Good Reads - January

In the interest of writing about my New Year's Resolutions, I will focus on my reading in this post. It has been a month, and I already talked about the first book I finished in January, Flying through Midnight, by John T. Halliday. Since I already briefly talked about it this excellent audio book, I will move on.

The second book I finished this January was Mr. Mercedes, by Stephen King.  This was another audio book that I listened to as I walked to and from work.  It sounded so familiar at first that I thought I had already listened to it and forgotten about it. I wasn't too deep into it when I realized it wouldn't have been hard to forget about it.  The familiarity of the book, however, came from the fact that I had listened to End of Watch when I was in DC about two years ago.  End of Watch was the third book of this series... I just didn't realize at the time that it was the end of a series.  Though the story line was entertaining enough, I found the book to be unrefined, like it was a first draft and just never got filled out in the end.  Even having listened to two book ends of the series, I can't say I will get to the middle book, Finder's Keepers.  Oddly enough, I was an avid Stephen King fan when I was on my first tour at Det 2 in the early '90s.  I enjoyed several of his books immensely.  I am still not sure if I grew out of his style, or if his style just took a nose dive. It might just be this series, so I may go for something else from him before throwing in the towel.

My third book was interesting, Dreams from Nepal, by Bikul Koirala. It is a fictional story about a boy sold by his parents to save the rest of the family from sure starvation in a rural area of Nepal, not too far away from Pokhara.  He worked as a slave/servant for a well-to-do family with two boys in Kathmandu, and later found himself working in Egypt as a construction worker.  The story is presented in very much a storyteller's voice,  with very little dialogue. The text is riddled with little mistakes that made it past the editor, but all of that can be forgiven as the story moves along well.  It felt obvious the author was inexperienced, and I learned through the internet that Bikul is a very talented man with many interests and enterprises.  I wasn't too impressed with the ending, but overall I don't think it killed the whole story for me; I read some reviews from people who felt differently.  My selection of this particular book was because my daughter is in Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer. I can't say the book taught me anything special about the people or culture, but in the end, I am glad I read it.  This was the only Ebook that I read this month, as the other two books were audio.  Having finished all three books within the same month, I feel more confident in saying that the difference in retention, for me, between an ebook and an audio book is negligible.

Since my resolution was to finish one book in each month of this year, I am way ahead of schedule.  I was a little proud of myself for getting through three until my daughter informed me she was on her fifth book this year.  The difference is that I have  a TV and places to go, while she is living a stoic existence in a remote village.  Sorry sweetie.

Nostalgia

While I was with our host nation counterparts in Ha Tinh Province for training during the second week of January, I was at a dinner with some guests of one of the Vietnamese team leaders.  All of the team leaders from the Ministry of National Defense come from some background that isn't necessarily related to what they are doing now.  Recently, we have had some military counterparts with a background in the SRV Navy.  One of these navy officers had invited two of his previous leaders to dinner and he introduced them to me.  One of the gentlemen, Tien, came to the table to which I was sitting and started talking about an aircraft that crashed with three crew members. I automatically assumed he was talking about a wartime crash, and I started to fret because I had nothing to take notes with, nor reference materials. Since it was a fairly relaxed atmosphere, I let him continue without interruption.  I realized after a couple of sentences, he was talking about a 1988 ditching of a navy aircraft in the South China Sea. All three of the crew members survived and were picked up by the Vietnamese navy. I remember this incident clearly, because I happened to be flying in a U.S. Air Force aircraft at the time and had a special interest in the downed navy bird.  Anyway, Mr. Tien (I didn't get his rank but assume he was at least a Senior Colonel) described the incident very clearly, and went on to say he was on the Vietnamese vessel that picked up the crew.  The details of the aircraft loss are at this link:  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-07-16-mn-6036-story.html .  Interestingly, our relationship with Vietnamese at the time wasn't awesome, but it was clear by the return of the crew that we were warming up to each other.  I am not sure how much of the story was exaggerated since Mr. Tien stated that one of the officers, a pregnant female, had named her child after him... the local moonshine was flowing, and some stretching of the truth could be forgiven.

Mr. Tien was on the Vietnamese ship that picked up three members of a CT-39 crew in in the South China Sea - 1988

It isn't often that I think of my military career before the MIA mission in the U.S. Air Force. I do remember it fondly; the hard work, comrades, and real world mission we had made it an awesome job, but it took a back seat to the high profile job I had that followed at the Detachment in Hanoi.  Anyway, Mr. Tien's story took me back to a time that feels like a previous life. It left me with a great sense of nostalgia and dredged up some memories that had lain dormant for a very long time.

