Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Birthday Ryan!

A good friend of mine has been publically dreading this day on his 'blog, and he said there was no reason for this particular date (Feb 14) to be celebrated. That made me curious enough to spend a few minutes searching, and found this reason (among many others):

St. Valentine's Story
Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. That was long, long ago! At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn't like Emperor Claudius, and I wasn't the only one! A lot of people shared my feelings.

Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed, not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn't going to support that law!

Did I mention that I was a priest? One of my favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies -- secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.

One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. (Not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, I guess.) I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.

I tried to stay cheerful. And do you know what? Wonderful things happened. Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love.

One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirits up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, "Love from your Valentine."

I believe that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day. It was written on the day I died, February 14, 269 A.D. Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship. And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh -- because they know that love can't be beaten!


I don't know if it's true or not, but it makes a good story, doesn't it?

Anyway, sounds like the birthday party was a big success. Ryan was surrounded with friends, family, and lots of love... just like everyone should be on their birthday.

Happy Birthday son!

Fishing is usually boring ...

I think I'll start a new photo album and call it: Things I Saw Today, and You Didn't. Most of my pictures already fit into that category, but more than a few of them are more unique than others.

How's this for a fishing boat?



No, those aren't fishing poles sticking up; those are .50 caliber guns on the back, and a SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) on the front. This is just one of the patrol boats that buzz the port here, and I'm sure they do a great job of discouraging the local fishermen from wandering too close.

Tomorrow is Ryan's birthday, and Shelley is having a party for him. My mom and dad are there, and I'm sure he'll get plenty of attention from everyone there. I would give anything to be there.

It's also Valentine's Day, another reason to wish I was home. I owe Shelley way too many special days and nights, and they're really starting to add up. I can only send so many flowers and cards before they start losing meaning.

They just completed some work on the house, so Shelley hasn't had a chance to get the computer hooked back up. I'm hoping she'll do it soon so she can send me some recent pictures. I'll get them posted as soon as she does, I promise!

Got to run, love to all!

I'm still here!

Sorry it's been a while since I posted... as usual I get wrapped up in my day-to-day activities (or lack of) that I forget to post here. I actually started this post yesterday, but through a series of unfortunate events (... that phrase should bring me some traffic from the search engines ...), I lost the entire post. I just couldn't find the will to type it all over again, so I put it off until today.

Nothing overly exciting happening lately, just playing with the new camera and learning all it's tricks. This things is simply amazing, and I can't wait to start taking more interesting pictures than this:



... though there are a couple interesting things about this picture: It was taken from the 10th floor of my apartment building and they're probably looking through our trash for credit card receipts and other things people are dumb enough to throw away. Rest assured I shred and burn identifying stuff before it gets put in the garbage.

I've got a TON of pictures to upload, but I need to come up with a better system for sorting the pictures. Now that each picture is a little more than twice as big as the old one, a little self-restraint is needed. You won't notice a difference when you're viewing, but I notice it when I'm uploading...


This was right in front of our building...


... but this wasn't ... yet.


That's about all I've got for current events! I do have a little bit of nostalgia to share with you, but I'm going to get my mom to give her version of events first. I'll set the stage for you mom: Christmas morning, early 1980's. The gift was Swordquest:Earthworld, a game for the Atari 2600. For those of you that don't know what that is, think Playstation but with the graphical power of Pong (I know... another geek reference that probably went over most everyone's head). For a visual reference, here's a screenshot of one my favorite Atari 2600 games, Adventure:



While I was searching for that picture, I found a website that had an exact duplication of this game available to play using Flash on the website!

And now a screenshot from a current game on the Playstation:



Just a slight improvement... hmm? Well I just picked up the Atari Anthology which has over 80 games from Atari 2600 on it. That's where I saw the Swordquest games (Earth/Fire/Waterworld), and reminded me of that Christmas morning, so, there you go mom. Let's hear your version of the events of that Christmas, either in the comments here, or email it to me. Then I'll give my version.

