"Hip-hop is definitely not what it used to be, which was creative, original music" - Missy Elliot

First of all, I want to say thanks to those of you who sent words of encouragement based on my last “uninspired” blog, especially you Uncle Ken. Every time you write (even if it takes nine times to get it posted!) it is a great encouragement to me. Thank you very much.

Just about the time I wrote the blog some things changed! Hmmm. I had been working noon to midnight, but for various reasons my hours changed from 7am to 7pm. Nothing TOO major, but a few adjustments to be made…

Part of my “groundhog day” routine was swimming 3 to 4 times per week. I would head to the pool at 10am, swim for about 45 minutes, and still have time to shower up and make it to work by noon. Now that my work starts at 7am, that would mean heading to the pool at 5am, which means a 4:45am wake up. I gotta say I’m not really diggin’ that. In fact, I haven’t done it yet!

I could just go to bed earlier, like 9 or 10pm so that I get my 7-8 hours of sleep, right? Wrong. How’s that saying go? “You don’t know what you got…”

One of the nice things about living here on this part of the base with a bunch of “snake eaters” (SF guys) is that they like to shoot weapons a lot, so we have a really nice range. I’ve enjoyed it myself about once a week since I’ve been here. The range is only about 200 yards away from where I live (remember my CHU?). The military was nice enough to give me an M9 pistol and an M4 rifle to use while I’m here, and I can shoot up all the ammo that I want. Sweet! Here’s the thing: the range is open every day from… you guessed it… noon to midnight. So I was never actually trying to sleep when the range was open. The fact is, because of the heat, most people shoot late in the evening, between about 9pm and midnight.

That was a long story just to say that if I lay my head down to try to sleep at 9pm, I have to figure out how to actually get to sleep with gun battles (so it seems) raging 200 yards away. Not the best of sleeping conditions. Maybe I’ll get used to it, since once upon a time I managed to learn to sleep two decks below the catapults on an aircraft carrier!

By the way, I do enjoy going to the range, and I like keeping my skills up. I don’t pretend to be a sharpshooter, but I’m no slouch either. Something about staying proficient using weapons makes it feel a bit more like a military deployment. I always say, though, if the intel guy (me) is using his weapon in an actual combat situation, something has gone horribly wrong! Especially considering that I’m surrounded by SF guys. But, I don’t want to be the idiot who dies because he doesn’t know how to load a magazine in his weapon. I always hate that scene in “Saving Private Ryan” where the linguist cowards out. Why did it have to be the linguist?? In a combat situation (I hope I’ll never have to be in) I would like to be an asset to the team, not baggage.

My weight room adventures are coming along. I’m not breaking any weight lifting world records, but I feel good. There are some guys that push up a lot of weight in there; very serious lifters. I’m still content to do a bit here and there just to stay in shape and improve my endurance a little bit. I used to wear my Ipod there all the time, and then I noticed that everyone else did, too. Do you know how hard it is to socialize when everyone has headphones on? So I burned a few CDs of music that I like and “donated” them to the gym. So now I walk in, put in my CDs, and listen to it on the sound system, sans headphones. Nobody complains… they all have their headphones on!

I just finished a book called “Honeymoon With My Brother”. It was really enjoyable. It’s a true story, written by a guy who was dumped at the altar by his bride-to-be. As a result, he goes on his non-refundable honeymoon with his brother, they both get the bug for traveling, quit their jobs, and travel the entire world over a two-year period! Lots of introspection about relationships, and serious observations about other cultures, countries, and people from around the world. It’s worth the read. Next on tap: “All About the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can’t Save Black America”. Probably seems off the wall, but being a 39-year-old small town Iowa Caucasian, I’ve always loved hip-hop and I’m always interested in seeing how it affects our culture. I have to say that Hip-Hop MUSIC started going down hill right around 1992 (notice the quote title for this blog); I love the late 80’s stuff, but that’s another topic for another day I think.

Marc

"A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all" - Rita Mae Brown

Uninspired.

I guess I've realized that there is a direct correlation between the number of opinions you have in life and the amount of news or information that you're exposed to on a daily basis.

July in Iraq is extremely dry. So am I.

I don't watch TV here. My internet connectivity is limited to the 30-45 minutes I spend talking with Jennifer on Skype each day, so I'm not scooting around the web reading the latest news. Stimuli is lacking. Not even a stupid billboard to make me laugh - just cement T-walls.

Routine can be a good thing because it helps the days click by. But the danger is that you end up feeling like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day" - no surprises, everything predictable, every day feels the same... and little inspiration.

I wish that I could say that I've been so busy fighting a war that I haven't had time to blog. That would be a lie. I've had good intentions of writing something for the last three weeks, but haven't quite found the kick in the pants to get it done. Today was no different, so I just decided to write about exactly what has kept me from writing.

I can't imagine writing a best-selling book and then signing a big book deal with a publisher for two or three more books. How terrifying! What if you only have one good book in you? What do you do if you are CONTRACTED to write and then you sit at your computer and have more of an inclination to play hearts or freecell than to write??

Lame, I know. You're probably reading this for some news from the front. Hmmm, let me see what I can muster up:

- Our chow hall is way too hot. It's a good weightloss plan: sweat while you eat!

- Despite the 30 June deadline, nothing really has changed for me and my job here.

- We had a nasty dust storm for about 4 or 5 days. I heard (have no idea about the source) that it was one of the worst Iraq has seen in a long time. For us it just meant that stuff stopped moving; no flights = no mail, no fruit, no vegetables, etc.

- I ran a 6K race on the 4th of July in 30 minutes. Why a 6K? It's the distance of the normal run route along the flight line. Also, someone figured out that it's the 6th year of OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom). Too bad that Independence Day wasn't on the 6th this year! I did get a tshirt out of the deal, which wasn't really a deal, since I had to pay $10 for it. They could have stayed with the theme and only charged me $6.

Yeah, that's about all I've got. I hope that your life is more exciting than mine at the moment. I have everything I need here, but if you'd like to send me something, I'll take a big box of inspiration. I need it.