So here it is. The home stretch of the last lap. I wasn't able to see this through and keep posting. That was for a lot of reasons, one of which was that I knew I would be coming here and new daily experiences would be hard to come by. Here being Iraq, where the days tend to blur together, particularly on Camp Victory where I work. It's not too bad really.
Anyhow, I was watching the sun set over Lost Lake tonight and as it disappeared behind a stand of date palms and a palace built from sandstone, I realized that it was the last daylight of my twenties. Now that I've entered the long, dark night of my thirties I'll have to resolve to keep having new experience, whether I blog them for the world or not.
In all seriousness, this year was full of new experiences that I couldn't have even guessed at before, most notably of course deploying to Baghdad. I have plenty of stories from this place already. For any of you who happen upon this post, I miss seeing you and look forward to being home. Only about three months until it's time to pack up and head back to America. It's a good place, America. Will be nice to see it again.
Friday, 22 January 2010
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Transition
For those of you who check this site and have been asking yourself, "self, where are the updates on this blog?", I have an answer for you.
This thing became a burden. The original plan to do a new thing a day seemed attainable at the beginning of the year, but turns out it's pretty tough. More than that, new things on a weeknight when you have an actual life to attend to makes the whole enterprise a big drag. So. Instead of abandoning the project altogether, I'm switching to one new thing a week. This will allow me to post about more significant new things, I hope, and fewer posts about the new pizza I tried, etc.
This may seem inconsistent, or a letdown from my earlier plan. However, I now see as a matter of fact how impractical it is to come up with a new thing every evening. In the words of John Maynard Keynes, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
So that's that. I have done many new things since my last post on 15 March, including buying a painting made by an elephant at an auction, getting a temporary bicep band tattoo, learning how to tie a bowtie, and making orzo (which i now love).
In any case, watch this space for new experiences, and thank you for bearing with me as it transitions to a weekly enterprise.
This thing became a burden. The original plan to do a new thing a day seemed attainable at the beginning of the year, but turns out it's pretty tough. More than that, new things on a weeknight when you have an actual life to attend to makes the whole enterprise a big drag. So. Instead of abandoning the project altogether, I'm switching to one new thing a week. This will allow me to post about more significant new things, I hope, and fewer posts about the new pizza I tried, etc.
This may seem inconsistent, or a letdown from my earlier plan. However, I now see as a matter of fact how impractical it is to come up with a new thing every evening. In the words of John Maynard Keynes, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
So that's that. I have done many new things since my last post on 15 March, including buying a painting made by an elephant at an auction, getting a temporary bicep band tattoo, learning how to tie a bowtie, and making orzo (which i now love).
In any case, watch this space for new experiences, and thank you for bearing with me as it transitions to a weekly enterprise.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Day 50
Today, Sunday, I had beer in a hard aluminum bottle. It was really weird, it looked like a bottle was made of thick metal. Went to meet friends at One Ocean hotel on Neptune beach, and had a beer as we enjoyed the warm weather. For some reason, they brought be Bud Light in a container that looks like it was designed for holding propane.
Day 49
Saturday, I ran the Gate River Run 15k road race in Jacksonville for the first time.
An annual tradition here, people come from all over the region to run it.
(http://www.gate-riverrun.com/)
Going through downtown Jacksonville, over bridges, and winding through the city's historic neighbhorhoods, the course finishes at the Jaguars' stadium. There were live bands playing along the course. At the start line, they had the Chariots of Fire theme playing in a loop which was kind of motivating early in the morning. Even better, the final mile includes a run across the Hart Bridge, which is a bridge that arches steeply enough to allow oceanliners to pass under it. It's a pretty steep incline, and the race organizers set up speakers going all the way up the bridge blasting Eye of the Tiger.
Some other members of my command ran the race as well, depicted in the photo below. Congrats to LT Russ Lannutti for having the fastest time among us, and good luck to LCDR Dave Gonzalez, on his way to an overseas deployment.
An annual tradition here, people come from all over the region to run it.
(http://www.gate-riverrun.com/)
Going through downtown Jacksonville, over bridges, and winding through the city's historic neighbhorhoods, the course finishes at the Jaguars' stadium. There were live bands playing along the course. At the start line, they had the Chariots of Fire theme playing in a loop which was kind of motivating early in the morning. Even better, the final mile includes a run across the Hart Bridge, which is a bridge that arches steeply enough to allow oceanliners to pass under it. It's a pretty steep incline, and the race organizers set up speakers going all the way up the bridge blasting Eye of the Tiger.
Some other members of my command ran the race as well, depicted in the photo below. Congrats to LT Russ Lannutti for having the fastest time among us, and good luck to LCDR Dave Gonzalez, on his way to an overseas deployment.
Day 48
On Friday, I went to my first training session in the courtroom at NAS Jax. It was a good training session, and a good excuse to play some golf at the course at NAS later in the day.
Day 47
On Thursday, March 13, I cooked a Tuna Steak for the first time. It doesn't taste like tuna. And it doesn't taste like steak. Sort of a misnomer, if you ask me.
Day 46
On Wednesday, March 11 I saw "W" for the first time.
It's a good movie, I recommend everyone see it. It's actually pretty sympathetic to the 44th president, and deals more with the family dynamics and his political rise than anything else. For an Oliver Stone movie, it's not what I expected.
It's a good movie, I recommend everyone see it. It's actually pretty sympathetic to the 44th president, and deals more with the family dynamics and his political rise than anything else. For an Oliver Stone movie, it's not what I expected.
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