I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week.

(PS for you military folk, the two stars on my good conduct medal were broken off by my seat belt! One of the grooms men wasn't able to get all of his medals mounted so we decided to only wear our top 3.)

Excuse the lack of blogging this week

I'm busy doing other very important things. Hope you all understand, will update soon:)

Very soon to be Mrs Dustman

pictures by Sean

Way cool videos from Armor Geddon

Neil Prakash of Armor Geddon has posted some great tanker videos from Iraq, as a person who has made a music video or two, his womp on mine. Kevin, maybe I should get a Mac.

Emotional support from the Best Man

My best man Larry just emailed me this.....

Sweet, stressin buddy? Well you shouldn’t b.....OH MY GOD
YOUR GETTING MARRIED, ONE VAGINA FOR THE
REST OF YOUR LIFE OH MY GOD OH MY GOD WHAT
ARE YOU GOING TO DO IM STARTING TO
HYPERVENTILATE THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN ALL
AROUND ME MY WORLD IS TURNING UPSIDE DOWN
I'VE GOT ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE MY YOUTH
IS FADING AWAY WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING
TO DO OH JESUS HELP US THE END IS NEAR I CANT
BREATHE WHAT IF SHE CHANGES HER MIND AND
LEAVES ME STANDING ON THE ALTER WHAT IF I
CANT SPEAK WHAT IF MY EX GIRLFRIENDS SHOW
UP TO KILL ME OR CUT OFF MY PENIS WHAT IF
MY MOM OBJECTS WHAT IF HER MOM OBJECTS
WHAT IF LARRY ACTS LIKE A DRUNKEN ASSHOLE
WHAT IF I'M A DRUNKEN ASSHOLE OH SWEET JESUS
HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME IM SUFFOCATING I CAN'T
BREATHE I CAN'T SEE I'M BLIND OH GOD GOD HAS
STRUCK ME BLIND CAN I BE FAITHFUL ARE WE GOING
TO HAVE CHILDREN WHAT IF I CAN'T GET AN ERECTION
WHAT IF SHE ONLY LOVE ME FOR MY PENIS OH NO OH
NO OH NO WHAT IF THERE A TSUNAMI AND SHE CANT
SWIM BUT I CAN BUT SHE PULLING ME DOWN OH GOD
HELP DOES SHE LIKE DOGS IM A DOG PERSON I HATE
CATS THEY STING WITH LITTLE TUFTS OF POO
CLINGING TO THERE ANUSES WHAT IF SHE WANTS TO
DANCE I CANT DANCE HOW ARE WE GOING TO LIVE IN
A WICKED WORLD SUCH AS THIS OUR LOVE SO PURE
IN AN EVIL LAND OF TEMPTATION AND WICKEDNESS
OH SHOULD I SHAVE OR HAVE A LITTLE GOATEE ACTION
IF I HAVE THE GOATEE ACTION WILL SHE STILL LOVE
ME WHAT IF SHE ONLY WANTS ME FOR MY MONEY
OH I DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY LIKE LARRY THE
MILITARY AND CIVIL SERVANTS DON’T GET PAID WORTH
A SHIT OH GOD I DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY HOW CAN I
AFFORD HER OR A HOUSE I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING I
HAVE NO ANSWERS WHAT AM I GOING TO DO OH GOD
OH GOD HELP HELP SOS SOS SOS CAN ANYONE HERE ME
I'M SURROUNDED BY SIX BILLION PEOPLE YET IM AND
ISLAND I'M ALL ALONE WHAT IF I'M LATE WHAT IF SHES
LATE WITH HER PERIOD OH NO CAN I STILL FISH WILL
SHE LET ME FISH EVEN IF I COULD STILL FISH I WILL
NEVER FISH AS WELL AS LARRY WHAT IF SOMEONE HITS
ME IN THE EYE WITH A GRAIN OF RICE AND I TRIP AND
WHILE FALLING GRASP HER DRESS TO STAY BALANCED
AND IT COMES OFF AND EVERYONE LAUGHS AND SHE
LEAVES ME OH NO SHES GOING TO LEAVE ME AND I'M
NOT EVEN MARRIED YET OH NO WHAT DO I DO
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you really have time for this crap? Hurry up man your going to screw
something up. No stress.
Larry

My best friend is a bum. hah hah hah

My Non Bachelor Party

I've been in the Navy for a while and there are certain aspects of military life that I’m well versed in. Bachelor parties are one of them, I’ve sown my oats and don’t feel a burning need to see strippers jumping out of cakes for me (not that I have any problem with that or would have argued if that happened, just didn’t feel the need for it). So last night we had a pre-wedding non-bachelor party. Good turn out, got to put the new bar I picked up in Arizona to full use. Altogether a smooth party, no craziness. Still recovering from the hang over though. Pictures posted here.

