http://www.explodinggecko.com Geckos in Paradise, urk, no make that Salt Lake City. Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:26:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Can I just say I love my job?  How can you not love a job where you routinely get to travel to such awesome places as Zagreb, Croatia?  This city is so cool, I'm not really sure how to describe it.  Everything is so laid back, you can walk everywhere ... http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/32/ From the hilarous folks at How It Should Have Ended: http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/31/ So this time it hasn't taken me quite soooo long to post after returning from a deployment, that's probably a good thing.  Needless to say I made it back safe and sound, was quickly distracted by shiny holidays and family members and then got sucked into work. I'm hoping that unlike ... http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/29/ Back at MCHENRY for a brief spell and some show called Beauty and the Geek was on AFN (Armed Forces Network) in the EOD command hooch.  Now, I don't really care for "reality shows" of any variety, but we have a pretty limited selection of channels, so take that into account...for whatever ... http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/28/ I was getting up to date on current events before I head back down to MCHENRY when I came across an article about an interesting concept: a "cold civil war" in America. The article is pretty good in my opinion, this quote in particular struck me: "The domestic political debate has ... http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/26/ Soooo...looks like I'll be headed back down to FOB MCHENRY in the not too distant future to finish up my tour of fabulous, fun filled Iraq. Can't say I'm looking foreward to it after living the good life up here at WARRIOR/Kirkuk, but I'll try to make the best of ... http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/27/ So I finally got a down day and after doing some housekeeping and other things I decided to check out what's new on the Interwebs. On a whim (and because I'm an incurable sci-fi nerd) I did a search for Powered Armor and came across something called the HAL 5 Type-B ... http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/25/ Even in the midst of a war there's time for some fun. Courtesy my friend the Gleeful One I have discovered my Rockstar Name:  I wonder if they'll let me change my callsign to "ACE"? http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/24/ Generally I'm a pretty compassionate person, but there are limits.  Apparently that amazing ability of the human psyche to convince itself "that couldn't happen to me" extends even to those living in a city in a war zone. Call me crazy, but if you live in a city that has a ... http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/23/ So the other day on my way to a suspect VBIED I noticed this statue: I asked our terp Mike about it, he said it wasn't an actual person, but a personification of freedom for women in Iraq.  Pretty cool. http://www.explodinggecko.com/archives/22/