When The Saints go Marching in

A tumbleweed bounced its way across the parking lot….

The brisk Texas morning blew through the deserted Prairie View Campus; the normal fire red sun of the South had still yet to show. My feet slowly but surly trogging my sleep deprived body to the other side of the campus, where a government licensed fourteen passenger van awaited the company of ten rambunctious college students, a Chief Petty Officer and a Gunnery Sergeant. Green GI duffels lined the floor, while blue garment bags hung from ceiling, creating an organized manglement of Navy uniforms. Rifles in their protective cases stacked perfectly beneath the seats, turned the otherwise civilian vehicle into the most dangerous piece of machinery known to man (college students, party and weapons). Artificial light that of IPOD’s and personal DVD players created an almost soothing ambient glow. The stock speakers of the Ford bumped Houston’s 97.9 the VOX. While the upperclassmen traded stories of past trips, Light posts and crazy bus drivers…… Oh yes Prairie View A&M as on its way to one of the dirtiest, scummiest, disrespectful, obligatory place in the United States. Mardi gras.

After a brief stop in downtown Houston’s RICE University to pick up another ten Midshipman we were on our way.

The over worked shocks and barley padded seats began to take their toll on young limber gluteus maximuses about four hours into our sortie. Arbys supplied a much needed bacon ham and cheese plus curly fry lunch, courtesy of the US Navy. The nearby gas station would supply the remainder of the trip, MDX, doughnuts, bear claws. Everything a college body needs to grow big and strong.

The Texas plains and desert slowly began to fade into green swamp land, highways paved on level ground transformed to bridges, and questions of why anyone would want to live in such a place ran through the college educated minds of engineers. Broken trees littered the landscape and flooded rail, lay as reminders to us that mother nature always wins. It was about this time when the surefire plan of the US navy driving to Mardi Gras in six hours backfired. New trucks, old trucks, little cars, SUV’s, little kids on tricycles, you name it, lined the inbound lane of I10 about three hours outside New Orleans. “Everyone in the world was trying to get into New Orleans, and not a single shmuk was trying to get out”. Mp3 player batteries ran dry and stomachs ached for nourishment, Gunny began cursing at old grandmas and the painted lines in the middle of the road for not moving. “Move god damn it I’ve got a schedule to keep”.

After mindless games of I spy and break out sessions the Navy Caravan rolled onto the government land of NAS New Orleans. Staggering out of our coffin to Gunny’s strong and present “FALL IN” the Houston Consortium travel hardened veterans awaited the plan of action. “Get your gear in order neatly and fricken uniform and well get the hell out of here and have some fun”.

Old veteran GI cots found their way into three uniform rows on the south end of a Marine air wing hanger faster then humanly imagineable. Shoes and sea bags lay in perfect rows. Nestled in between Hueys, Cobras and Hornets the MIDN of Houston anxiously awaited one word.

LIBERTY!!!!

Signs Your Computer is Possessed

11. It grew a Goatee.
10. There's blood dripping from the case and you haven't installed any hardware recently.
9. Your monitor starts spinning and all the text turns green.
8. "Games" folder suddenly renamed to "Come Play With Us"
7. CD-tray keeps ejecting "The Bible on CD" every time you try to read it.
6. Firewall keeps popping up balloons that read "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave."
5. Your e-mail account gets suspended for suspected spamming due to 666 messages per day sent to satan@msn.com
4. No matter what you type it all comes out "redrum".
3. You recently inserted a CD from Sony Music.
2. It keeps trying to open port 666 in your firewall.
1. BSOD instructions tell you to say "The power of DOS compels you!" in order to reboot.

Whats in that

Ok after many hours of prodding and looking i finally found what is exactly in my favorite drink of Mardi Gras The Hand Grenade. No wonder its soo great. I recomed to all of you to try this drink.

1 1/2 oz gin.
1 1/2 oz grain alcohol.
1 1/2 oz melon liqueur.
1 1/2 oz rum.
1 1/2 oz vodka.
Mix with Tropical Isle Mix. (available here)
Serve with chopped ice.

To New Orleans We Go

Well I am back from Mardi Gras 2006 and boy did I have a god time, I'l get writing some posts about te trip here soon enough. Until then know yeah I had a good time.

English is Important

Welcome to Duty

This morning I officially requested Submarine duty for my summer servise or "second class cruise". While I did say an earlier tour would be prefered, I basicly said, "don't care how you do it, just get me on a sub". So all I do now is wait for my boat. I'll let everybody know as soon as I know where I am going. For some good submarine information go check out the submariner's bolg in the "Other Blogs I read section" UltraQuiet No More, and, The Stupid Shall be Punished.

No More Games

Chinese Government cracks down on online gaming // GamesIndustry.biz

What a hock of hooey. I mean come on they really cannot be serious.

