Howdy howdy howdy

Time: 0148

Location: Unknown

Mood: Interesting

Activity: Docile

Energy level: Blue

So you know sometimes when you're up for a while and then you think you're going to get a good rest, but your body just decides to mess with you and then you're up for a while more and then your body clock is all confused-like and you need to stay up a little later to get back on some semblance of a schedule and so your mind gets confused and jumbled like a football being dribbled down a street? Hi - that's me.

Don't really have a good sleep schedule - stayed up all night for some duty - had to roll right into work and then at the end of that day I thought - hey, I'm all caught up, how about I get to bed early...sweet. Bed by 9:30pm asleep by 9:30pm awake at...2:30 in the am??? What? No way - this can't be - I'm tired - I want to sleep - noooooo - but yes. I'm awake - I'm not sleepy - whatever gland / fuse in my body that regulates sleep / fatigue must have taken a vacation without letting me know - somebody forgot to tell him that we're on deployment here - or maybe he's actually just working double time because after 5 hours of sleep after being up for a couple of days I feel...fine - I try to go back to sleep - do whatever I can - but ever since getting married - if we're not together, I can't get to sleep unless I'm totally exhausted. If not - I usually find something else to do with my time - why waste it on sleep if she's not there? So that's how my day started - 4 meals, a bunch of vitamins, a workout, a couple hundred miles covered in the air, 2 cups of coffee during the day (thanks for the instant Starbucks, by the way - that stuff is actually pretty awesome), a bunch of work-stuff, and a much needed shower later - here I am - sometime after the flight my body threw in the towel and was telling me "Hey...HEY! it's time,buddy - time for beddy-bye" and I says to my body I says - don't think so, just a couple of things left to do at my desk. Apparently one of those things was to drool all over myself since one of the guys from my shop found me in a small pool of it. My response? : "Just recharging the 'ol batteries, mate - don't you worry in the least" - at least that's what I probably tried to say - what came out was probably a lot more garbled and incoherent - but I got some other stuff done with the fresh charge and got cleaned up to finish the day. It's amazing what a shower and change of clothes can do for one's quality of life.

I've been blessed with 5 packages in the past 3 days - totally amazing it is. I've only opened one present so far - I rationalized it because I was running out of room in my office and needed to condense some stuff down and it felt like it was a sweatshirt or something which would be nice since it's like 50 degrees around this place in the mornings. But no sweatshirt was to be found in this package - NO-NO! as Wilbur would say. Inside I found a plastic ziploc bag - inside the bag was bubblewrap - inside the bubble wrap was what I know now to be perfection in a plastic wrapper - I had heard them mentioned in passing from my brother-in-law when he was deployed - I thought to myself - what's the big deal, how on Earth could a S'more not cooked over a fire taste any good? (my wonderfully excellent wife has spoiled me on more than one occasion with her S'more skills so I have a high standard) So I see them in the bag - ok, I know these are supposed to be good - seems like there's a lot of them in there - I bet the guys in my shop would like to have one - I give away 4 to the people I work closely with - and I think...I haven't had dinner yet...I'm kind of hungry...I really should check and make sure they taste ok since I already gave a couple away. So I take one out, pierce the little wrapper - smell it - smells like...S'more...ok this is promising - peel it back and take a bite.

Hold the phone.

No way - how did they do this - this isn't possible - I can't believe how good it tastes - amazing - I gave how many away?!?!? It's probably good I did give them to my guys before I tasted it - everybody should have the opportunity of tasting this thing at least once in his or her lifetime - even if somebody doesn't like S'mores they should get one and give it to me instead.

So that was nice - kept me going until the drooling incident mentioned above.

