And he's off!

After a bit of a delay, my brother is finally in basic training.

At my mother's suggestion, I got him a small Bible. Nothing quite the thing I was looking for, but a "mere book" works. And that is the remarkable thing about the Bible, the fact that it's a "mere book." The Word of God is not brought to us by some nebulous spiritual experience but rather by ink impressed onto bound paper- matter, physical stuff! God chose to speak to us on our level with things that are familiar to us. Even more so, when God sent his Son it was not as a ghost or in nature as pagan gods may, but as a man in flesh. As a wise man once said, "God likes matter, He invented it."

Anyways, Andrew, make your nation proud, God bless and Godspeed!

Gifts for a newbie soldier?

In a little over a week my brother is shipping off to Army basic training. What would be an appropriate gift would be?

Though I'm open to other ideas, if at all possible I would like to have it be an item of tradition and symbolism, as an engagement ring is to an engagement or pilot's wings are to a pilot. Also, it needs to be something that I can have in hand by the end of the week.

While we are at it, what are appropriate brother to brother gifts (or, more generally, sibling to brother as I have a sister) at other milestones in a soldier's career?

Unless it is otherwise impossible, please do not post your suggestions in the comments as my brother does read this. Rather, if you have my email or phone number contact me that way.

Thanks!

Edit: Another thing to consider is giving something as a brother who is a fellow American verses as a brother who is a fellow Christian.

Huh, really?

Boy, time flies! I have been at my first "real job" for a few days over a year now. Yup, that's a year of making the "big bucks" and a year in the the "big city". Also, my place is finally starting to have some semblance of a home.

Enough of "grasping at straws" for a post and of the "overused" quote marks.

And now a service announcement from Quirky Notions

First, an apology to all of those hoping I had vanished. I am still here. I will reimburse any beer consumed at a he's-finally-gone celebration, just address all receipts to my imaginary blonde secretary. Better luck next time chaps.

Now some of you may have noticed something fishy in the address bar in your browser. Yes, that's right, I now have my own domain, simdan.com. Sometime in the future I'll expand on the simple blog it points to now. You don't have to use blog.simdan.com as www.simdan.com or the plain old vanilla simdan.com will escort you here just as well. The old Blogspot address will still work as will your Blogspot accounts for commenting as the blog is still being hosted by Blogspot. I've just added a nifty chrome boilerplate to how you get here, that's all.

Well, enough with gratuitous links, I'm off to bed soon.