An Army of 1 in 10

First some background: back in late ‘84 or early ‘85, my father bought a Commodore 64 while we were stationed in Germany. This started my love affair with computers.

When we PCS’d from Germany, my parents bought me this game: Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom for my 10th birthday. This was the first time I had seen a game cartridge.

Understand, this was back in the day when we still used a tape deck to load programs onto the computer — it took about 30 minutes to load a single program. We hadn’t gotten a disk drive yet (the venerable 1541). You would type LOAD “PROGRAM NAME”,1 to load from the tape (LOAD “PROGRAM NAME”,8 for the disk drive).

After my presents were unwrapped and we were done celebrating my birthday, I obtained permission to play my new game. Oh I was so excited. A Buck Rogers game! I couldn’t wait to play it! So, I turned the computer on and plugged the game cartridge into the slot on the back.

The game did not appear on the TV (black & white) that the computer was connected to. In fact, there was a whole lot of nothing on it. I turned the computer off and back on again. The game still didn’t work. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had destroyed the game before I ever had a chance to play it by plugging it in while the computer was turned on. I did not get to play the awesome Buck Rogers game. Young Anonymous Soldier was a sad little boy.

Fast forward to today. I’m over on Macupdate.com to see if there’s any software I want to try out. I spot a Commodore 64 emulator. This isn’t the first time I’ve had an emulator for the 64, but it is the first one I’ve used on the Mac. So I’m playing around with it and poking around an FTP site for old games that I remember playing, when I FIND BUCK ROGERS!

Of course, I had to try it out! I wasn’t able to play it when I first got it twenty-two and a half years ago, but I sure as hell was going to play it now! Anonymous Soldier became a happy man! I launch the emulator. I load the cartridge file. The game starts! I begin playing! Yay!

Then I very quickly realize that I would have enjoyed this game much more twenty-two years ago than I do today. The graphics and game play are horribly simple — even for the standards of 1985. Jumpman and Lode Runner (the next two games I’m going to download!) had better graphics and game play than Buck Rogers did.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disappointed. I knew that it wouldn’t compare to what we have today. After all, this was back in 1985, and it’s now 2008.

But I played Buck Rogers

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything, so I thought I’d pop back in to let everyone know that I’m doing fine. Now for some updates.

Time passes very quickly here in Iraq, which is a factor in my not having posted anything since 3 Oct 07. My day consists of a twelve-hour shift, after which I’m tired and not in much of a mood for doing anything beyond chatting with friends and family. It’s been nearly 7 months since we deployed and there are still 8 more to go. The upshot of that is that my bank account is very happy.

Big Update!!
I made cut-off this month, so I will be promoted on 1 Mar 08. It’s been a long time coming and I’m looking forward to it. Saturday just can’t get here soon enough for my taste.

Politics:
I’m very disappointed in this year’s crop of candidates. McCain is going to be the Republican nominee. Ugh. We may as well have a Democrat in the White House if, God forbid, he gets elected. The only one of the three that I would rather have in the White House is — brace yourselves — Hillary.

Here’s why: McCain is a Democrat in Republican’s clothing. McCain-Feingold (assault on freedom of speech), opposed President Bush’s tax cuts, will take us into Iran… I could go on.

Obama: Socialist. Need I say more?

Hillary is a devil, yes. But I say, “the devil you know…” I no longer believe that she will win the nomination, which will leave the race between McCain and Obama. I will vote for neither man. I think I’m going to write in Condi on my ballot.

Security:
As I’ve noted before, I’m fortunate to be in a relatively peaceful area. We’ve lost only a few Soldiers (last time the brigade was in Iraq, it lost many) since September. The security situation here is stable and improving. Improving slowly, but still improving.

The locals are wonderful people. My interactions with them have only been positive, and they genuinely want a better life for themselves. They disagree amongst themselves how to go about that, of course; but then again, so do we. It’s the terrorists that are making life miserable for the Iraqi people.

Miscellaneous
I had a Soldier talk to me about an issue regarding his orientation this evening. I had no idea that he was queer as well, but I think I allayed his concerns. I also passed him the link to here, so he might show up. Show him a warm welcome if he does.

The writers strike is finally over and now I’m finally able to get season 2 of Jericho from iTunes. It’s two episodes into the season, and so far it’s an interesting turn of events; although I wish they had concluded the battle between Jericho and New Bern rather than start the season off the way they did. Oh well.

Well, it looks like I will be retiring from the military now.  I’ve just recently re-enlisted for 6 years (I’m getting a nice chunk of change out of it), which will put me at over 13 years time-in-service at the end of this new enlistment.  After that, it’s just a short hop and a skip away from retiring at 20 years.  Needless to say, my parents were quite pleased with my decision.

This week is going to be a short work week for me because I’m currently on quarters for 48 hours due to having oral surgery yesterday.  I don’t go back to work until Thursday.  And I go on leave on Saturday for two weeks.  Man, I’m getting a lot of time off!

I’ll need it though, because it won’t be long until I deploy for 15 months to Iraq.  I still haven’t figured out how (or if) I’m going to post to A1in10 while I’m downrange.  I’m sure that I’ll figure something out  which won’t compromise my identity.

Okay, I’m sure that all you guys who grew up in the ’80s (like me!) are either a) aware of the new Transformers movie or b) are eagerly anticipating it.  Either way, there’s a new trailer which shows more of the movie than previous trailers… and it’s gosh-darned-tootingly awesome!

