Very Brief Update

I still intend on doing a full fledged update since I returned home from Iraq but if I can be honest I have not had the desire to do that since I got home. I've been spending my time with Celia, the kids, and the grill. NO joke about the grill! The first 7 days I was back we had steak 6 times, it was wonderful and a top 10 moment in my life. Below are just a few pictures we've taken since I've been home; hope you all enjoy. That update should be up by the end of the week.




Oh, and how about that Lakers/Nuggets series huh?

It is so nice to finally be back!

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Cute Baby Contest

Every baby is absolutely perfect according to that babies parents and their friends and family. Pictures get passed around as everybody attempts to find new and creative ways to comment on the new baby’s beauty. As the parents of that new baby you are 100% convinced that your child is the most beautiful thing on earth. Prior to your child you had seen a lot of other “cute” babies but none of those babies held a candle to your child. Ever since your baby was born every other parent was jockeying their kid for second place in the good looks department. It’s a cruel, harsh, competitive world and it begins the day we are born.

Celia and I were talking this morning on Yahoo and I don’t remember how the topic got brought up but we began talking about cute baby contests. Celia and I are no different than any other parent in the world, when Jadon was born there was no child better looking than him. There were cute kids, sure, but they weren’t Jadon cute. We didn’t just say this because it was true, we believed it! We believed so firmly that if you put Jadon’s picture up against another child, like a boxing match, Jadon would prevail by way of unanimous decision. We attempted to stay as objective as possible when critiquing Jadon’s good looks but truth be told we never found anything to critique. He was flawless! He was like the Marlboro Man of babies; he was cool and every girl wanted him, young and old. Before Jadon turned 1 I think we already had 1,000 pictures taken of him, no lie. What we were doing was no different than what every other parent was doing. Our baby was beautiful and we wanted to capture every moment possible.

One day when we were still living in Kentucky Celia came home with some groceries that she picked up from the Food Lion. On that back of the receipt was a website for a Food Lion cute baby contest. Celia checked out the website and after doing some investigating we learned that 3 prizes were awarded, but for the life of me I can’t remember the specifics. I think 3rd place got 6 month’s worth of diapers, 2nd place got a year’s worth of diapers and I think first place got a year’s worth of diapers plus cash but I’m not quite sure. Whatever the prizes were the parents would be more than compensated for their kid’s good looks. We discussed in great lengths if we should enter Jadon into the contest, scared that we would be classified as “those obsessed parents.” Eventually we decided to enter Jadon into the Food Lion’s Cute Baby Contest with the logic being we could use the extra diapers. We sifted through many pictures before finally settling on one of Jadon wearing a Santa outfit on Christmas Day. Upon submission of the photo we were convinced that it would be a matter of time before we were contacted congratulating us on Jadon’s victory.

We checked the site every few days giving Jadon our vote while checking out the competition. Whether your child is in a baby contest or not I think that every time you see photo’s of somebody else’s child you immediately think, “That baby is cute but nearly as cute as mine.” I know I did this. I would look at pictures of other kids and think to myself, “You don’t stand a chance!” How mean am I? After a few weeks the results were made public of the babies that would be advancing to the next round, not the finals, but the next round. Jadon didn’t even make it to the next round. If this were the NCAA Basketball Tournament Jadon would have been a #1 seed getting knocked off by a #16 seed. It just doesn’t happen. I was so angry and unable to comprehend how he didn’t advance. I decided to look at pictures of the other babies who did advance which only infuriated me more. I was like Ron Artest jumping into the stands to fight the Detroit Piston’s fans in 2004; that’s how angry I became. “Jadon’s better looking than that kid!” “That’s bull crap! That kid is ugly!” “Only his mother could think he’s cute!” “Ok, I can understand this baby making it but there is no way this kid should be here!” How pathetic was I? I’m trash talking to kids who have yet to grow teeth, I’m an awful person. But I had the anger side covered; Celia on the other hand was inconsolable, she was crushed. She was silent and heartbroken. That was her little boy and it broke her heart that other people didn’t think he was as cute as she did. We understood supporting your own child but we also thought these other people should have upheld the integrity of the contest by voting for our son, not theirs.

If anybody thinks I’m exaggerating a bit do this for me, enter your child into a baby contest and tell me how you feel when other kids advance that are not nearly as cute as yours. Trust me, you will empathize with me completely.

After that we swore off baby competitions. There was no need to subject our son (even though he had no idea) and ourselves through that anguish. Then something happened that changed my mind and is part of the reason why I think I started talking to Celia about this today. Hailey was born and we continued to make the world a prettier place. On top of that, Jadon had continued to grown as his good looks grew with him. Knowing this, we now had two sure things, two “can’t miss kids.” Celia was hesitant, reminding me how much it sucked when Jadon didn’t win the first contest because it was simply a popularity contest. Right there on the spot I devised a plan that consisted of a blog and emails. We would overflow the cute baby website that denying Jadon and Hailey would be impossible this time.

