Stayin' Alive

Ah ah ah ah stayinnnnnnnnn aliiiiiveeeeee

Sorry, didn't mean to sing like that.

It's been nearly a month since I bothered to write anything. It's not from lack of things to write about, but from a lack of things to write about which I wanted to write about.

That made perfect sense in my head.

I spent two weeks at Camp MacGregor again. This looks like something which will become a semi-regular gig for me. I don't mind the TDY money, but I do wish Mexico wasn't so close to El Paso. My God, looking out over Juarez makes you very grateful for things like "zoning" and "building codes".

Another unit was successfully trained and will be headed to some foreign country at some point in the future. And for anyone from that unit who happened to read that statement, that's how you avoid telling someone things which violate OPSEC. Seriously guys, if someone who identifies themselves as a reporter asks you for deployment dates, times, locations, the strength of your unit, the equipment you're taking, and when you send out patrols and change guards shifts don't tell them. That was AAR comment #3. Don't ask what two things were more jacked up.

Anyways, I'm off for the weekend before headed back to El Paso/MacGregor again next week. It will be more of the same.

The Astros are basically out of it. I knew it was going to be a long season, but they didn't have to trade away two of their very few decent prospects for Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins. The same LaTroy Hawkins was thought he was going to be released and thus available for nothing more than a waiver claim. Seriously, Ed Wade needs to fire up a copy of some MLB console game and try to execute these trades in there first. If the computer won't accept the trade because it violates its "fair trade" rule, then don't execute it Ed. Just don't.

Madden '09 comes out soon. I still haven't forgiven them for that horribly confusing "Vision Cone" a couple years ago. Frankly, Madden has peaked and, were it not for the monopoly EA holds on NFL licensing, they'd be suffering at the cash register from people going to different franchises. However the NFL, taking advantage of the fact their fans are stupid, has sold off their ability to improve the NFL fan experience by gifting the rights to NFL players and logos to a single developer.

I found out what it takes to make me want to give my money to a political cause: The opposing side threatening to "come after" me. I still haven't actually given any money to these "outside" conservative groups, but I'd be thrilled if someone sent me a letter or called me to harass me over such a donation. It would give me something to write about. I wonder how hard it is to form a 501(c)4? I'd like to start one named "Former Recruiters Who Want to Poke Tom Matzzie in the Eye with a Stick". I'll bet I get a phone call about that. And don't think I don't have the sticks Tom Matzzie. I just trimmed the trees in my yard, I have three trash bags full of sticks!