jesterusmc

so......

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:12:32 GMT

so i'm sitting in san diego for the last time tonight. went to ipac this morning and checked out of camp pendleton on terminal leave.

it's been an interesting four years.

christmas.

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:12:25 GMT

amy and i went down to tucson to have christmas dinner with her old roommate. the lasagna was delicious. enough mozzerella in it to supply olive garden for a year and i have leftovers!!!!!! amy's spiced fruit stuff was wonderful, the mashed potatoes were delicious if i do say so myself and i've been reliably informed that i make pretty good bread.

hung out there for a bit, watched a christmas story--apparently it was on for 24 hours on some channel. left at about five after we helped lauren feed the horses and headed up to meet my buddy conway and his wife alli. alli's folks took amy in for thanksgiving and were incredibly nice to her, and we wanted to see them again. we got there and i was introduced to everyone. to my shame, i can only remember that alli's dad's name is john and the golden retriever's name is mattie. then we were given drinks and pie that i thought i wouldn't be able to eat, because i gorged myself on delicious mozzerella-laden lasagna earlier. however, i found a corner to cram it into. pumpkin caramel pie is ::drools:: delicious. hung out for a bit there, and then hit the road again, this time for home. i had to wrap my presents for amy really quick and then we opened presents.

a wonderful christmas. the first of many i hope to spend with her.

christmas is just about here....

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:25:23 GMT

and i kinda just noticed.

i'm a lot less excited about that than i am about seeing amy again. i go on leave tomorrow at noon and by 2200 i should be in arizona driving to amy's house.

words do not begin to describe how happy that makes me.

i was more or less bouncing around all day today, like a kid waiting for santa. i even had a little six year-old song that i was texting to amy all day. "i get be there tomorrow, i get to be there tomorrow, etc."

god, i can't wait to see her.

we're going down to tucson for christmas lunch/dinner--i'm not really sure when we're eating--with amy's last roommate lauren. she didn't have anyone else coming down and amy wanted didn't want her to be by herself. so we're having lasagna, amy wants to make some sort of fruit dish that her mom used to make, and i'm thinking i'll bake bread and maybe mashed potatoes. not sure what else to cook. any ideas?

in other news, i've been looking at bela fleck and the flecktones and victor wooten videos on youtube for the last week. incredible band. and victor wooten is possibly the best electric bassist of all time. look them up. look up "you can't hold no groove" by victor wooten. also "hoedown" by bela fleck and the flecktones. excellent music. looking forward to seeing them in concert sometime.

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:29:24 GMT

bah.

fishing

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:47:33 GMT

well, aside from the bass that followed my lure all the way in to the shore, and turned around after it saw me, nothing happened. before that or after that. oh well. at least i got to fish.

ha ha!!!! i win, computer

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:30:29 GMT

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:32:36 GMT

hey, i'm trying to post a couple of pics from the ball. how do i get them off of myspace and my computer and onto lj without paying money?

ahem...

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:19:02 GMT

to all who shall see these presents, greetings:

know ye that reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelities and abilities of David G Jester, i do appoint this marine a corporal in the united states marine corps, to rank as such from the first day of november, in the year of our lord two thousand and eight.

effective with this appointment, you are charged to carefully and diligently the duties and responsibilities of a corporal of marines, and i do strictly direct and require all personnel of lesser grade to render obedience to appropriate orders. as a corporal of marines you must set the example for others to emulate. your conduct on and off duty will be above reproach. you are responsible for the accomplishment of your assigned mission and for the safety, professional development and wellbeing of the marines in your charge. you will be the embodiment of our institutional core values of honor, courage, and commitment. you will lead your marines with firmness, fairness and dignity, while observing and following the orders and directions of your senior leaders and enforcing all regulations and articles governing the discipline of the armed forces of the united states of america.

given under my hand at first combat engineer battalion this first day of november, in the year of our lord two thousand and eight.

c.r. lucas
capt. usmc
acting

a bad day fishing...

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:41:45 GMT

is better than a good day of work. the which was brought to mind by the fishing trip boswell and i made yesterday. also, ain't nothing like fishing when you're catchin' em and there ain't nothin' like fishing when you ain't. philosophy brought to you courtesy of boswell and his late grandfather. we went to lake poway, rented a boat--$35 all day--motored around for a bit trying to find somewhere without ducks, fished for a bit, and finally gave up at about eleven. of course, walking in from the dock, i looked off to the side. sitting in about three feet of water were three nice sized bass. i think they were laughing at us. oh well. i have enough fun just sitting in a boat and working a senko or a crankbait around. better luck next weekend, hopefully

voting

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:32:52 GMT

seriously considering penciling in robert e lee on an absentee ballot and sending that in

the ball. and my paycheck.

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:07:58 GMT

well. having finally found a dress blue blouse in my size--in courthouse bay, camp lejeune-- and had it next day shipped to me, i got it to the tailor's. between the blouse, the medals, the cover--my boot camp one is all sorts of messed up--, other accessories, tailoring, and ball tickets, the ball is costing me most of a paycheck. and i still haven't gotten a hotel.

but...amy said she wanted to come, and mom wanted pictures of me in blues. fiendishly she mentioned to amy that getting pictures of the two of us all dressed up would be really cool. in that sort of unignoreable "for my office..."-ey mom way. so i have blues now. and amy has a fancy dress. so hopefully i'll at least get pictures for the folks out of it. and i'll get to see amy, which is worth everything. can't wait for the third!!!!!!!!!!!!

now i just have to remember to bring the camera.

excellent book

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:03:14 GMT

just finished james webb's a sense of honor today. most excellent. as were all of the rest of his books that i've read.

definitely something you should read, if you happen to like military books.

california again

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:14:19 GMT

so.

i got back from leave the day before yesterday. leave was most excellent, save for a few minor disasters and some news i didn't want to hear. landed in va on the 24th of may, had family there for the weekend--gram, older sister nikki, aunt carol and new husband gary, and their two labradoodles. it was great seeing everyone, but i was glad it was only a weekend's worth of sheer chaos. gram and nikki left on monday and carol and gary followed shortly after, leaving behind a dry well and contented people. the well was fixed about three days later and life proceeded as normal. new gun proved extremely fun, dad and i spent most of the afternoon of the thirtieth blasting away with it and zeroing the 270.

amy and i left for asheville the day after and spent saturday, sunday and most of monday there. stayed at the hill house bed and breakfast, which was worth every penny i spent. the place was beautiful, the bed was one of the most comfortable i've ever slept on, the food was great, and there was a two person jacuzzi in the room. we went to the biltmore on sunday, and spent the whole day there. if you're ever passing through north carolina, and have a day or two to waste, go to the biltmore. it's ridiculously interesting. the house is best described, i think, as vastly ornate. we got about halfway through the tour and realized that we were in the servant's quarters, because the furniture looked like it belonged in our B&B rather than buckingham palace. the gardens were really interesting too. amy spent about three hours pulling me around the roses--smell this one!! ooooohh, come smell this one!! and this one!! i think i have about thirty pictures of her with her face in a different rose every time. monday, we spent wandering around downtown asheville. bunch of nifty stores there. the whole weekend kinda flew by.

after that, i didn't really do anything important. jsut sat around and relaxed and hung out with amy. karen and michael came over to visit on saturday, and the next day i had to go. sorta. said goodbye to everyone, and got to the airport, said goodbye to amy, whereupon it raided in chicago and my flight was rebooked for the next day. so i got to spend another night at home, which was cool, except for having to say goodbye twice. but all of that's done now and i'm back in cal for the present. yay.

HOME!!!!!

Fri, 16 May 2008 20:29:40 GMT

got home yesterday afternoon. on the way home we stopped in amsterdam, which i thought would be fairly cool. i mean, even if there weren't any drugs we'd at least get some beer and maybe a souvenir of some sort from the duty free shop.

real world::

guy gets on plane in amsterdam, says, "this is a no smoking airport, yadda yadda, no beer but there will be cookies and juice in the terminal. welcome to amsterdam and i hope your stay here is as short as possible."

well, thanks. not only am i a kindergartner but an unwelcome one.

so we got off into the terminal, only slightly larger than plane and barricaded off like a quarantine zone for ebola victims, to find that there are three guards inside with MP5's and sidearms.

i mean, honestly. what the hell were we going to do to them besides buy booze???

that aside, the rest of the trip went most excellently. got to pendleton and was met by david byrd--friend of my dad's and stepfather of a buddy of mine in first--who was carrying a cooler containing a bud tallboy, a coke, and a fullthrottle. hands it to me, "saying here's your present."

after seven dry months, slamming 24 oz of budweiser put me on the road to an extremely drunken night.

i love being back in the states. and i go on leave on the 24th!!!

yay!!

bugs...

