http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php en-us CuteNews http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1183308278&archive=
I hope that goober can find something new to read as funny and intelligent as this blog has been.

Lastly I hope that I never have to come back here again. I am ready to settle down at home and get back to the business of MY life, and I am sure that you all are ready to have your loved ones back so you can do the same. I have 2 last pictures for you, the first is me drinking from a juice box...juice comes to iraq in the only way it can stay fresh for a long time, in juice boxes. my girlfriend said it was so funny seeing a grown man, a soldier, drinking from a juice box. the second is one of the last times a bunch of us medics were able to get together for chow, I asked them to group up for this picture I call "The Last Supper". Take care everyone, T-Dawg out.


]]> 1183308278 Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:44:38 -0500 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1182481648&archive=
So, Im sure a few of you have been curious about the battle between good and evil...there were some unexpected results to say the least. The rally toes race didnt really have any ground rules but evil cheated. the left foot may have been slightly ahead and the right was feeling the pressure, the other morning I awoke and the right foot, in a desperate attempt to win had actually grown in size, I guess Im not sure how to call this one folks, I never said a foot couldnt grow in size to have the longest growth, so im calling it a tie. lucky for me my roomate has the same size foot as my new right foot so he borrowed me an extra right boot to wear.

It wont be long friends and ill be home, i am excited! If Goober wasnt such a pain in thye ass id tell you when im flying out but lets just say i may be home before my B day if eveything goes smooth. so see some of you soon, take care all. Troy

P.S. the first picture is chickenhawk sleeping the eternal sleep in davy jones' locker, and the 2nd picture is results of the rally toenails competition.

]]> 1182481648 Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:07:28 -0500 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1179366530&archive=
The rally toes have been going as expected....the only ones left in the race are the big toes of each foot. I knew the others wouldn't make it this long (from past experimentation) but the big toes are still duking it out. I dont like to say its a battle between the right or left big toe, its more of a battle between good and evil. Not only is that more dramatic sounding, but my right foot was doing his own thing one day and i rolled my ankle while running earlier in the deployment, ever since then it has been a weak link in many of my road marches and physical training endeavors, so the right foot is the evil foot of the two and secretly I hope the right big toe loses in this race to be the longest toenail by the time I get home. I won't reveal a picture of the battle between good and evil until later ...but stay tuned.

This picture is me checking a sore throat, sometimes prolonged exposure to a desert environment will allow a type of dust mite (we call them sand gremlins) to take up residence in the throat and at night when your sleeping they will take turns swinging from the thingy that hangs in the back of the roof of your mouth (uvula sp?). it is treated with icy cold coca cola which stings and burns their little dust mite bodies.
]]> 1179366530 Wed, 16 May 2007 20:48:50 -0500 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1177649068&archive=
So, a new piece of news that was put out, if your going to mail anything mail it now...any mail sent to us that gets here may 15th or after will be sent back, usually that is done when a unit is leaving because mail will get here with no one to recieve it, dont know why they want to start that early but that is what they want. no date yet as to when for sure we will be leaving, we all have an idea, a good guess, but nothing for sure. no one is saying higher up. They say they don't know yet...I guess nobody knows, nobody knows what is going on and for some reason that makes perfect sense.

The pictures below are my platoon leader demonstrating CPR, we joke it is his first and last patient he will work on in country, the second is some of my fellow medics in class, we are usually so spread out on missions that you rarely see so many medics in one place at one time. Take care everybody, in a couple months all will be right with the world...at least our little piece of it.

]]> 1177649068 Thu, 26 Apr 2007 23:44:28 -0500 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1176489424&archive=
About 3 months before I originally thought I was coming home I started growing a moustache, better known as the Rally ‘stache. I’m not going to jinx my leaving this country with another moustache, but I thought of something more original that everybody could do to be part of the excitement….. Rally Toenails. Yep, show your excitement as we rally to the finish line by letting the toenails grow, now the women can get caught up in the fever since growing a moustache was out of the question, I’ve actually got about a 3 month head start but to be honest there aren’t any winners or losers, its about doing something together as we go through these final months of anticipation. I’ll keep you updated on my progress as we get closer hopefully inspiring more people to hop on the bandwagon.

