Harpooned

Hello, Hello! I know I have not written since New Year's but not a lot had happened since. But I did just get back from Florida and am waiting for my next trip. I spent a week in the sun, having fun and getting some sun.

I lived in Melbourne, Florida for a week. When I first arrived, a friend (N) and I went to the beach because he was a surfer. Once we got there, the beach was packed. N and I walked up and down the beach to check out the waves. N stated that the waves were slush compared to California. I guess that means bad. As we were walking in the sand, I decided to take off my shirt to get some Florida sun. I turned to N and said "I am about to scare away the tanners." Once my shirt was off, I noticed I was the whitest guy on the beach. Ha ha Even N started laughing at me. As we were walking along the beach of course we noticed all the bikini's. Women were laying all over the place. One girl started walking right in front of us and we both noticed how hot she was. Then she turned around and we saw she was max 16 years old. AHHHHHH I felt so dirty. We started looking around and noticed all the girls were in High school age. AHHHHH I was in hell. I guess you can just look at it like next year's crop. Ha ha Hell, my daughter is getting ready to turn 13 and I would kill anyone looking at her like that my age. Ok, ok, I have settled down again.

After walking the beach, we went to Starbuck's. Here I noticed all the senior citizens in their baby blue shorts and oversized polo shirts. This trip was starting to be a nightmare. After all this, I noticed all the bikers and there was no helmet law in Florida. And there were plenty of bikes. Matter of fact, it was the largest mode of transportation, a customized bike or just a plain Harley.

So I came to this conclusion and it proved correct throughout the week. There are 3 demographics in Melbourne:

Senior Citizens
grandchildren of the senior citizens
bikers

Now here is the real funny part of the story. I was in Florida for some driving lessons. All day Monday I was driving at high speeds, turning, high speed reverse, and zig zagging through construction cones. It was really the funniest day of my life. I enjoyed every minute of it. I called my wife and even stated "THIS IS THE FUNNIEST DAY I HAVE EVER HAD!!!!!!!"

Ok, the next day was full of activities also. The first thing we did in the morning was get a class on non lethal weapons law enforcement personnel use or carry on them. The first class was on the TASER.
http://www.taserx26.com/Police_X26.pdf is the website. You will need Adobe in order to view it though.

Now this bad boy can shoot up to 150 feet. It sends these harpoon darts out, into your body, and sends electrical impulses to your brain. Basically shuts down the muscular body. Now here was some basic info: during testing they found out that 25 cycles a second will tear muscle from the bone. 45 cycles a second will explode the heart. They did not know where to start the cycles so the first model was 12 cycles a second. Cops used it and found out druggies and serious drunk people could fight through it. So they up(ed) it to 14 cycles a second with the last generation Taser. Well, of course they redesigned it to make it smaller, yellow (so cops would not grab it, then find out it was not their pistol), and juiced it to 19 cycles a second. Each dart is 1/2" long, 8mm diameter with a small barb so the subject could not take them out. The X26 is only sold to military and law enforcement but civilians can buy the 12 cycle with a concealment license. Then they line us up to be shot with the 19 cycle per second so WE KNOW THE EFFECTS. HOLY SHIT!!!! Once the harpoons are shot, the electrical impulse lasts for 5 seconds, 10 seconds if you double pump the trigger.

I would show the video but it will not load (if anyone knows how please blog me). So here is how it went. A buddy of mine placed a bulls eye on my right side on my back, another buddy held me. The shooter was 6' away. Now here is a little note for you... I was the last group of guys to go so I had seen the EFFECTS twice already. My buddy grabbed my left wrist and the shooter took aim (there were 8 of us being shot at the same time).

BANG!!!!!!!!! All I felt was electrical impulse vibrating my entire body. I yelled like a girl and my body fell like a sack of shit. I wiggled on the ground for 5 seconds until the ride was over. After it is over, my buddy pulled the HARPOONS out of my back. I laid there an additional 15 seconds wondering why the hell I was so stupid to sign that waiver....... But to this day, if I hear that sound of electricity, I jump out of my skin!!

Next was a 1 lb can of kick ass pepper spray (Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) pepper sprays).

Now to put this in context for you to under stand. 1 Jalepeno pepper has 15 OC in it naturally, this is what makes the skin burn when in contact with sensitive areas. Well, this fogger has 5.3 MILLION Oleoresin Capsicum (OC)!!!!!!!!!!!! And you guessed it, I was getting fogged!!! WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!!!!

