Defiantone.com

To save you some of your valuable time I’ll paraphrase - I’m incredibly bored. The rest of this post will consist solely of me griping about it. Ok, get on your bike and go on your way.

I rely on work to make me feel happy. When we have weather that keeps the planes grounded, as we have the last few days, there is little work to keep me occupied. As a result, I am no longer a happy camper. On a normal day people see me as a grumpy, cynical, curmudgeon. On a day that is filled with work they see me as a cynical wise ass. Last night I spent a few hours re-parking trailers - oh the joys! Most people have not had the opportunity of backing a trailer and if they do score a chance it probably does not have any steering system (campers, semi trailers etc). These are incredibly easy to park - incredibly easy. I could park one right up your… fill in the blank. We fight a different beast because we park trailers with a front steering system - much like the wagon that was always hooked to the tractor when I was a kid. They are extremely heavy and often need to be parked in gravel - deep gravel. This can make the job quite interesting. If you don’t get enough speed you’re bound to get bogged down and all progress will stop. We used to have a 4 wheel drive tug but its been out of commission for a while so we’ve been stuck with the real wheel drive model - it doesn’t help me finish my quest. Moving trailers has been the highlight of my night. The rest of the time I sat around looking for something to do - I’m not in a reading mood and the internet has lost all of its luster.

If we were killing more terrorists/insurgents/whatever the pentagon calls them I would be much happier - solely because I would have something that would occupy my time. Writing this utterly pointless blog post gave me something to do for five minutes - and for that I am grateful. Unfortunately, my creativity is at a low at the moment so you’re only going to get a drawn out version of I’m bored

I hope that cured your boredom for 26 seconds - if not - welcome to the club

I’ve been hobbling around like a cripple for a week due to an ankle sprain. Its nothing major but we walk everywhere here and it just takes a little bit away from your day. You can have a great day but if it hurts to go everywhere how great was it?

I go to the gym constantly here - its good for my health and it gives me something to do for 60-90 minutes a day. The ankle problem isn’t helping my cause - I’ve been unable to do any cardio for a week. Needless to say, I just wish the damn thing would heal up. I’ve been told to go to physical therapy but they have “banker hours”. I work night shift and I refuse to wake up in the middle of my night to go get checked out. Yes, I know that nobody will suffer but me but it’s not that big of a deal.

It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I was virtually indestructible. Now I work on rehabbing my shoulder every day (I injured it two years ago), now I worry about re-injuring my ankles and getting fractures again, now I worry about re-aggravating my sprained ankle. Oh well - I guess this is supposed to happen with age. Damn you age!

Work has been slow as of late - work makes the time go by quickly - without work the days are beginning to drag. We stay busy by killing people - sure, its not the flashiest or the most humane type of work but it keeps food on the table. When we aren’t killing people - it tends to get boring. I wish they could just go do some random goat or camel target practice - sure, its bomb they drop costs upwards of $20k but it would be good for my morale and well being.

I changed the header on my web page (notice the mountains are gone) to a picture I took from the office a few days ago before I left for home. Its strange to have a clear shot of the sun coming up when you get used to the mountains blocking the early morning sunlight.

Work has been sporadic but its enough to keep me from going insane. The filters at work block out most of the internet so I spend some of my free time reading the news. There is only so much going on at one time so it tends to wear out quickly. I took a few pictures of the bay (look below)

Here is a photo of us doing what we do best - building things that make loud noises and send chunks of steel flying at high velocities. Serj Tankian would say that we are building the components needed for death showers. Well, he isn’t far from the truth.

This is why we do it

We haven’t got all of our people in for this rotation but I do have a few friends here. One of the people here was a classmate when I was in tech school. I haven’t seen her in almost 6 years so its kinda cool to talk to her. The other guy I know I met at AFCOMAC so its not like I don’t know anyone here. Its nice to be in this environment because we all bond quickly so its not like we don’t have any friends out here.

As I’m sure you’re all aware, it has been reported that N. Korea detonated a nuclear weapon underground earlier this week. Many nations across the world have strongly opposed such an action and have been working to disarm the small communist nation. For many years, the international community has rewarded N. Korea for cooperation and has punished them whenever they acted in a defiant manner without regard to the opinion of the rest of the international community. Now, we see a slightly different response from N. Korea whenever we mention our dislike of their actions and possible economic reprecussions.

N. Korea released a statement saying that further sanctions would be treated as an act of war. So, lets get the facts straight.

We told them not to do it
They agreed and we gave them food under a UN program
They changed their minds and continued work on the program
We told them to knock it off
We had multi-national talks on the issue
They remained defiant and wouldn’t give it up
They finally (purportedly) tested a weapon
Now any action but giving into their demands will be met with war

What I’d like to do is let the Navy and Air Force go to town on them with all of the bombs we have in that part of the world. We’ll continue to drop bombs until pacific command runs out of weapons. After the dust clears, we’ll ask the survivors if they want to talk. Its a shame to kill civilians but leveling the place is looking like a better option every day.

On the other hand, they are just rattling their sabres because it wasn’t a successful detonation and they have no more cards to play. It would be much easier for them to let bygones go and come to the table peacefully. You’d be amazed at how much easier it is to get along with others when you come to the table with your hands open than with clenched fists.

found a good quote

“North Korea declares that pressure from the U.S. would be an act of war. Looking out the window, that’s an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that’s an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that’s an act of war”