Monthly Archive for November, 2005

I just got off night duty. It is 7:00 AM Arabic time. I am tired. I cannot type much.

I am going home and going to bed shortly. I will post more tomorrow at work.

Day 33 will consist of mass amounts of sleep.

Love and peace.

Currently Playing on my iPod: “Lift Me Up (Mylo Remix)” by Moby.
From the CD single “Lift Me Up,” released on V2 Records in 2005.

Howdy cowpokes. Howdy cowgirls. Howdy cowchildren. Howdy everybody. I sure hope things are going well back in United States Land today because it’s sure going well for me over here.

Had a nice long conversation with Aftan earlier today, and got some work done as well. Also I downloaded a pretty nice remix of Kelly Clarkson’s track “Since U Been Gone.” It’s done by Jason Nevins. Unfortunately if you’ve heard one Nevins remix you’ve heard them all…but after a long time in between hearing them, they tend to sound pretty good.

Speaking of music, have you ever heard of the band Sigur Ros? These guys are awesome.

Here is the fashion faux pas for the week, presented by Christian Dior.

I love my Ducks, but using yellow gaffer’s tape to make the numbers on your uniforms borders on plain retarded and childish. We kicked the living crap out of Oregon State while wearing those uniforms, so I will hold most of my negative comments on that uniform and just say it looks like Phil Knight has been smoking reefer a bit too much recently. I love Nike, but as my friend (and Husky fan) Paul Symonds tells me, “they don’t seem to care what the general public thinks.” Right he is. Usually Husky fans aren’t right about anything but he nailed this one dead on.

Sports Illustrated is reporting that Michael Irvin has been busted for drug possession again. What a retard. Of course we knew where he got the money to buy all those fancy clothes he wears on ESPN as an analyst, but telling the Associated Press that the drugs found in his vehicle weren’t his — but were a friend’s — is a bit much. It’s kinda like me saying I don’t wear glasses when everyone can see in my pictures that I do. Again, another great Paul Symonds quote: “…’Oh I was just holding it in my lips for my friend…the smoke in my mouth was my friend’s too.’ He said it was from a longtime friend whom he’s trying to help recover from an addiction. So, the addict is trying to help the addict. Classic.” You gotta love Paully, ladies and gentlemen. He’s one of the folks that make me still want to go back to Washington state for an extended period of time. Great guy.

Okay, enough of sports. Today I would like to announce two new tracks I will begin production on. Instead of trying to produce a complete album, I figured it would be interesting to just go ahead and make new tracks as I get ideas for them and release them for a small fee on the Internet, or something like that.

Well, my idea for the first new track stems from an old song that my mom and dad used to have on a cassette tape. There was a contemporary Christian duo back in the day (I’m talking early 90s) who called themselves Two Hearts. They had this album out in 1992 called Stand Your Ground. It had this track on it called “Heaven Help Me,” and it contained a catchy and easy-to-loop piano melody. I figured I could use a few bars from the piano melody, create a wump-thumping bassline, put some 80s/house sounding drums in there along with some effects and I’ll have a winner. Don’t know what it’ll be called yet but it’ll be fun to work with while I’m over here.

The second track is somewhat of a tribute to Margaret Becker, one of the most defining female artists in Christian music. She had an older album in 1993 called Soul — my Mom loved that CD. There was one track on it that stuck out in my mind, called “The World I See In You.” The lyrics (which, coincidentally, have held great significance to me over the past few days) to the chorus say, “I believe in…I believe in…I believe in the world I see in you. I’d like to live in…I’d like to live in…I believe in the world I see in you.” What a great chorus. So simple yet so meaningful. I figure to put more of a rollicking dance beat to this one if possible. It’s gonna be tough though seeing as how the track already had a sound like someone was trying to rock hard but couldn’t quite do it.

So two great projects to work on while I am here. I will also be desigining the cover art and the virtual booklet as well. I’ve taught myself never to set projected dates for release as they always get pushed back.

