Soulless & Feral

I promised that I’d expand on Plan X. Originally, my Plan X simply encompassed going overseas, paying off debt, and basically pushing the “backup wealth” button on the good old game of life. As I thought about it, though, and as the possibility went from an idea to a possibility to a probability, the plan evolved from a simple “get capital quick” scheme to a “break free of societal norms” scheme. And like all schemes, it was a silly dream that had no chance of succeeding, that was wasting time I could spend conforming to everyone else’s “work till you fucking drop dead” idea….

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So, I will be going to Iraq sometime in July, to return sometime in July – August of next year. Without going into too many details, I will be getting paid very, very well to do what I do here. Should I and my family handle it well, I may even extend the stay to two years and make enough money to (with some smart investing) retire well-off and happy by age 40.

Or hell, age 36 if things go really well.

Yes, yes. I will be careful. Yes, I will write to people who bother to write to me. And yes, should I have the ability to do so, I’ll update my blog, post to Facebook, and hang out on Twitter. At the very least, I’ll send my posts back via mail to be entered by a trusted third party.

So, I am back in the air after a short three day return, fixing emergencies that should have never been. At 4:10pm EST (which actually matters now that I have been time zone hopping) I was asked to catch a flight out at 6:27pm EST… and damn my eyes, I actually did it.

That’s why I’m cruising at whateverthefuck thousand feet on the way to SFO by way of IAD instead of chilling in glass, acting all antsy while I think about Lost.

Right now, I have absolutely no idea how long I am going to be gone. I expect that I’ll be gone until around the 30th, but i don’t know much more at this point. I know for a fact that I’ll be riding a ship to San Diego, which will be my departure point when I return home. Beyond that? I have not a clue as to when I will return.

So… good points:

- I know from experience that ships serve food that I am not likely to eat, so I will lose weight.
- I’ve been morbidly curious as to what it would be like to ride a ship as a civilian; hey, I get the chance now.
- They probably have a gym, which I will use and abuse
- I will be billing every single solitary hour I can eke out of the time I am gone… the hours that I don’t cash in for time.
- My social mask may slip again. I like the feeling that brings.

I suppose that I will also get to make a bit of extra cash, but not a whole whole lot. On the other hand, I am not coming out of pocket a whole whole lot either.
As far as it goes, i will also be billing San Francisco rates today and tomorrow (whee) and San Diego rates on the day I pull into San Diego and the subsequent days to make the money less not worth it.

Another bonus? I am apparently due a raise, and I can’t imagine that “rushed out at 4:10pm EST to catch a flight at 6:27pm for an indefinite period of time with no warning” is going to reflect poorly on me.

So, the trip out to San Francisco is done. It wasn’t a vacation by any stretch of the imagination, but I did manage to get some touristy stuff in while I was there. I had planned on getting a little bit more done, but then… I’d also planned on being able to start what I was doing on Wednesday, not late afternoon on Thursday. Even so, I got done what I needed to get done and I did catch my flight back.

…which I have now voluntarily missed in exchange for a free round trip ticket to anywhere in the United States (continental, that is.) My profit margin on this trip was relatively weak, so I welcome the opportunity to exchange a couple of my hours for what is quite the value.

Of course, that leaves me running later in the day after I crash for a few (yes, I still plan on running) and it cuts into my Saturday, but what the hell. Free round trip ticket. I mean, c’mon.

No, wait! I’m flying out now. No free ticket, but I’ll be home on time. Win either way.

Look, I’ll post some pictures soonish. I’ll make a “San Francisco Album” on Flickr. Right now, I am not in the mood to edit those photos so you’ll just have to wait! I will say, though, that I mailed out the postcards and I picked up a few trinkets. I also checked off two items on my “travel to do” list so there’s a win too.

No earthquakes though! Alas, alas. I have not yet added “natural disasters” to my list of travel accomplishments, but I do intend on doing so. It’ll be added by the time I post this. Or later. Later is good.

After some thought and evaluation, I think I am going to ditch the Shamrock Half Marathon. Between injuries and interruptions, I am just not going to have enough time to run the race. That isn’t to say that I am giving up on the half marathon idea. I’m simply delaying it until later, when I feel I am ready to tackle a 12 mile run. I could probably push 7 miles if I tried right now, but I want to do well and I want to feel like I met my goal… neither of which I am going to be able to do by March 21st.

Considering my current motivation as far as distance running is concerned, this is probably a good thing. I am always, ALWAYS off peak in the winter. I can push through, but the combination of short-ass days and the cold (and delicious holiday food) make keeping in peak-for-me shape difficult as hell.  It’s a personal issue, and I’m getting better at managing it… but I still have not figured out that magical formula that will push me through the shit winter months without lagging.

So, to summarize: Shamrock Half Marathon <– Cancelled. 12 mile run <– Not cancelled, but delayed. I may shoot for the Rock and Roll Half. We shall see.

So… plan scrapped, moving on, working on training program to fit my current needs.

FIP Exam Tip: Applied FIP Principle in this case is honesty to one’s self and acceptance of personal responsibility. It is a minor personal failure to have to scrap the plan, but a bigger failure would be to continue on and give it a half-assed effort.

FIP Exam Tip 2: Recognizing one’s undesirable traits as undesirable is the first step to fixing them.  The second step is proactive action.

On the bright side, this means I can ditch the current training model and go with what I’ve been planning on doing after March 21st anyway! I’m going to go back to interval / speed training. I’m kinda… really… slow at the moment. I’d like to get back to running sub 8 minute miles, at the very least. I’m no speed demon, but I can be better than I am now.

Enough.

Let’s talk about school and certifications. I am (to reject humility and wallow in pride) fucking AWESOME when it comes to studying. I am about a week and some change ahead of schedule with my “12 in 12″ plan, with two of the planned 12 tests already passed and out of the way. I suspect I might actually be ready for the next one in three weeks, putting me WELL ahead of schedule.  This, of course, leads into my goal of being rich. While tech certs alone will not make me independently wealthy, they work to get me into a place where I have money to risk on further acceleration.

So far, I’ve done the 70-646 course (a harder course in the AD* of life) and Security+ (a test that proved that since I rejected the idea of taking it 3 years ago, I have become many times more awesome) with 70-640, 70-642, and 70-647 in my definite future.

Enough.

Work? Work is work. If you’ve talked to me before, you know you will get fuck-all in the way of complaints or compliments out of me about work… at least online.

More? More later. I have a lot to say, but it has to wait until I have less projects in the works.