Back "Home"

Well howdy again ladies and gents,

I am currently writing y'all from my "home" as I like to call it, West Bay Lagoon, Doha, Qatar.... I'm loving it already because it took me a good 15 minutes to figure out how to get this website out of Arabic so that I could actually understand what I was doing. (Some of y'all are wondering why I couldn't understand it... Well... That's because it's Arabic, and yes, it is a VERY hard language to learn... Even if you enjoy it as much as I do... :D ) To recount the experience, Armed with my new camera (which hopefully y'all will see some shots from over the course of the next few weeks. I'm gonna try to incorporate a few into this entry... Whoop!!!) and my two carry-on bags... I began my trip over here... The flights over were awesome... Houston to London, I pretty much watched movies the entire 8 hours over, lets see if I can remember them all... Started off with G.I. Joe, which I might add, I had been skeptical about due to some BAD reviews. This movie taught me one thing... That I must have a bad taste in movies, or that I'm forgiving of mistakes, because I thought it was a pretty good one... I enjoyed it! Second up... I think I watch the Family Guy parody of Star Wars, and it was safe to say I enjoyed it as well, but I figure that's because I'm a major Star Wars nerd, I eat the stuff up... Then I recall playing asteroids for a good 2 or so hours because it was pretty easy and the game took a while to take me out.. :D Then, the best decision of my trip thus far occurred...

Yeeaaahhh Baby Yeeaaahhh!!!

I put on an old favorite of mine, Austin Powers: Goldmember, and OH MAN... That movie was good when I watched it 4-5 years ago, but it only got better seeing it again as a college student, and singing along to "It's a hard-knock life" with Doctor Evil and Mini-me was definitely the highlight... The stuff I memorized as a High Schooler... *Sigh* Alright, by now there's about three hours left in my flight, and I'm looking for a new movie to watch. Under the comedy section there was a movie called "Post Grad" which looked interesting for two reasons, one the extremely good looking lady on movie's title page (or whatever you want to call it) and it has one of my favorite actors from Friday Night Lights the TV show in it, but two (and probably more applicable to the ladies who read this...), it was about a time period us college students are about to enter... (and one I'm worrying about right now, with the future uncertain.) As I come to find, it's a bit of a chick-flick... But you know... You gotta take what you can get on these flights, but I happily surprised with the theme of it all and the ending kinda had me thinking. *SPOILER ALERT* (for those of y'all who care) The main character had her life planned out for herself, getting everything done until she applies for this job and doesn't get it... It spins her life outta control, she loses the guy she likes to Cambridge college but gets the job she wants in the end. However, she bucks the trend of going with her scheduled life to go to New York to be with this guy. Now I'm not one for all the lovey-dovey stuff at the end... *END OF SPOILER ALERT*But the message of the movie was a pretty neat one... And that's be ready for problems with the goals in your life, but be flexible because good things can happen where you least expect them too... And while the guys are slapping their heads right now mumbling about how I've lost some major "man-points" with them, I feel like it pointed out the fact I should be more flexible with my future, be more excited about possibilities I haven't even considered yet... Who knows...

Anyways... My flight wound up being half an hour late to London, which left me with an hour and a half to switch airports from Hethrow to Gatwick... Wasn't gonna happen... So I went around Hethrow asking people where Qatar Airways' desk was, took a train, etc etc. all the while feeling pretty guilty about being excited that the next flight may be A LOT later in the day, thus opening up the possibility of my getting to spend a few hours in one of my two favorite cities. After a little while, I found the desk, and they actually managed to hook me up with a flight leaving the exact same time from the airport I was in... Lucky?? Yes, definitely... But I was sort of sad I wasn't going into London, but oh well... Ran to my gate, checked in, got on the flight and passed out, for all six hours of the flight. Good stuff?? Not really, my flight arrived here in Doha at 7... pm. It's now around 1:30 in the morning and I'm only just now beginning to feel a bit tired... Some of that has been jetlag... Some of it.. Okay, the majority of it, has been because I've been watching football online... My fantasy team is in the Semi's, so I'm keeping up with that over here....

Oh yeah... Fantasy football....

Another reason I have been up late, I had the chance to catch up with an old friend on facebook, something I always ALWAYS suggest doing, it really was a good time!! Finally, I am now writing the first of many Christmas break posts, so with a few hours of sleep we'll see what happens tomorrow...

