In a vision of the night I saw them,
In the battles of the night.
‘Mid the roar and the reeling shadows of blood
They were moving like light,

Light of the reason, guarded
Tense within the will,
As a lantern under a tossing of boughs
Burns steady and still.

With scrutiny calm, and with fingers
Patient as swift
They bind up the hurts and the pain-writhen
Bodies uplift,

Untired and defenceless; around them
With shrieks in its breath
Bursts stark from the terrible horizon
Impersonal death;

But they take not their courage from anger
That blinds the hot being;
They take not their pity from weakness;
Tender, yet seeing;

Feeling, yet nerved to the uttermost;
Keen, like steel;
Yet the wounds of the mind they are stricken with,
Who shall heal?

They endure to have eyes of the watcher
In hell, and not swerve
For an hour from the faith that they follow,
The light that they serve.

Man true to man, to his kindness
That overflows all,
To his spirit erect in the thunder
When all his forts fall, —

This light, in the tiger-mad welter,
They serve and they save.
What song shall be worthy to sing of them —
Braver than the brave?

Laurence Binyon, World War I veteran.

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Recognizing that I volunteered as a Ranger, fully knowing the hazards of my chosen profession, I will always endeavor to uphold the prestige, honor, and high esprit de corps of my Ranger Regiment.

Acknowledging the fact that a Ranger is a more elite soldier who arrives at the cutting edge of battle by land, sea, or air, I accept the fact that as a Ranger my country expects me to move farther, faster and fight harder than any other soldier.

Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be. One-hundred-percent and then some.

Gallantly will I show the world that I am a specially selected and well-trained soldier. My courtesy to superior officers, neatness of dress and care of equipment shall set the example for others to follow.

Energetically will I meet the enemies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever embarrass my country.

Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission though I be the lone survivor.

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First, we did a full gym traverse with straight arms. I made it most of the way. A few sections I can’t do yet. Hand strengh just isn’t there.

For the rope drills we chose a rope and did all the climbs on that rope within our abilities back to back, 3 times! Yup, 9 climbs back to back, no rest. I started with a 5.7, 5.8, and a 5.10. Couldn’t do the 5.10 well so Mattie had me just ram thru the other two. I am so knackered!

After that we did mat excercises. More core work, with 3 cycles of planks, bicycles, pushups, toe-taps, obliques, leg lifts, side planks. Whew!

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First day of x-team training at Vertical World Seattle was great! Started with a traverse of the gym to warm up, then a try at the footwork puzzle. Didn’t get all the way thru but got farther than I thought I would. The puzzle involves placing your feet on particular holds, following a numeric sequence. Wild!

Main training today centered on weight distribution but morphed into climbing without bending the arms, without doing pullups the whole route. So lots of swinging of the hips and rotating. Very cool! Did two 5.6 to warm up then moved on to 5.7 and 5.8 climbs, all with straight arms! Brutal!

Class ended with a nice 20 min abs workout.

I’m psyched for Thursday now!

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Only in an open, nonjudgmental space can we acknowledge what we are feeling. Only in an open space where we’re not all caught up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really are, which allows us to be with them and communicate with them properly.
Pema Chödrön

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Buddhist words such as compassion and emptiness don’t mean much until we start cultivating our innate ability simply to be there with pain with an open heart and the willingness not to instantly try to get ground under our feet. For instance, if what we’re feeling is rage, we usually assume that there are only two ways to relate to it. One is to blame others. Lay it all on somebody else; drive all blames into everyone else. The other alternative is to feel guilty about our rage and blame ourselves.
Pema Chödrön

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Rather difficult to improve over this.

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First, check perms for the whole directory tree leading up to $HOME/.ssh:

server$ chmod go-w ~/
server$ chmod 700 ~/.ssh
server$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Second, add the deploy user’s public key to the authorized_keys file. Test by ssh’ing to localhost. No password = good to go!

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