Corrupting Newbies

Ok, if you haven't noticed, I'm a snowboarder. It is one of my passions and the main thing that has me looking forward to winter.

Today, I went snowboarding, and I dragged a newbie who has never been with me. I tend to do that a lot. See, my reasoning is if I can corrupt them into snowboarding with me once, they become a future snowboarding partner when I really feel like getting crazy.

There are three ways I snowboard. By myself, with people worse then myself, and with people better then myself. I prefer to go in that order reversed. Unfortunately, most people I know are worse then myself or have never been, which are almost the same thing. So whenever i get the chance, I talk people into hitting mountains with me.

Though I've had instances where they came off with the lame excuse of taking the hamster to the vet (yes, somebody brushed me off with that very line).

So anyway, today, I corrupted one of my troopies. See, she is a soldier who recently joined the military yet was still in high school, and her unit was on the other side of the mountains, so we kind of babysat her for a while until she went to basic. That was fun.

She has turned into a pretty good troop. That, and she went to the same exact basic training company I did. I got a kick out of that. I could have done so many mean things to her on account of that but I didn't. *kicks self*

Anyway, the story of Lisa, as that is all you shall know her as. Lisa has lived in this town all of her life and though there are five ski resorts within a two hour drive, she had never been. I felt the need to remedy that.

She picked it up pretty damn fast. We finally pulled the camera out at the end.


Lisa is riding here, this was the last run we did, for reasons which I will go into momentarily.

Conditions were interesting. It snowed about three or four inches. The snow covered Ice. Falling was not fun, especially in certain spots where the snow had been worn away, leaving nothing but ice.

Lisa fell right on a patch of ice and banged her knee. She called it quits about this time.


She was still on the mountain, but had to get down, so she converted the snowboard into a sled. I call this, Board Sledding!

Lisa got going pretty fast for a moment, but lost control of her direction. She fell off, and the board kept going. I saw this coming from a mile away and kept yelling "get it! Get it!"

Damn I wish I got a picture of her chasing after it.



This is the board, in the ditch.



This is Lisa, going after the snowboard.



This is Lisa and the board trying to get out of the ditch. About this time I was thinking "you know, I should have gone after it, considering Lisa banged her knee on the ice!"



This is Lisa, laid out exhausted after getting the snowboard.

Well, then there was me. See, I let Lisa use my board and because she is taller then me, I let her use my boarding pants, so I kind of mix and matched my gear. *warning, boarding terminology in use* I've actually got four snowboards (I carry extras for newbies to get them hooked), three are strap ins and one is a switch step in bindings. Because all of the support is in the boot on my Switch Gear, the boot is a bit big. I usually use my other pants to cover over the boots, but unfortunately, Lisa was wearing them. So I reverted back to my other pants.

They have suspenders that I often forget to strap. And I'm wearing Camouflage with a bright blue knit cap.

The result?



I think I'm going for a fashion statement here. And it ain't workin'.

Oh well, who cares? I had fun.

Doing Nothing

So, I'm home for the holidays, and I have been doing absolutely nothing. And it's been GREAT!!!

Ok, so I lied, I haven't been doing absolutely nothing, just a whole lot of nothing. Coupled with Sleep, Laziness and all around Vedge Mode.

Christmas wasn't a big deal this year, only the fact that I got to spend it at home. Over the last few days I've been catching up on a couple of video series, well, mainly one, which is almost to embarrassing to say because I'm watching a Kid's Series and I'm 24. But I was a Kid when I used to watch it, and since they remade it, I had to catch up and watch it again and see what I saw in it then.

Yes, I admit it. As a child, I was seriously addicted to Turtles. I loved them, watched them every day, collected the cards and used my meager allowance on buying action figures. Ninja Turtles were bigger then SpongeBob and Pokeman are now. And I was one of many young minds engulfed into the following.

But like most kids, I grew out of it, and for a time was almost ashamed to admit that I watched Ninja Turtles. It even went through the phase that it was nerdy to actually like them. Kind of like Power Rangers *barf* (never liked those).

So anyway, in a moment of trying to rekindle the nastalgia, I found the first five episodes of the original turtles and bought it for kicks, and having not seen it for about, oh, eleven years, got a kick out of it and remembered that I used to dig these guys.

So what did I do? I got the new series on DVD and watched it. And got hooked.

Mikey's still my favorite :P

Tis the Season

A few months back, my brother Jerardo was looking for a video game for Xbox that he just couldn't seem to find. However, I could order it through my work so I did.

For some reason, it proved to be a pain to get a hold of because it wouldn't come in for quite some time.

Anyway, I left for training, am back in town on Christmas Leave, and low and behold, the game came in a few days ago.

So I bought it with all these intentions of wrapping it up and surprising him with this hard to find game.

*grumble grumble* He bought it four days ago.

Now I know what my parents mean when they lament about how hard he is to shop for.

The thing is, I'm the same way.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Merry Washington Christmas

Well, there's 'good' news for washingtonians this christmas eve. Chris Gregoire is finally putting an end to the governor fiasco. See, she 'won' the last recount so now she's governor.

Governor my ass. You don't hold recounts until you get your votes, that's bullcrap.

The lady pisses me off to no end. I would have been fine with her as governor if she had won fair and square, but she didn't. Unfortunately, this entire thing was in her hands to begin with. She should have conceded before and not many people will take her seriously as governor if she gets it.

Look at it this way. This was a solid blue state that went to Kerry pretty easily. Yet it was that close for governor, meaning that several people crossed party lines wanting to get Gregoire out of there. Doesn't that say something about her?

Yeah, I think it does. She strung it out this long, now Rossi is fighting. I hope he does.

It might have to be held in another election, which I sincerely hope it doesn't but at this point that might make more sense. If it does, I say hold another election, whoever wins, wins, and no more of this bullcrap. If luck holds out, enough people who voted for Gregoire might be so pissed at her for dragging it out that they will either sway at the polls or stay at home.

Unfortunately, either I'll have to sit it out or vote absentee.

Not a Whole Lot

Somehow, tomorrow, I have to get my brother on post.

Then I can leave for christmas.

More in Dogtags.

(I'm learning how to drive in Europe. This should be interesting.)

Getting Off Fort Lewis

You never realize how much you like having a car, until you are stuck without one. Cars are wonderful, glorious things to have and if you have one parked outside in your driveway, you should go out and stare at it and realize how lucky you are to have a functional car that you can use to get from point a to point b.

I have a car. It is currently 300 miles away and signed over to my parents, technically making it no longer mine. In other words, I don't have a car.

I am stuck on an army base with no form of transportation other then shuttle busses that are destined to only go certain places and consequently they are not places I want to go.

See, this is the thing. Today is Commander's time, and it is time I didn't expect to have off. Woe is me, eh? But what does one do with oneself when they find themselves with a day off and stuck on an Army Post?

They try to find a way OFF!

I got a shuttle from North Fort to Main Post easily enough, which brought me to the wonderful and glorious PX. Not exactly where I wanted to go, because I'm still on Post. So I decided to find a way to get around and enjoy myself and use this opportunity to take back that disfunctional memory stick (which turned out to work fine).

I tried to find a bus. It's sunday. Busses don't run that far south on Sunday. I tried to get a taxi. They wanted to rape my wallet. I tried my feet. I have to be back by formation tomorrow, and I don't want to walk that far.

I rented a car. Surprisingly, for what I can do, renting a car was actually cheaper then taking a taxi. Is it just me, or is something wrong with this picture?

Well, I now have a car and I want to use said car, and using it consists of me actually driving it, not sitting in a kinko's catching up on my blog.

Tomorrow is the range. Tuesday is. . . other mass unpleasentries (watch my mood drop from cheerful to homicidal)

Today, I have a blessed rental, though it runs like crap, but then again, it's a rental.

Thursday, I'm home sweet home!

The Infamous "To Do' List

I'm notorious for To Do lists. I make them all the time, every once in a while I even post them online and will cross things off as I accomplish them. Tis very gratifying.

Anyway, I got a hell of a lot of things to do when I get home. Unfortunately, at this time, I can't think of everything I have to do. Maybe this will be a list in progress? Aren't they all?

• Take extra crap home
  
• Sew Tags on Uniforms
  
• Go Snowboarding
  
• Eat Home Made Won Tons
  
• Fix all of the 'ate up' programming on my weblogs so they actually lead somewhere when somebody clicks on them. (Dogtags is a mess) - Well, its a lot better now, however I can't do a whole lot with the crude HTML because my system is down.
  