I did some searches on Google and found a website that I registered for and submitted both Jadon and Hailey’s photo to. Moments ago I received a confirmation email telling me that it could take as many as 10 weeks for the photos to be accessible for voting which is why I’m getting the word out early. With the two photographs I submitted even other parents will see them and think, “We’re done!” Obviously the thought of both Jadon and Hailey not getting selected to the next round did not enter my mind and after seeing their photos, why would it have?

Ok, understand this was written in fun but every parent understands my point I made at the beginning. We all think our child is beautiful, we are so proud of them and want to show them off to as many people who will look. The odds of your child winning a competition like that are very slim because as I mentioned before, it is solely a popularity contest. Even though your child doesn’t win in a way it is still exciting pondering the possibility of your child winning. Even if Jadon and Hailey don’t prevail I will still know in my heart, along with every other parent whose child doesn’t win, that my kids were the best. It’s that pride of being a parent and what makes being a parent the best job in the world. Nothing you ever do in life will ever be as good as the little ones you have crawling around on the floor.

For the record, I did not mean those atrocious comments I made about the other children in the Food Lion Cute Baby Contest.

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Happy Mother's Day Celia

I have told Celia many times but I still do not feel I have told her enough. The position in which she has accepted since I left for Iraq has had to be one of the most difficult situations in her life. She was already raising one handsome toddler, three months pregnant with child number two; living in a foreign country with boxes still stacked to the ceiling, and then informed that her husband would be leaving in one day. With little time to prepare and brace herself from the gut shot delivered, Celia would be handling every aspect of our lives, by herself. The burden has been heavy and the job has been tiresome especially since there are now two children in the mix. I can hear the exhaustion in Celia’s voice when I call her some nights and feel that maybe she got the worse end of the deal. Through all of the dirty diapers, temper tantrums, late night feedings, and the attempts to still lead a semi-normal life she has rarely complained. She’s done a far better job than I ever could have done and a better job than 99% of the rest of the population. She’s been that constant pulse to my children since the day I left and not a day goes by that I do not think about her. I’ve told her many times but I still always feel the need to tell her just what an amazing job she is doing, because God knows, she deserves it.

I always knew that Celia would be a terrific mother; she just seemed to have that quality within her. I think you can tell that about certain people; those who have that natural maternal instinct and those who do not. I had seen the way Celia interacted with her little sisters and with my little brother; she knew how to play and how to be the disciplinarian. I, on the other hand, had perfected play time but would let 7 year old logic compromise my better judgment. None of these moments registered a level of importance until I found out that Celia and I would be having a baby together. When I heard that Celia was pregnant with Jadon I immediately began having images in my head of her with the child. She had years of practice changing diapers and was much further advanced in understanding how a baby operates that I knew I would be asking her questions constantly, and once Jadon was born I did just that.

Eventually we both fell into a routine with Jadon and had the baby thing down. We also realized that Jadon was extremely handsome, more handsome than any other child either of us had seen (we’re not biased, I swear!). To go with his good looks, Jadon was about as well behaved for a baby that you could ask for (and that I am not biased on – Proven Fact!). After talking this over many times Celia and I had decided that we wanted to expand our family by one. In May of 2008 we were thrilled to discover that Celia was indeed pregnant with Hailey, which would give us the perfect size family and a sibling to keep Jadon company.

We were both so excited for Jadon to meet his little sister because we knew he was going to be a wonderful big brother. He was full of love for other children and anybody he met that we were confident it would be no different with his little sister. Once Hailey was born Jadon did not disappoint us. When she dropped her pacifier Jadon tried to put it back in her mouth, Jadon loves to push her in the swing, and when I was home for Hailey’s birth Jadon could not stop kissing her. Practically every picture I was able to take of both Jadon and Hailey together Jadon has his lips planted somewhere on his “Sissy.” He loves his Sissy and she loves him too. Jadon’s attitude, behavior, and love are all a direct reflection of his mother.

Anybody can raise a baby but it takes somebody really special become that babies Mommy. Anybody can collect a check and feed the child when needed, watch the child grow and tell yourself that you are in fact a good mother. Anybody can do that but it takes somebody special to do it right and I never really comprehended that until I was able to witness it firsthand. Being around other people’s children only tells part of the story of what makes a decent mother and what makes a special mother. Celia Serena is about as special as they come. She is as loving of a mother as I have ever seen and the result is both of our children being two of the happiest babies I have ever seen. Jadon loves other kids so much which is the result of Celia’s nurturing. Hailey is always smiling when I see her on the web cam because she is always with her Mommy and her Mommy knows how to make her happy. Celia does so much as a parent that I never knew existed and as a result she has made me a better father to our children.

She has had to raise two children by herself and the result is better than I could have ever done. I know there is not another woman on this planet that I would want to raise children with other than my loving wife, Celia. She more than has her hands full with both Jadon and Hailey but somehow finds ways to volunteer for multiple community activities with other people’s kids. Many women would not be able to handle her situation but Celia is always accepting new challenges and seeking out ways to help other people. I feel that many people go about life and never tell those they love just how special they really are, almost taking them for granted. I do not intend on making those mistakes; that is why I always tell Celia how much I love her and how truly lucky I am to have her in my life.

