I spent most of the day raking. We all joke that the actual occupation of a soldier on post is as a landscape engineer.

We had 10 people raking for 4 hours today and yesterday and we still didn't finish.

The funniest thing for me yesterday was when someone started singing 1 billion and 12 leave on the ground, 1 billion and 12 leaves on the ground. Rake 1 up, bag it up, 1 billion and 11 leaves on the ground. You had to be there, but there were so many leaves it seemed endless.

The major saw my photos I took from the range and he told me that he thought there were great photos. I tried fixing my photos by cropping and adjuscting the brightness/ contrast. I did the best I could but I thought they still looked like crap.

Seriously those pictures wouldn't have flown at school. It didn't help that I was using my own and far inferior camera. Instead of using the 5,000 dollar Nikon I was using at school, I was using my own $200. Sony Mavica to try to take combat training photos. There was a difference and I could tell.

I wish some of my photos were better but I think a camera would have solved half my problem. I guess the only good thing is that once I get the right equipment and get better, my commander is going to be truly wowed.

I had a basketball game today and we won...well we won by default, to win our first game of the season.

During warmups I really felt good and was playing terrific. Had we played and had I got time on the court, I think I would have really showed them, they made a mistake not playing me.

Well it's getting late and my back is killing me. I will call it a night.

Before I go... the song of the day which I couldn't get out of my head was Pete Yorn "Strange Condition."