed him to ventilate on his right lung. Very cool.
Training has been different of late. I've been doing weighted muscle ups lately (locally known as man-ups), by best 1RM so far being with a 20kg dumbbell between my feet. Still struggling to get a consistent muscle up on rings however, I think due to technique being largely 'pull hard and hope for the best.' I've also taken to climbing trees, which has helped my upper body strength immensly as my arms have to work at all the odd, natural angles one dosn't find in the more inorganic gym. I'm beginning to find I train parkour more often now too, and also more spontaneously, and I've decided when my gym membership runs out in June/July, I'll make the call as to whether I want to renew it, or move all my training outdoors. We shall see.
But yes, life is good.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Yesterday
Randomly pulled a 1:28:8 500m ergo sprint.
Knew the answer to all bar ~3 questions in a CVS tute.
(NB: I know the difference between 'knowing' and someone saying the answer and going 'I knew that'.)
Progress has been made.
Knew the answer to all bar ~3 questions in a CVS tute.
(NB: I know the difference between 'knowing' and someone saying the answer and going 'I knew that'.)
Progress has been made.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
March 26th
Did a workout I saw on GymJones, which they took from CrossFit (150 squats, run 800m, 150 squts). I was originally planning to do a 50kg, 45kg, 40kg progression, but I forgot to add the bar, and then forgot that 2x10kgs is 20 kgs. Sets broken down as follows:
2x 25 squats @ 70kgs
2x 25 squats @ 55kgs
2x 25 squats @ 50kgs
Run 1000m
15 squats @ 70kgs
10 squats @ 70kgs
15 squats @ 70kgs
10 squats @ 70kgs
20 squats @ 55kgs
20 squats @ 55kgs
10 squats @ 55kgs
20 squats @ 50kgs
20 squats @ 50kgs
10 squats @ 50kgs
End result; my legs are shaking.
2x 25 squats @ 70kgs
2x 25 squats @ 55kgs
2x 25 squats @ 50kgs
Run 1000m
15 squats @ 70kgs
10 squats @ 70kgs
15 squats @ 70kgs
10 squats @ 70kgs
20 squats @ 55kgs
20 squats @ 55kgs
10 squats @ 55kgs
20 squats @ 50kgs
20 squats @ 50kgs
10 squats @ 50kgs
End result; my legs are shaking.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Still not dead
- Did the overland. It was a beautiful trip, though physically piss. Kicking around the idea of doing it with eliot in winter.
- Back at uni, back at the gym. Still trying to find a nice goal to work for (my workout buddies are tough but don't have any specific goals of their own), right now a planche and iron cross are the main ones, and I'm a fair way from both. Uni is sweet, second year kicks ass. Feel like I've learnt more in the past week than in the past year... Maybe I just forgot everything I learnt last year :).
- Have started stretching. Seen a *little* bit of improvement over the past week or so, which is very comforting. Beginning to enjoy doing it too.
- Set up a 10 minute timer on my computer which starts and resets itself automatically. On the alarm I do a set of something. Nice way to keep active.
- Didn't celebrate my 3rd birthday (was out bush). Februrary 14th or 16th - I've tried and I can't remember which. Felt kind of sad... sometimes I look at all the stuff I can't do and realise how far I havn't come. This is tempered by the thoughts that I havn't dedicated myself to being solely physical, it has been the smaller part of my life. Mostly though I think I have good friends, good food, good challenges... it makes the details matter less.
- Back at uni, back at the gym. Still trying to find a nice goal to work for (my workout buddies are tough but don't have any specific goals of their own), right now a planche and iron cross are the main ones, and I'm a fair way from both. Uni is sweet, second year kicks ass. Feel like I've learnt more in the past week than in the past year... Maybe I just forgot everything I learnt last year :).
- Have started stretching. Seen a *little* bit of improvement over the past week or so, which is very comforting. Beginning to enjoy doing it too.
- Set up a 10 minute timer on my computer which starts and resets itself automatically. On the alarm I do a set of something. Nice way to keep active.
- Didn't celebrate my 3rd birthday (was out bush). Februrary 14th or 16th - I've tried and I can't remember which. Felt kind of sad... sometimes I look at all the stuff I can't do and realise how far I havn't come. This is tempered by the thoughts that I havn't dedicated myself to being solely physical, it has been the smaller part of my life. Mostly though I think I have good friends, good food, good challenges... it makes the details matter less.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Good times.
I've been away from the keyboard for a bit, I realise. Working on my driving, revising the things I did poorly on in my exams and recovering those lost scraps of knowledge from ages past to try to rebuild my melted desktop has been taking up most of my time.
Before all that though I was up at Kapooka, doing the reservist entry course and enjoying myself immensly. 'Kapooka Survival Guides' had been floating around my unit before then, and from what I gathered from those at my unit, I had expected it to be pretty tough. My assumption was that it would be physically draining - long, heavy pack marches with sleep deprivation and the like. In reality though; physically it was piss - most of us left less fit than when we arrived, but the attitude the staff take was something I think noone there had experience before, one which a few of us fell in step with in the first few days, and others never got to grips with. If you're looking at spending time up at Home of the Soldier, my advice is this: Disregard all your thoughts about proportionality. If you fuck up, they're going to yell at you. A lot. Learn from it and get over it, because they certainly will. The staff there are in the buisiness of training soliders - they are not (necessarily) bad people, they have just found that sadism works as an effective blunt instrument with which to train the rabble who come in. Kapooka is not hard (if you need proof, just look at some of those you've see march out) - but it is different, and you need to be prepared to change. Just enjoy it.
What I felt I got most out of my stay there was a greater understanding of teamwork. Working in a team does not involve each person giving equally to the team. It involves devoting oneself totally to the goal of the group and the welfare of those within that group above yourself, something I had never considered until then.
