Monday, December 28, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy New Year! This year has been one to remember, for certain. I spent Christmas Eve last year in Iraq, being accepted into the Catholic church. Since then, I've seen another great friend get married while I was on leave, then came back home for good! I've furthered my education at CU, and scraped a 2.8 out of 4 GPA for this semester, my best grades at that school yet. I sadly said goodbye to Grandpa Doug, but have made many good friends in unexpected places.

Looking forward, the time is quickly approaching for me to decide my future with the Army Reserves. I go wildly back and forth, from "I can't possibly re-up," to "I must stay." There are compelling reasons on both sides of the argument. I have made one decision, though; if I do stay in the Army, I will eventually pursue becoming a Warrant Officer of the Signal Corps. This office is little known to many outside the military, but basically Warrant Officers of this type are technical experts. They don't normally have a place in the command-and-control structure, but act as technical advisers to commanders. That's the way I've always thought of myself; someone with technical skills, knowledge broad enough to see many solutions, deep enough to actually implement them, and (I hope) enough work ethic to get the job done. Going down that path would probably force me to change some of my perceptions and habits, but I truly think that it would be a good place for me.

As for the more short-term future, I'm headed back to class in a couple of weeks. I have 5 classes in the coming semester, one more than last. I'll have to see if I can keep up my streak of decent grades. The load is much the same; one math, one humanities, and 3 computer classes. However, the computer classes last semester were mostly theoretical. The classes next semester promise to be much more practical, which I think will be much more enjoyable. I also need to find another job. I'm gearing up to start the search again after New Year's Eve. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Humanities for Engineers Essay

I've just finished my final essay for Humanities for Engineers, check it out!


That's the last of my assignments, but I have one more exam tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

It's finals season once again, and that means I'm ramping up my homework production. I have four papers and a project to turn in, plus two exams, over the course of the next few days. But the end is in sight!

If you've been able to follow my new Twitter account, you heard the good news that I was offered an internship with the Acxiom Corporation, and also the bad news that the project I was to work on was shut down, from what I can tell. So, I have a little more confidence that I'm somebody worth hiring, but I'm still back to unemployed. I'm pretty disappointed, because they offered me a better wage than they even advertised on the posting. They advertised $12-15/hr, and offered me $17.50, so apparently they were very interested in me.

Other than that, we're gearing up for Christmas and the holidays. Ashley has been selling her birdseed heating bags at craft sales and has done quite well. Hopefully tonight, well take a little time and put up the Christmas tree. I have no idea if I'll have time to get the outdoor lights on the house, but we'll see how motivated I feel after finals.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Goodbye, Grandpa

It has been a very busy few weeks since I last wrote, but I'll mention a few of the big events.

First, I'm sad to report that my Grandpa Doug passed away yesterday. He fell ill a few weeks ago, and went to a hospital. A CAT scan showed a mass in his lungs that was likely cancerous, but he declined to have it biopsied. If it were cancer, the act of surgically getting a sample would likely have sped the cancer's growth. Instead, Grandpa decided to let nature take its course, and come what may. He passed away peacefully in the hospital, and is out of his pain now. He was a Vietnam veteran, and was never ashamed of who he was, never let people's opinions define his self-worth. He will be missed.

In other news, I've left my job with Transportation Services to try and find more fertile ground. TS has always been good to me, but many things contributed to my decision to leave. I was getting tired of working odd hours, early mornings, late evenings, starting and ending in different places, and the other realities of working in the transit industry. Also, it's time to start looking into internships and other programming opportunities. I need to build my skills and my résumé. I have some opportunities on the horizon, so we'll see what pans out.

One other exciting event was Veterans Day last week. I decided to have a late lunch and take up Applebees' offer of a free entrée. There were a lot of veterans there. While I was being seated, another gentleman was being seated near me, and the hostess suggested that we might eat together. It turns out he was drafted during the Vietnam era, went to Signal School at Ft. Gordon (as I did), and was lucky enough to be assigned to South Korea. While he was there, he was overheard by chance playing a piano, and was eventually picked up for a chorus that was performing throughout South Korea. That happy chance influenced him to change directions in grad school when he got home. He became a faculty member in the CU School of Music, and just recently retired. It was a great meal, and it was a lot of fun to converse with him. I hope I get the chance to do something like that again. Maybe this is why people join veteran's organizations...

Energy drink video from Iraq posted

More to follow, but here's a video from Iraq that I just uploaded:



Fun times.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Short Reprive

Last week was a small break from the rapid pace I was keeping up. I worked little more than my permanent hours, but had a couple of midterm exams and assignments. The midterm for my database class was interesting; it was the first item we've turned in to be graded or assessed in any way. Many people felt that they weren't comfortable at all, because they didn't know what to expect, or what sort of material might show up. I tend to agree that some homework would have been useful, but I thought the test was pretty straightforward. Then again, I haven't gotten a grade back, so maybe I just grossly misunderstood. I took the second midterm for my differential equations class tonight, and I know I didn't do spectacular, but I think I did okay.

In the humanities class, we're starting a pretty focused study of Epictetus' Enchiridion and Stoic philosophy. The Stoics believe that to be happiest and most in harmony with nature, a person should basically view events in the world without emotion, to protect oneself from sadness and worry by changing their perspective. One of the key features of Stoicism is that a person should only place their attention on things in their control, and not worry about things that are not in their control, like other people's decisions, or death. What I find really interesting is that this is the exact philosophy that I was taught by the Army in preparation for going overseas, and again while overseas. It's an extremely helpful philosophy in times of hardship, because a Stoic's view of events doesn't allow them to worry about things that they can't change. It may not be the best philosophy to take all the time, because it also protects a person from being overly joyous, and doesn't encourage setting or achieving goals. Is life really worth living if you can't experience some highs and lows in emotion?

Among all of these questions of higher learning, I did have some small bits of free time in the past week. During those, I learned a couple of subjects for programming that I've wanted to figure out for a while: unit testing and version control. These are concepts that can be applied to almost any programming language and any project, and they'll be extremely useful in years to come. I've already used these ideas to make one of my class projects more accessible and portable, and it really helped in getting that project finished quickly. Hopefully, my self-investment will pay off!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Full Swing

Obviously, I've fallen behind my goal of weekly posts. All I can say is that I've been busy. School work is steaming ahead at full speed, and work has just been crazy.

