It’s pretty sad when I just happen to stop in and post over here once a month whether I need to or not. I had a couple of crime stories I need to write about today but I just decided I needed to stop in here instead. No real reason for it. I don’t have any invective-filled rants or anything disgusting to post. Too fucking early for that anyway. Just getting ready for work work here shortly and I felt like rambling.
So ramble I will…
I start my ten day vacation on Monday and it’s much-needed and most likely almost as much-deserved. I’ve been working my as off as usual and am looking forward to the time off.
The last couple of summer vacations we’ve taken have been fairly busy. Last year of course was seven days spent at Disney World (which we returned to this April for a few days less) and was a week’s worth of 18 hour days. By day six I was so fucking exhausted that we decided to just leave a little early. None of that this vacation, although it will involve a little bit of driving.
Bright and early Monday morning we’re driving to Hilton Head where I’ve reserved a room (actually more of a suite) at a bed and breakfast on the south side of the Island. It’s about a five hour drive and then two days of fun not quite in the sun. According to the weather it’ll be stormy while we are there so me may end up doing more hanging out and shopping than actual beach time.
Wednesday the wife has to catch a cab for Savannah where she will fly back to Atlanta and then on to Texas to meet up with some blown-eyes. There girls and I are going to continue our adventure and head up into the Mountains. I’m taking them to the Cherokee Indian Reservation in NC for a couple of nights and then on to Gatlinburg and Chattanooga. I don’t have any definitive plans for those four days right now. Just mainly playing it by ear although I do have some ideas. We may stop in on a certain straight white guy and his lovely wife if they are around. They are pretty much on the way from Gatlinburg to Chattanooga and I would hate to bypass them without at least stopping in for a chat.
Well…there is more I need to catch up on here but it’s about ten of six and I need to be in the shower and leaving for work about ten minutes ago. Perhaps this afternoon I won’t be so neglectful and will stop back in.
Wednesday Hero: Corporal Reynold Armand
Cpl. Reynold Armand
21 years old from Rochester, New York
2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force
August 7, 2007
Reynold Armand didn’t want to wait until he turned 18 to join the Marines. He persuaded his adoptive mother to sign papers allowing him to sign up a year early.
“I’m very proud of him,” said his father, Carl Armand. “When he was home, he gave no sign of being afraid.” Armand didn’t speak much about his experiences in Iraq, according to family members, saying only that most Iraqi civilians he encountered were very nice.
“We used to send him a lot of candy,” said his mother, Alma Armand. “He would pass it out.”
Manny Rodriguez, 21, of Rochester met Armand five years ago at New Day Church in Rochester, where both young men were members of the youth group. “He was such an amazing all-around person. He was so easy and comfortable to be around. He liked people for who they are.”
No definitive report could be found on how Cpl. Armand died. Some report that he was killed when shot and others report that he was killed by an IED that exploded near his vehicle in Balad, Iraq.
All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com with help from Kathi
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
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Wednesday Hero: Force Protection Team
Force Protection Team
Members of the force protection team at Camp Eggars, Afghanistan, assess damage resulting from an explosion near the gate. A vehicle-born improvised explosive device exploded near the German Embassy and a U.S. base. Eliminating threats such as the VBIED is the focus of Army’s 3rd Counter-IED Conference that was scheduled July 28-30.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Happy Father's Day
Just a quick post before I go to work this morning because it’s not as if I’ve been overflowing with news updates the last couple of weeks…Hope everyone has a great Father’s Day. Since I was off yesterday the kids made me breakfast and my parents drove out here for supper. We’ve gotten used to changing holidays to whatever day I happen to be off.
Anyway, here are a few links to some not so nice dads out there. Someone should have thrown a little chlorine into the gene pool before they were conceived.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter aka Clark Rockefeller was found guilty a week ago of kidnapping his daughter and, oh by the way, may have murdered a couple in California back in the ’80s.
Joshua Sawyer and his wife Brandy basically beat to death his five-year-old daughter Carly.
Ricardo Luna of Austin, Texas kicked his two-year-old daughter in the face after an argument with his girlfriend, the douchebag.
Jesus Martinez pleaded guilty last week to punching his 7-month-old son in the belly which caused fatal injuries back in 2007.
Here’s to hoping that everyone has an uneventful and crime-free Father’s Day.
