I figure I should write something here at least once a week but it's been a fairly uneventful week except that I've purchased airplane tickets to go home and see the family in December - but that's still two months away. Well, that and I took my first mid-term exam last weekend - that was not fun. Actually, neither of them were fun.
Because of the Thanksgiving break falling where it does, there are only 3 or 4 more class sessions left before the final - which as much as the mid-term wasn't fun, the final will be much worse. First of all, it's an oral final which I've never had to take or prepare for before. Second is that in addition to knowing the 'stuff', I also have to know who said what 'stuff' and that's where I fall to bits. You see, I've made my educational living off short-term memory. Dump as much as I can in the ole memory banks a day and hours before the test, regurgitate as much as possible onto the paper and presto. But I think this class is different in that they actually want you to retain alot.
What I need is something like this ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFAJapLN4XU
Father Guido Sarducci's 5-Minute University. You wouldn't even have to take out a loan - you could spend one weekend collecting soda bottles on the side of the road and get your degree Monday morning. It's an idea whose time has come in this recession.
So, I've actually got some homework to do, and as fun as this blog is, it isn't being graded (which is just as well, really) So, I hope to see you back next week - or maybe before. And, before I forget, welcome to follower No. 7 - O'Hare who was a student of mine at NU and who is involved in law enforcement operations up that way -- so slow down.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
No point but it smells nice
So, I'm sitting around the 600 square foot box of boredom the other day trying to study but being constantly interrupted by the constant stream of nothing, and I notice a couple things that four months ago I would not have noticed at all.
A. I have got to do the dishes - they are not going to clean themselves. Now this is a little odd because back home I 'm the dish washer and I hate hate hate having dirty dishes lying around. Here...neh, not so much. No idea why that is at all but I'll probably do them tomorrow night. I can't tonight because I'm writing my blog.
B. I should probably vaccuum the floor again. the little roads I made through it last time are gone so it's time.
C. The sofa is actually a good place for the laundry - if you fold a little of it you can just kind of lay it on the arms and the back and you don't really ever need to put it away.
D. It, the apartment, doesn't smell exactly right. Now, it's not really smelly, but there's a little acridness which is kind of gross sounding but not really. At least no worse than any office you've ever been in so it's not like the plants would be wilting (if I had any).
But, there it is. So today I had to take the plunge and I actually went and bought one of those reed diffuser thinggys. I actually bought two so I don't have to do it again any time soon. I know as an adult I shouldn't feel at all awkward about that, but it was kind of like buying condoms for the first time - you know, head down, mumbling, trying to hurry the cashier along, really not wanting small talk or even change, just an escape route.
Just to make it look like it wasn't my idea and save some dignity I also bought some Kotex. (Well, ok, no I didn't ... but only because I didn't think of it until now.)
So, the big bachelor experiment is showing me some subtle truths...namely that I'll never be an interior decorator. But you know, it's not just a 'guy thing' and I know this because today I spoke with a friend in DC who is doing sort of the same thing - working in DC and driving to Southern Virginia on the weekends to be with her family -- she's having many of the same difficulties with laundry and dishes and such which I thought was interesting and it made me feel a little better.
I bet she doesn't have any problem buying reed diffusers though.
A. I have got to do the dishes - they are not going to clean themselves. Now this is a little odd because back home I 'm the dish washer and I hate hate hate having dirty dishes lying around. Here...neh, not so much. No idea why that is at all but I'll probably do them tomorrow night. I can't tonight because I'm writing my blog.
B. I should probably vaccuum the floor again. the little roads I made through it last time are gone so it's time.
C. The sofa is actually a good place for the laundry - if you fold a little of it you can just kind of lay it on the arms and the back and you don't really ever need to put it away.
D. It, the apartment, doesn't smell exactly right. Now, it's not really smelly, but there's a little acridness which is kind of gross sounding but not really. At least no worse than any office you've ever been in so it's not like the plants would be wilting (if I had any).
But, there it is. So today I had to take the plunge and I actually went and bought one of those reed diffuser thinggys. I actually bought two so I don't have to do it again any time soon. I know as an adult I shouldn't feel at all awkward about that, but it was kind of like buying condoms for the first time - you know, head down, mumbling, trying to hurry the cashier along, really not wanting small talk or even change, just an escape route.
Just to make it look like it wasn't my idea and save some dignity I also bought some Kotex. (Well, ok, no I didn't ... but only because I didn't think of it until now.)