Deployments and Relationships

It’s true, deployments will make a strong relationship, stronger and shatter the weak ones. LA Times just published a pretty good article about relationships and deployment and the rise in divorce rates (hat tip to T Bone, nice blog by the way). I’m getting married shortly and this isn’t an issue that I’m worrying about in my relationship, but it is something that I follow very closely. Just watching relationships around me degenerate and from being in them myself. The article tells of this Joey character (it must be an Army saying because I've never heard it) who pops into your home while you're away. This is the guy or gal who's hooking up with your significant other when you’re gone on deployment (that bum who's living at your house who your neighbors keep are emailing you about).

Use common sense folks when turning over all your earthly possessions over to someone else. Getting married to someone you barely know right before you deploy could be one of the worse mistakes you ever make in life and could set you back in a hole that's really hard to crawl back out of. It’s not a nice article but it is good info to anybody who's in a relationship with a military member or in the military (and it might make those people that pray on military members who are about to deploy feel guilty for being Evil slugs). No sugar coating here. My advice? Be careful and always have an exit strategy in case the worse thing you could think of (other then dying) happens to you (then you might want to die and we get into the subject of raising suicide rates, which is another rant).

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

I just saw the video of what Hot Coffee mod does to San Andreas and I think someone is going a little overboard with slapping an AO rating on it. It's funny though. Shouldn't we worry more about the car jacking, wanton distruction and running around laying waste to the countryside that takes place in the rest of the game? Oh wait, that's why I like the game, blogger Maddox also has an excellent take. (I'm number 5 on google for "bloggers Maddox" heh)

There's always questions about Camel Spiders in Iraq

I've posted a short video of a camel spider eating a lizard taken by some of my guys in Iraq, I have more too (spider and mouse, spider and scorpion, etc) this one was the clearest of the bunch. If you have arachnophobia, I'd advise you not to click on the link, it is fairly yucky. This speciman was about the size of my hand spread out, maybe 5 inches across. Camel spiders aren't really spiders, they have 10 legs and 2 eyes and belong to an order of non-spider arachnids called Solifugae. They are aggressive and believe me, it hurts bad when they bite (taking a chunk out, story for another day) but non-venomous. From observation, I think they only live for a year, you get there in the early spring and the ones you see are fairly small and as the summer progresses, they get bigger and bigger. Not very bright either, they'll chase lights, shadows and strings but they move super fast and when ones coming up your pant leg with it's fangs spread, it'll make you scream like a girl and dance about.

Here's another camel spider video, there's also some more info to be found here

Update 12 Nov 06 Here's a video I titled Marines Vs Camel Spider.

Blogger friend down for a bit

Tragic and I went out to visit Da Goddess in the hospital where she was recovering from back surgery. We walk in and who's there? The Smash's and Gracie, a frequent blog commenter. She's doing alot better then what the picture shows (yes it was staged). We gave her some get well gifts and she walked us to the door. After leaving her to the mercies of hospital food, the rest of us went to Gaetano's Italian Restaurant in Tierrasanta, the pizza was great. Mrs Smash ordered some pasta which ended up being over cooked, we mentioned it to the waitress and she brought out another plate. Got home, did a guest post over at Da Goddesses and now hitting the sack, thanks for the good night!

My Secret?

Every Monday, I check out PostSecret.

Wedding Registry

I know, it says November 10th but we're actually getting married in a couple of weeks and there's a wedding registry on my side bar for those of you that asked:)

3rd website Updated

I've opened up a Castpost account like the castpost made by Jack Army, his first Castpost shows the value of body armor. I saw his Castpost last night and thought, wow, I want that! Pretty cool service. The video on mine was done by members of the Norwegian Army (thanks Marlon, you can tell by the viking longship on their shoulder patches) I've laughed every time I've seen it, rumor has it, when it came out over there, everyone was emailing it to each other on government computers and it clogged the network (Update, that was the video below, "The Way to Amarillo, story here). Good work on the video guys. I have hours of video that I've taken, be posting best of clips soon, just have to edit and weed it down a bit.