Wednesday Hero: Navy Seal Marc A. Lee
Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class (SEAL) Marc A. Lee
28 years old from Hood River, Oregon
Navy SEAL
August 2, 2006
“Marc was amazing. He was my best friend, my love,” his widow, Maya, said.
Petty Officer Marc A. Lee joined the Navy in 2001 and became an AO after completing Naval Air Technical Training. Later that year he attempted to complete the grueling BUD/S program but caught pneumonia and had to drop out. He tried again in 2004 and completed the course.
On August 2, 2006, Marc A. Lee became the first SEAL to be killed in combat in Iraq when he was fatally wounded in a firefight in Ramadi, Iraq. The following is from the award citation:
“During the operation, one element member was wounded by enemy fire. The element completed the casualty evacuation, regrouped and returned onto the battlefield to continue the fight. Petty Officer Lee and his SEAL element maneuvered to assault an unidentified enemy position. He, his teammates, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks engaged enemy positions with suppressive fire from an adjacent building to the north.
“To protect the lives of his teammates, he fearlessly exposed himself to direct enemy fire by engaging the enemy with his machine gun and was mortally wounded in the engagement. His brave actions in the line of fire saved the lives of many of his teammates”
“It was so like Marc to give up his life to save his friends,” his mother, Debbie Lee, told the Hood River News. “I am so proud of him. He is my hero.”
Petty Officer Lee was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star with combat “V” for his actions in Iraq during his team’s combat tour and the Purple Heart medal.
All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Wednesday Hero: The USS George H. W. Bush
USS George H.W. Bush
Sailors assigned to the Air Department of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) are silhouetted against the setting sun at the conclusion of flight operations. George H.W. is underway in the Atlantic Ocean conducting flight deck certifications.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Wednesday Hero: Sgt Christian E Bueno-Galdos
Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos
25 years old from Paterson, New Jersey
3rd Battalion, 66th
Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade
May 11, 2009
On Mother’s Day, Eugenia Gardos made a tabletop shrine to her recently deceased mother — surrounding her photograph with silk roses, a small white rosary cross, two votive candles and a prayer card of Senor de los Milagros, the patron saint of Peru.
The next day, May 11, she added her son’s picture to the shrine for the dead.
Sgt. Gardos was killed along with five fellow servicemen; Army Spc. Jacob D. Barton, Army Maj. Matthew P. Houseal, Navy Cmdr. Charles K. Springle and Army Pfc. Michael E. Yates Jr. in the attack on Camp Liberty.
“The first time he left for Iraq, when they would read the lists of the dead on the news, we used to hold our breath, praying he wasn’t on it,” his mother said. “I don’t understand how he could have died this way. I just don’t understand it.”
Sgt. Galdos had emigrated with his family from Mollendo, Peru, as a child and had been a U.S. citizen since high school. His mother, two older brothers and older sister recalled how he used to hand out candy to children in Iraq the same way he always did in Paterson — never making a trip to the corner bodega without a group of neighborhood children tailing behind, knowing he would buy them candy or a soda.
“We were all here at home,” Carlos Bueno, Sgt. Galdos’s father, said. “I was getting ready to go to bed when I heard screaming downstairs. I ran downstairs and everyone had thrown themselves to the floor, thrashing around, screaming.”
Bueno said he does not feel bitterness toward the man accused in the shootings, whom he described as “mentally ill.”
“We want people to know we’re proud of our son’s Army, but if my son had died in war we would be able to handle that,” he said. “But not to die in this manner.”
All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Wednesday Hero: Specialist Robert Hamilton
I’ve been a bit busy this week, so this is a couple of days late.
Spc. Robert Hamilton
Spc. Robert Hamilton, from Corpus Christi, Texas, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, prepares to bandage the thumb of an Iraqi boy in Ula Market in Sadr City, April 19.
The boy cut his thumb while preparing meat at a local butcher shop.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Shadowscope Available on the Kindle
Don’t know if it makes any difference to any folks, but Shadowscope is now available on the Amazon Kindle. The product page is here for the blog although I don’t think it will be available for 24-48 hours. Also if you weren’t aware, I also have had a mobile version of the site here. I set it up last year mainly so I could access it from my Blackberry or my wife’s iTouch. Eventually I will enable comments on the mobile site if there is enough demand.
Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Movie
OMFG. If you are familiar with The Onion then you know exactly what to expect from the video. If not, then you need to go visit.
Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable’