Waiting

The Next - Where I'm Expected

So, within a few short months I'll be moving to Guam.  I must say, it was a surprise when I learned that was our destination. It's not that I didn't expect to be going overseas, it was just the suddenness of the announcements, more than 6 months out from the expected arrival date, which caught me by surprise.  Hey man, I can't be upset with the news that I'll be moving to a tropical island for a few years.  I can, however, be surprised with the quickness.  My new life is moving quickly, and I'm never sure if that's a good or bad thing.  I suppose I should be thankful, and really I am; however, I'm sure I'll always be unsure.  Did I make the right choice?  Have I pushed all of my chips in too soon?  Does it really matter?

I think what really matters is not only my happiness, but whether or not I can make those who are most important to me happy as well.  I do love Farrah.  She's a wonderful person.  She knows the importance of family.  She understands that I require too much alone time. She is willing to deal with my strange behavior.  She loves me despite my shortcomings.  I can't say for sure everyone would be so forgiving.  I am genuinely excited to explore our new life in Guam together.

I feel terrible for Dusty and Fiona.  Two of the lights of my life, two canine companions.  I wish we could take them with us.  Perhaps we could.  Dusty would be miserable in the heat, Fiona would be at risk daily (the wildlife there would love a tiny Yorkie treat).  Batgirl could protect them, but I don't want to make her the constant shepherd.  She deserves to feel free, feel the comfort of being the only.  She is at her best when she is able focus solely on people.  I can't wait to see her blossom in Guam.

I'm thankful for our friends and family.  Jon, one of my true best friends, has offered to take care of Dusty during our tour in Guam.  I'm not sure he realizes just how much it means to me.  Dusty has been my best buddy the last two years.  It genuinely hurts me to be leaving him behind, but he deserves to be in a home with relaxation and attention.  Jon and Jeremy will give him both (and Bailey as well).  Fiona will probably end up with one of Farrah's relatives, which is fine, but I won't pretend it doesn't hurt.  That tiny girl is like a daughter.  She has blossomed into a wonderful little creature since I've known her.  Her love for people knows no bounds.  She's playful, smart, and intuitive to people's emotions.  She'll make whoever she is with happy, and I hope she'll feel happiness as well.

There is the potential of a job in Guam.  I'm still waiting to hear from the US Naval Hospital on the island.  I sent my resume in for the Public Affairs Officer position in the hospital. It would suit me well.  I know the job.  I need purpose.  It would be perfect, and it would allow me to spend three years expanding my resume even further.

It really blows me away to think where I am now.  I came from a small town in the middle of nowhere Indiana.  I take a look at most of my friends and classmates and see they are  still there, thriving in that small town.  I thought, for sure, I would be in the same place at this point in my life; yet here I am, dealing with temporary quarter in Maryland, preparing for island life in Guam with my beautiful wife.  I can't say I'm not scared, but I am excited.  Her and I will have so much to explore.  Not just of the island, but of each other.  I hope I can make her happy.  I know she makes me happy.

Cheers to anyone reading this.  I know the sudden ending is jarring, but just remember, that's just how it all goes most of the time.  We all live in periods, where one butts into the next without warning.  Just make due with what is dealt to you and never regret making a decision.

My apologies

It has been brought to my attention that I need to tell stories.  This person is correct.  I will start working TOMORROW on telling you some stories of the fun crap I have done since I've been here.  In all honesty, I've been holding off because I want that damn camera with me to help tell the story, but I suppose my words will have to do for now.  So, tomorrow... a fun story about karaoke, and the dangers of mixing booze and public singing.

Video Numero Dos

Video numero dos!  Just an update on what to expect in the next few weeks.  Expect radio silence next week as I will be working overnight 12 hour shifts.  Fun.

Video blog time!

Hey, let's try this without writing words and just saying them, shall we?

Occupy... EVERYTHING!

I must say, all of this Occupy EVERYTHING stuff has really gotten me fired up over the last month or so.  Of course, not fired up enough to make a post on here dedicated to it... or maybe so fired up I just didn't think I could do it justice.  Either way, I'm going to ATTEMPT to take some of the madness and absurdity I've seen over the last few weeks and put it into a nice little package.... and then I'm going to take a shit on anyone who does things I think are stupid because, well, it's my blog and I can say what I want.

It all began when they stripped Pluto of it's planethood and started

deregulating all the space travel.  Fuckin' Jupiter and Saturn, greedy fucks. 

Standing Up For What Is Right

First, I just want to say I am thoroughly impressed by the many people out there who taking to the streets and being brave enough to speak against power.  There are so many things that need to change (that word still feels so dirty) in this country, and nothing is going to actually happen unless someone makes a stand.  