• Update all dead links
  
• Get PhotoGallery Up
  
• Go Snowboarding
  
• Pay off at least One Credit Card
  
• Sleep in until noon at least one day. (make that three days)
  
• See christmas Lights - Scratch that, we mised them
  
• Take Pyro (my Desktop) in for a check up. (fixed it myself)
  
• If car isnt' already cleaned, clean car.
  
• Go Snowboarding. (doesn't look like I'll get to go a third time)
  
• Get pictures taken.
  
• Solve the Inbox Dilemma. (soon, very soon)
  
• Cut Hair (or find suitable alternative)

This is a living and breathing To Do List, in constant metamorphosis. Let's see how long it lasts before it decomposes into a puddle.

Bad Ass

You know, I should have put something up about this a long time ago, but I was, um, a little caught up in briefings and Flu Shots and firing ranges and what ever else.

I nearly forgot about my little bad ass brawl

Yeah, yeah, that sounds about right.

Girl Issues

I'm having hair problems. I'm having a dilemma on what to do with my wig.

When I was in Basic, that became standard fan fare from the Drills. "Erickson! Fix that wig!"

I got this really fine, thin hair, and it just kind of, well, it doesn't like to stay put unless I put heavy duty hard core axel grease in there. So I got fly away strands that I can't seem to get to go anywhere.

I'm thinking about chopping it. And really chopping it. Short. Really short.

Problem is, I like my hair long. I've had it short before, but I can't seem to pull it off without having my sexuality questioned. And that always gets old.

I like my hair long, but constantly pulling it back in a bun tears it up. In a year and a half, I will have to chop my hair regardless. I don't like putting axel grease in my hair every day so that it stays plastered to my head and stays in place.

I might start the new year with a butch hair cut. My mom won't be thrilled. But hey, I just want to get through this deployment in one piece and with as few distractions as possible. My hair is a distraction.

And cutting it short might take care of the men as well.

I should just shut up already

Alright, alright, maybe I should just shut up already and from this point on, post as I go without saying that I'm not posting anymore.

I found another computer. its a bit of a walk away and I only have a thirty minute wait on it.

Although my own personal thoughts are kind of at a scramble right now, this blog is gearing down. Check Dogtags for more information.

PS - Reserves is a cake walk in the mobilization area, that and I'm in the medical field so it's a double whammy. No lockdown whatsoever. And I took somebody else's advice. EFMB should be my priority (expert field medical badge for you civilians out there)

Well, this appears to be it, for real this time

Well, it looks like I have to wander back up to hotel now where I will sit in the confines of my room bored to tears while and gearing up for a rather hectic day tomorrow. They are really breaking me in, I get to get up at 0430 so we can be at the drill hall to draw weapons and be down to the barracks by 0800. I don't know what exactly is in store for me these next few days, I just know I'm getting Gassed on Saturday.

I think I'll write a running journal of the events as they happen.

I'll be back around in about two weeks. If I am running around sooner, I'll be back sooner. Until then, adios. And Happy Channukah. (did I butcher that?)

PS - I updated the "earn" column to add a couple badges that I want to get for a triple stack. I will get these, I will get these. . .

Vedging in Seattle

I've discovered a really cool thing about technology. They have free internet access in some of the most bizarre and coolest places. Like the Seattle Center.

This is me. Right now.



I look like hell because I'm in the middle of a Mobilization and I'm getting over a cold. But this is my last night as a normal human being and starting tomorrow, everything is up in the air in regards to internet access and actually getting the opportunity to go out and wander. From what I understand, I could very easily be on lockdown.

I haven't been on Lockdown since Basic Training. Anyway, my NCOIC has been telling me that everything I have experienced in the army, Basic Training, AIT, Annual Training, Drills, well, that ain't the army. Tomorrow, I enter the Army. These last couple days? just padding to help me transition from civilian to soldier.

I give myself two and a half weeks to get in the mindframe I should be. The ironic thing is in two and a half weeks I'll be heading home for Christmas for ten days.

Ah, who am I kidding? I bet tomorrow I jack something up.

Now because everything is closed by 5 due to the whole winter thing and I didn't even get to my hotel room until 4:30, that means I think I'll just vedge here at the Seattle Center and surf the internet for a while. It's kind of chilly and I have no idea when I'll get to do this again.

Why Do People Do This?

I got a troll in my email (I only call her that because of how she phrased her email), and by the phrasing of her email, I felt that she was accusing me of being a closed minded bigot if I refused to answer her.

It was only because of this that I felt I should answer her, but not to really give her a reply to her email, it was more of a kind reminder that I was annoyed by her accusation that if I kept silent it means that I don't want to give an argument on why I think the way I do.

Here is that part of the email, point blank.

"It's been my past experience that people will only believe what they want to believe, and will find a way to justify anything, but what I do find is
if they cannot think of a reply, they will choose silence. This makes me think
that perhaps they have no reply."

I'm not saying that she was trying to make a valid point, which she actually was, but it was more to the point of basically saying that if I don't reply to her, then my minds made up and I have no desire to look at the other side and to get in a debate on the subject.

Believe me, I'm always up for a good debate. In fact, I would have loved to expand on her question with my own thoughts. But it's just the fact that truthfully, my time is precious and I have very little that I can respond to, and believe me, there are about two dozen emails sitting in my inbox that I want to return and I can't.

I want to return your emails, I honestly do! I would love to reply to every email I get! I can't! Please please please please PLEASE don't do this! It's annoying!

If I am Silent to your email, it's because I don't have time to respond to it. That's all there is to it!

More on Badass Championship

Personally, I like Aaron's version of how it will go.

Meanwhile, 'not' SarahK has a poll up on which one of us is going to win. It looks deadlocked.

*prods readership ever so subtly*

Latest

Well, the unit administrator is graciously allowing me to use his computer as we go through my stuff and get it squared away. I had to *sniff* give up my rental car and move into the drill hall until we officially mob.

These next few weeks will be hectic.

Why didn't I think of this?

Hat tip - Army Times / Pvt Murphy's Law

Is this thing never going to quit???

So, two badass tough chicks well known on the internet for their love of guns dooking it out. What will these people think of next?

(odds are apparently in my favor)

Hat tip - SarahK, and her evil twin.

Moral Reasonings

Ok, so I had this come up a couple of days ago in a talk during lunch. And we got into a heated debate about it, or at least it could have been heated if I wasn't dragging my butt exhausted due to the fact that I had a grand total of two hours of sleep the night before.

I don't exactly remember how it came to this topic, but it arrived due to a topic that should be adamently ignored while you are in uniform. We were discussing politics, and we eventually came upon the topic of Gay Marriage.

First, let me state my opinion on Gay Marriage, because that is what it is, an opinion and nothing more. I personally do not agree with Homosexuality based on my religious beliefs and the fact that I find Anal sex to be downright disgusting, and the fact that it is proven that the homosexual 'lifestyle' (term used loosely based on that discussion) is dangerous in the spread of communicable diseases and STD's (my line of work in the military, though I admit heterosexuals are not exempt either)among other things.

However, I do not see it as my place to tell other people how they should or should not live. I do not believe in ammending the constitution to ban gay marriage because I have a slight libertarian view on this topic. I don't like the government getting involved in my personal life and choices, and I admit that if I were gay I would still feel that way. If this came up to vote in my own state, to tell you the honest truth, I'm not sure how I would vote. Despite my conservative leanings, I might actually vote against a ban.

However again, I do not believe that the government should also condone homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle in public school sex education, for a variety of reasons. For one, the government is starting to tread on moral ground, and therefore when the government is teaching you something that is contradictory to what you are teaching them, who is your child to believe? School or their parents? And if they decide to side with you as opposed to their education on the matter, how seriously are going to take the rest of their education? But then again, I don't believe that it should be condemned, because condemnation breeds intolerance, and I know something about that.

What eventually this breeds down to is I told the person I was having this debate with that I don't believe the government should be involved in what I teach my children to be right and wrong. If I choose to teach my children that homosexuality is wrong, his argument started to come along the lines of, 'if your teaching your child this argument and they later decide that they were gay, wouldn't that put a strain on your relationship with your child?'

I basically ended the conversation here, because I was bloody tired, but I wish I continued. The truth is, I believe the freedom of choice, and my own understanding is we live by a series of choices. I will teach my children on what I believe is right and wrong, as they are my children and that is my right. However, if my child decided they were gay and chose to live that 'lifestyle', they would know where I stand on the subject but it wouldn't make me love them any less. There are many lifestyle choices that we can make that will cause contention with our parents, I shouldn't have to change my basic moral beliefs to appease somebody else, even my own children. What does that say about me if I did?

