Sleep As Denial

Things would be easy if I was purely intellect, like a brain in the air. Thanks to training that I’ve been doing in the past year and even longer ago, it would still be easy if I was intellect with just physical limitations, like a brain in a body. Then, maybe, I wouldn’t feel like sleeping just to spare myself the wait for the next item on the schedule.

Adventurous

I will be catching a boat soon.

Christianity Revisited (blog) started today. Today’s pilot could have gone a lot better, I suppose, and hopefully we’ll be more prepared next week. There’s also a lot to reconsider before then.

But today was a very good day, mainly due to the fact of us having a band reunion of sorts. In the company of my comrades in music-making (music-making usually accomplished at the same time as merry-making), it was, naturally, a day for adventure. I tried actually playing basketball for the first time and failed quite terribly, but still, ‘Bandies are sporty!’ I had Burmese food for dinner and it was genuinely enjoyable, and cheaper than expected. And there was, of course, the Maragnan at Max Brenner’s; listing the ingredients would be too much of a spoiler, but it was served in a bottle that we could use to contain silver nitrate in the chemistry lab if we so chose, and it was accompanied by a shot glass. Today’s risks definitely produced more hits than misses, and they were all fun to take.

Until next weekend (which will hopefully be longer).

Good Things

My previous post mentioned good things. From Psalm 103:

²Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: ³Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; ⁴Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; ⁵Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Good things like waking up at 5 a.m. and having time for quiet after seeing to the recruits.

On

Earlier, I was reading through several of my friends’ blogs, feeling rather nostalgic and wishing I was also somewhere far away.

I was suddenly jarred out of my consciousness by the what may have been my own voice in my own head. It said, with conviction and a touch of sternness, ‘I need to start running.’ It certainly sounded like my voice.

I may be running slightly slower than I was in ASLC, but I still run on a regular basis in the course of my work, and in any case I didn’t think I meant it in such a bluntly literal manner on this occasion. I think it is more of the sense that I’ve let my circumstances keep me a bit too idle on some fronts of my overall development.

I do suddenly feel energized.

Stringing It On

I re-trace my steps for the record:

1. BMT, Zulu Coy, Pl. 1/Sect. 2/Bed 3. January.
2. BSLC, Kilo Coy, Pl. 2/Sect. 2/Bed 2. March.
3. ASLC, Juliet Coy, Pl. 3/Sec. 4/Bed 5. May.
4. BMTC. August.
5. BMTC, Zulu Coy. September.
6. BMTC, Zulu Coy, Pl. 1/Sec.2. September.

As I said once before, the circle is closed. Having shown that I am at a point along a string of odd coincidences, I felt like I might as well point out more. In addition to ending up where I started from, I have also consistently been in the last company it was possible to be in for each of my courses, and I have also enjoyed easy-to-remember platoon/section/bed numbers.

Ambition

To do before I die.

Three Weeks

The plane landed at about 0030 on the 23rd. Three weeks have passed, the training is over, and everything was fun. In retrospect. I graduate on Wednesday.

It rained every day we were out, so we were perpetually damp, even though the sun was blazing. Summer on the hillsides. The typhoon kept us in for a few days, and although being brought back to camp was a relief at first, all the doors and windows were shut, so we were stuck in the building. When we saw the dam break and the hotel collapse on the television (pretty much the only link to a Somewhere Outside) and heard mentions of the worst typhoon in 50 years, being comfortable in bunk stopped being an appealing prospect.

Today I have been rushing with packing and washing. The weekend’s too short, but hopefully I’ll have some time to write some things down next Thursday.

Also, from what I’ve seen, a lot has happened while I was away, like school starting, the IB reunion and a new TF2 update, among other things.

P.S. Happy birthday, mum.

Stairwells

I suppose that if I’ve spent enough time in stairwells that they have associations for me, then I’ve probably stepped into the weird zone, although if you consider how much of my life has been spent in camp or in school, it may only be natural. Where else is one as effectively hidden from view? Perhaps the toilet, but one usually doesn’t want to linger there. On the other hand, stairs are natural chairs. Also, if you want even more quiet, just move further up. There are sure to be fewer people. Stairwells are public spaces that people only pass through, and I’ve found them to be useful when I had to be around school or camp but I didn’t have to be at somewhere at a particular moment. Stairwells are echo-ey, though, so they’re not good places for private conversations, and they’re only private if you’re going to be quiet.

[Note 070909: I think this is quite surely a 'weird zone' post. Perhaps being packed with so many people in a confined space for so long activated my instincts for fading away and disappearing into myself.]

Lindt Excellence 85% Cacao, 35g

I have been forced to do yet another milk-and-sugar save on a poorly-brewed cup. (If only every place brewed like the only branch I now trust.) I also happen to have a promising bar of chocolate with me, though, so the cause is not yet lost… And I have sampled the chocolate. It is as black as I like my coffee, and it’s satisfyingly bitter. Chocolate this bitter seems almost like coffee anyway. Post-dinner event save!

My periodic chocolate cravings are a relatively recent development which I now associate with army life. I did receive a box of Lindt chocolates that I thoroughly enjoyed some time last year, though, so, in addition to explaining my selection today, the fact that I note that incident guarantees I will remember it as something of chocolate-related significance. I never really liked chocolate as a kid, which I suppose is a little bit atypical.

My stolen week of home comfort is nearing an end. It is the weekend and come Monday morning (good fortune) I’ll be back in there.