to live in a box

E-mail sent out at 2pm:

Hi everyone,

As you may know, the Firm is planning on upgrading to the Office 2007 suite of applications next year (and presumably Adobe Acrobat 8). I sent an e-mail to the Firm's new CIO, suggesting that the Firm purchase licenses for two plug-ins for MS Word and Adobe that would enable users to... etc, etc.

My Response 3pm:

How about adding an Easy Button. That would be awesome.

Response to my Response:

Can you give me a description and/or weblink? I've never used an Easy Button (I'm assuming it automatically redacts?)

My Response:

Oh, sorry. It was a joke, in reference to those Staple's commercials. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

wow

Day 1

What a wierd dream. Sorry I have not been updating. It's like having an accident on a construction site, and then you have have to reset your sign. 0 days with no accidents. So this is Day one again, but I'll be sure to pick up posting regularly after the holidays since I'll have my new and niffty Macbook and I won't have to sacrifice billable hours to type up a post. I hate my profession.

 

So about my dream, and I hate posting about my dreams because they really are senseless and no one really cares. I actually find it annoying when people tell me there dreams, just to tell me their dream, not that anything was particularly interesting about them. Mine was particularly interesting, at least I thought so.

 

Actually, now that I think about it, there wasn't much interesting about it except I was a ghost hunter visiting Eastern Europe on the hunt for evil spirits. Then I went into a pub and had a beer wit hserveral of my friends, one of them who turned out to be an evil spirit I was suppose to hunt. The dream tails off to where I'm playing soccer in a fierce competition with lots of trash talk.

 

Interpretation of dream: 1. I miss competitive sports; 2. I secretly want to be a ghost hunter.

I've lost it

It's 7am, I'm dancing in my office to Offspring, part of my Smashing Pumpkin's Pandora playlist www.pandora.com.

 

I've woke up at 4:30am to study for chemistry.

 

One week to Thanksgiving, one week to Thanksgiving, one week

Relief?

My work inbox looked like it exploded. I worked from 8:30 AM to 9 PM yesterday. I call those 3 a days, because it's usually so busy that I have to sit at my desk and eat all three of my meals in the office.

 

Today isn't looking much better. The relief sets in when I know I can't stay past 5 PM, because I have to go to my Biology Lab. Don't know if that's any reason for relief either.

 

Although, today I do get to have lunch with the old crew, the peeps I use to work with. That should be awesome.

 

Not much else going on. I'm pretty excited about Thanksgiving, which reminds me - order Cake Love's cup cakes.

Morning Radio

I was listening to morning radio this morning. In Boston, we have WBZ which is fantastic. It's straight news, weather and sports. In DC it still haven't found the right station. Hot 99.5 FM, the pop music station was on at the gym. Topics included - Furries-people who like to have sex with mascot costumes on, whether or not ambidexitrous people are also bisexuals, and Kanye West's mother (my respects).

Then while getting dressed I had what I thought was the Washington Post Station on. It wasn't. I realized this when the topic of human cloning came up and the caller and host debated the merits of the Billy Crystal movie, 'Multiplicity, for about 5 minutes. On second thought, maybe it was the Washington Post Station. CNN's channel was a little more interesting. The topic was 'Should religious organizations remain tax exempt?' No opinion there except there are a lot of scam churches out there taking advantage of the dumb and poor…hmm Scientology.

Good news. I got an A on my Bio exam last week. Just have to bear down for the last few weeks of the semester for finals and the Chem exam I have this Saturday. Work is getting pretty busy too, and that dry throat is starting to get to me.

 

Any suggestions on AM radio stations?

Happy Veteran's Day

Don't have much to write about today. I got an e-mail this morning from a Fraternity Brother who is stationed in Iraq.

I'll leave you with that, but with a little rant. Every politician out there is saying support your troops.

Well, how about making some sacrifices to support your troops?

