What if c-a-t really spelled dog?

Update 23 May

2010-05-24T04:06:00.004-04:00

Day 11. Took out the water sprite, I didn't like it much.Added a few more plants. Right now I have Vallisnerias on the left and some among the wood. There's cryptocorynein the middle and the front right. The spiky stuff in the middle is Japonica. In the back right is come Cabomba and Rotala. The moss is spikey moss.
I'm getting mixed results. Most of the plants are sprouting new leaves, but some of the leaves on the japonica and vals are turning reddish brown. There's also red and hair algae everywhere! I want to get an algae eater to eat all of it, but The plants need to grow roots first. We'll see how it goes.

Aquarium Update

2010-05-17T06:30:00.001-04:00

So my plants aren't doing to well, so I decided to put another light that I had intended to sell on top, now I have 110W of light pouring into the tank. The top looks super ghetto, but oh well, I don't exactly have a common sized tank. We'll see how things go. If I pass my systems board tomorrow, I think I'll go and pick up a couple things for the tank after work.

My New Aquarium

2010-05-15T13:28:00.006-04:00

So here is the first picture of my new aquarium. I've dedicated it to Uncle Skip. It's not exactly his backyard, but I hope it's something he will be proud of. I miss you Uncle Skip! Save me a spot where ever we're going ok?

Day 2: the water is finally mostly cleared up. I forgot that wood floats, so when I moved a rock to hold the root on the right down, it stirred up the whole bottom and I couldn't even see the back of the tank!

The Readiness cycle

2009-07-18T16:55:00.003-04:00

Yeah, so I know it's been a while since I posted anything, but I haven't been in the mood to rant about the things I usually rant about. However, I was recently asked by a friend what exactly it is we do when we're not on deployment. What follows is my most humble reply:

What do military people do when they're not on deployment? Well, I can only speak for P-3s, but we spend most of our time doing one of four things. I'll try to list them in order of how much we do them:
1. Study to upgrade our jobs. Our ultimate goal is to become an instructor, which usually takes just over two years. Me, I'm a Navigator/communicator(NAV

COMM), and I'm studying to become a Tactical Coordinator (TACCO).
2. Taking care of our ground job, which could be one of many things involving paperwork and other (usually boring) tasks.
3. Flying training flights and simulators. Part of the whole upgrading thing.
4. Standing watch/shooting the shit. Pretty self explanatory here ; )
Hope that clears things up for you!

In Qatar

2009-05-29T11:17:00.000-04:00

Hey alls, I'm one step closer to Home!

Last night we flew into Al Udeid, which is the huge Air Force base in Qatar. I drank my three beers on an empty stomach and got a pretty good buzz going. Oh yeah! It was freaking hot last night and today though. It's more humid here, so it feels even hotter than in Iraq. Bleagh.

The base here is really nice. There's a movie theater, two swimming pools, a huge gym and a shopping mall with a food court! Freaking Air Force, I hate you Anya! All the sidewalks are brick, and there's actually sidewalks! There's wireless internet everywhere, and did I mention Beer?

Anyways, only a couple more days here, and we should be heading out to Hawaii. Word on the street is the last leg is going to be from Maine all the way to Kaneohe! That's going to be one long flight for sure. That's it for now, just thought I'd give everyone a quick update. Hope all is well!

- Justin/Fuji

A Crazy Week!

2009-05-22T13:38:00.002-04:00

Hi all,

I know it’s been quite a while since I last updated, but I’ve been super, super busy. I had SDO for three days straight, and I flew yesterday. Beware, this e-mail is long and tedious, and may need to be split up for the casual reader. I’m not as skilled a writer as Sean MacDougall, who continually impresses me with his ability to write scathing comedy on a regular basis.

Saturday:

My first day of not flying and not duty in two weeks. However, there were a couple crews from VP-40 that showed up a few days prior and needed ‘indoc’ to how we’ve been doing business out here. I was originally scheduled for one of these at five in the afternoon, but the crew that was supposed to give one in the morning got diverted the night before. The duty driver came by my room at 0900 to pass the good news that I had an indoc at 1100 instead, and I later found out I had another one at 1500. That stuff wasn’t too bad though, it just involved talking to the new guys coming in how we’ve been doing business and what kinds of stuff we do out here. My first Nav was a really new guy and made me feel all old and salty since I’ve been flying out here so much. The second guy was previously on S-3s, but transferred to P-3s after we decommissioned the S-3s, so there wasn’t much teaching him. Lieutenants rarely listen to Ensigns. That day wasn’t so bad, but then I found out I was flying an indoc flight Sunday. Doh!

Sunday:

My indoc flight with a VP-40 crew. The Nav I was working with had been qualified for 11 months. Don’t know how much I can teach him besides area specifics. He acted as most experienced people do when instructed by someone very junior; courteous, yet exasperated. An unfortunate side effect of my youthful appearance is people think I’m as old as I look. That is, a kid who went to college straight out of high school and then blasted through the pipeline to arrive at my squadron as an ensign. Sure, that puts me at age 24 vice 27, but I feel that people treat you differently when they think you’re closer to 20 than 30.

Anyway, the plane we were scheduled to fly was one VP-30 had flown over from Whidbey, and it had never been flown on a mission here before. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the MOCC guy briefing the flight hadn’t said that I usually do a good job of getting systems up on the plane. This naturally swelled up my pride a bit and made me feel I needed to do an extra good job. So I get out to the plane, and, guess what? That’s right, nothing works. Well, that’s a lie; a couple systems that always work are working. But even some that work all the time, like the PRC-117 (an army radio we hook up to the plane’s antenna because it much more reliable than our stuff) are not coming up. Naturally, I’m stressed out because nothing’s working, and my “under instruction” Nav keeps doing things and not telling me about them, throwing off my flow and pulling me even further out of the comfort zone. As the saying goes, “I’m freaking out man!” After spending the first hour and a half or so of the plane continually deciding not to work in flight, we get things settled down a little. The VP-40 crew start taking over positions, and I get to chill and read my book (Life of Pi, very good so far) by the Nav station, answering any questions the ‘40 guys have. I spend the rest of the flight fairly content, sure I’ll have the next day off to decompress a little. Alas, ‘twas not to be.

Monday:

Thankfully, I had my DCUs all nice and pressed for Day SDO. I take the watch over from good old Kevin Laughary, who informs me of the many obstacles facing me during the day. The main VP-40 lift is arriving in the morning, our first personnel and cargo airlifts are taking off in the evening, the base commander, an Air Force Colonel, is visiting, one of our six busses is broken, two are being used to move people from tents to CHU’s and CHU’s to tents, two are being used for the regular base route, leaving me just one to get all the random tasks popped on me taken care of. All this on my first day of daytime SDO. There’s the damn fire hose again! So many things happened concurrently that day, it’s all quite blurry. A day of SDO is like a really shitty game of whack-a-mole. Problems and tasks continually pop up, and the trick is to decide which ones are more urgent or come from higher authority and need to be whacked first, and which ones can stew a while, and which ones can be ignored or pushed back. I should have taken notes on what was going on that day, but I really don’t remember any specific events. Oh sweet day off, here I come. No. Not so much.

Tuesday:

This was the morning I had to move out of my CHU into the tents. I didn’t have much stuff, so it didn’t take very long, but I was still kind of late for work. (turnover is normally at 0730.) There wasn’t as much going on this day, but events conspired to keep me busy anyways. When we fly a plane that’s parked on ramp B, the SDO gets the duty driver and one of the spare busses to take the crew and their gear out to the plane since it’s on the other side of the field. I had two more under instruction guys standing SDO with me as well, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning started out calm enough after I made it to work, which I expressed aloud. Always a mistake. One of the route drivers comes in and tells me that the clutch on bus #5 is burning up, and he needs a new bus. Like I should expect anything else with a hundred people learning to drive stick on these busses. Now I’m down another bus, leaving me with one bus and one duty driver due to the tent moves.

