Life is a lemon...

I just got back from 10 days in the field. It was actually fun. For the first time since the deployment, we actually got to work with our soldiers and train them on their job instead of just doing paperwork and sitting at some desk all day. I hate clerical shit. The field was fun, but it was high elevation, which in Alaska meant the temp dropped to the low 40s at night. And we didn't bring any cold weather gear because it was mid July. Most of us came back with colds.

The day we got back was the day before the Harry Potter release so I got the final book. then I was lucky enough to have staff duty on Monday. Staff Duty is more of that desk and paperwork crap. Except it's 24 hours and it's at the higher level then my company. They have crazy rules. No electronics whatsoever except the work computer they provide and a phone. This means no video games or movies in the middle of the night. All I could do was read. Do you know how hard it is to stay awake at 3 am when you've been reading all day? the only good thing about this was that I read the whole Harry Potter book during the shift. I'm glad the series is finally over and there was a conclusion. I even like the plot. However, the last book was not that good in my opinion. A friend phrased it best when he said it was like the army - a lot of hurry up and wait. It seemed like there would be a good period of action or plot then a bunch of nothing for a while. The book could have been a few hundred pages shorter easily.

In better news, I bought NCAA 08 for the PS3 when I got back from the field. It is good and definitely better than the last few years, but I'm just not as into the college game as I used to be. However, Madden 08 comes out in mid August. And the best news of all ... the Bills opened training camp today. The NFL season is just around the corner and I can't wait. Losman already has a minor back injury, but hopefully that allows the new QB, Trent Edwards from Stanford, to get some extra work and progress more. I can't wait for September.

Since I suck at returning e-mail or phone calls, I guess I'll give this another try as a way to communicate with people. Although it's been 6 months since I last posted, I'm just going to pick up with recent news.

I just got back from a week in Japan, which was a 10 day trip with all the flying involved. It was definitely a lot of fun and has made me want to do more international travel. I spent the first 3 days hanging out with my fraternity brother, Eric, who lives over there then spent three days hanging out with Courtney who's over there now also. Tokyo was not what I expected but it wasn't bad. I was expecting it to be prettier but instead it was just like a small large city in the US, comparable to Pittsburgh or Charlotte. Obviously Tokyo has a lot more people than either of those places but the scenery was not impressive. That being said, there was still a lot of fun stuff to do. Lots of different foods to try and some shopping. The mass transit was very good and affordable. Everyone says Tokyo is supposed to be more expensive than the US but I didn't notice at first because the prices were about the same as here in Alaska. Then I realized Alaska is more expensive than the US. My last day there we all hung out together and did some minor shopping. We finished the evening with 6 of us (Eric's wife and a few people that work with Courtney were there also) doing shabu-shabu. This was very good. It's cool to cook raw meat in boiling liquid in a matter of seconds. I think my favorite part of the trip was trying seaweed tea. It was awesome and I'm still trying to figure out where I can get a hold of it here in the US. I'll probably have to order it on-line because I don't foresee it being sold locally here in Alaska.

I've also seen several movies lately. Die Hard 4 was cool in the Die Hard way with awesome stunts and action. I mean, honestly, who doesn't think it's cool he took out a helicopter with a car? I also saw Transformers a few days ago. They started showing it here as soon as it opened in the US, which meant 8 pm on July 2nd. It was good. Not as good as I was expecting but still good. I was happy to see that the lead military character was the main actor from Las Vegas, which is one of my favorite shows. He also does a crazy stunt at the end that is no where near realistic but looked very cool. Without giving anything away to those who haven't seen it yet, it was the one involving the motorcycle.

Rainbow 6 finally came out for the PS3. It's very good but not entirely what I was hoping for. I was a big fan of previous Rainbow 6s because you could chose your own team and plan your assaults with multiple teams. This time you're the same character throughout and you only get the same two support guys who follow you. Also, you have limited control over your support guys. This game was definitely made more for the on-line play against with and against other live players instead of for solo play. As for the on-line play, it's not bad. Although, the PS network is still a little shaky and randomly kicks people off sometimes. Also, the brits have had this game for a while before it was released in the states for the PS3 (the Xbox version came out in DEC) so the brits are kind of dominating it right now. I do enjoy listening to their accents as they talk, though. Ahhh .... the simple things in life.

