Happy March 1st of 2006 Everyone!!!

Well well, here I am, and it’s now March, which means I’ve now resided in the armpit of the earth for 4 months. Now I know, some would call this the asshole of the world, but to be honest, THAT is northern Iraq. Of course I’m in northern Iraq from time to time, just like western Iraq, eastern Iraq, Kuwait, and Somalia, but that’s just how it is with this crack combat transportation unit. (Okay, I added Somalia in for a little flavor, that is just not true, we haven’t been there… YET!!). Anyways, that is basically 1/3 of the time we are going to be here, PARTY TIME, BREAK OUT THE N/A BEERS!!

So, in other news, I’ve had a bump on my back for about 2 years or so, maybe a little longer, it was nothing bad, for the longest time it was hardly even noticeable. Then when belly got back from boot camp, she said she thought it had gotten bigger. So I had a civilian doctor check it out… “Oh that’s no big deal, it’s just a fatty deposit” so I didn’t think much of it. Yah, well, it seemed to get a little bigger over here, about the size of the end of my index finger or so, right up in the middle of my back a little to the right side just at the end of the shoulder muscle.

About 3 weeks ago it got inflamed on a trip down to Arifjan in Kuwait, and so I spend a few days hoping it would get better. Well, it didn’t, it got worse, and I found myself annoyed even trying to wear the body armor while bouncing around in my trusty 915 semi truck as it headed down the road at a blazing 45 mph.

Went in to see the doctor, and he took me in back to the ER and they did a procedure to remove it. Now, I thought it was just going to be no big deal, and I guess for some it probably isn’t much of a big deal, but they carved the entire bump out of my back. It was some sort of cyst, non cancerous thankfully. Now I have to have it packed every day for 2 weeks with a full recovery in 3 weeks. They offered me Percocet but I didn’t take it, I hate the big pain killers like that stuff, codeine, etc, they seem to fuck me up pretty bad.

Thankfully, I was scheduled to start working the night shift at the operations center for the unit anyway as the NCOIC for that shift, so my two week profile away from the convoys (because I can’t wear my ballistic armor or really ride in a truck with my back like it is) won’t affect me too much. The most irritating thing right now is the damn tape they use to seal the wound makes my skin just crawl like crazy, it irritates the shit out of the skin around the wound itself, they’ve tried like 3 different kinds of tape but nothing seems to keep it from getting itchy and red : ( I don’t much like it, keeps me from working out or doing much of anything that requires labor. Oh well, 3 weeks, I can deal with that. Especially considering what my baby went thru for her hip.

Oh, and a little shout out to Arifjan, post or base or whatever you are you pathetic shithole, and to the ignorant jackass lieutenant who stopped me as I went into the chow hall and give me the following run around:

(I walk into the chow hall for evening chow right as we get done unloading our trucks)

SPC Dipshit: “Excuse me Sergeant, you can’t come in here with that mud on your pants.”

(I look down, yes, I do have a streak of mud along the button up pocket.)

ME: “There really isn’t much I can do about that, we aren’t from Arifjan, we are from up north in Iraq, we convoy down and we don’t bring a lot of clothing with us”

SPC Dipshit: “Well, we don’t allow people in the chow hall with soiled clothing.”

At this point someone else walks up and puts in his unwanted two cents worth:

2LT Ignorant Fuck: “Excuse me, did you not read the rules on the door on your way in?”(this was done in the best arrogant attitude this piece of shit could muster up)

ME: “Yes sir, I understand the rules, but we aren’t from Arifjan…”

2LT Ignorant Fuck: (interrupting me) “…Yes, you are from up north, I understand that, I know up north you probably don’t follow the rules like you should, but this is an actual base, and because we are a real base we have rules that you must follow.”

ME: *FUMING: thinking many things that I want to say, such as:
You stupid fuck, do you honestly think people up north give a shit about whether or not they have dirt on their pants when they go to the chow hall? Do you really have the audacity, the supercilious egotistical attitude to preach to me about your stupid rules, and the ignorance to try to apply your rules to what is going on up north in an ACTUAL combat zone??? WE ARE A LITTLE MORE WORRIED ABOUT GETTING FUCKING KILLED UP THERE THAN TO WORRY ABOUT A LITTLE BIT OF DIRT YOU DOUCHEBAG BUTTER BAR!! *another part of me wanted to tell him that all my other uniforms were soaked with blood, but the non sarcastic, respectful part of me won over in the end:

“ I understand sir, I didn’t realize my clothing was this dirty”

During that entire time I was out in front of the chow hall brushing away my uniform while 2LT Ignorant Fuck lectured me on the finer points of anything I didn’t give a shit about.

You NEVER get attacked in Kuwait, it just doesn’t happen. That’s why when you see a t-shirt in the PX that says “Combat Proven: Arifjan, Kuwait” and you are from up north, you are required by the unwritten code of brothers in TRUE arms to laugh hysterically, at the very foolishness of thinking of Arifjan as a combat zone. I wanted to tell that lieutenant to shove this t-shirt right up his actual baseass, but I held my tongue till now haha.

Anyways, that’s been my last couple of weeks. Good hearty fun, low in cholesterol, high in sarcasm.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Many times I've been alone and many times I've cried
Anyway you'll never know the many ways I've tried
And still they lead me back to the long and winding road
You left me standing here a long, long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here, lead me to you door

The Long And Winding Road – The Beatles

Vrooom Vrooooooom!!

SO, here's the dilemma, I want to get a specific car when I get back home: the 2005 Dodge Neon SRT4 ACR. Now the problem. Dodge discontinued this car in November, the entire Neon platform was scrapped and has been replaced with the Caliber. Well, the Dodge Caliber looks like a freaking Ford Focus somewhat from the side, with a horrid 'miniaturized Dodge Durango' front end look to it. Holy God that thing is ugly!! It does grow on you a little, like mold I guess. Some people actually like the Caliber a lot (like spam, she's buying one haha!!)

Dodge says they are going to have a performance version from the SRT department (Special Research Team, the acronym for Dodge's performance division), but details on that are sketchy and rumors are running rampant all over the place. Current SRT4 motor, or the 'all world' 2.5 with a turbo? Will it be all wheel drive, or front wheel drive? Will they call it the Caliber SRT4 or will it be called the Caliber Rally Edition (this will likely be based on the drivetrain, SRT4 for FWD, or Rally Edition for the AWD version).

Some people have done PhotoShop versions of the vehicle and it's not too bad. So now I'm torn, do I buy one of the last of the Neons in the SRT4 ACR, if I can even find one? Or do I wait for a sportier version of the Caliber, that might be a total dud, ugly as sin? Choices, choices, stay tuned...

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I said I need you, does that make me wrong?
Am I a weak man, are you feeling strong?
My heart was blackened, it's bloody red
A hole in my heart, a hole in my head?

Addicted To Chaos - Megadeth

More Little Tidbits!!

I don't know what the deal is with the winter DCU tan boots, but the tread on them holds like 5 times the mud as the summers. Does anyone know what kind of nonsense this is? I mean, honestly, during the summer you aren't likely to get into mud much at all, yet the treads on these winter boots just get caked with mud and you drag it all over the freaking place. BAH, IRRITATING!

The military needs more acronyms. While on VCC the BC let my 1sg know that an E6 shouldn't be in charge, I should be a CC or ACC on a convoy in a 915. If you don't understand that, well, hell, even I don't fully understand what I just said. No one does more acronyms than the military, no one. It's really amazing trying to keep up. I catch myself trying to figure out the difference between MCT and TMC and CMT, wait, that's Country Music Television, and I hate that even more than acronyms.

This just in: I haven't drank from an actual 'glass' in months. I normally drink juice and milk from those cartons where you push the straw thru the top. Sometimes I will have an occasional soda. Just so belly knows, she'll have to train me remedially to drink from a glass, I think I've totally forgotten.

I wrestled a camel for $20 the other day, and no, it wasn't a sexual thing.

So, we had an intel report telling us to "Be on the lookout for bombs on bicycles and dogs..." DOGS?? Who is strapping bombs to dogs? Oh the insanity of it all. Although, I can't think of a better thing to do to any dog under 5 pounds. Except Jack Russel terriers, they don't deserve to be blown up. Poodles especially though, they should be strapped with bombs and blown to bits. Sorry, that's just the truth. Make the fur really fly. BEST IN SHOW!!

There isn't any decent bread in the entire middle east, not in any of our dining facilities or 'sanctioned' eateries. The only place you can get decent bread is from the Iraqis themselves, and it lasts about a day and then it's pretty dried out too. I swear I'm going to Subway when I get back, ordering a sandwich, and if they give me dried out bread someone I'm jumping the counter and smashing heads. I'll probably just ask for the freshest bread they have when they ask me what kind I want.

100 MPH Military green tape: 7723 uses and counting!!

I miss escorting local national workers around the base, I really miss the people, I'm no longer really learning any arabic because I don't have any ability to practice it.

Oh, I see Saddam Hussein is on a hunger strike. Excellent, I'll tell you what, you just continue that hunger strike and die on your own, so we can save a ton of money and idiotic media attention on your trial. Please, feel free to finish yourself off.

Oh, I was lying about wrestling a camel, that never happened. Honestly, it didn't.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Instrumental, Cantina Band - Star Wars Soundtrack, John Williams

An Open Letter To The Media

There is really no eloquent way to put this, other than to state my feelings about the media as follows: GO FUCK YOURSELVES!!! You are the ultimate definition of a sell out. You go for only the sensationalized attention grabbing bullshit 'news', and do your research poorly at that.

