Hey. What's up guys...jeez I'm really tired. But I can't put this off anymore or I'm never going to write it!! Haha

Yes, indeed, that's the problem. It's been too long. I haven't even talked about FAR CRY YET. Oh boy is Far Cry great..oh well, let's begin, shall we?

I guess to start out, I'll talk about soccer. Soccer ended a few weeks back. We finished the season with two losses--both to McDonogh, our rivals. We lost to them in the championship last year, but this year, despite our inability to get it together when playing McDonogh, we beat all the teams that beat them, so it looked like it was in the bag. Playoffs started and we played St. Paul's. They were the team we went into OT against and just barely came out with the win. This time around, the score went 0-0 until OT...then Double OT...then penalty kicks Thankfully, we won in PKs...but that was a REALLY close call.

So the next game was us against McDonogh, at our field this time. No sucky fields ruining the championships, and one final shot to freaking drive that team into the ground. Things started to shape up like our St. Paul's game as the score stayed 0-0 until OT...then Double OT...then PKs again. At this point, I'm thinking two things. "This is way too close, we should have already scored and the game should already be over," and, "If we lose after all this in PKs I may just kill somebody."

Well, unfortunately, we lost AND I didn't get to kill anyone. I still don't know why it happened...the St. Paul's game, Jared (our goalie) blocked two shots and one went over the net, and 4 of our guys made their shots. McDonogh, though, Jared blocked none of them, and I think our guys scored 2 of theirs. Trainwreck, really...

Since soccer's over, I've had a ridiculous amount of free time after school, which I totally need, because class is starting to get unbearable as of late. Homework out the wazzoo, that is. We're on Thanksgiving break now though, so I've had some time to chill and ignore HW for the time being. More on that later though.

There's other stuff going on around here, too. We got FiOs, for those of you who don't know, that's Verizon's new phone, TV, and internet service that uses underground fiber optics. Internet is BLAZING, phones are phones, and TV is pretty awesome. The DVR isn't as good as Tivo but who is?, and we get a TON of channels we never had before. The biggest one is by far the Military Channel, which is something I can turn on randomly and always be interested in whatever's on Weaponology and Future Weapons are easily my faves though, but who can know? I haven't seen everything there yet

With soccer season done, I finally started doing something very important My SEAL training  That's right...meleeman wants to be a Navy SEAL...what, you look surprised You knew that was coming didn't you? But don't you worry...this is no phase, I'm not going to lose interest. In fact, every day that goes by I only get more psyched for it. I've thought really long and really hard about it, it's a hard committment and an even harder performance, but it's like, what I was born for. After learning all this stuff I have about the SEALs, I realized it's the only thing I can see myself being. 

The gym comes soon. It's one of the highest quality gyms in the state, and it's like five minutes from my house. It's expensive though, and with the economy tanking, my parents are no longer sure it's on the menu, and if it is, it won't be for a while. Until then, it's me running on the treadmill, doing pushups, situps, and lifting on our machine at home. The gym is crucial though, mainly for the pool, which me and my friend Steve will be spending an hour in each day, among the other things. Our training is gonna be about the same length as soccer, which is depressing because all my freetime I wanted so bad is gonna go out the window, and the homework loads are only getting worse, not better. The committment's hard even now But that's there, not here. I'll keep you all posted on the progress...right now I'm just trying to get my endurance back where it belongs on the treadmill and to find a good amount of sit ups and push ups to be doing consistently before I make anything higher and set higher goals.

I guess the only other big thing is Break. Our break is 9 uninterrupted days, unlike most of yours, so that's awesome Thursday we're having dinner at my dad's parents' house, but Sunday night we had "Fakesgiving" with our cousins, because yesterday one of them flew down to Florida to see his girlfriend and wouldn't be here for real Thanksgiving That was cool, anyways. Played some Xbox on their HD projector, watched the 24 Redemption on said projector, etc. Oh, and of course, we ate a TON

That's basically it I think the longer I wait to blog, the more stuff becomes insignificant and I'm forced to really only give you guys the bare essentials I might remember other stuff in the future, but I'll close for now saying:

Sorry I've been inactive, I've been frequenting the unions and profiles but not really posting anything

I'll return later for impressions that are lonnnnnnng overdue on Far Cry 2, the book Rainbow Six, final impressions on Brisingr, and perhaps writing updates

Until next time, I've been a guard post scouting irmeleeman5995, and that's a mouthful to say!

