Pilot Report

Post-Iraq doings.

2009-02-06T07:52:26Z

One day I decided to get a haircut (she screwed it up IMO) and there was this magazine whose cover story was about a man who worked an hour a day and brought in 10 million a year. That had me curious, and so I read the article while waiting on my haircut. Essentially it was about a man who invented a free “dating” website and all the features were free and it made a profit via the ads it had placed. Out of curiousity I naturally checked out the website and created a profile and all that good stuff. I had my doubts, and there was this girl there who said she was leaving Vegas sometime in May. I myself am leaving Vegas in April to PCS (move) to the Netherlands for 3 years. Surprising even myself I went ahead and contacted her asking if she’d like to hang out since I was looking for a civilian friend for the remainder of my time in Vegas. Well low and behold she actually said yes and so we met. Our first meeting was at a local restaurant for lunch and things went well and we continued talking. A few days later I asked her if she wanted to go see a show with me, and she agreed.

Unfortunanetly due to time constraints I wasn’t able to pick her up as I would’ve liked and we had to meet at the destination and she got stuck in traffic and so we missed the show. So instead we just went and had dinner at some restaurant in a casino. The next day I asked her if she would like to go to dinner and later see New In Town which is a pretty good movie. To be honest part of me wanted to see the movie, but I also knew she would like to see it as well and so we had a nice enjoyable movie experience. I thought the movie was pretty funny so if anyone who actually reads this was considering seeing it, I highly recommend it! After the movie we went back to her place and made out for a bit before I left for the evening. As for her I think I’m falling for her hard, and I can’t get her out of my mind which is a good thing. She has shoulder length brown hair, bluish eyes, awesome body, loves her shiny bracelet and earrings. As for her herself I love the way she crinkles her nose when she laughs and I make her laugh a lot, which is a good thing! Her eyes are deep, beautiful and full of joy, and wonder, yet underneath that lays a sorrow which I hope to one day understand. She is well educated, articulate, knows what she wants, non-judgemental, affectionate, and has this killer smile that makes my heart leap. If it wasn’t for both of our moving, I think this relationship has real potential and as for what we’ll do when the day comes for long distance or not, I think we’ll just have to cross that bridge when it comes. Well time to end that narrative as the bridge came tonight and it was called off. I’m sad to see it end, but it probably was for the best, I mean Europe to the states for 3 years is pretty much the defination of long distance. We both agreed though that if it wasn’t for the moving, that what we had most certainly would’ve developed into something much more...the L word.

Today I popped my cherry! After more than a year I finally got the chance to write someone my first ticket as a military cop and it felt good. My partner and I were just enjoying our coffee early in the morning, well his Starbucks and my Dr. Pepper but I digress. Anyways we were just minding our own business on the prowl looking for people to zap, when this civilian moron drives up behind us yapping away on his cell phone while driving. On a military installation that is a big NO NO, anyways he is behind us for some time before my partner (who was driving) noticed it in his rear view mirror. He motioned to me and I looked back at the guy, stared him in the eyes for a good 15 seconds or so before saying lets zap him. We pulled into a parking lot, let the guy pass and then fall in behind him, turning our lights on. The guy pulls over and we hop out, mosey on over and respectfully and politly ask him if he knew why he got pulled over. He gave us an attitude from the very beginning, we took his info, wrote the ticket and actually meant it instead of giving a casual warning, etc. Told the guy to use a bluetooth next time and to report this to his supervisor within 24 hours. Since he was a civilian construction worker he can lose his job if he doesn't report it and if it happens twice he loses his job. So either way he was in trouble with his contract. I felt nothing for the guy, if he wants to be a prick from the beginning then so beit. Later that day we pulled over a few other people but let them off with warnings since they weren't asses. Good day, damn good day.

I can’t really think of anything else of importance that have happened since I’ve been back from Iraq. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned the things that were worth mentioning and there is a chance I’m leaving something out, but if I am I can’t think of it. So tomorrow begins the continuation of my Iraq tour.

Fun in the Sun, OIF Aug08-Jan09 Part 2

2009-01-23T02:12:52Z

I believe I mentioned that I was a camera operator at the gate, unfortunately that didn’t last long as it was a prestigious post and well rank has privileges. Since I was the only person certified on the camera I was the sole operator for a week while two other individuals went through the training and then they took over daily operations. By then I was used to how the command post ran and for efficiency’s sake my leadership decided to retain my services as an RTO or Radio Telephone Operator or dispatch, however you want to look at it. My new job was to relay messages to all posts and patrols to and from the leadership and take care of all mundane tasks. Pretty much I was Petty Officer Duella from Battlestar Galactica and I even took time to say things that she would say on the show when they were appropriate, such as you have the ball, ...will be on your six in [insert time], etc.

