Bought an axe...

I've wanted a guitar pretty much ever since I picked up the controller for Guitar Hero. I had one as a kid, and just like the kicking myself over quitting piano lessons, I'm kicking myself for having put that one down. Since I knew I'm gonna have plenty of free time (read: evenings with nothing to do), and I can only play so much Nintendo DS, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up a guitar and learn to play while I'm over in Iraq. Luckily for me, one of our SFCs already knows how to play, and has offered to teach me. So here she is:



















She's an Ibanez AS73B Semi-hollowbody electric. I like the sound of acoustic guitars, but wanted something with a little less action set up in the strings. I bought it at Rick's Music Shop & Guitar Service over in Manhattan even though I could have gotten it for $20 cheaper online. After talking to him for a considerable while I felt I had really gotten into the right place, and considering he sets up and tests all the guitars that come through his shop (even the el-cheapo box-sets) I felt the $20 over internet was a bargain. It's loud enough that I can practice w/o the amp, but sounds great hooked into the little amp I bought too.

Practice, practice, practice. Then pack & ship and practice when I get in country!

So it begins.

We moved down the hill to Camp (not) Funston on Friday. Of course the weather is wonderful, having now had an entire weekend of freezing rain. NWS predicts it'll get above freezing... on Thursday. Great training to get ready for life in the desert.














Moving from the college dorm-esque barracks room up on the hill to the 40-man open bay is a bit of a shock, to say the least. I joked that in relation to AF field training (also in a 40 man bay when I went through), at least we've got cars and can both drink in the dorm, or drive off post to catch a movie or the like. But then again, with the weather the way it is, I'm not sure I want to go anywhere right now.

















Again, this isn't going to be a drivel-filled page of self-loathing or 'oh woe is me', nor is it going to be filled with 'this is who's on my team and this is what we're doing', because I know better. The boss asked if I'd be the photographer / historian for the team, so once we get back I'll be able to post some of our operational stuff, but until we clear the theater, not so much. I bought the camera so I could bring it absolutely everywhere, and with the spare external hard-drive I'm bringing I should be able to store a TON of photos. Which is a good thing. Training starts tomorrow, and I'll be sniffle-geared up. Kansas sucks.

Junkie Twitches

It's been 55 days since my last MC ride. I'm getting a bit twitchy. I really hope the weather is favorable to getting out at least one day over Christmas leave... If that wasn't bad enough, I spent part of the morning playing around with the images shot by Killboy (www.killboy.com) when I hit the Dragon back at the end of September. Here's an example: