Quote of the week: you think you're busy, try this!

Whenever I think I'm busy, and I have two or three deadlines coming up on the same day, I think about the Royal Navy's Perisher submarine course, which I first read about in Tom Clancy's book "Submarine":

Here the real test of the Perishers begins. Each group of trainees is taken aboard a Royal Navy submarine and begins to do visual approaches on a frigate charging at the submarine. Each trainee gets to do five runs a day for a period of several weeks. As the course progresses, more frigates are added, until the Perisher trainee has three of them simultaneously charging at his periscope. The idea is for him to safely operate the submarine, fire off a shot, and not get run over by one or more of the frigates. All the time that a Perisher student is at the conn of the sub, the teacher is evaluating the trainee's reactions and ability to maintain his awareness of the tactical situation.  

Good luck with your frigates today. (Want to read more about the Perisher course? Try here and here.)