Live From Iraq

You're Siddhartha!

by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try
anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent
some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in.
This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's
time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in
ferries.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Ok, here is your ranked list of trusted non-friends
(see http://cuddlepuddle.org/~adam/trus… )

• tricon5 (24)


• kittymwah (5)


• knight_errant (5)


• bribry76 (4)


• lilraverlori (3)


• priceofamemory (3)


• screwbacca (2)


• angelnoire319 (2)


• wick (2)


• my_unintended (2)


• vasa (2)


• anirexy (2)


• touchyou (2)


• delladanza (2)


• youwanttoloveme (2)


• alizecat (2)


• amorel (2)


• lil_leo (2)


• gaetan (2)


• orbital (2)

Who are your most trusted non-friends?

I failed my goal of at least one thought a day until I no longer had internet access. I guess that means that one of these days I'll definately have to post more than once. Oh well, it was bound to happen. I'm not the type to come running to my journal everytime something pisses me off, I guess I've developed more beneficial methods to blowing off steam. Getting pissed off last night before I posted was what did me in...

But anyway, things haven't changed too much here. I've finally settled in and am now seeming to get plenty of sleep. I've increased my pure water intake slightly, but I'm still behind. I'm not spending enough time studying for the board on the 3rd, as was so brutally brought to my attention tonight while studying with my NCO. I'm of course my own harshest critic, but what can I say after forgetting three key lines in the NCO's Creed. Something that I had down not two nights before. I'll be ready for it though. I'm going to max it.

You are naturally born with a gift, whether it be
poetry, writing or song. You love beauty and
creativity, and usually are highly intelligent.
Others view you as mysterious and dreamy, yet
also bold since you hold firm in your beliefs.


What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
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You are guided by water. You are generally calm and
peaceful, but you can be very destructive
without even realizing it.(Rate my test)


What force is your soul?
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...I guess there was a reason I was always skimming my friends pool before jumping in. I always just thought that it was because I hated the leaves... I guess I was wrong!

The Pool Boy
Random Gentle Sex Dreamer (RGSDm)


Friendly and eager. You are The Pool Boy.

A teen at heart, you anxiously move about your daily tasks, hoping, praying for a good, instant lay. You're carefree, enthusiastic, and rarely discouraged. Love is cool, but it's not for you right now. You know what is? Crotches.

You're a fun person in both big and small groups, and your friends trust and love you. Inside you, meanwhile, your lust is only growing. Imagine your beating heart sprouting pubic hair. Exactly. Try shaving that.


Your exact opposite:
The False Messiah - Deliberate Brutal Love Master

If you're not scoring enough--which you aren't--you should adopt new strategies. Lower your standards. Be aggressive. Pool Boys are often submissive and hope (desperately) sex will find them. Realize that passiveness will not hook the horny guys you desire. A bolder approach and sheer repetition will.

When browsing OkCupid, consider both The Bachelor and The Playboy.


ALWAYS AVOID: The False Messiah, The Mixed Messenger

Take the test

Always accurate, always scientific:


http://www.okcupid.com

Yeah, that's what my body's telling me right now. I guess it has something to do with the maximum of 8 hours of sleep that I've acquired over the last three days/nights. The new place we moved into really sucks. Everyone's bitching about it, some even more so than I, and I thought I was the bitchiest. I call the place that we moved into "the Ballroom." That's the only purpose I could come up with for this building with glass walls overlooking the Tigris River, and four large rooms of marble floors seperated by, what else, but more glass walls. There used to be curtains to seperate the rooms, but those are long gone.

Anyway, it took me forever to fall asleep the first time, then people kept coming and going, watching movies, listening to music, slamming doors, arguing, etc. etc. etc. The usual bullshit that keeps the night shift people up all day. Finally I get to fall asleep, but the walls being glass, two hours later I was awoken to the sun beating down on the side of my face. Sometimes I really hate the sun...

I've decided that I've had enough of the bullshit so I'm moving away from all of it. I got permission from my NCO and I started the process of acquiring a piece of realestate that my good friend JR built back before I came home for leave. I call it "the Shack" which is pretty descriptive of what it is. I know it gets used occassionally by some people for entertainment reasons, I'll leave that to everyones imagination though. I already talked to the main user, and she seems confident that she won't need it in the near future... which is nice.

Other than that, I finally heard directly from JR for the first time since he went down to Kuwait. It seems he managed to have some fun with an LT that we both have a mutual interest in... I still am awaiting the details of that "encounter."

So we all knew that we were getting booted out of our palaces this weekend to make room for the incoming 1ID Signal folk. That's all fine and dandy, I can understand making room for them and making us rough it for a little while, we are the ones leaving hell after all. But does it really take TWO DAYS to move out? Today I was rudely awoken extremely early to the sound of dufflebags being pounded against the marble floors and then the music comes on, then the loud talking and bitching that everyone does. Mind you, I had successfully completed no more than four hours of sleep before all of this started happening.

Let me back up a little bit. On the calendar our move out day has always been scheduled for tomorrow, the 28th. The "great idea" that is the subject of this post was to make everyone move out early, and have them spend all day tomorrow, CLEANING. I ask this, why was it so impossible to combine the two days into one? I mean really, how clean do you really expect us to get the place?

Whatever, so I successfully packed all of my shit up, something that I luckily had pseudo started earlier in the day in anticipation of tomorrows scheduled moveout. It quickly became obvious though that I do not have enough room to store all of my crap so will have to do something that I absolutely hate to do, THROW STUFF AWAY. My other option is to mail some of this stuff out this week. We'll see. Perhaps I should just ship off all of my DVD's and books, since it really is starting to look like I have no spare time to enjoy them anymore.