Continuing I loved and hated the job at the same time and truth be told it took me two weeks or so to get back into the CP on a regular basis after the camera operators returned. That was because I shared the job with a woman who was in there almost every day initially until she requested to get to be in the “field” more due to probable sexual comments from leadership. In the meantime I was pulling the post of a driver in an initial reaction force or “IRF” and my job was simply put to haul ass to wherever I’m dispatched to provide a show of force for whatever reason. It was the best job in the entire IRF unit as being a turret gunner flat out sucks. It looks cool don’t get me wrong, but the seat is uncomfortable and you get tossed about while driving. The passengers have little to no leg room, which is why the driver was the coveted position as there is a helluva lot more room on that side. I enjoyed the post, had fun but I wanted to be in the CP so I’d have the camera to look for potential threats and have a sense of doing something.

My daily routine was showing up for work at 0130 in a parking lot to catch a bus to our armory. There I armed up with an M4 Carbine with a M203 grenade launcher (attached) with 210 rounds of 5.56mm and no grenades, along with an M9 Berreta with 30 rounds of 9mm ammo. The way we carried out weapons is we’d have a magazine in the M4 but we wouldn’t put a round in the chamber and would only chamber a round if/when we expected to use it. The 9mm was different and we would carry the weapon on fire with a round in the chamber and at first it was uncomfortable knowing that the weapon is hot, but you get used to it. Then we would attend guard mount which consisted of a pointless intel briefing and any pass ons leadership had which was usually nothing. The intel briefing consisted of weather, temperature any recent activity that was almost always in a sector that held no meaning to us and a threat window that again was meaningless. I mean this is a war zone and they are saying well you will get attacked within this area and at this time, well life is not that simple. All in all it was pointless and we’d always do our own intel briefing when the guy wasn’t there and make fun of the entire process.

After words we would go to work from 0300-1030 and we would do our thing. At around 1030 our relief would show up and we would conduct changeover and head back to the armory around 1120. We’d dearm, get mail, and board the bus to head back to our housing area and I’d get back to my room at around 1230 on average. I’d drop my gear and go to lunch, at 1300 I’d go to the cyber café (it was closed from 12-1300) and used the crappy internet. It was awesome having the internet, but it would take about 10 minutes for a single page to use so I’d often just check my email and facebook and call it a day. At around 1400 I’d head back to my room to read a little or watch a tv episode or movie on my laptop prior to going to bed and getting up at midnight for work. I worked 6 8 hour days and had every Sunday off and on my days off I’d wander the base, sleep in, do laundry and call home on top of my usual routine. We were lucky that we were working 8 hour days which by the time all is said and done were more like 11 hour days. But most cops work 12 hour days or 15 with all the extra shit thrown on both in deployed locations and back home.

Our mandatory gear for were consisted of: helmet, body armor with side plates and shoulder protection, ammo, flashlight, gloves, first aid kit, gas mask, and a few other things I’m forgetting about. A knife was recommended and I had a switchblade attached to my 9mm holster and a Kbar that I tied onto my vest so I could just pull and stab if needed. It was pointless and I caught a lot of shit for it, but it twas cool.

For the most part the days were boring and they would blend together and three days ago would seem like two weeks ago. When I was in the CP monitoring the radios and the camera (we were side by side, so I still operated the damn thing and they would run the radio), I’d just sit and talk with the camera or either of the Sgt’s. They were both real cool and we’d have a lot of interesting conversations and even the occasional practical joke or I’d be playing with the camera just looking at things going on in the countryside. On more than one occasion I got to witness EOD (explosive ordinance disposal...bomb squad) blowing up IEDs that were discovered or patrols/convoys actually getting hit by them.

When I was a driver I’d spend most of the day in the rear just talking, joking around, cleaning, and well just passing time. We spent 1 hour and 20 minutes out forward two times a shift and the rest of the time in the rear. We had 3 trucks and there was always a truck out forward to provide force at a moments notice, with the other two taking up positions on the lead trucks six within two minutes.

Our escalation of force procedure was short and simple. When a vehicle entered the gate we would shoot up to two flares, if it continued a warning, disable or kill shot in that order. Either way the lead truck would be sent forward immediately to stop the vehicle and an alarm would sound in the rear. Upon hearing the alarm everyone would literally drop whatever they were doing and haul ass to their vehicles, gear up and push forward with one truck grabbing the interpreter. Most cases the vehicle that ran the gate would be “lost” and we’d have to let them go, though I’m quite certain that a fair share were probes trying to find out how far they could penetrate.

Well I think it is time to take another break, so I’ll have more probably by tomorrow evening.

Fun in the Sun, OIF Aug08-Jan09

2009-01-21T23:52:44Z

It has been ages since I last made a LJ post and for some reason I have a desire to post something on LJ in case people care and want to read it.

My experiences in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom Aug08-Jan09.

