Sagas of an Inflight Missile Repairman

Eric's war journal

2007-02-23T01:28:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know yet, I am going to be deployed to Iraq. I volunteered for the mission, and am really looking forward to the experience.

you can read about my exploits here.

Thank you all for reading and please keep me and all of the other men and women serving in your prayers.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2006-12-24T18:17:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

May God bless each and every one of us in the upcoming year!

Thanks for reading.

Free cool wallpaper!

2006-12-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

So Gunslinger Patriot Wear will soon be offering free downloadable wallpaper featuring cool patriotic stuff on the website. If you like what you see, thank TIM. Here is a little preview:

Shopping spree!

2006-09-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

After a few failed attempts at getting our shopping cart up and running on the Gunslinger Patriot Wear website, we finally have a fully functional E-commerce machine! Please feel free to browse through, write a post, or just help us spread the word about our high quality 100% American made logo tees. We will be offering a new color and design to our men's tee line soon, and hope to have ladies Jewel Neck tees by early October! So come check us out, just click the Gunslinger button below!

You may have noticed

2006-08-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

That is, if anyone still reads this blog, may have noticed that I have a new link button for Gunslinger Patriot Wear's website.

With the help of a very talented programmer, I was able to create a link box so that now people can have easy acces to Gunslinger's 100% American made clothes!

If you would like a cool Gunslinger logo on your website/blog/myspace, and you should, then just copy and paste this line of code:

GUNSLINGER PATRIOT WEAR pt. 2

2006-08-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

IT IS FINALLY HERE!!!!

Once again, we are proud to announce that our company is moving right along, and we finally have a (mostly) operational website. Most of the content is up, and we are hammering out the shopping cart details now. In the meantime, if you want to get your hands on the hottest 100% American made logo tees around, just call or email us and we will get one or more into your hands!

Drumroll....

www.gunslingerwear.com

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE....

link this, email this, spam this browse this website. Send it to all your friends, send it to all your enemies, send it to random made up email addresses. Post it up at work, make it your screen savers. We need all the advertisement we can get. With a little word of mouth, a whole lot of luck, a little skill on our part, and a whole bunch of God's grace, we might actually make something of this business. Thank you all for your support.

This is our current cover model, Dale, sporting a blue Gunslinger shirt.

GUNSLINGER PATRIOT WEAR

2006-07-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

I am proud to announce that my company, Gunslinger Patriot Wear, has finally completed its first ever logo tee! This is a very exciting time for us. I have been working on this idea since 1999, and finally--time, money, equipment, and fate have all come together to allow me to see my idea to fruition and start down the path that I have been struggling to get to since I got out of the active duty Army in 2001.

Gunslinger Patriot Wear, clothing for true American patriots, features 100% American made Tee shirts, in sizes S-XL. The colors offered? Red, White, and Blue of course. The shirts are of the highest quality, and are all hand printed by myself and my business partners. As soon as we have completed a full run of shirts (Hopefully by Sunday) I will have full pictures and details. Currently, the shirts will retail for $14.95 + $3.00 for shipping each. We will have a full website and use paypal at first, which should be up and running by the end of next week. If you can't wait that long to get your hands on one or more, let me know, and we will work out something to get you into our 100% U.S. made graphic tees!

Gunslinger Patriot Wear -- Show your true colors!

Happy Independence Day!

2006-07-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

May you all be safe and happy!

God bless America!!!

Neglect

2006-06-02T00:12:00.000-07:00

So I know it has been about a month since I last posted. Sorry about that, for the three people who actually look at this blog anyway. I have been very busy working my crappy job as a manager at AutoZone, going to school, doing the Army thing, and working on launching my business.

I am leaving tomorrow for my little annual training thing. Obviously I cannot divulge any info other than that.

I promise to start posting regularly again once things settle down in mid-late june.

Thanks for those of you who actually read this, and if you do still read, try leaving a comment, so I know I am not just rambling to cyberspace.

A picture or two for you all to enjoy until my return.

I was going through some old pictures, and ran across some stuff from back when I was a fireman. Here is another one.

Sorry for the vulgar language in this pic, I ran across it somewhere, and I thought it was pretty darn funny. Man, I hate cats.

I look forward to more blogging in the next several weeks.

What the Pho?

2006-03-23T00:40:00.000-08:00

For some time now, people have been asking me to post some of the recipes I use. (Drumroll please) I now present my first ever recipe on the blog. Tonight I made Pho (Pronounced Fuh.)
It is a Vietnamese soup, that I find quite tasty. I had it for the first time in Seattle when I went to visit Roberda over Christmas break. I couldn't find any around here, so I went scouring for recipes. The following is my adaptation of Pho. I hope you enjoy, if you make it, let me know how you like it.

Recipe: Pho Vietnamese soup.
Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 30-45 min
Cook Time: 30-45 min
Serves: 3-5 Hungry people in fairly large bowls

Ingredients:

6 cans of beef broth
4-6 star anise
4 whole cinnamon sticks
1 small chunk of fresh ginger, sliced into about 6-8 matchstick pieces
1-2 large bunches of Cilantro, rough chopped
3 bundles of green onions sliced
1 can sliced bamboo shoots
Pinch salt and pepper
1/8-1/4 cup Asian fish sauce
1/4 cup Hoisin sauce
1-2 tsp. Sirachi Asian chili sauce
Star Rice noodles
any combination of;
1-2 cups sliced/diced chicken breast
1-2 cups sliced/diced beef
1-2 cups peeled shrimp
Garnish;
1-2 bunches fresh basil leaves, sliced or ripped
Some type of nuclear hot pepper (Asian pepper, jalapeno, serrano, habanero) sliced
3 limes sectioned
3-4 cups bean sprouts

Pour the broth into a huge saucepan, along with the star anise, cinnamon sticks, and ginger. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 min. While simmering, add the hoisin and sirachi sauce (may need more or less to taste) After the stock starts to boil, prepare the noodles as per the instructions (cover with hot water and let sit for 15-25 min.) Also start another large saucepan with water to boil. After the stock has simmered, remove the anise, ginger, and cinnamon sticks. Stir in fish sauce. Leave on medium-high. Add the meat that takes the longest to cook, let cook mostly through, then add any other meats and bamboo shoots. Add salt and pepper. About five minutes prior to serving, add cilantro and green onions. Take the noodles that have been soaking and add to the boiling water for about 2 min. Remove enough noodles to fill about 1/4-1/2 of your serving bowl, and place in each bowl. Cover the noodles with the Pho, making sure to get some of the meats and veggies in each dish. Garnish with the fresh basil (A small handful per bowl is great!) a lime or two, the bean sprouts, and the hot pepper slices to taste. Make extra Hoisin and Sirachi sauce available for adding in. Enjoy! Makes 4 Large bowls worth. I found out that a nice cold Dead Guy Ale washed it down wonderfully!

This is a photo I took of my Pho, just before devouring it!

What I have been up to.

2006-03-17T00:09:00.000-08:00

Well, school is finally over for the term! I Passed my math 111 class, and am very excited about that. I also have been working a lot of hours, so by the time I get home around 10:30 pm, I usually just have time to do homework. Anyway, the reason I have not been writing, is because I had to concentrate all of my collective writing powers into my research paper. So, instead of boring you all with all the other stuff I have been doing, here is a portion of my 12 page paper. If you want to read the whole thing, comment on the bottom that you want me to send you a copy, and let me know how to send it to you (unless I already know.)

American Automotive Goliath Meets Global Market David:
Can General Motors Survive?

In 1959, when Dinah Shore was singing to the all-American post-war audiences about seeing the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet from behind the wheel of her Impala convertible, (Vintage) not one person could have imagined that less than fifty years later, the future of her sponsoring company would be uncertain at best. An America emerging from the Korean War, and still having the taste of WWII in it’s mouth, would have called anyone crazy had that person told them that by the end of the century, America’s largest automobile maker would be on the brink of extinction due to poor marketing, market pressures, quality issues, healthcare costs, and union gouging. Not to mention the very people they had just fought in both WWII and The Korean Conflict would be the nations largely responsible for beating the General at his own game.
The issues now in the new millennia are that global markets dictate products and the problems of rising costs of doing business in America. This is leading General Motors (GM) to open manufacturing plants in other countries and close plants in the U.S. (Doh) product quality, while increasing, has been so poor for the last three decades that huge numbers of buyers will not be considering GM’s products for at least another ten years due to market stigma. Recent attempts to purchase Europe’s leading cheap car manufacturer, FIAT--as well as costs to buy their way out of the welched deal, has led to the near bankruptcy of GM. In the late 1980s GM almost folded while trying to build Saturn in order to compete with the Asian econo-cars. All of this has painted the General into a corner. Junk bond status amongst lenders, parts suppliers going bankrupt due to GM’s inability to pay bills, rising healthcare costs, and UAW (United Auto Workers) union’s ever increasing wage scales has put GM in a position that may mark the twilight of a century old American Icon. (MacKenzie)
General Motors--first founded in 1908 by Billy Durant who brought Buick, Oldsmobile, and Fisher Body Company together currently employs around 325,000 employees worldwide—about half of which work in the U.S. GM, who at one time almost bought Ford Motor Company, and who spent $12,300,000,000 on the World War II effort, only two years after building its 25 millionth car, has been plagued by union problems since 1937 when it first recognized GM employees’ rights to have union representation by the UAW. (GM.com) Currently, union costs, and rising healthcare costs add an additional $2550 to the cost of every vehicle built by GM compared to Toyota’s $250. (Sloan)
Worldwide, GM builds cars using ten different brand names. In North America, GM builds cars under the brands known as: Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, GMC, Hummer, Saturn, and Saab. Together, these eight brands build some 89 different vehicles, including performance specific products, such as the V-series Cadillacs, and GXP models of Pontiac. Currently, GM is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. (Welch et al) It is rumored that GM has been trying to buy several different Chinese manufacturers, in hopes that by the end of the decade, GM will be the first company in the U.S. to offer imported Chinese vehicles. It is said that these vehicles may cost fewer than ten thousand dollars. This is in hopes to breathe new life into a company that has been teetering on the brink of collapse since the early eighties.
The thorn in the side of GM these days is no longer the competition from Ford and Chrysler, rather it is from Toyota, who just this year celebrated making its 15 millionth vehicle—71 years after GM built its 25 millionth. Toyota, which consists of Toyota, Lexus, and the newly formed Scion, builds 26 models, and sold their first vehicle in the U.S. in 1957. (Grant) This year, it is rumored that Toyota will eclipse GM as the largest manufacturer in the U.S. (Kageyama) This is going to be a one plant larger figure, but it will be a milestone for both companies without a doubt--A good milestone for Toyota, and a black eye milestone for GM. Toyota builds the number one selling car in the U.S., the Camry, and has for about 7 years now. It may be the number one selling car, but it comes in 4th on the list behind the half-ton trucks built by the big three. The only GM passenger car on the top ten list, the Impala, comes in at a paltry number nine. The only saving grace GM has on this list is that it has the number two vehicle, the Chevy Half-Ton pickup. (Lienert)
For years GM has struggled to keep its head above water in the marketplace while trying to stay competitive to other American manufacturers, as well as the Asian brands. It is the Asian brands, which were simply dismissed as a flash in the pan when they first started building the economy cars that have done the most damage to GM. During the late 1980’s, in the dawn of building Saturn, which again almost bankrupted them, General Motors built a facility called the Mona Lisa Center near Detroit. In this facility engineers disassembled some Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys in an attempt to find out what it was that made these cars so hugely successful. The facility was closed and the project was scrapped when it was determined that the answers could not be found. The problem with this approach to building cars is that it is completely backwards. (Keller) During the time that GM was desperately grasping at straws to figure out why no one was buying their cars, instead of looking ahead, as the Asian brands were most certainly doing—they were looking back at a model of car that was already built and no doubt planned to be replaced soon anyway.

General Motors’ problems stem not just from not being able to build a quality car, or even from being able to retain customers. Its problems stem from not being able to build cars that attract new buyers, as well as having a poor reputation in the marketplace. Chevrolet retains approximately 58% of its customers, slightly less than Toyota’s 62%. (jdpower.com) If you were to ask a stranger what the most dependable vehicle on the road is, they would most likely say Honda or Toyota. Ask that same person where GM falls under that list, and they might tell you that American cars are junk, and that GM could not make a car that would last 200,000 miles. A seemingly common misconception about build quality of American cars is that they are unreliable after warranty. This is not always the case. With regular maintenance, GM cars are capable of nearly 300,000 miles. In the late 1980’s, while GM was taking apart a Toyota to see what made it tick, Toyota was boasting ads containing its customers who had more than 200,000 miles on their vehicles. There is a market stigma that GM can’t seem to shake. According to the J.D. Powers Vehicle Dependability Index, GM has 30 of its 73 vehicles among the top three in segment, and earned 16 quality and dependability awards—more than any other manufacturer. (jdpower.com)

Flashback

2006-02-15T23:27:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had one of those moments where several things happen in a few moments, and you are taken back to a time in your mind of something really cool? It may be something really small, like a sound or smell, or bigger--like something you see or do. (Dane Cook does a really funny bit about this, by the way) Anyway, I had one of those moments this evening. I was on my way home from Summit, and after a discussion about Italian Cream Sodas (Cremosa), I decided to stop by Coffee In Motion to get one. Last week I saw a sign out front that said "We make the best Italian Cream Sodas". Many years ago I was introduced to these things. My parents and I went to the coast, and for some reason, one of my sister's boyfriends from high school came along. We got to Newport, and he insisted that we stop in and get one of these "soda things". It was a little hole in the wall thing where the Italian Mafia version of the soup Nazi was serving as a barista, before Americans knew what a barista was. Anyway, that was the best one I had ever had. So I see this sign, and decided to take the Pepsi challenge. And I will be danged if they aren't indeed, the best Italian cream sodas I have ever had. Back to the story at hand.

So I swing into the big red double decker bus coffee shack, located next to the adult shop on Mission St. in Salem, and order up my blackberry cream soda. Well, I got a 24oz. soda the other day, and sort of accidentally ordered a 32oz this evening. No biggie, more blackberry goodness for me to enjoy. Anyway, the flashback. The coffee chick hands me back my gigantic non-biodegradable styrofoam cup filled with ice, syrup, soda, and cream. It was crisp and cool out, with not a cloud anywhere that could be seen, and an enormous orangish moon rising. I was immediately transported to the summer of 1998. I had visions of sitting in my (at that time) brand new Ford Ranger in Duncan, Oklahoma at Dave's Cave, which is a brew through, buying my "Ocean Water" beverage. They were fantastic. Some sort of blue thing that was sweet and lemon-limey at the same time. Thankfully, I omitted the chick from Oklahoma from my little flashback, but it was a nice wholesome little vision. It made me think a little though. I really miss that truck. It was the nicest car I have ever had, and I wish I had it today. I also was thinking that on some teeny-weeny levels, I miss Oklahoma. I had a lot of fun there, and made a lot of good friends. It also made me miss the Army that much more. Once again, solidifying that what I am in the process of doing is the right thing, and in a couple of years, I will rejoin my family of soldiers.

Anyway, it doesn't sound that fascinating now that I have re-read it, but I get these kinds of little mental pauses (mentalpause?) from time to time, and I thought I would share this one with you.

Speaking of movies...

2006-02-12T23:25:00.000-08:00

I saw a clip about this on the news. Too bad. The first Jaws fim is actually one of my all-time favorite films. At least in the top 25. He is also one of the reasons why people have such a fear for Sharks. That, and the fact that they are gigantic flesh eating creatures that are bigger than us, and are more comfortable in their environment. Of course, get a few sharks out in the open, on land, and we will see who is the baddest one of them all...

Wow, three posts this weekend! I actually have two more that I want to get written, but they may have to wait until around Thursday.

When I was looking for the Benchley thing, I ran across this. All I can say is. Whoops. Hey, if you are around firearms long enough, you will have an acidental discharge. Of course, who doesn't want to shoot a millionaire lawyer?

Hostage!

2006-02-12T22:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I should probably be working on my research project, but I am pretty unmotivated. I was sitting around today and realized something. I was being held hostage by my TV! Now this may come as no surprise to many of you out there, but I watch a fair amount of TV. That is, when I am not playing Halo2, or Blogging. I have had this conversation with several people, and decided that I finally need to write about it. Yes, I know this is my second post in as many days. So here is the deal: What is it that compels me to watch shitty movies on TV? Seriously, every time there is a terrible movie that I surf across, I will watch it. Often at the expense of a better movie on another channel, or something more noteworthy, like doing something outside. It really dawned on me today how much my TV was holding me hostage with crap, the second time I started into Ten Things I Hate About You. What the hell is wrong with me? By in large, these are movies I would not normally pay money to watch in the theater, rent, or even buy. Some of these movies, however, are good enough to watch on TV but nothing else. I wouldn't pay money for them, but I will watch them on TV. Then there are other stinkers that defy any real reason of why I watch them. I think that some of this stems from the fact that almost all "shows" on TV are ass, and if I am going to watch a quality film, I want to see it unedited and without commercials. So, what are these stinkers you ask? I will put them into two categories for this posting. The first category is Watchable but not buyable. The second category is Not even watchable, but hold me hostage anyway.

Watchable but not buyable:
Road House I know that Ted is a big fan of this film on TV, as are several other people. I will watch it every time it is on.

Navy Seals This movie represents some lame 80's crap. Again, I will sit through it at the expense of another, better movie that may be on.

Days of Thunder/Top Gun I am not much of a Tom Cruise fan, these movies are pretty bad, again, I will sit through them in my living room.

The Replacements I will probably catch some flack over this one. This movie is not that good. But I will sit through it. Maybe I don't like it because I watched it three times on my return flight from Korea.

Actually, I will sit through almost any 80's action flick starring Arnold, Sly, Segal, Swayze. For the most part these flicks are big dumb fun, and represent sort of an era of film in America that is best forgotten. I purposely left VanDamme out of this list. He never made a single movie that I will sit through.