Well, that's my post for today. So far I'm keeping with my goal for a thoughtful post a day. Till tomorrow...

I know a lot of you don't have my friends back from California on your friends list, so probably haven't seen this latest petition. So I decided I had better post it on my journal, so it would get more exposure. Hopefully all of you will do the same.

http://www.pfaw.org/go/save_our_co…

Now I know that this is a very hot issue right now, and everyone is bound to have their own opinion about the subject matter of this petition. Tempers are flying on each side. I've decided that I am not going too far in depth of preaching my particular views on it, although it would make a great discussion / debate subject.

You know, it looks as though I'm dancing around saying the actual subject, so I'll just say it here: Gay Marriage and the Amending of the Constitution

Like I said, I'm going to refrain from preaching my whole take on this matter. I'll just put it like this and see how many people agree. You can either be for, or against Gay Marriage, and it's your right to have either view. The only issue that I will bring up today is WHY must the Constitution of the United States be amended to EXCLUDE a specific subset of the American people from having a certain right? Like I've stated before, you can have either view, either for or against gay marriage. But keep this in mind... if the far right succeeds in amending the constitution this time around, what's to stop them from producing legislation to amend the constitution sometime down the line to take away specific rights from another subset of the the American people.

Another issue I have with it is the fact that decisions like these should be left for the individual states to decide. The Federal Government already has enough power, why allow them to take one more power away from the states?

These are just two of the many arguments out there to think about. It's a tough call, and a difficult situation for any of our politicians. For those of you out there who are absolutely against marriage for gays, you really have nothing to worry about, for the laws of this country already specifically outline that marriage is between a man and a woman.

I just realized how long it has actually been since I last wrote anything of substance in this journal. Yeah I added the occasional petition, and I'm a sucker for most of the quizzes that others add, none of my personal thoughts have been shared. I feel the need to change this, so my goal is to post one thought a day until I no longer have access to the internet. I suppose that's not really that high a goal considering how little time I have left in Iraq... but in some ways it will be, considering the last real post was back when I came back from leave.

My time here is almost up. Everyone's being shuffled around, people are starting to get excited, and some of us are already down in Kuwait awaiting the rest of us. What does that mean for me? Not much actually. I'm still working my same 12 hour shifts at night and am really not thinking about my redeployment. It will happen when it happens, and I'm content to know that I'll be home soon, i.e. within a month's time.

I really have mixed feelings about coming home. I mean, yeah it will be great to be out of here finally and get on with a life that I was forced to put on hold for a year. But then again, the money's really good. And I admit it, I'm a money grubbing whore, I probably place too much emphasis on it. I still haven't reached my goal of keeping my account at a certain level, it's always about a grand below my goal. But I guess that has to do with my new Overstock.com addiction. I really need to start making some real money when I return, start the business that I've invested so much money in learning.

JR's been down in Kuwait now for a week. I have succeeded in not going insane without someone to talk to about everything for as long. He's lucky he's not on LJ to hear me bitch about him, but he did promise to drop a line when he arrived safely down in Kuwait. Here it is a week later and not even an email. I really don't think that they're so busy down there that they can't call home. Hell, it's even easier to call in theater, just pick up a damn DNVT and dial my number...

Anyway, I've noticed that I've become somewhat accident prone recently. I really don't know what's up with that. I'm not a clumsy person, I do everything with a highly developed precision that others have commented on before. But I've apparently started losing that precision, as first noticed last week when I almost twisted my right ankle. But at least I was navigating a steep slope and in the mud. That I could at least understand injuring myself. Tonight though, I succeeded in fully twisting my ankle on relatively flat ground while walking up to work. I was once again reminded how much it sucks to be in the only section in my unit that has no HMMWV. Although I am quite surprised with how well this Alleve stuff works. I'm still on my first dose and can bear the pain to walk. If it hurts like this still when I get off shift though, then I'll have to go to the Aid Station and get it wrapped in gauze or something.

I just realized that my new found clumsiness might be stemming from my apparent exhaustion. Upon further reflection, I think that my exhaustion is stemming from chronic dehydration. I must thank btfldomie1978 for posting that wonderful fact sheet on Water vs. Coke. It was rather insightful. I've always been an avid soda drinker all of my life, especially in while in junior and high school. I decided back at the beginning of this deployment to cut back on it drastically, and I think I've accomplished that goal. I can't remember the last time I had coke, but I haven't been able to give up my Sprite. That's still my nightly drink. As for water, I guess I've always realized that I don't drink anywhere near enough, but it just seems that I'm not thirsty enough to. I guess that means that I'm going to have to start forcing myself to drink more.

I could ramble on for a while on a bunch of random topics, and while a select few of you will wish I had, since outbursts such as these happen so rarely, I feel like I've shared enough.

You are Melancholy - The ancient Greeks
believed this was caused by having too much
black bile.

Strengths:	You are serious, analytical, idealistic and conscientious.
Weaknesses:	You can be moody, introspective, and hard to please.
At your best:	You are a creative planner.
At your worst:	You can be a gloomy nit-picker.
You measure your own value by:	Activity
For personal growth, you should focus on:	Decision making
For others to relate well to you, they should be:	Accurate
Others should support your:	Principles
If someone wants you to make a decision, they should give:	Facts

What Ancient Greek Personality Type Are You?
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