Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

Okay, the first 25 – Things about me…

1.  Big flashy trucks don’t impress me.  You want to impress me?  Show me something tactical.  With tracks.

2.  I’m not immortal…  Not anymore.

3.  I think I’ll be a hippie when I grow up…  Okay, maybe not an extreme hippy, but I’d like to wear flannel, shorts, hiking boots, and I hear that old guys with ponytails are irresistible.  (Don’t worry, I’ll still be conservative about the important things…)

4.  I like cats.

5.  I want to own a llama, just, because.

6.  I like mornings!

7.  I can outshoot most everyone I know with an M-16 series rifle, iron sights, out to max effective range…  Still…

8.  I like what they’ve done with the M240…  I can legitimately say that I despised the M60 series…

9.  I actually DON’T want an LMTV or HummVee.  Give me an M-35 and M-37 any day.

10.  If the world’s supply of booze were to suddenly vanish, I would mourn, but I could function just fine, thank you very much.  (I would miss my port, though…)

11.  Sometimes I wish I could eat fish.

12.  I can cook, and I want to learn to cook better.

13.  “The best things in life:  To crush your enemy, to see him driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of his women…”  Nawwww…

14.  I’m a geek who can gun a pretty good .50.

15.  I only want to be wealthy enough to entertain my friends.

16.  Have a plan.  If you don’t have a plan, I don’t really want to be involved.

17.  Have a clue.  If you don’t have a clue, I really don’t want to get involved.

18.  I prefer the woods to the city.  Cities don’t do anything for me.

19.  I don’t like crowds.  I prefer groups.

20.  I’ve learned not to be a pack rat.

21.  I want to be in one place long enough to watch my friends grow old.

22.  I can make the hard decisions, and they haunt me.

23.  I like to think alone, but I like to eat with friends.

24.  I never get to bed on time, there’s always some last minute project I start on that lasts far into the night.

25.  I can live like a king in a 6′ X 12′ space.

Okay, next 25, for Angie:  25 unique things about Iraq…

1.  We get our water in bottles, which comes in handy at 0200 in the morning.

2.  What takes the Marines an hour, the Army can do all day.

3.  The crows have musical “caws”…  Considering that we all walk around armed to the teeth, I think it’s because they don’t want to get blown out of the sky.

4.  We’re under General Order Number One:  no booze…  And there are STILL people getting nabbed for drunk and disorderly.

5.  When I get home, I wonder if I’ll have to walk down to the next block to shower or use the bathroom for things to seem normal.

6.  The distance to the bathroom increases exponentially at 0200 in the morning.  (See #1…)

7.  There are chickadees in Iraq.  Do they speak “Iraqi”?

8.  I can sleep through an F-16′s F110-GE-129 engine being run up to max thrust (29,588 lb/f), which shakes the walls a kilometer away, but I can hear the quite thump of a rocket being launched at us in the middle of a lively conversation (right Ed?)

9.  Ten years ago,I’d never dream to call an officer by his first name…  Now I have three:  Zack, Aron, and Terry.  (Don’t worry, I still salute ‘em…)

10.  There are no new vehicles in Iraq.

11.  Why aren’t vehicles that travel at night painted black?

12.  *classified*  But it sure is cool.

13.  There are no motorcycles on JBB.

14.  There are damned few infantrymen on JBB.

15.  There are TONS of Air Force on JBB.

16.  Most of the people on JBB will never leave the wire.

17.  Our next door neighbors used to be the bad guys, and some of them still are.

18.  Iraqi teenagers hate to work just as much as American teenagers.

19.  Even the fast food tastes like chow hall food.

20.  The advertisements on the side bar of commercial sights here are all in German.

21.  There has been such an massive emphasis on sexual harassment prevention that I’m scared to treat a woman like a woman. That kills me because I’m a gentleman, a romantic, and understand chivalry.

22.  Iraq reminds me of Palm Spring, only with incoming.

23.  I used to know how to say hello in five different languages…  Now, double that.

24.  There’s no place on JBB for folks who don’t enjoy cut-throat politics.

25.  You don’t realize that your in a war zone until somebody points out the bullet scars on the walls.