In the past weeks, I've taken and passed my differential equations midterm, and had numerous homework assignments in all of my classes. I just finished a project for differential equations, and wrote it within Google Docs. I've been using Docs for a while to take notes and write small spreadsheets, but recent feature additions allowed me to write a report worthy of printing and turning in. You can check it out here. Since this was for a math class, being able to insert an equation with LaTeX syntax and having it print nicely was invaluable. And I really love that I can access these documents from any computer, and don't have to carry it around on a USB drive or manually synchronize with an internet file system every time I make a change. I still hesitate to put everything in the clouds, but it worked well for this assignment.

Driving the bus for the past couple of weeks has just been a bear. They were already just getting by with getting enough people to fill all of the runs (without violating DOT regs or putting people in overtime, etc). Then, the wife of one of the staff drivers had a baby, and he's taking paternity leave. (Congratulations, by the way!) I fully support him in taking leave, because it's an important time for him to be at home. But it also leaves the managers scrambling to get enough hours out of the rest of the drivers to cover runs.

Long story short, I've been working a lot more than I like. Last week I worked every day with starting runs at 7am, got off just in time to get to class, studied for an hour or two, then hopped back on the bus and took it back to base at 9pm. Those kind of hours make for very long days. With commute time, I was home often enough to sleep. I was getting pretty burnt out, and Ashley was concerned. This week has been a bit better, mostly because I'm getting better at saying "no" to the dispatcher.

This past weekend was also my first drill since the deployment, back with my original unit. It was great to see many faces I recognized, both from other people who went to Iraq with me, and also people who stayed at the unit that I hadn't seen in over a year. This drill reminded me that I need to get my PT back in order. I've been working on it a bit, but not nearly enough.

How am I supposed to fit all of this in? I'd have plenty of time if I left the buses, but then there's the problem of having enough money to eat...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

New Toys

Life has been going well, but I find myself very busy once again. Classes are starting to settle in to their norm. Homework is a continuous thing, but I'm trying to be consistent about doing it whenever I have a few moments, and staying ahead of my deadlines. In my differential equations class, I've been doing my best to read over the book before lectures and mostly teaching myself, which has been a huge improvement over what I've done in past semesters, trying to learn for the first time during lecture. My humanities class is going quite well, and I'm enjoying the material. Our first block of discussion was over the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, his first autobiography, and more generally about freedom of body and mind, and slavery's effect on society. Now we're moving on to discussions of the Greek philosophers. Currently we're focused on Socrates, and what a jerk he was. In addition to being remembered for his deep, critical thinking on philosophy, he is also known as a great debater, and regularly convinced people that they didn't know anything. From reading Plato's Euthyphro, it's plain to see that Socrates could lead a conversation by a leash, guiding it where he pleased. It's a fun class, and it's getting me to think about topics I wouldn't normally spend much time thinking about. My computer classes are both pretty good, but both of those professors are a little scatter-brained, it seems.

I'm still driving buses, for the moment. I didn't land the job at CU's ITS department, so it's my only job right now. I had many people suggest that trying to keep both jobs would be trying to do too much, and I appreciate that everyone is concerned for me. I had decided to quit the bus job when ITS hired me, but that didn't happen. So, now I can either keep looking for something else in the IT sector, or stick with the buses for a while longer. I think I'll stop the job hunt, at least for a couple of weeks; I'm settling in to my routine, and I don't want to risk going back to my old procrastination habits by upsetting that routine.

Lastly, I've been taking a little time to enjoy a couple of new toys. I had enough money left in savings from Iraq to build a new computer, and to buy a new bicycle. My old desktop computer had stopped working a couple of months before I left for Iraq, and was quite out of date (ie. 5 years), so I ordered all new parts except for the case. When the shipping box arrived last Friday, I "geeked out" and shut myself in my office and assembled the computer and started getting it working. Now it's running like a champ. It plays World of Warcraft at full settings without a hitch, and games like Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4 look awesome. I haven't tried any of the more recent system hogs like Crysis or Mass Effect, but I'm eager to do so.

My new bike came out of the fact that I do quite a bit of biking around Boulder. It's very practical to ride around in Boulder rather than taking a car everywhere. Also, most of my bus runs this semester are split; they start on campus, and end a mile away at the Transportation office. For a while I was using my mountain bike. It's still in good shape, but I noticed it's difficult to ride on the street for very long. It's just not made for that role. It's got a relatively heavy frame, and it's not geared for going around-town speeds. So, I walked into Bicycle Village, and was recommended the Trek 7.2 FX. It's an around-town kind of bike. It's tires are much smaller than a mountain bike's, but still large enough to take a hard-packed dirt road or paved bike path. It has straight handlebars, which is more familiar to me than the aggressive curved bars. The frame is very light. It's perfect for what I need it to do.

Now if only I could get home more often...

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The First Week

Well, so far so good. The first week back at school has gone smoothly. My four classes are all reasonable, and one of them actually looks to be fun.

Humanities for Engineers introduces engineering majors to something they might not get to otherwise experience; culture. We will examine many classics of literature and film, and are also required to attend "cultural events" such as live theater, jazz concerts, or (if justified and well-journalised) visiting a hookah bar. Also on the syllabus is a requirement to visit the Art Museum of Denver armed with oil pastels and sketch pad to duplicate a piece of contemporary visual art. The central theme of the course, acccording to the professor, is to explore what it means to be human and the human experience. It's something that can many times escape the mind of the engineer, who is posessed of creating new machines or chemicals or highways.

Beyond classes, I've been doing lots of bus driving, and looking for work elsewhere. I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to see my home this semeter except to sleep. Transportation has given me 20 hours a week of permanent runs, which means I'll be working at least that much. When special events like football games happen, that could easily add to my workload. I think I could manage that on its own, but I'm also interested in getting a job somewhere working with computers. The university's Information Technology Serivces department is considering me for a student system administrator position working on their UNIX/Linux computers. I would have the luxury of setting my own schedule, but to effectively learn my job I'm told I need to spend at least 20 hours a week in the labs, learning from more experienced people. And of course, I'm sure the Army will want me to start drilling again soon.

