RETIRED WARRANT

Idiots behind the wheel

Well I have been really busy today and am taking a brief time to write something before I go back to work. I have already worked through lunch getting a few things done and now it is time to take a breather for a little while.

The way to work this morning was interesting again today. I was following one of the people that lives up a few streets from me. He ran two stop signs and a red light and luckily I didn’t have to follow him past the red light.

I then got behind someone who was too busy talking on her cell phone to use her turn signals. So it was just a little frustrating watching these people on my way to work and knowing that there are a lot more of these folks on the roads here.

I got to work and had to light off the full OTCIXS/TADIXS for a demonstration and introductory lesson. I was glad everything worked great and everything went smoothly. I got through about half of the classroom work and will finish that up tomorrow. Then we will roll into the lab and that really goes fast.

I did take a little time trying to figure out something game related for a fed mate, but he won’t be happy with the answer. Laila and I have been playing around with the way we post op and we were trying to have him use the same method but with the ships he uses it will not work.

Anyway I am now being requested to look something up so let me check that out and get this one posted for the day. Work comes first and I guess I have taken enough of a break today.

This morning was not fun

This morning was one of those mornings where I got up when the clock went off and then just hit the snooze twice and stayed in bed. I still managed to get up and get a shower and all and got online before 6 AM but I was really not very motivated to get going this morning.

Anyway the first thing that happened when I logged on this morning is that I found out one of our members hit one of our allies. Then when I saw who he hit I got even angrier. Jedi’s fed carries the same banner as our fed so there can be no confusion about that one. Also this fed mate would have had to be pretty low in PR to attack that empire. Needless to say I am pretty angry that someone would hit a member of our training fed.

Also this person failed to post OP when he came in so I will be watching. He is never on when Joe, Sam or I are on so I usually don’t see him, but Laila is my eyes and ears when I am asleep and lets me know what is going on. If this guy has a problem with not hitting allies and not posting OP then he can do it someplace else, as I will have no time for him.

The way to work was a nightmare this morning. The guy 2 doors up either lent or sold something to a friend and the item was too big to fit in the guy’s trunk. So they kind of tied the trunk halfway shut and he drove really slow to get out of our little subdivision. Guess who was behind the guy?

Anyway, once I got out of the subdivision I was fine until I got to the freeway and then it was a parking lot. Because it was a parking lot everyone was using the off ramp lanes to get a jump on traffic meaning they could like pass a whole ten cars before forcing their way back into the freeway lanes and extending he backup further.

I don’t know why people have to do dumb stuff like that. When one person cuts another off on the freeway it starts a chain reaction for miles behind as people brake for the brake lights ahead.

If everyone would just follow the laws and be courteous the freeways would run smoothly. Of course this is California and everyone is too busy fixing their hair, talking on their cell phone, or reading the paper on their way to work so that is probably too much to ask.

Well time to get ready to go give the test and get going for the day.

Double Sign Alert

This morning getting to work was a mess. As I was getting ready to go this morning I had the news on and they were talking about a double sign alert on the I-5 south at 28th street. That is right in front of the base and also just south of the Coronado Bridge. I guess the first one was due to big rig roll over accident and the second was for a van that ran off the road and hit a light pole in the backup.

As a result, all the traffic switched over to the I-805 and that was backed up when I got on it, something that is rare for a Friday. I did get to work, in plenty of time, it was just interesting to see how all the traffic switched freeways.

On the way in listening to the radio they were talking about some black hole that has been discovered that is one billion light years across. That is pretty big. They didn’t talk much about it other than to say the have found it. I hope it is not headed our way.

Laila’s internet has been repaired. It again was another wiring problem. I guess it was possibly related to the typhoons and all the bad weather that have been having lately.

Anyway they have it fixed now so we are back up until the next typhoon I guess.

I now have the dates lined up for my next visit to the Philippines so I can use up this years vacation time. Laila will be happy with that. Now I just have to get off today so I can start making the plans.

So I guess that is it for this week here. I will try and get something posted over the weekend, but sometimes I get busy and forget all about it, so I’ll have to see.

Various things in the news

Today is the second Monday of the week and there is so much going on in the news and all so I actually have something to blog about.

