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It was a little bit belated, due to having to wait for an open appointment with the tattoo artist I wanted to have the work done by, but yesterday I got the ink I'd been planning for the one year anniversary of my medevac from Afghanistan and subsequent survival of the surgery that prompted the C-130 flights to Kandahar and then Bagram and the C-17...
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silversurfer:
Those all look really cool.

What does the writing say, and in what language? Is it Proto-Indo-European?
silversurfer:
^^^ Very cool!
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Edit to correct the fact that the SG blogging software does weird and incomprehensible things to Proto Indo European orthography, so ten or so sentences in that language and their translation removed.
learningcurve:
*H4roes slwes rabhos mehas mme h2unntu
ponycorn:
Thank u for the support have a great day Xoxo
kisslove
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I have become thoroughly enthralled with the reconstruction of the Proto Indo European language, cramming more esoteric knowledge into a brain already jam packed with an assortment of stuff that is pretty far off the beaten path as knowledge goes to begin with.

And yet, it's so damn cool. It's a probably pretty good approximation of the words uttered by people who lived 5000 years...
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silversurfer:
I've read a little about Proto-Indo-European, and I find the whole thing quite interesting.

So, are those sentences in Proto-Indo-European -- keeping in mind that PIE is not known from written history, but inferred from current and past documented languages?

I can imagine a PIE phrase book, with useful sentences for tourists, like "Can you please direct me to the central bus station?", and "I demand to be taken to the American embassy." wink
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Fourteen weeks to the day until the military gives me that nice letter saying I've got 20 years of creditable service.

I'm debating staying in (since they don't seem inclined to medically retire me like they were inclined to do ten months ago or so) or getting out.

If I get out, I'm debating growing a full on crazy Viking beard that I can braid....
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silversurfer:
A beard like that would be really cool. Still, I don't think it should be the determining factor in your decision. wink
learningcurve:
We had a civilian contractor on my FOB in A'stan that I don't know if he was Asatru or doing a full on Gimli the dwarf impersonation or what, but had this massive red beard with rune-carved silver rings all braided up in it. My money was on Gimli the dwarf, but maybe that was because Afghanistan does a credible impersonation of Mordor. Anyway, I think his employers eventually made him shave, but I can't imagine what the Afghans thought about his beard in the meantime.
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Nat'l Law Enforcement Memorial Day was last Friday, which is my yearly Little Darkness besides the Big Darkness in the dead of winter. It is humbling to not be a name etched on a wall due to a random scheduling conflict.
starglow:
_
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silversurfer:
So, about your previous blog.... I'm glad to hear that you decided to get some help, and that you're making good progress dealing with your PTSD. As you said, in doing that you really manned up. Tungsten wrecking ball, for sure.

Thanks for sharing your story. On this site, people write about a huge range of topics, and in a huge range of styles. What you wrote is very profound, and you said it very well.
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So I don't post very often, and rarely post much of anything of either a personal or earth shattering nature. Haven't posted much at all lately, come to think of it.

This, traditionally, is not a great time of year for me -- if they ever start making advent calendars in hell mine will start yearly on December 1st and that last big, ain't-no-treat behind...
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bringyouhell:
It's good you decided to get help instead of taking another route. I hope things get easier for you with time.
learningcurve:
Thanks. They do -- I've got some weird brain architecture or something that activates in late November/early Decemeber and that peaks and then ebbs after the 9th. Something about the dark, the snow, the way the air smells, all kinds of things sort of drag me back to that time frame. Every year I start coming out of it a few weeks after The Day comes and goes. It's just some part of me at this point, I guess.
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Back in US again, a bit earlier than expected due to medical drama.
pogue_mahone:
Welcome back, dude.
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After entirely too many months overseas, I'm back for a couple weeks in the real world for R&R. As a general observation, it is better to be back in the real world than in Afghanistan . . ..
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silversurfer:
Happy birthday.
kay:
Yay!

Have a good time.
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"Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one. " -- Willard