A few weekends ago, I was on the road. I forget where I was (exactly), or where I was going (exactly), but on the sign for Food at the next Exit, I saw an odd name: Kate's Kountry Kitchen. I believe in giving the benefit of the doubt. I thought that this was perhaps just taking alliteration to its illogical conclusion. I didn't assume they had un intentionally mispelled "country." And I didn't make the larger leap, either. But then, this past weekend, I saw another business (again, ...

There are many things a soldier is, or perhaps, should be. There are laundry lists of adjectives that the United States Army attributes them. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage. Tactically proficient, Technically proficient. There exist lists of traits a soldier should possess. Responsiblity. Courage, Candor, Competence, Commitment. Proficiency, Discipline, Cohesion, Morale. Yeah. So, I'm pseudo-that. The name, thankfully, doesn't simply...

My cheap wine of choice. Started when I was on Temporary Duty in Germany. We (greywar and I) decided that we were gaining too much... calories... from the beer (even if it was the blonde!), so he switched to whiskey and I switched to wine. (That sounds like a cadence... hrm.) I'm drinking a particularly cheap vintage of this style right now, accompanied by a "Brother's Special" pie from Brother's Pizza in Long Branch. I feel bad that I haven't called ex-SPC Raver, but I keep coming up ...

I'm having problems conceptualizing this, and it's not just the Old Crow at work. On the side of a can of frozen concentrate grape juice: "Contains 100% Juice (when properly reconstituted)" Now, I started to think, "Okay, if I add too much water, then it's less than 100% juice, right?" Made sense to me until I thought... "What happens if I don't add enough water?" If it's 100% juice when I add 3 cans of water, what percentage juice is it right now ?!?

[For greywar. Happy Birthday.] Searching for recipes for the Thanksgiving pot luck on Wednesday, I ran across one for "Candied Yams with Bourbon." Sounds great, and it gives me an excuse to get "1/4 cup Kentucky bourbon, high quality," which would most likely involve getting a greater quantity of said fluid... I then started to think of what "Candied Yams with Old Crow" would be like. So, as my mind will do, it wandered, meandering... and then Googling. old crow recipes "old ...

I noticed, on my way in to work Saturday, something that shit on my morale. This isn't the type of shitting on my morale that I need in order to complete my tasks (which I plan on blogging about later), but instead the kind that makes me feel a little queasy. On the way in to work, we have to travel a road that leads to an airfield. This is the airfield that troops get flown out of on their way to Iraq. There are some fences along the route, and when the deployments first started, someo...

1. I got up late. 2. I was jolted awake by some sort of computer-related stress nightmare. 3. I forgot akulaboy's swimgear. 4. pseudo jr's tummy was upset. 5. I forgot to get chocolate chips at the grocery store. 6. pseudo jr got sick. 7. Clothing sales opened late, so I didn't get my uniform parts this morning. 8. My car wouldn't start. In fact, I couldn't get it jumped, either. 9. I spent the rest of the morning at the mechanic's before I got a cab home. (re)BUT(tal) - ...

I have been tasked to give a set number of presentations to prepare to become an instructor. My first was a 10 minute presentation on Divorce (Uncontested Divorce in Texas). Then, a 20 minute presentation on Superman. Recently, I did a 30 minute presentation on Radio Wave Propagation. Unfortunately, my next presentation, 50 minutes, looks like it will be on Cryptography. I don't know this subject as intimately as the last two, but I believe I can get 50 minutes out of it, especially co...

I was serving on a starship, and my rank was indeterminant. There was a mutiny, maybe, maybe I was in it, or maybe we had been taken over by an opposing force and subjugated. I wound up having to kill a man with a pen in order to end it all. Well, it was me and someone else, and it was two pens, and my penstroke didn't actually kill him it set him up for the death stroke. There was this crazy game arcade, and there was a man not unlike a young Johnny Depp there running it, cryptic like....

One of the most beautiful things I have seen: I'm driving east on Loop 306 and it's almost 8pm. There's a storm ahead of me, and a gorgeous sunset behind me... the land is bathed in a unique orange and violet glow. There, in the south (off to my right), a rainbow, clear and crisp. I almost don't notice it, but to my left (north), there's another rainbow... no, it's the same rainbow. It's the first full arc rainbow I've ever seen. Usually too many hills or mountains, or the light's ...

Inspired by chiprj's Calvinopoly article Link , I thought I'd share something that I had run across on the internet awhile back. A homemade card game, 1000 Blank White Cards is one of those games (like chip's Calvinopoly) that should be played for fun, not truly competitively. While I haven't had a chance to play this yet, I'm dying to. I need to find some geeks in the local area (or head back 3 hours to my old geeks for a night of gaming).

It has been asked of me (by multiple friends, actually) if there are any gaming stores or comic stores in San Angelo, the city that I call my newest home. Sadly... no. There doesn't seem to be any any comic book shops in the immediate area. The guy at Waldenbooks (who chatted me up on recent comics after noticing I browsed the comic rack and bought a pack of HeroClix) said there were NONE. Crazy... it's a college town, fer cripe's sake! Looks like I'll be reapplying for a subscripti...

No, he's not dead, but I am hanging out at his pad while he's out of town. I'll be doing some looking around while I'm here, apartments and other rental properties, churches, whatever... The whole drive here, it was the same as it was the last time I made the trip, five years ago. Crazy. Creepy. Nostalgic and sad. And I'm still very allergic to cats. (I hoped that, since the 5lb chihuahua was very catlike, and Cyrano is only a small cat... but, no.)

Severe sunburn on back of neck (multiple days of sun exposure) Aches through upper body (multiple days of wearing flak vest and helmet, ruck march with 55lb ruck) Severe sunburn on back of hands and fingers (multiple days of sun exposure) 3 inch bruise, left thigh (actually got that one in the preparatory training on Monday, but it hasn't faded) Very minor cactus stab wounds inside ankles Blister, right heel (cropped up before the ruck march, actually) Minor heat rash in various places ...