Ahhhh, I'm finally here after like two weeks of nothing. And for your sakes, I'm staving off the final SEALs blog till a later date. For now, on with the usual.

School is getting worse by the day. We took the PSAT's the other day. Math frustrated me in parts, but as a whole, it was a joke. I was like "Wow why am I even here?" And I don't even find out what I get as a score until December. By then I'll be thinking, "When did I take the PSAT??"

Other than that, the quarter is drawing to a close. Everything is just getting aggravating. Nothing is hard. It's just annoying. Homework, tests, quizzes, and projects. It's unavoidable and it eats up time like you wouldn't believe. Well...I say this being probably the youngest person of anyone who reads it...so ignore that statement, I'm just rambling

Soccer's going awesome. It's been a while since I updated you, so I'll spare the details. Basically, we've only lost two league games...both playing our rivals, McDonogh. They're the only team to score on us in league games, with 3 goals between 2 games. The thing that's ticking me off is when our coach reports them losing to two other teams in our conference, one we've beaten twice now, one we beat the one time we played them. What's that say? WE SHOULD BE WINNNNNNNINNNNNNNG

Movies news, hmm...I saw Appaloosa. That was REALLY good. Definitely reccommend it. I also recently watched Italian Job and Boondock Saints AND Casino Royale...all I had seen before, all I absolutely reccommend as well.

Books. BOOKS!! Brisingr!!!! I'm a hefty chunk of the way in now. It's very good. I like how straightforward the plot is. The author didn't articificially extend the length of the book by needlessly drawing out events that should--and thankfully did--end swiftly. I greatly appreciate that. He's a Dragon Rider and the Luke Skywalker equivalent of the Eragon universe!! He should totally just kill those stupid Ra'zac. Which...he did...very easily. So, thank you, Master Paolini.

Music, not much new. I got the new Offspring album, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. It's really good. It's a very rare occurence in the genre...it's not emo or cocky music. It's spiteful music. Very refreshing, and great to listen to before games. I also got a lot of the Killers' stuff recently. They're so awesome! I love the singer's voice. The dude sings such a variety of music, and it's all uncompromisingly awesome.

Gaming is at practically a standstill. Even though I'm permitted to play on weekdays, with soccer and homework, I haven't had much of the time. I'm in the middle of a playthrough of MGS The Twin Snakes, however. For the first time in years, I'm actually gonna WATCH all the cutscenes in the game...so I'll take more like 15 hours to beat it instead of like 5 My brother Kyle recently splurged on Dead Space's special edition, which we were both gonna split at Xmas time. It's a sweet game, but didn't really come off as "Day 1" material, you know? Well he changed his mind. I'm gonna play it soon, although I might end up not touching it for a while. Far Cry 2 is fast approaching, and he is lending Dead Space to some pals so I might get it once I'm done with FC2 and Dead Space has come full circle.

Writing has been at just as much a standstill as everything else. I mean dude, it took me like 2 weeks to get 300 pages into Brisingr! Normally I'd have finished it in no more than a week and a few days...so you can imagine that writing hasn't been anything. I've been meaning to sit down on a Saturday and just transfer the written progress to the laptop, but with chores, HW, and airsoft, I haven't found the time!

Airsoft has been going awesome. I finally completed my outfit...at least for now. I know wear, each Sunday when we airsoft, the following.

