Dad's entry

AB Hartline, Josiah J
323 TRS/FLT Dorm B-1
PSC31320 Truemper Street
Unit 369542
Lackland AFB, TX 78236-5570

Ok, Dad here.  I'm posting this address for those who follow his Xanga and want to keep in touch with him over the next 6 weeks.  Just a reminder, as per Josiah, NO PACKAGES!! Only correspondence.  Can I make a suggestion?  Write Lackland and tell them to purchase new pay phones which work.  Worst call ever, I'm sure he thought I was deaf, but the connection was that bad.  Just ads to all the horror stories about how terrible basic training is I'm sure.  But as a father and friend, I'm confident he's up for this challenge and will come through on the other side with flying (no pun intended to the Air Force) colors.

God bless,

Guest Blogger,

Dad.

Currently Listening ? By Neal Morse see related

D-Day Minus One

Well, tomorrow I leave for my second trip to MEPS. They're going to bus me to Tampa, have me spend the night in a hotel, and on Tuesday I'm going to be flown to San Antonio for basic training. Your thoughts and prayers would be appreciated. If anyone finds the time to write a letter, I'm going to get one phone call (should be this Saturday) to my parents, and that's just to give them my address. I've already planned to have my dad upload that information to my Xanga for anyone who'd like to write, however.

If you want to, of course.

Looks like this is going to be the last entry from me for a while.

Currently Listening Liquid Tension Experiment By Liquid Tension Experiment see related

D-Day Minus Four

There's something that's been bugging me for a while, and most of it has to do with people being ignorant, having a sheep mentality, and simple argumentative laziness. It seems like anymore, people would rather recite slogans, or scream as loud as they can than have a cogent or coherent discussion about the so-called "issues."

For example, when was the last time anyone had a conversation about President Bush, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, or the conflict in Iraq without the dialogue degrading into a shrill and nauseating morass of emotional rhetoric and relentless ad hominem attacks?

Let's be honest, most people don't know what they claim to believe, and this is especially true of teenagers and young "adults." In fact, most people just repeat what they've heard ad nauseum and assume that it's true simply because other people say it. After all, if he's cute and all of my friends think what he says is true, it must be true, right?

Probably the largest group of people with this mindset are the people who loathe President Bush and really have no idea why. It seems most of these people fall under two camps, and freely switch between the two whenever the situation suits them. There are of course, the people who say that our Commander in Chief is merely a bumbling oaf, incapable of the simplest tasks; simpleminded and stupid. This is counterbalanced by the equally prevalent belief that the President is this evil, conspiring, mastermind who is deviously working to remove the freedoms and liberties that are the very foundation of our Republic. Unfortunately, most people who cling to one tend to cling to the other with just as much fervor, no matter how impossible it is for both of them to be true. Or either of them, for that matter. Even so, when one such accusation is made, no one is ever able (or willing) to explain why it's true, just that it is. And of course, if you don't agree, you're just as much of a stupid, evil genius as the President. It's like some sort of inside joke, and anyone who doesn't agree just doesn't "get it," or is too stupid to understand "how things really are."

And yet, I've still not heard a legitimate argument for either. For example, if I said "Chris Edwards is a power hungry, dishonest, fastidious, racist, drunk." I would have to substantiate that claim somehow. Even if they're all technically and factually true, in order to make such a claim I would have to back it up or prove it somehow, and form a relatively coherent argument to support my claims.

I understand that President Bush is not perfect, and I understand that he's made a lot of mistakes. I disagree with a lot of what he's done. But how is calling him an idiot and ranting about how evil he is is hardly the proper way to address our President? Even if one is merely preaching to the choir, why should agreeing with everyone be an excuse for intellectual laziness and refusing to address the issue with the same objectivity deserved by any other topic? Respect the rank, even if you don't respect the man.

Regurgitating slogans, screaming at people who disagree, and making snide comments as if everyone "should know" why you're saying what you're saying doesn't give your argument any more legitimacy than the people who blindly follow and obey. For that matter, refusing to question liberal talking heads and demagogues and taking everything you hear in the media at face value is doing nothing more than blindly following and obeying.

Critical thinking is great, but if all you do is recite what you hear, you're not thinking critically, and you're probably not as smart and sophisticated as you think you are. If you have a legitimate reason for believing the way you do, the least you can do is take the time to explain why, right? I mean, it's just as good for you to know why you believe what you believe as it is for the person who is questioning you.

At the very least, rant in a respectful manner.

D-Day Minus Six

Ever notice how the entries with the fewest words are the ones with the most comments?

For anyone who is interested in how the rest of my week in St. Louis went, a (not so) brief rundown of the events follows, including the wheres, whens, and hows of the engagement, including all of the (not so) salacious details.

On Monday we flew in to St. Louis. Our flight was a little delayed because they hit bad weather coming out of New York, so we were about thirty minutes late getting into St. Louis. We met my grandpa after getting our bags and soon after that, The Crave called, so we hit up a White Castle before briefly stopping at my parents house and heading back to my grandparents' for the night.

