Green Does Me Well

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 85% The Flash 80% Iron Man 80%

You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

How My Thanksgiving Ended

What more can I ask for?

(To watch it would have been nice. I know I am reaching.)

Changes for Fun

I have been doing some more changes to this blog,little things, really. I have added some charities that have helped in a magnitude that I cannot express in words. Should be the third thing down the side there. I am sure there are many others, but these were the ones that directly impacted my life and the lives of my Marines.

I changed my aviator(the picture associated with my user name) to a logo that one of the Marines here drew and painted with is hung by a tori(it sounds like that, not sure of the spelling). The tori is made out of anti-aircraft gun barrels, in which some more Marines made possible. I am sure you can't tell, but the picture is of two separate wolverines. You may have to cock your head a bit to get the idea.

It may sound stupid but I am trying to get people to write a comment in my guestbook on my website. This is why I think it may be stupid, I have a blog and you can comment here. I try to consider the two separate, which is the "why" and people visit the blog or the website for usually completely different reasons. I link both of them together, but the website is really the true story of my life via pictures. This is the story with words and interactions with words. Maybe I just confused my audience here, bottom line is I want a comment for the website.

Some Things I am Thankful For.

My list is inspired by the generation that has more than four channels of television to choose from.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Christmas Story (1983 film)

DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

I know his list is Christmas type shows, but they all start today and will run until Christmas.

Between Letters Being Written

If you remember, I said I was behind on my thank yous on a previous post, I still am. I wrote a few more then found a new way to procrastinate, for a little while anyway.

I have church questions, these questions have popped up by reading "my" church newsletter. (The one I grew up with.)

What is an associate pastor? - Is that like a secondary or like a safety?

What is a supply pastor? - Do they just handle rations?

When the church says they are looking a senior pastor, does that mean he or she is in the emerald club? - In other words, what is a senior pastor?

In this letter, there is a section with finances and a big box around a negative number, but there is no negative numbers in the actual logbook area. I just don't understand, what is the point?

I do understand what a "Stephen Minister" is, but who was Stephen?

~~~~~~

These newsletters have come along way, now it is colorful and printed on nice paper and have an advertising page in the back (which I don't understand either), but with all this fancy stuff doesn't it get in the way of the point?

I am not trying to make fun in anyway. I just don't understand some of these things listed in the letter. It must be important, or they wouldn't have put it in there.

One Possible Outcome in the States, Part III

I need to go check on my house and do something with "The Truck" that is still sitting there. So, when I go I will have plenty of time to visit with those of you on this side of the hemisphere. This trip most likely will not occur until summer, just because I will be doing my Resident course in late spring.

One Possible Outcome in the States, Part II

I highlighted some places that are a possible venues for early spring. I would love to visit some of you when I get back. I figure since I will be travelling north through some of those areas anyway, there is some definite possibilities.

Me being Me

Sometimes while writing I tend to be a little cryptic and do not say exactly what I was thinking. ( I know few of you are going "duh.")
Some of the outcomes(comments) on what I expect others to respond is not even close to what I was talking about. When things like this occur, I worry that maybe my communications skills are lacking somewhere. It really should not bother me, but it does.

Now, after reading this, do not try to find a hidden meaning in my posts. There really isn't one. I just can't tell you everything about me for two main reasons,

A) OPSEC - Operation Security - There are bad guys and gals out there wanting to do bad things to other people.

B) Self Worth - Wanting to get to know me, for me. If I tell you everything, then why would you want to meet me? It is better to keep a few secrets for the encounter.

On another note(Mi maybe La),
Well Wishes for everyone's Thanksgiving.

Friends and Friends of Friends

This blog world is quite cool.
I really do not know how I managed to find so many great friends by use of this blog. (Or other blogs that I read.)

My coping mechanism or my intellectual curiosity has been best spent involving myself in each small way amongst the fellow bloggers and internet perusers.

"They" bring me laughs, make me mad and give me sadness. It is a drama unto itself that I control how much or how little I want to involve myself in.

If this is not therapy for the masses, I do not know what is.

The Holidays

Hate is such a strong word.
Displeased, unsatisfied, unfulfilling, or something like that.

I really "hate" the time period between mid-November to late December. I am supposed to be happy, in theory. It is not the time period really, it is the presumption that spending time with families, having time off at "work," the giving and receiving, the birth, the Puritans, the shopping, the whatever is going to make me feel better.

I am not a grouch, I am not the guy who goes "bah humbug." That is not me. I give. I don't really want anything. I can "buy" for myself if I need it.

I am really opening up a can of worms with this post. I know it. There is many issues revolving this. I just haven't decided yet if I am going to share it with all of you.

Just know, that I don't like these next few holidays.

Takes a Lick'n and Keeps On....

I have this watch that has a leather wrist strap, gold bezel, white face, has the day and date, indiglo, and is analog. My current watch I bought from Wally World for about thirty five bucks just before coming out here. Here is the funny part, this is the fourth time I bought this watch. It seems I "re-buy" this watch ever year or so.

I have never really liked digital watches. I believe that having an analog watch says something about a person. Maybe it really doesn't mean anything is different about another person , but I think it does.

My watch is bent in funny spots and the wrist strap is dying a slow horrible death. So when I get back, I will probably go back to the World of Wally and buy this watch again for thirty five bucks.

Was I the Only One?

Was I the only one saddened that Frank decided to wait to post until later this week?

Small Dilemmas

It appears I may have hurt something near my femoral artery on my strong leg. My opinion and the doctor's varies on what is really wrong. It does not matter much it still hurts to move.

I cannot get a hold of Chase, in which I have credit card. I have been unable to reach them via the phone, Internet, or mail. I think they forgot where I am. ( No other credit card do I have this problem with.)

I am very behind in writing thank you(s). Slow start, but progress is forward.

I have some packages that the mail room seems to be "holding hostage," hopefully tomorrow I will retrieve them.