UPDATE, Another highly entertaining music video made by the Royal Dragoon Guards over in Iraq and can be found Here it's a remake of "The Way To Amarillo", thank you Myron and Jessica for leading me to it at exactly the same time, I've never seen it before. Heh heh.

Pictures from my trips to Arizona

are posted on my fotopage, sorry about the delays in posting, getting ready for a wedding is busy work! I'm usually much better at getting something online but haven't had the extra energy. Life is wonderful and full too, those spare moments get gobbled up and before I know it, I'm about to put a ring on my fiancees hand.

Go say happy birthday to Army Wife Toddler Mom

She's a frequent commenter and supporter and yesterday was her 35th birthday (yeah I know a minute late and a dollar short)

Married to the Military

A couple of days ago NPR’s American Radio Works put out a program called Married to the Military and since I’m getting married in the very near future, it made me think (yes Tragic heard it too, I'd recommend it to any military spouse). As this war progresses, each day, news of the war moves further out of the forefront as fresher news stories take the place of the work that people like me are doing in far off lands. The circle of support is much smaller as the story moves further back in the paper. Don’t get me wrong the support is still there but we’ve come off the emotional rush from 9/11 and time can cool off the strongest fever. We’re fighting this war with a fraction of the troops that were in prior wars, 1968 there were 1.2 million troops in Vietnam, that’s 10-15 times as many troops as we had in Iraq at any given time. Spread through out the United States, it’s barely a dent There’s no draft, no war time rationing, other then the supporters of the troops and the anti war folk, we don’t even affect the lives of the average person.

All of this concentrates the impact of the deployment down to mostly the family and friends of the military members. With an all volunteer force, tours of duty a year to eighteen months long is going to weed out many of the people that weren’t that weren’t too serious about being in the military, those that were just looking for a job or signed up for collage benefits, it’s also going to weed out the people that don’t have strong family relationships. When the choice comes up of either divorcing or staying in? When that question comes up, I’ll be gone. Reality is, most people don’t like risking their lives, don’t like leaving there family behind or the suspension of some of their freedoms. The war is weighing heavily on the personal home front, now as we’re going into the long stretch, the people that are still around are the strong ones. I plan on retiring, but it’s going to be a joint decision with my spouse. We’re planning on seeing the war through. Now if only we can make it out the other side with our personal lives intact. Who knows someone up there might start to appreciate the sacrifices we make and give us a raise!

Blogging defined

If I were a serious minded blogger, I would have been offended by what one of the original bloggers Maddox had to say about us fellow bloggers but instead I just laughed about it. He’s been around longer then 95 percent of the bloggers out there and if you haven’t noticed by now, nothing he writes has anything to do with reality. Great post Maddox! (like Drudge, he hates being called a blogger)

Hat tip Acidman

Everyone needs a library

I’ve been stuck with a meme by exfbonnie of Punkrock Mommy, I normally avoid these things like the plague but considering how many books I own, I'd start feeling guilty if I didn't take part.

1. Number of books you own: about 1500 or so (yes I’m a reading fool), science fiction and fantasy takes up the bulk but there are a 50 or so cook books, maybe a hundred do it your self help type books (auto, woodworking, tile, painting, electrical, blah blah blah), 20 or so medical, another 20 military stuff (history, study guides), school stuff (physics, math), 200 or so regular fiction and some horror mixed in.

2. Last book bought: The Companions by Sheri S. Tepper

3. Last book I read: Aftermath by Charles Sheffield

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan
Armor by John Steakley
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Rules explicitly stated by Punk Rock Mommy:

I have to tag 5 other blogging folk. Those pals have to copy the questions I've answered and reply their responses to the four questions on their blog. Maybe I’ll get one or two. Let’s see, who do I know out there that are readers...

Of course I’m going to have to pick on my future bride, Tragic, she needs to get her books back in some sort of order (practice for your future dear!) She has quite a collection. Got to add Tammi to get her mind off that Dennis dude who’s stalking her dreams. Gamer, who I know you must have a good book collection. Da Goddess, you’re a local and I’ve always wanted to pick your brain, and finally.. Mrs Smash, I know it a rare event to see a meme at the trusted and true Smash site but we've all curious about what kind of stuff you have on your shelves.

