Hardcore Robot

Hola amigos. Random thoughts ahead.

+ I emailed my friend a while back. I haven't heard from him in over a year (though I was in boot camp/MCT and he was in Qatar for a good chunk of it), and I wanted to touch base, but he hasn't responded. Now I am worried and/or concerned.

+ Friday is the MCSB Co. B Marine Corps Birthday Ball. Its a big, big deal, and pictures are sure to follow. I'm looking forward to it. I spent the last birthday at boot camp, which I would imagine is significantly less fun.

+ I've now been in the Marine Corps over 1 year.

+ I have duty Saturday, which I don't mind at all. Get a few books and some DVD's from Blockbuster and 24 hours of duty just flies by.

+ I've been going to the gym a lot lately and my hips have yet to explode in protest. About damn time they heal.

+ I am going back to Cleveland for Thanksgiving and I can not wait. I miss my puppies so much. Really I just want to see them and eat turkey, and the visiting the family is secondary. :) In all honesty, I missed most of the major holidays last year and it'll be good to re-connect with all the tradition I wasn't around for. And pie. It'll be good to eat pie again.

+ While in Cleveland I'm going to go on a downloading spree. My wifi connection that I'm picking up off of some random stranger is tenuous at best, and does not allow for the downloading of anything. There are a number of shows I'd like to catch up on (Weeds, Friday Night Lights). I may or may not have made a list.

+ Barbara Kingsolver's new book came out yesterday. She wrote The Poisonwood Bible which is tied as my #1 book of all time. I was going to wait for paperback, but Borders kindly sent me a 40% off coupon, so I'm going to pick it up tomorrow.

+ I'm currently reading The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell which is hilariously snarky and historically informative and I suggest it to anyone who might be into snark/history/or pilgrims.

+ I'm in the middle of taking a month long networking class off base. Two weeks ago I got word from SSGT when he said 'Monday morning you are starting a class.' I don't know much about networking and am only there because they needed to fill seats, but whatever. So far it is incredibly boring and filled with binary. None of it is classified information though, so I can immediately call my brother and bitch to him about what we are learning. That is a significantly harder prospect when one is taught something you can't talk about with people who aren't 'need to know.'

+ TV shows are going great. I watched V last night. It was alright. Had some boring moments, but it was only an hour long show, so I'll tune in again next week. I wish they hadn't shown the 'this season on V' promo during the end credits though because it totally ruined one character not being dead. Lame, ABC. Lame. I am also looking forward to the return of Fringe and Bones now that the World Series is over (fucking yankees).

+ I think that is it.

[edited because 'maked' isn't a word]

"A red-headed boy peed on her eye?" might be the best line of any show ever.

I'm glad tv season is in full swing. NCIS was tonight, and my opinion of it was similar to my opinion of last nights How I Met Your Mother; Eh, could have been better, could have been worse On NCIS I didn't care for the re-cap feel of the episode, but DiNozzo had some great lines so it was alright. And with HIMYM it wasn't as hilariously funny as it can be. Perhaps my high expectations from the show for comedic genius are getting in the way of enjoyment.

Tomorrow is Glee and Top Chef.

Welcome to TV Dorkdom, population: me.

I was going to type up this big long post talking about TV. But I got half way through it and thought better of it, so to sum it up:

-Yay return of tv.

-Glee is the only new show I'll be watching.

-Fringe is my favorite show of the moment.

I have duty on Saturday, which is fine with me, as I planned on spending the entire day watching football. Now I just have to do it while in uniform.

Tennessee vs. UCLA (go Vols)
Notre Dame vs. Michigan (go Irish)
Ohio State vs. USC (go Bucks)

Quite a day, huh?

There is absolutely nothing else going on in my life besides that.

- I'm going to Cleveland next weekend for Labor Day. I'm considering getting that tattoo I was talking about a few months back during that time.

- I caught up (as much as I could) with Fringe. It got pretty good near the end of the season. Better than the first half, IMO.

- I miss Life.

