my life, my thoughts, my world.

Day 183

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Over half a year has gone by since my deployment, and over half a year remains. Two days ago I picked up Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, hoping it would provide a good long read and make a week or so fly by. My calculations were horribly off, I managed to read the book entirely in a timespan barely exceeding 24 hours – and I was asleep for about 5 of those. The only obvious path from here is that I find some way to get The DaVinci Code, Digital Fortress, and Deception Code sent to me.

Talks with other people have led me to believe that I might just need to read the whole Harry Potter series while I’m at it. A number of people have made references to things from the books, leaving me wondering what the heck they were talking about. I guess the real way to find out would be to read the books. Still not sure about that one though.

Not too long ago I was met with the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Over the course of this deployment I have come into contact, either directly or indirectly, with numerous people that had never been exposed to the sonic joys of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, or even Metallica. My initial feelings upon each instance of this insanity were a mixture of horror and shock. Those feelings were followed by a sense of doom, and confirmation that the world was in fact nearing its end.

History has produced quite a lot of excellent music, in a variety of genres. By the same token, there has been an even larger explosion of complete crap, which for some reason has grown increasingly popular. In an attempt to save the world, I think I shall go on a mission to spread the seeds of diversity through a selection of good music. I do, after all, have a .org – so the proliferation of good music will be my mission and my cause. If you wish to join the fight against horrible music, by all means do so – but the second I see Fergie pop up in one of your playlists, I’ll nuke it faster than a 2000w microwave.

Day 180

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

A few days closer to the end of this deployment, and my involuntary extension. There was a brief moment during the day when I caught an evil look for having my name on a slide right next to people that will not re-enlist. Fortunately, it’ll take a lot more than an evil look – say divine intervention – to get me to even almost consider voluntarily extending myself.

Early this morning I ordered a few more photography books, this time focusing on the business side of things. Whatever isn’t covered there I’ll just have to ask a few photographers I know for their input. Either way, I’m ramping up to launch this thing when I get back. If everything is ready to roll before I even get out of the Army, that’d be great, so that’s my goal.

Day 177

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

So right as I fell asleep, the generator cut out. Nothing quite like the insane heat of a tent in the Iraqi afternoon to brighten up your day. For the remainder of this deployment I’m going to have to try my best to just not talk to anyone while I’m at work, since it has grown difficult to keep my inner monologue from becoming audible speech. A hilarious lie has been circulating, that I was actually given the choice to stay back in the rear and not deploy, and immediately decided to come back to Iraq instead of staying back. Everyone knows I don’t do drugs, and LSD or some other hallucinogen is absolutely the only way in hell I would ever make a choice that utterly retarded. Some might say “well what about the money?” Ha, what about the money? Given just free weekends I could easily trump the tax free benefits and the added pay, with a few turns of my wrenches. As much as I hated being covered in grease, I’d take that over baking in a dusty hell any day.

Day 174

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Worked out some today, since I have time again it makes sense. I still haven’t found anywhere to record at yet, and it’s looking like that might just be impossible to do out here. I’ve been making DVDs and exporting video for people’s iPods a lot lately, gotta love the Macbook Pro’s insane power when it comes to doing things like this.

Day 169

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Well considering I can’t do the flickr upload ‘n post from work anymore, I don’t think I’ll be doing the daily photo + blog anymore. My plan is to now revert to the old ways, of regular boring text posts as I see fit, and the photo posts when I get time off to hit the internet cafe when the packets fall out of the sky at a more acceptable rate. Other than that, I don’t have a whole lot to say right now. I’ve finished watching all the movies I was sent over my leave, so I guess now it’s back to guitar and video games in my spare time. I really need to find somewhere to record at, since my tent just isn’t going to cut it.

Day 168

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Journler rocks. That’s really all I have to say right now. I’m in the process of moving my entire OIF5 notebook/journal over to this most ass kicking of applications. That isn’t all I’m going to keep track of there though – songs I write, photo ideas I get, all that jazz is going right into Journler. I’m going to send the dude that made this a cookie, and like $50 or something.

The Germans were defeated at Stalingrad, because I’m awesome like that (Call of Duty 2). Soon they’ll be ruined in Africa too. I’m sure when I get to the American part, things will get interesting (I’ll have to assume that a WW2 game starts the American portion with D-Day, so I expect to die a few thousand times before I ever make it to the MG42 nests.)

If you own a Mac, and write a lot of stuff that maybe you want to associate photos/music/video with – you need to follow the link to Journler, install it, and enjoy. That is all.

Day 167

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Still nothing really going on. Started playing Call of Duty 2 – which plays completely awesomely on my Macbook Pro. Needless to say I’ve been kicking ass at the game, because that’s what I do. I don’t have the free time required to beat an entire game in one day anymore, but I should be finished by the end of the month for sure.

Day 166

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Not too much to say really, Flickr no worky from the office, so I can only upload on my day off – or if I decide to go to the internet tent on some other day. Season 4 of The OC was pure crap, if you haven’t seen it yet, just tell yourself the season ended w/ the Season 3 finale. That is all.

Day 165

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Another slow day at work, followed by a whole day off. I’m sure my post tomorrow will be interesting having not had to work for many, many hours. I kicked off my free time in a way that marks a long standing tradition from OIF3 – I started a viewing marathon of The O.C. Laugh, I really can’t say I blame you, but those of us living in the same CHU last time I was out here ran out of shows to watch in our free time, and ended up sucked in to the ridiculous “drama” of this show. The only one that is still here with me got Season 4, so I obviously have to watch the entire thing in the next few days.