Thanks for the memories

I may be an artsy person, but I am not the most crafty person. This is why my most recent accomplishment is so big. I made a t-shirt blanket out of a bunch of old t-shirts from childhood, high school and a couple donations from my family.  It's 4 blocks by 5 blocks and double sided.

It is by no means perfect. The rows are crooked, there are a few mis-stitches, it's not completely squared up. But it's mine. My shirts, my memories, my smiles. And now I have them for as long as the blanket will last.

Memories are a cool thing. They bring back all sorts of emotions and reminisces about different times. When I was back home I found and took back with me a pair of shoelaces I've had for several years. They've got memories too. How else could I truly remember all the great slide tackles I had if it weren't for the grass stains on those shoe laces?

Speaking of memories, remember when Thierry Henry played for Arsenal? He's back on a brief (2 month) loan from Red Bull New York and he's already making even more memories. Arsenal won today against Leeds in a third round FA cup game because of a goal from the legend.

Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal

Today was the start of the 2011-2012 Barclays Premiership season. Arsenal drew with Newcastle at St. James Park. It was a good game, but a frustrating one.
It was so, so beautiful to see Tomas Rosicky play. He did a good job controlling the pace for Arsenal while he was on.
The most frustrating moment was when new signing and Frenchman Gervinho got sent off after Joey Barton started a fight with him after a small diving incident. At that moment, I realized it's going to be a looong season for Arsenal. I don't know if we have the depth to go a full season with other competitions mixed in.

On the other end of the spectrum, my Championship guys Reading FC beat Leicester City 2-0 away. Add in their 2-2 draw with Millwall last week and it's looking to be a good season. Maybe we'll make Premiership this season.

It's so good to have matches to look forward to each weekend again. Not a lot happened this summer and I'm ready for soccer action. And hopefully my fists will be doing excited fist pumps a lot this season instead of  frustrated ones.

What's Been On My Mind

Today's post shall be a conglomeration of what I've been thinking about today. Three very random topics to most people, but very important to me.

First, I'd like to discuss the dangers of PT. Every weekday morning I get to drag myself out of bed to go do PT. It's summertime in Oklahoma and all ground can be classified as well-watered grass, dead grass, or dust. PT is done in a mixture of dust and dead grass. There are a few people who like to avoid the dirt as much as possible. I can partially understand why; sweat and dust makes mud. But I would prefer it if we did PT in the dust. Today, I got cut by the grass. I didn't notice it until someone pointed it out, but now it hurts. And I wish people were a little more willing to get dirty in the name of safety.

Next, I will move on to Gatorade. I love the stuff. I mix my own and there's a few colors that are practically inhaled when I get my hands on them. I now have another product to add to my Gatorade 'like' list. Pro Recover in chocolate flavor. It's considered a protein shake and tastes like a really thin chocolate milkshake. I'd had some of the fruitier flavored Recovers before and wasn't that impressed because its a milk-based product and I don't associate milk and fruit flavor mixed together. Chock it up to my wonderful 4-year-old experimentation of mixing milk and orange juice and then having to drink it.

Finally, I've been thinking a lot about the Tottenham Riots. When the news first came up I laughed a little; simply because I have a strong hatred for Tottenham Hotspur. Now I'm a little frustrated. I compare it to hooliganism without the football element. And to me, that makes it completely stupid and pointless. Plus, matches are being postponed because of the violence and I find that not cool because going without football is sad. I also had the thought about how it will affect other countries impressions a year before the 2012 Olympics (I love the Olympics). I guess I'm not the only one wondering that because I've seen a few news articles on it.

The Game

Sorry lil bro, I know you sometimes read this, but I just have to dog you out.
The other day I got an e-mail from my little brother talking about one of my favorite subjects and one I thought he didn't like so much... soccer/football. He's still figuring out which team he likes in the EPL, but I'm not forcing him on anything (interpret it as I'm not influencing him to The Arsenal). I will say he has my blessing on his current possible choice because its not  Tottenham, Manchester United, or Manchester City.
I told him about the second tab I always open up whenever I get online: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football. It's pretty much the only website I go to for news. And I absolutely loved the response I got about it because it is so characteristic of him. "I'm sure it'll be a big help in my quest for the truth behind the game that drives the world."

