Drill Weekend in Hell. .

. . . or rather, Helena Montana.

Actually, the weekend wasn't really hell at all. In fact, it was awesome! Several people mentioned how they would comment to their friends and coworkers tomorrow about how they spent the weekend.

Me? I had a nice quiet weekend. It started on Thursday, where I had to get up a little earlier then usual, took a bus to Helena Montana, fire an M16 and qualified as well as familiarized myself with a gas mask and night fire, (in which every round was a tracer and we witnessed some pretty spectacular fires!), practiced urban warfare with simulated ammo and Paintball guns, took a hike on a land navigation course which was done in both the day and the afternoon, and got a little flight to the course via whirly birds. Or Black Hawk Helicopters.

I'm trying to revamp my Milblog, so I think this post will best be served there. . .

Hidden Posts brought to light

I went back, looked at my blog, and unhid some things I had hidden from view. As I had hid them while I was deployed, or else I never posted them for whatever reason.

Well, its safe to post them now. Some of these are definitely in par with the things I shouldn't post on deployment, and they fit how I felt at the time. Well regardless, I brought them out from hiding. YOu can make your opinion on them be known.

I didn't really get along with my first couple of roommates. Here is evidence. She turned out to be a decent person, we just, well, didn't mesh well in shared living conditions.
A little story I wrote about my NCOIC. He told me that he felt that it demeaned his authority and told me to remove it. Well, guess what? The guy can kiss my behind. If he wants to get sensitive, he can stop being a complete ass. Besides, I'm far to kind to him in this story (which has not been altered in any way).
This is a Rant
I was told to remove this post, because it tells of me and the boy going to Freedom Park, where we proceeded to. . . watch Night of the Living Dead. Oh, and I made a crack at the Kosovo police, and their inability to do their job.
Restlessness with the Army, and Deployment
This is but one of many warnings of what a gargatuan ass my NCOIC was, and I didn't post it because I thought I was being to hard on him at the time.
2 Problems with the Army
How I really felt about getting out of my section

For whatever reason, these posts were not considered to be appropriate for military viewing. Mostly because I'm probably being to honest in them. Heck, some of them are unfinished because I would do that a lot. But this is some of the posts I made, cut dry and to the point. Some of them are rants, but hey, it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't give a good rant from time to time.

Grudges

My orders came in. I'm officially out of the unit I deployed to Kosovo under. I'm under an entirely different command structure, in a completely different job field. They say that one of the things you should never do in the military is talk bad about your unit. I didn't really have a unit to talk up actually. I got along well with my commander most of the time, as well as the other soldier in my section who I shared an office with. I was kind of pitted against the other female soldier in the section, who according to my NCOIC, could do no wrong and he likely considered his prodigy. I was the fifth wheel, I never really belonged in the unit, I never meshed, and I felt like I had no real purpose. It was made very apparent early on in the rotation that I was not needed. The other two soldiers were quick to pick up my duties if need be. I only supplemented them on theirs.

And of course, there was my NCOIC. He was a gigantic Ass. I can say that, and I will say that, because he is no longer in my chain of command and there is no threat of him being put in my command again. I'd work with anybody in my section again if I had to, except for him. One of the things I do wish I had done however, is I wished I could have patched things up a bit.

I've had a tendency to make enemies in the past. People who weren't great friends on any account, rather I would call them arch nemesis. There was this one girl, Sarah, that owned horses while I was in Jr. High. I befriended her early because we had a mutual love of horses, only to learn that we didn't mesh well. In fact, we came to not like each other at all.

Jr High is not a time in my life that stands out greatly to me on any account. I don't think Jr High is a highlight of anybody's existence really. Regardless, when we moved away from there, I was still able to patch things up with Sarah so that I didn't have this lingering sense of grudge baring over my soul. And for the longest time I felt that this was one of my best attributes. That I didn't hold grudges against people. Although I would get frustrated and get enemies, as kids in school often do, I didn't really keep them as enemies. Not saying I made best friends or anything out of the fact, but at least we weren't cursing each other as we passed by. If nothing, we became indifferent to one another. I got on with my life, and that person got on with theirs.