We had an awards ceremony not to long ago and I’m proud to say I was not forgotten. I have earned the coveted Drivers badge, You earn this badge if you have driven 10,000 miles in a military vehicle without an accident. It is a medal in the shape of a Goodyear tire and is worth 10 promotion points. To be honest I don’t remember ever seeing anyone wear this badge on their uniform, but I’m going to wear it, In fact I think I’ll wear it when I get back and apply for drivers Insurance, maybe get a discount at Geiko. Earning a drivers badge in a country where the road is littered with bombs should get me some sort of discount I’d think. I won’t show them a picture of Defiance (my ambulance) she was like that before I got my hands on her.

Guess thats all for now, sorry it took so long to write, I know that sometimes its just a matter of you people wanting to know that we are still smilin’ and still moving forward. I appreciate everyone who checks this site makin’ sure we are ok and I’ll try to be better about updating you all. Take Care Friends, Troy

P.S. those are not the feet of Bilbo Baggins, I got some hairy toes and I don't care. I'm going more bald every day so if my toes wanna pick up the slack I say good for you toes, besides, shaving toes is very un-bad-ass. the other picture I like because our boys are representin, out on the road.

]]> 1176489424 Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:37:04 -0500 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1173545773&archive=
The trip started out at the animal market, there were goats, sheep and camels for sale mainly, it didn't take long to realize i was really at the butcher shop. People would come up and pick out a goat, and just across the street form the market was the slaughter house, all of this was a bit surreal at first because we were in town, there are cars driving by and city buisness going on around this place, a gas station just down on the corner, and here they are killing animals in the middle of it all for tonights supper, so culture shock hit right away.

Next stop was the fish market, fresh fish brought in, layed out on ice and on display for shoppers, smelly place with all kind of seafood, crabs, squid, octopus, big fish, small fish, stingray everything you could think of that you would want to eat...not! I like popcorn shrimp from TGI Fridays, these people don't know what they're missing.

After that we stopped at the fruits and vegetable market, I bought a pint of strawberries for a buck, they had everything here as well, I had never seen a sea-cucumber before until this place, families live together in the arabic culture, by that I mean if a son gets married, he lives on the family plot with his other brothers and parents, the families share meals, i saw a guy buying that weeks groceries and he had a pushcart with a crate of corn on the cob, a crate of lettuce, a crate of this and that, he was gonna fill the back of his SUV. when they buy groceries they buy for many mouths to feed.

We then went to the hand crafts market, this place was one of my favorites because of the narrow walkways as you walk among all the different shops, clothes, spices, pottery, even a falconers shop, the rich buy falcons as pets, they dont keep dogs as pets as they are considered an unclean animal.

After the markets we went to a restaurant and were treated to a buffet style setup of a lot of the common foods there, I tried a little bit of everything, I don't know what I was eating half the time but it was really good, i washed it all down with a coke.

We also were able to go downtown for awhile and visited the Doha city mall, a 4 story structure with an ice-skating rink in the center, I never played Hockey but Im from Minnesota, I have spent some time on skates, these people have never seen snow fall, watching the people skoot along on thier skates I fought the urge to rent a pair and skate circles around them, I could picture myself skating backwards and everyone in the mall clapping and wanting thier picture taken with me, but I decided Minnesota was best represented by me behaving myself....and not giving them all "T-Dawg on Ice". Besides, some little Qatari girl mighta gotten jealous and sent her brothers out to club me in the leg...take me outta competition.

So, a little about Qatar, they are wealthy. Before the discovery of oil, fishing and pearling were the money makers for this country. The discovery of oil reserves in the 1940s changed everything, Qatar produces 800,000 barrels of oil a day and it is estimated they have 15 billion barrels yet to be pumped, they also have discovered liquid natural gas in the 1950s and they are sitting on one of the biggest pools of that resourse of any country, so Qatar citizens live very well, thier standard of living would compare to any european nation. at the mall I saw that most people drove very expensive vehicles, I saw porches and SUVs like land cruisers and escalades.

Only 25% of the population of Qatar is actual Qatar citizens, the other 75% are ex-patriots, or people from other countries there to work the oil industry, or other work industries as needed.

There is excellant education here as well, free education from kindergarten to university, and there are branch campuses from texas A&M university, and Georgetown university there, In fact the present Emir (Qatar version of thier ruler) has a second wife who has been a key influence to the great education benefits in Qatar. they have free healthcare, and do not pay taxes.

