The Official Blog of Rob Smith

2010 will be a big year for www.therobsmith.com, and a year of change. The year of 2010 will see www.therobsmith.com continue with its coverage (or non-coverage, depending on how you look at it) of my involvement in Operation Iraqi Freedom. It will chronicle my R&R leave in March/April and how our unit will begin to [...]

I’ve moved back to the main base. I am living in a small trailer, called a Containerized Housing Unit (CHU). There are hundreds of them lined up on each base in Iraq. I get mine to myself. It’s nothing to complain about, but I wish I had a desk to keep my computer on – [...]

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Our’s was good here, we relaxed for the entire day and did very little work. We had a big meal with turkey, prime rib, ham, and crab legs. I’m sure next Christmas will be better but I had no complaints about this one.
Things seem to have gotten very [...]

The only “top” list JD Drew should be on is maybe the top 9 hitters on the Red Sox, it upsets me to see him on that top 25 of the 2000s list. But maybe he really is one of the 25 best players of the last decade? It’s hard for me to get perspective [...]

Isn’t it wonderful how my 90 year old grandfather and his wife of 69 years know how to post comments on my blog? Everyone else is free to post their perspectives and opinions about war, but my grandfather’s are the most meaningful and important to me.
I hope everyone is holding up alright after this [...]

I often reflect on how much different my “war” experience is turning out to be from what my grandfather’s was. I’m pretty sure there is no comparison, and it’s almost embarrassing to think of how much better we have it now, from a comfort/convenience standpoint at least. We have internet access, get to come home [...]

First, I’d like to express again how delighted I was to see Imran Faruqi write a comment on the blog. Thank you Imran and I hope you remain a loyal reader. I dearly miss our Warhammer 40,000 gaming sessions – how has the party been doing? Is my character faring well in his cryogenic freeze? [...]

Many of the gingerbread were dismembered during their trip to Iraq, so it’s hard to say how many are left, but there aren’t very many. Lots of sports and videogame talk recently seems to have negatively impacted blog reading and comments, but I don’t care – it’s time for a column of only baseball.
What an [...]

Malone, those are some pretty good prop bets. None of them are particularly crazy, like some of our Super Bowl ones were last year. I do like the ‘who wins the opening tip’ bet. Since I have done absolutely no gambling in the past 6 months, unless investing counts, I figure I will be due [...]

Boston seems to be in the process of trading Mike Lowell to Texas. No matter who they get back (a minor league catcher) and how much of his salary they have to pay (sounds like most of the $12 million he’s due next year) this will be a good deal. It’s time to get rid [...]