Those soldiers coming back and to war shouldn't have to worry about not getting the proper medical treatment, proper equipment and rehabilatative support.

 

 

All, hope this e-mail finds everyone doing well.  Not sure where I
left off, so hopefully this brings everyone up to speed.  I have
finally figured out how to send pictures, but unfortunately now I am a
bit too busy to do it.  Maybe in a couple days...

My platoon is moving out to COP Ellis tomorrow morning.  Finally.
Looking forward to getting there and starting our mission.  Time
hasn't necessarily been dragging, but it will start going much faster
once we get busy.

I am complete with my "Right-seat" rides, for those in the military.
For the majority of everyone else, that means I'm done driving around
in the backseat of my counterpart's HMMWV reconning my AO and the
routes in and out of Baghdad, barely being able to see out of a tiny
porthole of a 6 inch thick window.  So far I have seen most of the
FOBs and camps on BIAP (Baghdad International Airport)...man do those
people live the sweet life (ahem...Kathleen, Katrina, Jeff).  You
wouldn't even know you were in a warzone in those places...The east
side of BIAP used to be some of Sadaam's palaces or something and they
have these great sculptured resevoirs...anyway...

I have been all over my AO, known as Radwaniyah (also known as West
Rashid, Ghartan, southwest Baghdad, etc.)  If you google earth
Baghdad, look for the airport on the western side of the city (its
huge you cant miss it.  Then draw a line due south, and another
southeast...you'll notice it forms a rough triangle of
farmland...thats my AO...its rather large.

Today, we ran the gauntlet through most of Baghdad taking some of the
major routes (for those who have been here you know them) that lead in
and out of the International Zone.  In case anyone was wondering,
there are no traffic laws in Iraq that I have been able to discern as
of yet.  Especially for Coalition Forces... we stopped in the
eastbound lane because of a suspicious object in the road, called it
up to EOD, they came, and then we crossed the median and kept
travelling east in the westbound lane against traffic.  The Iraqis
just dive over to the right side of the road and stop to let your
patrol pass by.  Its like being Magneto from X-men and just tossing
anything metallic away from you.

The International Zone is the super, duper secure sector of Baghdad
also known as the Green Zone (because its the only "safe" place in
Baghdad and you have to travel inside it at a "green" level - weapons
cleared).  Its the main downtown part of the city that houses the US
Embassy, a bunch of Sadaam's old palaces, his parade grounds with the
large arched sabres, etc, etc, etc.  When I said that BIAP was nice, I
was partly lying b/c the IZ is where its at.  The U.S. embassy had the
nicest manicured lawn and gardens I have seen in a very long time, and
right next door was "Freedom Rest" (a place for soldiers to go for a
local R&R) with its 3 LARGE swimming pools.  Sadly for the guys from
1-18's RECON platoon, the embassy was closed for a holiday today.  I
guess someone forgot to tell the rest of us...and the insurgents.

I'll close it up with this...I finally figured out what to ask for in
those care packages.  First of all, my church youthgroup sent
homebaked cookies and those guys ate up 3 boxes worth in a matter of
hours.  They loved them and it made them all smile even though they
like to act like a bunch of tough guys.  I think since we will be
living out at the COP it would be great if you all could send simple
things like magazines (Maxims, US News and world report, sports
illustrated, etc.) and some papers from wherever you are (i have guys
from all over the states).  Also, candy is always nice.  Partly for us
and partly because they like tossing it out to the Iraqi children (who
like pigeons in NYC are trained to expect it everytime your patrol
goes by).  Anything else just use your imagination, we are living 60
dudes in a small compound with 2 houses and maybe only 1 or 2 days
back at FOB Falcon per 2 weeks.  Anything that can make a place feel
like home or a snack or something to remind them of something other
than Iraq.  Thats it.  Long email and gotta run.

Best,
Paul
 

Dog tendancies

An easy weekend.