~~~~~~~

Nothing major, just minor goings on.

A Kennedy???

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Did anyone see this one coming?

Reading the News and Shaking my Head

I was reading the news and saw that a 1st grader was suspended for drawing a picture with a gun.
Before I go into my opinion, let's go back twenty years. Would this same drawing offend anyone?

I think the world is nuts, crazy, loco and is trying to make our children the same. I have to look at my own experiences and say there is nothing wrong with a drawing that has guns in it. Think, today, what kind of TV shows do "we" watch at Prime Time?

Something has reversed, maybe.

My belief is if "we" continue down this backward path, we won't need to save the world, we need to save ourselves.

Different Shades of Gray

Well, I still did not pass the sustainment portion of the test. So for now I will remain a gray belt in MCMAP. I am not as pissed at myself today, for a few reasons:

1) I am still going to get paid
2) There is no adverse action
3) There is no reason that I can't go over the moves for a few days/weeks and take another test
4) Motrin
5) Naproxen
6) I am still the boss of my crew
7) I know that I have Marines willing to help me in my struggles
8) As far as I know nothing is broken
9) This deployment is almost over
10) I did my best

Makes Perfect Sense...

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Some more fun I swiped from Hot Cup. It figures doesn't it?

No Pressure

I failed.


I get to retake the test tomorrow night.

Funny, I didn't even get to the green belt part.

I really don't have anything nice to say about myself, it was all stupid(like "duh") mistakes.

One Possible Outcome in the States

I might get back find a permanent place to stay with a week or so. I do my job for the first few weeks, which is really catching up on all the training I didn't do in Iraq. Most of it is not my favorite things to do, but it must be done. Go on a leave period of 15 days.

While on leave travel north through DC to Baltimore and visit an old friend from when I was stationed in Yuma. Then skirt over and through PA to Youngstown, Ohio and visit with another friend from my days in Millingtion. Take a break in Chicago and shoot north and visit with my folks in Valders. While there I will probably renew my driver's license and find some of my old things that are no doubt collecting dust in the basement. After five or six days it will be time to head south again.

I might stop in Rockford and say hello to a friend I went to boot camp together, we reconnected on MySpace of all places. Then head cross ways through Ohio so I can take the mountains in West Virginia and see if the corridor is finished on I-77. On my way down, I may stop in Asheville and tour the castle there.