If I taught my children that smoking is wrong and dangerous to your health (which I believe to be correct), and my child then chose to smoke, would that make me love them any less? Of course not. I might be disappointed, but I shouldn't have to decide that smoking was ok because my child was doing it. I can only continue to love and support them, and let them know that in this circumstance, I disagree with their choice but continue to love them.

Of course, what I said instead was that I don't intend to have children because they drive me nuts (I go through these feelings quite constantly, I have 9 nieces and nephews and keep saying to myself that my siblings can take care of the gene pool and leave me out of it.)

Anyway, the gist of the conversation is I don't believe that the government should be involved in anything based on moral reasoning, which includes sexual behavior, unless involving children who don't know any better and non consenting adults. But then again, legalizing Gay Marriage brings up a whole new series of issues that will need to be involved and frankly I don't know if I want to get into that discussion, because face it, this is a hot topic that I find even myself torn in several directions regarding.

I can see why this is a concern for so many people however. For a long time, homosexuality was something that many considered to be vile and wrong and was only practiced in privacy. It wasn't talked about and those that were open were generally shunned. Then it became more and more accepted as an alternative 'lifestyle', and though ten years ago, gay marriage was considered preposterous, now it is considered realistic.

Seeing how far the homosexual lobby has come makes me wonder how long it will take for NAMBLA to gain more clout and become more acceptable by mainstream society. And that in itself is freaking terrifying. When is enough enough? Where does the government draw the line in their interferance on what should or shouldn't be recognized?

More of my own rambling two cents on the matter. Honestly, I don't know what anybody can gain from this.

Kinkos + Laptop + Free Internet = :)

Well well well, what do you know? I could have saved myself some money by dragging my laptop with me about a half block yesterday. To bad I forgot my plugin for my scanner. That'll have to wait until tomorrow.

The next two days consists of me getting prepared for deployment by getting everything that I need to get done done. Now. You see, we had some dates on our orders but very little else. We didn't know what we needed to do now because we didn't know how much time we would have later.

Turns out, we will have a lot of time. I think I'll check out and familiarize myself with my laptop.

Not so Blacked out

Ahh. . . Kinko's is just next to my Hotel room. (i better not say that to loud, somebody might be able to track me down.) So the blackout isn't quite existent yet. Which is a good thing, except for the fact that these computers cost 20 cents a minute to use. Good thing I can type fast.

So far, things have been interesting. I do get to go home for Christmas and I will be there for ten days on block leave. Honestly, I didn't want to take ten days of block leave because I wanted to save my leave for later, but it was either all or none. And I want to see my family and go snowboarding. That, and I forgot some things back at home and brought some things with me that I won't need. So i guess i'll use some now and save the rest for later.

In other news, we had a pretty interesting discussion during lunch yesterday that I wanted to post my thoughts about, and unfortunately I really can't because I don't have the time too. Time is of the essence. Bah. Maybe I'll post about it tomorrow, when I find a computer that doesn't cost money.

Now i just need to figure out how to use my laptop in wireless mode.

Gosh, that was a completely worthless post. I guess it was just there for the essense of, I'm not gone after all.

Moving to 'Radio Blackout'

Well, if you've been following me, you likely noticed that i've been winding down, mostly due to the fact that I've got a lot to do and no time to do it, and some things had to be sacrificed. To those of you who emailed me, I tried to answer your emails but, well, I ran out of time, so please don't think that I didn't appreciate your comments or read what you wrote (i got more then a few good laughs out of this). I'll just say that the feedback from this site has been astounding and overly positive, and I have been just a little overwhelmed by it all.

Back to the point on hand. My internet access from here on out is questionable. I'll be online every chance I get and keep you posted, but for the most part, I'll be fairly busy over the next two months for certain. Please feel free to check back now and again and leave your comments, I do read them all.

Lastly, my two blogs. I've got the Blog here, Incoherant Ramblings, as well as my Blog Foxholes and Dogtags. The difference between these two blogs is simple. This is my blog for my various thoughts and whatever I feel like posting. Foxholes and Dogtags (there is a small story behind the name I might add) is my true Milblog. My day to day activities involving the military, pictures, experiences, and basically anything military will be posted there. All military items will be posted there from here on out. Everything else, goes here.

I just felt that a lot of the military items should be seperated from my thoughts and feelings (especially politics, as neither political party is truely endorsed by the military and I really shouldn't be posting here as if I'm speaking for the army, I only speak for myself).

Eh, more ramblings. Now moving to the 'blackout'

Re-re-re-REcount

Can someone please tell me how somebody can pay for a recount in two democratic counties and ignore the rest of the state?

This looks like the Democrats are buying the election or something eerily close to it.

The Washington Governor's race is down to 42 votes between them (in other words, it's CLOSE). Rossi, the republican, is ahead.

Gregoire, the democrat, is demanding a recount. But only in King and Pierce county. Because they are paying for the recount, they apparently get to choose where they are going to recount the votes.

If they are going to have a recount (again), shouldn't it be in EVERY COUNTY???

Isn't that the point of the phrase 'every vote counts'? Or is it being twisted to 'every vote for my party counts, so we need to simply count in predominantly liberal counties'?

This thing is awfully fishy, Gregoire is just going to finagle it until she gets a win isn't she?

Um, I'm going to check back up on this and see how accurate this story is, so nobody quote me on it. My source is my parents who heard it on the news. According to the latest recount, Rossi is governor. By 42 votes.

How great it would be for another Blue State to have a republican governor. (cross fingers and hope Rossi still keeps the lead)

Update - So, it does appear that the democrats can ask for a recount in specific counties, which they have to pay for, but if their recount produces a possible win, then the entire state must be recounted.

The status of the Washington Gubernatorial race? Two Counts, both won by Dino Rossi. Yes they were close, but I must contest. Doesn't this appear that Christine Gregoire is digging for votes? **yes, yes it does!**

She isn't going to stop until she wins. I hope she gets her hand recount, she loses, and the democrats get to pay for our trouble.

Referenced from King 5 News (yes, unfortunately you do need to register)

It's Thanksgiving

Yes, it is that day where we all come together with our family, plop onto an extra large table, and eat a bit fat turkey (and otherwise gorge ourselves).

I'm fortunate to have my entire family here this week, which is saying something. I've got a large family and we don't always get to see one another (and I will be the missing person for a while)

Plus, there's a possibility I may be able to go to Lookout Pass, which is the only ski resort within driving distance that has a chance of being open before i go. But I still got a lot to do and tomorrow is the only day I can go snowboarding.

So a part of me hopes it will open tomorrow, and a part of me hopes I don't have the excuse of going. I'm borderline here, I really want to go but I really do have a lot I have to do and going would be kind of irresponsible.

That, and I'm a huge procrastinator and I brush things off to last minute over and over and over again.

Anyway, it is the holidays, and I really should be with my family. Today will henceforth be quiet, and unfortunately, my blog will be getting quieter as well.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I for one have much to be thankful for. (maybe later I'll post something to that affect.

Example of a rambling

The hour approacheth, and my time is running short.

I've been doing a lot lately to simply prepare myself for deployment. Yesterday I finally met with my religious leaders to get myself spiritually prepared and on the right track going into a deployment. For one, I haven't been the spiritual strength I was in my past. So no, I wasn't one of those people who voted Bush because I'm from the religious right. I voted for Bush (the short answer) plain and simple because he was a better man for the job then Kerry. The prospect of Kerry being Commander in Chief was simply to scary for words.

But I'm running off topic here.

Today I will have to replace my Military ID with an Active Duty one, return some videos, shop for some old BDU's, and get some cushioning for my laptop accessories so they just don't dangle in the patch I got for them.

And of course, sleeping in while I still can. Truthfully, I hate to sleep in. Sleep is a necessary annoyance. It would be nice if you could just go on and on without any sleep, but my body caves in really quick. And did I mention that I'm not a morning person? Interesting Career field I chose, I must say.

You should have seen me in Basic. I was getting so delusional that several times I nearly slept walked. I didn't dare tell the Drill Sergeants for fear that I would be kicked out of the army. Scared the hell out of the fire guard once or twice. One time I was standing next to my bunk at the position of attention, asleep, becuase in my dream the Drill Sergeant made us do it.

Fortunately, I haven't had instances like that since.

Yeah, got a lot to do today. I better back away from the computer now.

Checklist

First a bit of good news. I'll likely be able to come home for Christmas. Tis a nice little surprise.

Second, my room is a disaster and I am in the process of moving a whole bunch of crap to a storage unit.

Third, Harry Potter Three came out on DVD today. I feel like buying it and vedging in front of a TV for a while.

Fourth, I'm getting sick of Politics already. What's more, I got well known in the Aftermath of the presidential election. How bizarre that is.

