Weird details about the experience of soldiers hit me. At work, someone posted a list of things that were wanted for Care packages to the troops. You'd expect the stereotypical things like chocolate or cookies from home, letters, but they also asked for GameBoys! Kind of a bourgeois charity case if you're desperately in need of a GameBoy. In a post from 7-14-2003 on turningtables, a soldier described how equipment had to be left behind in a truck that got lost and wrecked. Among the valuables left behind: "...they lost the n.v.g.'s...all their bags...$2000 dollars worth c.d.'s..."

I don't mean anything negative about the author of that thing. That blog is so political and angry about the war, instead of showing "5 comments" or "7 comments" after each post, turningtables labels comments as "(5) people raise their fists".

...But it's striking how our troops in these hellacious situations can maintain middle class amenities like music collections and handheld video games.