February 28, 2005

SIGH

When I first started this blog, I flew off the handle a lot. I used to get so fired up and would write about every article I read. I've noticed that the world doesn't shock me like it used to. I'm getting very ho-hum about the 'sphere. I figure if I've seen it on four blogs, you've seen it too. LGF doesn't shock me anymore. I'm used to jihad, war, and terrorism. It's a strange feeling, and it makes my blog suck.

I just haven't been feeling very screedy lately. I hope it's not permanent.

I start subbing tomorrow; I'll be teaching 7th grade math for a friend who is on maternity leave. Fractions. Lord help us all.

And the husband still isn't in Kuwait.

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December 29, 2004

THANK MY RECRUITER

The other day, Ken of RebelRouser emailed me and said that he wanted to blogroll me but that he didn't know my story and didn't know if he should file me under military or civilian. I explained my story to him and said that I was therefore a civilian. He then emailed back with something that has had me glowing for a week:

Make no bones, you're in the military and you are not a Civilian. As far as
I'm concerned, you're a Soldier. I think this is something Americans need to
realize, and I think you are just the person let them know.

And then he invited me to join his new blog.

Now writing under the name Nasty Dawg, Ken has started a group blog called Don't Thank Me, Thank My Recruiter. He has gathered active duty and veterans from all branches and ranks to blog together, and he wanted to fill the dependent angle as well. That's where I come in.

Everything is up and running, virtually overnight, so I was the last one to report for duty. Please check out Thank My Recruiter; I think it will be an interesting exchange.

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December 20, 2004

HE IS JOHN GALT

I had a thought the other night that would probably make Den Beste cringe, but I realized that I'm glad that he shrugged. He started writing because it made him happy. He got noticed, and more and more people tried to control him. Write about what I want to hear. Make sure you include this angle. No, you're wrong about this minor detail. Maybe if you read Ayn Rand you'd understand. And so on and so on. He started carrying the world on his shoulders, getting more and more burdened by pedantic mail and impossible demands. And finally he shrugged.

Who is John Galt? Den Beste is.

And all of a sudden, now that I think of it that way, it's easier to bear his absence. I'm happy for him, now that the weight has been lifted from his shoulders. I'm happy that he's let go and stopped letting the looters rule his blog. I'm happy for him, and it makes missing him easier.

But now I'm worried about him because he's sick.


(And, yes, I'm relating everything in my life to this book right now. Sue me.)

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December 19, 2004

THEY PUSH AND THEY PUSH

I remember reading some blogger note how ironic it is that Americans write comments on Iraqi blogs trying to tell Iraqis what Iraq is like. Apparently it's gotten the best of Ali, and he's hanging it up. Thanks a lot, folks.

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December 17, 2004

KISMET

Reader mjseabee on Smash's blog pointed out a wild coincidence. I followed the story of a blogger named SGT Lizzie, who recently ran over an IED and got her "happy ass blown up", as she said. It turns out that Red 6, my husband's best friend, recovered her vehicle. Here's her account of the story, and here's his. Thanks to mjseabee for noticing that two bloggers' lives crossed for a moment.


(Update: Looks like they've figured it out.)

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December 04, 2004

AND HE'S OFF...

Red 6, the husband's best friend, has caught the blogging bug. Here's the email he sent out (in its entirety):

after some discussion, i have decided to start a weblog. it will probably rule or suck based on my internet connection and time available. we'll see. also...i'm not funny.

Well, that was enough to crack me up, so I'm looking forward to reading Armor Geddon as often as he can post. If you're interested in getting in on the action, he's beginning his blog with a day-by-day of his time in Fallujah. I have only gotten to hear snippets of these stories so far, so I'm anxious to get the details.

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November 20, 2004

DINNER

I had dinner last night with one of those newly-discovered friends in my real life who also reads my blog. We discussed many issues, and I had a good time getting to know her point of view a little better. It's a bit strange: she said that she and another friend discuss new stuff on my blog at work in the morning. But it seems like nobody else thinks it's weird, so I guess I'll go on being whispered about on post.

