Christmas Packages for the Troops

Lubbock Marine Parents are at it again. It's that time of year. These fine folks are putting together countless care packages to send to forward deployed troops for Christmas. Stop by and lend a hand. Tell 'em I sent you, and you'll get a year's supply of sunrises for free!

Healthy Hobbies

Hobbies can be a healthy way to pass the time. I've enjoyed my hobbies in the past, and have adopted a new one.

I enjoy playing golf, and usually get out every weekend for a round. I also enjoy writing little tidbits to post on this blog. For my current college class, I had to build a website. Not a cheesey single page that merely demonstrates a few HTML features, but a real website with a purpose. I've discovered that I thoroughly enjoy it.

I secured web hosting for my site and registered my own domain. Nothing screams amateur like a URL of "mysite.someoneelseshost.com". Having a real host and domain presented some new challenges. Not only have I had to learn much more about HTML than I thought I would, but I've also had to learn how to use FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, to publish the content of my site. It's much easier than I anticipated.

Some FTP software allows you to edit your pages right on the host's server. I opted for a free FTP client, and it does not have that feature. I edit my pages on my laptop, and then upload the new version to the server with my FTP software. Since I've fallen in love with HTML Kit, I prefer it that way. HTML kit is an editor that allows me to edit my pages and, with a single click, preview them either in my browser, or right in HTML Kit. Pretty nifty. It also has some trouble-shooting tools that I've (thankfully) not had to use yet.

In a nutshell, building a website has been fun, and it has been a great learning experience. I fully intend to keep it going after the class ends. I recommend that others take a stab at it. Who knows what kind of things you can come up with when you let your imagination run free?

Busy Little Bee

Once again, I'm busy as can be. School, work, family, yadda yadda yadda.

School is coming down to crunch time, and I have a big pile of stuff to get accomplished over the next couple of weeks. I don't mind, but it doesn't leave much time for blogging. Quite honestly, there hasn't really been anything interesting going on here to blog about. I'm between stories at the moment, but I'm working on a doozie. My final project for my English class is a short story that I'm sure will amuse some, and anger others. Oh well; can't please 'em all.

Some of my millions of readers have already read a snippet of the story, but it has undergone a few major changes since I posted that tidbit. My Editor In Chief rejected my original plot idea and made a "polite suggestion" that I change it ("I hate it; it's well written, but a horrible story," was part of the conversation).

I was fond of the original plot idea, but fully understand that many people would not find it amusing at all. The current version may be gentler, but still has plenty of conflict to keep the imagination running on all eight cylinders.

Once the dust settles, I'll post the finished product and, perhaps, spend more time writing on here. Until then, the world will just have to do without frequent posts on Write On The Right.

If you are craving stories from military folks, you can always check out the latest fare at Writing Along. Tell 'em I sent you, and you'll get a free one year supply of air!

Happy Birthday Gene Autry

Today would be the 100th birthday of Gene Autry. He was not only a Cowboy, but an inspiration to many. He was the reason that Christopher made the "Cowboy Code" blogroll.

This is indeed a day worth thinking twice about.

Online University Courses

It never fails to amaze me how much some people will take advantage of a situation without realizing the consequences. My current term at the University of Maryland consists of all web-based courses. I was a bit aprehensive about the unfamiliar format, but it's actually very enjoyable. I have, however, been amazed at the fact that some of my "classmates" either cannot read, or simply don't care about their grades.

One key feature of these online courses is a feature called "conferences." Conferences are simply a spot on the website where the professor can post various topics and assignments, and the students can respond in writing. For my web development course, one of our recent assignments was to install and evaluate a web browser other than Internet Explorer or Netscape. I was eagerly awaiting the posting of the conference, so that I could pounce on Firefox. Firefox has been my browser of choice for a while now, and I am very pleased with it. Well, somebody else beat me to it.

Keep in mind that we were tasked with posting a written evaluation of a web browser...to me that would indicate a thorough description of features, pros, cons, etc. The individual that chose Firefox before I was able to posted an "evaluation" that read something like this: "Firefox is great. It's the best browser out there." That might not be verbatim, but it's pretty close. The "evaluation" was indeed two sentences that lacked any usable information. I was a bit irate when I read it. It's one thing to not be able to choose my favorite browser because I was too slow on the draw. It's another thing to lose out to someone that doesn't even provide an evaluation!

I posted a response to that individual's comment that actually consisted of an evaluation of Firefox, and I followed the spirit of the assignment by posting my own evaluation of an entirely different browser (see my last post).

Not only did that one individual ignore the parameters of the assignment, but the majority of my classmates did as well. Instead of everyone evaluating a different browser, most chose to simply post their own evaluation of Firefox...WTF? A couple of people were bold enough to cut and paste the description of the browser from the Mozilla website. I could have sworn that that was plagarism, but I could be wrong.

In a nutshell, these people either do not care about their grades, or can't manage to comprehend verbiage as complex as "each student will evaluate a different browser." Oh well. They're making my performance stand out in a positive way. Perhaps they'll keep it up for the duration of the class, but I hope not (for their sake).

SeaMonkey

As part of a class assignment, I had to try out a web browser other than Internet Explorer, and write an evaluation of it. I was going to use Firefox, since that's what I'm used to, but somebody beat me to it. Instead, I tried SeaMonkey. I'm glad that I did.

SeaMonkey has many features that are similar to Firefox, such as tabbed browsing, popup blocker control, and enhanced security, but the overall interface is much simpler, and it speeds up the loading of web content immensely.

I had planned on playing around with it long enough to "evaluate" it, but I think I might stick with it. You can click on the link above to check it out. It downloaded fast, installed easily, and I haven't had a problem with it yet.

Typhoon!