So I guess thats about it, fun trip for me and I learned alot, besides it was a nice break from what I have been up too lately. Hope you all learned a little something, I found it all very interesting. Ok my friends, take care. Troy



]]> 1173545773 Sat, 10 Mar 2007 10:56:13 -0600 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1172543253&archive=
At the air base they have a Chilis restaurant and outdoor swimming pool, a small theatre (I went to see the movie Eragon), and in the evening you can have 3 beers at one of 2 different bar/restaurants they have there. The thing I liked the most though was we could wear civilian clothes and no one was keeping me to any particular schedule, i slept in, took afternoon naps, fell asleep on a couch watch movies in a TV room and basically caught up on sleep and quality alone time for Troy. There isnt a whole lot to do on base but thats exactly what I wanted to do...a whole lot of nothing, and it was wonderful.

The base also offer 5 different tours you can go out on, one is golfing on a PGA golf course, one is a beach picinic, one is a boat day cruise, one is jet sking/water sports, and the last one was a cultural tour. I went on the cultural tour which I will write about in my next blog, but it was my first real exposure to an Arabic culture even though I have been deployed and in country for almost a year now.

It was a much needed break and I can tell that I feel better having gotten away from here, even if it was for such a short time. I hate being here and I would take any break from here offered to me. The 2 pictures are me at chilis sittin by the pool and a picture of downtown Doha, Qatar (thier capital). Ill be following this blog with a litttle of what i saw and learned about Qatar in a couple days, feels good finally having something new and positive to write about. Take care everyone, Troy

]]> 1172543253 Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:27:33 -0600 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1170098797&archive=
There aren’t many options to grind out stress here, one way is to work out at the gym here. I seem to go to the gym for a month, then I’ll slack off for a month, then get all gung ho again and start up…not very regular, I like running on the Treadmill, running fast but going nowhere, much like this deployment but I feel better after running. Another way is through use of the Internet. This tool is pretty new to the war zone, but I’m very thankful it is allowed. Every single day (when there isn’t an information blackout) I hop on the Internet highway and floor it, most of my time is spent webcaming with my girlfriend back home, I like hearing about all the errands ran to the store or people she visited that day…for me these are mostly things I’m familiar with back home, so when she tells me she went the grocery store to pick up cat litter, the store and all the isles of groceries and the meat market with its selection of hotdogs and bratwurst pop into my head, and I picture myself doing the shopping with her. It is a way to take my mind out of this place, and for a little while, I’m sitting on the couch next to her listening to her tell me about her day. One thing about the webcam is it allows me to see the smile that I can hear when she is talking to me, or the furrowed brow when she is feeling sick. The Internet/webcam has helped me feel closer to my friends and girlfriend back home by being able to see or talk to them every day. Nothing seems to help take some of the stress that can build up here more than the great communication I have been fortunate to have with my friends back home.

That’s it for now…I will try to get better about writing stuff, even if it is trivial. Take care everyone. Troy
]]> 1170098797 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 13:26:37 -0600 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1169055482&archive=

]]> 1169055482 Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:38:02 -0600 http://www.medicevolved.net/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1168046530&archive=
Also some even better news, on Christmas day I was moved to a can. The best lodging a soldier can hope for here. The temperature is controlled, only 3 roommates, plenty of room for all my junk, and……I have internet in my room. So convenient. I’m living with Hackett, Mayfield and a swell guy from Supply…Spc. Blackburn. We only get to live here for about 50 days then we are moving back to tents, but I don’t care about that, because that is in preparation for the people replacing us to be able to move into those cans. I say let ‘em move in early, the sooner they are here the sooner I’m out of Iraq. You will notice in the picture that I am working on the “Rally ‘stache”. I’m growing a moustache and trying to convice others to do it as well, as we come closer to going home. I call it the Rally stache trying to get everyones moral up as we finish this job. People can tend to get unfocused near the end and mistakes can get made, so I’m trying to promote the spirit of team involvement. I think everyone back home that can grow a moustache should start growing one now (except the women that can grow one, you guys can stop shaving your legs or something) then if someone asks about it, you can tell them your growing a rally ‘stache until the troops come home. I guess I’m also doing it because I heard that a certain someone high up in the leadership hates moustaches, but since the army allows it, and Goober cant stop me from growing it, I’m gonna nurture that caterpillar like a loving father. If I can get enough people to do it I’ll get a group photo.

That’s all for now people, make sure you grab an ass or 2 today, keep peoples spirits up, the time is ticking by and we will be home soon. Troy
]]> 1168046530 Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:22:10 -0600