I got a call from someone the Duty office in the ‘died letting us know one of our guys was being deported to Kuwait. Right before I left the duty office I told the duty driver and my UI watch that I was going to admin to take care of it, and to remind them that the crew needed a ride out to the bus in 15 minutes. I get back from admin, and my UI watch tells me he just sent the duty driver to go with some chief (not in either of our squadrons) to pick up some things he left in his CHU. I think he’s kidding, I eloquently express my confusion and consternation; “What?!”
“Yeah I don’t know who the chief was, they said they were late for their airlift.” He replies.
Acknowledging the situation and accepting I’ll have to deal with it, I say pretty much all there is to say; “What the shit…”

Damnit, now I don’t have a bus to take the crew to the plane, and time begins ticking. After most of the crew is waiting to be picked up, and a couple guys freak out about the obvious lack of bus, I decide to commandeer one of the route busses to cover for it. The pilots and a couple of the AWs from the crew are taking their sweet time, as though 30 people and one SDO aren’t waiting on them for the SDO’s crazy plan to work. So now, I have a bunch of people that just got kicked off a route bus and a bunch of aircrew waiting for the bus to leave. Right as I get all the aircrew together, my Duty driver pulls in with the bus that went to go get the chief’s stuff. So now I’m standing there as everyone that I just kicked off the other bus gets on the one that just showed up, and the bus I commandeered hasn’t even left yet. Son of a...

Well, water under the bridge as they say. I spent the remainder of the day helping out with lesser moles that pop up. I think, oh sweet sweet day off, I’ll see you tomorrow!

Wednesday:

My calmest SDO day. Nothing too bad happened, except all the flights were very late getting off deck, stressing me out all day. Since most of everything else was going ok, I had wondered why I was in a state of continuous tension. The only funny story occurred near the end of my day.

At about 1845 (6:45pm,) one of the bus drivers comes into my office. “Uh, sir?”

“What’s going on shipmate?” Yes I say shipmate. Yes it throws people off. Yes I still love saying it.

“Well, I uh, ran into something with the bus.”

Quick side note: I didn’t really think of this story as all that funny until Evan told me about what happened from his point of view. Apparently my voice and face went into an expression completely lacking in anger, but so filled with disappointment as to make the poor kid fill up with remorse and self loathing.

“You did what?”

“Well, I uh, tried to pull in to a stop a little too early and clipped the edge of one of the barriers.”

The tip of my index and middle finger and my thumb go to my forehead in a classic Fuji expression of “ugh”; then we head out to the bus to check out the damage, which was pretty minor. It’s always funny and interesting to hear yourself described in a leadership role, something I’m still unaccustomed to filling.

The best part about Wednesday? In the morning the Operations Officer (OPSO) had come in and said that I wouldn’t be standing SDO the next day! Apparently the reason I’d been standing so much SDO was because I’d been doing such a great job. Maybe I should start doing not such a good job eh? Oh day of nothing, how I long to wrap myself in the warmth of your laziness!

Thursday:

I’m penciled in for a flight today, because I need just one more flight out of here for my Air Medal. Yes, we get an Air Medal for completing 20 flights in a combat zone. It’s the 14th highest medal awarded in the US Navy, which seems kind of silly given what we do. Hey, if they’re going to give it to me, I’m going to take it. I get a little more chest bling, and I get to be a war hero! The flight was pretty uneventful. I get back and check the schedule on my way back to the tents. I find out I’m scheduled for another flight at 1130 the next day. It’s currently 0330. Thankfully, one of my buddies was trying to jump on a flight the next day, so he took my spot. Nice.

Friday:

Oh wonderful freedom from work! Oh glorious luxury of nothing to do! It is every bit as amazing as I hoped and dreamed! I spend it eating, sleeping and typing this e-mail. I hope you enjoyed it!

Back to Flying!

2009-05-16T03:25:00.002-04:00

Hello all,

Wow, so the last three days have been crazy! I had one night off after finishing my week of night SDO, then flew the next night. After that I had a 24 hour turnaround to fly a day flight two days ago, then another day flight last night. The first day flight I was doing ok, the one last night, not so much. I was very very tired, owing mostly to the fact that I woke up at 2 (after a 12 bed time), then couldn't go back to sleep for 5 hours. I only got about 4 hours of sleep. The last two hours of the flight I was nodding off constantly. Not even standing up next to my station was helping, I tried coffee, slapping myself around, nothing worked. It's a wonder I didn't miss any radio calls! Or maybe I did and TACCO just covered for me.

The last two flights have been with a different crew as well. I haven't flown with anyone except my crew for the most part, and it's very easy to let the atmosphere you regularly work in become the only one you expect. The vibes on the crew I've been flying with the last couple days was very very different from the one I'm used to, much more free-wheeling and less constrained. It would have been more enjoyable if I had felt more like myself. I wish I had brought my camera last night, we were flying right above a cloud layer, and saw some pretty awesome cloud formations off to the north a bit. We also saw a jet joining up on a tanker for refueling. Very cool!

The first wave of VP-40 personnel started showing up yesterday, I have an indoc brief with one of their crews today. That should just be us talking to them about the mission here, common problems, things we'll usually be seeing, etc. I'm not sure if I'll be flying with any of their Navs, from what I hear it's just going to be a pilot and TACCO, along with a few of the enlisted crew that will be doing the flights. We'll see. I think I'll spend part of today packing up my extra stuff and getting ready to move to the tents in a few days. It's crazy to think that in just a couple weeks I'll be back in Hawaii! All I've been able to think about is seeing everyone, and the food! Oh, and I've been obsessing over learning to windsurf. I'm very very excited for that!

Ok I think that's just about enough about nothing for now. Besides the duty driver just stopped by and told me about a change in the flight sked, so I need to be in at 1130 instead of 1700. Laters!

- Justin/Fuji

Me by the end of the summer (I hope):

Vouchers

2009-05-09T16:25:00.002-04:00

Today I was reading about the recent decision of the Obama administration to cancel the pilot voucher program in effect in D.C. I found in this a very disappointing act from a man who promised us education reform.

From what I gathered, one of the primary movers to eliminate the program was teachers unions. I have to say, this I do not understand at all. One of the principle problems with a geographically based education program is lack of competition. When parents have no choice on where to send their children to public school, complacency completely takes over. There is no extrinsic motivation for administrations and teachers to excel. What I don’t understand is the Union’s strong opposition to a voucher system. Do they expect schools won’t hire them if parents are allowed to chose where their child goes to school?

For those who don’t understand how a voucher system works, here’s a simplified run-down:

Instead of a child being assigned a public school based on where they live, their parents are given a ‘voucher’ from the government in lieu of the money going directly to the schools. The parents can then ‘spend’ their voucher at the school of their choice to educate their child. The money that would have been paid to whatever school the child was zoned for is now spent at the school chosen by the parents.

Why is this good? Schools, instead of having guaranteed income based on where they are located, must now actively compete to win students. Lazy teachers who do not engage and motivate their students will be fired and replaced by motivated educators. Administrations wanting to win parent’s ‘vote’ will demand better teachers and be willing to spend money on better facilities to attract more students and more money for your school. The bar will no longer be meeting an arbitrary standard set by the state, but the bar set by parents wanting the best for their children. Which do you think will be higher?

Also, schools can become more specialized. If there is demand for a school centered on computers and related professions, someone wanting money (who wants money, really?) will start a school that specializes in this field. The same idea applies for manufacturing, engineering, medicine, mechanics. There can even be Arts schools for those talented and/or driven children who wish to pursue a career in keeping humans human. This system allows the needs and wants of a community to be satisfied by enterprising individuals.

This is yet another demonstration of why Unions are outdated and archaic. The only reason a teacher should have to fear for their job is if they are lazy and unmotivated, or otherwise unsuited for their profession. They would have to meet the demands of competition just as most of the rest of us do.

Duty Week!

2009-05-06T17:38:00.000-04:00

So, I write to you all now from the VP Duty Office.

This week is our crew's duty week. We're not going to be flying, and it looks like Cody and I are going to be alternating Day and night CDO. Of course guess who got the Night SDO? It's good though. I'm still pretty new, so I wouldn't know how to handle a lot of the stuff that goes on during the day. An added plus is the skipper's not around, meaning that much less pressure on me. The last week or so has been pretty routine. I did get to fly the old skipper down for the change of command flight. That was a neat experience, even though I was angry at the plane for most of the flight because some o my hey gear didn't want to work. The TACCO kept having to remind me to breathe when I would start yelling at my stuff. The XO's plane entered an orbit 1000 feet above ours and they passed command over the UHF radio to each other and satcom to the admiral. I was thankful that my satcom worked for that. I was super nervous. The rest of the flight down to the 'Died was pretty uneventful. However, once we landed it was very apparent that the #1 engine was leaking all kinds of oil. I was super worried we were going to be stuck down there, especially because I didn't bring a 'Bingo' bag with some spare undies and toiletries. They got everything patched up though, so we were good to make the transit back.