First off Laila is back to having internet problems so we were not able to talk on Skype other than for the 20-30 seconds that I managed to get it up for before it dropped. She has already put in a trouble call to her provider and hopefully they will get it fixed by the time I get home today. Needless to say that kind of messed up the morning routine for us.

On my way to work this morning I was following a silver late model Nissan Frontier pickup truck up the onramp to the I 805. It is one of those metered onramps with two lanes to get on. The lights are staggered and this guy was in the left lane while I was in the right lane. He got to the light just as it turned red and then jumped lanes to catch the light in the right hand lane. All of that and almost causing a wreck to save maybe 15 seconds of time getting on to the freeway, where I immediately passed him. Some people here need to go back to driving school.

Oh and I almost forgot, after a week off, maybe for vacation or something I saw my favorite National City motorcycle police officer back on the beat on my route to work. He was there yesterday and again this morning and both times he had people pulled over. I can’t tell you how great that makes me feel as some people treat the streets through National City as a speedway. They also ignore traffic signals and signs, so I am happy when I see them pulled off the side of the road getting a ticket.

Yesterday I guess our local congressman Bob Filner made the national news by assaulting an airline employee in Washington DC. I guess he feels he has some kind of special privileges as a congressman and maybe now the people of this district will see the news reports and get rid of this guy. The guy is a jerk and this is not the first incident. Usually he convinces people to drop the charges, but this time charges were filed.

Also in the news Michael Vick went ahead and pled guilty to animal abuse over his dog fighting case. I figure he will get 1 to 1.5 years in prison, and I hope just because he is a famous football player he does not get a light sentence. There is no excuse for raising dogs just to fight in competition or killing the ones that don’t fight so well. I guess he was going to fight it until all his friends went ahead and told the truth to protect their own butts. He was then forced to go for a plea and I hope they hammer him.

Then I was watching the news reports of this illegal alien who has been all over the news while hiding out in a church in Chicago. She was caught and deported I guess about ten years ago, and then came back into the country with a fake SSN. She was working at Chicago’s O’Hare airport cleaning planes. That makes me really feel safe, is Osama Bin Laden also cleaning planes at O’Hare since they can’t seem to find him?

About a year or so ago she got caught and was supposed to go to a deportation hearing but instead started hiding out in a church and speaking out against the US Government policies on immigration. She is using the “I have to take care of my American born son (Anchor baby) as he has no father and is ill with attention deficit disorder” defense. Why not just say he has a common cold.

Anyway she went ahead and decided she was important enough to go to California to speak at one of these overthrow the US (no borders) rallies and got picked up and deported by the INS. Now everyone is screaming about how cruel the government is.

Well what about this woman. While I see all the news reports that seem to be sympathetic to her, where is the sympathy for the person whose identity she stole? Who’s SSN was she using to work here in this country illegally? Whose taxes are all screwed up now, and whose credit has been damaged? You don’t hear anything about that.

This morning I heard one of the more ignorant callers I have ever heard call into a radio show. I would have lost my patience and hung up on her, but Rick Roberts did a wonderful job great job getting this lady to say totally stupid stuff.

He asked her if we should have the same immigration policy as Mexico and she said yes. So that means they should have medical checkups and a means of support according to Mexican policy. Well she back pedaled on that. At one point she even went so far as to say that Mexico owned California, Arizona, New Mexico and all. Guess she forgot all about the Spanish American War and the fact that Mexico was given back the land they have now and paid for the land now owned by the United States.

Another news tidbit that didn’t get much play was that the Presidents of Mexico and the US met with the Prime Minister of Canada in Ottawa yesterday to discuss the SPP program. That is that program that will merge Canada, Mexico, and the US together sort of like the European Union. It is all being done under the table and the majority of Americans don’t know about it as it does not get much play in the news.

I guess one morning we will wake up and all of North America will be one country and then the average American will ask what the heck happened.

Also yesterday I caught another news item about another Chinese recall, of pajama’s this time. What is with all these Chinese imports? I guess Wal Mart is going to have to find another supplier of goods in the future.

Well I guess that is it for today. I have to get started on getting some work done.