They sprayed just a 1 second amount on us while we held our breath and closed out eyes. The OC is small bubbles of fire. So you have to pat them off not rub. Well, for the first 10 minutes I was not feeling much, my face felt hot but we were in shade with wind. Then all of a sudden some jackass brushed up against me and his OC transferred into my EYES!!!. It felt like sand paper was being rubbed on my eyeballs. Then of course, I start rubbing my face and it feels like the sun is sitting on my face. In order to make it quit burning (besides time) is to have 20 continues minutes of water running on it. Well, of course we did not have that.

Then to top it all off. They decide to see if we were still mentally strong while under the EFFECTS and had us play a game of paintball IN THE SUN!! These are some sick mother F**KERS!!!!. Of course, we do, and all you see is guys fighting, then crying, fighting, crying. It was pretty funny now that it is over.

That night, I called my wife, "THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!!" And what does she do, laughs!!! I still am contemplating on bying a can of that OC and hit her while she is sleeping....

Until the next great adventure...... LOVE, PEACE, AND HAIR GREASE!!

A Night of New Beginnings

New Year's Eve/Day was a great time for us.

The day started out pretty bad. It was raining, kids were upset, and we had to cancel our BBQ we had planned. So we sat around the house reading books, messing up rooms, watching movies, and yelling at each other. HA HA

For the last supper of '05, we had rice and soyu chicken (yummy). We were receiving calls from friends that wanted us to be out but we just did not feel like it at all. Finally, a great friend of mine talked me into going to a club right down the street. I had to apologize to my oldest son, Greg, because we had told him we were not going out. After having a grape juice champagne toast with the kids, we were off.

We arrived at the club around 11:00 p.m., so the place was already packed. We had to spend $10.00 to get in but it included 1 plastic cup of Champagne and breakfast. HA HA But it was a great time, my wife and I had not been with this group of friends for a long time. Throughout the night, I was pretty feisty. I know that I was annoying the hell out of my wife. I played drums on her chest, I danced around her, tooted my horn, wore the center piece as a hat, and I am sure much more. She was wearing her christmas gifts and was looking GOOD. At midnight, we kissed, hugged, kissed, I did the reach around, cried, and kissed some more. Ok, there was no crying until the next day when our friends woke up. HA HA

Here are the photos at the end of '05.

Slash and his angel

Do you like white or dark meat?

White is looking freaky, go dark. Ha ha

Kim Jung Ill and my wife

Now, around 3 in the morning, we all jumped into our van and decided on a roadtrip. We traveled all over the base and ended up in a new and exciting land called "Gate 2 Street". Actually, some of the crew goes there every weekend and others just wish we were on island too. We walked up hill both ways, with rain coming down, sideways, and sometimes coming back up. It was a long, miserable walk before we saw a neon blue "X". As we entered the establishment, I noticed the stairs to heaven. So off we trotted up the long 1 story stairs. As we entered, a guy was getting a good new year gift in the bathroom.

As always, my wife opened up the night with Alanis Morsette (?). Everyone there was pretty drunk at this point. People were taking off their shirts, rubbing up and down women that were not theirs, and passing out on the bar. And that was just me and my wife. Just kidding, we were the only ones not drinking but it does make a good story.

Our friend had a hankering for Rolling Stones and did a fine job on it. Then a couple of the ladies HAD to sing Sweet Home Alabama. Now, one of them we shall call KIM JUNG ILL is originally from Cali but claims Hawaii because she lived there for 2 months. So we changed the song title to Aloha Alabama for her.

My other friend and I ended the night with a little HOTEL CALIFORNIA and sounded so good that we were asked for autographs. Then the owner wanted to sign us up for a record deal. Ok, we just sang the song.

Aloha Alabama

(aka. KIM JUNG ILL)

Rock n' Roll Queen

Nelson Twins

Crazy, Crazy Couple

Finally, we ended the night/morning eating Curry at a 24 hour restaurant. We all looked like vampires with red eyes. We arrived back home around 7:oo a.m. It was a great New Year and a great New Beginning.......

American Idiot on the loose

I could not believe I read this, a boy that needed a good beating from his father. I know the associated press must of had a field day with this one.
HA HA HA

U.S. Teen Runs Off to Iraq by Himself

Maybe it was the time the taxi dumped him at the Iraq-Kuwait border, leaving him alone in the middle of the desert. Or when he drew a crowd at a Baghdad food stand after using an Arabic phrase book to order. Or the moment a Kuwaiti cab driver almost punched him in the face when he balked at the $100 fare.

But at some point, Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida, realized that traveling to Iraq by himself was not the safest thing he could have done with his Christmas vacation.
And he didn't even tell his parents.

Hassan's dangerous adventure winds down with the 101st Airborne delivering the Fort Lauderdale teen to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which had been on the lookout for him and promises to see him back to the United States this weekend.

