YNP: In the Beginning. . .

Made it bright and early to Yellowstone National Park on Memorial Day, and found out that I was but one of five people scheduled to check in that day. I found this confusing, and it turns out that most of my fellow Wranglers had checked in on Saturday.

I still don't know why I am so special.

Well, it looks like this is going to be a miserable experience where I have to be around smelly horses all day and work long hours with low pay and deal with horrendous customers who have never ridden a horse in their life. It should be a summer in hell.

End Sarcasm.

Ok, from the moment I got here, I've been excited. I haven't been to Yellowstone since I was two, and this place is amazing. Being a National Park, it isn't maintained in the same way that National Forests are, in other words, Yellowstone is maintained as a wild forest. There is definitely still signs of the fire in 1988 here, but there is also great signs of rebirth in the forests as they grow. And there are animals everywhere. Its not uncommon to see a bunch of cars backed up because of a huge bison in the middle of the road.

Turns out if you creep up on the bison, they will get out of your way. If you just stop and wait for it to move, it will just stare at you and think 'how nice of them to stop so I don't have to move'.

Bison appear to own the park. They're everywhere.



Meanwhile, I have made my home in a rustic one room cabin heated only by a woodburning stove where I share the place with three other girls about my age, though I have discovered that I'm the old one in the group. They try to keep the legal ages together for alcohol consumption reasons, though me being the non-partier type, I don't really care.

Much different atmosphere then my year in Kosovo, which was completely dry and I had nothing in common with my roommates.

One of the girls got into a discussion with me on politics, as it was quickly learned that I am in the military, and she wanted my opinion on Bush. I told her my stance, especially as a soldier that I'm supposed to be neutral. Then we got into a discussion about the last presidential campaign and I told her my honest opinion on why I felt Kerry lost. Most specifically, because he had no agenda.

Interestingly enough, the conversation remained civil (she's a democrat that's openminded to conservative views) and so far I'm pretty good friends with all the female wranglers here at Roosevelt. So far. I'm hoping that it remains that way. We have to depend on each other for morale support, and you need plenty of friends for Hiking excursions, adventures with White Water Rafting, Back Country Horseback Riding, so on and so forth.

We are here because we deal with horses. Looking back, I have discovered that it was amazing that I managed to nab this job. Its considered one of the best jobs in the park (though it is hard work) And looking at all the horse experience my coworkers have, I look at myself and think 'oh crap, am I going to come across as a complete idiot in horse matters?' I've never driven a stagecoach before, but this week I get to learn how to do it. All next week we have to get the Dude Horses familiar once again with the trails, so that means that all day every day next week, I'm going to be riding horses.

Oh the agony of it all.

I have to admit that after the first day, I will likely be pretty saddle soar, but I can't imagine a job that fits me better then being paid to take horses on trail rides all day in Yellowstone. And they are totally willing to work with my drill weekends. I only have two while I'm here, and I get to drill in Helena Montana with a sister unit. I have one pretty early in the summer and another toward the end of summer.

Well, as a Wrangler, leading unsuspecting guests on trailrides throughout Pleasant Valley in Yellowstone, we have to learn commentary and be able to tell our guests things about the area, and be familiar enough with Yellowstone so that we can answer questions. To do so, yesterday they took us on a tour of Yellowstone and showed us all of the main attractions.

And they paid us.

Is this a great job or what?


Yellowstone is actually still very much in the spring season. At Mammoth Hot Springs, we got to see some of the more unusual hotsprings and learned a bit about their formation. Geology galore! This builds up about 24 inches of limestone a year. Eventually it will dry up and the spring will move somewhere else, but the formation of it is amazing! They have these little bacteria in the water that only thrives at temperatures between 130-160 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that they are harmless to humans as they would freeze to death. They make these beautiful colors and when they die, they become pink before turning grey.

This is the lower terrace.


The day started of bright blue and beautiful, but throughout the day, it got grey and muggy and started hailing on us. We saw a ton of geysers and hot springs steaming up all over the place (and lots of waterfalls) when we stopped to eat lunch at Old Faithful.

I'll have to go back and get a better picture of it some time in the future. I walked up to Old Faithful just as it spurted and sprouted. I was in the wrong side of it to get a good look at it, but it went off right on schedule.


Lower Falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. One word to describe this place.

Amazing.

It started snowing on us when we got there. By far my favorite waterfall, but nonetheless, all the waterfalls here are stunning. I would whole heartily recommend coming out and seeing the wonders of Yellowstone in person. And give yourself a few days so you can actually hike around some of the sites. I haven't really gotten to do that yet, we basically got the park off the bus and on again tour, but now that I know where the main sites are, I got plenty of opportunities to explore. Plus the backcountry.

And some extra benefits to being a wrangler. Taking a horse in the backcountry for a day or so. As long as they are two of us (Wranglers only) we are permitted to take company horses trail riding on our days off. And this isn't the typical Nose to Tail tours that most guests have to take. We actually have the freedom to trot and canter the horses a bit.

So far, the saddle horses haven't arrived yet. But the Draft Horses have. They have Shires, Percherons and a gob of Belgians. We have to learn their names and who goes with who so we can harness the right teams for when they are scheduled to do the wagon and stagecoach rides.

And I get to learn how to drive them. :)


Here is a couple of the Black Percherons.


One of the Belgians. These guys, despite their gargantuan size, appear to be rather cuddly.

We learn how to drive a team of horses on Friday, as well as harness them up and all of that. The saddle horses come then too.

The rides start on the 9th.

They commence for the rest of the summer.

What can i say? I'm in bliss.

Heading Off

Today I leave for a fun filled summer in Yellowstone. They do have limited internet access there, and I can only hope that my adventures will have me updating my blog in a more active and fascinating matter as opposed to late.

Last night I couldn't sleep, the excitement must have been tensing me up. Tomorrow I have to check in and then I've got the whole summer waiting for me.

