Behind the Wall of Sleep
Sunday, 13 January 2008
I told ya Homeboy... Can't touch this.
Well, after one too many times passing that stop sign I finally downloaded MC Hammer's Greatest Hits. Yeah... I'm too legit, to quit. ;)
Another lazy Sunday. Woke up early and talked with my wonderful wife for about an hour, have I mentioned lately how much I love that woman? No? Ok... I love my wife, dearly. Still unsure as to what I did to deserve her but I'll take it. After talking with her I strolled over to the AMC and had coffee with Tino, Lloyd and Patrick. Returned to my hooch about 45 minutes later and goofed off until I noticed that Tab was still awake. Talked to her for a little while longer before I convinced her to go to sleep and then went to lunch with Justin and Tom (new guy). Shopping at the PX, Haji shops, talked with Mike (our resident Irishman), tried to find a vehicle for Tom, went to the flight line to take care of something for Pop, picked up laundry, returned to our AO, hooked up the innarweb for Tom and now I'm typing this. Exciting, huh??
Oh, and I'm jamming to my new MC Hammer tunes... They put me in tha mix!!!
Posted by Stu
at 6:07 AM CST
Updated: Sunday, 13 January 2008 6:30 AM CST
Friday, 11 January 2008
Snow
It snowed in Baghdad this morning. Snow. In Baghdad. Whereas up here in Mosul (where it's supposed to snow)... nada. The mountains to our North have received snow and on a clear day you can actually see it but still nothing here at the FOB. It's freakin' cold enough but I guess we'll have to continue to wait for our "winter wonderland."
Below is a picture of a stop sign here on the FOB. Every time I pass it I break out with, "Every time you see me the Hammer's just so hype. I'm dope on the floor and I'm magic on the mic..."
Posted by Stu
at 8:44 AM CST
Updated: Friday, 11 January 2008 8:59 AM CST
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Sleep
Slept for 10 hours last night. It's been a long time since that happened. I think that my accumulated lack of sleep as well as the Tylenol w/codeine and muscle-relaxers contributed to my shutting down last night at 2000hrs and not waking up until 0600hrs. Of course now, I've been dragging butt all day because I slept too much... I can't win.
Allow me to introduce Justin and Marvin. They cry and cry because they haven't been mentioned yet in the blog so, this is to shut them up. Happy now, guys?
Posted by Stu
at 9:48 AM CST
Monday, 7 January 2008
Freaking. Cold.
It's all of 24 degrees right now. It was actually below 20 last night. The water tanks are frozen, it's a good thing I shower in the evening. Lot's of people going without today.
It's starting off to be another "fun-filled" day here in Mosul. Cold. Dusty. Boring. I can hardly stand it...
Posted by Stu
at 11:42 PM CST
Changes
Made a few changes in format to the website, makes it a little more easy on the eyes. Also, there is a link to Tab's Blog, some pics from over here and a short video when you click the "Click Me" link.
Posted by Stu
at 6:30 AM CST
Sleep is a wonderful thing...
Well my body finally said, "Enough!" and I collapsed Saturday night and got about 7 real hours of sleep. Last night I got 6. I feel much better now.
It was 23-friggin'-degrees last night. All the puddles from the day before were frozen solid. Walking out of a nice warm hooch with a t-shirt, shorts and sandals at 0100hrs in 23-friggin'degree weather to walk down to the latrine is quite the eye-opener. It is COLD here. And then Tab tells me last night that it's 79 there at Ft Hood... What a bunch of crap.
Posted by Stu
at 4:27 AM CST
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Rain
Rained last night and now the entire FOB is one big soupy mess (dang near busted my butt). It looks like 1072 tons of chocolate ice cream melted and God spread it nice and evenly over the entire area.
For any of yall that have a Skype account; my username is stuman17. Mom and Tab also have accounts. It works for the most part, there are interuptions and dropped calls every once in a while.
I love my wife.
Boston Legal is one of the best shows on TV. Mom and Pop were kind enough to provide seasons 1 and 2 on DVD for Christmas. I got seasson 3 over here. If I were a woman I'd want to have William Shatner's babies.
Posted by Stu
at 11:29 AM CST
Updated: Monday, 7 January 2008 11:25 AM CST
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Thursday... Or is it Friday?
Grand total of 8 hours sleep over the past 5 nights. Woohoo. Eventually I guess I'll start hallucinating (at least then I'll have something to do).
Here's a satpic of the greater Diamondback/Marez area. Mosul proper is too friggin big to squeeze it all into one picture.
Posted by Stu
at 7:43 PM CST
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
2008 Already?!?
Well, finally have 1/2way reliable innarweb. 1/2way as in it shuts down every night from 2100 till 0700 the next morning. I'm two seconds from crushing the windpipes of about three Turks (they run the ISP here).
Anyhoo... Here's your update:
I'm in Mosul. Look on a map of the Middle East, find Turkey and go South into Iraq about 70 miles. Yeah, we're waaaay up here. The Tigris River runs through the city (not that I've seen it except from the window of a C-130 but still,) that's pretty cool. Another super cool thing about Mosul is that Jonah is buried here. Yes, THE Jonah... As in Jonah and the whale. Thousands of years ago Mosul was the city of Ninevah. God was going to destroy Ninevah (much like Sodom and Gomorrah), Jonah interceded and told the people that either they straighten up or God was going to raze the city. They straightened up.
There is also a Christian Monastary here that was built in 632 AD. The Knights Templar used it during the Crusades. HOW FRIGGIN' COOL IS THAT?!?!? I walked through it a couple of weeks ago with one of the Squadron Chaplains who is somewhat of an expert on it and learned quite a bit. It was awesome.