Obstacles

In the interest of making semi-regular updates, I am back again, and still working on the resolutions.  It's funny that the older I get, the quicker time flies and the more things get in the way of what I want to accomplish.  My meaning is, I have been working on my three main resolutions, but the holidays seem to never want to end. I go from Christmas, to New Years, and now I am on the cusp of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year - Tet, which is a big deal here.  My biggest challenge is getting a routine, and that seems nearly impossible with the work and holiday travel schedule I have.  I tried to wriggle my way out of the Lunar New Year travel, but I failed... miserably. If there is any victory, it is in that I only will be away from home for three days.  That travel starts next week.

Due to work and other pressing requirements,  I have only had three days off in the month of January.  I have been working on Sundays and Saturdays, week dependent, and I am starving for some real weekend time.

As much as I love the public library, I already have a lesson learned... Don't bite off more than I can choose. With the 21 day borrow policy, I don't want to take a chance that I won't be able to extend my borrow. I had to turn in my last book halfway through it, and that was mostly because I was trying to get through three books at one time.  It's hard to settle down to just one book, but I think my new rule will have to be one audio and one digital book at a time.  Otherwise, I will be returning books unfinished, and then waiting for them to be finished by someone else before I can get back to it.

My exercise plans aren't too bad off, I am managing to get closer to my goals, and I hope after the Lunar New Year, I can focus more on that.  I started running in the mornings, but the increase in traffic as early as 5am due to the New Year preparations here have forced me to move it indoors to the elyptical and treadmill.

Since my online course resolution is more long range, I find myself falling a little behind, but I think that will pick up soon.

Other than that, Diep, Megan and I are working on our travel plans. We are working on a July or October return to Mobile, but hoping to make a detour to the Austin area to visit my sister.  Still working out the details, but looking forward to getting back stateside near family, if just for a little while... with travel still relatively far in the future. 

Still in Active Pursuit

Since we are only 12 days into the new year, it shouldn't be a surprise that I am still in active pursuit of my new year goals.  In some I am doing better than others, but in none have I given up completely.

With regards to reading, I finished one audio book Flying Through Midnight by John Halliday.  I very much enjoyed it because it gave me more perspective on some of the special operations activities along the wartime Ho Chi Minh Trail that ran along the border of Vietnam and Laos.  Since it is written in a first person narrative with an interesting story behind it, it wasn't dry and hard to listen to, though I must admit my interest built as I neared the end of the book and the author's story moved towards the climax.  John Halliday was an aircraft commander of C-123's flying in the 606th Special Operations Squadron out of Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand.  His story was captivating, and it was well worth the time I spent listening.

I would like to explain a little more about my reading resolution since this is my blog and I have the time.  I have read a little bit about the benefits of listening to audio books. Though many traditionalists may scoff at those who listen to books rather than read them, I can say I get as much - if not more - out of listening.  I would also like to say, from my perspective, in the last two years or more that I have been listening to audio books, my listening and retention skills have improved.  Initially, I lamented the drawbacks of listening to books; the difficulties of going back to previous pages or chapters to affirm or refute something I read.  While I have found no easy way to get around that, I do feel like I am getting better at retention and find myself less inclined to refer back to previous pages and chapters as I had in the past.  The benefits for me in listening to audio books lie in the ability to "read" at times that I wouldn't have been able to in the past:  when walking to work, on public transportation, and when on road trips on roads that would make me car sick if I tried to read a hard  or soft copy. In my time-crunched world, these time blocks are very valuable in that I can accomplish two things at once.  For the record, I do have a digital book I am working through at the moment.  When I finish, I will talk about it a little.

Another thing about my reading right now is where I am getting my books.  I have a Fairfax County library card that allows me to read and listen to thousands of contemporary and classic books.  I use Libby and RBDigital apps to borrow the books, and extend the loan when needed.  These apps usually sync across devices and allow me to download the books to read or listen to when I am not able to get a wi-fi or cell data signal.  The public library is one of the few perks that I get my money's worth from my local taxes.

As far as my exercise resolution, I must admit that I am behind on this one, but I have made some improvements.  I was able to run half a dozen times since the new year for at least thirty minutes without stopping. This, while I was performing temporary duty and staying in a hotel, rather than at home.  I am still slow and not up to the four full hours per week I committed to, but I am definitely doing something more than before, and I am progressing to meet my goal.

I also started a course to learn the programming language Python.  I registered on edX.org (an online site that allows you to audit Massive Online Open Courses, known as MOOCs, for free).  I haven't spent as much time as I would have liked on the course to date, but I am plodding along at an acceptable rate at the moment.

Finally, I just got back from seven days of temporary duty, as I mentioned above, in a place I definitely wouldn't want to live. It's very nice to be home. Here's hoping the routines will solidify while my home life is stabilized!