If you're not crazy....

Job Security.....

2009-02-07T19:42:00.004-09:00

I think that's what Microsoft is shooting for, seems every time they roll out an update, they break more stuff then they actually fix. Somewhere along the line my XP was upgraded to Service Pack 3 and since then things just haven't been working properly, especially my DVD drive. At first I thought it was just dying since I seem to have worked this one harder then my Dell laptop. After doing some research, seems since SP3 rolled out, lots of DVD drives aren't working properly. To top thinks off Samsung/Toshiba no longer support the particular model I have in the current laptop. So it looks like i'm off to the candy store called Best Buy tomorrow to see if I can find a better name brand of external dvd drive so I can at least watch movies on the up coming cruise.

Been in a cleaning mood today, first it was my stateroom (needed serious vacuuming damn down pillows), then it was my vehicle (looked like the gulls used it for target practice and were bombing in formation) and currently working on cleaning up XP while I wait for a load of laundry to wash.

Gonna have to put in a work order request to get the thermo stat fixed in my stateroom, can't get it to go above 63 degrees, so half the time i'm surfing the web wearing layers of clothes lest i catch cold.

I don't know why I like this picture, but i do. Was playing with the camera on my phone and snapped it. Was my breakfast one morning, pumpkin pie and a cup of coffee.

Guess it's what I remember most about being home, good coffee, home cooked meals, delicious baked goods (I do a good majority of the baking at home) lots of light and scenic views from nearly every window in the house.

Found some more pics from my time in Seward last year still on my pocket camera, I'll get 'em edited and posted soon.

My oldest sis says she can't keep up with how quickly my train of thought changes. I keep telling her that someone is holding the change channel button the remote control of my thought process.

Damn, it's that late already, better check my laundry. ttfn

Viruses, meh

2009-01-13T14:08:00.000-09:00

Well, sometime over the weekend my laptop became infected with the AV2009 virus/trogan/rogueware/scareware annoyance. Everything I've done to find and eliminate it's components has driven me up the wall the last few days, if my software wasn't scattered betwen so many storage spots, i'd just format my hard drive and start over (been actually wanting to do that since I got this thing). If you don't know what it does, it's scareware really, claims your computer is infected (which it isn't lying since it itself is what's infecting your machine) with official looking pop up alerts in your tool bar every couple minutes (which is the annoying part) which takes you to a bogus website to download Anti-Virus 2009 (updated av2008 virus). AV 2009 is worthless, and in fact loads more trogans onto your machine, but they still charge your CC fee's for software you didn't order and recurring fee's etc in a scam to take as much money as they can. I had to tweak my settings on Zone Alarms Security Suite for it to finally pick up part of the problems, ordinarily I would recommend them to people as a superior product over Norton's or McAffee but the last couple years, they've become just as much a resource hog as the other two. Oh joy, now it seems i'm stuck using IE7, Safari isn't even loading. Guess I'll try a roll back since i was fiddling with some settings earlier.

Already thinking of replacing this laptop, only 2 years old but given it's my primary source of entertainment when I'm away from home (which is near constant) it's starting to have issues. Could be just me thou, i test a lot of different software but it doesn't totally go away when you uninstall it (still looking for a good reliable registery cleaner) but I know that every 2 years computer power roughly doubles as well as prices come down.

Can't believe how reassuring it is to be on a ship and feeling it heave slightly beneath your feet slightly even along side the pier. I'll be glad to be out of the ship yard, cast off all lines and hear the announcement "last line, shift colors" as break free from our tether to the land and all the problems associated with it. I'll try to hold that thought, that's almost a post in and of itself.

Giving up trying to fix the problems tonight, think I'll just veg out and watch a movie, i'd read a book but i've read so many in the past few months that i have a hard time keeping plot lines straight in my head.

My name is Gus....

2009-01-10T12:57:00.003-09:00

Hi, my name is Gus and I'm a gamer. That's probably one of the major reasons I haven't posted anything in the last 3/4 of a year. I've played all sorts, but haven't gone hard core like a lot of people I see playing, i'm more of a casual player when I'm not at work. Well, the last 6 months that was work, yeah for government employment, I was gonna say that is what I did to keep from going crazy during the days but it's way too late for that.

Things just snow balled from my meeting with the Agent back in Janruary about my security clearance. Its my opinion that it was seen as an embarassment that they had a case that old and they did nothing with it, so eliminate the problem (me) and voila problem solved.

Let me rewind a bit, shortly before I did my interview with the Agent, I get a nice nasty gram from my human resources department telling me to check in or send in my resignation/id card. They had no record of why I was put on leave, but they were the ones sending me on enforced leave while my documentation with the Coast Guard was brought up to date. I rush throu the dental process, guy did outstanding work even thou he wasn't sure how well it'd turn out since he'd never had that small of a time window to work with.

I report back to Norfolk as soon as possible, probably rushed out a little too fast, for I forgot my medical records back in Seward. I only noticed that when I had to present them for verification that I had everything and when I didn't I was treated like I stole State secrets and to go away until I had 'em. When they finally arrived, turns out their records were more up to date then mine.

First ship I get put on was the USNS Comfort, one of the 2 hospital ships in the fleet. Usually this is a cush assignment that most people are fighting to get but it was only a temp duty since mission was a combination training for Reservists and to make sure all the equipment still worked on the ship. Talk about a culture shock compaired to working onboard ammuntion ships, things were about as close to the attitudes of the West Coast ships as you can get on the East Coast. I had prime photo position to take pictures of the Blackhawk helo's coming on approach to drop off simulated emergency medial patients. Of course, both batteries are dead for my camera and I'd forgotten the charger back in another bag stored in the back of my vehicle.

Next ship was about the lead boat in class USNS Lewis and Clark, that lasted all of 5 days. I get paid off because there's some concern about my clearance but it's almost 3 weeks later that I get told what the reason is and that i only have one week remainding of a four week period to contest things. The Navy claimed I'd lied on my appliaction, tried to conceal old debt, showed poor character and judgement, gambling issues, a whole host of things that read stranger then fiction. After appealing and going before an administrative judge, the judge actually sounded annoyed with the navy since there was no proof against my character, they couldn't read a credit report which showed the debts were paid and if anything he said that i proved that i did what I said I did or would do. Driving back from the Washington DC Naval yards from my meeting with the judge did it feel like a huge weight was lifted off my chest and couldn't help but play this version of Amazing Grace back in memory.

During this whole process, I was suppose to ship out to the USNS John Lenthal the first week in October, but I didn't get notified in time to clear medical so was told to stand by while they try to reschedule. Turns out they couldn't, but didn't tell me those orders were canceled until a month later when I get notified I would be reporting to the USNS Laramie. Day before I was to leave there was some questions about whether I could go so departure date was pushed back to the weekend before Thanksgiving. Everything looks like a go, i repot to medical only to be told I can't go because I was due a bi-annual physical back in March. All this idle time I could have gotten it done and told nothing. It's lookin like the only bad judgement I'm showing is to continue to work for a Government that seems to be doing it damned to get rid of me, which is ironic since we're getting paid a retention bonus to keep people with my rating employeed lest we take our credentials back to the commercial sector.

Inbetween all this goings on, I report to Norfolk Naval Base, only to be told to stand by for 8 hours a day for 6 months. I lug my laptop with me to keep myself enterntained lest I drive everyone around me crazy since I tend to pace when I get bored.

Now I find myself finally onboard the USNS Leroy Grumman, same class of ships as the Laramie and Lenthal and wondering if I want to just do my 4 months ship duty and hope I can get another ship fast or just stay onboard until i take leave to meet up what's looking to be a family gather in Cabo San Lucas for thanksgiving.

My friend Adam introduced me to World of Warcraft coming up on 2 years ago now, but i only played it seriously the last six I was in ship limbo. It has it's own appeal to different people, for adam it's how big and bad of a mob he can take down on his own, while for me, i like building stuff so crafting abilities appeal to me. Of course, being to make my own grenades and rocket launchers as a goblin engineer has it's appeal to my destructive side *evil grin*. I've also taken to EA's Battlefield 2142, rather funny to watch people compete with someone who's had actual training in combat operations. Usually the hard core gamers and hackers give me a challenge, even then they usually end up an intense game of sniper/counter-sniper ops. In some games I've had 3 other snipers hunting me as well as multipule artillary strikes called in on my suspected position all the while I finish with the best kill to death ratio.

Well, I've rambled on enough, I notice I'm loosing my focus as my mind wanders back into gaming mode. Hope everyone had a safe and happy holidays.

Coffee!

2008-03-14T12:09:00.002-08:00

I'm not usually a picky person, but when it comes to my coffee, I'll admit, I'm a snob. I'm not talking about the person who goes to Starbucks on a regular basis and drops $5 on a foo-foo drink just to seem important. Point of fact, I will drink Starbucks only when the alternative is worse. No, I tend to patronize micro roasters, who turn out a good product that's not made to turn profit but to share the passion for the ebony elixir with their fellow coffee drinkers.

When I returned home just before Christmas, I spent a couple days in Juneau, the nearest major airport/travel hub to my hometown. Taking advantage of me being in the larger city, I got a request from my family if I'd do a little shopping for a few items that can't be found in the local store. I find myself back wandering the familar aisles of Safeway, where I once did the majority of my grocery shopping when I worked for on small tonnage boats in Auke Bay.

Stopping at the aisle marked: Coffee, Tea, Hot Cocoa, I can't help but smile, this is a definate sign that I'm back home in the Northwest. The entire left side, if you're standing in the front of the store, is dedicated to coffee, Heritiage Coffee (local roaster), Raven Brew, Safeway Select, Starbucks (bleh), Duncun Doughnuts, Seattle's Best, Tully's (another Seattle roaster), plus the usual MJB, Hills Brothers, Yuban, etc.

I take a moment to bask in the earthy armoma of whole bean coffee beconing me to walk down the aisle. A few strides and I'm at the Heritage Coffee display where I puruse the familar shiny black bags trimmed in gold. They list the roasting dates for each blend, a few are old as a week, and the freshest was roasted that day. A few of my favorite blends are held close to my nose as I inhale deeply, aah, fresh coffee. So many blends, so little time and the need for sleep and rest is on my mind for this trip home.

First into my basket is a Columbia Estate blend, a rich medium blend, smooth crisp finish with a hint of chocolate, goes well with a splash of mocha cream. And onto my favorite, Deadman's Reach, "Served in Bed, raises the Dead" is the slogan on the bag. Despite that warning and a drawing of a skeleton holding a cup of coffee by Ray Troll, many a rookie brewer makes this blend strong. Color wise, it's almost a light blend, but taste is smooth almost delicate with a nice sweet finish. But like the slogan says, "raises the dead" it's a "high speed" blend, a little goes a long way and if you're not careful that long way will be wrought with a jitters of a caffine overdose.

I also have to consider that not everyone that stops in to socialize with the parents likes having their heart race after drinking my coffee, so also into the basket goes a breakfast blend. A nice light blend that's perfect for sipping on throughout the day. This blend suites the family well, there's almost always a pot of coffee brewed at all times and the largest cupboard in the kitchen is stacked full of coffee cups. For these colder winter days, it's a way to warm up while stopping to swap stories about local gossip, seek advice for a troubling home renovation, talk politics (which very often turns heated fast), keeping up with the activities of extended family or my favorite, curled up infront of the wood stove reading a book.

Instead, I'm sitting in front of my laptop, sipping on a cup of fresh ground "Deadman's Reach" staring out the windows of my Aunt's house in Seward. The waters of Resurection Bay are blue with the reflection of the sky, but greatly disturbed by the gusts wind blustering down the wind tunnel created by the mountains on either side of the channel. Another cup of coffee and its time to pick up my book, I've been on a reading kick lately.

As one of my maritime instructors announced at the begining of one of many classes, "The Maritime Industry doesn't run on DFM (disel fuel marine), it runs on Coffee!" But that's a topic for another post.

Coming Home

2008-03-01T21:30:00.014-09:00

What it looked like when I returned home for a week back in October. I've spent enough time flying in these puddle jumpers that I've thought of getting my private pilot's license as well as my mariner's license. Gonna turn into a Jack of all trades, Master of none.

This view from the edge of the property line is always a good one. There's very little color to begin with but i still thought it looked better in black and white then color. This is what remains of a float a US Forest Service recreation cabin came down the bay upon. Between it falling apart and vandalism, they USFS decided it was safer to get rid of the house then try to keep/maintain it.

This picture is of my step-brother's new boat, his nickname is also Gus btw, the F/V Nighthawk. The mountain behind him is Mt. Fairweather, part of the Fairweather Range outside of Glacier Bay National Park. There are some advantages to having fishing as a hobby.

Forgot to upload this one as part of the other series with the eagles. I've always had a facination with eagles and lately with orcas. My more spiritial of sisters believes that these two animals are part of my animal guide group. How I came up with the name for my blogger address is from my native culture, and an oxymoron as well. Orcas by nature are sociably and family orientated creatures. I, on the other hand, while part of a large family dynamic choose to roam far and wide upon the seas of the world alone. Keet, the Tlingit name for Orca, and the lone symbolizing my roaming alone.

Sometimes I can see the appeal my little hometown has for the tourists that get off the ships. Oh, I think i forgot to mention that a few years back tour ships have now made the town a stop on the longer trips through the Inside Passage. I don't like it, the locals whoring out the culture, but if that's what it takes to keep the economy of the town going, i guess I'll just have to deal with it. It was inevitable that it would sucumb to commercialism, just hard for me to identify with it since I grew up living the culture instead of learning how to make a profit off it.

This is looking "up the bay", which is actually Neka Bay, of what is Port Frederick. The picture above, I believe, is from the White Alice site overlooking Icy Strait, the body of water just north of my hometown. This is a pretty good reason why a lot of the tourists have inquired about buying property here.

under the radar

2008-03-01T01:38:00.004-09:00

That's how I operate. stealth mode. I guess the nickname, "ghost", I earned as a dismounted mechanized infantryman is well suited to more then occasion. doesn't help matters any that i'm a night owl, i become more active as the sun starts to set. I ponder how much of that influence comes from the Army where we did everything in the dark of night or from my eyes, despite what my optomitrist says, they are light sensitive. By the time most people realize that I'm home for a visit, it's usually about the time I'm about ready to depart. There are a few social calls I need to make before I head back to Norfolk to await another ship assignment.

I've had to laugh at myself, slipping back into old habbits reflecting my time at home. I'm chomping at the bit to get back on a ship, lest I continue to expand my aresenal more then I already have in the two months I've been home. This is one of the more expenisve hobbies I have, not only the shooting of weapons but collecting high quality ones as well. I'm a big fan of German engineering, and so far all my experiences with Heckler & Koch firearms have been positive. Of course the models I want to buy will require a lot of paperwork and will probably raise some flags that might be cause of re-evaluating my security clearance.

Speaking of my security clearance, the ever efficient Homeland Security finally got around to processing my application for security clearance I filed pre-empoloyment for MSC two years ago. It's also become manditory that by my birthday of this year that I have to pick up yet another Identification Card, which requires a background check fee. Mind you, all the stuff they claim to be checking for is already been done to get my Merchant Marine's Card. Just another way the government is fleecing the working class all in the name of "safety and security." I can't help but recall Thomas Jefferson's quotation "Citizen's who sacrifice personal freedoms for security, loose both and deserve neither." Ok, time to get off the soap box.

Ouch

2008-02-29T14:25:00.006-09:00

ok, so i've put off going to the dentist for way too long. the good news is that i'm not that bad off. however, the teeth that native health put fillings in long ago had to come out, they were just too far gone now to even repair with a crown. the army dentists did what they could to repair 'em but the native health dentists used such sloppy technique that it was only a stop gap. the people who push for socialist health care obviously never had to live using that kind of system, you definately get what you pay for, yeah capitalism.

hopefully i can keep this post coherent, the local anestetic has all but worn off and not sure what's going to happen when the Oxycodone kicks in, i'm not a real big drug taking person outside of excedrine and sudafed.

I couldn't help but think of the movie Major Payne, on my walk over to Walmart to get my perscription filled slipped and about busted my ass on some powder snow covered glare ice. Caught myself enough that i skinned up my knee pretty good, but didn't find out about that until i went to the bathroom and some of the hair on my leg was matted with blood and a nice gash along my knee cap.

oh, here's a link for an intresting government project, I wonder who talked them into running this little scam, like the government doesn't waste enough money as it is.

I wonder what the little hair parlor in the hotel lobby charges for a haircut. It's been 4 weeks and it's time to get another shave done. My friend Adam's wife constantly chides the both of us for keeping the same style of haircut we had in the army a decade ago, but when you do something for so long, there's not really much point in changing. Besides, his hair is starting to thin and keeping everything short helps hide my greys.

Went and watched The Bucket List last night. Depending on how well I feel later on, I may see if I can catch a showing of The Other Boleyn Girl tonight, but with it just opening, the lines might be big. The only movies I ever stood in line for opening night were LoTR Two Towers and Return of The King.

Let's see if Blogger will let me upload photos this time around. Hard to believe they have six foot wing spans, eh?

Photos

2008-01-25T16:42:00.006-09:00

Ok, lets see if I can keep a connection long enough to upload some new pics from around home. Was a fun day to walk around, low clouds, a light brisk wind. Snow adds a sound insulating blanket to the town, great for meditating and contemplating. Of course, with all this cloud cover keeps winters mild, it reduces the amounts of Northern Lights we see, which are particularly active late fall to early spring.

There's been quite a bit of snow fall this winter, although not nearly as bad as last winter, which i was fortunate enough to miss the piling up of 26'. It's always fun to kick back and relax in the mornings with a cup of coffee looking out the bay windows watching the little chicadees feed at the many different feeds in the yard.

These next few shots are from the boat harbor. In the last few years it's become increasingly popular, low rates, a lot of natural protection and the town has a friendly reputation. One of my favorite past times when i visit home is to stroll along the piers and check out the boats. Many are old and familar, like old friends. I remember a great deal of people by what boat they own.

New Year!

2008-01-14T22:59:00.000-09:00

Ok, I'm still alive and kicking.

I'm home, on forced leave from work, a simple technicality that lead to a SNAFU, typical governmet agency. HR sends me on leave and then they list the reason I'm on leave in my file as something totally different then why I was really sent on it.

I'm not sweating it, although they're kind of pissed that I haven't told 'em what I'm doing, hell, I didn't want to be on leave to begin with so they're just going to have to deal with it. Not only that, all the times I've put in for time off and was denied, I'm making up for it now.

I'm glad to be off the ship, nothing but drama. Not only that but the Navy was trying to enforce it's rules it set forth for it's regular sailors on us CIVMARS (civilian mariners). Not hard to tell that they were created to keep the 18 year old kids that have never been on their own before in line, which tends to be insulting to those of us who are mature and those who have kids that are of that age to begin with.

The Gulf was almost pure torture, having to stand outside for 4 to 8 hours at a whack without air conditioning, on a steel deck, wearing dark blue pants and long sleeve shirt and steel toed leather boots, let's just say it would have been drier to have taken a shower not to mention cleaner. We spent even less time in port since the carrier battle group we were attached to was part of the "surge" that took place over the summer and was running extremely high tempo ops. Myself and one of the other UNREP helmsman was almost left behind one afternoon when the powers that be decided they were going to change our departure time at 10 am when we'd left the ship at 9 am. Only thing that kept us from spending the next three days on shore was the delay in getting a harbor pilot.