It begins with a high school class on "immersion journalism" and one overly eager — or naively idealistic — student who's lucky to be alive after going way beyond what any teacher would ask.

As a junior this year at a Pine Crest School, a prep academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, Hassan studied writers like John McPhee in the book "The New Journalism," an introduction to immersion journalism — a writer who lives the life of his subject in order to better understand it.

Diving headfirst into an assignment, Hassan, whose parents were born in Iraq but have lived in the United States for about 35 years, hung out at a local mosque. The teen, who says he has no religious affiliation, added that he even spent an entire night until 6 a.m. talking politics with a group of Muslim men, a level of "immersion" his teacher characterized as dangerous and irresponsible.

The next trimester his class was assigned to choose an international topic and write editorials about it, Hassan said. He chose the Iraq war and decided to practice immersion journalism there, too, though he knows his school in no way endorses his travels.

"I thought I'd go the extra mile for that, or rather, a few thousand miles," he told The Associated Press.

Using money his parents had given him at one point, he bought a $900 plane ticket and took off from school a week before Christmas vacation started, skipping classes and leaving the country on Dec. 11.

His goal: Baghdad. Those privy to his plans: two high school buddies.

Given his heritage, Hassan could almost pass as Iraqi. His father's background helped him secure an entry visa, and native Arabs would see in his face Iraqi features and a familiar skin tone. His wispy beard was meant to help him blend in.

But underneath that Mideast veneer was full-blooded American teen, a born-and-bred Floridian sporting white Nike tennis shoes and trendy jeans. And as soon as the lanky, 6-foot teenager opened his mouth — he speaks no Arabic — his true nationality would have betrayed him.
Traveling on his own in a land where insurgents and jihadists have kidnapped more than 400 foreigners, killing at least 39 of them, Hassan walked straight into a death zone. On Monday, his first full day in Iraq, six vehicle bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing five people and wounding more than 40.

The State Department strongly advises U.S. citizens against traveling to Iraq, saying it "remains very dangerous." Forty American citizens have been kidnapped since the war started in March 2003, of which 10 have been killed, a U.S. official said. About 15 remain missing.

"Travel warnings are issued for countries that are considered especially dangerous for Americans, and one of the strongest warnings covers travel to Iraq," said Elizabeth Colton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Colton said the embassy's consular section can provide only limited help to Americans in Iraq, though once officials learn of a potentially dangerous situation every effort is made to assist.

Inside the safety of Baghdad's Green Zone, an Embassy official from the Hostage Working Group talked to Hassan about how risky travel is in Iraq.

"This place is incredibly dangerous to individual private American citizens, especially minors, and all of us, especially the military, went to extraordinary lengths to ensure this youth's safety, even if he doesn't acknowledge it or even understand it," a U.S. official who wasn't authorized to speak to the media said on condition of anonymity.

Hassan's extra-mile attitude took him east through eight time zones, from Fort Lauderdale to Kuwait City. His plan was to take a taxi across the border and ultimately to Baghdad — an unconventional, expensive and utterly dangerous route.

It was in Kuwait City that he first called his parents to tell them of his plans — and that he was now in the Middle East.

His mother, Shatha Atiya, a psychologist, said she was "shocked and terrified." She had told him she would take him to Iraq, but only after the country stabilizes.

"He thinks he can be an ambassador for democracy around the world. It's admirable but also agony for a parent," Atiya said.

Attempting to get into Iraq, Hassan took a taxi from Kuwait City to the border 55 miles away. He spoke English at the border and was soon surrounded by about 15 men, a scene he wanted no part of. On the drive back to Kuwait City, a taxi driver almost punched him when he balked at the fee.

"In one day I probably spent like $250 on taxis," he said. "And they're so evil too, because they ripped me off, and when I wouldn't pay the ripped-off price they started threatening me. It was bad."

It could have been worse — the border could have been open.

As luck would have it, the teenager found himself at the Iraq-Kuwait line sometime on Dec. 13, and the border security was extra tight because of Iraq's Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. The timing saved him from a dangerous trip.

"If they'd let me in from Kuwait, I probably would have died," he acknowledged. "That would have been a bad idea."

He again called his father, who told him to come home. But the teen insisted on going to Baghdad. His father advised him to stay with family friends in Beirut, Lebanon, so he flew there, spending 10 days before flying to Baghdad on Christmas.

His ride at Baghdad International Airport, arranged by the family friends in Lebanon, dropped him off at an international hotel where Americans were staying.

He says he only strayed far from that hotel once, in search of food. He walked into a nearby shop and asked for a menu. When no menu appeared, he pulled out his Arabic phrase book, and after fumbling around found the word "menu." The stand didn't have one. Then a worker tried to read some of the English phrases.