Fifth, trying my hand in Ebay by actually selling somethign I got from work for free. So far it's at $10.50. Not a bad profit (my sister's doing real well on Ebay these days, if I wasn't getting shipped off, I might try it more myself)

Sixth, I'm leaving behind a unit of people that don't have anything to do next drill, long story, and I have to plan out a training mission for them before I go. See, I got cross leveled from one unit to another and since there are people coming into my old unit (i was quite literally an army of one for a short time), I have to make sure that they are taken care of.

Seventh, with the weather acting like it has been recently, there's a good chance one of these area ski areas will be open on Thursday. Because Thursday is thanksgiving, and Saturday is family picture day, I have to resort to using Friday to Snowboard. Because there is a good chance I'll be able to come home for Christmas (but unfortunately I do not know how long that will be), so maybe I'll get two shots at the mountain.

Eighth, I'm going to try incorporating Icons into my blog. Again.

Ninth - Anybody know any good movies to recommend? The last movie I saw was the Incredibles, before that was probably Napoleon Dynamite. Though I admit I haven't been much of a movie watcher on account that I have a policy with entertainers. I like to be entertained by them, not bashed because of my political affiliations.

Tenth, Time to go hit some local thrift stores or the Army surplus and find a set of BDU's before I deploy. (Long story)

I feel like painting. . .

Answering Roman

About the time I started to get, well, noticed, I got an comment from somebody asking me a question.

Hi I'm writing from Paris, France.
After seeing your art and writings I think you are a very sensitive girl.
Hence I also think it's very sad that a girl like you feels so unsecure.
I'm not writing this to talk about politics, I'm just asking you to think about the reasons why you like guns so much, and what were the reasons you started this blog ? Is your mind clear enough to make the right decisions in of your life (think about the title of your blog).
Be aware that it's the army's job to condition your mind. Perhaps you can still leave the army before it's too late.
I'm also asking you to ask yourself this question: It is worth dying for this war ?
Listen to heart and please take care.?
Sincerely,
Roman

Ok, before you start flaming this guy for being a troll, I don't see him as that. I see him as a guy asking an honest question just trying to figure out why. I see nothing wrong with that. In fact, I generally do the same thing to people who I don't see eye to eye with myself. It helps me understand where other people are coming from.

And so, this is my reply.

Roman, you are right, I am a sensitive person, on some accounts. However, I am not insecure about who I am, at least, not anymore. My 'obsession' with guns really has been taken out of context here (which I don't mind). Yes, I like guns, I think it is important that a person know how to handle a firearm. Firearms should be respected, not feared. However, I'm not a rabid gun nut. If you throw a random weapon at me, chances are I probably can't name its make or tell you what kind of round it uses. But give me a moment and I can probably figure out how to fire it down range.

One of the reasons why I like guns so much is because I was trained on them in the military and I come to discover that I enjoy firing them. There really is a bit of an adrenaline rush when you are firing one of these things and you smell the gunpowder in the air. It's kind of like an arcade game. Only with real bullets. I see it as a hobby and something I enjoy, not an insecurity issue.

As to the name of my blog, I unintentionally named it a little over five years ago, and the circumstances bringing about the name do arise from an insecure time in my life.

And then I joined the army. Best decision I ever made. My only regret is that I didn't wait two years to finish my A.A. and then go Active Duty.

Yes, I have been an insecure person. The military made me stronger, yes, they conditioned me to be able to handle stress better and deal with difficult times in my life. I don't see their training negatively, I see it positively. They trained me to be a soldier. But I knew myself well enough that they didn't make me somebody else.

As to the question about this war and is it worth dying in it? That's a loaded question. However, when I joined the military, I knew that there was a chance that I might have to die defending my country. I might have to be put in harms way to get the mission done. Truth is, people die every day. Some pass quietly in their sleep, others are murdered violently. Some die in car accidents before their time. But our time will come eventually, its only a matter of when, and how.

Maybe there are some issues with this war in Iraq that I disagree with. But we are there now, and we should finish what we started. And the end product will hopefully be a nation of free people. Freedom is a glorious thing, and if it is a gift I can bestow upon a nation by laying down my life, or giving my life in the cause of my country, I can see no greater honor in dying then that.

You might not see purpose in the War in Iraq. I see a purpose and I'm willing to serve. I am a soldier, and if called upon, this is my duty.

In the meantime, I'll proudly serve in Kosovo.

Hope that answers your question.

It's IncoherAnt!!!

Damn it, People! YOu should know that I'm stubborn already and I'm not going to change the name of my blog to spell it correctly to appease a few readers! I spell it like I want to spell it.

I know how to spell incoherent! I chose to mispell it for the purposes of my blog. It's staying spelled my way. Case closed, end of discussion.

(example of a Rant)

Light Blogging Day

I will not be online much today.

Tis my birthday.

I'm the ripe old age of 24.

Young enough to still enjoy having a birthday now and then. Old enough to realize that nothing much comes from birthdays anymore.

My day shall consist of being pampered by my loving family and eating out at the local mexican resteraunt. And largely staying offline.

Tomorrow shall consist of me moving a good majority of my stuff into storage.

I think I shall enjoy this day while I still got the excuse of slacking off.

Eh, maybe I'll post tonight and tell you how it went.

Keeping to the Topic of Guns

Somebody pointed this out to me, apparently somebody decided to jump on a messageboard about guns and post a response against the 'fifth ammendment', mistaking it for the Second Ammendment, and confusing the American Definition of the 'right to bear arms' as a coat of arms instead of Firearms.

I don't need to tell you that he's not American.

"How come you are all so illeterate and ignorant aboput your own laws? As far as I am aware the 5th ammendment does not say "You have the right to bear weapons"....It says "You have the right to bear arms"."

The "Right to bear arms" means you have the right to bear a heraldic device (i.e. a coat of arms) into the field of battle.

Ok, dude, if you are going to call us 'illeterate', maybe you should take a moment to spell check your message before berating us on our intelligence.

Highly entertaining, I recommend you read on. Just 'don't feed the trolls'.

Believe me, I've heard it before. . .

I've been hearing a lot of this Reese Witherspoon stuff lately. Ok, I lied, I've been hearing a lot of comparisons to Reese Witherspoon since Man in the Moon. It ain't nothin I haven't heard before.

In fact, I had a webpage up (it's been down almost a year now) at one point denying this fact, even though about a couple hundred people (including a drill sergeant) have made this observation in my lifetime.

Actually, usually I don't mind the comparison, I find it flattering. And then Reese has to play in some crap movie like Legally Blonde 2 and then I get a little peturbed.

Here's two pictures, one of me and one of her, side by side, at roughly the same angle. I see it some time, but why is it nobody makes the comparison after a movie or when there's me and a picture of her one a magazine sitting there? It's like, in after thought or something.

Hmm. . .



Here's another angle.



Actually, believe it or not, I'm really not that vain, (though most of the time my blog IS about myself). I really don't see the comparison, every once in a while I see a resemblence but it isn't as strong as everyone says it is. I give the blonde hair and the high cheek bones. But I really DON'T think I look THAT much like Reese Witherspoon.

Eh, I'll let you be the judge of that.

Laptop Shopping

I got myself a new laptop for myself when I head overseas. I don't know what kind of connection I'll have or even if I'll be able to use it to get online, but its a start. I've actually been looking at it for the last couple of weeks and trying to decide exactly what kind of laptop I want.

I'm not much of a PC gamer, so that wasn't an issue, but I found this little laptop that is built for DVDs and music. i need to get all of my CDs on MP3 and take them over that way. There were a few things that sold me on the PC, I knew what I wanted and what I didn't want, and of those few features I got a product that fits my taste.

Its weak in some areas, but those areas aren't my strong point anyway. I think this will work just fine.

The Goodbyes Start

Today is my last day of work at my civilian job. We had a store meeting at 6:30 this morning, which was difficult for me because I'm not a big morning person and I stayed up really late the night before.

First of all, let me explain something about my work. I work with a bunch of people that lean to the left of the political spectrum. Now, don't get me wrong, their are some really cool people I work with that will give you the shirt off their back if you need it, and they are all really kind to me despite the fact that they know I voted for Bush, their enemy number One.

This is probably due to the fact that I live by an important rule while at work. Don't talk about Politics. Still, it's kind of hard to ignore where they stand some times.

Everyone knows its my last day, and they are all wishing me goodbye and good luck, and a few 'see you in 18 months' and handed me a card. Everyone scrawled their thoughts and well wishes in it, and of course, the usual sentiment. And then there was a simple message.

