Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: rockmedic109

I can name the best day. It was utterly horrible. Exceedingly painfull.

May 16, 2001. At 0100 on that morning I ran into a rockslide on I-80 in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This started a chain of events that was horrific in the short term. 8 broken ribs, Crushed right hand, dislocated R elbow and many other painfull injuries.

That event led to me and my wife getting together, her three kids calling me dad and two trips to China to pick up two more children that call me dad. It led to the most joyous time of my life.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

One of my college roommates strongly lamented - over and over again - that high school was the best time of his life. That seemed pretty sad. I hope he doesn't still feel that way.

Thru-hikers spend three to six months backpacking the 2,150 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Many are young folks fresh out of college or taking sabbaticals from jobs they hate. Others are going through major transitions in life, such as loss of a job, divorce, or death of a spouse. Many of these people begin with the idea that they will "figure out life" during the long journey. Few actually do so. What's really striking, though, is that many successful thru-hikers have real trouble adjusting to real life once the journey is over. Rather than figuring things out, many are left with a sense of unease and even depression. I suspect that 27-year-old who saved for two years to spend a year doing what he wanted to do might experience similar readjustment pains.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

One of my college roommates strongly lamented - over and over again - that high school was the best time of his life. That seemed pretty sad. I hope he doesn't still feel that way.

Thru-hikers spend three to six months backpacking the 2,150 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Many are young folks fresh out of college or taking sabbaticals from jobs they hate. Others are going through major transitions in life, such as loss of a job, divorce, or death of a spouse. Many of these people begin with the idea that they will "figure out life" during the long journey. Few actually do so. What's really striking, though, is that many successful thru-hikers have real trouble adjusting to real life once the journey is over. Rather than figuring things out, many are left with a sense of unease and even depression. I suspect that 27-year-old who saved for two years to spend a year doing what he wanted to do might experience similar readjustment pains.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Emory Best, the guy in my avatar, was second in command of 23rd Georgia Regiment when it was posted at Bloody Lane at Antietam. Colonel William Barclay, in command of the regiment, was killed in action. Lt. Col. Best took command. He was seriously wounded and then taken prisoner. This photo was taken while he was in captivity in Baltimore. he was later exchanged and resumed command of the regiment, only to be placed under arrest after most of the regiment was captured at Chancellorsville. He was tried at court martial, convicted, and removed from office. Prior to the war, he was a young lawyer in Rome, Georgia. After the war, he was a city judge in Macon for awhile before taking a position as a clerk in the Interior Department in Washington, D.C. He died in 1912 and is buried in Macon's Rose Hill Cemetery. His tombstone does not refer to his service in the Confederate Army.

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Cribtop;

Sounds like you would have been happier taking a regiment into The Wheatfield or, more aptly, holding the line at the Sunken Lane.

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ORIGINAL: Cribtop

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Cribtop;

Sounds like you would have been happier taking a regiment into The Wheatfield or, more aptly, holding the line at the Sunken Lane.

Let me clarify. I didn't mean I wish I had entered the service for "fortune and glory." I think any student of military history knows the ugly truths of combat. However, a military career would have both directly and indirectly involved me in various occupations related to geopolitics, the military (duh) and diplomacy. For whatever odd reason, these topics are my passion (hence my willingness to devote untold hours to a certain wildly complicated war-game ).

I became a lawyer in the hopes of pursuing such a career in government (State Dept, Legislator, etc) as those fields are lousy with lawyers (even moreso than other lawyer-infested careers). However, making the jump from Law to Government was harder than I expected. I've had some success, but it turns out the way to get where I wanted to go, ironically, was to go into the military and either be fortunate enough to make the higher ranks or retire and use the experience elsewhere. I've always been a fish out of water - a lawyer who really wanted to be something else.

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ORIGINAL: bjmorgan

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ORIGINAL: Cribtop

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ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Cribtop;

Sounds like you would have been happier taking a regiment into The Wheatfield or, more aptly, holding the line at the Sunken Lane.

Let me clarify. I didn't mean I wish I had entered the service for "fortune and glory." I think any student of military history knows the ugly truths of combat. However, a military career would have both directly and indirectly involved me in various occupations related to geopolitics, the military (duh) and diplomacy. For whatever odd reason, these topics are my passion (hence my willingness to devote untold hours to a certain wildly complicated war-game ).

I became a lawyer in the hopes of pursuing such a career in government (State Dept, Legislator, etc) as those fields are lousy with lawyers (even moreso than other lawyer-infested careers). However, making the jump from Law to Government was harder than I expected. I've had some success, but it turns out the way to get where I wanted to go, ironically, was to go into the military and either be fortunate enough to make the higher ranks or retire and use the experience elsewhere. I've always been a fish out of water - a lawyer who really wanted to be something else.

Actually, I think you have a very idealistic view of what a military career is like. I found it to be endless hours in the motor pool, dealing with incompetent superiors and law-breaking subordinates, and writing pointless plans, policies, and SOP's. Then for excitement you get to go to the field where you pull tanks out of the mud, break track, get no sleep, and take a shower in the rain because that's the only chance you'll get to see fresh water. Then, of course, you get to respond to absolutely silly requests to supply equipment that you don't have in your TO&E for parades and displays for the civilians, and on THEIR day off you get to march in 100 degree heat to give them a cheap thrill. Then the IG comes and reams you for having two 60 watt bulbs in the stairway instead of three 40's that he says use less energy, and he'll flush each urinal seven times to see if he can get a drop of water out of the valve. Don't want to waste water, he says.

Finally, though, you'll get a few days of actual combat or other "real" situations. They come and go quick. You change your underwear frequently, if you have any.

Then, one day, you get to sit in a job interview trying to explain to some sweet young lady in her 20's why being a trained, hired killer for the government qualifies you for a mid-managment position in her politically liberal company. You change your underwear again.

Yeah, I wouldn't have done anything else, and wouldn't trade my military career for anything, but it's not what the average person thinks it is.

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ORIGINAL: bjmorgan

Then the IG comes and reams you for having two 60 watt bulbs in the stairway instead of three 40's that he says use less energy, and he'll flush each urinal seven times to see if he can get a drop of water out of the valve. Don't want to waste water, he says.

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ORIGINAL: warspite1


I cannot name a single year, but I can undoubtedly put together a year worth of memories made up of:

- Selected summer holidays and Christmas as a small kid with my mum, dad and brothers and sister (that probably adds up to say 2 months).
- Watching Spurs win the FA Cup with my old dad - twice!!
- The remaining 10 months can be gathered from select periods from winter 1998 to date and involve meeting the future Mrs warspite, the birth of my little cruisers Coventry and Penelope and their key moments since - first words, first steps, christenings, communions, confirmations, school plays, dance shows, holidays at Disney and family Christmases.

Family, and especially children - its what life's all about imo

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ORIGINAL: castor troy

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ORIGINAL: warspite1


I cannot name a single year, but I can undoubtedly put together a year worth of memories made up of:

- Selected summer holidays and Christmas as a small kid with my mum, dad and brothers and sister (that probably adds up to say 2 months).
- Watching Spurs win the FA Cup with my old dad - twice!!
- The remaining 10 months can be gathered from select periods from winter 1998 to date and involve meeting the future Mrs warspite, the birth of my little cruisers Coventry and Penelope and their key moments since - first words, first steps, christenings, communions, confirmations, school plays, dance shows, holidays at Disney and family Christmases.

Family, and especially children - its what life's all about imo

As a Bayern Munich fan I could say the best day of this year will be to see two German teams playing for the Champions League cup in Wembley.

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805