Definition of a Good Day: Today

Today started off with about four inches of snow on the ground. And my two roommates talking loud enough to wake me up while they were playing their music.

I also got rushed last night in remembering that I had air monitoring to do today and had to prep for that at 10 at night. So by all means, I was expecting it to be one of those days. You know, one of THOSE days.

Well, I got the TO-17s out (yeah, I know, jargon you don't understand, it tests for Volatile chemicals in the air, AKA VOCs) in time to sit in on the Sergeant Major's briefing on what I needed to get my promotion packet ready for the board (I don't know what happened to the one I put together before my deployment) and so I was just expecting it to be another Ho-Hum day.

Then I got a package in the mail.

Well, actually I got two packages. One was from one of my readers who bought me something off of my amazon wishlist (Thank You!) and another was a certified piece of mail that I had to sign for.

It was addressed to Me, with the attn: to Any Soldier.

Somebody had suggested that I sign up for Any Soldier.Com as a sponsor to people who may not get many pieces of mail (unlike myself, who it appears is very well loved!). I looked at it and thought "Hey, why not?"

My NCOIC saw the package and noted it before I did and said "hey, that's an Any Soldier package, can I have it?" Because I had no idea what was in it, and I knew that I was to distribute the package as fairly to less advantaged soldiers then myself, and my NCOIC wasn't feeling much love at the time, I thought "hey, what the heck?" So I handed him the package and he and another soldier (who decided to share it) opened it.

It was quickly discovered that this package was meant for more then just one or two soldiers. In it was 126 Phone Cards. And notes from many of these people thanking us for our service, have a happy Valentines day, and call home to loved ones. Well, it was a little late for V Day, but the thought certainly counted.

So I was given the task of distributing 126 Phone Cards to the people of my task force. And after a while trying to dig myself out of a rut, I realized how good this made me feel to be able to give to other people. Many people were surprised and pleased that a Post Office in New York State would sponsor a donation program through their customers and send us these phone cards. Some people even supplied Addresses. I was sure to get people to return the generosity.

By the end of the evening, as I made it my task to brighten other people's day, I looked back on the events of the day and realized I didn't have a negative thought or emotion on my mind. I felt positively good about myself.

To you who suggested I join this program. Thank you!
To those of you who have donated money and items to me in the past, in response to this site or to merely imagine a smile on my face, Thank you! Now I can see exactly why you did it!
And to that Post Office in New York who chose my Task Force to donate your Phone Cards to, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to give to someone else.

If you wish to donate to my task force (a group of people or just one person) and want to give me another opportunity to brighten somebody's day (as nothing pleases me more!) you can send care packages to me through the above site, with the address as shown.

SGT Kami Erickson
ATTN: Any Soldier
TFMF 6B
Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo
APO AE 09340
USA

It should cost the same as sending a package within the US. The rules apply as directed on the website posted above. And I promise, I will make sure somebody who needs and deserves it gets it (and I'm not talking about myself! :P )

E-Mail and Politics

Wow, I got a doozy in my inbox just now. I think I need to put up a Mail Box page with all of the mail I get from time to time. The Hatemail is my favorite, but that doesn't mean that I want you to send me hate mail.

I shall sit here and see how to reply to this person who is obviously very very angry. Hey, I understand anger, I can get angry too. But you don't just send emails to people and rant onwardly without having any conclusive evidence to support your argument other then your own wanton opinions. Because when it comes to politics, a lot of it has to do with Opinion. You can't convince people with your opinion, you have to present them with cold hard facts. But facts can be skewed to favor your opinion, or completely taken out of context to mislead you.

I guess his main reason for cursing at me repeatedly is because I actually *gasp* like George W. Bush. And I like him not only as a president, but I really like him as a person

Now granted, there are some things about Bush that bug me. Hey, the man is human. I don't agree 100% with his policies and I did honestly give the opposition a good hard look.

In the American Election system, we are given a variety of people to choose to be president. The fault in the system is the lack of choice running for president. You dwindle it down until you basically choose between a republican or a democrat. Both parties are corrupt in their own ways, and the people who support one are more then adament to point out the faults of the other.

Truthfully, I don't trust either political party, but I'm apt to trust the republican more because I'm a conservative and republicans generally are conservative. But then again, you got republicans in name only that are fiscal conservative but socially liberal (Rudy Giuliani comes to mind, though I really like him). You also have democrats who can seem more conservative then some republicans (can anybody say Zell Miller?)