After extensive pre-deployment training scattered through the months of Jun-August that was pretty much bullshit and totally pointless to what we were going to do. The training came across as something that they put together in three weeks which truth be told was indeed the case. When we walked out of training on the last day we walked away with a sense of not learning anything which truth be told was indeed the case.

Anyways on the way to Joint Base Balad, Iraq my unit had a 3 day layover in Virginia where we stayed in a Marriot in downtown Norfolk and that was a blast. Our last days of freedom and the ability to drink for an unforseen amount of time. Needless to say people aimed to misbehave. If I recall I saw a movie, went for a long walk downtown and went to a club one evening and got shitfaced for the first time in years...probably since D*C06 and as you probably guessed I’m not a big drinker.

Anyways the flight over to Iraq was a lot longer than I was anticipating and took nearly 48 hours to complete with no stop to rest, sleep or even get a decent meal. The plane itself was pretty sweet, the flight attendants were nice and they gave us plenty of onboard meals for the trip. We had a “2" hour layover at a prison camp in Germany for the plane to refuel and resupply, but in actuality it was more like 7 hours before we finally departed and as I recall I placed a phone call to Chris at D*C. I would’ve loved to of talked longer but the connection died for some reason and I couldn’t get it to reconnect so I gave up. Sorry Chris. After what seemed like days we loaded back up on the plane and began the trip to Al Udid air base in Qatar and upon arrival we began a 4 hour customs and in processing session in what was the worst heat I had ever encountered at 8 pm and it didn’t get any cooler either. Originally my squad was slated to go to the transient housing and get some rack time, but our flight out of IUD got bumped up and we stayed in the airport for 8 hours before loading onto a C130 in full battle rattle for the final leg to Iraq.

We were told that we were going to be making a combat landing upon arrival in Iraq which was why we had to wear all of our gear onto the plane, but that was bullshit. If we were doing combat landings (which would’ve kicked ass BTW) we also would’ve had our weapons and ammo which wasn’t the case. They wanted us to wear all of our gear throughout the entire trip but AF cops (AF’s only “true” ground fighters) are inherently lazy and we dropped our gear the moment we got on the plane. If the plane were to crash our armor wouldn’t do a damn thing and I couldn’t help but silently laugh at two people sitting beside me who wore their gear the entire time. Fools.

Upon arrival in Iraq the very first thing that came out of most peoples mouths who’d never been to the desert before was “oh FUCK its hot” or if one is a nerd like me a variation of the military’s favorite word “Frak”. I arrived in Iraq on August 30, 2008 on my 25th birthday and it was the best present I ever could’ve received compliments of the US Govt. For the next 6 hours we spent in processing, getting our rooms and moving into our new home. Thankfully I had a brand new trailer with no roommate (for the first few weeks) and it was surprisingly nice and the AC worked like a charm. The first week I was there was spent getting settled in, attending mandatory briefings and getting ready to relieve the army manning the bases 3 entry control points. I was assigned to the South gate which consisted of military convoys and patrols and no civilian anything. So my job was real simple...keep anything out thats not military.

My first night of work was pure awesome and at first I thought I’d hate working for/with the army, but it was actually awesome. The people themselves I didn’t know too well nor did I have any desire to, but the way they went about things was awesome. In a nutshell the army was real laid back and they didn’t care what you did so long as the job was getting done and they would let you shoot any weapon with or without training. As far as the army is concerned if you are capable of picking a weapon up, loading it and shooting you are qualified on that weapon. In the AF you must attend a class for every weapon before you are allowed to handle it, so most of the AF guys went crazy at the opportunity to shoot .50 cal machine guns and sniper rifles.

I’m going to take a break for now and post more in a day or two, or maybe even in a few hours. I dunno. I know its pretty weak and not very detailed but I’m trying to condense 6 months of pretty much boredom into 2/3 pages. If anyone would like clarification or more detail just let me know and I’ll provide it. As for pictures I have 180 pictures of the trip on my facebook page, but I may put a few in the journal in a bit.

5 more days

2008-03-31T06:10:40Z

5 more days. SO SAY WE ALL!

What a Friday Night...

2008-03-15T17:14:04Z

Wow, this has been a very interesting week. For the most part the week consisted of getting up and going to sit in an office for 8 hours or so a day and just studying while I await FTAC (First Term Airman's Course) which from my understanding is short for briefings to death. Anyways, thats a two week course and I don't start that until the 24th of March. Thursday I got to go play OPFor for a bunch of Services or Supply people that were gearing up to deploy for the next 4 months or so. It pretty much consisted of a bunch of SF folks playing bad guys during a bunch of scenarios that was designed to build up their confidence. In short we had to let them win on just about every one. The scenarios ranged from people trying to get into the gate without permission, surprise attacks, weapon snatching, prisoner watch, so on and so forth. In just about every scenario they were gung ho and would jump the gun so to speak up to and including shotting a friendly engaged in a hand to hand fight with the enemy. Their philosophy was shoot first and ask questions later. Heh. Reminded me of tech school all over again. Anyways it was a lot of fun and if it were a real engagement SF would've wiped the floor with them, no questions about it. We all had blanks and most of the students focused on the same target the entire time, while we were lining up a shot, taking it and moving on to the next one in a matter of a second or two. But they got good training and hopefully they won't have to use any of it in the sandbox.

