Convoy through sheetz

It is funny to consider how far I have come in my Military Career. Many people do not realize what is involved, what is required of an individual until he/she is fully ready to emerge themselves in the military doctrine. The discipline, the dedication, the duty; all of these things are considered a part of the cogs and gears of a greater machine.

However, National Guard is in itself, an entirely different entity. When considering the degree of professionalism which is always present, most do not realize the fun side of the military. For example, the image to the left is an image of my unit filling up fuel at a local sheetz. All the while we are joking and carrying on about how the people around us are peaking their heads out and taking pictures of us from their vehicles. Some people actually asked to take pictures with us, almost like we were some kind of novelty.

It is funny to consider that the degree in which the public is removed from the military, while most of the world runs into it every day, both saddens me and excites me. It saddens me that our civilians are so cozy in their every day life that when they see one of us, they feel want to put us in glass display cases and add us to their collection of cute things they have seen. Yet it also excites me to know that we are doing our job in securing the future for those we love.

Just a thought.

Should we "Do the Dew"?

Mountain Dew, it will kill dissolve your teeth in 4 minutes and kill your sperm count faster than Tom Cruises jean shorts in Top Gun. However, do we ever wonder about the benefits of the Dew?

Well, honestly, all of us have to pick and choose between the good and bad of products on the market today. Is it alright to use lipstick that has been tested on cute fuzzy animals? What about leather? If I buy a Hummer will I be responsible for ripping a hole in the fabric of space and time with my carbon footprint? Possibly.

However, we should also realize that we are minute in comparison to the grand scheme of things, and chances are that 4 mpg is not going to save Shamoo from the melting polar ice caps. So its safe to consider that an occasional indulgence into the "no no" zone may be permitted.


A recent experience of mine has led me to believe that sometimes...bad is good. Think of it from the argument, "its all perspective". I understand the cons of drinking mountain dew, that is cannot possibly be any good for me, and that the calories themselves will cause more rolls than an overworked french bakery, but its not all bad. Recently I have found myself in a position where I, for the life of me, cannot get the motivation to 'go go go'. As anyone who knows me can attest, I am the pure extract of unnerving ADHD; so the recent trough that I find myself in is rather unnerving. I attribute it to the fact that finals are around the corner for me and I have a lot of stressful things on my mind.

Therefore, when I came to school one fine day, I decided to indulge my senses and buy two 22 oz. Mountain Dews from the cafe on the bottom floor of the building. The first of which was half gone within the 5 minutes of waiting for class to begin (have I mentioned that I don't believe in 'tasting' anything, some call it being a slob, I like to call it a challenge).

Already I could sense a change in attitude, whether it be the placebo effect of knowing that I am injecting pure caffeine into my blood stream, or the effects of not having high concentration caffeine products for a long time, either way I was shaking. I also noticed though, that my attention to the topics at hand were profoundly increased.

Within the hour of class I had finished the rest of my Mountain Dews and I had been ready for my next class right after.

The next class, math, was just as exhilarating as my previous class was.

(If you are easily provoked by unnecessary language then please skip this next paragraph)

Right afterwards, however, I proceeded to rush to the restroom and fear for my life as demons of all shapes and sized proceeded to exit my rectum with increasing speed. At one moment I thought I had shit my small intestine and all the while I was recanting the chant from Amity ville Horror. "May the power of christ compel you, may the power of christ compel you!" Once finished I left the stall with sweat beading my brow and a sense of horror that disturbed me to the core, and like everyone else who has had a similar experience, I swore off Mountain Dew.

Though that experience was quite terrifying, and I swore never to drink Mountain Dew again, the next day, like a lab rat who is soon to be discarded for enjoying the Shock button instead of the Cheese button, I proceeded to purchase two more Mountain Dews.

Does this mean i am a glutton for punishment? No, I merely weighed the pro and cons of that particular day and knew that I would rather suffer the consequences than sit there without anything to keep me attentive.

Which brings me to my point. Does our fear of the negative affects of common day products keep us from indulging? No. Is it our addiction based on chemical need of said products that keeps us buying them then? No. We all see our own pros and cons in our crazy roller coaster lives.

The only advice needing to be given out? Moderation, too much of a good thing CAN turn it into a bad thing. Modest amounts will prevent this and allow us to enjoy the benefits, as little as people claim they are.

FarmVille, Friend or Foe?

A statement we all tell ourselves, "I'm just going to play this for a little bit to pass some time, then I'm done.", is as addictive as the game itself. Whether it be Farmville, Mafia Wars, We Rule, or any other form there-of, the same fact arises. Play once, and you may find yourself playing again. However, this may be a sign of a deeper problem then just playing a simple game. Think of why you are playing the game to begin with.

Chances are you are playing the game because you have nothing else that you can think of doing? We all find ourselves in a position where the temptation to rattle a few minutes away on a simulation "farm" seems like the best option while in class, or at home waiting for our microwave burritos to be finished. Sometimes playing these games comes down to being polite to a friend who begs for us to help them "corral cows who have escaped". The other circumstance is that you are just looking for something to do because we have nothing else to do.

While none like to admit it, most of us find ourselves in a state of fixation over the most minute details of these games after just one time playing it. Lets take Farmville as an example.

Farmville is a game based on raising crops and harvesting them using real time for their rate of growth. "Like a successful MMO, Farmville knows how to dangle rewards in front of you to keep you swinging from one carrot-on-a-stick to the next" (Game Informer Issue 205 Page 35). An MMO is an acronym for Massive Multiplayer Online, meaning you can coordinate with other people around the world while playing. The addiction comes from the psycological standpoint that we want to advance from where we currently are, we want bigger and better. Farmville successfully allows us to achieve this within 10 minutes of play, letting us level up quickly and see the enjoyable benefits of gaining levels.

This is where the addiction sets in. Once we see where our hard work leads us, we achieve a false sense of accomplishment and there-in lies the true problem. What really attracts most of us to these simple games is that we do not feel that we are accomplishing anything in our lives and hence use said game as an outlet to fill that void. So instead of working harder to achieve the tougher life achievements, we replace that with convenience and ease of simple games.

Which leads me to my final point. As a population, our focus on convenience is so consuming that we often miss the true pleasures that come with accomplishing tougher goals. We all need to come to a consensus that we are responsible for our own lack of motivation. All of us have the willpower, we just lack the motivation to use it.