I want to tell you Happy Mother’s Day Celia and I hope you have an amazing day. If anybody deserves it there is nobody more deserving than you. You are a beautiful, loving, intelligent, funny woman and I am so fortunate to call you my wife. The time will come when I will be home once again and after hearing you tell me Jadon is saying, “Show me poopy” after you change his diaper signals that it is a good time for Daddy to come home, but still know that you are second to none. I thank you and I know Jadon and Hailey do too for everything you do. You are the best wife and mother that there is, Happy Mother’s Day.

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Willie Boy

About two weeks ago my Mom emailed me informing me that our cat of the past 12-13 years, Willie, had passed away. Within the email was a request that I pay one last tribute to Willie, by way of a blog. I had intended to do this shortly after I read the email but two things were slowing me up. The first and most important being that my Mom needed time to grieve. If anybody knows my mother then you know her fondness towards her pets. She loves those animals so much that I bet it took every ounce of discipline in her bones to not take a personal day at work. She loves her cats and dogs like they are child number 4, 5, and 6; and if anybody thinks I'm exaggerating trust me, I'm not. The second reason why it took me forever and a day to put Willie's legacy out for the world to see was I did not know how to write a fitting eulogy. That is until today. I spent all day outside handing our four tanks over as the final part of our redeployment back to Germany. During that time I had many thoughts that seemed to fit together like a puzzle centered on Willie; hopefully those thoughts serve Willie he respect he deserves.

I can't guarantee 100% accuracy due to my age and the time that has passed.

It was a cold December night in 1996 I believe. My sisters and I were staying with my Mom when she came inside unsure of how to deliver the news. The short version of the story is that she was at a friend's house when she saw this kitten outside that was in such bad condition it would not make it through the night. My Mom, never one to turn down a stray cat, acted on impulse and adopted her third cat there on the spot. I do have to agree with her judgment that Willie would not have made it through the night. I think he weighed as much as a hamster, had worms, and a terrible case of diarrhea. Instantly my sisters and I fell in love with him and were hoping the attempt to save his life had not come too late.

After Willie made it through the night it seemed only fitting that we choose a name. At the time we already had two cats, Pretty Girl (no joke) and Baby Girl (again, no joke.) After bouncing a few names around it was settled that the stray cat would be named Lilly. I know what you're thinking. "Lilly? I thought you said Willie?" The first thing you do when naming a pet is determine the gender to give a fitting name. Well, we did that. We flipped Willie upside down, blew on his fur and combed through the "area" finding nothing. Girl cat gets a girl name. I think it came a few weeks later when my Mom brought Willie into the vet and discovered Lilly's secret; Lilly had a penis. Oops! Talk about an unforgiving mistake. All throughout Willie's life he complained and never shut up. We called him Willie Boy a lot but when he got into one of his fits it was not uncommon to refer to him as "Bitchy Boy." I wish I could understand cat dialect because I'm sure what Willie was really doing was reminding us of our mistake and making us pay for it.

    "You're lucky I have fur and walk on four legs otherwise I would meet you in an alley and roll you up Romick," Meowed Willie.

Willie eventually gained weight, lost the worms, and took the form of a full-fledged housecat. He went from weighing a mere 2 lbs to 20 lbs in no time flat. Willie was closer to death than any living creature should be and somehow I think he knew that and remembered that. Willie never missed meal, ever. When you're on the brink of death and starvation is a main part of the problem; given the opportunity obesity doesn't sound like a bad alternative. Willie also had no problem gaining weight because his exercise program was flawed; flawed as in he didn't have one. Many kittens play constantly, it's what they do best. Willie was a fan of hopping on one of us, getting the bottom side of his chin rubbed, purring, then passing out. Willie won the lotto; he got a roof over his head, an endless supply of food and people who loved him. Why would he want to be anything other than a "lap cat?" Upon realizing his stay wasn't temporary, but permanent, that was when Willie's true personality came out.

That was a basic introduction into the life of Willie, what I want to do now is list a few of my favorite moments and character traits of Willie. The list is in no particular order:

• I don't remember how long ago it was but I went into the kitchen and saw Willie lying on the ground with his head in his food bowl. Evidently he was so tired from his strenuous day of walking to and from the litter box that he felt the need to lie down and eat. I remember thinking at the time and told my mom, "Does standing up to eat burn to many calories?" I've seen some things in my life but never have I seen a cat barely a few years old not have the will power to stand up and eat. When Willie sat down on your legs he weighed so much that after time your legs started to go to sleep and you could grab a good handful of the excess cat fat that was his stomach. Whatever his reasons were to lie down and eat I'm sure they were good and it was just one of the many reasons we loved that cat so much.
  