In the meantime, I've got the fall and my plans in regards to school and what not in the horizon as well. Then another job hunt as well when I get back.

Signing off for now, hopefully I'll be coming back with a little more excitement to offer. . .

Sketchity. . .

I was wondering if I portrayed this picture properly, in the longrun, it came out pretty good.

Girl blowing a bubble.

I need to focus on drawing like this more often.

Status Post

Drill weekend has once again come and gone. . . the last drill at that drill hall until September at least.

My life seems to be coming together a little better lately, I've gotten a clearer idea of what I'm planning to do and where my life is going.

And I've got a week left until Yellowstone. Hallelujah.

In fact, this whole week will be a lot of working to get ready for my summer job, which in a lot of ways I feel will be a summer vacation :)

School this fall, army and my summer job. Right now, this appears to be the top focus of my life. It feels good.

American Idol

When a show like this starts in a season, I swear I won't get hooked on it. I have still yet to watch a single episode of Survivor or any other reality show.

Well, I got hooked on American Idol when my sister came over and insist we watch it. So I sat down and watched it and grr... I'm hooked on it.

I was personally rooting for Chris and even took the time to send in one phone call to vote for him. But alas, he got booted off last week. I think its the rocker that appealed to me, as the other singers don't have the edge of the music I normally listen too. That said, here is my opinion on the last Three American Idol Contestants.

Kat - She's the last female left, and I think something struck me about her in that I actually really liked her. I was hoping she would face off with Chris in the finale, except for the last couple of weeks she's been off her game. Still, of the three that is left she's pretty much the most marketable. I like her voice, she kind of reminds me of Norah Jones.

Elliot - He looks a little like Seth Green. Kind of dorky to, but I've discovered I'm a bit of a sucker for a dork. He does have a poweful voice, and of the final three, I hope he faces off with Kat. However, chances are one of these two are going to get voted off tomorrow.

Taylor - Is this guy some kind of spaz? I never understood his appeal, though I'm glad he's decided to do something a little different with his hairstyle (it looked like a haircut that a ten year old would have). The grey works, though it ages him by about fifteen years. I don't understand how they will be able to market him either. My guess is he'll make the final two and hopefully Kat or Elliot can beat him out of the running. Not saying anything bad about his singing, he's talented, but his style doesn't really appeal to me. I'm more likely to buy something by Kat or Elliot then Taylor.

But my record for buying an Album by an American Idol winner? Hmm, just one, Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson, and that was produced outside the net of American Idol. So whoever wins, i'll likely not really get into the whole spiel (though I probably would have bought something by Chris, mainly because that's the sound that appeals to me). So, well, may the best singer win.

Schooling Options

I've been debating on the whole schooling process, when I decided on something that really struck me as a job I would love to do.

Animation.

Actually, if you think about it, it's a growing career field and you see animation everywhere. It also crosses over into the gaming industry. I already love drawing, and I was thinking that this is a way to get more proficient in something I enjoy doing and making a legit career out of it. I might have to relocate to make a living, but its something that sounds like if it comes down to it, I could probably still do it from a distance. Eh, we'll see.

If I can manage to still do it from some place local, I think that would be perfect. The only place I really don't want to go that strikes me as the animation hub is California. Something about moving back to the Golden State sends chills. I think I'll see if there is a market in Seattle first.

Warm Fuzzies

A couple of days ago, we were getting onto the freeway when we noticed something laying in the middle of the onramp that looked suspciously like a wallet and checkbook. When we went back to see, sure enough it was.

We went about looking for the owner of the checkbook and wallet, finding an address and phone number and sure enough, we managed to find the owner. He had apparently stopped at Costco and sat them both down on his bumper as he filled the gastank. Being grateful, he gave us an award for returning it right away. Kind of scary really, having all of your information like that, especially these days with Identity theft and all.

I just felt good about doing the right thing and returning the wallet to its rightful owner, and I would hope that anybody would do just that without question. Unfortunately, we live in this day and age where people are out only for themselves, and if you can get ahead by taking advantage of somebody else, well, that's the way to do it these days, isn't it? It never crossed my mind to do anything with the wallet other then to return it to its owner, and I didn't expect to get paid for doing the right thing either.

But honestly, doing the right thing, and in the meantime, letting this guy know that there are still people out in the world who want to do the right thing, it just makes you feel good about yourself. I can only hope that there are still more people in the world who want to do the right thing out there then those who don't.

Celebrities Should Stay Out of Politics

I heard on a commercial break for 60 Minutes that the Dixie Chicks are trying for a comeback.

Interestingly enough how the dixie chicks have become old news and everything, I'm curious as to how much of a comeback they are going to be able to make. Looking back now, they might think that because the President is suffering record low popularity that maybe people will forgive them or what not and listen to their music again.

I'll admit that I like the Dixie Chick's music. Hey, if they make a successful comeback, all the more power to them.

One thing that people should understand that you will always have the freedom of speech in this country, however you have to realize that you are not free of consequences suffered because of your speech. Celebrities should take note to hold true to this if they want to keep their careers, unless they wish to sacrifice their popularity for a chance to be heard.

Strange, there are plenty of conservative celibrities, but I don't remember them bashing Clinton. And for that matter, I didn't hear a lot of Gore or Kerry bashing either, unless you count Saturday Night Live, to which no politician is exempt. Correct me if I'm wrong. In fact, the conservative celibrities I know about tend to keep their opinions to themselves or just merely show support for their candidate. I don't mind celebrities backing one man, whoever that may be.

There is something I have learned in my experience with the world. Politicians, by and large, are crooks with dirt. Mostly because they are human and they make mistakes, and there is always something to dig up on them. A truly honest person, the kind that most people invision as the perfect president, is a person that will never run for office.

I'm not a huge Bush fan, I haven't really agreed with his policies inacted while in office, especially of late, and I've also grown greatly disappointed with the Republican Party (one of the reasons why I say I'm conservative and not a Republican), but I still respect the office he holds and the fact that he is President. I still don't regret voting for the man, and maintain that indeed, I am not sorry.

