The Weather Outside Is Weather

a couple of days ago it was 125 degrees outside. i used to think 125 degrees only existed on the surface of the sun. now i know iraq also exists on the surface of the sun.

Ziggurat Ur Bust

for several months i lived less than a mile from one of the most historic sites in the world, and did not get to visit it. very disappointing.

Olde Dream

yesterday the last thing i did before going to sleep was watch the saint crispin's day speech from Henry V. then last night i had a dream in old english. weird.

Fierce Bunny: Revenge Of The Rabbit

you might remember the rabid rabbit that tried to attack me a while back. i've learned different people have different ways of dealing with the creature, but not all of them have learned from neville chamberlain. that's right, i'm saying someone tried to appease it.

i was passing by another soldier at the site of the previous attack when the rabbit appeared. doing his best to show no fear the other soldier slowly bent down and poured some lettuce out of a cup onto the ground. the rabbit gave him a "you think you can buy me off?" look, then it showed that man of will what will really was.*

it hopped towards the lettuce but stopped about a yard short. instead of eating the lettuce, it started eating a sandbag nearby. tore the thing to pieces. i can only imagine the fire burning in it's eyes. i give that other soldier credit for not immediately running away like a little girl.

*that line was stolen from "the usual suspects" and used here without permission or a valid reason. it really doesn't make much sense here.

Adapt And Overcome

this war has brought several modifications to the vehicles the army uses. i'm not talking about new types like the MRAP, but about changes to the existing vehicles. for instance, every vehicle now come with air conditioning. very important if you want soldiers sitting in a metal box for hours in 120+ degree heat to be in top fighting shape.

other modifications are just as important and have reportedly come from the innovation of soldiers themselves, such as the current turret system. when the war began, humvee gunners essentially stood in the open, with no armor from the waist up. the story i heard is that one enterprising soldier took some spare parts such as metal plating and bullet proof humvee windows and placed it around the humvee turret to give the gunner some protection. you might think this is the point of the post, but it's not. it's merely a segue.

there's another modification soldiers have been making for years that has not yet been picked up by the army. first let me explain that the way we talk to each other inside vehicles is usually with headsets, each with headphones that cover the whole of both ears and a microphone. the modification, and why this couldn't have been done in previous wars, involves leaving one headset free, then taping headphones from an mp3 player to the microphone. this gives everyone in the vehicles a radio. strange the army left those out. they also missed cup holders.

it's the small luxuries that matter.

What Has Two Thumbs, Is Debt Free And Owns His New Car Outright?

i'm not going to point at my self and do the whole bit cause you can't see me and it was pretty lame even back when it was cool. but it's me, i'm those things. student loans are paid off and i got the title to my car a couple days ago. thanks U.S. Army.

Happy Birthday

the army turned 236 today. in a nice turn of events the army gave us a present and did away with wearing the beret with ACUs (our normal uniform). i kinda like the look of the beret, but it's way to hot in the summer and sometimes hard to keep in the proper shape.

The Army Is A No Go At This Station

i just missed the second GOP presidential debate. i'm 0 for 2. that goes straight onto the list of unacceptable. take me away from friends and family and send me halfway around the world to 120+ degree heat so i can look for IEDs. that's all fine. last deployment the only significant political event i can remember missing was President Obama's inauguration, and i was okay with that. but why do i have to miss almost all of primary season?

the recruiting videos showed people climbing ropes, shooting guns and riding in helicopters, but never showed anyone missing presidential debates. i feel like i was lied to.

The Most Efficient Government Bureaucracy

yesterday i was woken up about four hours after i fell asleep to get another anthrax shot. instead of a single vaccine, anthrax is given over a serious of five shots. thanks to the wonderful army record keeping, yesterday i received my 7th out of 5 shots. probably still have another 1 or 2 to go.

Wicked Witch Of The Middle East

the weather for the last few days has been 122 degrees. that means it's half way to boiling outside. if i ever looked down and say skin melting off my arms i wouldn't be surprised.

also, it's just barely june. what's july/august going to look like?