Between all of this, I hope not to get burnt out, or fall behind on schoolwork, or neglect my marriage. It's a heavy load, but with proper focus I think I might be able to manage for a semester. After that, I plan on leaving Transportation. They've been extremely good to me, and hired me back to my driving post with no questions asked when I got back from Iraq. I want to repay that kindness by giving them more than a couple of months of work and not leaving in the middle of the semester, but the stress of my current schedule might not allow for that kindness. If things get too dicey, I'll have to leave them early. I don't mind driving buses, but it sure doesn't bolster my résumé in the IT field.

In other news, Ashley's grandmother recently had to be taken to the hospital. From what I understand, she was going to bed and started shaking uncontrollably and felt very weak. She was taken my ambulance to the hospital. The doctor suspected that she had an infection, but couldn't determine what it was. She spent about 3 days there, and is now home with antibiotics. It was quite a scare for the family. We're still waiting on the final word, but she's stable at least.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Back to School Again!

After a long hiatus, I'm finally headed back to the classrooms of CU. Tomorrow is the first day of school. Almost everything is ready; my books are purchased, I didn't need any new supplies, and I have my parking and bus passes. I still need to file a little bit of paperwork for my brand-new Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. Luckily, in the Financial Aid department, my new status as married and a veteran means that only my own financial situation is considered, not my parents'. And since I'm a poor college student, I'm receiving a lot more tuition grants.

I'm pretty excited about being a student again. Riding on my recent wave of inspiration, I realize that being pushed back a year means I'll be in a different group of student colleagues. That gives me an opportunity to change people's perception of me. I can be the guy organizing study sessions and going to review sessions and office hours. I can be the guy that hangs out in the computer lab and helps underclassmen with their projects.

And it's as much of a change in the way I perceive myself as it is the way others perceive me. For years I've been following the same mediocre study habits; do the homework half-heartedly and only complete what's assigned, whether I really feel like I understand it or not. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. I kept this pattern because it was what I knew, and it was easy. This year-long break has given me an opportunity to change that attitude.

‘They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.’
-Andy Warhol

Monday, August 17, 2009

Painting, Camping Trip

Last week, Ashley and I finally got going on a project that we've been talking about even before I left last year. After Mike moved out last weekend, his bedroom was left empty, so it was perfect timing to empty our bedroom too and throw some paint on the walls. Ashley's mother loves to paint her rental property's interiors completely in ultra-pure gloss white, and it has been bugging Ashley for a long time. She says it's depressing to be around so much white. We've fixed that situation, painting our bedroom in green tones, and our new guest room in shades of red. It came out really well! We finished most of the painting in one day, which amazed me. The next day, Ashley shampooed the carpets in both rooms, so they're both nice and fresh.

After all of that hard work, it was a little hard to get motivated for the camping trip, but we managed to get packed and drive up on Friday afternoon. We camped at the Cold Springs Campground in Roosevelt National Park, just outside of Black Hawk. The site was beautiful and well developed. We were on two of the only pads without electrical, which I preferred. If you're going camping to commune with nature, why would you want electrical hookups? We set up a tent for Ashley and myself, and one for Chris and Holly, who were coming up much later, after dark. Kelly and Will arrived not long after Ashley and I, and set up their own tent. We spent Friday evening getting a fire going, cooking shish kabobs over the fire grate (with only some success), and talking. It was perfect.

In the morning, I got up early to get the fire started and cook breakfast on the propane stove. After breakfast, I suggested we all go geocaching, which the other two couples hadn't done before. We had an excellent little hike in the forest behind the campground, and were able to find The Tommyknocker's Cache. The other couples had a lot of fun and were gung-ho to find another cache, but on the hike back to the campground we had a little rain and decided to wait for later. After a lunch of Ashley's white chili, we split for a bit. Kelly and Will wanted to hop down to Black Hawk for a couple of hours to gamble a bit. The rest of us drove to an Idaho Springs laundromat to try and dry Ashley's sleeping bag out. She had been very cold during the night, and was convinced that her sleeping bag was damp. We ended up finding a motel office with the only laundromat/tanning salon I've ever seen. After that, we also drove to the Walmart in Evergreen and bought her a better sleeping bag, just in case hers was just not capable of keeping her warm. In the evening, Ashley cooked up tacos, and again we enjoyed the campfire and the company.

On Sunday morning, Holly made a breakfast of oatmeal and flavored granola, which was really good. After the day started to warm up, we struck camp. The group was eager to look for another geocache, so on the way home, we stopped and found the Dory Hill Cemetery cache. It was a beautiful cemetery, very natural, with overgrown grass and aspen trees. There were many new-looking headstones, but many of them were dated quite old, as far back as the 1860's. After that, we parted ways and headed home. We've all agreed to do similar trips with each other at least yearly. We had a ton of fun, and I'm really glad Kelly suggested it!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Inspiration

Several things have happened lately that have started me thinking. First, I found a book while browsing Barnes and Noble with Ashley during the retreat in Columbus; The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development by Chad Fowler. It's been a great read; it talks about things you can do as a software creator to not only rise above the average programmer, and not only shine among your peers, but to have a fire for your work and actually enjoy your accomplishments. Chad draws on his experience as a professional musician in addition to his work as a software engineer, and compares the skills that make artists in both fields really great. While I've never been a good enough musician to be a professional, I can see that many of his points are valid.

Also, I recently sat down with some friends to watch the movie Once. In that movie, a pair of penniless musicians meet by chance and discover a wonderful connection through their music. While they don't forge a romantic relationship in the movie, their artistic skills combine to create something beautiful and moving. I had been interested in rekindling my musical pursuits, and this movie really pushed me toward that desire. I would like to start working on my music again, slowly but surely. Maybe I'll finally start learning the acoustic guitar.

If that weren't enough, our good friend Kelly suggested on a lark that we plan a camping trip. It's been years since I've been camping with my Dad and my siblings, and immediately I was hooked to the idea. We've been putting a checklist together and buying basic gear, like a tent and sleeping bags. When we mentioned the trip to Chris and Holly, they surprised me by being really interested to go, too. We were lucky to find the one campground in Colorado with two open campsites on the weekend, and they are even next to each other! It's been such a long time, and I'm really looking forward to the trip. I'm looking forward to being away from the suburbs for a couple of days, up in the mountains, and to smelling the crisp air and camp fire smoke. I always remember that feeling so invigorating!