Some things that we talked about last night that I wanted to give her links to:
Fallujah Marine in Trouble for Pulling a Kerry
You're Not in 'Jesusland' Anymore
Ethics in America (the one you want to watch is Under Orders, Under Fire I & II)

And here's something else we kinda hit on last night:

Americans donÂ’t hate Europeans. We donÂ’t even hate French people. Well, most of us donÂ’t. In fact, by and large, we love Europeans. We find them fascinating and mysterious. We buy European wines and foods and brag about how many American dollars we had to spend on it. We think that Europeans are somehow more sophisticated than we are, and we seek to emulate their sophistication, at least in gesture if not in spirit. But, when you get right down to it, many Europeans simply arenÂ’t individualist enough for us, and so we kind of lose them at some point, usually when we start talking about how much we love our country and our freedoms. It isnÂ’t that we donÂ’t understand that Europeans love their country, too, or that we donÂ’t appreciate European culture. ItÂ’s just that we are American and that means more to us than having a cool accent.

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November 18, 2004

GARBAGE

I didn't blog very much while my husband was here, but I also know that I haven't been putting out very high quality stuff for quite a while now. I just don't have anything good to say. I'm also dealing with some feelings of weirdness that word has gotten out around here about my blog, so all sorts of people who are in my real life are also reading my blog. I therefore keep second-guessing what I want to say. I heard an Iraq anecdote yesterday I'd like to talk about, but I'm not sure it's OK for distribution. I overheard a bizarre statement at the memorial service, but I don't want people to recognize who said it. All of a sudden I want to pull a fad, to disappear and start a new blog elsewhere under a new name.

But let's face reality, even if I resurfaced, I still wouldn't have anything good to say.

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October 06, 2004

DUTY

Faithful readers know that I live with conflicted feelings of not being in the military myself. Maybe it's rationalization, but I found comfort in these new words from Whittle:

So here I am: feeling useless. But President Bush warned that this was going to be a different war – something unlike anything we had ever seen. The front line now, at this critical time, is in the hearts and minds of our own people. That’s where the real battle is now. That is our weakest point, our breach, our point of failure. We have not made the case to enough people and time is running out.

So maybe now, at this absurd point in this new kind of war, we’re the crack troops, we old and useless pajama patriots reduced to printing up pamphlets to sell war bonds to the weary, to make the case for holding on to an unglamorous, uninspiring, relentless grind because that – not Normandy and Midway – is the face of war in this gilded age of luxury and safety and plenty.

Maybe thatÂ’s our job. Maybe we can help cover some small gap in the lines.

If it's "Duty First", then my duty must be to blog.

I spoke of rejuvenation earlier this week. Whittle can always get me fired up. (He gets Blue 6 and Red 6 fired up too.) And he makes me feel good that I stand with him.

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September 28, 2004

MISS

I know he's not coming back. I know. But it seemed so final when I read this post that I actually began to cry. His was the first blog I ever read. His was the first blog I checked every morning. He was the one who catapulted me into blogging about a year ago. And he has given me something for which I will always be grateful: the slow, painful journey of learning how to think.

I just miss him, that's all.

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September 26, 2004

CATCH UP

We had access to CNN World on our TV, so we watched it periodically to get an idea of what was going on in the world. I never watch the news, so the whole thing was quite infuriating. There were several times I wanted to throw something at the news anchors for the obvious way they were leading their interviewees (One guy badgered the Nigerian president with the same question asked four different ways because he wasn't getting the answer he wanted to hear. And then he shrugged and basically accused the president of lying!) I wanted to rip the larynx out of Richard Quest.

I started trying to catch up on everything I've missed this week, but I realized it was futile. If you can think of something that I should read that was posted or was not presented on CNN World this week (heh), then mention it in the comments and I'll check it out.