Woodland Camo BDUs (full)

Black military boots

Fingerless gloves (intended for bike riding, of all things)

A black tac vest

A black drop leg holster

An UnderArmour balaclava (black)

A MICH tac helmet (black)

And some really sleek and awesome looking airsoft goggles

We take a lot of pictures of ourselves during games, so eventually I'll get some good ones and show you all what I look like. Everyone tells me I look like I walked out of R6V And I DEFINITELY DID NOT model myself as closely as I could to my in game character...no...definitely not (It worked, aside from the woodland camo and not black camo)

Our adventures of late have been pretty awesome. I'm actually getting kills in game now, and I'm getting a lot more comfortable playing. I'm not as freaked out and I'm more "jacked in". My breathing is a lot more controlled, and I think more clearly and make a lot of important decisions on the fly that reflect good tactical thought process. It's SO fun to airsoft like we do. It's so serious and realistic...it's too much fun.

At any rate, that's about all I've got fellas. See, if this had been two or three entries as the events were happening in life, there'd be a lot more detail. But I kept procrastinating and now you all got a short blog. Lukcy you, right?

Until next time, I've been a sore but willing to go for anything irmeleeman5995, and that's a mouthful to say!

Yay, meleeman's back with his second SEAL blog! Don't all jump up and read it at once

Meleeman's note: As with the first one, if not more so, this is way too long for me to read through and proofread. Sorry lads, but you'll manage, right?

So in the last entry I detailed what makes a SEAL a SEAL. They're definitely some of the most impressive soldiers in history, and now that you all have a good understanding of that, I can in good conscience detail the narrative that the novel focused on.

In 2005, Marcus and some other SEAL operatives were in Afghanistan. They were just there to be there; just doin' what they do best. The story, though, is found in one mission, or rather, one target. His name was "Ben Sharmak" in the book, he didn't reveal his name in the book, but I think you can actually find the real name here. I think Ben was still alive when he wrote the book, but has since been killed later.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Ben Sharmak there was the target. He was a very important, high up Taliban individual. I have since lent the book to a friend, so I can't be certain, but I think Sharmak himself was the one Marcus mentioned for being a notorious explosive user, constantly targeting US Marines in his attacks. But aside from his deadly explosives, he was also just plain ol' high up and important. Their mission was to get ahold of him and capture if possible, kill if not. Pretty straight forward, right?

Sounds like a very simple, too good to be true objective. At least, that's the impression I got. Is there really just a target elimination mission that is ever so simple? I asked myself. Apparently so...At any rate, here the military is in the treacherous mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush, trying to get ahold of good intel on Sharmak's position. There was 2 or 3 false starts for the mission before the final go, due to information flaking out; as in, no longer accurate because of Sharmak moving around.

At long last, however, the mission was finally a go. The four SEALs, being Marcus and his buddies Mikey, Axe, and Danny, were put down at night time high in the peaks of the Kush. It was dark, windy, and rainy. Perfect, right? They were forced to trek through the unkind terrain about four miles to their position. Their goal: take up an auspicious firing position in the mountain cover, take out Sharmak with one of their Mark 12s, and retreat safely. The issue posed was that Sharmak commanded a force of estimated 80-140 men with him, and if anything went wrong, or possibly even if it went right, the four man squad would have to deal with them. No worries, though, right?

The problem was, a group of three Afghan shepherds found the poor SEALs in those mountains. Not good, right? The men were then posed with a terribly tough decision. The harsh and militarian decision was to outright kill the three Afghans, one of whom was a boy of maybe 17. That's what they all wanted to do, and what they knew was all but the only choice. But the rules of engagement in all their wisdom would see them tried in the US later for murdering non combatants, and it would almost certainly condemn them all to death or jail. So, as tough as it was, they knew they couldn't kill them.

Then again, why not call HQ? If they sanction the termination of the civilians, then the soldiers can't get in trouble. Or maybe they'll just tell the SEALs what needs to happen? Either way, it couldn't hurt.

After trying the radio continuously, though, the four man squad could not manage to raise HQ at all! I wish I had the book now to quote it, but the radio man (Axe I think) said something along the lines of "It's working fine, there's nothing wrong, it's just like no one's there." The SEALs were furious. Hung out to dry doesn't quite cut it, you know? In the backs of their heads, they all knew what had to be done. They had to let the shepherds go. They didn't make the decision easily, but it was potentially die here in the mountains or potentially die in the US. Not much of a choice, right? So they took their chances in the fight.

Now, before I go on, a few people have asked me why they didn't like, tie up the shepherds or anything like that. That's actually a very good question. I have zero idea, and Marcus mentioned nothing of the sort in the book. My guess? If they thought of it, there probably wasn't a way to. *shrug* Would have worked better than what they ended up doing...

The shepherds were left on their way, and the SEALs at least excercised some intelligent strategizing here. They fell back, taking up a prime defensive position to counter the onslaught that was going to close on them in the coming hours. It's good they thought of that, you know? Better than sitting there and hoping for the best.

The other question asked to me was, "If they're sitting here on a mountain, staring at the town through sniper scopes, how did they even get challenged? They had like every advantage." Truth be told? They got taken from behind. The Taliban snuck up behind them, coming all the way around the mountain from the other side. This was, in my uneducated opinion, was the final kiss of death for our valiant troops. They went from being huddled up with a good defensive position on top of the mountain to being flanked from behind from even further up the mountain. Height advantage? Bye. Element of surprise? Reversed on them, at best. A fight ensued, and it's arguably the only reason I'm writing this blog.

There's those events in movies, books, and games that just seem to good to be true. Perhaps within the realm of possibility if all the circumstances were met, but what are the odds of that? A fight that just could never happen? A battle never won in reality? They're pretty prevelant in entertainment. It's cool to see something awesome happen, becuz it's the stories that never happen in reality that are cool to see elsewhere. This was that fight. I swear it was like a story of four stranded SPARTAN IIs in Halo's universe.

The final body count for the Taliban wasn't revealed in the book, but Marcus's rough estimates made on the battlefield put the total Taliban taken out at maybe 90, out of 140-160 at the start. (Again, I'm sorry if that's inaccurate, I can't confirm that, but I'm pretty certain that was his estimate.) The SEALs were just untouchable. They opened up with M4s and their Mark 12s (which, for the record, fire on semi auto, so they were practical in a combat scenario) at the tidal wave of Taliban soldiers who continued to round the mountain side and filled in the gaps of their fallen allies. Even when the SEALs were literally out in the open calmly moving to cover amidst thousands of bullets, they managed to tag countless enemies each, while remaining unscathed. The Taliban guys are very untrained, and more or less won battles from sheer volume of fire, not precise shooting.

That fact alone is what let the SEALs perform so well in this terribly lopsided fight. It would be like standing there with 150 guys shooting at you with their eyes closed. You gotta be careful, but the amount of people you can get all depends on how well you keep your cool and shoot true. And because of the SEALs' intense training, that is exactly what they did, even when faced with such staggering odds. It's not like they stood in the wide open forever, though. They quickly and steadily began descending the mountain, going to cover, taking out enemies, moving down, etc. Their goal, and only hope of living, was to totally descend the mountain and fall back onto flat ground where they very realistically could combat the entire enemy force and win. Or, even better, fall back into the town itself, shack up in a building, and have a turkey shoot. Even with the endless supplies of RPGs being launched at them, a few inches of solid wall could save them from a lot. So, amidst chaos, confusion, death, and bullets, the four men managed to formulate their loose plan and begin to carry it out.

Of course, they didn't just sit down and take their situation without attempts to call in backup. They took up some cover in a cave, or maybe in some rocks, to establish connection with HQ, hopefully to call in some helicopters with enough firepower to level a town. Unfortunately, there was no response again, with the mountain landscape interfering with the signal. The SEALs decided to make a brave move; to use a cell phone to make a call to base. The bravery is found in the fact that in order to do so, they had to break cover, which spelled nearly certain death.

