/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/ The 88th Firebirds "Official" Newsletter Website: http://ftp.sarawak.com.my/org/firebirds/ Volume Two, 15 September 1997 Part C /~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/ PART C Birds of A Feather... From the Quill Pen Musings of A Guylian-Eating Officer Addresses and Sites /~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/ <^><^><^><^><^><^> Birds of a Feather... <^><^><^><^><^><^> Just like the fictional 58th, the Firebirds bring together different people from various backgrounds, united by their love for SAaB. In between critical analysis of SAaB, there are the lighter moments where we let our hair down and congregate at the Tun's to down Chiggy von Rootbeers by the gallons, not to mention a certain green liquid. ;) In fact, what actually make the squadron special are these many madcap, gung-ho personalities. Here I included some quotes from the mailing list, all of which I hope will at least make you smile: Raven: "I see that killing animals for sustenance is a part of the natural cycle of life. It's just the actual killing part that I can't quite stomach. Okay so I am not exactly a born predator/carnivore. Humankind was bound to have lost something in the process of civilisation." "So I should cancel the security check, then?" "I'm calling back the security check." __________________________________________________________ Sparhawk: "I'm the "formidable lawyer XO of the Firebirds"? Cool!" ....and Peregrine: "...so, let this be a consolidated mail and a long one, so you are all glued to your seats and pay some attention! What sir? Sorry Sir?Repeat what you just said sir?Umm...err.....Oh no, please not pushups sir?! And one..and two...and three." __________________________________________________________ Peregrine: "Remember to keep our mailing list "G" ! "G" ! And G does not mean Ghairah!" "Feet first and face forward ! Thats me .But it doesnt stop me from falling on my butt." "I miss her strange emails." "The flying blonde ponytails on you REALLY is not *on* !" __________________________________________________________ Garuda: "(on Spar's b-day) Should we get her a cyber card with animated male strippers? ;D" "Hawk, you do know why we refer to newbies as fresh meat, don't you? " "Denial is futile. You will be assimilated. You will come out of the closet. You will faithfully watch Due South. You will beg Spar for the tapes." "Who, us? What makes you think we're gonna be less than, err, gentle?" __________________________________________________________ Goshawk: "Anyway, it was a Big thing so I had to "yan!" as the cantonese might say and dunk the kid (upside down) in the toilet bowl only *after* the course." "There was a security check at the gates and they took my K-Bar, phaser, garroting wire and my trusty syringe. Oh, they EVEN took my Chig Bomb hidden in my socks. The nerve of some people!" "Cookies? Hah! I'm wayeee beyond that! I eat five bowls of super sugar coated cereal sugar bombs every morning!" "Like it was not MY fault he pressed the self destruct button!" __________________________________________________________ Kingfisher: "The people's friendly, the atmosphere's good and you get to *kill* somebody too." ....and Albatross: "I wouldn't *trade* the peaceful lives that we have even for a date with Kristen Cloke. :-> You WOULDN'T??? There's something wrong with your brain, KF!!! Must be the constant G-force pressure aquired during my service in the Corps." __________________________________________________________ Eagle: "You can't print it out though because the er, part won't be moving anymore. But like I told my friends here "Don't worry, just poke your finger through the paper and wriggle it up and down!" "That hair of hers you see, is actually a immobilized chameleon which she used to cover her bald pate. The change in weather that she subjects it to causes the colour to change. This is her second big secret after the potty training thing." "Put all the nit-picking, fussy, critical Virgos in one room and you'll find lots of dead people in the same room just over an hour later." __________________________________________________________ Falcon: "Don't worry, we'll try and hold back Sparry from nuking you!" __________________________________________________________ Hawk: "I mean small animals?? C'mon!! EVERYBODY knows you don't get ANYWHERE with SMALL sacrifices... If you want real results you at the least have to sacrifice a lamb!" <^><^><^><^><^><^> From the Quill Pen <^><^><^><^><^><^> [In this issue, we will witness the Firebirds premiere of Goshawk's literary piece, after its initial small-theatre release. ;)] "I'll Save Ya Wang!" by Lee Hui Lin (Goshawk) Continued from the explosion where the Chig fighter crashed into the carrier. (I'm not a good writer so bear with me) The carrier exploded from the temendous impact from the alien craft. But, at the last moment, the Chig vessel veered to the right and smashed the tip of the ISSCV blowing up three quarters of the carrier. Only a section broke off and managed to stay intact. Amazingly, Wang was inside the chunk of carrier. Wang grabbed on to a metal bar. He could feel the violent rush of air escaping from the huge piece of debris he was in. He knew he will