Okay, so for some reason, I suddenly watched a whole bunch of movies this week. Let me give brief reviews for them.
Amazing Grace - The story of the abolitionist William Wilberforce in England. Main character played by the guy who plays Mr. Fantastic in the two Fantastic Four movies. The story is uplifting (although massive liberties were taken), but the movie does not excite me. I found it dull and distant. The scenery is great and the costume work is fantastic, but I'm not one of those people who gets all excited about the frills. This was a movie that should have stirred me, but instead left me cold. A 3 out of 10. I will probably watch it again with my wife, but I'm pretty sure I'll either sleep through it, or get on my computer and start playing EverQuest after about 15 minutes.
Evan Almighty - Newly elected Congressman Evan Baxter prays for help to "change the world" and he gets it. God commands him to build an Ark. You might think the storyline is trite, but I am a "true believer." Sometimes God tells us to do things, and He doesn't care about our financial well-being, or our health, or our job, or our friendships. He cares about our spiritual well-being. Granted God doesn't ever appear to me as Morgan Freeman or dance with me under a tree in a field, but His glory is around me every single day if I open my eyes to see. I loved this movie. It was funny, it was moving, and even though I think the directors actually TRIED to make it trite and silly, they failed. Evan Almighty is a keeper. 9 out of 10. I'm going to buy it and watch it over and over again.
Shoot Em Up - A random guy gets involved in a plot to indirectly kill a Congressman. The details are too stupid and gruesome to share. The movie is bloody and stupid. It came across to me as being like "Planet Terror" with higher production qualities, only the plot was even dumber. I could go on, but why bother. 1 out of 10, never see it again, demand to see the EEG printout of anyone who says it was "great" or even "good."
3:10 to Yuma - a "modern" western, starring Russel Crowe and Christian Bale, the characters are overly nuanced and in the case of Crowe's character, unbelievable. The sets were gorgeous, the costumes were great. It has a gay train-robber in it, even (which struck me as just dumb, but whatever). Also, should be nominated for absolutely positively the WORST EDITING JOB EVER in a movie. Whoever edited it, took out a 2 minute long scene that would have left the viewer at the end thinking "ahhhh, I understand." Instead, at the end of the movie you think to yourself "hmm, I didn't quite expect THAT, but something close to it." Watch the deleted scenes and suddenly you'll think "OHHH! THAT'S what was going on." 6 out of 10. I'll probably watch it again with my wife and we'll probably talk about the hidden meanings of some of the scenes afterwards.
So, there you have it. Those are the movies I've watched recently. I'm also looking forward to seeing Cloverfield, The Mist, and a new movie with Nicole Kidman in is that is very similar to "The Forgotten."
I've also read a terrifying zombie book called "The Missing" which literally gave me nightmares for two days. I'm currently wading through a Clive Cussler book called "Golden Buddha" which is weak and tedious.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Missions cycle again!
Well, yesterday we provided security for the COMGEN of US Materials Command, who came to KAF to learn about the area. We escorted him from KAF to FOB Lindsey, to Scorpion, and back to KAF, over the course of about 4 or 5 hours.
At lunch, I was tagged by Cpt. Bullwinkle to sit with the Generals (a two-star, named Griffin, was showing the ComGen around). I got to ask some probing questions about the future of our efforts in Afghanistan, and was pleasantly surprised. We are working on helping the Afghans develop their transportation infrastructure, which we see as the first step towards making it possible to improve their industry. With improved industry, they will have a larger tax base (increased per capita income), and they will be better able to MAINTAIN the advances we've built for them.
It sounds good. I mean, I'm glad that we're thinking ahead, but I genuinely think it will take decades to build what this country needs to become self-sufficient at the 2nd world level.
Take Civilization, the computer game. Or absolutely any derivative thereof. Turn-based strategy games that involve building an empire. Late in the game, you can found a new city, and buy all the buildings that can be constructed there, giving it all the potential to be a productive and profitable city in your empire, but you have to wait for the population to catch up, and in the meanwhile you run a huge deficit, which you make up for by taxing other cities. And in turn-based strategy games, a turn usually represents a YEAR.
