weather	:		fair
outside	:		86°F
mood	:		tired

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - after nearly five years and six-hundred entries i regret that subsequent to this posting my journal will be 'friends only' until such time that my tour in the Army is complete. my decision has largely to do with how overzealous the Department of Defense has become in its attitude toward bloggers - particularly those of us fighting abroad - but, as well, it has something to do with how tech-savvy the insurgency has become of late.

for instance, now more than ever, the insurgency within Iraq, as well as outside its borders, has been known to surf the journals of deployed service members in search of information; information which by itself may be innocuous in nature, but combined with other unclassified pieces of info could provide the terrorists a better idea of our operations which ultimately could get myself or my comrades killed. i'm not willing to take that chance... not in interest of keeping an open journal.

however, given that over two-thirds of those reading my journal these days are not on my friends list, i've decided to add most anyone who wishes to be added so that they y'all may be able to continue reading as you have for so long. the only stipulation i'm asking is that if you're not someone i know offline - or at least someone i've known online for a while - that you have an established journal that's been around longer than a month and contains at least a dozen posts (meme's do not count). that's it.

that said, there may be times i use filters to restrict certain entries to my current list of friends. i don't expect that to be often, but if i do, and you're not privy to that entry, please don't ask me to include you. those entries, as well as any journal reading i do while deployed, will continue to be limited to those that are currently on my 'friends list.'

to sum it up, if you'd like to continue reading my journal, and you're not already on my friends list, please leave a comment, or drop me an email, so that i can add you.

and on that note, i'm outta here. working the overnight shift as i am, it's my bedtime. time permitting i hope to post a more thorough update, as well as some pictures, tomorrow evening. until then...

lonestaryankee out!!