A Bad Game Of Poker

So, of course I'm still in Qatar on my 4 day pass. The last two groups to come down here from where we are from were here for 8 days. So we were betting on at least a couple extra days while we waited to get a flight out. : ( No such luck. BAH!! More on that later, don't want to give out TMI right now.

Today was pretty fun. We were SUPPOSED to go on the fishing trip, that got changed to the boating cruise, then that got cancelled too so we went to the 4 story mall that is supposedly twice the size of Mall of America. Well folks, let me tell you, Mall of America must be small, or they have misjudged this place. Don't get me wrong, we had fun running up and down 4 stories of mall, and I climbed a rock wall, and slid down a big huge ice ramp on an intertube, raced around in mini go carts chasing two little arab kids and one of my fellow soldiers (I WON!), and visited with an Egyptian local national who told me that I had the best arabic accent (albeit my arabic is limited) that he had ever heard from an American or Western European. I bought some stuff in his shop.

I really over ate during my time here : ( I shouldn't have but I just felt, hey, I have a month before I go home, I'll indulge some. I broke my nice Timex Expedition watch too, oddly enough the corner of the watch broke off, so it wasn't the typical 'band broke' or 'battery died' type of thing. Luckily some super glue seems to have fixed the problem, don't know for how long.

I'm sure I'll post more on a reflection post about this trip, right now I have to go pack. BAH, I wanted an extra two days, this is irritating!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Time is wasting
Time is walking
You ain't no friend of mine
I don't know where i'm goin'
I think I'm out of my mind
Thinking about time

Time - Hootie and the Blowfish

Volleyball In The Rain

So, Qatar is one of the sunniest countries in the world, right? Yah, not so far on my pass. Day 1, cloudy, day 2, again, cloudy, and today, day 3, raining, not anything bad, just light rain.

Today started in the briefing room like always, where you meet to go on the outings, and I was picked out of 23 people to be the NCOIC of the day, basically in charge of the group. So we got out and into 6 Nissan Pathfinders, all on super sized springs and sand tires, and headed out into the dessert.

We roared up and down sand dunes, tearing around like maniacs, we weren't allowed to drive but that was okay. The drivers we had were maniacs. Then we all rode camels around, that was interesting, I found out they don't like to be pet, or at least they aren't used to it. I would lean forward and pet the camel and he would snarl at me and growl loudly, everyone was laughing their asses off about it.

Then we loaded up again in the Pathfinders and roared across the desert to the beach. It was sprinkling the entire time thus far, and that didn't stop. I got into the Persian Gulf up to my knees, but that was as far as I would go, it was just way too damn cold to go further, the wind coming off the ocean was gusting up to 30 mph and I didn't want to get sick.

So we played volleyball for about 2 hours, and that was a blast. I got totally drilled in the nuts when this girl who wasn't too good dug the ball and it bounced off her wrists at a 90 degree angle and beelined right into my crotch. Again, that was good for some laughs, not so much by me for a couple of minutes.

Finally the food got there and we all ate. It was local cuisine, a beef kabob, a mutton kabob, some bread (no where near as good as the iraqi bread) some humice? (I think?) and a couple of salads, along with some rice and chicken. I swear the chicken there must be the scrawniest of all the world's chickens because it was like chewing gristle off the bone.

All in all I had a great time. Lost my 70SPF suntan lotion, but I'm not going to worry too much about that, I'll buy more. The sad thing is, I didn't even use it of course. Hell, if it keeps going like this I won't get a chance to use it at all. So be it!

So far, lots of fun, taking some pictures, will post them when I get back home.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Some strange arabic music they played all day today, sorry, I have NO clue what it was, it was interesting though.

Rest & Relaxation

Isn’t it amazing how a vacation is defined as a break from work, as though it’s a time for ‘rest and relaxation’, when in reality it’s like you try to pack as much crap into a shortened time period as you possibly can. This is no exception, this 4 day pass to Qatar. Last night we ate at the Chili’s here by the pool, and I ate far too much, then slammed down my 3 drinks, 2 Fosters and a Corona, in about 15 minutes, and then I actually felt a little ill. I drank all three of my drinks with orange juice.