Bush made some mistakes during his first term so I looked at him and said to myself, "did this man do a good enough job in his first term to earn my vote?" Then I look at his opposition and say to myself "would this man do a better job?" Becuase by electing a new person, you are basically firing the president.

Well, for one, the new person you are electing better be damn well more qualified then the person you are booting out. I can't say that about John Kerry. Frankly, the guy scared me. And whats more, he was completely opposite of many issues that I stand on. I'm not going to vote for a cure that is worse to me then the disease, and that's what I saw in John Kerry. Besides, there were to many people who were voting for Kerry just to get rid of Bush. And I could lay a rant as to why John Kerry's not qualified for President.

Bush is not a perfect President. Last I saw, there hasn't been one that was. He has his faults and he has his strengths. He's done some things in the last three months that made me cringe a bit. But I still support him as my President and as my Commander in Chief. And I will continue to be Not Sorry that I voted for him.

The email in question is attached. Sorry Grandma, but it has some vulgarity in it.

I mean every intentinon of respecting you, but that said in the months following this most disgusting election can you honestly say that this "mongeral" is the best person for our presidental office. Do a fact search.
He Is Satatisticly The Worst President That Has Ever Been Electied. I Am Sorry you Fell For It. You, Your Friends, Your Family, My Freinds, and My Family went to WAR under FALLS PRETENSES and you can only say that YOU AND YOUR M-16-203 Grenade Launching Death Device or SAW or LAW Provide you with enough comfort to you so that you remain stupid and ignorant to what is really going on in this FUCKED UP COUNTRY. I'm So Fucing Sorry To Be An American These Days Just Because Of Fucking Idiots Like Yourself. Fusk Off.
WE Reenter The Life Of Fascism
R A

I invite the author of the email to reply to my response in the comment section, where he will likely get some feedback from my readers, or he can choose to continue correspondance with me through email. Or he can leave his argument at that. His choice.

Notice to all concerned

I got cool blog readers. Just when I think there is no hope for Humanity, I come to my blog and discover that there is indeed a future for mankind.

You guys rock. Just thought I would let you know that.

In other news. . .

I recommend seeing Michael Moore Hates America. One, because it is an interesting documentary enlightening us upon some of the facts about American life and open to even criticizing itself, and it rips on Michael Moore, who if you can't tell, I don't like. Because he's a hypocrite. Big time.

Enough Said. Just got it in today from Amazon. I've grown to really like Amazon lately.

I love these Conservative documentary 'propaganda'. *snickers.* Time to order Celsius 41.11 The temperature in which the Brain Fries.

I Swear By Happy Pills!

Ok, so last week, well, it didn't go over so well with me. You have your good days and your bad days. Last week was just one bad week.

Bleh.

Well, fortunately, it is over, but not without me going through my first time ever seeing an honest to goodness Psychiatrist. He officially diagnosed me as having character-driven Dysthymic Depression. And I'm now on medication.

All is well with the world now. Ahh. . .

But truthfully, depression is something I've been having difficulty with for a while now and for a long time it was just a fact of life that I was content to ignore.

Really, Depression is not something you should brush off. I learned this the hard way a couple years back. But though I came to grips that I had this problem and I should do something about it, something kept me from actually making any motion to do something about it. I didn't want to cause myself anymore headaches, I knew I had a problem but for some reason I thought if I could try hard enough, I could just get through it and be done on my own.

Last week, with all the little things going on, and dealing with the stress of initially deploying and trying to get into a niche, a routine of sorts, I found myself at a very difficult time, and I was getting sick of being lectured all of the time from people telling me that I had no reason to be the way I was considering this was one of the best deployments I could have gotten.

Believe me, you don't have to tell me that. I know. Besides, I volunteered to come here and despite all of what happened last week, I still want to be here. But at one point I got really scared that I was just screwed up in the head enough that they would send me home and I don't want that. At first I didn't want to say anything for fear of what would happen if I did.

The Psychologist here kind of eased my mind a bit and let me talk, trying to reassure to me that it was ok, I wasn't a complete nut job and what I was going through was actually normal.

You know, for the first time, hearing that made me feel better about it. He did notice that I seemed depressed and then referred me to the Psychiatrist, whom I saw today.

