A Meme

Meme-
NOUN:
A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

ETYMOLOGY:
Shortening (modeled on gene), of mimeme from Greek mimma, something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate.

The other day I received an e-mail from my pal DI over at at the Defiant Infidel blog. I eagerly opened it, thinking that it perhaps contained one of his famous well written missives or perhaps a few of his entertaining pictures. What I found when I opened it instead was DI tagging me with a meme.

This is the first time I've been tagged with a meme in all the years that I've been blogging. This particular meme asks me to share 8 random "factoids" about myself then tag five others with the meme.

In DI's response to the meme he and his co-blogger Dena addressed the following 8 factoids:

1.) Home
2.) Dogs
3.) Fears
4.) Pet Peeves
5.) Movies
6.) Hobbies
7.) Odd Food Preferences
8.) Political Concerns

I thought this a good list of topics and decided to plagiarize it and issue my own set of responses. So here goes:

HOME

I grew up mainly on a dairy farm in south central Pennsylvania, but when my father became disgruntled with the new owners of the farm we began a process of moving around from place to place. At an early age (17) I joined the Army and the vagabond lifestyle continued. Then I adopted software development as my career and it by its very nature requires one to move frequently. Therefore I have no single place that has so seized my imagination enough to make me call it home. Home to me is my family. Where they are, I am at home. I suppose at some point I will eventually find some spot on this planet that makes me want to stay there, but so far none has leaped out. I suppose there is Northern Idaho. When I first descended into the valley that contains Lake Coeur d' Alene I was taken with it's beauty and ever since then I've thought about eventually retiring there. Then there's Alaska. It's always captured my imagination. I remember being a kid in elementary school and our teacher told us about Alaska and how people could still homestead land there. The idea of a place still being so wild really got it wedged in my mind. I'm drawn by something inside me to the wild places of the earth and as the last great frontier in this nation; Alaska has a certain allure.



DOGS

There are few things that have enriched my life like having a dog in it. As a child I grew up with mainly large dogs (German Shephards, Collies, St. Bernards, Dobermans). I loved every one of them. But, as I've grown older and have taken up the previously mentioned vagabond lifestyle I have by necessity moved over to small dogs. It's just easier to find rental places that will allow you to keep a small dog than it is to find a place that allows you to keep large dogs and with all of the moving around, who wants to buy? My first wife was pretty much anti-animal. So that precluded the ownership of any kind of animal. Mainly because she would find a way to use anything that brought you joy as a weapon to cause pain. My current wife however is fixated on dogs. She brought with her a love of poodles, but as far as she's concerned any dog'll do. So while we were wandering through a pet shop in Montana we happened upon an odd little white fluff ball. Well it turns out that it was a Miniature American Eskimo. Bianca came home with us immediately after licking my wife's nose because after all, "how could she put it back down after that?" Since then, we've added Priscilla a poodle/bischon mix and after the much rued death of our teacup poodle Coal we rescued another American Eskimo named Vivian from a puppy mill that had gotten closed down.



FEARS

I try to eject all fear from my life. Nothing irks me more than surrendering control of my life and that is precisely what fear is. I suppose there will always be fear of something in your life, but I do try to rid myself of all phobias. I fear being unable to protect my loved ones from harm. I fear the things that are outside of my control, like the direction the country is being taken in.

PET PEEVES

I have many pet peeves. It drives me nuts when someone is driving slow enough to make you slip into the passing lane and then once there, the idiot speeds up so you can't pass them. That drives me nuts. Inefficiency drives my crazy. I hate looking at an inefficient practice or something that wastes time. I also hate people that just sit on their asses and scream at their kids. Look fat ass, your kid knows that you're too lazy to get up and make them listen so screaming only serves to annoy me!

MOVIES

I have a saying about movies. If a movie has guns and explosions, who needs a plot? That should pretty much cue you in to my movie preferences. I enjoy action movies and war movies. I also like science fiction and some select comedies. For example I hated Rocky Horror but absolutely loved Clerks II (my favorite comedy of all time).



HOBBIES

Honestly said, I have too many hobbies, but I'm the type whose mind doesn't shut down. I get bored very easily. So I get into a lot of odd things. I like astronomy, electronics, robotics, writing music, playing guitar, computer programming, blogging, writing in general, hunting, shooting, medieval reenactment, armoursmithing and general tinkering. The list goes on from there, but you get the general gist of it.



ODD FOOD PREFERENCES

I have no odd food preferences. In fact, I prefer very much to stay with the tried and true. Everyone is always trying to shove some odd thing or another onto my plate but the days of being forced to eat whatever was placed in front of me ended when I left my father's home. Beyond that a number of allergies tend to limit my adventurousness. I'm allergic to garlic and mushrooms. The mushrooms are no big loss, but I do love the taste of garlic and it is an allergy that has suddenly appeared with a vengeance. I can't even endure the scent of garlic. I also am very anti-sea food. The number of aquatic critters I'll eat is very limited. I just don't like the taste.

