Saturday, October 29, 2005

Kit from Euphoric Reality

This week's interview continues. Today, we have Kit from Euphoric Reality. Remember last week when we interviewed Heidi? Well, it's Kit's turn.

 

Now that I'm here...



 

And Kit is here...



 

And the panel of questioners is here...



 

We can now begin.



What was your worst day blogging?



I'd have to say it was a tossup between the day Ilario Pantano resigned, or the entire week we spent finally posting the Brother Against Brother series.  For the Pantano case, it really felt like a letdown to see that he resigned.  I never faulted him for it, of course, and to this day I support him in whatever he chooses to do with his life.  That being said, I was really heartbroken to watch the process of liberals and whiny bleeding hearts systematically try to dismantle one of the finest officers the Corps has had in a while.  To see that he chose to end his career over it was a really sad day for me.

As far as the Brother Against Brother series, that was hard.  Heidi and I were being threatened on a daily, sometimes hourly basis by two mentally disturbed individuals, and there were some things we had to deal with pertaining to that.  It finally came to the point where we had to really sit down and say "Okay, what are we going to do to protect ourselves?"  Add to that the fact that we were wrapping up 2 months of full-time research, running on no sleep, appearing on Kender's radio show almost daily to talk about the new developments in the story, not to mention the emotional toll of being literally immersed into a combat mentality in order to be able to tell the story the way it was...it was a huge project, and that week was simply hell.

 



What was your best day blogging?



LOL!  This one's easy.  I was a brand new blogger, about 3 weeks old and I was ranting away about the Pantano case, which had just started making news.  After calling his accuser a few nasty names, I happened to come back and check my comments to see that someone had posted some really interesting opinions.  The "best day blogging" part came when I realized that the person who had posted on my brand-new blog was Sgt. Daniel Coburn, Pantano's accuser - and my itty-bitty blog was the only place on the web where he had commented.  I sat on the info for a few days - I didn't even know what to do with it.  It was such a rush, having this exclusive info no one else had.  I got addicted fast.  Later, when the info I had actually was used in the Article 32 hearing to exonerate Pantano, I felt like I was making a difference somewhere.  That alone convinced me to keep blogging no matter what.  You never know when something could drop in your lap and give you the opportunity to do something good.

 



What's your favorite piece of music that you didn't write?



This question is pretty tough.  Rather than choose just one song, my best bet is to give you composers.  One of my favorites is Claude Debussy, and Clair de Lune is simply breathtaking.  As far as modern music, I highly, highly, recommend...strike that....ORDER you to check out Jim Brickman.  His romantic piano solos are amazing.  Josh Groban is another much-played artist.  To be honest, though, my tastes are pretty eclectic. I have one playlist for studying that includes most of the calm stuff above, and then it runs the gamut up to my "Cindy Sheehan In Front of a Train" playlist, which includes all my nasty, angsty, either-I'm-pissed-now-or-I-will-be type music.  If you pay attention to the tone of my posts, you can always tell what playlist I was listening to when I wrote it. ;)

 



What attracted you to the Air Force instead of, say, the Navy?



I actually have always had the flight bug.  I am addicted to the idea, to the very dream of flight, and very few things drive me like the idea of finishing my aviation degree.  I had actually thought of the Marines, but the Gunny behind the desk told me basically that I should "march my little ass across the hall to the Air Force and they'll give you a nurse hat."  My original dream was to be the first female Thunderbird pilot, but life gets in the way of things sometimes.  I'd like to think that someday, Lord willing, I'll get to fly an F-22, even if it's just as an instructor pilot.

 



If you could be at one event in American history outside your lifetime, what would it be?



I'd like to have been at the airfield where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947.

 



What the Hell is a "jarkolicious" and how do I get one?



Ha!  The "jarkolicious" refers to my good friend and generous host, Scott Jarkoff.  His site is jarkolicious.com, and originally I had mentioned that I needed to make a new website design for myself.  He suggested Wordpress, and offered to let me have some space under his domain and host.  I accepted, thinking I'd just use it for a personal site for my music composition and writing, but I happened to stumble on to some political blogs.  I wrote a few posts on politics and was immediately hooked.  Three weeks later came the Pantano breakthrough, and it was never the same.  I'd like to say that it was all downhill from there, but let's be honest.  Sometimes blogging just sucks.  We hang in because it's something to be passionate about and because some of us believe that we make a difference.  Back to the original question:  A jarkolicious is not like a Tribble (points to the Star Trek fans!).  It's a grown man, so I guess you can't have one. ;)

 



What is your favorite movie? And why?


Another tossup - I don't do well with "favorites" questions.  We Were Soldiers and Black Hawk Down are probably my two favorites.  They're both true stories, not some trumped-up Hollywood tripe where the hero is over inflated and fake.  The heroes in these movies really did these things.  They held positions against impossible odds and they gave their lives for their brothers without a thought and they stood fast when everything around them was chaos and death.  To me, this is really what it's all about.  Honor, courage and commitment.  These men believed in something bigger than us all, and they gave their lives gladly in defense of it.  I cannot get through either of those movies without crying for a long time afterward.  It is brave enough to join the military with the knowledge that you may be called upon to fight, and in that fight may lose your life.  It is another to request to go into a deadly situation with the express purpose of saving your brother's life, knowing that you will probably die doing it.  Men did that at Ia Drang.  They did it at Somalia.  American soldiers have done it for over two hundred years.  Bottom line - I like movies about freedom, about honor, about sacrifice.  I like movies that make me walk out of the theater wanting to strive, to excel, to be better than I've ever been.  I like to be inspired.

Another movie that I really hold high is The Passion of the Christ.  I wouldn't say I enjoyed it - that's not its purpose.  But it definitely touched me.  My faith is extremely important to me, and that movie really struck a nerve for obvious reasons.

 



What's your favorite flavor/taste?



Mint, probably.  But I drink an UNGODLY amount of Mountain Dew.  So, perhaps that's my favorite.  It's definitely an addiction.

 



What's your favorite smell?



Jasmine Vanilla, from Bath and Body Works.

 



When did you know your husband was "the one?"



I actually met my husband online.  Those e-harmony site concepts work, believe me.  They told me this incredibly attractive, dark-haired, green-eyed Marine was 94% compatible with me, but that he was stationed in Africa.  I wondered if there was anywhere in the world farther away than Africa, but there was - his next duty station: Bangkok. Thailand.  I knew he was the one after two months when I finally spent a few days with him and realized that the idea of waiting 2 more years for him to come home for good was far easier to deal with than the thought of not being with him at all.  Now, almost 3 years later, I can't imagine my life if I had decided not to take the chance and wait.  He is amazing and I adore him. =)

 



If you could ask one question of any world leader alive today, what would you ask?



I would ask George Bush what is going on behind the scene that is causing him to ignore the border problem.  Conspiracy?  Forgetfulness?  Looking the other way because Jeb has a Hispanic wife?  I mean, come on.  We're big boys and girls.  Just tell us why all the illegals are still pouring in.

 



Green or blue?



My eyes are green, so if we're talking clothes then the answer is green.  If you're talking just about anything else, blue.  It's calming.




Again, we learned lots about Kit today. And probably a little about our questioners, bloggers all.

Next weekend, we have Two Dogs from Mean Ol' Meany and Darleen from Darleen's Place. That promises to be more fun.

Tune in. Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the interview Basil.I like Kit even more now than I did before.I see you have changed your site again in my weeklong absence.LOL!

    ReplyDelete

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