Waterworld This could have been a good movie. The only three good movies that Costner has been in, are Dances With Wolves, Field of Dreams, and Open Range. The last in that list is actually one of my favorite westerns. Anyway, Waterworld is another film I will sit through and stare at aimlessly. For those of you who don't know, the little girl in that stinker is the girl who grew up to play Deb in Napoleon Dynamite. Jack Black is also in it. He plays the airplane pilot. The Postman is not worthy enough to make it either list. I will pass by it every time.

There are others, but this is just a taste.

Not even watchable, but hold me hostage anyway:

Fast and the Furious 1 & 2. These movies suck so hard it is beyond comprehension. They are actually making a third crappy installment. Anyway, for whatever reason, I will usually watch this tripe.

Ten Things I Hate About You This list actually just this afternoon made this list. It sucks really, really bad. I sat through it 1.5 times today.

Bad Boys Actually, you can put almost any Michael Bay or Bruckheimer movie on this list, with but a few exceptions. This movie is dumb as hell, especially edited.

S.W.A.T. This film sucks. Hard. Too bad, Sam Jackson is a damn fine actor most of the time, save for Long Kiss, S.W.A.T., and Formula 51.

Torque I have only seen this movie once. ONCE. That was enough. I saw it for 4 bucks at best buy. I passed on it. I sat through it with Ted, Tyler, Matt, and I think Jake may have been there. We are all subsequently dumber for having viewed it. To prove its power, it held all of us hostage.

Blow This movie isn't that bad. I would not buy it though. It is on AMC or TNT every thirty five minutes, unless a Segal movie is on, or a Bond Marathon. But I will almost always sit through it.

Erin Brockovich I am probably going to catch hell from the empowered female audience that I may or may not have. This movie is LAME. But, I will sit through it. Often two nights in a row.

Anyway, there is just a smattering of crappy movies I watch, I know a bunch of you will now call me a person who has no taste in film and blah blah blah. I know that these films are horrible. I know that it is a bad idea to watch them, but I can't help it. Since I have bared my soul (luckily for you, audience, that is all I will bare here) and told you all some of my dirty little secrets, I ask that you guys chime in with your movies that you will go out of your way to watch, even though you know they are garbage. I look forward to your comments.

Rimjobbing

2006-02-11T23:47:00.000-08:00

Hahaha, got you all with that headline, didn't I?

I am pleased--scratch that--thrilled beyond words to announce the beginning for plans of Road Trip 2006! Oh yes, it will be done. As it stands right now, it will be a mid-August trip. This year, as opposed to most other years, we will be focusing our trip around one national park, instead of many. Once again we will be heading to one of the seven wonders. Another Grand Canyon trip! As most of you who know me are aware, Matt and I made the hike to the bottom and back two years ago. It was one of the most difficult and amazing experiences of my life. This year we have decided to do a Rim-to-Rim hike.

Yes, I know that August is a danger month in the canyon, but so was June, when we did it last time. Yes, I know it is 25 miles. Yes, I know it is going to be hard. No, I cannot even begin to think about not doing it.

The plan, in its rawest form is this: Leave Salem in a rental car, head straight to Vegas. Spend one night in Vegas, head out to the south rim. Get to the south rim, park the car and catch a shuttle to the North Rim (a 4 1/2 hour shuttle trip) Get to the north rim, and camp near the trailhead. Get up around 4:00 am, and head into the canyon from the north rim. We will hike the 14.5 miles to Phantom Ranch on day one of the hike. Spend the afternoon in the 140 degree heat, and then sleep (this is actually harder than it sounds in that heat) get up around 3:30-4:00 am and head back to the trail south. Make the nine mile hike (faster than last time) to the South Rim. Get to the top, spend two nights in a canyon lodge so we can recover. From there it is back to Vegas for one or two nights. The route home from Vegas is as of yet undetermined. This will be one of the greatest things I will have done, and may ever do. I am excited beyond words about this. We will be getting hom a week or two before we have to take vacation from our vacation on the houseboat on Trinity lake. It will be needed I think.

Since I like pictures. . .

Some of you may or may not know, but the climates and terrain vary greatly between the North Rim, and the South Rim. So here is a picture of each to represent how different they are:

North Rim;

South Rim;

Just a mere 25 miles apart.

How it is

2006-02-07T23:23:00.000-08:00

Well, this is another one of those just semi-interesting "the way things are in my life right now" posts. I have a few good posts in mind, but need time to work on them, which is in short supply now. So here goes. . .

I got sick. It was really really lame. A week and a half ago I got a chest and sinus cold. I leveled me for most of last week, and I am just now on the road to a full recovery.

Math is going well, I took my midterm, and got an 85% on it! I was stoked. It looks like I am actually going to make it through pre-calc, which keeps me on track with getting to OSU in the fall. Who knew?

I got a JOB! Wow, all these years of just slumming it, I finally got a job. I think back to the cousin Eddie character in the Vacation movies, who has been out of work for 14 years, because he is holding out for a management position. Well, I got a management position. I wasn't trying. Honest. I just wanted a job as the minimum wage flunky at AutoZone, so I put in an application for a part timer there. Well, apparently based on my qualifications, they offered me a job as part time parts sales manager. I was pretty shocked. I start my training on Monday. This job will be a pretty good fit for me, because I only drive shitty cars, and this way I will be able to get a discount on parts.

I am knee deep in my Research Writing class assignment. My topic is about the potential collapse of General Motors, and it's effect on economies and what not. I am writing it from a problem/solution stance. If you have anything intelligent to offer, feel free to post it. Things I consider not intelligent from the standpoint of helping my paper are comments like "American cars suck. " anyway, I have to write a 12-16 page paper by the end of term about this. I am excited, because it is a topic I am really interested in.

Not a whole lot else going on, lots of school work, soon to be lots of hours at work, getting better after being sick, looking forward to nicer weather, and all that jazz. Thanks for continuing to read. I am really starting to wonder if the collective shine has worn off blogging in this community of readership I have.

I guess I will try to also include a picture for your viewing pleasure as well.

I saw a guy wearing this T-shirt the other day. I thought it was funny.

Books, Music, and Movies

2006-01-16T21:32:00.000-08:00

This has been a pretty good weekend for media in my world. I was able to finish reading my current book, watch a good movie I have never seen, and I got a new CD.

The book: For Christmas, I got one of the books I wanted. 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. I am not sure if it is part of the title or not, but (and Al Franken is #37) is also on the cover. I really enjoyed this book. I was actually surprised by the content. This is the first (but not to be the last) book I have read by Bernard Goldberg. He starts the book by pointing out that this is his list, so he can put whomever, for whatever in his book. He then moves onto different groups of people who are screwing things up. The America Haters, the Media, the race and class warriors, and others. Then he gets to the list. There were only a few people that I was expecting to be on the list present. There were a lot, a lot of university presidents and professors. No one is safe, although most everyone is from the liberal left. His reasoning behind putting people on the list, had to do with damage that said person has done to help murder the true America. It was a fast, good read. Pick it up. If you know me, you may be able to borrow it.

The movie: Friday night I was eating dinner and surfing channels. I ran across the IFC, because on occasion, they have some pretty decent movies. I was pleasantly surprised as I found one of those types of films. It was called Buffalo Soldiers. This is not the Danny Glover film about black soldiers in the civil war. This was something altogether different. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Specialist Ray Elwood, a supply guy stationed in Germany who has all the black market hookups, and cooks heroin under his barracks, and sells mop and glow to the Ukrainians. Things start to get out of control when opportunity leaves them with an Army truck full of weapons, which they promptly steal. About that time, a new First Sergeant arrives, played by Scott Glenn. He and Phoenix have some differing points of view about how soldiers should spend their off time. It was funny, well made, and really enjoyable. There is a real aire of truth to a lot of the stuff that goes on in this film. Whoever wrote this has been an enlisted member soldier. If you get a chance, watch this. I will be adding it to my collection A.S.A.P.

The Music: So, at the beginning of December, I finally shelled out the bucks, and ordered myself a copy of Iraq Unplugged (I did a post about this a while back, and you can also get there from the "support this music" link on the right). January 9th came and went, but still no CD. I was a bit bummed, so I sent an email using the address provided by my pay pal receipt. A day later, I got an email back from one of the artists that made the CD. He apologized, and told me that I somehow fell through the cracks, and that they would send my CD out right away, and would also include some complimentary copies. Well, this morning (even though it was a holiday, it still was there) I retrieved my package from my mailbox. They made good on their promise, and sent me three copies of the CD! I rushed home, slapped it into my player, and spent the next hour on my ass listening to a fascinating, gritty, heart-felt album. Every single song on this album is dripping with passion and the kind of experiences that only a soldier who is deployed can have. Songs on this CD were all made in a studio in Baghdad, just down the road from Saddam's Republican Palace. I am really glad that I got this CD, and would have waited several more months for my copy. I am happy to support these guys, and may even buy another copy or two in the near future. If you have a few extra bucks laying around, you should send off for your copy right now.

Recent Stuff

2006-01-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

Due to some people's whining about no one posting recently, I figured I had better put something up, seeing as how I promised new and great things for this blog in the new year. Since I last posted, I have been pretty busy. Dwayne, Tim, and I have been working hard to realign Summit. I think we have it pretty well nailed down, and will be up and running again on the 18th. I also started school again. I am pretty psyched about school this term. Last term I pulled an A in writing, and a C in math. This term (or at least one class) represents the culmination of a whole bunch of strife and struggle over the last few years. I am finally in Math 111 (Pre-Calc)! Once I get through this class, I will officially be eligible to transfer to OSU, which I plan on doing next Fall. To say that this is both a very exciting and uncertain times for me would be an understatement. This term really will signify the last part of phase one, leading into phase two. I am also taking writing 123, which transfers to OSU as a 300 level college research writing class. We have to write one paper over the entire term. At this point, my topic will be "The Collapse of General Motors, and the Effect on the National and Global Economy, and the other automakers." If you have anything insightful and accurate, feel free to email me what you have. It has to be around 12 pages, but I think I can push it out to around 20. I wish that I had something a little deeper, and more entertaining to read, but at least I have a post now. I have a long weekend coming up, so maybe I will start a short story or something. Feel free to comment on some topic ideas that I can work with.

I figure I had better put some kind of picture up, at least you will have something to look at after reading.

2006-01-01T02:00:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May your new year be blessed with happiness and great things!

Come back in a week or so for new and wonderful posts about me and my life, and other stuff I put here. Thanks to all of you for reading and being interested in my little world.

Merry Christmas, and God bless us all!

2005-12-17T22:03:00.001-08:00

Well, it is finally here! Almost. Christmas, not winter holliday, but Christmas! I am jazzed for it. I just finished decorating the Christmas Tree. A fantastic Noble Fir, donated to me by the fantastic folks over at BTN. I will not be blogging until probably after the new year begins. I am taking some time for personal reflection, family, friends, and to get centered and back on course with stuff in my life. I will most likely still be reading other blogs though. Anyway, here is an adaptation of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, by a U.S. Marine who was stationed in Okinawa when he wrote this. So, as you are home, celebrating the birth of our lord and savior this year, please say a prayer and remember those who aren't home with their loved ones, because they are out protecting our freedom to celebrate our religious holiday. Merry Christmas to everyone, and God Bless us all!

To whom we owe much

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,

HE LIVED ALL ALONE,

IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE

MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE.

I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY

WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,

AND TO SEE JUST WHO

IN THIS HOME DID LIVE.

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT,

A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE,

NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS,

NOT EVEN A TREE.

NO STOCKING BY MANTLE,

JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,

ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES

OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES,

AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,

A SOBER THOUGHT

CAME THROUGH MY MIND.

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT,

IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,

I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER,

ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING,

SILENT, ALONE,

CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR

IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,

THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER,

NOT HOW I PICTURED

A UNITED STATES SOLDIER.

WAS THIS THE HERO

OF WHOM I'D JUST READ?

CURLED UP ON A PONCHO,

FLOOR FOR A BED?

I REALIZED THE FAMILIES

THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,

OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS

WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

SOON ROUND THE WORLD,

THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY,

AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE

A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM

EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR,

BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS,

LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

I COULDN'T HELP WONDER

HOW MANY LAY ALONE,

ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE

IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME.

THE VERY THOUGHT

BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE,

I DROPPED TO MY KNEES

AND STARTED TO CRY.

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED

AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE,

"SANTA DON'T CRY,

THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;

I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM,

I DON'T ASK FOR MORE,

MY LIFE IS MY GOD,

MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS."

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER

AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP,

I COULDN'T CONTROL IT,

I CONTINUED TO WEEP.

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS,

SO SILENT AND STILL

AND WE BOTH SHIVERED

FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.

I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE

ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT,

THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR

SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER,

WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE,

WHISPERED, "CARRY ON SANTA,

IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE."

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH,

AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND,

AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT."

Sleepless in Seattle

2005-12-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

OK, That headline is a little corny and cliche, but it really does fit what I did last Wednesday and Thursday. Last week I ventured north to spend some time in Seattle with my friend, Roberda. I had intended to make it a several day thing, but I had to be back early Friday to do some stuff at my unit. I arrived Wednesday evening around 7, well 7:30 by the time I found parking, I delivered her a table top grand fir Christmas tree courtesy of BTN and we headed out to dinner. After dinner we went to Capital Hill for some desert. If you have never been there, it is a hive of gay men, which makes the place really neat and clean. After desert we headed back to Roberda's place, and watched a movie. It was something like 3am or later when we finally got to sleep. Thursday, after breakfast, we hit up the bus system and headed toward the downtown area and Pike Place Market. The weather was absolutely amazing. Cold, but sunny and beautiful. We went to pioneer square, pirate's plunder, Uwajimaya, and then returned back to Roberda's 'hood for some lunch. We had some Pho (apparently pronounced: Fuh) and followed it up with some bubble tea, which is sort of a tea smoothie, that has tapioca beads in the bottom. It was actually quite good. We headed back downtown to hit up a huge mall just in time for the indoor snow storm. Roberda and I were going to take the monorail (Monorail!) to the Seattle center to check out the Space Needle, but the monorail (Monorail!) was out of service, so we had to bus it. We got to the Space needle and we were just going to go to the restaurant for a couple of drinks, but in order to do that one must first buy an elevator ticket to the top. So we did, and being my first time to the top of the Space Needle, it was actually pretty cool. We got to the restaurant for some drinks and we both ended up having Chocolate Martinis, which were quite tasty. On our way back down, a drunk guy invited us to a party on the event level, so we crashed that until it was obvious that we had been made by the greeting party as outsiders. Then it was closing in on time to head to the movie theater for the midnight opener of Narnia. We got to the theater to find not much of a line, so we decided to head off to find some Gyros sandwiches. We found some, which were probably the best Gyros I have ever had, and headed back to the theater. The movie kicked ass and I am sure that I will be seeing it again. After the movie it was back to Roberda's. We had gotten truffles the night before and decided in order to really enjoy them, we needed champagne. We walked out to the free parking to find my car still in tact, and headed to a store for some bubbly. It was after 2 a.m., so we were out of luck. We got back to her place around 3am, and decided that since I needed to be on the road around 7am for a four hour drive, I had best get some sleep.

Those were my short few hours in Seattle. It was the first time I have been there since I have been old enough to actually remember it. I had an absolute blast, and look forward to going back to visit again soon. We still had a few things on our list of stuff to do that we didn't see. Roberda was a gracious hostess, and a kickass tour guide. Here are but a few of the pictures I took:

Let us not forget

2005-12-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

On this day, December 7th, 1941, the United States was attacked by Japanese forces while at rest for Sunday services in Pear Harbor Hawaii.

After the attack, which eventually would hurl the U.S. into World War 2 and change the world forever, then president Franklin D Roosevelt said:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United
States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air
forces
of the Empire of Japan.
The United States
was at peace with
that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in
conversation
with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance
of peace
in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had
commenced
bombing in Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his
colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent
American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue
the
existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war
or armed
attack.
It will be recorded that the
distance of Hawaii
from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately
planned many
days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese
Government
has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false
statements and
expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the
Hawaiian Islands has caused severe
damage to American naval and military
forces. Very many American lives have been
lost. In addition American ships
have been reported torpedoed on the high seas
between San Francisco and
Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack
against Malaya. Last
night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night
Japanese forces attacked
Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the
Philippine Islands. Last night the
Japanese attacked Wake Island. This
morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
Japan has, therefore,
undertaken a
surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The
facts of yesterday
speak for themselves. The people of the United States
have already formed their
opinions and well understand the implications to
the very life and safety of our
nation.
As Commander-in-Chief of the
Army
and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

Always will we remember the character of the
onslaught against us.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this
premeditated invasion,
the American people in their righteous might will win
through to absolute
victory.
I believe I
interpret the will of the Congress and of the
people when I assert that we will
not only defend ourselves to the uttermost
but will make very certain that this
form of treachery shall never endanger
us again.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our
people, our
territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With
confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of
our
people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.

I ask
that the Congress declare that since the
unprovoked and dastardly attack by
Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of
war has existed between the
United States and the Japanese Empire."

Now, I could go off on a tangent about how the attack on Pearl, is similar to that attacks on 9/11, and how the people of 1941 never whined about pulling out mid race, but I wont. That isn't what this is about.

Pearl Harbor Duing the attacks: U.S.S. Arizona burning after a Japanese armor piercing bomb exploded in the powder magazine.

Pearl Harbor now: U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. Crew still aboard.

The folks that brought you this,

and this,

also brought you this,

and this.

All they got in return for their troubles was this,

and this.

Weekend in review

2005-12-04T23:01:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a lot of fun for me. I had drill on Friday night, and most of the day on Saturday. We had a Class-A inspection, and our Christmas dinner event. It was fun, and I am happy to say, that I had zero deficiencies on my uniform!

Sunday afternoon some friends from Cascade Hills and I headed into the mountains for some fun in the snow. We got a late start, which hindered how far up the pass we could go, but we found a spot, and had a couple of hours of playing in the deep snow, and sledding on a hillside next to a snowed over road. It was a riot.

