Another turning point in Life

About 2 minutes ago I signed out on transitional leave, meaning that I'm done with the Army; I never have to go back there. My sentiment toward this momentous event is nothing less than pure, unadultered elation. There are countless annoyances that I will never have to deal with again.
That is where I stand emotionally, but logically I see the turning point in life. I'm going to need a job soon. I'm starting school at Penn State in the fall and I need to figure out what I want to study. I'm also thinking about joining the Coast Guard Reserves as a rescue swimmer and I need to really start training harder for the school.
It might seem like quite a bit, but I enjoy having options in my life as opposed to the mind-numbing drudgery of the Army.

S.H.A.M.

Since my return from Iraq about a month ago, I've been hyper just about every day. I'm not sure if it's due to being back in the States or because I'm going to be out of the Army soon; it's probably a combination of both. When I go into Super Hyper-Active Mode, I literally bounce off the walls. I distributed a video of this about a week ago and most people reading this have probably seen it because I sent it to you. If I missed you on the distro list, I apologize; you can download it here. You'll need DivX 5.2.1 to watch it. Enjoy.

Running (Yes, this again)

There were a few weeks towards the end of my Iraq tour during which my running schedule almost ceased to exist for various reasons beyond my control. I am now back on track and running several times each week. I am posting about running again because I had a great run this morning and I wanted to rave about it a bit.
One of the myriad of aspects I like about running is that your mind and body can dissociate. The legs are on auto-pilot and the mind is free to think about anything or nothing. This is how my run went this morning; I barely remember actually traveling the distance as my mind was wandering. It is really a great opportunity to think.

California

Last weekend, a few friends and I decided to go to California on a whim to pick up some surf boards at Gus's parents' house. It was a pretty uneventful trip down, except for going through the passes in southern Oregon where snow chains were required. That added about 5 hours to a 12 hour drive what with finding, buying, installing, and readjusting them. We saw Gus's parents for a total of about an hour and then turned around and headed back.
The drive back was nothing short of spectacular. We took the scenic highway up the coast and made several stops at beaches and cliffs. Here is what I think is the best picture fromt the trip. It was taken with my friend's Sony DSC-P93 camera. This is the low quality version. Oh yeah, I know that it sticks out a bit, but otherwise it would be too small. If you want the high quality version or are interested in any other pictures from the trip (such as the ones of me climbing INSIDE the "drive-through" redwood tree at night), let me know.

Of course, as my dad and I have discussed before, there isn't a way to capture the true beauty of a sunset in a photograph; it's just too big.

Back in the States

Well, I arrived back in the "States" about 2 weeks ago and this is the first real opportunity that I've had to post. OK, that's really a lie; if I weren't so darned lazy, I might have posted a while ago, but it's been pretty difficult to find an internet connection. I won't go into details here because it's not important. What I'm really posting about here is that I am safely back in the good ol' US of A and I'll soon be completed with my enlistment. That's all for this one.