Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving

As I get ready to head to the gym on this Thanksgiving, I want to take some time to think about all the things I'm thankful for. It's been an interesting year for sure, with a major step of my life coming to pass (College, that is) and I definitely have a lot to be thankful for. I'm sad that I can't be home with my family, but I trust that they'll keep themselves entertained enough to not let it get them down, and I'm sure Chewie will step up in my absence. Some of the things I'm thankful for are as follows:

-My family, I love you all and without your support I would never be where I am today. I'm especially thankful that grandpa is still with us and I hope he's here for many more to come!
-My friends, you've always been there for me and I miss you guys and I hope you're all enjoying your little break here before life picks up again
-The awesome opportunity that I've been given to lead Marines and train with the best, who would have thought that this is where life would take me?
-Chewie, of course, my best friend this summer, who I hope hasn't been mellowed out too much by all the attention at home
-And finally, all the men and women who are serving our country so that we can enjoy our Thanksgivings at home as they work their asses off on the other side of the world for us.

This is just a short list of some of the most important things to me and I hope that all of you have a happy Thanksgiving and get to watch some quality football. Take some time to think about what you're thankful for, and I'm sure you'll be able to come up with an even longer list than I have. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Charlie



Qdoba: The new Grandma's House?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Am I really being paid for this?

So today started out at a gentlemanly 3:30 am. We then had a decent breakfast and hiked 3 miles to the rifle range where I spent most of the day shooting guns and hanging out with friends. I honestly don't know why anyone would ever complain about this, and if they are, they're in the wrong line of work. This job is awesome.

That being said, I can't wait for the rest of our time on the rifle range. The rotation is going to be as follows; first we shoot M16's through a course of fire from 200-500 meters (using open sights, which takes real skill), then we move to the Beretta M9 9mm pistol, then we finish the day off in the pits, switching targets. The pits have a deceiving name however, as that is an equally awesome part of the day; sitting in a concrete bunker, doing minimal work, snacking and bullshitting for a couple hours. At the end of the day, we hike back 3 miles and then get ready to do it all again the next day!

I love this job.

Monday, November 24, 2008

The people you see in REI...

So I'm at REI with a couple friends yesterday, and we're standing in line, waiting to check out, when I start to notice the gentleman standing in front of me. I slowly begin to realize that above the Teva sandals, and skin-tight tear-away pants are two leather, braided tassels hanging out from under his over-sized white tshirt. Atop his head is what can only be described as a leather, wool-lined yarmukah, covering a wooly, bearded head. The next moment, a lady checking out starts yelling at another man that he dropped a $20. The gentleman in front of me starts yelling at the top of his voice "HAS ANYONE DROPPED A $20?". Once the relatively simple situation is rectified, the store goes quiet again and everyone around us reverts back to their normal conversations. Approximately 30-45 seconds later, the gentleman in front of me turns around, giving me a better look at him; not only does he have a massive beard (that i can only assume houses at least 1 family of barn swallows), but the "tshirt" i thought he was wearing, was in fact a tunic of some sort, cut in a V down the front to show off his large amount of chest hair. He looks at through his 1/2 inch-thick glasses, and yells in my face "IS SOMEONE MOCKING ME? I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE MOCK ME". After my initial confusion and the 10 seconds it takes me to realize that his eyes are focused on me through those glasses, all I can respond with is "What?", to which he replies "I thought someone was mocking me, I hate that". He turns back around and I look at my friend and we both have to stare in opposite directions to avoid bursting out laughing. I check out and later witness this man stomping through the parking lot in an apparent fit of anger.

Noone said anything out loud, but you can bet your ass we are NOW mocking him...

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Sense

P.S. I can NOT stop laughing when I see this picture:

Some random Sunday thoughts...

So this week is going to be an easy one, the only thing of note we are doing is zeroing our rifles, which involves shooting a couple groups of 3 rounds to find the correct sight settings for our individual rifles. The post said to "bring professional reading material", which to me means "you're going to sit around a lot, so expect to be bored". Hopefully everyone remembers their warming layers so at least we won't be freezing the whole time...(yeah right) A couple things I've been thinking lately are as follows:

-I need to stop buying cool gear (the term "gear queer" gets thrown around a lot here)
-Valkyrie looks great
-Quantum of Solace was awesome, despite what several people have tried to tell me
-Thanksgiving is going to be interesting in DC

That's all I can think of for now, I need to get my coffee maker up and running for tomorrow, we're practicing with pistols out in the landing zone for several hours, so you can imagine how warm that's going to be. Cheers!

Charlie

Saturday, November 22, 2008

An ironic Thanksgiving thought...

My friend recently had his wife down to Virginia for the Marine Corps Ball and today he informed me that she was "deathly ill". While this was a bit of an exaggeration, apparently living with 1,000 people in close quarters has bred some pretty nasty bugs...bugs that we seem to be immune to. Thinking about this reminds me of something I learned in history class, how the Native American population was decimated by diseases that the settlers brought with them. I hope everyone back home is pounding vitamins in preparation for my return...

Friday, November 21, 2008

That would give you a lot of time to reflect...

Check this out: this 16 year-old kid from England is sailing around the world solo, talk about guts! I hardly think my little boat could make that journey, but how about knocking something like that off your life's to-do list that early on?

http://www.totallymoney.com/sailmike/

First!

Hello readers,

This is my first post, so bear with me!

For anyone who doesn't know, I'm currently living in Virginia, attending The Basic School at Marine Corps Base Quantico. A lot happens here every day and I hope to use this blog as a way to not only vent about the absurd amount of inane bureaucracy that goes on here, but also my thoughts on just about everything from Al Qaeda to grapefruits.

Hopefully you enjoy reading this and gain some insight from the way I see things and maybe even respond back with your own thoughts.

Charlie