Folks have asked, "What's a typical day like for you?" Well, I'll make it sound as exciting as I can.
0700-1200hrs- Wake up at some point. Get dressed and walk around for a bit. Visit the TOC and check the systems.
1200-1300hrs- Lunch
1300-1700hrs- Go to the PX and/or "Haji Shops", drive around, visit with friends, go to the TOC and check systems again.
1700-1800hrs- Supper
1800-0700hrs- Check once more with TOC, read, crossword puzzle, watch movies/tv, email/blog/skype (until it goes out), listen to music, on some nights we play poker, try to stay sane and at some point sleep for 3 or 4 hours and do it all over again. Everyday. Yippee!!
And every second of every day my mind remains focused on my wife who is 7000 miles away.
That's a "typical" day. Other days, well... I can't talk about them on the internet. Use your imagination.
Oh, here's my address, some of you have asked for it:
Stuart Lloyd
AMC-LSE-F
ISYSCON, ESP Inc.
LSA Diamondback
APOAE 09334
That's all for today. Laters...
Posted by Stu
at 10:27 AM CST
Sunday, 30 December 2007
Holy Shiite!!!
I finally got some innarweb in my hooch... It's on now!!
Posted by Stu
at 10:25 AM CST
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
My room
Here's a pic of my room, it ain't the Hilton but, it'll do. Since taking the picture I've moved my bed. It now sticks out with the headboard against the far wall with room on both sides.
Oh and here's a picture of a group of Iraqi Army helicopters (MI-8's, I think).
And now it looks like I may be here (Taji) until sometime in January instead of December. That still may be subject to change, of course.
Posted by Stu
at 8:14 AM CST
More reviews
Frequency- Awesome movie. An original idea to say the least. Don't cheat and look at any info on it before you watch it, though. It stars Dennis Quaid and James Caviezel.
THX-1138- While I have seen this movie before a few times it just happened to be on one of my 8 in 1's. It's still a weird movie with an even weirder ending. How George Lucas talked Robert Duvall into this role I've no idea.
The Man Who Fell to Earth- I don't even know where to begin with this one. It's based on the novel by Walter Tevis. It stars David Bowie, Candy Clark and Rip Torn. This is not a movie for the kiddos. Lots of nakedness and lots of *ahem* "other stuff". As far as adults go... Well, unless you really want to know what "Little David" and "Little Rip" look like, it's probably not for you either.
Posted by Stu
at 5:26 AM CST
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
I love this weather
66 degrees. Last night it got down in the 50's, didn't even have to turn my AC on. Awesome.
Let's see, what else? Oh, I watched a few of my "haji" movies. My reviews:
Pitch Black- Lame. Don't waste your time unless you want to watch The Chronicles of Riddick. One leads to the other.
The Chronicles of Riddick- Not quite as lame as Pitch Black, just odd.
MirrorMask- Weird. Really weird. Written by Neil Gaiman who, is a little strange himself.
Now you may be asking yourselves, "Why were you watching these movies?" Well two of the DVD's I bought have 8 movies each on them and I bought them for maybe 1 or 2 of the other movies. These 3 movies were on the DVD which had The Right Stuff (which by the way doesn't work).
And speaking of The Right Stuff... I'm in the chow hall for supper tonight and there's this arch over by the drinks with pictures of various astronauts on it and lo and behold I see "Bloomer". Michael Bloomfield and I were on KP for a week at Winter Camp back in 2004 at Camp Strake. He's a great guy. I need to send him an e-mail and let him know that I "see" him everyday now.
Posted by Stu
at 9:34 AM CST
Satellite Map
Below is a satellite map of part of the compound here. My trailer and office are in this picture; I just can't show you where. :)
Posted by Stu
at 3:41 AM CST
Updated: Tuesday, 13 November 2007 3:45 AM CST
Monday, 12 November 2007
Weather
The weather here today has been very cool and very windy. The temperature hovered in the mid 70's and the wind kicked up a heck of a lot of dust today. Visibility was only about 3 miles. It will continue to be somewhat cool for the rest of the week and mostly cloudy. Wouldn't have expected that of a desert, now would you? They tell me it snows in Mosul. Should be interesting.
Posted by Stu
at 10:51 AM CST
Where's Taji?
Has been the question for a while. It's small and hard to find on most maps (including this CIA map). Well, there it is, in case you were wondering.
The circled area is of course, Mosul. I'll be there in December and for the rest of my tour.
Posted by Stu
at 6:48 AM CST
I love my wife...
Very much.
Posted by Stu
at 4:17 AM CST
Sunday, 11 November 2007
Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani can NOT be allowed to win the Republican nomination. And for that matter neither can Romney. McCain's not a whole lot better. So, who does that leave?
Thomson, Paul or Huckabee.
Thompson and Paul are the only clear choices. Pick one.
Posted by Stu
at 9:13 AM CST
Shopping
There are about 5 to 10 Iraqi owned shops on post. They sell gifts, knick-knacks, pirated DVD's/Games/Software, sunglasses, electronics, etc.
I just bought 19 movies for $8.
Posted by Stu
at 8:33 AM CST
Every day is Monday
It's Sunday, my "day off". I'm at the office. Why? Easy, what the heck else is there to do?
The only excitement was outgoing 155's this morning around 0200hrs. No biggie.
Going shopping now.
Posted by Stu
at 5:11 AM CST
Updated: Sunday, 11 November 2007 8:39 AM CST
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