Moustach March

Here's the result of 3 weeks of work (I absent mindedly forgot of Moustach March the 1st week). It's a sorry 'stach, I know. My philtrum happens to have my blondest hair. We're all supposed to grow them. Here's my boys...

Engage

Sorry for the late post here. I wanted to write about the rest of time in Thailand, which was too daunting of a task that I kept putting off. So I'll write about it in several smaller, manageable posts. I'll start with the big news...

My girlfriend Candice met me in Thailand after my work with the Air Force. On Valentine's Day, we were supposed to be in Cambodia at Angkor Wat, which is where I planned on popping the big question. But I came across trouble at the border. The Thai immigration officials wouldn't let me across the border. Because I flew into Thailand on a military aircraft, my passport had no Thai entry stamp. Even though I had a letter from the US embassy explaning my situation, and immigration spoke with an embassy liaison, they wouldn't let me across. So with a quick change of plans, we headed back to Bangkok.

The next day was Valentine's Day, and we went and visited the old palace and a couple temples which were simply amazing. I'll talk more about that later. That evening, we got a Thai massage and went to eat at The Breeze restaurant (http://www.breezebkk.com/index.php and http://www.bangkok.com/what%27s-new/breeze.html) which is on a rooftop terrace on the State Tower. With a call beforehand, I ensured we would have a nice table, and the Breeze pulled through with our table sitting on a private semicircle on the roof's edge.


After some romantic prologue and nearly knocking over the table getting to my knee, I opened the ring box and asked Candice to spend the rest of her life with me. She was shocked, and couldn't say a word but gave me a big tearful hug. She was looking forward to this day.

We plan to have our wedding in San Diego where her family lives. It'll likely be July 19th, which is after she finishes her internship and after I finish my year here in Korea. Right after, we'll move to JAPAN!!! I don't think I've posted this yet, but next assignment will be at Yokota Air Base, which is right by Tokyo. Candice and I are both really looking forward to this. She is half-Japanese herself (and half-Chinese) and even has relatives in Japan. After my assignment there, we'll probably move back to the West Coast and finish our residencies.

On the way out, the State Tower had this huge, sweet aquarium. In it, I saw the most beautiful fish I've ever seen...

Picasa

I've started created online photo albums with Picasa, which is another Google beauty. It's quite streamlined with Blogger and other Google entities. It gives you 1024 Mb of free storage. One of the best features is that it can upload scores of photos at once. So here's the link. http://picasaweb.google.com/drewbarnett
You can already check out photos from the first part of my trip to Thailand. It includes pics of the hotel the Air Force put me up in, Thai kickboxing, and more.

Cope Tiger

Part of my squadron of A-10's went down to Korat, Thailand, to participate in Cope Tiger 2008. This is a joint Thai-Sing(Singapore)-US Air Force/Marine exercise. They brought me to be their medical support. So late February, I flew down there on a C-17 Globemaster, which is nice new big aircraft.


This was a awesome assignment. The US Marines brought a couple flight docs and several techs, so we were well staffed in the clinic. I only saw 4 patients a day average, but we were always ready for anything. I also got a chance to fly in a E-3 AWACS. The big platter on top houses a radar, and inside the aircraft are air/weapons control stations. It gets exciting in there when the controllers are informing all the friendly aircraft about approaching enemy aircraft.


Another incredible part of this flight was the in-flight refueling. Watching from the cockpit as 2 large aircraft approach each other to refuel was quite awe-provoking.


Korat (which is in Northeast Thailand) is one of the biggest cities in Thailand, but it doesn't offer much to see or do. In the evenings, I would eat dinner with the pilots, and sometimes we would hit a bar or club. We did get a chance to see a couple Khmer temples from the 10th century.


Above is the center of Phanom Rung, which is considered Thailand's largest and best restored of the Khmer temples (the same folks that built Angkor Wat).