Bumblebee…
Optimus Prime (yay!)…
Starscream…
Soundwave (?)…
Megatron (?)
and a new one!

Check it out and  remember your childhood!  Remember the first Transformers movie?  How many of you cried when Megatron killed Optimus?  I know I sure did.  I was worried when I found out that Michael Bay was directing it, but the trailer looks great… and besides, it’s the TRANSFORMERS!

The movie opens July 4th.  I haven’t been this excited about a movie since Transformers:  The Movie was released back in 1986 and I can’t wait to see this one (sequels? pleeeeeease let there be sequels!) in a few weeks.  I just hope Optimus doesn’t die in this one.

Ingredients

16 pieces of crow breast meat (no bones) (8 crows)
16 pieces of green pepper
16 cherry tomatoes
8 button mushrooms
8 ears of sweet corn
1 1/2 cups of Teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup melted butter
8 kabob skewers

Preparation

Cut each piece of crow in half and place in a covered bowl with the Teriyaki sauce over night. Clean and cut each ear of corn into 3 pieces. Cook in boiling salt water for 10 minutes. Alternately put corn (3 pieces), green peppers (3 pieces) and cherry tomatoes (3) along with 4 pieces of crow meat on each skewer. Use 1 mushroom to top each skewer. Brush with melted butter and place on preheated grill for about 4 minutes. Flip, butter again and place back on grill for another 4 minutes. Repeat one last time for a total of 12 minutes or until they appear done. Serves four adults.

More »« Less

Well, I had a blast on TDY. The city I was in was beautiful, but I forgot to bring my camera so I have no photos of it. Sorry.

Internet
My ISP still hasn’t reconnected my internet connection. What a crappy company. I’m currently at a new net cafe that’s opened on post, so at least I can now get on for a short while (at a monetary cost). I should be able to get the registration bug fixed soon … please be patient.

Deployment
I’ve also learned that my brigade has been place on notice for deployment. We don’t know where or when we’re deploying yet, but it’s probably going to be during 4th quarter. With the new 15 month deployment, I’m going to have to figure out something in regards to the disposition and maintenance of the site. I may have a trusted person post my entries for me and make updates.

On the bright side, that means I’m going to come home with a lot of money in the bank. Since I’m single with very few bills, the deployment will be pure profit for me. And with the 15 month deployment, that’s also going to mean an additional $3,000 for serving in combat over 12 months. All tax free. Yep, I’m looking forward to it.

So it’s been a month since I last posted anything on A1in10, and some of you may be getting concerned. In case no one noticed, I did post a quick explanation on the main SIU blog a week ago, but I realize that not everyone probably reads it. Here’s what happened.

Last month, I was preparing to move when my internet service cut off. This was expected, as I had requested that it be moved to my new location; however, while the phone service was reactivated, the internet was not. I was then unable to access the internet from home, and I’m certainly not going to access A1in10 or SIU from the government network (especially when my login is tied to my CAC). On top of that, I’ve been TDY for the last two weeks (still have a week to go), and my internet access is spotty here.

Hopefully my ISP will have straightened out its act and have my DSL line reactivated when I return home next weekend. If that turns out to be the case, then you can expect me to resume posting on a regular basis then (AND to fix the blog registration bug). If not, then I’ll continue to be offline for a while.

Basically what it boils down to, is this: if you’re worried about my well-being, then rest assured that nothing has happened to me except for a bout of bad luck and bad timing. My career is still safe, and aside from going through internet withdrawal, I’m fine.

I know I’ve been posting a lot of personal things lately, but that’s just the mood I’m in. If you don’t like it, well, just be patient and I’ll start writing about other things soon. But for now, I’m going to share some of my favorite songs with you.

So I’m websurfing this evening and listening to my music on iTunes when one of my all-time favorite songs comes on — Crazy by Pat Green. I was introducted to Pat Green’s music several years ago by a friend, and I really can’t adequately describe the sheer awesomeness of this man’s music. This song, in fact, was the very first Pat Green song I listened to.

Six years later, I still stop what I’m doing to listen to it when it comes on. I’m not sure what exactly it is about this particular song that affects me so deeply, but it most certainly does. Maybe it’s the lyrics, the story being told, maybe it’s the melody, or perhaps it’s a combination of it all. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for love songs. Whatever it is, I’m grateful to this friend for introducing me to Pat’s music.

More »« Less

When I was in middle school, one of the classes I took was photography and I promptly fell in love with it. I took the class again in my senior year and once again fell in love with photography. Over the past n years, I haven’t kept up with that love very much because of the very fact that I just couldn’t afford a good camera. In recent days, I’ve been bitten by the photography bug again.

So now I’m looking for a good camera. I would prefer not to buy a film camera, so I can save on film costs, but the camera must be an SLR so that I can have more control over how my images turn out. I’m definitely not a professional, so I won’t be considering professional-grade cameras, but I would be willing to spend as much as $1,000 on a good camera (preferably significantly less). One that can take black/white pictures in addition to color would be a bonus (I prefer b/w photography).

Since I’ve been out of the photography scene for … a while, I’m woefully ignorant on camera prices and features. I don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a camera only to find another one with the same capabilities for much less. Any advice would be immensely appreciated.

I’m not normally a person that goes along with an internet meme, but I’ve decided to do this one for a couple of reasons:  1) to see if I could think of 100 interesting facts about me, and 2) it might be fun.  So let’s get started!

More »« Less