Oh what a lovely smile!

Crap Crap Crap!!!

I received an email from an individual at this company interested in meeting with me to discuss employment options in administration and investment management. The good and bad thing about this is that they are located in Tokyo and I'm stuck in Iraq. If it were a solid job offer I'd go tomorrow but I cant just pop onto a 15 hour flight for maybe. It would be my dream to live and work in Japan for a while but I can't throw away a six figure job for maybe. I replied to the individual informing him of my situation and willingness to travel for a job possibility. Maybe I'll hear back from them.

CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!!!

Where water comes from

We have a few wells here in different stages of completion.
First stage: drill a big muddy hole

Second stage: put a generator, pump and well head next to the big muddy hole

Stage three fill in the big muddy hole and pump water to the filtering station.

Yeah!!! Now I can take a shower with water that actually smells like dirt!

Saturday

I officially designate today as "Watch Movies and Shop for Wet Suits While at Work Saturday" or WMaSfWSWaWS! Oh and what a grand WMaSfWSWaWS I will have, sticking it to the boss with a huge smile on my face while watching Rocky Horror Picture Show and perusing scuba.com!!!!

Tent Dwelling Critters

Not as fluffy as a cat but, they do eat the mice. Very difficult to house train though.

Casa de Guano

WOW!!

Holy diabetic rush Batman!!
I would be the most popular person in my tent with
40.5 pounds of Skittles!

I considered ordering this just to see what it looked like.

Girls Of Vacation

This is Dawn, She is an English teacher in Korea on walk about in Asia. She is also a SCUBA diver who is loads of fun despite the fact she only spoke about 19 words per week.

This is Bell. She is a reforming party girl who's salvation appears to be SCUBA diving.

Last but not least, Margerie. She has had the fortune to dive at many sites around the Philippines. She is probably the smallest dive master candidate I've met and speaks only slightly less than Dawn.

Big Apple
Dive team

Golden Snorkel

There is a time honored tradition among some dive schools that require a beer be drank from a golden snorkel to celebrate the passing of a dive course.
If you are a special case they pour a shot of something else into the snorkel. This time it was vodka

She completed 2 specialties also to obtain her advanced open water certificate. 2 beers like a champ. I was waiting for something to come shooting out of her nose.

I had to do 2 for my deep and wreck diver specialties. All that training in the San Antonio Hash House Harriers served well this day.

C-RAM Test

This is what an automatic anti-missile weapon looks like when fired at 3am. Something like every 7-10 rounds fired is a tracer. This thing fires so many rounds per minute that it makes an almost solid line of light. The top photo was taken directly over my head with a crappy 4 mp camera and the bottom photo was taken by a very good friend of mine with a professional camera setup. His looks much better when you click on it to see the blown up version. The best part about these tests are that the military never informs anyone they are going to happen. The only sound you hear is a loud buzzing as the rounds pass overhead followed by close to 165 phone calls to find out what the hell it was. This happened twice in one week.

Another Lovely Forecast.

Time to go lay out in the sand storm catch some sun.
Maybe Sunday or Friday. Now I see why they sell SPF 70 sunblock in the military stores here.

Faces of Neil

Deep thoughts

Restaurant etiquette

Stolen glasses

Don't let these photos hide the fact that this is one of the best scuba instructors I've ever met.

Drinking Buddies.

These little guys would sneak up and drink whatever you spilled. Then at some point in the night a drunken lizard will drop off the ceiling into your rum and coke. Talk about a cheap date.

My last vacation.

So, I’ve done a lot of traveling over the years, 23 countries, and always seem to find myself back in an Asian country for the majority of my free time. This trip was to Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. I stay at a resort where a very good friend of mine is the dive shop manager, photo on the left. The place is about a 2 hour bus ride south of Manila.

When you reach the city of Batangas you have to catch a bonka, medium sized ferry, for another hour until you reach Sabang. This photo on the right was taken on the way. All in all, I've been there about 3 time over the last year and will probably return in January some time. One of the great things about this place is that you start going as a customer and end up returning to see all your friends who happen to work there. The resort web site is http://www.dive-bigapple.com Have a great time.

CLOWN FISH! Terror of the sea!

See if you can spot this killer in it's natural habitat.
Waiting to strike with deadly accuracy!!

Under water photo class

Top: Sleeping starfish
Middle: Searching for the perfect shot
Bottom: Just floating around.

Another day at the office.

I think I broke my camera taking this one.

Back again

I'm currently living in a 12 man, open bay style tent in on the outer edge of Bahgdad. This place has a mini sand storm every day. This ensures all your personal belongings, electronics and the crack of your butt has an ample supply of fine powdery sand in it. The image on the left was taken about 6am. The image on the right was take around 10am. Good Times!