Interestingly enough, when you show support of something or somebody, it tends to go over better then to be against something or somebody.

Hence, why when all of these celebrities appear to come out against something (namely, our President), their careers start to take a nose dive. Case in point, Alec Baldwin, Bruce Springsteen (anybody hear much about him lately?), Jane Fonda, anybody spoofed in Team America: World Police, and the Dixie Chicks. Seems with the lack of block busters as of late, it seems like Hollywood in general has taken a hit.

I know I haven't seen many movies in the theaters late. Somebody should take note.

Bloomsday Aftermath

Oh, The Pain!!!

I know better then to run a 12K roadrace cold turkey, but due to total lack of motivation lately, I haven't been working up to running Bloomsday like I probably should have. Which has caused me to be in a wee bit of pain the next day, which makes walking down stair cases torture.

But still, I found this running of Bloomsday (Spokane's own personal holiday) to be a kick in the pants. For lack of a better word.

I ran it with my brother, sister and their spouses (who are incidentally also related to each other, but I promise its legal). Bloomsday has a new way of doing things, everyone starts at the same start point and each individual has their own computerized chip chaffing their ankle to time when we go across the start line all the way to the finish.

I thought i did fairly well, considering I had ran this thing cold turkey. Its a 12K road race, and I did it in roughly 1 hour and 35 minutes. I could stand to get out and run a bit more, and I likely would have gotten a better time if I didn't take my iPod with me. I had to stop to adjust it every time it fell out of my ear or just to set it up.

Meanwhile, I ended up running most of it to Linkin Park, I needed something pretty high energy to keep me going and get my mind off of the fact that my body didn't like running that much, uphill and what not. All in all, I think I ran about 95% of it. Not bad in my opinion. Not bad at all.

The t-Shirts are this orange color, normally something I likely wouldn't wear, but I thought they were cool.

Now however, I'm suffering from the aftermath of running that much cold turkey. Stairs are torture to walk down and my thighs scream at me every time I want to do something simple, like get out of bed.

Still, all in all, I have made this a good motivation to take this opportunity to get my soar muscles into action and run regularly. . . starting tomorrow.

Art Status

I'm currently working on a painting. . .

. . . I'm not so sure about it yet.

Anyway, my mom comes in and sees it, and I ask her about it. Basically a 'what do you think?' kind of question.

She looks at it and says 'well, I can't wait to see you finish it, you always seem to make them work.'

Me. 'Well right now I can't stand it.'

Mom. 'Oh, you hate it too?'

Being a parent, I guess mom doesn't want to hurt my feelings, as, well, she's my mom and parents love everything their kids do artistically. . . most of the time.

I got some more colors and decided to work on some other paintings, so I walked into the art supply store. They had a sale on canvases.

I went nuts.

I'm going to be painting a lot through this month I suppose.

Pictures to come.

Small World

Apparently, not to long ago a friend of the family down in Australia found some of my minions selling things for my Risawn Down Under fund. Which makes you think about how small this world really is. . .

I've got this goal of going down to Australia/New Zealand sometime in the not to distant future, however my main barrier to going down under right now seems to be time and finances. I was hoping I could go down this summer, but seeing that it won't work, I moved onto plan b. Which turned into Yellowstone. Then I got to thinking about studying abroad.

Actually, the abroad thing has caught my eye before. I was thinking of doing it in a German speaking country, which would help me practice my pathetic German, but it also crossed my mind that a foreign country that spoke English would be pretty darn cool too. My only problem, I have no idea what I want to major in.

Back into the quest of trying to figure out what I want to do with myself.

Having an undecided major can be a bit of a drag.

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.

Names

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name)
Kaita Lindeke (I don't actually live there, I did for all of three weeks, but my current street is numbered and those don't work)

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mother's side, your favorite candy)
Esther Rolo

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your last name
K Er

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite animal, favorite color)
Horse Black . . . I don't think that one works

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Marie George

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name)
Erimc'bMad . . . that one makes no sense.

7. JEDI NAME (first three letters of your last name, first two of your first name, first two of your mother's maiden name, first three of the town you were born in)
Erika McGeo

8. PORN STAR NAME: (middle name, street you grew up on)
Marie Robin

Dating Services

A couple weeks ago, my mom, sisters and I had planned to take a road trip. However, due to weather, we changed our minds about that weekend.

Instead, they were having a woman's convention downtown. With nothing really better to do, so we all went there and looked around, and I was bored out of my mind.

Well, while we were there, I had to make due with my time, and so I signed up for this MatchFinders dating service thing, and low and behold, I got a call saying I won their runner up thing, which was actually a Consultation.

So I went into the Consultation and momentarily lost my mind and signed up. Fortunately, the service cuts through the freaks and sets you up with compatible people who are half way normal. I'm not sure how normal a person can be to be compatible with me however.

Anyway, they called with my first match today. He sounds like a nice guy. These dates might be a fun thing to blog about.

Viva La Raza???

An Ironic thing happened while we were in Pasco Washington. My dad and I were in the car at the emergency room and listening to Rush Limbaugh. The subject today was the current issue with Bush and his Immigration policy and the stink its currently causing in Washington. Now, I'll admit, I'm not exactly sure how I stand on this issue, especially concerning illegal immigration as I'm sort of confused on how Bush is standing on it. I'm not sure I entirely agree with him for one. If people want to come to America to work and make a better life for themselves, I'm all for that. As long as they aren't looking for a free hand out of course, and they go about the right way of gaining citizenship.

Anyway, low and behold, in the middle of the conversation on Rush, about 300 kids marched by, waving Mexican flags, honking their horns, holding signs in spanish and basically protesting HR-4437. I'm listening to this on the Radio, I'm watching it pass by, and I'm hearing all sorts of points of views on the topic and it occurred to me that I really didn't know anything about this.

Hearing about it, and seeing it occur right before my eyes, I decided to get my trusty camera out and document it. As I soon discovered that this was occuring all over the nation.

