Photos of Iraq – well, only a small part of it

I took a few photos of the main office before I got on the bus to head home a few days ago. In stark contrast to the night – we have sunlight – just want to make sure you all know that we have the sun over here too. I only see the sun [...]

Did someone put a sepia filter on the sun?

We had another sand storm – joy of joys! I decided to take a quick video so that you could see exactly what I’m living in. I was wondering how bad it was during the American “Dust Bowl” – shame we didn’t have video then. Oh well

The idiot next to me

We have the option of using headsets and talking to anyone we desire via VOIP with the computers in the internet “cafe”. Normally, I can blank out any other conversations but the guy next to me is a complete and total idiot. The person on the other end of the conversation has got to [...]

Images of Iraq

I’ve uploaded some photos that I’ve either taken or acquired from here or there and I’ve posted them in the gallery. Feel free to check them out if so inclined.

Here are a few from the gallery

admin edit – photos removed

This is not from an explosion, rather, its from the trash fire [...]

The status of Iraq

The current situation in Iraq has been under intense scrutiny and debate for some time. We find it ever more in the spotlight as the democrats and republicans use it against each other for political gain. General Petraeus recently gave testimony to the Armed Services Committee and provided them with this slide. I haven’t [...]

Death to Bluecoat pt 2

BlueCoat, the web filter ran by the USAF, has caused me much aggravation since my arrival at Balad. I am not the only one that is feeling pain – everyone else is affected by this poorly written web filter. Recently, I discovered a way to circumvent the filter – RSS feeds. Techically, I’m accessing [...]

Giving up? What the hell?

This story pissed me off

Iraqi police officers voluntarily turned over their weapons to members of al-Sadr’s representatives in the Madhi Army.

If you were to surrender like this in the US military and were later caught they would probably charge you with treason. They would court martial you and shoot you. I’ve read [...]

Nationalize the oil industry?

Ok, I had some free time on my hands after watching the Drake Bulldogs getting beat at the buzzer – by a three pointer no less – so I let my imagination run wild for a few minutes. Eventually, I needed to call in reinforcements to reel it back in but I had traveled [...]

Sometimes we go too far

Chuck Norris – the man – the myth – the guy that kills with a roundhouse kick to the face is quite popular among members of the armed services. A few years ago somebody came up with a bunch of Chuck Norris “facts” that turned out to be quite hilarious. They spread like a [...]

I’ll be fine

I went to the doc – something that I loathe doing – so that I could get on the road to recovery.

His assessment – wow, your muscles are really tight. If it’s still bad in a week come back and I’ll try to stretch it out. Take some anti inflammatory meds for the [...]