The Middle Eastern Tiger Woods.....not!!

How's it going everyone? I kept pretty busy the day after Thanksgiving. One of the perks of being over here in the Middle East is that you don't have to worry about those damn Christmas shoppers at the mall. Friday afternoon I went driving through downtown Doha and it was not that bad. There wasn't much traffic on the road so I didn't have to worry about crazy Qatari drivers going all over the place. It was strange to drive through the downtown area though, and not see many of the shops open. I guess they don't open till late in the afternoon.

After wandering aimlessly through the city we linked up with the civilian, who works in our office, and one of his local friends to play some golf. Now I had just planned on driving golf balls over at the driving range but instead I ended up just driving the cart around. It was actually fun to drive the cart around. Watching the others golf I realized that I actually enjoyed golf a little bit. They were hitting the ball real well and even making some nice putts. It made me want to get some golf clubs when I get back to Atlanta, just so I could go play some rounds of golf every now and then. I think the next time we go out to the course, I will attempt to play. Now I won't be awesome at it but I hopefully can hold my own out there. By the way if you ever have the chance to play at the Doha Golf Club I would recommend doing it in the afternoon. By the time dusk hits, one of the holes provides a scenic picture of the city. It's an awe inspiring pic. Too bad I forgot my camera LOL.

Inspired Thanksgiving

Well ladies and gentlemen, I hope your Thanksgiving was as good as mine. This was my Thanksgiving in the middle of a war and a deployed environment and I have to say it was pretty kick ass. There was much food to be devoured. We had lobster, prime rib, turkey, ham, and all of the side dishes one would expect at a Thanksgiving dinner. The higher ups were the ones who were serving the food and they did an excellent job. Hell some of them even inspired me to become an officer or maybe even reenlist. It was good to see the folks who had their families out here enjoying themselves. It was much unlike the Thanksgiving I had posted of in one of my previous posts. The only thing that sucked about beig out here though was when the football games started. Normally I'm use to being able to eat and watch the game. Not this time. I had to wait several hours to catch the games, but it was worth it.

Currently I'm suppose to be participating in the Commander's Cup (a campwide sports event)in both volleyball and swimming. Now volleyball I have no problem with cause I've played it on and off for many years, since going to U of Hawaii. The swimming though is kicking my ass. The last time I actually swam was back in 2002 and that was cause I was surfing. We are required to swim a 200m leg and it's just overwhelming to me. But I like that it's so challenging because it makes me want to get out there and get it done.

I'm almost done with my application to get my new apartment and I just want to thank the people at Promove. I just want to thank them so much and recommend that they start putting more shops in other regions. This is a pretty good service and save's me alot of headache trying to find an apartment, since I'm deployed, and it's free. FREE!!!!!! Can't beat that. Well that's all for now. I'm hungry as hell and it's time to go chow down. See ya'll later.

Time for a new video

Okay guys I think I've had the Tiesto "Adagio for Strings" up for a little while. I'm trying to decide which video to put up next. If you have any you would like to see up let me know. Personally I'm thinking of putting up Bloc Party's "Two More Years".

Gobble Gobble

Well Thanksgiving (in the US) is coming up and unfortunately I'm not with my family to celebrate it. But it doesn't matter cause I missed the Candian one as well. Now this is the first time that I've been away on a deployment and have missed several holidays and it really doesn't feel too bad. I know that I should probably be with the family to celebrate the holidays but I'm not particularly aching for it. I'm kind of getting the "Been there, done that" attitude. The holidays just seem to old and commercial. I mean yeah to be there with the family is good and everything, but I really don't want to hear about the problems that you've been having, and have already emailed me numerous times about. Face it, if you haven't gotten them fixed by now it's probably going to take a little bit longer to take care of those problems. I'm not even going to start on the failed New Year's resolutions. Needless to say I've never put much stock in them and I still don't. Well this ends my holiday rant.