Once arriving back to base, I will most likely pick up my uniforms fro the dry cleaners and inspect them since it will be a month away and I will proceed to my Resident course.

Once I am done with that I will most likely take leave again and head to Yuma and probably donate my truck that is there.

Then again, I may do something completely different.

Cross Your Fingers and Toes

I will be testing out for my Green Belt tomorrow night. I am still having problems with a few moves that are similar in each of the belts.

Testing is simple really. The instructor will pick five random techniques from both the previous belts in which I can miss only one(out of the ten). After passing that I may proceed with the Green belt test with all the techniques, twenty seven or twenty eight.

I have been soliciting help from another instructor during my "off time" the last few days. The wacky part is I don't fuck up when I practice with him. So it looks like I know what I am doing. Then class starts and I fuck up.

So I have one more day of class with practicing(which is tonight), then tomorrow is the test. Worst case scenario is when being the "dummy" for the other person a bone breaks. I am not too worried, I have been in pain pretty much constantly since we started.

I guess what I am asking is, cross a finger or two in the next few days and hope I pass this test.

Thank you.

Fun with Locations

This is where the last fifty people who have visited me are from except the one person from England.

I did not know that I knew that many people on the east coast. Kind of makes it seem like the world is smaller. In theory, I could drive through most of these locations on the way to see my folks in Wisconsin. It is just a theory.

Love

I have to admit I don't talk about to many mushy items in this blog. Things here tend to be on the "manly man" side. Someone had brought up an interesting point to me and it relates to the word love.

Let's start off with I love my Mom, Dad, and my Brother. I love my Brother's family. This love is the type of love that only families really can have.

Then my degrees of love take a sharp turn downward. My amount of love has gotten smaller and smaller with each divorce and ending relationship I had. So much so, the very definition of love has lost its meaning. I sometimes wonder why I even said vows to these women, obviously it didn't mean anything to them. I wonder if there was an attachment displayed as envy and love was never a factor or they were just coveting the marriage/relationship of another and wanted to be better than someone else.

I believe that each relationship(at least the marriages) were salvageable. In each instance, I put my good foot forward(since my first marriage) to resolve the problems or difference to save the relationship. Never worked, just prolonged the inevitable that they had set in motion.

I don't consider being a Marine as a major factor since I have been a Marine first and longer any of the relationships lasted. I am sure it played a role. My order of importance has been Children, God, Country, Corps, Wife/Girlfriend and this has not changed. I have always been up front with this. I mention it because I recall a time when it was brought up as an excuse on why the marriage failed. She was upset I put her kid in front of her during an emergency situation. Wacky, I know.

I am not saying I can not love. I am just saying that I have built a pretty big wall around me and to get through will take some time.

I Had Some Time to Kill

I picked this up at ~ freshly ground & freshly brewed ~ which is Hot Cup Lutheran's blog.
Some of the questions were omitted, I am not making up new ones. Well, here goes:

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? : No
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I got kicked in the lower abdominal area and had a tear or two.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? I can't read it, so yes.
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Honey ham
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Highly impossible, NO
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I would kick myself in the ass or sucker punch me.
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Does a bear shit in the woods?
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS ? Yes
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Been there done that.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I kind of like Pops, but only for a snack.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Depends if I was PTing or not.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? No, but I fight dirty.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Orange sherbet
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Gait
15. RED OR PINK? Red, bloody.
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Intelligence.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? I hate to say it, the last ex-wife.
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Digital MAR PAT, rough side out leather.
20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Apple
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Rock and Roll
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Sky Blue #76D7EA
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Vanilla
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Mom
26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Football
27. HAIR COLOR? Is this mine? Brown
28. EYE COLOR? Matches the hair.
29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? I can kind of see
30. FAVORITE FOOD? This changes on what course we are eating. Peanut Butter Squares.
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Scary with the bad guy winning.(Realism)
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Snatch.
33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Olive drab
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer
35. HUGS OR KISSES? Both, unless you are an alien.
36. FAVORITE DESSERT? I covered this on question 30.
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? Forever Odd.
40. What's ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Nothing, air.
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? Rerun of the Chiefs game
42. FAVORITE SOUND? Ch53E in a formation.
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Stones
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? I think here, I think here is the furthest I have been away from home.
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Not really.
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? In a hospital.
48. WHAT TIME IS IT NOW? 0600 GMT +3