Why is it that there are a thousand good stories for every bad story that goes on over here in Iraq, yet you ignore anything positive about what is happening and focus solely on the negative. Not only that, but you leave out anything that can help explain HOW or WHY something happened, so as to make the actions of the military seem as evil as possible.

"Innocent Civilians Killed Today When The Military Fired Upon Their Vehicle"... without mentioning the vehicle drove up on a security checkpoint at 65 mph without slowing down, forcing the actions of the service members. Not only does it make the military look aggressively abusive, it paints the Iraqi people as incompetent morons, which is simply NOT true.

If nothing else, I'm glad I'm here just to get a first hand impression of what is really happening. Things are a lot better than you media types would have the general public believe. Yellow journalism has been around for a couple hundred years now, but with the current level of media coverage hammering away 24/7, with everything from O.J. to Katrina right in your face, up front and personal, it makes me wonder if it's now become a fatal disease killing off anything remotely resembling integrity or impartiality in the news media.

The world isn't all bad, hell, I'd say it's way more good than bad, but you'd never know it from watching The Nightly News. It's disappointing, and until the news in general quits emulating "Hollywood Insider Tonite Edition", it's not likely to change. That's pretty sad.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Peace is what they tell me
Love am I unholy
Lies are what they tell me
Despise you that control me

Torn - Creed

Turning On The TV In My Mind

I'm about to discuss something that has been going on lately that is likely to surprise a few people, belly included. I've read about a dozen books since I got to Iraq, about 8 to 10 in the last month since I began doing convoys. I've dabbled in Tom Clancy of course, read a little Clive Cussler, been enthralled by Michael Chrichton, and freaked out reading Dean Koontz.

During a 3 or 4 day period last week I was burning thru about a book every 24 hours, and I realized that I read stuff too fast haha. But seriously, I just picked up a dozen more books in a box when we were staying at Rasputan or Rumpleforeskin or whatever this base we went to was called, the name hurt my head trying to even remember it.

In time I'm going to do a few reviews of the books I've read thus far.

Little Bits Of Rambling

So, I chewed the other day, YES, that is right, I stuck in a dip of Skoal wintergreen and enjoyed a juicy little disgusting high. I believe this is the first time I’ve chewed this century!! I used to do it about once every six months as a junior and senior in college. It was disgusting then, it was disgusting now.

ASS body spray is absofuckinglutely disgusting. “No fraNk, it’s AXE body spray” no no I’m sorry, I am defining it by what it smells like. It curls my nose hairs, makes my eyes water, causes me to throw up a little in my throat, ‘it smells like bigfoot’s dick!!!’. I would sooner smell cheap old high school kid Stetson all day than that shit, yet so many guys buy ASS, must be the good marketing campaign. Well, I have yet to see any models jumping on any guys here in Iraq, but if it happens I’ll let you know.

I bought a bag. You know, I’m not even sure if I needed it, but I was at the PX, and I have been using my Gore Tex coat pockets as a bag, and it hasn’t been working out. Oh I started with my sunglasses and my gloves, but then it expanded to two pair of gloves (work and cold), my MP3 player, my digital camera, a couple of books to read, and after awhile I couldn’t even wear the coat without looking like I had just stolen something. So, $22 later I have a decent black bag. I could have gone no frills for $10 but hey, I thought I might use that outside mesh end pocket someday for something, along with the other 724 pockets this thing has.

I was thinking about Need For Speed Hot Pursuit for Playstation II (I think this was NFS III, or maybe IV, who knows, there have been so many in that line of games now), and I realized something funny. When the police chase you, they like to get on the car’s loudspeaker and yell things, like “PULL OVER NOW” and “YOU ARE RISKING YOUR LIFE!!” And other little gems like “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???” and “THIS IS FEDERAL PROPERTY” (you get that one if you smash into the cop car). Why do I bring all this up? Well, because another thing they yell into the loudspeaker is “AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” when they wreck, which is really funny, because I don’t think a cop is going to hit something, spin out of control in a horrible wreck, and reach for the P.A. microphone to yell out a death throe.

I have become a Frosted Blueberry Poptart and Otis Spunkmeyer muffin addict. They only have two flavors of Poptarts at the chow hall, that one and unfrosted strawberry. I need that frosting, so I go for the blueberry. The Otis Spunkmeyer muffins have 4 flavors, I rank them as follows:

1) Chocolate – 5 stars
2) Apple Cinnamon – 4.5 stars
3) Blueberry – 4.5 stars
4) Banana Nut – 4 stars

I have 4 chocolate muffins and 6 (2) packs of blueberry frosted poptarts in my fridge now. They are awesome snacks for the convoys we go on, toss them under the middle console and whenever you need them just grab one, and hope your bastard co driver didn’t steal them when you weren’t looking!! : ) The chow halls have so much food, I hope none of you worry about my starving, because I worry about getting too damn fat!!!

I realized yesterday that I have had the same cologne now for 10 years. Escape by Calvin Klein, which is a great cologne, don’t get me wrong, but I’m in danger of becoming my uncle, who still uses the goofy Avon cologne that comes in odd glass containers shaped like a car or golf clubs, trapped in the early 1970’s. I’m going to have to remedy this by purchasing a new cologne when I get home, I’m sure belly will have input on what I buy. Another cologne I used to have, in fact my first real designer cologne, was Safari, but I don’t know if they even make that anymore.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, the military over here can get so much stuff, sometimes it just seems crazy. Under Armour (no, I’m not going to burn in a horrible flaming accident, so please don’t worry about that, I rarely ever wear the shit, I favor my old 75/25 cotton poly blend triple Xlarge sweater that I got 10 or more years ago under my uniform), gore tex boots, etc. The latest gear is a Gerber multi-tool and a Bench Made knife, both of which will be sitting in my make shift tool box, never used due to my amazing Leatherman that I have had for more than 10 years now. Hmm, looks like my 10 year old sweater and leatherman blow the doors off all the new shit : ) Oh well, at least I have backup new fangled gear if my old shit should ever fail.

Today marked my 16th anniversary of being in the military. I took a moment to ponder that earlier today in a letter to my father. I hated it, I mean HATED it, when I first joined, how odd it is that I’m closing in on my 20 years. I can’t imagine how awful this deployment would have been as an E-1 to an E-3, thank God for my rank heh heh. For a variety of reasons, starting with shit jobs I don’t have to do, and ending with the money I’m making of course.

I saw that belly did a paper on same sex marriages. I know I’d probably fail that paper because I would guess our views are different haha. I believe in the sanctity of marriage, that marriage by definition is between a man and a woman, because it involves the whole aspect, the natural union with the possibility of childbirth, something that is utterly impossible for obvious reasons between homosexuals. HOWEVER, I do not have a problem with civil unions. This is coming from someone who had a ‘kill them all’ sort of attitude in high school about gays, but after making some friends while doing telemarketing, I realized that they are good people, even if I don’t completely agree with their lifestyle, I shouldn’t sit in judgment of them.

I miss belly, a lot. We’ve never been away from one another this long. There was probably only one time since 1995 when we went this long without talking (even though the first 2 years or so was probably me just being a totally insane person she saw, galavanting around on a chat line like an insane kid with attention deficit disorder). That one time would have been 1997 when I didn’t have internet access *GASP* (I know, OH THE HORROR). I have dreams of being back in Omaha sometimes, just doing the normal routine, and I wake up smiling, then aching because it’s been more than a year since we had any sort of routine going. But I also know the experiences we are having now are amazing, and most people will never get to go thru what we are doing. I could look at it in an angry sense and really make myself miserable during my time here, or I can accept this, look at the whole situation as though I’m on an extended vacation, albeit with strings attached of course heh heh. I imagine that someday, we’ll sit around and tell our grandkids stories about ‘the days we were in the military’, just like grandparents do now. I believe the military builds character and perseverance, and many other good traits. I know one thing, the distance certainly makes the heart grow fonder. Baby I do miss you. I love you.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Somebody come and play
Somebody come and play today
Somebody come and smile the smiles
And sing the songs, it won't take long
Somebody come and play today

An old Sesame Street jingle from when I was a tiny person

Terrible Bath Towel!!

So, here we are again, in our second home in Iraq, whose name happens to be a synonyn with serpent, snake, python, well, you get the picture. We have honestly spent more time here than we have in Tallil since the beginning of the year. We got in just before the end of the first quarter, I think maybe around 3 in the morning. So a few of us headed over to the transient housing tv room and watched the game on the big screen television with about 20 other soldiers who were already present.

Anyways, there are a couple of Steeler fans in there and one of them happens to have this yellow towel he is waving around and hooting and hollering, which made me kind of chuckle. SPC Jansen started cheering for Seattle, not because he's a Seattle fan, but because Jansen seems to enjoy riling people up, just to be funny. And to be honest, it was quite funny watching him bitching and moaning, trying to be so serious, while Mr Terrible Towel yacked it up with him about seemingly every play, much to the faux mournful disposition of one SPC Jansen.

Of course I joined in with my usual assortment of odd comments and insanity. All of our guys laughed when I asked aloud about the possibility of purchasing a Terrible Bath Towel. Unfortunately Mr Terrible Towel didn't seem to get my humor he just turned with this questioning look on his face, but his buddy laughed, so at least I know I still have some ability to move the masses thru my outlandish behavior.