And I discovered one benefit of being in the army.

Back home, it takes about 4 weeks to six months to see a Psychiatrist. Here, it took the Psychologist 30 minutes to refer me to one.

And if nothing else, now I know the difference between the two.

I'm not perfect, I've never claimed to be perfect, I got some pretty hefty faults and I guess I've finally taken a step to get through them. Once I get onto a normal routine, I can get on with my deployment, actually enjoy myself, and come back a better person for it.

Even if I have to admit to seeing a Shrink regularly.

Just Asking For an Upheaval

Um, you might notice a thing or two about the site. Yes, you are at the right place. I just gave it a face lift to clean it up a bit. Just a couple things missing at the moment. The main one is the Blogroll, which will be back in a few days as soon as I sort it out, I promise. I just didn't like how my auto blogroll was set up, and it seemed to have a bit of a lag that I found annoying.

So I got rid of it.

I also got rid of the circle, which I actually, believe it or not, had plans for, yet never did anything with becuase I am a slacker. The circle was bugging me. And I already have an image on the page (which has also been updated for a new and improved 'army' look)

If you miss the other picture and prefer the look of the old blog, well, just go ahead and surf my site, the rest of it is still set up the way it was before.

I also added a couple of things. One I straightened up the whole look of the blog so its cleaner and looks a lot nicer, and hopefully will be a lot quicker to load. I also added time markers, because once upon a time my blog had those. And now you can see what time I am posting in relation to the day. And of course, I even added banners. Because I got bored a couple nights ago and decided to make a handful of them. So if you want to use them to link to me, you are free to use them.

I'm also going to work on getting my ancient archive to be added to my current blog. Um, I'm not sure how well that will work, but its something I'm working on.

I think I'll add a few more things to the sidebar as I get the time too, including a photoblog, as soon as I get the means of doing that. Meanwhile, here is my new and improved blog. Can't guarantee whether the content will improve or not, or if I will post more frequently, but, well, here it is.

Now I will go off and enjoy the rest of my sunday. And maybe I'll make a few prank calls.

What I Think

Got a quick email in my inbox today promoting a publishing opportunity for people in my age group (IE 17-25) to write political/Social essays or stories or what not to give a voice to the often times liberal minded people of my generation. However, the youth are as diverse as any group of people can be, so I think i might have to write an essay and submit it. I've got a few friends from varying political persuasions that might be interested as well. We'll have to see about that.

Oh, and the publisher is from my home town, so that makes me want to submit something that much more. I've got until June.

So their previous book is now on my Amazon Wishlist.

Hat tip: SGT Stryker

A year to think about it

So I've been here for about four weeks, and I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what is going to happen after I am done here. Afterall, that was one of my goals, to figure out what life will hold for me when I'm done with this deployment.

Its also offering me a chance of self discovery and a glimpse of what the army is like on active duty.

See, I've been in the reserves for about five years now, and come later this year, my initial deployment will be over and while i'll have to at least extend while I am here, I have the option of reenlisting or getting out when I get home. And reenlisting entails a lot of different things. Will I want to continue in the reserves? Will I want to change jobs? Do I want to go active duty? Do I want to change jobs while on active duty? Where do I want to go? If I get out, what will I do then? Go to school? If so, what do I want to get a job doing? What do I want to get a degree in? Where's my personal life headed? And on and on.

If you can't tell, I'm an indecisive person. I think about things like this all of the time but I can never decide on exactly what direction to head. And I'm at a point in my life where I really should be focusing on this more. I should have an idea of where I want to go and what I want to do, and I really don't becuase I can't decide what I want to do and when I do come across something that sounds interesting to me, I look more into it and look at my life and where I am now and wonder if myself and my personality are compatible with that.

Right now, I've got a little bit of stability. In that, I'm here in Kosovo for the next year, this will get me out of debt and on a clean sheet of paper and I won't have a whole lot of choice in which direction I want to go for at least the next year. For this I am thankful. But after that, the field is wide open. There is about few dozen directions I can take in the position I am in, and I have the problem in trying to go two different directions at once.

Which leaves me right back where I started.

I got a year to think about it. That is my ultimate goal is to know when this is over.

And stop beating myself up about it.

Lesson of the Day: Mail is Good.

Another lesson learned. I like Care Packages. Even IF they are from myself.