Continuing the ever boring yet epic saga that is the degeneration of my hips, I thought I was getting better, but I was in fact mistaken. I'd complain more about it but a while back I had a terminally ill cancer patient ask me 'how are your legs?' and it sort of put my piddly little injury into perspective.

Brit tagged me to do this question-y thing, so I'm going to do it for fear of her hunting me down and smacking me upside the head for not doing what she says.


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firstly: if you've been tagged, you must write your answers in your own el-jay & replace any question that you dislike with a new, original question.

secondly: tag 8 people. don't refuse to do that. don't tag who tagged you.

who sleeps in bed next to you? nobody

what's your all time favourite book? Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver or Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

what kind of magazines do you read? I don't read many but when I do it is usually Entertainment Weekly. I like Popular Mechanics too though.

what's your occupation? I am a United States Marine

what's really creepy?

what websites do you always visit when you go online? msnbc, cnn, wonkette, jezebel, salon, scifiscoop, boingboing, and of course facebook

if you could change your name to anything what would it be? I wouldn't. I like my name. Weirdly spelled Catie and all.

what are you listening to right now? Bugs making noises outside.

what are you most excited for? I'm looking forward to the start of the womens college basketball season.

what is your favourite item of clothing? I bought the coolest shoes ever last week. I'd have to say those.

what was the last thing you bought? Lunch this afternoon - a chicken salad and milk.

what was the best thing you've seen today? The trailer for Capitalism.

does the weather affect your mood? Not really.

what is your zodiac sign? Capricorn. I'm a goat. Or a Caprican, if you will :)

do you want to learn another language? I would love to but I took spanish for 6 years and have lost nearly all of it, so I don't think there is much hope for me.

5 things you can't live without; internet, ipod, my Jeep, my Blackberry, and Pepsi Cola.

do you have any siblings? Yep.

what's something you'd like to say to someone right now? I wish you didn't automatically assume that because I have a car it is my responsibility to drive you places.

do you have to pee? No.

say something to the person who tagged you I just watched the finale of BN and man oh man do I love that show.

Brian Singer is directing a Battlestar Galactica feature film that is a complete reimagining of the series and in no way based on the first show, or Ron Moores version.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. I like what he did with X-Men and X2, but disliked his version of Superman. And dude... Ron Moore's BSG is epicly awesome.


ETA: I bought the best shoes ever!

http://www.shoeteria.com/products2.cfm?ID=21894

I'm in Cleveland.

I drove 1000 miles straight to get here. All by my lonesome.

Needless to say, I graduated MOS school. I officially have a job in the Marine Corps. I have to report to my next duty station (Ft. Meade Maryland) by 30 July, and should be stationed there for about 3 years. I'm pretty sad I wont be seeing anyone in my class anymore. I grew pretty close to a few of them.

We had our class dinner on Wednesday to celebrate and we went to this crazy Irish place that had dollar bills hanging from the ceiling and stapled to every damn surface. And I say this and I'm sure you think 'oh neat, dollar bills.' But no. You dont get how many dollar bills there were. So I'm including a picture.

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I got promoted to Lance Corporal today.

I am not in fact in Ohio like I should be.

I missed my flight, which was totally my fault. But it was only because if you don't check in at least 30 minutes before the flight boards, the airline cancels your ticket. That part I didn't know, and I consider myself a seasoned air traveler. Silly me thinking I didn't need a lot of time to get through tiny ass Pensacola Regional Airport.

Anyway, no wedding for this kid.

I'm thinking of getting another tattoo.

Will 5 tattoos officially make me super trashy, or completely awesome? Thoughts?



I'm going to Cleveland this Friday for Tommy's wedding and returning Sunday. Pictures will no doubt follow.

if there is one person (or more) on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist & who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

My life, as it goes recently:

+ I'm scheduled to graduate at the end of July. I can take up to 10 days off after that, then I'll be stationed in the DC area for the next 2-3 years. I wanted to go to Hawaii, and should have, but was told I could not, due to the fact that my hips are that of an old woman and I am undeployable. So it goes.

