Birthdays

So, I'm officially no longer in my 'early thirties'. Closer to 40 than 30 now. Celebrated my birthday today by getting a $3 haircut and sleeping. I definitely don't want to be doing this on my next birthday. There's just a certain point you get to where you're tired of putting things off any longer. Like life. Enjoying yourself. Being around friends and family.

At least it was fairly quiet today. Couldn't sleep very well still, so I got up and went to the gym, and by the time I finished that, wandered over to finance to cash acheck, hit the PX, and walked back to my trailer, a shower and bed were very welcome. I think the heat wandering around outside did it a much as the workout.

I noticed I am still a pale, pale guy. The last month on night shift has definitely contributed. I need to get a bit of a tan before I go home on vacation in September, or people are going to think I've been lying about being in Iraq. As white as I am, it has just been easier to stay covered up and indoors as much as possible.

Iraq wins again. whoo.

I used to root for the Iraqis to win their footbal matches. I've talked to some of my guys here and it's one thing that everybody looks forward to. They've talked about how even the Iraqi women watch football with their husbands and know the teams- a fairly new and refreshingly egalitarian thing.

It's one of the few visibly positive things that everybody gets to see.

But every time they win, thousands of dumbasses in the middle of this city of millions of people run outside and start shooting in the fucking air, and I'd rather they just lose the damn match. "Celebritory fire" sounds like popcorn in the microwave, but goes on for about half an hour. At night you see the tracer rounds like a thick cloud of fireflies. How stupid can you get?

Yeah, congrats on beating Saudi Arabia, Iraqis. Now go put your guns to better use, and shoot a fucking terrorist.

Lovely night

It's bloody hot, but the moon is nearly full, and the soft crump of outgoing artillery is somehow comforting.

Family history

As a man who has never met my own father, I must admit that I am a bit fascinated by families with long traditions and continuity.

The idea of the ancestral manse, complete with library of dusty, boring old tomes of geneology and ancestor's accomplishments. Stuff you wouldn't read very often, but that the new daughter-in-law marrying into the family might take down during yearly spring cleaning, blow the dust off of, and ask you questions about. Something that great-grandkids might poke into on a rainy day, and find just-so stories to inspire them. All of this piques a certain romanticism in my soul.

My own family, even on my mother's side, has lost a lot of their history, though some has been salvaged by my dear, departing uncle. (Some gallows humour there. I'm certainly going to miss the guy, some day far too soon.)

But you, dear reader, now have an opportunity to start contributing to that dusty library.

Vanity search

Googled my own name tonight, out of boredom. Fortuately, nothing related to me comes up in many pages of Google results.

Because that can pretty much only be a bad thing, unless you make your living by name recognition. Those of us who have to maintain non-notorious employment prospects cannot be helped by having private activity easily avaulable to potential employers.

Regardless of whether that activity is moral, ethical, legal, or not, a blank space where your personal life should be is just easier in our current litigious and overly-PC society.

I maintain a pretty thin veil of anonymity on this blog- plenty of people know who I am, and my personal friends and closer work acquaintences know of it and sometimes, they even read it. I even have pictures available through links and on the page, and if you had a legal reason to, you could find my name through accounts that I link to.

I just don't throw my actual, legal name all over this place because it won't really make my writing any more valid, and it would have the potential to adversely affect my employment prospects, and I have people depending on me to bring home the bacon. I can't afford to be black-balled. Fortunately, we're still relatively free in our speech here, unlike some other places.

I don't use my nom de plume to hide behind while I make personal attacks on anyone, I don't need to conceal my identity from any legal actions because I don't libel anyone here- I usually try to keep it pretty civil, in fact. This doesn't mean I think others are foolish to reveal their names, it just doesn't work for me at this time. I wish them well, and respect their committment to what they feel is important.

Carrying Fourth

Very. Well. Said.

H/T Cosmic Babe

4th of July is not just a date

Do us all a favour, and the next time you hear someone say somethnig along the lines of, "Happy 4th of July," gently correct them; "You mean, Happy Independance Day."

And I do indeed, hope you all have a happy and safe one. Personally, although I may be one of the few people left to actually consider the real significance of the fire works, I'm well over the "thrill" of watching my neighbors make drunken buffoons of themselves with 'splody stuff, and after being here, I'm not sure I'll ever really enjoy unexpected booms ever again.

Tag: Patriot's Journey (with JimK, Scott, Lil, Doug, Moorewatch and our fearless leader Drumwaster)