Afterwards I called my wife up quick, then headed off to bed, I was beat. Slept till about 7 this morning, up again, called belly again, then at 0900 we headed off to the Hyatt Mall. Quite disappointed, to be honest, the prices are just outrageous here. And the mall itself left a lot to be desired. There really wasn’t much in the way of interesting stuff, in my opinion. I sort of enjoy shopping in Iraq by comparison, because there are so many unique and unexpected items.

Oddly enough, the people of Qatar seem to LOVE coffee. There must have been 6 coffee shops in a mall that was about 2/3 the size of a typical U.S. mall like you’d find back home. I wish I would have bought sunglasses the last place we were at while flying here. The PX here has a horrible selection, and you’ll pay more than 100 dollars for any pair out in the malls.

It was quite hot today, so I got ready when I got back from the mall to head down to the pool. And oh what luck, it suddenly got cloudy and sprinkled on us at the pool, so that was basically pointless. I am having fun though. Tomorrow we are signed up for a tour leaving at 9 in the morning again, this time it’s the inland picnic tour. For now though I’m going to bed. NIGHT!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I can't sleep, I keep dreaming of losing you
I feel so alone in the night, scared to open my eyes
I'm in too deep, I'm in over my head this time
Can't get you out of my mind, no matter how hard I try

Say You Will – Foreigner

Not Guitar, QATAR!!

I’m currently on my 4 day “rest and relaxation” pass to Qatar, a tiny country in the middle east. Headed out yesterday afternoon from Iraq and ended up here finally at like 0200 today, then we had briefings till close to 0500. After that we got our linens (sheets, the venerable green wool blanket, pillowcase, frumpy old pillow, and a towel) and they showed us to our ‘tents’.

The tents we are staying in are actually inside of a much larger warehouse, it’s kind of nice because it’s so well climate controlled. Inside the tent are bunkbeds, I got in reasonably early and got myself a bottom bunk. You have to have a lock for the lockers because there are people around who love to steal stuff, so they say about Qatar. If that’s the least I have to worry about here though, hell that’s alright with me, I’ll just be sure to lock my shit up.

It’s really warm here, probably about 105 degrees outside, but you know me, I love the heat. I just swelter away and enjoy myself. Oh, on the trip here I got vomited on, the girl across from me, another member of our unit, suddenly said “I need a bag” and I didn’t follow what she meant, but she needed a throw up bag, and no one heard her, we barely got her carry on bag and my bag out of the way and she leaned forward and upchucked right between us.

Now, to fully describe what it’s like riding on a C130, you are sitting facing one another, legs basically intertwined, probably only about 3 feet apart total. So I had a nice up close and personal view of her tossing chunks, and right down my calf too. Well, you probably know what puke smells like, but imagine in at about 95 degrees packed inside of the tight confines of an airplane, and it was pretty rank. I’m surprised no one else threw up.

So, it’s great to be in Qatar, and that is no lie. They basically set up ‘recreational programs’ for us to do here, that involve going out in groups of 25 to do things like water sports, beach picnics, historical tours, mall tours, etc. We wanted to go on water sports (me and the other 4 people from our unit who are here) but that filled up far too fast. So we ended up signing up for one of the smaller ‘mall tours’. I say smaller because I guess they have a 4 story mall here that is TWICE the size of Mall of American. Yes, I know, your jaw is wide open, mine was too when I heard this. And get this, this is actually only the FOURTH largest in the world. I have to wonder, where are the other three, and if this one is THIS big, just how big are THEY?

So we are going to the mall tomorrow to do some purchasing. I did buy a couple of things this morning because you have to dress appropriately according to the culture here. I didn’t think my Coed Naked Snow Skiing shirt nor my Moo You Bastard shirt would fit in well over here. I ended up buying 3 plain Hanes white Xlarge tshirts and an orange collared shirt. I have two other dressy tshirts but none with a collar, and although you aren’t required to wear a collared shirt now (used to have to off post all the time) I still wanted one so I could look nice. It’s a little flashy in terms of the color, solid orange, but I am sick of drab colors, this is the first time I’ve worn civvies in more than 5 months. Plus, hell, I can work for a road crew when I get back if I need to, with this shirt haha. Oh, and NO SHORTS off post. You have to wear jeans. That’s going to be warm haha, thank God I enjoy the heat.

