Stark from Earth @ LS @tonyfromls@qoto.org

Ramadan starts today for me and I need to focus and double time on International Security and Risk Management Professional Course.

All set for the 10km forced march with 32kg rucksack.

Evening forced march harooooo!

Had to change my mountain bike's wheel interior after it got flat and had the old interior vulcanized. Turns out a very pointed flower's thorn punctured my rear tire.

Went to have a haircut also. My hair was trimmed and was made with high fade at the back. This tones down my projection because last time my head was almost shaved with zero and the top middle long hair was left making it the mohawk haircut with undercut and they called this haircut Viking Bjorn Style.

The new haircut today is still the Viking haircut but the sides are not almost shaved with zero razor clipper. From lower part to up at the back is a high fade.

Also visited the mosque to get news about the local Ramadan start date and I need to visit the mosque later at evening to get the news if Ramadan will start on the 18th or 19th.

Continuing my studies for the certification on International Security and Risk Management.

On the other hand I need to give some time to my studies on STEM via the MIT-OCW for Electrical Engineering.

So with all my trainings what would this make me? Let see what we got so far:

1.) Level 3 Combined Weapons Proficiency and Private Military Contractor certifications
- Heavy focus on Close Quarter Battles, security and protection of a person and or facility, hostage rescue, long range patrol on foot, operational planning, and empty hand combative.

2.) Combat Course, Tactical Combat Casualty Care, Vehicle CQB
- These are in depth focus on tactical skills and tactics involving vehicle shootout, combat casualty care including medevac communication protocols.

3.) Explosive Ordnance Reconnaissance Agent
- Heavy focus on unexploded ordnance and IED identification, threat management, state force coordination, system view of IED including bomb circuit, components, detonation process, and how to disrupt IED systems.

4.) Basic Open Water, Advance Open Water specialization on [Perfect Buoyancy, Navigation, Deep, Low Visibility / Night, and Wreck], Enriched Air / Nitrox, Deep Speciality, EFR + Rescue
- For underwater operations not requiring stealth, useful for underwater security, safety, and protection, reconnaissance including disposal or removal or installation of explosives.

5.) Anti-Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance, Intelligence Analysis
- For monitoring threat, monitoring adversarial movement, gathering information, preventing kidnap for ransom, preventing, ambush and assassinations, preventing espionage, assessment of adversaries capabilities and it's future actions.

6.) International Security & Risk Management
- This gives me the leadership role in the field of security and risk, enables me to bridge different parties from government, to NGOs, to Corporate, communicate across the Board, C-Suite, Line managers, Staffs and Contractors, External Partners, facilitate integration of the risk management cycle, and provide professional and expert advise, skills, knowledge, and tools pertaining to security and risk at the international standards level.

7.) BS & MS Computer Science And STEM inclination
- This gives me the engineer skills and system view of things, ability to analyze weapons systems and radars

8.) Political Science, Philosophy, and International Relations
- Ability to navigate the real world structure of societies and governments and be able to foresee future dynamics of such systems.

I guess this makes me a formidable tactical security and risk professional already.

Alright. Been a while without updates so here is the big drop!

January was focused on Vehicle CQB course but I got into an accident.

A 9mm bullet went inside the car and exited on the driver seat door at the base of the window where you can put arm to rest. An exit hole was made with the center of the radius at the base of the driver seat door window with depth approximately the radius of the 9mm bullet.

After I secured the VIP at the rear seat, I quickly sprinted around the car on the other side to get into the driver seat. The moment I pulled the door to close it holding the door at the base of the window, my middle finger on the left hand was already punctured by the 2 metal splints from the 9mm bullet exit hole and once I have closed the door and pulled my hand, the flesh was lacerated, close to trauma.

Fortunately, almost all of us in the course have attended the Tactical Combat Casualty Care course so that means a lot of us has TCCC tools and first aid kits.

The head instructor applied first aid with wound powder to dry it up and applied gauze and bondage. It happened 1100H and after lunch break it was opened again and a anti-bacterial ointment is applied.

I still finished the Vehicle CQB course but slowed down on my movements because the time that I moved so fast like a lightning, that is the time I was injured.

By the time the course ended at night I was able to visit the emergency in a nearby hospital for an anti-tetanus shot but the doctor after seeing the wound insisted that it needs to be stitched so I ended up grunting at the operating room as injections of anesthesia was struck around my wound. The nurse told me I was like about to transform into Incredible Hulk 😅. But damn, it was too painful.

After the anesthesia effected, I didn't felt my finger anymore so I watched the doctor and the nurse clean my whole finger, cut a part of the skin that was dangling in the middle of the wound, and stitched my wound. 5 stitches. I was given anti-biotics and pain killer and was discharged.

I still had to travel by land for about 8 hours to reach my home at the beach area.

It took me 1 month before I went back to have my stitched removed but since it was overdue, flesh healed around the stitch and the doctor can't risk nerve damage so they had to put me in operating room again to remove the stitch with anesthesia and as usual, I grunted again and the female nurse told me while they holding me down that I was like transforming into a super saiyan in dragonball Z LMAO 😂

Anyways, I cancelled the supposed CCR training so my deposit is already forfeited. I had to do some reprioritization after realizing that CCR is not really a demand in the PMC industry but a specialization from a niche skillset and instead spend a lot into the CCR which is expensive by the way, I reallocated my budget to the course Anti-Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance. which I took in January and was followed by a training on Intelligence Analysis and also the Vehicle CQB.