• Willie hated holes in his food bowl. Willie was half Siamese and half farm cat but whenever he saw the bottom of his food dish he unleashed the full fury of his Siamese side. I think this attributed to Willie's exposure to poverty prior to joining our house. I would be in the kitchen with my Mom and Willie would start going crazy to the point he was lucky we loved him. I'd ask my Mom what was wrong with him and she would reply, "I don't know? Does he have a hole in his food bowl?" Sure enough, he did. As a parent there are three basic things I've learned when a new baby crying. Check the diaper, feed them, and burp them. If Willie had one rule: Keep His Food Bowl FULL!
  
• Willie loved having slumber parties! Not the traditional slumber party where you spend the night at a friend's house in your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sleeping bag but more of a movie night. After my brief stint at Kirkwood C.C. I moved back home and stayed with my Mom. By the way, during this time is when most of my Willie stories occurred. We didn't have cable, the internet was dial up, and my Mom lived in Prairie City. I didn't have a lot of options for fun so I had to make my own. One evening when my sister Emily was over we decided to watch Pretty Woman in our room and brought Willie in with us. Much to our surprise Willie lasted the entire movie, and then it became sort of a tradition. With our viewing options limited Emily would always ask, "Andrew. Do you want to take Willie and have a slumber party?" I knew exactly what she meant, so did Willie. Pretty Woman was his favorite movie. And if movies could make cats cry I think Willie did just that every time he heard Roxette sing It Must Have Been Love.
  
• Willie's was not the only cat we had as I already mentioned, there were two others. Well Baby Girl was the cat closest to Willie in age and we used to always joke that if Willie was serious about winning Baby's affection then he would need to slim down. We credited much of his verbal out lashes to sexual frustration. Willie would follow Baby around and for years but she was playing hard to get. It couldn't have been easy on him being the only male cat living with two females constantly striking out. Fortunately for Willie when my Mom moved to her country home she acquired another cat (do you see a trend here) named Tippy Toes who accepted Willie for the way he was. You know what followed, Willie lost weight. I think he began walking around snickering to Baby, "See what you could have had?"
  
• I'm not proud of this story at all but my stomach hurts because I'm laughing so hard thinking about it. One year during Christmas time my Mom and I were wrapping presents and Willie was near us. I don't think he was whining or do anything wrong. For one reason or another my Mom and I took the wrapping paper rolls and began chasing Willie around the house with them like loud vacuum cleaner. Willie was petrified; his eyes were wide and full of terror as he zig zagged around the living room, ripping out pieces of carpet in the process. We were laughing uncontrollably with our juvenile act of intimidation as Willie darted off to the bedroom hiding underneath the bed. Rather than accept defeat we continued to probe him with the wrapping paper as he hid for his life. It was the meanest thing we ever did to him but we couldn't stop laughing. Eventually we stopped, pulled him out from under the bed and apologized repeatedly. It took many viewings of Pretty Woman for Willie to forgive me for that day.
  

Willie was a great cat and a great addition to the house. Even though he had a very boisterous personality that was what made him Willie. Pets are a wonderful thing and truly are part of the family. They relieve stress, greet you at the door, they're loyal, and love nothing more than their owner. Whether you have a bad day at work or your personal life is falling apart you know that you have that one positive constant waiting for you at home. You devote years and money towards them but they are also present for many memories over the years. Many people who have never had a pet can never truly understand just how difficult it is when you have to say goodbye to that part of the family because that is what they are, family. As difficult as it is to say goodbye and let go of that time you know that you made a difference in their life just as they made a difference in yours. We were surprised Willie survived upon bringing him home and even more surprised the love he was able to show us and the love we developed for him. Even though he has passed I can still hear that annoying Siamese meow and know that when I go back to my Mom's house that it somehow won't be the same.

Hope you enjoyed.

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Why I Love Iraq

It’s so easy for me to complain about the many rigors of deployed life. It’s easy to complain because as humans it is what we do best. I don’t want to do that, not today. I’m in a good mood today for two reasons, the first being I have left than a week until I leave FOB Falcon. The second reason is that it’s 279 degrees outside and the only time I need to be out in the heat is to walk to the dining facility, otherwise I’m chillin’ wearing flip flops. So as you can see, life is good for me.

If it hadn’t of been for Iraq there would have been multiple good television shows that I never would have seen. I mean that, multiple shows. I already developed a following for 24, Prison Break, and that loveable man Hero of NBC’s Heroes to name a few. However, I knew that there were hours upon hours of television that I had not seen which always bothered me. Even if you have Tivo or DVR provided through your cable provider it is still very difficult to watch every show you are interested in. You end up compromising one show for another, you miss a week and before long you have lost all touch with the show. It’s tragic and it’s happening all across the country. Something needs to be done to preserve the integrity of television so quality programs are not washed out, meanwhile The Hills prospers. I feel that every network should come together at the beginning of the Fall season and have a sit down or even a draft about the Primetime line up. Confused? Let me explain.