So, I think I’m going to get off the computer here and go to the pool. A 4 foot pool with no diving boards. Yes, LAME – O! Everyone knows I like the diving boards. So far so good, it’s pretty fun here. I’ll keep you updated!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

See me I'm down and I get deeper with every breath
See me I'm over the edge farther with every step
See me I'm down and I get deeper with every breath
Standing over the edge I'm taking my last breath

Starless - Crossfade

The Empty Blog That Never Was

Okay Mr stryfe, I went to your user page and checked out your blog, and I must say I found it rather LACKING!

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?

The Ire Of Cancer Sticks

It’s hard for me to put into words just how irritating and downright angry I get at cigarette smokers. Smoking is a disgusting and reprehensible filthy habit, there is nothing sophisticated about giving a blow job to about what, a thousand or so chemicals, nothing cool about spreading your grimy smoke all over others who do not want to be around that shit.

I have never in my life been around smokers so completely inept of courteous behavior, devoid of the ability to see how fucking completely and totally rude they are when they light up in a group. Let me give you the basic scenario:

We have meetings here, all the time. That’s part of what being in the military is all about. Technically, it’s an informal formation. For whatever reason, even on days when everyone has had the ENTIRE fucking day off, smokers choose that time when we have our meetings to go ahead and light up while standing in the midst of everyone, puffing away on that repulsive smoldering tar stick, as though they are the only persons around.

Oh and then mention something NICELY to them about not smoking around people and they laugh, as though it’s some joke to pollute my and everyone else’s lungs in the area who have no intention of smoking and feel the same way I do about it. So then you have to be downright mean and tell them straight up to put the cigarette out. For me this means pulling rank, which I don’t like to do, but with people who are completely at a loss for manners and common decency, I guess that they just need to be treated like fucking children, and scolded like a bunch of 1st graders. I’ve even had to go so far as having formal formations just to get my point across, since the informal group meetings seem to be invitations to smoke away, oblivious to how offensive and discourteous their behavior is.

And how ridiculous is it that smokers are designated their own breaks to take care of their habits, whether it be at work or whatever. If you are a non smoker, are you able to ask for 3 or more 15 minute breaks during your work period. Oh some of us are, but I’ve been around work settings, military and otherwise, where people act like “You don’t smoke, what do you need a break for?” Well fucknut, if you are giving a break to them it’s only fair that you give a break to everyone, common sense dictates that, dipshit!!

I wonder sometimes if I should feel bad for anyone who has such a pathetically poor self image or self esteem that they feel the need to put that shit in their body in the first place. This goes for smoking weed or other drugs. It’s no religious belief or country hick upbringing of mine either, its fucking common sense, a person should work to fulfill their lives in other ways. This is how I’ve always felt about this. My strong desire to NOT smoke cigarettes or other items is by no means a weakness or character defect, if anything the complete audacity and immaturity of anyone who would believe that is utterly appalling, especially considering that it is character defects and weaknesses that draw people into tobacco and drugs.

Normally I wouldn’t judge anyone on this basis, but lately I’ve become perturbed with smokers in general deployed around me, our unit must have about 65% smokers, at LEAST, and their lacksidasical attitude about being considerate to others pisses me off, to be blunt. That and a couple of other distant recollections of comments about it, and I figured I would get my point across. I’m not concerned about stepping on toes, if you smoke, you are the one fucking stupid enough to sign your own death warrant, don’t drag me in with you. I love the moronic statements smokers defend themselves with, like “well, something has got to kill me.” Oh, yah, so let’s take chance out of the equation and incur the equivalent of a 40 to 50 year suicide rather than let mother nature take it’s course.