Now, of course, the computer game Civilization (or Master of Magic, Master of Orion, Master of Orion II, Alpha Centauri, etc) does not represent exactly what happens in the real world. However, I think it serves as an excellent example. Afghanistan is essentially going to be a client state of the USA for a couple of decades, unless Democrats decide to cut it loose, in which case we will probably see it return to what it has been for the last 30 years or more.
Anyway, either I've already talked about this, or I'll go into more detail later. In the final analysis I was able to make intelligent conversation about our long term strategy with a 2-star general, and got a coin from the COMGEN of US Materials Command. That was yesterday. Today it's cold and rainy and we're not doing anything.
At lunch, I was tagged by Cpt. Bullwinkle to sit with the Generals (a two-star, named Griffin, was showing the ComGen around). I got to ask some probing questions about the future of our efforts in Afghanistan, and was pleasantly surprised. We are working on helping the Afghans develop their transportation infrastructure, which we see as the first step towards making it possible to improve their industry. With improved industry, they will have a larger tax base (increased per capita income), and they will be better able to MAINTAIN the advances we've built for them.
It sounds good. I mean, I'm glad that we're thinking ahead, but I genuinely think it will take decades to build what this country needs to become self-sufficient at the 2nd world level.
Take Civilization, the computer game. Or absolutely any derivative thereof. Turn-based strategy games that involve building an empire. Late in the game, you can found a new city, and buy all the buildings that can be constructed there, giving it all the potential to be a productive and profitable city in your empire, but you have to wait for the population to catch up, and in the meanwhile you run a huge deficit, which you make up for by taxing other cities. And in turn-based strategy games, a turn usually represents a YEAR.
Now, of course, the computer game Civilization (or Master of Magic, Master of Orion, Master of Orion II, Alpha Centauri, etc) does not represent exactly what happens in the real world. However, I think it serves as an excellent example. Afghanistan is essentially going to be a client state of the USA for a couple of decades, unless Democrats decide to cut it loose, in which case we will probably see it return to what it has been for the last 30 years or more.
Anyway, either I've already talked about this, or I'll go into more detail later. In the final analysis I was able to make intelligent conversation about our long term strategy with a 2-star general, and got a coin from the COMGEN of US Materials Command. That was yesterday. Today it's cold and rainy and we're not doing anything.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Guard duty at FOB Lindsey!
Well, the last four days or so have been spent on guard duty, which, while boring and tedious and not a whole lot of fun, at least means that I can expect to STAY on FOB Lindsey. And this is great news! Because now I have access to a GOOD gym (I've already started a new, 7-day workout cycle), internet access (I've already updated my resume's on four different job search websites, if you want to see my resume' search monster or careerbuilder for hbooraem), and better food! Yay!
Tonight at 1900, I changeover from guard duty to mission cycle. This will be interesting to see how many missions we go on. Right now, my biggest concern is that Specialist Anderson actually does his job and cleans up, PMCS's, and fuels the vehicle in time for the turn-over. He hasn't been doing anything at all while I've been on guard duty (well, except for assembling my wall-locker), and I'm going to be QUITE annoyed if I end up having to do his work as well as my own guard duty and mission cycle. (A note here, I composed this earlier in the day, and Anderson has, in fact, PMCS'd the vehicle since then.)
Other than that, things are going quite well, I think. I plan on putting up a sign and posting hours at which I'll look at people's laptops. Getting asked questions when I'm running to the latrine or when I'm trying to get back to a guard tower from dinner is really kind of distracting.
Also, the new Hajji-net is going to really piss people off. It's been dropping my Yahoo messenger connection pretty regularly, which means that Skype calls will get disconnected a lot. People will be really, really annoyed about that, because the main reason we all want internet access is so that we can contact our families, be it via Skype, Yahoo, or email. Email and EverQuest are both pretty old applications, so they're quite tolerant of transient network outages, but Yahoo and Skype, not so much.
Regardless. Life on FOB Lindsey continues apace and pretty soon I'm going to start the countdown. Sgt Knight is already counting down to April 1st. I plan on counting down to April 15th at the earliest, maybe the 19th. 93 days to the 15th, 97 days to the 19th. The 19th is a Saturday, and seems like a good day to count towards.