That was always a gratifying feeling though, to get on with your life and knowing that you didn't leave hate mongering in your wake. I didn't like to bare grudges, I never did. I still don't, because it doesn't do much for you and the other person likely can care less.

Well, one thing I kind of wish I could have done is at least patch things up a little bit with my former NCOIC (sergeant in charge to you civilians out there). I would never consider him a friend or anything of that nature, but I didn't want the hostility between us to eat at me at the very least. So I tried to mend things a couple of times.

Turns out, he was even more childish then I was. I went to him trying to discuss the issues at large one on one, and he became hostile at me, told me I was whining and wouldn't let me get a word in edge wise. He threw things back in my face, I was wrong and he wouldn't admit that he was either, even though the Task Force XO, IG and whoever else came back to telling both my NCOIC and my commander that I had been in the right and they were in the wrong. I discovered then that once you got on this guy's bad side, he wouldn't give you the time of day.

That was the day I got out from under his command. He hadn't let me do my job as a Preventive Medicine Specialist since September anyway, so there really was no purpose of me being there. In fact, there had never been a purpose for me being in Kosovo. He never trusted me, relied upon me to do anything right. I was the crutch, the fifth wheel of that unit. And I had a blog that I was very vocal on. He did everything in my power to shut me up because he realized that it was his job to monitor me and being the lazy bastard that he was, he wanted less work to do. He got with the captain, they tag teamed me (like they had done several times before) and gave me an order that I didn't have to obey, as it impeded on my right of free speech. When I disobeyed that order, they tried to shut me down. That whole incident really proved to show this man's colors of what kind of person he was and his character. Getting out from under him was the best thing I could have done for myself, as I learned more about leadership when I was out from under him then I ever did from him. If anything, he taught me a lot about what not to be in a leader.

After I get out from under him, I did try a couple of times to make ammends. I even offered him Peanut Butter Fudge once (he didn't accept it) and then I learned that I would never make ammends with this person. He was pouty, and he acted increasingly childish, at one meeting at which we were both present, he offered everybody in the room some huckleberry taffy (except me, which he made it a point not to).

I think he got mightily offended when I decided to appeal the NCOER (sergeant evaluation report). I'm still in the process of appealing it, though it turns out I have to wait until I'm in my new unit to push it through.

After I tried to make some shabby ammends with the guy, I learned, while looking back, that he really didn't deserve the effort on my part. I think it proves that I'm a better person then he is, that I would even try to make an effort especially after all the crap he did to me. Regardless, he turned out to be a genuine Asshole and since he is no longer in my command, I'll say just about anything about the bastard that I want.

Unfortunately, I think I will have these feelings of ill-will to this man for the rest of my life. I will likely never see him again, and I have one suggestion to make to him and that is to turn in his 20 year letter because his staying in will not benefit the army one bit, at least, not as a leader, of which his leadership skills are absolutely zilch (two of his soldiers couldn't stand him by the end of the tour and the third was indifferent, only because he is a strong enough character that he'll get by regardless of how poor a leader his NCOIC is, otherwise I think he would have hated the guy too).

I can take some solace in the fact that I struck a major nerve with the guy, but fortunately I think I'll move on, learn the lessons that he unintentionally taught me about everything a leader shouldn't be or do, and see if I still have what it takes to be a soldier in the military. I like my new unit so far, I like what they do, the soldiering atmosphere they provide, and feel like I can get back in the swing of things again. Bad leaders are everywhere in the military, I don't think the military is helping matters by promoting everything to sergeant like they've been doing (as one thing I have learned with my time in the military, is not everybody is a leader) but if nothing else, I can try to learn some leadership traits and see if I still have the desire to stay in.

I'm going to give this unit a shot. If it doesn't work out, I'm out in a year and a half for good.

Discussions in Retrospect

I have been doing a lot of thinking, most of it in retrospect, and one conversation I had comes to mind frequently. It is also a conversation I had with a person that I feel said a lot about that person at the time, but I failed to read the warning signs and gave him a pass.

I posted my feelings about it earlier too, mentioning it here.