Getting spoiled traveling first class, been coast to coast a few times since october and I have nothing really to spend my money on.

There's been a lot of deep contemplations I'd ponder standing watch at 4 am in the pitch black of the bridge wings, but everytime I've gone to write 'em done the thought has passed from my mind.

I'll probably be posting some new pics over the next few posts, nothing special, to me anyways, just shots of home that caught my eye.

conscientious driver

2007-06-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

Driving around the *cough* great state of New Jersey with Alaska plates kind of stands out, that gold and sky blue sticks out like a sore thumb against the faded yellow of a NJ plate. Had someone pull up next to me and ask if I enjoyed living in Alaska, kind of odd, but I guess he wouldn't have known that I'm still an Alaskan resident, just attached to a ship that's home ported in Leonardo, NJ. Here's some things I miss about living in Alaska.

When I got my ranger back in 2000, I use to see rangers everywhere on the road, but since I picked up my endeavor back in february, I think I've seen another on the road twice now.

I finally figured out a way to go back down to deck work after spending so much time up on watch. A little more research on exactly what I need to do for my Tankerman's endorsement and I'll make the request. So much easier to change when it appears I'm looking to benifit my career then just getting tired of being on watch all the time. I did find out that I need another 8 months sea time before I can start my training for 3rd Mate, was hoping to get into Pacific Maritime Institute's AB to Mate program come Janruary but will have to wait until next year's July class. Will give me time to sock away more money so I'm not stuck in Seattle for 20 weeks without the means to really enjoy the city.

I am looking forward to this deployment, we're suppose to be stopping in Roda, Spain and Suda Bay, Greece on the way over to the gulf. Definately not looking forward to spending the summer in the gulf, although I've already begun preperations for it, a second pair of safety shoes (steel decks in 130 air temp tend to melt the soles off), camel back water pack, lighter weight clothing and brighter clothes then the typical dark stuff I normally wear.

Trying to figure out if it's this constant shifting from "real" food to ship's food that has my digestive system upset. Can't really complain too much about the ship's food other then there isn't much variety to it, it is free and as much as you want to eat. I am eatting more salads, fruits and vegitables, try to take advantage of having fresh stuff when I can.

Well, that's it for this week, finish lunch and head back to ship for watch in a couple hours.

confusion, chaos and mayhem

2007-06-15T15:35:00.000-08:00

after the past weekend, you could say my job of spreading confusion, chaos and mayhem has been completed. Served up a big shit sandwhich and nearly everyone of the ship's officers had to take a bite. The problem with the shit hitting the fan, it doesn't get distributed evenly.

The new third mate we had on ship for all of 8 days is now gone. It's his own doing but in an indirect way is my fault as well. He brough an unauthorized visitor onboard ship in violation of the Captain's orders and I didn't stop him like I was suppose to. But I figure, he's an adult, he's an officer he can deal with it and I sure as hell am not going to stand in a guys way to getting a piece of patch. Although that booty call has gotten me into more hot water then and I didn't even get a crack at it.

All the officers from the top on down to the bottom are scrambling to cover their own asses and burying us in a mound of paperwork. Haven't heard any more snide remarks after they got a look at my official witness statement. Stuck to the facts that I knew, well written, lots of detail and typed up.

I'll say one thing, there is a serious lack of standardized training onboard this ship, but yet we're getting our asses chewed out for training that we've never been properly given. Trying to decide if I want to stay on the ship for the full deployment, if I do, that's a nice chunk of change I'll be earning. If I decide I don't want to stay, all I need to do is put in a request for relief 60 days out. Down side there is it could be a little while before my next ship assignment and sitting around the "pool" for 8 hours at a time is enough to drive someone crazy.

Well, one battery is dead and I can't find a plug in, at least the wi-fi is free and fast, so a bit more research to get done before heading back to the ship for some much needed sleep.

whew

2007-05-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

been a crazy month and a half...jeez has it been that long already?

m'k, i've been home on leave it was a sureal experience up until the wheels on the cessna 207 touched down on the runway. Three hours after getting home I run into JB who I've always tried to avoid when visiting. Nothing against her, she's a great person but everytime we get together the rumors start flying that we're having an affair. Each of her kids have been rumored to be mine at some point or another. Doesn't bother me what people say about me, i know the truth, but with her being a teacher in a very small town, I am more concerned how things will effect her.

We sat down over coffee and got caught up. She picked my brain about life/experience in the army since one of her brother's joined up and is heading off to Basic soon if he hasn't already left.

I'm noticing that the more I reveal that I'm not as "perfect" as i seem to be the more she opens up with me. I have a lot of flaws, make mistakes, get into mischief but since hardly any of it happens around home I have the "boy scout" reputation.

Well, it was nice to get some sleep for a while. Being sick is a good excuse for spending a lot of time in bed. Haven't been sick since....the time I left alaska and got everyone sick during new hire orientation.

The morning I was scheduled to start my leave i get notified that instead of the 4 weeks I put in for it's getting knocked down to 3. So the first week at home i was scrambling to reschedule my travel and the trip to south carolina.

That was an intresting part of the trip. Finally assembled the computer parts into a working computer, ended up having to get a larger case and a new mother board. For as much time as we've spent building computers since '96 we were totally lost trying to assemble this new one. Tested it over that weekend playing World of Warcraft. First time trying it out and can see why it's addicting, lots of the time to go but just need to do this one more thing.

I get back to the ship two and a half weeks ago and have just enough time to put on my uniform and I'm back standing watch. The 2nd mate was sick and it's spreadig throughout the watch standing crew, damn this open berthing (although we're compensated nicely for having to live in it). Just get over the cold from home and I'm back dealing with congestion and the sniffles.

Doesn't help things any that i'm working the midnight to 8 am shift and we've been conducting drills starting from 8 am to 5 pm. Between hearing the general alarm blaring, PA announcements and heavy coughing, sleep has been limited at best. This has been going on for the past 10 days. Wednesday was our final day of drills and I was so exhausted that I missed the morning drill, slept through everything and didn't rouse from my slumber. That 4.5 hours was the longest continious period of slumber i'd been in since getting back to the ship.

So to say things have been chaotic is an understatement, the sleep deprivation signs were really starting to show. My short term memory was shorter still, became clumsy and uncoordinated, couldn't concentrate on anything for long. Sported a bit of morning wood and about passed out from the sudden shift in blood from one head to the other.

So I'm back in Norfolk to pick up my vehicle and return it to New Jersey where we're currently in port and treating myself to a few days in a decent hotel. Gonna head to the store in a little bit and pick up another bottle of Mr. Bubbles. There's a mongolian bbq place a few blocks away, for some reason i've been thinking about some for the last few days.

So that's a quick overview of the last month and a half.

Oh, for LadyRed, a couple new pics of home.

These aren't the droids you're looking for....

2007-04-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

Star Wars Horoscope for Libra

You are on a lifelong pursuit of justice and determined to succeed.
You convey the art of persuasion through force.
You always display your supreme intelligence.
You have a great talent in obtaining balance between yourself and your surroundings.

Star wars character you are most like: Obi Wan Kenobie

What Is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

G.I. Humor

2007-03-26T17:07:00.000-08:00

Pretty typical of GI humor. I know my short tour in Kuwait, we left probably dozens of lizards walking around the desert with all kinds of crazy messages scrawled upon this scales. Not sure where it comes from, maybe the proximity of death or just having way too much time to their hands, probably a bit of both.

Having a lot of time to think while on duty these past weeks, I've come to realize what my writing teachers have been trying to tell me years ago: I have a lot of great ideas, but I never fully develop them or follow through with them.

Most of the time I know it's just a struggle to get my thoughts down before they're gone on the express train that's my thought process. I've kept copies of everything I've written in high school and I had the stuff from college on disk until the disk went corrupt (luckily I have everything in hard copy) and sure enough, everything is great rough draft stuff, what I lack is the patience to polish it and finish it. Comes down to no longer holding my intrest, I get it out and then I'm done with it and I move on.

Even before I could remember, I've been told that I wouldn't waste my time on something that I didn't see a point to it. My mother's told me that I tried one time and one time only to suck my thumb, when I couldn't figure it out properly, I gave up it and not tried again.

Oh, not quite the picture I was looking for but he's an example of the Lambda on the side of the reactive armor. I was thinking it was a British tank, but upon closer examination I believe this is an Iserali tank. I'll have to dig through my old hard drives and see if I can find a picture of a Bradley or Abrams with the Lambda on the skirting.

Sometime this week I'm gonna head to a theater and see the Shooter, hopefully they didn't butcher the book too badly. Was always curious how long it'd take for someone to put that book out as a movie. It's based upon the book Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. Speaking of books, I've been on another reading kick, well doesn't help having nothing really to do on an 8 hour shift guarding a 12 story-700 odd feet of ship that has all of four people on it myself included.

M'k, another shift change and I've had little sleep the last few days so it's a shower for me and off to bed.

the 300

2007-03-18T18:03:00.000-08:00

Well, just had to go see it again today, was actually trying to see the Shooter but it wasn't at the theater I went to, maybe I'll look around to see where it's playing.

While I do enjoy a good movie, and usually I'm not that critical of movies, the biggest glaring error made was the Spartans didn't fight without armor. In fact their Hoplites were the tank of their day, greaves covering the lower legs, the shield covering from knee to shoulder, a bronze curiass (breast plate) covering the torso and a bronze helm protecting the helm. Added to the fact that they fought in a close order phallanx, was like hitting a shield wall. They also didn't wear foot gear, having run bear foot from birth they had tough feet so they didn't need footwear.

The Persian army was suppose to number only 200,000 not the millions claimed. Still the 300 Spartans, 200 Acdians and 2000 other lesser and support troops did manage to hold that pass for 3 days. Inflicting an estimated 20,000 casulaties, counting amoung them the Immortals, left the Persian Army demoralized.

What wasn't discussed was that while the battle raged on land, a naval battle was going on as well. Or the fact that they fought in shifts, switching up the ones up in front taking the brunt off the attack to those in the back.

The influence of the Spartans is seen even to this day. The Roman legions method of fighting, including weapons was based on the Spartans. Having a professional standing army instead of miltia. Equiping soldiers in the same gear. Espre de Corps. Even on modern US armor units you can see a "lambda" painted on the side of the hull, lambda being the first letter for Lakedaimonioi or Spartan.

I still have to admire them, in the face of overwhelming odds, they still stood their ground and did their duty. Their rear guard action bought time for the rest of the Greek armies to mobilize and unified them.

st. patrick's day, meh!

2007-03-17T23:47:00.000-08:00

well, technically it's the day after but a moot point. I guess the hotel's bar/resteraunt had a party and it had a pretty high attendance. So it's 2 AM and everyone's walking through the hallways being loud, obnoxious and generally creating drama. I thought of calling the front desk since there are guests here that do work on the weekends but figured they probably have enough phone calls as it is.

So I decided to go for a drive and pick up some orange juice since I go through it quite quickly when I can get my hands on quality stuff. I'm driving down I-264 doing just 5 over the speed limit which is about all I'll do and I see traffic come flying up in my rear view mirror. Doing what any good driver should do, I move as far into the right hand lane as I can and let the speed demon/idiots pass me. Half a mile down the road I see nothing but brake lights. Sure enough one of the idiots in a high centered SUV that blew past me like I was standing still looked like bounced off both cement barriers on either side of the highway and came to rest right in the middle lane.

Kind of amazing to see everyone leave their vehicles to go see what's going on despite not knowing first aid and just getting in the way. I, despite having quite a bit of first aid was relucant to leave me vehicle to help. Why? I have no obligation to render first aid and if I start to then I must continue to do so until proper authorities arrive. It was 2:30 in the morning, I really wasn't in any mood to stick around.

I've always wondered why people are in such a hurry. The speed limits are posted for a reason. Even though my Endeavor isn't that high centered, I still drive with caution because I know it's higher then most sports cars.

It's too bad the DMV's don't increase the costs of getting a license, help remind people that driving is a privilage not a right. Probably wouldn't matter too much in this undisciplined society, kind of funny how paranoid people get and over correct when they see a cruiser.

M'k, it's 4 am and I'll probably just take my grouchy self to bed, I slept nearly all day on friday and half the day on saturday, guess my body needed more rest then i thought.

oh happy days!

2007-02-13T16:53:00.000-09:00

well, let's try this post again.

looks like in the near future I'll be driving my own vehicle again! :)

just got off the phone with the dealer, he sounded rather excited about the prospect of me buying the one I was looking at, I guess offering to put down a little over 50% kind of help greases the right wheels.

I haven't had a vehicle of my own since my 2000 Ranger lease was up in '03. I was considering getting another Ranger, I rather like it but then I started looking at a Tacoma since I've heard nothing but good things about Toyota's quality control. Then after getting an Endeavor for a rental back in December, I've considered buying one and the other night I found one at a rather crazy cheap price considering it's on '06 model.

Feel good enough about all this that I won't get into the crap that went on during my shift on the ship today, I'll just say the officers in charge wonder why there's such a high turn over of crew despite it being on of the "money" ships in the fleet.

Things are just coming together in a very positive way for this vehicle, just keep thinking positive thoughts and I will find myself driving off the lot with it.

gah

2007-02-13T16:52:00.000-09:00

well that post went kaput, I don't like this "new" blogger crap.

Phew

2007-01-28T12:02:00.000-09:00

well, these inport watches kind of suck. Every week we're on a different watch, starting monday we go on the midnight to 8 am watch, having come off the midnight to noon watch over the weekend these will be a breeze.

The quandry always comes in, how much of what I do should I or could I talk about. Not like what I actually do is a big secret, just when, where and with whom is I guess.

On my random ramblins while I try to control my nerves, a grande cafe' mocha at starbucks on an empty stomach has me typing a bit faster then normal albiet with more mistakes.

A rental is a lot of fun, can drive a different car each weekend. we throw enough buisness towards Enterprise that they really work with the guys off the ship when we rent for the weekends. Over the weekend before christmas, I was working both christmas and new years, I had a Mitsubishi Endveor for the rate of a economy class, was nice. Two weeks ago I had a Chevy Impalla, was alright, but the Dodge Charger probably would have been more fun. Guess we'll see what I get this weekend, as I head down to D.C. to visit my oldest sister.

Anyone ever have their bank call them and ask if everything is alright because your balance is substantialy higher then it's ever been since opening the account? yeah, I thought that was kind of weird too but intresting none the less.

Being stuck in New Jersey without a vehicle really really sucks. I have no idea what's up with these "jug handles" but there's no left turns allowed, waste of time and space if you ask me.

Anyways, throwing up a few pictures I managed to take while onboard the USNS Supply. I'll try to add more later on when I can actually get access to an electrical outlet at a wi/fi cafe'.

m'k

2006-12-29T09:11:00.000-09:00

well, we've been back for at least two weeks now, but first time I've really taken to update this thing.

more to follow soon, with some pictures.

Ok, I'm off.....this time I mean it

2006-10-26T17:06:00.000-08:00

Time is nearing, I'm finally out of here for my first ship assignment with MSC that is, not counting the years i've already spent on the water.

I was hoping I'd have a chance to lay over in Amsterdam, but I'll have just enough time to get off one plane and get on another. Here's where I'm heading for at least the next 4 months, the USNS Supply maybe longer if I like the boat/route/crew.

Feeling a little bit paranoid at the moment, I was required to get a small pox immunization before I could leave. It's a live virus, albiet less hazardous one then the real small pox so I have to under quite a few precautions not to let anyone else come into any contact with the discharge from the shot site, the bandages covering it or the scab that is suppose to form on it. So my skin's been just itching since I was told not to scratch the site, could feel little tingling in my lympth glands under my arm.

I'm actually curious how long it will take to run it's course in me, I have a history of being a fast healer, though it has shown signs of slowing down with age. Wonder if there is any way to test exactly what your immune system is boltered against, I'm sure mine would probably raise some eye brows.

well, nothing on the idiot box and just finished another book. Might just call it a night, had a hard time getting up this morning, think it has to do with it getting colder at night, i sleep better in the cold.

Vehicle Options

2006-10-23T22:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, I just have to ask the question, where do people buy the vehicles with the optional turn signals?

Been on a drivers' critique for a while now, seems no matter where I go, no one seems to be able to drive, at least polietely.

Next time you have a moment, take a look at the hand positions of the "stare" drivers, they are usually at least the traditional 10-2 position. I, myself only use one hand and it's either a 4 or 8 position. Hand over hand turning for small turning of the wheel but if I must turn hard and fast I palm the wheel since "suicide balls" are illegal. With the proliferation of airbags, I'm surprised more haven't switched to a 4-8 or at least a 3-9.

I still haven't figured out the purpose of driving with your left arm shifted to hold the 2 o'clock position on the wheel.

Why are people afraid to use the gas pedal in leaving a stop light but have no problem bllowing through parking lots?

I do wish driver's liceneses were as tough to get here as they are in europe, lots of drivers training and you'll end up spending around $3k, so to put it in jeopardy is idiocy. Don't know why states don't jack the prices up, of course then we wouldn't have all these poor drivers on the roads jacking up the price of insurance and contributing to the enconomy getting the vehicles repaired/replaced.

What ever happened to the trend of putting spacers on the wheels so they were no longer underneath the wheel hubs? Cracks me up seeing all these truely impractical equipment in vehicles, guess I'm biased towards trucks.

Ok, I should get to bed if it weren't for this late night mt dew i just drank, might as well get started on the next book, starting to slow down from one novel a day to one every other day.

still no word on when I'll be leaving, but I don't mind, can't rush what is beyond my control.

Things happen fast when you're an AB

2006-10-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

Now to see how quickly I'll be shipping out since I'll be going as an Able Seaman instead of the entry level Ordinary Seaman. I've been doing what I can to get moved under this detailer, he moves fast and doesn't play around, guess it helps he's a 2nd Mate so he knows the sailing aspect of our work. I've also heard that pay is also retro active to the issue date on the Coast Guard documentation, so all of this month should be at the base AB rate (which is 50% more then the base OS pay).

If I had to venture a guess, I'll be probably working out of the Persian Gulf region for a while. Once I become a permanate employee (beyond my 1 year probationary period) I'll see about pushing through my coastal transfer to the West Coast operations.

I could be seeing orders for leaving as soon as this friday but more then likely no later then next friday. Guess it's time to get my laundry done and mostly repacked since they're only required to give us a minimum of 4 hours notification before heading for a ship.

Off to the post office, wonder how many more times this box can hold up being shipped back and forth to my friend in south carolina. If I don't head out until next week, will be another small box of books I'll be sending him, he's on a reading kick as well. Oh, forgot to mention that, for the last two weeks I've been reading at least one novel a day and the local borders book store doesn't have the first in a handful series of books I've been recommended that I might enjoy.

incomplete thoughts and other stuff

2006-10-15T17:56:00.000-08:00

My college creative writing proessor use to get on my case that my approach was unique, but I just seemed to lack a follow through or a choesiveness to my thoughts. I've been going back through my old posts, partly because I came across some old Wordperfect files from my writing in high school and college. I have a lot of intresting ideas, partly from how I view the world, but most of my writing for the last 16 or so odd years has been pretty much the same, I don't stay on any one topic for too long and most of my thoughts seem incomplete.