All of the top executives would travel for a week’s conference to Washington D.C. so the Senate could preside over the conference; ensuring the people of the United States’ best interest was at heart. (Look, the way I see it, if the Senate will consume weeks and months with steroid scandals why can they not preside over a television conference?) Let’s stop and think about who would be there. Obviously you have FOX representing 24, House, and The Simpsons. NBC’s has Heroes and all of the Law & Orders while CBS is covering every other cop drama. ABC brings to the table one solid hour of Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Grey’s Anatomy. MTV, solely offering reality shows, decided not to have a representative present because this conference was too good of a reality show to pass up. Of course there are other networks and if your favorite show is on one of the other networks then simply plug that network and show in right after I mentioned ABC. Moving on.

Rather than have all networks air their more popular shows against other popular shows a truce needs to be called. It’s not fair to us as television viewers to have to pick sides. Can you honestly tell me how I’m supposed to watch (FOX) Prison Break followed by 24, (CBS) Survivor, when the NFL has Monday Night Football going on? How is it possible? A grave injustice is going to be committed but could all be easily avoided. Now I haven’t been in the States for about a year now so I am completely lost on programming times but I trust you get my point. Now, the way the draft would work would be a combination of events. The best way to establish the draft order would be by WWE Royal Rumble regulations. Each timeslot would be in a big cage getting rotated like the Power Ball as each network stood in line to draw. Now tell me that is not fair? Then you could have ESPN’s Stuart Scott and Mel Kiper Jr. acting as “draft experts” breaking down the value of each timeslot and the trade value each slot presents. The commentator’s for the draft would be Mary Alice (the voice of Desperate Housewives), James Earl Jones, and Steven Colbert for comedic relief. This is the best way to ensure that everybody can spend maximum time in front of the television broadening their viewing to unprecedented heights. The sponsor for the T.V. draft is The Biggest Loser; lobbying for exercise and combating laziness worldwide. I don’t know how a T.V. show can be a sponsor but NBC managed to pull it off. Once the draft is complete and each network has time slots that were not filled this is where free agent’s get plugged in like the new Beverly Hills 90210.

This will never happen and as a result many shows go left unviewed. Thankfully for me I have been in Iraq and was afforded the opportunity to fully get caught up on all of my television viewing. You may be wondering, “How is that possible?” The answer is simple really. Attaining copies of every season of almost every T.V. show is as easy as going to your local grocery store and buying a gallon of milk. Here at FOB Falcon we have a gated off area that is known as the Bizarre. The Bizarre is a collection of shops, owned and employed by Iraqi’s. The intent is to give soldiers an opportunity to buy items to ease the pain of deployment while making your time in Iraq less miserable. What most of these shops sell are movies and T.V. shows though. These stores are how I was able to view Seven Pounds, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, and every hit movie that recently came out while they were still in theaters. T.V. shows are available for purchase, beginning with the first season and ending with the latest episode that aired on T.V. Located in the Bizarre at FOB Falcon are approximately 13-14 stores and 10 of those stores sell practically nothing but movies, T.V. shows, and every movie a certain actor has been in, i.e. a Robert DeNiro 42 movie collection set. We had one of these stores when I was at JSS UR and a movie cost $3, that is cheaper than renting; a small bottle of Pert Plus cost $9! The Muhammad Store picture that I have up could be described as Iraq in a nutshell. Every store offers the same thing and I’m not joking. The other day I wrote about the meeting Iraqi’s had to discuss “sticking it to the man” in regards to wireless internet, well I think a similar conversation was held on this topic too.

“American’s, so stupid and predictable,” Illegal movie private entrepreneur says.

“I do not follow,” Iraqi #1 repllies.

“My brother Abd told me how dumb America is with internet,” Movie pirate says.

“And. . .”

“We mass produce bootlegged movie’s, dumb G.I. can not resist!”

Back to my original point, this allowed me to really take my T.V. viewing to the next level. While I have been in Iraq I was able to become a fan of Bones, Lost, Entourage, Rescue Me, Son’s of Anarchy, The Unit, 30 Rock, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Shield. I think that there are a few others I have watched but if I can be perfectly honest, I’ve watched so much T.V. that it’s hard to remember everything I watched. Thanks Iraq! There are three of those shows that I want to briefly discuss because they are the three I have enjoyed the most.

30 Rock:
This show is flat out hilarious. There is no other way I can describe the show other than genuinely funny. The writing is top notch and the cast works so well together. You have Tina Fey as the loveable Liz Lemon who is the constant butt of jokes. Tracy Morgan is loud, unpredictable, and says things that most people would never think of saying. Then there is Alec Baldwin who I feel is the best part of the show. He is the epitome of dry humor, his voice is a hoarse whisper, and even managed to date Condoleezza Rice for an episode. Better than the cast is that Celia loves watching the show too and would have never thought about this show had it not been for me being in Iraq. Thanks Iraq!