Tonight at 1900, I changeover from guard duty to mission cycle. This will be interesting to see how many missions we go on. Right now, my biggest concern is that Specialist Anderson actually does his job and cleans up, PMCS's, and fuels the vehicle in time for the turn-over. He hasn't been doing anything at all while I've been on guard duty (well, except for assembling my wall-locker), and I'm going to be QUITE annoyed if I end up having to do his work as well as my own guard duty and mission cycle. (A note here, I composed this earlier in the day, and Anderson has, in fact, PMCS'd the vehicle since then.)
Other than that, things are going quite well, I think. I plan on putting up a sign and posting hours at which I'll look at people's laptops. Getting asked questions when I'm running to the latrine or when I'm trying to get back to a guard tower from dinner is really kind of distracting.
Also, the new Hajji-net is going to really piss people off. It's been dropping my Yahoo messenger connection pretty regularly, which means that Skype calls will get disconnected a lot. People will be really, really annoyed about that, because the main reason we all want internet access is so that we can contact our families, be it via Skype, Yahoo, or email. Email and EverQuest are both pretty old applications, so they're quite tolerant of transient network outages, but Yahoo and Skype, not so much.
Regardless. Life on FOB Lindsey continues apace and pretty soon I'm going to start the countdown. Sgt Knight is already counting down to April 1st. I plan on counting down to April 15th at the earliest, maybe the 19th. 93 days to the 15th, 97 days to the 19th. The 19th is a Saturday, and seems like a good day to count towards.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Snow in Kandahar
Yes, it really did snow last night. Yesterday morning, I was gunning for LTC Ritz on the way out to Panjwai district, and we ran through some mixed precipitation right near Panjwai. It stung a lot, and I thought it was sand until I saw the sleet bouncing off my sleeve. Moving 55mph through a sleet storm with your face exposed is not a lot of fun, let me tell you.
Anyway, last night, around 10pm, it started to snow here. By 1am it was coming down really heavy and I have some really cool pictures of it. Today there is snow on the roofs of all the buildings, but the water on the ground is still liquid so it didn't get as cold as it was the other week. THAT could have been very, very bad.
Yesterday's trip through KC was... interesting, I guess. After LTC Ritz told SSgt Knight that everything we've been doing for the last 8 months was wrong, SSgt Knight decided to let him take the lead, so I was the lead gunner on the way back. I had to fire numerous warning shots (in the air?) and holler at a lot of people. I'm glad I didn't have to actually SHOOT anybody, but I'm not happy about firing warning shots into the air. That's messed up, in my opinion. Then I don't have any control over what happens to the round when it comes back down.
Anyway, lets see, Webb has been sent down to Spin Boldak, and there was a motorcycle VBIED there that killed 1 local and injured 5 locals yesterday. Several of the Misfits are going back home sometime this week. And Col. McGrath is on leave so things might slow down a bit for that period of time.
I'm rooming with Anderson in the B-Hut, although we are working on partitioning our room into two parts, so we don't have to deal with each other if we don't want to. We each get a wall locker (cheap wooden thing, not the classic metal military wall locker), and each get a bunk. I'm putting my bunk up in a loft over my desk, so I'll have as much room as possible. Lets see if the pictures work...
Thursday, January 3, 2008
So much has happened!
A whole bunch has happened since I last posted, even though it's only been about 10 days.
We were out at Sperwhen Gar for about 5 days, and I learned a LOT about incidents that occurred out there before we arrived. There was some heavy fighting in the late summer this year, and it seems the very restrictive Canadian ROE prevented coalition forces from making serious headway against the Taliban in some minor clashes. However, the Canadians made up for that by going after the Taliban with heavy armor and fighting a pretty serious battle with them over three days, which mostly broke the Taliban presence in the area.
Now that it is winter, the Taliban are not so active, because they don't have barracks, and they don't have a lot of gear to issue to their fighters, so they leave them at home, where they can be warm. Foreign Taliban fighters, of course, are still active in some areas, although we haven't made any contact with them.