My approach to writing is heavily influenced by my native upbringing, in our fashion our history is passed down orally, so much of my writing reads as if I'm sitting down and having a conversation with the reader (albiet a one sided). While this is a source of much ease of writing, it is also a cause of my incomplete thoughts, by the time I finish holding the conversation with myself in my head, no matter how fast I type (believe me I'm fast) I can never record my thought process fast enough.

The hardest thing I've had to do in the process of writing is to edit my own work. I'm great about reading other people's work and able to discuess with them on how to fully bring out/develop their thoughts. Heck, given enough time and examples of writing I can mimic a lot of peoples' writing styles (how I use to earn a little extra cash in high school doing book reports for others in their own tone of voice) but when I see my own work, the issue is already resolved in my head and that's all that matters to me.

Gah, I'm way beyond ready to head back to sea. My updated/upgraded paperwork is back from the USCG and is inputed into the computer system, just waiting for the promotion to be pushed through. Means I'll fall under a different detailer for ship assignments, and unlike the others this fella's a 2nd Mate, so he knows what it's like to live/work at sea.

Speaking of the USCG, went to see The Guardian when it first came out. Definately enjoyed it except for two obvious and glaring errors that only someone from Alaska could notice. Both times they rescued people from Alaskan waters, they weren't dressed in imersion suites. If you work in the frigid waters, you just think real hard about having to abandon ship and those suites are on in less then a minute. That is one drill that is drummed into everyone who sets sail and that is how to don an imersion (survival) suite pretty darn quick and even how to do so while floating in the water. All in all though, glad there's some recognition for the one branch of the USCG that is tolerated even respected by those who ply the waters.

To tango

2006-10-02T17:05:00.000-08:00

Last week, when I was planning on writing and got interrupted was a bit of role reversal for this friend of mine and myself. Usually it's me messaging her asking what a woman's point of view on one subject or another. This time she was asking me asking me what a guy would look for in women in general, out at the clubs, how to dress, what kind of perfume etc. All the questions got me thinking, which isn't always the best of things for me to doing.

First topic was clothing, how a woman dresses that will catch my eye in general and when going out. I guess I'll always look no matter what so as long as she looks comfortable, it's all good. As for going to clubs, not something I'm too keen on (most tend to over load my senses), while I appreciate all the effort most women go through to look good, what turns me off is when women cross the line between sexy and sleazy. Guess I'm a bit old fashion but there are something that should be worth waiting for and/or left to some imagination.

On to perfume, I'm not real picky about it, the "clean" smell is probably best, what I absolutely loath is when a woman smells like she took a bath in it, begs the question what she's trying to hide. I don't like a lot of harsh/sharp smelling perfume, if it smells like it could be found in nature I'm all for it. As for myself, I'm not too keen on colonge, I shower in the mornings, put on some deodorant, after shave if I use it is scentless. One that I will never tire of is brute', it reminds me of my father, even then, one would have to get pretty up close to notice I have it on, I wash off the majority just after I put it on.

Then the topic of questions shifted to what type of women I look for, and the inevitable "men like blondes" came up. Women are women is what I say, if all you see is the hair color, you're missing out on a lot more. On came the laundry list of female celebrities that are in the news now:

Angelina Jolie, while hot, sexy and sensual, things would probably be a flash in the pan and be over just as fast.

Lindsey Lohan, while she may be cute and a star, to think of her gives me an erie pedophilie feel. My impression is she's lost, doesn't know who she really is yet, and trying to hard to fit in.

Pamela Anderson, *shudder* she reminds me of what one wakes up with after a night of hard drinking and saying "damn, what the hell did I do last night." I can't help but feel she isn't secure with herself as would be my feelings towards anyone who gets plastic surgery for vanity then necessity.

Paris Hilton....Don't know what to say to this one, just a girl that has more dollars then sense.

Then it came down to what I liked, the more girl next door type, could hang with the guys wearing jeans and a t-shirt and be totally at easy, then turn around get dressed up and look totally sexy. For celebrities, I'd have to say women like Sandra bullock, Ashley Judd, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Julia styles to name a few, women that are smart, intelligent....classy.

A few nights ago I rented Take the Lead, staring Antonio Banderas and my desire to learn ballroom dancing has be rekindled. Also got me to thinking, for much the same reasons I don't care for the "bump and grind" as I would for a tango. The difference between over the top sexy/sleazy and sensuality/leaving something for the imagination.

Guess this all falls back on the "me" generation and anything to get attention. Alas that's a topic for another day and another post.

the big 100

2006-09-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

well, I had a couple different topics I've been mulling over the last few days, especially on my weekend walks, but alas i loose momentum when I start trying to record my discussions with myself.

I had also planned on celebrating my 100th post and my 31st bday on the same day but I got side tracked yesterday, which isn't really hard to do in all honesty. been tired the last few days, however I am changing up my diet, the mini fridge is loaded up with "rabbit" food (I find it amusing since I'm a rabbit under the chinese zodiac) and I'm working one weining myself off caffine.

there was more I was gonna babble on about but I lost my train of thought again when a friend of mine who I haven't talked with in a while instant messaged me as i was just starting to type this entry out.

Oh well, there's not a whole of intresting things going on in my life right now, low key and in stealth mode, which is the way I tend to like things.

back in the east

2006-09-17T18:13:00.000-08:00

well, I've been back in Norfolk since labor day. Been kicking around some ideas for blogs but everytime I get to writting the hotel wireless starts acting up. Well, I think it's this crappy back up wireless card I'm using, can't wait for my good one to be replaced by Linksys.

more to come later, might just write offline and then log in fast and publish, but that hasn't always worked out either.

just had to check out Tijuana

2006-09-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, had to do the obligatory trip down to TJ during my stay here in San Diego. I get the question all the time with everyone I've talked with about me going to class here, not like I needed an excuse to go across the border anyways.

Didn't get to check out the place that was recommended to me, couldn't remember the name (doesn't help I'm terrible with names), but I still managed to find some mischief to get into none the less.

I really should learn to speak spanish, I kept getting spoken to in spanish and I have no idea what's being said. Kind of fun, I'm mistaken for nearly race from the pacific rim but the one I really am. I've only run into a handful of people who knew where I was from, let alone what native tribe I am, without me telling them first.

Coming back through customs, couldn't help but think of George Orwell and his vision of the future in his novel 1984. Next time I come up for a security clearance, gonna have to make sure I list this trip since my passport was scanned coming back across, so now there is a trail of where and when I crossed the border.

Anyways, there was some other stuff I was contemplating on the trolley ride back to the hotel but seems to have slipped my mind. Now the last minute panic of repacking all my bags to catch a flight in a few more hours, aah the energy of putting stuff off to the last minute.

ooh the things I do to amuse myself

2006-08-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

For those that know me, it's no secret how easily amused I am or the crazy things I'll to amuse myself. So, while this class I'm attending here in San Diego isn't exactly hard for me, nor is any of the material anything I haven't seen at least a half dozen times over, it's all a matter of shaking the cob webs off those particular memories.

Since I tend to be very focused on what I'm doing I haven't really figure on seeing many of the sights yet.

So being as I'm a bit wound up still, think a lot of it has to do with the timed release vitamins I've begun to take, I figured an old way to amuse myself. That being seeing just how much difference different types of music change the mood for the various porn clips I have on the laptop. Funniest I think is listening to O Fortuna from Orff's Carmina Burana, makes it seem like you're witnessing a dark or pagan ritutual. Chopin's The Entertainer makes it seem like you're watching a silent era film, only missing is to convert it the clip into a Sepa format :) Think I need to find a Dueling Bango's clip and see if I get flashes of Deliverance going.

Ok, enough procrastination, back to the books to shake some more rust off this stuff.

OCD, ADD and other musings

2006-08-26T18:37:00.000-08:00

ok, I'll pass on a little advice, if you're going to do a lot of traveling in the future, I'd highly recommend getting them space saving bags. When I first came down here I would be lucky to get all my clothes inside my old Army issue duffle bag, using those bags I've got it all in half of the bag, leaving me quite a bit of extra space for some of the other items i've accumilated so far.

Almost a full little kitchen cook wear set being left to the maids, but so far all the mariners I've met consider a portion of our salary as disposable income and what we buy with it not to last very long.

Still, I'm going to end up with quite a bit of extra room in my bags. Guess i'll figure a way to stick my brief case in my extra bag, just take out the important documents and keep them with me. Delta still has a reputation for loosing bags and I really don't feel like trying to replace any of my passports, my licenses, certificates or medical records. I'd just take the brief case with me onboard but half the time at airport screening TSA wants to confiscate my navigation instruments. That's just redicous, if someone can take over an aircraft with a set of dividers with an itty bitty point on 'em, then there's seriously something wrong with this pacifistic society.

Bad enough as it is that I have to keep reminding me that my pocket knives have to be packed in my checked baggage, as anyone who works in the maritime industy, a good mariner always has a knife of him or herself. Most times I have one kept in any of my jackets, vests and pants I will be wearing, so at times I'm toating around at least 3 knives. Those, I could understand a little, I keep them sharp enough to shave with, I pass the time sharping my knives with a precision sharpening set and diamond stones.

I'd be curious to know if there's ever been any studies looking into how many vets have some form of obsessive/compuslive disorder. I had one co worker that would tease me about being anal about the strangest stuff while indifferent about things everyone else would obsess about.

I sometimes wonder if I have some form of ADD, but then I realize that it's the "B & C" of things. When I think of stuff, I can very often go from point A to point D without passing through B or C. Kind of leads me to sometimes loose my train of thought since I can resolve matters faster then i realize and move on.

Anyways, basically done packing, a little bit of sewing and then it's off to bed since it's an early morning wake up to get to the air port 3 hours ahead of time now because of the idiots on the other side of the world. Should have just summarily exceuted them on the spot, solve a lot of problems real fast when the world realizes you aren't going to play around any more.

got my marching orders

2006-08-25T21:33:00.000-08:00

woohoo, talk about a happy camper this afternoon when I recieved my orders authorizing my travel to San Diego for training. I can see why everyone wants a transfer to the West Coast operations, get paid more for higher cost of living, recieve higher per diem since I guess it's more expensive to eat out west and things are a little more relaxed being on the other side of the country from headquarters.

so now the fun part, packing up everything, hope it all fits and I can get my bags in under 50 lbs each. I'm curious just how much I'll be leaving behind for the maids.

There's always lots I think of to say during the day that might make intresting posts but I can never remember what my train of thought is by the time i get to the computer or else I resolve the matter in my head and there for don't need to write it down.

Anyways, my eyes are loosing their battle to the Zzzz monster still have a busy day tomorrow, packing and mailing out whatever I can't pack up.

In Trutina

2006-08-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

In trutina mentis dubia
fluctuant contraria
lascivus amor et pudicitia.
Sed eligo quod video,
collum iugo praebeo;
ad iugum tam suave transeo.

I usually listen to this as sung by Charlotte Church each morning, what I listen to first thing in the morning tends to set the mood for the rest of the day. For those that don't know Latin, one of the accept translations for the prose is this:

I am suspended
Between love and chastity
But I choose
What is before me
And take upon myself the sweet yoke.

Random Thoughts

2006-08-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

Just some random thoughts that come to me while I'm on my walks.

a) these young kids that drive around in 4x4 vehicles with lift kits and big tires but has never taken it off roading crack me up. What's the point of all that extra equipment if you're not going to use it?

b) watching the teenagers on the weekend evenings is a trip, remind me of peacocks trying to get their plumage just right. The car must be the right make/model, playing the right music, have the right rims, wearing the right clothes and driving the right speed through the same areas.

c) It's amazing how much further or how much more cooperation you get when you're pleasant to people.

d) This world has a long way to go in distinguishing the difference between serving someone and being their servant. I witnessed a woman cleaning out her purse at a fast food resteraunt and rather than take the trash 3 feet to a trash can she dumped it on the floor so the guy sweeping up could get it.

e) I am easily distinguished as an out of towner because of my preference to walking over riding.
f) It's easy to tell I come from a colder climate, my clothes are mostly dark in color.

g) Chivilary isn't quite dead but those who uphold it are few and far between.

h) people who take more then 20 items through a less then 20 item check out line bug me.

i) while starbucks is better then yuban, hills brothers, mjb, and folgers, there's still better coffee out there.

j) the youth of today need discipline, the kind that child protective servies frowns upon.

k) this world would be a better place without lawyers.

l) when I get around to buying a new computer or component a month later something newer will come out and the price on what i just bought will have gone down 50%

m) when I'm extremely tired, I will find myself spelling words correctly when I type, except they are exactly backwards.

n) I tend to be a phonetic speller

o) I hated english/grammer in school

p) I have more discount club cards then I know what to do with and 90% I will probably not use again.

q) East Coasters adapt easier to living on the West Coast but not visa versa.

r) I still haven't figured out why men are attracted to pamela anderson.

s) Things are never impossible for those who don't have to do them.

t) immitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the surest way of failure.

u) a mistake becomes a failure if you fail to learn from it.

v) I still haven't figured out how these kids aren't deaf listening to music at those levels in cars.

w) a woman who can handle firearms confidently is sexy.

x) I tend to do stupid/crazy stuff when bored. If I stay here in Virginia any longer I think I'll take sky diving lessons.

y) Its amusing to no end to see people blindly following traditions. I mean, how many people actually remember the signifigance of a bride wearing white at a wedding?

z) the wedding march comes from Wagner's A Pegan Wedding.

ok, I should probably get to bed, gotta be up again in about three hours.

Road Rage

2006-07-31T19:12:00.000-08:00

I don't get road rage......I'm a carrier.

Sometimes it's fun being a pedestrian, especially when I know the motorists are in a hurry and I'm in a posted cross walk ;)

Putting To Sea

2006-07-29T06:38:00.000-08:00

Well, this may be the last post I make for a while, I'm just awaiting travel orders to be approved before heading to my first ship assignment. Nearly my entire training class has left or will be leaving shortly for their first ship assignment. It was almost a let down yesterday afternoon when they were calling people's names that had travel orders and my name wasn't apart of 'em.

At the same time I was glad, since it seemed that it could only mean I was slated to go take my Able Seaman course, but alas that wasn't to be as well. I've been requesting this class since the end of june and my detailer keeps denying all knowledge of me doing so. She's new to the position and I get the impression no one likes her so they're setting her up for failure.

So I may just bite the bullet, do my quick couple months on board the USNS Mercy, one of the ships everyone wants to work on since there isn't much we do but keep the ship operational. Those are for the people who don't like to work, I'd much rather get on an ammo ship or a mixed fuel/ammo ship like Shane or Houston is shipping off for today.

Supposedly it's easier to get training after being assigned to a ship then while sitting around the "pool" but it's another I'll believe it when I see it type of deals. I'm hoping that I can manage to get in the quick 5 days of training and get the USCG going on processing my upgrade paperwork.

On the brighter side, it's been nothing but smiles and grins around the hotel for the past 18 hours. Another sailor tradition, passing along items that it's not worth sending home but would be a serious waste of money if thrown away. While we could give it to the maids, we much rather see another sailor get it. Right now I've got about 2 weeks worth of food given to me and I'm gonna be here for only a few days more I think.

Have a few things to do today, get some stuff mailed home that I'm not taking with me and start looking at a few handy items to pack away and start getting prepaired for the orders that are suppose to be on the way, since I get the feeling that when things start to move it'll go extremely fast.

I've been slacking

2006-07-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I find myself back in Norfolk, VA while the detailers try to figure out where to stick us for a ship assignment. It's a bit aggrevating, but trying to use logic and the government is an exercise in fultility.

If I don't hear any status soon on my request for this class in San Diego, that I was already suppose to be there attending, I've begun setting things up on my own and just eat the cost of it so I can get the license upgrade done.

And I hear questions occasionally why there is such turn over rate here, not many people can tolerate the BS that comes with a government job, not to mention you can make just the same in the commercial side of the industry and have a lot more time off.

There's been much going through my mind, a bit too much time to think, I'm better off doing then thinking. Why being assigned to assist one of our ships in dry dock is both a blessing and a curse. It's good to be actually doing something instead of sitting like a bump on a log waiting for orders, but at the same time we're doing menial labor for the same pay as the people who are sitting around in an air conditioned building.

There's a small chance I could get on as a crew member of the USNS Patuxent, which is a fleet oiler but I'm still thinking of wanting to see more of the world then just the bahamas. The bosun mate that's in charge of us day workers kept telling me yesterday to slow down and take it easy since I was knocking the jobs I was assigned pretty quick.

What's he to expect, a worker bee that's been held idle for months going through training that I've for the most part been through already. I will have to get back into the government job mental status pretty quick, I use to be an expert at screwing off but looking like I was the hardest worker in my section ;) Just learn to do your job better 'en anyone else, and don't let anyone see you do it.

At least I can get online at this hotel and the service is at least somewhat reliable.

what a week

2006-07-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

got tired of being at the whim of the hotel bus drivers going and coming from class, very often we'd wrap up at 2:30 and have to wait around until 5 for the bus to finally show up. So a friend and I went in together and rented a car for the week.

It's amazing what being polite and funny can do for you customer service wise. It was just about COB and things were going completely wrong in the rental office, but we were patient and cracking jokes. The manager ended up giving us a corporate rate and upgraded our vehicle to a mid size for a compact rate.

Actually felt human again being able to drive around where you wanted when you wanted. Made a trip to Philly at the first of the month, took a short detour down to Atlantic City, I miss read the instructions and put us on the Parkway instead of the Turnpike.

Spent the next couple days just decompressing, was enjoyable to sit around barbeque stuff on the grill, have a few drinks (well was more then a few but who's counting) and chat with new friends. Sunday we did the tourist bit down in Phily, walked around the water front, did the whole Maritime History Museum and Waterpark Fair. Drove around until we found another hole in the wall joint and had a Philly Cheesesteak sandwhich.

Of course, I was left to navigation again, without a map to guide me, so we did a driving tour of Philly, saw the historic district and the other side of the tracks so to speak. Not sure what it was called but the park area by the Sculycul river was just georgious. I wanted to stop and watch the rowers on the water but we were starting to get on a time crunch for getting back to the hotel.

For the 4th we jetted down to Atlantic City, took another scenic route, we missed an exit that wasn't very well marked, but we weren't in a real hurry to get down there. Arrieved right around 2 p and the drinking commenced. I've always said that I'm tempted to start drinking just to have something to do here in New Jersey, well I wasn't really sober up until we left at 2 am.

Was reassuring to smell the sea, well, it's actually the smell of the intertidal land but regardless meant we were near the water and could hear the waves breaking on the beach. Could see people scrunching up their noses when some of the smells would get over powering but we took it all in like we were smelling the familar scents of home.

Finally just sat around the hotel yesterday, played cards, told stories and grilled some chicken and fresh corn on the cob. Was a much needed break after being on the go for the entire week we had the car.

Looking forward to leaving but no idea when I'll be getting my orders for San Diego.

I got Paroled!