Winter Olympic Events We'll Never See

11. Yellow Snow Eating Contest
10. Inebriated Giant Slalom
9. Quadathlon - Skiing, Shooting, Drinking, Driving
8. Speed Scraping
7. Finnish Sauna Marathon
6. Synchronized Snowman Building
5. Polar Bear Outrunning
4. Ice Diving
3. Three-Man Ice Lake Skinny Dip
2. Men's Single Dagger Reindeer Slaughter
1. Snow Angeling

Fanilow

Lately I have been on a Barry Manilow Craze. When I stumbled upon this flash movie, Barry sings Unchained Melody for some military members. Take a look here. Those lyrics are so true. His songs just mean so much more to me now with the whole Kim situation. I mean he has always been a great singer, but his songs, Mandy, Weekend in New England, Ready to Take a Chance again, and all the others just are really hitting home right now. I can now relate to them on a personal level. Somehow his songs just bring a smile to face, and hope to my heart. "Hope that does not sound too sappy". 19 year old college student who loves Barry Manilow "I dont knowwww". ((Mom I blame you))

Anyway Kim and I continue on our long process of trying to patch up holes on a crumbled wall, some days the grout seems to be holding while others, well the wall comes crumbling down. This thing is really starting to take its toll on me. Right now God and Hope are holding me together. Simple things are becoming harder everday. I am really looking forward to our vacation, it really has the potential to help our relationship. For now I just have to hold on with all my heart to those few strands of thread holding us together. Once again thank you to everyone helping me through this. Special thanks to Kim's mother Sheila for being so wonderful in mediating this whole thing. I am just so confused right now. I quote Doc Brown "After I destroy the time machine I will explore the other great unsolved mystery of the universe,...Women".

On a little happier note this weekend I will be travel to New Orleans to partake in some Mardi Gras Festivites. While I don't plan on getting anywhere near Bourbon St. this year or even having a single drink,(to crazy) there are a bunch of great jazz bars down there. I guess mabye it will help me get away from some of the problems in my life for a while. Plus rumors say Britney Spears(FERDALINE) is going to be down there, for some of the parades, that would be fun, mabye get to see Sean Preston. The only really bad thing is that we have to stay in the aircraft hanger (NAS New Orleans) again and sleep on those Korea vintage cots.

Class continues, not much to report other then it being really hard to keep my mind concentrated these days. My Data Structures class (Computer Science) is much harder then I had originally anticipated, teacher is not really that good but still. On the topic of computers Chris and I are thinking about taking a trip to Austin in March for a Really huge LAN Party, which would be fun. More info later. Ummm yeah all considering at least right now my grades are coming along fairly well. It's funny, a few years ago grades did not really mean much more to me then a pile of pigon poo. Sure I wanted to get those good grades, but if I did not, you know life went on. Now since I have been in college and had some sucess in those same academics that gave me a run for my money in high school, I look at them in a slightly different matter. They almost always have to come first, sure there are times when they can take the back seat, but its soo crucial to get those grades. Lets hope all turns out well in the coming weeks.

As for SyNONYM, well I have all of these great posts in my mind but I just cannot seem to get them on paper, as it were. Hopefully I'll get them done for everybody, so you don't have to keep listening me rant and rave about my Love life.

Oh mom, thanks.

Whats Going on

Ok so I am writing this post in pure bordom. Discrete Math was basicly canceled after we turned in our homework, on the count that one of our Calculus professer Dr. Robers killed himself yesterday (more to come later).

So I resorted to sitting in the lab waiting for my next class to start down the hall. I have come across some very intresting things that occured on birthday July 22. Full List here. Some of my favorites are:

1298 - Battle of Falkirk - Edward I (Longshanks) of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his scottish schiltrons outside the town. ((Go BraveHeart))

2005 - Microsoft releases the final name for its next-gen operating system, Longhorn. The name will be "Windows Vista".

1991 - Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested after the remains of 11 men and boys are found in his Milwaukee apartment.

1937 - New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.

1943 - Allied forces capture the Italian city of Palermo.

Anyway just thought you might find them interesting.
Oh and just because No matter how many times I see it or find new versions of it I have to say Numa Numa.

Light Speed

Physicist to Present New Exact Solution of Einstein's Gravitational Field Equation


Brings back Memories of my eigth grade science Fair project.

Update

Quick Update on all things

School continues along as usual, classes are going fairly well all considering right now. Kim and I continue to talk more often working out our problems in the few minutes we get. She is going to Florida for some Navy stuff this weekend. Anyway keep praying for the two of us. Umm on a happier note I made the cut to go to Mardi gras this year. Since our NROTC unit does not have enough money to send everyone, the staff chose ten of us; luckily I was on the list. I think we all remember over the river and through the Bayou. Although I really do not plan on going town bourbon st this year, it should be a good time. Ill probly find a nice jazz bar and enjoy the music or something. Maybe if I can keep my mind concentrated long enough I might just post about it. Well see.

Ummm other then that life goes on. Chris (my roommate) and I spent a lonely Valentines Day just relaxing as we are with out our others. We talked about times past in the normal guy ways, while some Cigars and Brandy helped the evening pass.

