Defiantone.com

The forecast calls for rain tomorrow and I am not looking forward to it. It rained a week or two ago and we probably had no more than half and inch of rain. The dirt here has a tendency to turn into creamy peanut butter whenever the rain hits it. You’re probably thinking that it doesn’t really turn into peanut butter - well, if you emptied out a jar of creamy peanut butter on the floor and stepped into it you would find the same consistency I have found here. It doesn’t help that its just as sticky - where is a 50,000 gallon glass of milk when you need it? It doesn’t take a whole lot of rain to do it but the entire place turns into a quagmire of mud and puddles. Whenever the ground is muddy we go into “two shoe” policy. In order to enter most of the public buildings we are required to change out of one pair of shoes (the ones we wore on the way there) to a clean pair of shoes. Its not that its hard to do its just one more thing to bother you. The ground seems to retain most of the water in the top 3 inches so the last time it rained we experienced mud for at least four days. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain more - how much more I’m not really sure. All I know is that I’m not looking forward to fighting my shoes, boots, and vehicles whenever they inevitably get stuck in the muck.

Like anyone on their day off might do I didn’t go to work (thus the point of having a day off). So, instead of my normal routine of gym immediately after getting up I went to the BX and onwards to the Iraqi Bazaar. The bazaar was quite a bizarre place. It reminded me of all of the trinket shops found off base in Korea. The only exception was that they actually want to bargain with you here. Its part of the culture and they expect you to haggle with them. I didn’t see anything that I really wanted but it was still an interesting place to venture on a day off. *for the sake of the sanity and well being of people that know me - the Bazaar is on base and not in the middle of all of the shenanigans that transpire off base* The did have a bunch of Persian and Turkish rugs but things like that really aren’t my deal. They are the type of rugs you would expect to find in a funeral home… or granny’s house.

The other interesting thing is that only here can you buy Italian gold sold by a Turkish guy in Iraq. To me it all looks like cheap crap so I don’t want anything to do with it - it reminds me of the stuff I saw at the gold souks in Qatar.

I had the chance to upload some photos today. They are the cut down version and they aren’t in the gallery but I’ll upload them later and place them there when I get back (the original files are too big).

I took this pic in my hotel room - check out my new threads

I’ve been feeling a bit better and have spent some more time at the gym in the past few days. So far, things have been going well and I’m slowly working my way into my program. I spend a lot more time stretching than I did last time because I’ve found that a few parts of my body are prone to repetitive stress injuries (my left shoulder and my ankles). I’m going to be at the gym 7 days a week but I only plan to spend 4 days lifting out of that time. It should allow me adequate time to properly recover so that I can hit it hard again the next day. On weight days I’m going to start at 20 minutes of cardio. On off days I’ve cranked it up to 40 minutes. I’m not sure if I want to increase the cardio times or if I just want to ratchet up the intensity. Only time will tell as I see how my body reacts to it.

The food here is actually quite good - for once I have Dick Cheney to thank - in a roundabout way. KBR, a Haliburton subcontractor, is responsible for the food on base - so far I’ve had beef brisket, chicken curry, crab legs, lobster tail, and steak to name a few. Lets just say that its quite easy for me to eat a high protein diet. I’m starting to sleep a little better and I barely wake up when the other guys come into the room. I’m cramped in a room that is made for two people that has four beds. All of my stuff is in my bags underneath the bed so I’m literally living out of my suitcase.

I’ve got my daily schedule worked out fairly well - I think I’ve got 90-120 minutes of straight study/reading time before I head to work. There are quite a few things wrong with the programs at work and they need some TLC - as soon as I get finished working through them all I should have some additional time to study there.

The hospital on base needs volunteers. I’m going to help out on my day off because it keeps me busy and its a good thing to do. I know they need help carrying litters from the choppers when our guys come but aside from that I could be doing almost anything. I don’t know how I’m going to react to it but time will tell. I took a few more pictures today and I’ll try to edit them so I can upload them tonight. I’m not sure how the firewall is going to react to it so it may have to wait until tomorrow.

I didn’t expect it to get into the low twenties last night but it did. This is supposed to be the desert and deserts are supposed to be hot - well, the Gobi desert isn’t for the overwhelming majority of the year. Qatar was quite warm and only got into the low 60’s at night - its a shame that we are so far away from the water and there is nothing to keep the temps high at night. I spent my first night working and it wasn’t all that bad - save for the cold. My problem - well, one of my problems is that I inherited my dads ability to sweat under any circumstances. So, I have thermal underwear that causes me to sweat while indoors. The second I move outside it freezes and makes me quite cold. After freezing for a while it evaporates or gets soaked back into the thermals and I get warm again. So, in order to get warm while working outside I must be forced to freeze. Something about this seems awry but there is little I can do to fix it. They don’t like us setting our flare on fire to keep us warm - mostly because all of the other items at work react poorly to heat and flame.

