ughhh......basically.....

I’m so tired! I was actually starting to dream sitting down leaning against the wall. No not day-dream, but sleep dream. I think I’m going to skip my workout and just sleep, plus I have to probably stay late because we got to get the new guys the flightline orientation training. They report tonight for the first time, it’s funny because I’m wondering what they all are going to be like, their personalities, will they be quiet, outgoing, weird quirks? I will be spending 75 hrs a week for the next 10 weeks with them so I’m sure I will know them inside and out. We’ll break them in right from the get-go. Rules, consequences, they’ll all know what to expect and I will enforce it from day zero. I won’t have to worry about building up their morale from the days of “May-hem” for seven weeks like I had to with the last group. I’ll have to do it just like teaching, start out tough then loosen up a bit, the Didomenico method, props to my mentor teacher haha!


I guess we got attacked again, came to shift and I heard, “all clear!” but this time I heard what made me feel a little nauseated, swear to god…ambulances! Heard a few of them, that cannot be good. I need to say a prayer. Just a little reminder that where we are at is still no joke. We had an email yesterday from General Roc, basically saying that things are going to start changing real quick around here, we approach the 6 month window till Department of State turnover. I guess we are down to 50,000 total personnel in all of Iraq, that’s amazing! It was about 150,000 two years ago. We will drop to 1,000 by October. He said something interesting, “try picturing D-Day…In reverse!” So basically,….wait did I just say “basically?” Oh man I had a flashback! Back in the Navy we had a petty officer 2nd class in our section, his name was Bill, can’t remember his last name, oh ya Rice, he was short, old, and fat, with thick glasses and an un-kept mustache. He honestly was a nice guy but every time you would ask him something or do something, he would always stammer with, “ahhhh… well ahhh…basically” and then say whatever he had to say. He always had to say “basically”, it was so annoying!! I gave him the nickname “Basically Bill.” He would smoke like a chimney and drink a lot of coffee, so what, you ask? Well, we manned our radar stations and they were equipped with headsets and mics. He would brief me something to the effect of, “well ugh basically we have contacts out there……ahhh..basically they are headed away from the ship, ya basically that’s the picture here,” and then I would sit down put on the headset and, ugghhh, they mic would smell like cigarettes and coffee! It was so gross, I would have to disinfect the mic! Gotta love the Navy!


Oh ya anyways Roc said to just be ready for thinks to start getting unpredictable. I actually got to salute him two weeks ago walking by, it wasn’t almost like seeing a rock (no pun intended) star, even if he is only a 1 star. I really don’t know what I should wish for, work has been extremely boring for the longest time, but getting busy having a bunch of new guys is scary. Taco Bell and the Pizza joint close in three days. Very sad, I eat from the bell at least three times a week.
I called this guy I know Jeff yesterday. He got me started in a direct marketing company, ACN, a while back. Deals with telecommunications stuff, that’s how I got the videophone. They were featured in the episode of the celebrity apprentice yesterday. Jeff was hosting a party and wanted me to call live, so I did but they were not all there. The plan was to have me talk to everyone at the party before they watched the show, didn’t work out due to me having to be back at the terminal so they just had it where I talked to people on the videophone. Noone I really knew but they all wished me well, saying thank you for what I’m doing there. It felt really good, I did appreciate it, must have talked to about 15 people.

Hey if I helped them sell a few phones great. This sounds weird, but it felt kindof cool seeing them party and having fun, and me being here on the other side of the world not having fun, but them acknowledging that they appreciate the fact I am sacrificing, that all 4,700 of us here at Sather are sacrificing. Like what we are doing is allowing them to have fun and not worry about their safety, I doubt they’re thinking, “are we going to get attacked?” So it was cool, but I really have no desire to work on my ACN business when I get back. If someone is interested out of the blue, fine, but it’s a lot of work to be successful in that area of work. Yes people do make a lot of money doing the business but it takes time, obsession, and lots of connections. I don’t care what anyone says, “oh it’s a warm market, just friends and family,” it’s still selling. And your either good at it or you’re not, and I definitely am not. I’m not saying anything bad about it, just being real