While having just passed the Feast of Our Holy Father, Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, the Wonder-worker , the Sixth of December, and being hounded by my family for my yearly Christmas gift wish list, I began to wonder... Is Saint Nicholas really the one who I'd ask to intercede for the things that I want? I came across a most wonderful site Link , which says a lot of things, most of which I'm not taking the time to corroborate before regurgitating them here, so take the info...

Fluff, but fun fluff. Link http://www.moxiegrrrl.com/2005/08/military-rules.html Comes recommended by SPC Whitebread. Where he got the link from, he didn't say. (He likes Rules #4, 7 and 13 under "Marines". I'm partial to the Rangers rules; it seems to match what some old soldiers I knew would talk about.)

Fluff, but fun fluff. Link http://www.moxiegrrrl.com/2005/08/military-rules.html Comes recommended by SPC Whitebread. Where he got the link from, he didn't say. (He likes Rules #4, 7 and 13 under "Marines". I'm partial to the Rangers rules; it seems to match what some old soldiers I knew would talk about.)

"Pray for what you want, but work for what you need." Buffet Palace Killeen, TX"

"Affirm it, visualize it, believe it, and it will actualize itself." Lucky Numbers 27, 2, 19, 43, 23, 48 [Reverse] Learn Chinese - Boss -- Lao-ban Emperor Wok Chinese Restaurant Shrewsbury NJ"

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 ...

My nameless concoction (any suggestions?): one part citrus flavored vodka of your choice (I used to use Absolut Citron, but that's a bit too high end for the liquor store I found up here) two parts Sunny Delight two parts Mountain Dew This is actually too heavy on Dew and too light on Sunny D, but my lowered tolerance says it's the right amount of vodka. Used to drink this (heavily) back in college, coincidentally in the year I had my academic drop and was booted from the Army ROTC...

I don't know exactly how I pulled this off... well, okay, I guess I do. I did not finish all my assignments on time, but I emailed the instructor a week-and-a-half out of the end date, letting him know that I hadn't gotten things done, that I felt that I had bitten off more than I could chew comfortably, and what other things were vying for my time (family life, new promotion, Platoon Sergeant duties). He told me that he had gone Warrant while he was in specifically to avoid PSG BS, so he's...

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 ?!?

There are those who are willing to "oppose" the military in getting the word out to teenagers, because they feel the military will target those individuals who are economically predisposed to join. The military offers such a financially stable lifestyle that these underpriveleged youths will have no better choice than to enlist in the big green machine, and go on to be baby-eating, brown-skin killers. [/digression] After The Fact Once you're in, there's another part of the culture tha...

Suddenly, today, everything happened. I came off of duty recovery with only roughly 60 hours left to get all my History classwork done before the drop-dead-line of Friday night. I'm not nearly done, and I'm not sure when I'm going to do it all... probably during that time I had scheduled to sleep. All sorts of balls are in the air as Platoon Sergeant, some of which I hadn't set in motion, some of which I had thrown up there several weeks ago, some of which I had never seen before I saw...

I am approaching the final week of my online History II class, and I am woefully behind. Honestly, I'll be scraping for a 'C', and that will be the worst grade I have earned since I flunked out at Virginia Tech. I never got below a 'B' at Defense Language Institute (3.3 GPA) and haven't yet gotten below a 'B' with eArmyU (3.something GPA). *sigh* On the other hand, the Philosophy I class... I'm still behind in, but at least I have five more weeks to do seven weeks of work. And the pr...

Do we make a conscious (or unconscious) decision to love? Can we govern our feelings in this regard? Or is love something capricious, a whim, a mercurial emotion that comes and goes, as we fall in and out of it like the tide? I know that the Christian upbringing I received tells me that I should love even my enemies. If I am unable to decide to love, how could I possibly love my enemies? I certainly don't naturally like those who would do me harm. I know that, psychologically, fee...

Link While they seem to have upgraded weaponry since the Age of Sail, pirates do indeed exist today. '"The southern Somali coastline is one of the most dangerous in the world," the WFP [World Food Program] said on its Web site. "In recent months, WFP's operations in Somalia have been sabotaged by the hijackings of two vessels carrying relief food. Ship owners are now demanding armed escorts to travel in these waters." ' Also: 'Rogers said, "We're always looking for adventure, bu...

On top of all the other responsibilities I have, I recently decided that I'd like to learn the piano. Actually, there's a particular piece I want to learn, but have not yet received it in the mail. I was hoping to use some of the interim time to learn a bit about playing before I simply learned that one song, as I figure that would give me a head start... but Google mostly turns up sites that you have to pay for, or provide personal information, or just flat out want to sell you something. ...