2006-06-28T16:42:00.000-08:00

well, I've been just walking on cloud 9 since monday afternoon. Put in a request and had it fast tracked, should be recieving my orders pretty quick to head to San Diego sometime after the 4th of July to undergo some more training. Once I submit this training to the Coast Guard, it's a few week wait and then I'll be seeing at least a 50% increase in my base pay at a minimum. Plus, during this wait time, since the company I work for is hurting for this postion, the whole industry is actually will put me up in a hotel and pay me to boot until I get my new papers. Sure beats twiddling my thumbs in New Jersey.

Although, I wouldn't be able to make the trips to New York so easily, that was an intresting trip. Did a lot of walking around, just seeing the sites, watching the people and frequenting all the side walk venders. Found a little hole in the wall pizzeria that had the best pizza I've had to date, we figured it was a good spot when the line for it was out the door. Would like to do more of the tourist bit, but the whole trip was basically to walk off a hang over and just get out there and walk since we've been stuck sitting in the classroom these many weeks. Slept like a baby saturday night, I should hope so after 7 continuous hours of walking.

I shall cut this shorter, I have much more to say but have a little study/review for a written test tomorrow which is a prerequiset for the practical exam on friday and that'll effectively be the end of my training here in New Jersey.

No title just yet

2006-06-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

So, this week is an intresting bit of training. Non-lethal forms of hand to hand combat. It's almost better to come into something like this without any sort of training then to have even the basics of what I have already been through.

This isn't very advanced, some basic throws and joint lock/holds for take downs. My hesitenacy in all this, is my own fear of my own strength. Rather then risk injuring my fellow shipmate in practice I find myself hesitating nor using quite the right amount of pressure to pull these moves off. I still have some fair amount of residual strength from when I went hog wild years ago months before I got out of the Army and added 40 lbs of bulk muscle in less then 4 months. It's still fun to see the surprise on people's faces on the agility/balance/speed I possess despite me being this big of size.

Well towards the end of the week, things will get more intresting as we go about force on force training using sub caliber weapons of what we trained with to shoot paint ball like rounds inside a ship mockup. There is definately a different mind set to this whole minimal force approach, what you typically see employed by the law enforcement community. Taking a lot of restraint to not shoot first and ask questions later.

This of course brings up what I've been seeing in the news the last few weeks of "ethics" in battle. That's about an oxymoron if I've ever heard one, there's nothing ethical about warfare. If it weren't so sad it would be humorous that politicians and the public are outraged about the unethical behavior of combat troops in a hostile enviroment. We weren't trained as peace keepers, that's what the Military Police are for, Infantry and Marines are trained to kill, oh wait, I am suppose to be politially correct, we're trained to "close with and destroy the enemy". What ever happened to using the right tool for the job?

Don't people walk anymore?

2006-06-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

I'm seeing a general trend on the East Coast of not beingvery pedestrian friendly. I noticed this years ago in South Carolina, but figured it was just them, then saw it again in Virginia, now in New Jersey and into Philadelphia as well. Now, me being from the Northwest, pedestrian walkways are almost big enough to drive down, well not quite but they are nearly every where. You can safely walk everywhere you need to go, which I very often do and not just because I was in the Infantry. However if you hear me talking about something being within walking distance, it's a relative term, in the Infantry, EVERYTHING was within walking distance :)

Another bit of my Army training came into play the past week, small arms training. Since we are Navy Civilian run ships, we support the Navy, however, we don't have a contingent of Marines aboard to provide physical security so we're trained to do it ourselves. Just three basic weapons we're trained for shipboard use, the M14 rifle, M9 pistol and shotgun.

On friday we underwent qualifications on the M14 and shotgun. Shane, one of the group I'm in of new hires, and I had a bet about who would score higher with it. Wasn't that big of deal, just something for both of us to take the whole bit more seriously. After two 40 round qualification periods, our score was identical, however he conceeded the bet to me after seeing my 1 hole pattern of 15 rounds I shot on the second go around. I've told him somewhat of my military career, but I haven't made it clear just yet that I was a weapon specialist, I think everyone has the idea now after seeing me shoot.

Some intresting things going on around the hotel, see a cop car make the rounds through the parking lot at least once a night, the same hookers making their way through the hotel hallways, I still haven't had the "pleasure" of seeing them, been told they're enough to make even the horniest of sailor want to remain celebate. Could hear their antics from the room above mine, friday night late.

Hopefully I'm not stuck shore side for too much longer, the boredem will probably drive me to drinking just to have something to do. It's bad enough right now that all of our group has a running grocery list but we purposely don't buy items just so we have something to do the next day going to the store to pick them up.

Anyways, just taking a weekend off and getting caught up on my sleep, I seem to have fallen back into my old habits of not sleeping much during the week and sleeping a lot on the weekends. I have a lot of really odd stuff that I do to myself, most of it makes me wonder if I really am crazy.

We're not in Kansas anymore...

2006-05-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've finally settled down for the moment, well for the next 6 or 7 weeks anyways. Wonderful Neptune/Freehold, New Jersey. I must say, an.......intresting aroma that comes from this state. Don't know how anyone can stand to live here let alone breath the air, guess I"m just spoiled by really clean air, not to mention drinking water that's better then bottled water right out of the tap.

A lot of this training I'm going through I've already done, but company requirements that it's manditory for everyone to go through their own training. So friday I finished up a refresher/review of marine fire fighting. I didn't let on that I've already gone through Advanced Marine Fire Fighting in the past, and this is only a Basic course. I just let the instructors think I was paying attention and was learning fast ;) So, the final practical module we did involved putting out a fuel fire onboard a deck mock up of a ship. According to the instructors, it'd take us 10 minutes to put this fire out AFTER they shut the fuel supply off, well when it came to my turn on the nozzle, I almost had it out before they quickly swapped me out lest i did put it out. It's all a matter of being aggresive, probably one of the few times in my life where I am.

You can't help but loose weight while in that bunker gear fighting "Bravo" fires which run pretty hot, not to mention the outside air standing around waiting your turn to go into the ship mock up. Of course, the bit of fuel mixed with water I managed to swallow learning how to patch up holes in a ship's side while taking on water didn't help me keep my dinners down either.

They sure aren't wasting much time with me, already my training has been cut by 1 week after they've reviewed my training, still I may be here until the 14th of July as they find new classes to take up the time of the ones they've cut.

Anyways, I won't be as active posting until I can figure out why I can't access the wireless internet at the hotel, I will be online briefly each morning as I wait for class to start, they at least have WiFi in the school.

I hate credit bureaus

2006-05-17T01:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I won't hide it, I can't exactly say I've had perfet credit in the past, but I was actually surprised when I took a look at my credit report for the first time in almost a decade last night. It reflects what my philosophy is, I may not pay my debts as fast as I'd like but I do pay 'em off.

Now, once I get rested up today, I have the fun task of disputing an account that's showing up on there that is definately not mine. I have never, to the best of my recollection, dealt with this company, the type of account is not something I would have opened, it has no open date, nor any dates of notices of deliquency it's just simply there that I haven't paid it and its been refered to a collection agency, in the amount of almost $10k. Best line of credit I ever had was $3k.

This is not the first time I've had to deal with false reports showing up on my credit history, only previous times left me so pissed off, I was ready to check out my small arms out of the arms room head to one of their local offices and show them the value of accuracy.

I'll be a man and accept the mistakes I've made, correct them when I can, but I loath be accused of something I haven't done. I'm getting a sneaky suspicion that this is the root cause of my credit problems lately, I just never investigated it until now.

Just another opportunity to take charge of my life and no longer just roll over when something bad happens, I'll have to keep ya posted on what's gonna happen when I have all my ducks in a row and I start gunning for the State of South Carolina's Department of Revenue. I learned the value of keeping complete and accurate accounts from two accountants, if I can only get copies of what they have on file for taxes will decide if I press charges for forgery and/or fraud.

I'm an easy going, happy go lucky guy but push me too far and I will come after ya and I load for bear. M'k I'm done venting, so you won't have to worry about some crazed gun man shooting up some credit bureau's office here in Virginia.

bored again

2006-05-13T01:55:00.000-08:00

You Were A Jaguar

A shapeshifter that understands the patterns of chaos.
You are powerful and move without fear in dark places.

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

Ok, so I get bored easliy, but at least I'm also easily entertained. Intresting, since I do prefer to to stuff at night, I keep forgetting to ask my eye doctor why I have light sensitive eyes.

Of Last Minute Plans

2006-05-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know I said I was suppose to ship out on the M/V Taku. Well that part was true enough, but I was told to pack for a week long rotation, I meet the ship and go through crew change, I find out I'm a "turn-around" which means just heading north for two stops and turning around. I was back in Juneau 18 hours after we left.

So, as I was rushing around yesterday morning getting my bag packed for the week, just as I was about to shower/shave for work, I get a call from MSC. I've been waiting for this call for almost 2 months now, they ask if I'm still interested in working first of all (no, I just like applying for the hell of it). So, when I verify that I still want the position, I'm told that I have to report to Norfolk, VA by noon on the 15th.

This is when the panic starts to set in, I figure I'm going to be gone until at least the 12th, it's at least a full day to travel back east, no problem, it'll be close but doable. I still have to take a puddle jumper home, drop off the clothes that I won't be needing now and pick up stuff I will, not to mention finish putting my stuff back into storage. Again, doable but gonna be very close and extremely busy Friday afternoon until Saturday evening.

I report on board, having doubts I should even go and get my assignment and am told that I'll be back on shore first thing this morning. Now comes the delemia of letting someone know that all this training is for naught with me since I'll be switching jobs PDQ? I hold off, until the end of shift and ask the Chief Steward how I go about contacting dispatch on the weekend that I'll have to undergo a change of plans since I was already scheduled to go back out onboard the flagship of the fleet, the M/V Columbia for the whole week this time. I get a hold of dispatch about 10:30 local, don't want to disturb the person too much since it is their own time and let 'em know I have another job offer I'm accepting and that basically I'm quitting and my position on the Columbia now needs someone else to fill it. I'm not worried about it not being filled, there are something like 100 new highers for this Department. I was rather surprised that there were no hard feelings and she actually sounded happy that I gave her almost 2 full days to track down a replacement.

Anyways, my whole 12 hour shift as a Steward gave me a bit more respect for them as workers, and a bit more loathing for these high school students from the out lying communities. It was the different coaches' policy that whenever we traveled onboard the Alaska Marine Highway System, that we represented our community and our school. So, if we used an area, we cleaned up after ourselves, if it was dirty when we got there, it was clean when we left. As a student council representative for many years, I distinctly remember receiving a letter of appreciation from AMHS for our efforts to be neat, clean and well behaved on board each of the vessels.

So, I have plans to be traveling all day the 14th, and my oldest sister who lives in D.C. was a little put out about being excluded from the plans. She wanted to pick me up and drive me down to Norfolk, but I don't like taking chances, and she's not one to live up to my own punctuality requirements. I now have a lay over in D.C and get on a plane to Norfolk bright and early, landing with ample time to get from the airport to the hotel I'm suppose to report to in time. I always factor in things going wrong and allowing time for it, what can I say, when I plan something it's usually over planned.

Some Indian Wisdom

2006-05-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

Two Eagles, an old Indian chief, sat in his hut on the reservation smoking a ceremonial pipe and eyeing two US government officials sent to interview him.

One US official said to Chief Two Eagles, "You have observed the whiteman for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances. You've seen his progress, and the damage he has done."The Chief nodded in agreement.

The official continued, "Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?"The Chief stared at the two government officials for over a minute, and then he calmly replied:

"When white man found the land, Indians were running it.
No taxes,
No debt,
Plenty buffalo,
Plenty beaver,
Women did all the work,
Medicine man free,
Indian man spent all day hunting and fishing,
All night having sex.

"Then the chief leaned back and smiled before he added,"Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that."

Oh, Happy Days

2006-05-03T14:46:00.000-08:00

a little bit of panic this morning to get the blood flowing, so I've forgone the usual half a pot of coffee. Got a call from dispatch about putting to sea tonight at 19:00 local, I told 'em yesterday when i turned in a copy of my drug screen that I needed a few days to put together the uniforms, since I'll be switching from the Deck Dept to the more formal Steward Dept for a few weeks anyways. So I called dispatch back and they rescheduled me for friday. So friday morning I start my training voyage, since this job doesn't official begin until the end of may, onboard the M/V Taku.

Friday I should be finding out when I'll be heading East as well. I haven't told AMHS that I have another job lined up and just waiting on the word. I'll give 'em as much time as I can, but this was just for the summer and more then likely i'd be laid off when they do a reduction in force come mid september since i won't have senority built up by then.

thought this was intresting

2006-04-30T23:31:00.000-08:00

Your Values Profile

Loyalty:

You value loyalty highly.
You're completely devoted to your friends and family.
Even if they totally screw up, you're still there for them.
Just make sure they're equally loyal to you!

Honesty:

You value honesty a fair amount.
You're honest when you can be, but you aren't a stickler for it.
If a little white lie will make a situation more comfortable, you'll go for it.
In the end, you mostly care about "situational integrity."

Generosity:

You value generosity highly.
So much so that you often put your own needs last.
There's nothing wrong with having a caring heart...
But you may want to rethink your "open wallet" policy.

Humility:

You value humility highly.
You have the self-confidence to be happy with who you are.
And you don't need to seek praise to make yourself feel better.
You're very modest, and you're keep the drama factor low.

Tolerance:

You value tolerance a fair amount.
You are open to new cultures, beliefs, and ideas.
You have very few prejudices that you're aware of.
And while you are tolerant, you do stand true to what you believe.

The Five Factor Values Test

Time to kill

2006-04-30T09:56:00.000-08:00

The past week I've been not quite stressed out but definately feeling quite a bit of it. Undergoing new hire orientation, at my expense and it's uncompensated, although I did find out that the state would have paid for my travel to this training, would have been nice before that came out of pocket as well. Spend hours each day filling out seemingly redundant paperwork for all the various entities I would fall under if I accept this job with the state not to mention training that is greared more towards someone who's never worked on boats then towards someone like me who's fairly experienced. So sitting there all week under going training I've already been through, but i have to complete their training model to qualify to work for them.

So I finish jumping through all the state's hoops and go to find out about a ship assignment and they have no record of me being hired. This is in the same office where I did my interview back the first part of march and they practically put me on a ship right then and there. Something felt fishy about the whole thing from the get go, I show up to the training center first thing monday and there isn't any record of a class being scheduled there. After many frantic phone calls, found out it's been moved to a University class room about 10 miles away and class had already started by the time I got ahold of someone.

I guess the paperwork telling me about this change is still in the mail somewhere, it supposedly went out 2 weeks ago but there's no sign of it showing up. Occasionally my mail will get put in my father's box since I'm named after him and most places neglect to put the Jr. on my name, but that wasn't the case.

So, getting things together, I stop off at the local U.S.C.G. Marine Safety Office to begin the process of upgrading my license and having endorsements added. Only I find out some of my training certificates have expired and now can no longer be used on my license. To boot, they were going to reject my physical because it wasn't on their form, even though the physical I had done was above and beyond what they require.

I started to get really pissed about the expired certificates, the company that paid for me to get this training fought me tooth and nail while I was arranging the classes, so instead of things being smooth as I had planned I'd spend months arguing with them that they'd promised me these courses and if they'd follow my planning it'd save them a lot of expenses. No, they couldn't accept what I'd planned and had to dabble with it and drug it out far longer then it needed to be, which is why the certificates expired since some of the classes ended up being piece meal here and there over the course of a year and a half. One of the courses I don't think I had the seatime at the time I completed it to qualify for the upgrade.

I'd be a whole lot angrier if it was my dime but it wasn't, so it turns out them weeks in Seattle, while I got good training, the only thing I really have to show for it is frequent flies miles from the flight, frequent guest points from the hotel, and more airmiles since I paid upfront with my air miles card and the company reimbursed me :D

So, I'm gonna have to spend part of tomorrow in D.O.T office trying to figure out what happened to my paperwork. I figure by the time I get this all straightened out I'll be getting the phone call from CivMar telling me to report back east for their orientation.

Oh, too top it all off, I managed to pick up whatever bug's been going around town. Ordinarily I don't get sick, well the sniffles mostly but rarely will i get laid up trying to recooperate.

This is me, not a very intresting life, but I do try to keep off everyone's respective radars and lead a low key life.

It's Snowing!

2006-04-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

Woke up to everything covered in a blanket of white. It's also raining so it's not going to last long. Latest I've ever seen snow on the ground around here was may 15th but that was years and years ago when I was knee high to a grass hopper.

Well, it's probably a good thing you've decided to go to Spain/Portugal this year, EE, I think it's going to be a cool summer with lots of rain here. I'm a still a little out of touch with reading nature like I once did, but we're about due for a rainy summer.

Skippy's List additions

2006-04-29T21:57:00.000-08:00

I'd sent this out some time ago, so long ago that I'd forgotten I'd done it. These were my additions to Skippy's List that's been going around the internet for some years, entitled 213 Things Skippy Can't Do In The Army...

These were things that I'd done personally so I figured someone else might get a chuckle out of them. Recounting these stories, I get a lot of questions about how I was able to get an honorable discharge, think it was the army's way of quietly getting rid of me ;)

1) must not make voodoo dolls of the chain of command out of c-4 when on the demo range. (c4 is like a cross between playdough and paper mache')

2) must not make a shaped charge out of 18 kilos of c-4 even if the engineers keep handing you the blocks to use up. (they come in 1 kilo blocks, 35 blocks per crate)

3) just because the the cows wander onto the live fire range doesn't mean it's ok to fire claymore mines at them. (ft. hood is grazing land leased from cattle ranchers, very often steak was served just after such incidents)

4) must not send the new private around the motor pool looking for a BA-1100-November. (if you write it down it comes out to be BA1100N)

5) must not send same private to the armoror for a blank adapter for the 25mm Bushmaster Cannon. (it's a dust plug not a blank adapter, fire training rounds not blanks)

6) must not send the same private to ask a SFC about the new commo unit called the "prick e-7" (the commo unit they think it is, is called an AN/PRC-77 "prick-77" for short and a SFC's rank is an E-7)

7) must not have the newbies test the shocks on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, even if they are an especially large soldier they will not budge a 23 ton track. (although you can get him jumping up and down on various parts of the track as long as he's using 3 points of contact)

8) must not pretend to get drunk and confess that you're C.I.D and was sent through basic training again for a good cover. (C.I.D is Criminal Investigation Division, kind of like Internal Affairs meets Vice Squad)

9) Infared Chem lights aren't defective nor do they need their batteries replaced. (most people are use to seeing the green snap and shake lights, when they don't light up, they get puzzled.)

10) must not pass gas next to the vehicle air filter intake when the turret crew has their pro-mask on and hooked up to the said system. (I don't get mad, I get even, at dinner time if the other crews saw me loading up on chocolate milk, they knew something bad was gonna happen especially since i'm lactose intolerant)

11) must not have the new privates test for soft spots in the the armor with a 5lb ball pin hammer, mark the spot with an X in white chalk so the mechanics can come down to fix 'em. especially right before a brigade inspection. (was a good excuse to get out of the b.s. activities associated with the inspection having to take it to the wash rack to clean off all the x's)

12) must not tell your Lt. the reason you can move through the woods quietly is because you're hunting again, only the prey has changed. (it may have been true but kind of unnerved the rest of my squad)

13) must not soak the pro-mask filter in water of someone you don't like right before you go into the gas chamber. (they work on a positive pressuse system, since a wet filter blocks all air, no breathing, the mask comes off pretty quick and tear gas is rather uncomfortable)

14) must not procede to demonstrate that c-4 makes a good fuel to cook with in the field, makes the engineers edgy when you put a flame next to c-4. (burns clean just don't stamp out the fire, c4 takes both heat and pressure to go off)

Oh, if I think about it some more, there are a whole lot more stories I could come up with that'd make you wonder how I survived my enlistment without undergoing a psychological evaluation.

