Last week marked the beginning of Daylight Saving in the US. You know what that means… Sleeve season is upon us! Rolled sleeves are iconic to the image of the Marine and thus are somewhat of a big deal. As you might expect, sleeves say a lot about the kind of Marine you might be.
A truly motivated Marine will put time and care into their sleeves for maximum crispness. They will be flat and sharp against the bicep, providing a watertight seal in the event of a sudden flood or if you need to jump overboard. For the Marine that gives somewhat less of a fuck, there’s the ubiquitous “Gunny-Rolls,” who acquired their nickname from an entire Corps of Gunnery Sergeants who no longer care to roll them properly.
The Gunny-Roller is a Marine with more important things to do than worry about their uniform. You frequently find these Marines amongst the infantry, who find themselves needing to roll their sleeves in a matter of minutes upon returning from the field and being forced to do some nonsense formation before they can be freed for their weekend libo.
In some ways, sleeve crispness is directly related to motivation, much like haircuts. Perhaps there is a chart that correlates sleeves with the amount of fucks one gives. It’s these small things that Marines have to signal their individuality that make them unique, subtle as they may be to the outside observer.
In other news, if you’re into NFT’s, please check out the Muhreens! Muhreens are a collection of 9999 warfighting NFT’s that I created to raise money to produce more animated short films like Post: Frag Out. You can mint your Muhreen today at muhreens.com! Each Muhreen is uniquely generated–there are no two Muhreens alike! I wrote more in-depth about my journey with creating the Muhreens a couple of months back right here.
I know people have feelings about NFT’s, and I don’t blame you, but I had a lot of fun with these. Join the official TL Discord or the Muhreen Discord for more info!
The POG’s are definitely having their moment over the Russian clusterfuck they’re calling an invasion. Reports from every direction are suggesting that Russia rushed into Ukraine with essentially zero plan, lying to their conscripts about it being a training event, and providing essentially zero tactical leadership as they were sent into the meat grinder. Russian units have been left stranded with no fuel, outdated food, and zero motivation to give their life for the cause. Ukraine claims that thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed or captured, and I believe it. It turns out, the old-world view of the military being disposable bodies doesn’t really hold up very well in the modern world of TikTok, where everything is documented in HD and blasted onto every social media site ever.
Never before have people seen such a glorious military clusterfuck in the clarity provided by modern smartphones in everyone’s pockets.
I’ve gone back and forth with my assessment of Russia’s military maneuvers, but the only conclusion I can reliably come to is that they just fucking suck. For real. I guess Putin thought it was still World War II and that just tossing numbers would mean winning. However, when you have modernly equipped, well-trained soldiers breathing Javelins onto your shit army, things don’t really go as planned.
For as much as everyone talks about how smart Putin is, he certainly seems like a dumb fuck. Next time, let the POG’s do their thing.
You don’t need me to tell you that the situation with Russia and Ukraine has gone off the rails. (Or maybe you do, I don’t know. I don’t know where you get your news from.) What started as a classic “my troops were merely passing by” moment for Russia has turned into the largest ground war in Europe since World War II, with Russia reviving its status as the Cold War era James Bond villain nation.
I know the official doctrine given to you by your friends at CBRN is a little different than what we have here, but does it really matter? If the Cold War turns hot, we’re all gonna need some new guidelines anyway.
As you’ve probably seen all over social media over the last week, the Ukrainians are motivating as fuck. They are giving Ivan a real run for their money, with HD videos being broadcast from the battlefield every day depicting the heroism and horror that’s unfolding. The world has never really seen anything like this, and we’re all captivated by it.
Like many, I’m arm-chair quarterbacking the situation in Ukraine the best that I can from my vantage point on Twitter. To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of the situation. On the one hand, I get immense enjoyment out of watching the Russian military bumble their way to failure at every turn to the absolute Chad-tier Ukrainians. On the other, I can’t shake this feeling that things are going to get much, much worse before they get better.
Putin’s options are limited. His economy at home is fucked, his military is demoralized and, in many cases, totally unwilling to fight this insane and unjust invasion. Putin can’t really back down at this point, or tanking his entire country and embarrassing himself on the world stage served zero purpose (not that there is real purpose here, but I have to assume there is to him). If Russia can actually sack Kyiv and install his puppet leadership (as he wants), the country will surely devolve into a quagmire civil war/insurgency for years to come, which Russia surely can’t financially afford after this.
To be honest, the lack of options is the most concerning part for me. It’s go big or go home to an angry mob and a fresh glass of polonium tea. Like everyone else, I have no idea what will happen next.
…but I do know that everything is unprecedented until it happens.
I pray for the people of Ukraine and wish them many Javelins.
It’s been a tumultuous time of shifts and changes for Hawaii Marines. Last month, the Corps deactivated 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment and stood up its first Littoral Anti-Air Battalion (LAAB) on the island. 3rd Marine Regiment will soon become 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment.
