Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

I shall blog once again, thanks to the challenge beset me by Lauren

Well, I happened to be catching up on all your blogs and came across one of Lauren's and she challenged me to do this game of hers where I answer questions and then tag some of my own people to answer questions themselves. But first, lets recap the last while of my life.

As you may or may not know, I am back from Afghanistan and I am happy a cat in a 'nip field. The rest of my unit is back and it has been a drunken haze for most of them, but for me then it is very bittersweet because it means my time in the army is at a close, but I'll blog more on that later. Harry, Blake, Ned and I are going to Florida in just a few hours to visit Menard and see how he's doing and I'll update you guys on how he is if you guys want. After we see him then we'll go down to Key West for a few days and then come back to Fort Leonardwood. Blake, Harry, and Ned will go home to see their families and I'm going to get ready to get out of the army. I had some other plans I wanted to do, like visiting a friend or two in North Carolina and going to visit my sister, Megan, in West Virginia, but my ETS date(Get out date) is much earlier than I had thought so HOPEFULLY I'll be able to make my way east soon because I would honestly love it a whole lot. One thing at a time though, and right now that thing is Menard and then that thing will be Idaho.

And on to the game:
here are the rules:
1. post these rules.
2. post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.
3. answer the questions set for you in the original post.
4. create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5. go to their blog and tell them they've been tagged.



That picture is Dylan and I. He's from California and I'd consider him to be one of my closer friends. He is always hyped up and has the energy of a tiny yippy dog, which can be annoying, but is also one of the things that makes him awesome. He and I were in the Buffalo together for a while on the deployment and then were in the lead truck again for about another month towards the end of the deployment. I honestly have alot of pictures of the deployment I want to show off to people, but I'll get to that some other time.

1. I am the strangest sleeper. I can be EXHAUSTED and still not sleep and instead I'll sit there trying to sleep and whine about being tired. Then other times I'll be perfectly rested, sit on my bed and wake up hours later feeling like crap for sleeping so long.
2. I need to find some hobby that will actually make my tired physically. I love being lazy, but the laziness needs to be half of my life, the Jekyll to my Hyde. I need to be tired to enjoy being lazy for a while and the gym just isn't enticing enough for me to do everyday, so I need to find something else to do when I get home. Ideas?
3. I am terrible about keeping in contact with people. If you know me, then you probably know this. I may love you, but I will never talk with you. I called my family on Christmas and then the next time on Valentines. So, IF I ever do try and keep contact with you, then take it like a cat bringing you a dead mouse. It's not annoying or gross, it is my way of saying "Look at how much I love you! I got you a dead mouse!" except for that last half.
4. I can be incredibly critical of some things, like the original Star Wars vs the special editions or little errors in books and movies. This could be me and my most annoying, and I don't really like myself when I'm that way. I don't know how I get that way or how to stop it though.
5. I would die to do something in film like directing or editing(depending on how my director is. Some directors try and run the editing room, and that just seems annoying if you have a bad director) but I have no idea how to do it.
6. I may not act like it all the time, but I REALLY want to do a mission, but I am scared about how much the world will change when I'm gone.
7. I want to be proud of being in the army, but I don't want to use it to justify myself to anybody, does that make sense? Maybe I just need to find another thing to hang my hat on, too. Then I can just distract people with that.
8. I want to buy a dog when I get out of the army. Dogs are good friends.
9. I still have all my old pokemon cards. I haven't used them in a LONG time, but sometimes I get nostalgic and like to look at them.
10. I took a pass from work to play Mass Effect 3 and beat it as soon as I could and then I got to the end mission and didn't play it for 3 days because I didn't want it to end. This in no way shames me.
11. I like Buddy Holly way better than Elvis, mostly because Buddy Holly actual sang more Rock and Roll than Elvis and didn't declare himself "King" and then kill himself with drugs.