I am quite ashamed, as the self admitted rabied football fan that I am, to admit that I was unable to stay awake for the game and I had to go to bed. Of course, I can imagine belly is cackling about that one, knowing how I normally walk thru fire and eat broken glass just to watch a good football game. Not sure how good this one was, as I said before, our fake Seahawk's fan had a ball pretending to NOT enjoy the game, and he had ample opportunity to act out his frustration. All in all, it was pretty funny, something to giggle away about as I slipped off into oblivious sleep and dreams of San Diego and snuggling away with my girl.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Midnight the moons up, hands around your tin cup
The frost settles in on the sage
The night gettin' colder, well man you're gettin' older
Tonight you're feeling your age

Ridin' For A Fall - Chris Ledoux

The Husker Experience

There is a particular phenomenon that Nebraskans have accepted as part of their everyday lives, an experience that most do not understand, and trying to explain it is difficult, but I will do my best. What I am talking about of course, is Nebraska football.

A friend once told me that even Forrest Gump talked of the mighty Big Red, “we was playin them cornshucker bastids from Nebraska”, a testament to how much Alabama fans hated the Huskers. This was a sentiment held dear by many football faithful who liked any team OTHER than the Huskers. I’m quite certain that belly didn’t know what she was in for when we began dating, how Saturdays each fall are set aside for several hours of hooting and hollering, jumping around, nail biting, and high fiving. It’s a time for reverting back to your caveman roots, and she seems to accept it now, albeit with a funny grin and shake of the head. But I don’t know if she really understand the true influence of Nebraska football.

Nebraska football has enjoyed 35 years of success unlike any other time period in the history of major sports. By major sports I mean the money making sports, NFL and NCAA football, NBA and NCAA basketball, Major League Baseball, Hockey, and even NASCAR. Nebraska has had the best winning percentage over the past 35 years of any team in these sports, and 5 national titles, along with an astonishing 109 wins, 16 losses, and 1 tie in the 1990’s, for an 86.9% winning percentage with 3 national titles during that decade. In the argument about who has the best team of all time, Nebraska consistently fields 3 to 4 teams in the top 10, along with the most widely recognized team for the top spot, the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers.

It’s hard for someone outside of Nebraska to understand the tenacious love we have for our team, the undying loyalty to the crimson and cream. They fail to understand how a big win can solidify our faith that all is right with the world, how a loss is a devastating blow that crumbles the very foundations of the earth. Nebraska has no pro sports franchises. Nebraska basketball is mediocre at best, and many times you can find the people who are at those games or watching them at home using the time as a forum to get together and discuss football games from the past year, or to discuss current recruiting for the season coming up.

Sure, the Husker baseball team has been doing well, but hey, that’s only for a few years now, and look around at any baseball game and you’ll see as many Husker football jerseys as you see baseball ones. It’s not meant as an insult to the baseball players. That’s just how things work in this region. You have Nebraska football, then you have, well, everything else.

If you are in your 20’s and 30’s and have lived your whole life Nebraska, you don’t remember becoming a Nebraska Cornhusker fan, because there was never a time when you were NOT one. As sure as you were born with 10 toes and 10 fingers, you were born with the Big Red “N” stamped into your heart. Growing up in this blanket of red, you become accustomed to Nebraska football and the winning that goes with it. On the day I was born, Nebraska was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the number one team in the land. I didn’t nearly so much become a Husker fan as much as I reverse inherited my way into it.

Of course I do not remember this, but it should demonstrate the atmosphere that I and a million or more other Nebraska children grew up in. Some of my earliest memories are of my dad and his cousins, sitting around the television at the farm, watching Nebraska play Oklahoma. This by no mere coincidence was also where I likely had my first taste of the more “colorful” elements of the English language, as pillows were beaten, desperate prayers were said aloud, and all with the hope that “we” could beat those lousy Sooners.

Referring to the team as “us”, and how “we” were playing, is commonly heard throughout the state. No, we aren’t sitting in the locker room, we aren’t out there on the playing field, no we are not on the team. But “we” are all in this together, win or lose, how “we” play can dictate how the next week goes at work, or how the talk over the 7 months of the off season is directed.

Game days were as religiously followed as going to church itself, maybe even more so than that. The meat, charcoal, chips, and beer are purchased in preparation. Phone calls are made, “where are you watching the game this weekend??”, and whenever you had a chance to secure tickets to the game itself, you did whatever you could to join 80,000 other Husker faithful in the Sea of Red at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. If you could, you’d buy tickets to some of the away games too, and make sure that Lawrence, Manhattan, Boulder, Ames, and other college towns were painted red for just one day, so that they would know who they were dealing with.

If you had to work, well you damn sure had the game on the radio so you would never miss a play. Regardless of where you were in the world, you seemed to always be joined by other Husker faithful, surrounding that radio, Husker gear out and worn in full gala, to listen to Nebraska lay a whipping down on another opponent. You wore that “N” with the utmost pride, supporting your team with gusto.

Winning in Nebraska was expected, it always happened. Yeah, you had Oklahoma and more often than not, the game with them was a life altering tragedy, at least for a few days following. Sure there were plenty of *@(*#’ing bowl games that didn’t go according to plan, but those were always the last two games of the season, and you could deal with that, as painful still as it was. The rest of the year, however, wasn’t about if Nebraska would beat someone, it was about how badly the Huskers were going to crush their opponent.

Ending the year with a loss, even two, was never the end of the world. Oh, sure, it stung like hell, it hurt, but you knew that next year, oh yah, next year, we’d be right back in it again, going into the Oklahoma game undefeated, with another chance at a national title on the line (Nebraska v.s. Oklahoma was the final game of the season for both teams for many years). “Next year, we are gonna win it all!!” And you never knew anything else, you could basically deal with failure in every other area of your life, because the Huskers were always going to catch you when you’d fall.

You could easily measure everything else in your life by Nebraska football, it was the gold standard, there was nothing else remotely like it. Crappy week at work? Bad morning fishing or hunting? Girlfriend dump you? Hey man, don’t worry about it, you always had the huskers to fall back on. Forget about your worries and watch the Big Red destroy Missouri for the 25th year in a row. No need to feel down, the Huskers just put 48 points on the board against Iowa State… in the first half!!

The 1990’s were the pinnacle of this time period. Championships were won, expectations were fulfilled. The world was right, nothing could go wrong. Then, suddenly, Dec. 10, 1997, Tom Osborne holds a press conference to announce his retirement following the end of the season. This was as close to a 9.9 magnitude earthquake as Nebraska has ever known. I was shaken, born in 1972, to me, Tom Osborne WAS Nebraska football, he embodied everything that being a Husker was, he was the only person that I had ever known as the coach, and this was the first crack in the previously unshakable foundation I knew as Husker football.

Oh, the team did reasonably well for a few years, things still seemed okay. Nebraska even played for a national title again in 2002, and we lost, but there was next year right? No, the next fall the world came crumbling down. Loss after heartbreaking loss, and suddenly for the first time in my life, my beloved Huskers were mortal, average at best, going 7-6 in the regular season and losing the bowl game to finish even at 7-7. You couldn’t count on a win religiously every Saturday any longer, and it was devastating to behold. That rock, that immovable force, that “sure thing” by which all else could be measured, it was completely gone, and gone with it the innocent faith in the world you’d become so accustomed to. For the first time, next season wasn’t about getting to another national title game, it was fear, fear of the unknown, fear of another horrible season.

After another year, a new coach, and on the surface, more realistic expectations. Teams throughout football are more evenly matched than ever, you can’t just expect huge wins over every team you play. But underneath it all, deep inside, there is still that innocent 15 year old boy, who still holds dear that Husker tradition as the foundation of his life, still bleeding red to support his team, still waiting for that next big win, that next shot at the national title. It is this that defines the Husker faithful, that builds the undying loyalty that, despite what any fans of any other team may claim, brings the Big Red faithful together as the best fans of any team on the face of the earth.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

The sky is falling on this setting sun
Echoes of silence ringing loud and long
This isolation is the king of pain
A lost horizon in an ocean of flames

Desert Song - Def Leppard

And The White Line's Getting Longer, And This Saddle's Getting Cold

So, I think I have been at the place we are deployed to for a total of about 3 days this year thus far, other than that we are continually on the road, picking up everything from junk to concrete barriers to HUMVEEs. I don't think there has ever been another time in my life where I have so completely lost track of what day it is or even what TIME of the day it is, other than if the sun is out or not.

I have fielded a variety of questions about one particular thing lately in my email and from other people I know, basically revolving around "How are you able to do what you guys do, I would be so scared!!!" Well, I suppose you could dwell on that, but honestly, you have the risk of wrecking your car every time you go out the door and get inside to go for a drive to the grocery store, but do you think about it all the time? No. On my first convoy I was scared shitless, I was staring at the road all day, then that night I was still staring into the ditches, at every bump alongside the road, in every crater, pothole, up at ever overpass, until I was about losing my mind.

The next day I revamped my thoughts about that, what good does it do? There is so much junk alongside the roads here that you really can't keep track of what is or is not a bomb or just random shit laying out there, so to stare at every pile of junk, dirt clod, etc, while flying down the road, is pointless. Honestly, most of the people being killed by roadside bombs these days are those people who get out of their vehicles and do stupid shit and stand on the shoulder without checking to see if there is anything suspicious out there. I try to not even get out of my truck.

The other nice thing is that our semi trucks sit high off the ground and are very well armored. If you wear all of your armor in combination with that, you are well protected. I just want everyone to know that things, while dangerous at times, are not something to dwell on constantly, or it will drive you bonkers.

Now, about other things. Baghdad is interesting. We drove thru it late at night, and talk about crazy, the area we went through was cluttered on either side with a plethora of roadside stands, junk EVERYWHERE, and 5 story buildings on both sides. It's eerie because in a city of 6 million or so, there was NOTHING going on, for good reason I am sure, at night is when the insurgency is at it's most active, so a lot of the Iraqi people try to avoid these murdering foreigners who call themselves 'freedom fighters' by staying off the streets at night.

