35 Years later

First order of business, to all the men and women who have served, I salute your dedication and service.  Veteran's Day is not just another opportunity to buy a tv or get a deal on some furniture.   Thanks to all my brothers and sisters who have served.   

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I took a break last weekend to run off to my alma mater for a small gathering of old friends and rehash old days.  The team was playing out of town, so College Station seemed a bit empty for a football weekend, but it was busy nonetheless.  

This past weekend was our 35 reunion of our class.  35 freakin years.  Wow.  I really feel old.  Typical reunions are every five years.  We missed the first reunion (stationed over in Germany) but have made most of the rest.  A good chance to catch up with old buddies, classmates, friends.  It is interesting to see the changes time has made.  A chance to answer those questions of who:  

• looks the same (or looks older)  
• still has hair
• has the biggest belly
• has the most kids (or grandkids)
• is still married 
• got remarried (he's on wife #3)
• has retired
• passed away
• went to jail

Back in the 80s, we had several hundreds show up for the early reunions.  Over the years, the numbers have dwindled.  This last weekend, we still had a decent turnout (~200) but we attributed it to it being an away game.  It is interesting to see how everyone has changed (or not changed) over the past 35 turns.  I will note that most of the people showing up were members of the Corps of Cadets.  We had a distinct bond/camaraderie back then that we still share today.  I gotta admit that, of all of the outfits, my outfit had one of the highest percentage  of participants (aside of the band guys).  Out of 11 guys that graduated, we had 7 show up for this shindig.  Not too shabby. We spend lots of time trying to recall some of those glory days.  The quad water war, Fish Drill team, summer camp, dorm life, Bonfire, the border crossing that almost turned into an international incident, corps road trips, who bunked with whom, who set off the fireworks in Meyer's room, how many people wound up sleeping in the one room when we stole our CO's stuff, "the Trial".  Statute of limitations prevents me from elaborating on some stories, but suffice it to say, we found it amazing that we survived.  One of our guys has taken on the role of historian to see if he can record all of the events/stories from those days of yore.  We'll see if we can put something together for the next gig in 5 years. 

My roommate was always a flamboyant character.  Mark was never one to back down from a fight or to charge blindly into some situation, he left an impression whatever he tackled.  I'll concede this to him - he did everything with style.  We had dinner Friday night at a local clubhouse and the SOB showed up in a tux!  All of us old farts are decked out in casual attire and he ups the ante by showing up in style.  Just guess who got his picture with all of the ladies of our class.       

He is the most interesting man in the world

A rose by any other name...

ShadowRun300 made a very astute/funny observation on one of my last musings that made me realize that I owe ya’ll some more details.  

The internet is an interesting little world where you can find just about anything about anybody.  All you have to do is Google someone and voila you have their entire history down to what shoes (or is that shooz?) they wear.  When I started out on this journey almost 5 years ago, I was concerned about just how much to put out there for the world to see.  I am a cautious soul and always paranoid that someone will use this information to no good end.  Some have put themselves out there and I am in awe of your courage/stamina.  From the friends I’ve made over the past few years, I know more about other people’s injuries/illnesses/maladies than I have about my own family.  I have had the distinct honor/pleasure of meeting two great blogger friends in the real world and was able to share some of my history along with several lame stories/jokes.  So in the interest of transparency, I thought I would peel back the curtain a bit to let you in on my little world. 

First of all, I go by several names on the net, some used more than others.  I am not trying to hide behind any nefarious intent, but when I set up various accounts years ago, I created a few different names because 1) it was easy to remember, 2) wasn’t sure of the site security, or 3) the name was already taken.  Over the years, I have dropped a few of the handles because, quite frankly, it was silly to maintain several different personas.  

Agg79 - First of all, as SR300 discerned, my agg79 nom de plume comes from my Alma Mater:  Texas A&M University (or as it was originally called, The Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas).  Located in the middle of east Texas, a good 100 miles from any major metropolis.  Close to 50,000 students take up residence there every fall/spring.  The 4 ½ years I spent there had a major impact upon my life.  I entered college as a young, introverted, long haired, know-it-all high school punk, and left with a degree, a commission and the love of my life.  Some people may have heard of this school, it has a certain following, a certain spirit that is hard to explain.  People go there for different reasons.  For me, it was an epiphany and gave me direction in my life and made me the warped person I am today.  The nickname for anyone who attends school is Aggie (from the Agricultural legacy) and we wear that title as a badge of honor.  I cannot even begin to count the amount of Aggie stuff I own/wear.  Agg79 is a subtle reference to my school and the year I graduated.  I tend to use this in a lot of my e-mails correspondence, various shopping sites, and my Disqus profile.  I even tied my profile photo to a self portrait I did when I was last at Philmont Scout Ranch (channeling my inner Ansel Adams).  If you get ever a note on your blog from some kook called agg79, that's moi.   

What a stud...

Aluminut – many moons ago, when I was just a novice on the net, I stumbled across the blogosphere and started following a number of blogs on a regular basis.  At one point I was reading up to 40-50 regular every day.  I was mostly a reader and didn't make a lot of comments (due to my foot in mouth fear).  Several have dropped off the radar, retired, or just disappeared altogether.  At one point, I was inspired by this crazy blogger lady who lived in up in Minnesota and her funny/entertaining tales and pictures of her kids, friends, co-workers, winters, bowling, and life in general and I decided that I would attempt to enter the world of blogging.  When I created my site, I had no idea what I was doing so I set up my profile with the name of Aluminut.  That is a deliberate misspelling of Aluminum in deference to my affinity for Airstreams.  I own this name across a few other sites whenever we are talking trailers. 

Tanker00 – Not sure where I parked this one, but it goes back to my stint in the Army.  Defers to my field of expertise driving the ultimate ATV (M60A3).  I don’t use this one any more except for one old AOL profile.   

J Gwyn or Gwynn79 – this goes way back to my days when I was working on my MBA in Business School.  Several profs had us do case studies on fictitious characters and I created a Jason Gwyn personal that I would model after my own experience/opinions.  I have always liked that name - I sorta felt it had a 007 ring to it (The Name's Gwyn, Jason Gwyn).  I’ve used this profile to set up accounts for various on line newspapers just to read the opinions section and it's set up on my yahoo mail and Gmail accounts.  

I've been working to purge out some of these older names as they've lost their true meaning and I no longer really need them, but it hard to break away from your roots. 

History Lesson

For those who traffic this site frequently (ok, all three of you), you might surmise I tend to recall history (when the brain is functioning properly) on occasion.

Today, 2 March, is officially Texas Independance Day!

On 2 March 1836, Texicans met at Washington-on-the-Brazos and declared their independance from Mexico and officially established the Republic of Texas. It is from those meager beginnings sprang such great things (the Alamo, Lone Star Beer, Spindletop, NASA, The Astrodome, the Dallas Cowboys, DALLAS, Enron).

History is cool. One must learn from the the past in order not to repeat the same mistakes.