Yesterday I bought NCAA March Madness '06 and I just want to tell EA Sports that once again you have let me down. You have so jacked this series up that it's not even funny anymore. For example I'm playing a Classic Game between the Dominique Wilkins Georgia Bulldogs vs. Michael Jordan's North Carolina. Now my team has the better overall ratings in FG shooting and everything else, yet I can't even make a simple 14 foot jump shot. And why is the shooting rhythm so off. You guys better pay attention to ESPN College Hoops. They know how to get it done and they even offer the game at a cheaper rate. You guys might want to take next year off and figure out what is going wrong.

Qatar Pics

Here are some more photos of Qatar. Some of the water shots remind me of Waikiki.

One of my pet peeves (be forewarned some offensive language is included in this post)

Ok ladies and gentelmen I have to disclose one of my biggest peeves that I have with the military machine. Now I know that I'm a soldier and I shouldn't be talking bad, but this peeve has gone on for far too long.

Now we being America's military and diplomatic envoys are suppose to be a shining example of all that America has to offer. But I wonder if one of the values that we are exporting is racism. Now your probably wondering how can the military be viewed as racist? Blacks, Whites, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and various other races are all in the military so there is no way we can be racist. Well I would say your right and wrong. Here's why. Since I've here in the Middle East all I ever hear from military members when it comes to identifying the Third Country Nationals (TCNs) is Haji. Now I don't know how they got this name and why it would apply to them, when many of them aren't from the Arabic peninsula. Many come from India, Pakistan, the Phillipines, and elsewhere.

This has been really getting on my nerves only because everywhere I go I hear this term. So hear is what I'm thinking of doing, jokingly of course but it may help people to realize how their actions are, I'm going to call each person who I hear that from a racist name. So if they are Black they will get nigger, White people I will refer to as either cracker or honky, Asians will get either slant-eye, or yellow boy or girl, and Hispanics will get wetback.

Now I'm not a racist or anything but you know if I was to ever really call someone by these terms they would get offended. So how about we go ahead and take a look inside of ourselves and figure out whether we should still be calling these TCNs Haji. And if you think so then you really need to get a grip on reality.

Now if you have any comments on this I ask you to post them. I think this is a discussion that really needs to be out there.

Oh and by the way I now know where the term Haji comes from. It refers to those Muslims who have made the trip to Mecca. Now I'm not sure if the Hindi, Filipinos, and others get this term.

Why me?

Well yesterday evening sucked camel butt to the highest extent possible. First it started with a supposed jaunt down to the mall being cancelled. I didn't care too much about that since I'm going to be here for so long and it will always be there. But I go down to my room and start playing Socom Navy Seals 3. Lo and behold though all of my game data is nowhere to be found. Friggin outstanding. So I start going back through the game so I can use the crosstalk feature and then the game freezes. (Sony you need to fix this quick cause it's happened with my NBA Live '06). At this time I'm kind of upset cause I was doing real well on the game. I then decided to watch TV and Road to Perdition is on. Now I've never been able to watch this movie due to deployments, DJing, and just not enough time to go to the movies. Well right in the key portion of the movie the cable goes out. That is when I almost hit the roof. How many things can go wrong in a single day? It looks like a lot can. Than to add insult to injury my alarm doesn't go off this morning, which results in me not being able to get to Physical Training on time. Well other than not waking on time my morning seems to be going very well, for right now LOL.

I think I've found my new internet craze. It's called Yahoo 360. It's hilarious cause it seems to be where people go to post their "special pictures". LOL Well I've got to go eat so I will see ya'll later.

My new additions

Well folks, I've been busy with work again. But I've also been busy with checking out new video games. Recently I've bought the following games:

Battlefield 2 PS2
Socom Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo PSP
Socom Navy Seals 3 PS2
Star Wars Battlefront 2 PSP
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories PSP


All of these games are pretty good and also addictive. My favorite game so far is Fireteam Bravo, only because I can unlock some items on the PS2 Navy Seals game. It's interesting how it works (the crosstalk feature). You basically play a level on the PSP game and then you can just hook up your PSP to the PS2, via a mini B USB cable, and bingo. I have Madden 06 for both PSP and PS2 which basically allows you to work on your franchise season on both systems, making it very handy.