I noticed these were all high school kids. Before I took pictures, I made sure it was ok to take their picture. These kids didn't seem to mind, they were all over it, glad to pose and show off their mexican spirit.















So I did my research on this Immigration Reform Bill HR 4437.

From all appearances, it appears to be a Bill cracking down on Illegal Immigration. Now, this to me sounds like a good thing, as I've lived in California and have witnessed first hand how illegal immigrants come into our country and take advantage of the system without giving anything back in return. I do have a lot of respect for immigrants who come here who are hard workers looking for a way to support their families and live the American dream.

But what baffled me is that this propisition seems to crack down on illegal immigrants, so as to toughen our borders and protect our country. Immigration is a good thing, as long as its done properly.

That being said, I couldn't help but think 'what's with the mexican flags?' These kids are trying to encourage immigration, the point of immigration is to leave one country and enter another. If they are so bent on displaying Mexican pride, why don't they go back to Mexico? Why are they waving a Mexican Flag in their protest to being able to live and get the benefits of being in America? You are in America now. Embrace the fact that you want to be American and you are demonstrating your rights to gain citizenship in America, or whatever your demonstrating. If you are so proud of being Mexican, waving your Mexican flag, you need to make a decision on which country you want to call home.

It seems to be a bit of an oxymoron. Of course, their excuse seems to be that America took this land away from them to begin with, so we're occupying their land.

In regards to that, for some reason, a quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer seems to say it best, said by none other then Spike.

"You won, alright? You came, you killed them, you took their land. That's what conquering nations do. That's what Ceaser did, and he's not going around saying 'I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it.'
"The history of the world is not people making friends. You had better weapons, and you massacred them, end of story"
-Episode 4.8 Pangs

Granted, he was discussing Indians in that episode, and being a Vampire, his language is a bit blunt but it kind of says the same thing. Honestly, who has rights to any place based on what happened a century ago anymore? Laws change, boundaries change, and right now, a bunch of Illegal Immigrants want to claim that we are taking advantage of their homeland (though most Hispanics also have Spanish Origins, and you want to hear something about conquering nations taking over lands). I'm sorry, it doesn't cut with me. The USA is not the United States of Mexico. This is America now, Mexico lost, America gained a bunch of land. Deal with it.

I did see one Mexican, standing on a corner, waving an American flag and wearing a Navy Uniform. Right on, Dude. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him.

I wanted to get a better idea of other opinions, so I did a search on what the blogs are saying about the subject, preferably from a well rounded view point.

I appear to be behind on the issue, as its been in discussion for a few days now. Where've I been?

Latino Issues voiced similar concerns as my own on the subject, especially considering that this is a Hispanic American.
Michelle Malkin
Ankle Biting Pundits has this to say
I must say I agree with Gaypatriot on this whole matter
Riehl World View
Blogbat
Jimmy Akin
Kind of a commentary featuring various points of view from Nashville is Talking
Blogs for Bush Offers this Explanation. Followed up by what Bush has to say on the circumstances here. Further explored here.
Guess I'm a racist too
Lorie Byrd over on Polipundit makes a clarification on what about the 'Jobs that nobody wants' makes them so appealing to Immigrant workers. Its not that Americans don't want them, they just can't work them at the wages Immigrants work for.
An interesting Map dealing with Net Immigration

MySpace seems to have had a huge impact on what's going on, but this doesn't exactly tell me the whole issue. It just makes a kid who was involved look woefully ignorant of the facts. And he appears to be very uneducated by this rant of his.

It's a hot topic over in LiveJournal, I found a few various opinions on the whole matter from different viewpoints. A lot were kids, about the same age group that appears to be demonstrating.
In Texas, another viewpoint on the whole School Walk out.
One student has mixed opinions

So, cut in dry, what are my viewpoints on immigration and this whole issue? America is made up of Immigrants. I have no problem with Immigration, done Legally! You are on American Soil. If you are so proud of Mexico, go back to Mexico. I don't want anybody in America that wishes this country were still a part of another. Don't dwell on the past and think of what is supposed to be right.

Do people honestly believe that California would be a better place if it was still under Mexico anyway? Though honestly, its getting to a point where I would soon as say Mexico can have it back.

I think I'm kind of into the whole blogging thing again. . . though this rant seems a bit incoherant on my part.

Job Hazards

Got a call this morning around 4 am. One of those weird calls where you know there is something that isn't right. I kind of slept through it at first, but was woken by my parents who asked me if I wanted to drive down to Pasco with them.

My brother, who's a trucker, got into an accident and was admitted into the emergency room.

News like that wakes you up pretty fast.

So we got our stuff together, called some of the family to alert them on what happened, and headed down to the tricities to check up on my brother and give him morale support.

On the way down, we got to see the accident first hand. We are very fortunate that the bodily damage wasn't worse. To my brother that is. The truck was totaled.

He had suffered a concussion and had difficulty remembering exactly what had happened. That was kind of surreal talking to him, as I had a similar situation happen to me where my short term memory was gone. Seeing it from this point of view was actually rather interesting, and brought back a few memories of the time when I had no memory, if that makes any sense at all. He would repeat questions, couldn't remember where he was or how he got there, and fortunately he didn't remember the accident at all.

Fortunately, his boss was very understanding.

He gave me permission to post the picture of the accident on my blog. Fortunately, the wood chips won't be an entire waste. The tow company said they had a use for them, since they can't be considered for their intended purpose.



Spending the morning in Pasco brought on some other interesting situations, that brings up current events going on now. But that likely deserves its own post.

Week Hiatus Over

Everything's back up, including all the wonderful things I had hidden during my deployment.

I'm still working on the format, this will change.

Something I've come to note about myself is sometimes to take a breather, reassess things and I've felt this blog had come to a point where I just, well, needed to focus myself until I was in a position to say what I wanted to say.

It only took a week, I think that time by and large came. But I didn't get to format my site like I wanted to. I was to busy working on other business areas.

