Been a long time since anything new went up here. Deployments kinda do that. Anyway, I received an email from our guest author who wished to tell the story of how he is dealing with the things that happened to him on deployment. So, I agreed to let him tell his story here in hopes it might help someone else.

Anyone else who would like to get a story out, feel free to email me.

Ok, so I gotta ask where did the Tron world reside this time? In the original 1982 movie, it obviously took place on ENCOM’s computers and server farm. The laser was in an ENCOM lab, Flynn had to sneak in, etc. The world itself was full of cheesy graphics and objects could only move at angles, generally.

Well, I am getting ready to head to the combat zone again. I figured I’ll try something new this time. I am keeping a private journal of my experiences this time through instead of putting everything on this site.

I have a few standard daily reads I either peruse via RSS or by actually visiting a site.  (Imagine that!)

With the 4th of July approaching, I thought it might be appropriate to list a few of the rules regarding display of the flag.  These were all things I was taught in school, but seem to have been forgotten in general by most of the population.  Anyway, you can find a lot of the guidelines for Flag display and use here, which incidentally is where I borrowed the quote below from.

Enjoy your Independence Day.

So, I guess you noticed I have a new look for the site.  Its about 90% done.  Still some tweaking to do, but I was getting tired of the 2 year old theme that was up. I got the idea while browsing Art Deco and other complex and stunning sites.  I tried to make it look like a scrapbook page with “pages written in the field” attached to it.  A complete field journal look just didn’t get me the look and feel I wanted.  I also tried to simplify navigation and reduce the homepage to a simpler style.

I did the graphics myself for this design too.  I wanted to learn more about Photoshop and GIMP, so I played around and learned.  Everything from the crinkles in the paper to the scotch tape effect.  I picked up on masking, bump maps, and other things.  Unfortunately, I did have to use the long lamented Comic Sans font for the dynamic text.  It was the only common web font that resembled the sharpie marker handwriting I was looking for.

On the technical end, to get the feel I wanted I had to go really old school and go hunting up code I haven’t even considered in years.  Things like client-side image maps.  CSS was able to handle most of it though, which was nice.  It will make life easier on the maintenance side.  Expect some more changes over the next little bit.  Mostly things like link colors, titles, and the like.  I am considering bringing a “summary” back although it will decrease the number of articles I can show on the homepage.

So now, because I am deployed and I am curious I would like to hear what you think.  Did I slow down the site too much?  Do you miss summary articles?  Please feel free to leave your thoughts.

What happens when Bunnies get sent to Delta Force Training?  Why “Cat Shit One,” of course!  This is a possible Japanese Anime series?  Definitely Adult Swim fare.  I don’t know whether to laugh, be insulted, or both.  Wish I knew Japanese.

Trailer after the jump, as usual.

From our friends 1st Battallion 4th Marines, Bravo Company 3rd Platoon, I bring you “Our Twelve Days of Christmas in Iraq.”  Its funny, its satirical, its true.  Even the family thought it was funny.

via The Mudville Gazette

Video after the Jump

I saw this and thought it was funny, especially the spider on caffiene. 

I saw this on FOUND Magazine.  Thought it was sort of a statement on the economy in a weird sort of way.  If only it were that easy to swap careers.