+ I've done quite a bit of television watching. Or at least as much as I can do only watching shows on the weekends. But I have managed to catch up on:
Lost - wtf on so many levels,
NCIS - slightly wtf on that last scene in the finale,
The L Word - eh,
True Blood - has the potential to be so much better, and
Burn Notice - still an awesome fun show.
I also started watching Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and still have to watch a few other shows that I can't remember off the top of my head. Also, I might watch The Wire if I ever get around to it, because I hear good things.

+ Tommy's wedding is June 27th so I'll be flying to Cleveland for 2 days and flying back. It's sort of a waste of money to do so, but I'm a good step-sister.

+ School is going ok, but some parts of it make me want to claw my eyeballs out (staring at black and white bits, or binary coding anyone?) But I can with full honestly tell someone "I can't talk about it." when they ask what I do for a living, so thats something.

+ I'm hoping to get promoted next month. Wish me luck.

A state of the Catie update.

Firstly, go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7317701

Secondly, I got off my crutches. Yay. My hips seem to be getting better so that is good. Not quite there yet though.

Thirdly, I start night classes (meaning we go from 5pm to 2 am instead of 7-4) tomorrow, which is going to suck, but whatevs.

Fourthly, I'm a month into class and doing so-so. I could definitely be pulling better grades.

Fifthly, (that sounds like filthy) Saving Able was here on Friday. It was a good time, but not particularly for the music so much as for the heavy drinking before and during the concert.

Sixthly, I got approved for special liberty for over Memorial Day weekend which means I'm going back to Cleveland for a couple days. Which should be just long enough for me to remember what life off this shithole of a base is like, before I have to come back.

I have nothing else to add really, except this:

Brit, I totally made out with a guy named Carl. That makes us twins.... or something.

+ My hips are still messed up. According to the corpsman its stress fractures in my femurs. I guess that is pretty rare. Go me.

+ I finally started class for my job. I can't talk about it because it is super duper top secret. Unless I fail and get held back, expected graduation date is July 20.

+ Some kid took way too much coke and had a seizure, and got the entire detachment of Marines in trouble. One fucks up, everyone else pays. Welcome to the Marine Corps. Life here has sucked this week, and will continue to suck for the fore seeable future.

+ Unsurprisingly, waking up at 0430 every morning to pt (physical training), then go to class all day, pt-ing again, then studying sucks donkey dick.

ETA: And yes, while I am on 'light duty' and rocking crutches, I still have to work out 2x a day, 5 days a week.

+ Using crutches also sucks donkey dick.

+ TV show seasons are coming to an end. I'm probably going to take this time to catch up on old shows. I told Billy I'd watch It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia if he watched either Sarah Conner Chronicles, Life, or Burn Notice. I haven't started yet but I will soon. First up I'm catching up on Dollhouse, Friday Night Lights, and Burn Notice. After that, who knows? The world is my oyster.

+ I have the most intense urge to go out and get absolutely hammered, but I can't because due to the aforementioned life suckage, Saturdays are now workdays.

The verdict is I have 2 stress fractures, one in each femur. The docs aren't quite sure how I went about stress fracturing my femurs, and not the actual hip. Yay for being a freak of modern science, I suppose. Anyway, they gave me crutches and said come back in 2 weeks. The crutches are the most annoying thing ever, and also highly useless. The point of crutches is to support a bad leg (note the singular there), and I'm stuck with two. So they told me to crutch in a way that simply makes me look like an idiot who happened upon a pair of crutches, and decided to use them.

So it goes.

I watched the first 2 episodes of Dollhouse. Nothing stellar. I'll stick with it though, but judging by the ratings it is getting, it wont be on the air for long.

Tennessee lost. :(

I've been trying to watch BSG all day, but the streaming video on scifi.com ain't so streaming. It is rather annoying. Last night it was working just fine and dandy. Hopefully it will resolve itself soon as I still have 3 episodes to watch before I can enjoy the finale that everyone is saying is !!!!!!!!! worthy.

I finally have the internet in my room. Yay. It is slow, but better than nothing.