Well, that's more than enough for now.

Ok, now that I'm done slacking, here's the update about DC. It was awesome. The first night I got to meet up with a lot of my old fraternity brothers and relive old times. It was definitely a lot of fun. The next day I took a tour of the White House then spent several hours just walking around DC. I got to go to most of the monuments, including my favorite, the Jefferson memorial. It is a great place and has one of the best views in all of DC where you can see the White House and Washington Monument across the water. I also saw the new WWII memorial. It was ok. It has a great location and is tastefully done. They've upgraded the Korean War memorial since I was last there. It has a nice dedication plaque now. They also upgraded the statues to depict a squad moving in a wedge formation and added a remembrance saying at the beginning (freedom is not free). However, the highlight (besides seeing the Jefferson memorial) was seeing the FDR memorial. This was not there the last time I visited, which was about 6 or 7 years ago. This is a really nice memorial with a lot of his great quotes sculpted into the stone walls. This definitely rivals the Jefferson memorial as my favorite now, but they are next to each other so I now say my favorite place in DC is the the corner of the pond where the two are located. Because it was the day before the MLK Jr weekend a group of fourth graders were reciting the "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I listened to that for a little bit. It was cool. I capped the day off by visiting the International Spy Museum. It was pretty good. It had some interesting exhibits and is interactive which makes it fun. My only complaint is that it does not fully give credit to the modern day spy. According to the museum the only modern day spies are in the CIA. I guess it's good that the world believe that, but it's also a little annoying because the spy world is much broader.

as for the ski trip, well, it was in the upper 40s and rainy so there was no skiing to be done. Instead we drank the whole weekend, which was a lot of fun. The house we rented was really nice. We also got to watch some good football (screw you Marty Schotenheimer). I discovered that I like Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer. Who knew cherry would be a good flavor for a beer. Overall, it was the perfect way to finish off a great vacation. Hopefully, I have the chance to go again next year. The wonderful thing about the military is they love 4 day weekends around federal holidays, i.e. MLK jr day.

I've been really lax about updating this during my vacation so the updates will come in a couple parts. The first part will cover Vegas.

Vegas was awesome and I didn't lose that much money gambling either. The first day I just hung around the hotel casino which was kind of bored. It was a friday night and the place was dead. I later found out I was staying in middle aged family vacation central. So the next couple nights I went out to the strip and had a ton of fun there. It was great just walking around and seeing everything.

I was supposed to go on a tour of the grand canyon and hoover damn but it got canceled so I went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur theatre instead. Basically you watch men in armor joust and fight and you eat all your fod with your fingers. It was great.

The best part of the trip though was Tuesday. I went horseback riding during the day (I have awesome pics for you Courtney) then went and saw Penn and Teller that night. I'm sure everyone in DC is tired of hearing this, but Penn and Teller are awesome and by far the best show I have ever seen. They were freaking hilarious and kept me constantly entertained. The best part of their act is that they explain half of their magic tricks.

The food was great in Vegas. Although, it was weird at first to pay $40 for a buffet. But they were serving kobe beef, leg of lamb, and a ton of other high end meals. Also, where else could I get a pizza with zuccinni, garlic, mushrooms and ricotta cheese?

Well, I arrived in Las Vegas today with little incident. Had a small problem with the plane tickets but it was soon straightened out. When I went to check in with American Airlines they had a record of my tickets but the tickets had all been canceled by Continental who controlled all of my tickets because I bought a rip with 4 stops. Apparently when I called continental a few weeks ago to change my return date from DC to Alaska by a day they canceled all of my tickets instead of just the last one. The American people were real good about it, though, and got Continental to fix everything.

The hotel is ok. No fridge in the room and internet is not free. It's not too expensive, though. I haven't really explored yet. I was so tired because I stayed up most of the night before my plane left so I took a power nap. Now I'm off to see what the hotel has to offer. It has several restaurants and a full casino plus an arcade, bowling alley, and Century Cinemas multi-screen movie theatre. I know I'll end up checking out a movie at some point but I keep telling myself I can do that anywhere and that's not what I came to Vegas to do.

I looked through a few guidebooks today and only have two things I definitely want to see while I'm here, so if anyone has suggestions, fell free to tell me.