POLITICAL CONCERNS

Well I have many. Mainly I rue the great distance we have traveled from the intents of the founding fathers. I see a nation that is growing more and more divided. The chasm between us is growing wider and deeper and nothing seems to bridge the gap. Not even the devastation that was wrought on 9/11 was enough to heal the gash for very long at all. We seemed to close in, shake hands and then immediately return to our battle lines. There was a time when being Americans united us as a folk enough that the disagreements remained at the very least congenial. These days the traded barbs are growing less and less civil as time passes and I fear it is only a matter of time until it truly comes to blows. It also seems as though there is no real party to represent the people any more. Both of the political parties represent only their own vested interests. For example, neither party would dare consider tackling term limits, true election fraud prevention or limits on lobbying no matter how much popular support there is for such things. It seems like the parties are fomenting this loss of congeniality to divert attention away from the fact that both of them are pulling more and more of the power out of the hands of "we the people™" and consolidating it in theirs.

So that folks is my response to my very first ever meme. as a part of this meme I must pass the torch along to five unwitting recipients. I therefore pass the torch to:

Sniper of the Sniper Blog
Zelda of The Urban Grind
Extreme of Rightwing Extreme
The brand new baby blogger over at Kharis Syringia

and

My lovely wife

Indoctrinate-U

Rather than typing some long winded description, just watch the videos and let them describe themselves.

LZ X-Ray

I just finished re-watching "We Were Soldiers". That movie seriously rips at my heart, what with me being an old Cavalry Trooper and all. If you do not have that movie in your collection, it is a very definite must have! The book co-authored by General Moore and Joe Galloway should also be on every serious reader's bookshelf.

At any rate, I decided that I would do a little research on the internet to see what I could find. What I found amazed me, so I thought I would share it with you, my readers.

Gen. Hal Moore is a soldier's soldier. He is a man of undeniable character and bravery. I found some video footage of him speaking to reporters following the battle at Ia Drang Valley. The quality of this man's leadership could not be more clearly illustrated than to mention that he was deemed an "Honorary Rifle Platoon Sergeant" by the non-commissioned officers of the 3^rd Brigade, 1^st Battalion, 7^th United States Cavalry. Here is a rather lengthy biography. The part of LTC Moore is played in the film by none other than Mel Gibson.

Julie Moore was an amazing woman. In the movie, you see her taking on the responsibility of handing out the death notification telegrams that the DOD has delivered by taxi-cab. Julie has unfortunately recently passed away. Here is the eulogy delivered by her son. Allow me to present a telling excerpt from that eulogy, an excerpt that shows the very special kind of woman Mrs. Moore was. It is a quote from a letter addressed to her:

You have taught me how I want to live my life. How I want to affect people. How I want to support them. How I want to be in love with my husband. How I want to spread a love for life. I strive to be strong like you. To smile with as much love as you do. To make people feel welcome like you do. To reach out and offer a bit of sunshine to everyone in my path like you do.

In the movie, Julie Moore is played by Madeline Stowe.

Joe Galloway is a fine reporter. He is highly respected by the military and his readers. When asked about Galloway, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf is quoted as saying "The finest combat correspondent of our generation a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend." That's all it takes for me! Here is an article Joe Galloway wrote about his time working in Vietnam. On May 1st 1998, Joe Galloway was decorated with a Bronze Star with a "V" for valor for his actions during the battle at Ia Drang. He is the only civilian to receive this honor in the entirety of the the Vietnam conflict. Joe is currently the Washington Bureau chief for KnightRidder news. In the movie the part of Joe Galloway is played by Barry Pepper.

I've also learned that one of Moore's men at Ia Drang, Rick Rescorla is a hero of the 9-11 tragedy.

Here's a page containing an interesting piece by Jack P. Smith, who was a PFC at Ia Drang. Unfortunately Jack lost his life in the battle to Agent Orange induced cancer in April of 2004.

Here is a web site dedicated to the battle and here is a virtual memorial to the men who died there. Here is the official movie site and this is is yet another interesting site.

I read all of this and am humbled. These are some of the great men and women of our times. They went half a world away and willingly put their lives on the altar of freedom. This is reflected best by a quote from Galloway and Moore:

We went to war because our country asked us to go, because our new President, Lyndon B. Johnson, ordered us to go, but more importantly because we saw it as our duty to go. That is one kind of love.

Another and far more transcendent love came to us unbidden on the battlefields, as it does on every battlefield in every war man has ever fought. We discovered in that depressing, hellish place, where death was our constant companion, that we loved each other. We killed for each other, we died for each other, and we wept for each other. And in time we came to love each other as brothers. In battle our world shrank to the man on our left and the man on our right and the enemy all around. We held each other's lives in our hands and we learned to share our fears, our hopes, our dreams as readily as we shared what little else good came our way.

These ladies and gentlemen are the sort of people we should strive to emulate! These are true American patriots and I feel humbled to live in a nation with their likes.

Gary Owen!