I'm hoping to get the rest of my PQS finished up this week, so I can be ready for my events and board once we get back to the islands. I find myself thinking more and more about getting back to Hawaii and seeing family, my house and the beach. Last night we were talking about other things that we don't do here that we do at home. For example, here, I don't carry a wallet, or a cell phone, or keys. We're going to have to get used to having all these things again once we get back to the states. We don't drive anywhere, shuttles take us eveywhere we need to go, so we'll once again have the freedom/burden to get ourselves to where we're going. Most people miss alcohol a lot, I don't really find myself craving it at all. I'm not much of a boozer these days anyway. I have found that cutting weekend beer out of my diet helps keep the weight off though. A lot of the guys talk about spitting mad game down in Waikiki and picking up tourists. We'll see if I join in on any of that craziness. I'm sure Frank will try to drag me out. Well, to be honest, that's it for now.

Take care all!
Justin
Fuji

Ziggurat and More!

2009-04-26T18:30:00.000-04:00

Hello Hello!

So two days ago, I went on the last military tour to the Zigguart of UR, one of the oldest structures known to man. Where I am based, near Nāşirīyah (الناصرية) used to be called the city of Ur, and it was the capital of the Ur empire which spread over most of southern Iraq. 4000 years ago, this area was very near the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates river used to run through the city (it now runs several miles to the north) and irrigation from the river supplied lush farmland. This, of course, is all very hard to imagine given the current landscape. However, the people's patron diety was the Moon Goddess Nanna, so the emperor Ur-Nammu built a huge mound of dirt, made it pretty with bricks and dedicated it to her. Thier intent was to build a conduit for them to be closer to the goddess and for her to be able to come down to them. As it stands today, the structure has been largely restored by C. Leonard Woolley, who discovered the site, and the Iraqi department of antiquities.

The ruins of the surrounding city were very interesting as well. There are several examlpes of the oldest form of writing known, pre-dating cuneifrom and heiroglyphics. The world's oldest arch (4000 years old) and what is believed to be Abraham's father's house is at the site as well. I brought my uber camera, and took some artitic looking and some memory capturing photos. Our tour guide lived very near to the site, and his grandfather was part of Professor Woolly's team that discovered and dug up the ziggauart and the surrounding city. He is the third generation of what you could call stewards of the site. Abraham's father was a pretty wealthy guy cinsidering the size and complexity of his house. The bottom level of the house was reconstructed on top of the orginal foundation in 1999 for the Pope to pray in. It never happened, either because we were bombing the place, or Saddam just didn't want the Pope to swing in. I forget which!

Also, a couple days ago, my PPC (Patrol Plane Commander) said that the airlift schedule was out. I'm scheduled for the second lift home, so I should be back in Hawaii on or about the 30th of May. Crazy to think that it's almost time for me to head back to the States again. I've been so busy I feel like I just left!

What else is new? Not much, just pretty much same schedule. It did hit 103 degrees farenheit yesterday. My first 100 plus degree day out here! I feel like I'm fishing now, so I'll sign off and leave the link to some of the pictures I took. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/mmfujiusn/Iraq?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbW_f-8yLPEvQE&feat=directlink

- Justin/Fuji

Just a Quickie

2009-04-26T18:29:00.000-04:00

Hello faithful readers,

I know I haven't been writing much lately, but I've pretty much fallen into a rhythm here, and not a whole lot of new stuff is happening. I've been flying the same mission the last few flights, and my pre-flight has been getting better. To my great surprise, all my stuff worked last flight! It was amazing. I think I've decided the only reason my job is hard is because I have to keep all the aging comm equipment on the old girl up and running.

In case I haven't clarified, what we do here is basically surveillance. The P-3's we fly have a camera upgrade that lets us take much better video than the older models. So we fly around super high so as not to be shot down, (Don't worry Mom) and if we see anything cool we can beam the video to guys on the ground and have them call in a predator for a better picture and stuff like that. A predator s one of the unmanned drones we use, so they can fly much lower than us.

Well, I'm off for another flight. Tommorow I'm going on the last tour to the Ziggurat of Ur. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures and maybe a story or two to share. Here's a link to the Wikipedia site for those interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ziggurat_of_Ur

A few days ago, we had two new pilots and a new Nav show up, so I'm not 'the' new guy anymore, although I'm still 'a' new guy. It's nice to not be alone at the bottom of the totem pole though. Oh and I bought a hookah yesterday. Hells yeah!!

Love to all,
Justin a.k.a.
Fuji a.k.a.
Rufio

Catania Pics

2009-04-26T18:27:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,

It was recently brought to my attention that I haven't put up the pictures I took that last night in Catania. so here's 15 of my favorites:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mmfujiusn/Catania?authkey=Gv1sRgCKTlqLnR7pfWHQ&feat=directlink

Enjoy, and maybe more stories soon!

First week in Iraq

2009-04-14T16:20:00.000-04:00

Greetings from the desert!

I know I promised updates on how Iraq is and what's been going on here, but They've been keeping me super busy! Today is going to be my fourth flight in 5 days. I think they're using the ol point a fire hose at someone's face and tell them to drink theory of learning. Anyways, it's going to be another short post today, but I did snap a few pictures on my way back to my Room the other day and uploded them to Picasa.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mmfujiusn/Iraq?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbW_f-8yLPEvQE&feat=directlink

The flights here aren't too bad. They're really long. we have 8 hour on station times, and 1 hour transits. We brief 3 hours before our takeoff time because I have SO MUCH CRAP to do to get all our comm circuits up for the flight. I literally have 10 forms of encrypted communication that I'm supposed to try and load and get working before we take off. It's not fun. After we take off, my job's not so bad. I watch the little dots and lines on my Atari screen and make sure the airplane dot doesn't go over the oh shit we're in ::insert country that isn't Iraq:: line. After we land, I have at least another hour of work to do collecting all my crypto and turning it in and writing a mission recap etc. All together it makes for pretty long days.

Well, that's all I got for now. I have to go pick up my laundry and get ready for my flight today. Take care!

- Justin/Fuji

In the desert

2009-04-14T16:19:00.000-04:00

Well, after a day that started at 0245 this morning, I'm finally in Iraq.

We were originally supposed to jump on a C-40 (which I find out is a 737) to fly from Sigonella to Al Udeid at about 0550. We didn't end up getting on the plane until 0930! You can bet I took the opportunity to nap at the terminal though. I also slept most of the ride on the plane as well. We each ended up with pretty much a whole side of the aisle to ourselves. We stayed in the 'deid for a few hours, then got on a C-130 that flew us up to Iraq. I slept for most of that one too. We got here about 2130 local time. Well my battery is dying, so I'll send out a better message later. I just wanted everyone to know I arrived safely in Iraq!

Love to all,
Jus/Fuji

Long Day

2009-04-05T16:58:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone!

I know it's been a long while, but the plane is still down, and I've just been studying and working on painting a squadron patch in our officer's lounge in the Q. I'll include a pic with this e-mail. That little project took me 4 days working about 4 hours a day. I did play in a racquetball tournament yesterday and got run all over the court by a bunch of old dudes. My legs have been sore all day, and I've just been trying to waddle around. I did get to the semi-finals for my division, and I won a camp chair as a door prize! Yay! What I'm going to do with said camp chair is anyone's guess.

Today I was SDO, and we sent 291 back to Iraq. However, they encountered a bunch of problems getting the plane and the flight plan all squared away and they left about an hour late after already pushing the flight back two hours. Once they got off deck we didn't get any comms from them, so after the first hour when they didn't check in I spent about the next three hours calling various people here and in Ali trying to figure out if anyone had heard from them. The duty office in Ali finally got an ops normal from them at about 2030 local time. I'd been at the duty office for 13 hours. Bleagh. Anyways, that's pretty much it for now. I'm heaed to Iraq this week, so I'll try to get some pictures and let everyone know how it is!

Just 1.8 months to go!
- Justin/Fuji

Plane's down

2009-04-05T16:57:00.001-04:00

Hey All,

Well, a couple days ago we found out one of the struts on the landing gear of our plane is busted. No flying for us for a while. I blame Kevin for landing too hard on one of his bounce flights and breaking the plane. (Bounce Flight – Pilots need to have so many landings and takeoffs per month and year to keep their quals current, so they get in a P-3, usually an old and busted one, and takeoff, then fly a circle and land, then go back to full power and takeoff… etc. etc. you get the idea.) Since we only have one bird here, we’re all grounded until the plane is good to fly again.

This wouldn’t be all that bad if I could just jump in a car and check stuff out, but I need someone to go do stuff with me. We’re not allowed to go out on liberty by ourselves. I really wanted to go to the swap meet in Catania and get souvenirs today, but I don’t know how late it’s open, and I still need to find someone to go with me. I’m really hoping to get there and maybe a couple other cities to take some pictures while I’m here. Last night I did get to jump in the van with my crew and go to the mall nearby and get some cool Italian clothes. No good souvenirs shop though. Maybe I’ll see if I can rent a car and run around tomorrow.