 

We took Amelia the cat around with us on errands this morning. She's a sweet cat. B is getting her use to car trips for the hour and a half drive to Delaware this Thanksgving. I think we treat her more as a baby then a cat.

 

Sadly, the truth is I wish Amelia was a dog, and she does have dog tendacies. I played fetch with her on Saturday, but in reality she was playing catch with me. For some reason, the cat likes crumpled paper. So I crumpled up a piece of my chemistry lab and sent it down the hallway. Amelia not only chased it down, but she brought it back to me in her mouth looking for another throw.

 

So while on errands we brought her into Pet Smart with us (in her pet carrier, of course) and picked out a harness and leash for her. Yes, a harness and leash for a cat.

 

Yep.

Busy Days

I almost forgot about the blog today. Last night I went out after work to a birthday party at Buffalo Billards for a co-worker and friend of B. Great guy who we'll call Sal. He turned 29 and was out looking for a hurting, meaning it was his one night to get shitty and not feel bad about it. I don't know, but I think I must be old because I almost wanted to go home and take a nap instead of going to a bar to socialize. But I had a good time. 

 

Saddle up to the bar, partner. The corner bartender is slow, thinks he's god to all the revelers. I move to the main bar, whose tall, amazonian blonde is a capitalist. Get him a drink and get him to pay quick. You win, amazon. Blue moon beer with an orange slice in pint. Talk football with the guys. Hey friend, how is so and so. Give me a hug, I really think you are a great guy. Girl looks tired. Stranger is alsready singing to Springsteen.

 

I'm hanging out and having a retreat night with B tonight after a long day of chemistry.

Conversations with Abe

Happy Friday everybody. I have a bobble head Abraham Lincoln sitting on my desk. It's from the National's V. Mets game back during the summer. It's actually really nice. I use him as my moral guidance throughout the work day.

Me: Shit, I'm never going to get this all done.
Abe: Maybe you should stop browsing facebook every hour for 15 minutes.
Me: Oh.
Abe: And on that topic, maybe you should clean up your desk. It looks like it threw up and I'm rather bothered by it.
Me: Oh, yeah. I'll do it.
Abe: Now.
Me: Yes, Mr. President.
(I bobble Abe's head)
Abe: Goddahahahauhmmit!

Early Riser

"Woke up this morning, got yourself a gun"

My phone rings. When I got my new phone, I thought it was a cool alarm tone to wake up to. I think popular tv show themes are the way to go with ring tones. You get the good thirty-seconds of play that feels complete because that's all they play during the introductions anyway.

It's cold.

5:45am - Still dark and wishing I could go back to dreaming about playing outfield for the Red Sox.

29 degrees.

Brush my teeth, put in my contacts, grab my work/gym/school bag, and bike to the gym.

5:45am use to by 6:30am in high school, 7:30am in college if I had an 8am class, 7:45am while I worked at TPW.

I hope 5:45am is as early as it gets.

Hi

I seemed to have forgotten how to write. It's like a weekend where I forget to call my parents and I try to avoid calling them the next weekend out of the guilt brought on by my Mom and Dad saying, "so, where have you been?"

I've learned that the term for such a behavior is "avoidance behavior," one of the many terms I'm learning while taking Introduction to Psychology. I'm also taking Biology 107 for majors, and Chemistry 101.

Oh, and I have a new job at a bigger law firm. I work for their corporate group doing the simular type stuff as before. I still make it to the gym, about twice a week at 6am and sometimes on Sundays.

I have another new goal, though - to write for 180 consecutive days. Mark it down. This is post one. This 95 year old Grandmother from Spain inspired me http://amis95.blogspot.com/

I changed the title of my blog. Synchonicity was good, but I found another blog with it as its title and it didn't sound so good anymore, like finally getting a cool shirt, but it's not cool anymore cause everyone has it. So In Motion is what I'm in, constant movement. It's a scientific law or something like that.

Congrats Red Sox!