Yup, I'm still here.

I know you haven't heard from me on a regular basis, but there really isn't anything interesting going on over here.  Every Friday I run a small poker tournmanent on base, sponsored by the Morale, Welfare & Recreation (MWR) Department.  It's free to play, they have about 6-8 tables, and the winner at each table takes home...er...back to their tent a $30 gift card to the P/X on base here.  The P/X is basically a mini-walmart.  Well, it's mini out here.  The P/X (a.k.a. the Military Exchange) is about the size of a full-blown wall-mart or department store at major bases in the rear (the U.S.).  Isn't it fun how I have to translate half of what I talk about?  I have determined that the reason the military uses all sorts of different words and acronyms is to require all members to learn essentially an entirely new language, allowing you to more easily spot imposters by their lack of knowledge of aforementioned nuances....but I digress.

Other than the Friday night poker tournaments, I pretty much waste time until I go home.  Now that the "rip"/"surge"/"whateveryouwannacallit" is over with, and there are no more Marine Units deploying or redeploying (arriving or departing), there's absolutely nothing to do here.  I am still attempting to take online courses, though unfortunately I had to drop last month's course because I never received my textbook.  Heck, I ordered it September 7th and it still hadn't shipped on October 3rd (my course started Sept 28th).  Don't order ANYTHING from Classbook.com.  Just a friendly tip.

Anyway, now I'm starting up this course, which I received my book for a month ago...and upon starting the course, I noted that the book I have is NOT the one listed on the syllabus.  I checked my class schedule where it tells me what books to get, and now the book I have is still listed, but it no longer has the "required" box checked, and there is a magical new book listed (that of course IS checked as required).  When they changed the required textbook, I do not know, but now I am stuck with the WRONG book.  So, it doesn't matter what I do, I still get screwed.  If I order the right one, it should arrive about a week after the course ends, so I'm really out of luck.  I've decided I don't want to drop the course, so I'm just going to try to google all of the commands for the SQL programming language I'm trying to learn (that's this month's course) and hope I can make it.  It's going alright so far, though it takes me 10 times as long to do an assignment that should be absolute cake since I don't know what functions to use.  *sigh*  YAY!!

Well, Byron (SSgt Hercules) arrived back here today.  He had been filling in for another SSgt that was on leave at Ali Al Salem for the past 3 1/2 weeks.  That means he's sleeping now in the tent, so I can't go in there and watch movies, anime, or play video games or I'll wake him up/keep him awake.  So, I'm stuck in the office, that is entirely empty except for a lone Marine on "phone watch" just in case somebody calls in the back.  What little "entertainment" that does exist is of course closed at 4AM, so I get to play on the internet, at which 95% of all sites are blocked for no particular reason.  By some miracle Xanga is not blocked (though myspace certainly is, and every other related site) so you can here my newly bored ramblings.

It's really starting to wear on me out here.  I can't leave this base.  I'm tired of looking at sand, sand, and more sand.  I'm tired of the exact same food every single meal, except for dinner, which is the same every week.  It is so infuriating.  I work nights, so dinner is my first meal of the day, and then midrats is ALWAYS the same, and breakfast is ALWAYS the same.  Okay, so some days they have pancakes and others they have french toast.  Wow, what variety.  I eat neither, so it doesn't really help me.  The fruit is usually either unripe, or overly ripe, and it's the same cereal choices every day since I got here in January.  Occasionally I'll get them to make me an omelette, though you can only eat eggs so much, and on a daily basis is just bad for you, even if it is a vegetarian omelette.  At least it benefits my diet...when you dread going to eat you certainly aren't tempted to eat too much.  I fear when I return home I swell up like the goodyear blimp, but hopefully I can exercize some restraint.

Speaking of diet, I'm doing pretty well finally.  I start off my workout with a set of wide-grip overhand pullups, and then a set of dips.  Then a set of underhand pullups, and then another set of dips.  Then I repeat that cycle once more.  They say that is a very complete upper-body workout if you stick to those exercizes, and I (thankfully) have a pullup bar and dip bar right outside the door of my tent so it's easy.  We have a dip bar there because *I* personally requested it be brought over from our old base when we moved, and I only recently got around to lugging the huge metal contraption all the way from the parking lot to the pullup bars by myself, and then sanding off the rust and repainting it.  A moderately annoying task, but well worth the effort since before I arrived out here I could not do a single dip, but now I am up to around 5.  I can probably do more, but that's the last time I maxed out and I'm doing 4 sets of 4 dips in my workout now, so it should be a good deal more.