So anyways Friday night was...interesting. I go into work and we get chewed out on some stupid shit, that comes out of the blue. I won't say what it was about as I'm paranoid and I never know if this person will find out about this. So anyways later that afternoon myself and about 10 other people were voluntold to go home and get our uniforms looking shit hot as we just got the honor of representing the Air Force at the BYU/SDSU basketball game last night. We were all annoyed as most of us didn't want to go, but when you are voluntold you go along with it. So 5 AICs and below meet up with 6 T/Ssgts and we head to the game. Everyone was nice and I lost track of the amount of times people stopped me to say "Thank you", etc. The bitch of it was is that they wanted us to go down to the court so they could introduce us to the audience and we can get a standing ovation. So they tell us at the 10 minute mark to head down the stairs and meet up with some lady so we can go out.

Well there was a countdown clock for the game and so we all thought that was what it meant, so we all get up and head on down the stairs. Meanwhile the Nellis AFAB honor guard is presenting the colors and some guy who couldn't sing worth shit started to sing the national anthem. So here we all are standing at attention on the Gods damn stairs thinking to ourselves WTF are we doing on the stairs during the National Anthem? So we stand there. And we stand there. And we stand there and after what seems an eternity, it finally ends and the newbies look up to the Sgts who are telling us to continue on down. We get to the bottom and meet up with the lady who apologies and says she meant to 10 minute mark in the first period. WTF!?! We laughed about it and then it occurred to us that we looked like complete retards as we headed back up to our seats and the Sgts went and got more beer.

Finally at the new 10 minute mark we head back on down and we get told that they are lining us up by rank and they are going to announce our names as we parade out onto the court. The colonel who essentially voluntold us to go came to greet us and he shook our hands and he was a pretty cool guy. So we all parade out onto the court where they announce our names and we wave to the crowd and when they get to the Colonel who puts both his arms into the air and shakes em. None of us really knew WTF was going on and we got the hell off that court ASAP and the Col. vanished back into his box office. The rest of us went back to our seats where even more people were thanking us, so on and so forth as we were walking up. It was cool and all I suppose. After that I went for a walk and people would stop and say welcome back! How long were you gone? Did you get to see any action to which I kindly responded with stuff along the lines of: "Thank you, after 8 months in the sand its really nice to be home and I did get to see some action, one time my convoy was hit by an IED and we had to stop the convoy to load the people up into the other vehicles when we encountered enemy fire. I was manning a 240b as one of the turret gunners and I lit that sector up. Don't know if I actually hit anything because as soon as we were loaded up, we got the hell outta dodge." They all seemed to like that story and said their peace and left me alone. Thank the Gods. The reason why I lied to those who don't know, I just gout out of BMT and tech school, so I haven't done anything yet as far as deployments are concerned.

The Sgt's asked us if we wanted to stay to watch the rest of the game and we all pretty much said HELL NO! So they happily rounded us up and we left the event. I think out of the 11 of us only one person actually wanted to be there that night, so we were back on base by 2100. All in all it was pretty fun though hanging out with the other airmen and the Sgts who were a blast to hang around.

That was pretty much my Friday night and hopefully shit like that won't happen again next week.

The Frak?!

2008-03-09T08:15:40Z

I don't know what to say anymore its been so long since I last did a real update. Its insane really. For the sake of simplicity I'm not going to babble on about what I've been doing since the last real update whenever the frak that was. So I'll start a few weeks back.

On Feb. 6th I graduated from Air Force Security Forces tech school and for those who arn't familiar with it, we are the cops of the Air Force. We are also the assigned security guards for lack of a better term and the infantry of the Air Force. Yes, SF does indeed go downrange and we run convoy missions, go on raids with the army, run POW camps, and other shit like that. Will I get the opportunity to do so, the answer is almost certain and part of me looks forward to it. Anyways I got assigned to Nellis AFB which is located in Las Vegas.

Anyways I gradded on Feb 6th which was an awesome day for us as it meant we finally got out of training status and could put all the bullshit rules behind us. On Feb. 7th I outprocessed and got a hotel room on base for the night as my plane home didn't leave until the morning of the 8th. Going home was a blast even though i didn't do much, I just mainly stayed home with my family, I didn't even really go visit many friends for some reason, I don't know why. I did work though for most of the time with Recruiter's Assistance and I just showed up at his office on days he told me to be there, he saw me and sent me home shortly thereafter. So all in all it was a good deal. When I left home I had a 2300 mile journey ahead of me as I was driving to Vegas for a 5 day trip. I'll post details of the trip as I took pictures on a later date. At the moment I don't have any means to upload my pictures to the web and I'd like to show some pictures off in that blog.

