Your World As I See It

As residences go, my current digs aren't too bad...I mean, at least I'm not living in a tent anymore. And, unlike last time, I have a roommate that I get along with, which is more than I can say for some of my fellow section members, but that's a story for another time. The room itself is about a third of the size of my Seattle apartment, and that is space that I have to share as well. The room is between two others (three rooms per trailer) and with the paper-thin walls, you can literally hear almost every conversation that the neighbors take part in. The walls on one side don't quite reach the ceiling so at night a little light filters in through the tiny crack. Oh, well. Here is my roomie, Michael, showing off our "home theatre" complete with one of our laptops hooked up to a monitor and that uniquely magnificent speaker: ...and a closer look... ...and here we are looking at ourselves in the mirror. I had to have it lowered; apparently, the last occup...

So, here are some pictures from my recent stint on guard duty. Of course, I wasn't really doing much guarding, which, when you think about it, was probably best for all involved. Most of the guarding, including where I was, is taken care of by Ugandans. How it came about that Ugandans work security at our base is beyond me...but there they are. They are actually pretty funny guys, and they do speak pretty fair English. Here are a couple of them hanging out with their G.I. buddy for the day: You can see how much action we saw that night..."you see that camel out there?" ...and here I am in the Humvee turret, manning a weapon I have a rudimentary knowledge of... ...the "real" soldier that was with me asked if I knew how to use the thing...and more or less, I do, but I also figured that the likelihood of me having to use the thing was minimal, not too mention that if the situation arose that required me to actually fire, then I would probably just use the rifl...

Being a student of language and literature, I tend to enjoy noticing quirks of print and mangled phrases. In the states, these aren't too hard to find, but often are of the boring variety, such as formatting foibles or homonym issues. Of course there are countless grammar jokes to play on the your fellow citizens, such as suggesting that your local supermarket change its express line sign to "16 items or fewer"...then coming in the following week and telling them that it should actually be "16 items or less"...then finally coming back to argue that it would be more reasonable to make it 10 or 20 items...16 is not a very round figure, after all... Naturally, being in this part of the world lends itself to a more amusing set of observable language mix-ups. This is especially true in the more commercial aspects of my days in both Kuwait and Iraq. For the aspiring capitalists in this area, nothing is better (in their minds) for sales than English labeling. Thei...

The other day they opened up a little "haji-mart" trailer down the way. For those of you that were unaware, these establishments are where one can pick up local trinkets and odds and ends, as well as movies. Naturally, I'm not talking about the kind of dvd's that you might find at Target or Blockbuster...these particular editions are not usually found in your neighborhood. For instance, they have a boxed set of Disney movies...containing over 400 titles...then there are complete series of some tv shows (not just one season, but the entire run), and the more run-of-the-mill single discs. The packaging is often wrong or amatuerish, but, after all, they are what the industry likes to call "pirated" movies. Not that I condone piracy or the like, but these are very reasonably-priced collections. You have to consider these things from the deployed servicemember's point of view: This young man or woman (well, middle-aged too) is in a hostile environment,...

So, many of you might be wondering what being a mail clerk in Ramadi actually entails. To begin with, as everything else this time around, it certainly is not quite as nice as it was on Anaconda. Of course, there are some positive differences as well. For starters, I'm only picking up mail for one company this time, instead of for three battalion-sized elements, so there isn't quite as much lifting involved. On the downside, trying to get things done the right way is a lot of trouble, as the Marines running the post office are too stringent/knowledgeable about certain rules, and unlike last time, when I had some folks who knew what they were doing overseeing the mail room, all we have here is me, more or less. That's not too say I don't know what to do, it's just that I have to work much harder to make sure things get run by the book as much as possible. Anyway, typically we get mail convoys in to the camp twice a week (and yet, people continue to order things ...

So, I've finally moved into my new residence over here: the two-man trailer. My roomie still hasn't moved up from Kuwait yet, so I'll have the place to myself for a few more days. It's pretty funny when living in a dilapidated trailer park is considered moving up in the world, but that's how things are over in this dump. I guess I'll try and get some pictures up. It really isn't much to look at...it's a bit smaller than the one I had last time, but I'm only sharing it with one other guy this time (and, luckily for me, he isn't a jerk like the last guy!).

So, not too unexpectedly, Barack Obama is to be the next president of the United States. I am quite interested to see how things develop out from what will already be a historic presidency before he even takes office. Change is often good and always inevitable when it comes to politics, and now seems that the country has fully moved from the Republican cycle to the Democratic cycle, as seen in control of Congress and the White House. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem right now that it's going to make any difference on getting me home any sooner, but that's a little besides the point...

Well, here I am in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. This dumpy place is going to be my residence for the next eight or so months, and already I've seen all there is to see of it. The rainy season is upon us, so that means mud everywhere, especially given the fact that there are about two paved roads in the entire camp. Thankfully, it has been relatively quiet around here, so it looks like the only thing I'll be fighting around here is mud and boredom.