Anyway, it helped a lot to just sit back and relax. I think I'm ready to start blogging again.

Small Break

Hi,

I'm taking a break from blogging for a few weeks or so. The current status of the blog is to reinforce this idea of a break from blogging. This is mostly due to a personal belief that right now I'm not really blogging about anything, I just want to refresh my thoughts, get into a new state of mind, and just concentrate on where I am right now.

That, and I really want to take a break and reformat my site.

That is all. . . later

Four Things

Four Things

Four jobs I've had:

1. Newspaper Delivery Person
2. Cashier (at multiple locations including a fast food restaurant, Movie Theater, and multiple retail joints)
3. Paper Filer (work study gig)
4. Preventive Medicine Specialist for the US Army (that one's debateable)

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Office Space
2. Donnie Darko
3. Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail
4. Tie between Memento and Best in Show

Four places I've lived:

1. Vernal Utah
2. Winnemucca Nevada
3. Colusa California
4. San Antonio Texas

Four TV shows I love:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel
2. Smallville
3. Freaks and Geeks
4. For kicks and giggles, I'll say Star Trek, The Next Generation.

Ten highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:

1. Ally McBeal
2. Desperate Housewives
3. The Shield
4. The West Wing
5. Lost
6. 24
7. Gray's Anatomy
8. Sex and the City
9. Survivor
10. The Great Race

Four places I've vacationed:

1. Phillipi Greece
2. San Francisco California
3. Seaside Oregon
4. Venice Italy

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Shredded Beef Chimichanga
2. Mom's Roast Beef and Mashed Potatos
3. Thai Food (specific noodle dish I can't think of at the moment)
4.

Four sites I visit daily:

1. http://creature.comicgenesis.com (to check for feedback and whatnot)
2. http://risawn.livejournal.com/friends (see what my buddies are up to)
3. http://www.ebay.com (check my feedback score, and when I have stuff for auction, check its status)
4. http://www.risawn.com/blogger.html (you are here. . .)

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. In my own place
2. Down in Utah visiting friends and family
3. on a Mountain boarding (preferably with a friend, as I could have done more of that today)
4. In bed. . . hmm, this one I can solve right now.

Dude, I'm boring!

Sweet Bliss

Season Passes are great. I can drive up for a morning and take a few runs and not feel like I wasted a bunch of money if for some reason I decide to leave early.

Though I've discovered that I enjoy boarding by myself, I don't enjoy it nearly as much as when I'm riding with someone else.

Today was rather humorous however. I throw my gear on, get on the lift, and as I get off I note that my boot isn't on as tight as I would like. So I get to the top of the mountain and undo my bindings so I can tighten my boots.

My leash somehow slides off my leg.

The board starts taking off without me.

It was probably funny to watch me as I crawl after the board in a panic, jump after it and flop on my belly (missing it) and stumble to my feet chasing after it. Fortunately the mountain was slow this morning. And it cut across the mountain as opposed to straight down. It got caught up in some trees and I was able to rescue it.

Meanwhile, my mountain has redone its terrain park, making it a great terrain park for people wanting to learn how to jump and so on. I've always wanted to do more but have never gotten enough guts because either A) the mountain is super icy and once you take a bad fall on ice, you are done and it kind of kills your courage to do crazy things or B) you pick up to much speed coming onto a jump and you chicken out last minute.

Fortunately, they have this terrain park set up on a Beginner hill, so its flat, you can't pick up a lot of speed, so you get an opportunity to just feel what its like to get airborne. You would think, after doing this for six years, that I would be past this level, but for someone who averages snowboarding 5 times a year, mostly on ice, I haven't had a lot of opportunities.

Sweet bliss, conditions right now are GREAT! March madness, wooHOO!

I'm going to try to get up there a couple more times this week. See if I can drag another poor unwitting soul while i'm at it.

Work Issues Resume

Well, cleared the air with my boss, I gave her my two week notice, we had a conversation straightening out misunderstandings, I gave her some observations that I had witnessed over the last five weeks, and now we're on good terms. I felt for the most part that I needed to quit, I had moved on from that work environment truthfully. It's time for me to move on to other things.

I've also discovered that, yeah, I have gotten a lot better at communicating. I just need to take a breather sometimes, clear my mind and think about what I need to say.

Now I'm working on finding another job for this summer, which I have mentioned a couple times. This is something I've wanted to do soully for the experience mostly. I'm looking at employment opportunities through various employers such as Dude Ranches and/or National Parks. I want to get a job as a wrangler. Hard work, a lot of labor involved, I have no idea what kind of access to the internet I'll have and quite truthfully, that's all right. I think I can do something like this, grow from it, and have fun. Mostly I just want to work with horses out in nature. I need something like that. Let me rephrase this, I really need something like that. Something that's physically demanding, give me a task that gives me time to think.

For now, the rest of my life seems to be pretty ho-hum. I'm taking a CPR class tonight, which I need to leave for here in a few minutes. I think I'm starting to get a clearer view of what I want to do now.

Maybe I've got a track on what I want to do with life afterall?

CPR and Karate

Hmm, my blog is once again living up to its name, I'm ranting.

Once upon a time, this blog was full of rants all the time.

Right now I'm job hunting. Actually, I'm job hunting for this summer, which I think I may have mentioned in my last full blown rant. For tonight, I have to take a CPR class so I have a certificate telling everybody that I know how to do it. Because you know nothing unless you have something telling everybody you know it.

Anyway, for the job I want, I have to know CPR and First Aid with proof that I know it. So, yippy for me, this week I've got a CPR class and next week I go in for the first Aid class through the American Red Cross. I'm actually looking forward to it, it should be lots of fun.

Tomorrow I'm checking out a Kenpo Karate studio to see if this is the form of martial art to take. Somebody from work suggested it. So far I like it better then the other martial art class I was looking at.

So basically, with life I'm falling back into a routine. I had several road trips planned, but those might have to wait until the spring. For some reason, March = Snow this year.