Tuesday, we had coffee with PB, then went out and picked up a rental car, and spent the evening having dinner and visiting my great aunt and uncle.

Wednesday, we ran some errands, had lunch at White Castle, then headed to Forest Park to see the St. Louis Science Center and watched a movie/documentary (Sea Monsters) at the OmniMax. After that, we headed to the St. Louis Art Museum and spent some time there. After we finished, we had just enough time to grab dinner at Outback before heading back downtown. I ended up parking at a parking garage rather than at a parking meter near the Old Courthouse like we normally did. (This becomes relevant later, I promise.)

Since we got to the Memorial Grounds early, we were able to spend some time at the gift shop and museum before we headed to the top of the Arch at around sunset. Once there, Jessica and I took some pictures and talked while we watched people coming and going. After the crowd had thinned out a bit, and just before sunset, I pulled out the ring and dropped down on one knee to propose. She was extremely excited and of course, said yes.

On the ride down, we met a man from Louisiana who had just finished twelve years in the Navy as an H-60 pilot. I thought it was interesting, because he flew the same aircraft that I'm hoping I get assigned to.

After the Arch, we went to the corner of 4th and Chestnut, near what used to be the Adam's Mark hotel and took a carriage ride through downtown St. Louis.

Unfortunately, after we headed back to the car to get out of the garage, all of the streets we ran into were one-way, and all of them eventually forced me to get onto a highway that led to Illinois. Let me tell you, East St. Louis is not a nice place even during the day, let alone in the middle of the night. Even more frustrating, was how we were completely unable to get off the highway for several miles, and the first exit led to nothing but a shady strip joint named "Girls Girls Girls." After finding our way back to St. Louis, we headed to my parents' house to tell them the news.

I woke up early on Thursday and called Kenny to confirm our plans for Six Flags. Jessica stayed at my grandparents' house with Beccah and watched movies while Kenny and I headed to Eureka. We made really good time and arrived just in time for the park to open. The first thing we rode was the Batman, followed again by the Batman, and after that we wandered pretty aimlessly, hitting up just about every rollercoaster we could find, barring rides like the Superman Tower of Power. I like my feet, thank you very much. We also hit up the Excalibur (formerly the Highland Fling), the Ninja, the Mr. Freeze, the Boss, and the Screaming Eagle. The Eagle was the scariest of all of them simply because it was so old and rusty that it literally started screeching and shaking really hard every time we gained any speed.

That evening, Kenny, Jessica, and Beccah all went with me to the restaurant fomerly known as Fuzio's at the Mills and had dinner. After that, we wandered around the mall for a bit, and spent some time at my grandparents' house before we ran my sister home.

We didn't do much on Friday. Beccah came over and I taught her how to play the Star Wars RPG with Jessica's help. After we finished, we took Beccah home and went out to dinner with my parents. Sometime during the week, and I think it was Friday, we were on our way out of my parents' house after visiting with them for a while, and I started hearing gunshots. It was just like old times. We headed out of the neighborhood pretty quickly, (I told Jessica, "Those are gunshots. We need to leave now.) but apparently it's nothing new. St. Louis has had about seven murders over the last few days. Hurray for high crime rates.

Saturday was a really busy day. Jessica and I went and picked up Beccah and my dad, and we got back to my grandparents' house at around noon and met up with a bunch of family. We had BBQ and burgers, and even Kyle, Kenny, and a few of Kenny's friends showed up. After the party was over, I dropped my dad and sister back off at their house and went to a Chinese buffet with Jessica. We finished dinner and went to the Mills to see a movie with Kenny, Tommy, and Kyle. Jessica and Rachel were present as well, of course. The movie was just awful, but we had fun.

On Sunday, we went to church with my grandparents in the morning. We took Kenny to the Pasta House for lunch, and later headed to the St. Louis Zoo for the better part of the afternoon. We took quite a few pictures, and hammered out some ideas for a possible music project we're working on. The details are top secret at the moment, but I've got a project to work on once I get out of basic training. And of course, no trip to St. Louis would be complete without a trip to the Castle Point Fire Department. It would appear that they've updated and gotten new signs. Moving on up, and such. It makes me wonder what a Castle Point Police Department would look like.

Monday was a pretty relaxed day. We grabbed coffee with Frank Elves and hung out with Kyle a little bit. Beccah wanted to see a movie in the early afternoon, so we saw Kung Fu Panda with her.

Today, we just packed and got things ready to go back to Orlando. The flight wasn't bad at all, and tomorrow I begin running twice a day and doing everything I can to break my caffeine addiction. I'm definitely excited about basic, and seeing what the future holds at this point. This has definitely been one of my best trips back, and I'm glad everything happened the way it did.

I'm sure there's more I could say, but my internet connection isn't fast or stable enough for me to have finished all of this. Maybe I'll flesh out the rest of the details later.

She Said Yes.