This week, I am heading to Seattle for a midnight showing of Narnia with Roberda. I am really pumped to see this movie! Unfortunately, this is also finals week. Luckily, as of Tuesday, all of my finals are done, and I can get on with my Christmas break until January.

Throwing in the towel

2005-11-27T22:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't make it. I really had high hopes of getting farther than I did, but what with school, harvest, drill, and being sick on the first week and a half of NaNoWrimo i fell short of the mark. Way short as a matter of fact. About 90% short. I got a little over 5000 of the 50000 words needed to actually make it to the end. I am saddened a little, because I had hoped I would have at least made it to the half way point. Anyway, I am going to post what I have written so far. I am not sure if I will ever do anything with this. It was intended to be chapter one, that sort of sets up the big mysterious intergalactic eveil that causes chapter two, the introduction of the main character, and his getting involved. So here is chapter one. Sorry if the format is a little messed up. The copy paste from Word to here is lame.

Chapter One: The meat grinder.

Hendricks’ eyes popped open. It was cold out, and adrenaline was shooting through his body. Something had startled him awake, but what? It was pitch black in his sector, and all of the other guys were asleep. Maybe it was nothing. That is what Hendricks told himself. Must have been a bad dream. There was something different though. The hair on the back of his neck was stiff, and he could sense goose bumps on his arms inside of his armor. No, this was something else-- Hendricks had felt this before. That was what was bothering him, and making his adrenaline surge even harder.

First Sergeant Doug Hendricks had been in every major engagement that the confederation had been involved with over the last 35 years. He was an old war dog. Wounded more times than he wished to remember, he was a hero to the citizens of the confederation, and a legend among the troops. That is why this feeling he was now having was so troublesome. It was that knotted gut feeling that left your mouth dry and sour. A noise to the right startled his attention, only to realize it was just one of the men turning in his sleep.

“It was nothing you old fool, just go back to sleep, surely the sentry would have picked up anything, just relax and get some sleep.” Hendricks kept repeating this in his head. Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer and sat up out of his position. Slowly, of course. He fumbled around for a moment, finally finding his helmet. It was still damp from the previous day’s sweat, which was cold and slimy on his shaved head. The helmet snapped into place on the armor points, and immediately the Heads up Display cranked on. This new neural based operating system combat armor was amazing. But for an old war dog like Hendricks, it kind of took some of the valor and bravado out of being a soldier. The First Sergeant’s thoughts immediately translated into little icons inside the HUD. Night vision faded into the viewfinder, and nothing was moving on the motion tracker. Nothing at all—which was just a little nerve racking. Somewhere inside the perimeter, someone would have to have been up smoking, or pissing, but nothing was moving. Maybe this was still just a weird dream.

Hendricks activated the armor's climate control, to get a little heat going through his old bones. On a cold night like this, he could feel every old nick and scrape that any engagement had ever earned him. He tried to access his squad’s vital signs, but unless they were powered up, it was useless. As luck would have it, not a damn thing. A little frustrated by the fact that none of his troops were doing their jobs, he decided to try the listening post in his radio.
”Echo four, Echo four, this is Sapper six, over.”
Nothing.
“Echo four, Echo four, this is sapper six, over.”
Still nothing. Hendricks was starting to get pissed. It is one thing for soldiers inside the wire to catch a few zees, but it was another thing altogether to sleep in a listening post. They are supposed to be the early warning for everyone else.
“Echo four, Echo four, get your ass on the radio, Sapper six over.”
This is getting ridiculous.
“Any station this net, any station this net, this is Sapper six, radio check, over.”
Hendricks was getting ready to throw his helmet across the trench, when he heard a faint crackling in his earpiece.
“Last unit…Say again…over”
“Unit attempting Sapper six, you came in broken and unreadable, say again over.”
“Sapper six, Sapper six, this is Cobra three one, we read you loud and clear over.”
“Roger Cobra three one, this is Sapper six, what is your location, over”
“Sapper six, location as follows, grid one zero nine, three eight two, over”
“Roger that Cobra three one, do you have the location of the alpha company TOC in your data terminal, over.”
“That’s affirmative Sapper six.”
“Alright Cobra three one, I need you to send two elements, including one dismount squad to the TOC, condition green, ASAP, over”
“Uhh, Will-co Sapper six, everything under control there? Over.”
“That’s a Rog, just get a move on, I got one of those feelings.”
“Understood Sapper six, all Cobra three elements are en-route, over.”
“Outstanding Cobra three, we will have the coffee hot when you get here, out here.”

Why the hell did Hendricks just order a platoon of tanks, and an armored troop vehicle that is more than a mile away, to his location? He was starting to doubt his sanity. Before he even kicked one soldier out of bed, he was freaking out about possibly being under attack from something. But what? “Well, didn’t get dressed up for nothing” he thought, “time to wake up the kids.” That’s what Hendricks called them, kids. Not a one of them over twenty-one. Only a handful had ever seen any kind of fighting and only two of them had ever been in real combat.

The First Sergeant went down the line of his troops, at first he was gently shaking them by the shoulder until they were awake, giving each one this message: “Wake up and get your gear on son, be prepared for anything, I got me one of those feelings.” Every one of them knew what that meant, mostly just from barracks lore, but it got their hearts pounding and their concentration focused nonetheless. Hendricks had awakened his entire platoon, sixteen men total. Not one of them, including Hendricks knew why.
“Sapper six, sapper six, this is sapper two one, requesting secure, over.”
“Go ahead two one, this is six, on secure.”
“Hey top, what the hell is going on, my guys are pretty rattled down here, over.”
“ Bubba, I have no idea, I just woke up with that feeling, you know the one.”
“Uhh, roger that top, any word from the listening post?”
Hendricks had totally forgotten the listening post. In his haste to wake up his men, and get an armored squad coming his way, he had overlooked them completely. Corporal Jamison, known affectionately by everyone he knew as “Bubba” because of his farm boy charm, and slightly thick appearance, had seen combat before. He had fought along side Hendricks in both the colonial zeta wars, and the last conflict in the desert region on Earth. He was a fine soldier, and a fierce combatant. Hendricks couldn’t think of a better man to lead a fire team out to the listening post to find out what the hell they were doing. He had never once been wrong about his feelings, and he hoped he was wrong about this one. It was too cold to fight, especially since this is just a checkpoint outpost.
“Two one, this is six, over.”
“Go ahead top.”
“Yeah, bubba, I need you to take a small fire team out to the listening post, and wake those guys up, and make sure you give them the appropriate amount of ass chewing, over.”
“Roger that six, on the way.”
“And bubba, try to keep it a little quiet, Six out.”
Before he had even finished his orders, he saw the four men look up and scan the field in front of them before dashing out into the night. “What an amazing bunch of troops these guys are.” Hendricks thought, and a little smile came across his face.

“Alright men, I need two volunteers, and Sparks.” Corporal “Bubba” Jamison said, looking over the seven men in front of him.
“Why do I have to go?” Sparks was a little unruly this morning.
“Because I don’t like you, and hope that you get killed” Bubba replied and kind of chuckled.
“Since that seems to be the only way out of this outfit, then I am all for it.” Private First Class Sparks had the charm that made other soldiers gravitate to him. He was also rather good at his job, and no one in the battalion was a better machine gunner.
“Looks like Sparks is in, who else? Oh yeah, while we are having a debate, Sparks, go get a medic too.” Jamison knew that would both spook and sober everyone up. But they needed it, none of these guys had been in combat before, and when the First Sergeant got ”one of those feelings” Jamison knew he was going to need all hands on deck, and locked in.
“I’m in, not like there is anything on TV.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Private Stenson, and Private Greene. They were best friends from school, they signed up together, and were both accepted into the advanced infantry training with little effort. They would be a welcome addition to any fire team. Sparks returned with a medic in tow. Corporal Jamison finished his conversation with the First Sergeant.
“Alright men, clear your corners, watch your six, and keep close, this is probably nothing, but take no chances. Let's rock.” Bubba was the first out of the trench, and made a speedy line toward a large cluster of vegetation. He made it there, and the rest of his men fell in perfectly behind him, and found some cover.

Bubba pulled a battlefield map into his HUD, and located the listening post, and his location from it. “Team two, I want motion sensors up, use IR instead of night vision, and check your fire. DO NOT go cowboy out here, we are still inside our perimeter, so there could be friendlies anywhere.” All the men acknowledged, and Bubba located his next spot of cover. “Move out team two, on me.” The men instinctively formed a wedge, and moved several hundred meters across the open field. Normally this would be a huge mistake, but they were inside the friendly perimeter. Infra Red vision was gaining no heat signatures anywhere. The listening post was about six hundred meters North of their current position. At that range, there should be some heat signature off the men in there. “Echo four, Echo four, this is Sapper two one, come in, over.” There was no reply. “Echo four, Echo four, this is Sapper two one, with emergency traffic, come in, over.” Still nothing. Bubba was getting mad, when they get up there, those guys are in for an ass chewing of a lifetime. They would be cleaning toilets in the barracks with toothbrushes for a month.
“Sapper two one, sapper two one, this is six, over.”
“Go ahead six.”
“Anything yet?”
“Negative, we are about six hundred meters from the LP, no movement, no heat sigs, and negative contact. We are moving in now. Over.”
“Understood, be advised, there is an armor platoon in route, so check your fire, and turn on your identify friend foe sensors, over.”
“That’s a good copy, six, IFF sensors on.”
“Roger, six out.”

The fire team started using neural signals for movement, so there would be no communication interference. They used a falling line formation, in case things went south, as they approached the listening post. They got to the location, and found nothing. Nothing at all. The two soldiers were not there, their gear was gone, the heavy weapon was gone, and the data terminal was gone. This is weird, and dangerous. “Eyes up men, be ready for anything, set your suits to full combat, and look for any sings of a fight.” Corporal “Bubba” Jamison was starting to get scared. He couldn’t show it in front of the men tough. He could sense that his many years of training were starting to kick in, and instinct was running the show now. “Sapper six. Sapper six, this is sapper two one, emergency traffic over.” There was a lot of anxiousness in his voice.
“Go ahead bubba, and calm down.”
“Sorry top, its just that, well, they are gone.”
“What, like moved positions?”
“Negative six, gone, as in not here, not anywhere.”
“You mean to tell me Bubba, that they just got up and left their post in the middle of the night for no apparent reason?”
“Umm, top, they didn’t leave the position, the position is no longer here. The heavy, the Terminal, everything, it is completely gone.”
“Roger that two one, standby there, keep your eyes open, as soon as the armor gets here, we will light the area up, and find out what is up. But I don’t want to do anything until they arrive, understood?’
“Affirmative six, two one out.”

Corporal Jamison was not happy, this was severely unusual, and downright weird. The men were intently scouring the landscape with in about thirty meters of the site, when private Stenson broke silence. “Corporal, I found something!” He was a little over excited, as though he had just gotten the housing lottery numbers right. “Whaddaya got private?”
“Well, it looks like a combat suit water container, but it is all banged up.”
“Let’s have a lookee see, shall we? Stenson was right, it was a water container, and again right, it was banged up. It looked like it had been stepped on by something extremely heavy. Bubba found the bar code on it, and had his helmet scanner search the information on it. It was the signed for property of one private first class Becker, and a quick search of the duty rotations showed that Becker was one of the two men who were on shift currently at the LP. This is bad. Very bad. “Six, six, this is two one, come in, over.”
“Go ahead two one.” Hendricks was trying to remain calm, he could hear the stress in Jamison’s voice, and hoped that he could instill a little bit of ease by appearing calm. It wasn’t working.
“Uhh, top, I don’t know exactly what to make of this…”
“Spit it out Bubba.”
“Well, we found PFC Becker’s water container off his suit, and it is pretty badly damaged, that is the only thing out here.”
“Say again? Never mind, I got that, you are telling me that the only thing inside of a hundred meters of that position is a beat up canteen attachment?”
“In so many words top, yes. Orders?”
“Just stay put, the armor will be here any second, get small, and get defensive.”
“Roger that Top, we wi…” The communication ended.

As those words came over Hendricks helmet, he could hear the gunfire erupt from Corporal Jamison’s position. It was intense, and pretty one sided. All originating from Bubba’s area. Nothing was coming from any outside source. Hendricks could hear the machine gun that Sparks was carrying explode heavy bursts, and all of the pulse carbines the other men had were firing at maximum cyclic rates. Several explosions could be seen, and then heard. Flares went up over the position. Hendricks could see the men all instinctively hit the ground when the flare lit the area. But the fighting kept going. “React moron!” Hendricks was screaming at himself inside his head. “Get on the fucking radio and save your men!” Thoughts like this were normally coursing through Hendricks’ mind in combat, and that was all it took to spring into action.
“Cobra three elements, cobra three elements, contact, I say again, contact. Need immediate fire support at our location, we have a fire team pinned down at our listening post, over.”
“Roger, Sapper six, ETA, four mikes.”
“Negative cobra three, they might not last that long, get your asses on my point, out!”
Hendricks turned his attention at the remaining nine men. “Snipers, up! Get your asses over here, now.” There was a muffled and bewildered “Roger” as two men with scoped long rifles made their way to his position, which he now realized was standing up in front of the trench on open ground. Hendricks didn’t even bother to get down. “You two men get eyes on that area, and anything you see that isn’t one of our men, you put those fuckers on their backs. Got it?” He was salivating. No time to worry about cleanliness.
“Bulldog command, bulldog command, this is sapper six, over.”
“This is bulldog seven, First Sergeant, sounds like you guys are in a situation there.”
“Roger that sir, we could use any available air elements in this area sir. Over.”
“Understood six, we can have some fast movers inbound in zero one mikes, over.”
“Outstanding Bulldog seven, best news I have heard all day. I will prepare my men for danger close, out.”
That was a little bit of a relief, but not much. At least there would be armor and air support. “Better wake up the arty elements,” Hendricks thought.
“Tango three, tango three, this is Sapper six, over.”
“This is tango three, over.”
“Roger Tango three, this is six, I need to prepare for fire missions, in boxes zero three five, and zero three six, HE rounds until complete, fire for effect, at my command, over.”
“Roger Sapper six, understood, fire for effect, HE until complete, boxes zero three five, and zero three six, at your command. Tango three standing by. Over.”
“Affirmative, and thanks, six out.” Now the artillery elements were on the hook for this too. There had been no real communication from Jamison’s fire team since the shooting broke out, just random yelling back and forth between the men. There were a few broken messages sent from Corporal Jamison, but nothing intelligible. Hendricks shifted his focus back to the two men with the sniper rifles. “Ramirez, Smith, what do you have?”
“Nothing at all first sergeant, not a goddamn thing.” Ramirez was cold and precise with his rifle. He was the highest scoring sniper in the brigade. “What do you mean nothing eagle eyes?” This was a bit puzzling to Hendricks. Either of these men should have shot at least two or three enemies, what with all the shooting coming from the LP.
“I mean I don’t see anything, all I can see is Corporal Jamison’s fire team and all of them shooting to the northeast. Shooting a lot.”
“You mean you can’t see anything? Not a single bad guy? Then what the hell are they shooting at?”
“No idea Top, but we got anything that moves.”

Sparks was scanning the horizon to the northeast as Bubba was talking with the First Sergeant about the water container that belonged to the now missing PFC Becker. Something darted across the open, just at the edge of his vision. Or did it? IR or the motion sensor surely would have picked anything up. Must have been his mind playing tricks on him. There it was again. “What the hell” Sparks was starting to wonder if his suit had started to glitch out. It wasn’t that cold out here though. “Hey Greene, get over here and check this out” Sparks was now intently focused on the area where he saw the movement.
“What’s up man?” Greene was taking his leisurely time to get to Sparks’ location.
“Hurry up private, get over here and see if you can pick up anything about half a click northeast.”
“Like what?”
“Jesus Christ, just do a scan already, stop asking dumbass questions. I want you to see if you can find your mom out there. What do you think I want you to look for? BAD GUYS!” Sparks was tired, and his patience was growing thin. Two men were missing, and extremely strange circumstances surrounded the vanishing. He had little time for stupid questions from one of the super private twins.
“No, I am not picking up anything except you guys. All I am getting is… Wait a minute, did you just see that?” Greene was just as astonished by the movement as Sparks was apparently.
“You mean that thing, or things darting around out there? How big would you say that is?’ Sparks was waiting to interrupt Bubba’s conversation with Top when Greene started to answer him.
“Hell, I dunno, maybe 2 meters tall an…” There was a bright flash followed moments later by an ear piercing crack sound. Sparks dove for cover at the first sign of the flash, it obviously came from the area where he saw movement. He looked over for Greene, but there was nothing there anymore. There was a thick cloud of dust and steam, and through that Sparks could make out what looked like a boot with some fleshy bloody sticks hanging out of them. “Greene! “ Sparks was screaming into his helmet, and hadn’t even realized that he had already fired about fifty rounds out of the machine gun. The female animated voice in his helmet was keeping track of the gun’s heat and ammunition. “Bingo, Bingo, combat fire mode enabled. Three hundred fifty rounds left before empty. Heat at a minimum, continue to fire.”

Jamison was in the middle of getting orders from Hendricks when he heard a loud crack noise, followed almost immediately by the team’s machine gun firing in a non-stop barrage of miniature explosions. Bubba had a slightly calming moment as he realized that the machine gun’s high cyclic rate made a somewhat soothing vibration sound. He barely had a chance to enjoy this sound, as another flash and crack rang out, this time just a few meters from him in the dirt. Fractions of a second later Jamison was as flat as he could get against that dirt. “Bingo, Bingo, contact, team member Sparks engaging unknown enemy targets approximately nine hundred meters thirteen degrees northeast. Now automatically enabling full combat mode, squad communications open.” The female voice was ringing off initial combat commands into Jamison’s helmet.
“Headcount.” Jamison needed to know where his men were.
“Bingo, Bingo, combat mat online, team member Sparks, accounted for, elevated heart rate. Team member Stenson accounted for, moving on line with Sparks. Team member Greene, unaccounted for, no vital signs available, presumed dead. Team medic Jenson accounted for, moving toward team member Greene’s last known location. Suggest suppressing fire in the direction of the combat arrow, then fall back to a reinforcing line.” Jamison’s HUD was filled with a small outline of the area, and colored dots representing the locations of his men, and a red flashing arrow to the northeast. Without even thinking, Bubba shouldered his rifle and began firing three round bursts in the direction of the arrow. “Flares” He yelled, and his female helmet voice acknowledged his command. Two flares fired up and in the direction if the arrow from an integrated pack device on his back. As the flares lit up the area, his visor dimmed and the IR shut off. There was nothing out there. At least nothing he could see. As abruptly as the shooting broke out, it had stopped. As soon as Bubba jammed another magazine into his rifle, three close air support fighters blasted past them, no more than thirty meters from the surface.