Question and Answer Period

It is hard to be the one with answers all the time. I don't always have them. If fact most of the time I don't have them. When it comes to the job at hand, I know my job and can help it most circumstances. If the question turns to strictly a Marine Corps question, I usually have an answer or I know where to find it. It is the everything else that I have a problem with.

Since being in Iraq for more than three quarters of the year, I have been approached with some pretty hard hitting questions. Most of the time, I can reach back to my experiences and remember what I did in that circumstance. Everytime something like this has happened, I did not have all the right answers and most of the time there were no right answers, just suggestions.

Since most of my readers are clergy, maybe some of this post will be easy to relate to. I am not complaining, I am just saying it is hard.

The Village Carpenter's Answer

The Village Carpenter's question is: If you could do your life over again, what would you do differently?


A bunch of stuff....I was no angel growing up, so maybe make the other decision would have been wiser. Not as fun, but wouldn't have limited some of my options later.


There was this girl, that I dumped for a younger, prettier model (kind of like a Barbie doll), that was a HUGE mistake. By the time, I realized it is was too late. I believe that a lot of my early adulthood decisions hinged on that mistake. Later, I met her husband which was the guy she dated right after me, they have two kids a nice house and are essentially happy.


Maybe when I went to college the first time, if I would have not had a full load and a full time job (that was also sixty miles away), I would have lasted a little longer. Maybe.

I probably shouldn't have married my first wife. I should have listened to the "adults" for my second.


All in all, all these experiences make me like I am today. Whether it is good or bad, this is me and I can't change anything from the past, just learn from it.

Way Too Early For Christmas

I have received some Christmas items suck as a tree and light and ornaments. And I said, What the Hay!" The tree reminded me of Charlie Brown's when I first started setting it up, but it is definitely a tad better than that. You all can make up your own mind. So what, if there is about forty days to go, minor.

Wacky Searches on my Blog

Seems that "lately" the most frequent searches(using that search thingy on the bar at the top of the page) are :
GIRL
GIRLFRIEND
WIFE
WIVES
EX WIFE
and
NAUTICAL

The nautical makes perfect sense since that goes with the birthday and Veterans Day. But the other five, I have not talked about any women on this blog since my six year rant and even that really wasn't about women it was about the church.

The answer is no, I do not have a girlfriend(or wife). Girlfriends and deployments do not go together, and as my past has proven wives and deployments do not work either.

If you happen to have a pointed question just ask.

Ben Stein, August 9, 2004...A Look Back

How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?

As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is"FINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end. It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it.

On a small scale, Morton's [famous restaurant which was often frequented by Hollywood stars], while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.

Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a manor woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.

How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer.

A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world. Areal star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.. A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day,is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with apiece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists. We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines.

The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.

I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject. There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament....the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive. The orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery, the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children, the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards. Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse.

Now you have my idea of a real hero. We are not responsible for the operation of the universe, and what happens to us is not terribly important.

God is real, not a fiction, and when we turn over our lives to Him, he takes far better care of us than we could ever do for ourselves. In a word, we make ourselves sane when we fire ourselves as the directors of the movie of our lives and turn the power over to Him.

I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin--or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman, or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them. But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis, into a coma, and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.

This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.

For validity of this post visit:http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/benstein.htm

Veterans' Day

Please remember your past and present veterans, especially today.

Here is a link to the VA Veterans Day page.

A link to the history of Veterans' Day.

November 10th, 2007

Some of you have asked how I will spend my day, the answer is simple, with my Marines.

I will give you some of my favorite quotes:

"Where do you find men like this? They come from families like yours. From farms and villages, towns and cities across the nation...Today, the world looks to America for leadership. And America looks to its Corps of Marines."
- President Ronald Reagan, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina 1983

"Come on, you sons of bitches-do you want to live forever?"
-Attributed to Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Daly, USMC, Belleau Wood, June 1918.

