Our satellite link the internet was down for about 3 days this week. Everyone was very upset. Everytime anyone saw someone else the first question they asked was "is the internet back up? I think that our war stories are mostly going to be about the aweful times that the internet went down and the times that the chow hall ran out of ice cream.

I shouldn't make light of the war. As an aviator I am lucky to be stationed at a relatively secure base and stay at least 75 feet above the ugly stuff when I leave the base. Lots of other guys are actually in a war. We regularly hear about and meet guys involved in roadside bombings and ambushes. I really do hope that the worst experience I have here is an internet crisis.

I flew a short one hour mission today just to move some troops from one base to another close by. We shut down at the base and explored for an hour. I was reminded once again of how good we have it. Their facilities were very primitive compared to our ours. Again, aviators have it easy. The flight was a good one. I was with a Pilot in Command who is not an Instructor Pilot. He let me fly the entire mission and made comments and suggestions but mostly just let me enjoy the experience and learn by doing. That is how I learn best and I think I flew well.

I am attaching a photo from the flight and a picture of the cat that has now become the Bravo Company pet. I dont think he has a name yet though.

I picked up some new hardware on Friday evening to replace an aging iMac. I'm impressed, perhaps more than I though I'd be. Having been spoiled with a Dual-G5 for quite awhile now I didn't know if the iMac would really stack up. So far it's great.

A few tips. First, get Apple Care for $119 and then go down to your local Frys or other electronics store and buy 1GB of RAM for $89. You'll end up with 1.5 GB of RAM and an extended warranty for roughly the same price as Apple's $200.

The Mighty Mouse is much more impressive than I thought in the few times I've tried it in the store. It's still sitting beside my Logitech trackball much longer than any previous Apple mouse would (even being plugged in is pretty amazing by my historic standards of Apple mouse loathing).

Having just seen a post calling Batman Begins the best super-hero movie that has been produced I'd have to agree. I saw most of it a couple of weeks ago on the plane and we watched the whole thing last evening. The movie succeeds not only as a great super-hero movie but is great storytelling.

We also watched Star Wars Episode III a couple of nights ago. It is easily the best of the prequels and the only of the trio that is not an embarrassment to the original trilogy. The only challenge will be explaining to the kids why the droids in Episode III are so much more advanced than those in Episode IV.