so i feel to need to pontificate...
interestingly enough though, I have no real topic to pontificate on. Maybe that in itself should be the topic of my pontification: that I have a lack of things to pontificate about. OK, so that is what i will pontificate about, but before I begin, a side note: I AM GOING TO SEE MY BABY IN APRIL!!!!!!!!! YAY!!! Originally we weren't going to get to see each other until late May, which was killing me, but now I am heading up in mid April for a couple of days, I get to meet the rest of the family and go through my first seder meal (two of em even). First time for everything, I think it will turn out to be very interesting, Im sure that I will be answering questions all night, but we shall see. I am looking forward to it alot, if you couldnt tell.
Now, on to the topic of my glorious pontification:
So my life here really sucks. There's nothing to do, nothing I want to do, nothing that amuses me, and by nothing I mst clarify and say nothing that I can do that doesnt require the expenditure of cold hard cash, of which I have very little at the moment. So ya, I am bored out of my mind here in KY and the peach of it is: I get to stay here for another 8 months to a year!!!!!! I truely hate this place like I have never hated anything else, I do have to give it credit for one thing and one thing only, I met Vanessa here. But neither of us are from here, so the highlight of my time here in KY was meeting Vanessa. (side note, just met a LT that was studying for his masters in middle eastern studies in Israel, he was almost killed by a terrorist, so no more studying, he was evac'd from the country and now he's here, interesting shit I get in my job sometimes) But overall, KY just sucks, if Jersey is the armpit of the country, KY is the asshole. It is that bad here, people cant drive, they cant talk, there is no common courtesy, this place is full of rednecks!!! So my life here continues to be boring, the highlights of my day are the times that I get to talk to Nessa. So, in short, KY sucks and I would never wish it on anyone.
Change topics, since I just thought of a great one:
The Army height and weight system. Now, this thing was developed back in God knows when, but definitely back when people were smaller than they are now, by far. They obvisouly didnt lift weights or anything of that nature. I come in at 5 foot 6. The allowable weight according to the Army for my height is 163lbs. I am not by any means a small person, I weight 220 or so. Thats 60lbs over what they say I am allowed! Since that is the case, I have to get tested for body fat percentage. There's the other half of this very imprecise system: They use the tape test. Of all the possible tests, the tape test is the least accurate, with a range of +/- 4.5 percent or higher! so according to this tape test, I am about 23.68 percent body fat!!! Thats over 52lbs of fat!! So say I want to get to 8 percent body fat, I would have to lose 35lbs! That would put me at 185. Now, I wouldnt mind being that weight, but I dont think its possible to lose that much weight for me, I just dont have it to lose! I'll be the first person to admit that I carry a few extra lbs around the middle, but there's not 35lbs there! There's maybe 10 or 15, if that. So in the normal world I would be considered just a big built guy, but in the Army I'm a fatass. And here's what makes me even more angry about this system. The male tape test is abdomen and neck. Through that and my height they are supposed to be able to tell me how fat I am. Riiiiiight. When most of my mass is in my chest and legs, you are only going to measure my neck and waist? What a crock of shit. And the female tape test is much more fair. They are measured around their hips, forearms, neck, and wrist. Plus their weight actually is a factor in the calculation as well as the height! For males, our weight is not entered into the body fat calculation, which is horse shit. They really really need to change this system, but it doesnt look like its going to be changed any time soon, so I end up struggling with this damn system all the time. Yippee.
OK, I think I have pontificated long enough, time to post this thing.
Now, on to the topic of my glorious pontification:
So my life here really sucks. There's nothing to do, nothing I want to do, nothing that amuses me, and by nothing I mst clarify and say nothing that I can do that doesnt require the expenditure of cold hard cash, of which I have very little at the moment. So ya, I am bored out of my mind here in KY and the peach of it is: I get to stay here for another 8 months to a year!!!!!! I truely hate this place like I have never hated anything else, I do have to give it credit for one thing and one thing only, I met Vanessa here. But neither of us are from here, so the highlight of my time here in KY was meeting Vanessa. (side note, just met a LT that was studying for his masters in middle eastern studies in Israel, he was almost killed by a terrorist, so no more studying, he was evac'd from the country and now he's here, interesting shit I get in my job sometimes) But overall, KY just sucks, if Jersey is the armpit of the country, KY is the asshole. It is that bad here, people cant drive, they cant talk, there is no common courtesy, this place is full of rednecks!!! So my life here continues to be boring, the highlights of my day are the times that I get to talk to Nessa. So, in short, KY sucks and I would never wish it on anyone.
Change topics, since I just thought of a great one:
The Army height and weight system. Now, this thing was developed back in God knows when, but definitely back when people were smaller than they are now, by far. They obvisouly didnt lift weights or anything of that nature. I come in at 5 foot 6. The allowable weight according to the Army for my height is 163lbs. I am not by any means a small person, I weight 220 or so. Thats 60lbs over what they say I am allowed! Since that is the case, I have to get tested for body fat percentage. There's the other half of this very imprecise system: They use the tape test. Of all the possible tests, the tape test is the least accurate, with a range of +/- 4.5 percent or higher! so according to this tape test, I am about 23.68 percent body fat!!! Thats over 52lbs of fat!! So say I want to get to 8 percent body fat, I would have to lose 35lbs! That would put me at 185. Now, I wouldnt mind being that weight, but I dont think its possible to lose that much weight for me, I just dont have it to lose! I'll be the first person to admit that I carry a few extra lbs around the middle, but there's not 35lbs there! There's maybe 10 or 15, if that. So in the normal world I would be considered just a big built guy, but in the Army I'm a fatass. And here's what makes me even more angry about this system. The male tape test is abdomen and neck. Through that and my height they are supposed to be able to tell me how fat I am. Riiiiiight. When most of my mass is in my chest and legs, you are only going to measure my neck and waist? What a crock of shit. And the female tape test is much more fair. They are measured around their hips, forearms, neck, and wrist. Plus their weight actually is a factor in the calculation as well as the height! For males, our weight is not entered into the body fat calculation, which is horse shit. They really really need to change this system, but it doesnt look like its going to be changed any time soon, so I end up struggling with this damn system all the time. Yippee.
OK, I think I have pontificated long enough, time to post this thing.