"Good Luck in Bush's Invasion!"

I thought everyone knew I was heading to Kosovo. Strange, in this day and age when you say you're in the military, most people immediately place their sympathy with you and hope you don't go anywhere (despite the fact that I DO want to go somewhere). When they hear your deploying, their first thought is Iraq. Then Afgahnistan. Not a lot of people think about Kosovo, its apparently pretty quiet.

Which I find in this scrawled statement a bit of irony.

Kosovo has nothing to do with Bush, other then that we were in the middle of this issue when he took the presidency. Kosovo spawns from Clinton's era. And what's more, its a NATO mission. The US has approximately 2500 troops over there right now. A small number. Otherwise, Kosovo is a huge multinational task force, I think they said about 30 nations are involved, with the US of course having the largest force there.

I guess the guy jumped to conclusions, thats all. But still, what a thing to write on somebody's going away card, don't you think?

Readers Contributions

Because my 'Merchandising' link is getting a bit backlogged, I thought I should link this, more photoshopping from fellow bloggers, courtesy of It Comes In Pints.



And of course, Cadet Happy made one just for me on his site (one of my first linkers in fact, I love his photoshop stuff, very funny, especially during the election hay-day!)

I also have this one, which is awesome! Unfortunately, I saw it, I saved it to my hard drive, and when it comes to posting it, I don't remember who to credit! Ack! Help me! I know you're out there somewhere, comment to me and take credit, because this is fantastic!



(anybody else have any examples of photoshopped images, please forward them to me. I really do get a kick out of them!)

UPDATE - The saddam shot was done by Tynan Sylvester, however I wasn't given a website to credit. Thanks for getting back to me.

Clearing up Some Misconceptions

Alright, as of recently, I've gained a rather large readership (as to how many of those will stick around, only time will tell). A few of them are trolls that appear to be the type that lurk around website and post pointless comments from time to time, but that's beside the point.

The point is, upon first glance, this blog has created a few misconceptions about me. I thought I would clear that up.

1) I'm a Redneck that likes to kill things.

Ok, so my ancestry does take me back to Arkansas, that doesn't make me a redneck. I'm from a middle class family that lives in suburbia. Despite the fact that I do own a gun and am a member of the NRA, I have never actually killed anything with a gun. I use guns to go target shooting and have them around for self defense. I honestly, don't have the stomach for killing critters. But I'll eat them just the same.

I even tried to be a vegetarian at one time. Lasted a month. It's hard to do when you're family is full of rabid carnivores and your mom makes a kickass beef roast.

Besides, a better label to call me by is Geek.

2) I don't know how to spell Incoherent.

Ok, you sorta got me. It was at first a typo but I noticed that incoheRANT fit in nicely with the blog. It grew on me. I left it. So no, it is NOT a typo! That's the name of my blog.

3) I'm a new blogger that has only recently started.

Believe it or not, I've actually had this blog for three years now. The reason why the archives are not currently up are simple.

a) I've had this blog from before blogger recently updated their system and allowed individual pages for their free members.

b) it's always been on my own server.

c) One day when I was trying to upgrade all of my blog info and individually post to old blog posts, something fried while in FTP mode and suddenly all of my webspace was ^*poof!* gone.

d) I declared my previous blog a lost cause and decided to start of fresh. This might have been a good idea, I had some interesting things in my previous blog that were probably best left not to the eyes of the public (let me reiterate how much the name of this blog fits).

So, why have you never heard of me before now? Mostly because I write on this thing on again and off again. If you want proof, here is page ONE of my early blog. Sorry, comments didn't exist back then. And it's really rough (I didn't get photoshop until about eight months later). And the content was basically about absolutely Nothing! Pretty much what somebody writes about when they don't know what else to write about, and constantly reminds their readers that they don't know what they want to write about as well (that is always entertaining).

For a further treat, the second page. My humor can be seen a bit here, and if you can't tell, I wasn't a happy camper at the time.

Why didn't I get this kind of fan fare before? Well, one, because I didn't actively seek it, and two, I didn't have bad ass pictures of me wanting to kick some ass on my blog before. And Three, my updating habits were highly 'on again, off again'. And they were largely the kind of thing people wrote when they were bored.

It does have some archival links on that site, but sorry, they don't work. It's bad enough that I'm letting possible trolls in on my little secret that I'm not the greatest driver in the world in snow. And I learned the 'Car likes Oil' lesson the hard way.

4) The airborne wings in my sidebar mean I'm Airborne

That's a long story. My goal is to earn them. I do not have them yet. That little box to the side was a little reminder of my goal to go airborne when I went active duty military. My active duty plans have been thwarted by my current deployment to Kosovo, which I don't mind, because I wanted to deploy REALLY bad.


I'll keep on this site now that it has created a bit of a stir. I'm expecting it to largely die down here shortly, which is a welcome relief to tell you the truth, but I promise I'll keep it going as best as I can while I'm deployed.

Though when it comes to military matters, Foxholes and Dogtags will probably become a lot more lively (still working on it and getting it ready for when I leave!)

Holy Cow!

All I can say is. . . Wow. . .

The support I've recieved has been extremely positive (with a few bad apples here and there) and I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all. A big massive THANK YOU to everyone who was kind enough to contribute to my poor little website and those who offered to host it. I don't know how to make it up to you for your generosity.

I guess I better continue posting and make it worth your money. In the meantime, I gotta make this worth it, so I'll be working on some side projects as well as continue to work on the blog, and mostly get a lot of those broken, non political links up. I promise i promise I promise.

Meanwhile, for those wanting to contribute but looking for something a little bit more out of it, the links on the side are to my store. I highly recommend Exposure Manager, who is beyond kind and I thought I would highly pimp their site for their enormous generosity. I also made it available to buy better products from them, with a slight markup to help pay for the site but low enough that I'm not ripping you off. Unfortunately, the picture was originally taken at 2.1 megapixals and I can only blow it up so much before the resolution gets really bad. Unless somebody knows how I can fix this with my photo manipulating software? (I have photoshop 7.0 and I'm largely self taught, so I don't know all of the tricks).

I'll continue to work and get more manipulations on there (and sayings) if anybody has any ideas they want to throw at me, that comment box below is still available!

Panhandling

Well, I guess that'll have to work. I have to sell out. I'm offering the opportunity for people to donate to my part in the vast right wing conspiracy.
Come on guys! You know you wanna!

UPDATE - BAH!!! You'll have to use the link on the sidebar. The link I had up previously decided to be difficult. I'll see if I can't get this one working.

Small Problem

Well, that is the first time that has happened to me in like, well, ever. I exceded my Data Transfer limit and it appears that it is going to start costing me a lot more to upkeep my webpage then ever before. I think I can afford to upkeep it for the time being, I'm just going to have to do something about it.

I'm going to have to cut costs around here a bit. Hmm, how can I do this?

Hey, I got an idea! GO AWAY!!!

Update - discovered the culprit. Instapundit linked me. That's enough to kill anybody's Data Transfer.

I'm just a little site! I pay for my own webspace! I don't have advertisers!

Also, the lefties have found me and are calling me babykiller and all sorts of things. *sighs* This was amusing at first. I think I'm starting to miss my privacy. An unintionally humorous picture can quickly spiral out of hand.

ANOTHER UPDATE - Found out according to What's making Blognews, that I'm number 43 as of this writing.

Let me reiterate this statement. This has me completely by surprise. I pin the fault on my brother.

This is my 15 seconds. Better make it last! (of course, I'm caught up trying to stay on top of this thing and I'm supposed to be preparing to deploy. Ya can't win)

My Contempt for the "Sorry's"

I think this subject has been driven into a well enough already, but becuase in the last couple weeks this has been a rather large theme on my website, I thought I would endulge further.

First and foremost, Sorry Everybody.com is a free speech forum. These people have every right to publically state their disagreement with this country (with an exception of those in uniform, but that's another post). However, free speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of your speech. Those people chose to place their pictures on a public forum. I have the freedom to turn around and diss those pictures and publically berate them. Some of them are honest people who are just looking for a forum to vent their frustration, but I think they are by and large stupid and unamerican. And I'll tell you why.

I have a problem with people calling other people idiots, morons and close minded becuase these people happened to choose to use their freedom to disagree with them and voted for Bush. I said this before, I'll say it again. That is blatant bigotry. It is unamerican to try to suppress a person's right to vote. There's a lot of people on that page that publically state that the terrorists should bomb the red states. People pleading for the terrorists not to bomb their own county that's in a red state.

The Stranger, a Seattle Zine, posted this editorial in their magazine, and the people who are in this mindset are complete and utterly backward in their thinking. You have got to be kidding me!