Which I'm not complaining about! I think I'll hit the mountain tomorrow if the roads clear up!

Work Sucks

A lot can happen in 15 months. Things change, people change, and I certainly know that I've changed.

Well, a lot has changed at my place of employment. I've been working on getting accustomed to these changes, sometimes with a lot of frustration, though I've come to note that things have not necessarily changed for the better.

For one, the new Vice President, or somebody way up there in the chain, used to run a dollar store. So now they are trying to run our store like a dollar store because apparently its very efficient.

Well, there is a problem with that scenerio. A Dollar Store's selling point is its cheap. People shop there because everything's a dollar.

My store has competition. You can rent movies from Blockbuster, Hollywood or Safeway for crying out loud. You can also buy books and stuff from Borders and Barnes & Noble. Buy movies and CDs at Best Buy, Walmart, and Target, all within a driving distance from my employer. Our rates are relatively the same in comparison. People come to us because we have selection and service. However, if you give somebody crappy service, long lines and what not, they aren't going to keep shopping at your store.

And dollar stores are not known for their quality service. Our mantra is Best Service in Town. Yeah, right.

Lately we've been severely understaffed and what not. Policies have changed and I'm trying to figure them all out. Meanwhile, I'm not having a very fun time, because Hey! I remember the good old days. Now I'm jumping in the middle of things and I'm seeing changes all over the place.

Well, I tried to adapt and get along with everything, but a couple of times I slip up and do something wrong. A couple of the people above me keep reeming me out and chewing me out and what not and I'm fed up with it. So I mentioned this to my boss, who wasn't there in an email, just asking her not to have me working under them anymore.

I also got rid of my shifts for the rest of this week because honestly, I wasn't feeling very good and I needed a break.

Well, the boss calls me telling me that I can't switch out those shifts like that without her approval. I'm listening to this and trying to explain the circumstances, and then she brings up this other issue of me not wanting to work under these two people. She tells me I have to deal with it, and then decides to take that moment to tell me that I have no place complaining about people since she's had seven people complain about me and ask not to work with me because of my attitude and what not.

Wow, that's news to me. Ok, how am I supposed to fix this situation if I don't know about it? Ok, people have been irritated by me being a heinous bitch because I'm still trying to figure out the policy but aren't telling me that I'm being a heinous bitch. Sometimes you act a way you don't realize you act like that. If I knew I was bothering people, I would have made an effort to correct it. Apparently my boss decided to correct it by not working me with these people without telling me that there's a problem. But then she tells me to 'Deal with it.'

I told her that I'm putting in my two week notice and included a one finger salute. I probably would have worked with them today and tomorrow in regards to the shifts I switched out if she hadn't chosen that moment to throw the news in my face.

My year in Kosovo has probably not made me a better person in that regard. Anyway, I guess I've come up with an attitude problem because I really don't put up with a lot of crap these days and, heck, sometimes I likely come off as a heinous bitch without realizing I do that.

Although, without sounding too hypocritical, communication has never been a strong suit of mine when dealing with problems I have with people.

Now I'm looking for another job. I'll probably not go back to work here for a month or so, I'll do eBay or work on my comic and trying to make a few bucks doing that. I'm thinking of getting employment at a national park, like Yellowstone or something.

More news on that later. . .

Shoot it!

Oh man, how i could have used THIS a few months back. Oh well, its providing the needed relief now. Mwahahahaha!!!

Hat Tip - Rooster Cashews
(which I've been surfing for the last little while)

Obligatory Snowboard Pics

I just realized I haven't posted many pictures since, well, since I was ordered not to. Then I got that order revoked and didn't really follow up on posting a lot of pictures afterward.

Well, I've been boarding twice this season, and will be hitting the mountain at least a couple more times this season to make up for lost time and take advantage of excellent conditions. Unless another kid pushes me on purpose and I'm imprisoned for child abuse because I kicked the crap out of a minor.

If he didn't get lost in the crowd, I would gotten that little fart too.


That, right there, is one of my primary motivations for boarding.
Just, check out that view! It's incredible!


Different day, different mountain, same basic effect.
Its snowed a bit here recently, as is evident by the pile on that ski lodge. . .


. . . and those trees. . .


I've decided I need more action poses.
The problem is, getting people to take them.

I'll be riding at least a couple more times these season, as previously mentioned.

Yay for me! Now I have to find victims to ride with.

Server Status and Mountains

Operation Move Websites To New Servers is moving along without much of a hitch, except for the fact that because my laptop is in the shop, I'm having to use the old desk top to do this, and I've been working on it quite a bit for the last few days.

Unfortunately, everybody else wants to use the desk top too. From eBay to Spider Solitare or just checking email. I can say that I have claim to the computer, as it was originally mine, however I can't be greedy. Besides, I gave up claims to it when I deployed (it went to the folks like my former car, may god rest its soul)

Meanwhile, somewhat spontaniously, I bought a Pass and a Half from the local mountain. I don't know how many Kodak moments I'll get out of it, but I'm going to get the pass all organized tomorrow and maybe hit a few runs, try to be home in time for church. Fortunately, my church doesn't start until three in the afternoon. Truthfully, I don't like church starting that late, but in situations such as wanting to do something like snowboard in the morning, it works.

I've only boarded once this season so far (i thought I would go up a lot more then that, but finances and a desire to curb myself, as well as gas prices have kept me in check) so I'm going to hit the mountain as often as I can for the rest of this month. In April, another mountain has free skiing for the end of its season, I think I'll hit up on that, as my mountain will be closed by then *sob*.

Its such a great season so far, its a pity they're planning on closing so early. They got dumped with snow these last few days I know.

This is a Test

I just moved my entire website to another server. You may have noticed this if you visited it yesterday, it was down for all of a couple hours.

In the meantime, I'm also looking at ways to make money off of another one of my passions, my webcomic Creature. Two fold reasons, because its former host Comic Genesis sucks and I would like to find a way to make money at something I plan to do long term.