Also in the packages:

- Probably 10 pounds worth of magazines ranging from motorcycles to technology to hunting to financial investment to foreign policy - I like to diversify my reading like Warren Buffet's stocks

- Lots of yummy-looking treats and sweets that I am going to have to share with friends out here

- I kind of feel like a kid whose parents are trying to buy him friends by sending him to school with the best lunches with lots of candy to attract other boys and girls

- Lots of healthy food / bars that are totally excellent, especially on flights

- A power bill from an electric company from one of my parents' friends(already in the mail back to them, by the way) - like I said, I like to diversify my reading

- And probably the most ingenious thing I've received yet - an empty gallon-size double zip-loc bag. Sounds crazy but goes to show how parents are to me - you see it was accompanied with a gallon-size bag of Boy Scout popcorn - and to allow me to savor it and not rush to finish it off before it goes stale, they sent me a container to put whatever I don't finish in the first sitting - they're pretty smarsome (Smart / awesome - oh yeah, I'm at the point where I can make my own words)

Raise your hand if you've claimed your territory (in the strictly animalistic lift-your-leg-and-claim-some-space sense of the phrase) on three continents in as many months (And I'm not talking about using the louve or whatever the brits call the bathroom - I'm talking about getting back to your roots and becoming one with nature)...nobody? Oh wait - I'm typing with just one hand right now because the other is proudly held high - that's right...3 continents...3 months...claimed by me - and people thought England was an imperialist country - beat that Queen Liz.

For those wondering what's the deal with the chasm between updates - we turned into a submarine and went 20,000 leagues down to look for Atlantis - the truth is actually both more complicated and more simple than that - go figure.

By the way, that's me in the picture looking dapper in the most ridiculously awesome facial hair EVER - I know my dad will be proud.

The Man Cave OUT

Another Post

Bill sent me this post to upload for him on November 11th, it was the last email he was able to send before communications were shut down. There's been no word from him since, however the CO did inform us that everyone is safe and aboard the ship. Sorry it took me so long to post it. ~ko

Awesome!
So I can’t access my blog anymore, other blog for that matter – so it’s time to play good news, bad news:

Bad news: I can no longer load the precious videos of the family
Good news: I can still update by blog through my proxy
Bad news: I cannot remember what the titles to the other Phuket stories were…
Good news: Ya’ll will get to hear about something else
Bad news: Ya’ll will get to hear about something else
Good news: I can access Google.com
Bad news: Everything is written in Arabic…

I played a little game in my mind today – ‘twas fun. I had a backpacker magazine that a friend dropped off on my desk today – so I read through the entire thing and imagined being in each location until something from work drew me away (relax, I only lost maybe 20 minutes of work and I made up for it later) – but it was pretty fun to imagine hiking and camping out in Wyoming, or Colorado, or even Canada. Oh, and by the way, my significant other has lived in three of the top 5 “Best places to raise an outdoor kid” which I guess explains why she wanted to go camping 8 months pregnant the first go around – you better not get any crazy ideas without me, missy!

So now I’m psyched to take the family hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing when I get back – maybe in a few years, but you know – gotta plan early.

In the meantime, it’s pretty cool there are so many easier, less complicated hikes so close – we are blessed

I was also reading about dogs that are trained to search for stranded and lost hikers – there was a Lassie-type dog, some sort of collie, who wears a harness and will repel with its owner, attached to his belt – pretty awesome – I do miss my Dora-dog

As for where we are right now…somewhere west of California and somewhere East of New York – hahaha – I know I’m soooo hilarious

So I got to tie down a helicopter the other day in a monsoon – well I don’t know if it was rated as a monsoon, but it was like 40 mph wind and raining buckets – like the rain machines you see in the movies – needless to say I got soaked to the bone – like I had just jumped in a pool, but the cool thing was that the rain stopped, the wind actually picked up, and I ended up going below dry – and a pilot that had left early was still wet downstairs – go figure

Everything is going well over here – it’s exciting to actually be doing the job that I’ve been effectively training for for…7 years now – well 25ish if you count arguing a point as my job (thanks, dad)