After 2 weeks of flying, here's the A-10's preparing to fly back to Korea. I was able to take some leave afterwards, so I stuck around in Thailand. I'll have much more about this in my next post.

India: other travels

I had a post about the Taj Mahal earlier, but we saw so much more in India. Here's some other highlights from traveling with Max Janosky.

Red Fort, Old Dehli, India. Used to be the palace grounds.


Itimad-ub-Daulah's Tomb, the "Baby Taj", Agra, India. This white marble beauty is just down the river a bit from the real Taj.


Another photo of the Baby Taj.


Agra Fort. This UNESCO World Heritage site is also an old Mughal Palace/Fort and is considered by many the 2nd most important site to see after the Taj.


Another from Agra Fort. This place is huge, and on top of that, it's composed of very ornately carved red sandstone and white marble.


Monkeys, like cows, are considered holy in the Hindu religion, so they just roam around wherever. So different from most of Africa, where the monkeys run for the lives.


Train toilet. We took the train from Dehli to Agra and back. Going there we were in AC 1st Class which was like an airliner 1st class with air conditioning. Going back we thought we'd try the cheapest class, which was so crowded I could stand on only one leg. And my one leg was standing by an open door. And then all these people would squeeze through selling snacks. And here is the bathroom. That is not a piece of doodoo, but it is open to the tracks below.

New York City

While out in Texas, I spent the 1st weekend of September up in New York City visiting Candice, a friend from medical school. The first night there we went to a trance show/rave by DJ Tiesto. This is one of my favorite DJ's; he has been rated the world's best DJ a couple times in the past few years; and he did the music for the last Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. Awesome show. Here's a clip from one of his other shows, which shows the enthusiasm of the audience well.

Tiesto's He's A Pirate Mix

Well this turn out to be an amazing evening with Candice, and I fell in love with her quick. She came out to Korea a few weeks later for the week of my ankle surgery. It was such a blessing to have her there. Here are some photos from our travels around Seoul.

Overlooking Seoul.

Palace grounds.

We've gotten the chance to see each other a few other times with my frequent trips out to San Antonio. I really enjoy the weekend trips to New York City. She has a beautiful apartment with the view below. (Photo courtesy of Scott)



New York City is an amazing melting pot. I don't think there is another city in the world with such a mix of cultures. Great ethnic foods... I've enjoyed delicious Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Peruvian food, and Vietnamese food. Plus great chocolate and coffee were partaken of! Another highlight was the chance be meet up with a couple of my best friends (Jeff and Scott) and their wives.

Janelle, Jeff, Jenny, Me

Scott falling with grace

AMP'ed Up: the rest of the story

Merry Christmas, World. I recently came back from a 2 week trip to San Antonio for the Aircraft Mishap Investigation and Prevention course, and while there, I was able to spin in the centrifuge again, and this time... passed. Easily. I was so excited. Hitting the gym and drinking a Monster beforehand did the trick. This was one of my most trying accomplishments in life. So now I'll be able to fly in the F-16 without restrictions. And I'm going to have to remove the centrifuge video. Air Force doesn't want them posted. But just email me if you want to check it out.


So now I'll go all the way back to August/September and finish the story from my previous post. Above is a photo from a mass casualty exercise. Mulage, broken armored vehicles, smoke, and war sounds all made it more life-like. Fun times. During that time, I was in the gym, trying to bulk up as much as possible before spinning in the centrifuge. I was doing calf raises with lots of weight (because you want to max out with few reps). Anyways while doing this, I noticed a funny feeling in my right ankle, but didn't think to much of it. The next day, when putting on my socks, I saw that a pin/screw was raising the skin over my right lateral ankle (I had hardware put in my ankle a year and a half ago after breaking it). So with all the weight I was pushing, a screw had back itself out from the bone. Now the skin was tented, raised about 0.5cm.