When I arrived at Nellis I wasn't sure what to expect and I was nervous about the whole affair. It took me about an hour to find my dorm building as I entered the wrong gate from the instructions provided so I had figure it out on my own. Anyways I get to the building and the first person I see is someone from my team in tech school which was surprising. Anyways my room is a piece of shit, its pretty much a cinderblock prison with little room to live in. I'm told that SF has the worst dorms on the base which sucks as we had the worst dorms in tech school back at Lackland. SF always gets screwed it seems like.

Anyways, I got settled in and the next day I had to report in at my squadron and all I did for about 8 hours was sit in a room and sign 3 pieces of paper and get a PO box. Exciting. I did get to meet some new people which was good and we're doing all the same shit together so that was nice. The next day was the first PT day and Captain Davis is a hardcore PTer. Fun, fun. Anyways after that I spent all day on a computer taking online classes before getting sent home. The weekend wasn't too exciting though I did go down to the strip which was nice.

The following week was spent in Phase One training and that consisted of a tour of the base on Monday and some briefings prior to getting sent home. Tuesday was spent on getting gear issued, and some more briefings IIRC. Wed, I learned how to beat the shit out of someone with a baton, box and some basic defensive tactics. That was a fun day. Thursday was spent in a meeting with the Commander and Chief, after that I got to do OpFor which was essentially being the bad guys in for a bunch of medical guys for their annual 3 hour of war games. However my group got sent home upon arrival as they had too many OpFor and we still got an Letter of Appreciation out of it, so I can't complain. Friday was pretty much just PT and a fake pepper spraying. We were told that Friday we'd get OC'ed (more potent form of pepper spray) but that turned out to be just a joke which sucked as I was looking forward to it. After that we got sent home and I just chilled around base for the day and night. Today I went off base for a few hours and came back to chill.

Thats pretty much what I've been up to since my last update. Now that I'll actually be doing crap I may have something to write about from time to time!

Anyways Battlestar starts back up in less than a month!

There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief!

2008-02-11T05:43:01Z

I don't login to LJ for at least a good 8 months and I return and what do I find I have 18 new messages? What the frak? There should be 0! I don't know who you are thinking you can message me but whoever you are I demand you to stop! Unless you're a member of the Colonial military then I ask you how the frak did you find me on Earth? SRSLY! I am not your plaything so loosetoy4u you can go away now. Kthxbi. Toaster4life you are a dead man. The moment I find your happy toaster loving life I'm going to put a frakking bullet in your head. Capich? Stairway to heaven, heh if only you knew the true power of stairwells and I plan on showing you their full potential. I hope you like being trapped in there with a recording of Bannana Phone playing nonstop for 24 hours. Then and only then will I let your stairwell dissing ass out of there you frakking nutjob. You go to hell, you go to hell and you die.

As for the rest of you who messaged me you better thank the Gods I'm hitting the rack right now as the hour is getting late, otherwise I'd be calling you out as well. But that can wait till later, I mean there's no reason to get excited and I know you think life is but a joke.

How I lived and died at the hands of zombies

2007-05-03T23:56:39Z

Your Livejournal zombie attack.

LiveJournal Username

The name of your zombie infested home town.

Your zombie killing weapon of choice.

How much do zombies scare you?

Oh noes!!11 A zombie! What do you do?

Blasting zombies left and right with a freaking twelve guage. What do you think?

agentcabanas

Curled into a fetal position crying their eyes out.

jedidajuan

Is pwning some zombies with Don't Stop Me Now playing in the background.

agentcabanas

Is sitting at home watching CNN and eating ice cream.

agentcabanas

Get ripped to pieces by the zombies. Bummer.

agentcabanas

Is the zombie king who you must destroy to end the zombie menace.

agirlandherguns

Number of zombies you decapitate.

904

Chances you survive the zombie swarm.

35%

This Fun Quiz created by Rob at BlogQuiz.Net

Aries Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

Well obviously I pretty much die and turn into a zombie, but not before I go down fighting. Dajuan you hiding doesn't surprise me too much. How Kris got into so many categories is disturbing until I remembered she's a cylon so its quite feasible.

Frak Me

2007-05-03T22:34:06Z

Frak me I can't believe how long its been since the last time I even logged into LJ let alone make a post in it.