The gunfire stopped just seconds before the air support came on station. It was a fierce fight, that lasted for several minutes, but it was extremely one sided. Hendricks was still trying to wrap his mind around what the hell was going on out there.
“Sapper two one, sapper two one, this is Sapper six, come in, over.”
“Two one go ahead.” Corporal “Bubba” Jamison was extremely amped up, and barely understandable.
“Take it easy two one, I need a sit-rep. Over”
“Roger Top, unknown aggressor, we took a small amount of an unknown type of fire from an unknown location thirteen degrees northeast at about eight hundred meters out. On man missing, presumed K.I.A., private Greene. Break.” There was a short pause, as Jamison gathered his thoughts. “Six, we have no idea what happened, we never did see anything, no sensors of any kind picked anything up, and the weapons used were definitely not conventional. Uhh, Top, it pretty much just disintegrated Greene. Over”
“That’s a good copy two one, police up your troops and high tail it back here. Over”
“Wilco six, two one out.” Jamison was happy to receive that order, at least there would be more men at the TOC location.

“First Sergeant, they are on their way back, nothing is following them. They are clear.” Ramirez had been tracking the fire team since they were engaged in the firefight with the unknown and unseen forces out in the cold black plains of the checkpoint.
“Roger that eagle eyes, watch them until they are standing next to you.” Hendricks was fairly confused. All he could think about was how it was way past his retirement, and time to get the hell out. “What the hell was out there, and where did it go?” Hendricks couldn’t get it out of his head. “Why hadn’t the sensors picked up anything? There is no way they had been hacked into. The safe nets would have kicked in and the whole system would have collapsed. It was a fail safe, any corruption in the suit’s programming, and it became a gigantic half million-dollar two-way radio. Cloaking device of some sort? Couldn’t be, not on anything smaller than power armor, and something that size certainly would have been picked up by motion trackers.” Hendricks was sitting in the cold steel trench system just staring off into the darkness. He had shut everything off in his suit except the radios. His old eyes were narrowing as he focused hard into the area where Jamison’s men had been firing. Nothing, nothing at all was out there. It was the area that the freighters had to land in order to be inspected. That was the reason for this cold, unforgiving outpost. It was just a place to land, let the ship’s reactors gain moisture, and get inspected. So what the hell was out there that had made the two men at the LP vanish, and left nothing but a tattered leg as the only remains of private Greene? “Just doesn’t make sense” Hendricks realized he had been mumbling for several minutes. He looked down at the remaining men on the line. They were shaken, but alert. That was good.

Jamison and the three men left followed him back to the control point in the trenches. It was here that not ten minutes ago they had bounded out of, confident that they could take on anything. They returned rattled, missing a friend, and less than confident. “Corporal Jamison returned from patrol First Seargeant, sit rep as follows. Enemy, unknown in numbers, race, and equipment. Casualties, one Private Daniel Greene. Serial number zero two four dash nine nine six three. All other patrol elements alive and accounted for. We were engaged twice by an unknown weapon. It was some sort of beam weapon. When it hit Greene it basically just incinerated him. We left the remains on the field. I almost caught one. It missed, so I am ruling out any kind of assisted aiming tech. I honestly don’t know what to make of it First Sergeant. We never saw anything. Sparks and Greene apparently saw some sort of shadowy thing but I have no idea what that means. It was the last thing they observed before we began taking fire. A total of two incoming rounds were recorded. End report.” Jamison looked like he was exhausted, and had been beat on for a few hours. It was a common affliction of men under fire, where there was no clear victorious outcome. “Good job Corporal. I have already submitted award requests for all of you. Do you want me to send the death message to Greene’s family?” Hendricks was now going through the motions of being a First Sergeant. It was pretty bothersome, and impersonal.
“That is O.K. Top, I will take care of it. I just need to know what to say, I would like to get Stenson some libbo, he will need to get home. He and Greene were close, and they grew up together and all. It may be best if Greene’s parents hear it from him first.” Jamison was starting to calm down, and was getting tired. He needed sleep, and a hot cup of coffee. “Hey top, if you don’t mind, I am going to head down the line and see how Sparks and the others are holding up, and I need some coffee, or something.”
“Yeah, by all means, dismissed. Get some sleep, the armor should be here any second. We will let them head out and sort things out.” Hendricks could see the drained look on Jamison’s face. He needed to get off the line for a while. Hell, they all needed to. They had been out here for four months. Two to go and they were home, and he could process his retirement papers, again. They had been denied twice. He wasn’t sure how many more deployments to the outer rim he could handle before he went section eight.
His radio started to crackle. “Sapper six, Sapper six, this is Cobra Three One, over.”
“This is Sapper Six, send your traffic, over.” Hendricks was upset to say the least. These guys should have been here before that firefight had even started. They must have all been sleeping when his call came in.
“Roger Six, we are approaching our position now, we should be there in about one minute. We had some technical difficulties a while back, some weird glitches and what not. We got them straightened out and will be in sight momentarily, over.”
“Understood Cobra three one, see you when you get here. Over”
“Affirmative, we just had another glitch, something weird with the compu…” Hendricks’ radio went to static.
“Say again Cobra Three One, you broke…” Hendricks was interrupted by four huge flashes of white light less than a kilometer away to the Northwest. Seconds later there were four large explosion sounds, and the ground shook a little. “Cobra Three One, Cobra three one, acknowledge, over.” Nothing but static still. “Any Cobra element, any Cobra element, come in over.” The static had faded out, and there was just a soft dull buzz in the headset.

2005-11-23T22:44:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

GOD BLESS!

Did you eat today? Hug a farmer. Do anything else? Hug a veteran.

2005-11-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Today is veterans day. Let's all thank God for the freedoms we have in this great nation of ours, and while we are at it, lets take some time to thank the brave men and women who have fought and died for those freedoms.

If you know any veterans, please, shake their hand, welcome them home, and say thanks for everything they sacrificed for YOU. Right now, there are several hundred thousand Americans in harms way all over the world. We are coming up on the holidays, and I know from experience how hard it is to be 7000 miles from home over Thanksgiving and Christmas. These brave Americans have volunteered to leave their families and homes, so that you can stay warm with your family in your house. Please just remember that no matter where your political affiliations lie, or your opinion of our engagements afar, or our president, these people are where the metal meets the meat. Give them the respect they deserve, and honor them with your thanks, thoughts, and prayers today.

Once again, here is the poem:

I was that which others did not want to be.
I went where others feared to go, and did what others failed to do.
I asked nothing from those who gave nothing, and reluctantly accept the thought of eternal loneliness. . . Should I fail.
I have seen the face of terror; felt the stinging cold of fear; and enjoyed
the sweet taste of a moments love.
I have cried, pained, and hoped. . .
But most of all, I have lived times that others would say were best forgotten.
At least someday I will be able to say that I was proud of what I was. . .
A soldier.
-Unknown

Christmas is just around the corner

2005-11-09T23:07:00.000-08:00

This is the reason I know:

This is my shuttle truck. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Ok, I was going to go off on the whole rifleman's prayer, but substitute the words shuttle truck, but I decided it was a little lame. Anyway, this is one of the things I do at work. I get to drive one of these behemoths full of Christmas trees. It kind of makes me feel a little like the Santa (No, there will be no fat guy jokes). We fill them with trees that have been bailed, and are ready to be sold, and we fill them with cut trees straight out of the field, often with the use of a helicopter, which looks like this:

So, like I said, this is how I know that Christmas is just around the corner.

If you have ever considered donating money for a good cause, THIS is the one

2005-11-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Between now and November 11th, VETERANS DAY, Project Valour-IT is having a little fundraising competition, to see which military branch team can raise the most funds. Of course, I joined the only team worth joining in the competition, the ARMY team. Led by team leader Blackfive. There are, however, teams for Air-Force, Marines, and Navy, for those of you who feel you need to go that route. Seriously, I can't think of a better use of funds. I am basically a broke college student, and I think I will donate half of this month's National Guard drill pay. If my service can give one of my fellow servicemen the ability to communicate again, then I have done my duty as a soldier. I have added a donation button, and a team tracking box to the right. If you are asking what Project Valour-IT is, here is a snippet from their main page:

"Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. The experience of CPT Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important this voice-controlled software can be to a wounded servicemember's recovery."

Right on track. . . For now.

2005-11-03T22:59:00.000-08:00

Well, according to NaNoWriMo, by midnight tonight, I should have 5000 words in order to be on track. My word count?

5021

That's right ladies and gentlemen! I am officially on schedule. Of course, I am going to be gone all weekend. So on Sunday night, I need to write another 5000 words to be on track. That's ok, I may just make that. I just finished chapter one, and am excited to get to the meat and potatoes of this little tale. Chapter two will be main character intro, and hopefully, will find him making it to the point where he actually accepts the challenge.

Wish me luck! And a hearty dose of good luck to my fellow NaNo-ers!

Songs from the front

2005-11-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

Today I was surfing around and ran across a few websites about, and dedicated to the brave men and women fighting to protect our many freedoms we enjoy. I will try not to get too political or preachy here, I just want to once again, share things that are important to me. One of the sites I found, which is now linked to the right, under "Support this music" is a site that features music composed, and performed by a few soldiers in Iraq. You can click on each of the nametapes and hear music sample. I will certainly be purchasing their CD, called Iraq Unplugged.

While I was surfing about, I received a link from Steve talking about the misportrayal of the messages sent home from the troops. Here is an example of an actual letter sent. Apparently the Times severely edited a clip from this letter, to put an anti war editorialized spin on it. You can read the editorialized version on the link above, I only wanted to post the real letter:

For those who might not have known, the Times took these words from US Marine Corporal Jeffrey B. Starr:

"Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

The author of this site, Greyhawk, also posted this letter to his family on his site, before leaving for Iraq in 2004. I only post this stuff because I find it moving, and want to share.

On Leaving
Greyhawk

I awoke in the quiet watches with my youngest in my arms, wondering what I might say to her and her brother and sister and their mom and knowing I was done with sleeping for this night.

Here is why: Some must go to fight the Dragons. And if you think such things don't exist then it must be I read you the wrong sorts of stories when you were young.

If you ask only why I and not some other than I can tell you this;

Listen

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

The President of the United States said that when I was very young. Now some will tell you that such thinking is out of fashion these days and that the causes we turn our energies to are unjust. I can tell you only that I don't think so, and that I'm quite certain the dragons themselves would raise such concerns were we to give them voices.

This is for us all: Have faith, not fear. Trust God. Stand fast, be strong.

For me the time is here to leave precious things behind for just a while, and that cost is not too great to bear. After all, what things could be called precious if not worth any price?

For you it's simply time to be brave, as so many of your friends have. Think about this: Without bad there could be no good. Hard times pass. Be kind to one another in every possible way; lift the burdens that others bear and I think you'll find your burden's lighter too.

Worrying helps nothing, try not to do it. Don't feel bad when from time to time you do. And please do fun things and enjoy doing them - you owe me nothing more than that.

And never tell me anything's too hard.

Take pictures.

Write.

Smile.

See you soon.

Once again I just want to reiterate that despite the entire media outcry about the uselessness of our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan there are many brave men and women serving proudly there and elsewhere who are deeply proud of what they do, and are ashamed of the actions taken by the mainstream media on their behalf. I added a few links today to the right. And yes, I finally added Christi's blog, after like a year, and finally her telling me I am an idiot for not.

I will now step off my soap box.

Word Count

2005-11-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

As of 11/02/05, my unofficial word count is:

4029

Yay! NaNoWriMo is going to kill me I think.

What the hell did I get myself into?

2005-11-02T00:35:00.000-08:00

Well, it is official. I have begun my first ever NaNoWriMo competition. The concept? Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, during the month of November. I was really excited as this process was getting ready kick off. But now that November is here, I am thinking that I am pretty much screwed for getting it done. I currently have a cold, work, and school. All three of which are about to pick up quite a bit. Well, the cold is actually almost gone. There is also Summit to plan for, which is more important than writing a novel. Anyway, it comes out to be something like 1670 words a day, but I am going to miss several days because of National Guard drill, and a few other things. I am, however, proud to say that I have just finished my fisrt set of writing! And ahead of my prescribed word count, by almost a thousand words! My unofficial count for day one is: (Drumroll please.) 2874! Wuhoo. I just got on a spree and started writing. I have no idea where it is going from here, but I am sure I will give it the ole college try.

Here is an excerpt... The first two paragraphs.

Hendricks’ eyes popped open. It was cold out, and adrenaline was shooting
through his body. Something had startled him awake, but what? It was
pitch black in his sector, and all of the other guys were asleep. Maybe it
was nothing. That is what Hendricks told himself. Must have been a
bad dream. There was something different though. The hair on the
back of his neck was stiff, and he could sense goose bumps on his arms inside of
his armor. No, this was something else-- Hendricks had felt this
before. That was what was bothering him, and making his adrenaline surge
even harder.

First Sergeant Doug Hendricks had been in every major
engagement that the confederation had been involved with in the last 35
years. He was an old war dog. Wounded more times than he wished to
remember, he was a hero to the citizens of the confederation, and a legend among
the troops. That is why this feeling he was now having was so
troublesome. It was that knotted gut feeling that left your mouth dry and
sour. A noise to the right startled his attention, only to realize it was
just one of the men turning in his sleep.

So, wish me luck, and I am sure as the month wears on, I will be blogging less. But I won't forget about my loving audience.

You tell them that Porter is coming.

2005-10-24T23:18:00.000-07:00

Meet Porter, the newest edition to our family. Porter is a 13 week old male boxer, who was given to us by a friend who rescued him from some people who didn't have room for him in their home. He came to us on Saturday, and has been adjusting quite well. He is getting along well with Lina, our 10 year old female boxer. He is full of energy, but seems well mannered. We are looking forward to lots of great times with our new dog.

Final draft of the Boxer versus Briefs paper.

2005-10-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is the final draft of my paper that was turned in today. The format was changed slightyly by pasting it into blogger. Thank you all for your input and editing help. I should know by next Tuesday what I got on the paper.

Boxers versus Briefs
A quick glance at what is in America’s pants

America is at war. At war with a faceless adversary who is fanatical about the beliefs they hold. This war has been waging for years and has solid uncrossable lines. These lines have become a bit softened in recent years, but the sides remain as resilient as ever. The war has to do with the very thing that supports our nation . . . Our underwear; specifically men’s underwear. The debate over whether it is better to wear boxers, briefs, boxer briefs, or to “go commando” has been waging between men (and women) for decades.

It could be a safe assumption that early man did not argue with one another over the use of fig leaves versus turtle shells as to which was a better undergarment. Historians have found remains of Egyptian Pharaohs buried with their loincloths, presumably for use in the afterlife. It wasn’t until around the 13th century that pull-on undergarments were invented and began to see regular use by society. These are the forefathers so to speak of today’s various types of underwear. The Industrial Revolution and the technology it brought saw the beginning of mass produced undergarments. For the first time, people could buy their undergarments in a store, rather than making them at home. These were what we know today as “Long Johns”. (History of Men’s Underwear) In today’s fashion driven oversexed marketplace necessity rarely drives purchases, and one could hardly see buying some long underwear as a fashion statement. There are several types of undergarments- specifically for men that dominate the fashion marketplace today. They are:

· Briefs. Also known as tighty-whiteys. These are tight fitting, elastic lined undergarments, usually cotton, that fit around the waist and high throughout the thighs.

· Boxers. These are the traditional looking “shorts” usually with an elastic waistband and looser through the thighs and come down to about mid thigh. They can be made from all sorts of materials from silk, to flannel.

· Boxer Briefs. These are a combination of both of the above garments. They look like boxers, however, fit snugly all throughout. Usually made of a cotton/lycra/wool blend.

· Thong/G-Strings. These are rarely found to be worn by men, unless they are dancers in the exotic industry. They consist of very little fabric of various types, snugly fitting the genitals and having a thin string or piece of fabric running between the legs and connecting in the back. Also known as a “T-Back”

· Commando. This is a slang term for one who wears no underwear at all. Also known by slang as “freeballing” in men, and “freebuffing” for females. This is becoming more acceptable in today’s hygienically active society. Bathing once a day or more reduces the need for underwear as protection. Also in our hypersexed culture, seeing underwear as the final barrier before sex, the lack of that barrier is a more risqué approach to attracting partners. Traditionally the Scottish Kilt is worn without any undergarments. (History of Men’s Underwear)

For this discussion, the focus will be on the two main camps in the fight on which undergarment is the best to wear- boxers and briefs, however, a look at both boxer briefs and the commando approach will be discussed. According to a recent poll conducted on the author’s website 39% out of eighteen responses, wear or prefer boxers, while a tie of 28% wear or prefer briefs or boxer briefs. A single vote of one individual wearing or preferring to “go commando” gives this choice a 5%. The graph below represents these numbers.

Graph 1

This polling trend shows boxers leading out just a skidmark ahead of briefs and boxer briefs. All sides of this argument that are represented have a multitude of reasons why they wear or prefer the garment of their choosing. (Rutherford) The following is a look at the various reasons that each camp uses to support their war cry of “Our undies are better than yours!”

Briefs people have usually gone with the policy of “Mighty tighty whiteys, and I’m smuggling plumbs.” This refers to the idea that briefs offer more support in the crotch area, and therefore is a better undergarment. There is also an issue of mobility. Because briefs fit more snugly, and have no thigh coverage to speak of, movement of the legs is less restricted by bunching and tightening of fabric. A larger number of overweight or heavily muscled men have trouble wearing boxers due to the fact that a standard cut fit may be too tight for thicker thighs. Some women also prefer the look of a physically fit man in briefs – just look at a Calvin Klein ad and you will see the “perfect body” model posing in just his briefs.