"And I'm like, 'Well, I should probably be going.' It was not a safe place. The way they were looking at me kind of freaked me out," he said.

It was mid-afternoon Tuesday, after his second night in Baghdad, that he sought out editors at The Associated Press and announced he was in Iraq to do research and humanitarian work. AP staffers had never seen an unaccompanied teenage American walk into their war zone office. ("I would have been less surprised if little green men had walked in," said editor Patrick Quinn.)

Wearing a blue long-sleeve shirt in addition to his jeans and sneakers, Hassan appeared eager and outgoing but slightly sheepish about his situation.

The AP quickly called the U.S. embassy.

Embassy officials had been on the lookout for Hassan, at the request of his parents, who still weren't sure exactly where he was. One U.S. military officer said he was shocked the teen was still alive. The 101st Airborne lieutenant who picked him up from the hotel said it was the wildest story he'd ever heard.

Hassan accepted being turned over to authorities as the safest thing to do, but seemed to accept the idea more readily over time.
Most of Hassan's wild tale could not be corroborated, but his larger story arc was in line with details provided by friends and family members back home.

Dangerous and dramatic, Hassan's trip has also been educational. He had tea with Kuwaitis under a tent in the middle of a desert. He says he interviewed Christians in south Lebanon. And he said he spoke with U.S. soldiers guarding his Baghdad hotel who told him they are treated better by Sunni Arabs — the minority population that enjoyed a high standing under Saddam Hussein and are now thought to fuel the insurgency — than by the majority Shiites.

His father, Redha Hassan, a doctor, said his son is an idealist, principled and moral. Aside from the research he wanted to accomplish, he also wrote in an essay saying he wanted to volunteer in Iraq.

He said he wrote half the essay while in the United States, half in Kuwait, and e-mailed it to his teachers Dec. 15 while in the Kuwait City airport.

"There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction," he wrote.

"Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help.

Unfortunately altruism is always in short supply. Not enough are willing to set aside the material ambitions of this transient world, put morality first, and risk their lives for the cause of humanity. So I will."

"I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience everyday, so that I may better empathize with their distress," he wrote.

Farris Hassan says he thinks a trip to the Middle East is a healthy vacation compared with a trip to Colorado for holiday skiing.

"You go to, like, the worst place in the world and things are terrible," he said. "When you go back home you have such a new appreciation for all the blessing you have there, and I'm just going to be, like, ecstatic for life."

His mother, however, sees things differently.

"I don't think I will ever leave him in the house alone again," she said. "He showed a lack of judgment."

Hassan may not mind, at least for a while. He now understands how dangerous his trip was, that he was only a whisker away from death.
His plans on his return to Florida: "Kiss the ground and hug everyone."

Oki on a Friday

The other night, a friend of my wife's' called and asked if we could accompany her for a night on the town. We told her that we did not really have the money to go out but she insisted that we were on her dime. The night started pretty good. We went to Chili's restaurant and drank a couple. Then off to the O'club where it was pretty dead but a Mexican still tried coming onto my wife. Then we arrived at Fujiyama rock n' roll bar. There was the same band as every weekend since we arrived on island 4 years ago. At this point I had a few too many and noticed a guy hugging my wife. He had a twin brother but I had no idea who these guys were. We had a small confrontation and I left. We then went to Club X. It is a sing along bar. My wife and I had a lot of fun and my wife found out I could sing some great 80's rock. ha ha We ended the night there and went home late in the evening. This is my wife's' every weekend circuit. Same places, every Friday and Saturday. It was fun but man this island gets old. Thinking back on it, this place sucks the life right out of me.

Finally Home

That had to of been one of my worst trips ever. I left Fayetteville at 0550 in the morning on the 15th. 1 1/2 later, I arrived to a snow storm in Charlotte. I boarded my plan and 2 hours later, it took off. This made me miss my Detroit connection which, was snowing also. I then spent 4 hours trying to find a flight to Japan. All were booked for 4 days. Finally a supervisor came over and made arrangements for me to fly to San Francisco then to Japan. So I waited another 4 hours for that flight. Once I boarded the plane, we had to get the plane de-iced which took an additional hour. Finally flew to San Fran, slept on the floor at the USO. I arrived at San Fran at 1100 at night and my plane did not leave until 1150 the next morning. So, there I am, stuck at an airport. Finally board my plane the next day and walked to the business class. The 10 hour flight was not that bad when your chair turns into a bed and champagne is being poured into a glass. Once I arrived in main land Japan, I had to bus over to another airport in order to catch my flight. I finally arrived in Okinawa at midnight on the 17th of December. WOW!! I was miserable.