In order to avoid rambling since I am getting sleepy but my fingers are still moving, I shall end this post

Part deaux

Sleeping on a Ship: Sleeping on a ship such as this can be interesting -the strangest sounds can wake you up at night - and not necessarily coming from the guy sleeping above you, or across the room, or above that guy, or even above that guy - oh no, we have the distinct pleasure of being directly beneath where they park aircraft - it's actually not that bad except for the chains...they anchor down aircraft with chains to make sure they don't move when parked - and the chains are pretty heavy, probably 15 pounds each, and people drag around 4 or 5 at a time- and they're long, so they get dragged. I've drug them a bunch on the deck putting planes away and getting them out without thinking about it much, but when it's directly above your head it sounds like a dog barking and scraping at your door - which can really mess with your head if you are asleep and they're parking a bird at 2am. But even more disturbing, and more rare, thankfully, is the fact that our rooms are at the end of the ship with the main anchors - they dropped anchor at like 4am the last time they did it and I would have sworn it sounded exactly like what metal ripping 75 feet up the side would sound like - quite startling. But the best experience I ever had was the few weeks I stayed on an actual aircraft carrier - one level beneath the number 3 catch wire (the one aircraft aim for) and next door to the actual arresting gear - no joke, it sounded like a freight train derailing and crashing through the next room...every couple of minutes...until 2 in the A-M - yeah, that was pretty awesome

The Walk: As for the walk - if you don't see the intoxicated Pooh-Bear, then you will after this post - The Walk was what solidified for me that Craig is as frugal / cheap as I am, especially in port. If my family was with me I would have no qualms with getting a cab - but two dudes in their 20s and the cabbie wants 1000 baht (about $30) - we don't even try to bargain, we just laugh, take a gander at the directions, and headout. Lucky for us, 7-11 has apparently bought out every other convenient store in the country and is as plentiful as a Starbucks in Malibu. We were going to a house that all of the officers put some money together to rent - it would have free food and free drinks, so we skipped lunch. There was no talk about how long it might take - we had a map, but no reference to distances...or elevation change, for that matter - we just both mutually understood you don't pay for food when there's free food out there and you don't pay for a cab when it's two dudes and we're not on crutches. So we head out and bounce from 7-11 to 7-11 getting frosty beverages along the way - interesting thing in Thailand, if your drink comes in a glass bottle, they open it for you at the counter - nice and happy the Thai are. Oh, did I mention we skipped lunch? So it's 1pm...in the late summer...in Thailand - yeah, we started and continued to sweat - thankfully the 7-11s we frequented were air conditioned, the only places that were with the exception of houses and hotels, actually - so we walked and walked, and walked some more -just like Rabbit, Piglet, Tigger, and Pooh into the 100 acre wood - it was hot - it was humid - we were sweating - I got a sweat stain on my jeans where they creased on my ankle - just above the shoe - and soaked our shirts through (FYI we are all taking daily malaria medication which makes you even more susceptible to sunburn - and if you know me at all you know I hate hate hate putting on sunscreen - total baby, I know -but instead I wore a hat, jeans, long sleeve shirt, and undershirt -awesome attire for Thailand, by the way - Craig did the same) so yeah, it's hot, we're walking, we make a couple of turns and we see the hill -now this wasn't a normal American hill, oh no, it was a lying, menacing Thai hill - full of curves and false plateaus - we kept walking up up up- and got laughed at by a lot of Thai people - you know, the friendly "You silly Americans, why don't you get a tuk-tuk like everybody else" kind of laugh - a Tuk-tuk is the Thai version of a cab - google it because I forgot to take a picture. So just as the sun is starting to hard-boil my brains under my hat I see it - the funniest thing I will see in Thailand and one of the funniest things (situational dependent) I will probably ever see - the ridiculousness of the sight - here we are, winded, hot, sweating out of every pour (EVERY POUR) and there is a billboard-sized picture of Whinny-the-Pooh, loved by children, enjoyed by grown-ups, an icon of youth and innocence - drunk off his stuff-and-fluff- now THAT I had to get a picture of - and I did - and we were only half way up the hill So we make it the rest of the way and when we get to the house people are confused and thought we had already jumped in the pool - then they realized what we'd done and they laughed at us - this was more the "You guys are weird so I'm going to laugh at you" kind of laugh - eh - we saved our 1000 baht and ate our free food and drank our free drink -success. We just had to figure out how to get back.