Success

Success is measured differently for everyone.
At the beginning of the season, I presume I'll be measuring Arsenal's success by the number of trophies we'll win. By the end it's how much further ahead of Tottenham we are.
Some people measure it by how happy they feel or how much money they're making.
I could choose to measure my success like those some other people and I would be successful in those standards. But I choose to measure my success in smaller, much more meaningless ways.
Success may be running a few seconds faster. Or not running into a doorway or tripping over my feet. Or finding one of my favorite colors of Gatorade somewhere I didn't expect to find it.
Today, success was measured by dinner. I didn't burn my mouth on the macaroni tonight. Therefore, I was successful because last time I ate that, I didn't taste much the next day. Who knows what success will look like tomorrow...
What does success look like for you?

My Focus is Elsewhere

Last night, around 10 pm, the best battle buddy I ever had texted me to turn on a news channel. My half asleep brain decided it would be best to look outside the window to see if it was storming and then considered the possibility that it was storming back east. It was quite logical to me since it is tornado season.

Next move was to get on the internet. As always, first comes up Facebook, then UK Yahoo sports, then the news tab in my bookmarks.

Nothing interesting was on the sports and the news was still loading, so Facebook it was. And the news hit me in just about every form imaginable. Osama bin Laden was confirmed dead by President Obama.

I’ve had several reactions to this news. The first, and best, was my text back to my battle buddy. The basic concept was that it happened because I just finished reading Tom Clancy’s latest Jack Ryan/John Clark book. They got their bad guy captured and Clancy’s stuff can be eerily like real life.

My other reaction is one of pure frustration. To me, Osama has been just an ideal for a long time. Our beef may have started out just against him, but it is not the endgame. Our real battle is in the ideals, like how most battles in American history have gone. Osama was just the tip of the iceberg. It may bring closure to families who have lost loved ones, but Osama out of the picture does not mean the fight will magically go away.

My frustration also extends to the fact that I really, really, love soccer and with real summer competitions, this is the best time of year.  Arsenal beat Manchester United yesterday, Championship teams are finding out who will be promoted, and the Champions League is heating up with some INTENSE Barca/Real rivalry. To top it off, Arsenal just released photos of the 125^th anniversary home kit. It’s still growing on me, but I’d much rather focus on that than people debating and celebrating a dead guy that still has the possibility to cause as much damage dead as alive.

A Good Month

It’s May. My second favorite month for preference, but first favorite in terms of what happens in May.

May always has some of the best weather of the year. It’s usually when I get the most yard work to do, which means I’m outside a lot. When I was in school, it was always when I had the most schoolwork to do. I like being busy and I though I might say otherwise, I secretly enjoy being stressed and having to cram everything in.

May 19 is a very special day to me as well. First off, in 2002 I was baptized on that day. And then, in 2005, Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith came out. I don’t think I should have to rationalize the day much more than that.

One more best thing about May, which I’ll miss this year, is Memorial Day Weekend. No Clarks Summit parade. No parent’s Sunday school picnic in the park to run around outside with friends eating, playing sports, and having fun in the splash fountain and creek. But it will still be good.

May has started off amazingly. Arsenal 1-0 Manchester United. At the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal beating the Manure might have happened since I’ve been a fan, but I don’t remember it. Not until today at least. I was so happy I almost cried. It certainly beats the poor form my dear Arsenal have had lately.

Yes, May is a good month. 

Reading Moves On

It's been a few weeks since I posted something meaningful, but I just had to share this link. I got into Reading FC when they were up in the Premiership for a few seasons and then went back down to Championship land. Kevin Doyle, currently with the Wolves, played for them and I happen to like him as a footballer.
The Royals made some more of their history today with a win over Everton to move on to only their third FA Cup quarter-final. Read the article for a better description...

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/01032011/58/fa-cup-shock-troops-reading-stun-everton.html

Leyton Orient 1-1 Arsenal

It seems everything in life is connected. It may not be obvious at first, but give it enough time and it will become connected.
Arsenal faced Leyton Orient in a FA Cup match today. It was a draw even though Arsenal probably should have dominated a bit more and won. My soccer love, Tomas Rosicky, scored Arsenal's only goal today. It was good to see him on the field after not a lot of activity, sickness, and pulled muscles. I'm beginning to prep myself for him to leave Arsenal soon just because he is getting old, isn't starting as much, and Wenger doesn't like to keep older players.
But back to connections. Leyton Orient is a League One team. The FA cup is about the only time they'll face someone from the Premiership. But unlike some other League One teams, I was slightly familiar with Leyton Orient.
Why? Because of Nick Hornby. Author of the great memoir Fever Pitch. For a while in Hornby's soccer fan career, he follows a small team from Cambridge. And Cambridge just happens to play Leyton Orient. And one of those games ended up as a chapter in Fever Pitch.
The final result? I have heard of Leyton Orient. It really is a small world...