Today wasn't one of the better days. I'm still getting used to how things go around here, trying to get into some routine while getting adjusted to doing things that I've only been briefly trained on and busy beating myself up over mistakes.

i'm also trying to get used to the people in my section. I like them, for the most part, but every once in a while, somebody will rub me the wrong way and if I'm having a bad day to begin with, I start shooting daggers with my eyes and grumbling under my breath and, well, it ain't pretty.

Especially considering I have a weapon at arms length at any given time.

So things progressively went from bad to worse and its not the big things that get me, its the many many little things that seem to attack all at once. Like everything going wrong in Air Sampling. Coupled with a freakin' 10 page long accident report because I brushed up against a barrier and scratched the Paint on my HMMW-V. And DHL was 25 minutes late and I was 10 minutes early, meaning I waited for 35 minutes. And the knowledge that I will be working until at LEAST 1800 hours. And skipping lunch because I had to much work to do. And, well, I could go on but you get the picture.

Then the mail guy came and I asked him if anything came for me and I got not one, but TWO packages from Amazon! From Myself! But, that's ok, they are books and now I have something constructive to read.

One's just light reading, called Dragon Rider (its aimed at the same age group as Harry Potter, but I love reading books at this age group because they are usually clean and really aimed at creativeness, and thats something I need, becuase it's how I escape) I also got Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man, because I really don't like Michael Moore and the title made me curious (and i read a thing or two about it). Then there is the Official Handbook of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, because anything with a name like that has to be interesting, plus its about debunking lefty looniness. And two books on blogs. Because I wanted to know what Hugh Hewitt had to say about them (Blog) and I wanted to know what I was doing right and wrong and how to make it better (the Weblog Handbook).

Yes, Books are good for me. I'm sure things will eventually calm down around here and I will get into some kind of groove, but meanwhile I'll have to try to maintain my sanity and remind myself that it really isn't THAT bad.

Afterall, I could be in a desert. Though I volunteered a few times for one of those rotations and nothing ever came of it. I can't really complain afterall, I did volunteer for this one.

Shameless Plug for a Friend's site

I don't know how welcome she is to get a massive influx of readership, but one of my best friends from elementary school days (when I was of but a wee lass of 5 we were in Kindergarten together) has a blog. It is mostly about her baby that she has (which still blows me away, because we were really good friends through about third grade before we were seperated by a move and part of me still imagines her and her sister as we were back then) and I mainly posted this post for my family's benefit, but you can benefit too. She just started blogging so it seems. Go wish her well. She's one of the coolest people I know.

And I'm a definite judge on the coolness factor.

Valentine's Day

So, tis another year, and another February 14th, and everywhere around the world (or at least, those that celebrate it), people will be celebrating the holiday of Valentine's Day.

I want to let you in on a secret.

I hate Valentine's Day. In fact, I've always hated Valentine's Day, ever since I was a child. And I will tell you why.

As a kid, Valentine's Day consisted of buying a bunch of cheesey cards from the super market and being forced to give one to everybody in the class. Whether you liked them or not. It didn't matter how cool Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse were, or for that matter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, every single freakin' card had a stupid saying on it that made you cringe that you had to find one to give to that one slimey kid who picked his nose in the back of the class. You also got those nasty candies that said little things on them like "I Luv U" and "be mine" that tasted like sugared saw dust.

Why did I hate it? Because it was a superficial holiday! I didn't want these people to be my valentines, and for those who I really actually did like, I didn't have the guts to go up to them and actually give them a real valentine. So you were stuck with the cheesey store bought ones. I mean, you got one from everybody, how could everybody in the class be your Valentine? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the whole holiday? I mean, you couldn't hurt anybody's feelings, could you?

Truthfully, it seems like some kind of underground agenda for the Gay Rights Movement. I had both Girls and Boys give me valentines. I gave both girls and boys valentines. And Boys giving each other valentines. And girls giving each other valentines. It doesn't matter what your sexuality is, this is a Bisexual Holiday! GAAAHHH!!! It's getting engrained into the minds of Children!

I'm sure I'll change my mind when I finally meet the guy who has it in him to sweep me off my feet (I am not sure if this can be accomplished however, I'm a pretty stubborn troop) and maybe one day I'll look forward to Valentine's Day. But until then, I'll leave this day for the Card and Candy Makers to get their kicks out of. As well as the love-sick types.

