Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day.

Thank you to our Men and Women in uniform, both past and present who have protected us from Evil. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! May God bless you and watch over you and protect you from harm. And for those who are overseas, fighting to protect, not just the United States, but the world from those who don't give a damn about others...may you succeed and may you come home soon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTs6a0ORdQU&feature=PlayList&p=F7392A8AEE735FA8&playnext_from=PL&index=9

This video was sent to me by my dad. I love it! The lyrics are as follows:

The Warrior Song – Lyrics

I’ve got the reach and the teeth of a killin’ machine, with a need to bleed you when the light goes green. Best believe, I’m in a zone to be, from my Yin to my Yang to my Yang Tze. Put a grin on my chin when you come to me,‘cuz I’ll win, I’m a one-of-a-kind and I’ll bring death to the place you’re about to be: another river of blood runnin’ under my feet. Forged in a fire lit long ago, stand next to me, you’ll never stand alone. I’m last to leave, but the first to go, Lord, make me dead before you make me old. I feed on the fear of the devil inside of the enemy faces in my sights: aim with the hand, shoot with the mind, kill with a heart like arctic ice.

I am a soldier and I’m marching on. I am a warrior and this is my song.

I bask in the glow of the rising war, lay waste to the ground of an enemy shore. Wade through the blood spilled on the floor, and if another one stands I’ll kill some more. Bullet in the breach and a fire in me, like a cigarette thrown, to gasoline. If death don’t bring you fear, I swear, you’ll fear these marchin’ feet. Come to the nightmare, come to me, deep down in the dark where the devil be. In the maw with the jaws and the razor teeth,where the brimstone burns and the angel weeps. Call to the gods if I cross your path and my silhouette hangs like a body bag. Hope is a moment now long past, the shadow of death is the one I cast.

I am a soldier and I’m marching on. I am a warrior and this is my song.

My eyes are steel and my gaze is long. I am a warrior and this is my song. Now I live lean and I mean to inflict the grief, and the least of me is still out of your reach. The killing machine’s gonna do the deed, until the river runs dry and my last breath leaves. Chin in the air with a head held high, I’ll stand in the path of the enemy line. Feel no fear, know my pride: for God and Country I’ll end your life.

I am a soldier and I’m marching on. I am a warrior and this is my song. My eyes are steel and my gaze is long. I am a warrior and this is my song.

*****

Whew! Heck of a song isn't it?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLOjIKt7wOk&feature=PlayList&p=25331FCA1A096A4A&playnext_from=PL&index=9

The next video features Lt. Col. Oliver North (ret.) speaking at The National Rifle Association Annual Meeting in 2009.

I've always liked Lt. Col. North. I remember during the Iran-Contra hearings. It probably was a Friday in November - it's been a LONG while so I don't precisely remember. When he was leaving, reporters were shouting at him, "asking" for a comment. He said "No comment." But when he was driving past the reports, he stopped his car, rolled down his car window and said "I do have a comment." The reporters practically piled on each other, shoving microphones in the window. He smiled and said "Go Navy! Beat Army!" Rolled up his car window and drove off.

I remember laughing my butt off. Because, while Lt. Col. North was a Marine...he was also a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis...and the Army/Navy game was the next day. The memory of that still makes me smile to this day.

Once more, to our troops, past and present...

THANK YOU!

Facebook

Someone I know (Psycho 101) recently said that Facebook is for people who say "Ooh! I saw a bug!"

He's right.

I certainly would not be able to rant about things such as my mother on Facebook. For one thing, my dad has an account and is my Friend. And I'm Friends with other family members, so I'm afraid that if I started letting loose about her...it WOULD get back to her and all hell would break loose.

In fact, just a few minutes ago, she leaned out her bedroom door and demanded...yes, demanded, not asked...if I had something in the washing machine. Which I did. And she continued "Well put it on pause because I'm going to get a shower!"

Now, in and of itself, what she said may not seem that bad. But it was said in a nasty tone of voice. No please. No thank you. Just a nasty demand. And it's not like I was doing laundry during her "shower time" on purpose. It was 8:30 am...and she usually sleeps until 9:30 am or 10 am.