Powers of the mind

2006-04-27T19:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know I promised EE that I would go into a bit of detail about why I am like the way I am, or rather, how I managed to acquired this kind of knowledge at a relatively young age.

Let's see, all my life, I've always done what I could to learn what I could from everyone I came into contact with on a daily basis. Up until the 2nd year in the Army, as I would lay in bed readying my mind of sleep, I would review what I did that day and ask myself what three things I was able to learn. For some odd reason, that always calmed my mind, that I was reassuring myself that I was still learning and progressing.

As to the inner peace thing, well, I'm not quite like that all the time, but it's hard to tell what exactly I am other then quiet most times. I keep to myself a lot, just observing what's going on around me, learning what I can from the natural world. Some interpret that quietness as being shy, others intelligence and still others the creepy loner. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and they'll always see what they want to see. Of course, doesn't help matters any that I can usually guess what people are expecting to see and I magnify those traits.

I guess you could say that's part of my defense mechanism, show people what they expect to see and they'll leave me alone. I like to have fun, sort of like the telephone game, show different extreme sides of my personality to different people and watch 'em talk to each other about me and get confused that they're talking about the same person but yet they aren't. I can tell this comes from growing up in a tiny town where everyone knew everyone else's business.

As for how I did attain that "inner peace", I did a quite a bit of self study on philosophy at the age where impressions take hold very readily. I've always been on a quest to not necessarily know myself as to understand myself. I'll probably have to check out my mother's library now to find my copies of the I Ching, Tao Te Ching, Art of Peace and a great deal of my other philosophy books. All these little fable stories I usually leave in various blog comments I picked up reading Bits and Pieces published by the Economic Press.

I also began to self teach myself meditation, although I wish I had proper training and/or a master to learn from, for I began to attain levels that began to frighten myself. I could slow my respiration and heart rate to the point that would have medical personnel panicking, astral projection in dreams I could visit places I'd never been to before and when I get there I know the area already. With a very calm mind, I've seen glimpses of my future, some say deja' vu is just a trick of the mind but not when you've read passages in books that are first published months after. In college I experimented with manipulating the air around me into a thermal shield that wouldn't let scalding hot nor freezing cold reach my skin, being able stand under a steady stream of either without feeling heat or cold.

I've never explored all this with greater depth. Most times I just wondered about my sanity or the fact that great power comes with great responsibility. All I know is, I'm here on this earth for a reason, where I go or what I do is for a purpose that I won't always know why until many years later.

Publishing problems?

2006-04-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

anyone having problems pusblishing? everytime I try to publish the simpilest of posts this thing just hangs up like it's not talking with the server.

Country Bumpkin

2006-04-23T21:02:00.000-08:00

Ok, now to try this again, seems got a hang while trying to publish this the first time.

I may be from a small town in southeast alaska, but I'm far from a country bumpkin, I've done enough traveling and experienced enough to have most of the moisture dried from behind the ears.

So that leads me to tonight. Let me back track a moment, I get a message out of the blue on yahoo from a supposed woman from maryland. We've chatted casually over the past week, but I always had my doubts about the whole thing, the profile I have set up on yahoo isn't exactly one you'd look twice at nor take seriously.

I get a message tonight as I log in at my aunt's home network with my laptop. Says she has a little problem, but nothing big. Didn't think too much of it, moral support is something I do well, so I asked what the problem is so that I could figure out what I can do to help.

"she" procedes to tell me that she's traveling aboad for her work and had to surrender her passport in order to get a hotel room. Now she's suppose to be returning home but got stiffed by her client, a modeling agency, and is now facing a $800 bill and is there anything I can do to help.

Now, I will admit that I haven't had sex in a while but no way in hell I'd let that lead me to give a relative stranger money to help out, even if "she" has promised me "anything" I wanted to do when she would meet up to pay me back. If anything, that set off more alarms that something wasn't right with this whole picture.

My training from the army kicks in and I reveal nothing and being vague about stuff is something I'm irritating good at being. So the angles changed quite a bit once this other person realized that the promise of sex wouldn't budge me, pleas toward my patriotism in "help out a fellow american" didn't work, guilt trip didn't even phase me (I dated a devout catholic and she always tried to guild trip me but that's something for another blog) and when I mentioned that my mother is a retired judge, the peanut gallery got quiet.

I'm curious to know how many fall for this scam if people will continue to try it. I'll help people when I can, but I've only lent money to one person and this person earned my trust while serving together in the Infantry. I figure if I could trust this person with my life, a trifle amount of money wouldn't bother me too much.

Ho, hum

2006-04-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know I've said I stuff I've been working on for a while, and it's still true. In the process of reorganizing and repacking my stuff I came across some old 3.5" floppies from high school that had copies of everything I'd written on the computer for classes. In a lot of the essays I have some really intresting trains of thought, but I never finished 'em. Even to this day, in the process of figuring out what to say, I resolve the matter in my head and it fails to get written down, so I have great beginings just not so well closures.

Still not quite pleased with my recent trains of thought so i've heavily edited what i've written and it'll probably be rewritten before it's all over.

A little disappointed

2006-04-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, for those who don't know, I have a Canon Digital Rebel, forget which model exactly, so a pretty high speed digital. Now, I know I'm not real well versed in what all this thing can do but I can point and shoot fairly well.

Now, this leads up to tonight, probably THE most spectacular display of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) I've ever seen and the damn camera kept cycling through the auto focus and wouldn't let me snap a frame. I scrambled to a total manual setting but the results don't look good, don't think it's quite light sensitive enough to pick up those displays dispite being quite bright.

The northern mountain side looks like it's back lit with a huge spot light and we're treated to Nature's own laser show. Looks to be dancing clouds in shades of green, white, red and combinations in between. Just a little too frustrated at the moment to describe what I saw that would do it any kind of justice.

Just ticks me off, the two things I wanted good shots of my own with that thing was a humpback whale breaching (which I have some ok shots) and some Northern Lights. What I'm thinking is it'll still take a film camera to get one of those and I gifted my 35mm Rebel to my oldest sister since her old fashioned Canon E-2 sprouted legs and walked off while she was on vacation.

What people would envy about me.

2006-04-01T19:39:00.000-09:00

I have some posts I'm working on in responce to some of EE's questions, but this should give an idea the time of mind frame I'm usualy in on a day to day basis.

People Envy Your Inner Peace

You understand your place in the world and accept life as it is. For you, "it's all good."
People envy how grounded and level headed you are. But you're too at peace to even notice.

What Do People Envy About You?

A bit of creativity

2006-03-27T20:53:00.000-09:00

Of all the pictures I was editing yesterday, this is the only one that came out the way I was hoping it would.

Had a sort of creative streak yesterday so i took my digital camera along on my walk. Figured this would make a good shot to try the "antique" filter on my photo editing software.

I'm back up to four miles a day on my walks, still a far cry from what I did in the Infantry, but there's no need to see if I can still push myself 20+ miles with a pack on my back.

When it rains, it pours.

2006-03-24T17:42:00.000-09:00

It has been rather...irritating, haven't been able to find a full time job the past year and a half that wouldn't interfere with my on going maritime training. Now all of a sudden I can't keep up with all the job offers coming in. First major one to come in was from the State, a steward position on board the ferry system. Not bad, it would get my foot in the door and would be able to rise through the ranks while earling State benefits/retirement just the duty would suck having to clean up after everyone.

Not three days after I interviewed with the State, I got a phone call from Military Sealift Command, a civilian contractor to the Navy. I faxed in a copy of my letter of sea time and last week I get a phone call back offering me a position with their Ordinary Seaman Advancement Program. I quickly jumped at this chance, federal benefits, basically working for the Navy without being in the Navy. My time in the Army counts towards my pay/retirement/vacation so I'll be starting out almost max everything. Looking through my training, all I am is missing is my 120 watch standing days onboard a vessel over 200 tons, so figure I'll complete that in my first 4 month tour on board a ship and raise my rating and my base pay will raise to about $40k/year. I'd be starting out in the Deck department instead of Steward as well.

So all this is leading up to today, recovering from all the traveling I've had to do lately. Monday I get a phone call from MSC setting up an appointment to under go a physical. So Wednesday I had to travel back to Juneau and go to the Federal Occupational Health and start my battery of tests. That took about 4 hours on Wednesday but only a half hour to finish off on Thursday.

This physical was more thorough then the one I underwent to get into the Army. Plugged me into an EKG, found out my ticker is strong, healthy and normal. Tested every part of my vision and found out my corrected vision is outstanding (20/15 right, 20/18 left). My hearing is as strong today as ever without any signs of normal hearing loss due to age. My blood work came back with everything almost dead center of the "normal" ranges. My lung capactiy is 98% of where it should be and no drugs show up in my UA. My blood pressure is good, not quite as good as my readings from my time in the Army but I'm no longer working out with that kind of cardiovascular intensity.

I'm healthy as an ox, the physician's only concern is that I'm as big as one too ;) Rather to his surprise, I have excellent balance, hand/eye coordination and flexibility.

I really have to wonder what demographic was tested to find out the "ideal" weight a person is suppose to be for their height. I'm curious if the ratio of pi is factored in there somewhere, seems most things are, since that's the most naturally pleasing to the eye proportions.

Monday I get scheduled go to get a PPD test, not worried about that, haven't had any kind of contact with TB in the 7 years since my last test of that. One of these days I'm going to have to consolidate and update my shot record, tends to raise some eye brows with it being so thorough not to mention several in the anthrax series of vaccination.

Getting to the point I'm going to need to keep my own hospital records with me where ever I go as well.

I don't see MSC delaying too long on getting me back east for orientation, there's an extreme shortage of the Able Seaman rating industry wide.

what to cook...

2006-03-09T17:42:00.000-09:00

well, options are really limited here on this island about what kind of ingredients you can use when cooking. things are doubly harder since I have to consider the amounts of sodium in everything I make if I'm cooking for my step father. rather difficult when the majority of foods are either processed or canned, fresh stuff tends to run on the expensive side.

so, with time running thin, I opted for a simple recipie that I've yet to try.

2 1/2 lb pork chops
1 bottle of salsa (sodium isn't as bad as I thought)
1 15 oz can of chilli beans (being canned is higher then I'd wish on sodium)
1 cup frozen corn

Throw the chops, salsa and beans in a crock pot on high for 2 1/2 hours (low for 5). Add in corn and cook for an additional 30 minutes and serve over rice. Should be intresting. I guess I'm starting to show the time I've spent in Texas in my cooking.

Rather funny that the majority of my cook books are stuff for the crock pot, which suited my work schedule in Juneau quite well. I love the aroma off all day cooking when coming home after a long day. Plus the anticipation of a savory dinner waiting at home tends to make dinner that much more enjoyable.

Still alive

2006-03-01T14:40:00.000-09:00

Almost out of creamer for my coffee, guess I'll have to go to the store soon or else I'm just a bear in the mornings without it.

I'm still alive and kicking, been doing some travel so my schedule's been rather upset. Rather ironic that I live by routine but hate getting in a rut.

Sitting here listening to a bit of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and pondering what to write. I have some ideas that I've been mulling over for the past week now so I should kick myself in the pants and get to putting pen to paper so to speak.

strange and goofy tests

2006-02-14T13:53:00.000-09:00

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

2006-02-11T07:52:00.000-09:00

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

2006-02-11T07:38:00.000-09:00

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

2006-02-07T05:47:00.000-09:00

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

2006-02-07T04:53:00.000-09:00

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

2006-02-06T02:10:00.000-09:00

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

2006-02-05T00:56:00.000-09:00

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?

2006-02-03T04:50:00.000-09:00

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?
brought to you by Quizilla

a movie sparks some thoughts

2006-02-01T19:14:00.000-09:00

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.

What a weekend

2006-01-30T23:37:00.000-09:00

First off I have to deal with a Vocational School that is so unorganized that it doesn't really know at the first day of class whether or not it's classes are completely full or not. So, I find out that the industrial welding course is full, which is to be expected given the rumors of the natural gas pipeline going to be built and/or ANWAR.

I help my aunt customize a Dell laptop, the phone rep stayed online for 2 1/2 hours configuring the system and doing what he could to match the system she was going to order from Costco (west coast equivalent to Sam's Club). I should have asked him for a percentage of his commission, without my input on a lot of the items he wouldn't have made the sale. Anyways, it arrives sometimes this week, tomorrow hopefully and then I'm busy installing a wireless network to the aunt's cable modem.

Late Friday night I began to rehydrate, pushing water into my system at a fast rate. Looking back I'm not sure if I should have taken it slower or if it was inevitable that my left kidney would decide to push kidney stones through my system. I had an idea that it was going happen when the kidney remained sore more then a half hour after pushing water, so I took a couple of quick dissolving Excedrine and waited for the worst to happen.

And boy did it ever, not as intense as the first time I had a kidney stone thank goodness for the pain killers, but the pain was enough to have me praying to the porcelain god for a few hours. I'd managed to pass a couple on my own but after 2 1/2 hours of pain, I could no long keep any sort of fluid down to keep pushing the others, so I threw in the tower and went to the ER.

I must say, I'm rather liking the medical facilities in the private sector, having spent my whole life going to government doctors/dentists. The doc on duty actually listen to what I had to say about my symptoms and the path of the pain. After doing a quick check discovered blood in my urine, they went a head and started an IV and started me with some meds to control the nauseate.

That didn't work too well, the extra water just caused another to kick loose and soon I was back praying, this time to a stainless steel god. Deciding I had enough, I requested some pain killers, which I refused the first go around. Morphine, my first encounter with that one, I got demerol the last stone. After an hour and a full liter of water later, I still couldn't go, but I was no longer in intolerable pain so they discharge me saying there wasn't really anything else they could do, so I might as well go home and get comfortable as best I could. To help with any further pain once the morphine wore off they gave me some vicodin, which I promptly took before laying down and passing out from exhaustion.

I spent the rest of the day Saturday pushing fluids, but ended up feeling bloated since lots were going in but little was coming out. Sunday things started to kick loose and I felt like I wouldn't leave the bath room. The bloating left but my insides felt like I just got in a gang fight but forgot to bring my own gang. It hurt to breath deeply, cough, sneeze or laugh, I was miserable and refused to take any more meds since the pain wasn't bad just a nuisance.

Being still exhausted, I was fighting sleep all day long and decided to head to bed early about 7 pm. I awoke at 2 am, still in some pain and still sore but not enough to keep me from drifting back off to sleep.

Now here's the strange part. After crashing at 2 am, sometime in the middle of the night I dreamt I met up with one of my friends who asked me why I was in pain. After explaining what happened and what I was feeling he gave me this cream to massage into areas that I still felt pain. It was a light blue in color, with a faint hint of sun screen. I woke up this morning completely devoid of pain, not even any lingering soreness in my kidney.

I know sleep is when the body heals itself, I'm just wondering how much my decision not to be in pain anymore sped the process up.

So, now I have a few doses of vicoden that I'm going to have to keep close tabs on, I doubt I'll be running into any more circumstances where I'll be needing them. I should just flush 'em, but I'm one to keep stuff since I'll never know just when I might need it.

I'm just glad I remembered to mention to the kind of cute doc when she was doing a palpation on me that I am ticklish or she might have decided that by my reactions I might be worse off then a kidney stone.

Hopefully everyone else's weekend was more enjoyable.

Thoughts of an old friend

2006-01-21T17:16:00.000-09:00

I check out LL's blogs from time to time and one of her posts not really struck a nerve but started my thought process.

Got me thinking a little bit, which isn't always a good thing. We had many discussions when we had to shut down operations while in Kuwait due to sand storms that would pick up almost like clock work from just before noon until dinner time. Which was fine for us, gave us down time during the hottest parts of the day, although being stuck in a tent without A/C in temperatures over 120 degrees, needless to say tempers flared rather quickly. Our choice of topics didn't help matters an either, all the subjects you should avoid when wanting polite discussions ie., politics, religion etc.

One topic that we started to discuss was about burning the U.S. flag as means of protest. Nearly everyone in the tent came to the conclusion that we didn't agree with it, but some like myself didn't think that it should be outlawed. In my heart I knew that in the past men have died to protect the flag, never mind that it's but a symbol. Our section's NCO came into the conversation late but brought up a very valid point, freedom of speech protects the view points that we don't like.

While we had to concede that what we were safe guarding was freedom of speech, even for those who's view points we disagreed with, or from people who had criticize anything the military did but would never dare to put on a uniform and serve their country. I've accepted the fact that I've put my life on the line to protect these people even though they probably won't ever appreciate it, I may not like it but I can't live their lives for them.

I don't know what it is about college's that seem to be the breeding grounds for those who feel the need to force their opinion on everybody. I'm a rather happy go lucky kind of guy or was, I could care less what you do as long as you don't try to force your views on me. Still I had to put up with people who constantly protesting about our military being in one place or another, yet would turn around and demand the military be sent to some place in Africa or the Balkans to deal with another country's civil war.

It would sicken me to learn of American servicemen and women's deaths due to the limited rules of engagement placed upon them by the politicians and interest groups while sending them into volatile environments. Rather amazing how much of a second class citizen someone in uniform becomes to those with financial means. Hell, we became second class citizens financially as well, a good many of families in the military are on welfare, they have to be unless you were an officer or fairly high ranking NCO, pay being little higher then if you worked minimum wage.

To hear the comments about what happened after the fiasco in Mogadishu in 1993, really sickened me. That place seems to be bad luck for any U.S. servicemen who go there. My best friend and class mate growing up joined the Marines right after high school and became a Combat Engineer, after the U.S. pulled out of Ethiopia for good, he was part of a task force that went around to the different facilities and blew up any equipment couldn't be pulled out.

After repeated ambushes while traveling from place to place and loosing several team mates, they decided to take a pro-active stance on the next convey journey to a different compound. In the ensuing ambush that followed, there were civilian casualties. Probably not something that made the news, he told me some years later after we both moved back to Alaska.

His Lt. Who wasn't with the convoy hung him out to dry so to speak, rather then back his troops he was covering his own ass and career, shifting blame to my friend who was one of the ranking NCO's with the convoy. He was summarily relieved of rank, spent time in the brig and was booted out of the Marine Corps for conduct unbecoming a Marine. I don't hold any blame on him, if I was in his shoes I would have done the same to protect my squad mates, I'll be damned if I'd let some third world national live at the cost of a fellow soldier. What was the line from Spy Games, "If it comes down to them or you, send flowers"

I've had to ask myself why I believe what my friend's told me, well, I trust him, completely. We've grown up together, we could almost start or finish each other's sentences and we've faced death together, walking away from a car wreck that by all accounts we shouldn't have. He's always been truthful with me no matter how painful it was to admit and for that he has my utmost respect no matter how much trouble he's been in. Probably the hardest day of his life was to face a felony sentencing by my mother, who felt like she was sentencing one of her own sons. Of the party that got drunk and went on a tire slashing spree, he was the only one to fully pay his restitution and serve out his time in jail. He told me of what happened as well, made no excuses and admitting that he knew what they were doing was wrong and didn't stop the ones in the group who were doing the actual slashing.

