Okay, this is gonna be really short, and isn't really of much value. But, I know I have a few friends who stop by once in a while, and they've probably wondered if I've died or something. Not quite, but I tried. I went back to Korea for two weeks to participate in a traditional Korean wedding ceremony with my wife for our two year anniversary. My father and some other family came over as well, so I spent 10 days as tour guide, and the weeks of prep as well as the trip have just smoked me....
So, my buddy Steve told me about this deal where you check out the top 100 songs from the year you graduated, and then you encode them as follows: red: hated it regular: it's okay bold: loved it Here's my list from 1990: 1. Hold On, Wilson Phillips 2. It Must Have Been Love, Roxette 3. Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O'Connor 4. Poison, Bell Biv Devoe 5. Vogue, Madonna 6. Vision Of Love, Mariah Carey 7. Another Day In Paradise, Phil Collins 8. Hold On, En Vogue ...
Okay, this is going to be a bit of a long entry. Like many people, I'm a little concerned about the price of gas/oil these days. There are lots of ideas as to exactly why this is happening, and the why of it all isn't really pertinent to my entry, so I'll leave that for a different thread at another time. Anyway, I was discussing the current situation with Marcus Aurelius, a co-worker of mine, and I mentioned that things are just going to get worse as China continues to develop economica...
In the ongoing tribute to Charlie, here are a few more great quotes: "I need intelligence, not information." MAJ (EUCOM) "The hardest thing about having a third child is switching from a 1-on-1 to a zone defense." MAJ (EUCOM) "Nobody ever said you had to be smart to make O-6." COL (EUCOM) "The first question I ask myself when tasked to do something that is not obviously and overwhelmingly in my own best interest is, 'Exactly what happens if I don't do it?'" Unattributed ...
Well, it's been an insanely busy weekend. My wife turned 29 today, but who wants to celebrate a birthday on a Sunday? So, I figured I'd set up a few surprises for her. I gave her three surprise "gifts", and I think they worked out well, and she was pretty happy. Her gifts started rolling in on Thursday though (due to delivery date limitations by retailers). I bought her a new dresser and mirror, and it was delivered Thursday afternoon. This was actually a gift from me as well as my par...
Okay, following along with the string of articles, here a few more (hopefully good) quotes: "Great! What we really need are some more O-5s around here..." MAJ (EUCOM) on the release of the list of O-5 promotions. "Cynicism is the smoke that rises from the ashes of burned out dreams." MAJ (CENTCOM) on the daily thrashings delivered to AOs at his Command. "His knowledge on that topic is only Power Point deep..." MAJ (JS)
In the absence of anything of value to say, I will provide the second installment of military quotes as captured by Charlie. "The only reason that anything ever gets done is because there are pockets of competence in every command. The key is to find them....and then exploit the hell out of 'em." CDR (CENTCOM) "Between us girls, would it help to clarify the issue if you knew that Hungary is landlocked?" CDR to MAJ (EUCOM), on why a deployment from Hungary is likely to proceed by air ...
I am going to begin a running hommage to the late MAJ Charles Driscoll. Charlie was a colleague of mine at my current company, who was activated and went and spent a tour in Iraq. He was a US Military Academy graduate, but didn't act at all like a ring knocker. He was a ranger. He was a paratrooper. He was a soldier, and a damn fine man to boot. He completed his tour in Iraq, came home, and a month later passed away during a morning PT session of a congenital heart problem. It was a lo...
Well, as of about 3pm this afternoon, my wife is considered a conditional permanent resident of the United States. No more work permits, no more travel documents, much fewer INS headaches. The interview was all of about 10 minutes long, and the guy (Rob Sanders) was a gem to work with. He was polite, nice, and quick with his work, which made the interview easy. Thank goodness it's all done.P>
My wife and I are in the midst of purchasing our new home. Not a "real" home, but rather a one bedroom condo, which is as much as two young professionals making median incomes can afford in the metro DC area. But, it will be ours to fuss over, fix up, and use as a tax break, so to us, it's a home nonetheless. We close next Wednesday, and move in the following Thursday. Before we move in, we have to have the exterminators in (a requirement of the condo association). We also need to pa...
Well, a short note this time. After umpteen calls to Citizenship and Immigration Services and one of my Senators, we are finally making headway. We got our notice that we have our interview with Citizenship Services on 6 July.... same day that we are supposed to move... GREAT! I don't care if I have to pay more for rent and delay my move...I'm just happy that we are finally making progress... Wish us luck!
My wife and I took a short weekend trip to Williamsburg, VA to watch the 2005 LPGA Michelob Ultra Open. Actually, we went to watch Se Ri Pak play in this event. I've been a huge Se Ri Pak fan since she broke out on the scene in 1998, winning two major championships her rookie year at the ripe old age of 20. I've followed her career off and on since, and have been closely following it for the last 2 years. Se Ri is arguably one of the best female golfers in the world, possibly second only ...
I am so frustrated, I almost don't know where to begin. My wife and I are waiting for her permanent residency status to come through. We applied for it in early December 2003, and the Citizenship and Immigration Services sent us a receipt telling us they "officially" received the application on 11 December 2003. According to their website, they are currently processing applications for our district that were received in March 2004. So, since ours was received about 3 months before this, w...
Okay, I'm sure I'm going to stir up a storm with this article, but this issue has surfaced several times in my life, and I just can't understand it. Let's discuss a couple of hypothetical situations about abortion, totally gender neutral, by assigning the titles of Parent X and Parent Y (with no relationship given to chromosomes for gender determination). Both of these situations have basic assumptions, which are that the couple are a "traditional" couple (one male, one female), the female...
Not sure if anybody else has already written about this, but a friend of mine brought my attention to a new documentary movie getting ready to come out. It's called "Gunner Palace", and is supposedly a movie about the Iraq war from the perspective of the soldiers themselves. There are are trailers and a blog on the website for the movie.