Chow halls are pretty much the same everywhere we go. And they aren't all that bad. I think Baskin Robbins probably makes a killing over here, and that's fine with me, I love Cookies N Cream ice cream haha. Anyways, that's about all I have to say at this time. I hope you are all doing well, I have a lot of posts ready to be typed up but they are out in the truck and it's pouring rain right now so I'll wait till I get back to Tallil to actually type them up!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

This ol' highway's getting longer
Seems there ain't no end in sight
To sleep would be best, but I just can't afford to rest
I've got to ride in Denver tomorrow night

Much Too Young - Garth Brooks

Fun Facts About Chuck!!

I found a fun little website, here are some facts about Chuck Norris:

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies
the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.

Chuck Norris is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with ancestry, the man ate a fucking Indian.

There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard. There is only another fist.

Most people have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Chuck Norris has 72... and they're all poisonous.

Chuck Norris drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls.

Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.

If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.

Chuck Norris invented cancer because he was tired of killing people

Chuck Norris has two speeds: Walk and Kill.

Chuck Norris is not hung like a horse... horses are hung like Chuck Norris.

In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.

Chuck Norris once challenged Lance Armstrong to a "who has more testicles?" contest. He won by 5

Chuck Norris does not teabag the ladies. He potato-sacks them.

Chuck Norris once ate a whole cake before his friends could tell him there was a stripper in it.

Chuck Norris invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink.

Chuck Norris played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.

Once you go Norris, you are physically unable to go back.

Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.

Want more? Go now to The Chuck Norris Fact Website, but please, please, do not fuck with Chuck!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Never forget the blood sweat and tears
The uphill struggle over years the fear and
Trash talking and the people it was to
And the people that started it just like you

Nobody's Listening - Linkin Park

You Get What You Give!!!

So, lets see, a village invites Al-Qaeda terrorists in for a celebration and they get bombed? And we are supposed to feel sorry for them, because women and children were killed? Well, I'll tell you this much, if you invite people like that into your home while they are basically waging war on other innocent civilians, you can shut the fuck up about an apology, you got what you deserved. Oh, lets see, did this bomb maker and others ever kill women and children, in fact TARGETING anyone they could, regardless of who they were going to kill? Hmm, lets see... YES, they most certainly did. So isn't it a real stretch to expect anyone to have sympathy when they invite these pieces of shit into their village and MAKE themselves a target?? They got what they deserved.

In other news, I'm in my second home again. I'm starting to know Anaconda better than Tallil haha.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I have no clue, once again the local nationals running the computer labs here have me at a loss, this time it's hit music from the 90's, love songs, but they are sung by someone else.

CRAP - WHO CARES

The Movie Groundhog Day, IN HELL!!

Okay, so I've been stuck in Anac(X)nda Iraq now for like more than a week. Let me tell you about the typical day here... We wake up at about noon (because we drive at night of course), then eat, maybe walk around in the pathetic horribly inadequate PX for a while in the afternoon, or use the computers, if by some act of God they aren't shut down for a blackout, then be sure to be on the bus that can take up to two hours to get you back to the other side of post to get ready to go sit in the trucks for 5 hours to find out that we can't leave the base again, go to bed at 6 in the morning when we finally get rooms again, get up at noon and start all over again!! Oh, Bill Murray didn't know how good HE actually had it!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

MORE shit by Bryan Adams, not even worth mentioning, it's SHIT! STUPID MWR GREATEST HITS CD!!

MORE SHIT - Bryan Adams

*(@&(!ING EXPRESSO!!!

So, it appears that someone tried to bomb Starbucks in San Fransisco today. I guess someone finally realized they were paying far too much for dirtwater and they decided to get even. Oh, don't even argue with me on this one, people. 7 dollars for a glass of filthy sweet smelling dirt water? It's not worth it, it's an overpriced example of capitalistic madness!! BOUT TIME SOMEONE BOMBED THOSE ECONOMIC GLUTONOUS PIGS!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Some shit by Bryan Adams, not even worth mentioning, it's SHIT!

Shit - Bryan Adams

Some Of The Best Things In Life Are Total Mistakes

As I look back at the last year, it’s amazing where I am in comparison to where I was one year ago today. One year ago today I was single, living in a nice little quaint apartment in Omaha with my girlfriend, getting ready for belly to leave for Marine boot camp. Oh what a difference 365 days makes. Today here I am in Iraq, belly is now a marine stationed in California of all places, and it will likely be another year before we are actually back living a normal life together.

A year ago right now I thought I could remain friends with someone I had once wronged, but unfortunately that was not to be. That’s where this phrase comes into play. Some of the best things in life are total mistakes. I hold regret over how I acted at one time in my life, but I had to come to the realization that there are only so many times that one may apologize for something, to go beyond that is to compromise becoming a better person.

During this year I realized I needed to dedicate myself to belly, not so much to spite anyone else, but because it was time to move on. I came to realize I was holding onto someone from the past and not recognizing her for who she was now and that wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair to myself, it wasn’t fair to belly, and it certainly wasn’t fair to my former significant other. So that being said, she seems to be really happy now, which is good. It was hard to let go of the idea of being friends, but that wasn’t meant to be. Some of the best things in life, well, they most certainly are mistakes. But it’s better to remember what was good.

A year ago right now I was feeling really irritated with myself for not having put more planning into getting an engagement ring, and missing out on asking belly to marry me 2 years to the day we first spent Christmas together. Note to any guy looking to get married: buying a ring is not an impulse buy, and honestly, you better let your prospective fiancé do the picking, unless you know a hell of a lot more about diamonds than I did.

We were married in July, more than a full year earlier than we expected, and with that the preparation to head over to a country as literally foreign to me in geography as in culture. What I have learned is how diverse and proud a people the Iraqis truly are. I have learned a lot more than that, and I continue to educate myself with each day. For this next year, I look forward to taking care of myself and my troops, continuing to improve myself both mentally and physically, and holding onto that day when I finally get to hold my baby in my arms again. I’ll get that chance for a couple of weeks in April, but I’m talking about really being home, regardless of where that may be. I really don’t care where we are at, as long as I have belly with me, it’s home, and that’s how it should be.

New years resolutions: Take better care of my body (eat better, exercise more), I’m not fat mind you, but I want to be a leaner meaner me. And quit swearing so much, I don’t fucking swear all the god damn time, but shit, I do enough : )

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Through all the happiness and sorrow,
I guess i'd do it all again.
Live for today and not tomorrow,
it's still the road that never ends.

Road To Nowhere – Ozzy Osbourne

Flag Detail!!!

I can't believe this, but I guess belly is going to be hanging around under a colorful sheet with like 80 other people, mostly guys, frolicking around. THIS MAKES ME VERY ANGRY!!! HOW COULD SHE DO THIS?? ON LIVE TELEVISION EVEN!!!

HAH!! Okay, actually, 80 Marines, including my sweety, are going to be carrying a giant American flag during halftime of the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. She told me she was going to carry the flag at halftime and of course, I thought she meant a regular flag and I was all excited and told my friends and family to watch, but now I don't know if anyone will even see her haha.

Oh well, I'm just excited that she's going to be there doing something so unique and fun. However, if anyone tries anything under that big sheet, her hand to hand combat better kick in!!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I just want some one to say to me
I'll always be there when you wake
Ya know I'd like to keep my cheeks dry today
So stay with me and I'll have it made

No Rain - Blind Melon

Journey To Iraq

Our journey to Iraq began as we flew out of a small airport on a 767 jet. Now, coach seating is rather tight, but just imagine adding to that a laptop bag, regular carry on bag, ballistic armor vest, and your weapon. Yes, that’s right, sitting on a commercial airliner, with regular stewardesses and flight crew, with your M-16 rifle right there beside you as you sit in your seat. Now, it was all our unit on board for the first part of the flight, so about 170 of us soldiers. Our first stop was New York City, and as we flew in the pilot banked the plane so we could see the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and New York in general. For me it was really cool, because I’ve never been to New York (not that I ever really want to go there, maybe to visit, but even that I’m reluctant to do.) I called my wife upon landing, not knowing how often I would be able to call over the next few weeks.

Upon landing, we were instructed to stay in the terminal for the entire duration of our stay. It was rather humorous, because they strung out those ribbon movie-style barricades as a boundary right at the entrance to our gate, so that no one unauthorized could come in, and so we wouldn’t leave. So basically, it was like being animals in a zoo, with people in the airport walking by, taking pictures, some stopping to tell us thank you, others completely ignorant asking really stupid questions “What happened, why are you here???” as though there would never be a group of soldiers waiting at one of the world’s largest airports for their next flight.

After about two hours we were back on the flight. We picked up about 15 or so other soldiers heading back to the middle east after being on leave. They played several movies while we were on board the flight. Batman Begins, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, some really bad Herbie movie with that moron Lindsey Lohan, and Fantastic Four were the ones I was actually awake for at least part of. One odd thing about this flight, was that they served us meals like every 2 hours. Of course, I freaking kept falling asleep thru just about all of them, that was rather irritating, I’d wake up just in time for ice cream though, oh yum!!!

Now, it was difficult to keep track of just exactly how long we were in the air, or how long each part of the flight took, because we were losing time as we traveled along over the ocean overnight. I kept my watch on central standard time, if for no other reason than to keep track of how long it had been. I laughed at the people who were changing their watch time with every stop, because that seemed completely pointless. We landed in Germany at roughly 0900 in the morning, in Frankfurt. I hadn’t thought much about it while I was there, but it was the first time I’d ever stepped foot in Europe, and there I was in the land of my ancestors. There wasn’t much to see. They had security all over, and we were stuck in this place called a USO club, where we could eat crappy German cookies and buy phone cards to call home. Of course, I did call belly again, to let her know where I was at. After an hour or so, we were back on the plane and heading south over Africa.