Also, for those of you that like sports, I've decided to start writing sports commentary again. I've missed it since giving it up after college. I have another journal under my college nickname around the newspaper office, mouththatroared. For those who can't figure it out, I was called "The mouth that roared" because I had a tendency to stir up the readers with my opinions. It should be known, though, that in the end I was right and they were wrong.

"Why won't you have sex with me?!? Do you want me to dress up like Thor? I'll dress up like Thor." If you have not seen "The 40 Year Old Virgin" then I recommend you go out and rent it today. This movie is hilarious.

Happy New Year all. I hope everyone had a fun time and no one is too hungover.

First, let's talk about strange news. I was once again peusing the odd news headlines in Yahoo. This came from a compilation of the oddest news of 2006: "In Rio de Janeiro, a Brazilian man died when he tried to open a rocket-propelled grenade with a sledgehammer." The only thing I can say is ... WTF!?!?

In colorado one couple is doing their bit to help dig out from the blizzard. They are selling the snow on ebay. So far they don't have any bidders. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/selling_snow

And in Germany, one of the saddest things I've ever heard of an alcoholic doing. A man offered to take his 6 year old step-daughter's pet beagle for a walk. He walked it right to the bar and sold it to the bar owner for the equivalent of $53 which he then spent on alcohol. That's not funny, it's just sad. Luckily the bar owner returned the dog to the little girl. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/germany_dog_dc

In sports news, lots of stuff happening but the only thing that matters is Penn State plays Tennessee today and Wake beats Lousiville tomorrow. Go Lions and Go Deacs.

Oh and lastly, I got checked out by an attractive lady in the parking lot today and the clerk at the Starbucks drive thru (it's so cool they have a drive thru) was flirting with me. The chick in the parking lot smiled after checking me out. Definitely a good boost to the ego.

So I decided to try and give contact lenses another shot after the debacle that was my senior year of high school and freshman year of college. For those that don't know about the debacle, let's just sum it up by quoting the eye doctor at the end - "I'm surprised you're not blind." Yeah, not a whol lot of self-discipline or responsibility back then. So I got a new contact prescription from Wal-Mart. You can't beat $70 for the exam and first set of lenses. And in the future I can just buy lenses online. The biggest adjustment so far, though, is resisting the urge to put my glasses on while I have the contacts in. It just doesn't feel right without my glasses on.

Not much else going on. Christmas was good. My nieces and nephews were all really excited at how much they got. My brother and his wife actually had to throw away a lot of their old stuff just to make room for the new toys. I received a few books which was cool. Some were ones I asked for, some were surprises but look good, and then there were the "classics" from my mom. She knows I like reading and have accumulated a little library of more than just the modern day paperbacks. So she decided to get me a couple of the nicer classics. Which is good, except one of them was Moby Dick. I hate that book. The opening line should be "Call me a whiny little bitch who should have been named pussy." But het, that's just me. Also, I would have clubbed Ahab early on and threw his obsessed ass overboard.

I opened one box and I was looking at two clear plastic cylinders. My brother looks at it and said "what the fuck is that?" Without missing a beat, I just looked at him and said "It's what I've always wanted, plastic cylinders." We both started laughing but my mom looked like she wanted to beat me with the cylinders. Apparently they're for cooking things like pasta and hot dogs in the microwave. It's one of those things from a late night infomercial I believe. She thought I could use it because I have a little kithcenette in my new barracks room. I said thank you and plan to find some other use for it when I get back to Alaska. Like maybe a space filler in a refuse container.

Only a few more days until Wake wins the Orange Bowl.

Just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone. My nieces and nephews are finally getting back from visiting relatives in Pennsylvania today. I can't wait to see all of them.

Also, I just wanted to send a big thank you to all the asian americans out there. Every year I come home for Christmas and it's just my mom and I until Christmas day because my brother and his family are always in PA visiting his in-laws. They come back Christmas day. So this leaves just my mom and I for christmas eve. We don't cook a big dinner because we have the big dinner on Christmas day. It's always tough finding somewhere to eat out for Christmas eve dinner because most businesses close early on christmas eve. However, we can always find a Chinese buffet or Japanese steakhouse open regular hours on Christmas eve and even Christmas day.