Yesterday was super busy. We had a bunch of elementary school kids from the local DoD (Department of Defense) School come and check out our old and busted P-3. That wasn’t too bad, the coolest thing on the plane for them was the ICS, which we use to talk from station to station. They had way too much fun with that. One girl exclaimed "I want to work here!" Oh if only she knew...

I quickly found out that my station is the most boring one on the plane. It’s hard, no impossible, to make looking at a bunch of numbers and listening to static exciting. The coolest thing at my station was my 30 year old keyboard that I don’t use, which the kids happily jabbed away at. They also found my O2 mask fun to put on and scare their friends with. They of course found the flight station very cool with all the controls and dials. They also enjoyed moving the Infrared camera around at the sensor 3 station as well. They tried on Parachutes and survival vests with Scarmazzo and overall ran around and had a good time. Tello got in the Doppler well (which is empty because we don’t have a Doppler system anymore) and jumped out in an O2 mask and scared one of the groups

Kevin told me he was talking to one of the Chaperons in the flight station and somehow I came up and said “Yeah we call him Fuj.” And another one said “Ohh!!! Is that his callsign?!?!” Hell yeah, I can think of a lot worse callsigns than Fuj. As Matt Shearer would say “No no no. There’s two o’s in Fooj boys.”

After that was boring admin stuff all day, but then I got to go to the mall for the aforementioned clothing. That’s it for now folks. Not flying is not conducive to generating more sea stories.

The Glossary

2009-03-25T12:42:00.002-04:00

Ok folks, it's been been brought to my attention that I use a lot of P-3 and Navy jargon in my posts, so here's a list of terms and meanings. I'm going off the ones I've used so far in my letters. I hope I get all of them.

Sig - Sigonella Naval Air Station. We share this base with the Italians. It's near Catania, and south of Mt. Etna about 21 miles.

Nav/Comm - Navigator/Communicator, the junior NFO position in the plane, me for now. My job is to keep track of where the plane is, particularly in relation to what we need to avoid. I also keep logs and take care of communicating with our home base, ships and ground units we work with.

TACCO - Tactical Coordinator - The senior NFO position on the plane. Basically coordinates everything going on with the plane during a mission. Takes in all the information from the different stations and figures out how to best execute the mission. May be overall mission commander.

Sensor 1/2 - Acousitc Operators - They interpret the information recieved from the bouys we drop to listen to what's going on in the water.

Sensor 3 - Non-Acoustic Operator - Operates the Radar, camera, and Magnetic Anomoly Detector (MAD) MAD = huge metal detector

PPC - Patrol Plane Commander - Senior pilot on the plane. In charge of safety of flight. May be mission commander as well.

NFO - Naval Flight Officer - These guys and girls don't fly the plane, but we take care of everything else.

Pilot - The guys and girls that sit in the flight station and fly the plane and talk with Air Traffic Controllers.

ATC - Air Traffic Control

FE - Flight Engineer. He or she sits in the flight station between the pilots and takes care of calculating fuel, power settings and alot of other things that don't directly involve flying the plane.

IFT - In Flight Technician - The P-3 is old. Very old. Stuff breaks. IFT tries to fix, or take part of something less important and make something more important work.

Stan Check - A flight incoming personnel go through to prove they won't crash the plane.

HF - High frequency Radio, used for Over the Horizen (OTH) Communications. Always accompanied by loud obnoxious static and faint voices. When an HF 'couples' that means it is configured to transmit on the frequency I dial in.

UHF - Ultra High Frequency Radio - Much clearer than HF radios, but can only be used for Line-of-Sight communications.

Satcom - Satellite communications

Batwing - A UHF antenna that looks like, well, a batwing

Update III - The second to last major update for the P-3. Focused on Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) The computer controls look like the ones from Apollo 13, and I have a little green screen (about 4 inches by 6 inches) that shows me info.

AIP - Aircraft Improvement Program - The latest update for the P-3. Gives us sweet windows 2000 capbilities and Atari graphics. And a nice camera (that I don't get to operate)

Quals - Qualifications - The steps required to obtain a rating to do a certain job on the Plane. (Nav/comm, TACCO etc.)

The Med - The Mediterranean Sea

Tasked/Tasking - This is where a ship or base has direct control over what we're doing. They'll say hey go do this and we do it.

On Station - The beginning of the working portion of the flight

Off Station - The end of the working portion of the flight

Comms - Communications

I've got a couple weeks more in Sig, then off to Iraq in early April. I hear we should all be back by the end of May! Pretty sweet deal for me I'd say. I tweaked my shoulder last night playing racquetball, so it's been tight. I got a shot at the flight line clinic though, so that helped a lot with the pain. I've got some system checks to do tomorrow along with continued studying. I'm trying to get my crew to have a liberty day to go somewhere. I'll let you know how that works out. Until next time, Ciao!

Souda Pics

2009-03-19T16:22:00.000-04:00

Souda Bay Det

Back from Crete

2009-03-19T15:05:00.002-04:00

Hey alls, I'm back in good old Sigonella today. The last couple days were super busy. Tuesday I got up at 2 for a 330 brief. We took off at 7 for our 9 hour mission. It wasn't too bad, we were getting tasked by a ship which is much better than just tooling around on your own. I got to work on my radio skills a bit which was nice also. We even got sent off station a little early, which was also a nice suprise. We left later in the morning yesterday, which was nice. Sleeping past 230 was a real treat! That mission also got cut short since our two-way comms were inoperable, just like the 3 days prior.

I have to say, I was extremely impressed with the food in Greece, everything I had was delicious, even at the hotel! The other O's and I discovered this awesome restaurant/jazz club/bar the other day, and returned there last night for more amazing dinner and live music. It was very nice, I'll have to get some pictures from my TACCO so I can post them later.

Today we were supposed to leave in the late morning, but were delayed since one of the crew hurt himself while he was drunk last night. Good job buddy. Since it was just a transit mission, I got to relax a little and actually took some pictures! I'm actually getting to post some pics today too. If you want to see them, head over to my blog I hope you like : )

That's it for now, more fun stories later!

Crete entry for 16 March

2009-03-19T15:01:00.000-04:00

Hello hello,

Well, it's been a couple days in Crete. The first night we went out for drinks since we weren't flying the next day. I found out my crew parties freaking hard. I was ready to pass out by 2 or 3, but they wanted to keep going. We ended up staying out until 530 or 6. I don't really remember, I was half asleep. I'm pretty sure I was snoozing at the bar. then when we finally did leave they were getting food and I was leaning up against a column in the sandwich shop sleeping standing up. I didn't really like this game plan. I mean we're in freaking Greece, but we're hanging out with a bunch of Americans in the American quarter. I would have rather gone to bed, woken up early and checked out old stuff that you can only see in Greece!

Yesterday we did some flight planning and walked around town. Today was our first operational flight out here on det. Of course, the two things we really needed to complete our mission didn't freaking work. I couldn't get the satcom radio (which, by the way, is a backpack radio we have ghetto rigged to the batwing antenna on the plane) to work right, so we couldn't talk to anyone except on a sattelite phone that doesn't work half the time, and I can't watch where the plane is going when I'm on it. And, the system (ghetto rigged and not attached to the plane, btw) the TACCO is supposed to be using to freaking DO OUR MISSION isn't working. so now it's about 1 in the afternoon (I've been up since 215) and we finally head back to base. Flight station tries to get the Greek ATC guys on VHF, only to find out the R/T (reciever/transmitter) has pooped its pants and no one is monitoring UHF. So I call base ops (with the shitty sattelite phone) and ask them to call approach and ask them to monitor their UHF radios. So lame.

Our IFT did get the radio working a little bit. The range was really bad. And we did land, so the day could have been much worse. So yeah, this has been my experience with the P-3 so far. I have heard this is an exceptionally shitty plane, so I'm sure there is much better stuff out there. But I don't think the only plane operating in the Med should be a busted shitty Update III with none of the gear it needs integrated into the equipment. But maybe that's just me.

Anyways, enough about me. Maybe I'll steal the van and go buy some clothes since all of mine smell like cigarettes from the bars. Take care all!!!

The story so far...

2009-03-13T12:51:00.001-04:00

Ciao!

Well, I’ve been in Sig for a few days now, and I have been super busy!