Phuket Phunk

This blog entry and the following ones pertaining to my experiences in Phuket will be disjointed - not a story start to finish, but rather a collection of random items that I jotted down to remind myself to write about later. And now is later, so here we go:

Phuket Phunk: So - what is the "Phuket Phunk?" Well let me tell you - it is a smell unlike anything I, or you, have ever smelled before. It's a strange mixture of sourness, sweatness, BOness, street food vendorness, and essence of spilled alcohol. There's probably more smells in there, but you guys all know that if I taste a wine I don't talk about the 'burnt mahogany with a finish of steamed roses' I just taste good and bad - and the Phuket Phunk was bad. The high temperatures and even higher humidity only exasperated things further. The rain (every night like clockwork, actually) did clear it out while it was raining, but only returned stronger after. It wasn't as bad up in the hills - but then it still smelled - usually like my perspiration (I did sweat…a lot)

Craig: I spent a lot of time with a now good friend Craig. In Craig I think I have found a guy as cheap and unwilling to spend money wastefully as I am. Good dude - we have a lot in common - married, 2 kids, Christians, generally good natured. What we don't have in common…he's 6' 2" and maybe in the neighborhood of 230 - basically a linebacker from the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team (he's from Minnesota, actually, but a corn-fed country boy from Nebraska was more fitting). And walking around the streets of a foreign country it made me feel safer to be with a guy on average twice the size of anybody else there.

Ship to shore: This was my first port of call and really had no idea how things would be set up - they explained it pretty well to us, but some things you really can't understand until you experience it. In retrospect, I still saved money doing this port the way I did, but if I were to do it again I might do it differently - anyways - the island of Phuket doesn't have a port large enough to let a ship as big as ours actually pull up, drop a ramp, and let us walk off - we would run aground first (bad news for the CO, no doubt) so we drop anchor a mile or so off from the shore - oh, let me tell you about that later. And shuttle ships are provided to bring people from the big ship to shore at 120 people a shot. These ships are pretty old, owned and run by the host country, and take about a half hour to or from. And then we took busses from that point to the actual city - the good news is that all of this is free and provided for the military guys to get into and out of town - also good is that they ran pretty much 24 hrs all the time we were there. The bad news:

Average Time: 1 hr 30 min Shortest Time: 1 hr 20 min Longest Time: 3 hr 30 min (Yeah that one hurt, especially because I got to the bus at 1 in the morning) So my plan when everybody else was making hotel reservations was that I'd just stay on the boat, get off to get something to eat and walk around a little, and come back to work out in the now open gym. Doesn't work out so well when a round trip is a little over 3 hours of sitting waiting to get somewhere. It still worked out in the end and let me get to know Craig a lot better during this trip.

One thing I did notice about Thailand, moreso outside of the city where there were so many people, is that it if very open - houses, businesses, garages, restaurants - almost none of them had a front door - or a wall in the front, for that matter - which also means none of these places had air conditioning - lots of ceiling fans - it was interesting to drive by all of these places - being so open, you can see the entire restaurant, all the way back to the kitchen, the whole garage, everything is out on display. Kind of contributes to the general Thai disposition, now that I think about it. The Thai people have a reputation for being one of the happiest cultures around - from my experience I would have to agree. Maybe because their language is so hard and we Americans make such a funny scene trying to pantomime where we want to go to a taxi drivers - nonetheless, they all looked very happy / friendly / generally pleased to see you - even the people outside of the city. I think part of it is because of the openness of their architecture. Their home / business / is open to anybody passing by to come in and sit, have some tea, and some roasted duck (well they say it's duck I'll never really know for sure) - it was nice