And this is how she talks to me most of the time. Of course, if I forget to say something politely...it causes a screaming fit. Her face distorts into looking like an evil gargoyle. She gets bright red in the face. Sometimes I think that she's going to stroke out the way she carries on.

And she freaks out over little things. Wet dishcloths. Weird things. Laundry left (accidentally) in the washer/dryer. (Which is hypocritical on her part because I can't tell you how many times I've gone to do my laundry and her crap is still in the washing machine or dryer.) I can't begin to describe the things she has a screaming fit about.

The long and short of it: My mother is crazy and I can't tell anyone about it because they'll think I'm lying. I can't tell you how often I've had people who "know" her, tell me how lucky I am to have a mother like her. I have to bite my tongue and keep myself from saying "You don't live with the bitch!"

Belisarius part II

While I find the one about horses pretty funny, the scenes that I can really visualize and can imagine in a movie, mini-series or anime is from the second book, In the Heart of Darkness, when the Emperor Justinian and his wife, the Empress Theodora are captured by traitors. Justinian is blinded by a red-hot poker and Theodora promises vengeance on all of the traitors. Theodora is not a woman to piss off. She remembers...and she gets even

For the most part, I'm going to be quoting Theodora, unless otherwise written:

"I will do no such thing. If you bring the worm Hypatius before me, I will spit on him. If you drag me to the Hippodrome, I will curse him before the mob. ... All you have done is blind a man who would someday have been blinded by death. You threaten to kill a man, when no man lives forever. Do it, then. Kill me with him. I am the Empress. I would rather die than yield. ... There is an ancient saying, which I approve: Royalty is a good burial-shroud."

Hell-gaze; hell-voice:

"Do your murder, then, traitor. Kill us, coward."

...Theodora's pealing laugh had no more humor in it than Satan's own.

Hell-laugh.

"You are all dead men. Kill us, traitors! Do it, cowards! As surely as the sun rises, you will join us before sundown. ... Do it, cowards! Boast to Belisarius that you killed his Emperor and Empress. Do it! Tell the loyal man of your treachery. Do it! Tell the man of honor that you are murderers. Do it!"

Hell-sneer.

"After he spits your heads on his spears. After the flesh rots from your skulls. He will grind your bones to powder. He will feed them to Thracian hogs. He will have the hog-shit smeared on your tombs. ... I will await you in the Pit of Damnation, John of Cappadocia! Before Satan takes you, I will burn out your eyes with my urine! ... You are all dead men. Wherever you go, I will track you down. Wherever you hide, I will find you. I will have you blinded. By the clumsiest meatcutter in the world."

...She had something to attend to.

Crawling on her hands and knees, Theodora made her way to the body of the nearest soldier. She drew a dagger from the corpse's sword-belt.

Then, still crawling, she began making her way toward John of Cappodicia.

The Empress did not crawl because she was unable to stand, or because she was injured, or because she was in a state of shock.

No. She crawled simply because she wanted the Cappodiaian to see her coming.

He did. ...

Theodora crawled toward him, the dagger in her hand. Her eyes were fixed on those of the praetorian prefect.

She wanted those eyes.

Hell-gaze. Hell-crawl.

It was the last thing John of Cappadocia would ever see and he knew it.

...

No, it was the sight of the Empress. Squatting over the dying traitor, a bloody knife in one hand, her imperial robes held up by the other. Urinating into the empty eyesockets of John of Cappodocia.

That is one scary damn woman...isn't she?

Belisarius

Well, we lost another Hollywood star today: Dennis Hopper. Best know for the movies Easy Rider and Speed - depending on your generation. A troubled yet talented man, he was always there but probably never really achieved what he deserved because of his temper and his addiction to booze and drugs. But, he was very, very talented. His characters could be humorous and genial but his best ones were ones who were villainous and scary!

RIP Mr. Hopper.

**************

I'm currently reading the Eric Flint and David Drake series about the General Belisarius. While the work is fiction, it is based on a real person - just in an alternate universe. I've read this series several times so it is an old friend.