My former NCOIC was the kind of person that knew everything, had an opinion on everything, and would give you his opinion whether you liked it or not. Its just, the thing is, he didn't know everything, time and time again he proved to be increasingly ignorant, and was just too arrogant to see the matter any way other then his way. Which is probably one of the main reasons why I had a big falling out with the guy. In fact, I learned to despise him.

The conversation was about homosexuality. What irritated me about the conversation was that I was told point blank that I was wrong for believing that Homosexuality is wrong. His reasoning was that he felt that if I had a child, that child came out as homosexual, that unless I accepted their lifestyle, I couldn't love them, or something to that effect. What he did was skew my words and made it look that I was closed minded for not accepting something my kid did as wrong.

Fortunately, as of now, I don't have kids, but this kind of reasoning is for one, rediculous. What has my kid being gay have anything to do with me loving them or not? I know a lot of people that are gay that are great people. I know people who smoke who are great people. I know a lot of people who do things that I disagree with that are great, awesome people. Because a person is gay doesn't automatically make me hate them. I disagree with their lifestyle. I think it is perverse and wrong. And I will never accept it as being ok. But I can say the same thing with a million other things, like doing drugs, casual sex, listening to rap music, and whatever else that can be on a greater or lesser degree to homosexuality.

The problem with being against homosexuality these days is if you think that homosexuality is wrong, you are quick to gain the label of 'homophobe.' By its very nature, that seems to be an irrational fear toward homosexuality. It seems to be a liberal trademark to not want to be labeled, but in the meantime to turn around and label somebody else. The thing is, I don't have a fear of homosexuals, I don't hate them. I just don't agree with them. I will never agree that their lifestyle is ok. You know what I do around these people? I don't bring up the fact that their homosexual. We don't talk about it. That is their business, its something that they do on their own time. It is none of my business, and quite frankly, I don't really want to hear about it.

Which brings back the question of what I would do if I had a kid who came out of the closet and admitted that they were gay? What would I do? I would not accept that as an acceptable lifestyle, and I'm sure they would know that I did not accept it as such. But I would also let them know, well before they come out, that I will love them no matter what they do. They are going to make a lot of choices and decisions that I don't agree with, and I will never love them any less because of it.

Because no matter who they become or what they do, they will still be my child.

The reasoning my former NCOIC gave me really made no sense, and in looking back nearly a year and a half later after it happened, that's how I remembered his reasoning being.

Actually, how rediculously stupid and trivial his reasoning seems to me now makes me wonder about a lot of things about the man. But one thing I have discovered since we ceased to talk on friendly terms. Not having to listen to his opinions on everything made life in the last few months of my deployment a lot more bareable.

Don't Know

I look around at myself, where I'm at, and I get in this crazy funk in regards to what I want to do with my life, as opposed to what other people do. I've never really fit within the norm of other people, mainly because I've always seen myself as being different, a little bizarre maybe, not fitting in with the mainstream. It has never really bothered me, not really. Unfortunately, I often contradict myself.

I know what I want, but I don't have any idea of what I want to do. A part of me wants to find somebody to be with, and another part of me wants to be left alone. I love the military and in the same breath I hate it. I know what I want to do with my life but I don't know how I'll ever accomplish it. I've always had this indecisive, somewhat impulsive nature to just kind of go with the flow, do things however I need to do them.

I wish I had a better idea of what I had in mind, I've got it planned out, sort of, but at the same time I feel like I'm winging this.

I guess I'm going to continue to walk this fine line of knowing and not knowing until the day I die.

Meanwhile, I think my next major purchase is going to be a Bike.

What Could have Been

If you were intending to buy a Pirated DVD for €4.00, you could instead buy:

thirty-four 65g packets of Tesco value instant noodles four hundred and ninety-four millilitres of anti-dandruff shampoo two hundred and sixteen grams of swiss chocolate a hand buzzer one twenty-thousandth of a terraced house on an English council estate fifty-five carrots six hundred and seven millilitres of Red Bull energy drink twenty-four milligrams of heroin one hundred and thirty-four grams of silly putty two cups of coffee from a café

What are you thinking of buying?