Our last convoy back from SG was rather tense, because the traffic in Kandahar City was much thicker than usual. I had to bump a small truck out of the way with my Humvee, but didn't have to run anyone over, which is a blessing. We also didn't hit any IED's, which is always a good thing.
I've made close friends with Mahany, who, it turns out, has my taste in fiction (sci-fi and fantasy) and likes to read military history as well. We talked a lot about WWII and Robert Jordan and other similar topics. I learned to play Cribbage with Sgt. Billingsly, although I'm still not very good at the pegging aspect of the game, so I tend to lose a lot more than I win (about 3 to 1, I think). I also had a picture taken of me playing Cribbage and suddenly discovered just how MUCH grey hair I have, which was rather a shock.
I'll post more later, but there's a lot still to talk about.
We were out at Sperwhen Gar for about 5 days, and I learned a LOT about incidents that occurred out there before we arrived. There was some heavy fighting in the late summer this year, and it seems the very restrictive Canadian ROE prevented coalition forces from making serious headway against the Taliban in some minor clashes. However, the Canadians made up for that by going after the Taliban with heavy armor and fighting a pretty serious battle with them over three days, which mostly broke the Taliban presence in the area.
Now that it is winter, the Taliban are not so active, because they don't have barracks, and they don't have a lot of gear to issue to their fighters, so they leave them at home, where they can be warm. Foreign Taliban fighters, of course, are still active in some areas, although we haven't made any contact with them.
Our last convoy back from SG was rather tense, because the traffic in Kandahar City was much thicker than usual. I had to bump a small truck out of the way with my Humvee, but didn't have to run anyone over, which is a blessing. We also didn't hit any IED's, which is always a good thing.
I've made close friends with Mahany, who, it turns out, has my taste in fiction (sci-fi and fantasy) and likes to read military history as well. We talked a lot about WWII and Robert Jordan and other similar topics. I learned to play Cribbage with Sgt. Billingsly, although I'm still not very good at the pegging aspect of the game, so I tend to lose a lot more than I win (about 3 to 1, I think). I also had a picture taken of me playing Cribbage and suddenly discovered just how MUCH grey hair I have, which was rather a shock.
I'll post more later, but there's a lot still to talk about.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Christmas in Afghanistan
Well, we had a Christmas party Monday night out at Sperwhen Gar with all of the misfits. Mahaney made an excellent (if profane) Santa Claus, and we all sang "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus." We decorated the Mess Tent with candy canes, miniature Christmas presents, and glitter-coated pine cones. There was Hickory Farms cheese and sausage, and hot chocolate and crackers and all kinds of good stuff. It was a lot of fun.
Tuesday we drove back in to KAF from Sperwhen Gar, without incident. Not that drives through downtown Kandahar are ever actually calm or peaceful, but it wasn't bad. Now is probably the best time to relate that on the drive OUT to Sperwhen Gar I almost ran over a bicycle that had a 3 year old, a 7 year old, and their dad on it. I had to really STOMP on the brakes to avoid plowing them under, which would NOT have been pleasant for any of us, I feel sure.
AVS DVD player is not working on the House disks any better than Windows Media Player did, so I suspect that my DVD drive is faulty or failing. Which isn't really a huge surprise, the conditions here are dusty and hot, practically the worst possible for maintaining electronics. I watched Batman Begins again and enjoyed that, but I haven't watched Airplane II yet.
Today, I got up relatively early (before 10am, which is early considering that several of the younger soldiers were out partying last night until 7am) and got on the computer at the MWR facility where I chatted with my wife and wished her a Merry Christmas. Eventually we decided to make our way over to FOB Lindsey and eat Christmas lunch here (I'm writing this from my old living quarters). Lunch was FANTASTIC. KBR has it ALL over Supreme in terms of mess hall food, decorations, and general festiveness.
For lunch I had glazed ham (yum!), Prime Rib (yum!), yams, greens, stuffing, and Sparkling Red Grape Juice! It was great. Then we went up on the Gazebee and used most of the golf balls I got in packages. Many thanks are due to Tom Winn, and Fred and Rosemarie Zediak, for their contributions to the cause.