That’s cool and all, but I’m not sure who comes up with these names. “Littoral” basically just means Naval, or otherwise aquatic, or… Marine. The aquatic, naval nature of the Marine Corps is implied. I also don’t know where the leadership digs up these old English words from. Littorally no one has ever used the word littoral since 1775.
On a personal note, I just want to address why things have been so slow lately on my part. Last year, my wife and I had a baby boy named Theodore. We are LA transplants, here without any family. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and we’re learning the hard way how true that is. The last 9 months of his life have been some of the most challenging of my life, and that’s coming from a guy with 2 deployments to Iraq. I know I’ve fallen behind on pretty much every aspect of my life at this point.
With that said, I do believe there will be some change in the winds in the coming months as we rearrange our living situation a bit. I have really exciting stuff in development that I can’t wait to finally be able to talk about (under NDA at the moment). Stay tuned.
I’m sure every one of you has been following Ukraine’s increasingly precarious predicament as the Russians have the country surrounded. With US troops being deployed to Europe to provide security in NATO allied nations, Russia filling the airways with propaganda and bullshit, it’s becoming increasingly likely that war is about to strike Eastern Europe.
Now all of the Marines in hopeless catfish relationships with Russian bots might have a chance to finally meet them.
In all seriousness, things are definitely heating up over there, and it’s unfortunate to have to watch it unfold in slow motion like we have been. I suppose this is not super unusual, in the grand scheme of the history of humankind, even if we’ve convinced ourselves that we live in an era of peace and enlightenment. I’m hopeful for a peaceful ending, but not holding my breath.
The road to Russia is cold and harsh. Mostly because there is no road to Russia, because the Bering Strait flooded over with ocean thousands of years ago. It’s okay though, Marines are an amphibious force, I’m told.
This situation with Russia and Ukraine looks like it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. I’m not an expert on international affairs, but despite what Russia says, I’ve played enough Civ 6 to know when you amass your entire military on the border of a neighboring nation, it’s usually for no good reason. Honestly, the whole thing feels like it could boil over into something far worse, but I’ll try to stay optimistic.
On the subject of those busses… What’s up with those busses? When you’re out in the field and the day comes to return to base, you never know if your ride back is going to be some air conditioned charter bus, a dusty old 7-ton, or one of these magic school busses (maybe with an EGA decal on the side). It’s like the Marine Corps keeps an entire fleet of aging school busses they bought on auction in 1957 for the odd moment they need to transport Marines to and fro.
Perhaps we should amass our troops on Russia’s border in the form of weird Marine Corps busses? They would have no idea what to expect.
Mankind are brilliant creatures, having made their way from humble roots as ape-like creatures all the way to the age of information. We went from banging rocks together to being able to carry advanced computers in our pockets that can access all of humanity’s information in a matter of swipes and taps.
And yet, when given an M240 machinegun, we cannot resist the allure of the cyclic fire. The forbidden fruit of sending hundreds of rounds down-range without ever letting off the trigger is one that few can resist. It appeals to our most basic nature as stupid ape-people thrust into existence to clank rocks together. The lizard-id of our mammalian brains taking obscene pleasure in its destructive force.
Of course, few will get the opportunity to experience such pleasures. But if you do, remember…
I feel like there’s a real opportunity here for a side-hustle if you avoid drugs and stay really hydrated. Not sure how you get it past the meat-gazers though. I suppose there’s some elaborate series of tubes that can be employed here.
Idea: find the Marine in the platoon with the longest dong. Figure out how to position yourselves so that maybe he can snake between your legs from a distance. This could really work, trust me.
The military–especially the Marine Corps–is a place of many rules and regulations (obviously). It seems insane that there’s anyone that would even consider doing hard drugs in such a closely monitored and controlled field of employment, but you’d be surprised at how many Marines run into trouble with these surprise piss tests.
Merry Christmas, Marines. I got this gift for you. I’m sorry it’s not anything more amazing, a lot going on this week…
Unfortunately, my pandemic luck appears to have run out. COVID has found its way into my household, with my wife currently sick and quarantined in our bedroom while myself and my 8-month old baby are camped out in the living room. We are both vaccinated, so neither of us are that worried about ourselves, but our baby is obviously not. He’s been fine so far, but we’re just being extra cautious to keep him safe.
Funny enough, I had just gotten my 3rd vaccination (booster) the day before my wife tested positive. Aside from the usual vaccine aches and shivers, I seem to be doing okay as of writing. I’ll take this opportunity to say that getting all 3 of my vaccines at the VA healthcare center in West LA was incredibly easy, and I’ll happily recommend you all do it as well if you’re a veteran.
Check with your local VA healthcare center to see when and how they’re offering vaccines. I was able to just walk into the West Los Angeles VA for my booster, which is great!