DEAR OSAMA BIN LADEN

I'm sorry. You were right. We deserve to be blown up.

After last Tuesday, well... what can I say? You had us pegged dead-on the first time--although I was in denial and refused to believe it up until now. We as a nation obviously ARE a bunch of mindless sheep, grown fat with consumerism and easily led down the primrose path into corruption. After what happened November 2, there's just no denying it anymore. I'm ashamed that I was so blind for so long.

After 60 percent of eligible voters turned out and 51 percent of those voted for Bush, I can't do anything but concede your point: There are no innocents left in America. We've brought this on ourselves. Go ahead and do your worst. We've got it coming--in a big way. All I ask is this: Give New York a break, okay? And leave New England, California, and the rest of the West Coast out of it as well. We're on your side already! Please, stay focused and plan your next attack against the real enemy: those "red states" in the middle of the map. Fly a Cessna into the stands of a NASCAR rally. Put a suicide bomber on the Arch in St. Louis. Drive a truck-bomb into the Grand Ole Opry. Release anthrax at an Astros game. It's all good! They've got it coming. I'm just sorry it took me so long to figure out how very right you were. Can you ever forgive me?


--Anonymous

This editorial, I don't care how satirical it is, is hateful, meanspirited and downright treasonous. These people are doing nothing to help the fact that this nation has been torn assunder by this election (again) and I for one don't feel that it is my responsibility to give a helping hand in bringing them into the fold again.

If they don't love this country and all they can do is plead with the enemy and show how much they hate those red staters, I say they can go to hell for all I care.

Another Note - I also think that these people who write in to Sorry Everybody who are speaking for 48% should stop it all ready. You don't speak for anybody but yourself. I don't think many of those that voted for Kerry agree with them. There are plenty of Kerry Voters that still love and honor this nation and while not thrilled with Bush are willing to go that extra step to make America the great nation that it is. They are not pleading with Osama and making idol comments of hate toward those that disagree with them. If you are a Kerry Voter that matches this description, I have no contetion with you and respect your opinion and your right to disagree with me. If you are a Kerry Voter that matches the former description, I'll help you pack so you can get your stinking ass out of this country.

mini blogroll on current events

He commented and posted to me, long before I got enormously popular. Thought I would return the favor.

Cartoon Nazi let's it out. And I have to say that I by in large agree with him. I don't mind democrats, or moderate liberals. Some of these irrational far left wingers really drive me nuts some times.

I don't know what I would have done if I were in that Marine's spot, but I have no sympathy for the man he killed. I kind of got a late wind on this due to the fact that I was on the road, but I've read many excellent posts in regards to it.

To a comment about the Marine in question specifically, I point you to Froggy Ruminations. You will not find a better in depth defense to the Marine's actions then you will here. From a former Navy SEAL who has my utmost respect, and brings with him a unique experience of the issues at hand. I can't add anything to this topic that he hasn't clarified enough.

I'm siding with the Marine

Merchandising, Continued. . .

So, the merchandising continued. Apparently some people were serious about this thing, so I looked at some images that I could use, taking this from a photo I took with a digital camera. There was some resolution issues, and I was trying things with photoshop and getting the picture to work out ok. Needless to say, this can be harder then it looks.

For those of you wanting to get something, I've set up a cafepress shop and tried to put some stuff on that (the resolution needs to be higher then I have for a decent poster, apparently, I need to brush up on my photoshop)

How many of you are interested in this? No, seriously? I'm not sure if people are serious or half joking.

I'll put some ideas up on the CafePress shop and let you scroll through them. You can be the judge. Let me know if there is anything else you might want through them. And if you know of a better shop to sponsor it through, please let me know as well. I don't want to rip you guys off.

UPDATE - Ok, this is kind of lame. Apparently I can only do one image with each item at a time. So if I wanted to make five posters with five different images, I'm outaluck.

Ok, asking anybody who might know of a better source for merchandising.

ANOTHER UPDATE - Alright, I'm looking at other options, mainly due to the fact that Cafepress really is kind of expensive. Though I don't want to give any far lefters extra ammo. Still looking for ideas. Anybody?

UPDATING CUBED - Somebody brought up a good point, and in fact, it was the major point of me not really wanting to do this in the first place. This is a topic that will not really make a difference in a year or two. It's caught up in the here and now. That's why I always joked about merchandising in the first place. I was certain people were joking about it.

Maybe I should just make up some images and protect them on a server, and the people who want them can email me for the password or something, that way I know it's not just going anywhere and I can control the datafiletransfer thingee that is killing me.

MORE FUN WITH UPDATES!!! - Ok, so somebody suggested that I go to Exposure Manager for my merchandising, unfortunately they don't offer posters but they offer pictures just the same. I shall direct you to the gallery, this is about all I could upload at this time at no cost to me. I chose a few of the more commented sayings and am now leaving them for you to do as you wish. You can order them or whatever. I also left an unedited version of the picture if you wanted to, I just removed the hose because the hose distracts.

Still free to comment as you want to. If you think I should do anything differently, I'm listening! (not doing a lot of replying anymore, but still listening!)

My Mission

I'm beginning to like this Kosovo thing more and more.

So apparently, I'll be on orders for a year, and I should have an opportunity to see some of the surrounding countries while I'm there. I'll be taking advantage of that. Most specifically, Greece and Germany. Apparently I'll have the opportunity to brush up on my german and learn a bit of the language from the surrounding areas as well. I'll be jumping on that.

Here's a little info from the net about Task Force Falcon.

My orders so far. George W. Bush is my commander in chief. Other then that, don't mention him. Don't discuss politics or religion. And absolutely do not utter the words 'Tito'. My mission will be US Troops. Take care of them. We will offer our services to the Multinational forces if they want our assitance, but mostly, I will be on hand to take care of the Troop needs and make sure they are healthy and fit to do their part, which means preventing them from getting sick in the first place. And when I get approached by brass looking for a few warm bodies to pull guard duty, I am to utter the words "i'm on a mission."

If I'm lucky, I'll spend christmas at home. If things go as planned, I'll be in country in less then two months.

I need to get that passport really soon.

This is going really fast. I've got less then two weeks at home getting my affairs in order.

And if weather cooperates, I've only got two days to get my snowboarding fix in (if you think I'm bad with Guns, you should hear me in the dead of winter drone on and on about boarding!) I'm just crossing my fingers and watching the respective ski area's websites! (year round whistler's out of the question, being in Canada, and I've been heavily warned about attempting to cross the border at this time)

Attention All Bloggers

If you have me blogrolled on your blog and I haven't blogrolled you, please post a comment in this comment box. I'm trying to see who has me linked and return the favor, and I've kind of lost track of who I have and who I don't.

Explaining 'Not Sorry'

Now that I've gotten a few comments from people about my "not sorry" picture with me toting a badass M203, I thought I would explain a little bit more in detail what I'm not sorry about.

I'm not sorry that George W. Bush was reelected President.
I'm not sorry for being American.
I'm not sorry for being a Soldier.
I'm not sorry for the opportunity to serve my country.
I'm not sorry for democracy in action.
I'm not sorry for Freedom, and mostly the freedom to express myself.

I would not be sorry if John Kerry were elected president.
I would still not be sorry of being an American if he was.

My photo is not directed at liberals or the anti-Bushites. The suppression of their voice is the suppression of the thing I love. My picture is a representation of myself and that of being a soldier. A soldier is a person whose duty is to defend their country, and defending the homeland means bearing arms against enemies of this nation. I see my photo as beind directed at Terrorists. George Bush has made a directive in the war on terror. I am not sorry that I get to help continue it.

If you don't notice, my picture speaks for myself and myself only. I'm not speaking for the 51% of american voters who chose to vote for Bush. Their reasons are not the same as mine. I'm not speaking against the 48% of voters who chose to vote for Kerry. They had the freedom to vote the way they did. I do not ever wish for that to go away. My words are simple, blunt, and to the point.

I am not Sorry.

Read and interpret it as you may.

And no, I am not a cook. Hell no, you couldn't pay me enough to be an army cook!

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse."
John Stewart Mill

Slums

Back from the West Side, and now i've been given the task of setting my affairs in order for the next week and a half.

An interesting thing happened when I was in Seattle, though. I was getting gas at a gas station and while I was walking back to my car to leave, a guy asked me for my number. I kind of brushed him off and then he asked me why I wasn't friendly. I then told him I wasn't from around there. He then got insistent and said he had a car, heck, he had three of them (thanks for the info, obviously you are attempting to impress me by bragging). He must have thought I meant Tacoma or somewhere within 50 miles away (i live 300 miles, dude, and I don't know you). Then he asked why I wasn't friendly. DUDE, becuase you are asking me for my number at a GAS STATION in the middle of the SLUMS!!! I only stopped there becuase the gas was cheap. Then I told him that I was in the army and I was deploying. Then he wondered why we couldn't be friends. Dude, I just MET you! I already know your first thought is to jump into my pants.