The boxer brief camp is relatively new to the fight, not becoming largely accepted on the marketplace until the early to mid 1990’s. (History of Men’s Underwear) This camp represents the fence sitters of the groups. They want the snug fit and support of briefs, but the coverage of boxers. This is perhaps just a fashion trend, and may die out when the “next big thing” comes along. This is sort of an initial step for people leaving one side or the other. People not quite ready to make the move out of their camp entirely may land in this category. This seems to be another fashion that is looked upon favorably by the female of the species lately.

“Going Commando.” This is sort of the radical extremist cell of the group. These people are undying in their convictions of “giving up the shackles of modern society and their underwear.” This is sort of a “keep your societal norms out of my pants” mantra for this group. The author had a hard time finding anyone who would admit to this way of life. It is sort of a taboo style of clothing. Many a man has a story about the girl he met at a club or wherever who was “freebuffing.” As with any situation, a group who goes against the societal norm should be approached with caution.

Boxers, the leader in the poll, and the choice of undergarment of the author, has many scientific and historical reasons behind its being the winner. There is a lot of medical research that believes that the wearing of boxers can increase fertility, due to the lack of heat building and constricted blood flow throughout the testicles that briefs have. For families looking to conceive, doctors have for years advised patients to switch to boxers. Up until the early 90’s, the only undergarment issued to troops by the U.S. Military were boxers. This policy has changed in recent years and now for the most part enlistees can choose the undergarment of their preference. There is also an access advantage with boxers. Boxers have a slit opening in the front, sometimes offering a button, but more often not. This allows easier access when going to the bathroom, as opposed to briefs/boxer briefs that have a series of elastic folds to contend with.

The author grew up as a briefs person, many times trying boxers and boxer briefs only to return to his original camp. On the advice of a female friend, the author purchased and tried a pair of cotton boxers. The fit, comfort, and look was all it took to instantly change camps from briefs to boxers. The author has been forever changed after seeing the light at the end of the elastic crotch flap, and will never go back again.

So what does all this mean? It means that Americans are as diversified in their undergarment choices as they are as a people. It means that there is plenty of room for all sides of the underwear battle, although the obvious choice is boxers. Judging by the numbers, it is a close call for the three contenders. So is this a question of the ages? Will historians one hundred years from now be debating this in colleges? Only time will tell.

Works Cited

“History of Men’s Underwear.” http://www.manstouch.com/
Rutherford, Eric. “A Brief Poll” 10 October 2005.
www.inflightmissilerepairman.blogspot.com

I didn't sign up for this.

2005-10-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I was watching Off to War on the Discovery Times channel. This is a documentary that chronicles an engineering company and their families back home, as they get deployed to Iraq. This has been a really good show, and I have enjoyed every episode immensely. There was something in the newest episode that I saw that bothered me though. This is something I have been noticing more and more lately, both in the media and in real life. It is the “Poor me, I didn’t sign up for this” attitude that a lot of Soldiers/Marines/Sailors/Airmen seem to be having lately. Well, not a lot, it just seems that way because they are the only ones ever talking to the media (I expect that everyone else who doesn’t feel that way is busy doing their jobs.) I see it a lot, in this particular case, it was a bunch of guardsmen whining about “only signing up for one weekend a month, two weeks a year.” Throughout the series you hear soldiers saying, “I did not sign up for this” or “We weren’t trained to handle this.” My question is: Could the media please seek out members of the armed services who are proud of what they are doing, and understand the inherent risks with putting on the uniform?

With the release of the movie Jarhead coming out, it just compounds the disgruntled soldier image. Now, I have not read this book, just the jacket and reviews on Amazon. I have no intention if seeing this movie, and am saddened by the fact that no one can seem to make a decent movie about the Marines (Full Metal Jacket excluded). The other night I was in Borders getting my MLA Handbook for Research Writers, and Matt was looking for Bing West’s newest book. We were looking through the military section and the gulf war subsection. Almost every book in there was written by or about soldiers who were pissed about being solders. It was depressing. I was an active duty soldier, and am now a national guardsman. I am deeply proud of both. Yes, there are times when it sucks worse than most people could ever imagine. Yes, there is a high likelihood of getting killed or badly wounded, and yes, there is about a 100% chance that you will get told to do something that you do not want to do. So help me God, I am going to freak if I hear one more member of the Armed Forces spout off “I only signed up for the college money.” I can tell you that there are many, many cheaper ways to pay for education. I am just baffled by the large number (or at least it seems that way) of people in the military who think that it is not their job to go off to fight at the whim of the Commander In Chief. The second a person raises their right hand and says,

I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the
orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers
appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military
Justice. So help me God.

they release all rights that they have as a U.S. citizen. Something a person must understand about the military is that it doesn’t require a democracy to protect one.

Which brings me to the point of this ranting. Our great nation is doomed. Not because of corrupt politicians. Not because of communism. Not because of terrorists. Not because of a poor economy, but because of the large majority of its citizens. Our country is filled with people who are more concerned with themselves, and what is in it for them, than whether or not our nation will survive another century. But fear not faithful readers, I have a solution. It is not a comfortable one; in fact it is downright painful for most. It is, however, extremely simple. Mandatory national service. Note I said “National service” not “military service.” There is something like 50 nations that have conscription, or a draft of some sort with varying requirements. My plan is an easy one, at least in theory. Every legal citizen who turns 18, at time of graduation from high school, must join one of the available national service programs. The term is two years, during which time the individual will wear some sort of uniform, live in a barracks style environment, and be responsible for obeying all laws set forth by the mandatory national service doctrine that would be drafted up. No pun intended

I am sure that by now there are a whole bunch of people who are disagreeing with me, and saying that not everyone can take part, and that it violates a persons’ rights. Wrong and wrong. Why? First off, because this is my blog and I am always right on it. Secondly, there is no reason why someone cannot participate in this, unless they are severely mentally or physically disabled. What I have in mind is a large portion of people would join the armed forces. But a lot of people could also join one of many national work programs building houses, neighborhoods, national parks, and roads. The main point here, is that young Americans would be required to do something meaningful before they could take part in American society. I feel that what would come of this, is a less selfish nation of people who were involved in something bigger than themselves. As far as violating a person’s rights goes, rights only mean squat if there are people to protect them. Certain inalienable rights does not include exemption from having to serve the country that provides those rights.

So anyway, I will get off my little soapbox for the meantime. This is going to be the topic of my next writing assignment. I am still compiling data. If you look to the far right of the page, I have a new poll. You guessed it … It has to do with mandatory national service. Also, if you want to read accurate accounts of the war on terror in Iraq, just click the Michael Yon button to the right.

My last few weeks in review

2005-10-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a while since I have had an update blog, so here it goes. Working backward. I had my drill with the guard for the month of October. It went quite well. As I had hoped, I was able to shoot expert on the rifle range-- scoring 39 out of 40 with my rifle. I was pumped. Only a couple others shot as well or better.

School. School started on the 26th of September. So far, I like all of my classes, and in my Math 095 class, I had my first test and scored 91%! I have a paper due in my writing class on Tuesday, and I will post the final draft here for all to read as soon as it is done. The next blog post I am working on has to do with my next paper's topic. So far school is kicking ass, and I am looking forward to doing well.

My car is back on the road! It took about a month to get enough money to make it happen, and I still don't trust it, but at least I have a decent looking car that has a stereo, and such amenities as power windows and locks. Let's all hope it lasts for a while.

Fun stuff. I saw A History of Violence. It was pretty good. It was definitely violent, but in the parts with no violence, or gratuitous sex and nudity, it seemed slow and disjointed. I wouldn't suggest seeing it for full price, but economy price or at somewhere like Northern Lights would be worth the investment. Monday night I was talking to my friend Roberda, and she asked me what was up for my Tuesday evening. I of course had nothing going on. She was in Portland for some training thing, and thought we might get a chance to hang out. I took a chance with my other crappy car (1984 GMC S-15 Jimmy) and headed to Portland to meet up for some undetermined evening plans. We took Max to downtown from Roberda's motel, and immediately began looking for some food as we were both starving. We ended up eating a fantastic dinner at Pazzo. We both had the salmon stuffed ravioli. It was awesome. She and I then ventured to find a local coffee shop for a cup of java. I had a grande black forest mocha and it was pretty darn tasty. It was getting pretty late at that point, Roberda had class the following day, and I had school as well. We caught Max back to the airport, and got a shuttle to her motel. I headed back home, and almost immediately got lost on Killingsworth. I ended up taking Killingswort/Portland Ave all the way to MLK, then MLK to Broadway and got on I-5. It was a very ethnic journey. All in all, I had a blast adventuring about P-Town with Roberda, and look forward to doing it again soon.

Today I watched football at Tyler's. The Beavers beat Cal, and USC beat Notre Dame. It wasn't televised, but the Ducks beat Washington! All in all, a great day in college football. Sorry for not including any links in this post. It is late, and I am feeling too lazy to work on links.

New site content

2005-10-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

So if you feast your eyes onto the far right of the page, just above the links section, I have now added a polling box. Mostly I will use this for asking questions for my writing class and what not, but from time to time, I will mix it up a bit. Please, vote responsibly.

A Brief Poll.....

2005-10-10T00:11:00.000-07:00

So I have my first writing assignment coming up in my Argument Writing class. We had to pick a topic that we had no strong feelings about, then write a 3-5 page paper about said topic.

My topic?

Boxers vs. Briefs.

So I am conducting my first ever poll here on my blog. This poll will be finalized Wednesday, October 12, at 3pm PST. So to my audience, well, mostly my male audience (although women can answer in one of two ways, what their significant other wears, or which she prefers) I ask this question:

Do you wear;

Boxers?

Briefs?

Boxer briefs?

Or go Commando?

Please post your responses in the comments section.

Thanks for your input!

Back to school blues

2005-09-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it is officially Fall again. This is signified by cold mornings, early, vivid sunsets, acorn squash, and school.

Today was my first day of class. I have an 8:30 a.m. Math 095 class. I am kind of nervous about this class, as it represents the highest level of math I have ever taken. Most of you know how much I hate math. My nose doesn't get itchy, but I would rather sit through back to back showings of Titanic, and Pearl Harbor. I also have writing 122 "logic & style. I have that class tomorrow morning, after Math. By in large, I am kind of excited to get back into school.

This Sunday is the official Launch for Cascade Hills. If you have a chance, swing in for worship, it should prove to be awesome. I would love to be there, but I have to attend my National Guard Drill weekend. The good news, at least I will be able to have my rifle qualification again, and I intend to shoot expert. Last time I got Sharpshooter, one level below Expert. That wasn't that long ago, so hopefully I will shoot just two hits better. I also have another P.T. Test. Yuck. If there was one thing that haunted me through my entire military career, it was P.T. I am in the process of working that issue out now, so that if I ever do go back active, that will not be an issue.

I have added some new links recently. The first one you will notice, is the Michael Yon button. This is for an online magazine that has the rawest, most accurate Iraq reporting, from a guy on the ground with a Stryker battalion, where the metal meets the meat. Please read his blog, and pass the word. Next up is Daniels Political Musings. He is one of my favored political blogs. His is the reason I stick to non-political stuff here. Hard to do a better job than he does. The next one is Do or Die. Another good political blog to read. Finally, I added a link to Grouchy Media. They truly are the best videos on the internet. they take real videos and pictures from the frontlines and make music videos with them. If you feel no emotion while watching them, you should leave America.

So I need to go to bed now, because I gotta get up early for school. Thanks for all your readings, comments and support.

Deployments, Transmissions, Trinity, and the best dollar I have ever spent.

2005-09-18T23:45:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I blogged, so I thought I should at least give a quick update, seeing as how several things have happened in my life recently.

Deployments: My unit was not selected for the Louisiana mission. I was bummed, because I really wanted to go down there and do my part. However, after talking to some people down there, I am not so sure it is such a bad thing that we didn't go.

So last Monday, the 12th, Matt and I set out for Trinity Lake in California to hang out on a houseboat for four days with the Stones. This is a huge tradition, and looked forward to all year long by most. This was going to be the first year going for both Matt and myself. So we set out at 7 a.m. on Monday totally stoked to have a badass time. About 180 miles into the trip, on the last grade on Interstate 5, just before Grants Pass, I was passing a truck when all of the sudden my car just free revved to about six thousand RPM's. That is bad. It settled down, unlike my adrenaline, and continued to drive without slipping in the higher gears. We decided to stop in G.P. to check the transmission fluid. We stopped at the first traffic light, and that was it for the car. Apparently, first and reverse are gone out of the trans. We parked the car at a Shell station and set out to find a solution to our MASSIVE problem. To make a long story short, (too late) we rented a car to drive back home, borrow a diesel pickup and car trailer form the Stones, to drive back down the following day and rescue my 3500 pound paper weight. The Stones, who are some of the greatest people you will ever meet, let us still come to the lake in their pickup so we could still hang out with them. Thanks guys.

Trinity: I had never been to this lake, or that part of California for that matter. The lake is huge, warm, and beautiful. Tyler picked us up at the dock, and our week (well, three days) was off. The houseboat was big and nice, there was more food and drinks than could be consumed by twice as many people in twice the time. It was amazing. I rode sea-dos for the first time ever, and only fell off three times. I also jumped into the lake from a high-ass cliff. It was scary and awesome. Needless to say, I am already looking forward to next year, and coming back to a rainy Oregon sucked spokes.

Oktoberfest: This is another first for me. Now, I know, as was pointed out to us several times by Matt, that the Oktoberfest in Mt. Angel doesn't hold a candle to the real one in Munich, Germany. Be that as it may, I had a blast. Several of us were at Ben's watching boxing on pay per view, and after it was over at like 9p.m. we made an impulse decision to head to the biergarten. After some wandering around, and drinking some skunky beer, we found ourselves in a larger hall with some live music. And some wacky people. We were standing around watching this guy play some bells, when we noticed a drunk guy. Now, to be called a drunk guy at this kind of thing, means you really have to be standing out. Drinking spilled beer off the concrete floor qualifies as drunk. This fruitcake the proceeded to dance around with a quarter in each hand like a little ballerina. It was hilarious. His crushed cowboy hat, sweaty T-Shirt, and warm-up style jogging pants really made the show. So we were all having a good time at his expense when I noticed an elderly gentleman eyeballing one of the girls we were with. She noticed it too, and moved away. A few minutes later the old guy moved around to her again. I decided to strike up a conversation with him, and that is when the insanity started. This old guy, we will call him Bill, was there alone, and drinking. He is a 10th mountain Division Vet, presumably from the Korean War. He started talking smack about the "fruitcake homo" dancing around, and calling the alcohol monitors "polizei". About that time, some confused gentleman wearing a kilt and a bunch of other Scottish garb walked by. Bill asked this guy why the hell he was wearing a dress at a German festival. His response was a lame, nerdy response about being from across the pond and checking out the sights. Bill called this guy a dipshit, and several other things. The Scotsman was at the bar facing away from us, and I had the idea that Bill should see if the guy was actually Scottish by checking under his Kilt. I offered a dollar for the task, and I had barely gotten the bill out of my wallet and Bill was springing into action. Sure enough, Bill hiked this guy's kilt, and got himself a face full of bare ass. We were rolling. About this time, the token booth had closed, and we only had one token left. It took four tokens to get a beer. Bill decided he could "Schmooze the fat girl at the bar" to give him another beer. We gave him our blessing and last token. Bill once again leapt into action for another beer. About this time, some retard decided to ask the two girls we were with to dance. I discouraged this action, by telling him to F-off, about four times. I then told him that he may have better luck trying to draw an overweight girl. He wandered off somewhat discouraged. Sure enough, Bill then came back with a free beer. What magic Bill had! We drank for a little while, then noticed that the guy from earlier was, indeed, dancing with a hefty gal and having a splendid time. We ran low on beer again, so Bill took matters into his own hands, and headed toward the beer counter. He placed a cup under the tap, waited for the opportune moment, and filled his own cup. He brought it back and gave it to us, then headed right back for another. After bringing that one back, we convinced him that the "polizei" was onto us. If they weren't, the girl who ratted us out for it certainly was. The place was shutting down, so our Designated Driver decided we should leave. As we walked past the crowd of dorks that ratted us out, the girl called me an asshole. I laughed a hearty laugh and kept walking. That was the end of Oktoberfest for me, but I can't wait until next year to go again. It was fun, and who knows, we just may see Bill again.

Effects of Katrina to be felt as far away as Turner, OR

2005-08-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

So I get a phone call this afternoon from my section sergeant. It appears that I may be going to Louisiana, and have to be ready to go to the south to help aid with the clean up/rescue efforts. I will know more by Monday, and could be leaving as soon as next week. The tour would be for around 1-6 months. But most likely less than 90 days. Anyone have an old/extra laptop that they could give me as a loner if I go, so I can keep people posted when I get an internet connection? Once again, I will post my little poem about being a soldier. Thank you all for your thoughts, and support. (save all of your prayers for those who are truly in need down there)

I was that which others did not want to be.
I went where others feared to go, and did what others failed to do.
I asked nothing from those who gave nothing, and reluctantly accept
the thought of eternal loneliness. . . Should I fail.
I have seen the face of terror; felt the stinging cold of fear; and
enjoyed the sweet taste of a moments love.
I have cried, pained, and hoped. . . But most of all, I have lived
times that others would say were best forgotten.
At least someday I will be able to say that I was proud of what I was. . .A
soldier.

-Unknown

Hurricane Katrina Relief

2005-08-31T15:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Thursday September 1st, is International Blog for Relief Day. I selected the Salvation Army for the charity of my choice. As of this posting, there are more than 380 blogs participating. For a list of other charities, news, and ways to help, click here and here

Gumball!

2005-08-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

Gumball. . . Gumball. . . Gumball!

