Defiantone.com

Well, after 130 some odd days my time in dodge is finally over and I am getting the heck out of here. I’ve got more time to kill before my plane gets here but I don’t have to sleep another night (or day in my case) in Iraq.

The most baffling thing about my trip is that for some reason I haven’t made the Iraqis free. I put together explosives and they get dropped on people and for some reason we haven’t cleaned up this whole debacle yet. I figured I, of all people, could come over here and stop the shenanigans in Iraq.

Alas, I have failed in my quest to make them free - I don’t think this one is going to be fixed overnight (or within the next 3-5 years).

Oh well -

I’ve been having a difficult time dealing with other people during my last few weeks here. My behavior to their actions remains the same but I have been unable to contain my frustration lately. Yesterday I drug a 6500 pound trailer 200 yards - by myself. I probably could have pulled it a half a mile because I was getting a little bit cranked.

Whats my problem with him? He is using the “buddy” system, he is lazy, he loves to brown nose, and he spends most of his time trying to look important while doing nothing at all. As you can imagine, it can get on your nerves. I just want to go down to the building, do the work required, and come back.

He wants to hang out with his buddies and play cards. While he is playing cards I get to do the work - he isn’t moving from his chair. When new people show up he is all “show” - when superiors show up he is also all “show”. Frankly, I’m tired of it and look forward to not working with this individual again.

When I’m not at work I’m a happy care free guy - well, as long as the power is working. Its almost like a 180 degree difference. Its not a 108 degree difference, but, it was that warm outside today. Yes, I say warm because the worst is yet to come. Sorry for the tangent - my mind is wandering. Making this person change their habits is probably impossible because the other guy that outranks me has the same problem. We’re fighting the valiant fight and neither of us are winning. Most people can blow off their steam - I just need to blow off some energy. I could also spend time away from work - and it seems all better. Its a shame I have to go back - oh well, only 9 more days turning wrenches.

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

The current situation in Iraq has been under intense scrutiny and debate for some time. We find it ever more in the spotlight as the democrats and republicans use it against each other for political gain. General Petraeus recently gave testimony to the Armed Services Committee and provided them with this slide. I haven’t had a chance to read through the transcript and frankly I don’t care - what concerns me is the information in the slide.

The slide does paint a rosy picture - but - as we all know - its not that rosy. The Iraqis really need to man up and take this country over. The longer they squabble over power the more detrimental it will be to their long term prosperity. The charts do not give the entire picture as they only provide a limited time line. We’ve been here for 5 years - I want to see the charts for the entire time on the ground.

Unfortunately, the US military presence will continue until the politicians can come to an agreement. Even after the government begins to function and corruption decreases (which I hope it will) the Iraqis will continue to rely on the US military to do things they cannot - Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), Combat Search and Rescue, Logistical Support, and Air power.

As bad as I want to see our guys out of the fight - things could fall apart quickly without our help. I just don’t think they are ready despite continued progress - I wonder how longs its going to be before we are done. Waiting sucks - it really does. Its a shame we can’t get the Iraqi government to subcontract our role in their country. How cool would that be? Don’t let them pay us - have them pay Black water, KBR, or whomever they wish. They could regulate and control the situation to their desire until their own military and police forces can handle the country as a whole.

BlueCoat, the web filter ran by the USAF, has caused me much aggravation since my arrival at Balad. I am not the only one that is feeling pain - everyone else is affected by this poorly written web filter. Recently, I discovered a way to circumvent the filter - RSS feeds. Techically, I’m accessing the site information without breaking the terms of service because I am not accessing the site or any restricted content - including all images hosted on that server that could potentially corrupt me (I think the only reason the filter exists is to 1. save bandwidth, 2. block porn, 3. prevent idiots from downloading viruses). RSS stands for really simple syndication - really, I’m not kidding at all. Its the summarized content of a website that is delivered without all of the extra advertising, images, and themes of the full website. You get the good part of the website without all of the crap that slows down your browsing experience. RSS feeds are read and displayed by readers that can be web or desktop based.

Google - the company that does almost everything - well, they haven’t figured out how to build an electric car that runs for a 1000 miles on a single charge… yet - has a free reader that is quite simple to use. Simply register, subscribe to the websites of your choosing, and read away. The reader allows you to view all feeds or just those that have been recently updated. I’ve added a RSS link that you can see to your right - right below the Askimet spam count. Click on the link and you can easily add my feed to the reader of your choice. You’ll never miss another gripping update - ever - you can rest easily now.

So - Screw you BlueCoat - I’m going to get my news one way or another.

I woke yesterday and found not blue skies as I was used to but something much more sinister and disgusting. It was like the whole world was in a sepia filter and it had a strange color wash - we were in a brown world. The sky was being choked out by the dust in the air and I could stare directly at the sun at 4PM without it hurting my eyes - well, I could have stared at it if I could have found it. I took a few photos of the day and put them all together - notice how everything blends?