That is all.

*this post is a test to make sure my new server allows me to post to my blog*

Activity needs to be Upped a few Notches

This week so far has been a week of bleh, between me going through my mountains of stuff and working. And also going on some sort of diet.

Actually, rather then a diet, I just need to get active again. We were marching around on Sunday at a pace greater then a thirty inch step and my shins felt it the next day. I've never had prepatory shin splints from marching. So I've been taking it fairly easy these last couple of days so that my shins can recover, and then my plan was to run. or do DDR or jump around on the trampoline or something.

Actually, one of my plans was to hit a pawn shop and buy a bicycle. I want to start biking more, low strain on the knees and a way to get into shape. Also, I could handle running more. My main concern is my knees. They aren't in the shape they once were.

The other plan was to get into some kind of martial arts. They don't have a lot of offerings here in Spokane at the moment. I have one class I know of that I can get into that has two classes a week for an hour a piece, but I would rather get into a longer class thats more frequent.

Meanwhile, I've been busy sorting through things with the television playing in the background. I'm finally through Season 2 of Smallville. I've been doing it a bit differently then other shows, instead of buying the season, I've been renting it a disk at a time. But Smallville is a keeper, I promised myself to buy the series if it ever came into the store used. Sure enough, Seasons 1 and 4 came in yesterday. Along with Season 1 of Charmed. Several people mentioned Charmed as well, so I picked that up too.

I've cleared out a ton of my books and movies, btw. Which gave me a lot of in store credit at my employer to buy things like boxed sets of Smallville and Charmed.

Unfortunately, one generally isn't active when they watch the TV. That's why i should incorporate sit ups during my viewing entertainment.

Drill Weekend

This weekend was drill weekend for me.

It also confirmed some facts for me as well. One, I discovered that I don't like working in an Army Hospital at all. Well, I knew this to be true, but this weekend all but confirmed it. I just sat there in formation wondering what I was doing. See, technically, I don't have to drill for 90 days. I just came to drill today because I have to drill out my contract and I felt the need to find something to do on those weekends.

So this weekend's mission for me? Find a home. However, keep in mind that unless I stay a 91S, wherever I find a home at is expecting me to commit to their unit by doing the training necessary to qualify in the needed job skill.

Which = possible reenlistment.

So I'm looking for a home that fits my perameters and I can drill with for a while until I get the knack for what they want and I can reenlist or maybe just drill out the remaining contract.

I went to the hospital yesterday seeing how things were back there and noticed it hadn't changed much. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a lot of people in the hospital here. I just don't like being in a hospital. It doesn't fit me.

I knew of another unit however that had always seemed to catch my interest. So I checked them out. And I really liked what I saw. And if I reenlisted with them, I don't think it would be that bad.

I'm still within my 90 days however, so I might not be able to switch over to them by next month, but there is a good chance I'll be a part of them by May.

Now I have to put in some hours of my own time, commit a lot of stuff to memory, and relearn everything I learned in basic. Next month I get to help run a range. Good times!

Today I got dropped for anticipating a command. I hate it when I do that. But in the meantime, I also think that I'll have fun with this assignment.

The last Three Weeks have Signaled Career Change

In relation to the last post, I've come to discover that my current job is not right for me. There is a handful of reasons why I went back there.

I need just enough money income right now to maintain my current lifestyle, which includes a car payment, insurance, rent and that kind of stuff, and I just want to do something I enjoy, while getting a nice little employee incentive on the side (in this case, kick ass discounts!)

Well, since coming back, I've found myself working there more then I want to, and after a couple weeks of work, I got paid today.

For the last year, I've been getting a pretty comfortable paycheck. I took one look at this one, realizing I was dealing with idiots that were making me highly frustrated, and thought to myself 'what am I doing here?'

I guess one of the reasons for me to come back and work at this place is to help me realize that I need to move on and find something better. That will, you know, actually make me happy. In other words, I need to find something I actually enjoy doing as opposed to doing something that is moderately enjoying at times and other times makes me want to bash skulls. This paycheck isn't worth the stress.

I think I'm going to say no to anybody who asks me to work more hours, while I focus on doing several things, such as A) find a better job and B) go back to school.

I'm thinking of hitting the community college for Spring Quarter, pick up a few extra credits on the side while I fine tune some of my skills. My parents have told me I may have a knack for free lance journalism. Hey, I've maintained a blog with some readership for over a year. It might work.

I just have to sharpen my skills a bit.

6 Degrees of Adam Morrison

I graduated in '99 from Mead High School.
While I was at Mead, for three years I did stats for the men's varsity Basketball team. Being short, I think I was largely invisible to most of them.
A couple of years after I graduated, a kid named Adam Morrison came to Mead.
From what I hear, he helped take the team to state, which is more then can be said for the three years I was doing stats for them.
He got a scholarship to Gonzaga University.
He's currently on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a consideration for player of the year.

When a local kid makes the cover of Sports Illustrated, this is undoubtedly big news. We got a huge shipment of Sports illustrateds in to meet the demand. And how we did the wait list was retarded.

We kind of got a late shipment in, so we started taking down people's names and told them to call us back. Now, when you just take down people's names for a magazine that can be bought just about anywhere with a newstand, there is a good chance that these people may end up getting this magazine somewhere else.

Unfortunately for me, I looked at this issue with logic, and a thought about Customer Service, as opposed to the brilliant item at hand that would undoubtedly leave a couple people pissed.

We took down the names of about 12 people, when the first shipment of magazines came in. It was our regular shipment, and totaled about nine magazines. We were expecting more, we just didn't know when they would come in.

One gentlemen came in looking for the magazine and put his name down on the list, at number 13 or something. He said he would be back around noon, though of course, there was no guarantees that we would get more magazines by that time. He mentioned that he lived kind of far away and it would be inconveniant for him to come back after he was done with his class.

Well, luck be have it, we hadn't gotten our second shipment in yet, and out of the nine people on the list, one person had claimed the magazine.

