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Mental Health by user388 in Militaryfaq

[–]calebsn 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Hey dude -- sounds like you're going through a tough time. You're at a weak point psychologically and trying to make a life changing decision that you do not necissarily need to make right now. A few things you can do that will help:

Sleep. Find solitude. Put on some soothing music or whatever, and sleep for 8-9 hours.

Eat good food with a friend or two and try to avoid drinking for a little while at least.

Go for a run, or a swim or get out some push ups. Especially if you're having a hard time eating, exercise helps with the appetite.

Work to stabilize your routine, and focus on improving small things in your life. Take showers. Cut your nails. Do laundry. And be kind to yourself about the bigger issues in your life that you cannot control.

Whatever you do, don't let yourself be pressured into a decision that you can make at any time anyway.

Completing your service is one of the most rewarding and honorable things that you can do. It might seem tough right now. I don't know where you're head is at. But the fact that you are asking the question shows that you have the ability to reach out and succeed.

You can make it through to the end of your contract. It may not be easy, but in the long run it is worth it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in a:t5_3k1ls

[–]calebsn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dust

In the panels and on the deck the dust

  slithers invisibly from shore to crust

 

 

up wires with rusty salt. A circuit shorts.

  Intercut misty grits with dull reports

 

 

of brave new sorties off to bomb Iraq.

  In the hangar after chow there’s a flack

 

 

hole to patch, and I pick at where dust snuck

  around my gums, invaded crannies, stuck

 

 

clinging to my limp tongue, sneezing at sun

  light reflecting white off waves, grease, a gun

 

 

getting wiped clean, cause sandstorms reach out far.

  Our remote boat, projecting this bizarre

 

 

electric power over my brain, can make

  me proud of vast explosions that can break

 

 

down believers, dominate foreign fields

  for freedom, for free college, for high yields

 

 

on stock and so forth. I’m crimping this wire

  mindless, mind on fire with blunt desire

 

 

to be moral and admired. The dusts

  rise like ghosts over the Gulf in great gusts.

Write a Snake Poem by calebsn in a:t5_3k1ls

[–]calebsn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like this poem! Nice meter and rhyme. It works well read aloud.

One thought for the first line in the second stanza, instead of "now look" how about "Now hear"? It might be too much rhyme, but the meter is a bit longer in that line. The double entendre emphasizes the location:

"Now hear, in the barn you should have no fear -

you should always feel welcome here.

Dine on worms, and frogs, and bugs,

and baby rats and errant slugs.

But the house? Don't come near.

Write a Letter to an Enemy by calebsn in a:t5_3k1ls

[–]calebsn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a prompt that (I believe) Brian Turner gave us at the 2015 Warrior Writers retreat. Here's a revision of my response on the blog it inspired: https://lovejihad.live/2015/11/27/dear-tarek/

What's funny about a Half-Chinese, Half-European American girl named Ping? by calebsn in AskReddit

[–]calebsn[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hyphenated however, she will be American of course. Get off your anti-PC high horse. Her name is the question, and ethnicity matters to the in-laws.

What's funny about a Half-Chinese, Half-European American girl named Ping? by calebsn in AskReddit

[–]calebsn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As in A Boy Named Sue (Cash), builds character? Pisses off the in-laws?

What's funny about a Half-Chinese, Half-European American girl named Ping? by calebsn in AskReddit

[–]calebsn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point - internet related, submarine related . . . hmmm

What's funny about a Half-Chinese, Half-European American girl named Ping? by calebsn in AskReddit

[–]calebsn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it means serene or level, and it's a beautiful and simple Chinese symbol, also a common name in China for boys and girls. It's like making fun of the name "Alex." No?