African-American Civil Rights Activists had Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Occupy Wall Street

has internet memes.  I think we all know who wins this one. 

I remember when things really went to shit 3 years ago.  Everyone was shocked.  It was the most unprecedented economic meltdown most people alive on the planet had ever seen.  The dominoes  fell and soon it spread across the entire world.  America had managed to destroy the world economy.  And yes, we were all blamed!  Every day people, working hard in their jobs and trying to get by were blamed for being too greedy.  Maybe that was the case with some.  I have my doubts, though, about a big sudden paradigm shift where middle class Americans were suddenly ALL going out and spending way more than they had.  Something felt wrong about all of it.

Wait, What Happened?

Now, I'll be the first to say that I haven't always been the most educated, or most interested, in all of the political and economic bullshit in this country.  I've never had to worry about it.  I grew up spoiled in a world where everything was honky dory and no one had to really worry.  Graduate High School, graduate college, get a good job, get married, have kids, retire.  Live the American Dream.  2008 shattered that dream for so many people.  People who were living it, people who were trying to live it, people who were getting ready to live it.  Things are different.

When asked what caused this, or how do we fix it, I can't give a definitive answer, but I can say I know a few things that helped contribute.  My big beef, and one of the things I think had a huge part in all of this, is the campaign for deregulation of financial institutions.  I understand the idea behind the deregulation, but with so many things in life... what looks good on paper or in your head doesn't always translate to real world success.  This would definitely fall into that category.

 

Giving rich people the means to try to make money from essentially nothing using fancy schmancy economic calculations (called derivatives) ended up being nothing more than gambling.  Here's what's so fucked up about it now, though.  Banks can take depositor's money and use it to gamble.  That's right, when your paycheck goes into your CHECKING account, Bank of America can use that to bet on whether or not it's going to rain in Oklahoma next Wednesday.  Gambling with someone else's money... man I wish I could do that.

 According to Chris Matthews, 'It's the derivatives stupid!'

Then someone showed him this.

My other big beef, and really this pisses me off more than all the deregulation, is the rampant corruption in our political system.  Directly tied to that is the mass media, which essentially is nothing more than propaganda for whatever side they have money invested in, but I'll get back to that later.

Lobbying.  Oh, lobbying.  I used to have a love/hate relationship with you.  Then along came Citizens United.  Well, if you're too lazy to click a link and read (fuck you jackasses, why am I even doing this?), here's what it is.  Corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns.  Now, there are a lot of rules in there, but this is the basic premise behind this ruling.  Needless to say, a lot of people were pretty pissed off.

Especially this guy until he found out from Fox News that this is

what AMURRRICA stands for!

How Do We Fix It?

My honest answer to this question when its posed to me most of the time is 'Fuck if I know'.  Now, that's probably not gonna cut it on here, so I'll try to answer it by keeping it as simple as I can.... well, I guess I have to keep it simple since my brain doesn't really function at a very complex level.

First and foremost, money needs to be completely taken out of politics.  Serving our country by being in the Congress, Senate, or being the President is an honor.  I'm tired of seeing life long Senators who don't get anything accomplished and just talk on TV all the time.  Fuck those guys (I'm looking at you Dick Lugar).  It has become all about money, and not about doing what's best for our country.  What's best for our country isn't serving the richest, greediest assholes in the world.

And here's the basic premise behind the entire Occupy Wall Street movement.  It's not about asking for hand-outs.  Wait... let's take a second and let me reemphasize this.  IT'S NOT ABOUT ASKING FOR FUCKING HANDOUTS YOU CONSERVATIVE ASSHOLES@!!!  Ok,  now that I got that out of my system...

People want to work, they want to be given a chance to earn a living.  Sure, there are a few rotten apples out there who think we should all just smoke pot and sing bonfire songs all day, but they are a VERY small minority (except when everyone actually starts smoking pot, then everyone wants that...).

We all just want a system that is a little more fair, and a political system that favors the little guy like its supposed to do.  The government is there to protect its citizens, not turn them into mindless slaves that just do whatever they say and buy whatever the commercials say.  The problem is, we've woken up to the fact that this is what 'The Power' wants us to do and we're telling them to fuck off.

If you don't think they're scared, or if you don't think this protesting is working, then you need to reassess.  The 'top 1%' (What I mean by that is the people with the power) are scared shitless right now.  This is why they're trying everything they can to either get rid of the protesters or slander the shit out of them via Fox News (and sometimes CNN & MSNBC).

