Things we miss here . . .
Sidewalks -- walking on gravel gets old.
Paved roads -- driving on gravel (on-post) gets old.
Decent internet connections -- we often have to wait for a slow connection on a computer where the "t" key doesn't work.
Walking less than 75 meters to the shower or bathroom.
Being able to get somewhere quickly (shared transportation most of the time).
Things I miss . . .
Interesting food -- the food here isn't bad enough to hate, but it isn't good enough to like, either. Pretty bland, and not a lot of variety. There are only occasional attempts at ethnic food/cuisine from other countries, and they are bland and uninspired. Sundays are always steak and seafood nights, but I find the steaks to be a little frightening (I have never seen cuts like these before), and the seafood smells fishy, period.
Decent internet -- this bears repeating.
Decent chairs.
Being able to fix myself a meal.
Having running water within 75 meters.
Vegetation.
Seeing people outside the 18-50 age range.
Seeing more wildlife than the odd fox or hedgehog.
Wearing normal clothes.
Not having to worry about where my pistol is.
OK, that's a pretty weak effort, but it's all I've got for now. But, it reminds me that it is often the little things here that count. Without all the other distractions of the world back home, we tend to obsess about the little things.
Oh, and that flying thing I do? It's going pretty well. Sometimes it's disappointing -- we can't get a hold of the ground guys to tell them what we see, or we don't see anything, or we only see something right as we are running low on fuel. But, we are making progress towards putting together this unit and developing procedures, and sometimes helping our guys on the ground.
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3 comments:
Matt, I'm curious about your take on the recent developments with regard to blogs and bulletin board sites and operations security?
The first note, saying that blog entries have to be cleared by a supervising officer, came from Noah Shachtman on May 2nd:
The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.
Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.
The new rules (.pdf) obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update.
The second announcement that websites like this one are to be blocked on military computers came from the Washington Post yesterday. Here's the URL for the full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400112.html?hpid=topnews
Thoughts?
I'm not too worried. There is an overreaction on all fronts. Here is something from "Stars & Stripes" on May 4.
http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53157&archive=true
I think that there will be little change, except maybe more enforcement where things really violate OPSEC or the other specifically mentioned issues. All I have done is inform our S-2 (intel officer) that I have a blog, and there have been no other requirements put on me so far. I just make sure to practice good OPSEC.
It is Sunday here in WI..........a nice day. Cooler(in the 60's) but with winds. Assembled at Andrea's and Steve's house for supper. We missed you. Had a wide variety of food and Laura made some mighty tasty beans( spicey, too). Bet you would have enjoyed them. A spinich salad that was really good and a nice piece of cake with a light fluffy frosting. All of it hit the spot! Missed you. Enjoyed seeing the 3 dogs and also Art's new addition to the family. What a cutie! She was trying to keep up with the other 3. Have been working on planting flowers, cleaning out more and more here.......but the lists never seem to narrow much. Interesting to read your lists of what you are missing.........and thinking about. Glad you are there defending us anyway........and hope all goes well for you and your group. If you need anything sent, please let me know.......or Laura know.........and we will get a package off to you. I can understand the difficulties at least partially.
Blessing.........AP
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