Something I like seeing

Today I had to come in a bit early to open up the classroom and labs. I guess I should have thought about it a little more as I can’t start the labs anyway, until I get another instructor so that we have enough safety observers. The military guys all have PT today so I suppose I will have to put the class on a break until they get back.

The past two weeks I have seen something that has made me pretty happy. On my way to the freeway each morning I catch 16th street through National City for a few blocks. People use it as a speedway and never seem to follow the posted speed limit. The past two weeks every morning there has been a motorcycle policeman on the street, usually with someone pulled over, and I welcome it. Also since today is trash day with him being there I did not see any of the shopping cart bums rooting through people’s trash. All in all it is a win win situation, and I hope to see this policeman each morning.

This morning on the radio the subject was about Barry Bonds and his breaking Hank Aaron’s record for home runs.

Even though he has not been positively caught using steroids and performance enhancing drugs, most people feel he has. He has made enough money in his career to pay for high priced lawyers and all to keep things quiet.

When he gets the record I think it should get the little asterisk like the one that Roger Maris has all those years after breaking Babe Ruth’s record. He had the asterisk for playing more games in a season than the Babe. He also had to put up with adverse pressure from the press and fans who wanted Mickey Mantle to break it.

Aaron had the same things going on as many people did not want a black man to break the records. He had death threats and all kinds of things going on. I remember when Aaron broke the Babe’s all time home run record and also remember that nobody really realized he was that close to it until the last couple of years. Aaron was just so consistent over the years. He quietly gained all those home runs having just about the same total runs each year throughout his career.

Bonds, McGwire, Canseco and others have been flashy hitting their home runs. They have also dwarfed others in size and strength. Canseco actually came out and admitted he used steroids and told about others that were using them. McGwire denies using them but it appears that he was and also it affected his being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in the first year of his eligibility. I have a feeling the same thing will happen to some to some of these other players that have been suspected of using steroids.

I think all records set by players suspected of using performance enhancing drugs should have an asterisk after their name in the record books. That is just my personal opinion. By allowing these guys to set records and have the records stand tarnishes the game.

Also another thing that was brought up is what is it with these sports hero’s and the troubles they have been having with the law? The latest sports guy to get in trouble is Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick over illegal dog fighting and animal abuse. Yeah, I know he has not been found guilty of anything yet but since it is a 40 page federal indictment and some of his friends have come out in the open and confirmed things with the press, I figure he will have some problems. But then he is a rich sports guy and can hire a few high priced lawyers to get him off.

The comments today on the radio were basically about if these guys did not have professional sports to turn to they would probably be in prison and would have been living a life of crime. The only problem is that they still have the gang banger mentality and with the income from sports they are nothing more than rich gang bangers. I guess that is why I have lost interest in watching professional sports. Yeah I watch the big games but they have all lost me as a fan.

Well time to get to work, so I guess I will get this saved. I have to earn my pay check.

HA HA HA HA HA

Today is Friday, hurray for that.

I got up on time and talked to Laila before taking off for work. I remembered to take my jury paperwork just in case they needed it and drove in. There was a lot more traffic this morning than there usually is on a Friday, but I made it to work wait plenty of time to spare.

Now I am just waiting to see what I will be doing for the day. I will be either teaching the Receive side of the Transceiver or helping work on the antenna system. It looks like it is more in the direction of working on the antenna.

Well I found out and it was teaching. It is now lunch time and I taught all morning and also go my quarterly evaluation done so it was a very good morning. After turning the class loose for the weekend, I went ahead and helped with maintenance for a while and now I am sitting down for a few minutes.

I have to stop off and get dog food on the way home and I am thinking on grabbing something already prepared for dinner so I don’t have to cook today. I am going to start out the weekend by being a little lazy.

I just saw the funniest thing. I was talking with one of the guys and we went outside to the break area where it is warm. Someone had hired a sky writer to start over NASSCO Shipyard and write HA HA HA HA HA over the area of the wreck yesterday. It was pretty funny.

Well I guess that is it for now. Looks like I might be needed again to assist with some more maintenance.