Let me also remind you, I was wearing a hoody and looked like HELL, as I had been traveling for the last few days. YOu never look good when your traveling. I just wanted to find the troll in Seattle and leave. AARGH!

Finally, I just said, "Dude, I gotta go" and I took off. I'm not the type to give strangers phone numbers. I've done it once or twice, but have thought better of it since.

Hum-drum

Something just happened that I've never seen before.

My Blog Session expired. I had written something, and since it expired while I was surfing and doing other things, my post was erased.

When did Blogger start doing this crap? That's frustrating.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm driving to Seattle and finding out all about my pending Deployment (I say pending, because the army has given me orders and revoked them before). I won't be online for about three days or so, give or take. What's more, it's the five year anniversary of my swearing in.

Meanwhile, since I'll be away for about three days, I'll leave this thread kind of open for miscellanious comments. I've been around under the same alias for about 5 years but have only recently been realatively 'heavily' noticed (at least, for me). Some people have mentioned that I should have a cafepress shop or something. I'm open to ideas.

Also, I thought I would leave a post up demonstrating a strange phenonemon with women and their hair. See, once I went to South America and in order to blend in, I dyed my hair Burnette. It didn't work. When I lived with my sister, she was constantly trying to talk me into trying to go red haired. Eventually, I caved in.



So, I've been a blonde (most of my life), a burnette, and a redhead. I don't really pull off the burnette to well, becuase I'm swedish and the dark hair just accentuates my already pale skin, but I can surprisingly look like a natural redhead. However, I'm low maintenance and red is difficult to maintain. Hmm. . .

Meanwhile, somebody asked about my Ak. Here's a picture. I named it Chuck, because it chucks rounds without a glitch.


Maybe that'll give you enough of a risawn fix until I get back from hum-drum army briefings. I'll take a camera.

Update Wombat mentioned this. So here's a picture of me aiming it.


That's not a great picture really. I don't like the angle. But how about these?





Plinking is a family sport around my house.

Got my first Troll!

You know you're doing something right when a Troll takes the time to bash you on your own website. I won't bother erasing their message, it's rather flattering.

Typical Liberal Slander from the left-wing whiners. He's appropriately named Beavis. I would give you his email but I have a suspicion that it isn't really his.

Honestly, what do people expect to gain by going to opposing websites and posting stupid remarks? His remarks, ver batum.

"Are you from Columbine? You look like you might be Dylan whats-his-name's ex girlfriend. Pretty sickening display of self deprication."

"Umm, did you kill any of your classmates recently? Reese Witherspoon meets Dylan Kliebold and the other freak who was his lover. You are such a freak!"

"BTW, I sent your website to the Justice Dept. American Terrorists like you should be watched closely."


Why to these assholes even bother? Where does this get anybody anywhere? Come here, attack me becuase I happened to pose with a M203 during a military training excercise and suddenly I'm in league with a school killing massacre from five years ago, because I happen to be in the military and know how to use a gun.

And I don't know what the heck the Justice Department will do to my website, I haven't broken any laws or threatened anybody's life. All talk, no action. This shows your mentality, Beavis. It's non-existent.

But I won't deny that I'm a freak. I'll take that as a compliment.

Sorry Everybody, continued. . .

I've been following the Sorry Everybody Site again, and I can't help but laugh my ass off. But perhaps I should explain where I'm coming from and how I feel about these people.

1) They lost the election due to the fact that the candidate running against Bush was a lousy candidate that had neither a message or an agenda. That, and his senate record was pathetic. Most of their votes obviously, by their rhetoric, was a vote against Bush. They were so caught up in trying to oust Bush, getting caught up in their own hatred and the talking points of the left (and they call us Sheep) that they could only see their side. They don't take the time to see the other. Their first instinct is to attack people who disagree with their 'intellectual superiority', and that makes them bigoted.

2) Although this was continually broadcasted on the news as being an extremely close race and the fact that Bush was generally ahead in the polls on most occasions up until the very end of the election, they still acted shocked at the results, proving once again that a lot of people don't live in the real world and are only caught up in their fantasies. There's a little saying, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. If Bush was their worst nightmare, they sure weren't preparing for it.

3) I've surfed that website quite a bit and found a few pictures posted multiple times. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if 10% of the pictures on that website are posted at least twice.

4) Why are these people apologizing for their vote? Why do they claim that they are intellectually superior to all republicans and continually lump voters in one broad group, that every kerry voter agrees with them and all bush supporters worthless, blind and complete idiots? These are literally the people that preach tolerance. I don't see it from them.

So, anyway, here is a tutorial to all of those sorry liberals who feel the need to apologize on behalf of the nation, here are some dos, but mostly don'ts, on how to go about doing this adequately and refrain from getting the conservatives from jumping on your ass and ripping you a new one.

(some of these can go for the We're Not Sorry crowd as well)

1) Keep You Children Out of It.
You can post a picture of your kid holding a sign baring your thoughts, as long as it is obvious that those are your thoughts and not supposedly some sign from the kid. Kids don't know any better. In fact, if you want to discuss ignorance and sheep, kids generally are swayed in the same direction as their parents. Kids are innocent. They truely don't know better. Claiming that they do doesn't make it any different.

Same goes for Pets.

2) Make yourself look halfway decent.
If you come across looking like a total fat slob, the other side will rip into you faster then you can say "I was born like this".

To Conservatives, ENOUGH with the Glamour Shots from the 80s. I'm going to have to side with the libs on this one. You might as well take a digital camera and take a picture holding up a hand drawn sign, people will take you a lot more seriously. Believe me on this one, I have your best interests in mind, Glamour Shots look CHEESY!!!

3) If you are going to photoshop words into the picture, make them half way legible.

And Avoid using Red Font. Red Font is the devil, you can't read it and it looks like bloody hell.

On further news, avoid using generic pictures and photoshopping words onto them. What is going to say that you yanked this photo off the internet and posted words to it?

4) Your message should speak for yourself and yourself only. Stop speaking for the other percentage of americans that voted the same as you did. Everyone votes for different reasons and not everyone agrees with you.

That goes for blue and red states, too.

5) That said, stop bashing the other side and calling them idiots and morons and close minded and whatever else. This goes in hand with 4. People vote for different reasons, they don't coincide with you. If you bash them becuase they believe differently then you, this makes YOU the bigot, not them.

6) if you are going to make a handwritten sign, make them legible and easy to read.

7) If you are going to take a famous quote to make your point, do realize that there are a dozen more quotes that we can use to refute yours.

8) Using the clout of the celebrities as a reason to vote a certain way is not a particularly swaying device. For several reasons, a) celebrities generally fall into the 1% of the population that libs despise. b) celebrities generally don't understand middle america for that very reason. c) Celebrities are expressing their opinions on issues, they have a right to speak, but they do not have the right to be heard any more then you do. d) Celebrities are paid to entertain. If you look at the activists, most of them have very little schooling. The ones that do tend to have enough sense to keep their moutsh shut.

9) Show your face, or at least part of your face. You come across as a chicken if you aren't willing to put your money where your mouth is.

Lately. . .

I do admit, I've gotten pretty thick skinned over the last few years. This is probably a good thing, becuase I never had to worry about the kind of exposure I have had recently. But unfortunately, that is the major thing I've had to write about. So I've been surfing the net seeing where all these links to me lead.

So far, i've been blogrolled on about a dozen blogs, commented on in the comment sections of a few dozen more, been bashed on somebody's livejournal and successfully shut her down (I bet she has a lot of nice things to say about conservatives now), and mentioned on the DU. I'm so proud!

Well, this and packing my room and when my work calls me, I work. Eh. . .

Now it looks like since I have so much Crap, I'm going to have to rent a storage unit. A closet sized one oughta work. I can cram pack that thing full of boxes and just leave it.

Meanwhile, the army successfully taken care of my free time and now instead of having four days off in a row next week, I get the pleasure of driving to Seattle and working, mostly finding out what the logistics, timeline, and any unanswered questions are. This thing is coming up on me a lot quicker then I originally expected. I might still get the option of snowboarding, if whether permits.

As for my usual ramblings on Current Events and politics, eh, that'll have to wait.

Trolling The DU

I've got to say, I've never had such a laugh in my life. These people are pathetic.

