Natsume

Test

I haven't used my LJ in many months. Mostly due to my sudden obsession with Facebook. However I have found that FB is good for the quick status, and my amazing book reviews. But for more in depth postings, it lacks. Perhaps there's room in my life for two social networks.

This last year of my life has been a bit of a roller coaster. Going back and reading my last LJ post, I was pretty unhappy.

Prior to this deployment I was putting in a lot of hours adjusting to a new boss who wanted things done a very certain way. It had some perks. I had clear guidance finally, which was helpful. However my new boss was extremely picky about what he wanted. Which sometimes interfered with getting those things done. When we first hit the ground in Iraq I was putting in a lot of hours, and was under a lot of stress. I finally got a really good guy to help me. He was older and more experienced, and he took a lot of the weight off my shoulders. Shortly after that I was sent somewhere else. Great.

At times this year has been extremely stressful, but ultimately very rewarding. I have been pushed to, and passed, my limits. I've learned painful lessons, that thankfully didn't hurt for as long as they could have. I've gotten to work with a questionable group of thieves and vagrants, but they've all been great. Once I stopped comparing this deployment to my last, I was able to get more out of it.

Probably the most productive thing I've done this year was I finally started my online college. I'd only been talking about it since I joined the Army. For my service, I received 12 free credit hours. Which was awesome. By the time I leave, which is soon, I'll have 36 credit hours. If I knuckle down, I should be able to get another set of classes done before my service is done.

The shackles of adulthood are upon me! This year Juli and I bought a house, with considerable influence from her parents. At first I was...less than pleased. However the house is growing on me. It's nice to know I'll have a roof over my when I get out, and the Juli has a place to live in. Who knows, maybe Virginia will grow on me. It shows promise, by being only a few hours from several race tracks.

This deployment has been hard, in new and surprising ways. I came in thinking I new all the tricks, and all the challenges. It was a learning experience to find out how wrong I was. I've been faced with extremely difficult life decisions, some of which are still unresolved. I'm ready to meet them though. The future shows promise. I've got money for college burning a hole in my proverbial wallet. I've got a growing car addiction to feed. I have my wonderful wife to start building our future with. I'm at a major turning point in my young life. Life without the Army. I'm ready for the future.

Carpe Diem

Zach is coming to lay tile in my kitchen this weekend, so I'm trying to get it painted before he gets here.  I taped off on Sunday, and it took seemingly forever.  With all the cabinets and countertops and whatnot there's just a lot of things to tape around and it took something like 4+ hours when it was all said and done.  At that point, I just didn't have the will left to actually paint.

Monday night is Macross night, so that brings me to Tuesday.  Got home around 8 after stopping for some dinner and to get some supplies.  hit the painting solid through around 12:30 or 1am.  I wasn't really expecting it to take that long because there really isn't all that much surface area, but all the nooks and crannies that made taping off hard made painting hard as well.  Oh well...at least it's done...well, part of it anyway.

I decided to paint the main part of the kitchen orange.  That part is finished and I was able to get it done in just a single coat.  Hooray!  I plan to paint the breakfast nook yellow.  I should have done that tonight, but I just wasn't feeling it.  I replaced some of the power outlets and switches in the area I already painted, called it good, and went and did something fun instead.
( pics...cuz it happened )

I've been painting my kitchen.  I have pictures.  LJ ScrapBook is broken.  Sadface.

This is a self-assessment. I'm taking a look at who I am and what I know about myself in the hope of being able to identify my strengths and weaknesses as a first step toward self-improvement.  These are in no particular order (other than the relation of some to each other) and this list is surely incomplete.

( Read more... )

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This was a good exercise for me and something that I have been wanting to do for several weeks.  I had been putting it off because I knew it would take a long time—and it did.  I've been composing this for over four hours and, while it's long, I don't really have that much text to show for it.  But a lot of time and thought went into crafting this and I learned a lot through trying to explain the things I already knew about myself.  And seeing it all laid out like this gives me a new form of perspective.

I've been working on this person I call me for quite a few years now.  I am generally satisfied with the person I have become, but there is certainly much room for improvement.  There's a lot here to work with.  It is my sincere hope that I can use it to play a more active role in continuing to find and shape who I am.