Or maybe I'm just a born anti-romantic. I never got the whole 'Love' thing.

Awaiting the Z Monster

I was stricken with Insomnia, and made my way to the MWR building to make a phone call home, to be reminded that everyone had just gotten in from Hohenfels and now we have a rush for the phones.

So, I made my way to the computers instead.

It was only toward the end of my time on the computers that I thought to check Red Vs Blue for a new video. Oops. It's going to take it 20 minutes to download and I'm at the end of my time.

Hmm, there's computers open, maybe they'll me linger?

Sob

Hmm, commentation through Haloscan is down. Which makes me sad, because one of my favorite things about blogging is the comments.

So I am sad.

But I am happy that I can temporarily fix this problem. I used to have commentation through YACCS, I can just redo that again. I guess I will.

As soon as HALO SCAN Comes back up, I will move the comments over there. I like HaloScan much better then YACCS.

Update There is a saying that applies to me. Patience is a virtue I don't possess. I guess I could have given Haloscan a chance to come to its senses, as it undoubtedly would.

And so it has risen from the death of Cyberspace and is alive once more. Good to see the comment bar again.

I'm all for instant gratification though. *sigh*

MORE UPDATES Its not haloscan at all! Its...these...darn...government...computers!!!

Haloscan has become a blocked site! I have to go to the MWR building to read any comments! This can't be!

*sob* I am sad again.

Set up Shop!

Silent Running has set up a shop for me. You can check it out here!

I guess I'll be adding that to my linkage on the side.

What Constitutes Divinity?

Anybody who has been reading this blog for some amount of time ought to know by now the ongoing in joke in regards to my claim to fame, a picture depicting my staunch support for President Bush while I hold a kick-ass M203 Grenade Launcher. I don't think I can kick the dead horse enough.

Anyway, Silent Running asked me to be their Patron Goddess, to which I said 'why not?' and then they sent me a T-shirt.



I've come up with a few problems with trying to pose for the T-Shirt. One, well, there really isn't anywhere to pose when I get off duty, as it is rather cold out and I don't feel like going outside in a T-shirt (not to mention that this puts me out of uniform) so I have to pose indoors for now, and my room is actually kind of nasty looking.

Then there is the whole idea behind the title of Goddess. Goddess tends to depict images of unearthly, beautiful, and I don't know about you, but I'm thinking Feminine.

I have never in my life looked at myself as Feminine, so it cracked me up to begin with that somebody wanted to make me their official Patrod Goddess (truthfully, i think the M203 is what initially won them over) And since I cut my hair since then, that has taken away even more from my femininity so now I look at this and think "how in the hell am I going to fit the Goddess Ideology with nothing but a T-shirt, Combat Boots and an M16?"

I guess that means I'll just keep up the Bad Ass routine. Maybe that'll keep the minions pacified?

Picture Gallery

One of these days, I will have the capabilities to upload pictures onto Exposure Manager and let people leaf through them at their leasure. However, such is unfortunately not the case.

*sighs*

Meanwhile, you can get a couple glimpses at me working hard.

Washing the HMMWV.



During the MASCAL, looking grumpy as usual (my flak vest and LBV are now more compatible I would like you to know, but I still look bloated whenever they call the MASCALs. This is me pulling QRF duty, and basically freezing.



This was doing water samples, back at Lewis actually. We do water samples so much simpler here at Bondsteel, instead of the BAC-T set, we use Collilert, which is presense absence and a hell of a lot simpler.



And at Hohenfels, waiting on the laundry usually meant I took my laptop out and listened to music and sorted through things. I tucked myself in a corner and went to town.



I just wanted to reiterate that it does indeed snow here. This was the first freakin' day in Bondsteel.



When we first got here, the fog was so thick you couldn't tell the ground from the sky. After about a week we actually got to see the Bondsteel Skyline. It is very beautiful in the summer I can hear. What am i saying, it's beautiful when it isn't hazed over!



I'm going to check up on that wireless internet we supposedly get in our rooms here. And then I get to chew out my bank.

One of my Pet Peeves with America

That we are a sue happy nation.

how come I didn't find out about this until now? I mean, how are people being able to get away with suing somebody who was just trying to be nice?