It is here, its finally here! About three months ago, I preordered the movie The Gumball Rally. It shipped a few days ago, and I just finished watching it. Ahh, what a fantastic, iconic film of American freedom. For those of you who don't know, Gumball Rally was the first in a long string of movies about organized underground illegal races from one side of the U.S. to the other. Movies such as The Cannonball Run, and Speed Zone. Both of which pretty much suck spokes in comparison. This film is more about the cars, rather than the quirky humor of the drivers. The "stars" of the film are a vintage Ford Cobra, and a red Ferrari. I will cherish this movie forever. Yes, I said that. It might make it onto the next movie night list.

There is actually a real race that happens every year now, called the Gumball 3000. You can witness the ultra rich playing their games in these races by watching the Teckademics Mischief 3000 video, which I have by the way.

And yes, I am actually working on Foxholes 4, I am about a third of the way done with it.

Got Spam?

2005-08-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

I have seen a lot of spam in the comments lately. (Sorry, Veronica for being rude, but with all the spam it is hard to tell who is a real commenter) Tonight when I was getting on to create a new post, I saw this on the blog lead page. I hope that by me turning on word verification, it doesn't discourage anyone to leave comments on my blog. I would also encourage all of you to turn on word verification as well.

Teaser. . .

2005-08-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

It's that time again. Oh yes it is. I now have a lot more time on my hands, and I am having a hankerin' to start writing again. So you know what that means. . . Foxholes 4 baby! It will still be a week or two until it is done, so in the mean time, you can catch up on the last installments by clicking these links.

Foxholes 1 Foxholes 2 Foxholes 3

So take some time to freshen up on my Korean exploits, and I will honestly have part 4 up within two weeks. Thanks for all of your patience, and ribbing.

Math, P.T., and Reunions

2005-08-19T18:52:00.000-07:00

So it has been a long time since I have posted, and a lot has been happening. I know that I now have at least four more readers. Welcome. I took my math final on Wednesday. I actually feel pretty good about it, but I have a hunch I will only pull a high "c" out of the class. But that is awesome, because I can finally move on with my math stuff. I hate math.

Two weekends ago was my August drill, which consisted of weapons qualifications, a P.T. Test, and a mandatory-fun day picnic. I used my trusty M-16 (mine is manufactured by FN, not colt, which is a good thing) and qualified as Sharpshooter. I really wanted to get expert, because of all the times I fired in the Army, I only missed expert twice. Anyway, after not using an M-16 for about 5 years, I guess I can't be too disappointed with one level below expert. The following day was a P.T. Test, which consists of two minutes of pushups, two minutes of situps, and a two mile run. I just missed it, although I made improvements. But I was pumped about it. After that, I had to go to a unit picnic. It sucked, but at least I got paid for it.

Last weekend was my ten year high school reunion. After much flip-flopping and deliberation, I flew in solo, and was really amazed at how much of an awesome time I had. If I hadn't gone, I think I may have missed out on a fantastic time, and a chance to see a bunch of people that I hadn't seen in a long time. I was shocked at how normal and pretty cool almost everyone was. I was kind of expecting everyone to not have changed I guess. Next time you see me, ask me about offending a local millionaire. As soon as I figure out how to use picasa and flickr, I will have about 80 photos for everyone's viewing pleasure.

All in all, things are going good. Still losing weight. Oh yeah, I have dumped two full pants sizes since May! Go me!

Lined up against a wall and shot.

2005-07-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

No, that is too honorable for the scumbags that did this.

They need to be found, given two in the back of the head, and dumped into a ditch.

I am now to pissed to continue blogging tonight.

Current events...

2005-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a very busy past few weeks. I haven't gotten a whole lot done as far as phase three planning, but have been very busy in pushing forward in phase two. My two week annual training (well three five day weeks actually) went awesome! I was fortunate enough to get a dialed in Private to assist me in getting my section ready for our big inspection. She worked her fingers to the bone cleaning and arranging everything, so that my cage looked super clean, while I made sure that all of our stuff worked and was serviceable. I wasn't aware of it at the time we started our task, but how well the unit did on the inspection, directly relates to how much money the unit gets next year. Last weekend, while the inspection took place, I was sent to Bend to help one of our subordinate companies prepare their communications section for the inspection. They do not have any commo people, so myself and the Private First Class in my section got ourselves a government car, a free motel room, and an extra 40 bucks a day for food. It went pretty well, and I hope we did some good for that unit. Back to the inspection at my unit. We got back from Bend just in time for final formation. After formation, my Sergeant told me that we got a 100% first time go, with zero deficiencies! I was pumped. Apparently it was the first time in a few years that has happened.

Tomorrow I start work at O'dark thirty for Tyler, and the guys at BTN. It should be fun, lots of walking, and sun, so I should lose even more weight. I am still running, and doing the pushups and situps, as I have my first PT test on August 7th. To say I am not nervous would be a lie. I am kind of behind the power curve on my run times, but I am getting closer, and have refused to accept any kind of failure.

This week I am going to start contacting several colleges that I am thinking about transferring to, as well as locking down a counselor who can give me real input about the best way to approach the OCS/ROTC decision. Right now I am leaning towards business at OSU, and going through the ROTC program, so that I have the option to go back active as an officer. (and then running off to Texas or Georgia.)

So that is about it for now, more to come I am sure. Thanks for all of your continued support and guidance.

Phase two update. . .

2005-07-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from my evening math class, where I received my first mini-midterm test back. I got a 97 FREAKING PERCENT!!! I am so damn stoked, that I didn't give a crap that I got a $15 parking ticket at school. I am not even going to go off on how much I hate that place, because I am so pumped about my grade. I only missed one question, and it was my own dumb fault for making a small error in the order of operations. I am doing about that well in my online psych 101 class. Which is rare, because I usually suck at online classes due to the fact that I end up screwing around on the computer instead of doing my homework. On to more Phase Two stuff.

So for the last two weeks, and the rest of this week, I am working on getting my section ready for a huge annual inspection. Normally I hate taking credit for stuff that should have been done already, but in this case I am going to brag a little. I arrived in my section (commo) to find one sergeant, and two privates first class. The cage (where we keep all of our stuff) was a train wreck. No organization of anything, stuff was visibly dirty, and there were no maintenance forms, or manuals with half of the equipment on the shelf. I found this to be unsatisfactory, and had a chat with my sergeant, who agreed (he has just taken over the section, we are both new) We talked about me fixing the place while I was there for my two weeks. I feel that I have done just that. This morning the Battalion Commander (in this case a Major) walked into my cage and told me that it gave him a hardon. He said that we have the most squared away cage in the entire unit. Needless to say, my chest swelled a little, and I got a big "Hooah" from my sergeant.

I am really excited about recent events in my life, and want to thank all of you who have supported me and believed in me and my mission.

And for all of you doubters and haters, who say that I am wasting my life with the Military, and that focusing on becoming an officer, and that I am a cheap ass-freeloader, and will never accomplish greatness. . . Click here

D-Day, minus eight and a half hours.

2005-06-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

So I have all of my clothes laid out, my backpack is full of my school stuff, my other backpack is full of my gym clothes, and my food for tomorrow is in the fridge. Tomorrow is the official start of the real phase two. It is the culmination of everything I have been doing for the last 2 months. At 0800 (that's 8 a.m. to you civilians) I have to report to my unit for my two week annual training event. I have no idea what I will be doing, other than inspection prep. I also have no idea how long of a day I will be working, but I do know that at 1830 (that's 6:30 p.m.) I have to be at Chemeketa for my summer math class. I must say, that I am more nervous about my math class than working at my unit in a high visibility atmosphere for the next two 15 days. Getting by, and actually excelling, is something that I managed to do well while I was in the Army, and it is something that you don't really lose.

So, in closing, I will be pretty busy for at least the next two weeks, and may not have the chance to do a lot of blogging. I will leave you all with a poem that I found while I was in basic training, that for some reason, gave me great strength when the going got tough. To this day, I still look back on it.

I was that which others did not want to be.
I went where others feared to go, and did what others failed to do.
I asked nothing from those who gave nothing, and reluctantly accept the
thought of eternal loneliness. . . Should I fail.
I have seen the face of terror; felt the stinging cold of fear; and enjoyed
the sweet taste of a moments love.
I have cried, pained, and hoped. . . But most of all, I have lived times
that others would say were best forgotten.
At least someday I will be able to say that I was proud of what I was. . .
A soldier.

-Unknown

What makes me tick?

2005-06-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

I like to share. Share stories, good food, movies, trivia, pop-culture, and just about everything else. Near as I can tell, I have about fourteen readers. Probably eight with that read regularly. (once a day to see if I have something new) So I thought I would post something for my loyal fan base of just barely enough people to play a basketball game. Many of you know me in person. Some of you are related, some of you I have known for about 13 years, some I am just getting to know, some I have never met, and of course, one very special amazing someone. So back to me. I like stuff. Cool stuff to be exact, rather, what I think is cool. Military stuff, movies, firearms, cars, gadgets, and music. I am also becoming more and more to enjoy exercising. This is something I have always really hated, but now that I let myself get so far out of shape, that I lost myself in me, I am finding it to be extremely rewarding to go in after that lost me through diet and exercise. For the first time in my life, one of my goals is to actually run in a marathon. (well, at least a half marathon) Back to my obsession with stuff.

One of the things I like to do is watch people do dumb things. There are several places that I do this. One is any road in America, and another is the internet. So I thought I would be nice, and share some of my favorite websites, and perhaps a few fun little video links as well.

ebaum's world. This is a site that has a whole lot of worthless stuff on it, but I enjoy the videos and goofiness of it. A few of my current favorites from this site are: Beatbox. A six minute video of some guy beatboxing. Nintendo. Four and a half minute video of an Acapella group doing Nintendo game theme music. Snowtow. This is what happens when you are retarded and try to pull a car out of the snow. The other one of my favorites is a video of a test drive the way we all want to do it in the blackest part of our hearts. Those are a few of my favorite videos off that site, so have fun surfing around it. Another site similar to that is College Humor. This site is a little more adult in nature, so use caution on there.

Ill Will Press. Watch the follies of Foamy the squirrel.

Grouchy Media. This is a site that compiles videos of military stuff to rock songs. Awesome stuff!

Men's Health. I read this magazine, and frequent this site. There is, as they say "Tons of useful stuff."

Maddox. This guy is a pirate. His page has some of the funniest stories and rants I have ever seen. Look for the posts where he grades kids' art projects!

These are just a few of the pages that I frequent. Only a couple of them are anything but time wasters, so if you have some minutes that you hate, check out the sites.

So there you have it, just a few of the things that I do to gather information for the things I babble about, and have fun with. So kick back, click some links, and enjoy!

Anonymous. . .

2005-06-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, I changed the formatting of my blog, so that it will allow anonymous comments. If you aren't a registered blogger, and wish to comment, please include at least a name in your comment. Thanks.

I rule beyond all comparison!

2005-06-16T23:19:00.000-07:00

So I went to the gym yesterday, and weighed in. I HAVE LOST 20 FREAKING POUNDS IN ONE MONTH!!!! No, I am not sick, and no I do not think that 5 pounds a week is unhealthy. So yeah, I feel better, I look better (well thinner at least), and I am even more motivated to continue on my little fat stripping spree. So for all of you doubters and haters, here is my workout breakdown, I am refining it, and beginning next week, I think that this will be how it goes;

Monday: Breakfast (English muffin, or bowl of cheerios) 2 mile run, 3 sets pushups, 4 sets situps, snack (powerbar, or MRD) lunch (tuna sandwich or PB&J) 30-45 minutes on the stationary bike. Snack (powerbar or MRD) Dinner (balanced meal with protein, veggies, and the like)

Tuesday: Breakfast (English muffin, or bowl of cheerios) strength training (Arms, back neck, legs) Lighter weight, higher reps. Snack (powerbar, or MRD) lunch (tuna sandwich or PB&J) 30-45 minutes on the stationary bike. Snack (powerbar or MRD) Dinner (balanced meal with protein, veggies, and the like)

Wednesday: Breakfast (English muffin, or bowl of cheerios) 2 mile run, 3 sets pushups, 4 sets situps, snack (powerbar, or MRD) lunch (tuna sandwich or PB&J) 30-45 minutes on the stationary bike. Snack (powerbar or MRD) Dinner (balanced meal with protein, veggies, and the like)

Thursday: Breakfast (English muffin, or bowl of cheerios) strength training (Arms, back neck, legs) Lighter weight, higher reps. Snack (powerbar, or MRD) lunch (tuna sandwich or PB&J) 30-45 minutes on the stationary bike. Snack (powerbar or MRD) Dinner (balanced meal with protein, veggies, and the like)

Friday: Breakfast (English muffin, or bowl of cheerios) 2 mile run, 3 sets pushups, 4 sets situps, snack (powerbar, or MRD) lunch (tuna sandwich or PB&J) 30-45 minutes on the stationary bike, and maybe a 15-20 minute swim. Snack (powerbar or MRD) Dinner (balanced meal with protein, veggies, and the like)

I threw the swim in as extra for Fridays, because it will be leading into my weekends, which will be for recovery. I imagine that I will be getting tired of Tuna and PBJ's, so if anyone has any intelligent advice about a quick easy sandwich type thing that fits, let me know.

Maybe Mega-Hotty is just hanging on, in hopes that I too, will someday be fit and hot, and deserving of hanging out with her. I have no idea how I will ever be able to repay her for what she has to provoke the great changes in my life. But I am eternally grateful.

Triangulation Peak Recon.

2005-06-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

So I am leading a hike for Cascade Hills this weekend, and after a tip from Jake, I decided to take everyone up to Triangulation Peak. I was looking at the trail book, and it said that the trail was open from July through October. I called the Detroit Ranger station, and asked if it was open now. The lady that I talked to said that it might be snowed in. I thought "crap"(link not for the faint of heart, viewer discression is advised) but considered that since I have seen about an inch of snow in the Cascades this year, that I should go see for myself. I called up Matt, and he and I headed up to the trailhead. It is only about an hour away, and the trail was fairly easy. We only ran across one other group of people hiking, and had the whole place to ourselves.

The trail is a 4.2 mile round trip, and the last 0.6 mile is fairly steep, requiring two rest stops before reaching the top. Holy cow, what a view! I have never been that close to Mt. Jefferson, and was a little awestruck by the sheer magnitude. The book also describes an unmarked trail that is difficult to find and negotiate in order to get to Boca Cave. We actually found it pretty easily, but the trail it steep and technical. It was awesome! From inside the cave, the door of the cave frames Jeff perfectly.

The weather was kind to us, but there was enough of a cloud cover that we couldn't see all of Jefferson. If it was clear, you could have seen Hood, Jeff, Three-fingered Jack, Washington, maybe one or two of the Sisters, and some other peak that I couldn't identify.

I am really hoping for some decent weather, just so we can have a grand view of everything. Even if the weather sucks spokes, it should still be an awesome hike!

Phase Two

2005-06-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Alright, since some people have stated that they won't click on more than 3-links in a blog, I guess I might have to stop making a bunch of links and just get on with the telling of my story.

Right. So I shall henceforth be known to all as Specialist Rutherford, of the Oregon National Guard. I enlisted, or reenlisted rather, into the National guard yesterday. I signed up with the 1249th Engineering battalion in Salem. My job (or MOS) is 31U (uniform) which will be changing to 25U in September. I am really stoked, because they will pay for a whole bunch of my college while I am in, and I also still have a bunch of the G.I. Bill left.

Part of phase two, is also getting back into school, and working towards my business degree. I am planning on attending Summer classes, in order to get back on track with my math. (Which I suck at.) The end result of Phase 2, and leading into Phase 3, is to get enough credits toward my degree to get accepted into Oregon's OCS (Officer Candidate School) and get commissioned as a Lieutenant. That way I will have a Business degree, a communications training background from the Army, and the leadership training and experience of being an officer. That will make up a pretty mean resume I think.

So that is my big news for the week, now if I can just get through school and my commission before they send my ass to the desert. Speaking of my ass.... (umm....) I have managed to get started making it smaller. I have lost eleven pounds in 2 weeks, and plan on losing a whole lot more over the next several months. So if you see me eating unhealthy food, or (God forbid) drinking a Coke, please kick my ass.

Kill some time

2005-05-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

So there is one of those Master Card parody commercials that is really funny. It is my all time favorite home made commercial video thing.

I lost it for a long time, but now, now I found it!

Enjoy, it may not be suitable for all audiences, viewer discretion is advised.

Mop, mop, mop, all day long....

2005-05-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

So I test drove my mop tonight. No, not a kitchen mop, but a barbeque mop. I have been using basting brushes on the grill for years, but I was getting tired of having the little bristles fall off onto my food while I was grilling. So I went to several local outdoor and kitchen stores. Nothing. So last Sunday I went on a coast trip with my new/old friend, and while I was hanging out on the coast, we swung into the outlet mall. I had been whining about getting a mop, so being that my friend suggested that I check one of the kitchen stores at the outlet mall. Well sure enough, I got my mop and was all happy. I was looking for an excuse to use said mop, but the weather has sucked spokes lately, and I haven't been able to grill out.

Well tonight was the night. I made cayenne chicken with a mango salsa, it was awesome. I also made a tequila lime sauce that was really good, and I was going to mop it onto the chicken. Sure enough, the coverage of the mop was fantastic. The only problem, was that when a bunch of the sauce ran into the coals, it made steam. Steam filled with cayenne pepper, better known as mace. It burned, but I got through it, and as a whole have decided that never again will I use a basting brush on the grill. So if any of my four readers are sitting on the fence about their grilling basting techniques, I suggest using a mop.

Also, when I was looking for random pictures for my blog posting, I found this and this.

Pamelia, Lists, Spokes, Sith and Alternators.

2005-05-20T23:29:00.000-07:00

So here is a little update posting. Since I got pulled over, pranked, a Nephew, and started hanging out with a super cool, super hot chick. A lot has happened. I went on a really awesome hiking trip with Jason and a bunch of other awesome people from Cascade Hills. We hiked the trail to Pamelia Lake, had lunch at the lake, then continued to hike around the lake until it was time to head home. It is the first time I had been there since before I joined the Army, so that puts it at about 8 years. Make sure to ask Jason, Matt or myself about the time we took the RC challenge to the lake. Never again will we do that. The hike to the lake with my friends, some new and some old, was truly awesome. I put on a pack that weighed in at about 40 pounds. I thought it was a bad idea, but now I am glad I did it. The weather actually was really good, and on the way back, we stopped at a clip joint and bought milkshakes for 4 bucks.