He Went Where?!

One of the several reasons I was drawn to Arsenal when I first became a fan was a certain French player known as Thierry Henry. Actually, his skill was probably the only reason I started tracking Arsenal and then I fell in love with other aspects of the club.

Anyways, a few years ago the legendary Henry moved to Barcelona, a semi-favorite team of mine, and although he was good, Barcelona has a lot of stars and Henry didn't shine like at Arsenal.

This summer I was in basic training for the army. A soccer fan stuck without soccer news in a World Cup transfer window. I knew I was bound to miss some transfers, but I thought I had been pretty much caught up back in September (had a few surprises there, but none too drastic).

Yesterday I found out I had not been completely caught up. While I was learning to be a soldier, Thierry Henry transferred to Red Bull New York. The MLS. The US. There must not have been a lot of fanfare about it because it took me six months to find out.

I guess Henry's move shows that US soccer has a long way to go. Yes, we can get excited over David Beckham, but Henry's career is just as illustrious. And he's actually won a World Cup Trophy.

I don't know if I can accurately describe the shock that came over me with the news of Henry's transfer. I now finally realized why I hadn't been hearing about him at Barcelona. He wasn't there. He's in the US. You can probably figure out what I'm gonna try to do with some of my summer with Henry playing in the MLS......

My Life Be Like Ooh Aah

Every once in a while I like to share little things that I have learned and experienced. Moving to a new place and leaving a familiar one has definitely made for some of these moments.

Although Ft. Sill is a field artillery post, it never quite occurred to me that they would actually shoot off artillery frequently. Fortunately I am a fan of the fireworks that only go boom.

Ft. Sill is not a walker friendly post as far as I have experienced. Good thing I’m good at playing chicken when it comes to crossing roads to get to a better spot on the other side….

There are white tail deer in Oklahoma. I’ve seen them.

The army gives 2-hour delays for bad weather too. I’ve got one tomorrow.

I am more likely to get windburn here than any other place I’ve lived before.

27, 28, 36-hour days are no big deal to me now. And I can do them back to back with only a few hours of sleep in between them. Sgts, I know you loved to tell us about how you’ve had to do that, but I have too. And it was probably just as stressful because you were there.

I can fall asleep just about anytime and anywhere as long as I don’t need to be alert for something.

2 Months of being around people 24/7 makes you really good friends. 5, or even 7 months of that means you’re practically family.

Songs=memories. ‘Nuff said.

I need to come up with a few more hobbies to have for discussion. The majority of people have no clue about Arsenal or their greatness.

Update on Life

Thursday morning I had my last training graduation and was released to the world to be an official official soldier. The afternoon was filled with madness as my entire platoon tried to finish out-processing and leave. Friday morning I cleared my room at the barracks and signed out of the company.

By 1600 I was in the not quite lovely Ft Sill, Oklahoma. The final plane ride over included some guys ready to start basic training and I wish them the best of luck. The Lawton airport is even smaller than the one in my hometown; something I thought wasn’t possible….

I was assigned a room in temporary housing and I start in-processing Monday morning. I can’t wait to officially get to my unit. There isn’t a lot to do here. Not a lot off post; the cabbie only really pointed out the casinos and the mall. My only glimmer of hope is that the Main PX and Commissary are much larger than the ones in Arizona. The Burger King is right inside the PX instead of being somewhere on the other side of post. There is actually a Cinnabon (if you haven’t experienced a Cinnabon I feel sorry for you). AND the PX sells baseball cards. I still have a soft spot for them and I think I might try to grow my collection again.

Arsenal play tomorrow in a FA Cup match. I realized today that if Arsenal can keep up their good form and win instead of losing they will have the opportunity to play at Wembley for 3 finals.  They’re guaranteed to go to the Carling Cup final and there’s still a shot at the FA Cup and Champions League finals. Just one trophy would be amazing, but winning all three finals would be even better.

Digressing a bit to English TV, did you know there is a list of sporting events that must be played on free channels? I think that is really cool and I am going to have to research if the US does anything like it.