All in all, I feel very motivated to jump back into life with both feet. For the past year with the Army, I did a great job at a position with very low expectations. I showed up to work on time, left on time, and did my best to stay sane and engaged in between those times. Now that I'm back, I want to excel and be a leader, and have a clear purpose. I feel ready to make every moment of every day count. I know that feeling may be tempered with the realities of day-to-day living, but I want to at least keep the idea that I have a clear goal, and to keep the work ethic to reach it.

I don't want to be a programmer that always goes where they can find easy, mindless work, toiling away in the cubicle farms. If my God-given talent is as a programmer, then I want to be a great programmer. I want to break boundaries and work on exciting projects and solve the problems that others can't solve. Move over, Microsoft, here I come!

Blog Change of Scenery

I've been using LiveJournal for a good long time, since I began blogging in 2004. Now, my friends, it's time to move on.

I've set up a new account at Blogger, which is Google's brand of blog, and I like what I've seen so far. I was able to import all of my LiveJournal posts to the new blog (with some technical fussing), and I'm really impressed with the advanced features that Blogger has for free. I have a paid account with LiveJournal, and it's still harder to customize to my liking.

This will be my last post on my LiveJournal; from now on, you can follow me at my Blogger site. If you've been reading through Facebook, not to worry. My posts from Blogger will be imported into Facebook notes just the same.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Strong Bonds Success

The Strong Bonds marriage enrichment retreat that the Army arranged for Ashley and I was a big success. We spent three full days away from home, and about two days in Columbus, Ohio. We were flown on Southwest Airlines, and I must say, I was really not a fan of their open seating policy. We stopped in Chicago for a layover, and Ashley and I both noticed the difference in the general atmosphere between that city and Denver. People in Chicago are just downright rude! I guess I shouldn't expect anything less; it has a reputation as a hard town.

The hotel in Columbus was very nice, considering that this was an Army event. The Columbus Airport Marriott treated the conference guests very well. The hotel's catered food and restaurant were good, the conference room was stocked with water and writing materials, and the rooms were clean and relaxing. As for the retreat, it was presented as a seminar, with short classes interspersed with small group and couples discussions. We learned some of the reasons couples can have problems, and learned some communication techniques to deal with impassible arguments that just escalate and never get resolved. Ashley and I haven't experienced a lot of those arguments, but we're still young in our marriage. I'm thankful that we can generally work together, but these techniques will come in useful for some of the harder things, I think. We also thought about some of the things that bug us in our marriage, and then linked that to our expectations of marriage, and thought about whether those expectations are valid or not. We talked about hidden issues, and personality quirks, and how they affect our marriages. Beyond all of the classes, it was just nice to get away from life for a couple of days, and focus on each other.

While we were in Columbus, the hotel offered to shuttle us to a local mall called the Easton Town Center. Everyone seemed to think it was the thing to do. I'll admit, it was nice. There were lots of shops, and a combination of indoor and outdoor shopping. But I don't think there were any shops we don't have at one of the malls here in Denver. I wish we could've seen more of the town, but we really only had one evening free. One thing Ashley and I did enjoy was The Cheesecake Factory. Even though we have them around home, we've never eaten there. If the local restaurants can do as well as the one at Easton, I think we may have found one of our new favorite places to eat.

Since coming back home, I finally bought a new car for myself. I went with a 1998 VW Jetta GLX. It's a V6, 5-speed manual, and it's very fun to drive. The car's in decent condition, but has a few quirks and small maintenance issues. One of the rear windows doesn't open, and neither does the sun roof, so they probably need motors replaced. The cruise control isn't operational. Still, the engine is good and has no leaks, so I'm happy. I just pray that this doesn't become one of those constant-maintenance cars that nickels and dimes you to death.

Besides that, I've been doing a few bus runs, and helped with a party for Ashley's uncle this past weekend. The party was a lot of fun, but Ashley and her mother had to do a lot of house cleaning and reorganization beforehand. She's still exhausted. On Monday, we helped Mike move out of the house and into an apartment in Boulder. He's finally been accepted into CU (congrats!), and will be starting there at the end of the month. He's located very close to campus, and the apartment's not bad. It is expensive, though. Best of luck, Mike.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Ch.. Ch.. Changes!

I've been enjoying my time back home. I've re-established myself with Transportation Services, so I've been doing a few bus runs here and there. It didn't take long to get back into that rhythm. But they don't have a lot of work at the moment, so I've been spending much of my time at home.

I've been a little bit stranded, being without my own vehicle. Ashley's van is usually available, and her old sedan is still kicking around, but I still don't have a car of my own. To that end, I've been doing some shopping, and I'm getting close to a purchase. I've been looking at late '90s, early '00s sedans, specifically Volkswagen Jettas. I had a friend in high school who drove a very nice one, and I've been impressed ever since. I don't know what exactly is attractive about them; they just seem very practical, with a dash of personality and sport. I've tried shopping at a dealership, and was very turned off by the whole experience. Now I'm looking for private owners through craigslist, and I'm just hoping and praying that I don't get ripped off.

In other news, Ashley and I are flying to Columbus, Ohio in the morning. We're going to attend the Army's Strong Bonds seminar on marriage enrichment. It's not that I think we're having problems. Rather, I know that the past year apart has been difficult for both of us, and our relationship has inevitably changed. I think that if we have the communication skills that hopefully we'll learn at this conference, we'll be prepared to face whatever hardships will come when life kicks back in. We're still in sort of a honeymoon phase after the deployment, but when I go back to school and she starts working again, things may be different. If nothing else, we're going to the conference because the Army is paying me to go and be there. Everything is provided for, so we really didn't have a good excuse to turn it down!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Home At Last

Sorry for the long wait, but I've been a busy individual. Traveling home was a trying experience. After moving out from transient housing, we spent over 24 hours in the PAX terminal because of pushed back flights. We slept on the floors while the terminal got more and more crowded with grumpy but patient military travelers. Our unit didn't even have the benefit of our checked baggage, which had already been palletized. After that test of patience, we flew down to Kuwait. Despite some temper flares, we moved quickly through the processing and stayed only one day, which is an accomplishment. The housing for that night were two enormous tents, one for males and one for females. We had about 60 people in our tent, and the females were really able to spread out. Customs was fairly quick and uneventful, and we made our way to Kuwait International Airport and out on our chartered flight.