On this portion of the flight I did the majority of my sleeping. It was a very long and boring part of the trip. If you looked out the window, you could see the desert, even from 35,000 feet, the long curves of the sand dunes, the occasional cities packed in tight next to any water supply you could find. We headed east then and crossed over Egypt and the Nile River, then over the Red Sea, and finally we made it to Kuwait and Kuwait City, our destination. The total flight time was about 22 hours.

We landed in Kuwait City at about 2200 local time. I was amazed at the traffic on the streets as we came in for our landing, you could see people driving around just as if you were landing in Chicago or Dallas or any other American City. I guess I didn’t know what to exactly expect, so to me that was interesting. We all boarded buses, windows completely covered up, and headed off to the northern part of Kuwait. Once we were out on the roads, you began to realize that Kuwait has some of THE worst drivers you have ever seen. They swerve in and out of traffic at probably 90 miles an hour, and every single vehicle is an SUV. Someone told us at one of our briefings that, because Kuwait is such a rich country, that when a vehicle breaks down, they don’t even bother calling a tow truck for a repair, a truck brings them out a new vehicle and they just drive off in that, leaving the disabled vehicle by the side of the road. I figured this had to be just bull, but there were sure a lot of Land Rovers and Toyota SUV’s all over on the side of the road, some really nice ones too.

When we arrived at the camp, we had to get ‘logged into’ the country, meaning we swiped our ID cards so they could verify each soldier had arrived. It was there that we realized we had gotten very lucky. The way that military pay works, it was the 31st of October, and regardless of when you get to your deployment site overseas, you get paid the hazard duty pay and other extra pay for that entire month, so even though it was like 2300 at night on the 31st when we swiped our cards, we got all the extra money from October. That was a pretty nice unexpected bonus. Then we had about 2 hours of safety briefings before we headed off in our buses to find our tents.

The tents we moved into were giant white 40 person tents. We had to squeeze like 50 people or more into them though. We all set up the standard military green cots and, because it was about 3 in the morning by this time, and because we were all jet lagged, most everyone crashed pretty hard. The next day most of us weren’t up till about 2 or 3 p.m. The tents had no windows and were pitch black inside, so stepping outside into the bright 95 degree sun, with the sand reflecting it back at you, was not very pleasant. Even with sunglasses on, it was very uncomfortable on your eyes, to the point were tears would stream down your face. Without sunglasses you were basically blind.

Two things basically describe what you most notice about the camp in Kuwait: constant sand and the smell of diesel fumes from the generators. That is the most memorable thing about that place. That first day many of us went exploring, found the MWR tent with the phones and computers, there was a Pizza Inn (pizza exactly like Pizza Hut), a Taco Bell, Subway (not very good), a coffee shop (with great chai tea), a horrible, and I do mean HORRIBLE Chinese take out place (this place makes La Choy Chow Mein in a can seem gourmet by comparison). That first 5 days or so, we basically didn’t have a lot to do, so people either stayed in the tents and watched movies on their laptops, played cards, or tossed around horse shoes. Late at night was the best time to try and use the MWR phones or computers, but the camp was overloaded with like 5000 more troops than would normally be there, so you had to wait sometimes in excess of TWO hours to use the facilities.

After that initial period of resting and getting used to the time change, we had a 3 day training period out in the dessert. We received refresher training in advanced weapons marksmanship, and also the most up to date convoy training responding to the tactics employed by insurgents in Iraq right now. It was very good training, much better than anything we received in our more than 3 months worth of time we spent in states.

It was during this time that a lot of people started to get sick, myself included. That last couple days of training we had it was getting really bad, my sinuses and upper chest were totally stuffed up. I ended up having to get like 4 prescriptions to try and knock the infection out. A lot of other soldiers were dealing with colds and sore throats and the like. It was not very fun because we all lived in such close proximity to one another in those tents, that if one person got it, most everyone also got sick.

Finally, after 10 days or so that seemed to last forever, we got word that we were going to be flying to our next destination, a place in southern Iraq. I had never heard of it, but then, most of us didn’t know much of anything about the places in Iraq, so this was all new regardless. We loaded up on C-130 planes and flew out of Kuwait, on our way north. I have never been on a military aircraft before, so this was a new experience for me. I didn’t ever feel nauseated, but woah did my ears suffer greatly due to the wild combat style landing that pilots are required to make inside Iraq. Basically they fly in and suddenly just drop, to the point of zero gravity inside the plane, and your ears are freaking popping and stinging. Due to this, it made my sinus infection even worse, and my ears weren’t right for a long time, I still am not sure it’s all cleared up.

The first thing you notice upon arrival where we are staying in Iraq, are the numerous HUGE bunkers all over the place. They were built for a variety of reasons. The largest of course used to house the Iraqi fighter planes and small bombers, protecting them from the Iranians during the Iraq/Iran war that raged on from 1980 till 1990. Of course, the U.S. smart bombed the crap out of them to take out the planes during the first gulf war. Also, according to one Iraqi engineer named Ali (I’ll tell you more about him later) the American’s had such good intelligence just before the first gulf war, that when the U.S. Air Force dropped a smart bomb on a building known as Building 1, they killed every more than 50 fighter pilots who were all in a meeting, basically rendering Iraq’s fighters completely useless (not that the old MIG Soviet fighters would have been much of a match anyway, but oh well).

Smart bombs are precision guided weapons that are guided in thru the use of cameras and penetrate many levels of concrete and other materials to explode in the center of whatever building or object you are trying to hit. Oddly enough, they did very little damage to the structure of most of the buildings they hit. Some however, are absolutely decimated, even to this day. The smaller bunkers are those for command centers and storage areas. We have explored a few of them and they are really interesting, sometimes a little scary. It’s hard to describe the size of them, they are absolutely huge. I’ll have to send a few photos out sometime, or just email me and ask me for some.

The camp itself is really really flat. There are no hills. When we first arrived, we had to live in tents in a place appropriately called Tent City for almost a freaking month, which sucked. They are supposed to be 18 person tents and we had like 25 people in each one. Of course, it was hard to get over a nasty cold when you are living with that many people in such a small area.

We all started getting into our duties, mostly what they call ‘details’, which are daily duties that have to be done around the base. Some are security related, some are construction related, most really are not fun. We were responsible for escorting Iraqi workers to their job sites and keeping track of them all day. As the NCOIC (non commissioned officer in charge) of the detail, I got to have my own HUMVEE, it wasn’t too bad a gig at all.

While we were living in the tents, as other units were leaving for home, a lot of us were purchasing refrigerators, televisions, desks, microwaves, etc, for pretty decent prices. The problem was, where to store all the stuff we were buying. Our tents started to look like we were all freaking packrats, but there wasn’t much else we could do, they kept changing the date when we could move into our trailers. When we finally got into our trailers, it was pretty nice. The trailers are like miniature dorm rooms, there are three rooms per trailer, each with it’s own door to the outside. There is an air conditioner/heater dual unit for climate control, and cable television (but wow the armed forces network can suck sometimes, they do have two movie channels though where all they do is put DVDs in and play them).

I purchased a giant desk with shelves, a headboard with shelves, a television, a refrigerator, a microwave, and a few other items. Along with them, I found a nice set of dresser drawers, an iron, a new set of sheets (unopened) and other really great items, stuff I would have probably never thought of, but that I would have likely had to buy. Rugs, hand sanitizer, singles of Wet Wipes (wow are those ever useful), permanent markers, lamps, folding chairs, 100 MPH tape, so much stuff, can’t even list it all. Basically, it was nice not having to go to the Post Exchange to buy much of anything.

They have a place called the MWR, which I believe stands for Military Wellness and Recreation or something like that. They have phones and internet computers there (if you like to wait in line for oh an hour or so haha), two television rooms, one for movies the other for usually live sports from the united states, two pool tables, foozball, several televisions with game systems like Xbox, PSII, and Nintendo hooked up to them. And there is a library. They have volleyball, horseshoes, basketball, and other activities outside of the MWR building also. The chow hall here is amazing. They have all sorts of food here, good food. I was all stoked about being able to avoid eating all that much while I was here and being able to stay in really good shape. But alas, the food is VERY good, the best chow hall I’ve ever been in, even better than the one I visited with my wife in Pensacola. I am not getting fat but I’m not getting myself into the best of shape either, let’s just say I’m hovering at around 190 lbs haha.

It’s interesting here how out of 170 or so soldiers, I’d say about 130 of us have laptops. Add to that people like me who have all this other stuff they either bought here or brought with them, and it’s unreal how we are such an electronic military now. I have the playstation II here (I play Need For Speed Underground II all the time, I just beat it last night) and my boombox with MP3 inputs and outputs for playing music from my laptop. We just recently got the internet hooked up, which is really good for me because on top of my other jobs, I’m responsible for the company newsletter and I’m unit historian for keeping track of what happens here so it can all be archived into a yearbook of some sort when we get back.

The unit we replaced was from California, and they were really messed up, I can think of some other words I would use to describe them but I’ll keep it clean here. Being a transportation unit, we have a LOT of trucks, 100+ trucks to keep track of. When we ‘inherited’ them from this other unit, probably 90% of them were completely unusable, and their maintenance department pretty much admitted that all they did for the entire year was replace tires, that is IT. They didn’t change oil, they didn’t fix problems like leaks or any of the little things that go wrong. Because the little things went unchecked, most turned into BIG things, things our company has had to spend a TON of time on to repair, because without our trucks we are basically battle ineffective.