1. What is 1 thing about yourself you would change?
This is a really hard thing to say because it has brought me close to alot of friends and I've spent alot of time doing it with friends, but if I could go back to when I first got into playing video games, I wouldn't play them. It would completely change who I am and probably who my friends are but I don't think it would be a bad change. I think it would help keep my in a better work ethic all the time and I feel like I spend alot of time playing games now just because it is the only way to talk to some of my friends that are farther away. I don't know, its a complex subject, to me.
2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I don't see myself in any location because I'm pretty flexible on that, but I'm pretty sure it won't be Idaho, to be honest. The closer I've gotten to being there then the more I've realized I'm young and still need to do some other stuff in life, including going other places. Not only that, who ever heard of an award winning director living in Idaho? I do like to think that I'm done with my mission and climbing the ladder of film, but probably not directing yet, but getting up there and gaining experience and still with the drive to do it. Other than that, I'm pretty flexible to what life has to offer me.
3. Dogs or cats?
I'm a pretty big person for both of them, but I think dogs take the cake. Cats are great and will be your friend when you need a friend, but they will also be your friend when you don't need one and try and get on your lap, eat your food, ect. I think dogs love you all the time, but they're cool to just sit around near you and wait to go on a walk with you. They can get all riled up to play and run around but they can give you your space. Plus less people are allergic to dogs. Also, dogs won't lay on my dress pants right after I get them out of the dryer and get hair all over them.
4. Favorite vacation?
Honestly, I haven't been on a whole lot. Ever since I joined the army then every time I took leave then I've gone home. That's been a pretty good time every time though, so I don't regret it, but I'm happy to go to Florida so that I will have done something. Honestly, Afghanistan was pretty fun in hindsight, so let's put that down for now. Ask me again in a week and a half though.
5. Tell me a secret.
Well, that doesn't end in a question mark and if I put it here then it won't REALLY be a secret, now will it? But I'll put something on here that is a small secret then I'll message you with another and that should appease the blogging gods. I almost never go to church in MO because I hate the ward here. Its the reason I always buy new dress clothes when I go home on leave. I know it's a stupid reason to not go to church, but I HATE being around people in the military mindset ALL THE TIME. It's the reason why everyone in the unit calls me "Jesus" or "Phill" instead of "Cripe" and it's the reason why I change my clothes as soon as I get home from work and why all of my gear is in the back of my closet where I will never see it unless I need it and it's the reason why I will never wear my Dress Uniform to a wedding or anything like that unless I am asked by someone important to me and it is important to them.
6. if you could spend the day with anyone, past or present, who would it be?
Oooooo, this is a tough one. On one hand, I'd love to spend it with someone as insanely quotable and amazing as Winston Churchill. He has some of my all time favorite quotes and was such an amazing leader, but he would also probably just want to drink, and that could be boring for me. Then there are the people like Steve Young and Harrison Ford who I would just fanboy out over being around them and probably just annoy them even though I'm sure they're polite enough to stick around while I stare wide-eyed at them for 24 hours. Then there are those people who actually are in my life, or were at one point and it would be nice to hang out with them again for a day but we just never get the chance because of work or timing or all sorts of things. I think I might end up hanging out with Mark Hamil, because he was Luke Skywalker AND the Joker and he is a really down to Earth person, who is polite enough to let me fanboy on him and then hang out with me when I'm done and talk to me about him on Broadway and his lesser known roles. Tough question though.
7. Who's your celebrity crush?
Hayley Williams, hands down. Aside from being the lead singer in Paramore, she's insanely cool and not all fruity like a bunch of celebrities. She doesn't drink(because it's bad for her voice, her words not mine) and doesn't swear all the time and hasn't gotten all big headed over how popular she is. She's pretty awesome, in my book.
8. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your life, what would you choose?
Spaghetti. I don't eat it all the time now, but I feel like I could. Not only that, with Spaghetti then you're getting noodles, some ground beef, some mushrooms, some olives, all sorts of delicious things. And it's way filling for me, I always make too much but since I don't own anything to store it in then I have to eat it all and always feel like I'm going to throw up all night after I'm done. So worth it though.
9. Current favorite song?
*opens iTunes to look at songs to try and narrow down field*
I'm not really sure if I have a current favorite, so I'm going to go with Your Love by The Outfield. This song is always going to mean so much to me, it was our platoon roll out song during Iraq and started as our Platoon's roll out song in Afghanistan but was basically adopted by the whole company. So, every day we would roll outside the wire then we would play that song over the radio and we would all sing along to it at the top of our lungs and the gunners would dance in the turrets, haha. It's always going to be associated with the good times I've had with my friends and will always remind me of my deployments, good parts and bad.
10. What's your guilty pleasure?
Anime. Harry totally got me hooked on this outrageously long one called One Piece and I love it, and now me and him watch all sorts of anime shows together. It may seem stupid to you, but I sure like it. I don't watch near as much as him, but there are a few I will watch including one that we used to watch every Monday when it came out. We would get buck doubles from BK and go to my house and watch it and then when it was over then it was time to Chuck to come on and we'd watch that.
11. Lauren didn't put an 11th question so I'm just going to steal the one she had to answer. Favorite quote?
When you're going through hell, keep going.


Now, for my victims:
1. What is your scariest moment with an animal?
2. If you had to survive off one liquid that wasn't water then what would you choose?
3. What is the most dear to you, excluding living things and photo albums and journals?
4. If you were to become famous then how would you want it to happen? As in be an Actor/actress, musician, ect.
5. Did the furnace in The Brave Little Toaster scare you when you were a kid?
6. If you could change anything about your spouse then what would it be?(all my people in mind are married)
7. If you found out you were crazy then would you try and fight the crazy on your own or would you put yourself in an institution?
8. If you are ever investigated by the FBI or CIA are you worried about what they would find in your life?
9. If you were on Fear Factor and you had to eat bugs or something else gross then could you do it for $50,000?
10. How often do you get halfway through your day and then suddenly realize that you forgot to do something hygienic in the morning, such as put on deodorant or brush your teeth?
11. If you were put on "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" then how far do you think you could make it?