Its so hard to stay conveniently occupied and entertained and keep money in the bank account. As it stands now I’m on the edge of broke; but, I’m not completely broke so I still have a little bit of breathing room. The new job is going to help out a bunch and I may catch an extra couple of shifts much to the chagrin of Jessica. I need this money and I need to get ahead of things. If I work as little as 20 hours a week I’ll net a few hundred extra a month and it gets me out of hot water immediately. I’m not late on anything right now but if I went another month this way I’d be forced to start doing something drastic like selling plasma or becoming a male prostitute. I really don’t want to become a male prostitute for a few reasons (who else has time to think this out? ) - the clientèle I would draw would be much like the women that Rob Schneider attracted in Deuce Biggalo, the STD’s would be a huge drawback, the military would probably imprison me for trying (thus exacerbating the lack of income), and it would drive Jessica away (again, another bad thing). I could start selling my plasma to make a few bucks here and there but it freakin hurts. I had a friend in HS whose sole source of income was from the plasma he harvested from his body. I’m waiting to go to the desert because I can stop paying for a two giant money killers: rent and food. Both are paid for in the desert and I can take that cash and throw it on a bill. Hopefully, I’ll be down one credit card by the time I get back. If I’m good I’ll be able to get one partially gone before I leave.

It sucks being broke but its nobody’s fault but my own. I’m stupid for doing it and I hope to hell I’ll figure out how dumb I’ve been and never repeat my mistake.

Boredom is synonymous with a lack of creativity and lack of cash flow. There are very few things I can do that take absolutely no money. Think about it - if you want to go somewhere you’ve got to drive and use gas - even if you spend nothing while there you’re out the gas. Unfortunately if you’re gone for long enough you’ll need to bring some food. Sure, you’ve got some stuff in your house that you can bring with you but thats the stuff you bought for lunches during the week. The other option is to eat on the road and spend cash that you didn’t want to spend in the first place.

So, if you’ve got some extremely low cost ideas on how to spend your off duty time let me know - you can only watch TV and goof around on the internet so much - both of which cost money - before you’ve run the gamut and need to find something else to do.

Gee - this was quite a long rambling post - it saved me from boredom for a few minutes but its a solo activity and left out somebody thats sitting on the couch begging for my attention

I’ve been trying to go back and fix some things that I accidentally deleted… not all of the information transferred well. Below is everything I wrote while in the desert last time I visited. All of the links are inop so you’re pretty much crap out of luck there. I have a feeling most of them probably wouldn’t work even if I tried them.

Enjoy

16 Jan 06
Ok, yet another burning missive pounded out from my dirt encrusted keyboard that barely works is ready to go. Come and get it.
I’ve said it a few times before but if the government votes to send Americans into harms way they should train them before, protect them while there, and treat them when they get home. We’ve been doing a fairly good job at the first two and I was happy to hear about the military shipping improved protective vests based on the changing tactics of the insurgency. We’ve got bomb disposal vehicles that are keeping our guys more out of harms way than we’ve ever been able to do in the past. Our surgeons are saving lives that would have been lost in previous wars. But, when our troops come home, we still aren’t helping enough. After reading a few Newsweek articles (sure, not the best source of news but I can glean a few facts from their pages), I discovered that unlike the DoD budget, the Veterans Administration budget it optional. There is a private group that is raising money for a rehabilitation center for troops who have lost limbs in the war. To this date, all of the donations have been from private sources and none of the money has come from the Feds. The Feds are trying to make good on the situation by funding all of the operating costs as soon as the building is constructed but in they should really be footing the whole construction bill. The American people shouldn’t need to bail out the federal govt, congress should take the hint that this is important and legislate more funds to troop rehab. There was no mention of care for the mental health of military members that have returned from the AOR; this should also be on the top of the agenda.
Bottom line, if you send someones children to fight a war, take care of them when (and if) they get back.

(more…)

With all of the spare time that is on my hands one would think that a plethora of posts could be found here but as you can tell, thats not the case. When I have luck, I tend to have it in streaks (as the case has been lately). When I got home my car needed a new battery so I went out and got one. My satellite dish has not worked since I arrived back from the desert and the repair man didn’t show up on the day he was scheduled. My computer gave up and is no longer assembled. May it rest in peace.

But, luck (and great parents) has shone down on me. I explained my dilema to my parents about the lost of my computer. I had plenty of credit to buy replacement parts (as I did). My parents decided to give me the money as they had just recieved my their piece of my grandpa’s estate. So, the money that I had intended to spend on my credit card to pay it off (my TDY money and my tax return) will go to where I had intended. The computer is essentially free. I love my family, as I’ve said before, they’re great.

So, maybe my luck is on an upturn from the first few days I have spent back here… in the land of crummy weather.