A very busy day

Wow, what a morning, well, actually I think it started last night and just continued into today. Yesterday after the class finished their practice troubleshooting we shoved them off for the day and then started doing our routine maintenance on some of the transceivers and the DAMA units. It really wasn’t that bad, as we just had to check the oscillator frequencies and adjust the voltages for the voltage driven oscillators. As long as we make sure we let them warm up long enough they usually are not that hard to do even with the age of the equipment.

Anyway everything was going fine until it came time to check the 5 Mhz oscillator for the DAMA. It was low and needed to be adjusted. To adjust it you have to take off the top and bottom panels then extend the unit with almost all the cables disconnected to the 90 degree position. You then have to remove the oscillator and adjust it then wait for ten minutes and check it for drift. If it drifts then you have to adjust it again and wait another ten minutes. Luckily we got it the first time but taking off the covers and cables and then having to put everything back together is very time consuming.

WE got that done and I left a little late to head for home. I stopped off at the post office and got the mail and stopped at the mini mart for some milk and a few other things. When I got home I opened a letter from Philippines Airlines and it was a letter of apology from the airlines for the night I got stranded in San Francisco. They also let me know that the next time I fly to Manila and back they will only charge me $438 for a round trip ticket. That is awesome and has changed my opinion of them greatly. Laila was thrilled when I gave her the good news.

After that I logged into the game while making dinner and redeemed my space programs and tried to learn the way the new fed works. They have different OP requirements and all their people go out at the same relative PR where in SG we have two levels. I then started the waiting game to DP expiration.

I finally had to go out because I had to get to sleep and all the fed mates were leaving. Since I have the empire size that I have, there is no way I will let it come out unattended because I do not have a chance to reset. That is how our empires in SG got so large. The top empires in SG never go out unattended, it is just asking for trouble.

Anyway I got put in pretty fast and then went to bed. I got up on time this morning and got my coffee and all. Laila was a little upset with her family and their lack of cooperation in helping her take care of her father. I guess some of his sisters and brothers are fairly well off but never help when family members are in need. I am not even in the family yet and I help when I can. I just hope she gets it all ironed out because I know it is stressing her out.

Anyway after we said our prayers and all I took off for work and on the way in heard a lot of the uproar about what the city council in El Cajon did yesterday. El Cajon is a city just east of San Diego. It is known for its gang, prostitutes, drugs, and illegal aliens. With all these problems the city council in their ultimate wisdom went ahead and passed a law banning the worst think of all. You can no longer smoke in public in the city of El Cajon. Great thinking guys, I guess that will help get the crime rate down.

Well after getting to work the Navy instructors all had to go to a command function so I held a review and gave the class the transmit test. I hate giving a test to classes I did not teach the entire area too, because I know what information I put out and I know how I explain things. Anyway I gave the test and there were a few failures so the guy that taught the majority of transmitters was a little unhappy. They will retest tomorrow when I am on Jury duty.

Yup tomorrow is the big day for jury duty again. I hope it goes fast. I already know that after the Erskine case I won’t have to worry about being on a jury again. The prosecution would love me but a defense attorney will kick me pretty quick I am sure.

I have been debating on driving to the trolley station and catching the trolley down to the court house as parking down town is really terrible. I guess I could go park at City College and walk but it has been really hot and humid and the walk back to the car in the afternoon would overheat me. The traffic trying to get back home would also be a killer.

Well I guess that is about it. Lunchtime is almost over and it is time to get into teaching mode. I have to remediate the students that failed so they can pass the retest.

Early reset

Last night I was really happy to get reset early and I actually went to bed before 10:30 for some much needed sleep. I woke up at four this morning looked at the clock and went back to sleep until the alarm went off. That gave me some extra time to chat with Laila and check game stats and all.

Today the freeway was practically empty which was surprising. The neighborhood roads were a little congested as the guys with shopping carts were out rooting through people’s trash today. The recycling center still hasn’t opened, but there is already a bunch of activity in the neighborhood. I wonder if there is another one open somewhere close that I haven’t seen.

Today work should be really quiet as my class graduates and I won’t start teaching the new class until they get to receivers. I will be helping when they have labs and all. I am a little worried as they appear to be a bit behind right now and it is a big class. I guess I’ll see later today when I get a look at the schedule and see where they are at. It just seems to me they are a bit behind, but I could be wrong.

