strange and goofy tests

I've been bored lately, waiting for the last components so I can wrap up this wireless network job for my aunt. To cure my boredem I've been playing around with various tests online, and I've begun to notice a general trend in the results, they all lean towards the good/noble side of nature. I wouldn't claim it entirely, while I do have a noble side that I enjoy, I do have a smart ass/slightly sadistic streak as well. Anyways, here's an example, have fun if you take it.

Smart Paladin 59% Combativeness, 16% Sneakiness, 70% Intellect, 52% Spirituality

Valorous! Noble! Or possibly just a self-righteous jerk (but with the brains to keep you alive!)... You are a Smart Paladin! Paladins are holy warriors. They are valorous defenders of the light. Unfortunately, most of them are so ardent in their defense they tend to meet sticky ends faster than you can say "rampaging red dragon." Many people look up to Paladins, while others just consider them stuck up, overbearing, or self-righteous. Fortunately for you, unlike most Paladins, you're pretty smart. Which means that you're more likely to fall into the "admired" category, rather than the "obnoxious" or "dead" categories. Much like the crusades, you manage to combine violence and religion, though unlike the crusades, you add a healthy does of intelligence. You may be a staunch defender of the faith, a valorous champion of the weak, or the stuff that jihads are made of. Which ever one you are, just be happy that you’ve got the smarts to back it up and make it work.

This test tracked 4 variables. How the score compared to the other people's: Higher than 61% on Combativeness Higher than 7% on Sneakiness Higher than 57% on Intellect Higher than 60% on Spirituality

Link: The RPG Class Test written by MFlowers on Ok Cupid

Nothing like a good fart joke

I found this earlier in the week and was just waiting for the right time to post it. After the super bowl, which I didn't watch, I was checking out the commercial clips which are more entertaining for me then the game. Was chatting with one of my friends, an old Army room mate back East, while going through the clips and being typical guys the search went from Super bowl ads to film clips with fart in the keyword. We can across this clip which will get me snickering just thinking about it. I know I'm easily entertained, just wish the humor wasn't so crude at times.

Crazy childhood

I was speaking briefly with RR about the memories I've recounted about growing up and she's in agreement with me that they aren't as funny in print as they are in person.

I'll just leave it at; my mother is finally getting an idea that her kids weren't the little angels she thought we were growing up. We got threatened a lot with "I'm going to speak with your father about this...." but it never happened and if it did I think my dad probably had a hard time keeping a straight face at our antics. I'd say at least a good third of what I did for mischief were ideas that he gave me, probably another third fell under "I wonder what would happen if...." and the other third was tormenting them unfortunate Mormon kids that got stuck growing up in the same village as us for the summer.

Half the stuff we did as normal, looking back, I'm surprised I lived through it all. It's no wonder I didn't think I was going to live to see 25.

It's early, I haven't slept and the coffee isn't on yet

Oh, oh, the other video is now in the archieves, so time to put up another, I'm slowly figuring this blog/coding stuff out. I rather enjoyed this video over Ricky Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca video, guess it's more and hotter women in it :D

Enrique Iglesias Lyrics

Enrique Iglesias Music Video Codes

Music Video Codes by VideoCure.com

Strange weather patterns

Some of it is I'm in a different part of Alaska then I've grown up in, so what is odd to me might be normal for around here, but this is the first time I've ever seen lightning in the winter, no thunder just lightning and hail. I've seen lightning more frequently over the recent years, but I guess it's more of a regular occurrence the further north you go.

First time I saw lightning was winter '83, the same winter that I wrote the assignment for my correspondence course that eventually became published in '85. Yes, I'm one of Alaska's youngest published authors, not a fact I make plainly known, almost forgot to mention the book when I interviewed with a Harvard alumni.

Saw a couple flashes about 2 1/2 years ago, but that was late summer. About 1 3/4 years ago now, my how time flies, lightning became more common in the Juneau area. Makes sleep difficult when you live at the base of a mountain called Thunder Mountain, more then once awoke wondering if the windows in the room were going to shatter with the rumbling. The State Office building my oldest sis use to work at was struck by a direct hit, fried the entire phone system in the building. Was rather amusing following that story, at first they were trying to repair the phones until they realized that parts for phones that old were no longer made.

