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.

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.

Fly the Copter

There's this game I came across probably about 6 years ago and I still absolutely love to play it.It's called Fly the Copter and was first put out by Seethruzine. The link is there if you want to take a crack at it.

The basic concept is to fly the copter around the obstacles for as far as you can. My current high score is 2932, but I know I've been in the 3000's before. See if you can beat me.

Spork

I took on the challenge of writing a poem about sporks. It really isn't that good, but it's the best I can do for now. Maybe someday a better spork poem will come along

Spork

Hello Stranger, do I know you
In your plastic guise
You look like two of my buddies

Spoon, a curvaceous gal
Great for my cereal or soup
But otherwise ignored by me

Fork, a prong-y guy
Works well with Knife
And used for almost everything

What's that you say?
Spoon and Fork merged
Now together as Spork.

Oops... I forgot about that!

I've been noticing lately that I've developed this habit of getting something and then forgetting I got it. Most recently, it was with the Sunny D I got Friday. I stuck it in the fridge and then received a pleasant surprise when I opened up the fridge this morning.

I've done it to my Gatorade mix, beef jerky, pop tarts, hairspray, a couple DVDs (how could I forget I got the epic Beowulf?), and a couple t-shirts and shorts.

I guess the saying 'out of sight, out of mind' is true for me, because if I don't see it I'm likely to forget about it. But it sure is nice when you find the stuff again...

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?

Nike and Gatorade

The only connection Nike and Gatorade have with me is that they are both things that I happen to love very much. And I've had a couple experiences with them both in the past week or two.

Over the past two years, I have applied several times to become a Nike product tester. Each time I've gotten the exact same e-mail.

Dear you,

Your feet are too small. You're dumb for playing soccer on concrete. We'll reject you again in six months.

Really Nike, you can't make test products in more than a select few sizes??? I really like your stuff and I think it would be cool to test out the new stuff. But I guess my feet aren't the right size.

Now, on to the Gatorade. They've been pushing out a bunch of new products lately, but there's just one that has captured my attention. Clear Gatorade. Really? Just gonna confuse the kids between water and something full of sugar. It's has no color or artificial flavoring and tastes really good. Its just weird to be drinking something the same color as water, but doesn't taste like water.

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.

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?

Moments that Matter

The past week or so has been really long and tiring and tough. But I've had a lot of fun and some real peaceful moments throughout it. I thought I'd share some of what I learned, saw, and experienced.

1. It is possible for me to go 111 hours with only 11 hours of sleep mixed in. It sounds crazy, but I'm kind of proud of it. And going over 24 hours is possible too because I did it twice in that time period.

2. 15 straight hours of sleep does wonders.

3. Where I'm at in Arizona is very mountainous and absolutely gorgeous. I feel so fortunate to be where I'm at. There's nothing like staring at the foothills and mountains with an amazing sunset in the background and seeing more stars in the sky than you thought possible.

4. I trip over the most obvious things. Like my body armor on the floor. Or my PT jacket. You'd think I would see them and move, but I don't.

5. Ben Folds. I've discovered I really like his stuff. Its no thanks to the duet he did with Street Corner Symphony on The Sing Off. The song got stuck in my head and I went to find more. Then I discovered the biggest gem possible for someone like me. It all started when Nick Hornby mentioned a Ben Folds song in his book Songbook. It has turned into a Nick Hornby/Ben Folds album. Nick Hornby writing, Ben Folds doing the music. It was so cool. The lyrics were very much typical Hornby and I loved it. If you go to check it out, beware some cussing. But then again, thats typical of both Hornby and Folds.

6. The Lazy Song. Bruno Mars. K'naan helped write. 'Nuff said.

7. Moments That Matter. Its a Corbin Bleu song.

Wait....Oh Yeah

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just can't keep track of what day it is? Thats this week for me. I've gotten mixed up several days about what day it really is.

Tuesday I was on iTunes and, thinking it was Monday, got really confused as to why they would release the new music a day early. It wasn't until Wednesday that I realized my mistake.

Today is Friday yet for some reason I have it in my head that it is Thursday. I was talking with my mom and was very confused that everything on their schedule was happening a day early until I was reminded that it was Friday; the day everything is supposed to be happening. And ten minutes later i was still forgetting it was Friday when it was mentioned my brother was watching a movie. I couldn't figure out why they would let him stay up on a school night, but it wasn't a school night. Tomorrow is Saturday and while I may have to work tomorrow and Sunday, the rest of the world doesn't.