The problem was that I was supposed to start my Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) training in a couple days. They ending up pulling me out of the training, because hiking all over the back woods with boots on could've broke the skin over the screw, and provided a path for infections to the bone. That would be trouble. So they sent me home back to Korea. I was sad that I didn't get to do the SERE with all the friends I had made at AMP. They were the best part of my stay. We had so many good times, eating out, partying, tubing down the river, and seeing the sites of San Antonio. I miss you guys!


I had surgery back in Korea, taking the hardware out. I worked in the clinic while waiting for the skin to heal up. Then in October, I went back to San Antonio for SERE. It's 5 days living in the woods. They give you a pack with supplies, and there's a limited list of items that you can bring yourself, but no food. The first 3 days was simulated survival in friendly territory. So we had big fires, smoked beef, caught some fish to eat, killed a couple live rabbits for a stew, and generally had it pretty good, all the while learning techniques of survival and evasion. The last 2 days were actual evasion, sneaking around, trying to reach certain points using the map and compass. Overall the worst things included
1. The cold. Unusually cold nights for Texas. Near freezing and below freezing every night. And we only had 2 blankets.
2. The hunger. On average, we had one meal and one snack each day. The smoked beef was amazing though.
3. Eating a huge white grub. We're required to overcome food aversion, so we get to eat bugs. Yay.
4. Nearly failing the course because I missed the pickup time. I had the meeting time wrong.
5. Trying to sneak through thick, dry brush in a quiet fashion. SO SLOW!

Here's a photo of me after I got back to Uncle Gordon and Aunt Elida's. Some of the peripheral camo stuff I didn't put back on though.

AMP'ed up, Part 1: The Centrifuge

So I finally finished my Aerospace Medicine Primary course (AMP). This is the course for training flight surgeons in the Air Force. They also have a separate residency program that goes for 2-3 years, but AMP is the starter course for new dudes like me. It starts with 4 weeks worth of powerpoint lectures put into Computer Based Training (CBT); I completed this when I first went to Korea. Then I went to San Antonio, Texas, for more hands-on training for 6 weeks (which included lots of more powerpoints as well).

Highlights included the centrifuge where they spin you like mad in a simulated cockpit on the arm of this machine, that looks like this.

This let you experience high "g" forces, which included 9 g's for 15 seconds. Let me tell you, this is like nothing you've ever experienced, and I've been on tons of rollercoasters and whatnot. One of my friends described it in a great way: it's like the hand of God is pushing you down, and flinging you across the universe. Everyone HATES this feeling, and I did too at first, but I got used to it.

So a little education in g forces. These forces usually press straight down on you, which causes pooling of blood in the vasculature of your lower extremities. Soon no blood reaches your heart. To combat this, you do anti-G straining maneuvers (AGSM), which includes flexing your whole lower body with all your strength, and doing a valsalva (taking a deep breath, and forcefully exhaling against a closed epiglottis). Both of these assist by creating pressures that force blood back up into your head. This usually allows you to tolerate these high g's and not pass out.

Well..... not so for me. Despite doing all this, I still GLOC'ed (general loss of consciousness) with the 9 g's for 15 seconds. And this is quite an experience. Most of the time, I didn't totally GLOC. I would lose my eyesight, lose control of my muscles and slump over, but I was still conscious of this, like I'd be, "Woah, this is weeeeeeiiiird". Thinking this in my head of course, because I couldn't speak since I had no motor control. See this for yourself. Here's an attempt at 15 seconds of 9 g's. You can hear the coach's voice over the intercom.



To finish this part up, I tried the the centrifuge 4 times (most people needed only 1-2 times to pass), and I still couldn't pass the section needed in order to fly in F-16's without restrictions. I'll still be able to fly in them, but just can't do hardcore air combat flights. I think there's something wrong with my heart, like it can't kickstart to warp speed. I'll be trying again in December when I go back to San Antonio for my Aircraft Mishap Investigation training.

Another quick highlight, Big Louie's Pizza... check it out! And it tasted good too.