And what's more, they had a post about the We're Not Sorry crowd, basically the libs were all offended because the Sorry Everybody Crowd is a bunch of pathetic whiney losers and conservatives had the nerve to rebute them.

They commented on me specifically about a half dozen times and posted my picture, as well as commented indirectly. Man, this whole spiel makes me laugh so hard! I wanted to post a reply telling them that I had a good laugh and also confirm that despite popular belief, I really am in the military, I hold the rank of Sergeant and I know how to use that weapon I'm holding. That weapon also belongs to the military. But I guess I could show them my Ak-47.

And my reply to you out of your mind Libs, How does one get through to you bigots???

What they said, about me specifically

"Tell the barely pubescent girl in the fatigues that she looks like an idiot, certainly not tough or intimidating" - Union Thug

"This is fucking GREAT! Is this real or is it a joke? I mean, Come on! This has got to be a joke... It's Reese Witherspoon as Rambo." - Skinner

"I was thinking that too, Skinner! Now if I could only think of a godo line from "Legally Blonde"..." - fudge stripe cookays

"Maybe I'm losing my mind...
...but I'm getting a hard-on looking at that pic of the girl with the big gun." - Fighting Irish

"These are freaks and ugly ones at that. That female thing in fatigues is just gross!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is it Ann Coulter's sister?" - Maestro

"They pose with their guns? What is that all about? And that disgusting girl with that gun that weighs more than she does, she is just downright stupid looking" - Maestro

"This one is a bit scary.... Wasn't she in Terminator 3?" - Rinsd

" Looks like some major penis envy here." - Crunchyfrog

"Oh, I'd make her feel sorry in the morning. If not sorry, walking funny." - DS1

"the new face of fascism- chicks with assault rifles. yes, DU ladies, I know- i called her a 'chick'. i think she deserves that, at the very most" - Upsidedownflag

"she's kinda hot. if she wasn't straight and I wasn't hitched.....
something about scary girls in camo with big mean guns..." - puttothesword


I don't think I laughed this hard in a long time. These people are so freaking close-minded and pathetic! My picture basically insists that I'm not sorry for my vote. I'm not bashing the left for voting the way they do, I only bash them if they take a bigoted approach by calling everyone who voted differently from them idiots (and there are a lot of people on that sorry everybody that take that stance, maybe I'll start commenting on more again).

Bigot must be my new favorite word.

That "we're not sorry" thread at Democratic Underground can be found here. Shows the lame ass side of some of the libs. However, I do admit that some people on the Not Sorry site didn't do themselves many favors, and set them up much like the Sorry Everybody crowd did. But I stand by my post. And in fact, I'm proud that I made Democratic Underground! I think I'll troll there more often!

merchandising?

I've had several people come to my site asking for my Poster.

I don't have a poster. Somebody mentioned that I should make one.

Besides, the air hose attached to the M203 needs to come off, I'd have to get on photoshop and do something about that. Otherwise, well, hmm. . . maybe I should look into that?

UPDATE Ok, so I'm trying to work out this poster idea, but I've run into two problems.
First, I took a picture with an M203 that is specifically used for similation purposes and has a big fat hose hanging off of it.
You can't ignore that. So I photoshopped it off.

Ok, that works alright. But secondly, well, the photo is taken in a middle of a classroom! There's a table and some chairs in the background (well, the grenade display is pretty hoorah), but still, when you're thinking of army and bad ass rifles with grenade launchers attached to them, you're thinking of wide open spaces and charlie in the distance, not a bloody classroom!

That left the options fairly open.

How about smack dab in the middle of the desert?



Or plant myself in the middle of a Washington Rainforest? (well, fort lewis really does kind of look like this)



Or maybe post in front of one of my beloved Hummers.



Or, perhaps at a Gun Show?



HOw about a field of poppies?



or I could be cliche' and superimpose myself in front of a flag.



Eh, the options are a bit endless. I guess I could go about trying to perfect my photo shopping skills and make one that is pretty high-speed, but I'm not sure if I'm up to it.

I guess my best option is to just blanket the background and post obscene messages. Hehe, requests are open! The following are rather tame.

And of course.


***the quote, "Good, Bad, I'm the Guy with the gun," is off of Army of Darkness, in case you were wondering, I slightly altered it becuase I'm not a guy.***

Eh, maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead and the idea is still fresh? Last thing I wanna do is grind it into everybody's head.

I personally like my LJ icon.


Meanwhile, more chicks in uniform (being me) and weapons. . .

• Private E in the middle of Basic Training. I was a color guard, and therefore, I had a 'rifle'. This picture is kind of funny.
  
• Same place as aboves only in Class A's.
  
• Color Guard, during the brief period I was a ROTC Nazi.
  
• On the Range, still a private.
  
• Still in Uniform, different kind of projectile.
  
• Full Battle Rattle
  
• Itz a hummer, but I was a private so I didn't know better.
  
• Anti Tank, much different in projectile. And this picture was taken at the same time as my now infamous one. I'm making roughly the same 'face', but at a different angle and I look on the verge of cracking into a laugh.
  
• I still like the SAW. The SAW in Simulation was very very fun.
  
• Whoops. No weapons, but rather funny regardless.

There you go. Enjoy.

Update - More superimposing ideas from my brother. This should be fun.


Me in front of a Mushroom Cloud.


Me on a swiftboat!


Me playing Halo!

(if I don't watch it, I'll run this into the ground!)

Update Some of my Readers are doing their own photoshopping. Courtesy of Aaron

Veteran's Day

Last year on Veteran's day, I was given orders to deploy to Southern Iraq. I found it very fitting at the time.

Three weeks later, the orders were ammended with a single word, revoked. That was after I had gone through the full spectrum of emotions and had come to terms that I was going and I was ready and willing to serve. Needless to say, I was frustrated. Mostly becuase being an army reservist, I had to go into my life and put some things on hold to prepare myself to deploy.

Now, I've got more orders to serve, and with my luck, they will get revoked again. It has only happened to me a half dozen times since September 11th. You have your soldiers who want to serve, and you have the soldiers who don't.

I've always felt that I've been in the category of those that want to serve and try as they might, the army just won't let them serve. I've even volunteered for deployments once or twice and got denied (there was this unit in Connecticutt, unfortunately, they were National Guard, the Guard and the Reserves don't mix)

What's really interesting is that when I was first trained, I was told that I was in the second most deployable MOS in the army. I find that hard to believe, becuase if I was, I would be on my third deployment by now.

Ah well, this current deployment is slotted to go forth, and I intend to make the most of it. My Milblog is up (though still a bit rough around the edges, I'm working on it) and I intend to post to it and use that as my online journal while in Kosovo.

Oh, another note. It's incoheRANT ramblings and things better left unsaid, mostly due to the fact that sometimes I like to bitch and rant, and this had previously proved to be a good forum to do that in. What's funny, is it was an unintended Typo at first, but I've grown rather fond of it.

Anyway, Happy Veteran's Day, to those who've served, and those who continue to serve. Veterans are my true heroes.

I've been Discovered. . .

So here I was, winding down, getting ready for my deployment to Kosovo (yeah, I know, not where everybody expects when you say deployment in this day and age), when I popped up here expecting it to be nice and quiet as usual and discovered that the Llama Butchers had found me.

Well, I found them before they found me so there.

(I really need to update this thing more. Believe it or not, I've been blogging for over two years now)

Tenative Schedule

I do these kinds of things a lot. They consist of Lists and Timelines.

This is about where I'm standing. D-day is the day I deploy.

Next three weeks is allotted to getting my affairs in order.
D-day - 15 : Last day of work.
D-day - 10 : last chance snowboarding (weather permitting).
D-day - 9 : Report to Fort Lawton.
D-day -2 : Drill, Make sure rear detachment is taken care of.
D-day : Report to Fort Lewis (tenative location)
D-day + 15 months : Come home.

Where I will be getting a car, signing up for school, and overall getting my affairs in order. I will also be going back to work with my current employer, most likely temporarily, until I get settled in.

Actually, I might just stick with my employer while I'm going to school. I like my job and I think it would work.

My To-Do list before I go:

• Clean car and leave title with Parents.
  
• organize and pack room.
  
• Notorize rental agreement.
  
• Buy a LapTop (necessary)
  
• Secure PC, back up files, delete anything I don't want family members reading (private thoughts, etc)
  
• Put Creature to Rest
  
• Set up Military Blog (got it all planned out, it should look hella cool)
  
• Set up bill paying services so I can make payments and manage finances while I'm away.
  
• Think of Gift ideas for both Birthday and Christmas.
  
• Create a packing list.
  
• More to come

Yeah, should be interesting.