"They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines."
Lieutenant General Thomas Holcomb, USMC 1943

"The U.S. Marine is a professional who stands ready to fight anytime, anywhere, any enemy that the President and Congress may designate and to do so coolly, capably, and in the spirit of professional detachment. He is not trained to hate, nor is he whipped up emotionally for battle or for any duty the Corps may be called on to perform. Patriotism and professionalism are his only two 'isms.'"
- Colonel Robert D. Heinl Jr. USMC 1970

"I still need Marines who can shoot and salute. But I need Marines who can fix jet engines and man sophisticated radar sets, as well."
- General Robert E. Cushman, Jr., USMC, 17 May 1974

Happy 232nd Marines! Where ever you may be!

RevGals: Friday 5- Extravagant unbusyness....

Sally, from RevGals, is writing in my official capacity of grump!!! No seriously, with the shops and stores around us filling with Christmas gifts and decorations, the holiday season moving up on us quickly for many the time from Thanksgiving onwards will be spent in a headlong rush towards Christmas with hardly a time to breathe.... I am looking at the possibility of finding little gaps in the day or the week to spend in extravagant unbusyness ( a wonderful phrase coined by fellow Revgal Michelle)...So given those little gaps, name 5 things you would do to;

(In the Marine Corps spirit, my list is slightly askewed)

1.to care for your body

100 crunches in two minutes, 20 dead hang pull-ups, and a 20 minute three mile run.

~

2. to care for your spirit

Praying for baby Jesus on his birthday, Christmas, and remembering God was a Marine as well.
~

3. to care for your mind

Engaging in the illustrustrious history of our fine Corps and teaching the up and comming generations in the pride and honor to be a Marine.

~

4. to bring a sparkle to your eye

November 10th, need I say more, I think not.

~

5. to place a spring in your step

Singing cadence while going about your daily business.

~

.... and then for a bonus which one on the list are you determined to put into action?

Every one as my fellow brothers and sisters in arms have done before me.

______________ ______________

The Marines' Hymn

MARINES' HYMN

From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli,

We fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea.

First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean;

We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine.

~

Our Flag's unfurled to every breeze from dawn to setting sun.

We have fought in every clime and place, where we could take a gun.

In the snow of far off northern lands and in sunny tropic scenes,

You will find us always on the job, the United States Marines.

~

Here's health to you and to our Corps, which we are proud to serve.

In many a strife we've fought for life and never lost our nerve.

If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven's scenes,

they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.

Do Feel It?

Do you feel it coming?

The emails and conversations have been leaning hard toward our birthday. For those of us that are Marines or former Marines our birthday is November tenth.

On the 10th of November in 1775, the Continental Congress passed a resolution, which said in part:

"...Resolved, that two battalions of Marines be raised, consisting of one colonel, two lieutenant colonels, two majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments; and that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions;

that particular care betaken, that no persons be appointed to office, or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required;

that they be enlisted and commissioned to serve for and during the present war between Great Britain and the Colonies, unless dismissed by order of Congress; that they be distinguished by the names of the first and second battalions of American Marines..."

On November 10, 1775, Robert Mullan, the proprietor of the (Tun) Tavern and son of Peggy Mullan, was commissioned by an act of Congress to raise the first two battalions of Marines, under the leadership of Samuel Nicholas, the first appointed Commandant of(the Continental) Marines.

Litttle Things that I Hate in the Blog World

I hate it when I visit a blog (or website) and they have a "Cost of the War" ticker.
I hate it when I visit a blog and they have a " Iraqi deaths due to US invasion" ticker.

I think it is "fucking" stupid. Of all the people it shouldn't piss off is me, according to most of those I have spoken to about their tickers.

I really can't write what I want to say. I have rewritten this post about two dozen times, not because I am trying to be politically correct. I have rewritten it because I am bound by the contract I signed under my own feel will and I am not allowed to say or write certain conclusions or hypothesis about my country men and women.