I was able to cancel my booking on the hostel at the island but was not able to refund my plane ticket and the bus and boat tickets. Decided to rebook my plane ticket and align it with the CyberSec Asia in Bangkok but then as days came closer to flight I didn't push through because I contracted a flu and was recovering near the flight date and also the risk of the Nipah virus. Thought that I might be incurring unnecessary risk so the tickets are a loss at that point.

All tactical trainings has to end and was only done from October to January. February is now focused on an ISO certificate on International Security and Risk Management Professional Course which is difficult because it is comprehensive and I also need to dig deep into it with tons of case studies.

Also went back to my martial arts training under my master, a former police and SWAT operative.

On the other hand while I am super busy on building myself as a tactical security and risk professional, my ideas in STEM regarding weapons design is still hanging at the back of my head.

Had to adjust the return flight and the return ticket for the boat to accommodate margin dates for the dives because clearly we need rest days from the deep dives for the CCR and it's going to be exhausting for the instructor and me to go straight 12 days on the CCR training for level 2 and level 3.

Training deal has been closed for the Close Circuit Rebreather back on the host country's beautiful island where I trained for PMC.

It is going to be ANDI CCR level 2 and level 3 back to back for 12 days and also gave day off's from the dive for the complete itinerary.

So 40m deep good for most tactical missions on both no-decompression and with decompression.

Back at Luzon now in my home near the beach. I did a Combat Course in Mindanao and my ear hurts cause of 2 days live fire on 5.56 NATO for carbines on both rifles and carbines and 9mm and .45 for pistols.

It was a large group of trainees. The bulk of the class came from Philippine Airforce on Air Police units, Combat Search and Rescue, and Reserve Group.

The rest were from SWAT and Customs units, medical professionals, business men and me.

I was sick on the second day cuz my ear hurts for not bringing my ear protection, my sinus was in pain due to allergy, low fever, super hot climate with few drinking water supply hence I was dehydrated, and cuz of the induced or forced physical stress while doing the drills but fortunately I was able to finish it and go home.

Been a while again but for some surprising update.

I dropped out of the BSEE program after a realization about tactical career opportunity and because I could not maintain the BSEE program while I am away in tactical and related trainings for PMC career.

So in Early October I decided to finally stop the BSEE program and prepared myself to travel outside my home country and that is to attend a Private Military Contracting training, and a supposed sniper training but I ended up continuing my scuba diving path instead in replacement for the sniper training.

Back at the Private Military Contracting training although the middle of the training was low morale due to the hardness and lots of mistakes on weapons and CQB, the final mission on hostage extraction was relatively a success.

I now hold an AOW, Nitrox, Deep Specialty, Emergency First Responder, and Rescue Diver certificates and currently looking for the reasonable cost training for Technical Diving and CCR.

Recently I also attended local training in PH on Tactical Combat Casualty Care and I now I officially hold a TCCC qualification. Turns out TCCC is somehow a step above the tactics on PMC training and also a step above the Emergency First Responder training and that is because on TCCC, the combat care provider should be able to neutralize the enemy on contact before administering care and this is amidst adversarial situations . The care provider also has more advanced skills than the typical EFR personnel such as the ability to apply needle decompression on the collapse lung side of the chest, be able to apply effectively the tourniquet amidst heavy gunfire and more.

Next step is Intelligence Cycle Fundamentals program from UK, Technical Diving foundation on Open Circuit and operational CCR.

January I am also expecting advanced TCCC, Vehicle Shooting, and Combat Course in PH.

As for the STEM, although I have given up the formal studies of BSEE, I'll continue on the informal study of BSEE under the MIT OCW and also will be changing Society in IEEE so I can join the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society while maintaining the IEEE Aerospace Electronics Systems Society membership. That means I am canceling my membership on the Control Systems Society.

Been a while again since my last toot.

So far Electrical Circuits grades is good the rest is so so, whole I flunked the Engineering Mechanics for the P1 term and it's my fault. I still have P2 and P3 term to make up plus the separate Common Final Exam which is 40% in the final grades.

Exam done for Electrical Circuits 001. The last for this week is basic thermodynamics and then a long weekend.

Exam done for Electrical Circuits 001. The last for this week is basic thermodynamics and then a long weekend.

Been reviewing Electrical Circuits since weekend in preparation for the exam tomorrow.

Not doing good on engineering mechanics. I need to work on it double time.

Exam week done but then I still have electrical circuits and basic thermodynamics next week.

I'm not a fan of the Modern Arnis but this is the best we can use to teach the general population via the PED course in college.

I'm still a practitioner of the Kalis Ilustrisimo system.

Exam today on the course Ethics and Modern Arnis in PED. Had to take the lead for the group performance and teach late enrollees of the 12 basic strikes and blocks. Had to pressure two of the new comers so they can easily remember the movements.

OMG I spent like 12 hours analyzing a difficult series-parallel circuits and combing all the tools from circuit reduction, ohms law, voltage divider rule, current divider rule, KVL, KCL, patterns or sequence of process, and finally, proving that KCL and KVL stands true for the circuit.

Indeed BS Electrical Engineering is difficult!

Problem with my long slow distance training is the knee pain after cause it takes me many foot landings for 21km compared if I am running faster and with that amount of distance for the rate of steps, feet impacts ground many time the road where I run isn't asphalt but concrete.

Gait is more midsole landings. I need to use forefoot landings next time for long slow distance run training.