Report

The holidays have seen an influx in the number of people using the computers around here, so my 'net time has been severely diminished. I really haven't been to busy, the last run was on thanksgiving evening, which means i missed that burnt turkey from the chow hall. I settled on a can of Chili-Mac, the can is self heating, you just poke holes in predefined spots in the can and the internal chemical heating thingy is activated. In about 6 minutes you have a can of heated Chili-Mac! Tastes much better than a standard MRE (Meals Ready to Eat, or as we call them, Meals Refusing to Exit...but don't ask for an explanation, you probably won't like the answer).

I added a link box on the right hand side of this page. The first link is titled "What am i reading?", that links to the blog or news entries that generally catch my interest about something. Most of the stuff is probably only interesting to me, but i think it's a neat idea. I've been using Google Reader since I've been out here, as a single source for all of my news reading activities. (Thanks Rickmahn.com!). Back home i had about 20 websites that i would read (usually weekly) and i visited each one individually. With Google Reader i can just add it to my list, and read all the articles in one place! Really helpful out here with the slow Internet connection, and limited time!

Being the Techie geek that i am, i continually keep getting tasked with fixing peoples computers. I tried to keep any computer driven talents under my hat, but that didn't last too long, apparently my Über-geekness was to visible to conceal. Oh well. I should start charging for my services. Ha! What i find interesting (and probably no one else will) is how much desktops have changed since i was in desktop support. I haven't fixed this many laptops since i was in tech support back in 2000.

"Mandatory Fun" & Happy Thanksgiving!

This week brings us to the halfway point of our deployment. Which they decided to celebrate with a "Mandatory Fun Day". It consisted of numerous events that included: Tug-o-war, Dizzy Izzy (i competed in that one), M16 relays, M240 relays, .50 cal relays, a Humvee pull, a hammer and nail relay, push ups, sit ups (the winner did 760 situps..wow), pull ups, and a few other events that i already forgot about.

Today is thanksgiving, it's hard to tell around here. Back home the leaves change, and the houses are either decorated for holloween or christmas. Around here, you have mass formations, and a hideous burning smell coming from the chow hall. Actually, the food isn't so bad. Just repititious.

My friends at work sent a 'boat load' of really fun stuff to us. Thanks guys! There was more stuff than i knew what to do with, so we shared amongst the 8 of us, all the goodies and treats, and had a 'heckuva' party! We decided to sponser our own internal 'Mandatory Fun Night', and played such games as NVG (Night Vision Goggles) yahtzee and scrabble. If you ever get a chance to play scrabble with NVG's, i highly recommend it, it adds a whole new challange! We also had a dance compition with the Singing turtle that they sent us! Lcpl Howe won by correctly doing the foxtrot with turtle in arms. I came in 3rd with a 3 step waltz. The turtle has also proved to be an excelent yahtzee player, it won 2 games. Although it needs a little help with rolling the di, and adding up it's score, it is a natural born player! Voltron proved to be a big hit among the older crowd. I think the younger guys are spoiled by all that computer generated anime mumbo jumbo, and don't know what real hand drawn art is suppose to look like! But none the less, I out rank them, so they had to put up with watching it anyways. I consider them educated now :-)

Veterans Day

Happy Birthday to the Marines out there. We celebrated the day with a bonfire, two beers, and a speech by two medal of honor recipients. The chow hall was decorated with all kinds of stuff, from butter sculptures to ornately carved watermelons. The food was delicious, i had the Glazed Cornish game hens, twice baked potatoes, carrots, radishes, two root beers, and a gigantic piece of cake.

Today is Veterans day, nothing special planned for today. We'll see if the chow hall does anything.

55 Degrees, and raining

I finaly managed to piss off the entire battalion (yes, battalion, approx 1,000 Marines) by building a really cool Flak jacket rack. The battalion CO (thats Commanding Officer) was touring our Hooch (kinda like a place to sleep, only crapier) and fell in love with it (the rack that is) you could practicly see little heart shaped birds flapping around his head. So now he mandated that everyone has one like this, and they have to build it themselves. Which sucks for us, because everyone is coming into our Hooch, and dragging dirt and sand onto the floors. Oh well.

The last few days have been dismal and dreary. Cold Tempratures, and rain. I've started another Martial arts class, so if i kinda 'disappear' and don't make to many posts/emails, don't be surprised. I'm already three days into this thing, and i feel like falling over. This course is tougher than the last 3 that i have been to. It's 21 days long, and i'll be a certified instructor at the end. This morning we spent crawling around the mud (actually, i kinda like that) doing a curcuit course designed to find your 'threshold' for physical fitness. Well, about 16 minutes into it my partner was puking, so i think we found his threshold. Never did find mine, probably because i drank a half pot of coffee before i went to the class, so i was hyped up for a good couple of hours. As a matter-of-fact, i'm drinking more coffee now, just to stay awake until lunch.

Speaking of coffee, the coffee out here sucks! all we have is Maxwell House brand. I'm used to the fancy organic stuff. I would sell my left foot for some organic coffee right about now.

I finally got a package that was sent back in July, it had a bunch of stuff that i needed while training in North Carolina. Like shorts, Shirts, and most importantly, my Rice Milk, and Organic cereal. I can't really use the shorts out here, but the cereal and rice milk was a pleasant surprise. believe it or not, rice milk is hard to come by out here. It's not somthing that an expiditionary PX stocks. Go figure. Now, all my guys have been giving me crap about it. Hey, that just means i'm saving the world twice, dammit.

Truck Meets Chuck

Chuck Norris visited us here in Fallujah last night, and put on a quick little show. He talked about his life, his military career, (1960 korea) winning the national martial arts title in the early 60's. He talked about his youth programs in Texas, and a few other things. Then they had a handshake and picture session, i didn't stick around for that, since i just got my hair cut. One of our guys did, and it took about 3 hours for him to make it through the line. Yes, all the rumors about him are true, be afraid, very very afraid. (if you don't know what i'm talking about, search for 'chuck norris facts' in google)