Entertainment Status Update
It's been 31 days since I left San Antonio, 30 days since I left the States, 29 days since I arrived in theater at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, and 21 days. In that time, I've finished two books, and watch most of the first season of Bones and one episode of Doctor Who.
I started watching Bones first season DVDs while waiting to board the plane in Georgia, and I kept watching all the way through Kuwait. We had a good bit of down time there waiting for training (much like Fort Bragg), and I spent most of my free time watching DVDs. I did a bit of reading, but I was really doing the DVD marathon thing. A funny thing is that I realized that while I quit watching the series after the first two episodes, I had caught bits a pieces of a bunch of the episodes. I think because it aired right before House, and I inadvertently caught the ends of many episodes. Once I got to Baghdad I quite watching DVDs. I've been super, super busy putting in very late hours. I am too tired when I get back to my room in a trailer to plan to watch a 42 minute episode. I've started reading before bed because I can read for 5 minutes or less and find a good stopping point.
Even my reading was altered by my tiredness. I started reading In the Company of Soldiers on the flight to Kuwait. I made progress through Kuwait even if I did more DVD watching. The book came in handy while waiting around for things when it wasn't feasible to pull out my mini-DVD player. I was so tired the first week here in Baghdad that I needed to find a simpler book to read. (While reading In the Company of Soldiers I thought it might have been handy to take notes on the many characters so I could keep track of who was who. I didn't because traveling made it impossible.) For a simpler read, I grabbed the juvenile sci fi novel The Billion Dollar Boy. It served its purpose. It was an easy fairly quick read. Some of the lessons were obvious, and I called several plot points from a distance, but I was able to follow the story reading in snatches when I was very tired. I finished it last Sunday. This Sunday I managed to finish In the Company of Soldiers. It was good. It wasn't terribly insightful or revealing. The embedded reported just mostly gave a travelogue of his travels with the 101st Airborne Division from their departure from the US until they left Baghdad for Mosul in April 2003. It was interesting to read about Udairi air field while I was headed for Udairi range for my three days of IED/convoy training. Because of some of the work one of our teams is doing that is briefed every morning at our Battle Update Analysis (BUA), I knew how to pronounce the town name of Iskandariyah. Interesting.
I now have Doctor Who The Complete Third Series on DVD. Because my Mom and I both failed to tape all the episodes that aired on the Sci Fi channel while I was in training at Fort Bragg, I ordered the third season DVD. I was pleased. DVD was going to be available Nov 6; I pre-ordered and it arrived Nov 5 just as Amazon had predicted. I watched one episode The Lazarus Experiment so far. That was a bit of a clunker though I liked the insight into Martha's family and why in 42 her Mom agreed to help spy on Martha and the Doctor. It wasn't as bad as Gridlock though which I felt just to be an awful episode that embodied all the negatives about Doctor Who. Next time I get enough free time I will be watching Human Nature and The Family of Blood. I watched Human Nature on tape while home in early October. We missed taping The Family of Blood though and I could not wait so I spoiled myself through Wikipedia. Still I thought Human Nature was great and look forward to watching it again while seeing the conclusion for the first time. Next up is the three part series/season finale. I missed those too. When I get the time, I'll be catching up on Doctor Who. Then I'll finish up the first season of Bones and roll right into the second which I purchased on DVD at the same time as Doctor Who. My next novel will be When Gravity Fails.
That's about it for now. Hopefully things will slow down even more so I can start working out most days, reading and watching DVDs, and updating this site and emailing other friends a little bit more.
I started watching Bones first season DVDs while waiting to board the plane in Georgia, and I kept watching all the way through Kuwait. We had a good bit of down time there waiting for training (much like Fort Bragg), and I spent most of my free time watching DVDs. I did a bit of reading, but I was really doing the DVD marathon thing. A funny thing is that I realized that while I quit watching the series after the first two episodes, I had caught bits a pieces of a bunch of the episodes. I think because it aired right before House, and I inadvertently caught the ends of many episodes. Once I got to Baghdad I quite watching DVDs. I've been super, super busy putting in very late hours. I am too tired when I get back to my room in a trailer to plan to watch a 42 minute episode. I've started reading before bed because I can read for 5 minutes or less and find a good stopping point.
Even my reading was altered by my tiredness. I started reading In the Company of Soldiers on the flight to Kuwait. I made progress through Kuwait even if I did more DVD watching. The book came in handy while waiting around for things when it wasn't feasible to pull out my mini-DVD player. I was so tired the first week here in Baghdad that I needed to find a simpler book to read. (While reading In the Company of Soldiers I thought it might have been handy to take notes on the many characters so I could keep track of who was who. I didn't because traveling made it impossible.) For a simpler read, I grabbed the juvenile sci fi novel The Billion Dollar Boy. It served its purpose. It was an easy fairly quick read. Some of the lessons were obvious, and I called several plot points from a distance, but I was able to follow the story reading in snatches when I was very tired. I finished it last Sunday. This Sunday I managed to finish In the Company of Soldiers. It was good. It wasn't terribly insightful or revealing. The embedded reported just mostly gave a travelogue of his travels with the 101st Airborne Division from their departure from the US until they left Baghdad for Mosul in April 2003. It was interesting to read about Udairi air field while I was headed for Udairi range for my three days of IED/convoy training. Because of some of the work one of our teams is doing that is briefed every morning at our Battle Update Analysis (BUA), I knew how to pronounce the town name of Iskandariyah. Interesting.
I now have Doctor Who The Complete Third Series on DVD. Because my Mom and I both failed to tape all the episodes that aired on the Sci Fi channel while I was in training at Fort Bragg, I ordered the third season DVD. I was pleased. DVD was going to be available Nov 6; I pre-ordered and it arrived Nov 5 just as Amazon had predicted. I watched one episode The Lazarus Experiment so far. That was a bit of a clunker though I liked the insight into Martha's family and why in 42 her Mom agreed to help spy on Martha and the Doctor. It wasn't as bad as Gridlock though which I felt just to be an awful episode that embodied all the negatives about Doctor Who. Next time I get enough free time I will be watching Human Nature and The Family of Blood. I watched Human Nature on tape while home in early October. We missed taping The Family of Blood though and I could not wait so I spoiled myself through Wikipedia. Still I thought Human Nature was great and look forward to watching it again while seeing the conclusion for the first time. Next up is the three part series/season finale. I missed those too. When I get the time, I'll be catching up on Doctor Who. Then I'll finish up the first season of Bones and roll right into the second which I purchased on DVD at the same time as Doctor Who. My next novel will be When Gravity Fails.
That's about it for now. Hopefully things will slow down even more so I can start working out most days, reading and watching DVDs, and updating this site and emailing other friends a little bit more.