I want to be a pirate! And really, who doesn’t? And I don’t mean just because Johnny Depp makes vagabond chic sexy.

Free and easy, I want to swing into action, devil-may-care and footloose [cue Kenny Loggins song and Kevin Bacon dance scene]. And mysterious, I want to be enigmatic, but in a romantic, heart-stealing way. And for the love of Pete, I want adventure! And thus, we see my brazen skull and crossbones, flung out as a defiant icon before the web world.

Sigh, reality is so much less exciting than fantasy. The icon in question is actually taken from a picture I took at the National Air Force Museum. It was on an American plane even. Yep, it actually belongs to the good guys, the paragons of virtue (or so we get taught in officer school) and responsibility. The military, the establishment is anti-pirate.

Thus we see the paradox that is me. I realize this is nothing terribly unique, to have the heart of a pirate but be tied down to reality. I am at once the pirate king and the slave of duty.