I find it amazing how much I can forgive of one who's been honest with me.

Bright and Shiney.....ooooh

2006-01-19T00:00:00.000-09:00

Eric Clapton Lyrics

Eric Clapton Music Video Codes

Music Video Codes by VideoCure.com

Everytime I hear this song I think of that yahoo ad, it cracks me up. Ok, so I'm easily amused, just sit me in a room with a bright shiney object and I'll be kept entertained for a while ;)

Working on the Boats

2006-01-14T21:45:00.000-09:00

When I moved back to Alaska in early 2001, my intention was to get a job as an Alaskan State Trooper, more specifically the "blue shirt" rather then the fish and game enforcement signified by a "brown shirt". Since I was in South Carolina just long enough to loose my Alaskan residency, I had to spend a year doing something worth while during my year's wait.

One of the advantages of having a large family is the amount of job references that I get when I decide to job hunt. This particular one came from an uncle who was an office manager for the company, and since I would fall under fleet operations I wouldn't have had to worry about cries of nepotism or favortisim. It wouldn't have mattered too much anyways, the company always had a hard time keeping a full time year round staff due to the odd hours we worked. We always said the hardest part of the job was getting up on time for the 4 am shift.

I worked my way up the ladder, the vessel is large enough that you get sea time on a fairly high tonnage and it was always a "promote from within" policy. One thing I eventually learned was the two captains of the M/V Admiralty Wind were always on the lookout for their own skins and job first and foremost, and who were the biggest opponents of the crew getting wheel time after we'd earned our Master's Licenses.

A third captain, who only worked the off season for fishing, would let mself and AL get behind the wheel, which let him wander about the bridge and just socialize with the miners on the upper deck. He'd depart and dock the vessel, we'd make the 35 minute run between the docks. It's a fairly "canned" operation with exact departure times and run times and routes that are nearly constant, the miners could almost set their watches to us.

Whenever I was behind the wheel during the run, he'd always ask if I had a hot date or something, I could almost always be counted on to knock about 5 minutes off each leg of the run. I figured that the fuel I saved per run when I was at the wheel paid for at least my salary.

Looking at our speed over ground as described by one of the GPS systems on board, every piece of equipment had a redundant back up, he'd always tell me to kick back the RPM which he figured I had running higher then norms. He would always look at the GPS before the guages, so he always figured I had the engines running a little hotter, since we usually had to power against wind and current when departing from the far dock.

I can't really explain it, but I could feel the boat's movement through the water and knew just what the course I needed to steer in order to minimize the wind and tide working against us, called set and drift. I wouldn't mind working for that company again, not like the people were bad, just the hours, especially if you wanted a social life.

Working here is where I was able to take the majority of the pictures I've posted so far. So, I thought I'd post a few more intresting things we'd see from the decks of the A/W as we called her. Animal right's activites would have a fit seeing these, but we were operating well within the specified guidelines, not our fault the Dall's Porpose decided to come over and ride our bow wave. When something like this would happen we'd have to maintain same course/speed. These pictures aren't quite as high quality, they are scans of 35mm pictures.

Cold and Bored

2006-01-14T20:54:00.000-09:00

Ok, so north is a bit colder then home, I knew that but how much colder I didn't know. There is better chances to see the Northern Lights the further north you go, but it's been minimal activity since I arrived. Although I did miss a good shot of a near full moon rising over these mountains across the sound, I do wish my snazzy digitial camera were more portable, one of the trade offs of a digital SLR.

Anyways here some more photos I've just gotten downloaded from my father's camera so I figured I'd share some more.

Not sure where this is, probably Inian Pass, looks like an old native chief over watching the fisherman who pass by the area.

Another great sunset facing the Fairweather Range.

From the path of the shadows I would say this is a snowy sunrise over looking View Cove.

Gotta put up with the rain if you want a Rainbow, and Southeast Alaska recieves a lot of rainfall.

One of the hazards of life in Alaska.

I'll probably throw up some more photos, I'm in a picture posting kind of mood.

Random Thoughts

2006-01-14T11:55:00.000-09:00

Am I being too picky in expecting websites to operate the way they should?
Just spent the last half hour trying to submit my application to the State for my Stafford Loan for a program that I might not be able to get into, at least a 40-60 person wait list for this up coming class. Now I get to start the application process over from 1/2 through it the next time I try, hopefully what ever bug they have going will be fixed by then.

I was letting my mind wander the other day, still unsure if it came back, and started to ponder the reasons for my extremely short term memory. My long term memory is great, with the right sensory triggers I can remember stuff back 27 years. The flip side is I have a hard time keeping track of what I do day to day. I keep a note book in my pocket for my to do lists every day or I'll loose track of what I have done or what I need to do.

This sounds to me a little bit like dementia, a side effect linked to mercury exposure. This really got me to wondering about the fillings I was given growing up, they may be silver but they aren't pure silver, there's usually a % of mercury in them. What really sparked this train of thought was a memory of a cleaning I had done in the Army, they had just switched to private contractors for this type of work and the dentist upon looking at my teeth commented something like 'I didn't think they still did work like this.' They ended up removing two silver fillings and replacing them with porcelain kinds.

I hate dentists, always have and probably always will, although I can thank them for my extremely high tolerance for pain. My body's always been a quick healer, so novacaine passes through my system quickly. Not to mention we had Government paid dentists growing up, couldn't afford anything beyond BIA health/dental clinics. Very often novacaine would be wearing off by the time the dentist got around to doing a filling or pulling a tooth. Lord help the next dentist who decides to work on me, if it's a male dentist he better keep the "boys" out of reach or whatever pain I feel he will feel the same.

Thoughts of a romantic at heart

2006-01-12T13:28:00.000-09:00

Haven' t had too much time to think of things to say, been rather busy making arrangements for schooling/training, have just enough time left to use up my GI Bill before I loose it. So here's a little insight into my head. The thoughts are honest, i was typing as fast as I could to capture what I was wanting to say. It is unedited so it's got gaps in trains of thought etc. This occured a week or so before christmas when RR messaged me and was feeling low. We'd chatted for a bit before she had to leave to prepare for work, but my mind kept churning so I sat down and composed this email to her.

RR:
There's a lot I can say, but in the end, it still won't alleviate the fact that you are hurting. I wish there was something I could say to make it ease, but there isn't is there. I can empathize with what you're going through, everyone you know and tying you to a spot are leaving. If you believe that to be a sign, then it must be, it sure was for me when I left South Carolina, I went through the same thing. I know things must feel pretty low for you right now, hell of a time for all this to be happening, but this time of year really brings out the best and worst in people. If this must be a low spot for you, then remember it can only be up from here on out.

There is a lot I'd like to share with you, I've learned a lot in the time we've been on this earth, but that comes from studying people, watching their behaviors or their actions. While I've seen and learned a great deal, there are times when I feel lost, that while I'm a spectator, life is a participation event. I know a lot of what I can say is rational and probably good advice, I am reluctant to share it, rather hypocritical of me to be dispensing advice on subjects that I really haven't experienced myself.

Part of that is why I will only share with you that which we could be on a similar level, having gone through a similar situation myself. I know nothing is impossible for those who don't have to do it, why I felt bad sharing with you the 'there is no good bye in Tlingit'. It's true, but it's also a part of a coping mechanism for myself and others who have gone through many losses, most of them permanent.

I know you must be feeling like your heart's going to explode or your lungs going to collapse under the tightening feeling going on in your chest, I know, I've felt it myself. While my relationship with angel may have been mostly for show, doesn't mean there weren't feelings there. Each and every time I would visit her on leave and have to return to base, I would go through the same thing. I never knew exactly when I'd see her again, sure we had leave time in the army but it was never locked in place or subject to change depending on what was going on. Those were times when I seriously thought about going AWOL, despite my feeling of dedication to the army. The only words of comfort I can offer now is simply I will be there for you if you ever need me, now or in the future.

The heart is a remarkable organ, no matter how many times it breaks it will rebuild itself, and in those pieces it will be stronger then the whole. I know you have a good heart, a strong heart, a kind heart, it will eventually show in what all we do, and I've had the brief opportunity to glimpse at the person you really are. I know in the past you've had to wonder if I wasn't saying these things for a reason and the reason you suspected was to get in your pants. I can't honestly say no it wasn't the reason, I'm a guy after all, no matter how much I try to defy stereotype.
However, beyond a guy, I’m an intellectual, I like to see what goes on between the ears, behind those lovely eyes and deep down in your heart. To me, that is where the real magic happens. To care only about what's between your legs, well that's just crude, and I would say if that's all a guy ever cared about he would be missing out on a lot and the best parts of you.

I've also figured out that the confusion that exists between what I say and how you interoperate it is the differences between how we were raised and the culture we were raised within. To me giving is a natural part of life, the Tlingit culture is steeped in tradition of giving, which is the stand point I’m coming from. I have an idea that you view that there is no gift given without some sort of expectation in return. To me that defies the definition of a gift, that which is given freely without expectation of return.

Why I do it you must be asking yourself, well it's both complicated and easy to explain. I know the person you are underneath, but I also know that you've had a rough go of life and that you must be feeling that it is becoming futile to hope and dream. Disappointment is a strong emotion, one that can lead us down many a dangerous path.

You know, just once I'd really enjoy seeing one of your dreams come to fruition, once it does things will click and you will realize it is ok to hope, to believe and once that happens things will really change. What I do is like a farmer, I plant a seed and tend to the plant as it grows, so that once it blossoms the whole world may enjoy the beauty. That inner beauty I see in you, once that blossoms, it will be a gift upon the world, that is why I do what I do.

I know you must think I'm crazy to love this ideal that I hope to see you become, but part of life is risks, and to risk love is to risk not being loved in return. But it's something I feel I must do. You may wear your heart on your sleeve, well mine is locked up in a vault under heavy control. There are times I'm glad it's there, but others well, I get the feeling that if I don't really feel anything, how can I be sure I'm still alive? I've been hurt before yes, it's effected me deeply that's true, but doesn't mean I should give up entirely. I guess ultimately what I'm wanting is a chance to prove that not all guys are as bad you feared, just as you've helped renew my faith that not all women are like those I've encounters with.

Just remember, no matter where you go in life, you'll have a friend in me that will always support you no matter what you've chosen to do as long as you feel you're following your heart.

Thoughts for a long day

2006-01-06T21:59:00.000-09:00

07:30
Well, it's approaching 21 hours that I've been up already and we just departed Hoonah on board the M/V Le Conte bound for Juneau, a 3 ½ hour boat ride.. I will have enough time with a little to spare to get from the AMHS ferry terminal to the airport and checked in with Alaska Airlines. Heading north to Anchorage today and on down to Seward come Sunday.

I’m looking to continue the training I wasn’t able to finish up the past year in regards to my maritime license and endorsements as well as possibly picking up an industrial welding qualification. I know, for as varied as the subjects of my training, if I would have focused them on a single discipline I would have a PHD by now. It’s almost a scramble now to use up the remaining money in my GI Bill, almost $28k over the next 3 years before I loose it, I need to be a full time student for the next 28 months to use it all and with in my time frame. My where has the past seven years gone?

I took some useful college tips I got in a recent issue of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine up to my old high school mentor and probably one of the few remaining teachers in the high school that I know. I now wonder how many will actually put them to use since it seems less and less kids want to go off to college. It’s sad really, many don’t really realize that there is life beyond the small town and even Alaska. Hopefully someone will learn from other’s experiences, no sense in constantly re inventing the wheel.

I guess in many ways I was lucky, at a very early age I began traveling, not quite as abroad as I wished, but as of last count I’ve been through 38 of the 50 states, spent brief times in 5 other countries. Sounds impressive, but 2 of the stops, Paris and Rome they wouldn’t let us off the plane, and I don’t blame them, they wouldn’t have gotten us back on and don’t think the Gendarme’s want a bunch of armed troops running around town who have had little contact with women in months.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve been a disappointment to the school, considering I was one of their "golden kids", very heavily recruited by a good deal of the nation’s top academic institutions. One girl that was a year behind me once asked me why I we never dated, I couldn’t think of a good reason and didn’t want to admit I was pursuing another. I brought her up simply because at the beginning of the recent summer she completed her doctoral thesis.

I’ve never wanted to specialize that highly in a single area, if that industry collapses, where do you go from there? Plus my interests are varied and practical. At the current rates of my training, I’ll soon be qualified to operate nearly any piece of machinery in the world, be it plane, boat or vehicle, pull high or low voltage wiring and be able to weld my own stuff. With that many qualifications, I may end having to be the professional student, no one would want to hire anyone with that much training, but would suite me just fine, I enjoy learning anything and everything I can.

I was taught to think and reason for myself, which gets dangerous if I start thinking. I had an epiphany barely into my high school career that a degree, like money is an abstract concept, it only has as much value as you place in it.

What really got this line of thought dangerous was my senior year, I was visiting my step father on a construction job site and just happened to take a glance through the blue prints. I was taking drafting that year as a way to kill time and use up a time frame, the school demanded I take the full class load of seven classes even though I only needed three to fulfill my graduate requirements.

I’d taken a ride around the job site prior so I had a good idea what the area the place looked like as far as terrain and geology of the area. There was a foreman meeting in the trailer, so I got out the way and sat down to look at the blue prints that had be delivered from the project engineers.

After a brief period of analyzing them, I was talking out load to myself and asked why it was designed that way and it would have made sense to move a water lift station to a different location so you’re using gravity instead of fighting it in addition to placing a water storage tank in a spot where the bed rock would be better suited to handle the weight without a great deal of excavation.

You could have heard a pin drop in that trailer, a sixteen year old kid still in high school had found significant flaws in a project design that came from an engineer that already has a master’s degree. I also figured out at the same time was, the people who design stuff are very often not the same ones who have to build it, that’s been reflective in nearly every job I’ve worked.

15:30
Here we are at 36,000 feet, with the sun setting towards the west faster as we continue our journey northward, the Coastal Mountain Range looks like it’s covered in bright pink cotton candy. I can also feel a steady decrease in temperature with each mile we fly northward, expected at least a 13 degree drop in day time temps from Juneau to Anchorage. I forget that Anchorage does get cold, it’s been 11 years since I was last here, right about this time of year actually when I finished my processing at the MEP. station and headed to Ft. Benning, GA for Basic Training.

I couldn’t help but look around the Le Conte for a while and seemed to be a lot of young mothers on board, most of them Native. I have to wonder what goes through their minds, is this all they see themselves fit for, a baby making machine? Or has babies become the new fashion accessory?

I feel not quite so grumpy, but a quick 30 minute nap during take off helped take the edge off the 30 hours of being awake. I’ve had people ask why I do that to myself, push the edge of basically sanity and the limits of the human body, only thing I can say is, I do it to myself because I can’t very well do it to them.

On the ferry as well, I ran into the parents of the girl I’d mentioned earlier, the one who asked why we never dated. I really didn’t speak that much to them, I wanted to though, but there’s been a strife between the families ever since my step father was mayor and my mother was magistrate. There’s a lot of petty politics that goes on in so small of town and it tends to get real dirty, if you have no faults people will invent them. I think it was part her decision to stop talking with me going on seven years now, almost to the day. It’s sad the lengths some people will go for power, including using their kids’ friendships to their own ends.

I’ve thrown a picture of us together at the prom, I missed going with her by a day. She did ask me too why I waited so long to ask her out, I could only say that I’d just found out the evening before that AT couldn’t make it up from Oklahoma to go with me.

If there’s some general characteristics I see in the women I’ve been interested in, then and now, is that they are smart and strong willed. JB and Denise both graduated Valedictorian, AT was National Honor Society. As for myself, I only graduated Salutatorian and if I really applied myself I’m sure I could have gotten myself into MENSA.

Speaking of applying myself, one of the more common remarks make to me is that it’s known that as successful as I am it’s noticeable that I’m not really applying myself. Most recently it was RR who asked me why I wasn’t working at my full potential. I don’t think I’ve ever worked at my full potential, I’ve held myself back to a level a little above par of everyone else. Why? It would make people afraid for their jobs to see what I’m truly capable doing. My physics teacher commented about how he wondered just what I would be capable of doing if I really committed to something.

Anyways just random thoughts that have been gong through my head today, at least Sky can breath a sigh of relief that I’m not sharing what ever strange and off the wall concept I’ve got my head wrapped around at the moment.

22:10
Ok, I've been up for 36 hours now with just that 30 minute nap, I really should get to bed, but I've drank enough coffee to keep me up for a while longer yet, so might as well do something productive.

Ok, so I've been slacking a little

2006-01-04T12:58:00.000-09:00

Well, not really slacking, been sorta busy doing the holiday bit with friends and family. Was a laid back Christmas this year, no real stresses nor hurries to get stuff done. Although I wouldn't have minded a little snow on the ground.

As per request of EE , I thought I'd post a bit about the weather here. The common misconception of Alaska is that we're operating under conditions of total darkness in the winter and buried under yards of snow. It all depends on what part of Alaska you live in really, the state is so huge that even born/raised here I can't fathom the vastness of the area. If you've ever looked at the state super imposed over a map of the contiguous US you'll see that it's great distances.

Here in SouthEast Alaska where I'm from, our weather pattern is very similar to that of Seattle, albeit a few degrees cooler due to being further north. In the winter time it's not so cold as most people think right here on the coast, we get the warm currents from the South Pacific that flow right up next to the outer shores of the Alexander Archipelago called the Kuroshio current I think, it's been 19 years since I studied Alaska history/geography.

So, at winter Solstice we had a sun rise of 08:13 and a sunset of 15:37 officially, with a high temperature reading of 41 degrees and an over night low of 37. We're gaining seconds every day which seems so painfully slow considering when we start loosing daylight come summer solstice it's measures in minutes per day.

I was talking with a friend I grew up with the other night about the winter temperatures and snow fall. Both of us remembered higher snow falls in the winter when we were younger, and discussed if it was relative us being considerably shorter but the amount of snow remained the same over the years. But doing some research we saw that it is true, we have less and less snow fall now then we did as kids growing up.

January and February 1995 was the last real major snow that I've heard about falling in the winter season, times when it'd fall at a rate of over 1"/hour. Since then it's gotten cold during the winters, but not much snow. Ok, let me define cold for Southeast Alaska, anything that falls below the 20's is cold, I think 0 is the coldest I've ever seen it around here. A far cry warmer then the -30 or so temps I experienced winter term in New Hampshere going to Dartmouth College.

Anyways, just a thought I was able to solidify before it blew off in the wind, I have to look closely at my grey hairs and make sure they aren't blonde.

What a white christmas looks like around here

2005-12-22T15:51:00.000-09:00

I took these looking off the parent's back deck earlier in the month while they were gone for medical check ups. I don't mind seeing everything covered in snow, I just hate being out in it and shoveling it to boot. I say bring on the rain, I've yet to shovel an ounce of rain.