Our unit has been getting a really great reputation over here so far. We have always done that though, not to toot our own horn but we aren’t the typical Army National Guard unit, we have great leadership and sergeants in our unit. We are still escorting Iraqi workers even now, and we’ve gotten a lot of praise for that part of what we are doing. It’s not all that hard, we meet a lot of really great Iraqi people when we escort them. One is Ali, who used to work for the number 2 man in Iraq, Saddam’s son in law. We hear the most amazing stories about what Saddam used to do, and regardless of what the media says, it was way way way worse under Saddam than it is now, yet the media just loves to talk about how BAD it is here. Trust me, it’s not that bad.

Ali is an engineer and arguably the most intelligent person on this post, American or not. He does not live here, he is in charge of projects that are being done, like building renovations, street paving, and motor pool paving (the motor pool is what we call our maintenance yards). I am learning a lot of Arabic working with him, and a LOT of history about Iraq. It’s hard for a lot of Americans to fully appreciate just how amazing the Iraqi history is. The United States has been around for about 230 years, and has been recognized as a world power for about 50 years of that. Iraq has had several civilizations throughout history that were world powers, from Ur some 5000 years ago, to the Babylonians, to the Sumerians, and others. The Garden Of Eden is rumored to have been just to the north in an area called the fertile crescent, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Even many of those who do not believe the Garden of Eden existed believe that man first walked the earth in the fertile crescent area.

Ali filled me in on the Temple of Ur, which I’ve visited a couple of times. Ur is an ancient civilization, many say the oldest civilization known to man. Ur was a port at one time, but that changed over the years as silt from the two rivers built up and pushed the Persian Gulf further away, until the point when Ur was no longer a useable port and basically faded away. It went thru three separate phases of existence, from 5000+ years ago, to 3000 years or so ago. Today there is very little left, there is no modern Ur. All that is left are remnants of the city on the hill. The temple itself is the oldest building of such size in the world, called a ziggurat, the Arabic word for ‘temple’. At one time it was three stories high, but now has weathered away to just one story, because the clay bricks were never fired in a kiln. Even at one story though, the temple is very impressive.

But most impressive to me about Ur, is the House of Abraham. Abraham is a central figure in all monotheistic religions (those religions who believe in one God). Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other religions all recognize Abraham as at least a prophet of God. The House of Abraham is where Abraham lived his life, and is located to the south of the Temple of Ur. The walls of the house have been rebuilt, because much like the temple, the bricks weathered away over thousands of years. But the floor itself is still intact with the same stones that Abraham himself walked upon so long ago. Walking around on that floor, in the same space that Abraham lived, was really moving to me. I have taken a lot of photos of Ur.

The Iraqis also have these little marts around where they sell stuff. A lot of what they sell would be best termed as ‘boot leg’, such as the dvd’s for 4 dollars, Rolex watches for 25 bucks, etc. None of them are the real thing, but there is little infrastructure in place in the Iraqi government yet to stop it. The US military at first didn’t allow it, but the Iraqi’s would set up their shops outside of the main gate, and soldiers would stop even though they were told not to, so finally for our safety, they were allowed to move the shops into an area just outside the inner gate, where they make a good amount of money selling their wares. If a movie comes out in the theater in the United States, within about 5 days it appears on DVD in Iraq, honest to God filmed IN the theater with a camcorder. It sounds hilarious, but the fact is, we can’t ever see brand new movies here so many of us will buy that crappy DVD for 4 bucks just to watch it.

So far we are really doing well, as you can see. I feel bad because I haven’t had the opportunity to really tell you all how things have been, I hope this gets you all up to date. This is a relatively safe place, but we are still in Iraq, so you always have to remain vigilant to what is going on around you. It is never 100% safe here, but when we all do our jobs no one should get hurt.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

So You will know the truth, too!
I'm not a comfortable liar,
Because my heart is on fire,
So others will not burn in the lake of fire.

Comfortable Liar - Chevelle

Went To A Concerto

So, last night at 1900 they had a concert here at the pavillion just outside of the Taco Bell. Now, I only know of one song that Drowning Pool sings, the "Let the Bodies Hit The Floor" song (which, I realized after putting up as my Ramblings yesterday, may not be the most appropriate due to my current circumstances). They also sing a couple of other songs I'd heard of. I realized though, that I'm really out of the loop when it comes to new good hard rock, due to the complete abscence of such stations now in Omaha. I have seen that there is a "World Satellite Radio" or something like that, that you can get here, I may look into that.

Anyways, back to the concert. The lead singer, who looks exactly like the lead singer from Lynard Skynard, mentioned about midway through the concert that this was only the second night he'd ever performed completely sober, the other being the night before for another show (Muslim law prohibits alcohol use, supposedly, so we try and honor that). The other band members also grumbled about that, which got a rousing cheer from the crowd, who I'm sure could have all used a shot or two of something a little harder than the O'Douls non alcoholic brew that is the closest thing to beer you'll find here (YUCK!!).

The band was really really good though, probably a testemant to NOT drinking or being all dicked up on drugs. God knows I've been to several concerts where that was NOT at all the case (Spin Doctors being the worst I've ever seen, don't even ask me why I went, it was a free college show haha).

The one thing I didn't much care for was the cigarette smoke, but then, if I'm at a concert I've basically entered a smoker's world so to speak, sort of like a few other areas that smokers consider hallowed ground; bars, concerts, their own vehicles, a couple other places. Of course, anyone that knows me knows my viewpoint on smoking, it being about the stupidest habit anyone can pick up because it's like slowly killing yourself.

Bah, getting away from what the topic of the post here. The concert was really good, I ended up getting to bed last night after a little PT and a shower, at about 10:30 pm or so, still getting my body adjusted to the time schedule here, waking up about every hour or so. Today we start actual training at about 1300, I'm actually looking forward to it, to be honest, something to do that actually involves our mission, after a couple of days to acclimate.

Well, time to go sit in line for the DSN telephones haha.

Random Lyrical Ramblings

She said she won't speak of love
Because love she's never known
She said it's moments like these
She hates to be alone

She Said - Collective Soul

Arrival

The flight over was so long, but to be honest, it wasn’t all that bad. They had several movies for us. That’s good, because 22 hours on a plane and you can start to lose your mind if you have nothing to focus your thoughts on other than the back of the seat right in front of you. Mr and Mrs Smith, The Fantastic 4, Batman Begins, and some awful Herbie movie with Lindsay Lohan in it. I slept through a little bit of each move except Fantastic 4, and slept through all of Herbie. I’m certain I didn’t miss much.

When we got into New York, we had a 2 hour layover at JFK International, so we all hung out inside of the terminal, but we weren’t allowed to leave the gate we were at. It was sort of funny, we were like zoo animals behind one of those belted gates like you see at the movie theater. People would walk over and ask us who we were, where we are going, etc, most of which we can’t really answer other than vaguely. After that it was an 8 hour flight from New York to Frankfurt, Germany. We spent about an hour off the plane there, hanging out at the USO building. I didn’t really think about it at the time, but there I was in the land of my forefather’s. We were back on the plane then.

The food on the plane was pretty good. I’d say they were serving a meal about every 2 hours, at least, it seemed like that fast. I actually slept through the last 2 meal, which had me feeling pretty hungry, but thankfully they did bring out ice cream bars from time to time, good ones, those Haagan Daas or however that is spelled. It’s hard to believe I slept as much as I did, it was so uncomfortable, every seat had a bag or two underneath, some spilling into the hallways.

Over northern Africa we went, then east into Kuwait. I was surprised at just how busy and lit up Kuwait really is, it’s a truly modern country. Even at 10 at night, there were thousands of cars all over the streets. We went in a convoy for a little trip to the base we are at now, had a couple of briefings, a late night chow, then off to bed for some, others of us walked all over the place, just checking things out. Surprisingly, some of the facilities are open for 24 hours a day. That comes in pretty convenient. I went back to our tent after breakfast to catch a little sleep that morning.

There is one set of lights in the tent. Either the lights are on or they are off. At about one in the afternoon, one SSG decides he wants to turn on the damn lights, and he wouldn’t turn them off, that got everyone pretty irritated. Oh well, we are only going to be here for about 10 days, so this shouldn’t be a big issue. With the lights off, it’s pitch black, if you walk outside from inside the tent after sleeping, without sunglasses, it’s like staring right at the sun. My eyes were watering, even with my eyes shut it was blinding thru my eyelids. After about 5 minutes of having my hands shielding my eyes as tears ran down my face, I was finally able to open my eyes enough while standing in the shade to see where I was at. Needless to say, I went back into the tent to get my sunglasses after that.

If you walk inside from outside, and you don’t have a flashlight, you are going to be one blinded son of a bitch. You can’t see shit, even with a flashlight it’s tough for about the first 30 seconds, as you stumble around feeling your way to your bunk. We have no shelves or dressers or lockers to put our shit into right now, so we are living out of our bags, which really blows. It leaves your entire area a real mess.

Outside of the tents, when you walk around the base, there’s a constant smell of dusty air and diesel fumes. The dusty air is obviously because of the sandy environment, a lack of moisture means that any wind stirs up the fine, gritty sand into a cloud of dirty air. The smell of diesel fumes comes from the countless generators, that are located outside of every building, to run the electricity for the air conditioning, lights, personal electronics, etc.

So far I’ve seen a Pizza Hut, Burger King, Taco Bell, Baskin Robbins, some goofy coffee shop, a Chinese food place, among other places to eat. The PX is sort of a joke, but what do you expect when you are 12000 miles from CONUS? The line to get out of the PX was about 30 people long, seems like that’s a typical expectation when you are trying to do just about anything here, you are going to end up waiting for quite a while.