Yesterday since I aggravated my tooth and all I decided rather than to attempt to eat lunch I would use the lunch hour to gas up the car. I was traveling on fumes and figured I would catch shorter lines if I went at lunch. Anyway I got in the car and drove towards the 32nd Street gate, but when I got there it was secured to outbound traffic, because they had painted new crosswalks, speed limit and lines. I had to make a u-turn and head all the way to the back gate and then go back to 32nd Street to get to the gas station. My gauge was almost to 0 when I finally pulled in to the gas station and filled up. Then when I started to head back to the building they had opened the gate to outbound traffic and were getting ready to close it to inbound traffic. I guess it was just bad timing on my part. At least the car is full again and I probably won’t have to gas up again for a month.

When I did get home I signed on and updated my posting on UC and then fell asleep at the keyboard off and on for a while. It is nice using the IRC for chat because if someone wants to get a hold of you it has an audible alarm, so that would wake me up and I could update and go back to my nap.

I did go over 10 million planets yesterday so that was a good achievement and I have been able to attack and win even with my defensive miner ships. Judy also had a good day picking up about 100K planets too.

Well I am back. I got my class graduated and then we took care of a few equipment problems that have been plaguing one of our labs. I don’t normally work there but sometimes a new set of eyes help.

We have been having compatibility problems with some new equipment we got and it has been driving the boys crazy. Anyway I went over this morning and we were looking at some stuff when I suggested that we switch ports on the master unit and that cleared up much of our problem. After that is was just reconfiguring some stuff and we had to repair one unit that had a bad circuit card.

We then also repaired a computer terminal, so all in all it was a great day. Now lunch time has rolled around and today is MWR pizza day, but since I can’t eat pizza I will go ahead and wait until I get home so I can eat something I don’t have to chew.

I guess that is about it for now. Time to see what the next item to fix is. Since we are on a roll, might as well keep going.

Busy weekend

I didn’t blog over the weekend as I just didn’t seem to get around to it, though I did get a whole ton of stuff done over the weekend. I guess we’re getting too busy with Unification Wars game, and I am sorry for lack of blogging.

Anyway over the weekend we made the commissary run, I ironed all my work clothes and we did a bunch of cleaning. It might not sound like much but with the ironing I was catching up on my own laziness. I have been doing laundry each weekend and then instead of ironing the clothes right away I have been hanging them upstairs in the closet.

I would pick out clothes that were not wrinkled from the ones there, but over time my available choices started getting smaller and smaller.

So this weekend when David did his laundry and threw my stuff in a laundry basket it was all terribly wrinkled so I broke out the iron and while pressing them I went ahead and got the stuff out of the closet and pressed it too. Now I think I can go about three maybe four weeks without doing laundry, but I don’t think that would be a very good idea.

This weekend something funny happened. On the way to the commissary I stopped off to pick up the mail and there was an express mail envelope in my post office box. The label was all faded out and unreadable, someone had removed the top copy. Anyway I opened it up to see what it was and it was a marriage license from Wisconsin. Since it obviously wasn’t for me I went back into the post office and talked to the lady at the counter. As we were talking it all of a sudden dawned on me, it was for one of my students.

Mail delivery to students is a little slow here on the base and so when someone is going to get something sent via express mail or a courier service we get it sent to one of the staff members houses. They get it quicker that was. Anyway I had forgotten that one of the students used my address for the express mail. This morning just to make sure I didn’t forget about it again I put it on the front seat of the car. He was happy to get it when he came in this morning.

Laila and family are going to see the new Harry Potter movie today while I am at work. It is evening over there and I guess they have really wanted to see it. I am not a big fan of the Harry Potter series, I guess I might be too old.

This morning getting to work was an adventure and I almost was late even though I left on time. There was a big wreck on Interstate 5 in the northbound lanes about two miles south of the naval station. Since everyone listens to the traffic report on the radio and TV they all took Interstate 805 causing it to backup.

It made the 805 a nightmare and also all the streets leading to it as everyone had the same idea on how to get to work. To make matters worse, somehow I wound up behind a cement truck when I got off the freeway and every stop sign and red light was a long wait as they are slow getting up to speed.