And now back to soccer, but to the Spanish league. Sevilla FC drew with some other team today down a player and down a few goals. I’ve hardly ever seen a scenario like that happen. Despite the fact that I’m alright with Sevilla (we’ve met them a few times in the Champions League) and I admire their gusto today, when a team has had a player red carded and sent off I like to see the team with more players overrun the offending team. But it did make for an exciting half of football…

I think that’s all I have to say for now. It was random, but did you really expect anything else from me?

Plea to Blackburn

I used to like Ronaldinho a lot. He was good at what he did. He had a nice line of shoes with Nike.
But Ronaldinho is 30 now. He's not as good as he used to be. He's been at AC Milan for a couple years now and hasn't made much of an impact there in my opinion. Pictures a few years ago of him doing some training showed a bit more of a belly than most footballers should have.
Now Blackburn Rovers is reportedly making a 6.2 million bid for Ronaldinho. I don't think its a smart idea for a club like Blackburn who wants to win. Dinho is 30. He's basically past his prime playing years. If he contributes anything of worth to the club then great, but I don't think he will.
If Blackburn just want a big name player on the bench to bring recognition to the club then he's a good deal, but I don't see Blackburn spending money in that way.
Blackburn, if you want to rise in the Premier League rankings from the #12 spot you are now then invest in some unknown players who can become famous and lead you to the top of the table instead of a past his prime big name.

Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea

Do you have any idea what a scoreline like this means to me? Or how long I’ve waited to see it? Even before I realized that Manchester United were the most formidable EPL opponent, I realized that Chelsea were going to be a tough team to beat. And Chelsea always seemed to get the upper hand.

Song, Fabregas, and Walcott scored within about 9 minutes of each other, although Song’s goal was before half time. 

The league table right now is looking real welcoming. We’re 3 points and 5 goals from going joint top. We have a game tomorrow against Wigan Athletic and we stand a fair chance against them. I think that its kind of cute that Everton and Liverpool are currently sharing the #11 spot in the table, but Liverpool have a chance to pull even further ahead since they’ve only played 17 matches to Everton’s 19. (Google Map Liverpool FC and Everton FC to see why it’s cool). I would LOVE it if the Wolverhampton Wanderers could bring their game up a few notches. I would hate to see them go back down to the Championship League. 

Tomas Rosicky got a few minutes of play time.

Puzzle

Back in June I posted a video for a version of my favorite new song at the time. Then in September I posted about how I had 4 different versions of the song.  I can now sadly say I have a fifth version of K’naan’s Wavin Flag. It’s the one he performed at the FIFA World Cup Kick-Off Celebration Concert. It mixes both the regular version and the World Cup of the song and even brings in will I am from the Black Eyed Peas (he’s on one of the other versions I have and the Peas were performers at the concert too).

I once read somewhere (I want to say in Nick Hornby’s book Songbook, but I’m not positive) that songs are like puzzles we’re trying to solve. There’s a mystery in the songs and we’re all trying to solve it. Some songs are more of a mystery for some people than others.

I’d like to figure out the puzzle in Wavin Flag. I’m not sure why it’s held my fascination for so long. I get the feeling its because K’naan is a lot like Natasha Bedingfield. He’s got good beats, his music has some depth in it, he started out more popular internationally than in the US, and he’s a social activist. Then I think you can add on top of that the fact that I found the song as a World Cup song and I love soccer more than almost everything than God and my Barney.

Those are the reasons I can come up with for my fascination. And Wavin Flag isn’t the only song I have a fascination with. It’s just the most recent one. And I like its puzzle. 

Perks

There was something I didn’t realize would be a perk when I moved out here to Arizona. I guess it should have been obvious, but living for 11 year in Pennsylvania can do funny things to you.

Almost all of the change I get is D mint change. Produced by Uncle Sam in Denver, Colorado. Living on the east coast means a majority of the change is produced in the Philadelphia mint. There aren’t a lot of D coins that make it to where I was. It was something special to pick up a D coin. At least it is for me. It was special for me as a little kid in Nebraska and even more special in PA. Now I get to feel special a lot with all the change I get and find.

PS- I find a lot of change here. Kind of Surprising for a military base…..

and Arsenal lost today. Thats all on that topic.

Rainbows

Tuesday was an interesting, cool day. I had a dental appointment at 0720 and was out of the office by 0735 as army class 1 dental status. Hooray for army efficiency. At mail call at the end of the day I got my Arsenal shirt that I got off of e-bay. It's a 2003-2004 home shirt WITH a Champion's League patch on it. The patch was a sweet little bonus for me.
Probably the coolest part of the day was when we were forming up after school. It has been a little stormy here in AZ and a storm was just clearing out. There was a full, clear, 180 degree rainbow in the sky. And there was a partial one right above it. It was so beautiful it almost made me want to go find the pot of gold at the end.
Today we received our new barracks assignments. I'll post more about that some other time, but let me say we all feel like we're moving into the Hilton, they're that nice.