The uniforms here are about an even mix of the older desert BDU’s and the newer digital camouflage uniforms. I was pretty surprised about that, I figured there would be a lot fewer DCU’s than there were. I still wonder if we are going to end up wearing them at some point, as in, we all get them here, but I’m not too concerned about it, if anything I would rather stick with the old uniforms because I’m not too keen on having another thing to learn about while I’m here, there is plenty to worry about without having to deal with something as pointless as how to wear a new uniform.

Thus far, the weather is around 95 at it’s highest during the day, drops to about 65 at night. That 65 degrees actually feels quite cool, really too cool for me at night to wear PT gear around. So far we are authorized to wear either PT gear or our desert camouflage, civilian clothes are a big time no go. We were told that was the way it was for everyone, but I’ve seen quite a few soldiers wearing civilian clothes, so who knows what the story is. You follow what your chain of command wants and that’s that.

As far as the weather, I enjoy the heat, so it’s not a big issue to me. For me, if it’s below 70 degrees, that falls under the classification of ‘cold’. 100 degrees to me can be uncomfortable, but it’s certainly not painful. The cold to me is painful. If you give me a canteen and a shade tree on a 100 degree day, and I’m in my underwear, I’m going to do just fine, lay back, drink water, and enjoy myself. You give someone a canteen and a shade tree on a 30 degree day, and that person is in their underwear, they are going to DIE. So show me how the cold can be better than the heat? I don’t think so!!

A lot of the guys are buying things they feel they’ll need while they are here. I haven’t spent one penny on anything in the last 20 hours I’ve been here. Damn, 20 hours and it feels like it’s been two days. I suppose that’s what happens when you get this damn jet lag. This is the first time I’ve been out of the continental united states. It’s sort of surreal, this first day, walking around on the opposite side of the earth. When I try to sleep at night, it’s sort of like cat naps. When I try sleeping during the day, it’s very heavy REM sleep, where I have crazy dreams and wake up all groggy wondering where the fuck I’m at. I guess that means I’m not quite where I need to be in terms of my body adjusting to the time change. It hasn’t even been one full day since touching down here though, so that’s understandable. We have one more day before we begin actually doing something, so we all have to really try to get ourselves adjusted, or it’s going to be forced on us.

The Kuwaiti nationals that work here on the base are very polite, but also very reserved. Because of this they are very quiet. It’s difficult to see if that’s because they are just being polite, if they are afraid of us, or if they really dislike us. Or perhaps it’s a mixture of the three. Whenever I deal with them, I smile and give them a slow nod, but almost always they end up breaking eye contact and looking away.

I wouldn’t mind at all getting to know a lot more about the Arabic culture, but I don’t want to insult anyone here in any way. If the mere idea of conversing with me is insulting to them, then I will cut short any attempts to get to know more about them and the way they live. If it’s because they feel they are insulting me in some way, I’ll have to work harder to show that I will welcome any opportunity to converse with them. As you can see, trying to decide which is which could be pretty tough. I’m still going to attempt to do so though.

I haven’t yet purchased a converter for the electrical outlets here. My computer and my digital camera are compatible with either the 110 or European outlets, but I imagine I have a few things with me that are not, so I’ll be buying the converter. Right now I’m leeching off someone else’s converter, but that’s alright, he’s working out and I’m watching his and his buddy’s weapon for them.

The chow here is a lot better than it was at Ft. Riley. I guess that’s why I haven’t really felt the need to spend any money as of yet. I hope to continue that trend, we’ll need all the money we can save to maybe get a house when I get back. When I get back… one million days from now? Heh, that’s one hell of a countdown. Let’s just say I ignore that until we are about 90 days away, because, the thought of 300+ days to go is a little overwhelming. If I start doing a countdown with about three months to go, I can deal with that a lot better. Once I’m to “89 days and a wakeup” I’m really going to be chomping at the bit to come home, I can only imagine haha. Tonite, Drowning Pool will be here playing a little music, hence the current lyrical ramblings!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!!

Drowning Pool

Just To Address A Few Things, And ‘See You Later’

Tonite is the last night I’ll spend stateside for at least 8 months (if my leave falls when I’d like it to, July of next year). I don’t know if it’s completely hit me yet the magnitude of what is about to happen. Upon touching down, ‘boots in the sand’ sometime in the next couple of days, we will start in on 365 days, one whole year, serving our country in a hostile environment. This is following a two and a half month training period preparing for the task at hand, during which time we received accolades from our ASG unit that was preparing us and from full timers alike, as to our professionalism and motivation, that we were without a doubt the best National Guard or reserve unit they have seen, and that we perform right at the level of if not higher than regular army transportation units.

This is really no surprise to the NCO’s in our unit, the vast majority of us were trained as a primary MOS as 11B infantry at Ft. Benning, the premiere army training school, and spent many years training together doing combat tactics and related techniques. We beat up on regular army airborne units at NTC Ft. Irwin and regular infantry troops at JRTC in Arkansas.

So, anyone who has ever said “you wouldn’t understand” or “you are just national guard” can fuck yourselves. Here we go, right into the thick of it all, the second most dangerous job ONLY to infantry itself. We are your schoolteachers, your policemen, your farmers, your mechanics, etc. We all took time our of our real lives to serve our country, and we are God damn good at what we do. Also, you won’t see me coming back alienating my former friends, turning what I once found endearing about them into a flurry of insults in an attempt to lash out and hurt anyone.

I won’t use drugs or alcohol, not because of any fucking religious belief, but because it’s a pathetic crutch people use to get by, LOSERS, like some people who used to talk about how terrible drugs are and then use weed and justify it thru an ignorant pattern of self indulging denial. I pray that not one person in my unit is injured or killed, but in the unfortunate event that something like that happens, you won’t find me using that as a shield, an immature excuse to become a childish, pitiful jackass who judges everyone but myself, critical of others but failing to see my own inadequacies. No, that is NOT going to be me.

What I will do is be open to my friends, my family, about my experiences, I will remain the same caring person that I’ve always been, I won’t turn my back on those I care about, bash them, or treat them with a particularly vehement disrespect in order to make up for own low self esteem. Why do I say all this? Because I’ve seen it, and I don’t like it, it’s REALLY pathetic to project blame. Have I made mistakes, yes, I most certainly have, but I move past, I let go. Let’s just hope that everyone can learn to do the same. Even those who completely disrespected me, if I had ever cared about them, I still do, I’m not so shallow as to turncoat that way.

With that said, in one year, I’ll have the car I’ve wanted for a couple of years now, and hopefully, belly won’t be deployed when I get back, but that’s always a possibility, and if that happens, then so be it. We will deal with those changes should they arise. We signed up for this, it’s an obligation, there is no reason to bitch and whine about fulfilling something that I SIGNED my name to do. I plan to use this to better myself, to take this time to use my training and lead those troops below me, excellent troops, along with this unit that has been validated in 100% of every task that was put before us during our training, thru this mission. It will not be easy, that is for sure, but you can either be a pathetic crybaby about it, or you do your job and you come back in one piece and be a better person for it. That’s what we are going to do, for our loved ones, our state, our country, because I BELIEVE in what we stand for!!

So for now, I say goodbye to all that is familiar, and head into a place that, while having spent a lot of time learning about, will most certainly be a culture shock. But I’m excited, I love the heat, and I’ll have every opportunity to enjoy it there I’m sure. Oh, about the title, this isn’t so much a goodbye, but the See You Later, because I’ll be back!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I wanted to be like you, I wanted everything
So I tried to be like you, And I got swept away
I didn’t know that it was so cold
And you needed someone, To show you the way

All You Wanted – Michelle Branch

Time Is Drawing Close

Our unit is rapidly approaching our departure date, and interestingly enough, belly's graduation date looks to be very shortly following the date in which we hop on the big plane. This is unfortunate, for if things would have worked out, she was going to stop by here on her way from Omaha to Phoenix (to see her parents for a few days) then onwards to San Diego and Camp Pendleton.

It looks like we'll be under a two week 'communication blackout' once we leave Ft. Riley. As I understand it, this isn't even because of security measures (although that's a little part of it), but there just aren't phones or other ways to communicate with your loves ones from the first place we go to.

We've done a lot this past couple of months, so much training, gotten a lot of new gear that will help us complete our mission (or cause me to collapse from even trying to carry it on the airplane) and we've bonded together fairly well (there are still a few rough spots but they seem to be working out.

The last 3 or 4 days have been rough, with a series of nasty surprises, financial, housing, etc. I was able to work through all of them, stressed but plugging away non the less because time is short, but on this last one I think we are simply shit out of luck. The Marines aren't going to let belly have married housing, not just NO upper NCO housing that recognizes my rank, but NO married housing at all. Either she has to live in the barracks or she has to find an apartment. Long story, but basically the Marines have rules that state if the couple are both in the active military and one is not stationed at Pendleton, they can't allow the spouse to live in married housing. I'm not really sure I understood why this is, but it's something to do with my not being there, and oddly enough, if I were not in the military it would not be a problem at all *GRRRR*

I called out to Pendleton to see what the story is, and I'm still not completely sure I understand it. So now belly is stuck finding an apartment completely on her own. I don't like this, but there isn't anything I can do now. It's incredibly frustrating to be unable to help out more. I just don't want her to be stuck in some craphole of an apartment in a really bad area of town. I imagine when I get back we will move on post and get housing there to save money and also have more living space.

Today we have our final financial, medical, and legal checks, and the next couple of days before we leave are pretty much locked down, including the last day we are here, where we are completely locked down in the barracks. Internet service ends on Thursday night, after that it's going to be awfully damn boring around here. I'll still have the cell phone though, so that will be okay.