Anyway, after my pullups/dips I go for about a 6 mile run around the outside berm of the base (I'm on the inside of it, of course.  Heaven forbid I leave the base) in the sand.  The first couple times was kinda tough, but I just told myself to run at a comfortable pace, no matter how slow and to just do it.  I've been doing it for a couple weeks now and I've sped up a lot and it's getting easier, though my shins are starting to hurt just a little, so I might take an extra day off to heal up.  I've been doing this workout every other day so far with noticeable improvement and that cheers me up.  By the time I come home, I should be in pretty good shape.  The trick will be maintaining it after I return home with undoubtedly countless people trying to shove food at me.  I hope I have the willpower to turn them down.  Anyway, the run currently takes me about an hour.  It sounds really slow (at least to me - when I need to get down to 18 minutes for 3 miles) but I remind myself that it in the sand, and it's also rather windy here, and running into the wind slows you down a lot more than it helps with it at your back.  I think when I get back to concrete I'll be at a reasonable pace...and I still have plenty of weight to lose as well.

Well, I just finished the anime series "Chrono Crusade" and it the most wholly-depressing ending of anything I have EVER seen.  Titanic, Ladder 49, Romeo & Juliet, hah!  The series was interesting and fun to watch, but my GOODNESS what an ending.  The funny thing is it's a cartoon.  *laugh*  Don't believe me?  Just watch it. ;)

*sigh*  so...I hope I'm not depressing anybody too much by reading the excitement of my life out here.  It's not as though the work I did during the surge was not very vital - I managed to process ... well, I guess I probably should not throw actual figures out there as I don't need the bad guys knowing exactly how many Marines are moving through where and when...but we'll just say a whole lot.    I managed to process a whole lot of Marines successfully without error, getting them where they need to go as quickly as possible.  That's important and I know it.  Now I need to stand by here in case any other missions come in during the non-surge times...but goodness if it isn't boring.  At least I can work on my schoolwork and PT...but it is SO hard to get motivated to do even that.  This whole location is just so utterly depressing it's impossible to explain.  And it's not for lack of trying for them to make fun things to do.  I just really don't feel the urge to go to "salsa night" in yet another tent where they hand out non-alcoholic beers and it just continues to remind you how much fun this place isn't.  I tried a basketball league once, but I went on leave in the middle of it, and then they kept cancelling all of the games due to 'weather'.  The court is outside and the 'weather' was wind.  Hard to shoot a basketball when you have to aim 50 feet to the left of the basket in order for it to go in.  The wind would even blow a layup out.  *laugh*  Oh, and slam dunks aren't allowed, so that pretty much nixes the whole game.  Yah, that was fun.

So, time ticks by.  tick...tick...the best time waster I have is video games.  I used to play a lot as a kid but stopped as I ran out of time with work & school & everything as I got older.  Now, it is the best time-waster I have.  I can sit on a nice Role-Playing Game (RPG) and get involved in the story and just watch days go by.  I'm so thankful for that.  I would rather be reading scripture or writing letters home or something more productive, but I just cannot bring myself to do it.  Every time I try, I can't make it five minutes before I just want to go crawl up in a corner in my bed.  But, I refuse to lie in bed all day, so I force myself to bed by 9 and awake by 5.  At least I'm on a reasonable schedule.  I can't wait for bed time because 8 hours go by just like that.  Yay.  The stupid "Time Served" Microsoft Excel spreadsheet says I have 79.83 days remaining.  That's IF I go home on January 16th.  Everything is subject to change.  They still could keep me out here until March for all I know.  They could pull me out early for my MOS School (yeah, right).  But otherwise, 11.4 weeks remaining.  1,915 hours.  115,000 minutes.  6.8 million seconds.  Yeah, that's a lot of seconds.  On the other hand, I've already been out here for 24.4 million seconds.  *smirk*  No, that's not making me feel any better.  Sorry. ;)