On a quick side note, I feel the need to mention Bruno Mars. I recently got Brandy's album Human and was looking at the credits for songwriting and such. Natasha Bedingfield ha co-written a song for Brandy's album an Toby Gad (he's done stuff for Natasha Bedingfield) was on there too. I was surprised to see Bruno Mar's name on the credits for a song. The album had been released in 2008 and Mars hasn't gotten real popular until last year. But he's managed to be connected to an artist I like.

Now here's the kicker about Bruno Mars... There's this song I like. It's called Wavin Flag. I have 6 versions. I don't know if I mention the latest version, but its done by Young Artists for Haiti, a bunch of Canadian artists collaborating. But back to Bruno Mars. He helped co-write Wavin Flag. I think thats pretty cool. And it makes me like the song and Bruno Mars even more.

You know you're bored when.......

Typically on our non-duty days bed check is at 2400. This means there are three more hours to kill on weekends than on a regular day. And there isn't a whole lot to do at night anyways. Last night  time was killed on youtube. It started with me re-watching Charlie Bit My Finger. Then it moved into watching old Superbowl commercials. I then decided it would be cool to try and watch some old Backstreet Boys and N'Sync music videos.(Darn you Sony for having copyrighted material and not being able to play some of them).
Here is where it turns really lame. I was watching Barney on youtube. It was the good old Barney and the Backyard Gang that I was watching. I always loved the "Barney Goes to School"episode, so I watched that. And then I saw that someone had put the old "Barney in Concert" up so I watched a little bit of that. So many hours of my childhood were spent watching that video......
Barney was an integral part of my childhood. It was nice to watch some if the older stuff. My parents will tell of the time I went to go see Barney at some store special. I had to have been two or three so I don't remember it. We got there and I wouldn't go anywhere near Barney. I guess I just couldn't handle seeing him in real life. That didn't change my loving the Barney on screen.

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).

Distracted Me

So this weekend I have a few projects to complete. This means a paper, a powerpoint and a game for calculus. When I write papers I get pretty focused. I don't even let anyone talk to me lest I lose my train of thought. But I also get SO so distracted.
It goes like this: chunk of paper written, get online to check a source, play a game of minesweeper while internet is loading, change the song (The Scientist by Coldplay is great focuser/zoner for me), check Facebook and the soccer news even though nothing has changed since it's very early tomorrow morning in the UK, get my facts straight from my sources, play another game of minesweeper, write a few more words in the paper, play another game of minesweeper.
Then repeat the cycle a few more times before only writing on the paper for a long time and declaring myself finished for the night. It's a vicious cycle that I try not to keep. I try to go for the writing without anything else happening, but that doesn't happen well when minesweeper is involved.

Here's Arsenal's Latest Signing.(click the link for the article!) I've heard a lot about Chamakh in the past year or so. During the January transfer window I think a lot of fans thought we were going to get him then. I don't really know how he plays yet, but I'm excited to review his past performances and see his Arsenal ones.I'm not too sure why we acquired a striker when the back line needs help, but hey, it was a free transfer. Maybe he's backup if the Fabregas going to Barcelona rumors come true. I just hope I'll get to see more of Tomas Rosicky next season.

Julius el Orango

Today would have to be considered an interesting day. It all started when I had difficulty and drank some Powerade to wake up. That's not really unusual. And school was very usual. I can't wait to be done.
I come home to a CD at my place. It's a Dodge sampler CD that they're promoing. I'm slightly interested because I happen to love music and it contains several Zac Brown Band songs (yeah Chicken Fried!).
Then, My parents came home with a new car. That was somewhat expected since the old one was starting to die a little bit. What wasn't expected was the orange color. Not a choice expected from my parents, but I guess you take what you can get...... I have since decided to call our new vehicle Julius el Orango aka JO (almost like the Brazilian soccer player but not quite). This name is not agreed upon by the family. I will probably be the only one calling the van JO. My brother would like to go with a Lord of the Rings name in tradition with the former van named Frodo.
Dinner was great. We had chicken. And I made a chicken sandwich like KFC has been advertising. Two pieces of chicken in place of the bread. It was good. Add on top of that the fact that we had saffron rice. It's yellow. And I absolutely love it.
Like almost any day, it could have been a lot better than it was. But for a Monday, it was a really good day. I'm satisfied.