Anyway, now I'm getting ready to go eat Christmas Dinner in the mess hall, and I expect it to be just as good. I hope I can figure out how to put up a picture of the Mess hall decorations, it is amazing.
Hope to update more soon. We should be in the area for a while.
Tuesday we drove back in to KAF from Sperwhen Gar, without incident. Not that drives through downtown Kandahar are ever actually calm or peaceful, but it wasn't bad. Now is probably the best time to relate that on the drive OUT to Sperwhen Gar I almost ran over a bicycle that had a 3 year old, a 7 year old, and their dad on it. I had to really STOMP on the brakes to avoid plowing them under, which would NOT have been pleasant for any of us, I feel sure.
AVS DVD player is not working on the House disks any better than Windows Media Player did, so I suspect that my DVD drive is faulty or failing. Which isn't really a huge surprise, the conditions here are dusty and hot, practically the worst possible for maintaining electronics. I watched Batman Begins again and enjoyed that, but I haven't watched Airplane II yet.
Today, I got up relatively early (before 10am, which is early considering that several of the younger soldiers were out partying last night until 7am) and got on the computer at the MWR facility where I chatted with my wife and wished her a Merry Christmas. Eventually we decided to make our way over to FOB Lindsey and eat Christmas lunch here (I'm writing this from my old living quarters). Lunch was FANTASTIC. KBR has it ALL over Supreme in terms of mess hall food, decorations, and general festiveness.
For lunch I had glazed ham (yum!), Prime Rib (yum!), yams, greens, stuffing, and Sparkling Red Grape Juice! It was great. Then we went up on the Gazebee and used most of the golf balls I got in packages. Many thanks are due to Tom Winn, and Fred and Rosemarie Zediak, for their contributions to the cause.
Anyway, now I'm getting ready to go eat Christmas Dinner in the mess hall, and I expect it to be just as good. I hope I can figure out how to put up a picture of the Mess hall decorations, it is amazing.
Hope to update more soon. We should be in the area for a while.
Friday, December 21, 2007
USO show, meeting Adm. Mullens
Today, we were up at 0500, left KAF at 0700, and drove straight to Patrol Base Wilson (PBW), where we were supposed to meet and talk to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullens.
My first impression of the morning was that the locals were suddenly obeying all of our gunners hand-and-arm signals and getting off the road 100 or even 200 meters ahead of our vehicles, which is a HUGE change from the normal. Frequently they won't even slow down until they are 50 meters or so in front of the lead vehicle, at which point they will try to pass the vehicle in front of them (between their vehicle and our lead vehicle) before pulling over on the side of the road.
Now, you may be thinking "I sure wouldn't appreciate it if people were driving around in my country waving guns at me and forcing me off the road." And you would be right. But then, in YOUR country people don't exhibit any known tendency to pack their cars full of high explosives and ram said vehicle into military vehicles and then detonate the explosives. So, we tend to try to get oncoming traffic to come to a complete stop before we reach them, so that they can't use their momentum to throw the vehicle into our formation, or across the road so that we hit their vehicle, and then blow up a truck bomb killing all the crew in that humvee. It's a self-defense thing, and we try not to be too obnoxious about it.
ANYway, the point is that the locals were suddenly doing exactly what we want them to, instead of pushing the envelope. Typically, anything out of the ordinary is a Bad Sign, so we were very very nervous driving through Kandahar City today. Nothing happened however, and we got to (and later back from) PBW without incident.
Meeting Adm Mullens was kind of anticlimactic, although we did have to do a stupid formation thing (in a combat zone! in our body armor and kit!) and stand around for him to take pictures with us. Well, okay, we were getting pictures taken with him. But still, it was a dog and pony show, and a stupid one at that. Not saying that the Admiral is stupid, just that what we did today was in no way an effective use of our military capability. But hey, that's what the military is like, so I'm not bitter (really).
However, the upshot of this whole misadventure (the admiral was 90 minutes late showing up at PBW) was that we were late for the USO show and missed all but the last 10 minutes, which were Kid Rock singing and somebody else. I, of course, have zero interest in Kid Rock, so no big loss for me. But Robin Williams was there, and I would just like to say that the man is a class act, even though his humor is filled with profanity and vulgar language. Here we have a stand-up comic and comedic actor who is liberal and very much against the war, but he loves to come to USO shows and act up for the soldiers. I literally saw him going all over the place to shake hands and have his picture taken with various soldiers and contractors. He really, really supports the troops, even if he doesn't support the war.
