I got the school seat I applied for. I leave on January 3rd for two months and I also get the $15,000 bonus.
No deployment for MG.

That is all.


DISMISSED!

"Marine,

During October 2008, you attended or were excused from attending an Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) mobilization screening in Kansas City, MO. The purpose of this screening was to determine your eligibility for involuntary recall to active duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As you may recall, there had been a significant reduction in the Gaining Force Commanders’ (GFC) manpower shortfalls and it was explained that some Marines would receive orders and others would not.

Our records indicate that you were found qualified for involuntary recall and WILL be receiving orders for activation. It is anticipated that your orders will be issued in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, you are encouraged to begin or continue preparing for your upcoming mobilization.

Let me re-iterate, that you have been found qualified and WILL be receiving involuntary activation orders. If you have not received your copy of orders by 01 January 2009, you need to contact MOBCOM immediately."


Oh Joy!

[[Update]]

I applied for a school seat to get a new MOS with the active reserve. If that happens, then I don't get recalled to anywhere. I join the reserve unit here in town, and the best thing of all is that I get a $15,000 bonus.

So here are my two choices:

Involuntary recall

• 100% chance that I will be deployed and get shot at
  
• Don't get paid at all until deployment
  
• No bonus
  

Join Active reserve

• (less than)100% chance of deployment
  
• Monthly pay (~$300) for weekend drills
  
• $15,000 bonus
  

The downside of the Reserves? I'm qualified to have literally any job in the entire military, but the unit in town here is bulk fuel. LAME.

I find out Monday if I'm approved for the school seat in three weeks. Preliminary word is "yes".

And the word is that a week ago, they wanted 3,000 Marines to deploy. When I got in this morning, they said that they only wanted Gunnery Sergeants - E7 and up. Then I heard from another guy (That was in my battallion while I was in) that the Commandant said two days ago that they wanted only 300 marines.

So, knowing the Marine Corps, I'm not going to believe anything. The way it works is this: Nothing is official until it actually happens. Not before it happens, until it's actually happening at that moment, and even then, it might change.

I'll update this as I know more. Supposedly if we're getting orders, we'll get them tomorrow.

[EDIT] To clarify: I don't know whether or not I'll be getting any orders at all. I'll find out tomorrow.
And I keep seeing guys that I was stationed with, too, so that's kind of funny.

[UPDATE]

This is horeshit. Those that don't volunteer to go will know within five months if they're going to be recalled. Those that volunteer will know within five months if they're going to be recalled.

Asshats better pay for my flight.

[UPDATE]

Well, the full story here is that I was already trying to get into the active reserves to do a 30-day assignment to Hawai'i. I have a brother who lives there, so it would be a sweet gig.
I talked with my prior service recruiter after I got the letter, and he told me that by "you will be screened for eligibility" it means "unless there's a valid reason you can't, you will."

And then he went on to tell me that since there's no reason I shouldn't be accepted for the assignment to Hawai'i, then that trumps the mobilization.

We'll see.

I was watching a great video just now (http://www.videosift.com/video/T-Shirt-lettering-spells-out-the-US-constitution-preamble), and it got me to thinking about how our current government just doesn't work like it used to.

And then I was reminded of a quote from Mr. Lincolon: "Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

That leads me to think of how a computer should be formatted every now and then, and a fresh Operating System installed - this insures that when things get corrupt or the system breaks down, we can start fresh with exatcly what we want and what we were supposed to have.


I think it's about time to say:

Format G:

"WARNING, ALL BULLSHIT ON NON-REMOVABLE GOVERNMENT G: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with format?"

Y

So when I moved into my buddy's house last December, I had a furnished basement to myself. There was a bathroom down there and I found some old tattered Playboys from 1999 or earlier under the sink, graciously left by his old roommate. As I was flipping though them, I found gems like these -

Laptops for $6,000 with a 266 Mhz processor and a portable DVD player for $1,300 and a plasma tv that you would buy for $2,000 today, but back then was more expensive than a Ducati. Now you can watch any of the 1,500 movies available on DVD in style!


Click the pictures for higher (readable) resolution.

I've already completed three quarters of my cross country trip. It ends tomorrow, where I probably won't have internet access immediately.


Don't have too much fun without me.

In response to criticism of his "Celebrity" ad, all the the McCain Campaign had to say is that it was "entertaining".

What people need to be asking McCain is this:

Americans are losing their very homes due to the economic crisis. Oil is at an all time high, and we have young men and women DYING in a war that the majority of the country does not want to be in, and all your campaign can do is crack jokes?

Edit

Also, I love how they say right in the commercial that he's the biggest celebrity in the world.
Think about that for a second.

The world hates America. We all know this. Yet they are all in favor of this man becoming America's president. The McCain campaign is eager to tell you the world loves him....



