Red Belt

I watched the movie Red Belt on Saturday. I pretty much had to, since it was George Mamet’s first movie since announcing that he was, and I quote, “No longer a brain-dead liberal.”
It was a decent movie. Not the greatest flick ever, but definitely watchable. The main reason that I’m writing about it is that I’M MENTIONED IN IT. Probably not intentionally, but the Japanese character in the movie mentions “Yamato Damashii” repeaetedly, which was my username on many sites after I got out of the Marines. It’s the first time I’ve heard it mentioned anywhere outside of Japan, so it was vaguely cool.

If you’re me. 🙂

Good Day for DVD’s

I loaned my copy of 300 to my parents a few months ago and haven’t seen it since. I finally broke down and bought a new copy–my first blu-ray DVD! I suppose eventually I’ll have to break down and get myself a high defintion TV… but that’s not in the near future.

Even cooler (well, not really, but close), Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie has finally returned to DVD. Oh, yeah–I bought copy.

I AM Metaluna! 🙂

OCS Update

I attended my final Phase 0 drill for OCS this weekend. I passed my record APFT, so I’m good to go. I just have to survive Phase I now!

I did get fairly perturbed at one point during the drill, however. We were broken into teams of six to navigate the Leadership Development Course at Ft Leonard Wood. This is a sort of team-building obstacle course, and each of us was required to lead our six man team during the negotiation of one obstacle.

After the obstacle in which I was in charge–the first one we successfully navigated–one of the TACS approached our team and asked “Who provided most of the leadership during this obstacle?” I immediately responded, “I did, Sir.” The TAC then asked the rest of my team, and ONLY ONE PERSON raised his hand. After a few seconds, three more hands went up–but that was still only four of five.
I wasn’t given a chance to address this with my teammates, unfortunately. I would have liked to have asked them NOT to raise their hands. I provided the initial plan that got us successfully over the obstacle. I listened to other people’s ideas, and decided which ones to implement. I prevented people from working on their own without communicating with the team. I supervised, or assigned supervision, at each step. I utilized people according to abilities, and provided feedback and recognition where appropriate. If I didn’t provide most of the leadership, fine–but who did, and what did they do that I didn’t?

I did eventually ask the one guy who didn’t raise his hand at all. His answer was that he felt that when someone had a good idea, I should just let them run with it. I usually did approve good ideas, but just letting people work on their own isn’t leadership–so his real objection was that I was providing leadership, he just didn’t like my decisions.
Of course, reviews like that can still prevent me from getting commissioned.

Iron Man

Well, I saw Iron Man yesterday… and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! I hadn’t realized that Marvel Comics was producing the movie itself, contracting studios for distribution only. Consequently, the usual Hollywood anti-military bias was almost completely absent.
I have read several negative reviews of the movie and, frankly, can’t agree with any of them. The acting was excellent, as were the special effects.

To maintain my usual movie tone, therefore, I will mention The Incredible Hulk: I still predict it’s gonna be a stinky piece of leftist anti-military propaganda.

Chaos and Anarchy, p. I

A user on MySpace recently accused the United States of (among other things) “spreading chaos and anarchy.” So, I’m collecting articles which demonstrate how foolish that is (I’ve been doing that anyway).

So, it turns out that for the last four years, the Pentagon has been funding travel and expenses for conferences which may result in the first-ever joint Sunni/Shi’ite fatwa: against violent jihad.

I can only imagine the untold bloodshed and human suffering which will ensue once this nefarious plot to delegitimize suicide bombing prevails.