Murphy took up the task, running out into the fray to make a telephone call. Thankfully, he got patched through alright, and desperately pleaded for any support they could get, saying that the SEALs were dying out there. He even got shot in the back during the call. He got up off the ground, picked his rifle back up, along with the phone, and continued to fire his assault rifle one handed while completing the phone call with uncanny calm. The conversation ended shortly after, and then Murphy was shot again in the stomach. He fell onto his back this time, and within moments, multiple Taliban soldiers had approached him and unloaded more ammo into him. If he hadn't already died, he was certainly gone now.

Meanwhile, another one of their teammates, Mikey, had been shot, five times (I think). One blew his thumb off, there was a few elsewhere, and finally he got shot in the neck. By that point, he fell down and wasn't moving. Now, as with a lot of soldiers, SEALs are strongly compelled to retrieve bodies of their fallen in combat, only, with the SEALs, it's basically a rule. They're dedicated to the grave. Marcus went into the fray this time, with the rocky mountain walls surrounding him doubling the lethality of the bullets coming towards him, serving to ricochet rounds even after missing initially. However, despite the chaos, he went out and began dragging Mikey to safety. This is amazing.

Mikey swiped Marcus's hand away, picked up his rifle, got up off the ground, and began to fall back while firing, on his own. After four shots, one of which was in the NECK! These SEALs are insane. So they took up more cover and resumed repelling the never ending waves of enemies. By now the body count is astounding. The SEALs are taking out an unholy amount of the Taliban cannon-fodder.

Pardon the memory failure, but I forget what bridges the events, but somewhere along the line, the valiant Mikey is shot, once more, for a total of five times, in the very base of the neck. This shot downed him for good, although when I read that, I still wasn't too sure he was out of the fight yet. After four times, once in the neck, and he was still fighting at full capacity? Like I said, entirely too good to be true. Only, it is true.

Then, Marcus and Axe fell back even more, sticking to the original plan. They were still a considerable distance from the bottom, but it was their only shot. At this point, Axe is holed up in some sort of cave, and Marcus was out doing something when he returned to the cave to find Axe with a wound in his head.

Unfortunately, the four had taken an unbelievably nasty spill down the mountain (the first of a few, actually). Basically, they came to a miniature cliff of sorts, and they had no choice but to jump off and roll down the almost sheer mountain side to a flat spot. Marcus equated it to a ski slope, only they were tumbling, it was rocky surface, and they were going break neck speed with no way to stop (that's the kicker). When they all crashed at the bottom into a heap on top of each other, Marcus had thought that none of them should have been able to live through it. And, like I said, there's a few more of similar ordeals later.

AT ANY RATE, during the spill, Marcus had actually lost his medical supplies, among other things (his helmet!). So he had to sit and stare hopelessly as his brother in arms Axe was suffering from a wound that was basically beyond repair. He said in the book that even in the best medical care in the world, he probably wouldn't have lasted an hour. But Axe was as defiant as any of them, and while he was bleeding pretty bad and couldn't really fight at full capacity, he had his pistol ready and was ready to go out fighting. It's that kind of determination that makes these men so incredible.

They didn't get much time to do any more damage because an enemy RPG struck ground just mere feet short of their position. Marcus was literally flung into another tumble by the blast, and Axe was, to his knowledge, killed in the explosion. It was revealed later that Axe had emptied his pistol clip when they found his body, meaning he had in fact lived on even longer and taken the fight to them until his last breath.

Meanwhile, Marcus's rocky trek down the mountain left him face down in a massive ditch, and curious enough, lacking pants. Better to get your pants blown off by an RPG than to die.

But yeah, like I said, he was face down in a huge ditch, to the point where when he first regained his bearings, he thought he might have gone blind cause he couldn't see. Then he realized he was upside down, and the hole was deep enough where he went unnoticed by the Taliban. They totally didn't see him. Eventually he climbed out and began a slow crawl to a rock formation in which to shelter himself. He barricaded himself in, and he was protected on all sides, save one, where he obviously looked out with his sniper rifle (which, in a series of miracles orchestrated by the guy upstairs, was still right with him through all he had done). Anyways, he waited there for, I dunno, eight hours? Just sitting. Waiting.