4 Songs, 2 Blankets, 3 Fillings, 1 Partizan-3 Arsenal

Today was an interesting day. Yesterday my company had training late, so we were allowed to sleep in until a 0630 linen turn in instead of a 0400 linen turn in and pt after that. So although I wasn't in my bay all day I had 2 blankets.

This morning when I woke up I was informed that I had a dental appointment at 0800. I was expecting it sometime because everyone has to go, but I didn't know it was today. When I arrived and got seated in the nice dentist chair I was informed I was getting 3 fillings. So now I have 3 fillings and a sore mouth. I guess thats what an hour in the dentist chair will get you.

On to an even more random thing. I own 4 different versions of K'naan's song 'Wavin Flag'.
1. The original
2. The one featuring will i am and David Guetta
3. The Coca-Cola World Cup celebration one
4. The Coca-Cola World Cup celebration featuring David Bisbal singing in Spanish
They're all really good. But I do feel a little dorky for having 4 different versions of one song. But then again, its normal for me to have 2 or 3 different versions of a song.

Arsenal played a Champions League game today against Partizan Belgrade at Partizan's stadium. May I say that its an embarrassment to Partizan to lose 3-1 on home turf, in front of a home crowd, with 10 men. Arshavin continues to impress, scoring the opening goal, and Chamkah is showing he was a good pick-up scoring another goal. Sebastien Squillaci ( I think we picked him up this summer with few others. I wouldn't know much about transfers after the World Cup because of basic) added Arsenal's other goal. Tomas Rosicky actually played a whole game. Thats a good sign considering the past few seasons and his escapades, but good proof of TR7 being 500% back will be if he starts or at least plays Sunday in the Chelsea game. And there's a good chance of that considering all of the injuries we have right now.

Here comes the really dorky part of my post. You may have wondered why it looks like I can't count down from 4 properly. I can. I'm just a dork who enjoys the 4231soccer formation. It was my brilliant brain that decided to make the post somewhat coincide with the formation.

Arsenal 2-3 West Bromwich Albion

That particular score line was the exact opposite of how my day went. All you're getting from my review of the game today is this: I was asleep when it happened, Samir Nasri scored both of Arsenal's goals, Tomas Rosicky got a yellow card, apparently Almunia was awful today (according to the one UK yahoo article), and I don't want to know any more about the game. Its nothing personal against Arsenal. IU was being optimistic and hoping that we were going to continue to do well, but it looks like we're being typical and losing stupid little games while winning the bigger ones (like Tottenham last Tuesday).

Arsenal lost, but I had a good day. I slept in until 1030 (that's 10.5 hours of sleep that were much needed). I got to talk with my family. I had a good lunch and spent some time at the MI library. I had a good dinner (ravioli!).
Either later on or tomorrow I'm going to do the weekly really clean up my locker and get squared away for the coming week as best as I can.

Sign of a Victory

There are only three songs ever that I have bought after listening to the for the first time.
1. Bad Day by Daniel Powter
2. Smile by Uncle Kracker
3. Sign of a Victory by R. Kelly

Sometimes you just know that a song is amazing. And one day I was sitting on a bus coming back after a long day at a range. The wonderful bus driver had some station on and this song came on. I had never heard it before, but it sounded like it belonged in a World Cup soundtrack, it sounded like R. Kelly, and it had those wonderful cliches like in "I Believe I can Fly". What a surprise that all three of those things were true. R. Kelly produced the song for the 2010 Word Cup soundtrack.

Now I shall tie it in to AIT.
Today my platoon did a nice 3 mile road march. It was just us, our weapon and a 25 lb pack. It was so easy, but I guess almost anything could be considered easy after 10 miles in full gear. Sign of a Victory was stuck in my head and I was singing it all through the march.

Its so beautiful here in Arizona. I could just stare up at the clouds all day; especially at the beginning and end of the day when the sun turns them colors. It must have something to do with being a mile up. And the mountains are wonderful and the stretching flatness and ridges of the area. I's cool to see the storms and clouds in the mountains. And I love being in the heat even though its starting to cool down a bit ( that translates into the 80's during the day instead of the 90's).