Now I know usually I have some kind of politically charged statement to make, but I don't tonight and I'm gonna blame it on on the je je je je je jetlag this time... But also, these next few posts will be more on my break, and if I have something to say about a going on, then that'll be included too...

Oh and p.s., it was brought up in the chatting session with my friend that China blocks facebook... So I'm not sure if they block this too... But I suppose we'll find out when I get there the 27th... Do you smell a possible political theme for next time?? Maybe children... Maybe...

But in the meantime, take care!! Stay safe! And continue to have a good break... every last one of y'all!!

Double p.s. : My new camera takes HD video too supposedly... I'm excited about that... So videos will be uploaded to my youtube site... When it happens, I'll let y'all know where you can find them...

My last entry from College Station, 2009.

Howdy y'all!

I apologize... It has been a while... Through a combination of lots of work, Corps and school, and hanging with friends, and getting this dawggone Army stuff done... I haven't been updating my blog all that much... I promise you guys that'll change, ESPECIALLY since I will be heading to Doha on Saturday. I'm GREATLY looking forward to going back, I get homesick every so often, both for Doha and for my friends that are and used to be there... I'm not gonna lie, I've been having some wiieeeerrdd dreams lately, not necessarily bad ones, but they've been involving alot of my Doha friends, which is unusual, but I just look at it as my mind trying to stress how awesome it is going to be to go back and see the few people I know that'll be there.... So yeah, I'm excited about going back! Not to mention that we're going to be flying to I think it's Shanghai for a week. Seeing as I've lived in Asia for a while now, but haven't been to China since I was young... REAL young... I look forward to going back! I've always enjoyed Hong Kong, and while the atmosphere may be a bit different... I'm all about that area of the world, so I look forward to going!! :D But anyways... To end this little bit about my Christmas break, the camping, random wandering, eating those Mighty Zingers, and ghost-riding of the whip that will be done in Doha is something I'm looking forward to big time... It'll be good to be back home... :)

Just as a little bit of a journal entry, for those of you who wonder what has been going on in my life these past few months, my pursuit for an Army contract still goes on, and over this past week they've had me running down to Houston and back to take some tests for my asthma I used to have 10+ years ago.... It's funny, the longer this process takes, and the more I have begun to hear about how it's a distinct possibility I won't get this thing, the more I've been looking at the positives at getting a job in the civilian world. I get to have a dog (probably what I've been looking forward to the most), it'll be much more easy to have a family early on than it would have been in the military (what I've been looking for the most, if ya know what I mean...) and just living a life on my terms (which both scares me and excites me). But then you realize you don't have that job security you would with the military, and you have to apply for jobs, and you have to do this and that, and all of this gets a lot more daunting... Scary but exciting stuff really. Pretty much that's what has been ruling my life as of late, that and exams... But who isn't bothered with exams right now?? :D

Anyways, ladies and gents, it would be almost wrong for me to write this and not include anything politically charged within it, so today I was planning on discussing how each and each year, religion is attacked more and more here in America. And since 'tis the season to be jolly, I figure I'll focus a lot on the fact that Christmas just isn't Christmas anymore... So it all starts with a conversation I was having a few years back where I ended our little chat with a "Merry Christmas and happy holidays..." First of all, growing up overseas and spending a lot of time in Muslim countries, I should have been more aware of what I was saying. But I think it slipped because I was back here in the States and well... We celebrate Christmas here, or so I thought. It's all over the news, schools are calling it "Winter Break" now instead of "Christmas Break", nativity scenes are being taken down across America from schools and in front of churches (that one puzzles me), and plays about Christ's birth at around this time of year are become less and less frequent. "Chistmas" as I used to know it, is completely dying. Now, as I mentioned earlier, living overseas has always stressed to me to be COMPLETELY open and respectful of other people's cultures, etc etc. So does this mean that I believe that a nativity scene out in front of a house or a church should be taken down.... Think twice. The fact that there are people out there who believe in the fact that it is truly offensive for someone to have something like the before mentioned out in front of their house is just completely foreign and ridiculous to me. Groups like the ACLU make me want to puke, stating that stuff like this is an example of how the church is trying to "creep it's way back into our government". For example, ladies and gentlemen, (slightly off the Christmas theme but nevertheless very close to my heart...) the ACLU attacked a news corporation and the military about pictures that show members of our armed forces praying (one such picture was one of a group of soldiers praying over a fellow soldier who had been gravely wounded) stating that since they are "employees" of our government, they shouldn't be shown praying or having anything to do with a religion. RIDICULOUS! The separation of church and state was put into place so that every American could be free to choose which religion they wished to follow, or not to follow any religion at all. This I am in perfect agreement with, and I'd be the first one to stand by it. BUT, using this as an excuse to force people to take the "Christ" out of "Christmas" because that would be the politically correct thing to do is dumb. It's completely asinine and stupid. People protest about our country's assault on their freedoms... OMG, the government is attacking my privacy, my freedom of speech, etc etc... And then, and here's what gets me ladies and gents, these same people turn around and tell me to stop calling that green plant, that I put decorations on in celebration of that special day on the 25th of December, a Christmas tree... Well, here's my outlook on the subject, since it's your freedom to say what you want under the whole "freedom of expression thing", it's my freedom to express my love for CHRISTmas and what it stands for, to put up a CHRISTmas tree and.... I'll stop there... So please, I'll continue to be considerate of your viewpoints, please be considerate of mine. Thank you America...