And the contestants will be:
Whitni Scholes
Katie Cross
and The Unholy Trifecta(Haley, Megan and Melinda)

Friday, January 27, 2012

Snowed in

Well, we had a mission to Arian a little base down south and as soon as we got there we were hit by a GIANT snowstorm. It snowed all night and all the next day. We probably got about 3 or 4 feet. It was CRAZY. So we couldn't do mission. So instead we played spades and watched ALOT of movies. To give you an idea how small this base is, it has no MWR, no internet, a TINY gym that is filthy and not worth using, and the chow hall didn't serve lunch so we ate MREs for lunch every day. Also, the bathrooms would shut down because there was no water so none of us took showers for the 6 days we were there. This is all the movies we/I watched.

LOTR(Trilogy)(Us)
The Fugitive(Us)
The Island(Us)
Spaceballs(I)
Pirate Radio(I)
Men Of Honor(I)
Cape Fear(Us)
Die Hard(I)
The Ugly Truth(Us)


I know we watched more, but I can't remember them. I was just happy we got to watch all the LOTR movies(yes, it did take all day) and there was ALOT of spades being playing and I read almost my whole Fablehaven book(last one! Woot!)

Anyway, that's all that. We're back now and hopefully I'll be back soonish. I'm getting pretty excited.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I miss my best friend

So, for those of you that don't know Harry got a hernia a while ago and had to leave really suddenly to go get surgery. He stopped in to let me know and say bye but I was planning on seeing him again in a few weeks. Well a few weeks later was Christmas and my best friend was nowhere to be found. I found out he was stuck in Sharana and wouldn't be back for a day or two, so no big deal. We went on mission the day after Christmas and didn't get till New Years Day and I walked around trying to look for Harry, but again he was nowhere but his platoon was there. I went back to my room and logged on my computer for bored time and I got a message from him saying that they had sent him back to the US for the rest of the deployment so I wouldn't be seeing him for another 3 months. Why would you do this, God? So, again, not too bad. I am so happy he's out of here, its an absolute hell and I'm happy I don't ever have to worry about him on mission and only a few months till we get to hang out again. Now it is dawning on me, this could be the best friend I'll ever have and he's in the US and I'm here and when I go home then I'll be leaving the army while he'll be leaving to Ft Carson for a few more years army time so we won't have that much time to hang out. I used to love getting back to Ghazni cause I could go to his room and hang out with him and Menard but now Menard is gone(In the Florida hospital) and Harry is in the US and even my other friends seem to be busy with their best friends. This sucks. I can't wait to get back to the US so Harry and I can go do stupid things and play with the animals at Petsmart but it's not fair that we'll only have 3 months left when I get back.

Don't worry, Idaho friends, I still love you guys, too.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Is my Peter Pan complex showing?

So, I don't want to grow up. I don't really think I ever REALLY wanted to grow up except when I was playing army as a kid and now that I know what real army is like, I'm done and can go back to being 6. I hate the idea of having real responsibilities that have large repercussions and having to do adult things. I hate relationships(this is an entirely different rant, but in short you women make great friends but go CRAZY in relationships and I'm not an RM so I'm not good dating stock anyways) I hate having to make payments, I love working but I hate bosses I feel like they're rarely smarter than me but somehow they are paid more and in charge of me and have god complex, I hate having to be knowledgeable, and I REALLY hate the fact that if I'm doing nothing to progress in life then everyone will look down on you. You know what I'm saying here? I obviously have some life aspirations(meet Chris Nolan, witness a collapsing star, ect) but when I get out of the army then I feel like doing NOTHING for a while and since I won't be able to get into BYU-I in the fall then that means I'll will have the chance to sit around for the winter. I'll be able to get unemployment for 3 years or so and I think I'll do it so I can just enjoy being free for a while, but I don't want to introduce myself as someone freshly out of the army, I don't want people to know I was in the army, I just want to be "Phillip" you know? But normal conversation goes along the lines of "Oh, I haven't seen you in a while what are you doing now?" and when I go "I'm sitting around seeing how many marshmallows I can shove in mouth on any given Monday afternoon" and you can see it in a persons face as they go "Oh...And what about after that? You have a job or are planning on school?" I don't want to have to validate myself to them, and the army IS a way of validating it in a sense to where when I tell people that have known me for a while that I'm planning on doing nothing then they all say something along the lines of "Good for you!" "You've earned it!" or such but I shouldn't have to do that. This is America, home of the lazy, don't look down on me for not wanting to do anything for a while.