It's a sad day for Bills fans. They played a tough game but lost in the final minutes 29-30. They were playing Tennessee and the game was important for both teams because the loser was eliminated from the playoff hunt. Buffalo had 9 point lead to start the fourth quarter but Ten was able to score 10 points including a field goal with 3 minutes left in the game.

In other news, I saw a new Subway commercial today. Jared is getting fat.

That's all I have. In case I don't get to post tomorrow, Merry Christmas to everyone. I know my nieces and nephews will love it. Between me and their parents, we managed to fill up almost an entire room with presents.

I'm now in Columbus and my vacation has started. It's nice but it was a bitch starting out. First, I have way too many clothes but was not sure how often I would get to do laundry over the next month. Second, traveling around christmas just sucks. And continental airlines has the worst customer service I have ever seen. In any business. They are just plain terrible. It doesn't help that it already takes a whole day to fly to the east coast from Alaska. I've only been able to grab a few hours of sleep here and there during flights over the last two days.

On a brighter note, I saw the newest Rocky movie the other day. It was really good and a fitting end to the series. It always amazes me that Sly Stalone wrote Rocky himself. He wrote the latest one and did a great job with it. Has a couple of really good monologues. For any fans of Rocky, I definitely recommend it. It's also more about the human side of things and not the boxing. The boxing only takes up a little bit at the end. Most of the movie is about Rocky dealing with personal demons. Again, it was really good and I highly recommend it.

The Bills are still in the playoff hunt. They have to win the next two weeks and a lot of other teams have to lose, but it could happen. Look at the Steelers last year. They needed help to get into the playoffs then went on to win the Super Bowl. Chris Berman has actually picked the Bills and Steelers as the two underdogs to watch out for as the season draws to a close.

The Deacons will be playing soon. I'm very psyched about this. If I hadn't already dropped a ton of cash since coming back from Iraq and didn't still have Vegas and skiing in Md left on the schedule, I'd be in Miami to watch the game. However, I'll watch it with my family here in Columbus then go celebrate the victory later in Vegas and DC.

Well, that's about it for now. Hope everyone is doing well and has a happy holidays, especially a good Kwanzaa.

First, let me start off by saying I'm drunk, so excuse any typos, misspellings, or incohenrent sentences.

I just want to give a quick rambling about friends. Or more precisely, what a friend isn't. A friend isn't someone that just hangs out with you when they want to use your internet or fridge, A friend is not someone that is so worried about their lack of friends that they forget about you or take you for granted. A friend is not someone that forgets about you while they're trying to make other friends. If a friend invites you somewhere and you're indecisive when you say no, they will aks if you're sure or will try to convince you to go. They will not just say ok and hang up as if they are glad you said no. A friend will come by and say hi when they're in the same building as you. They will not just come by and use you then run off with someone else. When you make plans and go out with a friend they will not spend that time bitching about the other people that bailed out. They will just be happy that they are with their friends.

Maybe I expect too much out of my friends, but I don't think so. I have friends that even if they make other plans that coincide with plans they made with me, they invite me along for the new plans (thanks Sox, I'm looking forward to skiing). A friend is someone that even if you haven't spoken to them in a long time, they're happy to hear from you and understand the circumstances that kept you away (thanks Kim, King, and many others). Most importantly, a friend thinks about their friends and not themself. A friend is not an afterthought or someone you think of because you're bored or no one else is around to hang out with.

Again, I'm drunk and this post will cause me problems, but I'm tired of putting up with being taken for granted and the ensuing bullshit. I guess I should just be more judegemental in who I call my friends.

This has been a great weekend. Wake Forest football beat Maryland to win their division of the ACC and earn a trip to the ACC championship game against Georgia Tech. If Wake beats the Yellow Jackets, then they will play in the Ornage Bowl. It's amazing what the team has done this year. Also, Buffalo won their second straight game to improve to 5-6. It's not good but it ties their win total for last year. If they could 3 of the last 5 and finish 8-8, I'd be happy with the progress and strong finish this year.

And most importantly, I'm no longer in Iraq. I'm not home yet, but will be soon. I'm currently in Kuwait waiting for a flight. My biggest concern, though, is that I don't think I own a coat. I spent the 2 years before this deployment in California and never needed a coat because it never dropped below 60. Then there was the year and a half in Iraq. Now I'm going back to Alaska in the winter. There has been a recent warm streak to help out, but it's still averaging -5 right now. It will be interesting as I try to get my car out of storage so I can go buy a coat and some winter clothes.