I love my country, and pretty much all of y'all who have grown up around me know that, but goodness gracious, some of the stuff we argue about here in America makes me laugh... And sometimes I really do worry about us... But the fact we can argue about this stuff alone makes our country pretty damn awesome huh??? So please, Lemme know what you thing about what I've said, and hell, if you're not from the States lemme know anyways... I'm always interested in new viewpoints...

So, my next post will probably be shortly after I arrive in Doha, or while I'm in some foreign airport.... It all depends upon internet and if it's free or not... haha!! So y'all take care, have safe trips to wherever you're spending your break. And have a good one!!

Music, Church, and Recent Realizations

Howdy all...

I figure that it's been long enough since I wrote anything here... So I'll be combining a whole bunch of things I've been thinking about lately into one big entry. As the title kinda eludes to.... I'll be covering a mix of just random thoughts and recent activities I've had the chance to partake in.

Alright, I'll begin today's entry with a reference to a song that is completely amazing for all the wrong reasons... And I mean the kind of amazing that makes you cringe... Kesha's "Tik Tok", yyeeeeeaaaahhhh... Well, so I'm driving around College Station running errands listening to the radio when this song comes on. Let's just say it took me about 10 seconds of listening to those lyrics before I decided I NEEDED (yea... that's in all caps. The rate at which I was becoming more and more stupid simply listening to that song was enough to urgently push me to turn it off) to shut off my radio... The other one that ticks me off more than anything else is Asher Roth's "I Love College". I mean, seriously??? Just listen to the lyrics of that song, I was completely unaware that the point of college was to drink, get high, and make women take their clothes off. Don't get me wrong, I love the ladies, but dang... Going to college is supposed to mature you as a person, not make you less so. Now ladies and gents don't get me wrong again... I'm all for having a good time, ESPECIALLY now in college, before the real world comes along, but getting crazy drunk, high, and getting with every member of the opposite sex at a party is just ridiculous... But who knows... Maybe that's just me...

Anyways... We'll move on. From a personal "Journal" standpoint, I finally became an official member at Living Hope Church on Friday, and went to my first Hope Group on Monday. If there is something that I'm looking forward to the most about being a part of the church, it's the Hope Groups. The group of people that were there were so much fun to hang out with. We had a potluck, prayed for a bit, and wrapped gifts for those who aren't as lucky as we are. All and all, I had a major blast, and it's an AWESOME retreat from the Corps lifestyle for a bit.

So right now in Political Science, we're talking about the Cold War, and the whole East vs. West thing. I was doing my required reading (for once) and it kind of tied in with a Star Wars (Yep... I'm a MAJOR Star Wars nerd, and proud of it yo!!) book where one of the main characters, Luke Skywalker was sitting around thinking about how it was hard to draw lines between good and bad, black and white, dark and light. Well, it got me thinking about how much this world has changed on a global scale politics wise as well. I sat around thinking about my grandparent's time, where the bad guys were the fascist Germans and imperialist Japanese, and my parent's time where it was the USSR vs. the West, Communist vs. free world. Sometimes I wonder if life was really that simple, that cut and dry back then. I dunno, occasionally I find myself completely overwhelmed with what goes on around this wonderful world of ours and wishing that I could just jump back a generation or two, where life (at least to me and modern day standards) seemed to be somewhat less chaotic. Guys went from high school, did the military thing, got out and got themselves a respectable job, raised a good family, etc. etc....

Politics was good vs. evil, and none of this terrorism stuff where the enemy could be a major in the U.S. Army....