I might buy for UK pounds sterlingCanadian dollarsAustralian dollarsEurosUS dollars

And to think of what I could have bought instead of supporting the Kosovo Economy by buying pirated DVDs.

Lessons Learned. . .

Next time I go boarding, I'm going to force the person I'm going with to get me some action shots.

I confess, running into a tree and acquiring 14 stitches doesn't seem to sink into me that snowboarding can be a hazardous sport.

Silver Mountain is still open, and the conditions were sweet. I've come to really appreciate the mountain (this is my third time boarding there) and the fact that it has great coverage and awesome runs. And a freakin' sweet terrain park!

Its spring boarding. I'm now sunburned.

Next year is the year I will be doing the dare devil stunts. I have a season pass and I'm not afraid to use it!

*unless the gas prices get the better of me first.*

What's Happening in My Life

Plans, for the rest of this year.

Next Drill, I should have a weekend that will finally make Carnival of Cordite news. It should be good fun too. I'll meet some more people in the unit, as well as hook up with the Montana units that I will most likely be drilling with this summer while I'm in Yellowstone.

Bloomsday is May 7th. And I am running it. Or will try. If it doesn't kill me first.

Because of my little Tree Accident, I had to take a break from Karate. I could have gone back by now, but with drill weekend and everything taking a big chunk of my week, I'm going to be back in class first thing in May.

May consists of a lot of nothingness. I have my stuff, which I need to sort through, and I have to get that stuff all prioritized and in order so I don't leave a gargantuan mess for my parents to deal with. I promised dad I would get it taken care of, now I need to buck up and commit to it.

Of course, there is Creature. I'm trying to update it enough so I won't be having to many breaks while I'm in Wyoming. I'm not sure what the lifespan of this will be, I just need to update it sparingly or something, so it doesn't take over my life. I can only hope not.

Anyway, summer madness will be sweet. June through early September I'll be riding horses and leading trail rides in Yellowstone. So if you are going to Yellowstone this summer, drop by Roosevelt Ranch. Not sure how my blogging will be down there, I'll try to maintain it if at all possible. Regardless, this is going to be a summer to remember.

September brings me back home. I'll likely move in with my parents for the remainder of the month, get checked into school with everything in order, and look for an apartment, with the hopes that I can be moved in by October.

I've already got my acceptence letter and everything. Then of course, I will need to get a real job. And hope that my temper won't get the better of me with it.

Movie Reviews, so you don't have to see 'em

I made a mistake not long ago of renting a couple of movies.

I have not been really all that impressed with the crap that Hollywood has been releasing lately, and so I haven't seen or rented a movie in a while. Just because, well, nothing perked my interest.

Well, I take that back, one movie did perk my interest, not because of the subject matter or what not, but because of the whole spiel that everyone was saying how great it was.

Actually, I just wanted to see it for myself. And let me tell you, going into this movie, I wasn't all that impressed.

The characters were self serving and a bit shallow. The one character has no sense of responsibility as he throws aside his work and family to have a forbidden affair. This movie didn't teach anything about morals, values or what not. Both of the characters mess up their lives trying to fulfill these hidden desires and neither one ends the better for it.

Liberals will watch this movie and point out that this is the problem with society, that people have to live in secret and aren't allowed to be themselves, thus ruining their lives. Conservatives will watch this movie and point out how the actions of both characters involved only stress that much more about how they ruin their own lives. They say they're in love, but there is a definite 'lust' thing going on here. The movie has no real life lessons applied, other then do what you want to do and let your family and work be damned. Both these characters live a big freakin' lie. All in the name of 'love'. Its bull- in my opinion.

The movie makers thoughts on the matter? "This will show that we need to accept people so that they don't have to live in the closet like this and their lives won't be ruined."

Brokeback Mountain, folks. Seriously, cut and dry definition of this movie? A movie about Two Gay Cowboys. And the tear jerker scene that is supposed to be emotionally gutwrenching? I went 'eh.' For its artistic merit, it's not a bad movie, but it isn't by any means a great movie that all the reviewers are saying it is. Sure, it will make you think, if you can stay awake watching it.