Bodybuilders: my first day there I was riding in a bus and was people watching on the way to the drop off point - and being the mathemagician I am, I started polling the population passing by for ethnic diversity. I was one of the last ones off the boat so by that time at night I saw maybe 80% Thai, 8% Marines / Navy, 7% European / Caucasian tourists, and 5% grossly huge muscle guys wearing torn up shirts because their abnormal frame won't fit into anything the right way. Strange - it seemed disproportionate to me - as I'm sure it does to you. What are so many bodybuilders doing in Thailand? It has nothing to do with training at altitude (this is the part of the country that got wiped by a typhoon a few years back), and training in extreme heat and humidity is just annoying - I asked a friend and got a fitting but sad answer: Steroids, along with many other drugs, are totally legal in Thailand - so you get an influx of European and American bodybuilders who come the Thailand and "get huge" for a few months and then go back home - blah.

Some of the items on the docket for tomorrow (Or the next day, we'll see how things go - I am deployed, you know):
Phuket Drivers
Foreigners
Guinness
To do list
The walk
Sleeping on a big ship
Thailand Economics explained

Figures

Every time that I get a chance to write something in my blog - I feel inspired, I have a few minutes, I find an open computer - the internet connection doesn't work. So I'll just start emailing myself until I get a change to do a SUPER MEGA UPDATE!!!!!!

So I got my first parcel of deployment mail today - excellent - and inventorying the contents I was inspired to trace the life of Tim the Papaya (Thanks, Dee).

Hi, I'm Tim and I'm a Papaya. I'm very tasty and just sitting here growing, waiting to be harvested in sunny Thailand. I get picked, I'm shaved, sliced, and processed (with some sugar I think) into a tasty treat called "Papaya Spears." Then I get sent to a health food store in the United States, packaged up, bought / sold, and then boxed up into a care package bound for a strapping young father of two afloat on the open ocean. I am received and enjoyed by said dude who, coincidentally,is bound for the land of my birth where I will complete my life cycle exactly where it began.A lot of traveling for a little Papaya, isn't it?

Life's good for me, by the way - finished up stuff in East Timor -that's where the pictures were from down below. I don't have any idea how to put a caption under any of those pictures, but they were all from E.T. The statue is the second largest statue of Jesus in the world behind...that's right, dad, RioDJ. (I abbreviated it that way because I have no idea how to spell it and lack the motivation to look it up)which reminds me. I brought an actual paper dictionary and thesaurus on the boat and everybody made fun of me. But when it takes minutes to load up www.dictionary.com and that book is just sitting there on my desk - yeah - it gets used by a lot of people.

Speaking of getting used by a lot of people - also enclosed in my care package was an issue of "Huntin' Fool" (Thanks, Ron) probably my favorite magazine outside of Foreign Affairs because I'm a nerd. Oh that reminds me too - my nerdiness - I was trying to make a list of: "if you think you might be a nerd" more on that later - so I had said magazine sitting on my desk today beckoning me away from my work. I refrained because I had things to do, but almost every pilot that passed by at least leafed through it - entertainment is in short supply on the boat apparently - including my commanding officer.

"Hey L-T, this magazine yours?""Yessir""You working now, aren't you - mind if I borrow it""Nosir"He takes it and sits down in a chair and reads it almost cover to cover over the next 30 minutes, places it back on my desk, sighs, and departs.I think we just bonded.

