Sophisticated Civilization

Culture may even be described simply as that which makes life worth living.

   

Unity in the Community

Hooligans conducting a training exercise.

   Combined action of a group of people, especially when efficient and effective is the definition of teamwork. Teamwork plays a very important roll in my job, as it is something that has to be done all the time to let life be as painless as possible for myself and my peers. Squads are divided in my platoon by three and segregated by the type of work we do, forcing us to remain in our squad based elements for the majority of our work days. Conducting everything with each other at full cooperation to achieve success. 

   Tried and true my squad (if I do say so myself) is the most cohesive and team based squad in my platoon. Unlike the others, we function as a family and have truly put a new definition to the word brotherhood and chivalry. Something that the other squads can see in us but can't grasp to applying to themselves for the fact that they do not treat each other with the same dignity and respect we do. Striving to go above and beyond in everything we do.

   Years of my life I have enjoyed my isolation and independence when it comes to finding myself personal peace of mind. Since being here in the environment of constant interaction with my fellow man on the time line of every living hour of the day. Literally sunrise to sunset I will be in speaking distance, if not reaching distance from someone in my platoon except for the rare occasion I am out for a larger unit function or gathering, where the names and faces change but not the distance of interaction.

   Realizing the importance in knowing your roll as a team member and person of example is an extremely valuable lesson in life. Creating less stress, more understanding, greater achievement, and overall character building values. Army creeds, and mottos will express this over and over, trying to put the message out there to those ignorant to its power. Not saying that only the Army preaches this impacting merit of morale obligation. Just saying that this is where I consciously recognized its substance.

  So what I am asking of you the reader is... Where do you play part in the teamwork aspect of your life? How important is your role? And are you doing the best you can to fill it?

An Outing and an Adventure

K & B

Went over to an odd sort of place a month ago just call it K&B and we will call it even. Long bus ride if I could ever remember one, I am usually asleep or with my music. Markets are a place where you go to buy things true, but this place was more bizarre. Probably because it was a bizarre of course. They had sorts of odds and ends in these shops. Fake, fraudulent, fraud, pirated, faux, false, mock, artificial, knock off, whatever you want to call it, the items sold here were the best quality bootleg gear I have ever had the chance to scour. Ended the day with this wrap and Coca Cola for lunch before headed back to the Scooby bus.  

MF Doom - Poo Putt Platter

Another Window to the World

The road passing by yet again.
I have gotten into the habit of listening to music and seriously, staring out the window anytime I am on a bus. It reminds me of going to school in Germany when I was an adolescent punk. I had got my first iPod shuffle, probably because my parents could not afford, or did not want me to break an iPod with a screen. And I proceeded to enjoy music all the time. Having music in my pocket that didn't skip when I was running or jumping or skateboarding like I often was, was a blessing.
To be honest having the iPod shuffle even made me more interesting to myself. I had to load on only the minuscule 1gb of music from iTunes and deal with it picking all the songs for me. Granted I could skip the songs I didn't want to hear I rarely did.
The Gorrilaz, The Blooodhound Gang, Turbonegro, MF Doom, and Nirvana. All we're outside stimulus for me. I had a friend named Garret who introduced me to his brother Nick who was the downloading master of our time. He had some program called DC++, and it was all matrix looking black back round, green text, and mysterious beyond my years.
Little did I know he was ultimately just using a torrent website that predated everything I understand now.
MF Doom was something of a music God to me at the time. I was listening to his music all the time and enjoying the fact the he was exploring the lyrics of the song in an amusing way 'Poo Putt Platter' was one Garret and I particularly liked, and to this day we can recite together. "I tripped a lot out here in the woods lately".

The Start of a Dry Life

   I began my journey/adventure early November of 2013. Leaving the state of Kentucky for the next nine months of my life. Not that I have any particular bonds with the state of Kentucky, like that of a loyal state (Texas), however it was a place for the last year I have called home. 

   On to bigger and better things I found myself accompanying the 19th Engineer Battalion on their deployment to Kuwait. Not that I didn't want to find myself in a desert with a group of people that I by contract had to live and work with on a very close and personal level, but that I really wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

   Upon our arrival to Kuwait we had the luxury of being the first guests of this dusty region to be  graced with the rain of a thousand rains. Flooding in the area I was going to be living and working, had pretty much consumed the land and all the shapes man had created on it. Luckily for us here as Engineers it was truly our lifeblood to repair the types of damages done.

   What had started as a deployment foreshadowed with ominous rumors of "where in the world" we would be going as a unit, had quickly become one immense group of men and women with all the intentions of finding themselves in the action. Most people in my opinion had been led to believe that every duck was already put into a neat and orderly row, though that was truly still up to sheer interpretation.