Bye Bye Blogger

Please refer to the new/old website Lumberjack In a Desert. This one is officially closed.

Since Blogger STILL doesn't work, even after being bought by Google, I'm moving back to jrsalzman.com to use my own content management system. I thought blogger would be an easy out for the deployment, but apparently I was wrong. It doesn't load half the time, eats my posts and my editing, and is an all around pain to deal with. I have enough problems being in Iraq, I don't need problems with my weblog too. So for the second time in my life, I'm leaving blogger. Remember kids, bigger is not always better.

Please refer to the new/old website Lumberjack In a Desert. This one is officially closed.

Saddam Ali baba

Ok, it's hot. I've already told you that. But today it’s not only hot, but windy as all hell too. We have a constant wind, with gusts over 35mph, blasting everything with sand. I took a shower after working on digging a hole for 3 hours in 115 degree heat. Walking back from the showers to my room, I was blasted by sand yet again. I wondered why I even bothered taking a shower. The sand gets everywhere. And yes, you will chafe to the point you're walking bow-legged.

Before I came here I used to think the ground was just soft sand, like it is in the movies. There is some loose sand in areas, but for the most part its really hard. Kuwait has lots of soft sand, like beach sand (I know because the wind packed my M4 and M9 full of it). Here in Iraq, its only sandy in small areas. After that it’s like digging into solid rock. It took me an hour to dig a 2 x 2 foot hole 6 inches deep. Fortunately I had a pickaxe, or it definitely would have taken a lot longer.

I’ve been working on learning Arabic for a few weeks now. I know a lot of basic words, almost enough to figure out what someone is trying to tell me. My pronunciations are horrible, so I get Iraqis to help me. They generally know as much English as I know Arabic, so it’s a funny game of charades across cultures. I’ve been talking with the same Iraqi for a few weeks now. The other day I finally asked him about family, and what life was like under SaddamHe has two sisters. One lives in An Nasiriyah and the other is a sheep herder with his mother around our local area. His father is dead, buried in a cemetery in An Najaf. He had two brothers, but both are dead. I’m not exactly sure how they died yet, but they fought in the war against Iran. From what I gathered from our last conversation, they were either killed by Saddam’s henchmen, or by being forced to fight against Iran in the Saddam started. The reasons were untold to me, other than Saddam was muzayn, ali baba (bad man, a thief). “Saddam boom boom boom Iran. Why? Saddam boom boom boom Kuwait, why? Saddam no good. Saddam ali baba.” Under Saddam all their money was taken from them. Everyone is glad Saddam is gone.

I am also glad Saddam is gone.

Cheaper By the Dozen 2

Ok so I've been behind on posting here. What are you going to do about it? Send me to Iraq?

We got Al Zarqawi! It's proof that you can run, but you can't hide... (save the Bin Laden comments please, I'm in Iraq not Afghanistan)

The movie Cheaper by the Dozen 2 is out on DVD. You shouldn't have any problems finding it on DVD (should you chose to buy it), they even have a zillion copies of it at the PX on post. For those of you that don't know, I doubled Eugene Levey for the log rolling scene in the movie. It was one of the last things I did before I deployed to Iraq. If you would like to watch the scene, Yahoo has it here. The far away shots of the legs on the log (the actual "log rolling" parts of the clip) is me. And those handsome hairy legs on the log with Steve Martin when he falls on his crotch on the log? Those would be mine. They were orginally going to have him just fall in the water, but my friend Darren Hudson and I pitched the idea to the director, and he loved it. I must say I had a fun time doing it, even if it was pretty stressful and tiring. I got to meet a lot of cool people, work with some actual famous people (unlike myself, whose fanbase could fit in the room I'm sitting in), and generally had a cool experience. Oh, and if you do buy the video, turn the directors commentary on and watch the log rolling scene. He mentions a little blurb about me going to Iraq. All in all pretty cool.

Sorry to all that have been worrying, lately I've been too busy lazy to post.

Beautiful and Sunny

117 °F / 47 °C
Clear
Humidity: 7%
Dew Point: 37 °F / 3 °C
Wind: 8 mph / 13 km/h from the NNE Pressure: 29.47 in / 998 hPa