Ah well...If you're still reading my nonsensical ramblings, here's some slightly more interesting news:  You can apparently see my picture and an excerpt from the Chapter I wrote for the book "letter from the frontlines" at this website: http://www.fromthefrontlines.net  Click on either "Book" or "Photos" or "Profile".  However, I'm told they'll cycle through everybody as time goes by, so maybe my pic and chapter are only up for a few days, I dunno.  So...look quick if you want to see it.  *laugh*  As of this posting it's still me, but if you see somebody else, well - you were too slow.  Sorry. ;)

I really can't think of any more useless nonsense to ramble on about.  (YES! THERE IS A GOD!!)  Yeah, I know. ;)  Anyway, I am sorry if I depressed anybody by reading this, but on a good note, it all goes away when I finally come home.  It was the same last deployment (and probably every one to come).  I'll be back to the same cheery me when I'm back, don't sweat it.  I have a beautiful and loving wife waiting for me, so there's not much else I could ask for (well, other than to actually be WITH her). ;)

I hope everyone is doing well.  Congrats Caitlyn on scoring the try!  I *really* hope I can go to one of your games one day.  I *really* miss Rugby.  It's the only sport I was ever good at...but I really was good at it.

Bye for now, and whenever you think your day sucks, just smile - at least you're not in the middle east. ;)

God bless,

Chris

121 degrees farenheit...on June 2nd.

It just hit June and we're already breaking the 120 degree mark.  Man, I love this country.

Well, I haven't written in a while, and I really HAVE been that busy.  The first three months were ridiculous.  All the way up through April was nearly nonstop.  Plus, I'm trying to pull off online college courses on top of the Marine Corps.  Free time was a thing of the past.

Now things are slowing down.  The "RIP" finished mid-April, and then it was busy busy busy moving from Camp Victory to Camp Virginia (just down the road).  We got here early May, but then I had doubled up on my online courses, taking two this month instead of one.  One course per month is a very full time load, so two was incredibly rough.  I was literally reading/writing/doing homework and tests, etc. non-stop.  For you college kids, imagine literally doubling the number of courses you usually take for a full-time load.  That's what this was like.  Ick.

But, I managed to pull of A's in both courses (which is tough with their grading scale requiring a 95% for an A) and now I just have one course this month on the Oracle database software.  Now I can relax a little until the next RIP starts up in July.  (Is it any coincidence that 'rip' is the initials for 'Rest In Peace'?  Nah, of course not...)

I would be dying if it weren't for well air-conditioned tents that I work and live in.  Plus, the gym had A/C as well as the car assigned to my section.  Since everyone else in my section is gone right now and I'm the only one at this base, that means I get my own personal little Pajero.  A Mitsubishi Pajero is the same thing as a Montero - it's just called a Pajero over here (or more appropriately, a Montero over there).  It's got 4WD, which comes in handy in the sand at times.  Basically, I'm usually not out in the heat for more than the two minute walk from the parking lot to the chow hall.  I also work night crew, so I generally sleep through the hottest part of the day.  It also puts me awake during normal US time, which makes me sort of feel more like I'm at home.  Eh, whatever helps, right?

So, I pass my time playing No Limit Texas Hold'em at these little tournaments they hold here.  It's free to enter, and you can win a $50 gift card if you win at your table.  There's a very large amount of skill involved in the game, believe it or not, and I've been studying it so I can win more.  With $0 invested and a prize of $50, it's only the smart thing to do. ;)  I actually wrote my report for my ILR 260 course on Poker this past month.  Hey, it got an A+ so don't laugh. ;)

Anyway, it's fun, and it helps pass the time.  I miss you all very much over there, and I hope everyone's doing alright.  Thanks for taking care of my Rachel, and please continue to do so.  Enjoy the lovely weather over there while I fight off the sandstorms.  *grin*

Bye for now!

-Chris

So,

I suppose a few things have happened since my last blog, so I will go about the whole postiness thing now...