Well, how goes it for you all? Provide me some feedback. You can either leave a comment here or email me at christopher.brewerATgmail.com. Just replace that AT with a @ of course. Peace and love from up above.

Have you ever run a 5K race before? I’ve run tons of them. OK, so get this. 5 kilometers is exactly 3 miles. So 1/6 of three miles is ??ò¬¨??¬¨? mile (because ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? = 3). Alright, bear with me here. I am on a 180 day deployment. I am in the middle of my 30th day here. So seeing as 30 is 1/6 of 180 (because 30 + 30 + 30 + 30 + 30 + 30 = 180) and ??ò¬¨??¬¨? mile is 1/6 of 3 miles (because ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? + ??ò¬¨??¬¨? = 3), me having completed one month here is like running ??ò¬¨??¬¨? mile in a 3 mile, or five kilometer, race. Good stuff and that is your Useless Information for the Day.

Here are my personal Top 5 most played tracks of the week, according to iTunes [in this format: (Play Count) "Song," Artist. Album, Year]. All samples are in MP3 format unless otherwise noted.

1. (24) “Another Chance,” Roger Sanchez. First Contact, 2002. Sample
2. (21) “I Shall Not Be Moved (B’s Re-Edit),” Underground Ministries feat. Kenny Bobien. Wax Wars, 2005. Sample
3. (17) “Begun 2 Love U,” Doug Willis & Joey Negro. Bargrooves Frosted: Disc 2, 2004. Sample (Windows Media)
4. (16) “Destroy Rock & Roll,” Mylo. Destroy Rock & Roll, 2005. Sample
5. (14) “Two More Years,” Bloc Party. Silent Alarm, 2005. Sample

Cool. I think I’m gonna start making music lists every Sunday like that.

Sorry I have not been able to correspond with most of you directly over the past week or so. I am finally finished with a video project that took me almost all of this past week to complete, so now expect me to be emailing many of you directly. For those of you who I talked to while I was working on the project, thanks for keeping me sane ;). You know who you are.

Speaking of INsane, check this out. Yesterday I woke up around 2 PM and had the WORST STOMACHACHE OF ALL TIME. I took care of necessary business and my supervisor came by my room and told me the weekly commander’s call had been postponed because a bunch of people had come down sick from eating bad shrimp on Thanksgiving. Crazy stuff. I’m sure it was an accident, but man, to see a bunch of people suffer like this is bad. My roommate has it too, in fact I couldn’t shower yesterday night for any longer than about 10 minutes, and no later did I leave the bathroom than he bolted in there. Poor guy. Pray for everyone affected by this sickness. I’m mostly over it, my stomach has only had sharp pains twice today, and my appetite for the most part is back. I expect to lose about two pounds from this.

Yesterday was a good day, however. On November 26, 2002, I made the commitment to serve my country for four years. Yesterday marked the third anniversary of that commitment, and I also earned my automatic promotion to the rank of senior airman (E-4 for you non-Air Force folks). One more year to go in the Air Force — and Newport News as well. Then I get to live my life the way I live it, not dictated by some military powers-that-be that I’ve never met. Think about it. I move to Springfield! I’m gonna grow a beard!! I’m gonna grow my hair out!!! I’m gonna run around in circles and cry!!!!

So as you can see, it is very hard for me to go about life without the constant mindset of “Things are REALLY looking up from here.” There are also a couple other major things going on in my life, but I’ll only let you know if they become TOO major. Because I don’t want to surprise anybody too badly now.

Check out the Downloads section and you can download a scanned copy of the “What I Thank Jesus For Today” list that I wrote Thanksgiving morning. I appreciate everyone who reads it and I hope it is a blessing to many.

For now, I must go prepare for my radio show. I’ll be online so catch me if you can. Love you all.

Here’s an excerpt from something I wrote today and posted on my wall locker. I think I’m going to keep it there so I can take a good look at it every morning when I wake up and be reminded of what I am thankful for. I hope this blesses you all today as well.

