not all who wander are lost
2008-01-05 - 8:08 p.m.
11Nov2007. Veterans Day. incidently, i retrurned home today from my first weekend drill in the national guard. physical training exersices, plenty of hoo-ah, and riding around on blackhawk helicopters. actually, it was more fun that i could have expected. the first day of any sort of teamwork activity really boils down to where you sit on the bus. all the "cool" miscreants gravitate immedietly to the very back seats. the second to the last row is populated by intellignet people that couldnt tell a joke if it would save them from drowning, but like to hear the miscreants tell the raunchiest jokes known to man. the next row is for the paranoid, since its right next to the emergency windows that are the closest to the emergency exit at the back of the bus. the first row on the bus is invariably filled with back seat drivers. the second, third, and fourth, are reserved for the poots, snoots, and the prudes, respectively. poots = asskissers. snoots and prudes are pretty much the same, except the prudes are further to the back of the bus, by one row, and thus are ever-so-slighty cooler than the snoots (they communicate this only to the snoots, however, because the mere sight of the awesomelyuberbadassness of the riders in the far back seat ussally keeps them in check, nor do the cools give a rats ass about their new gouchie bag). those that sit between the fourth and third to last rows are ussually there because they a) wanted the back seat but showed up late and someone else got it b) smell funky c) are too lazy to make it all the way to the back of the bus d) are a "lone wolf" that doesnt care about the social order placement of children on large yellow vehicles. if everyone has loaded onto the bus and you dont have anyone sitting next to you, you have failed. if you have a guy sitting next to you, its considered a marginal success, since you can now strike up a conversation (about sports!) without being totally awkward. if you have a cute girl next to you, you have personally been blessed by the hand of god. note to the back seat drivers: if after everyone loads onto the bus, there is a girl AND a guy in the very back row (even if they are on different sides of the bus), a little red flag should go off in your head. conduct an immediete abstinence drill by pulling the red handle at the back of the bus. an alarm will sound, informing all persons to reattach their clothing, evacuate the bus, and reconduct the seating proceedure until the situation is safe.
23Nov2007. the bus to south dakota was largely uneventful. in cleaveland, they conducted a drug search of the line that was waiting for my bus. deciding not to be searched, i stepped out of line (along with another passenger), and went to a bar around the corner of the bus station. he was from ohio, and had spent the last two months starting up his brother's pizza business. said they were making over 2,000$ a week, just from pizzas. he had plans to start his own pizza joint, in a different state, with his own special sauce recipies.
30Nov2007. the bus back from south dakota was largely uneventful. in buffalo, i met a man in an orange jump suit. fresh ouf of jail. i asked him if he wanted to smoke and he said he didnt have any cigarettes. then i explained i was offering him a cigarette, for free, and he accepted. he had been away from his family for 8 years, hadnt seen his children in all that time, after being convicted for drug trafficing. he said the laws changed while he was in, so that any person with the same amount he has, now gets 1/3 the time in jail he recieved, but nothing was done retroactively to his sentence. we talked about the strength of uniforms in society, how people see your uniform and immedietly think they know everything there is to know about you. police officer, convict, or military. in chicago, the girl who lit my cigarette sat down next to me, "you're my new friend". she said she never travels with weed but somehow forgot about the stuff she had in her pocket. she was headed home to kentucy, from her work in toronto, which is evidently as an S&M porn actress. we talked about all sorts of things, including a sidenote about how people resort to regergitating things they've heard from other people, when they cant think of anything else to say. and how people can learn things from others just by having a close proximity to them (directly proportional to the the inverse of the distance squared?).
south dakota itself was also largely uneventful, though i had a blast. i had never seen my nephew before, nor my brother-in-law, nor his family and their ranch, complete with a herd of buffalo.
L oyalty : proud dedication to the constitution of the united states of america AND the persons currently responsible for implementing it.
D uty : doing what is expected. quickly.
R espect : a deep understanding of the chain of command that comes with the realization that when two superior officers tell you to do two contrary things, thinking is not something you have time to do.
S elfless service : an understanding of the needs of the people around you.
H onor : wholeheartedly adhering to the rules and guidelines of a tradition or ritual, or, the sense of belongingness that accompanies such an action.
I ntegrity : doing what you Know to be Right, IN SPITE OF other factors, such as personal danger or a low chance of success.
P ersonal courage: not sure yet what this means, probably something i'll learn in basic training.
23December2008. christmas party at the parsonage. knock knock jokes and legos.
dec10th. unmarked police car at the back door. two coppers, using their laptops. i rushed downstairs and unplugged the wireless network, and they immedietly drove off. i mentioned it to my parents when they got home and they of course assumed that i had done something wrong. one of their donut-toting lackeys came to the front door later that day, with a summons for Sister to appear in court in massachusetts. this is the same day she headed back to maine; the unmarked car missed her by about 3 hours. she is evidently to appear as a character witness for someone that she hasnt talked to in a year. the lackey offhandedly described her as a "victim" in the event, and that resulted in a unussually odd amount of confusion.
been thinking about game development. as a hobby and possible job when my trianing is over. i want to publish other people's games. make the peices, the cards, the boards. and have restricted-access forums for joe shmoe game designer to host his game, and jane blow can try the game and tell joe what works, what doesnt, how he could make it better. a community of creative developers.
with all the inflation over the years, the value of the US dollar crumbling internationally, and the value of raw copper soaring, there is still at least one place in the world you can get penny candy for a penny. thats a comforting thought.
i helped at church, wrapping presents for foster children. local businesses in the area donate all kinds of gifts, and kids come in, pick several gifts to give for christmas, and we wrapped them for free. after everyone had gone i wrapped up a starfish for Utah, that swells to 100x its size when you put it in water. last time i heard from sarah, they had to put it in the bath tub because it was too big to keep in a kitchen bowl.
the silver cross was, evidently, returned to sender in some sort of mix up. most people would be unnerved by this. to me, its just a piece of large font printed on an expensive bit of paper, that i should have had in hand, 5 years ago.
i registered to vote ron paul for president 2008 (http://www.ronpaul2008.com/)
pamela and i did a bit of offroading, drifitng playfully in the first big snow storm of the year. and got stuck. 135$ to get towed out, 100$ fine for passing a ludicrous amount of vehicles, on route 2, while exceeding the normal "sunny day" speed limit. it felt good, to pass each of those people, rushing to get ahead of the storm. until i found out WAS the storm. passed one plow truck too many, and i imagine a few people chuckled as they passed me, at turtle speed. later, at the DMV in troy, the boy in front of me was on his third or fourth DUI offense, as of july his worker's license will be revoked. and for a moment i came to realize what they meant in driver's education, when they said "driving is a prillage, not a right".
04Jan2008. said goodbye to pamela.
we made christmas boxes at church. cross shaped paper, with a christmas memory written inside. then we folded them into boxes and gave them to the jesus icon, a plastic baby lying in a wooden trough.
01January2008. mitch, lauren, and i wached the fireworks over boston harbour, near quincey market. its a new year, and the world will never be the same. this is my last post for at least six months, i'm shipping off to basic training in a couple days.