Rachel and I are engaged. *smile* Yay!  Hopefully you didn't just hear it here first, but for anyone out of the loop, yes I was finally given permission to propose.  Seems like an eternity.  Thankfully, we're not going to have to be engaged for an eternity.  Wedding date is tentatively set for Friday the 23rd of December.  It will be the bestest Christmas present ever.  *beam*

Other not so pleasant news, but due to happen soon anyway, is that I'm going to be deployed next year to Iraq.  Nothing is ever for sure, but that's what it looks like right now at least, and it will probably be a year long.  *sigh*  Really stinks to happen now, but the up-side is that Rachel will be able to stay with her parents while I'm gone so she won't be alone in an empty apartment/house.  That's a big plus.  She'll have the support of her family, my family, the church, and the military, so it'll be as good as possible for a first deployment.  Plus, when we get back, we'll be able to afford the really nice honeymoon to Hawaii that we both want. *smile*  Plus, we'll have some nice savings built up as well, and I probably won't have to deploy again for a good while.  So, all in all, it works out well.  I can't wait until January of 2007 *laugh*

Anyway, more details to follow as I get them, but be sure to give Rachel a congratulations...or a "Best Wishes" if you want to be ridiculously accurate with proper etiquette *smirk*

Hope to see everybody (that doesn't have prior long-distance Christmas plans) at the wedding!

Your friendly neighborhood Devildog,

                                                     Sergeant Mac

Well...so it's been a little while since I wrote.  *smirk*  Eh, busy busy busy.  Between going back to visit family for three weeks, and then going backpacking for another two, that would be the reason for my absence, if anybody cares. *smirk*

So I'm a Sergeant now.  E-5.  Best rank in the Marine Corps (or so they tell me).  Certainly the most fun.  It gets all administrative when you hit Staff Sergeant and above, and now I don't have to do the crappy jobs any more, so yay!  A -huge- thanks to the Schmidts and the Jennings for coming down to see me get promoted.  Totally didn't expect it but it was certainly a wonderful surprise.  My apologies to Tabitha and Bethany for my fellow Marines, but hey, what do you expect?  They're Marines.  *shrug*

So the backpacking trip was exhausting but incredible.  I turned into Mr. Marine with a job to do, carrying the weight others couldn't carry, booking it to the next water crossing, helping everyone across, and then booking it back to the front of the line for the next one.  Always arriving at the destination first (barring other reasons for having to wait or go back) and then running back to grab the packs from the last people in line or whoever was struggling.  Scouting out possible routes forward or cross-country, going back to find stragglers who took another route, strapping an entire second back to my back for someone with an injured knee, you name it!  Quite an adventure.  When I finally got back, though, I slept for like 48 hours over a three day period.  *chuckle*   I was awfully pooped.  *grin*

It was certainly worth it, though.  Amazing scenery.  Incredible sights.  Danger, Excitement, Trail-blazing, you name it!  I got to name a lake.  Ah, well.  'tis over for now, and I sure hope this isn't Mr. Winslow's last year.  I'll be really sad if he retires, but so will everyone else I'm sure.

So here I sit...in a tiny room all by myself.  The Squadron Duty Officer (SDO) is out touring the place, and I watch over the duty hut until he gets back.  I'm on duty.  Always someone on call 24 hours a day if any Marine gets in trouble or hurt or anything else along those lines.  Or, if somebody deployed in never-never-land needs to call somebody else they can use the Defense Switching Network (DSN) to use the military's telephone system to call me, and then I can patch them out to a local number to talk the spouse and kids.  Or when Private Schmuckatelli decides to get drunk and start a fight at the barracks, I get to call his boss and tel him that the military police tossed him in the brig.  BUT, so far I've been sitting here reading my bible, and when the SDO steps out, I get to steal a little computer time for a bit.

So I got a job at the Sears Auto Center at UTC off of La Jolla Village Dr and I-5.  I'm going through training this week and will hopefully be raking in some decent extra cash soon.  Gotta finish paying for school and get back into classes.  Yay.  I look forward to learning a good deal more about cars, though I may end up with some dirty hands by the time I'm done.  *grin*  If things go well, I may get to be an ASE certified mechanic before I have to leave to go off to OCS.

Well, that's a pretty reasonable catch-up on my life over the past couple months.  Hope you've enjoyed reading the Chronicles of Chris...the Sergeant Story...Mac Magazine....whatever you wanna call it.  *grin*  OOH!  PHONE!!  Ah durn, nothing exciting.  Some poor Corporal needs the SDO to lock up the shop for her...oh...well guess who just walked in.  Lucky her.  Ah well, I guess that's my cue to sign off.  Adios!

-Chris, Sergeant of Marines.  Oorah!