Sun, 04 May 2008 23:15:05 GMT

...of the vw sort, that is.

my roommate's a beetle owner and lover. mention the new ones and he goes off on a three hour rant about abominations, abortions, and car designers who would be better off gutshot in a jungle and left on a pile of fire ants.

but anyway, i was talking about getting a car and he immediately began the campaign to persuade me into a bug. i kinda like the thought of a car i can get inexpensive parts for and work on without computers. was hunting around craigslist and came up with these

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/car/654537488.html

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/car/612433150.html

go ahead and make fun of me.

but you know that deep down inside you think they're cooler than your suv

almost home!!!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:13:23 GMT

no later than the 15th of may.

sounds a lot sooner than it feels though.

we've got just about nothing to do, now, and the sitting around and cleaning of pointless crap--pick up all the class IV material and sweep under it--is driving me up the wall. can't wait to see amy and everybody else.

oh, i did build something the other day. the battalion coming in forgot their flag holder, so i had to build them one. that's about it though.

god, i can't wait to be home.

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:41:07 GMT

Your Slogan Should Be

Jester. Love Every Bite.

The Slogan Generator

::blinks::

apparently i should be eaten.

leave

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:18:19 GMT

is the price of air fare become absolutely ridiculous to anyone else???

i mean, according to any issue of popular mechanics from 1909 to say, 1978, we would all have our own planes or choppers or something by now. everybody knows that PM knows everything!!!!

all that aside, i get to go home on the 23 of may and from there i have 16 blissful days free of the united states marines. can't wait.

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:38:15 GMT

we watched wayne's world 1 and 2 yesterday.

i have had bohemian rhapsody stuck in my head for the last 36 hours.

that's right.

i dreamt to the tune of bohemian rhapsody.

i am now ready to kill queen. and his entire family.

new toy

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:42:47 GMT

i finally lost control of myself and ordered it.

has a lot to do with the fact that the armory made the mistake of telling us they had estra mags that were up for grabs...

i now have an assault pack full of magazines.

which means that i need something to use them.

and an eotech sight to go with it.

voila.

don't judge me.

pissing matches

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:19:29 GMT

so, we're getting kicked off the fob here.

i suppose that requires some explanation. i got attached to first squad to go out with weapons and do some sweeps. got out to the fob, next day left to do the sweeps. on the way out, their CO decided to come with. so the grunts were sweeping the road at choke points for ieds. not a bad idea if done right, but...

FOUR PEOPLE STANDING ROUGHLY SHOULDER TO SHOULDER, KICKING THROUGH THE DIRT IN FRONT OF AN MRAP DOES NOT CONSTITUTE ROUTE CLEARANCE.

so we told captain mustache that he could fuck off. politely. he was not appreciative, to say the least. my CO--who never gets involved in this crap--sent him an email explaining what we do, how we do it, and how we should be supported whilst doing it. i understood it. capt mustache had to talk to every other member of our staff and still doesn't understand the email. rumour has it that his degree is in dog grooming.

now he says that if we won't do what he tells us to do, he has no need for us to be here.

i've come to the conclusion that the man should be taken into a dark alley and shot.

load capacity of 3/4" plywood???

