:: zarebski.com/word ::

We were issued our M-16’s today as a squadron. Apparently at least once a rotation, the powers that be decide that we (the Air Force) need to tote our weapons around for a few days. No clips nor ammo. Just the gun.

They told stories of past occasions where members were caught playing “Soldier of Fortune” with their weapons throughout the H6 housing area.

Ha.

Still, can’t seem to make sense of the rationale behind this “strategery”. Whatever.

~SKi~

I participated in the “Sports Day” basketball 3 on 3 tournament today. We won the first game, lost the next two. We came in third!! Out of 4 teams :0. I should have not taken so long to get on the court… those of you that know me well, know I am a football guy. For those that don’t, basketball I only play because people say “Hey, your tall, your on our team.” I am liken to Dennis Rodman: Don’t expect me to dribble, pass, shoot or display any other fundamental basketball skills. Basically I can run around a lot and get rebounds. And the occasional dunk… of course

So NEway… I had a bit of a departure from the court since I have been here. Keep in mind, that I was a member of the “Over 30″ squad for my squadron before I left Minot. Not exactly playing against top performing players in that league - at least when it comes to all the running around and shit. So I have the advantage of being able to run up and down the court there and looking like a superstar.. not so much here lol.

Of the four teams, 3 were Air Force and one was Army. Basically each squadron submitted names for the tournament. So there was Communications (ECS), Civil Engineering (ECES) and some other AF team. The Army, on the other hand, get to pick from ALL of the Army. So needless to say the team was a bit stacked. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! (FYI, there are about 2,500 AF people here, and about 20,000 Army.)

We played the Army in the second game. I was matched up with this 6′6″ guy down low. You may have heard the term “Cock Diesel”. Yeah, that was him.. to a T. This dude was like a rock man, more like a wall… that moved. He had the opportunity to dunk on me - I say dunk ON me - like 4 times. He was being nice (plus I jokingly warned him that I would take him out at the knees if he even tried it. Maybe he didn’t know I was joking…)

Man. Can’t ever win against the Army. All they do is work out!! And carry heavy shit!! Damn!

~SKi~

OK. So, the Fuzz band was here tonight. I went and checked them out. They have a lot of energy! The group is comprised of people from all over the states.. and Greece! They tried really hard to get people up in the theater, but it wasn’t until the end that they were effective in doing so. As they wound down, they really let loose, and kind of did their own thing - which was more of a house/punk/funk type thing and the crowd really loved that a lot more than the typical R&B thing they were doing the rest of the show.

I went with a couple of guys that I met on the journey over here. They pointed out some things that I had not noticed:

I got here on the 26th of Jan. I have listened to the radio in my truck since then, and bounce between stations as I like to do. (There are two… they are re-broadcasts of popular American radio shows by the military Armed Forces Network (AFN). The shows are decided upon by AFN top brass) They both played the same genre of music… until this month. All of a sudden, in Feb, the one station 107.3 started playing the Tom Joyner morning show, and R&B throughout the day.

Now, I didn’t think anything of it of course. But when Cilatt mentioned it, it kind of came together. He said that they were only playing the “Black” music because it is Black History month. And that the band that was chosen.. was chosen because they were a “black” band, and it was Black History month. He guaranteed that there would be no “Black” music on the radio after Feb, and there would be no “Black” bands appearing either for the rest of our time here.

I guess I will know if his hypothesis is correct in a few months. Interesting none the less. I’ll save my humble opinion until more information surfaces. Until then.. do you have thoughts?

~SKi~

As most of you may know, I am not a very political person. OK, I am not political at all…

But I am aware that everyone has their opinion about the “Troops in Iraq” even if it’s a “I don’t have an opinion.” opinion. I am just wondering what you all think about the whole thing.

Please leave a comment with your point of view, or if you feel you would like to keep it private, please drop me an email about it.

TY