I decided to take up my commanding officers request to become familiar with the supply officer position in the unit. I was not sure I wanted to do it at first, but I figured what the heck why not give it a shot I still have two years left to become the CO. LOL. This morning at Drill the commander of the New Virginia Class submarine USS Texas came to visit and talk about the silent service. All I can say at this point is that I am really going to push for becoming a submariner. (kind of a change from the old days). Well see if I make it, Submarine school is one of the hardest in the world.

So that’s a quick update on stuff. Hopefully Ill get done with this special post I have been working on since Christmas done in a few weeks, its just really different that anything I have written for SyNONYM brfore.

Geeky Valentine's Day Gifts

11. Cuddly stuffed penguin holding Bill Gates' heart
10. Shooting Magic Missiles at the darkness
9. Shards of Narsil that, when put together, read "I love you"
8. Saving throw for forgetting Valentine's Day
7. Gift certificate for one week of nobody asking you to fix their computer
6. Squeezable Spock doll that says, "Love long and prosper"
5. A heart-shaped heatsink
4. Princess Leia slave girl lapdance
3. Fiber optic bouquet that spells out love messages in binary
2. Custom Half-Life 2 level with cupids and floating hearts
1. "Cupid shot first" T-Shirt

Geek

Broke Back MIDN

Ok I know I am a MIDN but this is one of the most funny things I have seen in months. Thanks to a West Point Cadet for creating it. It's not that I don't like Annapolis I mean, most of the worlds greatest leaders are graduates. And although we are all on the same side I have found in my past year in the navy, that at least for me NROTC MIDN are much easier to work with and mabye have a bit more commom sense. Just in case a military person is reading this, I mean it as no disrespect, more like a poke.

Oh and just throwing this out there, even though its a bit strange in parts Brokeback Mountain is an extreamly good movie, while Annapolis is kind of weak.

Two Pair

Day two of the relationship war, Kim and I spent twenty minutes this evening just talking just as yesterday. It’s amazing how your whole world can be going through the great depression and with the help of a few small things the entire world can get back on its feet. I know like yesterday, when I said a phone call. But a phone call right now is like the rainbow after the forty days of flooding. A sign that it will never happen again (hopefully).
And to make it even a better day, our ROTC unit got in about five grand of new supplies. Brand shinny new, not hand me downs from the Annapolis MID’s. After nearly a half a year my uniform is actually correct. The only problem with all of that new stuff is someone has to take it out of the boxes and do all the paperwork and put it away and and and. That person was me and a few others, it seemingly took forever.
I heard a really good saying the other day from one of our 4/C Midshipman he said “NROTC is like the Prairie View grass, under maintained, but expected to be the best” wow if that is not exactly what its like, I don’t know what is. Keep that in mind if you went and saw that terrible Annapolis movie. Anyway enough of my ranting, hey at least I have found the part of me that loved to write again. Keep praying everybody I think god is working his magic.

DRAM

Ok everyone here it is the quality is not the best I recorded it on my iRiver, but listen carefully and you will get the jist. The file is only available for one week so grab it now. HERE. Just click the download now.

Full House

Some good news from the front lines in the Brian wars. This past yesterday Kim and I held a regular conversation. Now many of you may say what’s the big deal, just know that we have not talked on the phone in a normal way in months. We put a bunch of our problems out on the table to see how the cards would play, and it sounds like there is a chance at the pot. I have not been this happy in many months. Sometimes it’s amazing how it’s just the simple things can mean so much. I mean I can barely sit still writing this now. So much has happened in such a short period of time good and bad…….., kind of like the crash of the stock market. Hopefully some good programs put forth by the forces that be, and some patients on either of our sides will prevail, and two kids will find one another again.

We are planning a nice vacation together this spring break in an undisclosed location (FFILS). It will be the first time in three years that we have spent more then twenty four hours together without anyone breathing down our backs. I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart that has been supporting the two of us during these hard times, and ask that everyone continue to do so. We have a long uphill battle ahead of us and need all the support we can get. Thank you everyone so much.

In other news life cotinues are PV. Classes, Navy stuff, Video Games. Upgraded the computer the other day with an X-Fi Platinum sound card and a 1K RPM 80 gig Raptor for those big games man the tower weights a ton. Ok also this years superbowl sucked, not even the commercials were entertaining, I mean yeah there were a couple of good ones but nothing I will remember for the rest of my life, like the tobasco ones of a few years ago. Friday I recorded a fifteen minute segment of my theatre class so many of you have been hearing about on the phone, there is a great segment in there where you can hear me talking about being black. I am working to compress it right now it will be done soon. Anyway not much to report on keep living.

Granny Gamer

Visit OGHC to see the worlds oldest hard core gamer out there, so Grandma and Grandpa dont think that these new video game things are just for us young whippersnappers. Watch her video here. Wow this woman is just outstanding. Rock on Grandma. You are our role model. AHHHHH I can't wait to retire. So we salute you Granny Gamer.