First of all let me apologize, but I haven't had much time to blog lately.
I'll explain that in a minute.
Let me also take this opportunity to introduce Alang, one of my new contributors and correspondents. Alang is in Asia and I'll let him introduce himself more fully later, but he is the first of what I hope to be many International Contributors and Correspondents for the Missal. So that the Missal can become not just a National, but an International and Global Network and PIIN as well.
Alang is an artist and writer and I know him through another site. I think he is a very good artist and some of his sites are here: Old Elfwood, Narazura Studios, Friends of the Corrupt Kingdom.
It is certainly worth a visit and I hope that Alang and I can work on some art and graphic novel projects in the future, hopefully this year.
Welcome aboard Alang and I look forward to your posts.
I'm also working with another International Correspondent, Agam. Agam has already introduced himself so there is no need for me to do that once again. Given what I know about Agam and his site he should provide some very interesting posts about his part of the world. Welcome aboard as well Agam.
I'll be helping Michael of Stingray (for which I also contribute on occasion) get set up to contribute to the Missal once I get his formal site invitation out today or this afternoon. Michael has a good twist on many of his posts and I look forward to his contributions as well. And last but not least I've gotten some more military correspondents, most of whom want to post anonymously through me, due to personal and career factors. (Many of you might be aware of the current Milblog situation.) So you may soon see some posts which were obviously created in the field but which I will explain were not written by me, but will nevertheless be posted by me. I won't use the real name of the writer or contributor in these cases but maybe they will take pen-names, pseudonyms, or code names. We'll work it out however they want to approach it, and we may follow the same or a similar technique for the B-Reader. Speaking of new contributors I have a friend who is planning an upcoming trip to Rome and if that all works out as expected then hopefully he will be blogging his trip and making posts here as well, and submitting pictures of what he discovers while abroad. As far as that goes I encourage all of my new contributors to posts pictures, artworks, graphics, links to their other sites, ideas, papers, etc here as well as the normal posts they make. Anything they wish and which they think might be interesting. We'll make this place as interesting for our readers as possible, and feel free to use this site to network and make contacts as well. I don't intend this to be just another blog, but instead intend it to be a Global Network, a business, idea, and art exchange, a place to gather interesting news and intelligence on events around the world, a forum for discussing religious, political, cultural, scientific, technological, criminal, security, and military issues, and a place for debate. In addition the Missal will soon begin to partake in and even host some Carnivals. If either my readers or contributors have any suggestions about which carnivals they'd like to participate in then just let me know. We're moving into the eight month since the creation of the Missal and it will keep growing over time.
With the building up of these new correspondents and contributors, with my efforts to publicize and expand and market this blog, and with other developments I have underway I have big plans for the Missal. Hope you as readers will come along for the ride because I think it will be very interesting.
Now that I also have a couple of international correspondents and contributors I would like you to know that I eventually intend to have international correspondents and contributors in Central and South America, Africa, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, in various parts of Asia, in the Middle East, in Israel, in Australia, and hopefully a couple in Russia and China as well. So that my readers can keep up with events throughout the world from the point of view of people living and working in those parts of the world. This should also give my readers, both American and foreign a different perspective on events in other parts of the world from a point of view not seen in the mainstream media or form other sources. If you are currently a reader and feel that you would be a good candidate for being either an international or American contributor to the Missal then just let me know by contacting me.
As for me, recently I have been under a very heavy workload, have been out of town some, the wife and girls have been sick so I've been taking care of them, my bitch littered and so I've been tending her and the puppies, and finally I've also been spending time with old friends and military officers who are getting ready to be redeployed (not in the now current politically-correct use of the term, but the real definition) for another tour of duty to a combat theater.
As a matter of fact on Monday I spent a good part of the day at the house of my best friend's father. My friend's father has recently retired and has bought an extremely nice house on a golf course, but set back at one of the far holes along a very reclusive and quiet line of trees. It's almost like being in a rural and sylvan area and it is very quiet and relaxing. It's not as far out in the country as my home, but it almost feels like it.
The house itself is very, very nice, cathedral ceilings (a favorite home architectural design of mine), it's almost brand new, roomy, very nicely and tastefully decorated, clean, and I like the overall internal architecture and use of space throughout the house. It has an attached garage but also a stand alone garage with a studio room built over that, similar to another old friend's family home. My friend had invited me over after he got back in town from a training exercise before being redeployed to a combat theatre. So we had a lot to catch up on and discuss. He's like a brother to me, no, strike that, he is a brother to me, just not blood related. But we grew up together and we've known each other since Middle School. We've never quit being friends and we never will quit being friends. As a matter of fact I'm good friends with his younger brother as well, and I consider their entire family and extended family like a secondary family to my own.
I went over and we talked and rode around, got the lay of the new neighborhood, and his father prepared us lunch from what his wife had already previously cooked. She is an excellent cook and so the lunch was really good, and the company was enjoyable. After that my friend asked me if I'd like to try out his father's new hot tub, and although it was sort of drizzly and cold, I was all up for that. Personally I love going from a cold pool to a hot tub, or steam room, and then a sauna, then doing that all over again. It makes my body feel both really relaxed, and terrifically healthy and vital to go from cold water to hot water and then to steamroom and sauna. In this particular case the cold was provided by the environment and the drizzle, and the hot water by the hot tub which was 101 degrees. We sat out in the hot tub and talked for a long time. We talked out our adventures as kids, what we've done over the years, our families, the future and what he wants to do after he retries, the War on Terror, crime, Intel, Afghanistan, Iraq, what he'll be doing on last mission assignment, America and the culture and society, foreign cultures, our kids and so forth. It was an excellent afternoon. Before either of us had much realized it we had spent nearly an hour in the tub and we were both pretty pruney and starting to feel the heat and exhaustion. I was a little dizzy later on to tell you the truth.
We dried off and went back inside, got dressed and watched a show on "What Rome has Done for Us" (I think it was called) on one of the educational channels, and that was relaxing and nice as well. After an hour or so more I said my farewells to my friend and his father, got some water, and left. All in all it was a fantastically, terrific time (I'm making fun of the Rome show host) and I'm very glad I got the chance to do it. Few things in life are as good as spending time with old friends and just relaxing, which I don't get a chance to do much anymore. It's been a hard past six months or so for me personally and so I was doubly glad to have a day, or most of it anyway, where I could do little but enjoy myself.
But now I'm back at it.
In the near future I'll be writing some reviews because I've been reading some interesting books lately and I've even had time to see a couple of good films and listen to some nice music.
I'll get back on schedule starting today with the MCWS Briefing and catch up as I can.
See ya later,
Jack
Save This Page
No comments:
Post a Comment