All I'm asking from anyone who has taken the time to read all of this is to keep yourself informed.  Get your information from MULTIPLE sources, and fact-check as MUCH as possible.  Yes, this requires more work, but it's better to be right than wrong.  Making choices over the next few years while being uninformed is only going to make things worse.  We got ourselves into this situation by being complacent, now we need to fix it by being proactive.  That's why I love seeing all of the protests, and that is why I love my country.

But I'll never love it as much as Stephen Colbert.

Whoa, I Forgot I Had This Blog Thing!

I SINCERELY apologize for the prolonged absence.  I've been battling with what direction I want to take this whole blog thing... but then I realized it already had direction.  It's about me, and what I think and do and stuff.  So yeah, I will be back in full force starting tomorrow (I promise!).  Here's a few pictures and a video to make you smile :)

Now, I do want to point out that Iron & Wine accomplishes two things.  First, amazing music with so much soul behind every note.  Second, epic beard.  Now, if my lovely friend Nicole (aka Haus Wife) isn't pleased with this (I hear she's a huge Iron & Wine fan), well then I guess I suck at this whole blogging thing.  Regardless, back tomorrow!!!

The Chicken Feet Fiasco

Another week down on the Korean Peninsula.  It's all going by pretty dang quick, though I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or not.  There's so much to see, so much to do, and I'm so scared that I'm going to let it kind of pass me by.

At any rate, I have a few things on my mind as I sit down.  First, I guess I'll just kind of recap what happened to me.

The week was pretty eventful, as far as work.  I did my first radio show (outside of readiness radio).  It's called 'Lunchbox DJ' and it airs once a week.  Basically, we pick someone on base who has been doing awesome at their job and have them come to host the show.  They get a DJ name, they pick the songs, and they run the board (if they're so inclined).  The guy I had this week I had met a few weeks earlier while doing Readiness Radio.  He called in about 3 times an hour (sometimes more) to request crazy songs like Cher and Britney Spears.  He's a pretty cool dude, and hopefully someone I can hang out with in the future.

I also did my first TV spot.  It was a horrendously cheesy spot for the base library.  Hopefully I don't have to watch it too much, because it's just... bad.  Ah well, my first one, and I had less than a day to do it. 

This weekend, I went with a co-worker to do a video shoot.  It's his own side-project thing, and I got to be the on camera talent!  I'm looking forward to see how it turns out.  We went to a really quiet suburban part of Seoul, where there is a random, creepy, quiet tunnel running underneath the train tracks.  Needless to say, the video will be pretty awesome if it turns out the way he wants.

After the shoot we went to the 'Korean-American Friendship Festival' right outside the main gate of the base.  We walked around, checked everything out, and stopped to get some food.

 The menu at the tent we stopped at was in Korean, and the people working it didn't speak English.  I guess they didn't get the memo that it was the Korean-AMERICAN Friendship Festival.

Oh well, we made due.  Basically we pointed at something and made them cook it.  Unfortunately, pointing isn't always a good idea when it comes to food.  Here's what we ended up getting.

Look's tasty eh?  Well, it's fried chicken feet, with some spicy sauce and veggies mixed in.  We finished the entire plate, and then were informed by some gracious English speaking Koreans of what we had just consumed.  Oh they are SOOO funny!  Here's the best part though.  It cost 20,000 won!  For my stateside friends who haven't visited Korea, that's equivalent to about 20 bucks.  OUTLANDISH!  We were both pretty pissed off, but hey, live and learn.

One of my best friends, Richie, lost his father this weekend.  I feel so terrible for him, and I wish I could be there for him and his family.  However, it gives me a good moment to appreciate the relationship I have with both of my parents.  Like I've said before, it's not perfect, but I have an amazing dad and mom.  Don't take those relationships for granted.  If you read this Richie, I'm thinking of you and Kortney and the kids.

This all got me thinking about my moods, and 'depression' (although I don't like using that word).  Things happen that can bring you down.  When you're down, its so much harder to be motivated to do just about anything.  I realized this week I had been in one of the best moods I've felt in a while.  The kind where nothing can really bring me down.  I hope that I can keep that up, it makes EVERYTHING so much easier.  Work, exercise, chores, whatever... it all becomes easier when you have a little motivation to do it.

So here's a homework assignment.  Figure out a way to get yourself into a great mood.  What is it that makes you feel that way?  If you don't know, figure it out.  If you know, make it happen.  I think you'll like the results, and everyone around probably will too.  If you're down, I know it can be hard to pull yourself up, and for some people (me included) it really just comes down to having enough time to pull yourself up.  Regardless, find your 'Happy Place'.  Do it, and see how much better your life feels.