The international flight was terribly long. If I remember right, when I took leave, the large DC-10 aircraft took one layover and about 18 hours of flight to make it back to Dallas. But in order to fly directly into our final destination with no aircraft switches, we took a smaller jet that had to stop in Eastern Europe, extremely Western Europe, New Hampshire, and finally at Peterson AFB. It took about 20 hours in the air. It was agonizingly long, but it didn't matter. We were headed home. And the stop in New Hampshire was actually very heart-warming; a group called the PEASE Greeters was there to meet us. They were citizens, former military and combat veterans, families, even pets, perhaps 300 people at the tiny airport, ready to welcome us home. During our 2 hour layover, they made small talk with us, fed us ice cream and chocolate, gave us presents for our families, and had a small ceremony to welcome us back. It was wonderful, and absolutely touching. Something I'll never forget.

Once back in Colorado, we turned in our weapons, found bunks, and headed off to the Welcome Home Warrior Citizen ceremony to be reunited with our families. Ashley and my dad were able to make it for the short ceremony, and we had a special exception to stay the first night off base. I was able to spend time with my wife and dad, eat a meal at a real restaurant, and not be in uniform for a few hours. After that night, we spent 4 days at Ft. Carson outprocessing. It re-introduced me to the military's fascination with "the line ride." Queue after queue, ending at stations with overworked and underpaid clerks that type in your social security number, make a few clicks, and put a stamp on your "outprocessing road map." But once again, we were one stamp closer to home. The final day came, and those that were done were released. Ashley picked me and SPC Gadget up, we dropped Gadget off, and I was home.

The couple of weeks since that have been spent mostly doing housework and readjusting to civilian life. There is a lot of housework to do; Ashley wasn't quite on top of all of the chores while I was gone. But I don't really blame her; if anything, she had a harder time than I did for the past year. I had a perceptible change in my routine, the goals set for me were clear cut, and I had a constant support group whether I wanted it or not. Ashley just suddenly had me missing. Her life continued, but I just disappeared. She's been overjoyed by my return, as have I. We may have issues to work with, but we're both taking a positive outlook for the moment. As long as we're back together, we can tackle anything. Watch out world. Chris is back!

Monday, June 15, 2009

The Long Wait

So, as I write, I'm sitting in transient housing, just waiting. We have basically given control to our replacements, and thank goodness for that. My replacements are good guys, and really squared away. It's almost too bad I can't spend a little more time with those guys, but I'm ready to go home. I'm ready to go back to my own friends.

So we've got a couple of days now where we need to check in with them once a day to answer questions, but for the most part, we're free to wander around base as we please. The biggest downside is that transient housing is not close to anything, and all of our vehicles have been turned in. If you're going anywhere, you're either taking the packed, hot, smelly buses, or walking in the 120°F weather. And every location has different rules. To enter the DFAC (dining facility), Army personnel must have a weapon and no one can bring in any bags of any kind. At the PX, they don't care about weapons, but no bags. If you're going to the gym, you can take a bag and go through a quick search, but people prefer not to take weapons to their workouts. At the pool, bags are fine, but weapons are not allowed because they can't be stored or guarded. Oh, and if we don't want to take our weapon somewhere, that means someone else is obligated to keep track of it. All of this combines to be very inconvenient.

On the bright side, we only have to survive for a few more days of this, and then we're off to Kuwait! See everyone soon!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Wrapping Up

Well, here we are, at the last few weeks of the tour. Our replacements are expected in at any time, and we couldn't be happier. With light at then end of the tunnel, tempers are flaring up a bit. People are not holding their opinions in check as much. I don't suppose I should have expected anything else, but it's a little sad to see. All I can say is, the sooner we wrap this show up, the better.

We have a couple of days left in our CHU's before we head to transient housing. Transient housing means we're back to living out of bags in 20-man tents. Oh yeah, and we can't take our satellite internet system with us, so I'll have to give that up. I'm not looking forward to the living arrangements, but if we're leaving, I can survive that way for a few weeks. That's one thing I've learned in the Army; a person can survive any bad situation for a fixed amount of time. Running? Not fun, but we only have to do it for 16 minutes at a time (during a PT test, that is). Basic combat training? Hard, but it only lasts 9 weeks. Deployments? In the current state of warfare, they last for a fixed time, then you go home for a while. Every hard situation relaxes at some point. And it's a philosophy that I can certainly apply in the civilian world.

I've begun the search for a new civilian job. I will probably have an opportunity to go back to driving the Buff Bus, but I'd like to try and find something else. I'm going to try and find an IT or programming job, either on campus or around Boulder. I have a few connections, here and there. I won't be unemployed, but I can't say for sure that the new job will be a good situation. Most of the job listings for campus that I've looked at so far are advertising about 10 hours a week, which is not going to meet my needs. We'll see what happens.

The next couple of weeks are looking very busy! See you all soon!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Home Stretch

We've been doing well, continuing to wrap up and get ready for our replacements. I'm told they're in Kuwait already. Hopefully we'll finish up the last of the trench today, and that will be the last of our big projects.

The remedial PT group has been working out diligently, but it's definitely not a hard workout. Maybe a couple days a week are really difficult, then after that we play volleyball and go to the pool. We have been running in the 5k races that are held on base. It seems there's a 5k every couple of weeks. I hadn't run in any until I was forced to do it, but they're actually kind of fun. I'm not out for any particular time, so I just run at a nice, easy pace, sweating with the people around me. I've been coming in at just over 31 minutes, so that's not bad, considering I don't enjoy running.

Speaking of sweating, the temperature is definitely rising out here. According to Weather Underground, the average high last week was 105° F. I can definitely feel the difference. All I can say is, thank god for air conditioning. I can't imagine what the first waves of troops out here did to survive.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Back to Business

I've been getting back to the grind again here in Iraq. Things around the office are pretty quiet; for most offices, it seems that if any major projects are left, they're either being finished now or being handed over to our replacements. In the coming months, we'll have to focus on packing our equipment and passing the torch. As one of the last big projects for our office, I was out with the guys finishing a trench for a new run of fiber optic cable. I was pretty well sunburned after only a couple of hours. I guess it's time to try and get a tan, if I want to get one. We do have an outdoor pool on base, but I haven't visited it yet.

Just before going on leave, I failed a PT test, so I've been working out every morning this week. It hasn't been horribly heavy, but I'm still sore, mostly because I'm out of practice. I thought about doing push-ups while I was home, and then I'd usually get a little comfier on the couch.