Another thing I've never had to think about down in Southeast that they do here in Southcentral Alaska is volcanoes. St. Augustine has been spewing ash and steam for the past week or so, at times shutting down local airports and/or diverting air traffic away from the region. I think there was a slight earthquake, probably tied to an eruption two days ago, but haven't seen anything in the local papers, I wouldn't gauge it above a 3.4 on the Richter scale.

Did I mention it's a whole lot colder here in South Central compared to South East Alaska? I'm use to having night time lows a whole lot warmer then the day time highs for this area, not factoring in the high winds that also seem to be more prevalent then back home. This is a mild form of the Chinook Winds, with winds gusts as high as 50 mph, darn the bad luck my kite is still in storage ;)

Guess I'm saying what I think is normal is only relative to the region I've grown up in.

Of tearful and picturesque scenes of reunion

There's a jumble of thoughts running through my head right now, while I am a fairly fast typist it's no where near the speed I need to remotely capture what I've been thinking about this evening.

I still see the almost score sheet tally of deaths reported on the news, probably why I tend to avoid the news, nothing but negativity. To some it would probably be touted as propaganda, but I've found this site to have some interesting movie clip down loads of the more positive things going on over there.

I was thinking of who else I know that's currently in the Armed Forces, can't believe a cousin's relatively new husband has just returned from a year rotation in Iraq. This has been the largest mobilization and deployment of Alaska's National/Territorial Guard since World War II. What made me think of him is the immature stunts my cousin is deciding she wants to play now that he's come home. Two weeks after they were married, he got deployed, nine months later he was given leave to come home to witness the birth of his son. My cousin is definitely not taking the responsibilities of not only a new wife, a new mother or an army wife very seriously, to me even being family it's just an immature girl playing "house".

There's been a lot of talk going about town of her saying that now she's thinking of divorcing him. That I can't believe she'd do, well maybe I could, but to throw in the towel at the first sign of trouble, definitely won't go far in life with attitudes like that. I also can't believe she'd do that to him right after spending a year deployed. If she did, I wouldn't put it past him of turning around and volunteering to go back, probably with a death wish the second go around.

One thing that's been on my mind a lot lately with all the rotations of units back home and the picturesque scene of a soldier returning to the loving embrace of family. What they don't show is the soldier who's returned to none of this, watching it from the sidelines to which he or she was quickly ushered. Some of these were the ones that broke up with their SO before leaving, got the "dear john" letter either right before or while deployed, or has family that's not approved of their choice for service.

I was apart of this second group, the single people who shoulder a greater burden so that married soldier can spend more time with their families. The ones who are stuck on duty over the holidays, refused leave/passes and are hit up by married soldier to cover shifts that they came up on the roster.

There was a bit of resentment towards my fellow soldier then. The married folk having the band, cameras, the tearful reunions, the waving signs, flags and yellow ribbons. The single soldiers ushered out of the way and directed towards the arms room to begin turn in of "sensitive" items like night vision, GPS and weapons.

The almost getting selected for detail right off the plane so that we could assist the married armorer complete his inventory so that he could go home to his family. The going back to an empty room, the only thing awaiting us is a banded wall walker that must be unpacked and inventory lest there some items that "walked off" while gone.

I don't begrudge the reunions, just wish that once in a while that the plight of the single soldier be made known.

Weapons of Lord of The Rings test

Ok, so I was bored, it's cold outside and I hate being cold. Cold as in it's like 0 without factoring in the windchill from the wind that's being channeled down the Bay. I know for sure that this wasn't the site of a native village, no native in his right mind would place a camp basically in a north/south valley that makes up the bay which has predominate north/south winds in the winter. Like a big wind tunnel, Skagway is the same way.

Anyways, found one test which lead to many others and came across this one.

I've been wanting to learn swordcraft for a few years now, something graceful yet deadly in the way a master swordsman moves.