I think that is one of the biggest problems with this nation. Something happens to somebody that sends them to the emergency room and the first thing they do is try to find somebody to blame. And in this case, it was two teenagers trying to do something nice for their neighbors.

I think the lady who sued them needs to go see a shrink or something because if such a petty little thing such as two people out on the porch at 10:30 sends her into an anxiety attack, then I think she has some problems of her own, because most normal people wouldn't be freaking out.

I guess I could sue Schweitzer for causing me to lose my memory last year after I went snowboarding all day, or maybe I should sue Toyota, because they provided a free lift ticket. Heck, it might be their fault, after all, I still don't remember it.

But what did I do? I sucked it up, found a payment plan to pay for the emergency room myself and got on with my life. That was a one time thing, I didn't look for somebody else to blame, because the only person to blame is me. It was my choice and I took responsibility for what happened.

If somebody else really is responsible, then fine, work it out with them unless you have to take them to court. But in this case, the family offered to pay the bill and the woman STILL took them to court.

Its good to see that a lot of people have looked at this thing and said to themselves "no, this can't be right. People shouldn't be suing others due to acts of kindness." I heard about somebody trying to gather money to pay the girl's final bill ($900, at least the woman wasn't awarded punitive damages) and amazingly it appears that people have come together and raised the money and then some. Heck, I would have sent a check if I thought it would help.

I do believe that the court systems might need to get slightly revamped in this country to stop crap like this from happening and disallowing people from taking full advantage of the system and practically winning the freakin' lottery.

My favorite joke in this regards, click here and read on. Nothing like trying to sue McDonalds because their coffee was to hot, eating at McDonalds made them fat, or because McDonald makes their French Fries with Beef Byproducts.

Kami Time

I learned an important lesson this week after working long hours, having limited sleep, getting interrupted with the bloody MASS-CALs and overall freezing my ass off. Ok, so truthfully it was something I already knew but was just reiterated, a little.

Kami needs Kami Time. If Kami doesn't get Kami time, Kami get's cranky and pissy and has nothing intelligent to say other then to curse at any one who gets in Kami's way.

Needless to say, I didn't get much Kami time until roughly last night. I feel so much better now that I got Kami Time.

What is Kami Time you might ask? It is when I get a moment to myself, that's all. Just a couple hours or so. I enjoy my time. Ask anybody in my family. I like to be by myself every so often. If I don't get to be by myself every so often, I am not a fun person to be around. My fellow unit members might have picked up on that too.

However, I'm hearing rumors of another MASS-CAL going on in a few short minutes, so I should probably make myself scarce.

T-shirt News

Let me tell you a story.

It all started with a picture. A picture largely taken in jest. It has become semi famous amongst gun advocates and some right wing web-blogs. It is a picture of me toting an M203 Grenade Launcher.

You know the picture.

The picture was taken on a sunny October afternoon. It was then filed away into my hard drive and then it sat there.

The presidential elections came and went, to the dismay of millions.

Some decided to whine and bitch about the outcome. Others felt the need to poke fun at the whiners and bitchers and set up counter websites in patriotic jest. I dug out that picture from my archives of old pictures and plopped the words “I am not sorry” along the bottom and donated it to the counter websites.

I crosslinked it to my blog just for kicks and giggles.

All hell broke loose and my quiet and usually spontaneous blog spiraled out of control and I got about three dozen marriage proposals in the course of three days.

Er, I wasn’t prepared for that. On top of all of this, I was receiving orders to deploy to the Balkans as well, so my life was kind of busy.

Fast forward to mid December. I was in Fort Lewis in the middle of mobilization and everything had quieted on the Blog-Front. And I get an email asking if I would become Patron Goddess of some conservative website that is all for the right to bare arms and hot chicks that like to bare them (amongst other conservative topics).

I laugh, and am promptly told my time is up. I close down my inbox and don’t answer right away, on account of my limited internet access and very busy life.

Finally, come January, I remember this email I got and decided that it would be rude not to answer it (along with the sixty other emails in my inbox also currently awaiting to be replied to and I vow heavily that I will indeed reply to them, eventually). My reply? “Sure, whatever.”

Immediately I am informed that I am being sent a T-shirt and they are expecting photos. Ok, no big deal. However, I don’t yet have an address to send the T-shirt to.