Here goes.

What I Thank Jesus For Today by Chris Brewer

Today, I thank Jesus for my parents. They raised me to be the man I am today and are the reason I stand before the world now.
I thank Jesus for my friends. They are a major source of support to me and I can count on them to be there anytime.
I thank Jesus for my church. It has helped me grow more spiritually over the past year than at any other time in my life.
I thank Jesus for my country. The best country in the world has provided us with countless freedoms we all take for granted.
I thank Jesus for my job. Even though I’m in Iraq, I am making money and it is enough to support my every financial need.
I thank Jesus for my life. I know many others have passed away at a younger age than I, but I am blessed with the best of health.
I thank Jesus for His Word. It guides my life daily, provides me comfort when I am shaken, and provides me correction when I am wrong.
I thank Jesus for His sacrifice. Without His death on the cross, we would have no opportunity at eternal life.

There is much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving day. As every day breaks, we should all have something new to thank Jesus for.

Alright, now this is cool. I actually have some time to post, so I will try to throw down some interesting stuff here.

We are especially busy for the first time since I’ve been here. All day I’ve been editing a video to show some Iraqi police chiefs or something like that. I don’t know what it’s really for but I’ve been tasked to do the job so I obey and get it done, right? Right. Also I went to the palace pool (yeah, the palace has this nice pool right out in front of it) to shoot video of people reading their children bedtime stories. It’s a nifty idea…you shoot the video of them reading out of a book, showing the pictures, etc. and then you make it into a DVD they can send home and their kids can see them on a TV whenever they want to. It beats Barney any day.

I got to talk to Aftan for a bit on the phone earlier. Aftan, if you read this, continue to rest assured that the number you called is a Northern Virginia phone number. About all you did was eat into your daytime minutes, and as you said earlier today, yes it was well worth it.

We have been a bit safer over the past couple days. Although today when I went to go film the folks at the palace pool we couldn’t get in the main gate because the guards thought there was a bomb on a vehicle or something like that. So we had to stand outside and wait for awhile. It was a hoax, but it very well could have been something, actually, considering this is Baghdad and they like to blow up cars here more than drive them, it seems. I guess it’s better to err on the side of caution and have us wait forever than to have us pass a dangerous sitch. Thumbs up to the Peruvian gate guards.

Listen to some Axwell tunes…they’re awesome.

I also plan on taking some photos of the place I’m at really soon…the places I can take pictures of, that is. If you want pictures of security gates or other high security areas like the hospital, it’s not gonna happen because we can’t take pictures of that stuff. Besides after about 30 pictures of this place you’d probably be tired of seeing so much concrete. T-walls adorn the International Zone like lights on Christmas trees.

Speaking of Christmas trees, it’s the holiday season. Thanksgiving is coming up here in a couple of days. I have signed up to run a 5K at 6:00 in the morning. I’m crazy, but I need it to help me get in shape and stay thatway. Besides I haven’t run anything similar to a cross country race since I strolled the halls of Rainier High School in my hometown of Rainier, Oregon. Population 1,750. Right between Astoria and Portland on US Highway 30. Beautiful place, but sleepy little town that would die if it didn’t have the bride right there. Sorry. I’m rambling.

A lot of folks don’t know that I am a huge jazz fan. Smooth jazz is my favorite, followed by big band. When names like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Rick Braun, David Sanborn, etc. are mentioned I get very warm on a cold day. Or very cool on a hot day. That being said, I found this site called Portland Jazz Jams and it absolutely…well, jams. Check it out, it’s good stuff. I’ve subscribed to their podcast and they have some pretty cool live shows that I listen to late at night before I sleep.

Anyway, that’s it for me. Love you guys, take care out there. Coming up soon, I will provide my list of things needed for my care package from the Crimson House folks. Because I actually found stuff I need, hahahahaha. Thanks, y’all.

Peace.