Lance Armstrong was also there, and he was similarly impressive, going up to soldiers and signing autographs even though his USO "handlers" were trying to get him to line up for a photo shoot and stuff. There was also Miss America (no idea what her name is), and another comedian, I want to say Louis Black. I took some pictures of a couple of the soldiers with Kid Rock and another soldier in a group photo with Robin Williams. In addition, the USO was giving away DVDs and stuff that Hollywood in general provided, so I nabbed a copy of Airplane II, and a copy of Batman Begins.
All in all, the USO still rocks, and does a great job, it's just Admirals that are pains in the butt. In fairness to Admiral Mullens, I imagine he got some useful information about Afghanistan from being here in person, and probably got some good intel from the local ARSIC commander. I'm sure he wasn't just here for the USO show... right?
My first impression of the morning was that the locals were suddenly obeying all of our gunners hand-and-arm signals and getting off the road 100 or even 200 meters ahead of our vehicles, which is a HUGE change from the normal. Frequently they won't even slow down until they are 50 meters or so in front of the lead vehicle, at which point they will try to pass the vehicle in front of them (between their vehicle and our lead vehicle) before pulling over on the side of the road.
Now, you may be thinking "I sure wouldn't appreciate it if people were driving around in my country waving guns at me and forcing me off the road." And you would be right. But then, in YOUR country people don't exhibit any known tendency to pack their cars full of high explosives and ram said vehicle into military vehicles and then detonate the explosives. So, we tend to try to get oncoming traffic to come to a complete stop before we reach them, so that they can't use their momentum to throw the vehicle into our formation, or across the road so that we hit their vehicle, and then blow up a truck bomb killing all the crew in that humvee. It's a self-defense thing, and we try not to be too obnoxious about it.
ANYway, the point is that the locals were suddenly doing exactly what we want them to, instead of pushing the envelope. Typically, anything out of the ordinary is a Bad Sign, so we were very very nervous driving through Kandahar City today. Nothing happened however, and we got to (and later back from) PBW without incident.
Meeting Adm Mullens was kind of anticlimactic, although we did have to do a stupid formation thing (in a combat zone! in our body armor and kit!) and stand around for him to take pictures with us. Well, okay, we were getting pictures taken with him. But still, it was a dog and pony show, and a stupid one at that. Not saying that the Admiral is stupid, just that what we did today was in no way an effective use of our military capability. But hey, that's what the military is like, so I'm not bitter (really).
However, the upshot of this whole misadventure (the admiral was 90 minutes late showing up at PBW) was that we were late for the USO show and missed all but the last 10 minutes, which were Kid Rock singing and somebody else. I, of course, have zero interest in Kid Rock, so no big loss for me. But Robin Williams was there, and I would just like to say that the man is a class act, even though his humor is filled with profanity and vulgar language. Here we have a stand-up comic and comedic actor who is liberal and very much against the war, but he loves to come to USO shows and act up for the soldiers. I literally saw him going all over the place to shake hands and have his picture taken with various soldiers and contractors. He really, really supports the troops, even if he doesn't support the war.
Lance Armstrong was also there, and he was similarly impressive, going up to soldiers and signing autographs even though his USO "handlers" were trying to get him to line up for a photo shoot and stuff. There was also Miss America (no idea what her name is), and another comedian, I want to say Louis Black. I took some pictures of a couple of the soldiers with Kid Rock and another soldier in a group photo with Robin Williams. In addition, the USO was giving away DVDs and stuff that Hollywood in general provided, so I nabbed a copy of Airplane II, and a copy of Batman Begins.
All in all, the USO still rocks, and does a great job, it's just Admirals that are pains in the butt. In fairness to Admiral Mullens, I imagine he got some useful information about Afghanistan from being here in person, and probably got some good intel from the local ARSIC commander. I'm sure he wasn't just here for the USO show... right?
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