Oh, I understand, open your eyes ...various people that working against the system. Those people are not reading this, those people do not vote, those are the people who complain all the time and do not do anything about it.

The great thing here is not that you agree, you don't have to, "we" live in a free country.

Sandstorms and Post Cards

Today, there is another sand storm going through, it not the first I have seen, not the second, it probably is the thirtieth or more. I could take a picture but it wouldn't turn out because the sun is down. Sandstorms are bitch to prepare for, because they just kind of pop out of nowhere. So I keep a whole bunch of stuff for sandstorms with me all the time. It just sucks.

I did receive a post card from Fran I Am today. It is a picture of water fountain in Barcelona. (Just to let everyone know, I would reply if I had an address.) I am actually one of those crazy people who keep most, if not all, of the mail sent to me. I even have a wacky filing system. So lets say you wrote me a letter when I was floating around the ocean in 1996, odds are I have it somewhere.

So today's verdict is: it sucks there is a sandstorm but I am happy because I received a post card from Fran I Am .

Post From Jan

"Cascading 268 feet into a deep pool, Snoqualmie Falls is one of Washington's most popular scenic attractions."
Very Cool.

Something Everyone Can Understand

I saw this on Jan's blog, apparently anyone can enjoy my ramblings and only college level humans can enjoy hers.

The Truck

I have in my website several pictures of my '96 Ford Ranger in which I have painted several times. The thing that prompted this painting was this:




After this event, I attempted to fix it, but after another fender bender on Amarillo, Texas I said screw it.

The first original paint job was gold with chevrons on the fenders, but it didn't last very long.

This was followed shortly there after with a " 5-ton" color. I never understood why they look pale all the time until it finally rained. I had added some air-wing type terms with the type of humor I have. I have it displayed here.

Some time after that rain storm I took a little more time and used Marine Corps colors to paint my truck. This is the point when you may say I am a little proud. You can make your own assumptions. I had this paint job the longest.

The one thing you have to keep in mind is I didn't use high quality paint, so when the entire hood decide to chip up it was time to repaint. This was the last yellow paint job I had. (In the picture is a Chevy, it is not mine, it is my ex-wife's)

After that, I was experimenting with a digital patten to match our cammies and did various pattens. I did take a few pictures but I do not have access to them at the moment. Like I have mentioned before, I believe the last and current paint scheme is light blue with scarlet highlights. Something that should resemble the gremlin in the first Wayne's World.

Reading and Writing

Normally by now I would have read my usual 15 blogs and have read the headlines of around 10 news agencies. Instead I read my comments that were posted while sleeping and wrapped a hot towel around my neck.

I feel I am betraying myself somehow.

I should be writing letters back to the gracious people who have written me. I am going to put that off until tomorrow.

(Funny thing, I gave my sergeant time off again today, what the fuck was I thinking?)

I Have Been Tagged

Tagged = someone challenges you come up with 10 random things about yourself, then you have to tag 5 other bloggers.

10 random things about The Wyldth1ng:

1) When I was knee high to a grasshopper I would camp out in my toy box shaped as a football.

2) My junior year in high school I applied for the Air Force Academy.

3) I have been fascinated with breasts for as long as I can remember and I just can't seem to get enough of them.

4) The words nifty, shnazy, and silly should be included in everyone's everyday conversations.

5) My MCMAP instructor says I look like "Foamy" the Squirrel.

6) I have a glow in the dark pillow case with the solar system.

7) I love being the devil's advocate, all the time.

8) I have painted my '96 Ford Ranger 17 times, never once with auto paint.

9) I have bought the movie LA Story seven times in VHS and four times in DVD.

10) I went to Nationals while in VICA for extemporaneous speaking and finished thirteenth.

I am tagging:
MoreCows
Diane
(Deleted)
Magdalene
Jan

How it is.

I am not asking for sympathy.

I am hoping that this sore/pain lessens in the next few days or I do know if I can keep going in this course. I know that parts of my body that I don't use regularly are supposed to be sore. I have some bruises in places that there should not be bruises. I do not bruise easily.