Smoking is just as sure suicide as putting the barrel of a gun in your mouth and pulling the trigger. It just happens to take a bit longer for the cancerous bullet to do it’s dirty deed. Got a problem with my opinions on this matter? So fucking what, I can’t even come up with a reasonable equivalent as to an analogy for how smokers treat others, save for maybe going right up to where you are eating, dropping my pants and taking a shit on your plate, because that’s how violating smoke is to non smokers.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

It's a…
Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of…
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Ænema – Tool

New Site Fo' Shizzle!!

Ever want to speak more eloquently using a more urban speaking type?
Well, are you ever in luck, try the Gizoogle translater to make your
favorite web pages totally pimp. Go to Gizoogle and try it out now,
don't be left behind of the urban movement, make sure your kids know
what you are talking about!!

Here's what it does for one famous song:

Current Lyrical Ramblings

The long n wind'n road T-H-to-tha-izzat leads ta yo door,
wizzill pimp disappear,
I've seen thiznat road before it always leads me here
Leads me ta yo door.

The wild n windy night tizzle tha rain washed away,
Has left a poo` of tears cry'n fo` tha day
Why leave me stand'n here, let me kniznow tha way
Many times I've been alone n many times I've cried
Anyway you'll neva kizzle tha many ways I've tried
And stiznill they lead me bizzay ta tha long n mackin' road
You left me rhymin' here a long, long tizzle ago
Don't leave me ballin' here, lead me ta you dizzy

But still they lead me back ta tha long n chillin' road
You left me stand'n here a long, long tizzle ago
Don't keep me wait'n hizzy (Don't kizzy me wait), lead me ta you door
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Da Long N' Witizzle to da din' Road - The Beatles

Yet ANOTHER Website

One thing about internet search pages, they are woefully inadequate in terms of finding out where PEOPLE are at, unless the person in question does a LOT of internet activity involving their real name. I always figured you’d have to pay to use one of the better websites to search for people, but I was wrong. I found an awesome people finder site:

ZABASEARCH!!

I even found my old roommate from college on this, not that I’ll ever contact the asshole. He’s known where I’ve been for 10 years now and made no effort whatsoever to find me. Anyways, not going to be bitter about him, people who turn their backs on former friends are a pathetic waste of space. Let it be there problem, they nearly always end up in a sad lonely existence later on.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

If you’ve got some time to kill
Slow resistance wins the war
Well I know
But that’s no way to go
You can’t resist the louder pull

Loud Love – Soundgarden (1989)

*interesting fact about this song, it was from the album titled Louder Than Love, which originally was supposed to have been titled Louder Than Fuck, in typical Soundgarden fashion. Of course their record label had a conniption and the band relented. To this day I believe Soundgarden is far and away a better band overall than Nirvana. Nirvana was lyrically brilliant but musically challenged at best. Dave Grohl was the only person with any real musical talent, sure, Cobaine could write lyrics, but damn he sucked as a guitar player, let’s be honest here.

Unholy Indulgence In Internet Archivals!!!

Wouldn’t you like to check out an old website that no longer exists, to go back in time and look around, sort of like reading an old favorite book you hadn’t read in years? WELL JOYFUL SALUTATIONS!! THERE IS A WAY!! Some archiving website has like ELEVENTY FOUR BILLION PAGES saved on it, I’m not really sure how many that is in English, because I don’t know the metric system that well, but this is where it’s located at:

The Wayback Machine!!

You just put the old address into the search string and voila… the old archives show up. Not all websites work, but quite a few I tried did. I spent quite a while traveling down ole’ memory road. You can find yourself doing that a lot over in this place.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Heretics and hypocrites
wear the same face through the years
Of telling lies and laying blame
Damn the fire to feed the flame
I'll dance I'll sing
I'll try to fade their images planted in your head

Heaven – Better Than Ezra (1995)

Animal Crackers In My Soup

First off, a big thank you to belly’s mother, for a wonderful care package she sent to me, that included Oreo cookies, Nutter Butters, Scooby Doo fruit roll-ups, Pirates of the Caribbean fruit snacks (what sort of obscure food is this? Haha, it tastes good, but Pirates of the Caribbean?? What does that have to do with a fruity snack?), beef jerky, Koolaid, Frosted Caramel Chocolate Pop Tarts (do these even classify as pop tarts? I mean honestly, it’s more like a chocolate pastry, when I think of pop tarts, I think of a fruit filled type pastry, this thing is more like a flat donut/candybar. Of course, that didn’t stop me from eating them.)