Fast forward to Hohenfels Germany. It is cool that I am in Germany, sucks that I’m in Hohenfels. The food is lousy, and I am promptly placed on the Hohenfels Weight Control Program. Also considering the fact that I walked damn near everywhere I went and was often skipping meals (and eating beef Jerkey and Gummi Bears instead, Nutritious) I probably lost a good three or five pounds in the week that I was there. But I did get an address to send my mail too!

I was in Hohenfels for about two weeks or so. To long in my opinion. Finally we fly over to Kosovo, where after two weeks of eating Dog Food and Egg Loaf, I am introduced to Chow Hall Heaven.

The outgoing people were commenting on how everyone tends to gorge themselves the first two weeks of getting here. I was no exception. The food, it was edible! And there were so many choices! I’ll take that, and that, and that. . .

Um, let me just say that I’m now starting to limit my choices at chow time.

Then, just today, I get my first package in the mail. Sweet! Packages are awesome! And low and behold, what does it hold?

An Official Patron Goddess T-shirt from Silent Running (with a warning that I have minions).

Um, I tried it on for good measure and took some pictures just to try it out and see how they would turn out, because Dad Nab It, the minions want their T-shirt Photos!

I think I need to start hitting that gym and start eating less grease and more salad before I get a decent picture for the masses. Because right now I’m feeling less Goddess and more Cow. And I don’t think the minions are Hindu and worship cows.

And I ain’t just saying that because I’m female and by default think I’m fat. Because I’m usually comfortable with the way I look. Just, um, five weeks of wearing nothing but Camouflage and it tends to camouflage my body even from me.

I vow to look drop dead sexy by the end of this deployment.

Crosslinked : Silent Running

Why I love Blogs

I'm a large advocate to a system of checks and balances. Which is one of the reasons I love blogs so much. They tend to check the MSM and they are known for checking each other.

And I am totally open to being checked.

Apparently I should have checked myself before, but I just thought the story was interesting, and not entirely unbelievable. Oh well, I'm just glad I can love Germany again.

Hat tip: Jack of Clubs

Movie Reviewing

One thing I used to love a lot is movies. i used to work at a movie theater and while I worked there, I saw just about everything that came out because it was free.

Well, here, I'll get the opportunity to watch a lot of movies for free once more.

Anyway, i just saw a movie that really pissed me off. Some parts of it were funny, yeah, but it was so damn inconsistant and was trying to hard to be the first one, which I loved.

That movie was Meet the Fockers. They could have done a lot with this thing and instead they went over the top and it came out as one forced laugh after another. Bloody hell at times I was squirming uncomfortably wondering when it would end. Granted, there were funny moments, but I wanted to slap the Fockers because they were bloody hipocrits.

I think what pissed me off was the fact that the Fockers were liberals of the worst sense. All about being open with one's self, in the case of this movie, a little to much to the embarrassment of their son and the whole 'self esteem' thing throughout the movie, congratulating on a 10th place finish. And then they ridicule the host who's a bit more withdrawn and conservative for being, well, conservative.

I didn't realize how much I hated this movie until after I had finished watching it and slept on it a bit.

Or maybe it was because Barbara Streisand was in it and there is something about her that really bugs me.

Damn, i could go on and rant about this movie. And I had been really looking forward to it too.

Curse you, Hollywood for continuing to release crap like this! I am mad at you! I haven't seen a decent movie since the Incredibles! (at one time I wanted to work for Pixar, still do in fact)

groundhog's day

Hmm, it's groundhog's day today. To celebrate it, i decided to recessicate my lagging webcomic which had promptly died, oh, about the same time I gained exposure on the internet, politically (which is something I always avoided with a webcomic. My comic readers are primarily of the liberal persuasion.) thing is, the comic is just a little bit younger then my blog. Fortunately, the comic is there in its entirity unlike my blog, which is missing all entries priar to this summer, when my entire website crashed and burned horribly. Somebody asked who the guy was. I have to admit that I can't draw myself with short hair and mad too and retain my femininity. Which is non-existant in the first place.

Though this comic is now not entirely true, just found out today that they are indeed sponsering MWR trips to Big Duke, which means I will get opportunities to Ski. Not sure about snowboarding yet, but if I'm allowed to ski, I'll take skiing.

Then I had to do a MASS-CAL exercise and promptly began hating cold weather again when I lost all feelings in my toes.

Punxsutawney Phil is going down, man, he is going DOWN!!!