Steve had mentioned in his blog about how he was going to start making lists, I will beat his slow ass to the punch here, and say that I have never been a big fan of making to do lists, until recently. I mad a list of all of the crap I wanted to get done last week. With the help of my new old friend of course. Anyway, I got everything on that list done, or pending due to the other people's crap that I am waiting on. Needless to say, I have started using lists, and I have found them to be most helpful. I do feel that I will continue this new found crutch for my laziness and forgetful nature.

Spokes. I have a friend (who shall remain nameless) who comes up with some nifty sayings, and lots of wholesome tasteless pictures, videos, and music. So this person (we will call him Linus) was telling me a story about a conversation, and Linus brought up spokes. When I asked Linus what the hell spokes were, he told me that Spokes, were the little wrinkles around one's butt hole. Therefore, to tell a person that they have no spokes, means that they have been abusing the exit only system of the butt hole.

Sith. So last night I saw it. I wasn't expecting much, and wasn't disappointed. Except for when I ordered a large pop, and ended up with like 64 ounces of fountain coke. The film (Star Wars; Revenge of Sith) or whatever the hell it is called. There were a few good light saber fights, and a lot of decent cartoony special effects, but as a whole, it was a lot like the last two, but maybe marginally better.

This afternoon I had just finished my Quiznos sandwich, and was getting ready to get back to work on my to-do list, when my phone rings, and it is my good friend Tim, asking me for a favor. Of course I say, what can I do to help. Apparently, Tim's little car broke down in N. Willsonville, and he had a plane to catch. I agreed to babysit his car until the tow could arrive. I got to his car, and managed to start it right up. I moved it to a parking lot off of the freeway and walked back to my truck. My mom was the only one available to be a co-pilot for this trip, so I drove back to Salem and picked her up. We drove back to Willsonville, picked up Tim's car and began to head for home. I was positive that there was some form of problem with the charging system. So my policy was, no signaling, no headlights, no wipers, or any other thing that used juice. (I have juice in my fridge.) We got about 11 miles south of Willsonville when the bad rain hit us. Even if I had been using a normal car's wipers, they wouldn't have been able to keep up. as I drove home, the battery went more flat, and the wipers got slower and slower. We got out of the rain, and made it to my house. I did a 6 minute alternator removal, and headed back into town with mom. After a frustrating conversation in spanglish with the girl at Auto Zone, I determined that I will never go there again. I headed to NAPA, and ended up getting the thing tested. Turns out it is fine, and I managed to not spend 90 bucks of Tim's money. I put a charger on the battery, and am hoping that it is just a freak occurrence. We will see.

So there you have it folks, a lame little posting just for the sake of posting. Who thinks that I should put finishing Foxholes on my to-do list?

Yeah, me too.

Oh yeah, Thursday night, May 26th, guys night out movies at my house. This week's movie will be LoneStar. As per usual, five bucks will get you in, and if the weather is good, I will be grilling. Make sure you let me know if you will be here.

It's not what you know, but WHO you know.

2005-05-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

So last night Was Lisel's birthday party. After the party, I was heading home, and remembered that I needed to get milk. So I drove right past the house, and headed back to Salem to go to Safeway South. As I am heading towards Turner past my house, down the hill I go, zipping along at about 65-70 Mph. Right as I get towards the bottom of the hill, I notice the things that were about to make my happy little evening bad. Three cop cars. I slow down, and head to the stop sign and head into Turner. I knew I was boned when I saw the back-up lights on the Turner P.D. car. All three cars pull out behind me, and they put the light on me as soon as I got into the city limits. I pull over right away and turn off my truck. Turner's newest officer "Smilin Joe" approaches me and asks me where I was going in such a hurry. I respond..."To get some milk." He tells me I was doing 70, and I played dumb. I pass over my credentials, and he goes to the back of my car and runs my tags. I hear some laughing from behind my truck, and another officer approaches my door. I had a brief vision of all of the cops episodes where they discuss arresting an individual before one of the cops just open the door and ask me to step out. As the office gets to my window, I hear "Rutherford, why the fuck are you going so fast?" Kind of shocked, I look up trying to figure out what was going on, and see a guy I went to high school with. Darren Blaylock has apprently become an Aumsville police officer. We had a quick little catch up session while I am pulled over, and then Smilin Joe hands me my papers back and says, "You're lucky he recognized you, otherwise you woulda gotten a big ticket."

So as you can see, it's not what you know, its who you know.

Cinco De Wacko

2005-05-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

Two out of three ain't bad I guess.

So Cinco De Mayo will be a most memorable one for me this year. Three things happened, all of them unique and amazing in their own right.

While a lot of people were out bathing in Corona, Dos Equis, Limes, Carnitas, and Enchiladas, I was busy having a fairly off the wall week. Now some of you may know, that May 3rd was the release date for the much anticipated, and already delayed several times, Forza Motorsports. So I was really bummed to find out that it was going to be actually available on the 4th. A whole day later. But I digress. So I was sitting at home on the 5th, playing the crap out of my new awesome game, awaiting the arrival of Liam, and going to the hospital to meet him. There were several delays in my getting there, and as it turned out, I didn't go until about 5 pm.

So the first thing on my list of truly unique things to happen on Cinco De Mayo, was the arrival of the first baby borne to my siblings that will carry on the family name. Hooray Ted!

The second, and not good thing to happen to me, was the (I hope) prank phone call that I got on the way to the hospital. A little background, I have been selling several cars over the last couple of months, so my number is published in the nickel ads, and I have been answering my phone every time it rings. The call comes in as restricted. I think cool, maybe it is that guy calling me back that I talked to the other day. His number came in as restricted as well. Answer the phone...
Female voice; "Is Eric there?"
me; "this is he"
F; "Hi Eric, I got your number off of one of those internet dating sites, and I thought I would call you, because I'm not looking for a relationship, just a lot of hot sex."
Me, laughing; "Which site did you get my number off of?" (Knowing that those sites don't publish phone numbers, even for paying customers.)
F; "I saw it on like three of them."
me; "Really? Interesting"
F; "Yeah, so Like I was saying, I just want to have lots of hot sex. Are you into bondage?"
Me; "Um, no."
F: "Oh, because my last boyfriend was. Anyway, I broke my dildo."
Me; "How tragic. Which dating site exactly did you get my number from again?"
F, after pause and discussion with someone else. "Match dot com."
Me; "Um, they don't post phone numbers."
F; "I don't see why you are getting into a tiff, I just want to have sex. I just got a new baseball bat, and was hoping you might want to use that on me."
Me; "What?"
F, not missing a beat; "So, how long have you lived off smith* rd?"
Me, now seriously shocked, pissed, and nervous. "What did you just say? Tell you what, I am kind of busy, give me your number and I will call you back in a half hour."
F, hangs up.
I immediately go into operational security mode, (for once in my life skipping the "I shoulda said...") Matt and I started to reverse analyze the call. Was it spyware? Was it someone I know putting a girl up to it? Was it the guy that called about the blazer trying to case me for a robbery? Was it just a random prank call?
We get to the hospital, and I start making calls. I call Steve for advice on internet security issues, and kind of calm down on the spyware aspect, after he tells me that people hacking me would be a little more sophisticated than to prank me. To be on the safe side, I call the Marion County sheriff's Office to report the strange event. The only reason I was freaking out, was the mention of the street I lived on. (*Street name changed to protect me.) I then called the only other people I knew in my area that could swing by my house, some friends at Turner Fire. I called my paramedic friend Ron, and asked him to do a couple of drive-bys to check on the security. He gladly helped me, and everything was fine. To date, nothing has come of it, and I am almost positive that it was just a prank call based on the call from the guy for my blazer ( I told him I lived off of smith rd.) I am not sure what was more shocking, the fact that she knew where I lived, or that she wanted me to shove a baseball bat up her ass.

The third thing, and so far the most enjoyable for me, that happened on Cinco De Mayo, wasn't actually discovered until Friday the 6th. I got up, around 10 am like any other day, turned on my computer to check my email. I have several accounts, and one of my old ones that just fills mostly with junk, had a huge pleasant surprise waiting in it for me. It read "Classmates.com, Eric you have new mail from Gina." My first thought was "Holy F-ing crap!" I then read the short message, and started to post a reply. Gina was one of my high school sweethearts. The story is that my junior year in high school I had a really awesome girlfriend, but was hopelessly infatuated with "That neighbor girl" So, I wrote up a little note breaking the hard news, that for apparently no reason whatsoever, I was breaking up with Gina. I had my friend Chris give it to her on the bus trip to a weekend symposium to OSU. I know, I suck. (big surprise that I never heard from her again, or even heard from her now, ten years later.) The relationship with "That neighbor girl" lasted a long miserable time, and eventually ended. Gina graduated early, and vanished forever.

So I get an email from her on Friday, I post a reply, and receive hers. Including a phone number. I send on mine. Do I call her right away? Do I wait 24 hrs? 48? Well, she solved that problem by calling me Saturday night, saying that she will be in town and that we should go catch up. "This will be interesting, if nothing else," I thought. We met for drinks, and had an amazing time. We talked about everything under the sun, and It was very cool. She had to leave for work again, but we decided that we should get together again on her way back through town. That was last night. Once again we had a totally awesome time. So, needless to say, I am totally glad that she found me, paid 15 bucks to email me, and I am excited to start having adventures with my new, old friend.

So my Cinco De Wacko was both weird and memorable. No cervezas, no pinatas, but lots of memories none the less.

Freedom isn't free.

2005-04-29T01:45:00.000-07:00

So on Monday, Jake, Matt and I went to OSU to see a lecture from Sgt. Don Malarkey. If any of you don't know who he is, he was one of the members of Easy company 1st of the 506th infantry. A regiment of the 101st airborne division during WWII. This is the company that Stephen Ambrose's book Band of Brothers was based upon. Well some of these guys are still alive, and I was fortunate enough to be in a room with greatness Monday night. It really was humbling. Sgt. Malarkey is from Astoria, Oregon, and currently resides in Salem. He basically recanted some tales from the war, not much combat details, but told great stories about friends, training, and true heroism. I am really glad that I was able to see this man in person, and hear him speak. He was actually pretty funny, and managed to make fun of the French, and scold the Brits for Operation Market Garden. The topic of the lecture was Freedom Isn't Free. He didn't go into too much detail, and I don't think he really had too. If you have not seen the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, you are missing out on an amazing story, not to mention one of the best pieces of film ever, in my humble opinion. Anyway, since it is way late, I am going to end here, if you want to know more about the lecture, just ask me, Jake, or Matt.

I can't take it anymore!

2005-04-29T01:40:00.000-07:00

OK, I swear I will write the next installment soon. I was in a really non-writing mood for the lest several weeks, and I figured that if I was going to post anything on my Blog, it would be Foxholes 4. But, I can't take it any longer, and must post something on here. I don't have much going on this weekend, so I will try to write, or rewrite rather, the next episode. So look for it to be posted, probably Sunday night sometime. Thank you all for hanging in there while I went through a little period of writers block. Even though this story happened, it is a lot harder to write, especially in a way that makes it interesting, than it is to tell in a B.S. session.

Not quite foxholes yet

2005-04-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

Please don't be mad. I am finishing writing it on Word now, and it honestly should be up this week. I had the same problem Steve did, and lost my entire story to the crappy bloggermonster.

SO I was reading Ted's posting about the stank foot contest, and was reminded of an equally putrid concept of a contest. The Gallon Challenge. By the way, Matt swears he would have no problem doing this.

Oh yeah....

2005-03-26T01:11:00.000-08:00

Also, I am currently working on Foxholes 4, it should be done this weekend and posted on Monday. Tuesday at the latest. Thank you all for your patience.

I must be getting old.

2005-03-26T00:35:00.000-08:00

So, I had to get gas tonight, and I was really amazed that people were lined up to pay $2.12 a gallon for regular. What a ripoff. This is not the good chevron Techron stuff mind you, this was the cheapass conoco Fred Meyer stuff. The little card discount means that you would only pay $2.09. Good Lord. A week ago it was only $1.98, and that was too damn much. I know, all of you from places like San Diego will read this and wish that they could pay $2.12 a gallon, but less than a month ago it was under a buck seventy.

I have long been an opponent to alternate fuel vehicles. Mostly because they look lame as hell, and can't make the performance that we as Americans have come to consider mandatory. I am beginning to agree more and more with my dad that we need to start really working on hydrogen powered cars. This will accomplish two things; One, it will make for cheaper cleaner driving for all of us. Two, and perhaps most beneficial of this switchover, it will make oil almost useless. That will relieve the middle east from the only thing it has that makes the rest of the world pay any attention to it. Sounds like a win, win. I will still only buy a hydrogen car if it looks decent and can do zero to sixty in under 7 seconds.

TRUANCY

2005-03-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

My dear readers,

I want to apologize for not writing anything, especially Foxholes 4, for the last couple of weeks. I have been busy with a bunch of nonsense (Not Halo2, Ted) and haven't really been in the mood to do much writing. It wouldn't be fair to my loyal fanbase of about 3 people, to write a bunch of meaningless tripe in place of Foxholes 4, so I just stuck with posting comments. I am less busy this week, and getting back in the mood to do some writing, so I will make sure that you guys get what you want. Hopefully before Wednesday.

Thanks for reading.

This is interesting

2005-02-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

I apologize to you all for not writing another installment f foxholes this week, I promise I will get to work on it right away.

So I was talking with Jason tonight about a book I read about in Men's Health about D&D., by Vin Diesel, which is odd to say the least, but probably going to set of a chain of blog events. So I went home to get the title, and ran across another interesting thing in my magazine. It was an article about wingwomen. The same as a wingman when out in public on the prowl to meet the opposite sex. So I was wondering how this is any different than an escort service. I dunno, but it is kind of bizarre.

Wowsers. . .

2005-02-11T00:16:00.000-08:00

I was just looking at my google adsense report, and it has been one month since I put them on my blog. About the only useful feature of the adsense thing, is that it tracks hits on my site. In one month, I have gotten 1456 hits on my blog. That is pretty humbling to know that an average of 48 people a day view my blog. I know, that a lot of them are me checking my blog, and a lot of my usuals clicking through, but thanks anyway folks.

Slow week in Blogsville

2005-02-11T00:11:00.000-08:00

Well, This has been a mighty slow week in Blogsville I must say. Hardly any comments, except for on Jakesblog, and very few new posts. So has the mystique of the blog worn off? Or has it just been as busy a week for everyone as it was for me? I hope to get to Foxholes 3 early next week. Happy blogging to all, and I will see a lot of you at OMSI on Saturday.

Who's ready for Foxholes part 3?

2005-02-07T01:58:00.000-08:00

Has everyone who wants to, had a chance to read Foxholes 2? I was getting ready to do part 3, and wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to absorb the last one. I didn't get much feedback, but it has been about a week now, and I was getting ready for another installment. Dwayne. . . Was it worth the special pot of coffee? Either way, I will probably get to it sometime early this week.

How do you find any punishment to fit this crime?

2005-02-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

So I was watching Fox news today, and they did a segment on a Florida couple accused of torturing their children. To the extent of pulling out toenails with pliers and hitting them with hammers. The sixteen year old girl weighed something like 45 pounds. I couldn't find the article on the Fox news webpage, but I found the article here on MSN. So how can there be any punishment sever enough to Fix these people to be productive, sane members of our fair society? My initial response, was that it was the arresting officer's duty to give each of those parents two to the back of the head. That would be way to easy, and really not solve any problem. Seriously, how bad would any child have to behave, in order for a parent to pull out that kids toenails? I am actually at a loss for words as I type this, it makes me sick as hell, and beyond angry. I put these scumbags on a lower level than the 9/11 terrorists. For any of you who know my feelings about 9/11, you will know that it would be hard to get lower on the scale of scumbag than those guys. Screw it, I am too pissed to keep typing.

Stupid google adsense thingy

2005-02-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

Apparently when I get crawled by google, it picks up words out of my titles for my adsense bar. Last week it was Robin hood. This week, Atheism. Grand. It is going to go away soon I think.

You guys are going to hate me for this. . .

2005-01-31T09:52:00.000-08:00

I have to go out of town with my dad for a couple of days, so Foxholes part 2 will be postponed until about Wednesday evening. Wow, I kind of like this power to be able to make all of my readers suffer. Now I know what it must be like to work in the Halo2 program at Bungie.

The REAL Amazing Race.

2005-01-29T16:09:00.000-08:00

Just because I want all of you to squirm over not being able to read the next installment in Foxholes, I am going to make a post about other stuff. It is that time of year again, the official Dakar race. This really is the most amazing race you could ever see. They are showing it now on OLN. Seriously, this race is insane. It is a race from Barcelona, Spain, to Dakar, Senegal (Africa). Total miles is 5,565 in just under 14 days, and one day of rest. Vehicles are broken into three categories; Motorbikes. This field is dominated by KTM motorcycles, around 600cc. Speeds of around 100 mph. Cars. Cars in the classic sense that they have four wheels. They are not rally cars, or Baja trucks, but a kind of weird cross between the two. Speeds of around 130 mph. Last category, and the craziest, is Trucks. Picture a garbage truck driving through the desert at 120 mph, and you can imagine how much fun this sounds. This race is seriously nuts. It has less than a 45% finish rate. This year 3 people died. One team ran out of gas in a sand storm and was missing for 3 days. A famous rally racer from Europe, Collin McRae, rolled his car, leaving him without vision in his left eye. They say this is the hardest motor vehicle race in the world, and if you get a chance to watch it, you will see why. There are lots of crashes, which make for great viewing. This year marks the first year that any amount of Americans ran this race. Most notable was racer Robby Gordon. Finishing 30th overall, after suffering a crash in one of the early stages, where he rolled 5 times. He took about 3 hours to put his car back together before continuing on. In short, this is an insane race across two continents, that cause massive injuries to vehicles and people. So check it out, and I am sure you will be as hooked as I am.