Flint and Drake are masters of Historical Alternate Universes and masters of Military History. You and see that in their writing. I'm not good enough with Military History but certainly when I've looked up some of the things that they've written about, I'm able to find it when I Google or use Wikipedia.

What I like most about the books is that the characters are engaging. I like a lot of them. And the ones that you aren't supposed to like...well, I don't like them. They have made me laugh and they have made me cry. But what I like the most is that I can really, really visualize what is going on.

One of my favorites is in the first book, An Oblique Approach, Chapter 8 and it concerns horses. I'm going to pick and choose my favorite paragraphs here so what I'm quoting is over several pages:

Imagine three thousand Persian lancers, thundering up to a wretched little earthen wall, guarded by not more than a thousand terrified, pathetic, wretched infantrymen. They would sweep the enemy aside, right? Like an avalanche!

Well, not exactly. There were problems.

First, each calvary mount has been hauling a man...carrying fifty pounds of armor and twenty pounds of weapons - not to mention another hundred pounds of the horse's own armor. At a full gallop for half a mile, in the blistering heat of a Syrian summer.

So, the horses were winded, disgruntled, and thinking dark thoughts.

Two - all hearsay to the contrary - horses are not stupid. Quite a bit brighter than men, actually, when it comes to that intelligence known popularly as "horse sense." So, when a horse sees looming before it:

a) a ditch

b) a wall

c) lots of men on the wall holding long objects with sharp points.

The horse stops. Fuck the charge. If some stupid man wants to hurl himself against all that dangerous crap, let him.

...Yes, horses will charge - against infantry in the open, and against other calvary. Against anything. as long as the horse can see that it stands a chance of getting through the obstacles ahead, reasonably intact.

But no horse this side of an equine insane asylum will charge a wall too high to leap over. Especially a wall covered with nasty sharp objects.

And there's no point trying to convince the horse that the infantry manning the wall are feeble and demoralized.

Is that so. Tell you what, asshole. Climb off my back and show me. Use your own legs. Mine hurt.

Starting Out

I'm going to try this out. I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but what the heck. Hopefully, I will not complain too much about the fact that my mother is crazy - but aren't most mothers?

*******

A little about myself - I'm 41 years old. Born in October.

Never been married. Never dated.

Shy as hell. It's very hard for me to meet new people. While I work retail and am able to chit-chat with customers, that's as far as it goes. I really have a hard time going places especially if I'm going to be alone and I don't know anyone. I try...but often fail.

I live at home with my parents - I've never lived on my own. Sounds pathetic as hell, doesn't it? I do pay rent and have ever since I've held a job. Oops! Better not call it rent. Mommy Dearest hates that. She calls it expenses. She actually had me rewrite a check (while having a screaming fit the entire time) because I wrote "rent" on the memo line.

I enjoy reading. My favorite author is Mercedes Lackey. I have several others: Christine Feehan, Sherrilynn Kenyon, David Weber and more. But Mercedes is my all time favorite. I'm looking forward to her next book in the 500 Kingdom series called Sleeping Beauty.

I enjoy anime. Yup. Japanese cartoons. Which, for the most part, are not dumbed down for the audience. Right now I'm rewatching Ceres: Celestial Legend aka Ayashi no Ceres. Love the story. Not to mention the fact that the hero and love interest name Toya is pretty damned hot!

******

I mentioned my actual age earlier because Gary Coleman the actor died today. He was 42. Born the same year that I was. Really rather scary when people your own age start dying. Not like it doesn't happen every day but... Of course, Gary has had health problems all of his life. Perhaps he was lucky to have lived this long.

******

Obama FINALLY went down to the Gulf Coast to see for himself the Oil Disaster down there. I did notice something - The beach he was on was pretty clean compared to others down there which are just absolutely COVERED with oil. I guess he didn't want to get his shoes dirty. And that British Petroleum hired some people to clean up beaches. There the clean-up crew was - walking down the beach in their nice, clean, white protective suits carrying empty clear trash bags. Oh, and the beach, again, wasn't that dirty. And waddya know, as soon as Obama left, residents in the area reported that BP's clean-up crew left right after. Jerks!

*****

Well, this is all that I can think of for the moment. Like I said, I'll give this a try and see what happens.