Eep!

Someone got charged with stealing a Wi-Fi signal in Florida, mmm, glad I don't do that sort of thing. Hah hah. Actually have hi speed in the house on an unsecured Wi-Fi network. Figured I owed it for all of the time I've used of other peoples signals in the past. I do know how to encrypt my signal but don't bother on purpose. Poor guy, better him then me!

Bomb blasts in London

If by some strange reason, you’re using my blog as your home page and haven’t taken a look at the news, there has been 4 to 6 explosions in London and there are quite a few blogs doing live coverage and I have found a map here. Attacking of public transportation is a scary business. They’re having a very bad day over there, keep them in your thoughts and remember, these are the guys we're trying to fight.

Sickest thing I've seen in a while

If you've been following the story of Shasta Groene, her family was tied up and killed by Joseph Edward Duncan, a mystery stranger who came from out of the blue, had no prior contact with the family. Just found out that this sick F*#& had a blog. This is the stuff of nightmares and in this case I wish we could make him die a very slow and painful death.

Happy 4th Everyone!

I think my bride is going to get tired of my whorl wind trips to Arizona. Not that I’m in bad family graces but I do spend an extraordinary amount of time doing odd jobs for the folks back home. This weekend was another trip that went state wide, drove in to Prescott late Friday night and stayed out my mom’s house in Paulden. Saturday drove back down to Prescott to touch bases with my best man and get an oil change then it was off to Seligman to my mom’s restaurant to take pictures of food (she has a lot of foreign tourists that don’t speak English, her old pictures where fading) So I spent a little while setting up the lights, taking the picture then eating. So much for my diet, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to fit into my uniform or her into her dress after that. Morning was more of the same but customers got to share the task of eating, whew.

That afternoon, it was another trip out to my grandparent’s house in Cottonwood to pick up canning jars. On the way out there Tragic and I stopped by the Haunted Hamburger in Jerome (Jerome is an old mining community on the side of a hill) and she had a veggie burger with cheese and mushrooms and I had a green chili cheese steak, that was the best cheese steak I’ve ever had! If your ever up there I highly recommend the place.

Got back to Paulden that night and the next morning we drove down to Phoenix to pick up my son from the airport (of course there were other family things that needed to be done). My dad is the largest collector of electronic junk bar non of any body I’ve ever met. He has 3 storage garages filled with stuff and needed to consolidate it into 2. A hundred and ten out and we started working, 3 hours and 6 bottles of water later, there was a semblance of order and more then half of the stuff moved from one to the other. While all of this was going on, Tragic and Diane went over to the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 4th of July lunch in where she hung out with a bunch of elder folk that told war stories (her being the history buff was probably in hog heaven).

Then it was time was time to go pick up my son from the airport, we went by the house, unloaded a truckload of stuff and cleaned up a bit. He gave me a ride to the gates and I, went out to meet Collin (my son). Got back to my dads house where I went to do the last family task of the trip. My mom also runs sidewalk garage sale that goes on next to the gift shop. Her friend Annette picks up stuff from garage sales in Phoenix and I bring them north when I’m down here, so loaded up my truck once again, went to back to my dads picked up the fiancée and son and we were off, left Phoenix around 5. Of course had to stop and take pictures at different places (Tragic wanted to get some cactus pictures and I wanted some of Collin being Collin) We made it up to Prescott just in time to catch a ringside seat for the fireworks. One empty parking space set aside just for us. Took pictures of fireworks then to my mom’s to take a shower and it was lights out, I was beat.

Today, we slept in and left, I taught Tragic how to drive a stick (bonus!) So she’s driving and I’m typing this out as we pull back into San Diego. She only stalled 4 times and didn’t grind the gears at all (she drove all but 50 miles out of 420 miles) She’s a driving machine. Thanks for putting up with my wacky ways dear!

On a lighter note

Punk Rock Mommy has pinged me for one quiz and my fiancee for the Sandbox Pin Up Challange, demanding isn't she? Well Tragic has put up hers, I'll be responding to the other one after we get done with our weekend trip to Prescott. Now what should we ask in return? hmmm:-P