Friday Musings

It's frickin' cold here today.  Woke up this morning and it was 25 degrees outside.  You think I'm going out for a jog in that?  Think again.  The afternoon wasn't much better - around 50, maybe, and windy.  And it's supposed to be like that for, oh, days.  Looks like I might have to go use those damn cardio machines in the gym.  Yes, I'm a wuss, so sue me.  

Today is Friday, which means it's the Iraqi Saturday, meaning we don't have to go in to work, but of course we do, because what else is there?  I thought I'd catch up on email and some background reading, but then it turned into Get Your House In Order Day, meaning I wasted hours getting ready to really go back to work this next week.

Had dinner tonight in the DFAC with my roommate, who's a State Department guy, and two of his friends.  Staties are an interesting breed, or at least the ones here are.  We wound up pitting various key Embassy officials against each other in imaginary Ultimate Cagefighting bouts.  "What about (person A) and (person B)?"

"Oh, B, definitely ... he has a long reach."

"Yeah, but A has that mean streak ... she'll go for the nuts and cut 'em off."

"You think she can get inside?  He's pretty quick himself."

"No question, she's so short that she'll just walk right in, knock his knees out, and castrate him."

Remember that these are senior Embassy officials we're fantasizing about.

One thing I've noticed is that there are a lot of political and policy wonks around here.  Well, duhh, it's the State Department!  Still, I find it odd to be sitting around a table, kicking back after work, listening to talk about how so-and-so's political analysis in the Foreign Affairs magazine was so spot-on.  Tonight, one of the Staties at our dinner table was telling us about how she had just read a 3-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson and couldn't wait for the fourth volume to come out.  Me, I'm thinking that I can't even make it through a Wikipedia entry about Johnson without dozing off.  And the other day,  a guy in my office was talking about how he's a big fan of Calvin Coolidge.  Yes!  You can't make this stuff up!  I'm working in Wonkistan!

But then I come back to my own little computer and go into Blogistan.  A couple of of my posts have been picked up by Thunder Run recently.  I went to see what it was all about and found that it's pretty cool.  It picks out entries from blogs from people scattered around Iraq and Afghanistan.  There are some people out here who are very good writers and really capture the essence of their lives.  I really enjoyed reading Afghanistan Shrugged, by a guy who's an embedded trainer with the Afghan army.  Another one is Embrace the Suck, by a young soldier in Afghanistan ... his new post "27 Hours in a Sardine Can" had me rolling.  Actually, all the blogs I read had something interesting to say.  Dunno why mine was included, but there it is.  So if you want an unfiltered look at military life over here, go take a look at any of them.

'Nuff said.  'Nite, all!