Also included, among other items, were Barnum’s Animals Crackers. I haven’t had those in years. How interesting is it to eat something that you haven’t eaten in such a long time and get a flood of memories. They say that smell is the strongest trigger for recollection, and I believe taste is included with that. Don’t believe me? Open up a container of PlayDoh sometime, or a box of Crayola crayons, and take a big sniff. You’ll be amazed. If you are still skeptical, go ahead and eat them.

But anyways, back to the original post, I appreciated the box of goodies, I think someone is trying to give me goodies cuz I have a hole in my back heh heh. Hey, I’ll take them, for whatever reason!! I have a wonderful family, that is for sure!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I took a look inside your bedroom door
You looked so good lying on your bed
Well, I asked you if you wanted any rhythm and love
You said you wanna rock 'n' roll instead

Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution – AC/DC

Late Nights At The Operations Center

I took over a couple of weeks ago for the night shift NCO at our company operations center while he goes home for his break, which works out pretty nice for me, considering that I had that lump removed from my back so I’m restricted from wearing the ballistic armor vest until it heals up. So far it’s healing up nicely, initially they thought it would have taken less time but they didn’t realize just how deeply they had cut into my back so I’m working on another 10 days of restricted duty till they can be sure it’s healed up right.

Not a whole lot happens at night, we monitor the different communications devices, drive back and forth from battalion to pick up and deliver paperwork, keep track of who comes around the company motor pool (pretty much no one), and until that stupid pond out in front is gone, we have to clean the water out of the bunker (for some reason the hole they dug to hold the water from the December to February rains ended up tapping into the bunker itself and leaking more than 250 gallons a night into the old operations center, so we’ve moved upstairs until that pond dries out again.)

I did notice something that made me snicker… we purchase a lot of the bootleg movies over here to watch, on DVD, and while some are pretty decent quality, most have some sort of glitches or problems. Well, we were watching one last night and they actually had the anti piracy preview recorded right along with the rest of the movie. “You wouldn’t steal a car, would you?” Yah, that one. I thought that was hilarious. Nothing like being thorough in your dubbing processes, watching the anti-piracy warning on a pirated dvd.

Anyone that is overseas in the military knows about the use of phone cards, DSN lines and all that. Has anyone else noticed how irritating the cards have gotten lately? When did they turn into a 10 minute process of button pushing and irritating advertisements just to make a phone call with a product that you paid for?

“Thank you for using the AT&T US Postal Service phone card. Here at the US Postal Service we are willing to work with all of you…” *I press 1 to cut that off*

“For English press 1, for Espanol…” *1*

“Enter your card number now” *enter the pin number*

“Now you can use your AT&T phone card for local movie listings, restaurant reviews, and…”*1 GRRRR*

For a call within the United States, Canada, or the Caribbean…” *1*

“You may dial now” *dial the phone number, FINALLY*

“Remember the US Postal Service for all your shipping and…” *1 DAMMIT*

“Your phone card has ### minutes remaining, when you hear… *1 GEESH!!!*

“Thank you for all you do to keep the hope and spirit of…” *1, CHRIST ALREADY!!*

“DIALING” *ABOUT DAMN TIME!!*

I do believe that when I get back, I’m going to look up the lady from the phone card and give her the beating of a lifetime, all in the spirit of hope and all the other bullshit she talks about on my phone card : )

I’ve been feeding a new addiction at night now, called “PINBALL”. That’s right folks, it’s the pinball game you can find on most newer computers, and I’ve become addicted to it. Has anyone else? I have spent hours inventing new and more interesting swear words to yell at the computer when it CHEATS and knocks the ball back behind the paddles or right down the middle where I can’t stop it!! Of course this happens during the lonely hours at night out at the operations center. My high score is 9.6 million, I can't seem to get even close to that again haha.