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September 20, 2004

TO MY BLOGFATHER

msmm.jpg

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September 07, 2004

TIPJAR

If we don't help out, Mudville Gazette will be gone in a few weeks...

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September 03, 2004

HELP

OK, I need help. I've been looking for over an hour for an article I read the other day on someone's blog. It was a study of how the economy does not have a significant effect on crime. I'm getting really frustrated that I can't retrace my steps; does anyone else know which article I'm talking about?

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August 29, 2004

BEST

I don't have the patience to go look it up, but a long time ago I wondered if we'd all still be blogging in ten years. I wondered if the fad would die or people would get burned out. I thought we might all hit a point where we just lost interest, but I never wanted to see it happen to The Best.

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August 16, 2004

CPT PATTI

Tim mis-labeled his blog when he called CPT Patti the "sweetest woman on the planet"; he should have called her the sweetest and best smelling woman on the planet. I don't know if she's taken a billion showers after leaving Iraq, but the first thing I noticed about her was how downright delicious she smelled. And then it was her radiant smile.

CPTPatti.jpg

Tim and CPT Patti stopped here on their way home from leave in Italy. I originally thought nothing could've been nicer than my trip to Frankfurt to meet Tim, but the addition of Patti was nothing short of heavenly. She was personable and interesting and genuine and just plain great. And of course Tim was the Tim we know and love. They were just excellent together, and it was the best lunch I've had in a long time. I could've talked to them for two days instead of two hours, and I'm humbled that they drove out of the way just to see me.

And I told Tim that if he ever gets the itch, he's welcome to write a guest post here whenever he wants.

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August 13, 2004

PERSPECTIVE

When I blog, I blog off the cuff. I type, I finish, I post. Which is why the fact that I've started several posts in the past few days and just erased them or saved them as drafts because I know they're garbage is startling. I don't have anything good to say. I'm stumped and I'm down on myself because I feel worthless.

And then the phone rang and I found out LT A will likely be in the hospital for up to six months. And I lost it.

There I was, carrying on because my blogging is not up to par, and then people with actual problems called and reminded me that "gaping shrapnel wounds" are more important than "feelings of inadequacy due to insufficient blog material". I don't think I've ever felt like a bigger idiot.

I'm not blogging anymore for a while, at least not until I have something to say.

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August 12, 2004

WORSE

I was just trying to find something back on my old Blogspot site.
I had a realization:
I think I was a better blogger back in November than I am now.
Hmmm...that's not good.

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July 29, 2004

SULLIVAN

I just posted this over on Vodkapundit's fisking of Andrew Sullivan.

"I have no real beef with Sullivan, but I don't visit his site as often as I used to. I was curious to hear that he had added a donkey to the header on his blog, so I went over there and just read this:

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "As few as five people in black robes can look at a particular issue and determine for the rest of us, insinuate for the rest of us that they are speaking as the majority will. They are not." - Rep. John Hostettler, the Republican who authored the bill that would strip federal courts of the right to consider the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. But, of course, it could also be said about the five Supreme Court Justices who made George W. Bush the president of the United States. The Republicans love courts when they reach the right decision; they just despise them when they don't.

Wow. Has he really gotten that far out of hand that he's playing the Bush-stole-the-election game? Geez."

If the man wants to vote for Kerry, then so be it. But please don't all of a sudden start claiming that the election was rigged and other such nonsense. I have always respected Sullivan for his research and insight, so this recent Quote of the Day made my jaw drop.

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July 28, 2004

#17

Several people have written me to point out that I made it all the way up to #17 on John Hawkins' Top 40 Blogs. When I saw that, I was as flabbergasted as you! Oda Mae wrote in my comments section recently that I should be proud of the things I say on my blog, but I don't really think I'm all that interesting. I still can't believe anyone reads my stuff, much less people like SGT Hook who are deployed and should have much higher priorities.

But anyway, people do come here, and I certainly appreciate it. Thanks for helping me try to grok.

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