• I reenlisted
• I overreacted
• I developed a sleeping disorder while in Iraq
• I returned from Iraq
• I was on vacation/off work for over a month

In a nutshell that is basically it. Looking forward it will be work as usual, the Marine Corps Ball, vacation in the Dominican Republic and preparations for my departure to Okinawa. I hope to start posting a bit more often but not as much as I used to during my peak days. Mostly I just want to record my trip to Okinawa since I will be there for three years vice one this time. Twitter will still be my main method of posting and communicating but sometimes the 140 character limit can be a hassle when I want to share something or express myself. We’ll see what happens.

Anyway on to another topic. I want to say that this blog will soon be coming to an end. Maybe not to a complete end but it will evolve into something different. I’ve been working on some new projects that I plan to introduce later in the year. I’ve also gotten more into ‘microblogging’ via Twitter and other platforms. I find it easier to say what’s on my mind in short blurbs than long drawn out babble. More on that at a later time.

Well my time in the Iraq is slowly but surely coming to an end. I don’t think I’ll be back here for a few years but then again I really don’t have any control over that. I’m really looking forward to going to Okinawa again and leaving this country (the US) for a while. Alright I just wanted to write a little and about nothing in particular. It’s almost midnight here and I need to get to sleep. It’s gonna be a long day for me tomorrow. No Sabbath for me this week.

It’s not the unit or camp that I wanted but then again the whole point of these orders were so that I could reenlist early and get my bonus tax free. With that end of the plan completed, now I have to finish my reenlistment paperwork as quick as possible. The last thing I want is a delay at HQMC and me leaving Iraq without my money.

The second set of news I got was via telephone and it’s that I’m not staying here a year. Actually I kind of already knew this because it was all part of ‘the’ plan.

You see the only reason I was even thinking of staying here a year is if I didn’t get orders within the first six months. Stay here a year, without orders, would have allowed me to reenlist and get the bonus tax free. Now that I have orders, the whole year thing is null and void.

So tomorrow I begin my trek around base to hit all the widgets on my reenlistment checklist. We’ll see how it goes.

Ok so it didn’t take a weekend for me to make my decision. I talked it over with the wife and she was in agreement. We talked about the ups and downs of this decision and the ups outweighed the downs.

When I got to work today, I replied to the Okinawa offer with a yes and a few conditions. There are specific units that I want to be at if indeed I end up going to Okiwana and I hope that one of my three choices will be fulfilled.

With that end of the deal pending, I paid a visit to the Career Retention Specialist (Career Planner) and began my paper work. All of this hinges on whether I can get orders “in the system” so that I can reenlist 18 months prior to my end of contract and raise my right hand while still in Iraq. So we’ll see what happens in the coming days.

You see I have just over a year left on my current contract. For every Marine there comes a time when he/she must decide whether to sign up for another contract. Well for me it’s pretty simple and the answer is yes. The main issue is what exactly can I get for signing away four more years of my life?

My current contract end in August of 2009 but I can’t reenlist until I’m within a year or within my fiscal year. I am a fiscal year 2009 (October 1, 2008) Marine. The earliest I can reenlist is either August of 2008 or October of 2008. There is also a bonus for reenlist and there in lies the problem.

Right now I’m in Iraq and can get the bonus tax free if I reenlist here. BUT like I said the earlier I can reenlist is in August. Unless I stay out here an entire year, I will be reenlisting back in the States and have the Feds take a big chunk of my bonus. There is a work around to the time line though. If I have orders “in the system” then I can reenlist 18 months prior to my end of contract.

Well I started the request for orders procedure and submitted my “wish list”. Well right off the bat, my top three choices were denied. I knew they would but the worse that could have happened by me asking was a denial. The offer that was put on the table was Okinawa, Japan. Everyone is in agreement that I should get orders now so that I can “cash out”. So the question remains, is going to Okinawa, Japan worth $56,500?

I will talk to the wife and make my decision over the weekend. What do you think?

Since what I do have to say doesn’t warrant entire post, I have switched over to three other services that can keep you guys posted on what I’m up to here. First is Twitter which I use to jot down my thoughts at any given time. The second is Flickr which I use to post pictures since a picture is worth a thousand words or something like that. The third service is Last.fm which I use to keep track of the music I listen to. Oh and of course there is always my GMail which you can use to contact me directly.

Combine those three services and you basically have me all figured out. I do have a MySpace but I barely use it and when I do it is to post a bulletin. That’s it for now. If you by any chance use any of the three services I mentioned above, be sure to look me up.

During my time off, I received an email from work (my work mail gets forwarded to my GMail) asking for ten Marines for a working party. The working party is for loading the gear of the Marines leaving to Iraq onto the plane on a certain day. I found that day kind of strange as it would put us leaving before New Years. I didn’t think much about the email again.

I get to work today expecting to confirm my suspicions of when we were going to leave. In the formation we had today the first thing out of the Master Sergeant’s mouth was “hope you didn’t have any plans for New Years…”. He then proceeded to tell us all the information we needed to know.

So it’s official. I will not be spending New Years here in the States. Actually I probably won’t be spending it in Iraq either. For all I know we could be in the air in between countries or over the ocean. Anyway, this is my last post until I get over to Iraq. Until then Happy New Years to everyone and try to drink one for me if you get a chance.

Overall the movie was ok but every time the human characters appeared on screen or even spoke I cringed. The dialogue was horrible and useless. This movie would have been fine if it was 45 minutes of the Predator warrior from part 1 chasing the Alien.

I’m by no means a critic but some things are just obvious. On the bright side, I saw two trailers for movies that once again I will miss due to my being in Iraq. The trailer was for a parody movie similar to Epic Movie. I can’t remember the name of it so that I can link to it but oh well. I saw the trailer to the second movie at home but I saw the poster in the theater. It was for a Will Smith movie called “Hancock”. It looks pretty darn good but I will have to wait until the DVD is released.

Aside from the movies and playing Twilight Princess all day, that was pretty much my Christmas for the year of our lord 2007. Peace.

[Update] The parody movie I was talking about is called Meet The Spartans.