A little more on Seoul

Sorry for such a boring blog for lack of posts. I'll try to catch up.

So Seoul is awesome. Love it. Glad I'm going to be there for at least at year. It's a big city (about the size of LA), and like Los Angeles, it doesn't have a downtown downtown. Instead it has lots of cool areas in the city, like a young professional area, expat area, university area, etc. Unlike LA, it has an excellent and cheap public transportation system which goes all the way to my base. The above pic is the Samsung Jong-Ro Building, Hanging Glass Façade.

The Wild, Wild West

So here's a short overdue entry about my roadtrip from Dayton to Seattle. First night was Chicago, but my clutch cable snapped a bit south of Chicago. Luckily USAA roadside assistance came to my rescue. At the time, I didn't know what went wrong, so I had it towed to the Evolution specialists at AMS in Chicago. They squeezed me into their very busy schedule with some extra money. That place is amazing. I got to see their shop's car, which is the most powerful Evo in the world as far as I know with over 1000 crank horsepower from the Evo's four cylinders. It's faster than almost all stock supercars. Anyways my brother Tom met me in Chicago, and we stayed at my friend Derek's place near downtown Chicago. So I was a good place for my car to break down.


We drove through the Badlands in South Dakota, which is a detour you must take if you're driving through the area.
We got there at a good time.

The beauty inspires Tom to do what he needs to do.

Another must see in South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore. Cool place.

And yes, I wore the same clothes the whole way.

Taj Mahal

First the highlight of the trip: the Taj. The Taj Majal is a tomb/memorial a king make for his wife that died in childbirth. Many call it the most magnificent monument built out of love.


Actually it's built out of pure marble, not love. As you can see, it shines white in the sun. I guess it used to be even whiter, and because they noticed a color change, India outlawed all industry that produces air pollution in the town of the Taj Mahal, Aggra.

The architecture is Persian, not Indian. This and many other monuments in Northwest India were made when the Persians ruled India several hundred years ago, like 1300's or something.


And it's more amazing that just the architecture. When you get close, you can see precious stoned inlaid into the marble making ornate designs. They have similar pieces of marble with inlayed stones for sale as souvenirs, and just a circle with a 2 foot diameter cost over $100.

I looks deceptively large, but in reality, it is a single room tomb. I always thought it was some huge palace, but when you walk in, it's just one moderate size room with 2 caskets (the King was buried with his wife when he died).


Another amazing thing is the lack of development around this wonder of the world. It sits on a river, and right across the river is an orchard, not some high-end hotel to take advantage of the magnificent view.

My sorta new car

Here's the car I bought on Ebay back in April. Overall I am satisfied with it. I absolutely love the car, but it has been high maintenance. Sounds like a girlfriend. The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII comes very heavily enhanced from the dealer, but I bought used with several additional modifications and a few I added myself. 2003 model with about 35,000 miles now.

MOD LIST
HKS 2.75" downpipe
High Flow Cat
Custom 3" cat back exhaust
Resonator
Magnaflow muffler
272 HKS Cams
Unorthodox Cam Gears
Halbro Fuel Pump
Manual Boost Controller
Blow off valve
Drop in K&N hiflow air filter
ACT Heavy Duty Clutch
XACT Prolight Flywheel
Espilier Lowering Springs
Cart Boy Short Shifter
Carbon Fiber Dash
CF Exhaust Heat Shield
Sparco Steering Wheel
Sparco Pedal Set
Super AFC II EMS
Greddy Turbo Timer
JDM Evo 7 Taillight decals
Window tint
Panasonic CD Deck
iPod adapter

I need to get it retuned.
Next will be a new set of rims and tires specifically for racing. And I probably should get an intercooler set up. And maybe some fuel injectors. Oh, a bigger turbo would be sweet...

Here a photo from my Treo 650 phone

Here's my family up at Lake Tahoe: