RenegadeTX.com Launched!

http://www.renegadetx.com

I finally went ahead and went through with registering a domain! After a LONG time of considering, I have finally picked one I like. You'd think they would all be taken by now at $10/yr. So I was happy this wasn't taken. The folks over at GoDaddy.com have some good deals for domain name registration. If you're interested head over there and check them out.

So if you have me linked, or even bookmarked, go ahead and update those. For the time being I'm still hosted on blogspot.com so those links will continue to work until I change it over to a new server. I don't have a time hack on that so don't expect it any time soon.

Party Aftermath

So last night was a bit of a disapppointment. We didnt have the turn out I was expecting. Probably just a little over a hundred people showed up. I was hoping we could pack the place out. The girls that did show up wore some nice nighties, but nothing like what I was expecting. But at the end of the night, for me at least, one of the Marines made a comment that more or less pissed me off. I'm not one that's quick to get mad at all, but what he said was plain rude. It's one of those things thats just better kept to yourself. Everyone else at the embassy I get along great with, but why is it difficult with these guys at times?

With that, I said I would post a picture. So here is one from the beginning of the night. It's not quite what I had in mind beforehand, but it was a good picture so here you go.

CertCom Received

I got a nice little surprise yesterday. A piece of mail came in from headquarters and when my boss started to open it we saw the red folder and we both thought it was the warrant for my promotion. But when he opened it it turned out to be a Certificate of Commendation to me from my last unit. A CertCom is like an official "thatta boy" from the Marine Corps.

Everything is set up at the house for the most part for the party tomorrow. So hopefully I’ll get a lot of good pictures I can post on here around Saturday. In the mean time I leave this for you. Enjoy.

House Picture, Part II

I just uploaded this picture of our backyard so I could show my friend Lisa what it looked like. So I'll leave it up for any y'all that want to see it too. You can see the two white awnings we set up for the party on Friday. On the left side is a corner of the volleyball court and the building on the right is the bar. Not pictured is the basketball court on the right side of the bar. We have language class in 30 so I gotta jet.

Bada-Bang, Bada-Boom

Here's a picture from the range last Thursday. The guy shooting in the picture is one of our security officers. We were short on time so I couldn't take more photos. We also didn't have time to shoot the submachine guns but that's ok, I've done that before anyways. During the shotgun qual a funny, almost scary, thing happened. One of the shotguns malfunctioned while a Marine was shooting and it blew apart. The barrel flew off, springs came out, the bolt went flying...and he was just standing there still pointing it down range with his mouth hanging open. The expression on his face was priceless! I wish I had taken a picture of that. Fortunately no one got hurt.

Then Friday night I went over to this girl's house, the one I had been seeing before she left for Christmas break. We hung out there for a while and then met up with the other Marines and some of the girls they were with at one of the local clubs. It was a good night overall and I'm glad I didn't have a hangover at work the next day. It still seemed like my shift lasted forever though. More to come probably at the end of the week. Hopefully I'll get to go to this party we're having. The duty schedule hasn't been released yet though. We'll see what happens.

Also, if someone out there knows how to put multiple images in a post send me an e-mail with instructions, PLEASE.

Same Stuff, Different Day

Not much has been going on here to tell you about, it's been business as usual. Tomorrow we're going to the shooting range with the guys from Diplomatic Security, so I'm looking forward to that. We're taking the M9 pistols, shotguns, and Colt SMGs, so that should be fun. It'll be my first range in Brazil. I'll take some pictures to post here later. Also, we're having a "pajama" party at the house on the 28th. The guys think the turnout for it will be about 300 people, that's a lot of friggin' people at our house. I've never been to a party with a pajama theme before and it looks like I'm not going to get to go to this one. I have the mid shift that night. One of the guys said he would be willing to switch shifts with someone at our weekly meeting last week. But it looks like he's starting to change his mind now. :-\ Hopefully I can convince him to trade with me.

Laugh Of The Day

After seeing this paper that this kid wrote for a college class and turned in I couldn't stop laughing. Pure genius. I don't know what this guy was on but it must be pretty good stuff. My hat is off to you Mr. Freeman.

And I'm sure many of you have seen the announcements that the Mac Mini is out now. If you know me, then you know in the past I've viewed Macintoshes as hippy, trendy pieces of shit that weren't worth much outside of graphic design and other studio work. It just doesn't have the breadth of applications and support available for it that you have for the PC. Before I get off to a long rant about it, the Mac Mini actually looks pretty cool. Unlike that joke they called the eMac they released a few years ago. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one to play with for a while.

In local news, we had our first react drill Monday night. That actually turned out to be fun. We strapped on at least 50 pounds worth of gear and ran around the embassy for two hours on a sort of scavenger hunt. Each clue we found had us practice some sort of situation that we would get reacted for. It kept the exercise interesting and from getting boring or monotonous.

The Other Night

So I had some dreams the night before last that seemed so real. One of them I was running up a hill with another Marine on a dirt road in what seemed like Korea. We were running by a long procession of villagers and some military that were traveling down the road. When we reached the top of the road, it curved sharply left around a cut out in the hill and there was a valley with a river at the bottom of it. On the other side of the river were North Korean troops. I had a M-14 with a scope on it and I unslung it and fired off a quick round. Then I readjusted and took a well aimed shot and hit him in the chest and I watched him go down. I must be crazy.

In the second dream I was in bed with another girl that I know (I won't mention names though) and we were wrapped up in each other, occasionally talking. I don't remember about what. Nothing happened, we just laid there. When I woke up it seemed so real, the feel of her pressed against me and all of it. It was nice...

Both of them seemed so realistic I had to mention them. Anyways, here is another picture from the 4th. This was my promotion ceremony. It's a little less extravagant then if I were in the fleet. But I don't care, I'm just happy I'm a NCO now.

(My promotion to Corporal)

Picture Update

This picture is from the Toys for Tots event back on Christmas Eve. Santa was played by Bill Westman who works at the Embassy. He's a great guy, thanks Bill (and his wife, Alicia)!

Another Year, Another Day

New Year's Eve went off without a hitch, so that was a good way to start it off. I rang in the New Years here standing duty at Post 1. I would've liked to have gone out but work wasn't so bad at least. So I spent most of the night reading various websites to pass the time. One of the things I stumbled upon were these archived posts made by a guy named John Titor. The guy claims he is a time traveler and he discusses aspects of it in pretty detailed depth. Not that I buy into any of it but it was at least some interesting and entertaining reading. And he has some good points that had nothing to do with time travel. In one of his posts he poses the question of what would you take with you if you had 10 minutes to gather what you need, leave home, and never come back. The post helps put that into context but I thought it was an interesting question. If anyone actually reads this, post a comment telling what you would take with you or do before you leave.

Also, I got promoted to Corporal today! So that's exciting, I've been looking forward to becoming a NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) for a while now. Also, you might have noticed I changed the title of the website. The new title has nothing to do with anything. I just can't come up with anything relevant. Suggestions are welcome. hehe