New blog title

After intense market research I decided to change the name of the blog.  New site is: http://felipestravel.blogspot.com/

Adios Muchachos

I am almost done outprocessing my unit.  Had my farewell lunch today and got some cool going away gifts.  Tough to say goodbye to folks I worked with for two years but the timing is good.  I am going out "at the top" having had a successful year in squadron leadership.  Training for the next thing starts soon. 

Joy (wife) and I had Chipotle with a good friend from college tonight.  Hard to believe all the life change in 5 years.  He and I met as freshmen in college and now we are both Captains in the Air Force.  College feels like a long time ago. 

Trying to decide if blogging counts as journaling.  I kept a journal when I was in Iraq, and it had tons of short entries.  Prolly happen here too.

Electronic Warfare Suite

I was outprocessing at the hospital today and had to get weighed.  I emptied out my pockets to jump on the scale and the tech said  "Wow, you have the oldest phone I have ever seen."  Awesome.... As you can tell I don't camp out overnight to buy iPhones.  I might be out of step with the kids these days.

When we moved from England to Virginia in 2010 I promised myself I would keep my American life simple by avoiding outlandish electronics purchases.  I have been unsuccessful in all areas except apparently my phone.  My electronic warfare suite now consists of a Blackberry (government issued), a Kindle, an iPad, a new camera, and a new TV.  We also upgraded my wife's Apple.  So much for electronic simplicity.  I'll have some great product reviews after I drag those things around in the mountains for a year.

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- Reading a good book about geopolitics from one of my favorite authors.  More on that later.

Post 1

I am the worst American. I don't like football and I can't eat apple pie. I don't have cable TV and I've never been to a tailgate party. I love the States but really don't live there very often. I spent my childhood and most of adult life with one foot in American culture and the other wherever I happened to be living (Costa Rica, Mexico, Boulder Colorado {it's like its own special country} , England, Iraq, Afghanistan). So this is the story about balancing between being the "ugly" American and maybe just the worst one.

I make cultural observations.   I am American by birth/passport  and my "American" culture is often out of step with my fellow countryman.  With frequent self-effacing humor I will share these stories as I recall them...  And I like trying to blend in wherever I am at.  That means blending in suburbia just as well as some remote village in the Hindu Kush.

Anyway, I try to blend in wherever I am and that's why I started the blog, because life is about to take a new cultural turn.  I am in the military and just got picked to be something of a "cultural warrior."  The job involves language training and cultural training which is a first for me in my military career.  The plan is to use the lang/culture training to get "outside the wire" amongst the population.  I am hoping to use this blog platform to capture some of the stories and keep a record.  

---Ground rules*-----
- I'll try and be more honest than eloquent
- I won't post everyday, I get worn out writing.  And sometimes I do really short posts.
- I have thick skin, but if you're going to be jerk in the comments leave solutions not just complaints
*Ground rules subject to change at my discretion...