Some pedictions, random musings

oops, well there went 10 days, that was fast. Time seems to be going by pretty quickly here, i'm not sure if it's just me. I'll ask scott, my roommate, what he thinks. We were sparring today in our tiny room and i accidentally punched him in the nose...he gets nosebleeds like all the time anyway, so i really dont know what the problem was. I think he'll punch me later tonight or maybe tomorrow, but i predict it. Whats funny is we go to the gym together but he is a very skinny man trying to round out, and i am a not so skinny man trying to flatten out, so i wonder if we shouldnt be doing the same exercises. well except i run because i hear that running in the desert heat can be extremely effective. but everything else works pretty much the same or else they would have a fat people side and a skinny people side in the gym with totally different machines. I think that would be cruel and funny. we're both making some progress i think, so we'll see how it progresses over the next couple of months. did you hear in the news about any planned attacks over here during the 4th of July weekend? If you did, let me know. I like to stay informed. Now that i think about it, the upcoming holiday seems to have been shrouded in a veil of mystery. Did i miss some flyers about the huge BBQ that most carnivorous americans insist on having? What about the fireworks? OK i just asked, no BBQ, but we do get ribs at the chow hall where every meal is served. which makes it like every other meal. the fireworks i dunno, but it would be nice if they were of the recreational variety.



They just trained a new batch of hajji watchers so i suspect they'll swap us out sometime soon. I'd like a change of pace. The group we work with has nearly completed the project and after three weeks, in their presence i've achieved a god-like status among them. he who brings cold water and pacifies angry vengeful captains with soothing tones. thats my complete name, i am what i am. in return i get offerings of trinkets, bread and cheese, and of course, adulation. ha, i'm kidding but me and a couple others have gotten along great with the contractor (who is one loaded iraqi) and his workers. i've had to work at other projects too but if neither me nor the two others who work at the theatre with the usual crew are there, they complain and we hear about it, which irks me because it's one of the longer duties and i like to be lazy in the afternoon heat. there it is, and my number just got called so i gotta go. be back soon.

good? bad? i dont know

dag yo, i cant wait till i can post my pictures or other little funny drawings that i may or may not have the inclination to contruct in a fit of boredom. To contradict what i said earlier about the internet situation within our company, it looks as if they have done some research, done some math, and done some printing and copying with the goal of giving us little "fact sheets" on how much the whole ordeal is gonna cost and when it's going to be functional. It's looking like its gonna be almost $16K!! ... for three months. After you do all the long division thats gonna end up at someting like $250 per person for 3 months of internet. Now i know what you're thinking: gawd, billy just take the flippin walk to the MWR building. Granted, when i first heard that number i had similar sentiments, but just in the past couple days i've been thinking it over and came to the conclusion that you, all of you, and myself included took (and take) the internet crap for granted. Its only when you're relegated to 30 minute blocks of internet time after an hour wait that you recognize the value in being able to answer email AND complete one other simple task without being interrupted by some asshole on a megaphone. which i predict will happen in about 7 minutes. I got lucky and wrote that really long post a couple of posts ago when for some awesome reason, they forgot to call me off for like 90 minutes. that doesnt happen much though. Whatever. so because of the fact that i can never get anything done within this tiny timeframe that they give us, im gonna cough up the money like the good little consumer I am. hey, at least i'll be able to chit chat with you guys a little more, and probably figure out some fun stuff to put up here. camel shots maybe. id still give this thing another month to get finished but eventually it looks like its gonna happen.



Oh on an irritating note, all 20 of the people on escort duty with me have been extended on that duty for another month while they ...train more people for escort duty. whaat?? train someone to, for the most part, sit on one's ass and watch people work?? thats just incredible. Ok theres a little more to it, but nothing that can't be taught to a 5 year old in 15 minutes. I would be perfetly happy staying on the duty, if i didn't eventually want to get on the road and do what i was trained to do. It's technically "not as safe" but what our trucks do, which is mostly run to kuwait and back, is about as risky driving to mt pleasant and back. (driving the old bridge) I'm not too concerned though, this will be the last month, and as long as they pay me the same, i couldn't care less. Ok well im running out of time, so until my next walk down here, peace.

Time off

I'm just in the middle of my sunday off but just by chance I got yesterday off too, so i've been catching up on sleep and watching some movies that i've been meaning to see. On friday, i was talking to some of the Iraqi guys that run the local shop here on base and we started talking about the internet and how available it was in Nasiriyah, turns out, that it's really easy to get with a satellite dish, and many middle class families in the city can afford one without much trouble. It's like $100 for the dish and equipment and then another $50 per month. Thats really reasonable so I'm looking into having one of them bring me the equipment from the city and me and my roommate will set it up and split the cost. We were supposed to be getting a big superfast sattelite feed for the entire company to share, but the people that are supposed to be organizing it are moving very slow. So yea, if i can get my own internet thing set up for just me and my roommate, I'm gonna jump on it cause who knows when theyre gonna get a companywide network in place....ha probably never. I also talked to those guys about getting a sim card for my phone, and they can do it, but it's one of those things where im not sure if it's worth it because the card is $130 and i think the airtime to call the US is like $.70 per minute. I'll decide tomorrow when i go ask about the dish again, but i think it'll be nice to be able to make some quick phone calls from my room, instead of walking half a mile to this building. Thats all for now, talk at you later.