First off, I was picked up by Erik Sword from the airport. Here’s a little story he told me about that day:

“Yeah, so me and Harmon were trying to figure out how we’d recognize you, and then we saw you from across baggage claim walking toward customs in a quicksilver shirt carrying your seabag and kit bag in slippahs. We were both like yeah that’s him, and if it’s not, he needs a ride to base anyway.”

Speaking of, Erik and my sponsor Jae and everyone here have been super helpful. I haven’t run into any real jerks or people giving me a hard time. No fake Nav/Comm board for me. I’m trying to stay cheerful, and positive to help keep that going.

Thought you guys might like that little gem. Anyways, my first full day here was spent doing admin stuff and sitting in on some Oceanography review, and getting ready for my stan check. My second day was my stan check; an eight hour surface search exercise with NATO. Just to give you an idea of how awesome P-3s are, none of the secure (encrypted) comms worked, the datalink didn’t work, one of my HF radios wouldn’t couple on two of the frequencies I needed, and the other one wouldn’t couple on any frequency, and the radar didn’t work. It’s an Update III, so my most advanced piece of nav equipment is a laptop with a gps antenna attached. Just to give you guys an idea.

I did my pistol shoot today, and surprisingly did a lot better than last time I shot. I might have got the expert medal this time. I’ll probably find out Monday. I also got my crypto and charts signed over to me from the guy I’m replacing. (Erik, who picked me up from the airport.) Tomorrow, I’ll be trying to finish up some quals and my crew is taking the one P-3 we have here to Souda Bay Greece to test some kind of Ship Identifying equipment. I’m definitely taking my fancy pants camera there. I’m hoping to get some liberty there. I haven’t had time for any here yet. I’ve been passing out at eight at the latest and waking up at 4 every morning.

That’s everything for now. Hopefully more fun updates soon!

Add for 13 March:

Today was crazy!!! I got two missions added on to the one I thought I was doing in Souda bay. We leave tomorrow, and I've been doing mission planning all day today. I still have to go back and finish up some stuff. Anyways, hopefully I'll have some good pictures from Crete! Last night was my first italian dining experience. Everything was great! But I was mostly asleep for the whole meal. I'm still trying to get on Med Time.

First Day in Italy

2009-03-10T13:53:00.000-04:00

Bonjiorno!
I am writing now in the Airport at Rome. It makes me kind of sad to think that I’ve finally made it to Rome and I’m not going to get to see it! I’m stuck here in the airport, but hopefully I’ll get a couple days off while I’m staying here and head up there. I have to say I doubt that, I’m sure being the new guy will mean some serious taking it up the butt while I’m here.
I’ve had quite the adventure so far. I left Honolulu at 9pm Saturday night. Actually I’d say my adventure started Friday night. I decided That I should really get after it and drank a lot. I mean A LOT. I haven’t thrown up from over drinking in quite some time, and I definitely did Friday night. Oh and also at breakfast the next morning as well. At least that time it was all water, and didn’t smell too bad. I still got it all over my shirt, but I found a nice one at a Ross nearby : ) I’ve actually been wearing it since Saturday night. ( No I haven’t been wearing it since Saturday morning. Yes I washed it.) So, back to 9pm Sat. Honolulu. That first flight was relatively uneventful. I didn’t sleep much despite being sleep deprived from the night prior. I did talk with the Flight staff like I usually do on long flights. Two of them were locals from the island, and I had a good time talking with them. Los Angeles was a fast turnaround, I only had about half an hour until they started boarding that flight. That one proved more eventful. My reading light at my seat didn’t really work all that well, so I ended up talking with the people around me who had been chatting before my light went out. They turned out to be a pretty cool group, Yvonne works with a chaplain’s office for the coast guard. Jeremy, I didn’t really catch what he did, but he was the instigator for everyone talking. Khush came over from India with her mother when she was young, and does IT work for the Navy. It was very interracial as well. There was me, Yvonne is Black, and Jeremy was Filipino.
I had a more lengthy layover in the Dulles international terminal, but it was shortened by meeting a bunch of girls from a school called Cottey. I think it’s in Navada, Missouri from what I was gathering. Anyways, I chatted off and on with them while I was waiting for my flight. I told them corny jokes and generally made an ass out of myself. Whatevs, I’m never going to see them again right? That flight left at about 6pm Sunday from Dulles, and went through the night. I slept some, watched some TV. Of course all the movies I wanted to see were showing on the westbound flight. Typical. I did chat with one of the Stewardesses for quite a while, her husband works at the Academy fundraising, and we kind of went from there. We talked about her kids and I was wearing my under armor pullover (thanks Dad), so she told me her daughter works for them, and her son flies for Northwest. She asked me if I was single, and said she wants me to get in touch with her daughter, who is 26 and very hot. (I saw a picture, it’s true) We talked about Greece and Tarpon Springs, which she has visited many times. It’s crazy how often I find some kind of connection with the flight crew that I talk to. It really is a small country.
Now I’ve arrived in Rome and am waiting for my last flight to Catania, where I’ll be picked up by a couple guys from the Squadron. I’m starting to get nervous about finally starting with them. I hope I do all right. I fell asleep while I was studying on the flight, (which I found two empty adjacent seats on, which made it oh so niiice) and woke up after what I’m sure was a nightmare about flying in the P-3 and screwing everything up and probably only wearing my underwear.
So yeah, it’s about 8am local here in Rome, and I think about 8 or 9 back in Honolulu. So I’ve gone from 9pm Saturday to 8am Monday in about 24 hours. Sux. More to follow soon!

When in Rome...

2009-03-09T13:02:00.000-04:00

Quickie

2009-03-03T22:44:00.004-05:00

Hey alls, just a quick update. Found out today I'll be leaving Friday for Italy, then presumably to Iraq after I get qual'd as a NAV/COMM. Just a couple websites for your viewing pleasure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Sigonella
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Air_Base

Old Dogs, Old Tricks

2009-03-02T17:09:00.002-05:00

The old Dog? Me. The old Trick? Hanging out at coffee shops and reading the news and surfing the net. I'm doomed for life. Thanks Erik, freaking ass. I think I can justify my frequenting of this particular place by the lack of internets in the house. We're kind of trying to steal it from our neighbors, but the connection is unreliable at best.

One unfortunate consequence of reporting to a squadron on deployment is the lack of stuff. George Carlin had it right when he wrote that passage. Being an American is about the acquisition and storing of stuff. I really hate not having all my stuff. I miss my bed. I miss my wardrobe. I miss my STUFF! A house should be a big pile of your stuff with a roof on it right? I have roof, but it's on top of other people's shit!! I need to replace all this weird shit for my stuff! First law of stuff: Some one else's stuff is shit, and your shit is stuff!

Sitting here, I really wish I had something more productive to do. I hate sitting around in the house all day. Maybe I'll jump on my bike I just bought off craigslist and ride around for a bit.

On Dating: Dating sucks. I hate how it's so lame. I guess since I'm such a straight forward personality, I hate trying to deduce what other people are thinking. Just freaking tell me! This also relates to work when my supervisors tell me to do this or that, or wait until a review to tell me what they don't like about me. Freaking tell me before the review so I can fix it!

I guess that's all for now. I'm really just stalling leaving the coffee place because I don't want to go back to the house. Oh well. laters!

Mokuleia etc.

2009-02-24T21:08:00.003-05:00

So Saturday night I went to a cookout with some classmates that I haven't seen for years! That was a good time, and it led to me going hiking at Mokuleia the next day with them. Even though we got off to a pretty slow start waiting for everyone to show up, after we got going we had a great time!

We were basically hiking along the shore, going over lava flows, climbing rock formations, and just enjoying the views and being outside. At one point we decided to try and climb an incline to get to the top of the mountains nearby, but the brush made the going really tough. Then it started to rain, and the rocks we were going over began to get very slippery in addition to us getting very wet. So we decided to head back down after making it a little over a third of the way up. We continued out to the point, where we took plenty of pictures and checked out the Wedgetailed Shearwater nests. Those birds are huge!

After our stop there, we continued on to a natural arch Mikeala knew about, which proved to be the highlight of our day. While we were resting there and drying out our shoes and socks a Humpback Whale began breaching about a quarter mile off the shore. It jumped many times and also turned on its side to slap the water with its pectoral fin. It was sweet, people pay hundreds of dollars to go on a boat and see what we saw! I only wish I had my Zoom lens so I could have taken some better pictures! We walked back soon after, and then I went to Auntie Irene's house and ate almost all the food there! Always good times with the Fujimuras and Yamadas.

Looks like the tentative date for me to leave for Iraq is the 5th. Time to start studying!!!