What a jackass.

So yeah. Gotta make that trip by m'self August 9th. I'm moving to Tempe, AZ - and I'm sure as shit gonna be miserable as soon as that heat hits me.
Not really looking forward to making the trip, but I can't wait to get there for a few different reasons.

I'm kinda nervous about moving to an area that's completely new to me - I've never even been to Arizona before. And it's a huge city (metro area = 4.5 million) Whereas the biggest city I've lived in is about 60,000 people.
At least I have family in Maryland and Misouri to stop at so I won't have to get a hotel. I'm kinda screwed from there though. I've considered taking a cot and sleeping on the side of the road somewhere near/in Amarillo, TX so I don't have to fork out a ton of cash for a hotel. But it will probably be hot as hell.

I guess I'll see what happens then.

http://www.uchu-country.com/works/hairhats.html

Click the individual girls.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Yes, yes. You guys already knew that.


I've recently begun making lengthy trips on my bike (30-40 miles, though 40 makes my ass hurt, so I'll stick to 30) as a way to get some exercise and stay in shape. Being that I don't feel like sweating my ass off, I don't bring any food. I've no place to put it without carrying a backpack, and since I already have 3 liters of water on my back, I don't feel much like carrying more. I'm already seating enough.

Anyway, I usually make it a point to stop at a convince store to pick up a granola bar and a powerade to replace lost sodium and electrolytes. (I know, not typically needed for training durations of less than five hours, but I think 4 hours is good enough.)
So when I walk into the store to find something relatively healthy, it's damn near impossible. Everything is seemingly made by Little Debbie, who can not possibly be little when you look at the caloric and fat content of her shit.

I'm in no way a health nut, but ever since I started eating better and exercising more, I've felt much better. It's just disgusting to know that my options for a quick snack are mostly limited to candy bars or nacho-flavored calories. Today I found some cereal bars, that were so ignored that they were dusty. Gross.


And besides that, there's the ridiculous vehicles that people are driving. Like the woman that I saw driving the Hummer solo. I hope she has fun at the pump. Watching my brother's submission of "Who killed the electric car?", I heard one person say something to the effect of "Americans don't want to be asked to live like Europeans!" - And I thought to myself - why not? Heaven forbid we use less than 80% of the world's energy. Heaven forbid we drive a vehicle that gets more than 11 miles to the gallon. Heaven forbid we turn the thermostat down 5 degrees and put on a sweater.


I think I'm gonna go live in Europe instead.

On just about every page you see a little ad they have for "The landlord" that claims that 462,000,000 Americans still haven't seen it- which is odd, because according to the U.S. census, the population is hardly over 300,000,000.

Literary gold like this:
"if i was living in a house wif ghost ill fukin pak my shit an fuk off lol lol even if d house was givn to me 4 free fukin livn in freaky shit pak ur shit an leav"

Yes, that is verbatim.

After reading the comments from the users that participated in the Great videosift outing, I came to realize I'm apparently one of very few blue collars here. So I just whipped up a quick poll to get a better idea of the user base.

Any ideas?

So far I've looked at the 2009 Corolla XRS - it's a nice car, but at $23,000 it's a bit spendy. The Scion tC is pretty sweet, but there's no trunk space and mileage isn't that good, especially from a car as small as that one. Hell, I drive a 3,500lb Volvo S60 right now, and I get 25/33 miles to the gallon - all the while I get 208 horse power and 250 ft-lbs of torque thanks to it's 5-cyl engine.

It sucks that the tC is so cheap, because it offers all kinds of cool shit for such a low price ($18k) - but no trunk space.

Suggestions anyone?

My sifting will sure be lacking over the next week, for I will be spending my time in the beautiful state of Alaska. When I get back I have to catch up on that HUGE "Highbrow antics of a cat" thread - seemed to be a lot going on there.

Until then, I'm off to steal Deathcow's telescope.

Dear fellow driver,

I know that operating a motor vehicle can be difficult sometimes. And given that we now have the added distractions of your radio, cellphone, and your obnoxiously fat wife. I can understand if you didn't see me that one time you looked behind you before you backed out of your driveway. It's probably why you said that I wasn't there a minute ago, but all the sudden your bumper is nestled inside my quarterpanel.
So, I make only one humble request to you, and to all other drivers on the road:

The next time that you decide to look once before you back up, and not at all after that while backing up, please just go all out and total my car.

Please understand that it is nothing but an inconvenience to me when you damage my car, but nothing else. Because if you totaled it, I would be able to get a rental while I looked for a new vehicle, which I wouldn't mind having. But no, you ignorant driver. You insist on making me have to call the police, the company who's truck you were driving, the insurance company, the body shop and the rental shop so I can get my car fixed. And what do I get out of all that work? Nothing. I just get my car fixed.


THE STORY