The gate was no problem and I zipped right through there, but then a ship’s crew was doing their Physical Readiness Test on the street we are located on, so I got stuck behind all the slow runners. I did make it on time but someone did take my normal parking spot.

Well it is time to get to work for the day.

My mouth is healing

Today my mouth feels a little better. I have been really careful to keep the area clean and I have been really careful when shaving and brushing my teeth. I hope it heals quickly so I can get back to eating solid foods. It really is a bummer to cook something good for the kids and then have to have soup myself, even though I did fudge a bit and tried some lasagna last night. But being careful I was able to chew with my back teeth and was careful to not bite with the loose ones in front.

I watched most of the Baseball All Star game last night. It was really cool to see the tribute to Willie Mays and a little sad that there are so few role models in the sport today. He was awesome both on and off the field.

It was also sad to see the National League lose again. The inside the park home run by Ichiro Suzuki was a special treat. I guess there is always next year.

To switch to another subject that I have blogged about in the past, there is a new recycling center opening up by our local post office. They closed the old one up there about a year or so ago. I don’t know why they closed it but I was glad when they did, because all it did was attract a bad element. Here in San Diego we have a trash pickup day, mine is Thursday and every two weeks they also pick up recycled materials. We have special blue trash cans for paper, cans and bottles.

On July first they raised the deposit on bottles and cans to encourage recycling, I don’t know how high they raised it but it used to be 2 cents per can and 5 cents per plastic bottle. I don’t know how much it was for glass bottles.

Anyway between them raising the prices you can get for turning them in and also with the recycling center opening back up in the neighborhood the bums are back. Today a few streets away was trash day and I saw about five or six folks out with shopping carts going through peoples trash and recycling bins. You would figure there would be a law against it. Maybe there is but it is not being enforced. I would think that with the city having money problems and all that they would start enforcing it and keeping people from rooting through people’s trash. After all when I put out my recycling bin I feel I am contributing to the city as well as doing my part for the environment. I should not be contributing to someone’s drug habit or whatever else is holding these people back in society. I also hate the fact that now when I go to the post office or the local stores that I have to pass by more and more pan handlers. I hope to see this recycling center go the way of the other one, preferably before it opens up for business.

Last night one of our Fed mates used a racial slur in the chat, and that was extremely depressing to see. He tried to justify it by saying the word was not offensive in his country of France but I don’t care where you are from or who you are. There is no place in this world for words like that and as I have traveled to many countries in my time those words are know as offensive anywhere you go. I was impressed by the way it was handled in the chat and I hope I don’t have to see things like that in the future. It is very hurtful to many people and totally uncalled for.

Laila was a little upset this morning when I got up and I really can’t blame her. She is the only member of all our allied feds that is on the ranked outpost posting list, though I think a few of us are getting close. She spends all her free time watching out for others and rarely makes a mistake that results in losses. She is always trying to help outers and improve her knowledge of the game.

Last night she was the last to refresh her DP time, through no fault of her own. She wound up going out very late and basically I was falling asleep at the keyboard. A few members said they would watch over her and sent me off to bed, but when I got up this morning she said that after I went to bed, they did to, leaving her out with only static outpost. That would not bother me so much if I were out with only static, because to break my main with the stack I use and the system defense I have would be extremely hard at the PR I play at.

Laila’s empire is much weaker than mine and is susceptible to attack. She feels betrayed, even though I did explain to her that while I went to bed at Midnight it would have been 2 AM or 3 AM where some of the team mates were. If she would have known that they were not able to stay up, they should have told her not to go out and posted static for her to go out later should nobody post, as we do have some players overseas that come on while we are asleep.

Anyway, today she will not be playing actively because she has to take care of some personal business regarding our court cases and will not be there. They can then get a taste of what it is like when she is not there all night as she usually is. I think some folks have grown to take her for granted, and that is wrong.

Today was pretty cool, as my class knocked out all the first set of troubleshooting problems and almost all of the second set. That means tomorrow we will finish second set and start the final set.

The new class started today and is pretty big. I will start teaching them on Wednesday, next week after my current class graduates. I would have liked to have started with them from day 1, but such is life.

I suppose that is it for today. I have to get this done and get back to the job since the lunch hour is ending.