SERE review

2009-02-18T12:54:00.001-05:00

Things have been crazy the last month or so for me. They crammed my last two flights at the RAG into the last two days I was there, so I did my final Check ride on Friday, flew out to San Diego Sunday, and started SERE monday! SERE was some crazy training. We had one week of class, then that Friday they take us up to the field and we train how to survive and evade capture in groups of about 12. We didn't eat hardly anything, but you don't really feel hungry after the first day. That was some super yut stuff, I was loving every minute of it. Well, that's kind of a lie. Since it was so cold at night, they didn't let us sleep in our two man shelters, so they crammed the 55 of us into a shack one night and some conex boxes the next. We were literally all on our sides nut to butt. Well, I made sure to get next to one of the cute females, so it wasn't so bad for me ; ) The POW camp, well, that was an experience I will never forget. I'm not allowed to talk much about it, but I have a whole new appreciation for people in prison and detainees and POWs. It was amazing to find how easily I can be exploited for information and propaganda. I also have a whole new definition of cold.

Epic Trip to San Diego

2009-01-25T22:36:00.002-05:00

So Today was pretty epic for me, although it didn't really have to be. It started out ok, Dad got me to the airport well ahead of my flight, which turned out to be a good thing. I was selected for additional screening at the airport and got to do the whole pat down and swipe my luggage thing. Unfortunately this meant that the multitool I had forgotten was in my backpack was discovered. Since it had a small knife on it, I couldn't take it on the plane. I had to grab all my stuff and go back out to baggage services to leave the leatherman there for Dad to pick up later. I headed back up the escalator to go back to my gate, then realized I left my boarding pass at the desk. Shit. I went back and picked it up. Sweet. I got back to the escalator. Where's my ID? Shit. Back to the desk, sweet, there's my ID. Back up the escalator, on the tram, back to security. Sir I see you've been selected for additional screening. I went already. You have to go again. I instantly became a hostile traveller. No one got much of a peep out of me after that. Freaking TSA. I don't feel any safer with them around. After all, no one's going to hijack a plane anymore. They're going to get the living hell kicked out of them by passengers not wanting to die. The 9/11 attacks completely changed the way hijackings work. Previously, it meant being stuck on a plane while the terrorists negotiated for what they wanted. After 9/11, it meant certain death, and no box cutter or pocket knife is going to save anyone that tries to hijack a plane. Anyways, I made the connection ok, then got to San Diego. Mel and Her boyfriend Ryan picked Chris and I up from the Airport and we got some awesome Mexican food for lunch/dinner. San Diego is super nice so far by the way. When we were dropped off at the BOQ, we went in a found a ridiculously long line. Turned out their network had gone down and the people were having a hard time doing things the old fashioned way. Chris and I got rooms next to each other and when I went to get in my room, I found it was already occupied by an elderly man. It was kind of awkward.So I just put my stuff in Chris' room next door and we worked it out with the q for us to just both stay in the same room to save some money. That's it for now, I'll let everyone know how SERE goes this week!

The Ski Trip Part 2

2009-01-25T21:56:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately I didn't continue the ski trip narrative close enough to the trip, and now I've lost alot of the memories. Hopefully I'll be able to get must of the fun points.

Tuesday: Tuesday was our first real day of skiing. It had been a while since the mountain had natural snow, so everything we were skiing on was artificial and very icy. The temperature was quite nice, letting me ski with just a light jacket on. We skied mostly greens in the morning, then split up in the afternoon. I tried some blues and wasn't quite up to the challenge yet. One run I didn't turn in time and launched myself into some pines on the side of the run. It took me quite a while to get untangled from that! I chatted with a bunch of people I rode the lift with. One couple I rode with, the husband turned out to be an Academy grad! Class of '78 I think. He actually works with the father of one of my campers from when I did Summer seminar. Crazy huh! We decided to not go night skiing since we had heard the night ski slopes were super icy. We tried to eat a nice dinner at one of the restaurants in the village but all the waits were 2 hours or more! The night was not a total loss, as we were able to buy tickets to a new year's eve party for the next night.

Wednesday: Wednesday we woke up early again and got ready for a full day on the slopes. When we went to leave, we discovered it had started snowing! We got put together and jumped in the car, hoping to get up the mountain before the roads became impassable for Brendan's car. We got about 200 yards before the car refused to make any more progress up the mountain. I was pretty upset, and let it show more than I should have. I was taking out my frustration on Mike and Jess and Brendan. Not good. I did my best to reign it in, and we made the best of the day playing in the snow and taking pictures. Brendan and I got our lift tickets moved from Wednesday to Friday so we could not lose a whole day of skiing. I also got to spend some quality time reading and drinking beer in the hot tub :) It was New Year's Eve, and we went up the Mountain to Hoots, where we had tickets to the new years party. We got a couple drinks and scoped out the scene. Then played out possibly the longest two games of Darts ever. We were talking to the girl guarding the door, she was from Peru and studying in West Virginia. Later we moved over to the dance floor and did the usual cha cha slide, cupid shuffle and electric slide. I made friends with a group of college kids and were dancing with some of the girls. I couldn't get Brendan out to the dance floor though. Overall a pretty successful night.

Thursday: Thursday was destined to be an epic day of skiing. We were on the slopes by 930 and started strong, running some of the faster greens right off the bat. Mike and Jess and I were trying to stick together while Brendan went and did his own thing. I went down one of the slopes about half way and waited for them to ski by so I could take some action pictures, but I didn't do a very good job. When O went to stop, I found a nice little patch of powder off to one side and went to set up there. Unfortunately the powder was about half an inch thick and was just covering a whole field of rocks. When I went to stop i totally wiped out. There was a snowboarder just getting up a little ways down the slope that said the same thing happened to him. I felt like a dumbass, and my skis got pretty gouged up. Good thing they were rentals and I got the wear and tear insurance! We split up in the afternoon, but it wasn't nearly as fun for me as a my solo time Tuesday. Just didn't sit to as personable people, or I wasn't as much in the mood. After day skiing, we went to Silver Creek for night skiing and stopped for some pizza. We skied until 830 that night! The blowers had been going all day, leaving very large mounds of snow to maneuver around and many oh shit moments for Mike and Jess and I. It was a freaking blast! Not the 12 hour day I was looking for, but pretty close right? Needless to say, we passed out pretty quick that night.

Friday: Our last day. We got up a little early and packed everything up to check out of our hotel. Leaving the keys in the room, we headed up to Silver Creek again to ski for the morning before leaving. Unfortunately, they had combed the slopes the night before, and the big mounds we were having fun with the night before weren't there anymore. Sad. I managed to convince all the McAveys to do some of the black diamond runs out there. It was fun once we got the hang of it! We had some of our best and most comical wipe outs that day as well. Once I fell starting one of the runs, but the first hill was so steep, I just kept sliding and sliding and sliding. And Jess kept laughing and laughing and laughing! I wish we had video of that one! Oh well. We left that afternoon thoroughly skied out and happy, and started our 16 hour trek back to Tampa. And that was the ski trip in a nutshell!! Hope you enjoyed our epic tale!

The Ski Trip Part 1

2009-01-06T19:07:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been just about a month since I last wrote. True to my word I was quite busy at the squadron. Then I went on leave for two weeks and almost all the people that know my blog exists were seeing me for real life! The first week was relatively uneventful, an the second weekend was the sweet ski trip. This is the first of a multi-part installment chronicling our epic ski Trip.

Sunday: I got to the McAvey's about 0100 from hanging out in Indian Rocks Beach. We plan on departing at 0430 or 0500. So, a sweet 3 hour nap before we start driving. I think I'll be passed out in the car right away. We leave the house about 5 and start to drive, but pretty soon we realize that all the power is out in the whole area near the house. No Traffic lights or anything. Pretty lucky we had power, otherwise who knows when we would have woken up. At about 830 we arrive in Jax where I need to stop and feed my fish and pick up a couple things from the Apartment. Of course the ten-day feeders I bough the week prior were forgotten in my car when we left that morning and Petsmart didn't open until 9. Luckily there were some employees there that were kind enough to help me out and let me in early. Definitely five stars for them! After about an hour delay total in jax, we got back on the road and headed up to Richmond to see Chris Bongard and his Girlfriend Mia. I was very excited to meet Mia since I never met the one girlfriend I'd known Chris to have Plebe year. We used Brenden's points (Courtesy of many Air Force paid hotel stays) to stay at a hotel in north Richmond and met Chris and Mia at the adjacent Diner. It was nice to see Chris and meet Mia, she's awesome, excellent at giving Chris shit and keeping him in line. I'm confident I'm leaving him in good hands.