Arabic

hey, whoa whoa... Im sorry, :) didn't want to freak anyone out during that little hiatus I took. It won't happen again, honest. but on the one hand, thanks for letting me know cause that keeps me from getting lazy about coming down to the computers. We've had one hell of a dust storm for the past several days, I was driving some of my escortees today and couldnt see for more than maybe 30 feet past the windshield, It only stayed that bad for a couple hours but i say again, it is amazing where sand can go when it's blowing horizontally. Also for the past several days, i've been working with the same group of locals as they plan and survey for a movie theatre that they are finally going to build at the camp. Today they brought some workers in to start grading the base of the building so me, another escort, the airforce construction officer, and the two iraqi supervisors sat under a little tent for most of the morning sipping their local tea and snacking on their pita bread and cheese. that bread and cheese and tea thing is becoming a daily routine, which is excellent for me because i think the tea is frikin amazing and the bread and cheese is too. We've been having some pretty good discussions on topics that range from ancient sumeria to michael jackson. Turns out some people in iraq are losing sleep over whats going to happen to mj.



Another thing that i think would be interesting is picking up as much arabic as i can while i'm here...Which reminds me just now of some RUMORS that I've been hearing. Please dont count on it being true, I certainly am not. Anyway the rumor is we're gonna be getting out of here early, maybe around december or early next year instead of April. but again, just a rumor. mom dont ask the family readiness group cause even asking about that will start everyone talking. Its become such a problem, i've even been seeing some stupid ass "dont spread rumors" military commercials on the broadcast stations that they have beamed across the camp. It's like a public service announcement type thing but it was such a dumb commercial that i guess i'm ignoring it right now simply out of spite for the dullards that created it. But as i was saying, i'd like to learn at least a little bit of arabic. I have this little translation book thats not too useful, but the workers are more than eager to teach. I've already learned a few words and phrases, but now that i think about it, like 50% of what i've learned are obscenities. I can say, Hello, i'm an american ...lame. I could follow that up with a snappy fuck you but maybe thats not the smartest, because besides "thank you" and "goodbye" i will have depleted my vocabulary. In reality though, the iraqis, especially the older supervisors are more than happy to teach us arabic to kill some time while we sip that delicious tea.



One little thing that has really started to become irritating are some of these guys that love to tell me (or anyone nearby) how wonderful their mate is back at home and how much they miss each other, or how wonderful their mate used to be before the nasty breakup that took place just before we left the states. Most of you know me, and know that i'm a fairly patient person... I still am, so maybe i'm sparing them a little anxiety by not telling them that their wife/gf/ex could probably be getting passed around like a poker chip at that very moment. What I do do is use the "nod-yea man-repeat" technique until they decide that i dont care. I feel like throwing a dashboard cd at them and suggesting that they cry it all out in their pillow tonight so that i dont have to hear it anymore. I guess it doesnt happen as much as I just made it sound, but it happened pretty bad today at work so thats probably what brought it to mind.



Well i'm wrapping it up now, I think there's gonna be a comedy show at the outdoor theatre today, so i'll probably check it out and see if it's worth sitting all the way through. It's 5 comedians that i've never heard of but i'm gonna give it a chance. Again, thanks for the feedback, I'm gonna try to do one like this at least once a week, so if I miss it, let me have it harsh-like. The other day i just got asked during what timeframe would i most like to have my two weeks of leave. I told him to put me down for anytime during september or october, so hopefully that will come through and i can make it back while everyone is back for fall semester. Can't wait, i miss all of you hippies, drunks, intellectuals, jersey girls, and vanderhoes :) ..and moms and sisters of course, see you soon.

Still here

Apologies for not writing in the past couple weeks, but they've finally put us to work! The job they have me and 15 others doing for a month rotation sounded bad at first but turns out it has it's strong points. We are the first group to act as escorts for the local civilians that come onto the base here to work or to do whatever business they need to do. We pick them up at the gate and basically tag along and direct them as they do whatever they had planned for that day. The bad days are when I'm escorting a group of sidewalk constructionists? constructionators.. they mix cement all day, there isnt much to do. But some of the time there are some locals that have to deliver things to the merchants on post (you can accquire some hard-to-get items) or some sort of local functionary coming with some grievance or request. I picked up some of the local politics in the area. Oh, right and once in a while, the visitor entrance center will be inundated with women in traditional dress and their kids, they've come for medical assistance or supplies or advice. Those were interesting mornings. There were at least two small childern there that prompted me to ask a few questions about the reason for their visit (and their appearance) They were scarred from burns quite badly on the face and arms and I immediately had that sinking feeling because I already knew how it had happened. Unfortunately I was right. They had been hit by our planes at the beginning of the war. Luckily noone in the family had died, but the scars were obviously going to be there for life. Im running out of time again, We're still working on the internet for our rooms, hopefully soon, but i do have some good info to post. My address here is:


SPC William Slater

414th Trans. CO , 2nd Plt.

Base Camp Adder

APO AE 09331


Thats all for now, stay classy charleston