Lefty righty left....

What in the world was that subject of this post? It doesn't make sense
just saying it, you have to hear it, hear what? A running chant, i.e.;
Marines Corps DI running chants.

See at work I have a computer with sorts of music on it, we listen to it
all day. Sometimes it plays recorded Marine Corps running chants. I
cannot understand at all how anyone can find this entertaining, but
apparently some people do or had.

Funny thing is, when I was a DI at Parris Island a recording company had
come to the Island to record just that, running chants. Chance are what
I listen to at work is one and the same. I watched the recording
engineers at work, they had Drill Instructor school students running in
a circle on the basketball courts with the recording team in the middle
extending a boom mike. The students in turn were singing various
chants. Had no idea I would be listening to then 14 years later on MP3.

Now something I have to mention about "singing" running chants, it was
never very fun, in fact it was a lot of work! When your the junior
Drill Instructor you can count on having to be called out to sing chants
for the recruits. Well for one, you have to sing loud, really loud,
then on top of that you have to be thinking about your next chant as you
are finishing ending another. You can't just finish a chant, stop and
catch your breath and then think about another! But there was a trick
of sorts if you were stumped on what to sing next, filler chants!
That's what I called them. What would that be? Well just little stuff
for the recruits to sing back to you, all the while your thinking...what
next?

The all time classic chant? The all time Army and Marine Corps favorite
chant? The good ol' C-130 rolling down the strip chant, whoever came up
with it was a poet. There are so many flavors of this chant, all
depending on what branch of the service your in.

Here is a link I found on the web
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1422893

Oh funny, you can buy this on eBay
http://cgi.ebay.com/MEMORABLE-MARINE-CORPS-CHANTS-Semper-Fi-!!_W0QQitemZ230258900053QQcmdZViewItem?IMSfp=TL0806042045r12094

<http://cgi.ebay.com/MEMORABLE-MARINE-CORPS-CHANTS-Semper-Fi-%21%21_W0QQitemZ230258900053QQcmdZViewItem?IMSfp=TL0806042045r12094>

Exchange rate

The exchange rate here just keeps going down and down and down. It has
been as low as 19.10 pesos to the USD, compare that to around 24 pesos
to the USD when we first arrived.

All in all the prices are still reasonable on most things, but costing
us more :'(

I like to put overseas prices in the Big Mac perspective. As I
mentioned in my earlier post a Big Mac sandwich by itself is 60 pesos,
when we first arrived that sandwich would have cost $2.50, not to bad,
and now, $3.14. I was debating with Chris about the price of a Big Mac
meal (with fries and drink) in the U.S.A, I seem to remember that it was
less than $4.00.

Beautiful day here

Wow, what a nice day here in Montevideo! We went for a long walk,
original destination feria de tristan navaja, but after many blocks of
walking we realized that the feria would be probably be closing by the
time we got there. Instead we went turned around and headed for the
feria closer to our home. I got a nice big hamburguesa from a roach
coach for 4o pesos. Not a bad deal as a Big Mac by itself is 60 pesos.

Jack Lucas - Medal Of Honor winner dies

This is kind of strange in that I was just thinking about this gentleman the other day.  He had visited Parris Island (Marine Corps boot camp) and although I didn't meet him, I did drive behind his old Chevy van with handicapped license plates along with MOH recipient as well as Marine Corps stickers plastered all over.
His is a very unique story as he is the youngest person awarded this medal, not only that he survived jumping on a grenade, while a second one (grenade) was thrown in at the same time!

Here is a link to his story.