We celebrated Christmas the best way we could, which included opening our care-packaged stockings after midnight, eating the second Hickory sausage that I received this year, and listening to Trans-Siberian Orchestra and those two Xmas songs by Third Eye Blind, as per request from Rivera. Cooper left after getting upset that we were using the TV ( Read more... )

I didn't expect there to be anything special tonight considering that it's Thanksgiving and all. When I talked to the cooks this morning they said that all of our turkeys were stuck in Gormach and we would have to work with what we had. To my surprise however, walking into the dining tent I saw a large selection of foods and desserts to stuff my ( Read more... )

Some civilian fuck tried taking my seat on the flight from Qaisar. I don't know how he suddenly got the authority to do that, but at few minutes before taking off I had to fight my way back on the bird by expressing that I'm kind of a big deal and that I was transporting secret mission essential equipment back to Mazar Sharif. Had this not worked ( Read more... )

A Pall Mall hangs downward from my lips as I blow smoke onto the keyboard. I get the feeling that this is what the late Kurt Vonnegut must of felt like while writing his many novels. Times have changed since then of course. Instead of the annoying chatter of a typewriter there's the silence of a Panasonic CF-29 Toughbook in front of me, issued ( Read more... )

There's nothing interesting to report in regards to the war, in the north anyway, or at least in regards to me. There may have been something valuable somewhere in the country, but regardless, my position feels more and more like a prison each day. Wake up, eat occasionally, work out, read, then spend the rest of the day pondering over what I'm ( Read more... )

It's been a full month now that we've been in this country. We have eleven more months to go, though most people like counting down the weeks as that gives them a more comfortable approach. The cooks serves steak every Sunday, so people have become accustomed to saying, "we have 48 steaks left" instead of "48 weeks." It's the little things that ( Read more... )

We went to the gym this morning completely exhausted, but left with the wonderful euphoria given from the endorphins released from our brains in the midst of pain. I made a note to go back later this evening when it gets darker, and to continue this pattern for the remainder of my time here. I'll have more time to work out once we get into our ( Read more... )

After a week of being here I'm finally starting to feel comfortable. Most of this has to do with my getting used to the heat, but my blind optimism has become a factor as well. The simple thinsg that I used to take for granted are improving my mood each time they come back to me. Finding out this morning that the laundry facility was open again, ( Read more... )

18:34 CST ( Read more... )

I'd very much like to experience new music again. In the two months that I played World of Warcraft I had my iTunes running continuously as both a means of going from album to album, and it was my own method of tracking how long I'd been playing. Usually the songs consisted of thrash metal and aggressive industrial, as that's the best music to ( Read more... )