Ironman and Powerade

Thanks to Burger King, I have my latest fascination that will make me seem more like I am 5 than however old I am; a kiddie meal toy. My brother got a kiddie meal last night for the first time in a while and didn't want the toy. So I am not\w the proud new owner of a green "Robot Cyclone Spinny Thing" or something to that effect. You just press his leg and the torso spins around. So much fun.

And have I ever mentioned that I am such a sucker for product advertising. Take, for example, me buying the Coke with the World Cup themed cans. This week is another Coke product. Blue Powerade, also known as my happy juice. Currently the Powerade labels are advertising for the World Cup as well.
I was planning on buying Powerade yesterday anyways, but you wouldn't believe how excited I got when I saw that SA 2010 FIFA logo on the bottles. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff.I do try to be careful about what I do buy (meaning not wasting money). When do you think they're gonna World Cup the Doritos? They're something else I buy regularly. But maybe it's better for my wallet if they don't.

My Game

Every time I go to Burger King I play this little game with myself. It's called 'get the straw wrapper off the straw in one long piece'. If you can't tell by the name, the object of the game it to twist the wrapper off the straw so it become one long piece of straw paper. I'm pretty successful at this game. Except for the last two times. I could swear that Birger King is making their straw wrappers flimsier. I've failed miserablly the past two times. I'm going to blame them for my losing this accomplished game.
Maybe I'm just losing the game because Arsenal's been doing so poorly. 3 losses and a draw the past 4 games. Only one of those losses is okay in my eyes because it was to Barcelona and they're pretty cool and they have Henry and Messi. It may be the superstition im me, but sometimes when Arsenal does bad I feel it is because of something I did or didn't do. But I think that's something every sports fan feels at one time or another.

Stormfront

I guess it was just one of those nights.....
I came home and Stormfront was playing. Stromfront only plays when it's 'one of those Fridays when a little revving up is needed'. Billy Joel was most likely the first artist I learned to recognized. His album Stormfront holds a special place in my heart. I can sing almost all the words to every song and there are several that get stuck in my head frequently.
'That's Not her Style' -what a great wya to open an album

'We Didn't Start the Fire' -one of the best 20th century history lessons

'The Downeaster "Alexa"' -brooding and gets stuck in my head

'I Go to Extremes' and 'Shameless' -fun to rock out to

'Storm Front' - you just have to sing your heart out on this one

'Leningrad' -kinda slow, but so sweet

'State of Grace'- probably the song I like the least

'When in Rome' -LOVE this one. It's given me a fascination with the 'when in Rome' phrase and I probably use it more than the average person
'And So It Goes' -another slow one, but a good way to end

It's just one of those Fridays. 'Have a Coke and a smile' I'm gonna drink some Coke and you can smile!

Hop Hop

Captain Obvious in  me would like to state that yesterday was Easter. The Easter bunny brought me possibly the second best gift and best real gift that could have possible been brought. Doritos and Gatorade. And I got to eat jellybeans!

Although that is a great gift, the Easter bunny has been one-upped on the gift side. God giving Jesus life again was way better. It's so weird to think that Jesus was dead, but now he's not dead. It's life changing.

This weeekend was so beautiful and busy and just really great. Saturday, I got to attend the funeral of some friends grandma. It was sad, but nice because we all know that we will see her again someday in heaven. It was a little rough for me because I was reminded of my grandpa's funeral 8 years ago about this time. But it was good.
When I got home I spent 3.5 hours washing and waxing our two cars. Hard work, but fun. Then we went out to Dickson City and we had Burger King for dinner and went to Wal Mart and the mall. Do you have any clue what the meat-mayo-ketchup-tomato combo of a whopper does to me?? It's beautiful. At the mall I couldn't not go into FYE. And going into FYE almost always means I get a CD. This time it was a used copy of *NSYNC's No Strings Attached. Cheesy, yes. But I'd run out of Backstreet Boys CDs to get.

Integrity

Integrity is a word I've been hearing a lot the past few weeks. It's one of the army values and SSG Jenkins likes to remind us of it when we do PT. Integrity counts there because if you're not being honest and doing your best, you're hurting everbody. You hurt you becaue you're not giving your best and getting the full workout. You're hurting your teammates because while you're slacking, they aren't.

I've had a few situations in the past week or so where I could have had the chance to maybe get away with something. But that would mean that I didn't have integrity. Integrity is something I want to have. It may be hard to do, but it can make life easier in the long run.

I was doing God-time the other night and my plan had me in Proverbs for the day. What a great reminder there is in Proverbs 10:9. NLT puts it great, I think.

"People with integrity have firm footing, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall."

Do you have integrity?