So, the big bachelor experiment is showing me some subtle truths...namely that I'll never be an interior decorator. But you know, it's not just a 'guy thing' and I know this because today I spoke with a friend in DC who is doing sort of the same thing - working in DC and driving to Southern Virginia on the weekends to be with her family -- she's having many of the same difficulties with laundry and dishes and such which I thought was interesting and it made me feel a little better.
I bet she doesn't have any problem buying reed diffusers though.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Heros are as Heros do - or something like that
This post comes on the tail of an email I received earlier this week about a guy who has retired from the service and had to go out of his way to be listed with "Wounded Warrior" status. His 'disability' wasn't originally listed as "combat related" so he fought to get it over-turned ... and won. He's participated in Wounded Warrior events etc.
All very well and good. Until the email. The email casts this persons' claims in some doubt. Did he really go through all the stuff he said he went through? Were his injuries really combat-related or were they problems he's had for a while? Is it really PTSD, or is he just an attention-seeker?
"Wait," you say, "people don't do that."
Aye, verily and sadly, they do. Back in the late '90s when I was editing a newspaper in Alaska, I had a conversation with a gentleman who worked in our building and he told me his story of his time in Vietnam. It was quite the conversation to be sure, and when it was over, I had the complete story of how he had earned the Medal of Honor.
Fantastic. It was a great story. It was near Veterans' Day and we could have this bono-fide hero come out and tell his tale etc etc etc.
But it wasn't true. About a week after the story ran, I got a call from an organization in D.C. They asked me some questions: "Let me guess," the guy said, "He was sent forward as part of a small team - but a team outside his unit" check. "He was involved in a firefight and he was the only one left alive." Check. "His records mysteriously disappeared in a fire at an Army storage facility" Check. "He's lying to you. We have a list of everyone who has ever been awarded the Medal of Honor, and this guy's not on the list. And he's not the first to lie about it."
Wow. That sucked. This guy flat out lied to me. He sure seemed to believe what he was saying, but other than him being in the Army and maybe being in Vietnam, the rest was about as fake as a campaign speech.
So, now here we are, more than a decade and a couple wars later, and people are still pulling this stuff? Granted, I don't know that the Wounded Warrior guy is lying - maybe he's not. But I've heard from some people who were there at the same time as the guy, and the story they remember is significantly different.
If the guy IS lying, I think he's utter scum trying to grab a little, I don't know, glory?, for himself while men and women who really have lost limbs, eyes, motor function etc., are doing what they can to get by and have no desire to say "look at me, aren't I a hero". Still, the real dirt-bags in this fetid little tale are the people who must have written letters on this guy's behalf.
I've read his story and it just doesn't sound 'right'. It sounds like something everyone in the country would have been talking about for at least a little while had it happened like he described it. The brazeness of his story - if untrue - is shocking. I'm not going to link to this story because I don't think it should get any more plan than is warranted - which if not true, is none - but it's hard to disprove something like this unless a bunch of people who were there come forward to set the record straight. It certainly wouldn't be a task to take lightly and it wouldn't be something that could be done quickly and without significant emotional distress for all involved - so what would you do?
But how do the powers that be tell if he (or anyone else for that matter) is telling the truth? That's the question. You don't want to not take people at their word, but you also don't want to put the hero designation on someone who is an outright liar - that's just a slap in the face to those who have earned the honorific.
I've got no answers, just a bit of bile at the back of my throat. What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know. (And, no, I wasn't there and I don't know the guy).
On a slightly lighter but still semi-related note... I opened a book last night that I hadn't opened in a while and an old airline ticket fell out which is unremarkable except for the notes I had written on it.
It happened on a flight from Atlanta to Newport News, Virginia on Aug 24 (probably 2005) in Seat 7C. I was sitting next to an elderly man and we got to chatting about where we were heading etc., and it turns out this guy, R.W. Rubley was a WWII veteran on his way to a reunion. Mr. Rubley was a truck driver with the 95th Quartermaster Company, driving routes on the Red Ball Express - a logistics operation that opened roads in newly occupied Europe and allowed only RBE vehicles access in order to quickly get needed supplies to the front lines.
Rubley was driving a truck loaded with Coke, shaving cream, and chocolate among other things, when he was waved down by a soldier on the side of the road. He stopped and after he answered the question "what are you carrying", the soldier approached his truck. In Rubley's own words, "I was shaking, what the hell do I do now? So, [this soldier] tells me that I'm to go to tell Colonel so-and-so to take the contents of this truck and shove it up his ass and fill it up with fuel and bring it back."