Well, hopefully my nxt post will be from the States. I don't know when that will be because it may take a little time to set up the internet and communication after I get back.

I no longer feel bad about getting older. Although, the old jokes still aren't funny. But I found out there is an organization known as the International Order of Old Bastards. The only requirement is that you be over 35 years old. I now have something to look forward to. It used to be 16 to drive, 18 to vote, etc. But after the auto insurance reduction at 25 there was nothing left. Now I can look forward to becoming an Old Bastard.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/groin_shot
This is just plain funny. A guy shot himself in the nuts during an attempted kidnapping. Apparently he stuck the gun in the waistband of his pants and it went off. The funny part, though, was he cringed after the first shot and it went off again and struck him in the calf. He went to the hospital and was promptly arrested.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/great_ape_fire_alarm
Basically, a bonobo (type of Ape) learned to pull a fire alarm at The Great Ape Trust (Ape Zoo and research center). He recently pulled it because he wanted to go outside and the staff was too busy to take him. That's actually pretty smart. This isn't the first time he's used the alarm, though. A few months ago he saw a worker testing the alarm and the ape learned then. The best part of this article, though, is this quote: "Savage-Rumbaugh said she explained the danger of such mischief and Panbanisha promised not to do it again." Savage-Rumbaugh is the lead scientist at the center. Panbanisha is the Ape. Apparently bonobos are the most human-like of Apes and have "sophisticated language skills." What gets me, though, is that the respected and well-educated scientist, who is in charge, trusted a promise from an ape. Uhhh..... I don't even know how to make fun of this.

I didn't post this earlier because I forgot to look at today's "Odd News" on Yahoo.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061115/od_nm/child_compensation_dc
First, a german gynecologist has been ordered to pay child support for a baby that was born after the doctor was supposed to have inserted a contraceptive device. The sentence was upheld by the German Appeals court. Are you freaking kidding me? Give him a malpractice fine. But child support? Does this mean he has visitation rights?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061114/ap_on_fe_st/plane_sexual_activity
Good old California. A couple became overly friendly on a flight and now face criminal charges. The sad thing about this, is it all could have been avoided if they had just done the normal thing, gone into the bathroom, and joined the mile high club. Instead they will end up as a joke on Leno or Letterman and get criminal records as parting gifts.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061115/ap_on_fe_st/kindergartner_knife
A 5 year old is being considered for expulsion for bringing a knife to school. At first this doesn't seem to odd. But the story explains that the kid was using it to open his lunch and did not threaten anyone with it or brandish it as a weapon. In fact, school officials don't think he had any idea he did anything wrong. That may, of course, be because he IS FIVE YEARS OLD. Don't expel the kid. Instead, let's ask the parents why he had a pocket knife. Again, he is only 5 years old. The kid should be allowed to go back to school and his parents should be forced to do some volunteer activity for the school as punishment for being oblivious and dumb.

So the other day Wake Forest beat Florida State. In football. This is the first Wake victory over Florida State since FSU joined the ACC in the early 90s. However, not only did we win, we shut them out. In their own stadium. This is the first time Bobby Bowden has ever been shut out at home. FSU fired their offensive coordinator today, Bobby Bowden's own son. Actually, he resigned. But only because he was about to be fired. Now Wake is 9-1 for the first time in Wake Forest football history (and we've been playing since the 1800s). Of course to balance all this out the Bills lost again. Oh well.

College basketball season has started the the Wake basketball team is 2-0. Of course they started off wel last year then went 3-13 in conference play and finished ... well let's not talk about that. This year's team will struggle but they are young and i is good to see them winning some early games.

Not much else going on here. I kind of got extended again. I was supoosed to rejoin my parent unit a few days ago. I had everything packed and had lugged most of my stuff to the airfield then I was told the move was canceled and I was staying for another week and a half. I'm not doing anything but I'm here because it's somehow of strategic importance. Actually, it's not a big deal but I had sold my tv and PS2 because I thought I was leaving so now I don't have much to do. I bought some Hajji DVDs to keep me occupied. However, this does point out a major problem the Army has. You always get important information two days too late.