(you can click on the image for the high quality version)

The sky blends into the dirt, into the concrete, into my boots, into the buildings. The item that was the least brown was my shirt which is supposedly “sand” colored. Sand isn’t a color, brown is - you’re authorized to call things light brown and dark brown but there is no sand. If the color isn’t one of the 16 in the crayon box it doesn’t exist - its only a variation of a real color. Somebody had fun making up stupid names.

Its now the next day and I am still coughing and wheezing because lungs don’t react well to dust in that concentration. Why the hell would anyone want to live in Iraq when its such a brown place? The ground has got to be green where I live and the sky needs to be blue.

I made the changes to the code so now it should appear in a new light. I’ve got to download the latest and greatest version (with some more bug fixes) when I get a chance so it should only get better. Let me know what you think.

Oh - got a few pictures of the night shift crew - well most of us

John McCain is the guy leading the republican side of the race and Obama is in the lead on the other front.

I’ve been watching McCain for years and I’ve gotta say that I like him more than any of the other candidates. He has been under fire from conservatives because he isn’t conservative enough. I like him for that reason alone. He has been branded a hot headed maverick. He plays both sides of the field. He stands up for what is right. He listens when he needs to and acts when he needs to.

Obama feels like media hype to me. I don’t know enough about the guy to understand how he might react to something. When I choose a candidate I stray away from the “issues” and try to determine how that individual will react in a crisis. Will they make a sound judgment call?

I’m still quite undecided - aside from the fact that I will never vote for Hillary - unless Cheney was running - in which case I might move to Canada.

I took a few new photos - including one of myself

I tried out the panorama maker software of my camera with surprising results (click the image for the BIG version)

I’m looking to the time I get out of here - I’m planning on doing something - as identified by the photo below. Its never Miller time - its Guinness time -

I took a few random videos - I don’t even remember what they were - you’ll have to watch and see

I wish I had time to really write something of note but this is all that I’ve got time for at the moment.

Tags: Balad, Canada, desert, Guinness, McCain, Obama, politics

The did it in Abu Ghraib prison to people that didn’t deserve the treatment. I do it to myself on a daily basis. Why in the world would somebody beat the ever living crap out of their body? Why would someone push themselves until they were in so much pain that they thought they were going to puke?

Boredom

I decided to see how hard I could push myself today. My shoulder is almost completely rehabbed - almost to the point where I don’t have to worry about it. I’m still working on strengthening the anterior deltoid muscle (the weak one in the bunch) so that it keeps all of the other muscles where there are supposed to be located. It was leg day - the most brutal day of the week. Leg day is an all out assault on the largest muscle group in the body. It is the muscle group that is constantly in use and the one that takes the most punishment (save for the heart of course). I went through my normal routine but I cranked it up to three sets of 20 reps. I normally work in the 3×12 range but I essentially doubled my reps while maintaining the same weights. By the time I was done with each set my legs were on fire - veins were starting to pop out from my skin that I didn’t even know existed. I could barely walk by the time that I was done - not being able to walk isn’t a bad thing in this case - it merely shows that I properly worked out the muscle group. If you’ve watched any bad horror movies and have seen zombies stumbling about - its probably close to how I’ve been walking around. We probably smell the same too - its been a few days since we’ve had running water. Unless the world goes to hell, I’ll get my first shower in days tomorrow morning.

I’ve been resisting the urge to expunge the material in my stomach - its been 30 minutes since I’ve walked out of there but the pain is so intense that I can barely hold my guts in check. Its a hobby - albeit a painful one.

I love thunderstorms - I love seeing the rain come down in torrents - I love seeing the sky flash with lighting and hearing the wind whip through the trees. I love hearing the crack of thunder that reverberates across the countryside. I don’t mind the aftermath because I got a great show. I love falling asleep to thunder - some find it frightening but I always sleep better during a good storm.

I hate drizzling crap rain. It rained a few days ago and I spoke of my great dislike for the mud. I thought that the worst of the crap was over and that the ground was going to finally dry up. I was looking forward to wearing one pair of shoes instead of carrying a second pair around with me. I was looking forward to not worrying about the mud that gets tracked everywhere. I was looking forward to my roommates no longer tracking in the mud - they aren’t considerate enough to take off their boots at the door. England is notorious for drizzling crap and the pacific northwest is notorious for drizzling crap. I didn’t expect to find that particular brand of rain out here.

I woke this morning to a drizzle that brought down the temperature 10 degrees and that covered every surface with a thin sheen of mud. There is no clean place left on this base. Indoors and out we live in world of slime, a world of filth, a world of muck. I say boo the mud - boo the rain. I don’t want scorching heat but I’d take it over drizzle any day. So, bring on the pain - bring on the heat.