I know that belly will do fine without me, but I also know there are probably a few things I have forgotten to set up so they will be taken care of while I'm gone. She's going to be responsible for getting all of the little necessities set up in the apartment/condo (whichever it may be) once she gets to San Diego sometime in the middle of November.

She's been on her own before so I know she'll do just fine. I just hope she gets in with a good group of people to work with and gets a decent placement within her air wing, if that's what it's called? Not sure heh, but I have a lot of time to find out more about the Marines once I get back. Still doesn't help though that I'm not there now to experience it with her, it's like I'm missing out on 1 year of our life together because she was unable to be with me, and now I'm about to miss out on another year of our life because I am unable to be with her : (

This is the choice we made though, so we are dealing with it. I know in the long run that we will become stronger for it, and look back on these days as part of what made the foundation of our marriage even more fortified.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield

Cherry Point, North Carolina

So I went to see belly this past weekend at Cherry Point, NC. I left out of Ft. Riley on a shuttle service that took me to Kansas City. This shuttle service was not all that great, to be honest, but it got me there. Flew out of KC International to Charlotte, and from Charlotte flew into a really tiny airport at Jacksonville, NC (notice, that’s NC not FL).

The Enterprise car rental place in Jacksonville sent a runner in with a van to pick me up from the airport. Now, for plausible deniability, let’s just not say who drove the rented vehicle, which, in this case, was a free upgrade to a Chevy Avalanche pickup truck, because another customer wanted the Nissan Altima so bad that Enterprise was willing to let me have a better vehicle.

The Chevy Avalanche 4 door pickup, an interesting engine, an inline 5 cylinder. White truck, very bland, they didn’t include the automatic lock keychain, and oddly enough there was NO outside keyhole on the passenger side. I’ve never seen that before. Normally I like to unlock belly’s side of the vehicle and let her in, guess I just like being the gentleman. Well, no possibility of doing that, especially without having the automatic keychain to unlock the door. I’m not going to complain much about that, considering the vehicle itself was pretty nice.

The room wasn’t too costly, 25 bucks a night. The rooms themselves were not all that great. The bathroom design was really ridiculous, but hey, for 25 bucks a night, who am I to complain? I find myself looking back at these times as the times I’ll always be fond of though, when we don’t have much money, and it’s mostly just she and I working our way thru the world (of course with our parents’ help), being really thrifty and in all reality enjoying one another’s company so much, doing things that don’t cost much money but are certainly a lot of fun.

I stood out on the balcony of my 3rd floor room and watched belly cross the parking lot after I got into the Marine base. I always find myself smiling like a goofy schoolboy with a crush when I get to see my baby again, which is just fine, because looking at her, she’s just the same way. After a big hug and a smooch just outside the doorway, she showered and we went for a drive around the base and she showed me around, then back and parked the vehicle and walked down to a bar and grill on base (Andy’s? I think? Can’t remember the name haha) where we had some beers and ate a little greasy food, then back to the room for some sleep.

Now, I don’t know if there is anything more wonderful than waking up all groggy, that first few moments of not knowing where you are at, and as everything comes back to you, you realize that one person you would rather be with than any other in the world is laying there right beside you. That’s when you take a deep breath and sink back into the bed, wrap your arms around that person and thank God for every moment you have together.

We went and had breakfast at the chow hall, 4 bucks for me haha. Then off we went to drive around the area. Now, Havelock is a real dump of a town, to be quite honest. The movie theater looked like something out of an early 1980’s era community. Worse yet, there are like 4 communities all within about an hour radius of one another, roughly the same size, and all have really crappy accommodations. We stopped at the Dodge dealership, looked at a few cars. Then off to the Military surplus store, where belly got dog tags. We drove all the way into New Bern, NC, then got in a silly argument because I got lost and I didn’t want to listen to her directions, and later it turned out that she was right, and I was wrong, but I didn’t admit it, I’m still not admitting it, for the record haha!!

We went to the mall, I bought belly some new clothes for her birthday. We ate at the Texas Steakhouse, and it was delicious. We drove by a fair of some sort, with a midway going on, and we had plans to go back but those fell through later on, as we got a few movies and hung out in the room and watched them and snuggled. We again went out to the bar on post, this time playing pool till about 11 or so. Then it was off to good ole’ Taco Bell, to ravage our digestive systems with some real delicious cheap crappy food. Then back to the room and watched another movie and went to sleep.

Sunday we got up late (is 9 all that late? Haha) and watched another movie, then we went off to a little Mexican restaurant and stuffed ourselves silly. Then we went and saw Flight Plan, with Jodie Foster. It was an okay movie, but there were too many inconsistencies in the movie, stuff that was left unexplained. After the movie, we drove down to visit the beach along the Atlantic Ocean, just to the east of Havelock. We went out on the beach for a few minutes, then took a bunch of photos. Afterwards we headed out for a drive up a long lazy highway for a spell, then on the way back I saw a little hole in the wall entry to the public beach, with a long wooden path thru a wooded area. That made for some excellent photos also.

Then we headed to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream, and then drove back to the base and rented a movie and watched it. Being Sunday night, we had to be in bed early, because we had to be up at 0500. It was pretty hard that night, knowing it will likely be more than 6 months before we see one another again. In the morning we headed over to eat breakfast but then never ate, rather just sat in the vehicle and enjoyed that last 45 minutes together. Then she was off to formation and I headed off to deliver the vehicle back to Enterprise and get a ride to the airport.

On the flight from Jacksonville to Charlotte, it got a little hairy. They couldn’t extend the flaps all the way out on one of the wings, so the pilot got on the intercom and had everyone be sure that their seatbelts were really tight, and that we were going to have to land at a little higher speed than normal. Well, yah, like more than twice the normal speed. Talk about your heart in your throat, all three sets of wheels seemed to touch down at the same time, a tiny bounce, then when the pilot hit the reverse thrust on the engines, woah, THAT was why he wanted the seatbelts tight, it was like hitting a wall.

The flight was about 15 minutes late getting in, so I had to truck on down to my connecting flight a good mile away in the terminal. I got there to find out that the flight had been delayed by about a half hour. So I didn’t have to run, but then you never know. So when I got back to Kansas City, it was 10 after 2, and the 2 o’clock shuttle had already left. That stunk, I had to wait till 4 to get a ride back to Riley. And the ride, woah, the guy drove like a complete maniac, tailgating everyone, then spending like 20 minutes at every stop gabbing with everyone. I was worried I wouldn’t make it back on time for the 2000 formation. Thankfully, I walked right in the door at 19:55 and was there to fall in with my platoon.

So basically that was my weekend, I would guess that I’ve dicked up the timeline somewhat, but you get the idea of what we did overall. It was really wonderful to see belly, I hope we get to see one another before I go but I don’t see that happening. But let’s look on the bright side, the sooner I get going, the sooner the clock starts ticking till when I get back.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

If I needed you so desperately
To come to me and talk to me
To take my heart and hand into your comfort zone
Where I'm not alone or lonely
Well would you take the time to be my friend
Cause in the end that's all there is
There's love the eternal bond between us

Would You Be There – Blessed Union Of Souls

More Hollywood Rubbish

This time disguised as a news article. I was catching up a little bit on the news and came across a movie project that Hollywood has decided to work on. It’s going to star Kirsten Dunst, as an American Citizen who went to work in Iraq to get aid to war victims. Now, let’s look beyond the obvious disturbing ignorance in making a film about a war that is STILL GOING ON, with our military members STILL FIGHTING, and visit some of the more idiotic parts of this editorial so thinly disguised as an article.

“The movie, to be made for Paramount Pictures, will tell the remarkable story of Ruzicka, 28, who ran a non-governmental organisation that lobbied for financial compensation for civilian casualties of war, Daily Variety said.”

Ohhh, ‘remarkable story’ now, is that how we describe non biased news these days, with adjectives implying good or bad? Interesting, now let us look at some other parts of this ‘article’ that are misinforming.

“Ruzicka, through her organisation Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, worked extensively in Iraq and in Afghanistan to document the exact number of civilians killed or injured by US forces.” UH, WRONG!!! Way to doctor the facts. This campaign was not aimed at those ‘killed by US forces’ it was aimed to help ANY civilians harmed during this war, by either side. Why do you think she was targeted and killed by a suicide bomber? Well, there are those that believe her investigative work was working against the insurgents by putting exact numbers killed by both sides up from an impartial source. So certainly if it were just ‘civilians killed or injured by US forces’ , that would work FOR their cause. Way to get the facts WRONG. But hey, it’s being produced by MTV films, which should really say a lot. MTV can’t even put music on a stationed named after music, how can you expect them to put up factual information in a serious movie? Oh, and related to editing, something this article obviously didn’t receive, way to misspell organization.

The article goes on to talk about how the Hollywood is lining up films about the ‘three year old conflict in Iraq’, listing several titles, and stupidly includes "Jarhead," starring Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal, which is set to open on November 11. Wow, way to do your research, considering Jarhead is about the FIRST Iraqi conflict, Desert Storm, more than 15 years ago.

Interestingly enough, the article is not attributed to any author, instead listed simply as LOS ANGELES (AFP). I wouldn’t want to put my name on this garbage either, considering the inconsistencies and one sided viewpoints that are inferred within. Just another attempt by the half witted non educated Hollywood types to try and sway political opinion concerning topics they know nothing about.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Bend and shape me, I love the way you are
Slow and sweetly, Like never before
Calm and sleeping, We won't stir up the past
So discretely, We won't look back

Doesn’t Remind Me – Audioslave