I've been putting more thought into my brilliant return to life, and to that end I've been doing a little job searching. Hopefully I can find an IT help desk job on campus; I have some good contacts that could help. Otherwise, it's back to bus driving. It was actually a really fun job, with great people. I'd go back in a heartbeat. Besides a job, I've also been looking into buying a new car. I have another sedan in mind to replace my 1989 Honda Civic. This time I might set my sights a bit higher with VW Jetta or Honda Accord. Of course, since Ashely's minivan has basically been pronounced deadlined, I may have to adjust my plans.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Back to the Desert

As I write, I'm sitting in Kuwait again, on my way back to Iraq. I had an excellent two weeks of leave; it was nothing short of amazing. It's not like I did anything way beyond normal. What made this visit amazing was the simple pleasures of seeing the people I love, and doing what I wanted to do, and going where I wanted to go. I had very little planned more than a day ahead of time, and that's exactly how I wanted it.

On our first anniversary, Ashley and I went to Mass together, and then joined her aunt Carol and uncle Greg for the tail end of a seminar on the Shroud of Turin. Very interesting. After that, the four of us went to lunch and had a great time catching up. Ashley and I had planned on going to dinner and a movie possibly, but that plan was pushed to the wayside. I started tinkering with my computer, and Ashley curled up on the bed, and after a while I decided to join her for a short nap. When we woke up, it was 6am the next morning! So much for living up our anniversary. But to make up for it, we stretched out the rest of our anniversary plans over the next week.

The next big event was the next weekend, for Kelly's wedding. We picked up Jackie at the airport at 2:30am, after a 3 hour delay, and then then had to wait for a stuck bag on the carousel. The next day (or rather that afternoon), we packed up our overnight bags, dresses, suits, curling irons, snacks, frozen meals, and ourselves into two large vehicles to get up to Allenspark. After the rehearsal, it took the bride's side about an hour of wandering around Estes Park to find the restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. But overall, it was a good time. I stayed the night with the bridesmaids in a cabin in Estes Park. On the way down the mountain for a food run, I nearly crashed into an elk, but very luckily avoided an accident. How would that look? I survive eight months in Iraq just to be killed by an elk on leave!

The next morning was a rather frantic rush to get everything out of the cabin and to the event lodge. Since I wasn't part of the bridal party, I mostly stayed around the bridesmaids during their prep. I guess you could've called me a "bride's man." I ran to get things out of the car, carried boxes, got the decorations to the event staff, and all manner of small tasks. I also tried my hand at steaming dresses, and did a fair job at that. We had a few tense moments, but in the end things worked out very well. We had the ceremony in the outdoor amphitheater, with the snow falling and the bridesmaids barely containing their shivering. Despite the cold, it was absolutely beautiful. The reception was great, and Ashley gave Kelly a very sentimental and heartwarming toast. Kelly and Will, all the best to you and your new lives together!

The rest of my leave was spent visiting family and friends. We had a gathering of my dad's family at the Blue Parrot, a family favorite, and it was great to see everyone there. I spent several evenings at Holly and Chris' house, and that's always a great time. In the last few days, the weather was nice enough to do some yard work and gardening, which was actually nice to do for a change. I can finally appreciate how nice the soil is in Colorado when I compare it to what I've experienced in the Middle East.

Going back to the airport was hard, but the woman at the ticket counter was nice enough to give Ashley and Marcy concourse passes so they could see me to the gate. It was nice to have them there. Ashley and I were both sad, but we know it's such a short time until I'm finally home. The flights have been fairly painless. I've been waiting here in Kuwait a little longer than I would like, but we're supposed to get a flight out this morning. I had a really excellent leave, and I'll be looking forward to demobilizing in a couple of months!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Homeward Bound

Whew! Maybe I should change the blog's title to "Almost-Monthly!" I apologize for the delay, but we've been busy bees. In the past two weeks or so, we've completed our unit's move into different buildings. And as the commo people, we've been particularly busy. When a department gets to their new office, they need their computers, network connections, phones, and printers working ASAP. That was doubly as important for the TOC (Tactical Operations Center), which is the communications hub of the unit. They had radios and e-mail in-boxes that could only be down for a couple of hours. Frankly, we worked our asses off. Things finally seem to be calming down, and we've finally moved our own commo equipment.

The end of the move comes just in time for me to wish everyone a Happy Easter, and inform you all that I'll be headed home in a couple of days! I can't give you a specific time line for several reasons, not the least of which is that I don't even have one! I don't get an itinerary to Denver until I hit Kuwait, and even after that, all travel is weather-dependent. But if there are no delays, I should be in Denver sometime around April 17th. As soon as I sign out in Dallas, I have 15 days to get to Denver, enjoy myself, and get back to Dallas to sign in again.

While I'm home, Ashley and I will be celebrating our 1st anniversary! It's been a hectic year, and I've been away more than home. Hopefully that will change in the next year. I'm also going to attend Kelly's wedding, which is very exciting! I was disappointed to hear that I might miss it, but I think I might just get to be there! I should get a visit from my parents, and I'm definitely looking forward to that. There's also Ethel's belated birthday celebration. After that, I have very few plans, and I'm trying to keep it that way. Taking things day by day is something I can't do here in Iraq, so I'm going to try a little spontaneity for a change. I know I'd like to spend a day in Boulder. There are a couple of restaurants I would like to visit while I'm home, but I'm also looking forward to home cooking. And lots of time spent with Ashley. While it's disappointing that she hasn't been able to find a job (after looking very hard, I might add), I'm glad that she will have a lot of time to spend with me. So, hopefully I will see you all soon!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Choices

Do I use my free time this evening to:

  • Retool my class scheduling program to use XML input
  • Play Rock Band

Why is this even a debate? Is programming really supposed to be a fun activity?

...

(Sigh) I guess I'll be social and play Rock Band.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Preparing for R&R

Well, it's been just about a month since my last post, so I guess I'm a little overdue. Let's see...

Probably my most exciting news is that I have a date for taking my two weeks of mid-tour leave. Of course, everything is weather-dependent and so forth, but I should be home sometime around April 17th, just in time for me and Ashley's first wedding anniversary! And I should be in good time to see Kelly's wedding as well! I'm very excited, and even though I'm trying not to, I'm counting the days.