What follows are some of the memorable moments of my time at 1 RTB:
* * *
Getting off the bus in silence, the corporals telling us to take our bags in our left hands and enter the entry hall. Watching half the cohort take pick up their bags with their right hand and walk off. Then waiting in the entry hall for the platoon commander, the platoon staff lined up like statues - motionless - with identical thousand-yard stares.
* * *
Belaying the last person at the abseiling wall, who came rocketing down barely touching the wall.
"Slow down man, only a couple of meters to go."
He landed, turned around and looked up at me incredulously.
"Who the fuck are you calling man?"
"... Corporal, sorry."
* * *
Looking up at one of the corporals, and recieving one of the most vicious greasy's back. Then, later, going to him for help... "No no, you do it like this mate. Fuck, sorry - recruit."
* * *
"What the fuck are you doing with that machine gun?! No machine gun's tonight!"
* * *
"So, you do medicine do you?"
"Yes corporal."
"Are you a nerd then? I fucking hate nerds!"
"That's a little prejudice corporal."
* * *
"Our submarine, as some of you may have noticed, is taking on water. The only way to stop this water leak is to polish our brass. We must also be completely silent, to avoid being depth-charged."
* * *
"Get away from the slut's rooms ya sex offender!"
* * *
At the range, cleaning our weapons after a shoot.
"Man, did any of you guys ever play pokemon? That shit was awesome."
"What about Zelda? They were pretty much the best games ever made."
"Yeah man! Zelda was the shit!"
* * *
In the lines, a mate of mine left the room to fill out the medical restrictions logbook for when his pills would run out. The platoon sergeant walked through the foyer and told him to piss off, so he quickly did the addition and ran off. He came back and said, "Man, I think I fucked up my med book."
Later; the sergeant came around handing out admin.
"Ah, Recruit C! How many days are there in November, recruit C?"
"30, Sergeant."
"So why the fuck did you say your meds ran out on the 32nd of November?"
* * *
Our platoon commander, warning us of booby traps laid by guerillas in the local area. The next day, patrolling and watching the section ahead disappear under a cloud of smoke. They missed one.
* * *
Being the last ones to leave before Christmas, we had the place to ourselves on the last day. Squaregaited everywhere.
* * *
There were many more, but most of them are in-jokes. Good times.
Before all that though I was up at Kapooka, doing the reservist entry course and enjoying myself immensly. 'Kapooka Survival Guides' had been floating around my unit before then, and from what I gathered from those at my unit, I had expected it to be pretty tough. My assumption was that it would be physically draining - long, heavy pack marches with sleep deprivation and the like. In reality though; physically it was piss - most of us left less fit than when we arrived, but the attitude the staff take was something I think noone there had experience before, one which a few of us fell in step with in the first few days, and others never got to grips with. If you're looking at spending time up at Home of the Soldier, my advice is this: Disregard all your thoughts about proportionality. If you fuck up, they're going to yell at you. A lot. Learn from it and get over it, because they certainly will. The staff there are in the buisiness of training soliders - they are not (necessarily) bad people, they have just found that sadism works as an effective blunt instrument with which to train the rabble who come in. Kapooka is not hard (if you need proof, just look at some of those you've see march out) - but it is different, and you need to be prepared to change. Just enjoy it.
What I felt I got most out of my stay there was a greater understanding of teamwork. Working in a team does not involve each person giving equally to the team. It involves devoting oneself totally to the goal of the group and the welfare of those within that group above yourself, something I had never considered until then.
What follows are some of the memorable moments of my time at 1 RTB:
* * *
Getting off the bus in silence, the corporals telling us to take our bags in our left hands and enter the entry hall. Watching half the cohort take pick up their bags with their right hand and walk off. Then waiting in the entry hall for the platoon commander, the platoon staff lined up like statues - motionless - with identical thousand-yard stares.
* * *
Belaying the last person at the abseiling wall, who came rocketing down barely touching the wall.
"Slow down man, only a couple of meters to go."
He landed, turned around and looked up at me incredulously.
"Who the fuck are you calling man?"
"... Corporal, sorry."
* * *
Looking up at one of the corporals, and recieving one of the most vicious greasy's back. Then, later, going to him for help... "No no, you do it like this mate. Fuck, sorry - recruit."
* * *
"What the fuck are you doing with that machine gun?! No machine gun's tonight!"
* * *
"So, you do medicine do you?"
"Yes corporal."
"Are you a nerd then? I fucking hate nerds!"
"That's a little prejudice corporal."
* * *
"Our submarine, as some of you may have noticed, is taking on water. The only way to stop this water leak is to polish our brass. We must also be completely silent, to avoid being depth-charged."
* * *
"Get away from the slut's rooms ya sex offender!"
* * *
At the range, cleaning our weapons after a shoot.
"Man, did any of you guys ever play pokemon? That shit was awesome."
"What about Zelda? They were pretty much the best games ever made."
"Yeah man! Zelda was the shit!"
* * *
In the lines, a mate of mine left the room to fill out the medical restrictions logbook for when his pills would run out. The platoon sergeant walked through the foyer and told him to piss off, so he quickly did the addition and ran off. He came back and said, "Man, I think I fucked up my med book."
Later; the sergeant came around handing out admin.
"Ah, Recruit C! How many days are there in November, recruit C?"
"30, Sergeant."
"So why the fuck did you say your meds ran out on the 32nd of November?"
* * *
Our platoon commander, warning us of booby traps laid by guerillas in the local area. The next day, patrolling and watching the section ahead disappear under a cloud of smoke. They missed one.
* * *
Being the last ones to leave before Christmas, we had the place to ourselves on the last day. Squaregaited everywhere.
* * *
There were many more, but most of them are in-jokes. Good times.
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