( Also, here is the penguin pic I talked about a few posts ago )

Warning - the following is an English lesson for idiots and sheep and a rant for the rest of you.

A friend recently posted this joke in his myspace page:

A girl from Georgia and a girl from the west coast were seated side by side on an airplane.
The girl from Georgia, being friendly and all, said, "So, where ya from?"
The west coast girl said, "From a place where they know better than to use a preposition at the end of a sentence."
The girl from Georgia sat quietly for a few moments and then in her Sweetest Southern Accent replied:
"So, where ya from, bitch?"

It's a funny joke. But the part about not ending a sentence with a preposition really bothers me. I hate it when people say this. IT IS NOT TRUE. There is no rule that says you can't end a sentence with a preposition. It is some myth that english teachers made up in the 70s for whatever reason and people are sheep and just believe it. Stop being sheep. use your prepositions wherever you damn well fell like using them. That's all I have for now. I out. (take that you silly non-grammar knowing stuck-up bastards.)

and I passed. But it didn't start out pretty. The night before I was hanging out with my former team leader from when I was working with the infantry. He also flew in from another base for the board (he was going for his E6). We both realized last night that we forgot our ID tags (dog tags). Usually not a big deal, but they asked eveyrone to show them at the last promotion board. So we were already starting out worried because we thought they'd throw us out before we even got started. So then we went to the board this morning. The CSM (top enlisted guy for you non military folk) calls us in and gives a little spiel about what to expect. He talked about how he wasn't looking for people that could memorize regulations but he wanted people that had potential to be good leaders and the questions would be situational based instead of the typical memorization. This made me happy. I'm not good at memorizing the book defintions of things, but I generally know how to act in a given situation.

So I later I go into the board and they don't ask to see ID tags. Good. I report to the CSM then start introducing myself. I got nervous and knew I messed up a little but overall I thought it was ok. The CSM looks at me and says "Ok, sit back," (I wasn't sitting completely back in the chair and was kind of perched on the front), "and do that again. But this time, try and show me at least a little bit of respect and address me by my rank and address the other members of the board. Maybe you want to start off by saying 'CSM and members of the board...'" At this point I was like, 'oh fuck, I'm screwed.' But I sat back, took a breath and did it again the right way. The second time throug I was also more confident (I figured I had nothing left to lose) and spoke louder and better. Although, I was literally sweating bullets. The CSM looked at me after and said it was better.

Then they started the questions. It wasn't the situational stuff like they said it would be. It was straight memorizations from the manuals. I did ok, though. There were a few situational ones and I nailed those. I also nailed all the ones related to my job except one. They were asking about cover and concealment and tried to relate it to my job so they asked how I would camouflague a detainee. I had no idea, because we do not camouflague detainees. We're required to protect them so we don't put them in situations where they would need camouflague. Then at the very end the CSM started asking my basic soldier questions. This covered the normal board topics. However, when they released the topics a few weeks ago they were all combat related topics, which made sens because we're in a combat zone. However, I didn't study the basic topics so I didn't remember a few. There was also one where I knew the answer as soon as I walked out but during the board I was nervous and the answer to a related question kept popping in my head.

In the end, they passed me. I had to leave early to catch my flight back so I don't know what my points are yet. The CSM told me I did ok and it was obvious I knew my job inside out but I was lacking n basic soldier knowledge and needed to work on that area. One of the 1SG on the board said he only recommended me because my sponsor gave me a good recommendation. My own 1SG was there and said he knew I would make a good leader and NCO. The other member of the board complimented me on re-doing my intro and made a joke about the sweating. When I walked out my sponsor told me I didn't do as bad as I thought. Honestly, I'm still not happy. I get nervous as soon as I walked in and messed up some simple stuff. However, I got the recommendation so I will become a SGT on 1 JAN.

Right at the end I got a little confidence boost. I was the first E4 to go in because they did it alphabetically. The guy that went in after me got thrown out and told to try again in 30 minutes. At least they didn't throw me out. All in all, I'm just glad it's over. This has been my top goal since I joined the Army and it's nice to finally achieve it. I guess I now have to set some new goals. Well, that can wait till after my vacation.