Lost:
Before I ever watched this show I asked myself the question everybody else asked who had never seen the show, “How long can they possibly be lost?” Within the first few episodes I was hooked and love the show so much I would not mind getting every season on DVD. With the perfect blend of drama, action, and even science fiction in a way each episode leaves you wanting more. With each passing episode you think the people are closer to getting off the island but after each episode more questions arise. I really don’t know how many more seasons the show can go because I feel it is getting close to its end point. I just thought of something. The other day I got 24 and watched most of season 7 (that was where the Iraqi’s stopped recording) which is phenomenal by the way. As I was just writing about lost I couldn’t help but think, “What if Jack Bauer was on that island?” The people on that island have been stranded for an eternity. If Jack Bauer was on the plane that crashed into the island he would have found a way, anyway, to get the people off the island in one season, 24 hours total, that would be the end of Lost and thank you for airing. You see, it all comes back to Jack Bauer.

The Shield:

This was hands down the best show I watched while I was deployed. I had heard about this show years, heard great things about this show for years but for reasons I can’t explain I never watched it. After seeing it a few times I decided to finally give it the chance it deserved. Many may not like the show, question its morals and even get offended by it, all of which I could understand. With the base of the show revolving around crooked cops doing every unspeakable act imaginable it was clear this show was not intended to appeal to all viewers. The reason why I loved the show was of the character development and with the crimes these cops committed the end justified the means. The show never moved too quickly leaving the viewer with a greater connection to the characters themselves. With the series already concluded I must confess the series finale was both phenomenal and saddening. You knew something major was going down but did not know how it would all end. It was sad to me for this reason. It has been a few weeks now since I watched the series finale of The Shield but the way the story ended Shane and his family was about as sad as it got. I was in complete awe when I saw everything that happened to him and his family. The effect was due to the character development of seven years. If you haven’t seen the show, do so. It was such a damn good show, one I think I will start up again here soon.

All three good shows and all three shows I had never seen before. While I think that it’s sad how predictable the people of Iraq think we are the PX thinks the same thing about us soldiers in Iraq. If you walk into a PX in Iraq you will find nothing but Monster energy drinks, more movies, and magazines. Of course there are few other items but that’s the majority. I could get upset the result is nothing more than staying up late jacked up on Monster watching movies or I could simply embrace it. I must admit I’m a hypocrite some days. I get upset when I walk into the PX and see the same thing over and over and never see essential items. I get upset when I walk to the Iraqi stores and don’t find something that I truly need. Those days bother me, not a great deal but still bother me in a way. Then there are the days when I’m bored, like this morning. I woke up, shaved and brushed my teeth then had nothing to do. I walked to the Bizarre and picked up every season of CSI for $15 depleting my remaining cash. I then moved to the PX, purchased a Monster getting $20 cash back. I got the cash because I needed to go back to the Bizarre where I then picked up The Practice for Celia, concluding my morning shopping. Hey, if you can’t beat em, join em.

I know somewhere there is an Iraqi reading this saying, “See I told you! American’s are dumb. He using my wireless internet to talk about our bootlegged movies. Praise Allah!”

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Bulls vs. Celtics ‘09

I'm a sports fan and anybody who knows me knows that it is no secret. Football and basketball are the two sports I follow the closest with baseball making a surge once the NBA Finals conclude. I have never been able to get into hockey for reasons I unsure of. I never understood the rules when I was younger, nobody I was growing up around ever watched hockey and with my lack of knowledge in the sport I feel that is the best reason I'm not interested in it. I could spend my entire day watching football and basketball though, especially football and Celia can attest to that. My passion for sports is one of the many reasons why this deployment has sucked. I was fortunate to watch the Arizona Cardinals miracle run through the playoffs and near Super Bowl upset but I missed all of March Madness. I'll be home in time to catch the NBA Finals but not home in time to witness every game of the greatest playoff series ever played. I'm of course referring to this year's Eastern Conference first round match between the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics.

It all began last year when Chicago lucked out by winning the first pick in the NBA Draft. They had something like .000001% (exaggeration) chance to win the lottery and they did just that. Every sports outlet debated if Chicago should draft Derek Rose or Michael Beasely, the two best prospects in the draft. Having watched Rose masterfully run the point at Memphis en route to leading them to the National Title game against Kansas the choice seemed simple to me. Chicago decided Rose was a franchise point guard and I immediately got excited about Chicago's young and talented team. Then I got deployed.

It really was that abrupt. One minute I'm drinking a beer and changing diapers, the next minute I'm rubbing sand out of the corner of my eye. I attempted to follow Rose's and Chicago's progress throughout the deployment but it was next to impossible to truly be aware of everything that was going on. Then a month and a half ago I moved from the small JSS UR located on the western side of Sadr City to the luxurious life of FOB Falcon. FOB Falcon had it all compared to JSS UR: a good gym, a good dining facility, a PX, and wireless internet for my own personal room. Life was getting good, real good. The best part for my sports addiction was very rarely did we have a heavy workload that consumed the vast majority of the day. Like a junky jonesin' I was able to get my ESPN fix anytime I wanted. Constant updates, sports radio, Sports Center in the DFAC every morning for breakfast, reruns of previous games, you name it I got it.