One thing I probably shouldn’t say but I will anyway, that song “Loving you, is easy cuz you’re beautiful…”, yah, well, the guy I work with at night and I were trying to hit the high note, and needless to say, we were at least 4 octaves off, how the hell does she do that? Anyone who has heard that song knows exactly what I’m talking about, “doo en doo en doo oooh, ahhhhhhh”. Yah, don’t ask, we get freaking bored as hell at night sometimes, SO DON’T JUDGE US!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I was thinking maybe later on,
we could get together for awhile
It’s been such a long time,
and I really do miss your smile.

I’d Really Love To See You Tonite – Barry Manilow

Talkin’ Aboot Fargo, Eh?

So anyways, we were watching Fargo during the night shift out at operations, and I started to wonder about William H. Macy’s character in the movie. Basically he offers 40 grand to a couple of hoods to kidnap his wife so he could extort a million bucks from his father in law. Well, of course the plan goes to shit, the hoods kidnap his wife as planned, but end up killing a state trooper, then of course 2 unfortunate people drive past and see what is going on, and they get killed too. Then the father in law insists that he be the one that delivers the money, and he gets killed, then one of the kidnappers kills the other with an axe, and he kills the wife finally too, and gets caught while putting the bodies of his former accomplice and the guys wife into a wood chipper.

Now, while I did take criminal justice 101 as an elective in college, I am by no means an expert in the ways of our legal system in the United States. What all would Macy’s character (the husband) be charged with? Now, you have kidnapping, conspiracy, and extortion, but would he be tried as an accessory to murder, or even for murder outright? Or for how many murders? Do the effects of your original felony (the kidnapping) that lead to more crimes that he did not intend even if you aren’t involved?

I get a kick out of this movie, because I remember how people in North Dakota went out of their way to say ‘we do NOT talk like that!!’ yet they actually do. I had two friends at the Air Force base in North Dakota and after a couple of years they started to sound like that on the phone and I would laugh and point it out to them yet they didn’t seem to notice it themselves haha. Pretty good, eh?

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I’d like to hear some funky Dixie land
Pretty mama come and take me by the hand
By the hand hand take me the hand
Come and dance with your daddy all night long

Black Water – Doobie Brothers

Thoughts Of Bulldozing, Incessant Paddlings, Being Hit By A Bus, And Parading Around With Underwear On My Head

Okay, I am feeling pretty good about myself, after spending a couple of hours really cleaning things up in my little 10X10 trailer I live in. I purchased a regular 110 clip lamp for my desk for the times I am able to spend on the internet or working on some computer project. I did have a 220 light but the stupid thing kept burning out lightbulbs and it gets tedious having to run out to the HESCO marts and buying light bulbs from the local nationals because the PX doesn’t carry them, only to have them burn out in a couple of days due to either a) surges b) bad lightbulbs to begin with, or c) demons living in my room conspiring to keep me in the darkness.

I had the night off last night so I was free to spend around 12 hours surfing the internet, along with an old friend in the Forest giving me some fun sites to look at. I also spent about an hour trying to find something at one particular site because all the chatting in the Forest had me feeling nostalgic about the past and I wanted a reminder as to why, in some respects, I should be wary. I found what I was looking for, and I made sure I saved it this time. I don’t want to make the mistake of reminiscing about fond times and overlook this particular contemptible verbal throttling, an erroneous yet scathing portrayal of my character in which any admirable traits were distorted with acidic loathing, a condescending and scornful depiction that was more about feeding one’s own significance than any measure of genuine feeling or truth.

With that said, I do recollect about the ridiculously witty encounters of those days, and it’s entertaining to do so with a memorable chatter such as JackAss, who also goes by the name DerekFlynt. Some people feel this is juvenile. If finding enjoyment in something that another person finds so completely meaningless is trivial, then so be it. Besides, there’s an entirely new generation of video games out there since February 26 of 1999, and I strongly desire to smack the piss out of DerekFlynt with an Xbox 360!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

When I seem to believe all that I've done wrong
You can take all that's right I will still move on
Taken all I can give it seems that I don't belong
Push me further from this, go on

Live A Lie – Default

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