I think that's an appropriate topic for these ramblings. First let me start by talking about the Wake Forest Football team. They just beat 16th ranked Boston College to move to 8-1 on he season. No wake team has ever won 9 games in a season and there are 4 games left. The next 2 are going to be very tough. We have Florida State then Maryland. We are currently tied with Maryland for the conference lead. If we win both o these games, we will be in great shape to win the conference championship and should be a Top 10 team. This is awesome and unbelievable. It has been a very special season so far.

As for myself, I re-enlisted earlier this week. I only added 2.5 years to my contract by I got a very nice re-enlistment bonus. It feels great to know that in about a month I will be completely debt free. Although, I'm thinking about trading in my car for an SUV. I will be staying in Alaska for the next 2 or 3 years and an SUV will be more practical. I guess it will depend on if I can find a good one at a decent price. I've decided I like my current financial situationa nd am in no hurry to acumulate new bills.

I will also be going to the promotion board in a few days. If all goes well, I will become a sergeant on Jan. 1. It's funny, but this would be my first promotion in the Army even though I've been in for 3 1/2 years. I went to a practice board tonight and did ok. They said as long as I act as confident as I did, I will be fine. the practice was good because it has been a while since I went to a board. It also bolstered my confidence. Plus it allowed me to practice some things I wasn't used to, like going to the board with a weapon. It means different marching and facing movements.

I started reading a book caled "A Cop's Life" by Sgt. Randy Sutton of the Las Vegas PD. He's consulted on CSI and several other books, movies, etc. The book was advertised as a colection of stories from Sutton's life as a cop. I was expecting a mix of sadness, action, humor, and so on. I've only read the first 60 something pages, but it's only 200 pages so that's 30% of the book. So far it has just been a bunch of self-pity and depression. This book reads more like Sutton's therapy then a collection of anecdotes. I'm trying to give it a chance and I figure I'll read a few more chapters before I give up on it. I know it's tough being a cop and they see a lot of screwed up crap, but come on, it's not all bad. If the book is about a cop's life, it needs to cover all aspects of the life, not just one emotion.

There haven't been many updates lately because the internet connection has been really slow and been giving me problems. Also, in about a week I will be rejoining my unit at a different base and the updates will be very infrequent if at all because internet access is very limited at that base.

Hop everyone is doing well.

First, check out the new pic. I've been irritated for the most part lately for a lot of different reasons but this makes me laugh (and that has become all to uncommon.) ****Actually, I was supposed to have a new pic but livejournal won't upload it because they say it exceeds the size limits, even though I have resized it several times and it is now well under the size limits. Since I've been in a great mood lately, I think I'll send a message to livejournal asking them to explain this to me.****

Anyways, the pic is a video gif of two penguins on some ice. As penguin1 walks by penguin2, penguin 2 hits penguin1 in the back of the head with his wing and penguin1 falls face first through the ice and into the water. It seems to be authentic, doesn't look doctored or anything.

Second, how bout them Deacs. 7-1. If they win two more, this could be one of the most successful team in Wake Forest history. I can't believe we're actually competing for an ACC championship in football. When I was in college we had the worst winning percentage in all of division 1. And don't listen to the hype that the ACC is weak this year. We are tied for the most ranked teams in the Top 25 poll with the SEC. Both conferences have five ranked teams. The difference this year is that FSU and Miami are not their typical superpower selves. However, Clemson, Ga Tech, Boston College, and Va Tech are all playing tough.

Third, apparently Oklahoma just legalized tattooing. I can't believe this has just happened. I understand the health concerns and the desire to regulate it, but it had been illegal until just now. Crazy backward sstuff down there in the Southwest. One of the legislatures opposed said he was worried that it would hurt the economy. WTF?!?!? He said that employers will be less drawn to OK because tattoos are still frowned upon. Uh... Mr. idiot, just because it's legal does not mean everyone is going to go out and get full body tattos. Hell, not everyone will even get a tattoo and those that do, won't necessarily have them in visible places. And to think, this man is helping to guide and shape Oklahoma's future.

Not much else is going on. The vacation is shaping up and looks to be a lot of fun. A couple weeks at home with the family, almost a week in Vegas, and 4 days in DC. For those of you in the DC area, I will be there from 11 Jan to 15 Jan. I'll be getting a new cell phone when I go home on leave and will e-mail the number out to everyone.