Right around the time I truly got settled in the playoff standings were set, Chicago made their way into the playoffs landing the #7 seed and would face the defending champion Boston Celtics. With Kevin Garnett sidelined most people were anticipating for this to be a competitive series with Boston winning in 6 games, maybe 7 games if the Bulls played lights out. Most people felt that all other playoff games were undercards for the inevitable LeBron/Kobe, Cavs/Lakers championship. What everybody didn't expect was that Chicago and Boston would be the pinnacle of the 2009 playoffs with every other series vying for second place.

I've only been able to watch two games so far of this series due to the 7-8 hour time difference in Iraq. The first game I saw was Game 1 featuring Derek Rose's 36 point playoff debut; the second game was the double overtime, instant classic Game 4. I don't want to write a recap of what happened in those two games because anybody who is even mildly interested with the NBA is already aware. Instead, how great is this series? I mean really, how great is this series? There have been 6 games played to date with 4 of those 6 games going into overtime. 2 of those 4 games went into double overtime. 5 of the 6 games have been decided by 3 points or less. 3 points or less! The only letdown of this series was Game 3 when Chicago forgot to show up and got blown out on their home court. That has been the only flaw of this series. Other than Game 3 this series has been a total chess match. Either team could have won this series already, that's how close it is.

Before Game 6 I had been wondering to myself how this series ranked in terms of greatness in the playoffs. Before Game 6 I was certain it was definitely a top playoff series of this decade with the only potential debate coming from the 2002 Sacramento/Los Angeles series where the NBA fixed the outcome preventing the Kings from advancing to the finals. That was really the only series I could think of that could rival the performance of Chicago and Boston. Following Game 6 and a TRIPLE OVERTIME victory by Chicago, facing elimination, left little for debate. This is the best playoff series I have ever seen in my lifetime. Regardless of the outcome in Game 7 you will have to wait many years to find a playoff series to rival the greatness of Chicago and Boston, in any sport for that matter.

This series has been so fun to watch, read about, talk about, write about, and wonder how the next game can possibly surpass the previous game. This series has everything a basketball fan, no, everything a sports fan wants to see. Derek Rose is 20 years old and showing us that his best is still yet to come. Ray Allen has been playing like Jesus Shuttlesworth in He Got Game and proving he is more clutch in this series than anybody in a long time, well since maybe Reggie Miller. The Derek Rose/Rajon Rondo point guard match up has officially kicked off and thankfully both are still young in their careers. Kirk Hinrich (an Iowa boy) wanting vengeance on Rajon Rondo tossing him into the scorer's table making you know there will be blood in Game 7. This series has been so compelling that every morning I wake up, even before I brush my teeth and go to the bathroom, I check ESPN for the score of the games I missed. I am so compelled to this first round that tomorrow I will be shopping around on EBAY and Amazon in hopes that this series will be available for purchase. I know it's a long shot but having missed so much of the action I feel it's the only thing I can do to tell the Bulls, "I'm sorry."

If you are in the states, do yourself a favor and do me a favor, tune into TNT tonight and witness the finale to the greatest series ever played. I'm scared that Game 7 will not live up to the hype but in no way shape or form do I want to take the chance that it won't. That is why I have every intention of going to sleep early tonight and waking up at 3:00 a.m. Iraq time to catch the tip off. While the world knows that Kobe and LeBron are waiting for each other in the Finals I know that even those two can not surpass the team effort displayed by both Chicago and Boston. So I'm going to chug about 25 Monster's (can't drink beer here), give myself a kidney stone, and hope that Vinny Del Negro doesn't blow the best thing for the Bulls since Michael Jordan.

Go Bulls!

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Internet in Iraq among Other Things

Today I had a meeting with a Public Affairs Officer to discuss the possibilities of that career path. While I'm currently assigned to the Armor branch (I play with tanks if you're not familiar with the military) and have not had any serious qualms during my time but it is not something that I foresee myself doing for years to come, provided I make the choice to stay in the Army. Since I only had a vague idea of what Public Affairs' job actually consisted of I felt I needed to do a little research prior to my meeting so I didn't portray myself to be completely incompetent. I logged on to the website that should have provided me with everything I needed but I faced one problem. The web page I wanted to view gave me the "webpage can not be displayed" message. Why is it that the pages we need to see the most are not available at the times we need them? You never see the pop ups "single, sexy women in your area are waiting for you on webcam" get the "can not display web page" message. Whatever the case it was just my luck; so I closed my computer, began to walk towards my meeting and I thought about something else, my internet provider.

For approximately the next two weeks I'm located at FOB Falcon here in Iraq and if you decide to have the luxury of internet on your personal computer there naturally is a price to pay. When I first arrived I opted to buy the cheapest package the TigrisNet folks had to offer, $25/month instead of the $199/month. It didn't take long until I upgraded for a $99/month package with the logic being I'll be able to talk with Celia every night in the privacy of my own room on Skype. The longer I've been here the more I've thought about the internet service provided to soldiers at FOB Falcon and all over Iraq for that matter. I have said on multiple occasions that the majority of Iraqi's are not the smartest collection of people in the world but a few select individuals are smart enough to know the term, "stick it to the man." At every major FOB and Camp throughout Iraq wireless internet service is provided and now at the smaller COP's and JSS's internet is becoming available. The service will run you anywhere from $50/month to $200/month; so it can be relatively expensive. Now think of how many thousands of soldiers there are in Iraq at this very moment and how many of them are paying for internet. It's a staggering number with an over/under of 70,000 I'd venture to guess over. I would like to have been in the room when the Iraqi's got together and talked about this, in my mind the conversation went like this.

