If a picture's worth a thousand words, and I've just posted three,
does that mean I can get away with not posting for another week or so?

I think it does.

I was screwing around with an animation program to create a logo for my command's sponsorship website. Towards that end, which of these do you like best?










Be honest now, this is for posterity...

I'm getting anxious to be on leave.
Also, I sent Matt a care package today with a few goodies.

In other news it's getting hot out here, and we had our first sand storm of the season. Also, there are issues with my re-enlistment chit and two different branches of my chain of command have it held in limbo while they decide who has he biggest collection of rubber stamps. Personally, I'm voting for the NCs over the LT. Not so much because I think the NCs will win, but because if they do it means less work for me.

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I got an email from my brother today!
He's doing well and is keeping busy, and asked me to send two dozen screws and some snacks. So I bought the screws, some drywall anchors, some pringles, some dominoes, a set of fuzzy dice, and some toilet paper (it's the good kind too). In theory, I'll mail it tomorrow.

Also, I didn't break my foot this morning, at least I didn't think anything was broken. I've broken bones before, and this didn't hurt nearly as much, but Chief told me to get it looked at anyway. Sure enough, the X-rays came back fine, so the HM1 told me to hydrate and keep on running, just not more than ten miles a week.


Something I did break however was my resolve to not spend money needlessly... In other words, I bought some bling. I know it's frivolous, and I've never been much for wearing jewelry, but I wanted something to remember Bahrain by and nothing says "So long sucka!" like 18k gold.

I got an email from my brother today!
He's doing well and is keeping busy, and asked me to send two dozen screws and some snacks. So I bought the screws, some drywall anchors, some pringles, some dominoes, a set of fuzzy dice, and some toilet paper (it's the good kind too). In theory, I'll mail it tomorrow.

Also, I didn't break my foot this morning, at least I didn't think anything was broken. I've broken bones before, and this didn't hurt nearly as much, but Chief told me to get it looked at anyway. Sure enough, the X-rays came back fine, so the HM1 told me to hydrate and keep on running, just not more than ten miles a week.


Something I did break however was my resolve to not spend money needlessly... In other words, I bought some bling. I know it's frivolous, and I've never been much for wearing jewelry, but I wanted something to remember Bahrain by and nothing says "So long sucka!" like 18k gold.

I ran five miles yesterday morning for the first time since A school. I won't lie, it almost beat me down. I have a lot of new blisters, and need to invest in a new pair of shoes, but now that I've done it once it's going to be that much easier to do again, and again, and again.

Also, I decided to make a go at doing 20 in the Navy.
There's a bit of paperwork to do, but my re-enlistment should happen on June 2nd.

O! A friend of mine got baptized last night. She's a Catholic, and her baptism happened at their Easter vigil, so the whole ceremony was a bit odd to me. I sat next to a mutual friend, who goes to the Baptist service with me so at least we would be lost at the same points in the Mass.

Also, my kid brother is now over here and a bit further north than I am. The water's bad up there, the bugs are bad up there, and the camel spiders would eat your kitty cat for breakfast. If you want to send any supplies his way I'm sure his whole division would appreciate it. Email me if you want his mailing address.

Things I know he'll need:
Toilet Paper
Bug Spray (Guy's who have been there tell me Skin So Soft works the best)
Anti-bacterial hand disinfectant.
Dish Soap.

There's more to the list, I'll update it shortly.

One of the assignments for the victimology class I'm in right now involved coming to terms with societies fascination with murder via all the different words the english lanugage has which allude to it.

Some people went with infanticide, or genocide, while others strayed to 187, liquidate and slay. I was kinda miffed that someone already had genocide, because I wanted to tie it into the situation with Rwanda, but what can I say those are the breaks. At any rate, I chose to define assassination.


Assassination
One theory states that this word has it's origins in a fringe Shia order, the Nizari Ismailis, more commonly known as the Hashshashin. According to research, this group used to ingest Hashish before combat missions in order to be fearless.

Dictionary.com defines Assasination as:
1) To murder (a prominent person) by surprise attack, as for political reasons.
2) To destroy or injure treacherously: assassinate a rival's character.


I'm not entirely satisfied with the limitations of the first definition as it leaves a bit of gray area open for debate. For instance, what if you murdered someone by surprise attack for personal reasons, what if the person you murdered for political reasons wasn't prominent, would these instances still be considered assassination?


Talk about an easy homework assignment! I think I'll go to bed early tonight.

So I was working on T-shirt logos for my detachment.
They're too large to put on this blog, but here are links to two versions
Black and White
In Color

Other than that not much is new.

Yes Rob, before you say it I totally bit off the image of that Knight from Oblivion. But it's not being reproduced for a profit, so that makes it ok right?

Should I stay or should I go?

This song, or rather it's chorus, has been running through my mind the last few days. (and nights come to think of it)

"Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double..."

You see it's like this. I've reached that magical point in my career where it's time to re-enlist or face the consequences. On the one hand, if I get out I can get my masters. On the other hand if I stay in I can get my masters, but it'll take the better part of the next five years. If I get out I can buy a house and get a dog. If I stay in I can still buy a house, but will then have to rent it when I'm overseas... Oh, yea and with this job forget the pooch.

I've only been in for three years but have already made extremely good headway in gaining rank and if I did 20 there's no doubt I'd retire as a senior chief or master chief. On the other hand, if I get out I stand a pretty good chance of working somewhere in government law enforcement and would probably do pretty well there too.

What it really boils down to is, do I want to move every two to four years for the next 17 years, or do I want to try for something a bit more stable.


At any rate, now you know what keeps me up at night.

"So come on and let me know....
Should I stay or should I go?"