either die of implosion or fried by the heat generated from the collision. Suddenly, everything seemed to go into fast forward. An enormous fragment came hurtling towards the exposed end of the cube and semi-heated, it fused easily over the gap of the opening. Wang was safe! However, most of the air was gone and Paul was feeling dizzy. He had to do something quick to restore the air in the tiny space before he black out and never wake up. His head swimming, he staggered to the oxygen tanks hung on the wall. Wang's heart was racing and his lungs seemed to be screaming! Somehow, Wang succeded in letting out all the air from the tanks out. The compressed air from the 6 tanks was able to provide some relief to the gasping Lieutenant. Paul fell back to the deck, trying to sort things out. Man, this was so wierd. Imagine the chances of *this* ever happening. He couldn't....yet. It all was too quick. What if he had lost his head somewhere during....No! He must think to the future. He had too. A sharp twist in the vessel alerted Wang that something was going to or happening. "Planet 2063!" shouted Wang. He must be in the planet's gravity pull. Hopefully, he won't get burned up in the planet's atmosphere. Cooper onced betted with Paul about this very same planet. Apparently, Cooper read, from a GI Geequed comic book no less, that there was no nitrogen on planet 2063-the green planet. (He had staked his entire fortune of comics on this one obscure fact.) Instead, 70% of the air was made up of a type of gas called "trinitreda". The plants still grew there in abundance and with even more gusto. The 99% of planet was covered in plant life. The plants had adapted to absorb the gas like nitrogen. The gas itself was related to nitrogen except that it is inflamable. Wang didn't knew this at that time and had lost his favourite Cub's shirt to Hawkes. Man was there a lot of bitchin' after they checked up the fact! The pull of the gravity was stronger now and the slap-together craft was gaining speed. In a few minutes, the grey box was plunging top speed to the green surface of the planet. The craft thundered down breaking up as it went. It ploughed into many trees and finally crashed landed in a small clearing. Miraculously, Wang had survived the ordeal with only some scratch and bruises. Maybe some cuts on his face and hands and legs, a split lip, a gash on his arm....no real injury. Wang kicked his way out and surveyed the surroundings. He saw a line of smoke coming from the horizon, not more than 10 clicks away. His heart skipped a beat. Vanessa! He had too go to see if they were alive. Or the least, he might be able to scavenge some equiptment to radio Saratoga. ----to be continued but not by Gossy---- I know that this all sounds too improbable and downright hogwash (especially to you Kingfisher, and children of plant specialist) with all your knowledge of these things. But this story is just to make me feel better believing that Wang is still alive and well. :) Hee hee! [Anyone willing to take up the challenge? ;)] "Several errors discreetly corrected." <^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^> Musings of A Guylian-Eating Officer <^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^><^> Thought/Quote/Anecdote of the Day: Life is a gamble at terrible odds. If it was a bet you wouldnt take it. -Tom Stoppard,Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead- An incident during the Congolese Insurrection in 1978 where a British TV reporter at the airport , was known to have approached a group of Belgian refugees fleeing the wartorn capital with the words: "Anyone here been raped and speaks English?" An unbiased opinion is absolutely valueless. -Oscar Wilde , The Critic as Artist- I simply ignored an axiom. -Albert Einstein on how he came up with his Theory of Relativity- Our nature abhors a moral and intellectual vacuum. Passion and self interest may be our chief motives but we hate to admit the fact even to ourselves.We are not happy unless our acts of passion can be made to look as though they were dictated by reason, unless self interest be explained and embellished so as to seem to be idealistic . -Aldous Huxley, On Writers and Readers and Propaganda- "Conditioned reflex. What a lot of satisfaction I got out of old Pavlov when I first read him The ultimate de-bunking of all human pretensions. We were all dogs and bitches together. No nonsense about free-will, goodness, truth and the rest ." --Aldous Huxley ,Diary of Anthony Beavis-- "...a lady's verily is as potent as a lord's." -Shakespeare, (Hermione in) The Winter's Tale- Note:feminism rears its head in Shakespeare. Alright! "Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life!" --Nestor of the Greeks, commenting on the hot and hard action of the war, Troilus and Cressida by Shakespeare-- Tact consists in knowing how far to go too far. --Jean Cocteau-- "Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, is the immediate jewel of their souls." --Iago , Othello-- The right to be heard does not include the right to be taken seriously. --Hubert Humphrey-- .....the fact remains that any concentration of power in the hands of a small group of individuals-especially a group of individuals-which functions primarily in secret-is