"The Americans are pissing me off," Shouted Iraqi man #1.

"Me too! Let's kill them," Chimed disgruntled Iraqi #2.

"You can't kill them, they have super big guns," Sulked Iraqi #3.

"I build bomb," Disgruntled Iraqi #2 said excitedly.

"Then Americans destroy your house demanding answers," replied Debbie Downer of Iraq, A.K.A. Iraqi #3.

"I want blood," Demanded Iraqi #1.

"What if I could give you more than blood," Iraqi #3 said very eerily.

"I don't know what is better than blood or bomb," Iraqi #2 said scratching his head.

"We take Americans money," Iraqi #3 said.

"I like it, how," Both Iraqi #1 & #2 asked.

"American's are dumb. They need internet. They can't live without internet. They will pay large money for internet. Our service will stink but they will buy it anyway," #3 explained.

"Are you sure," Junior High drop out Iraqi #1 asked.

"Americans need MySpace. They can't live without it. And only we will provide service. Quick, spread the word that the time has come to bring down the evil empire," Iraqi #3 laghed.

Back when I was at JSS UR the internet service was worse than dial up. It took minutes for my homepage to load up and it was a guarantee the service would drop. Picking up a signal in my room was next to impossible so I had to buy this high-speed antenna for a small price of $50. The antenna provided absolutely zero assistance but fortunately for the Iraqi's that sold it there was a strict no refund policy. Then on multiple occasions the service would be completely shut down to "improve the quality" of internet being put out. Our course that time was part of our monthly billing cycle. By the way, did I mention that I paid $75 for that one month? It was basic economics; supply and demand, and we all fell for it.

I didn't think about all of that on my voyage to my Public Affairs meeting, a lot of those thoughts have been in my head for a while now. I did have my meeting with a Public Affairs Officer and needless to say it peaked my interest a little bit. A few people know this but I have begun to develop a fondness for writing and thought that this could be the opportunity for me while I'm still in the Army. I would prefer to write a column with my ideas, input, opinions, and whatnot but will most likely not be granted that. If I decide to go in this direction I would handle press releases, media relations, and working with local businesses to name a few. While trying to stay optimistic I would hope this could help to get one foot in the door to eventually some permanent writing in the future. Now the question would be "what makes me so different from else?" I guess the answer is nothing, really. Practically every idea imaginable has been done and redone but it's all about the style. I'd like to think if given the chance with a specific subject or column to write I could bring a different style to the table. That end state, it's farfetched I know, but I think if I could get into the Public Affairs that would be the beginning of putting me in a place I could truly excel in.

I didn't much else today to be perfectly honest. Everybody here is preparing to redeploy back to Germany which can not come soon enough. I think with one of the upcoming days I'm going to keep a running journal of my day; that ought to be overly dull. I would like to close out by saying Game 7 tomorrow night, Bulls vs. Celtics, does it really get any better than this series? Make sure to tune in!

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The Beginning of the B Side

Recently (the last 2 hours) I have been thinking about changing the tone in which I blog. Most of the stuff I’ve written, with a few exceptions, has been disturbingly creative poking fun at myself. If you recall (which most likely you don’t) I wrote in my very first blog almost 4 years ago now (HOLY HELL!!! 4 YEARS?) to provide full disclosure and slander myself without hesitation. I feel for the most part I have lived up to my end of the deal. I have told countless embarrassing stories about myself, written about subjects the average person would never even think of; let alone put those thoughts for other’s to read, and I had fun doing it. I always got a lot of views on my blog but very rarely did people me comments, good or bad. In a way this pissed me off because I would view other blogs where somebody would write about their cat sneaking out of the house. That mindless rambling would generate 15-20 comments; I just could never wrap my brain around that. There would be no thought involved, no clever analogies, no building up of the story and no climax whatsoever. That’s not the only reason I want to shake things up but it is one of them.

I do want to point out that if I have another grand idea that totally jives with my personality believe I’ll write about it, but I really do want to diversify myself. For the past 3 ½ years I’ve shown I have a creative side with mostly guy humor (see yesterday’s blog) but now I’d like to try a different approach. I love sports so expect to see a few readings in that area. I, along with every other parent, feel that my children are perfect and everybody else’s child is a distant second, so Jadon and Hailey will be brought up often. Then as boring as everyday life is I think I’ll write about it too. I think most of you catch my drift; the topics will be wide open. I guess that the single best word to describe what this new page would be diversification; to broaden my audience if you will. I have written other pieces in which I feel worthy of appearing on “The B Side” so do not be the least bit surprised when that happens. That in a nutshell is my introduction and without any further rambling I’ll stop here and begin my next post.

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