Monday: We got underway at about 0900 and headed west toward Snowshoe We drove through some serious country. I mean way out in the middle of nowhere. There was at least 20 miles of empty road between each little town. We noticed the continual reduction in size of post offices with relation to the towns. One town had the city hall and post office all in one building only slightly bigger than a trailer. We wondered how many jobs there could be in each town and what everyone did for a living. We speculated that at the post office/city hall there would be one guy working that was the mayor, post master, city clerk etc. and he had different desks for each job and he would send someone to the different desks where he'd do different voices and maybe put on glasses or a hat. I was particularly impressed by the tenacity of Americans to blow a road into some of the terrain we were going through. The scenery was very nice, especially for us Floridians who are used to flat and strip malls everywhere. We arrived at Snowshoe at about 4 and checked into our hotel. Then we checked out the Tubing but found out all the spots had been reserved for the rest of the evening, so after a few minutes of debate we decided to go night skiing. We went back down to rent skis and a snowboard for Brenden. The first night of skiing was fun, getting back into the swing of things. Also, the bindings on my Skis were set too wide, so I wasn't able to clip in properly. I had to put my pole between the toe of my boot and the forward binding. We got that adjusted after we were done.

I lied

2008-12-08T17:19:00.002-05:00

So I lied. I'm looking at the news tonight, and apparently progressive (really liberal) Democrats are angry Obama is making a lot of Centrist picks for his Cabinet. That is the kind of bullshit that pisses me off about Washington, the last thing we need is a democrat controlled congress and a ridiculously left stacked Executive branch. We'd start to look an awful lot like a socialist France or Sweden awfully fast. Obama ran a centrist campaign, pledging an administration that would cross party lines and bring people together. All those guys on the way left are out of their minds if they think a centrist Presidency is a bad thing.

Also people saying that if the Big 3 file Ch. 11 bankruptcy will result in millions of people losing their jobs are crazy. The whole industrial base of the US won't collapse if these companies file bankruptcy. Delta filed Ch. 11 and retained the vast majority of their work force, albeit at wildly reduced salaries. (Sux Dad : / ) Also, even if the companies go completely under, the plants and supporting industries won't just all get blown up. There's plenty of other Auto companies that I'm sure would love to buy up the pieces of GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Damn commies.

Been a while

2008-12-07T21:30:00.002-05:00

I know it's been a while since I last posted, last week was crazy though. I had two sims and a flight, and tomorrow I have another sim and probabaly at least another sim and flight this week. I really don't like how most of my time here has been pretty slow paced and now in the last month they just blow us through everything in three weeks! Anyways, I hope I make it through these next two weeks before the yule time break ok. If I read me, I wouldn't expect any deep thoughts.

Political Systems

2008-12-02T13:57:00.001-05:00

Found this stumbling on the internet today:

http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/politics.html

Politics Explained

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

(Original source unknown . . . this version expanded and Illuminated by SJ.)

Machinery of Freedom

2008-11-24T17:06:00.000-05:00

So my buddy Chris Moore loaned me a book that he said I must read. That it explains all his views so perfectly. So, being the good friend I am, I read it and actually took notes! Look at me being all studious even now. The book is called The Machinery of Freedom by David Friedman. It was written in the '70s but since it's an expression of an economic system, there isn't much dated about it, just a few legal and price references here and there. Anyway, after reading it, I've been pushed heavily in the direction of becoming a libertarian. (Libertarian: 2 a: a person who upholds the principles of individual liberty especially of thought and action bcapitalized : a member of a political party advocating libertarian principles)

Here's my thoughts on the book, enjoy!

Friedman heavily extols the benefits and logic of an anarcho-capitalist society. Specifically, he values and describes a society where people can live free of coercion. He argues that everything should be legal and people should be able to live their lives in any way they choose. In this sort of environment, capitalist competition would ensure everything runs as efficiently as possible and provides the customer with the best product at a fair price.

Police and courts would be replaced by protection agencies and arbitration firms. Schools would be privatized along with medical care and everything else. The idea is, if there is no government, people are free to spend their earnings in any way they choose. Instead of forcing everyone to pay an equal amount for everyone's wants and needs, they pay only for their own. For example, instead of paying Social Security to support people on welfare and of sufficient age a monthly stipend, you get that money to do with as you choose, perhaps to provide for your own Grandparents.

Friedman argues that these kinds of programs, though intended to help the poor, actually transfer money from the poor to the not poor. The poor pay a greater proportion of their income on these programs while receiving less of the benefits. Take social security for example, the not poor live longer than the poor, and therefore will draw social security for a longer period of time. I've simplified things quite a bit, but that's the general idea.

The idea of a private police force and court system particularly intrigued me. Friedman theorizes that in a anarcho-capitalist society, private defense agencies will take the place of police. Instead of paying taxes to support city police forces, you would pay a monthly or yearly fee to have yourself and your belongings protected by one of these agencies. If there were a dispute between agencies, there would be arbitration firms that would settle the disputes. What would stop the arbitration firms from simply selling their decision to the highest bidder? The free market. Friedman says that if a firm should begin to allow money or other political factors to influence their decisions, they would quickly find themselves and the defense agencies they work with out of business as people sought out other firms to take their business to. I found the following quote particularly striking: "There are many inhabitants of the ghetto who would gladly pay $20 a year if in exchange they actually got protection;many of them have more than that stolen every year as a result of the lousy protection they get from our government run system."

In the end, the line that really got me feeling the whole libertarian vibe was this one: "It is no more than a slightly exuberant exaggeration to say that a government functions properly only if it is made up exclusively of saints, and an anarchy fails only if it is inhabited exclusively by saints."

Under anarcho-capitalism, people pay the market value for all goods and services, including laws. Since people are diverse and have different wants and needs, this ensures the most good for the most people. No one pays for programs they do not utilize, and are free to pay as much or as little as they feel necessary on things like education, protection, and retirement. This particularly appeals to my idea that people should be left to deal with the consequences of their actions.

My main problem with this society is that it depends on each person have one motivation only: Honest Profit. Unfortunately, people in charge of companies are willing to take risks and even waste money to save face, increase power, and spread their ideals. Unfortunately, men are not angels, and we will always need some government. However, after reading this book I feel that government should be as limited as practical in order to allow capitalism the most freedom to control the market and hold people like auto makes and investment banks responsible for their actions.

As I said earlier, I've simplified much of what I've talked about and left a lot out. Feel free to e-mail if you want to know more!

The Auto Bailout

2008-11-21T19:33:00.002-05:00

So the terms for the Auto Companies to get these big bailout loans were released by Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid today. I my humble opinion, they are weeeaaaak. Seriously, there's no concrete language anywhere in any of the questions like "Executive compensation shall not exceed x." The whole damn thing is total bull. I also am pissed at the United Auto Workers for not giving any concessions to help out with the company that is paying for everything they have. If they wanted to and had the resources, the auto companies could just fire all the union workers and hire new ones under contract to never join a union. There's an awful lot of people out there that just lost their jobs that sure would love to get a new one working in an auto factory.
Anyways, here's what I found:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2008/11/congress_to_autos_here_are_ter.html#more

As promised earlier today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sent a letter to the heads of GM, Ford and Chrysler this afternoon spelling out the terms that the troubled automakers must meet before Congress will consider a multi-billion-dollar, quick-cash loan to help them stay in business.

Congressional leaders gave automakers a list of promises that must be made in writing by Dec. 2 so Congress can come back for a second lame-duck session on Dec. 8 to consider the loans.

Here is what Congress needs from Detroit before it will release any loans:

-- A "forthright, documented assessment" of the Big Three's cash position, short-term liquidity needs and plans to meet their financing needs.

-- Estimates of how much money Detroit needs based on auto sales at current, better and worse levels.

-- "Transparency and accountability," including balance-sheet reporting to the government.

-- A promise to pay the government loans back before loans the Big Three has secured from private lenders.

-- The provision of sweeteners to taxpayers in the form of warrants or other mechanisms.

-- A promise to bar the payment of dividends to shareholders and "excessive compensation, including bonuses and golden parachutes." (Note the lack of a concrete figures on bonus and salary limits; this will provide automakers with some wiggle room to retain key executives.)

-- Proposals to continue paying health care and pension obligations.

-- A demonstration that the Big Three will be able to hit fuel-efficiency standards set for by Congress last year and "and become a long-term global leader in the production of energy-efficient advanced technology vehicles." (Again, wiggle room.)

-- An agreement that the government loans will be immediately callable if Congress's requirements are not met.