HNT

2005-12-22T15:45:00.000-09:00

ok, so I decided to finally get something done for HNT. You know what they say about guys with big hands and big feet right? that's right, they wear big gloves and big shoes ;)

doesn't look like a white christmas

2005-12-21T19:36:00.000-09:00

Forecast is rain and low 40's through the weekend, so looks like another wet christmas this year. I think in the past 12 years we've had snow on the ground twice on christmas and one of those times it was gone the next day. So rather then be depressed, I'll throw out some more photos, not taken by me, my father sees better scenic stuff.

My 5 weird habits

2005-12-19T12:39:00.000-09:00

Gotten tagged by Sky so I'll give it a go.

My 5 weird habits...Here are the rules;“The first player of this game starts with the topic. “five weird habits of yourself,” and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged.

1. I not only sperate my large music CD collection by genre but each genre is sorted in alphabetical order.

2. If I drink from a paper cup, I will turn the cup in my hand until the seam in the cup runs along the the first knuckle groove of my fingers. Basically means that the seam will always be 180 degrees away from my mouth.

3. When I get to a new town I create mental time/speed/distance tables between different points in town for various times of day, method of travel and speed of travel in various coniditions of traffic so I can quickly and accurately determine how long it'll take for me to get from point a to point b.

4. If no instructions are given I will improvise, but if it comes with instructions I will follow them to a T. So becareful what you ask of me, very often I do what you say not what you meant ;)

5. I can sleep on nearly any sort of surface or in positions that look entirely uncomfortable, although my ability drop into slumber at a moments notice has gone out of practice.

I'm sure I could get a lot more if I asked some of my coworkers, I've been told I'm anal about the strangest things. Self evaluation is always tough, how does water know it's wet?

The few bloggers I know have already been tagged.

A few musing about kids

2005-12-18T17:26:00.000-09:00

I've always been good with kids, tends to surprise a great many people.

This was an interesting night many years ago. Was a potlatch in honor of my paternal grandmother, a great matriarch of the family and tribe. There are only a handful of potlatches held annually so they tend to be busy and long events. Usually when people get their names or when adoptions into the tribe happen.

I digress, this is my cousin Melissa. That night she was just fussy and no one could do anything with her. I was over talking with my sisters and they were standing next to her mother. Since I was the closest person, her mother handed her to me while she rummaged through her baby bag for a bottle. No joke, she settled down in moments and was soon fast asleep in my arms. This drew a great many comments from the elder women in the group, many who act as match makers. My oldest sister decided she wanted a picture of it, and I didn't, which is why I'm somewhat hiding behind Melissa.

This is also one of my first pairs of colored contacts, tended to put people on edge that all of a sudden I had a steel grey eye color instead of the dark brown I was born with. In recent years I've played around with different colors, dark green, dark blue, light grey, most look fairly natural with me. The green more so, I have a small percentage of Russian ancestry within my blood quorum, it's starting to show through now with some of my facial hair turning red.

Another funny incident happened when I was visiting my friend AT in Oklahoma over one thanksgiving on a weekend pass. Her nephew who was about 16 months at the time really took a liking to me, probably because I had the chance to spend a good deal of time with him during the day. I also have a tendency to treat kids no matter the age as an equal in intellect rather then most people would for their age. AT and I had returned from the post thanksgiving day sale shopping and arrived at her mother's house at the same time as her brother BT, the kid's father. BT walked in the door just ahead of me and his so coming running past him and gave me a hug. I became "uncle Gus" after that.

I enjoy kids, just not sure if I want any of my own just yet, much to my mother's dismay.

Sledding

2005-12-16T14:37:00.000-09:00

A friend and I were recently discussing old favorite activities to do in the snow and the topic of sledding came up. As you can see from this picture of my home town that we live at the base of a mountain. It only raises up some 1800 ft to the summit, and there's a road that goes winding all the way up. At the summit is an old "White Alice" site, airborne early warning radar from back in the 60's that is no longer used. As you can see in upper right a road that leads sort of up and behind the mountain. In the winter when we'd get really daring, we'd toat up those blade sleds up the hill along that road, Western Flies I think they were. Those of us that were really crazy, and I should be counted among those ranks, would take the time to wax the blades. A lot of the times we could only get about halfway up the mountain, water bars put in place to prevent easy access to the "Site" as it's commonly referred.

Now, imagine coming down a 900 ft road a somewhat steep grade with compacted snow covering it from the vehicles that wouldn't wait for the plow to do it's job first. We usually came down in bunches, racing each other and as we got older this became a bit more physical as we jockied, shoving each other off the sleds or "trading paint" as they call in NASCAR. If we got shoved off into a ditch the sled usually wound up jumping the berm and usually getting stopped by a stump or a tree trunk.

We might have been wild on the Western Flies, but the real crazies took tobaguns down that same hill, at the whim of the road basically. Sometimes wonder how in the world we survived childhood.

My parents pretty much let us go and only reeled us in if we got too out of control. I know my father's beliefs that kids will be kids and as long as there wasn't serious blood drawn it was all good, party why my sisters and I were taught first aid at a young age. I rather like that way of raising, let the kids mistakes, they'll learn more from them then being constantly corrected or protected.

Also, the picture is a good view of my home town, while the amount of jobs is on the decline since the halt of logging, the town is still growing, many families moving in just to put kids through the school system. If a student survives the AP courses at school, you can bet they'll find about the first two years of most any college to be a breeze.

The small class sizes has a good deal to all the success. My graduating class had all of 12 people in it, actually one of the smallest the school has seen in decades, 18 to 20 seems to be the norm. Actual classroom numbers varies, but figure the AP science courses taught at a college level with some pretty high tech equipment, I remember 8 students being the highest amount in my physics course.

Anyways, just some musing about growing up playing in the snow, considering how much I dislike being cold let alone messing with snow now.

a little late on the HNT

2005-12-16T11:51:00.000-09:00

Alright, so the picture I originally took for HNT is still in the camera, can't find my camera to computer interface cable nor the spare. When i'm organized i'm really organized, when I'm not well I'm not.

Most of the pictures of me are old, I absolutely hate having my picture taken. I've always been of a large stature, having adapted to bear the burden of living off the land so I've kind of had self image issues. Doesn't help matters any that the four years I was in the army I had to constantly hear that I was "over weight" despite being in the kind of physical shape that you only see in olympic class athletes.

Anyways, this a self portait of myself when I drove a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Had a disposable camera that I'd accidently advanced so rather then take another picture of the inside of my pocket I snapped this one. I've had people tell me I look angery, while granted I disliked being a driver, I don't think my anger issues started to arise until about a year and a half after this was taken.

what kind of school did you go to?

2005-12-15T20:56:00.000-09:00

I know PC is out of control, but this isn't really that far fetched. I never got labeled as bigot so fast in my life as when I was in college, but I was always one for spite and them protestors were getting annoying.

cleaning out my spam folder

2005-12-14T17:05:00.000-09:00

ok, why do spammers believe that I need the help provided by "generik viagra" and "soft cialis"? If anything I need something that will do the opposite effect, can you get a doctor's perscription for sex to take care of blue balls? and bigger question would insurance cover that? Besides, I'm a wholistic type person, why put chemicals in my system when i know several herbs that produce the same effect.

What's up with credit card offers all of a sudden? they some how know i've adopted a cash only policy, if I can't pay cash for it, I'll wait to buy it until I can. When I could have used a credit card when I was taking home $1200 a week, I couldn't get a start fee based card. Now I'm getting a dozen a week, no thanks, I just got myself out of debt.

some more pictures

2005-12-13T20:51:00.000-09:00

Two eagles feeding in front of Orca Point Lodge
The hummingbirds were busy this summer.

Looking towards Nekka Bay from Long Island

I think this one is from inside Spasski Harbor.

A few more, really haven't figured out layout etc, rather difficult working with a small monitor. The mountain goat picture was taken just inside Glacier Bay National Park, my first trip in there in over 20 years since it became heavily regulated about who can enter with the exception of cruise ships.

Thought I'd share some pictures I've taken

2005-12-13T12:36:00.000-09:00

A pod of humpbacked whales group feeding off Pt. Adolphus

This was a parting shot as we were leaving the area.

Don't remember which cruise line ship is in front of John Hopkins Glacier.

This picture is of the South Sawyer Glacier calving in Tracy Arm National Park.

There are others I'll upload later, they tend to be fairly high resolution and I like to leave them that way, makes good desk top back grounds. This wireless/satellite internet really sucks when there's rain/snow falling.

What Tree Did You Fall From?

2005-12-13T11:53:00.000-09:00

Was going through my old emails and came across this, making a blog test would be neat but any kind of programing beyond BASIC is all greek to me. And no, I'm not talking about the ugly tree either.

Find your birthday, find your tree and then scrolldown... This is really cool and somewhat accurate,also in line with Celtic astrology.
Jan 01 to Jan 11 - Fir Tree
Jan 12 to Jan 24 - Elm Tree
Jan 25 to Feb 03 - Cypress Tree
Feb 04 to Feb 08 - Poplar Tree
Feb 09 to Feb 18 - Cedar Tree
Feb 19 to Feb 28 - Pine Tree
Mar 01 to Mar 10 - Weeping Willow Tree
Mar 11 to Mar 20 - Lime Tree
Mar 21 - Oak Tree
Mar 22 to Mar 31 - Hazelnut Tree
Apr 01 to Apr 10 - Rowan Tree
Apr 11 to Apr 20 - Maple Tree
Apr 21 to Apr 30 - Walnut Tree
May 01 to May 14 - Poplar Tree
May 15 to May 24 - Chestnut Tree
May 25 to Jun 03 - Ash Tree
Jun 04 to Jun 13 - Hornbeam Tree
Jun 14 to Jun 23 - Fig Tree
Jun 24 - Birch Tree
Jun 25 to Jul 04 - Apple Tree
Jul 05 to Jul 14 - Fir Tree
Jul 15 to Jul 25 - Elm Tree
Jul 26 to Aug 04 - Cypress Tree
Aug 05 to Aug 13 - Poplar Tree
Aug 14 to Aug 23 - Cedar Tree
Aug 24 to Sep 02 - Pine Tree
Sep 03 to Sep 12 - Weeping Willow Tree
Sep 13 to Sep 22 - Lime Tree
Sep 23 - Olive Tree
Sep 24 to Oct 03 - Hazelnut Tree
Oct 04 to Oct 13 - Rowan Tree
Oct 14 to Oct 23 - Maple Tree
Oct 24 to Nov 11 - Walnut Tree
Nov 12 to Nov 21 - Chestnut Tree
Nov 22 to Dec 01 - Ash Tree
Dec 02 to Dec 11 - Hornbeam Tree
Dec 12 to Dec 21 - Fig Tree
Dec 22 - Beech Tree
Dec 23 to Dec 31 - Apple Tree

APPLE TREE (Love) - of slight build, lots of charm,appeal, and attraction, pleasant aura, flirtatious,adventurous,sensitive, always in love, wants to love and be loved,faithful andtender partner, very generous, scientific talents,lives for today, acarefree philosopher with imagination.

ASH TREE (Ambition) - uncommonly attractive,vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care forcriticism, ambitious, intelligent, talented, likes toplay with fate, can be egotistic, very reliable andtrustworthy,faithful and prudent lover, sometimes brains rule overthe heart, buttakes partnership very seriously.

BEECH TREE (Creative) - has good taste, concernedabout its looks, materialistic, good organization oflife and career, economical, good leader, takes nounnecessary risks, reasonable, splendid lifetimecompanion, keen on keeping fit (diets, sports, etc.)

BIRCH TREE (Inspiration) - vivacious, attractive,elegant, friendly, pretentious, modest, does not likeanything in excess, abhors the vulgar, loves life innature and in calm, not very passionate, full ofimagination, little ambition, creates a calm andcontent atmosphere.

CEDAR TREE (Confidence) - of rare beauty, knows howto adapt, likes luxury, of good health, not in theleast shy, tends to look down onothers, self-confident, determined, impatient, likestoimpress others, many talents, industrious, healthyoptimism, waiting for the one true love, able to makequick decisions.

CHESTNUT TREE (Honesty) - of unusual beauty, doesnot want to impress, well-developed sense of justice,vivacious,interested, a born diplomat, but irritates easily andsensitive incompany, often due to a lack of self confidence, actssometimessuperior, feels not understood, loves only once, hasdifficulties infinding a partner.

CYPRESS TREE (Faithfulness) - strong, muscular,adaptable, takes what life has to give, content,optimistic, craves money and acknowledgment, hatesloneliness, passionate lover which cannot besatisfied, faithful, quick-tempered, unruly, pedantic,and careless.

ELM TREE (Noble-Minded) - pleasant shape, tastefulclothes, loudest demands, tends not to forgivemistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey,honest and faithful partner, likes making decisionsfor others, noble-minded, generous, good sense ofhumor, practical.

FIG TREE (Sensibility) - very strong, a bitself-willed, independent, does not allow contradictionor arguments, loves life, its family, children andanimals, a bit of a social butterfly, good sense ofhumor, likes idleness and laziness, of practicaltalent and intelligence.

FIR TREE (Mysterious) - extraordinary taste,dignity, sophisticated, loves anything beautiful,moody, stubborn, tends to egoism but cares for thoseclose to them, rather modest, very ambitious,talented, industrious, uncontested lover, manyfriends, many foes, very reliable.

HAZELNUT TREE (Extraordinary) - charming,undemanding, very understanding, knows how to make animpression, activefighter for social cause, popular, moody, and capricious lover, honest,and tolerant partner, precise sense of judgment.

HORNBEAM TREE (Good Taste) - of cool beauty,cares for its looks and condition, good taste, is notegoistic, makes life as comfortable as possible, leadsa reasonable and disciplined life, looks for kindnessand acknowledgment in an emotional partner, dreams ofunusual lovers, is seldom happy with its feelings,mistrusts most people, is never sure of its decisions,very conscientious.

LIME TREE (Doubt) - accepts what life dishes out ina composed way, hates fighting, stress, and labor,dislikes laziness and idleness, soft and relenting,makes sacrifices for friends, many talents but nottenacious enough to make them blossom, often wailingand complaining, very jealous but loyal.

MAPLE TREE (Independent) - no ordinary person,full of imagination and originality, shy and reserved,ambitious, proud,self-confident, hungers for new experiences, sometimesnervous, has manycomplexities, good memory, learns easily, complicatedlove life, wantsto impress.

OAK TREE (Brave) - robust nature, courageous,strong, unrelenting, independent, sensible, does notlike change, keeps its feet on the ground, person ofaction.

OLIVE TREE (Wisdom) - loves sun, warmth and kindfeelings, reasonable, balanced, avoids aggression andviolence, tolerant, cheerful, calm, well-developedsense of justice, sensitive, empathetic, free ofjealousy, loves to read and the company ofsophisticated people.

PINE TREE (Particular) - loves agreeable company,very robust, knows how to make life comfortable, veryactive, natural, good companion, but seldom friendly,falls easily in love but its passion burns outquickly, gives up easily, everything disappointmentsuntil it finds its ideal, trustworthy, practical.

POPLAR TREE (Uncertainty) - looks very decorative,not very self-confident, only courageous if necessary,needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy,often lonely, great animosity, artistic nature, goodorganizer, tends to lean toward philosophy, reliablein any situation, takes partnership seriously.

ROWAN TREE (Sensitivity) - full of charm, cheerful,gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loveslife, motion, unrest, and even complications, is bothdependent and independent, good taste, artistic,passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

WALNUT TREE (Passion) - unrelenting, strange andfull of contrasts, often egotistic, aggressive, noble,broad horizon, unexpected reactions, spontaneous,unlimited ambition, no flexibility, difficult anduncommon partner, not always liked but often admired,ingenious strategist, very jealous and passionate, nocompromise.

WEEPING WILLOW (Melancholy) - beautiful but full ofmelancholy, attractive, very empathetic, lovesanything beautiful and tasteful, loves to travel,dreamer, restless, capricious, honest, can beinfluenced but is not easy to live with, demanding,good intuition, suffers in love but finds sometimes ananchoring partner.

what list are you on?

2005-12-13T11:50:00.000-09:00

why I returned to Alaska

2005-12-12T17:29:00.000-09:00

I’ve been asked why I returned to Alaska after living in the “real world” for so many years. The answers are numerous but to boil it all down to the nitty gritty, I came home to heal. I’d been gone so long that I began to loose touch with my roots, where I came from, the person I once was, I’d strayed from the path I wanted to walk. Before I returned to Alaska, I had a hard time shaving in the mornings because I couldn’t stand to look at the person in the mirror and hating myself more and more that I’d let myself become the person I had.

Of all this, I only have myself to blame. Some of my straying of the path came from being curious, to wonder if I could do what I’d seen people around me doing, if I could be your stereotypical guy and treat women like an object instead of as a person.

I’d become shaken in my belief of self, if I could truly stick to my moral ground the way I was so sure of myself in years past. What I’ve discovered on my time of reflection over the past year is that as long as I question myself and my abilities I will stick to my guns, but as soon as I become self assured again that I am infallible, I will begin my fall.

On a lighter note, I returned home for the scenery, for the ever green trees, the smell of fresh air, the smell of decay the mud flats give off when the tide is out, the plethora of flowers and plants that lend their fragrance that is called nature. I’ve grown up on the water of the Inside Passage, I’m surprised I don’t have webbed feet, although I didn’t do much swimming, I do have an almost sixth sense about navigating.

There isn’t much water in the form of lakes and rivers in central Texas, nor is there much rain. All this on a young man who grew up in the temperate rain forest known as the Tongas National Forest, where we see an average of 180 inches of precipitation a year and lived in a house that is maybe 10 feet above sea level of Port Frederick.

Part of my actions that made people question my sanity came about when there would be rain, I was very often out just standing in it or splashing about in the puddles in the parking lots. This enjoyment of rain I used to a tactical advantage as well, when it’s cold and wet your average person doesn’t want to stand guard nor be alert, the perfect times for infiltration for those who don’t mind a little discomfort.

I am something of an idealist, I think most native Americans are that join the military. I’ve heard it discussed that they joined the military to preserve the union, so that all the pain and suffering that has been forced upon the various tribes over the centuries will have a purpose. On top of that, I’ve always felt drawn to the code of chivalry from medieval Europe and to the Boshido (way of the warrior) the samurai followed in feudal Japan.

So there you have a basis for some of my ideal self, not to mention that my standards for conduct have always been high, much higher then most people realize. Perfection is always my goal, excellence is my standard. This philosophy tends to show through in my work effect, especially if I believe in the job I’m doing.

I still have a long ways to go, but I’m well on the path to rediscovering the person I once was, who enjoyed the simple things in life.

Over the weekend

2005-12-05T23:05:00.000-09:00

Friday and Saturday the home town high school hosted the Region V 2A volleyball tournament, and the girls' only home games this season. For such a young team this year they did remarkably well, this makes the sixth straight regional tournament they've earned.

My niece is the the team's power player, well step niece but the family so close and I've helped raise her she's like a blood relation. Anyways I digress, I was up at the school by request to help take pictures of her playing, me having a nifty Canon Digital Rebel and some ok lens for it.

The whole town finds it amusing to watch her play sports, she's an animal, very athletic and tough to boot. I can chuckle to myself knowing I have a hand in early weight training.

