Q. Are you... ?

A. No, we're not moving back to Springfield. The grant pays for any IL public college and I think it'd be wasteful for me to use it all at the Springfield schools when I can get a more diverse education elsewhere and still not foot the bill. To put it this way, if I can get UIUC to accept me, I'm going there so we'd be moving to Champaign-Urbana. UIUC has some kind of quota for war heroes it needs to fill in it's student body, right?

Q. What about re-enlistment and the Army and 'Merica and freedom (insert guitar riff and fireworks)? If you get out, the terrists win!

A. At the end of my enlistment I'll have served my country for six years. I've seen what we do overseas and I don't like the path we're taking or the path we could be on should McCain get elected. The Army is a pretty sweet job if you're enjoying a comfortable lifestyle in the states but the deployments aren't going to end any time soon (or ever, beyond Iraq) and they're unpleasant to say the least. I can respect those who chose to dedicate their lives to this job but it's not a choice I will make for any reason. A career with the Army is just not for me.

Q. How long will you be in IL?

A. Well, that depends. I'm getting paid for up to four years of full-time schooling and that can be undergraduate or graduate level. I've got plenty of credits right now, I've got more from my Army experience, and I plan on taking classes while I'm enlisted so I'll be pretty close to a degree when I get out. I'll finish that degree and either go for a masters or doctorate or I could get another degree but I don't think I'll call it quits until I've gotten at least a couple years of school done. I'd hate to leave IL without taking full advantage of the benefits I've earned there.

Q. What are you going to major in?

A. Fuck, I don't know. I know computers. I can always do computers. But I'm kind of getting burnt out on computers and I'd hate to get a degree and then get a job and instantly hate it because I've already fried myself with this computer job. I'm considering other fields of employment. One's that involve being in less servitude than tech support slave. There's better jobs out there and I've got an opportunity to choose my future. I'm considering commercial flight.

Q. What's the catch?

A. I can't find one. It sounds like there should be a catch. The Illinois Veterans Grant is explained here and it sounds pretty clear-cut. Equivalent of 4 years of tuition and fees at any Illinois public college and you can also collect GI Bill benefits. I qualify for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill and all those details are here. This one's slightly murkier. From what I read, I'll get a monthly BAH equivalent to my current rank based on the zip code of the school, $1000 yearly for books, and as far as I can tell they'll match the tuition and fee the IVG pays, which makes that money free to use as I wish. If I'm attending a school as expensive as UIUC, those GI Bill benefits could be enough to live on without working. The BAH covers my house payment, the GI Bill covers groceries and bills. In a good college town, I could feasibly stop driving and bike everywhere. My whole goal here is to do what I should've done right out of high school; get in a good school, do some school work, get a degree, and not work myself out of it in some menial job that goes nowhere.

Q. Okay so you've made these life changing decisions. What's next?

A. When I get back, I need to talk to a cousellor at the on-post education center about this plan. If it pans out, I'll be applying to schools immediately so I can get a location nailed down. Get out of the Army, sell the house, buy a new house, move, wait for school to start. That's all post-Army stuff. In the meantime I'll still be taking online courses and working to get my GPA up so I'm more attractive to prospective schools. But come on, who wants to say no to a war hero?

Q. What about after you decide you're finished?

A. When I'm done with school Katie's going to throw a dart at a map and that's where we're moving. I can guarantee that dart won't hit Illinois. We're kind of itching to see more than the midwest.

Q. So Springfield...?

A. ... Is still out of the question. We'll visit lots, promise.

2007 Toyota Corolla S. All mine.

http://www.wkrn.com/node/36405

I've got to spend two hours getting more briefings today. There's a whole week-long process of getting "reintegration" briefings that simply can't wait for the work week. Thank god they're only a couple hours in the morning and then I'm done for the rest of the day.

Words don't describe how thrilled I am. I cannot express my happiness in words. I don't have the vocabulary.

Katie

This is an easy one. Without Katie I would've felt really lonely out here. I can't do without her when we're living in the same house and I can't do without her when she's on the other side of the world.

Miracleman

One of those totally unexpected surprises. Alan Moore turns a silver age comic book hero into an epic that scores the depths and heights of human emotions (but mostly the depths). Brutal but not heartless, dark but not hopeless, heartwrenching but not purposeless. It's what happens when people with ambitions create something they can't fully control.

A Game of Thrones

An outstanding read and a long book that I couldn't seem to put down and killed several boring hours that would've dragged on without it.

Ilium

I liked but didn't love the Hyperion books but Ilium is a new story and it was outstanding.

Battlestar Galactica

A great TV show that I missed because I never got to see it start that I finally got to get (halfway) caught up on.

Rilo Kiley "More Adventurous"

One of Katie's CDs that I never bothered to really listen to but when all my music goes away and it's something I'm not already tired of hearing, I notice it's painfully good. Reminded me of Katie. That's neither good nor bad. It's a great CD though.

Bayside "Bayside"

When I got back from leave, this CD was all I listened to for a month. When all my music died with my external hard drive, this was the first CD I wanted Katie to rip for me.

Dresden Dolls "Yes Viriginia"

I pirated this before its release because I had no music and the duo seemed to be popular with the hipsters. I wasn't expecting much. I was rather happy to find that this is a really good CD. If I don't already own it, I will soon after I get home.

Scarling "So Long Scarecrow"

Here's a shocker: I really like Jack Off Jill. I know, big surprise. Angsty girly music and I can't get enough, really. I was kind of pissed when Katie told me they broke up years ago but Jessicka started a new band called Scarling. It's not Jack Off Jill, I'm not going to like it as much. Oh how wrong I was. I think I like Scarling better. I have no clue what to call it (genre-wise) but Jessicka sounds even better when she's not screaming.

Castlevania "Dawn of Sorrow"

It's Castlevania for my DS. It plays almost exactly like Symphony of the Night. It helped me get through my Symphony of the Night cravings. I think I've written about this outstanding game enough.

Mega Man Zero 4

Second verse, same as the first. More Mega Man Zero.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

I didn't care about buying the ever-so-prolific bootlegs the Iraqis sold until I found all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. At the first base I was at I spent my nights unwinding by playing Doom 3 and watching Star Trek.

Lost Highway Soundtrack

Twice this year we've gotten packages from something called Operation Gratitude. Little gift boxes full of generic stuff that we'd generally appreciate like footpowder, candy, jerky, and a CD or DVD. One of the medics got the Lost Highway soundtrack and didn't want it. Not into David Bowie or Nine Inch Nails or good music. I've never snatched anything up so fast in my life.

Doom 3/Half-Life 2/Quake 4

These three are all lumped together because they're all first person shooters, they all came out within a year of each other (I think), and I've played through all three at least twice since I've been here. I can't get enough monster closets, headcrabs, or horrifying stroggification!

Steam

It got me Sin Episodes: Emergence and Half-Life 2: Episode 1 on release without involving the postal system. God bless the internet.

George Carlin daily desk calendar

Katie got this for me for Christmas and it's perfect. I'm neurotic about counting down to events. Getting a daily dose of George and tearing one more day off the calendar was outstanding.

I leave the base I'm at on July 13th to come home.

I have to go to another base from here first and then to Kuwait but the important part is that once I leave here I only have to catch a couple flights and I'm home. Start counting days. I'll be home within a week of leaving here.

Nintendo sends George W. Bush a Nintendo DS Lite and Brain Age for his 60th birthday.

That's exactly what I want for my birthday.