So back to the nerd-list-thing - I was typing some things up for work and not to brag or anything, but my typing has gotten to the point that a couple of times every minute my computer beeps at me because it's having trouble keeping up - and I thought there's got to be more of this- if you know what a "dihedral angle" is - or if you think a Power Point presentation is just a crutch for the briefer - or if you know what"etc" stands for and means - or if you pick out the aerodynamicdiscrepancies in the movie Flyboys: "That bi-plane just pulled 9 Gs around that tree if you were wondering...not possible" - etc etc etc I'll make a more formal list in the future - actually, no, I won't, I'll just add some more as they come to me.

And lastly, for two Quotes of the Day:For the procrastinators out there:"Plan early...plan twice"And spoken last week with reference to E.T:"You know your country is in trouble when you need assistance from the Bangladeshis."

Another picture of East Timor.

A little update for Bill

First, this is Kristin writing. Just so everyone knows, Bill is very busy with work right now. Also he has trouble uploading pictures so he sends them to me and I upload them for him. He gives me no info on what the pictures are of. My guess though is that the past pictures are of East Timor. They have been doing a lot in the area and he has been able to get on several flights. He is doing well and sends his love.

Some things are in stereo

On the ship you are only allowed to listen to headphones with one in, one out in order to hear any important announcements. I like to listen to music while I work so I’ve had one in for a few days now. Tonight I put the other headphone in when I was in my room reading – my roommates could get me if need be – and I realized something: sometimes you need to listen with both ears. It seems a lot of times friction develops when we aren’t paying total attention. If we’re having a conversation and only waiting for our chance to speak – not really listening to the other person – a lot can be lost in translation. It really takes both ears – stereo – to listen and understand. I think that’s why God gave us 2 of everything – ears, eyes, hands, feet, etc – perspective. You can see with one eye, but you can’t tell depth – you can hear with one ear, but you’re going to miss something. Just a thought.

We are at category 2 bananas

The conversation from dinner tonight – I mainly just listened:

“You know, there really are only a couple of days where bananas are just right. I’m glad that today is one of those days. It’s not too ripe, not nasty mushy – oh no – this banana (he holds it above his head) – this banana is the perfect firmness and ripeness – good color, good taste. I’ve had three bananas today – breakfast, lunch, dinner – yes, today is banana day! I hate it when bananas get too mushy – you know, there are really 3 classifications of bananas. First they are not ripe enough – this is “Category 1 bananas” then you’ve got “Category 2 bananas” – this is banana day – and then “Category 3 bananas” - bananas have gone bad. Actually, Category 3 leads into a Category 4: No bananas. And the cycle repeats.”

Anybody want to guess what this guy does for a living?

Irony

Anybody who knows me knows that I don’t like taking pills – never have – never will. I can still remember my dad cutting my penicillin tablets in half for me so I wouldn’t gag when I was younger – I still didn’t like it because then they had sharp corners. Anyways I was getting ready to go to bed last night and I needed to take my multivitamin. No big deal, right? Well I had drunk all of the water in my water bottle and figured I’d just use my hand under the sink and cup some water to my mouth. Keep in mind too that I HATE the smell of multivitamins – I always have to wash my hands with soap afterwards because they are very stinky. Anyhoo, I popped that sucker in my mouth and bent over to get some water from the sink…well it wasn’t enough – I couldn’t wash it down – I tried to swallow it fast because if I didn’t then I’d taste it – it got stuck – I couldn’t swallow anything – didn’t want to bend back over for more water…You know, it’s important in a situation like this to really keep a calm head…think things through…come up with the best solution for the problem – you know – but all I could think of was how IRONIC it would be if I choked to death trying to take my daily multivitamin and I start laughing – out comes the pill – sweet.
So I didn’t take it last night – I brushed my teeth again and washed my face and hands instead – but I’ll be sure to fill up my water bottle tonight before I go to bed.

QOTD: “What’s wrong with the Navy helo – why can’t it take off?” - “The environmental control system isn’t working” – “Oh, you mean the A/C is broken” – “Yeah”

The cleanest air you’ll ever breathe…

So I was standing on the flight deck getting ready for a flight killing a little extra time we had – a buddy raised the topic mentioned in the subject line above – “hey man, you know this air out here is the cleanest air you’ll ever breathe.” I thought to myself – yeah, quite the philosophical comment - too bad it smells like a mixture of jet fuel, grease, body odor, and CHT Lines (Google it if you don’t know what that is). But once the rotors started spinning and we got airborne he was right – I hadn’t really noticed it before but if you think about the cleanest most natural place you’ve ever been – maybe camping in the Florida backwoods, trout stream fishing in Colorado, or on the open road driving cross country – take any of those places and they pale in comparison to the vast / open / unmolested beauty of the open ocean. Those places all have a smell too – not necessarily bad, but pine trees, lavender, whatever it is there’s nothing like putting your head out the window 1000 feet above the ocean and smelling…nothing – absolutely nothing
And it makes for some good pictures too.

On another note, I’ve found I can save time by blogging into a word document while my pages load and then just copy and paste in the end – I’m nothing if not industrious with my time

And I just noticed that MSWord recognizes “blogging” as an accepted / correct spelling of a word. Man I feel old sometimes.

I’m trying to upload a couple of those pictures I took earlier today so this entry may be a bit longer than the other ones I’ve done so far.

Actually I just went to brush my teeth and the little bar hasn’t moved in quite a while…they say the internet on a ship is like trying to suck a milkshake through a soda straw. You get just enough to keep doing it even though it’s really hard – I think uploading a picture is like trying to suck a brick through that straw – ok well. I think I’ll try one more time.

Nope – maybe tomorrow

QOTD: “What more can I do?” – sign hanging above my computer at work – keeps my head in the game

Questions

Q: What is my login name?
A: I couldn’t figure it out until a few minutes ago – I misspelled my email address – so every email confirmation sent to me letting me know of my name and password is now floating around in Al Gore’s nebulous of the internet.

Q: Me: “Hey gunny, you see that leaking from the transmission?”
Gunny: “Yessir, I do”
Me: “that’s normal, right?”
Gunny: “The leaking means it’s working properly”
Me: “Huh…and if it wasn’t leaking?”
Gunny: “Then we’d be filling ‘er back up, eh?”
Me: “Awesome”

Q: Why haven’t I posted any pictures?
A: I’m working on it

Q: What’s that on your lip?A: It’s my MEUSTASH!

Q: How many times have I hit my head hard?
A: 2 – still have a bump too…

Q: How many times do I listen to Ko’s messages?
A: At least twice when I get them – and then again until I get another one :)

Q: Where are we?
A: I don’t know

Q: Where are we going?A: I don’t know

Q: When are we going to get there?
A: Later

Q: Do I miss my family
A: More than anything…

BAM!

Watch your step! You’ve entered the man cave.
I started this blog as an outlet for my rather advanced sense of humor and wit when they are exhausted upon the current co-inhabitants of this mighty floating grey box.
I’ll also let you guys know what’s going on over on my side of the world.
But first, let’s establish some guidelines – you know, for safety – but more for managing your expectations…
1 – I cannot promise a post everyday, or even consistently, for that matter
2 – Posts shall be worth the 20+ minutes it takes me to log in and submit something – so read them in their entirety
3 – Posts shall be witty
4 – If not witty, posts shall be informative
5 – If neither witty, nor informative, posts shall be brief
6 – As post writer, I reserve the right to trash guidelines 1 through 5 and post whatever I want.

As a point I will try to keep this a manly arena but no topic is taboo in the man cave – I can and will discuss the availability of lemon curd in countries around the world.

I’ll also put some pictures up whenever I get the time.

Lastly I will try to include quotes of the day (QOTD) both for your amusement as well as to catalog my own.

-Take care, all

QOTD: “You’ve been equalized!” – from Corporal Z to Corporal Y after Z threw a packet of Equal sugar at Y’s face – you had to be there