The last few days I have been sleeping longer, my water consumption is up, and typing is royal pain in the ass(not literally, pain is in wrists and forearms). I normally don't lay still while sleeping, but everytime I do move I awake with searing pain in my ribs.

I volunteered for this. Does that make me a sadist or masochist?

Two weeks to go.

RevGals Friday Five: Interviews

Mother Laura writes:
Songbird just had an interview for a "vague and interesting" possibility, and More Cows than People is doing campus visits for doctoral programs. There always seem to be a few RevGals applying for new positions, and I just got my first call for this year's preliminary interviews for college teaching jobs at the American Academy of Religion meeting in San Diego coming up in a few weeks. It's for my dream job among this year's offerings, and I am flipflopping between excitement and nervousness. So please keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer for everyone facing such conversations, and share your thoughts on the wonderful world of interviews:

1. What was the most memorable interview you ever had?

2005 Enlisted to Warrant Officer board at the Wing level. This was the first year in which I had put in a package and the Wing wanted to conduct interviews on the potential candidates. Previous years that I had applied I only interviewed at the Squadron level. Everything I did was wrong, my ribbons were upside-down, I rattled off the wrong job description in which I was applying, I couldn't screw it up any more that I did. (By the way, the list for this year is out, I did not make it, again.)

2. Have you ever been the interviewer rather than the interviewee? If so, are you a tiger, a creampuff, or somewhere in between?

I would have to say 'not applicable.'

3. Do phone interviews make you more or less nervous than in-person ones?

Never have I done one. I would think less nervous.

4. What was the best advice you ever got to prepare for an interview? How about the worst?

The best was reread the statement of purpose(reason why interview is taking place) ten to twenty minutes prior. The worst was act naturally.

5. Do you have any pre-interview rituals that give you confidence?

I hum the Marines' Hymn. Everytime.

(I don't know why my first link didn't work, but this goes to my site.)

With All of Your Help

My comments have increased five times with all of your help. Then again, with this support I also wrote fifty posts. That alone is almost more than all of last year.

Thank you.

Time Consumption with Pain

If you "see" less of me on the internet or do not here from me much I have a good reason.
Green Belt

I am attempting to increase my Marine Corps Martial Arts (Program) belt from a gray to a green. It is not a big step, but it is a step none the less.

So more or less I will be getting my ass kicked for about three weeks by a bunch of young bucks. I found out tonight that I am one of the heaviest of the group. That is wacky. I don't think that has ever happened before.

All I have to remember is, if I am injured I have to stop; if I am hurt I keep on going.

Happy Halloween

Jan had at a link for Halloween Hangman. Here was my result.

The Night Sky

This is my representation of the night sky out here. Let me explain the picture. The word "NORTH" is not in the sky, but inserted in the picture for orientation sake. The big white dot is the brightest spot in the sky. The red dot is clearly the only red dot in the sky. And the five smaller dots are my representation of Orion. The "giant" pale yellow circle is the moon.

I know this isn't to scale but my cheap camera just doesn't cut it when taking night time pictures. I hope clarifies previous posts on the subject.

Letters - The Answer Expanded

I just sent out about a dozen letters. Dropped them off in the blue box in the hallway of the "head shed" right next to the Squadron Duty Officer.

I have been putting off letter writing for a little while hoping for some news to share, but there really isn't a whole lot to share. (I am not going to spoil what I did write about though.)

Some of those who wrote me or sent a care package included email addresses or I have them, but I didn't write an email back. My thinking is, this person or people took the time to send me a package or letter so I will return the favor and write back.

Now, know this, my handwriting is awful. So I do not "write" a whole lot. I type out a letter and then "write" a sentence or two specifically to that person or people. To me the hardest part is getting the address to look neat enough so the post office won't have problems delivering the letter.

No Idea, Part II

Do you like paper letters and/or email?

I like to receive paper mail even post cards while deployed, but when I am in the states I prefer emails. Here is the reasoning, while away in some foreign land, communications as the average American indulges on is usually not a possibility. I have been fortunate in this last deployment to be able access the Internet as often as I do(, but my job is partial to blame for that).