To top it all off, my wife had set up a birthday party for her friend on the same night. So, she was mad at the situation. I was mad at the airline system. It was not starting out at as a great time with each other. Oh sure, we both loved seeing each other but we were not content with the situation we were given.

Now, I am back home. I have spent a little time with the family and am loving it. I am so glad to finally be back. Last night (24 hours of me being home), we decided to go see Harry Potter. So off to the movies we went. As soon as the lights went off and the movies started. I passed out on my wife's shoulder. I woke up at the end. It was pretty funny. I guess I started snoring in the theater. Ha-ha.

Today, I have to go to work to turn in some traveling paperwork but I am on vacation. I am not working until the 8th of January. YEEE HAWW. Well, I will keep you all postdated. I know there are only 3 people who read this blog (including me) so for the other 2, have a merry Christmas.

REMINISCE

There are a number of people that I have either ran across or met on this journey to North Carolina. I just wanted to reminisce on them as I am soon to be leaving.

The first couple of weekends here, I knew that I needed to go to the Mash house in order to re-contact old friends or acquaintances. I ran across a ton of people that are now living here or were here for their own short journey. To include going to a great party where everyone else I knew had attended.

A couple of weeks had gone by when I was hanging out with these old friends. The only problem was they go to the same places to hang out and never deviate from their hangouts. Here is the every weekend schedule: Mash house from 8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. then off to It’s complex from 11:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. The whole scene was ok but every weekend I would see the same people at each location. In other words, I got bored. If you know anything about me it is I do not care much for big club scenes where they play the exact same music. Don’t get me wrong, I like the music but it is like all the radio stations here, they play it too much.

I then started trying out different bars and clubs to see what Fayetteville had to offer. I stayed away from big places that I knew everyone would be at. I ended up liking a couple of places that I felt comfortable hanging out in. The Big Apple is a sports bar but has multiple pool tables and is quite large for the small amount of people that were ever in there. The only problem with the place is it is located right outside a military base and has a lot of skin head kids hanging out in it. So I found, for an afternoon and early evening place, it would do fine.

The later evening place I found was a place called The Office. It serves imported beer (Guinness on tap) and the customers were mostly locals that were not in the military. It is quite small but it was comfortable and I never had to talk about my job there. At this place I met a guy named Steve. He is a 40 year old, gray long hair, and is in a band that is really going nowhere. But he is a great guy to talk to and brought on a new perspective of life because he had never been in the military.

After a couple of times hanging out with him, he showed me another little bar called Spirits which is a couple of blocks from The Office. It has a live rock band every once in a while and again, it is a place that mostly locals hang out in. After hanging out a couple of times, Steve invited me to his Thanksgiving Day feast which I has a great time at.

Now let me tell you a little about Steve. He is a great guy but he does have small things that are weird to me. He collects Star Wars items and has since the first movie came out in the 70’s. They are placed all over his house. Being that I never got into that kind of stuff it seemed weird to me at first but then got used to it. Second, he lives with his mother. Now, I don’t know if he owns the house or she does but she is a great woman. The few times I have talked to her, she seems like she is very kind hearted.

Since being here, a great friend of mine has moved here. I had worked with this guy in Washington and then we hung out together in Okinawa. It was great for me because after being here for a couple of months, I needed to hang out with someone that I truly related to.

Thinking back on this trip, I had a good time and learned a lot about a job that I had been doing for a year and did not clearly know how to do. So over all, thank you.

Thanksgiving Day

Just wanted you all to know that my Thanksgiving day was a great day. It would of been a lot better if I could of spent it with the family but you know the deal with my job.

My day started out with a 3 hour conversation with my beautiful, adoring wife. Then I went over to a guys house that I met since being here. His mother cooked for 6 people total. If you know anything about me, it is I hate sweet potatoes. While I was grabbing the food, of course people are like "you need to try this, and this..." Well, the mothers sweet potato dish was great. I could not believe it, I actually liked sweet potato. I asked her what she put into it and she gave me the recipe so I could pass it on. She stated the secret was the sweet potatoes, she gets them from a small farm in Kentucky. The turkey looked like it was on steroids. This thing was huge!! After 2 rounds of gorging myself, I had to call it quits. I was glad that I had come to these peoples feast (other wise it would of been me and a frozen pizza. ha ha)

We then went outside and played a good game of frisbee. ha ha After a couple of hours of my stomach hurting because of eating so much, I had to go back to my place to properly attend the Thanksgiving ritual. (unbutton the pants, watch football, and fall asleep).

Well, that was about it. So I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was a memorable one.