Scars On Broadway

The band Scars on Broadway, put on a great show last night here on Camp Buehring. They are comprised of a few other bands. One member being John Dolmayan, the drummer for System of A Down.

The lead singer in the band, Franky Perez, also gave out a password for a website for us to go and download a song he wrote with Dave Kushner from the band Velvet Revolver. The song is about the troops and is called "Beyond the Wire". I haven't had a chance to download it since the internet in our barracks has been down, but after seeing them perform for us last night I'm sure it's a great song.

Breaking the POUND Barrier

So since I started this whole deployment thing, I decided to use it as an opportunity to get back into shape. It's no secret I exploded since I got off of active duty 2 years ago. Just a guesstimate, but I'd say about 55lbs or so. Maybe it was the Pretzel Boys. Who knows. Anyway, I'd like to unveil the new Paul today. I've been working out like a mad man and here is the proof:




BAM!!!! This is where hard work and dedication will get you ladies and gentleman. In only 5 months I've transformed myself into a Channing Tatum look alike. Sorry ladies, I'm taken. If the fact that I'm taken doesn't phase your pursuit, I'll have you know my fiance watches UFC with me and I'm sure shes not afraid to apply the moves shes learned from watching on you. Just a warning.

Seriously though, I have been working out like crazy and have lost 30 lbs so far. I'd like to shed another 15 or 20 more before I leave. It actually hasn't been as hard as I thought, and I've managed to stay away from those supplement fat burning pills and stuff.

Working out daily, modifying my diet, and taking a few natural supplements is it.

My diet is still pretty good too. I take in 1800 - 2300 calories daily. I try to stay away from fried foods and sweets. I also eat an apple before every meal and drink two glasses of grapefruit juice daily. That's pretty much it for the diet. There isn't really a whole lot I cut out.

As far as working out, I do from 30 to 90 minutes every day depending on my schedule. I only do cardio twice a week. The other days I spend weightlifting. I mix up the cardio between p90x, elliptical, and stationary bike. I also try to get out and walk often when I'm on patrol. The goal is to burn about 500 more calories a day than I take in. That makes up about a pound a week and would be about 50lbs total, which is around my goal.

The supplements I take are pretty basic. I take a multi-vitamin, a fish oil pill, a green tea extract pill, and have a protein shake daily. That's it. We are sort of having a weight loss competition here. I'm around 2nd place by about 5lbs right now. Which is fine with me. The guy that has lost the most is on some serious fat burning pills and a very low calorie diet. No pills and only a slightly modified I'm right behind him!

Hope everyone is well.. 6 more months..

Kuwait foils terror plot

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/11/al.qaeda.plot.foiled/

Call Me Now....

I told you so. So this morning when I got off of shift my supervisor called me in to his office and told me that because the guys that took over riding the ATV's for us don't have any law enforcement experience, among a couple other reasons I can't get into for operational security reasons, he doesn't want them going out on the ATV's for SAPP patrol by themselves. Therefore we have to go out with them now. I was a little angry about it for a number of reasons. The main reason is I think it will hurt the morale of my a crew a little bit. Actually I know it did, because when I announced it this evening I heard all the groans. Also, after that duty was taken over, I was able to give the guys an extra day off here and there, and now I'll have to stop. Again, for OPSEC reasons, I can't get into it a whole lot, but there are a plethora of reasons we shouldn't have to conduct this operation this way, and there is no reason why the guys that volunteered to take over couldn't continue to conduct the patrols. I have to pick and choose my battles, so I will spend the next couple weeks evaluating things and doing as ordered. Hopefully I can come up with a solution that will please everyone, and I can get these guys their time off some other way.

I KNEW IT!!

I told you so. I knew I was going to jinx myself with my complaining. I went in to work today to find out that now instead of doing the 5k once a week, they decided it was so popular they are now doing it twice a week!!! That's what I get I guess. Oh well.

I had a story I thought was kind of funny I wanted to share. So part of my duties here on base is traffic enforcement. Basically controlling the parking, speeding, stop signs, etc. Let me say up front, that I'm not big on giving tickets out here. Most of the people here on the base are only here for a few weeks before they head up to Iraq only to be never seen here again. The tickets don't follow them from base to base, so as long as it's nothing majorly wrong I usually just give them a verbal warning. Sometimes I don't even pull them over. I just flash my lights at them just to let them know I caught them and to take it easy, and sometimes I just follow them a little closely to convey the same message as flashing the lights.

Anyway, two nights ago, I was in my little hiding spot at a 4-way intersection and I saw this 20 passenger van speeding about 7-8 over and then they rolled the stop sign at the intersection I was watching. Now 7-8 isn't too much over, and he did at least slow down at the stop sign, plus there is little to no pedestrian traffic in this area. I decide that I will just let him know I'm in the area, so I flip my headlights on and I closely follow this guy. Were doing about 9mph at this point. So following closely really isn't a safety concern of mine. Most people understand what is going on and appreciate it, and some think they got away with it, but even they still leave with the impression that the police are out here, I don't want a ticket, I better be careful. Well, not this guy. He decides to hit the brakes, put his van in park, exit the van, and put his hands up in the air in disgust.

I pull up to him and ask "Do we have a problem?". This guy goes into a tirade about me following him too close. I try to explain to him that my intention was to simply let him know I saw him commit these infractions and to be careful. I further explain that I can use the method I did, or I could have pulled him over and given him a ticket. He tells me "Just give me the ticket next time". He then goes on to say he wasn't even speeding. I show him the radar. He's got nothing. He then decides to say he didn't run the stop sign. Rather than get into a pissing match with this guy, I decide, forget next time, he's getting a ticket this time. I ask for his license. Wouldn't you know it, no license. Here this guy could have gone on with nothing, and now he is getting 3 tickets, and most likely, his driving privileges revoked.

He really got me fired up inside. I try to be the nice guy with the verbal warnings and such, and he has to act this way. So after I give him the ticket, he drives off. About 10 minutes later, I see his van. You guessed it. Illegally parked. Guess who got another ticket...

It was soooo hot today...

...that I waterboarded myself.

So I guess my requests were heard. They found some volunteers to do the SAPP patrols on the ATV's. Basically a unit here was not too busy on their night shift and their supervisor decided to find some work for them. Luckily for me he found us and asked if we had any work for them. Now I just have to make sure those guys are doing them correctly, and occasionally fill in the gaps they leave.

So since I got lucky with my last request, I'll throw another one out there. With my luck this one will most likely backfire and I'll end up back on the ATV's, but I'll go on anyway.

Every Wednesday here on base they have a 5k run. Yeah. A 5k run in the desert heat. Who these people are who participate, I'm not exactly sure. I know the majority of the participants are British and the majority of those British runners are Gurkhas. (I Highly recommend reading about the Gurkhas by the way) With that being said, I'm sure you've seen on the news that the British troops are almost completely withdrawn from Iraq, and Kuwait will soon follow suit. Which leads me to believe that there will not be that many participants.

The military polices' involvement in the race is to block off all of the roads the runners will be on to insure no one is driving around creating a hazard for the runners. Now we put barricades up at every intersection, but the people working here on base apparently don't let police barricades stop them. They simply get out of their car move the barricades and drive right through them as if they owned the base. It's really unbelievable how these people just completely ignore them. So, now, in addition to putting out the barricades we have to drive up and down the route making sure no one is going around the barricades. When I catch them, everybody I confront has some "important meeting" that they "have" to be at, and this road is the "absolute only" way for them to get to this "critical" meeting.

I know I'm sounding really lazy complaining about the "work" I'm doing out here but these 5k races are soooooooooooo boring and drawn out. The race goes till about 7am or whenever the last person finishes. I'm supposed to get off at 6am. First let me get back to this last person finishes bit really quick. Now, I really admire the people participating in the run. It's extremely hot and the dust in the air has got to make it that much harder to breathe. You'll never catch me volunteering for one of these(insert fat joke here), but people come out and walk the 5k. Seriously? I have to stay out till the last person finishes, and you're walking it? If I only had to do it monthly rather than weekly I would have a little more tolerance of this. So, I propose, instead of doing it weekly, lets do it monthly. This way I only sound sort of lazy.

You Know You're In The Desert When...

.... You eat Habanero peppers to cool your mouth off.

Work has been pretty busy this week. In addition to my regular work, my collateral duties and volunteering at the USO has been making the days go by fast. Last week I also started doing the Sexual Assault Prevention Patrol or SAPP. We have never had any incidents here, so this is merely a preventive measure. I'm sure whomever created it has it at the top of their evaluation report. Something to the effect of "Spearheaded the creation of SAPP.......as to date, because of my genius program, we have had no incidents"

It's a good program to have, but they ask that we ride ATV's so we can get into places our vehicles cant. Which at first sounded like fun, till I got a sore throat from breathing in all of the dust created by the ATV. Also, when I'm done my patrol my uniform is covered in dust, so for the rest of the shift I look like a dirtball. And the kicker...ATV's DONT HAVE AIR CONDITIONING. I think the goals of the program could be met just as well, by getting out and patrolling the areas the vehicles can't get to on foot, or maybe just making it someones sole job. Give them a uniform more comfortable like a bike cop would wear or something. So anyway, that's my rant I guess.

In happier news I got care packages yesterday. I got 3 from back home, and 1 from group called Operation Gratitude. Check em out. Great program.

I wanted to thank all of you back home that put stuff into the care package my Mom sent out. It really made my day. Except for Trent's diaper. I could have done without Trent's diaper. All of the other stuff was great though. I'll have to pace myself on eating the sweets. It's been tempting to pick at them before I go to bed. Below is a picture of all of the stuff that was sent:



So thanks again to all of you!! PS..That big bag of laundry was not sent. That is mine and it is clean, I just hadn't put it away yet.

Lastly, Christina's Aunt and Grandmother bought her another Sphinx over the weekend. It's name is "Roo". In case you didn't pick up on it, our cat that just passed was Kanga. Kanga and Roo.

Miss Everyone....7 more months!!