Work has been treating me well. We've been busier than usual, with many offices shifting around the base. We've been running new CAT-5 cables all over the place, enough for 4 office buildings. It's definitely different than sitting around in the office, waiting for something to happen. It's nice to get out of the office for a bit, but I'm not used to being on my feet all day. All the same, it's fun.

Work on my class schedule programming project is going nicely. I have a basic working version now. It will take in my manually-entered database of classes and times and generate a list of schedules, excluding all of the ones that have overlapping classes. Right now, most of my effort has been on polishing the user interface, but I should start working on automatically pulling the database soon. The program is much more interesting if it has more than 5 classes to choose from!

In the wake of Circuit City closing it's brick-and-mortar stores, Ashley was able to get a couple of great deals on computer games I wanted to buy. The one I've been getting into recently is Left 4 Dead, a first-person shooter with a zombie thriller theme. Currently, I can only play the single player mode, as my internet won't handle an internet game. In single-player mode, you play as one of the four Survivor characters, Bill, Francis, Zoey, and Louis, making your way through various urban and rural terrain to get to a rescue zone. In internet games, you can also be on the Infected side, taking control of one of the Special zombies: the Boomer, the Smoker, the Witch, the Hunter, and the Tank. Each Special infected has it's own abilities; for instance, the Hunter can leap dozens of yards and pin one of the Survivors to the ground, and the Tank is a huge Hulk-like zombie that can take enormous amounts of damage. It's a whole lot of fun, and I can't wait to play it online. And the really great news is that it uses the same engine as Half-Life 2, which means its system requirements are not too heavy. My gaming laptop is able to keep up nicely.

I'm still waiting to find out if this laptop will play the other game Ashley sent; Crysis. It's a notorious machine hog. Two years ago, all of the serious gamers were in a rush to get their gaming computers ready to handle Crysis. It was one of those games that pushed people to upgrade their machines. Gaming on laptops is also notorious for being sketchy at best, so we'll see how this one holds up to "the beast."

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Social Profile of the Computer Geek

Alright, this week seems to have been a return to my passions as a computer science geek and electronics nerd. To begin, my work planning for college has rekindled an old flame of sorts. I've had the urge to design a class scheduling program. This would take a list of the classes I want to take, and then use the class times for that semester to build the perfect schedule.

Of course, that's a very general description. One of the most immediate problems that comes to mind is: what is a perfect schedule? It's a fuzzy, arbitrary goal. I have several ideas to make it more concrete, and if I get that far I'll probably incorporate them all. Another technical issue to be solved is getting the actual class times. I'll have to start by hand-entering the ones I'm interested in, but I wonder if there are better solutions. Perhaps the Computer Science department can hook me up with read-only access to parts of the school's database. Or maybe I can find a way to scrape their website. That method would be inelegant, but it might just be the only way to get the meeting times automatically.

Of course, I made a crude version of this once before. When I was just starting college, I was overwhelmed at trying to put together a schedule. So, I fired up Visual Basic and had some fun. Unfortunately, I lost the entire project at some point. This time, I'm feeling much more ambitious. I want to use Java, using all of the good programming techniques I've learned in the last 5 years. I'm talking object-oriented programming, Collections frameworks, generics, the works. And I'm trying to build a frontend/backend system, so that I can make all of the guts, and then easily make it either a GUI desktop application or an applet embedded in a webpage. If you're still following along, then you're probably a programmer.

In other words, my programming gears are turning again, and it's exciting. I don't know if it's possible to be excited about programming, but I am right now.

There's also more exciting news, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. You might recall that I purchased a laptop back in July, just for the deployment. (I guess I didn't make a post about that! How odd!) It's an HP Pavilion dv9700z. It has a beautiful, huge 17 inch screen, and is a respectable gaming PC. But thinking back to school made me think for a minute. Can I really carry around a huge, expensive laptop to school every day? No, I would rather leave it home. I could trade Ashley back for the smaller HP that I was using. It's a 14.1 inch screen HP, and a perfect machine for school.

The other alternative I started looking into is a netbook, an ultra-light, ultra-small, ultra-cheap laptop. They're underpowered, but it's not like taking notes or programming and light compiling need a lot of power. Before I even had time to give it a lot of thought, I was talking casually with Mr. Wizard, and he mentioned he might try and sell his. He wasn't using it after buying a small MacBook, and so was looking to get most of his investment back. I came by for a trial run, Ashley and I talked, and we decided it was a good option.

So I'm writing you now from my Asus Eee PC 1000D. It has a tiny 10 inch screen, and a keyboard that's 92% of the standard size. It's quite cramped to work on, but I think it will be perfect for school. As long as I can get used to typing on the darn thing. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog...

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Many Birthdays

Is it me, or are there a lot of birthdays around this time of year? Many, many of the people I know seem to have birthdays in January and February. Perhaps it lends creedence to all of that astrology crap, and I just tend to hang around Aquariuses. Or maybe it reveals preferred times of the year to make babies. Who knows.

The last couple of weeks of work have been relatively quiet. Sgt. Rhino is back from leave. He had an excellent time while he was home, but coming back was painful, both with the emotional parting and the difficult process of making his way back to Iraq. I get that report quite often, actually. Traveling with the military is less than glamorous. Sgt. Rhino has decided to step back a bit from day-to-day office management, allowing Sgt. Antonio to make project decisions and keep track of scheduling. Also, Sgt. Rhino has blessed off on the days off scheme. I'm very happy, because I'm still enjoying my reset days.

Over the past couple of days, I've been plotting my return to the world of academia. I've reached a Junior standing in college, but based on the courses I still have to take, it will take me another 4 semesters to complete my degree. That means I still have two years before I can start working full-time. It's a little disheartening that classmates from high school who stuck to the 4-year plan in college already have their bachelor's degrees, and I'm still two and a half years away. I probably would have taken an extra semester or two if I had gone strait through school, but even then, I would still be very close to finishing by now. I've had to put my education on hold twice because of the military. On the other hand, I don't regret my decision to join the military. I have a lot of experiences that will help me in life and give me perspective. Plus, hopefully my student loans won't linger as long as some of my old classmates' loans will.

