• Member Since 28th Aug, 2011
  • offline last seen 4 hours ago

Cold in Gardez


Stories about ponies are stories about people.

More Blog Posts186

  • 1 week
    A town for the fearful dead

    What is that Gardez up to? Still toiling away at his tabletop world. Presented, for those with interest, the town of Cnoc an Fhomhair.

    Cnoc an Fhomhair (Town)

    Population: Varies – between two and five thousand.
    Industry: Trade.
    Fae Presence: None.

    Read More

    5 comments · 218 views
  • 12 weeks
    The Dragon Game

    You know the one.


    A sheaf of papers, prefaced with a short letter, all written in a sturdy, simple hand.

    Abbot Stillwater,

    Read More

    7 comments · 536 views
  • 31 weeks
    EFN Book Nook!

    Hey folks! I should've done this days ago, apparently, but the awesome Twilight's Book Nook at Everfree Northwest has copies of Completely Safe Stories!

    Read More

    9 comments · 565 views
  • 34 weeks
    A new project, and an explanation!

    Hey folks,

    Alternate title for this blog post: I'm Doing a Thing (and I'm looking for help)

    I don't think anyone is surprised that my pony writing has been on a bit of a hiatus for a while, and my presence on this site is mostly to lurk-and-read rather than finish my long-delayed stories. What you might not know, though, is what I've been doing instead of pony writing.

    Read More

    26 comments · 991 views
  • 79 weeks
    Short Story: The Sculpture

    This is not a story about ponies. No ponies here! Go elsewhere for ponies.

    But this is a story for a D&D adventure I am writing. And I suppose it's also a story about what it means to have purpose, where we get that purpose form, and what happens when that purpose vanishes. People things, in other words.


    The flower turns its face to the sun.

    Read More

    10 comments · 792 views
Mar
30th
2014

And I've actually made it · 2:14pm Mar 30th, 2014

Hey folks, short update here. I just wanted to let everyone know that I've made it to Afghanistan safely, that I'm semi-online, still writing, and will be posting stuff soon.

Afghanistan hasn't changed much. The bases are a little nicer, which is odd because we're getting ready to abandon them at the end of the year. It's also not as crowded as I remember. I guess the last time I was here, there were something like 100,000 troops in country. Now we're down to 60k or so. They're not all at this base, obviously, but it's still noticeable.

Imagine driving through a new neighborhood that got hit hard by the housing downturn. Everything looks nice from the outside, but many of the houses are abandoned and empty. The place feels like a ghost town.

That's a bit like this place is. By the time I leave in October, it will probably be worse.

Anyway, more stories coming soon. Something about being deployed always seems to motivate me to write. Next on the block will be a new chapter of Salvation, probably heading your way in 3-4 days.

Cheers from Afghanistan,

-CiG

Report Cold in Gardez · 919 views · Story: Salvation ·
Comments ( 40 )

Be safe, dude!

Is it true that you guys have whole shopping malls on-base?

Keep yourself safe over there.

1966403

The Afghans have bazaars that they set up, but I wouldn't call those shopping malls, except in the most liberal sense of the word.

Best of luck over there. My older brother came home just before Christmas. Having had a brother over there, I know your family has to be missing you, or somebody close to you is. Make sure you talk to them relatively often. I feel like I've lost a part of my brother because he left, never spoke to me, and now he's different. Keep your ties back home. My heart goes out to you.

1966408 Curses, stereotype has failed me again!

I wish I could have gone to Afghanistan. I got sent to Iraq twice, but I hear the 'stan is a whole other beast. Eh, oh, well. Stay safe, brother.

Making it into Afghanistan safely is easy. Making it out safely... there's the rub.

Stay safe, and good luck on your mission to deliver 'MURICA to those poor oppressed Afghans.

Good luck, and keep yourself in one big, intact, Cold in Gardez shaped piece!

Glad to hear! Please, please be safe out there, and come back home quickly!

Most importantly though, thank you for your service.

Be safe - and try to stay warm too.

ymom2 #12 · Mar 30th, 2014 · · 13 ·

I dislike the US's move into middle eastern countries. It seems to me that a big reason of "bringing democracy" to these countries is to veil the looting the country by western corporations. In a kind of modern imperialism, central banks and eventually enormous predatory loans are established in some of the last central bank holdout countries on earth eventually turning it into a debtor nation. The American military in this respect seems to be a sad tool of the economic "hit men".

Anyways, hope you are safe.

Stay safe, man. I'm always impressed that you manage to find the time and the focus to write on deployment. You got mad pony skills.

Glad your travels went well! I'd love to see pictures, if you have the time.

Like everyone else has said here: May you stay safe, warm, and whole, and also let the ponies escape from your head as often as possible. :raritywink:

I'm curious about the connection you have available over there, both internet and phone (or both together, really). I've helped a couple of people there in your neck of the woods over the last year, troubleshooting tech issues, and from what I've seen it's a bit touch and go.

Praying for ya. And not just because your horse stories are among my personal favorites, either!

May your pen stay safe from the sword.

1966932
>[no one] needs to hear this shit.

To be clear, I am not criticizing Gardez. What I am doing is trying to raise people's political awareness wherever I go. How do you think we got to the point where we can have a cushy enough lifestyle to be able to dedicate hours to reading about magical ponies? It was accomplished through political activism. It does not matter to me if people do not want to hear me. Political discussion is the only way people like us will preserve the prosperity we have and be able to do things like have a large dedicated pony fandom.

To be completely honest. I am tired of the constant automatic bigotry, programed by propaganda, to anyone who dares to criticize the military. Sorry to be the party pooper but despite the media propaganda about weapons of mass destruction it turns out that there were no weapons of mass destruction, it was a fabricated excuse. Iraq was never a threat to homeland security. You are more likely to be struck by lightning twice than to be killed by a terrorist in the USA. The threat of terrorism and that Iraq posed are overblown and were used to excuse the iraq invasion.

See: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2ce_1355726967
For a special forces veteran on joining the military.

This happens all the time, just look what happened recently. Turkey was caught red handed planning a false flag (fake enemy attack) to provide pretext for war against Syria in a leaked phone conversation between Turkish military officials and Turkish politicians. In response, the Turkish government blocked all of Youtube to keep the leak from going viral in Turkey a week before the Turkish elections. In the general's own words: “I’ll send 4 men from Syria, if that’s what it takes. I’ll make up a cause of war by ordering a missile attack on Turkey; we can also prepare an attack on Suleiman Shah Tomb if necessary.”

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-1GooSDwJ8 and http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s15hj6

If you want to have the attitude of "I don't want to hear this shit because I don't want to think about it" that is absolutely fine. Feel free to ignore and down-vote my comments. You are free to your opinion that political awareness is not important enough to risk making someone feel bad. Just know that it is this kind of attitude that makes society as shitty as it is. I believe that the cause of improving society through the spread of political awareness is important enough to discuss under a blog post about the U.S. military.

Good luck, my man. Keep your head down, and keep that Salvation coming. :rainbowwild:

Good to hear CiG--good luck out there, I hope the time flies.

You are being used as a peon. Look what you did to them.

giant.gfycat.com/ContentMiserableHake.gif
(Before Taliban)

You guys probably don't know about this man. He is Yasin El-Kadı, an old friend (Former financer) of Taliban and Bin Laden. Due to his strong position in Saudi Arabia, you can't do anything to him. He admitted CIA sponsored Taliban at the times of cold war. He says he met with Bin Laden in Chicago
cdn.historycommons.org/images/events/177_yassin_alqadi2050081722-9876.jpg

Glad you are fine! I was beginning to miss you :(

YAY SALVATION

Keep safe out there.

If you ever meet a networking engineer who goes by Punch Monkey, say hi from me, he's my brother. (Don't know if you're on the same base but on the off chance you are...)

Stay safe mate, and come home soon.

Best of luck, hopefully the rest of your time there goes by peacefully. :pinkiehappy:

I'm glad to hear that you made it there safely. Like the others I hope you can stay that way. I have this urge to offer you some kind of advice, but there is nothing in my life that could possibly inform you in a situation like that. So I will simply offer you my feeling that you are a special and talented individual, and that my urge was born of my desire to see you continue your life unhindered. :fluttershysad:

I hope that you have a boring deployment, that you have plenty of downtime to write, and that the most exciting thing that happens to you is that you make some new friends while you are there. :yay:

I hope you remain Cold in Gardez and not Hot Lead in Gardez.

Stay safe and come back in one piece!

Um, OPSEC?

1969954
Nothing about this post breaks OPSEC. The (general) amount of foreign armed forces in Afghanistan is public knowledge, and not a security risk, and there is a freaking countdown for when US forces leave. He doesn't give any other 'useful' info.


1967191
1967575
Are you people fucking Asperger sufferers? Do you know how disrespectful you are being to this man? Do yourself a favor and delete your posts, or edit it to something like, 'Hope you make it back in one piece CiG. I may not agree with why you have to be there, but I hope you make it back okay.'

For fuck's sake.

Glad you made it to Afghanistan safely! I hope everything goes well and you make it back in one piece.

You're work is an inspiration to me.

1969954

Right, god forbid the Taliban realize we're leaving at the end of the year.

So at this point, have the various groups of militant extremists adopted a policy of just sitting back and waiting you out? Or do they keep planting bombs everywhere (and shooting RPGs at anything that might result in damage) for shits and giggles?

Because I think I heard somewhere that the Taliban is only attacking the Afghan police/military right now, and outright avoiding the US military.

1967575 It's common knowledge that the CIA supported the Taliban during the Cold War. We considered them the underdog good guys, and also a convenient way to fight the Russians without actually having to sacrifice any of our own men. So we backed them, we armed them, and we trained them. Then someone realized "Oh shit, THAT was a mistake" and the Gulf War happened so as to cover our asses.

Seriously. I went to school in central Texas and just about every student knew about this.

Stay safe man.

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