Being so far north I forgot how little daylight one gets to see during the winter months. The move from the desert to here cut off 4 hours of daylight. Now it seems that two hours after it gets dark, I want to go to sleep… the only problem being is that thats two hours early. Its going to take some time to get used to the darkness again. Luckily, as each day passes we move out of the shadow of winter.

Btw, I’m at a library on a borrowed computer (in case you wondered). Thats the main bits of it all… as always, more to come later.

OK, back to the extremely simple method of posting updates to the site that nobody reads. I often wonder why I take the time (and money) to post the inane crap that I do. I still don’t have a clue as to the method of my own madness.

Its been an interesting 72 hours. I woke up a few days ago at about 8AM and whittled the time away throughout the day. I made sure my room was cleaned and I checked in my bags before we were to fly out. I went to sleep, in my uniform, for about 4 hours and then woke at 2AM for the day of travel. We went to the terminal at about 3AM and we sat around until we loaded the baggage. Because somebody hates me, the fog came in 20 minutes before we were to take off. We spent an extra hour and a half on the ground waiting for it to clear so we could leave.

When the fog cleared we took off and headed to Romania for a crew change, unfortunately, we were unable to leave the plane and check anything out. I’ll have to visit this country at a later date.

We then flew out of Romania and landed at Lakenheath, not Mildenhall, which was a bonus. As expected, we shook a whole bunch of hands with people we have never met before when getting off the plane. We took a bus up to a hangar where we met everyone that happened to be waiting for us. Since I’ve been in the sun for so long, I was unaware as to what happened to everyone that hasn’t been in the sun for a while. I thought these people hadn’t seen daylight in months… in some ways there is truth to that. The bags showed up and hour later and I got a ride to my car… which was dead. Luckily, another guy I had traveled with had a family, and a car that worked. They helped me out and gave me a jump. I drove my car around for a while and then went to the post office… where I shut off the vehicle. It took me about a half hour to get my things and get back to my car, where I discovered it wasn’t going to start again. Nothing but clicks! Hooray!

I found another guy I traveled with who also had to have his car started earlier. We hooked his car to mine with the worlds cheapest jumper cables. His car immediately died and would not start. Mine car sucked the life out of his… great! Another guy pulled up and offered us a hand with a car that worked fine. My car still wouldn’t start but we got my friends vehicle started.

Enter person number four into the conundrum that is my life, he had better cables that weren’t crap and helped jump my car. After a few minutes it sprang to life HOORAY! I took off from there and went home, I really wanted to get some food but getting home was more important. I drove around for a long time and went home. I was going to leave the key in the ignition and let it run but that key had my house keys on it. I took out the key and put the other one in… it was dead… great!

So, I dragged my things inside the house. Seeing as I had no food, takeout within walking distance was my only option. I got the food and went to turn on the TV… the sattelite was down. It still doesn’t work.

So, I’m going to trundle off to a car parts place and see if I can get a trickle charger to get it started to I can go get the battery replaced this afternoon. Thats it for now, I’ve got things to do…

If you want to read the desert edition you can find it here in its entirety.

Yes, I fixed the link!

Nervousness

I rarely get nervous but when I do it has a few days to sit about and bother me. Its happening again as I prepare to wear desert camo for a few months. Where I’m going has zero affect on me but its what I’ll be doing that does. I’m working a slightly different job while I’m down there and I have a rather large role. The guy that was supposed to go first will be going later as his wife is due the day he was to leave. I just don’t want to let anyone down. I have a reputation of being mean; well, I have a reputation of being an asshole. This doesn’t bother me in the least but screwing things up with my job and failing in that aspect has been weighing on my mind heavily. Most people, 99.8%, of them don’t understand (because they don’t know) that me being mean is a test. If you can deal with it I relax and everything works out fine. If you can’t handle the pressure, I never let off of it.

The News

The media (not the news media because thats like saying the news news or the media media… look it up if you don’t believe me) has been on a rampage covering the hurricane and its aftermath. Slate has a brilliant article found here about how its fucking it up. Yes, they relentlessly bash Fox News… probably rightfully so, and its worth a read.

GW

Got this one from the Daily Show (thanks again Jon Stewart). They were talking about a plan (fake) to build a billion dollar dam in Arkansas so they stop the water there so they wouldn’t have to fight it down in the Gulf. It reminds me of how GW wants to fight terrorism there so we don’t have to fight it here.

Shatner

William Shatner sings, poorly, but I really like the song he did with Henry Rollins. Now he is going to sing at the Emmys (don’t get me started on how that show will be a complete waste of your time) with Donald Trump and others. This could make the show interesting… heck, cut out the awards part and just have them sing. Read about it here.

If you haven’t noticed I get a fair amount of my news from MSN(BC) based sites. I think they walk down the middle of the road so its my primary choice. Fox News stands on the far RIGHT, the NY Times goes way back to left field but MSNBC plays center (most of the time).