I haven't heard of to many guys who had any desire to see this film, my dad mentioned that one guy admitted to watching it and everyone else gave him crap for weeks about it.

My mom watched the first thirty minutes out of morbid curiousity, and then shut it off when she kept fast forwarding through different scenes and finally got to the sex scene.

I can tell you one thing, its a movie I will never see again.

The Other movie I saw? A Sound of Thunder. Two Words of Advice on this little gem. Don't bother.

Website Is Slowly Coming Around

Yes, I've been ignoring the blog again. Don't mind me. And, as you can see, I'm updating the template of my blog.

I'm in the process of updating it. Everytime I post the blog, I think I'll update something else on it. Slowly and surely, I'll have it looking the way I want. For now, its a bit drab and boring. But it won't be for long. I promise. Sort of.

More on Work, complete with Art News!

My laptop is working great, well, the hardware is. I still need to reformat it and get it running smoothly again, but overall, I'm just delighted to have it back.

Meanwhile, in the realm of work, a friend of mine is commissioning a piece of art. All I can say is 'Yay!' I've also got a couple other ideas to brainstorm in other art projects, and these projects will be blogged. I need to blog about something, it might as well be art.

I've got a friend who is requesting some art pieces from her friends for a Reptile Rescue she's doing, to earn funds for her critters. Eh, she's a friend, its for a good cause, I'm game :)

Further more, in the realm of even more work, I've got more news on my summer job issue. See, I was originally scheduled to work in Glacier National Park in Montana, and though I was excited about the opportunities and the job, it really wasn't what I wanted to do. But I felt it was important to at least secure the job in case something else didn't materialize.

Well low and behold, I got a job off in Yellowstone National Park, doing what I wanted to do originally! It looks like an awesome opportunity, its only for the summer, I'll be out in the middle of one of the most beautiful areas in the country, and I'll be working with horses doing trail rides and learning how to drive a stage coach!

This is one of those experiences that I'm taking soully for the experience and the little money I make on the side is nice to keep the bills paid, but I can't begin to say how excited this job has me feeling right now! I should have done something like this years ago, but the army has always kept me from doing something like this. This is the first true opportunity where I have the freedom to pursue a job like this.

Its great work around school and army drill as well. I just have to talk to my command about negotiating around drill this summer, and hooking up with one of the two units in Montana.

Hey, what can I say? I'm excited!

My Laptop is Back

I've got my laptop back from the doctor. And my laptop feels good to be home again. *ahhh. . .*

This has proven to be most efficient for the desk top, because now I won't be hogging it anymore. When I initially came home, I had a plan to go out and build my own desktop, but I've grown quite accustomed to the laptop over the last year. I like the mobility of it, I can just take it anywhere and these days it seems like there is a wireless connection everywhere. Hey, I'm game for that!

Plus, most of the issues with my laptop have been fixed. I will say this about buying a computer, that warranty they offer with it is WORTH IT!!! Especially if you plan on dragging the thing all over Europe.

Next trip, somewhere to a National Park this summer.

Special Day

Go to the Wikipedia and put in your birth month and day. Then post 3 events, 2 births and 2 deaths.

November 22, that one's a doozy. . .

EVENTS

1943 - Lebanon gains independence from France.
1968 - The Beatles release the double-album The Beatles, commonly known as The White Album.
2005 - The Xbox 360 is released in North America. (because, you know, that is NEWS!)

BIRTHS

1943 - Billie Jean King, American tennis player
1984 - Scarlett Johansson, American actress

DEATHS

1718 - Blackbeard (Edward Teach), British pirate
1963 - John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (b. 1917)

Yeah, Kennedy's death is the no-brainer on my special day. But that just means i'm pretty damn good at history, eh?

Date # 2, complete with Stitches

Me and 'Mike' went snowboarding on Thursday, with this being the last week up to the mountain, they were having a lot of specials going on, mainly a ski free week up at 49 degrees north. This was a good opportunity to get to know each other and hang out, so we took advantage of it.

This was only my fourth time riding this season, so I decided to take full advantage of it, and whats more, I had a buddy to board with. Mike's pretty good, but not to the level that I'm at yet, so we hit chair one and took it to the top and just sort of winged the day. However, at the state I'm at now, just going up to the mountain and 'riding' gets a little boring after a while, I'm ready to get onto the next step.