By the way, it's only 9 more days until the little guys birthday ... I think it's some kind of holiday too, I don't remember. I'll have to check my calendar.

Love to all!

I'm a REBEL!

Out with the old:



In with the new:



I've taken a ton of pictures already, but nothing that I'm ready to upload yet... But trust me when I tell you, this thing is simply amazing.

More later, too tired (and a little sick) at the moment.

Here's a thought, harass Shelley to update http://grattan.us! She's got things to say... namely how I haven't even been gone 3 months yet and she's already tearing down WALLS in the house! WHOLE WALLS! Sheesh! ;)

Love ya all!

Terrorists EVERYWHERE!!!

So I was on my way to work the other morning, being my usual vigilant self, when I spotted a SUBURBAN full of TERRORISTS!!! There was at least 10 of them in there, all looking at me ... giggling and pointing. Silly terrorists! Fortunately, I was able to take a quick picture for dissemination amongst my fellow contractors.



Ain't terrorists cute???

Actually this was very funny. I was waiting at an intersection, with the stereo playing much too loud, when I looked over and saw the cutie in the very back with the bow in her hair smiling and waving. I waved back, and when the other girls saw me they all started giggling and waving too. I grabbed my camera as fast as I could and took the picture. The girl in the front (about 8 years old.. unfortunately I missed her in the pic) said "I LIKE YOUR CAR!". I said "thanks!", then, "How many are in there?" and she just gave me an exasperated look and said, "A LOT!".

Such is my surreal life...

If you've been watching the news in Kuwait, there's been some recent "activity" that has gotten everyone stirred up. Firefights, raids, car chases, searches, etc... The front page of the Arab times shows a Saudi man that was killed in the most recent raid, splayed out and bloody for all terrorists to see and fear! Yes... that's sarcasm you're smelling. Local law enforcement is a complete joke, and these raids finding "explosives and weapons" are more for public relations than anything else. If you do a news search for Kuwait you'll find some interesting accounts of recent events. If you follow the stories backwards, you'll see wildly varying accounts, and very vague descriptions of offenses and proof.

I guess my point here is that it's pretty much status quo here. There have always been a smattering of anti-US feelings here, but it's only been recently that the Kuwait government has felt they need to make a show of "vowing to exterminate terrorists". Hey, HERE's a thought... why don't you try improving your immigration policies and make it just a LITTLE difficult for terrorists to operate here? Just a suggestion. :P

Enough about that crap... on to good news:

Looks like September 2005 is going to be a GREAT month for me! Talk about some great birthday presents: the Firefly movie will be out September 30th, and until then, I can enjoy The Titus Show on DVD!!! The first two seasons will be released on September 5th... 31 episodes! WOO HOO!

Ok, that's all I've got for now. I finally broke down and bought a "real" camera. I was hunting on eBay for something else, and came across this package. It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but it comes with a ton of extras, and I've been wanting this one for a long time. I know I swore I was done buying "toys", but this is something I can actually justify... I mean just LOOK how cute this kid is!

Two killed, two wounded in Kuwait shooting

And now we're being told that they have "credible information" saying that an individual or individuals are driving around in black sedans and plan on "randomly attacking westerners".

I don't want to sound like I'm not concerned, or taking this lightly, but this is getting out of control. I was in Hawally last night; business as usual. There are rumors flying around, yet I ate dinner in Kuwait City, went shopping down in Hawally, then went to the Hard Rock Cafe here. All this "amidst an Embassy warning" ... blah blah blah.

These people are doing exactly what the terrorists want: to make everyone jump at shadows and loud noises. Terrorists get credit for every little "bad" thing that happens, and they're just sitting back and enjoying the fruits of old labor. Nice job people.

I have a lot more to rant about, and other assorted things, but I'm too tired right now. I'll try to post more tomorrow.