The ‘hula girls’ from Hawaii were here tonight providing entertainment including song like ‘Imagine’ Hawaii hula girl style. Airman G says, ‘this is great entertainment, just look at everyone out here having a good time.’

This made me consider how critical I am of life in general, and how advanced our society is as to be able to give criticism on such a granular level, i.e. ‘he didn’t sound that G chord out right’, or the show was great, but the theatrics were just ‘ok’, etc.

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How is this going to play out? Regardless of if we leave tomorrow, a month, a year, ten years, or 100 years from now?

– The Iraqi ‘bill of rights’ says it best and I paraphrase, ‘Anything that goes against the Quran is strictly prohibited.’

The ‘marketing’ over the loud speakers two or three times a day, and what ‘academia’ in the middle east teaches will keep it same as it ever was.

• Gryphon Air I was nervous about, but turned into being a really ‘nice’ flight to Baghdad
• Met 3 people enroute, one medic heading south, one security guard heading south Baghdad, and one teacher who is working to integrate people and teach them modern stuff
• My room is small, spartan but enough to suffice and keep it all good for a while, my roommate is an older gentlemen from Korea that’s very friendly
• The surroundings are beautiful / surreal
• It’s dusty and dirty
• Saw a Becks beer bottle, after closer look, non-alcoholic of course
• I’ve already been signed up for a dodge ball tourney next Sunday
• There seems to be plenty for moral
• 3 of my coworkers picked me up at the ‘airport’
• Throughout the night I’m hearing sounds that I’ve never heard before, planes, etc, etc
• flying over the ‘outskirts’ of Kuwait City reminds me of Tatooine, the other parts of the city look very modern and exciting. Flying over Baghdad things look very impoverished.
• The smell isn’t all that great

All in all, ready for the ‘new adventure,’ feeling strangely fine.

Leaves finally have left the trees.

The banana tree doesn’t like the cold weather.

The festive neighbor

The most decorated building in town.

Joy to the world

The bustling downtown.

Nicely done

A random hunk of lights in the park

10 years later, they still play a lot of the old tunes, lots of tunes I relate with in life, and lots of great commentary and dialogue, as they don’t look like the typical ‘cool’ rock band on stage. I also found out what ‘chugging’ means in Scotland (it was described by the band as what young boys do at home when mom is gone!).

That being said Fran, a realistic songwriter), Andy, Neil, and Douglas (hips) Payne take the stage, from the front door, coming in to the rocky theme, in boxing outfits, high fiving the crowd.

The light show was amazing, how the hell did they get them into La Zona Rosa?

The boys all came out in the enchor and sang ‘Flowers in the Window.’ Doug and Andy help out with the strumming towards the end.

Twenty, with the help of no PA — Fran wanted to ‘keep it real’, and he totally did! Check out the busted string half way through the song, and disregard the ‘camera sound’ and drunk a$$es next to me.

To show off the lights, sound quality is terrible, but I love this song ‘The Line is Fine’

To end the show, a nice ‘Why Does it Always Rain on Me’ jump fest from the cheap seats.

The Good – Hospital staff everywhere (Yoakum, Cuero, and Victoria), very professional, exceptional service, all around gives me warm and fuzzies. MEDICARE — 14,000 for the surgery, Medicare pays for 13,000 of it.

The Bad – To top off the feeling of having chemo, how bout paying for 3 pills at 100 dollars EACH? And how bout a handful of others that are 50 dollars each? Research and development, yea, I’d say a necessary evil for these peeps to make innovative drugs to fight cancer, just isn’t fair for ‘our category’ of people who don’t default on bills.