Battlefield 2 is cool because you can basically play a myriad of soldiers and utilize many vehicles. This is possible by a move, which reminds me of the Matrix movies, where you basically point and hit the square button and it changes you to that guy. Now some of the AI could be better, but all in all it's pretty good. Another cool item, I might add, is that near the end of the game you can choose to play as either the NATO or Chinese forces.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is okay, when they start selling the PS2 version out here then, I'll be much more enthusiastic. My only gripe is the controls for the personnel on this game. For the PSP your basically using the triangle, square, x, and circle buttons to move your sights. Now there are other settings but I don't like using anything but default settings to play some of these games.

I haven't really gotten a chance to play GTA much. But I can say this beyond a reasonable doubt, it looks excellent. And it seems to run smooth. Once again Rockstar North, Leeds, and whoever else was involved in this game have earned another multimillion dollar game. Everything is kickass with this game from the music featuring "Spin Spin Sugar Armand Van Helden Remix" by Sneakerpimps and some tracks from the Lox, to the graphics. If I didn't know better I would swear that this is running off the PS2 onto my TV (albeit a miniature TV).

Well that is all for now time to go to the bathroom and play some Fireteam Bravo.

Aspirations

Well folks, I know it's been awhile since I've posted so here goes.

I'm currently working on my movie idea. I researched the price of HD Digital Video Camera's and I am amazed that they are within my price range. I'm debating now which one I really want to get. It's between either Sony, JVC, or Canon. So if anyone out there knows anything about these brand of cameras please let me know.

Now you may be asking, why do I want to make a movie? Well just like blogging, I have a story to tell and I think I could do it and be good at it, with practice of course. I've always been intrigued by moviemaking because I've always believed that I could tell a better story and even present it better as well. When I get back to Atlanta I know I'm going to be so busy working on this movie and also getting the necessary equipment for it. I have seen the light and have decided to go to Apple. Everything I've seen about the Apple products has just wowed me. I have the Ipods and now just need to get the computer.

I'm also pondering running for a political office. I think I would start out in Atlanta on one of the city commissions. I've always wanted to experience what it would be like to run for a political office. So when I get back I plan on doing that. I don't think I will get too many votes but I would just like to try it out and experience it. Well that is all for about now. I will try to keep you regularly posted.

Trip to Qatari Ruins

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. The past couple of weeks have been kind of hectic. Ramadan was finished and Eid began. Because of Ramadan finishing up we are now allowed to go visit places during the day. On 5 November we decided to visit some ancient Qatari ruins. It was pretty fun. Not too many people were out at the ruins and it was pretty cool to see their relation to the country. While we were traveling up we saw a camel just out grazing. Then a little ways down the road we visited the camel racing track. This track was huge. I'm so used to seeing horse racetracks and they had nothing on this one. It took us awhile after viewing all of this to get up to the fort but when we did it was worth it. I will try to post the pics of the fort on here so you can check it out. It was rather small and I found it amazing that 100 people, livestock, and weapons for all could be placed in this structure. My only gripe though was that I kept getting attacked by damn flies every so often and my digital video camera was acting up.

Shortly afterwards we then headed a a old town at Qatari Historical Marker #25. It was pretty cool to see how they use to build their houses. It seems that what they would do is get rocks and stack them together to form a wall. Then after this was done they would take cement and pour it over the rocks forming the wall. I don't know what the roofs were made of, since many of the places were in such disrepair that there really was no place for the roof to go but into the ground, but if they were like the ones at the fortress. Than they were made of wood and thatch with a cement cover. Well that is all for now enjoy the pics.