Well, Thanksgiving is over, everyone's stuffed stomachs have now shrank back to normal size by now, and that last bit of left overs are probably getting finished up. I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving, that the food was good, and that time with family was fun and as stress free as the holiday times allow. I'm finally off of that 2 week detail in the 'Green Zone' in down town Baghdad, and I have to say, the end of that COULD have come sooner! One thing that was a bummer was that I was there for Thanksgiving, and the food was so bad it is almost funny! The mashed potatoes, oh my gosh, were so devoid of flavor that it almost hurt my tongue! I put two of those single serving butter things into it, a load of salt and pepper and I STILL could not taste anything... yeah, weird. The Gatorade was good though! Then again, it does get shipped over here, so it is impossible for the cooks over here to screw that up.
I also have some very good news for everyone! Now, this is subject to change, as is everything in regards to the military, but none the less, they said that we could tell this to people. That fact alone leads me to believe that this is more than likely going to happen more than it wouldn't. Ok, so I'm sure the suspense is killing everyone, so here it is: We got word that we will be leaving about an entire month early! That puts us traveling back to the states around.... late April, early May, roughly. I obviously couldn't tell anyone the exact date, even if I did know which I don't, but because of that fantastic thing called OPSEC! But either way, I've just jumped one month closer to home! I'M OVER HALF WAY DONE!
At first I was thinking, you've got to be kidding right? Well, the reason for this 'change in orders' was because someone, either in Washington or a high up Military official, was concerned that we would go over our 400 day total deployment. Why the concern? Well, because we are the first National Guard group to get deployed in this brand new 400 day deployment length. It would look pretty bad if they screwed up with the first group that went over, even if that was what all of us was expecting. To be honest, I was expecting to get extended a bunch of times. Not nearly as much as the last group from Minnesota that was here for 22 months, but still getting extended closer to the standard deployment length of 15 months.
So that's the news here! Pretty good stuff too, I might add! I'm definitely excited. Oh yeah, and it gets down to around mid 40's here at night! Man, I though that getting down to the 60's was cold, it feels like the dead of winter here! I'm sure everyone knows what that is like right about now, 20's as the low? NASTY! I never was one for the cold to begin with. How that ever happened to me being born and raised in Minnesota I will never know, but I like it a little warmer... ok, quite a bit warmer than 20 degrees! Well, I'll talk to everyone later; peace out.
Brandon
PS - JOHN BOWERS! You must email me or post your email! I never got your email. I tried to get either Pat or Doug to get everyone's emails together for me so I could keep in touch, but I never got them, whatever the reason is I don't really care. I don't even know if they are still at Brown or not! It would be really cool to touch base through an email; I'm itching to find out who's still there (obviously you still are!... right?), how everyone is, and what you guys have been doing! My email should still be up on the side of my blog somewhere... and if not, I will put it back up!
PSS - I'M COMING HOME A MONTH EARLIER! WOOT! (that's a gamer term, hehe)
26 November 2007
18 November 2007
A Long Time Coming
It has almost been an entire MONTH since my last update, and for that I apologize. I've had good intention on updating readily, but for me, there just hasn't been things that seem that noteworthy. I'm going to try and change my approach since everyone probably doesn't need a huge long post to know that I'm doing fine. But today, however, I've actually got some stuff to talk about. So let's get started.
Well, for many of you, this part probably won't make much sense, but for a handful of you, it will probably come as a sigh of relief. About 8 days ago, or so, I was sent on a special mission. The location of this place that I was going to is a place where soldiers go to 'get away' from 'stresses' of war, like an IED attack, death of a fellow soldier, etc. What exactly my mission entailed, I had no idea. Through the grapevine, however, there was word that I might have been sent on this detail because I had gone through one of those things and was dealing with the 'stress' of war.
This is by no means an attack on anyone, or pointing any fingers at anyone, but I would just like to relieve any built up tensions over these possibilities. Any information that I give out to anyone, in regards to what I do over here, is not false information to preserve OPSEC (OPeration SECurity). Everything I share with anyone is the truth, whether it is good or bad news. If there are things that I do not tell, it is because of OPSEC, but I will never say something false, I'll just say that I can't say anything about it. With that said, I was sent on this detail strictly to perform a security task for this area that other soldiers go to to de-stress. So have no fear, Anderson is... (what rhymes with fear that is good)... SUPER DUPER FANTASTIC! (ok, so that doesn't rhyme, but it conveys my intent!)