About a month and a half ago I made a sabbitical from the internet some of it was my choice, part of it wasn't. In short with the ending of BSG nearing I grew increasingly more paranoid about spoilers and I began to limit my net time in order to avoid the spoilers and that worked well. Normally its pretty hard for me to just leave the internet especially as I'm quite fond of all the people over at TCF and I love the place with a passion. Yet even though I willingly made myself go on a sabbitical in the beginning due to spoilers, by the time the finale came the choice was no longer really my own. Though I have to comment here for a second that I frakking love Colonel Tigh. I've always loved the bastard but now he is by far my favorite character on the entire show.

Anyways by the time that BSG came to a close I was rather busy in life trying to sort through some crap, and due to my annoying habit of always procrastinating my school work I realized I had two weeks to write four term papers that required too much research for my tastes. So I spent the two weeks doing a lot of research at the libary and then writing said papers. Thank the Gods that school is over now, but not of course until after I had to take my finals which required some studying. As an aside outside of school I still had to work 40 hours a week, plan a trip to St. Louis (and then go on said trip), pack up my crap as I was moving, make time for the recruitor/processing and the dentist. Tommorow I'm hopefully gonna go down to the processing center and either get an affirmitive on enlistment or a negative, either way I want the damn thing to just be over with. I can't stand dragging stuff like this out for three weeks and on top of that I go to the dentist on Tuesday to get my caps installed for the second time. Last week they had the wrong shade color so I have to go back a week later after they hopefully fixed it, this is of course ontop of the 5 seperate trips to the dentist for them to get this far in the process.

So my goal for the weekend is pretty simple get all this BS out of the way and be able to settle into my new joint and relax over the summer while working two jobs and later quitting in August to make way for Air Force boot camp in September (after Dragon*Con my friends). Man I can't wait until D*C thats gonna be an entire weekend birthday bash, I'm lucky D*C falls on my birthday this year. :p

In my next update which I may do tonight, I'll talk about my trip to St. Louis and all the fun I had there.

majorventure @ 2006-09-28T23:18:00

2006-09-29T03:21:59Z

First I'd just like to bitch for a moment about my net. Its a piece of shit, slow as hell and totally unreliable. One moment it'll be nice and fast the next slower than frakking 16k. Its taken me now 10 minutes to open up Sci-Fi.com so I could view the frakking webisode that was released today and it better be damn good for this annoying wait.

Anyways, while I was waiting for the site to load I created a little mini-script just to see what its like to write a script as I'd never done it before. I figure if there's a chance I'll be a writer for the TCF vids I might as well get used to writing in script format. So here is a little something I created today at work when I was supposed to be working...

Room Details: Standard hospitalesque setting; beds, candles (no lights, windows open) some med gear laying scattered around, 3 corpses on tossed on one end of the room faces covered.
Fade In:

The scene is set with four people wearing Colonial military shirts (black on grey), three have bandages on their heads, the fourth’s face is covered in gauze. The patients each share a bed, with a dresser down the middle separating the two beds.

One of the patients (Human/Ashley/Whoever) groggily wakes, looks around her surroundings and slowly puts their hand on their forehead searching for any injuries and upon finding a bandage her face turns to shock/horror.

Ashley: Moans and tries to sit up to no avail, it is then that we hear voices coming off screen (another room). Camera stays on Ashley as she once again tries to sit up and succeeds this time. She searches around for her clothes, meanwhile the voices continue.

Lieutenant Rel: “Captain what’re we gonna do? We’ve gotta do something!”

Captain Tovik: “For the moment nothing. We’ve got wounded men and women who needs rest, besides its still too frakking hot out for our people to travel far. The closer we get to the military base the worse the radiation is going to be. We need to wait for it to dissipate some.

Lieutenant Rel: “But what about the Cylons sir? Won’t the find us? And even if they don’t’ we still need to hook up with the rest of the army.”

Captain Tovik: “We will Lieutenant, but we can’t do anybody any good if we move before we’re ready. It’s a miracle already we’re not dead and the meds only protect us against so much radiation. I’m gonna go check on the wounded, tell Harvey I want him and 3 others to extend the patrol another two klicks. Engagement orders remain the same: Don’t fire unless fired upon.

The captain enters the room containing the patients, 4 in beds, another 3 laying on the floor faces covered. His uniform consisted of the typical duty blues for officers, a pistol attached to his belt and another on his thigh. A combat knife hung behind him, strapped to his belt.

Ashley looks up with a scared expression on her face and manages to calm herself by taking two deep breathes before asking:

Ashley: “Captain Rel, Sir. What’s going on? Where am I? What happened to me?”

He walks over to her grabbing a chair and setting it to her right. He sat down and looked her over, finally he stared into her eyes.

Captain Rel: “Ashley, we were attacked by the Cylons...”

Ashley interrupts: “What? How? When!”