Aren't we the land of the Free?

2008-11-20T09:36:00.000-05:00

The following was a reply to an article discussing Gov. Schwarzenegger's opposition to California's Prop. 8 which bans gay marriage as a legal institution. the Tony mentioned is Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, a christian right lobby. To the writer of this post, I say "Awesome burn dude."

Dear Tony,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law.

I have learned a great deal from you and understand why you would propose and support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. As you said, "in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man and a woman." I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? She is 6 years old, healthy, and very smart. She doesn't want to be a slave, so that might be a problem.

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanness - Lev.15: 19 24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?

7. Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear contact lenses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though Lev. 19 expressly forbids this: How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves? What should we do with the NFL?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14) I know you have studied these
things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Lemon of a Deal

2008-11-15T16:07:00.002-05:00

So I caved (As I sometimes do) and posted a comment about an article I read in the post. Here's the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/13/AR2008111303348.html

And here's my response:

I feel government 'bailing out' the American auto companies would be a mistake. I believe America is fundamentally a capitalist country, so let's be capitalists. It seems to me that most of the big companies with strong lobbies want government to stay out of their business until they eat it and want a safety net. The Free market does not work if companies are not allowed to succeed and fail freely, and having government control over the American auto companies would be a very big step in the direction of socialism, no matter how well intentioned the government is.

The American car companies, for the most part, rode the big truck/SUV wave for all it was worth and let their sedans and small cars fall behind in quality. There are few fuel efficient, affordable American brand cars than can compete with Japanese and Korean made models. This turned out to be a poor business practice, and they should be held accountable by the market.

I propose to spend the money not to save jobs, but to create new ones. In the New Deal, the Roosevelt administration spent money on public works projects. The people laid off by failing companies found government work digging ditches, building roads, power plants, and bridges. The Tennessee Valley Authority still operates today as a privately owned energy company.

Instead of trying to save our past, let's invest in our future. Let's spend Bailout money on solar plants and windmills and harvesting natural gas. What's to stop a guy or gal who puts engines in cars move to a job putting gears in a windmill? We can simultaneously stimulate the economy by paying people to build stuff and help break our dependence on foreign oil. Later these facilities could be sold off to Private companies to help pay back the taxpayer's investment.

How does this relate back to the Auto Companies? I say let them lay in the bed they made. Let capitalism do what it's supposed to do.

A New Party!

2008-11-14T16:44:00.000-05:00

I believe I’ve recently discovered the reason I’m such a middle of the road guy when it comes to politics. I’m a cultural liberal and a fiscal conservative. However, as it currently stands in Washington, I only have the choice between two parties. The Republicans are culturally conservative and are supposed to be fiscally conservative as well. However, the last eight years under a republican president, (six of which were with a republican congress) has seen the largest increase in government size, spending and power in American history. The Democrats, on the other hand, are culturally and fiscally liberal. By the way, when I say culturally liberal, I mean supporting things like gay rights to marriage, being pro-choice, etc. When I say being fiscally conservative, I mean supporting lower taxes and smaller, less powerful central government.

With the two parties drifting further and further apart in recent years, it seems to me that there is room for a third party, of my creation of course. This new party would support both cultural liberties and small central government. It could be called the Liberty Party. We would support measures like cutting government spending, handing more power to the states, giving more rights to the people and balancing the national budget. I would take a very Sim City approach to corporate taxation, voting to increase taxes on industries I wanted to discourage, and voting to decrease taxes on ones I wished to encourage. For example, I personally would vote to increase taxes on oil companies and decrease taxes on companies involved in wind power, CNG, and solar. I would vote to enact the Fair Tax plan, abolishing the federal income tax and instituting the new federal sales tax, and I would vote against the massive “rescue plan” that was recently passed. People supporting my party would want to live in a society where people enjoy (or suffer) the economic and social consequences of their actions and are free to get to heaven or hell however they choose. Government on the national level would exist mostly to keep an eye on the states, provide and maintain Interstate highways, and maintain a small, flexible military.

That being said, there could also be room for another party, of someone else’s creation that was both culturally conservative and fiscally liberal. This party might be called the Guardian party. The members of the Guardian Party would believe in the idea that there is absolute right and wrong, and that it would be their duty to save the populace from themselves. This is mostly where the Republican Party stands now, but the Guardians would believe in a large, well funded national government to keep an eye out for the people and ensure they don’t live unwholesome lives. They would vote to abolish abortion and gay marriage, and they would vote to increase taxes to fund crusades against drugs, pornography, and terrorism. People supporting this party would want to feel safe under its umbrella; protected from terrorism and comfortable in the security of wholesome society.
That’s all I’ve got for now, I think this would be a fun subject to pursue in the future, so more posts on it can be expected.

A Little Background

2008-11-13T19:29:00.004-05:00

Here's something I wrote about a month before the election, just after I had finished reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Just to get things going:

I can’t help but feel we are in some deep doo doo. Maybe it’s all just media hype, but everyone is up in arms about global warming, fossil fuels, and the environment. What seems to be the general gut feeling across America is we are headed toward a future we don’t want, one where our ports are underwater, most of the Continental U.S. is a desert, and Canada is now one of the breadbaskets of the world eh? Unfortunately, the biggest companies most capable of developing new energy technologies do not find it in their interest to do so. The only other entity that could force these changes to come about is the National government.

So what is holding the U.S. back from making sweeping changes in our energy infrastructure and motivating the nation to take on one of its biggest collective challenges since putting a man on the moon? The culture of privilege, pork and lethargy that seems to prevail in our nation’s capitol leaves little motivation for our elected officials to really do anything. After all, when most of your money comes from lobbyists trying to get you to see things from their point of view, why would you commit to one side or another when you can bask in a radiant flow of $$$? If I can get tobacco and big oil to give me money and things in exchange for voting a certain way on a bill or two, or even just not voting, why shouldn’t I let them? I put in a lot of money and effort to get to Washington, so why shouldn’t I enjoy some of the benefits? I’m not doing my constituents wrong, I’m making sure lots of money goes from federal coffers to fund projects that may not benefit the nation as a whole, but will bring free money and jobs to my district.

The simple matter is, there is very little besides a personal drive or sense of purpose to motivate modern politicians to do anything except toe their party line and do what they must to get re-elected and continue riding the gravy train. We see people making whole careers of living in Washington, all the while getting further and further out of touch from the people who live outside I-495. In our nation’s capitol it’s more about who you know than what you do.

What does this have to do with the environment and renewable energy? The deep entrenchment of 20th century interests in today’s government is holding back our nation’s progress. Many of our current politicians came to office in a world that did not worry about global warming or the economy’s increasing dependence on petroleum. They worried about oil supply and price, but never considered a need to find an alternative. As long as supply could be increased, prices would go back down, and everyone would be happy. A very capitalist way of solving a problem, but one that lacks foresight and concern for future generations. Capitalism is based on the idea that people will do whatever it takes to get ahead, and do not concern themselves with the welfare of others past how it benefits them. While there are exceptions to every rule, I find this view of human nature to be remarkably (and sadly) accurate. In fact, $4 gas may be the best possible thing that could happen to our economy. The market forces it generates will push money away from oil and toward cheaper alternatives.

What can we do to solve this problem? We must make America energy self-sufficient. We must be able to power our economy from resources other than oil. Only when we can power ourselves from within using wind, solar, hydrogen, wave, geothermal, or whatever else energy is available, we remain in critical danger of our economy collapsing. That is speaking from a strictly capitalist and economic point of view, never mind the warm fuzzy environmental benefits like preventing massive climate change. People in America enjoy our status as a leading world power, and don’t want that to change. We don’t even need to commit to one type of power either. Wind power would be great in places like the Midwest, with huge windy plains perfect for wind farms. The desert areas of the southwest would be great places to put solar plants.

We no longer live in a world where we can cut trees, drive big trucks, and drill for oil to our heart’s content. We must break our dependence on oil to drive the economy. America came to the fore of World affairs because it proved to be far and away the mightiest industrial power on earth. That industrial might was based on oil and its by-products. What happens if our supplies from places like Russia, the Middle East, and South America are suddenly shut off? We don’t produce nearly enough to keep our economy going on its own steam (so to speak). We would quickly find ourselves a third world country, with cars and trucks abandoned on the side of the road, factories shut down, and unemployed people crowding cities looking for work and charity. Scary? You bet your ass.

Welcome!

2008-11-13T18:55:00.001-05:00

Well, after many years with Xanga, I think it's time for a move. Google seems to be the way to go for almost everything these days, and who am I to argue with progress?