I've been basically sitting behind a desk, checking people in, checking people out (of their rooms! so John, don't get any ideas!), overeating on junk food, and getting way too much sleep. I have, however, been able to get some personal work done! Many of you know that I was going to college for 'Interactive Multimedia' (ok, so that isn't the 'real' name, but OPSEC wins this one). Anyways, I've had, for quite a while, many different ideas for games. One of which I was forced into creating by one of my teachers (a teacher who I really respect, and game idea that turned out to not be half bad). We had to create a huge paper, called a 'Design Document'! Actually, it wasn't a real design document because mine was only 10 pages. Real design docs are sometimes hundreds of pages!
Well, through my time sitting behind this boring desk, I figured it was as good a time as ever to do some work on these 'ideas' that I've had floating around up there. I've begun re-writing my previous design doc, the one for that class at college, and I am proud to say that I am currently up to around 34 pages! So, this is probably annoying boring for some of you, but for me, it is exciting! I love working through all the different scenarios that it takes to create a game. Like how will the player accomplish this task, what makes this game better than the others, how will this gameplay aspect be executed effectively to convince the player of realism, etc.
This will probably be news to everybody, but I have resumed working with SourceForts; a game MOD (modification) of a very popular computer game that a group of people across the globe are working together to create. Members everywhere from Germany to England to the US are all bringing their skills together to make a game; and I'm a concept artist for them! I'm one of the guys who's main purpose on the team is to come up with different ideas for things needed in the game like characters, weapons, landscapes, architecture, etc., and then draw them so that people can use them as references while 'building' them in different software programs. So, while sitting behind this boring desk, I have been thinking and drawing up multiple character sketches, building templates of human poses to build numerous character outfits off of, researching different artistically expressive techniques to help create the aesthetics that will define our MOD and catch the attention of gamers as a game to play!
So, needless to say, I am busy working while I'm 'working'! I hope that everyone is doing good, and people are staying healthy and as stress free as life will allow!
Brandon
Well, for many of you, this part probably won't make much sense, but for a handful of you, it will probably come as a sigh of relief. About 8 days ago, or so, I was sent on a special mission. The location of this place that I was going to is a place where soldiers go to 'get away' from 'stresses' of war, like an IED attack, death of a fellow soldier, etc. What exactly my mission entailed, I had no idea. Through the grapevine, however, there was word that I might have been sent on this detail because I had gone through one of those things and was dealing with the 'stress' of war.
This is by no means an attack on anyone, or pointing any fingers at anyone, but I would just like to relieve any built up tensions over these possibilities. Any information that I give out to anyone, in regards to what I do over here, is not false information to preserve OPSEC (OPeration SECurity). Everything I share with anyone is the truth, whether it is good or bad news. If there are things that I do not tell, it is because of OPSEC, but I will never say something false, I'll just say that I can't say anything about it. With that said, I was sent on this detail strictly to perform a security task for this area that other soldiers go to to de-stress. So have no fear, Anderson is... (what rhymes with fear that is good)... SUPER DUPER FANTASTIC! (ok, so that doesn't rhyme, but it conveys my intent!)
I've been basically sitting behind a desk, checking people in, checking people out (of their rooms! so John, don't get any ideas!), overeating on junk food, and getting way too much sleep. I have, however, been able to get some personal work done! Many of you know that I was going to college for 'Interactive Multimedia' (ok, so that isn't the 'real' name, but OPSEC wins this one). Anyways, I've had, for quite a while, many different ideas for games. One of which I was forced into creating by one of my teachers (a teacher who I really respect, and game idea that turned out to not be half bad). We had to create a huge paper, called a 'Design Document'! Actually, it wasn't a real design document because mine was only 10 pages. Real design docs are sometimes hundreds of pages!
Well, through my time sitting behind this boring desk, I figured it was as good a time as ever to do some work on these 'ideas' that I've had floating around up there. I've begun re-writing my previous design doc, the one for that class at college, and I am proud to say that I am currently up to around 34 pages! So, this is probably annoying boring for some of you, but for me, it is exciting! I love working through all the different scenarios that it takes to create a game. Like how will the player accomplish this task, what makes this game better than the others, how will this gameplay aspect be executed effectively to convince the player of realism, etc.
This will probably be news to everybody, but I have resumed working with SourceForts; a game MOD (modification) of a very popular computer game that a group of people across the globe are working together to create. Members everywhere from Germany to England to the US are all bringing their skills together to make a game; and I'm a concept artist for them! I'm one of the guys who's main purpose on the team is to come up with different ideas for things needed in the game like characters, weapons, landscapes, architecture, etc., and then draw them so that people can use them as references while 'building' them in different software programs. So, while sitting behind this boring desk, I have been thinking and drawing up multiple character sketches, building templates of human poses to build numerous character outfits off of, researching different artistically expressive techniques to help create the aesthetics that will define our MOD and catch the attention of gamers as a game to play!
So, needless to say, I am busy working while I'm 'working'! I hope that everyone is doing good, and people are staying healthy and as stress free as life will allow!
Brandon
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