Captain Rel: Corporal, let me finish. They nuked us from the start, most of the people on the ground didn’t have a shot. The fleets been destroyed. After the call to action stations we were racing to get to defensive positions when a nuclear explosion sent our convoy out of control. We managed to pull the wounded out and took off on foot when we encountered this house and took refuge. That was three days ago. And we’ve been hiding ever since waiting for the radiation levels to decrease some.”

007

2006-09-28T00:21:54Z

The other day I went and saw Grid Iron Gang which was surprisingly decent, I’m a sap for those true crime/educational movies that hollywood seems to release every now and then. But thats not the point of this entry. One of the previews for Gang was Casino Royale and 3 days ago I hated Casino Royale because its different from the rest of the Bond movies. I mean for fraks sake Bond is blonde! Its just not Bond if he doesn’t have black hair.

However the moment that the Bond theme song started playing and the action started I forgot all about this blonde Bond and fell in love with Casino Royale. The movie looks awesome, you just can’t go wrong with Bond and I only hope that Craig will do a good job portraying 007. Sean Connery is still the best 00, but maybe Craig can outshine Pierce (doubtful) for second place.

Personal SitRep

2006-09-27T08:38:15Z

Over the past few months I’ve done a lot of slacking off in my life in a lot of areas, though granted a lot of those areas were kinda irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but I did slack off nevertheless.

I know I promised a DC update, and I’ll get to it, it’ll just take a bit longer than I was anticipating. I'll also work on the LJ layout as right now laziness is preventing me from doing anything other than basic default stuff.

But in the meantime, I figured I’d do a SitRep on me, my past, future, etc. considering that the vast majority of you don’t really know anything about me besides what you saw at Dragon*Con.

Anyways my name is Jonathan and I’m 23 years old, I’m not a Cylon in case you were wondering though I imagine its always possible I could be a sleeper agent, but Gods I hope not. I’m currently attending Univeristy of North Florida (Jacksonville) and I wish I knew when I’d graduate, but I keep on screwing up/changing majors (hence screwup). At first I went to a CC where I got my AA and then I went to University of Florida for a history degree, but I didn’t like Gainesville too much and so I transferred out a year later, took some time off for financial reasons and then went to UNF where I changed my major to Criminal Justice. I’ve always wanted to be a cop and why I decided to go history I havn’t a clue other than it being a side passion of mine. Oh yeah, there was the time I was an education major for one semester. Lords willing I won't go and get yet another insane idea in my head and change my major again. :p

I’m currently working on trying to make it into the Police Academy in January so I can get out of my current job and start doing something that I love. But odds are I won’t be able to get in by January and as such I’ll have to wait till September due to the restrictions, basically you need to meet a lot of prereqs which take time (background check, polygraph, medical, interview, etc.) and I decided to try shooting for January...oh two weeks ago. So it probably won’t happen, which is fine, all in due time.

In my sparetime I like to write stories, or rather “liked” before I started to slack off. A year or two ago I managed to get published once or twice which was frakking awesome but I kinda stopped then. Ever since I’ve written here and there, but not nearly to the extent I used to and I’m making a pre-New Years Vow to start back up again, for starters the girls loved it and secondly I loved it, even though I thought my stories sucked. But thats neither here nor there.

I’m sure you all know what my favorite TV show is and that goes without saying its Battlestar Galactica. Gods damn that is seriously the best show ever to grace the TV screen, it even surpasses my much beloved Farscape and Hogan’s Heroes. I don’t watch much tv anymore and all I watch is on Sci-Fi right now (Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Eureka...and of course BSG). I used to be a big CSI fan until I started Criminal Justice now it just makes baby Venture cry as he knows how greatly CSI differs from real police work. That and frakking defense lawyers play the jury off of CSI which is a rather cheap shot if you ask me. Basically they’ll compare Grissom, Sidle, Katherine, etc. to the local forensic teams with “how come you’re not as good as the CSI guys in Vegas, Miami and NYC?” Which of course is true considering that its TV and they are forensic Gods! I’m going to stop that rant now.

I like to read Sci-Fi books and novels, I’m really picky on the Sci-Fi books I read as I don’t want that re-hashed crap, I like originality or stuff that is militaristic and makes you feel as if the author knows what he’s talking about. But those books are few and far between in my opinion, and I do like reading some regular fiction as well. I love reading WW2 memoirs of American and British/Canadian soldiers and what they went through, its my favorite form of WW2 history. And so I don’t like regular WW2 books. Why? Well, anyone who knows me knows I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart. The memoirs are truthiness, they tell the story that the fact books can’t do, they infer a feeling of empathy, understanding, loss and sorrow, make you feel for the men who’re in the trenches, at sea and in the air. For the loved ones left home, the mothers and wives worrying every day if a telegram was going to arrive, praying that their hero returns home alive. And while you don’t get the cold hard facts in these books, you get the real truth, the truth that matters. You don’t think with your gut, you feel with your gut and what you read in the memoirs makes you realize with your gut that this is the real shit. Its truthiness my friends pure and simple.