********** You scored 100% Sword Recognition!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 94% on Sword Lore

Link: The LORD OF THE RINGS Sword ID Test written by stuckw1th1t

what color are you?

I thought this was intresting, and a more intresting twist then the way my thoughts have been lately.


BLUES are motivated by INTIMACY, seek opportunities to genuinely connect with others, and need to be appreciated. They do everything with quality and are devoted and loyal friends and employers/employees. Whatever or whomever they commit to are their sole (and soul) focus. They love to serve and will give freely of themselves in order to nurture others lives.

BLUES, however, do need to be understood. They have distinct preferences and occasionally the somewhat controlling (but always fair) personality of a confident leader. Their code of ethics is remarkably strong and they expect others to live honest, committed lives as well. They enjoy sharing meaningful moments in conversation as well as remembering special life events (i.e., birthdays and anniversaries). BLUES are dependable, thoughtful, nurturing, and can also be self-righteous, a bit worry-prone, and emotionally intense. They are like sainted pit-bulls who never let go of something once they are committed. When you deal with a BLUE, be sincere, make an effort to truly understand them, and truly appreciate them.

What Color Are You?
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a movie sparks some thoughts

I just finished watching The Great Raid. I am rather liking the turning towards realism in films of this kind. Of course, I'll eventually have to read the books the movie is based upon to see just what got left out. I have read most of We Were Soldier Once, and Young but then it was almost a required read in the unit.

I can recall some comments by my step father just after the much published rescue of that female mechanic during the initial fighting in Iraq. He said he couldn't believe that many people would risk their lives to rescue just one person, I haven't really followed it too closely other then there were approx. 500 people involved, I'm sure they had to turn people away. He, not having served, will never really understand what it is all about, it's not just the value of one life, it's about hope. Hope for an American servicemen to hold on to, to have faith that if they are ever captured, we will come for them. That hope, may be the only thing left for them to hold on to through their ordeal.

We trained, and trained and trained, as realistically as we possibly could. Got to the point that many of us wanted combat just to break the monotony of constant training. In preparation for one of many canceled deployments we'd spent the better part of a year living in the field as close to combat conditions as we could. Right before wrapping it all up and returning to garrison for the beginning of block leave for the holidays, the Battalion Commander called our company into formation and said he had one more mission for us. It was going to be an all volunteer mission, highly dangerous, casualty rate was expected to be high. Remember, we trained as realistically as possible, kept our own body bags in our ruck sacks, our living wills were updated every few months.

Everyone looked around to see who would be the first to volunteer. Finally someone asked what the mission was about, when the Ltc. said it was going to be a POW rescue, the entire company stepped forward as one to volunteer. It was one of the few times we were ever asked to do something greater then ourselves. Every single one of us would have given our life to rescue just one person, we would have sacrificed everything to keep that hope alive.

My thoughts drift to the Middle East, it takes on a different light when I know the people who are over there. My former brother-in-law, the oldest sister's ex, who's a Blackhawk pilot in the Alaska National Guard is over there now, he did a eulogy for one of the crew members of Icy 33, which went down in a sandstorm, killing all 11 on board, including the 4 crew members which were from Alaska's National Guard.

I know of one guy I'd known well, we chased some of the same women, went over there and is now bound to a wheel chair. I have a cousin who's in much the same boat I was, chomping at the bit to go so all that training isn't a waste, he leaves sometime this summer. There is another who's going over as well, a young officer that I worked with as he began his ROTC program. I hope he heeds my advice and listens to his senior NCO's, he should make an interesting leader with wisdom and experience of an enlisted person ringing in his ears as he learns to lead men.

The above photo was taken during our deployment to Kuwait. I'm not sure if the govener was taken off the engine of my humve, in the back ground, but it had a lot of accelation and a fairly high top speed.

I've been asked why I don't re-enlist. Well, combat is a young man's profession, I'm pushing the maximum age allowed in the Infantry as it is, I wouldn't be content to be in any other branch. Besides, the military doesn't want a warrior of my caliber in this age of scrunity of it's soldiers' actions by the world, but I'll save that for another blog.