What did you have for breakfast??

I wake up in the late afternoon, since I work at night time. I initially start off with about six or seven cans of Dr.Pepper if available or about a pot of coffee. Then I may eat some dried fruit (about 4 or 5 cups) if available then won't eat until Midrats(midnight meal). Today was just that, Dr. Pepper and some dried fruit.

What were your favorite books as a kid?

One of my all time favorites is from childhood, The Monster at the End of this Book. (Which the person asking this knew that.) It is all about presentation.
I also enjoyed The Dark Crystal, Snow White, and Gremlins. Now knowing that, you all should understand my brain better.

Describe yourself using 4 adjectives?
Egotistical
Opinionated
Proud
Unpretentious

No Idea, Give Me One Please

I have no idea what to write about today. So if you read this and want to give me a suggestion, I will write about said topic or question put forth. Let me rephrase that give a suggestion in the next 3 or so hours and I will pick at random that topic or write about all of them if the list is short. If there is none, then it will be true, I am talking to no one in particular.

Links That I Have Here

I wanted to go back over some of my links and tell you why they are here.

You've Really Got to Love Your People* - This blog helps me intellectually as well as spiritually.
Yearning For God* - This blog is reminds me of everyone else.
Tribal Church* - This blog talks about a potential progressive spiritual path, which fascinates me.
The Daily Gut - This is one of those "duh" blogs, tells it like it is and reminds me of how stupid people can be.
Suitably Flip - This blog is similar to the Daily Gut but focuses more on politics. So stupid politicians.
Sharing a Journey* - I have this blog for a few different reasons but the most important one is I really do not agree with most of what is said, so you could say I am his devil's advocate.
Seeking Authentic Voice* - This is one of the spiritually charged blogs that I have here, one that keeps me on my toes.
Rogue Gunner - A Falklands war veteran that speaks volumes to me and others of similar backgrounds.
Quiet Musings From Virginia - The title says it best.
Presbyterian Gal* - This lady writes stories that keep me coming back.
Post Secret - This is the first blog I ever found, I read it at least once a week on Sundays. Sometimes I go back several times in a week. Go there and see.
Possible Water* - Spiritually charged blog and I think she may read as much as I do which is fascination in itself.
PoliTits - A tell it like it is blog with politics with the inclusion of life.
MilBlogs - This should be a "duh" statement, the center of my webring, a columniation of military blogs.
Magdalene's Musings* - Spiritually charged blog, brings humor along in a subtle way.
Lost in Lima Ohio, A True Crime Blog - Tell it like it is and reminding us where we are going as a nation.
LadyBurg* - Spiritually charged blog, a fun read every time.
Inner Dorothy* - This blog is spiritual and I feel for her pains that she has deeply.
Identity Mixed - This blog confuses me a lot so I go back a lot to figure it out.
Going on to Perfection* - A spiritual blog that interests my on the youth level of my brain.
General Din - This mother's blog is always an interesting read.
Faith in Community* - Spiritual blog that has more about the community than most communities.
Eagle Speak - An old retired Navy captain that writes about our history and similar military topics.
Confederate Yankee - A political and headliner blog that gives us another opinion of the truth.
Cheesehead in Paradise* - One of the first spiritual blogs I have read, I do not always agree, but I don't have to.
Bruttally Honest - Political blog that the title says it best.
Blonde Sagacity - One of the first political blogs that I started reading and has always been an interesting read.
Beyond Assumptions - I relate spiritually with this blog. This is not a spiritual blog.

USMC Ribbon Checker - Always a good site after a deployment.
Real Clear Politics - A collection of many articles and polls, you get to make up your own mind.
News Busters - Set s the record straight on sloppy journalism.
My Pay - Federal and uniformed employs of the government need to know what they are being paid.
Middle East Journal - An independent journalist in the Middle East area.
Marine For Life - Life after the Marine Corps, one of the many tools available.
Global Incident Map - What "apocalyptic" event is happening where you live?
Bear Trap Guides - It is always good to know where the smoky may be.
Absentee Voting Assistance - Of those of us that are no where near to vote this where to get started.