I do have one exciting new finding from planning out the rest of my college career. I had heard people mention it before, but only looked into it recently. Because of all the math courses required by the Computer Science degree, it's not difficult to pick up an Applied Math minor. The minor consists of six courses. While none of those courses are required by the degree, three of them can be applied to specific slots in the degree. I've already taken one of those. So basically, by taking three extra courses, I can pick up the minor! And really, these are math skills that will be synergetic with my Computer Science degree: vector calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, statistics and probability. As much as I hate doing math, I love the things that math can do for me. The real trick is to learn to harness math to my needs. I haven't figured out how to use all of this advanced math in computer science, but I know it's possible, and it's the path to being a great programmer and innovator. So, I'll slog through the classes and make it happen.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Mass Effect and Days Off

Mass Effect BoxW00t! I'm happy to report that after a couple months of casually playing on and off, I've beaten Mass Effect on PC! I bought it back in September, and I scared my roommate when I cursed loudly while trying to install the game. The SecuROM DRM prevented me from launching the game until I could activate with the internet. It wasn't until a month later that I actually got personal internet and was able to start playing. (Does EA really expect me to have an internet connection in the middle of the desert?) I'll also say that it's a system hog; my new laptop, built specifically to play modern games decently, is barely able to handle the game.

Having voiced those gripes, I'm very happy with the game. It's an original IP and storyline, and the backstory and plot are excellent! I was drawn into a galaxy of interesting alien races, clashing politics, and intense combat. Commander Shepard is a great lead character. The plot forces the player to make some tough decisions, something I haven't seen in a lot of recent games. Sure, there are the Good vs. Evil choices that only affect the side plots, but then there are harder decisions, beyond Good and Evil, that actually affect how the main game plays. It's more than what I've come to expect from BioWare RPGs. Just brilliant.

I finished the last bit of the game most of yesterday. While Sgt. Rhino has been on leave, Sgt. Antonio decided to flex his new sergeant stripes and implement one day off per week. Yesterday was my second day off since... getting to Iraq, really. Our fearless leader has been less stringent about people taking reset days, and many sections have taken advantage of the new policy. All I can say is, hallelujah!

Things are still relatively quiet. We've completed a couple of projects, and we're enjoying the time away from Sgt. Rhino. He's a great leader, but he does like things done his way, to the letter. It's a little easier to work without being micromanaged. Spc. Bonita is still with us, but we're starting to understand why she had personality issues at her home unit. She tends to be controlling, and a bit bi-polar. Still, she's friendly and outgoing, and she didn't deserve the treatment she was supposedly getting at her own unit. She'll be re-integrating with them soon, as they're scheduled to leave in a few months. I don't know what she'll do when she gets back home, but she'll be out of our workplace, and perhaps we'll have a little less drama.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

A New Era

I've just finished watching the inauguration of our 44th president. So much has already been said about the significance of this moment in history. Even though I can't lay claim to any African American cultural heritage, I was still deeply moved by the idea that we are closer to equality than perhaps ever before.

This is one of the moments in history that I can tell my children and grandchildren about: those moments when you'll never forget where you were when you learned it happened. For other generations, those moments were the attack on Pearl Harbor and the assassination of JFK. I don't quite remember what I was doing when the Berlin Wall fell, and my recollections of the Gulf War are fuzzy at best.

But I do remember a fateful morning in my sophomore year of high school. In Spanish, my first class, there were rumors of news from New York. A small plane, perhaps a single-prop, had accidentally glanced off of a building. Anyway, no matter, class had to continue. But in my second class, chemistry, the teacher was listening to the radio. He didn't attempt to teach the day's lesson. Instead, we listened to the confused and panicked reports. Realization slowly hit me that this was much larger than an amateur pilot's navigation error. Confusion ruled the day, but by the evening, details emerged. September 11th would be a day to remember.

In contrast, I'm proud to say that I will always remember today. At the end of one of the most ground-breaking elections in American history, a victor emerged. He brought hope and moral values back into the hearts of Americans. In a time of seeming darkness, he is offering light. And this evening (for my time zone), that leader has been sworn in as the defender of the free world, and my new Commander in Chief. I'm proud to say that when President Barrack Obama was elected, and when he was sworn in, I was serving my country in a combat zone, defending the people and the country I love. Though it pains me to be away from my beautiful new wife, my family and friends, I'm proud to say I've done my part for America. For all it's flaws, our country still remains a beacon of hope and opportunity in the world.

So pray with me. Pray that President Obama will be imbued with wisdom and integrity, foresight and energy. He'll need them on the road ahead. God Bless America.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

After the Holidays

Now that the flurry of the holidays is over, we've been settling back into the routine. I've been finding myself less pleased about my situation. I'm still trying to stay positive and use my time and stay involved, but it seems harder somehow. Although I know I have a long ways to go, I'm definitely ready to go home. I've seen my share of this base. I'll keep plodding along, and keep doing my online courses and helping out at church, but that doesn't mean I'm enjoying my time. Why didn't I go Air Force? I'd be done by now!

I've recently been reflecting on another issue: reenlistment. I told myself that I wouldn't be able to decide until I had a taste of deployment. And now that I'm here? Well, the time away sucks, in a big way. I see the same people every day, nonstop, no days off. I try not to think about it often, but I do miss everything about home. But another issue is the copious amount of BS that the military brings to the picture.

For instance: when it comes down to it, I like Sgt. Rhino and I respect his abilities as an NCO and a leader, but I disagree wholeheartedly with him on a few points. Spc. Gadget and Sgt. Rhino seem to butt heads every week, because Sgt. Rhino is only willing to see problems and solutions from his own special point of view, and Spc. Gadget swears that he knows a better way to do it. It got so bad last week that Spc. Gadget went around Rhino and asked Mr. Wizard for permission to fix an issue. Essentially, Gadget got an answer he didn't like from mom, so he went and asked dad, which has never worked out well for me. Mr. Wizard gave Gadget permission, without realizing that he was vetoing Sgt. Rhino. In the end, Gadget saved a couple people a little bit of time and then found himself in a world of trouble with both Rhino and Wizard.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, there's the right (industry-standard) way, the wrong way, and the Army way to solve problems. The Army way works, but it's usually not the right way, nor the easy way. It's a big downer when I start thinking about whether to re-up. Do I really want more of this? At least at a civilian job, I can just quit! On the other hand, staying Army is the patriotic thing to do, and more opportunities will present themselves. I still have time to decide, and the rest of this deployment will help determine my answer when that day comes.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Al, the Pop Culture Rock Star

Our furry friend has become an internet meme!

funny pictures
moar funny pictures