That's freestyle. You know, going airborne, doing the jumps, going through the trees, that sort of thing. You have a natural inclination to progress with something.

No different with Snowboarding really. So me and Mike are trying different things, went through the terrain park (which was getting a little sad because of the snow melting thing.) One specific jump I tried had a pretty good start, however it went up quite a bit and then just dropped off more then I was expecting. I probably fell 7 feet or so. That kind of killed me on those, there was no transition after the jump, just sheer drop and the slow wasn't giving a lot of speed so it was kind of a THUNK kind of thing.

Well, after trying out the terrain park a couple of times, I went back to the top of the mountain and tried discovered the trees.

Trees are bliss. Along the green run from the top of the mountain are a lot of little trails weaving in and out of the trees, many of them landing in jumps going any which way. I had never really gotten into these, but when I finally did, I had a freakin blast! I didn't always get back up on my feet when I went airborne, and sometimes I would slow a little to much before I caught accurate speed to really clear the little heaps of snow people had piled up for the jumps, but I still had fun, wipe outs and all. Mike was a little self conscious at first with me being better then him and not wanting me to see him fall on his butt, but I reassured him that such was not the case. I happened to have plenty a fall on my own. I provided the guy with plenty of amusement that's for certain.

Anyway, coming out of the trees one time, I had done this run at least twice before when all of a sudden a girl appeared out of nowhere and I had to try desperately to not hit her. I think I slowed down enough to cause limited damage, but I still knocked her off her skis and felt like dog crap after it happened. The grandmother assisting the young girl (who was probably no older then seven) was glaring at me from the background and all I could do was apologize profusely.

Unfortunately, I think I just reaffirmed another skier's hatred of snowboarders. Definitely not my intention.

However, the run-in with the girl kind of caught me off my guard, and I proceeded down further with caution. I didn't want to hit anybody else (and it had been so long since I had run into another person on the slopes, though it doesn't stop them from hitting me from time to time, and even getting an occaisonal push from some kid) that I started to take it easier down the slopes, checking myself more then I should instead of riding the suckers out. Still, I was having the most fun in the trees and we went back up the mountain one more time.

Mike was lingering out in the slopes as I carved to and fro through the trees once more. Then I got a little lost in the trees and he didn't know where I went. Therefore, he continued down, hoping to catch up with me later.

What really happened? Well, I was loving the trees and all, but I decided to get a little to close to one, and it certainly didn't love me back. I checked myself at the wrong time, saw a tree coming in my direction and thought "oh crap..."

The image of that tree is seered, seered into my memory. If I were to go back up to the mountain a year from now, I could tell you exactly where that tree is.

And no, no damage was done to it. It knocked me flat on my back and I lay there in a daze for all of ten seconds just thinking to myself 'ok, you're a bit jarred, don't cry, its not that bad." Truthfully, if I had gone much faster, this hit could have snapped my neck and I would have gone the way of Sonny Bono, sans skis. The only thing I had on me to survey the damage was a camera, so I snapped a picture of myself. I had blood on my chin. And I thought to myself "well, that takes care of that for the day." However, I actually felt good enough to get back on my board and continue the rest of the way down the mountain, so I did. I took the easy way down so as to not risk a fall, and I didn't know how well my equilibrium would hold up, but I did fine and felt no worries. In fact, by the time I got to the lodge, I could have gone back up the hill if not for the fact that I had a stream of blood running down my frontside from my chin.

Mike caught up to me as I made it to the lodge, and his look of pleasure from seeing me turned into a look of 'what the hell happened to you?'

I still had him take a picture of me.

I didn't really look to bad, fortunately I hit in a place where it didn't show to much, but this thing is going to leave a killer scar. I hit the first aid station, they cleaned it up a bit and gave me some gauze and then me and Mike called it a day and he drove me back to my car. I called my mom to meet me, as it probably wasn't wise to have me drive anywhere until I got checked out by a hospital, but when all was said and done, I got 14 stitches on my chin. 7 are on the inside and 7 on the outside. It was a pretty deep gash. Didn't hurt to bad, and I was cracking jokes the entire time.