Maybe I'm just prematurely looking forward to the day I retire, set my family up on a ranch somewhere in Texas, or maybe Idaho, where all I need to worry about is groceries every once and a while, and taking care of my horses... Haha!!! Boy do I look forward to that day.

Anyways, I hope y'all are all living the good life, thanks once again for taking the time to read this new post, and leave a comment below if you care to with your name!!! I'll write another one of these next week save some incredible event that demands my writing about it sooner!!

---Dieu Defend Le Droit

My "howdy" 's, Fort Hood and the face of religion.

First of all... Welcome y'all to my new blog... Over the past few weeks or so, a lot has been happening in both the general world / my little world (ie. my life) and I dunno... I've always been the kind of guy who likes to share my experiences and viewpoints with others, and for those of y'all who I haven't talked your ears off doing so yet, count yourself amongst the lucky ones I suppose... :D

Anyways, I wanted to write my outlook on something about the recent Fort Hood shootings that has bothered me, (one of the many things that is) on my facebook status... After writing what I wanted to, I chose to update my status, where I was politely reminded by facebook that my status was too long. So somewhat disgruntled, I moved over to the "Notes" section, thinking I'd write something there. After writing a line or two, I realized that there wasn't a real good way to make a general announcement to everyone I had completed it. This bothered me because I'd like outlook from y'all on my viewpoints... you know, generate some discussion and stuff!! So I figured, what the hell, lemme give blogging a try!!

Back to what has been going on as of late... Last Thursday's incident at Fort Hood hit me hard... Especially since I'm pursuing an Army contract myself. I was just saddened by the fact that someone would attack the very people who are fighting for our country and it's ideals, and the fact it was a soldier shooting his buddies seems so foreign to me it was hard to take. The fact that someone would shoot innocent and unarmed (just to clarify... Very few troops on base actually walk around with rifles... They were unarmed.) bystanders... It's just insane that this event has so many different layers of disappointment for me.

Today I was on the world's most reliable news source, Fox News... :D And I read an article on how Major Hasan (the shooter), proclaimed by his family, a few people who know him, and a few radical religious figures to be one of staunch Muslim faith, frequented strip clubs right outside of Fort Hood. Obviously, it isn't that this little factoid that upsets me more than his shooting his colleagues and fellow soldiers in cold blood... No, what really saddened me, and was brought to my mind by this article is how some people such as this Major Hasan claim to be extremely religious, a fervent follower of it's values, and yet go around to places such as the ones mentioned earlier and find it necessary to kill others in the name (because we know any god is in complete support of people killing other people in cold blood!) of his religion. And I'm not raggin' on Muslims, there are plenty... PLENTY of examples of people like this in every religion. But I'm focusing on him because it ties into my next point. If you have people running around committing these awful acts of violence in the name of their religion, it just gives a bad name to the other followers.

This makes up a great deal of why this whole incident has saddened me. It is just another example of a so-called "strong follower" of the Muslim religion running around killing people ruining how many people look at the religion. As a matter of fact, I read an article a few days ago on how some of the leaders in the U.S. military are worried about backlash against Muslim followers in our great nation's many fighting forces. I have had the privilege of moving around the world multiple times, and over half of my life has been spent in Muslim countries. I've known too many awesome people who follow the Muslim faith, and I've been around the block enough times to know that the majority of the Muslim world would (and does) denounce actions such as the ones taken by Major Hasan. The fact however, that many people bunch the religion and many of it's followers under the same group as the likes of terrorists and others who commit such atrocious acts ticks me off big time. And to hear that people are going to take their anger out on other soldiers, those who signed themselves up to stand in the same very dangers as their battle brothers around them, SIMPLY because they follow a certain faith is ridiculous. I just don't understand how it's possible to do such a thing. I dunno, this issue has been bothering me a lot, especially since moving back to the States where I've experienced an instance of this kind of bashing, and I wanted to get this off of my chest....

So how's that for a first post?? I'm really excited about this, and I look forward to sharing more conversations and life stories with y'all!! And to those of y'all who read through this entire thing, I appreciate it!! I know that Politics isn't everyone's cup of tea... But who knows, maybe I stirred a bit of interest in y'all... We'll see what it's like for y'all to leave comments, I'm hoping y'all don't need to actually make a blog of your own to do so!! :D

Until my next post... Y'all take care of yourselves, and if we haven't talked in a while hit me up!!! I know I haven't been very good about keeping track of all my past friends and acquaintances, but I promise if y'all say howdy here, I'll get back to ya!!

--Dieu defend le droit