I’m not going to bother to go into friends, and hanging out as its something we all do. My other main interest is the internet, or rather messegeboards in general as they are a good place to kill some time or have a good discussion on something. The largest messegeboard I was ever at was the Jedi Council and I’ve been there from 2002-present, hell I modded it from 2003-Aug 2006, why, I dunno. Mainly to kill time, and plus there were only less than 50 of us with 150,000+ users, which was rather nifty.

I’m of course a member of The Colonial Fleet (Under Construction) which was formed at Dragon*Con 06 where I met a ton of crazy frakkers who are all frakking awesome.

Well thats kinda a brief SitRep of me and I hope it provides valuable intel to any cylon that wishes to kill me. Because I can kick their ass even in an unfair fight, I’m just that good.

Also: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I’M TIRED OF THESE MOTHERFRAKKING CYLONS IN MY MOTHERFRAKKING STAIRWELL. Unless you’re Boomer, Six or Dianna, then I say welcome. So say we all.

Dragon*Con Friday

2006-09-10T06:12:28Z

Dragon*Con Experiences

About a year ago a friend and I made a pact to go to Dragon*Con together and it was originally going to be just the two of us, but over time it evolved into us two +6 others which didn’t bother me.

I left for the convention early Thursday morning at approximately 0430 and spent the next six hours of my life driving to Atlanta which was a pain, but it was a lot cheaper than spending money on a plane ticket. It was roughly a tank of gas to get there and a tank to get back instead of hundreds on a plane ride. Though I was driving with expired plates. I was supposed to renew my vehicle registration in August but I forgot and when I finally did remember on the 30th they were closed by the time I got there, so I was forced to drive to Atlanta with expired plates, or at least on the way back that is.

Upon arrival at the hotel (Hyatt) I checked my bags in and wandered around for a few hours waiting on Dajuan to show up, which she finally did at around 3. I was surprised at the amount of FEMA, National Guard, and medics that were at the hotel but it didn’t take long to realize they were there due to Hurricane Ernesto. When Dajuan showed up with a friend they wanted to go to a mall in order to pickup a tuxedo for a Moulin Rouge party on Friday night, so they used my car. It was a helluva trip getting to the mall, try two hours due to rush hour traffic and getting lost. The way back wasn’t much fun either. Anyways we stopped at a Target where I picked up this awesome MacGyver knife and a tarp, as her friends had a little incident with a tarp on the way up here. Something to do with running over a tarp which caused some maintenance issues. That night just chilled with her fanforce and met Chris and John who provided for a barrel of laughs throughout the entire con.

On Friday I went to the opening Stargate panel which wasn’t all that great though I did sign a “thank you” banner that will be presented to the cast/crew of SG-1. At 4 I went to a SG-1 celeb panel which ended up being pretty funny, Don S Davis has one helluva sense of humor. But it was that night that proved to be the most interesting as not only did I lose my original badge which fell off sometime during the evening, but I also lost Dajuans badge. That night was a Colonial Day party which was for all the BSG fans at the con and I managed to have a few too many drinks. The most amazing thing about the party was all the fans who showed up in costume, I swear we spent a good 30 minutes just posing for pictures and then I even got asked to do a video interview! Unfortunately I had to exit the party to take the interview as it was too loud inside, so we just walked into the hallway. The actual video can be found here. On my way back into the party I got flagged and told I couldn’t enter with my badge! Annoyed I went back to my room to borrow my friends whose badge happened to be on a lanyard which I could never lose...right? Well I did.

I went back to the party and wasn’t there for more than 20 minutes before the cast of BSG showed up and crashed the party! I don’t know what was better Helo, Tyrol and Baltar crashing it or meeting all my new BSG friends? Anyways, I’d talk more about them showing up but I don’t remember much as I had a few too many to drink. I do remember getting my picture taken with Helo prior to losing my camera. I don’t know how long I’d been there but I wandered to the bathroom to throw up and somewhere along the line I lost not only Dajuan’s badge, but also my camera! Eventually I managed to pull my drunk ass back to my room and outside of it was Chris, Kris and Louis (Chief Helo, Boomer, Lee) and I believe Jessica (Starbuck) getting further frakked outside my room. They asked if I wanted to join em but I declined as I was totally out of it.

I’m ending now as I’m getting tired of writing and I don’t want a really long first LJ post. So I’ll break this up and add pictures later, etc.

Sometime soon

2006-09-09T06:05:46Z

I'm going to get off my lazy frakking ass and actually start using this journal with a detailed report on Dragon*Con. Hopefully I'll have it done by Sunday night or something. Depends if I keep on getting distracted.

majorventure @ 2006-09-07T23:32:00

2006-09-08T03:29:28Z

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