You'd better watch out,

You'd better not cry.

You'd better not pout,

I'm telling you why;

Typhoon Nari's coming to town...

Yep; another typhoon is a comin'. This one is a baby compared to the last one, but paper airplanes will certainly be in order...

You can keep an eye on it at Typhoon 2000.

UPDATE: The storm passed a bit south of us, and didn't amount to much. We had tropical storm conditions that night, but the storm had cleared out by morning. Quite a disappointment. Oh well, no cleanup to be done.

Nobody Likes a Quitter

I detest quitters. Nothing gets my blood boiling more than hearing a 19 year old young man or woman tell me that they "can't" while on a PT run. During my time in this gun club, I've witnessed just about every variation of quitting that you can imagine. One of my least favorites is a young man or woman falling behind during a PT run. Do they think that they're fooling anyone?

More often than not, those that fall behind during a run are simply quitting. They experience a bit of discomfort or fatigue, and they choose to slow down. With a bit of "motivation," they usually speed up. In other words, they were quite capable of running faster, but simply chose not to. Quitters.

One early morning, our company assembled on the PT field for our weekly Company PT Session. One young lad (we'll call him PFC Lawson) had tried all week to get the medical folks to put him on "light duty". He was unsuccessful. The medical personnel had caught on to his act. His only physical ailment was a weight problem, and an aversion to physical activity. I was thrilled spitless to see him at PT.

As the gray of morning began to sneak over the horizon, the First Sergeant took charge of the company formation and we began our run. As the air, thick with the Okinawan humidity, began to warm, steam rose from the pavement of the well worn road. We trotted along at an easy warm-up pace, and all was well. As the air warmed even more, Lawson began dropping back. I could see the sweat running off of his pale, soft body. I imagined him in civilian clothing, walking through a supermarket. I could almost see him grabbing frozen bags of pizza rolls from the low-slung frozen food bins and thought, "I'd never guess that this young man is a Marine. He looks like a doughnut shop addict."

I couldn't understand how a young man that had made it through boot camp could allow himself to deteriorate into such a sorry condition.

I dropped back a bit in order to encourage the young man. He was huffing and puffing, and made every attempt to show me that he was truly struggling. The rolls of excess pounds on his waist were bouncing up and down as he stumbled along. His green tee-shirt was soaked with sweat, and was pasted to those rolls on his waist. He had a look in his eyes that reminded me of a child pleading for a piece of candy that wasn't allowed before supper.

At this point, many people would be inclined to ask, "Are you ok?"

I already knew that he was ok, since he had been looked over by the medical section the afternoon prior. Instead of inquiring about his health, I asked him, "Do you like being a quitter? Do you like being labeled by your fellow Marines?" "Get your butt up there Lawson!"

"I can't," was his feeble reply.

I'm willing to bet that my blood pressure skyrocketed at that moment. He had uttered the words that I hate. He had staggered into the no-man's land of lazy, spineless quitters. He had admitted to giving up after facing only a wee bit of adversity. He had flipped my switch from "nice" to "mean sumbitch."

I ran right next to him as I yelled into his ear; "Get your butt up there NOW Lawson. If you don't, this run will last until the freakin' sun goes down. I will run your sorry butt until church lets out on Sunday!"

The look on his face transformed from that of a pleading child to that of an injured puppy. "NOW numbnuts!"

He sped up. He caught up to the formation of Marines, and seemed like a man transformed. He held his head higher, adopted an air of confidence, and kept pace with his peers for the rest of the run. It was like ancient magic, producing a prince from a frog...well, not really, but you get the idea.

"You see that Lawson? You could run faster! All it took was a little effort and dedication on your part!"

I quoted Fight Club as I playfully smacked him in the back of his mostly bald head: "Like a monkey, ready to be shot into space!"

He wasn't anywhere near the end of his necessary personal journey, but he had taken a crucial step forward. All it took was a bit of forceful motivation. Ahhhh, the satisfaction of seeing a quitter take a turn for the better...good times.

Creative Writing

While my kids are back in school, I am as well. I found myself missing it during the summer, and I'm happy to be back at it. Since both of the classes that I'm taking this term are web-based, I'm a bit worried that I'll struggle to adapt to this new format. So far, it hasn't been an issue, since both of my professors seem to be very skilled at expressing various topics in writing.

One of my classes is (another) writing class. I enjoy writing, but have never been very good at creating works of fiction. This class will primarily involve writing short pieces of fiction, and I'm hoping that it will help me overcome the apparent block that I have in that department.

Those of you that have read any significant amount of the content on my blog know that I mostly enjoy writing about non-fiction. It's gratifying, and I seem to have a knack for story telling. All that I need to do now, is come up with ways to adapt that to fiction. I have one short piece that I wrote about a month ago that I can work on improving. A certain couple of test readers thought that it has potential. I thought that it was pretty weak, but our inner critics are often the harshest.

It will undoubtedly be an interesting journey, and I'm hoping that it goes well.

Dallas Tactical Supplies Rocks

I recently ordered Hogue grips for my M9 pistol and M4 Carbine from a business that goes by the name of Dallas Tactical Supplies. They had what I needed for my military weapons, their prices were fair, and they ship to FPO addresses. I still cannot imagine why other vendors that sell military tactical supplies wouldn't ship to FPO's, but there are those that don't. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...

I received an email from DTS confirming my order immediately. I also got a rapid response to my email to them regarding shipping. My order got here in less than a week! For those that are unfamiliar with the mail situation in Okinawa, that's lightning fast.

I'm tickled pink by my experience with Dallas Tactical Supplies, and fully intend to spread the word among my fellow Marines. They are indeed a top-notch business that cares about customer satisfaction. I'll be turning to them in the future with any needs that I have for military gear.