Classic

Old .gif I made from a video when I was in basic training.

An Open Letter to the Armed Services

Dear Officiates that Oversee the Recruiting Process,

Once upon a time I was a recruit for the California Army National Guard, and I did everything that was needed of me, and yet I was wronged. Now I’m feeling more and more like a jilted ex. I feel heart broken and I’m asking you, what was it that I did wrong? What did I do to make you feel this way. Perhaps I should start at the beginning, I had an amazing time with you from the start. I saw you every day and you treated me right, as I had treated you. I never asked for anything and neither did you. I mean sure you may have asked for some small things, but they were nothing I would ever had feel obligated to do. I loved you with every fiber of my being.

Generation X, Generation Y; But What of my Generation?

As I sit here today I begin thinking I am almost 25 years old and yet I have not accomplished many of the things I had wanted to do; I have not written a great genre defying tome, created a symphonic masterpiece that millions of people can identify with, in fact at the moment I do not even have a steady job. Worthless would be an overstatement, because I am not worthless, yet I feel as though it’s the best word to describe my current predicament. Like most people my age I was born into an era that began after a generation of hardworking men and women who worked job where they always made it home in time to dinner. To call my generation lazy would be a misstep, for you see we have done more in our infancy than most generations had done in their adolescence. I grew up, at least for the first decade or so of my life, believing that everyone in the world worked 9 to 5 jobs, but then the mid 90’s happened; gone were the days of the 9to5ers slowly replaced by get rich quick schemes of that plagued the nation at the time. Who was the main culprit in this shift from normalcy?

On Troubled Waters, Ship Pass in the Night

Whatever our reasons for being here may have been, we were ultimately stuck on this trip together, we were all just ships passing in obliviously in the night. Each of us wide eyed and bushy tailed, looking for our next mission. As I’ve said previously, and numerously, a lot of the people who went through this experience with me were younger than me, some where mere teenagers, 17 being the youngest. I often thought, what would drive these young men to join at such a young age. Could life have been so impossible and disheartening for them that this was their only solace? Were they like me and using this for a learning experience? Were they just lost and needed some guidance?

Going for Miles and Miles

In Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.’s seminal stop motion animated masterpiece Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, walking was used to describe a characters transformation for evil into good; as well as describing a person taking their first steps, and as a new form of travel, to a character that had been evil and was looking to change. In the Army, however, the concept by merely placing one foot in front of the other was magnified 10 fold. It also wasn’t just used to teach us how to walk; it was our primary mode of transportation, a form of punishment, and a formidable form of exercise, in these three states it excelled for most of us, for others not so much. From the very beginning we were told that we would be walking almost everywhere that we needed to go, but these were no leisurely strolls around the block complete with iced tea or lemonade at the end, these were treacherous and almost never ending marches that sometimes lasted hours before we had our first break.

Fear, or the Absence Thereof

Taking some time off and thinking about everything, my reasoning and what had essentially led to my decision in joining the Army I would have to say now that it was because of this unwitting desire to feel fear. As silly as this may sound, I don’t think I have ever experienced real fear; real honest to goodness fear, somehow I lack the brain wave to feel fear.

Now I will not say that I have never felt any sort of fear because that would be a lie, I have been scared before but never anything like the fear I thought the Army would instill in me. The idea of being scared senseless, scared into the fight or flight sensation, was something that I needed to experience firsthand. I had seen it before, but the same situation could illicit no such feeling from me.

Somehow We’re Hurdling Backwards in Time

Is it just me or am I the only one feeling like gay people are slowly degrading the population of the United States? It seems like for the past few years the gay community had been trying to fit in but they slowly started to want more and more and instead of fitting in they’re slowly trying to get people to conform to them. To me it started when I first heard about the gays’ getting the right to marry, when that was stripped away from them they became more and more hostile. I don’t have a yea or nay response when it comes to gays getting marriage because I am not a fan of any sort of marriage, so who am I to advocate or deny marriage to anyone. I am neutral and I do not o influence or hinder anyone’s decision. What I most have a problem with is the fact that the gays want everything.

My Problem with iTunes

My biggest problem with iTunes is not it’s lack of properly categorizing artists in their proper genre or the fact that some albums that I love dearly (Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration) are not even available for purchase. No my problem is something bigger; the fact that we as consumers are not truly offered an immersive and international experience. I, for one, enjoy music from many different countries, in many different languages and theAmerican iTunes store offers a minimal, albeit incomplete experience at best.

4/11/11 0:40:50

Down By the Water

Sometimes, we as people, take a lot of things for granted, especially in the civilian world. For instance we, as young adults, take most of our natural abilities for granted; one such thing we take for granted is our ability to have a full and uninterrupted nights rest. There are many things,people, and events that I may not remember, but one of the things that I will always remember is the lack of sleep. I can’t tell you how many nights I lay awake sleepless, staring off into the night and wishing that I would eventually fall asleep.