New site feature

2005-01-26T23:29:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a few days since I have posted. I apologize to my die hard readers. I would like to draw your attentions to the right hand side of this page now, below the profile, and above previous posts. That is right friends, that is a genuine bona-fide Simpsons quote generator. That means that every person who visits this site will get their very own random quotes. Each time they visit! Come back as many times as you want to check out a new quote every time. I hope you all enjoy this feature. I currently have it set to give you two quotes, I can do from 1-10 per person. Let me know if you want more. Enjoy!

My idea for a great film that I am going to make someday

2005-01-21T22:43:00.000-08:00

So the other night, we were at the Dragonfly, and talking about movies. One of the films we talked about, although briefly, was the idea of making a G.I. Joe movie, but put a comic twist on it like the remake of Starsky & Hutch. I know what you are saying, "yeah right that would be dumb". EXACTLY! That is why it would be so badass. Ted and I were talking a little bit about this today, and came up with some good ideas. The premise of the entire film, is that G.I. Joe, and the Cobras, are a bunch of bumbling nitwits. Also, about every 23 minutes into the show, there would be one of those lame ass PSAs that they did, you know, the "Knowing is half the battle." I did a little bit of snooping, and came up with these. All I have to say is that this is hilarious. The one with Gung Ho, Roadblock, and Snowjob are a few of he best. If you cannot identify who those characters are by the picture, you should run outside and hang yourself right now.

But I digress.

So, the whole idea behind he movie is that there is a little community service every 23 minutes, and every so often there is a huge battle in some remote place over nothing at all. No one gets hurt, and the rest of the populous never seems to notice these idiots driving an AWE striker to the grocery store. Let alone a ninja hanging out with a sailor and a guy wearing full snow gear. Sounds like the line up of a three guys walk into a bar joke. There is an occasional scene where the good guys are all standing around in a comm. center looking at some devastation caused by Cobra, so then 4 people go to try and stop them. I can work on the story line later. You all can help.

Two scenes I think would be enourmously funny, is in a huge firefight where the opposing forces keep shooting red and blue lasers at each other and just keep marching toward one another. This could perhaps be the big final battle. They end up just a foot or two away on opposite sides, and like millions of laser blasts are going off. They all have stunned looks on their faces, because not one single person is getting killed. Now, I know this part is a pretty much straight Monty Python's Holy Grail rip-off, but how about at the end of said firefight, the "real" local authorities come and arest them all.

Here is the line up of characters/actors that Ted and I came up with.

Duke. - Owen Wilson. Every 15 minutes, he goes into a coma with the age old "Yo Joe. . . " line. The twist is, each time he does, he has a Skywalker/Obi-Wan-esque dream encounter, but with Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (The drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket played by R. Lee Ermey.) Where ole gunny screams obscenities at him until he wakes up.

Cobra Commander. Anyone, he wears a mask. You can dub in that whiny-bitch voice.

Flint.- I was thinking Vince Vaughn, because he would really be the one in charge.

Destro. Now how do you get anyone to look authentically chrome?

Snake Eyes. - See Cobra Commander

Stalker. - Snoop Dogg (Hes the guy who can get you stuff)

Doc. -After seeing the Mock PSA, I thought perhaps snoop could play this character better than stalker, but I thik Sam Jackson could do alright.

Shipwreck. - Steve Lemme. He is from Broken Lizzard. Actually, most of the guys from Broken Lizzard would be really good at a lot of these roles. maybe I will call them, and try to pitch the idea.

Ted thought that Dr. Mindbender could be played by John Turturo. Not bad

Roadblock. - I was thinking Dennis Haysbert. He played Cerrano in Major League

The ones I need but can't figure out right now are:

Gung-Ho
Major Blood
Hawk
The Baronness (Ted had someone for this, but I forgot who.)
Lady Jay (Brittany Murphy?)
Scarlet (insert redheaded hotty here)
Recondo
WIld Bill (Some loud ass Texan)
Bazooka
Barbeque (Mask)
Cover girl (Shannon Elizabeth?)
Leatherneck
Storm Shadow (mask)
Fire fly (Mask)
Tomax and Xamot (Twins)
All of the Dreadnoks;
Zartan
Zandar
Zarana
Torch
Buzzer
Monkeywrench
Ripper
Thrasher

I got all of the character names out of the roll call pages of this site.

I look forward to all of your comments, let me know what you think, give me casting ideas, or tell me I am retarded (this I already know.) I honestly think, that a well done parody style film, maybe done by the guys at Broken Lizard, maybe done by Todd Phillips, would be hilarious. So enjoy the topic, I need to start script writing and making story boards. Who's comin with me?

Daily Quote

2005-01-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

Pop Culture?

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
-Albert Einstein

ENOUGH ALREADY!

2005-01-20T01:18:00.000-08:00

Seriously. Why do people insist on putting little 1996 chat room abbreviations into their everyday writing. If I have to look at one more written piece that is not a chat dialogue and see LOL, TTYL, LMAO, or any of the other stupid little things, I am going to freak. It is just like Ted was saying the other day about A-Holes putting the damn smilies with their text. No, I don't need to turn my head sideways to understand your conveyed emotion. Write better to convey said emotion, and you wont need the smiley/frowny/whatevery. Damn, now I am all worked up over this tripe, and wont be able to get to sleep for an hour. I now must go reads through a bunch of my newly returned Punisher comics I got back from Ted. So seriously, next time you see someone who has that garbage in a written piece that is not a text message or chat room, slay them for me.

So until next time, TTYL! :-P

The French Robin Hood Character in Shrek

2005-01-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

I was at Summit tonight, and one of the sub-topics discussed was why the Robin Hood character in Shrek was French. My only conclusion was that it was so that he would be easilly beaten. (And by a woman no less.) I was doing some looking on the IMDB, and found nothing titled Robin Hood that had anything to do with France. If anyone has any insight about why that character, who is always portrayed as an Englishman, was portrayed as French, let me know.

When combing through the Robin Hood stuff, I found this article about a wierd Robin Hood show from the 80's.

I did, however, find some info on a play called Le Jue De Robin Et Marion, apparently known as a classic French Comic Opera. Wow, that sounds really bad. Other google searches I did, seem to back up that this is aFrench version of the Robin Hood story. Interesting. Perhaps that is the connection.

I found this article, explaining that it isn't Robin Hood, but rather Monsieur Hood.

If you want to know all sorts of meaningless trivia about Robin Hood, click here.

Blog problems

2005-01-19T18:31:00.000-08:00

Has anyone been experiencing any problems with their blog being really slow, and just being generally retarded?

Daily Quote

2005-01-19T13:11:00.002-08:00

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
-Hermann Hesse

Help determine Ted's future.

2005-01-18T22:19:00.000-08:00

So Ted has a posting on his Blog about the firearms he dreams about when he should be doing other things. There are several categories, and they break down like this:

-Shotgun
-AR 15 of some type, or boltgun in .223
-Some kind of .22 revolver. (?)
-Marlin Lever gun in a Long action Caliber.
-An AR 15 pistol variant.

Here is my response to each of these.

The shotgun. I am a big fan of the pump shotty. Loaded with buck or slugs, it can be one of the most powerful civilian weapons available. My vote is for the H&K FP6 A1 Pump Shotgun with Heavy Barrel. I have handled these at gun shows, and think that they are pretty alright. They run about $550.00. If this is not an option, I would go with the 870 Express This model has the 7 round capacity, and retails for under 300 clams. This might be a better choice than the H&K, and if you really want a pistol grip, just pick up a Brownell's catalog and order one.

.223 (AR-15 or Bolt Rifle.) My bias is going to run pretty deep on this. There is no reason whatsoever to have a bolt gun in .223. Modern AR's are just about as accurate as a bolt gun, but you get the combat capabilities of the AR. O am a big fan of Olympic Arms models (They make it just about as easy to build one as buy an assembled one) The real beauty of an AR, is that once you have the lower receiver, you can then but any number of uppers on it from .17HMR, all the way up to .50BMG in the Ferret conversion. So under the shotgun, this is definitely the best choice you could make. Go with the AR, it should be required by law that every household have one.

.22 Revolver. I am totally uninterested in this. Pass on this idea Ted.

Marlin Lever Gun in a big bore Cal. I was just talking with Dad the other day about how I need to get a lever gun one of these days. I am a big .45/70 fan, but I am also interested in the .444 Marlin. But if there is a .500S&W caliber on the horizon, I will buy that for sure. But until then, I would wait. If you want to shoot a .45/70, just come shoot the Ruger No. 3.

AR style pistol. These are pretty darn cool. They combine all of the great features of your standard AR-15 with the concealment/drive-byability of a pistol/subgun. I think that Olympic will be making one of these without all the holes in the body soon. There was a Bushmaster lightweight pistol at the gunshow last weekend for $700.00. This is something that I would hold off on until I had both the Shotty, and the AR. I prefer this model, over this one.

I think to sum it up, Ted has a really focused idea of what he wants. This is just a list of my ideas about what he should get. So make sure you go to Ted's blog and let him know what YOU think.

Daily Quote

2005-01-18T22:16:00.000-08:00

My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
-Miles Davis

HOLY CRAPAMOLY!!!

2005-01-18T22:02:00.000-08:00

I am sitting here in my room right now, listening to loveline on the radio. I do this because Adam Carolla is funny, and the people who call in are mutants and it makes for wacky comedy. Anyway, they have guests pretty regularly, and tonight's guest is some actor who took part in the movie Torque. Holy crap! Adam is talking it up like it is good. And the numbnut that was in the movie is talking about really hoping to be in the running for an oscar. WHAT THE HELL?!?! An oscar? For wasting my 2 hours? Wow, I suddenly like Carolla a whole lot less than I did five minutes again.

I have to bring the love

2005-01-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

It has been brought to my attention by Steve, that I have no love for his blog. THAT IS BECAUSE IT JUST NOW SHOWED UP! Anyway, it will be added to my links now. Enjoy, and please feel free to dole out harshness to his postings freely.

Hooray! He finally did it!

2005-01-18T11:20:00.000-08:00

Well, it is official. Ted finally posted on his blog. All I can say is, it is about time. I look forward to reading his postings.

What I need now is a little motivation

2005-01-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

So I have as whole ton of homework to do before class tomorrow, and all I can think about doing is taking a nap for the rest of the day. I am only marginally tired, and mostly just bored. I could go to the gym for an hour or two and relieve some of that boredom, but that would require me to leave the confines of my nice warm house on this rainy day. I could do my homework, because that I can do indoors, but it would require me to think. Nope, that settles it. I am going to go lay down and get all comfortable in my bed, and sleep until the phone rings, or something else requires me to wake up.

Daily Quote

2005-01-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

I am doing the quote late tonight, so that it will be up for tomorrow. Today I am doing several quotes again, this time from another of my heros, Gen. George S. Patton.

Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle.
-Gen. George S. Patton

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
-Gen. George S. Patton

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived
-Gen. George S. Patton

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack
-Gen. George S. Patton

Thinking about more movies.

2005-01-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

I am thinking already about another movie night. I could do this tomorrow night. (I would probably go a little easier on the coke, and have a salad instead of pizza) There are several directions that I could take it. The western theme could be done, but what to do? We could watch a couple of spaghetti westerns, and I could make spaghetti. We could watch non-spaghetti westerns, and I could make cornbread and chili. I am thinking maybe a dark western theme, specifically Unforgiven, and Open Range. Even though I cannot stand Costner, I really liked this film. I could get with Ted, and borrow his Kirosawa collection, and we could do a samurai night. I could make sushi (at least California rolls) and we could drink Sake. Well, maybe not Sake, but I can cook some good Asian food. Then again, if I could get everyone to sit through it, I would show what is quite possibly my favorite film of all time. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. This movie is hilarious. It contains genuinely funny people doing hilarious things. The problem, is that it is massively long, and I think it would lose the interest of some people by the time intermission rolls around. We could also do major film classics, such as Casablanca, Only Angels Have Wings, To have and Have Not, or North By Northwest. Of course, you can catch North By Northwest in February at the Wednesday Evening Film Series. I will certainly be going. Now that I look at the lineup for Series 2, I think I might just try to catch every single film on the list. But back to the movie night. I suppose we could always watch some really bad movies that we could just sit around and make fun of. I am not going to even name them, let alone link them, If anyone has any input about some titles that I could be missing, or ideas, please let me know. It was painfully obvious, that I need an actual theater in my home.

Daily Quote

2005-01-16T01:59:00.000-08:00

Does anyone read these? And if so, are they worth continuing? SHould I just post the links to where I get my quotes from? Please post your thoughts.

Today I have three quotes, I found some quotes from one of my heros, Theodore Roosevelt.

Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
-Theodore Roosevelt

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.
-Theodore Roosevelt

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.
-Theodore Roosevelt

I noticed something

2005-01-16T01:44:00.000-08:00

In a few of my posts, and some comments, there are a few things that are hyperlinked, that I did not create. Please do not support these random links on my posts. My hyperlinks will always be yellow. I am not sure, but it may have something to do with some crappy spyware on my system. Grr. I am working to get it all remedied. Thanks for not supporting the crappy spyware links.

Daily Quote

2005-01-15T01:56:00.000-08:00

Only the dead have seen the end of war.
-Plato

Movie night a success

2005-01-15T01:54:00.000-08:00

I want to thank everyone who came to my movie night last night. It was Awesome! The car chases, and combat were of unmatched quality, and the company was better than that. Thank you all, and I look forward to when we can do it again.

DO NOT GO TO THIS WEBSITE!!!

2005-01-14T16:41:00.000-08:00

Now, I know it is like telling someone not to look at the light when they are welding, you just gotta peek.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GO TO THIS WEBSITE!!!! Unless you are a curious individual. But be warned, it is deeply disturbing, even to me. That should tell you something

www.tubgirl.com

Seriously, please do not go to this site. I only put it up here to warn off everyone.

Daily quote

2005-01-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

...It is as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you.
-Woodrow Wilson

Daily Quote

2005-01-13T09:15:00.000-08:00

Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.
-Samuel Johnson

Okay, so I am a whore now

2005-01-12T22:46:00.000-08:00

Alright, I did it.

I put up those ad banners on my blog. A whole ton of people have to click on the ads in order for me to actually get anything out of it. If you don't like them on the site, let me know and I will drop them.

Am I the only one annoyed by this?

2005-01-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

I gotta tell ya,

Why is it that there are certain groups or types of people, who insist on divulging information to me that I could care less about. Moreover, I would rather not hear at all, and find it annoying when said information is given. The people/groups I am talking about are as follows:

Californians; It never fails, no matter how brief your conversation with most Californians, they always have to bring up the fact that they are from California. I mean a complete stranger struck up a conversation with me in a checkstand at the grocery store. The encounter lasted no more than three minutes, and I found out that the shmuck was from California, and that apparently, jalapenos are fresher there. (Really?)

Mormons; The majority of these people are so self-conscious about their whack-job religion, that the only way they can feel good is if they run around converting people. They remind me of the purple smurfs. Keep your LDS off my body!

Addicts; I didn't call them recovering addicts, because they are still addicts. Only now they are addicted to telling everyone who will listen that they are clean and sober. WHO CARES!? Fantastic, now that you got your crap together, go get a real job and start being a productive member of society. Stop telling me that you were a homeless crackhead. I don't care that 2 years ago you were eating out of a dumpster, but now you are clean for however many days. I wonder how much your recover cost the taxpayers?

Another group of people, have no defining characteristic, other than the fact that they are all just A-Holes. The ones who always have a damn comment about any given topic. It is usually inaccurate at best, and insulting or unbearably annoying at worst. These are the people who when in a group if they start talking, most everyone either leaves, or just have uncomfortable looks on their faces. Of course it is inevitable that they will start talking, because they can't help but show the whole world how ignorant they are.

I guess there is no point in being stupid if you don't let everybody know.

Daily Quote

2005-01-12T01:04:00.000-08:00

I want to say that I am sorry to all of my devoted fans out there, I got really busy, and forgot to put up a daily quote yesterday. So here are two for today.

You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
-Henry Ford

What's another word for Thesaurus?
-Steven Wright

What the hell is wrong with me?

2005-01-11T23:17:00.000-08:00

So I was sitting in the living room tonight. I had just finished timing all of the chase scenes for Friday's movie marathon, (By the way, there are about 9 chases, and it comes in at exactly one hour) and I flipped on the cable. On the IFC, they were playing the widescreen version of The Usual Suspects when I just started surfing around. I landed on I think TBS (Not worthy of a hyperlink) and they were showing Blue Crush. It had just started, and I was hoping to see something in the first 30 seconds that would help me shy away from this film. No such luck. Part of the reason (to my defense) that I turned off of Usual Suspects, is because it was just right at the scene where they attack the ship to kill the guy. A film like that truly should be watched from the beginning. Anyway, back to the crapastic movie at hand. I had assumed that this would be a Fast and Furious (also not worthy of a hyperlink) version of a decent surfing movie. Actually I am not sure that there is one. About the closest I can come up with, is Point Break, which has more than just surfing.

Blue Crush was actually better than I expected. Now for those of you about to criticize me for watching and enjoying the mediocrity of it, I didn't say that it was a good movie, I just said it was better than I expected. The chicks in it were attractive, and it followed your average athlete girl strife, where "she is a struggling this or that, and then a great guy comes along and messes it up, but in the end, he is actually supportive, as she goes out and does the best she can." The Chick didn't place first in the surfing competition, and the guy did come back for her, and she got the Billabong sponsorship.

I certainly wasn't expecting a good film here, so why the hell did I stop watching what is arguably a film classic (The best unreliable storyteller flick I have ever seen.) for a trendy, poorly filmed, badly acted and directed movie about surfer girls? Who knows, I knew right out of the gate, I would not be seeing any real skin, profanity, violence, or any of the other stuff that usually makes this tripe bearable. It must have been something to do with insisting on watching every movie, bad or good, so that I can be a true aficionado. Yeah, that's the ticket.