Truthfully, I think the entire thing is a riot (wouldn't be as funny if I had done something such as kill myself) but fortunately this time to the emergency room on account of snowboarding, my memory is in tact and my military benefits from my deployment are still in swing. So this trip should be covered.

At least, I can only hope. But hey, what's worth living if you don't knock some brain cells loose from time to time?

Current 'Jobs'

On top of staring at my blog (and personal website for that matter) and realizing that it is in dire need of severe updating, I am working on other matters to make money, though I am guessing my current project might make me ten bucks a month or so at most.

*sighs*

But I can't get to down on myself, these things happen. Meanwhile, I've got my online comic strip up and running. Again. I've got most of my few loyal readers back on board. And I learned how to create a forum. Through phpBB.

I'll call this good news and move along.

I've also started my subscriber services. I'm not sure how well that will do, I'm just hoping that I can get about ten or so people on board so it will make me about, oh, ten bucks a month.

Oh, Yellowstone called. I might have a job there this summer, doing what I originally wanted to do. And that's work with horses. I'm not sure if I have the job yet or not, if not, I'll have my other job to fall back on at Glacier National park.

Whatever the case, I'm excited about that.

I was going to go to Karate tonight, but I failed to account for daylight savings.

Date # 1

I mentioned the Dating Service, right? Well, I got set up with my first match this week and last night we decided to hook up and meet each other.

To protect his identity, I'll just call him Mike.

Mike snowboards, as do I, so the first thought of getting together was to hook up and check out 49N next week (free skiing and boarding all week long) and just kind of get to know each other that way. Well, after we negotiated this, he called me back and asked if I wanted to meet him at a Karaoke bar, he was playing a joke on one of his friends. See, he is usually painfully shy in public places and he decided to use this opportunity to say he was going to actually talk to somebody, however I was already there waiting for him.

He was a pretty nice guy, although at a Karaoke bar, neither of us drank while we were there (I kept getting refills on a sprite, he had two beers prior to showing up) and we listened as the songs went from decent to worse and piss drunk. Which was most amusing. I did venture to get up there and sing a song, I chose You Oughta Know by Alanis Morisette. That was a lot of fun, though it was so loud I could barely hear myself.

Finally, we stole away to the restaurant portion of the bar and sat down at an empty booth and just talked. He's pretty cool, but really shy and I had to keep the conversation going. I think I might be a little to brash and obnoxious for him at times, he was a little to quiet for me, but he was pretty easy going, he felt kind of wierd about asking me to a bar, but I don't hold that against him. I thought if nothing else, he'd make a good friend and perhaps a snow boarding buddy. I've got his number, if nothing else we can keep in touch, stay friends and perhaps if I can get him to come out of his shell a little bit more more can come out of it.

We'll see how the snowboarding trip goes. It might help loosen him up a bit.

Chuck's back from the Doctor

I got my AK back. I was almost expecting an April Fools joke out of the process.

I bought my AK in 2004 and got to take it out shooting once. We didn't really get a good opportunity to get it cleaned afterwards and when it was taken out again (while I was in Kosovo) the firing pin busted on it.

Replacing that firing pin took about six months. But now I have my rifle back and I think my family will likely negotiate a trip to the range sometime this spring to excercise the fire arms.

It should be good fun. Will tell more when I get around to it.

Posing for eBay

My sister asked me to pose some things for her in eBay again.

She told me she has a way of buying things when she goes through thrift stores. She literally buys the ugliest things she can find because those seem to sell the best. I would look at them and think 'huh?' I mean, its really ugly!

But surprisingly, she knows how to make things like this work, and she gets away with it because she has a knack for making clothes work.

I thought this shirt was pretty hideous. But like I said, she makes it work. And it even looks like it could be my style, you know?


Then there was this gem. I don't think I would normally wear something like this, or pose like this either. But seriously, we're out there having fun and enjoying ourselves and taking pictures of clothes that off the rack are percieved as ugly.

She's got a definite talent for this. I sure don't.