That was how a 20-year old soldier in 1945 came to meet Gen. George S. Patton.
And people who pretend to be heroes should all have to sit with some real ones for a while to learn what integrity, honor and self-respect really mean.
All very well and good. Until the email. The email casts this persons' claims in some doubt. Did he really go through all the stuff he said he went through? Were his injuries really combat-related or were they problems he's had for a while? Is it really PTSD, or is he just an attention-seeker?
"Wait," you say, "people don't do that."
Aye, verily and sadly, they do. Back in the late '90s when I was editing a newspaper in Alaska, I had a conversation with a gentleman who worked in our building and he told me his story of his time in Vietnam. It was quite the conversation to be sure, and when it was over, I had the complete story of how he had earned the Medal of Honor.
Fantastic. It was a great story. It was near Veterans' Day and we could have this bono-fide hero come out and tell his tale etc etc etc.
But it wasn't true. About a week after the story ran, I got a call from an organization in D.C. They asked me some questions: "Let me guess," the guy said, "He was sent forward as part of a small team - but a team outside his unit" check. "He was involved in a firefight and he was the only one left alive." Check. "His records mysteriously disappeared in a fire at an Army storage facility" Check. "He's lying to you. We have a list of everyone who has ever been awarded the Medal of Honor, and this guy's not on the list. And he's not the first to lie about it."
Wow. That sucked. This guy flat out lied to me. He sure seemed to believe what he was saying, but other than him being in the Army and maybe being in Vietnam, the rest was about as fake as a campaign speech.
So, now here we are, more than a decade and a couple wars later, and people are still pulling this stuff? Granted, I don't know that the Wounded Warrior guy is lying - maybe he's not. But I've heard from some people who were there at the same time as the guy, and the story they remember is significantly different.
If the guy IS lying, I think he's utter scum trying to grab a little, I don't know, glory?, for himself while men and women who really have lost limbs, eyes, motor function etc., are doing what they can to get by and have no desire to say "look at me, aren't I a hero". Still, the real dirt-bags in this fetid little tale are the people who must have written letters on this guy's behalf.
I've read his story and it just doesn't sound 'right'. It sounds like something everyone in the country would have been talking about for at least a little while had it happened like he described it. The brazeness of his story - if untrue - is shocking. I'm not going to link to this story because I don't think it should get any more plan than is warranted - which if not true, is none - but it's hard to disprove something like this unless a bunch of people who were there come forward to set the record straight. It certainly wouldn't be a task to take lightly and it wouldn't be something that could be done quickly and without significant emotional distress for all involved - so what would you do?
But how do the powers that be tell if he (or anyone else for that matter) is telling the truth? That's the question. You don't want to not take people at their word, but you also don't want to put the hero designation on someone who is an outright liar - that's just a slap in the face to those who have earned the honorific.
I've got no answers, just a bit of bile at the back of my throat. What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know. (And, no, I wasn't there and I don't know the guy).
On a slightly lighter but still semi-related note... I opened a book last night that I hadn't opened in a while and an old airline ticket fell out which is unremarkable except for the notes I had written on it.
It happened on a flight from Atlanta to Newport News, Virginia on Aug 24 (probably 2005) in Seat 7C. I was sitting next to an elderly man and we got to chatting about where we were heading etc., and it turns out this guy, R.W. Rubley was a WWII veteran on his way to a reunion. Mr. Rubley was a truck driver with the 95th Quartermaster Company, driving routes on the Red Ball Express - a logistics operation that opened roads in newly occupied Europe and allowed only RBE vehicles access in order to quickly get needed supplies to the front lines.
Rubley was driving a truck loaded with Coke, shaving cream, and chocolate among other things, when he was waved down by a soldier on the side of the road. He stopped and after he answered the question "what are you carrying", the soldier approached his truck. In Rubley's own words, "I was shaking, what the hell do I do now? So, [this soldier] tells me that I'm to go to tell Colonel so-and-so to take the contents of this truck and shove it up his ass and fill it up with fuel and bring it back."
That was how a 20-year old soldier in 1945 came to meet Gen. George S. Patton.
And people who pretend to be heroes should all have to sit with some real ones for a while to learn what integrity, honor and self-respect really mean.
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