I know people get mega butt-mad when I talk about things like this, as I’m supposed to remain agnostic about everything at all times. I’ve always prided myself on keeping TL apolitical, and I still believe that I do that just fine. With that said, I do exist in the same world as you do. I do not exist in a vacuum away from the global viral pandemic that has affected the lives of every person on earth.
For my part, I’m really not worried about myself that much at all. Hell, after boot camp, countless vaccinations (including anthrax), and two Iraq deployments, I’m pretty sure I’ve been sick with every disease known to man. My white blood cells go to VetCenter counseling for PTSD. However, I got vaccinated against COVID to protect other people. People like my baby boy, who have no control over the world and can’t get vaccinated himself.
Last week, I released a new NFT collection in collaboration with Post Animation called Muhreens. There’s a wide spectrum of opinions and feelings regarding NFT’s in general, so I wanted to talk about the collection as an artist, and how I came to create it.
POST
To talk about Muhreens, you have to go back in time quite a ways. In fact, you have to go all the way back to when I first created the “POST” animated short film back in 2011. I had just gotten out of the Marine Corps in 2010, and I wanted to study animation and filmmaking. Thanks to the GI Bill, I was able to enroll at the California College of the Arts, where I majored in animation for my BFA. I created POST as a school assignment (Flash Animation class), but I knew that it was going to be something I could show my burgeoning Terminal Lance audience as well…
Those of you that haven’t been following Terminal Lance since the beginning may not know this, but POST was a huge hit! The “Muhreens” that starred in the animated short film became really popular as stickers that I gave out as promotional items, and even found themselves tattooed on many arms, backs, and thighs.
What most of you probably don’t know is that I had always wanted to do more with the “POST” characters. I went through many different versions of building them out into their own little spinoff universe. The original vision was actually to have a website where you could build your own little avatar using a selection of interchangeable pieces. Sound familiar?
An unreleased mockup from 2011
Try as I might, this idea never really came into fruition. I was a full time student at the time, going through a lot of life, and just didn’t have the capital to really see this through. It wouldn’t be until 2021 that the Post series would get revived in the form of the 3D animated short film “Post: Frag Out” that I wrote and directed.
We released this short film with the intention of building out a series, and with the completion of the film, we knew that we were going to need to fundraise in order to create more. NFT’s hadn’t really exploded at this point, so I was mulling around with the idea of a Kickstarter campaign, but my experience from doing it with The White Donkey (graphic novel) had really turned me off of the idea. (The White Donkey was a great success, but it’s a very stressful endeavor)
At some point a few months later I began looking at the world of NFT’s. Like most independent artists, I thought it was a very interesting idea (if nothing else). As an artist, I adopted digital art very early (back in the early 2000’s), so the fact that someone had figured out a way to confer ownership and provide a means for artists to actually make money on their digital art was of course intriguing to me.
Now, I’m not some kind of crypto-douche-tech-bro that tries to sell people on blockchains and bitcoins. Not even a little bit, and I’m not looking to become that either. However, I’ve always attributed my personal success as an artist to the advent of modern technologies. Without Facebook, social media and otherwise, I would have never been able to independently reach the vast audience that Terminal Lance reaches every day. I have a tendency for embracing modernity and new ideas rather than scoffing them away.
As I looked at the collections arriving on OpenSea, I saw an idea that seemed perfect for Post: interchangeable pieces generated into unique, adorable, collectible avatars. In many ways, Muhreens is exactly what I always wanted Post to be since 2011. For me, NFT’s arrived at an interesting intersection of art and technology that seemed perfectly catered to a tech nerd/artist hybrid like myself.
So I dug into it! I learned how to set up crypto wallets, generate images, metadata, rarity levels, partnered up with a great developer named Christian, and I sketched and painted the 50+ individual pieces that make up the Muhreen NFTs. Simply put, I had a lot of fun with it, and I’m proud of the collection that I’ve made. I think Muhreens stands apart as being legitimately great in the vast sea of NFT projects ranging from total schlock cash-grabs to the pretty great stuff like Doodles.
After revealing the project, I was of course met with criticism regarding the NFT space–some of it legitimate, and some of it not so much. Simply put, there’s a lot of opinions out there on NFT’s, Ethereum, blockchains, and crypto in general. There are legitimate environmental concerns regarding the current technologies behind blockchains, but I am taking part in this endeavor fully expecting that technology to get better (and greener) sooner than later. For my part, I don’t particularly care about crypto or blockchains or Ethereum or even NFT’s all that much. What I do care about is creating things I enjoy for the world, and I absolutely enjoyed creating the Muhreens.
For me, Muhreens is about creating something fun and new, creating a community, and creating some animation.
If you want to mint your Muhreen and support the animation we’re creating with Post Animation, head over to muhreens.com to mint and learn more.