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:28:27 GMT

quick question: does it really take an engineer to realize that you can't drive an armored humvee over plywood and 2x6's? or does the mos 0311 automatically impose retardation?

iraqi christmas...somewhat belated

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:12:44 GMT

so. realizing that i haven't posted in a goodly while, i suppose there needs to be some background. my platoon left for iraq mid-october, is currently stationed in al qaim and will hopefully continue to do what we've been doing since mid-october. which is to say not much of anything. so far this deployment i've done exactly two cache sweeps, and built a couple things one of which our sofa, also known as the group w bench--for some reason i seem to be one of two or three people in the platoon who knows how to build. other than that, i've read, played guitar hero and ace combat, gotten a couple people addicted to the dresden files, and generally done nothing.

the al-anbar province, once the most feared portion of iraq, is now quieting down. the focus is now going over to making this country the iraqi's problem. having basically stomped the bejeesus out of the terrorists whenever we can get a hold on the slimy bastards, the local populace has embraced one of mankind's oldest traditions: kick 'em when they're down. i really don't mean to sound ungrateful here, it's just what's happening. who knows, if this AO, once one of the worst places in iraq, can become the poster child for what the us military is trying to do in this country...maybe we'll be out of here before the next decade. i mean, we'll never really leave entirely, but there's a major difference between showing the flag and standing guard over the shattered corpse of a country.

at any rate, we got back from putting up force protection at an iraqi police station in a little village near the euphrates--which brings to mind a rant about retarded platoon staff who won't listen to junior marines who have damn near more time in iraq than they do in the states, but we'll save that one for later--a couple of days before christmas. upon returning, i went to watch a movie on my laptop and discovered that it doesn't want to work any more. maybe i shouldn't have named it hal. thought the camera was broken, which really put the cap on christmas eve. three hundred bucks, had it for about two weeks, and took it on two ops. finally managed to get it fixed, don't know how long it'll stay fixed because the damn things always get dirt in the lens or the motor that makes it zoom or something. i really kinda want to take a sledge to hal, but having put damn near two grand total into that computer, i'm kinda hesitant. and bouts of homesickness, which really translate as me missing girlfriend, have just started to kick in. thank god christmas is over. i feel guilty for bitching, 'cause i know that there are people here who actually have reasons to bitch. happy holidays, folks.

Maxims of Baloo

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:06:57 GMT

" If ye find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed Sambhur can gore;
Ye need not stop work to inform us; we knew it ten seasons before."
Rudyard Kipling

be nice if my boss could figure this out...

or if he could figure out how to get leave requests approved before the tickets cost me half a months pay.

i've honestly stopped caring how much the tickets cost. they're going to be that expensive anyway.

californian visitations

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 00:03:34 GMT

so amy came over to california over the fourth. she and kate flew in on the third and stayed til saturday. on another note, much as i love kate, she isn't coming over with amy again. at least not with someone else to hang out with while amy and i are together.

went to the irvine spectrum on wednesday so the girls could shop, and then did nothing much afterwards. thursday we went to the zoo. apparently kate got a picture of me pretending to throw amy to the polar bears. in a slightly related note, the san diego zoo is possibly the best thing about california. at damn near twenty years old, i still have more fun at the zoo here than at an amusement park or something like that. plus i get in free with a military id. after the zoo, we went down to the gaslamp quarter to get dinner, and wandered around looking in artsy clothing/jewelry stores for a while. then they dragged me into a chick flick--evening?-- during which i could not stop laughing. i got a bunch of dirty looks for that.

for some reason my command decided that since we were getting off tuesday noon, we had to come in on friday noon. we were there for all of an hour and a half before we went back on liberty. now, would it not have made vastly more sense to simply stay at work on tuesday for another couple of hours rather than interrupt everyone's plans for friday to come in, stand in battalion formation for 30 minutes, stand around for another hour while the staff nco's--about half of whom weren't there, which is a better showing than almost none of the officers--, pretended to do something with rosters that were finished by 1000 on tuesday?

anyway, after work on friday, we met up with a couple of my buddies and went to an indoor pistol range. turns out kate needed parental permission to shoot, since she's not 18, but she elected to take a nap in the car while amy and my buddies and i shot.

saturday, we checked out of the hotel and went back to the spectrum and wandered around for a bit. went to the cheesecake factory for lunch and got into a bit of a food fight, which i deny starting. in my defense, there was too much whipped cream on the cheesecake. then we watched license to wed, which was definitely worth it. after that we drove to the airport and said goodbye, etc. and now we're at today. which sucked. horribly.

i really wish amy hadn't had to go back. feh.