THE SHEER UGLY – Can you say our INSURANCE POLICY!!! GOD AWEFUL! I had my time haggling with them on the phone, sis’ had her turn, and in the perspective of things, they have paid 400 dollars for a random visit, and DIDN’T EVEN TOUCH the surgery. Only 4,000 a year support for chemotherapy, and no support for pills. The only MAJOR DISSAPOINTMENT!
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The result, I think it’s what P.J. O’Rourke says, ‘If you think health care costs now, just wait till it’s free.’ The system has to be mixed, private to drive R&D, to add the incentives to performance and quality, and ‘universal,’ so any constituent in the mix, (the individual, the insurance, the hospital, the government, etc) doesn’t have to be economically / medically ‘scientific’ about who claims the debt of people who can’t pay.

In my years at DPS, I estimate I paid in a rough estimate of 35,000 dollars for medical insurance, nad and I only went to the doctor for one minor thing over the time paying in.

It might be the best we can get for a good while?

Pictured, the heart and soul of the non-profit I volunteer with, both pillars. Amy my friend in the middle is going on a European stint for about a month, coming back for the summer, then going to study in Scotland for a long time, how awesome, mad props to her!

Well, I don’t know if this link works, but if you’re on facebook and need a friend, click on me.

Normally I’m an early adopter, guess I fell of the bus on this one, but better late than never.
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Humor: I’ve come to love ‘beer drinking songs’ over the years, here’s a ‘cute’ german one. I sure wish i could post it somehow, it’s much funnier when you hear it.

Eisgek Hlter Bommerlunder

The lyrics are….
Eisgekühlter BommerlunderBommerlunder eisgekühltEisgekühlter BommerlunderBommerlunder eisgekühltund dazuEin belegtes Brot mit Schinken(yelled) Schinken!Ein belegtes Brot mit Ei(yelled) Ei!Das sind zwei belegte BroteEins mit Schinken, eins mit Eiund dazuThis is then repeated over and over, each time

the singer reaches “und dazu” the song is sung quicker, and higher, until they can’t sing anymore.

Translation
roughly translated, the lyrics are:
Ice cold Bommerlunder(a type of schnapps)
Bommerlunder ice cold(repeat)
and with it
one sandwich with ham
ham!

one sandwich with egg
egg!
those are two sandwiches,
one with ham and one
with eggand with themetc.

Borat would have to say ‘Very Nice’ on this one.

You know you class of 95 peeps bring a lot of peer pressure on me, considering yours truly hasn’t passed Girlfriend 101 yet. You are truly on the higher end of the human evolutionary totem pole in terms of figuring out what is important in life, and I look to y’all for guidance and hope.

From good friends, I’ve heard it more than once that I’m one of the most sensitive people they know while simultaneously being one of the most insensitive people they know. I’ve also been indirectly been referred to as a ‘misanthropic soul’ — and for all you bohonks that don’t want to look up that big word, it means…. ‘a general dislike of the human race’ — I suppose I have hope, but day to day life I smile the best smile I can, but generally speaking I have a disdain for the day to day blah situations that being an ‘adult’ puts you thru.

Having said all those stuff about misanthropic souls and the like, enter the thought that I want babies one day. It’s such a nice feeling when I go to Jenny’s place and Benny the dog is so damn happy to see me, I’m like, this sh*t rocks. I can only imagine what that feels like when you go home and see your own flesh and blood, your own genetic code, happy to see you, and vice versa. I know it will help me to find more meaning for existence, and help fix the issues that come with having not a whole lot of regard for life, and the human element.

So people with babies, I sincerely admire y’all, wish I could relate more, as one day we will definitely trade stories and such of what are babies and kids are doing, etc. For now, I’m getting my travel on, entertaining with 80% confidence the idea of moving to Londontown for 3-5 years, and biting off more than I can chew and chewing like hell.

Anywho, babies’ rock

\PS
One day I’ll try to put into words the push / pull – Smigel / Gollum stuff that goes on in my head on a daily basis; The struggle for balance for a dude that has just too damn many options. Guess that isn’t a bad thing, but I suppose it can be a bad thing. Confusing stuff, damn.

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The quotes say to live life with the innocence of a child, the maturity of an adult and also take care of the place, we didn’t inherit the earth from our parents, and we borrow it from our children. etc, etc, etc, etc