A fobbit (rhymes with hobbit) is a soldier who never leaves the FOB. They are usually the brunt of jokes by infantry soldiers and others who routinely go out on patrols and other missions off of the FOB. Pilots fall somewhere between Fobbits and the "hard-core" soldiers. After all, we leave the FOB all the time but its usually just to fly to another FOB. In any case, I have spent the last month as a Fobbit here at FOB Warrior in Kirkuk and have to say that the life is pretty good. Ive been tanning, hitting the gym, working regular hours, and keeping track of the increasing violence by seeing it on TV rather than flying above it. Sadly, my time as the LNO is coming to an end. I expect to return to Speicher shortly. On the positive side, I will get back to flying.

I had a memorable dinner a few nights ago that I thought Id share with you all. The ODA invited some of us planners to come to dinner at their compound as a thank you for the support we have provided. ODA stands for Operational Detachment Alpha. If that sounds cryptic its because its meant to. These are the American soldiers who dont wear uniforms, have long hair and beards, and live on their own in a walled compound. I walked over to the compound and immediately saw the screened-in porch filled with people. Dinner was great. The ODA guys have the opportunity to do thier food shopping off of the FOB so they prepared a middle eastern feast of chicken, lamb, rice, kabobs, hummus, and chai tea. I hung out for a while with the ODA and the planners with whom I have been working. I gorged myself on the only fresh and authentic food I have had the opportunity to eat here in Iraq.

For years I've been a fan of the space program. For all its flaws NASA has an amazing record of achievement. As such I have a pretty solid understanding of the history of the space program and have seen many great and not so great films on the subject.

As a Netflix viewer I've had the HBO series From Earth to the Moon on the list for some time now. However with the general notion that there wouldn't be much new in the story I kept pushing it down the stack. Recently the first DVD arrived and it is so far from a stale retelling of the same fascinating story.

One of the big things the series did well is it abandoned the notion that the space story needs to be told chronologically. Following Part 4 - 1968 which shows the important impact of the Apollo program on bringing some light to a dark time, the next episode Part 5 - Spider starts in 1962 with the development of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and follows the process through 1969. This form of storytelling makes it possible to focus on the stories of the Apollo program.

Of course the week after we purchase a new car there has to be news on what's coming next. True to form Wired has the article today about the impressive next generation of electric vehicles. Then again our car will be paid off a lot sooner than one costing $80,000. The pop-culture buffs amongst us will appreciate that in driving a Prius you're driving the same car as Alexandra Paul, Alicia Silverstone, Billy Crystal, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, David Duchovny, Ellen DeGeneres, Gwyneth Paltrow, Harrison Ford, Jack Black, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kirk Douglas, Kurt Russell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Patricia Arquette, Rob Reiner, Robin Williams, Salma Hayek, Susan Sarandon, Steven Spielberg, Tim Robbins, Ted Danson, Tom Hanks, Woody Harrelson and Will Ferrell.