Scullblog.homestead.com

18 June 2006:

I have had a very refreshing weekend after a very long week of work. I logged 40 hours every day from Saturday through

Thursday and got quite a bit accomplished! I also managed to achieve quite an impressive paycheck that I am definitely

looking forward to receiving. Friday was my day off as mandated by labor laws. The trouble with having the weekend off is that

Amanda is working her landscaping job Friday through Sunday. So I spent the day performing some much needed

maintenance around the apartment and on my car. I also learned that my health insurance is not covering new prescriptions

any longer when I tried to pickup some allergy medications at the local pharmacy. And wouldn't it figure that the only office that

is open on Friday afternoon is not the one that can help me fix my policy. I swear to God, these people are trying to shaft me

for no other reason than I intend to get my money's worth from them. So now I have to wait until Friday morning to fix this

mess because I'm going to be working all day Monday through Thursday and won't have time to engage in what will certainly

be a drawn out argument with the health insurance conglomerate.

I did however manage to re-stock my grocery supply and pick up some supplies for my car. I saw a set of really sweet

floor mats that would go very well with my seat covers. I tried to find them or at least a picture of them online but had no luck.

I also had to get my digital cable box replaced yet again. For some reason, they work for about six months and then begin

to sporadically display much audio/video distortion that makes it nearly impossible to watch any channel. I have no idea

what could be causing this. It's unlikely that it's due to fluctuations in the power grid since it's plugged into a surge protector.

No one else with the same cable service as I has had to return their box ever! It makes no sense to me at all!

Saturday morning I had to help run some drills for a few hours, which was rather fun. Then I got to see my father and

his side of my family to celebrate Father's Day and my little sister's recent graduation from high school. She's doing very

well for herself. I always got the impression that she was rather deep in her shell most of the time. But lately she's

developed a much more extraverted presence. My dad was showing my other little sister's boyfriend the NEW

ENTERTAINMENT CENTER with HIGH DEFINITION TV!!! I thought the Omaha Beach opener from Saving Private Ryan

would be an excellent demonstration of the system's capabilities since all three of us have an affinity for war movies. It

never ceases to amaze me how much courage and fortitude it took those soldiers to make it up the beach while being

mowed down by Nazi gun and mortar fire.

Whenever I find myself feeling dismayed at the growing number of American fatalities in Iraq, I remind myself that on that one day, in that one battle, on that one beach over ten thousand American men lost their lives in a most grotesque fashion. What I appreciated about Saving Private Ryan was the realism of modern battle it presented. Most people think of fatalities in combat as numbers. Some, more educated individuals, understand that the value of that figure equals the number of human lives that are ended. And even fewer, more experienced individuals, realize that almost all of those lives did not just end instantly. Those lives were slowly and painfully torn from a body that had been horribly mutilated. There is nothing so profoundly terrible as having to watch someone die in combat, whether it is comrade, enemy, friend, or stranger.

Speaking of war movies, I watched Apocalypse Now: Redux this morning. Talk about a mind scramble. You could have an entire philosophy/debate class on that film alone. Does strength derive from morality or purpose? Is it enough to have just one or the other? Does one contradict the other? And following that horrific spectacle, I watched the History Channel's program on the history of torture. Those Romans were pretty vicious bastards! I don't recall seeing anything related to confiscating Quarans in there though. Then I saw follow-up programs about Uday and Kussay Hussein and the Hitler family history. That was followed by a program about Walt Disney World - so horribly disgusting that I changed the channel to watch The Simpsons.

Yay, Amanda's here! I think I'll give her her anniversary present early!

~Later!