Back when I was in high school, I basically had the only other TV in the house upstairs in my room, so when the step brother and family came over to visit I was usually stuck entertaining the kids with whatever Disney movie that had just come out on vhs. One night we had the youngest daughter up watching Beauty and the Beast I think it was, I rarely paid attention to what they watched. My other sister was up there to keep an eye on JS and was watching the movie at the same time.

I was deeply engrossed with the latest model airplane I was building at the time and wasn't really paying attention. I just heard my sister tell JS to take it over to me. I heard her grunting and gasping so I looked up and here JS was struggling to hold up one of dumbbells. Mind you the dumbbell was probably 1/3 her total weight, and she carried it about 7 feet. I took it from her and said 'thank you'. A few minutes later her she came struggling with the other of the pair to bring to me.

I waited a few minutes and picked it back up and told her to take it back to my sister. So she did. Got to the point that every time she would come over with the parents she'd go right to those dumb bells and start lugging them back and forth to us. I believe after a year she could pick up the one easily and was slowly working towards carrying the pair by the time I left for college.

So all these years later, she's just one tough girl. If she ever took up wrestling I'm sure she could match any guy her weight for strength. Not to mention the amount of coaches she'd have, her father, a couple uncles, cousins and brother who wrestled.

Self Control.

2005-12-02T23:39:00.000-09:00

I do have a fair amount of self control, not so much as not giving into desires, but using my mind to over ride what my instincts tell me I should do.

What sparked this train of thought, in the background I have the bonus disk of Star Wars Episode III running for white noise and on the particular menu screen is Darth Vader breathing through his mask.

I'm sure all students who go through some sort of fire fighting training eventually do the Vader imitation when they put on the face mask/oxygen system. For me it was going through maritime Basic/Advanced Firefighting Training (BAFT). Ordinarily this class isn't required for the level of license I have, but the next level I'm working towards it is required.

BAFT is a five day course, and probably one of the most physically demanding courses I've been through in regards to my maritime training. First two days are the Basic part of fire fighting, and hands on work the first day is first responder or how to fight a fire in nothing but the street clothes we'd be in on a ship. I had to be paired up with a guy who just wouldn't listen, if we were still in the army he'd have gotten a blanket party long before the week was out.

So there we were, going through a realistic ship mock up, heavy smoke down to within feet of the floor and hot from the fires that were already burning. We had on only what we came to class with, this was a part of the first responder training that if we respond fast enough we can douse a decent size fire with only a CO2 extinguisher and later on in the afternoon a 2" hose.

My partner refused to listen to the instructors and chased a flame up a bulk head, creating a thermal inversion, all the heated air that was up high was exchanged spots with the cooler air that was down low. If it had been a real fire, we were in danger of cooking ourselves, with a heavy fogging spray going every where we were soaked to the bone, which would have turned to steam with this inversion, literally cooking us within our own clothes. I realized later on waiting for my ride back to the hotel after the first day, all the hair in my nose had been singed, no wonder I was constantly smelling burnt hair.

Next day was similar work, except this time we were in "bunker gear", the heavy flame retardant stuff you see a typical fire fighter in. As part of this gear was a SCBA, self contained breather apparatus, similar to SCUBA gear divers wear. So putting the face mask on and connecting to the respirator, soon we had a dozen students doing the "Darth Vader" breathing.

After the second day we went from a class of 20 to a class of 5, the only ones signed on to go on to the advanced portion of the training. Wednesday was all classroom work, fire theory/chemical anatomy of a fire, HAZMAT response and how to train others.

Thursday morning as we were told first thing, the training wheels are now off, unlike the first two days where the fires were propane which got hot enough for realism, they were rather contained to what areas of the ship had the gas piped into it. For the remaining two days, we were being switched to a true "Bravo" fire, white gas.

We're broken down into two squads, a 3 man and a 2 man, thank goodness the SOB wasn't in my squad. Being the 3 man we were chosen to go first through the first scenario. Ship is already at general quarters, we'd dressed down in the bunker gear, a first responder has detected smoke in the engine room but no fire, we're sent in to investigate further since the smoke is getting heavier by the moment.

We go through procedures on opening a scuttle and covering each man with a hose as he descends down a ladder to the engine room level. Once all three of us are down, I'm last man this time around, we proceed forward into the engine as fast as you can with a duck walk in that restrictive gear.

The whole time we were preparing the gear and getting down to the level, the instructors had already put the white gas into the compartment and it was quickly filling up with fumes. Once they touched it off, that was probably the most scared I've ever been in my life.

All instincts said to turn around and run! We had flame roll over on the ceiling, a wall of flame burning through the fumes rushing at us through mid air and on the deck a puddle of flaming liquid snaking it's way towards our boots.

The tank on the SCBA is rated at 30 minutes of air, but that's misleading, that 30 minutes is timed for a person sitting down breathing normally and not under going any physical exertion. A well conditioned fire fighter can get about 20 minutes out of a tank, I believe we were averaging 15 minutes per tank in training. This particular scenario, our squad was lucky to get 10 minutes of air, it took all three of a bit of time to get our breathing back under control, even though our training kicked in in moments and we were fighting the fires.

All three of us rotated through as nozzleman, training how to relieve and be relieved out there in front, since that person bears the brunt of the heat. We exited the same scuttle we entered and about the time the last of our squad exited the hatch, we all ran out of air.

The SCBA's work on an overpressure system, the air in our masks is at a higher pressure then the air outside of it, so air can leak out but nothing can came in, similar to how the M1 Abrams Tank NBC system works. Once the air runs out in the tank, essentially you have a vacuum in the face mask, you can breath out but you aren't getting anything back in.

The instructor got a bit of a chuckle as he watch all three of us scramble to disconnect the regulator off the mask so that we could breath. One guy got it off no problem, myself and the other guy couldn't and had to rip the mask off, lungs beginning to burn waiting for the next breath that I didn't know when I could take. Found out later on that my regular actually jammed and it took a bit of wiggling and swearing to finally get it off.

While we caught our breath, the second squad prepared to go back down there as our relief to make sure the fire didn't reflash and continue to burn. Same thing, they let the compartment fill with fumes before re-lighting it. The SOB who wouldn't listen nearly got himself hurt, you don't put your face over an open hatchway, and this rocket scientist was doing just that staring down into the hatch trying to see through the smoke.

We reminded him not to stick his head over the hatch, he turned away to make a smart assed comment about us telling him what to do just in time as the instructors touched off the gas. Just like what happened to us, happened again, a geyser of flame come shooting up through that hatch a good six or seven feet in height. If he hadn't turned away he'd have taken it full in the face and even in full gear I'm sure he would have been injured.

He didn't learn his lesson and on the last day he kept antagonizing the instructors so much, they were ready to send us through an extremely difficult scenario using a 3" line instead of the 2" lines we'd been using all week. A 2" line a single guy can almost control it on his own, a 3" takes a minimum of three guys.

He cut our squad some slack, but ran the other squad ragged, I know that guy's new partner was extremely pissed with him at the end, no to mention exhausted.

Passed all my written and hands on demonstration tests, completed that week with a certificate that's good for another 5 years and a new and healthy respect for the fire fighters who do similar work day in and day out.

Prelude to something?

2005-12-02T00:29:00.000-09:00

I've been going through two strange phases lately.

First is this need to train, to begin to pass on what I've picked up over the years. It is quite a bit considering my age, but then again, I take in knowledge like a sponge does water. I've always done what I could to help others so that they aren't constantly recreating the wheel, no sense in that. One thing that's been brought up is if I would be willing to help teach a 100 ton Master's License course here in town. I'm looking to head south again as soon as possible, but I wouldn't mind pitching in where I could. Don't know how much good I'd be, it's hard for me to teach what comes almost instinctual to me.

The other is thinning out of my hoarding, yes I'll admit I'm some what of a packrat. A lot of it has been books, all of them I've read and probably won't read again. With the budget cut backs of the local school system over the years, one of the things I noticed while browsing the library was the general lack of new books. So I've spent days going through various boxes I've got stored and started pulling out books I won't read again and taken them to the library. I've lost count but some where in the neighborhood of four dozen books, all in good condition some look brand new still.

I was thinking one day of a quote, i have no idea who said it anymore.."a book is like a good friend, you can visit anytime by just opening the cover." I thought of how much I'm enjoying the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'brian, and while I'd like to keep the series, I thought of the other people in town who could enjoy the series, so i decided to give so that others may enjoy what I have over the years.

This was what I was starting to post earlier before my sister's request sent me into a tail spin and stirred up feelings of resentment that I have to bail her out once again.

Some people only learn the hard way

2005-12-01T18:18:00.000-09:00

My oldest sister messages me asking if I can pick up the bill for her storage unit that's still in juneau. For somene who has a teaching certificate and working on a second bachelors and on to a masters, she doesn't have much for planning ahead. This isn't the first time i've had to bail her out, she has a knack of wanting to play first and take care of bills later.

Ordinarily I would tell her to sleep in the bed she's made, but this time I have something to loose, I have some very high value items in with her stuff as well. I wouldn't have it there but at the time I was moving away from Juneau in preperation for heading south, I didn't have the means of transporting them.

I'd let them seize her stuff and auction it off, but my shotgun alone is probably worth $1200, a good investment I made 14 years ago when I bought it for about 1/3 that price. I've thought of selling it off for some time now, and am still debating keeping an item that I wouldn't use except for the rare target shooting.

To top it off, the bill is higher then what she told me when I agreed to pay it.

She's burning her financial bridges pretty fast.

Honesty is the best policy.

2005-11-29T23:49:00.000-09:00

I realize that a lot of what I've talked about is probably taken with a grain of salt. Some of them sound a bit too outrageous to be true, I wouldn't blame you. Part of the reason I never worried about being recalled to active duty shortly after 9/11. None of what I did was "official". Heck my DA201 file, a list of what we've done officially only shows that I've completed basic training, and completed my term of service at a permenate post.

Honesty has always been my policy. Sure you can probably get away with stuff by not being honest, but once it become exposed all your actions become suspect. Being honest, sure it hurts a little at first, but in the long run, you gain a reputation as being honest and soon you have respect.

I got into trouble once in a while in the army, had to stand before the company 1SG, the unofficial commander of the unit. If I messed up and got caught, yes I was honest about it. It usually caught everyone off guard that I was honest and up front about my mistakes and accepted my punishment stoically and with poise. Me being honest probably kept me out of more trouble or at least kept the punishment to something simple like an hour extra duty in the evenings.

Being honest allowed me to earn the respect of many of the company's NCO's. They ran interference for me so that I could complete my four years active duty service and get out with an honorable discharge.

I found out recently from one of my old room mates who I've kept in contact with since we've both gotten out, that another reason I was kept around; my ability to shoot extreme accurate out to extreme distances. He actually sounded surprised that I didn't know I was being jockeyed over because of my skills.

more fond memories

2005-11-22T14:12:00.000-09:00

I was just thinking back to my days in a line unit. Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment. The 7th Cav is infamous as the one Custard lost at Little Big Horn and made popular again by the movie 'We Were Soldiers', based on the book We Were Soldiers Once, and Young.

Unlike the unit in Vietnam, it's no longer "Air Cav" but a mechanized Infantry unit instead, hence the Company/Battalion instead of the Troop/Squadron of an actual Cavalry unit. Only the 1st of the 7th is still listed as a Squadron, 2nd, 3rd and 4th are Battalions, 1st and 2nd in the 1st Cavalry Division in Ft. Hood, TX, 3/7 in the 3rd Infantry Division at Ft. Stewart, GA and 4/7 in 2nd Infantry I think in Korea. Don't think that's where they are all still located; units being deactivated and reactivated at new posts all the time.

Anyways, each one of the company's dismount squads had its own specialty, 3rd Platoon could breach any obstacle like a hot knife going through butter, 2nd Platoon could clear a trench line or building with an efficiency that looked like a deadly dance, me and the rest of 1st Platoon, we specialized in recon/counter recon patrol and infiltration.

This is partly where one of my nick names of "ghost" came from. A lot of it had to do with my time spent hunting deer in Southeast Alaska growing up, some of it had to do with the equipment we used. From the time I was transferred back to the dismount squad after being a Bradley driver, our Battalion commander wanted to use us in an unconventional role. We were encouraged to think and act unconventionally. Soon our gear began to reflect this order, it may have started out as regulation gear but was quickly modify to suite our individual taste and role within the squad.

We often got accused of looking like a band of gypsies, but given the nature of what we were tasked with it was required that we pack what we needed with us and heeding the costly lessons of Mogadishu brought to light in "Blackhawk Down" we all carried at least double the amount of ammunition and water then we thought we'd need.

"Coop" our single rifleman carried 4 magazine pouches on his BDU belt and more magazines in a butt pack. Myself, I carried about 1000 rounds of SAW rounds at the ready in addition to 2 M16 magazine pouches that could be fed into my M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in a pinch.

We packed 'heavy' the seven man squad had 3 automatic riflemen carrying the SAW, 3 grenadiers carrying the M16 w/M203 40mm grenade launcher and just one rifleman who carried an M16. On top of that, I carried an additional 2 quart canteen of water to the 2x1 quart water canteens that is standard. The others carried more water usually in the 'Camel Backs' which were starting to come out about that time.

In addition to the bayonet that was standard issue, each of us carried at least one other knife at the ready. Myself and 'Chief' were looking to carry additional weapons to assist in our roles of sentry stalking, he was looking to carry a machete while I looked further back to traditional Native American weaponry of the tomahawk. We also worked small bits of additional 3D camouflage into the works, if we'd been allowed, it would have been full on gullies suites like those used by snipers.

One of my biggest assets walking point were my boots, as any Infantryman can tell you, boots will make all the difference in the world. They started out as your regulation Black Jungle boot, nothing modified about it, other then before wearing them for the first time I put two liberal coats of mink oil on the leather to soften up the leather, soaked them in water and allowed them to dry around my foot.

They became so comfortable that I wore them all the time, as a result, I wore off the rubber soles. I don't remember the amount of rubber that was suppose to be on there to keep them within Army regulations, but i was way under it, the sole under the balls of my feet were at best 1/8" thick. Essentially I was wearing a leather moccasin, the rubber being so minuscule as to not even be there. This allowed me to sample the ground I was going to step on before bringing my full weight to bear on my feet.

My senses always heightened when I walked point, becoming one big antenna being the literal eyes and ears of the squad out there in front. This came from the knowledge that very often that the man walking point was the first to go, his death sounding the alarm to his squad mates to danger.

We always took our training seriously; our training became bloodless combat and fully expected warfare to be just bloody training. We carried body bags in our packs to sleep in not just for the psychological effect of accepting death they were considerably more compact and water resistant then the then issued goose down sleeping bag. We carried a set of blackened "dog tags" in our boots so that there would be a way to ID the body if our heads or feet got blown off.

Knowing my responsibility and the danger of walking point, my hearing became very acute. It was often said I could hear a mouse peeing on cotton at 100 meters and blow his pecker off at twice that distance. My sense of smell heighten that i could smell sweat about 50 meters and the distinctive smell of burning tobacco at over 500 meters, one of many health reasons the Army urged people to quit smoking.

Every step I'd make it'd take my mind and senses microseconds to determine what i was stepping on, if it could support my body weight and if it'd make noise when fully stepped on. I also knew to listen to nature, what kind of sounds were natural, what a bush slapping against artificial materials sounded like, what it meant when all sounds went dead in a forest or how to mask our sound signature with a gurgling of a flowing brook.

This kind of patrol work would be so demanding on my senses that every hour the point position was switched out between me and my "battle buddy" who happened to be a Navaho/Apache American Indian, while myself being Tlingit Alaskan Native. The really interesting part of this pairing up of the 'natives' was our compliment to one another.

At night with no reference points a person will drift either to the left or right as they walk, eventually turning a large circle. Part of our way to counter this was the switching positions every hour, and we always kept independent bearing and pace counts to make sure the other didn't stray too much.

The other compliment we had, the man we called 'chief' had a tendency to drift to the right during night patrols, I have a tendency to drift left, and being almost exactly the same height, our drift was nearly identical and canceled one another out so in the end we would be right on course. We were checked against a GPS one night, after nearly 12 hours of patrol we were off the final coordinates by 15 meters and if it would have been lighter when we stopped I could have triangulated our position off a couple land marks to correct our error.

We were constantly finding new ways to test ourselves, pushing things to the limit and were often tasked the mission of "OPFOR" or Opposing Force/ Red Team during training. After I'd been transferred out of Delta into Headquarters, I found out the squad I left behind pulled off a mission that embarrassed a lot of people. They'd been tasked with infiltrating a fully prepared Battalion headquarters compound, built by one of the Engineers units. It had three rings of security around the center were the "TOC" or Tactical Operations Center was located along with the high command of the unit they were playing Red Team.

With unabashed relish they recounted how they slipped through all three layers of security without being seen, using techniques I'd been teaching them about how to move quickly and quietly, got into not only the main communications tent, stole the log book but left some rather 'colorful' records behind to prove they'd been there in addition to slipping into that unit's Battalion Commander's personal tent and removed a few items which were returned at the debriefing. At least they didn't "Z" out the radios, which means throwing the switch on the CINGARS radio to "Z" which will instantly dump the encryption from the radio in event they should fall into enemy hands, while no harm in training tends to be annoying to the individual having to track down someone from Commo to get the encryption reloaded to the radio.

I'd wished I was there with them. I also remember one of our hair brained ideas to really test our skills, when mentioned to our Lt. was quickly shot down. We thought it was just his idea of denying us some fun, but I don't think he wanted the headache of trying to explain to either the Border Patrol why a squad of American soldiers were trying infiltrate into American across the Mexican border or to the State Department why the Federalies had the same said group of crazy gringos locked up in a jail.

After that, our Lt decided we needed new things to keep ourselves occupied, so he took half the squad and began to learn repelling with the goal of eventually teaching all of us how to "fast rope" out of helicopters. I was given the task of training the other members of the squad how to survive a drop into the water from a height in full gear and how to make flotation devises out of the gear we already had so that we could eventually learn to deploy using a 'helo cast' which would entail a helicopter flying low over a lake or bay etc while we jumped from it and swam to shore. These techniques are very similar to what I learned as part of water survival growing up, how to be dumped into the frigid Alaskan water in full fishing gear and keep from being pulled under by the weight.

Considering what all we were teaching ourselves to do, it's no surprise now that people very often thought I was a "Green Beret". Two of my mentors were Green Berets, one fought at Ka-Sahn, he was apart of the relief force sent in to help out the besieged Marines. The other, well he wouldn't talk about it openly, but from what I've been able to piece together, I think he was a part of the botched "Desert One" that was to rescue the hostages from the Iranian Embassy.

With memories like these, I sure do miss being in the Infantry.

So I've been somewhat busy.

2005-11-17T16:11:00.000-09:00

I've heard of this before, and had a friend send it to me again.

http://www.skippyslist.com/skippylist.html

It's amazing how far one will go to relieve boredom when deployed.

No Brainer

2005-11-09T19:12:00.000-09:00

This one was a no brainer.

Brainy Kid

In high school, you were acing AP classes or hanging out in the computer lab.

You may have been a bit of a geek back then, but now you're a total success!

Who Were You In High School?