I'm offficially enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.  Finally. Again.

I leave for Basic Training at MCRD, San Diego on the 23rd.  I'm  in terrible shape physically, but "I'm not dead yet!  I'm getting better!"  I can't get past 10 pull-ups and am still sucking wind after the first mile and a half of my runs, but my times are getting faster ( Read more... )

A little less than a year ago (April 20th, 2004), I was sitting in the Military Entrance Processing Station 10 minutes away from shipping out to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California- boot camp. At the Moment of Truth, I decided I could not live with the hypocrisy of lying about my medical history to get into a Corps whose code ( Read more... )

Oh my, these are ridiculously cute

kitties  (takes about 30 sec. to load) .

Thanks to cagekitten  for the link.  This page made even me smile. It reminded me of a family story...

When my grandfather returned from serving in WWII he was a hardened Marine with little room for nonsense of any kind. When the family cat had a litter of kittens, he was all ( Read more... )

A friend was discussing the history of Christmas and many of the non-Christian elements of the celebration.  In reflecting on that, I composed a brief summary for him:

When Christianity began to gain popularity in Rome, its primary Roman competitor was the cult of Sol Invictus (the inconquerable sun). This was the favored religion of nearly all ( Read more... )

Personally, I am still looking for a balance of orthodoxy and evangelicalism (not that evangelicals are heretics- though some are). Orthodox/high church worship can almost begin to turn to itself- the tradition and ceremony becomes as important as the object of worship; and it seems to me, from the Gospels, that more ritualism is not what Christ ( Read more... )

Perhaps the primary feature that kept me from a wholesale acceptance of Celtic Christianity was its ridiculous "beautiful"ness. Everything was "beauty, beauty, beauty" and I tend to see the world as really corrupt and depraved from what G** intended it to be. Even in Nature (the Fall involved all Creation). I am overwhelmed by the magnificence of ( Read more... )

I am in mad, deep, cavernous, OCD, heart-crushing love with Ben Folds' music.  I have been a fan since my best friend/college roommate introduced me to Ben Folds Five my sophomore year.  But I've been rediscovering him.  I am impressed and addicted.  His songs make me remember.  They make me feel.  They make me feel the very beginning ballpoint of ( Read more... )

I am officially technology retarded.  Everyone on lj has these cool little flashing multi-frame animated icons they've made and I don't have the first clue how to even begin.  I know what I want to do, but don't know.  Maybe some smarty pants will read this and have compassion on a poor invalid.

My idea:

Here's the original picture:


( Read more... )

I edited this from something an online friend posted at an LEO site.  A little rant, a little humor, a little advice.

Memo from Law Enforcement Officers to the General Public:

ON CALLING THE POLICE:

·        Regarding our investigation of your loss:  “CSI” is a TV show. There is no machine into which we can drop an eyelash and come up with ( Read more... )

After professing his atheism, a fellow stated ( Read more... )