poolboy6

This rotation is the exact opposite of last year. Not only has the nation of Iraq taken many steps forward, giving me hope for the future, but the local work environment is much better.

For the most part, I have a great group of people working for me, so my job is easy as hell. They say that you spend 90% of your time on 10% of your people. I guess that's sort of true. I have one guy (I have seven guys under me, so that's really about 14% of my people--MATH IS FUN!) who just can't seem to get it. I have never seen anyone try so hard but make so little progress.

The really frustrating part is what is at stake. Human beings are affected by what we do. Americans, Iraqis, Brits, and several other nationalities have all experienced life-changing events as a result of what it is we do, good and bad. When you suck at my job, evil men can remain free and good people can die. When you suck at my job, the wrong person can go to jail. When you suck at my job, the news will show the only part of Iraq that sells ads--destruction. When you are good at my job, evil people face justice. When you are good at my job, someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time can go home to his family. When you are good at my job, the dead may not be raised, but at least they can now go home and rest in peace. So, it's hard.

You don't get better at this job without doing it. It's not like a rifle that can be fired all day and all night back in Colorado. It's not like I can just grab random Americans and interrogate them for practice. Unfortunately, the side effect of being with one of the best units in Iraq is that we get the best insurgents in Iraq as well. The ones that don't just talk. So it's hard.

I feel bad for the kid. I don't want to fire someone who wants to do a good job and will take it very hard and probably suffer a pretty crushing loss to his self-esteem.

Still, I've lived through one Operation Red Wing, watching 19 coffins go by as we saluted our fallen comrades. I'm not about to do it again. His rope is getting shorter.

What's funny about this is that this kid isn't even the one who almost shot me.

Well, I won't take a PT test for about a month and a half, but I am feeling a lot better about my fitness than I have in a long time. I have found that my weak link is my back. It tends to be the first thing that strains. So, I'm working on strengthening that slowly but surely before I get serious about my other muscle groups. I'm optimistic.

So, I went to DLI for Serbian. So far, all it's gotten me is in with one of the DJs in the Springs and a few tips to one of my coworkers who has been talking to this Crazy Serb broad who works at the gym. I picked up Rosetta Stone for Arabic last year. I never got past the second lesson. Currently, I am rocking Rosetta Stone for Spanish. It's still waaaaay early to tell, and a lot of the words are coming back to me (I had three years in high school. The last of the three was 16 years ago) and I like the way RS works. Version 3.0 (the version I have for Spanish) is way better than 2.0 (the version I had for Arabic).

I am taking more pictures than last year. Still, most of them are just bullshitting around the pool--a poor use of $3000 of camera equipment. I'm going to fuck about more with some art, some landscapes, and whatever. I am still terrified of portraits. Maybe when I get home and around some trained photographers, I'll learn something.

Here's where I have not accomplished shit. I just have no muse anymore. Most ideas turn to ash after I write a few lines down. I'm not even really able to get anywhere with any of the gaming projects I had. Still, this was my lowest priority, so...

My mood is good. My spirits are higher this rotation than last. Even when I catch myself getting emo, I am able to smack it down and remember what's important. Part of it is some truly outstanding support from key friends back home, the other part being a much better work environment than last year. I actually like and respect my boss this time around. I have respect for him and I trust him. That goes a long way.