A Little Update

Alright, it's been about a week, so here goes. This past week was spent mainly at several firing ranges. I successfully grouped, zeroed, and qualified with the M4 Carbine rifle. It took me a few tries at the pop-up range, but I qualified. We did some standing, quick reaction fire on Thursday, also. My platoon ran that range, so I spent most of the day stapling paper targets onto silhouettes. Friday was a day off, so me and 3 other guys drove down to Panama City, Florida. We spent 3 days and 2 nights there. Friday and Saturday were both absolutely beautiful days. We played frisbee, volleyball, whiffle ball, football, and swam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. There are a surprising number of resorts and condos along the Panama City coast. We got back today at 3. Tomorrow, I and my platoon we head to the field where we will stay 4 days and 3 nights in a Forward Operating Base. I will participate in a squad live fire and land navigation qualification (for the thousandth time). I will be back to the barracks on Thursday. Still no plans for the 4th, but I'm sure I'll find something. That's about it. More to come. P.S. Here are some pics from Panama City:

Army and Church

Today, I went to church for the first time on a military post. I was apprehensive. It was different. Military and church are two areas of my life that have always been separate. I have always seen the military as a profession where people don't show much emotion or sing (outside of off-key cadences). That wasn't what I saw. I saw men and women (mostly men) singing We Want to See Jesus Lifted High at the tops of their lungs. The only differences were the in-shape people and the hair cuts. I still felt uncomfortable. I am comfortable in a church setting and a military setting, but I think it will take some time for me to grow accustomed to the mix of the two.

I got a free donut, so I think I'll go back next week.

REI Garage Sale - Atlanta Edition

So last night, I decided to go onto the REI website and see if there is a store anywhere around here, because I wanted to buy a frisbee. Not only was there a store in Atlanta, but it was having its Garage Sale or "Scratch and Dent" sale, as they called it, this morning! I couldn't find any other Lieutenants who wanted to go with me, so I made the trek by myself. The website said no camping, so I decided to get up early this morning. I woke up at 7, but was still tired, so I went back to sleep. I dragged myself out of bed at 9, got ready, and was out by 9:45. There was alot of construction, so I got to REI at about noon. The sale had opened at 10, but there was still quite a bit. I tossed around the idea of getting a bike, of which there were quite a few, but I ended up just getting a pair of snowboarding gloves. I still saved like $45 on the gloves, so I didn't make out too bad. People are the same wherever you go - crazy about sales. Even after 2 hours of the sale being open, people were rushing around, grabbing things, and just generally intense. Oh, PS, I didn't find a frisbee...just a bunch of frisbee golf discs. But Atlanta is a cool city. Might check out a Braves game next weekend. More to come.

Big News in the Computer Gaming Sector!

So I was checking out Gamespot.com like I always do, and there it was! Bam! It was like God was answering all of my prayers at once. A new Colonization game by Sid Meier! And this one will have the Civ IV graphics engine! I have seriously been waiting 10 years for this. I remember playing the original Colonization back in 1996 on my HP 133mhz Pentium I with 16mb of ram. This is revolutionary. I really haven't played any computer games since I deleted Civ IV from my computer 3 or 4 months ago! I think I will make an exception for this one.

Georgia is Hot

I just reported to Fort Benning, Georgia on June 8th. It has been very hot and humid. There has not been a day yet that has seen a high of less than 90 degrees. Humidity has been pretty high too, up at 50 or 60 percent. There is supposed to be rain and thunder tonight, which is strange to me, considering the high temperatures. Today, like yesterday, consisted of a lot of sitting in long briefings and waiting in long lines. Sadly, my platoon got the West Point Captain and it showed during PT. He ran us into the ground. He will probably do the same tomorrow morning. It's a tough life. I got a pretty cool roommate. He is also branching AG and we went and played basketball and threw a football around a little while ago. Here at BOLC II, we get nights off usually after 5 pm and we get weekends off. It's nice. Although, it sucks equally because we have to get up at 5 every morning (excluding weekends). Since the 4th of July is a Friday, we get a 3 day weekend. I think I will find a Georgia beach and surf or go down to Florida and chill. Funny story about basketball. Me and my roommate were the only white guys there. I felt a little out of place. They were all pretty cool, but one guy called me a stupid white boy. But I'm pretty sure I outranked him, so it was ok. Oh, PS, me and my very white roommate got schooled. That's all for now. More later.

A 30 Hour Birthday!

We trained from Florence to Interlaken, Switzrland. Rented Bikes and found a pond. Swung into it from a rope swing. Ate mexican food. Trained to Paris. Stayed in a tiny hotel. Saw the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc De triumphe and Notre Dame. Got pictures. Sweet ones. Trained up to Luxembourg. Not much there. Then went to Amsterdam. Was only supposed to stay for 2 nights, but decided to skip Brussels. Is awesome. Tomorrow I'm flying home out of Brussels. My birthday is also tomorrow. My birthday will be 30 hours long. Awesome.