By now, he was parched, and had no water whatsoever. He said that his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth, so he couldn't speak even if he had a reason to, and he guessed that trying to detatch it would rip skin off the roof of his mouth in the process.

This just keeps getting better and better. How amazing are all these circumstances? The fact the SEALs were able to accomplish even half of what they've done so far is nothing short of a miracle, but also an undeniable testament to their training. However, it's not over yet, as Marcus is eager to prove, and he continues to do some amazing stuff solo next.

First thing he did was take out a Taliban soldier who had been patrolling the battlefield, looking for Marcus, a few hours after the battle ended. Marcus lined up a shot and blew his head straight off. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed!

So, Marcus happily shot two more Taliban guys who got too curious. It was great, he got one in the head again, and double tapped one in the chest before he could scream. I think he deflated his lung or something crazy like that.

After a little while longer, he decided to get back on the move. However, one thing Marcus was quick to tell us was how his large profile made him a less than prolific mountain climber, and he frequently would slip and/or fall in the mountains. Now he was pretty badly wounded, exhausted with no water, and lacking pants. He crawled on all fours all over the place, and that didn't even help that much. Not to mention, all the aforementioned things made him easier to track through the mountains than a bear leaving Reeses Pieces in a trail. He actually made note of a group of Taliban who he was certain were tracking him at their leisure, possibly even using Night Vision Goggles stolen from Russians a few years prior to spy him from afar. They were basically toying with him.

That was a mistake.

He lures them into a trap, placing himself behind a small outcropping of rocks that offer ample cover to take them out from a distance. Here's how Marcus stands at this point. His back is killing him, which is because of what he later finds out was three cracked vertebrae (OW!). He also has a large gash on his forehead, and whenever it gets opened back up, it bleeds right into his eyes. He tore his right side rotator cuff (something in your shoulder) and he was also shot in the left leg, high up, near the glute.

This happened when Marcus finally found a source of water. It was a waterfall, maybe thirty feet high, and at the bottom was obviously a pool from which he could drink. He found this at the top of the falls, though, and when he began his descent down, the Taliban guys tracking him shot him, right in the leg. He began another long, paaaaaiiiiinful journey down the mountain side, trying to slow himself down from what would surely this time be death. He ended up safe though, but he had lost all his ground, his water source, and now he was shot. Time to start over.

After much more arduous climbing, however, he was at his rock formation, eargerly awaiting payback from what he figured was a two man, sniper/spotter team. He finally got a visual on the one with the rifle, and silently dropped him with a shot to the heart. So far, this is just more insane performance by a critically wounded man who has every advantage stacked against him. He did all this while shot! But it's not over yet.

Little did he know, the two man team was one of three, and the two remaining men were right behind him. Behind him, and actually a little ways above him. They didn't know where Marcus was hiding, and when Marcus finally heard them and located their position, he took action. In one swift movement, which he recalled took maybe a second, he had revealed a grenade, ripped out the pin, heaved it at the spot right in between the two men above him, and rolled around to the opposite side of his rock cover in time for the grenade to annihilate the two Taliban intended for it.

Is that not insane?! To call this guy my hero would be like calling the Master Chief...my...hero...ok bad example.

At any rate, he eventually finds his way to water. But for the life of him, the man cannot stay out of trouble. Upon finally taking some water in, he's stumbled upon by more Afghanis weilding AK47s. Just his luck right?

....By now, some of you might have noticed this is reallllllly long, and that I said part 2 of 3 instead of 2. That's because I took a lot longer with this than I anticipated, and by now I doubt any of you are still reading it. If you got this far, congratulations, and I think you just got influence gained But yeah, uh, three times is the charm, right? It'll be up sometime soon. And, my normal blog update will be as well, with info on soccer wins, airsofting adventures, and probably impressions of Brisingr which I still haven't started Anyways...

Until next time, I've been irmeleeman5995, saying the NFL is lame, and that's a mouthful to say (and gonna get me shot)!