potentially dangerous.It is a truism that most of history's greatest transgression and atrocities have been perpetrated by people acting with what they believed to be the best intentions. -Baigent,Leigh & Lincoln , on the secret organisation Prieure De Sion- (Talk about life immitating art .Conspiracy theorists have a field-day,cue XF theme) Macbeth:How now you secret,black and and midnight hags,what is't you do! Witches:A deed without a name. - Shakespeare ,Macbeth- __________________________________________________________ Verse of the Day: Note:On the need for moderation in all things and of distilling all experience for the finer value and discarding the puerile and sensate matter "Those who know do not speak Those who speak do not know Block the passages Shut the door Let the sharpness be blunted All tangles emptied All glare tempered All dust smoothed Learning consists in adding to one's stock day by day The practise of Tao consists in subtracting day by day Subtracting and yet again subtracting Till one has reached inactivity" -Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching- You cannot hope to bribe or twist Thank God! the British journalist. But seeing what the man will do unbribed,there's no occasion to. -Humbert Wolfe , Over the Fire- Honour is flashed off exploit, so we say; And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled shield Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field, And on the fighter, forge his glorious day. On God they do and on the martyr may; But be the war within, the brand we wield Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled, Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray... --GM Hopkins, In Honour of St Alphonsus Rodriguez-- Note: poem about wars we fight every day within ourselves , with only our conscience and humanity as weapons.No one knows when we flee in fear,except ourselves.No one knows when we triumph , but our own soul. A good and virtuous nature may recoil in an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon; That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose ; Angels are bright, though the brightest fell; Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet grace must still look so. --Malcolm to disbelieving Macduff on the doubtful honor of Macbeth-- My life closed twice before its close- It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me So huge, so hopeless to conceive As these that twice befell Parting is all we know of heaven And all we need of hell. --Emily Dickinson, My life closed twice before its close- __________________________________________________________ Phrase of the Day: Latin:In caelo quies Eng:In heaven there is rest. French:Il ne faut jamais defier un fou Eng:Never defy a fool. Italian:I gran dolori sono muti Eng:Great griefs are silent Italian:giovine santo diavolo vecchio Eng:A young saint, an old devil Italian:per troppo dibatter la verita si perde Eng:Truth is lost to too much controvery Latin:servabo fidem Eng : I will keep the faith Fr:Guerre a outrance Eng:War to the uttermost Latin:In hoc signo spes mea Eng:In this sign is my hope Latin :bis peccare in bello non licet Eng:It is not possible to blunder twice in a war Latin:flecti, non frangi Eng:Bent not broken __________________________________________________________ Funnee of the Day: Moderation is a fatal thing.Nothing succeeds like excess. --Oscar Wilde,Woman of No Importance- On Los Angeles , the City Of Angels(At the risk of being racist/geographically biased depending how you look at it): They dont throw their garbage away, they make it into TV show. -Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman,Annie Hall- The difference between Los Angeles and yogurt is that yogurt has real culture -Tom Taussik- ....is a citylike area surrounding The Beverly Hills Hotel...In 1956 the population of LA was 2,243901. By 1970 it had risen to 2,811801, 1,650917 of whom are currently up for a series . -Fran Lebowitz,Social Studies- A guilty conscience is the mother of all invention. -Caroyln Wells- (grim but sometimes true) If the desire to kill and the oppurtunity to kill came together ,who would escape hanging? --Mark Twain-- Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact he often has to eat them. -Adlai Stevenson- "Would you like to see the menu?" he said "Or would you like to meet the Dish of The Day?" -waiter in D Adams Restaurant At The End Of The World- <^><^><^><^><^><^><^> Addresses and Sites <^><^><^><^><^><^><^> For more information on the United States Marines Corp, go to http://www.usmc.mil (official site) or http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~jicore/usmc/usmc.html The newsletter will be posted every fortnight (hopefully). For suggestions and contributions to both the newsletter and mailing list e-mail Garuda . I will forward any message intended for the whole squadron to the mailing list. If you want your message to be seen by the whole squadron, state it clearly and I will put it up on the Bulletin Board column as well. I am also responsible for Communications, so e-mail me if you have any other problems, except those concerning your membership in the 88th, as that falls under Peregrine's wing. /~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/ END VOLUME TWO