Statistics would show that of the original nine people that put their name down, some will not come back to get it. Especially when we took down their names and expected them to contact us. I even told the GSM (Guest Service Manager) on duty that I would bet him money that those people would not come back.

The gentlemen came back to get the magazine, he was number 13 on a list when we were expecting more magazines in, and the GSM refused to give him one. That customer knew we had magazines and left very irritable. I would wager that he was at a point where he wouldn't come back to the store. So we lost a sale and potentially we also lost a customer.

So, here is where Kami Logic comes in. We have 9 magazines. We have a list of over thirteen people on a list. We are expecting more magazines, one gentlement not in the nines comes back before we get the shipment. So far, of the nine magazines, we've only had one person come back to claim it.

This is the gamble. Do I guarantee to piss this customer off in favor of 8 customers that may or may not show up, or do I make the effort to please the customer that is right here in the store at the risk of pissing off one of those eight customers that I sold the magazine to? Now, keep in mind, this is to assume that all eight of these customers will be back in the store before we get another shipment in.

Does my logic make sense? I would rather take a risk and please a customer that is right there with money in hand wanting to make the purchase rather then slap him to the side in favor of making sure 8 out of 8 customers have their magazine in case all 8 people make it before the next shipment arrives.

Guess what? My odds were correct. Within an hour of that customer leaving, I think 2 people came and picked up the magazine before the next shipment arrived. So we lost the customer, in favor of pleasing 6 other customers that never showed up before the shipment.

I wasn't suggesting we do that for every customer, I've just known in my experience in retail that you often have to deal with your customers on a case by case basis. Some customers need to be treated differently then others. And seeing that this man came in the store, put his name down, left, and then came back makes him a special case.

When I left, our shipment of over 50 magazines came in. Overall, about 15 people vouched to put their name on a waiting list. Five or six came back before the rest of the shipment came in. We denied at least one the sale.

I discovered, after getting really irritated with this whole process, that maybe I need to get out of the customer service business.

Becuase I discovered that I don't deal well when I'm working under somebody I disagree with. Especially since technically we are actually in the same position (I'm a GSM too, I just wasn't working in the capacity of the GSM at the time, and I've held the position longer then this other guy has).

When other people came in, he started ranting about the problem to them.

I'm beginning to suspect that I might not be working there much longer. I have several reasons to quit.

Clutter

Well, it took me long enough, but I finally got my computer into the shop. They say I'll get it back in 45 days, but maybe as soon as 2 to 3 weeks. I'm ok with that, got everything backed up and now I have to depend on Pyro, my old Desk top that is on its last leg. But I think it will be ok. I just have to go easy on the old thing. Like I need to go easy on those USB ports on my laptop.

Currently, I have a goal in mind. Just one goal I'm working on accomplishing, outside the going back to school. This is kind of a short term goal, but in accomplishing this goal, I have to make a few steps to get there. And its the journey to the goal that is important.

That goal? I'm going to get a Ferret.

You may look at this and say to yourself, 'huh?' Well, I want a ferret. But a ferret is a high maintenance pet. You have to be prepared to take care of them or they are apt to stink up your place. I don't want my ferret getting all stinky.

What's more, while currenly living with the parents once more, they have told me that I cannot own an animal while I'm here (and expect it to live here at least). Which gives me an incentive to get out of here. But even if I do get out of here, I've got this enormous clutter problem I need to deal with. See, being an artistic type, I tend to hang onto a lot of things. Like clutter. Anything really. I've got an enourmous amount of crap.

Ferrets don't do well with clutter. In fact, they tend to make it worse. Which gives me an incentive to get organized.

Whether or not I ever end up owning a ferret is the big question. I might not. But my goal is to try to get to a point where I can own one with no problems.

Now the question is can I get there?

We Bloggers Must Stick Together

A Blogger's Disclaimer. Now THIS is something I could have used in my year in Kosovo. Why didn't I think of this? Instead of putting a disclaimer up every other week. It would have been easier.

Meanwhile, found a girl who seems to have shared my pain, except she did it in the sand box. Or, perhaps more appropriately, she found me.

Female Soldier Bloggers unite!

Boy, this girl thinks like I do. Most of the time :)

At this point, i don't think I'll ever experience the Sand Box, especially if I take the career path I'm looking at (I'll tell you more about it when I find out more about it). I'll consider this a good thing, as nobody really wants to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan or whatever. But honestly, I was more then willing to go if they wanted to send me.

What's funny, how much I've come to discover about the government and how wasteful it is while working for it. This tends to make a person annoyed, especially when you know that the government is funded by your money. I could say that I pay my own salary in a way, but the crap one sees happen with the government and contractors and so on makes a person want to throttle their representatives. Grr. . .

I should get back to blogging about issues. Every so often I do that, but usually they just turn into rants.

Consumer Brilliance

Ok, I've got a biff about a current item on the market presently. Its called the PlayStation Portable. Perhaps you have heard of it?

Well, the PSP, for all intensive purposes, like, for playing video games, seems like a pretty cool little gadget. We sell them in my store and all and I've become quite familiar with them. Much like a Nintendo Game Boy, it has games that are created specifically for it. Ok, fairs fair, but what is with the miniature movies?

You can buy a movie for a PSP to watch on its tiny little screen. Movies for the PSP cost the same amount as if you were to buy a regular DVD. Heck, sometimes they can be more. But the kicker to it is the only place you can watch this movie is on that tiny little screen of a PSP.

I can see the benefits of watching a movie on the go, like on a long car ride or some other type of trip, where you can watch it in peace. But, well, you can only watch a movie in that format on a PSP. At least, as far as I know.

Question: what is up with all of these people that think that spending $20.00 on a 2 hour movie to watch on a tiny screen is a good idea?

Answer: I don't know, but I'm seeing sucker written all over the place. In the meanwhile, if I want to see a movie, I think I'll stick to DVDs. Thanks.