RETIRED WARRANT

No tattoos for Marines now

Last year the Navy did it and now the Marines are going to do it. In a few days Marines will no longer be able to have tattoos that are visible when they are in uniform.

When I was a little kid my father was in the Navy. He and all his friends had tattoos, and in fact they all were bragging about the fact that they got them at Pinky Ricky Tattoo Parlor, Wanshai, Hong Kong. The place was world famous as one of the best places to get one.

When I was a young sailor on the White Plains the first time I went to Hong Kong that was one of the things I did. Ran right to Pinky Ricky and got my first of many. Just about everyone on the ship had one and at that time sailors were known for having tattoos. Sailors were also known for beards and moustaches but they went away in 1980.

Last year the Navy came out banning them and now in the next few days they will be banned in the Marine Corps. Actually I guess since everyone is getting tattoos, not just folks in the military, the uniqueness of it is gone now.

I was watching John Gibson’s Show on Fox News as soon as I got home yesterday. He is sometimes still on when I get home in the afternoon, and he has a section called your word where he reads letters from the audience and a section called my word where he has a comment for the day.

When Tony Snow’s cancer came back I guess the left wing blogs had quite a heyday with people wishing he would die and all. Gibson had mentioned something about it on his previous show and someone wrote in demanding that he prove they were blogging derogatory stuff.

He responded by naming the blogs, who wrote it and what time it was posted. He only had time to name three blogs, Daily Kos, the Huffington Post and one other that I don’t remember the name of, but I find it despicable. When Clinton has his heart surgery I didn’t see any of my right wing sites wishing he would die. I don’t see anyone expressing bad feelings toward Mrs. Edwards who also has cancer. I just look at the people who would write stuff like this as sub-humans.

This morning on my way in a caller called Rick Roberts to ask if he knew the requirements to become a citizen of Mexico, Canada, or Australia. They debated back and forth and basically determined that you would have a better chance of being hit by lightning or winning the lottery.

I guess that is my thoughts for today. I hope that everyone has a great week and is happy that the weekend is approaching. I know I am.

Having a good day

To the guy in the white pickup near the dry side back gate, nice try, moron. This morning I got up a few minutes late but still had plenty of time to get the morning routine in. Since I was really tired I spent a little extra time in the shower. When I have little aches and pains the warm water feels so good. Also we are having a winter storm roll through so getting out of the warm water was something to put off for a little bit.

I went ahead and got all of that done and then went downstairs and logged on to talk to Laila. She was all excited because again I finished in the top 50 of the NPC killers on Unification Wars so I won a bunch of planets.

We said the rosary and then it was off to work. The traffic was light until I got to the gate and then it was backed up quite a ways. I was kind of proud of myself this morning as some guy was driving down the shoulder or the road in this big white pickup truck. He got to an area where people were parked and then tried to cut into our lane. Even though I only have my little Volkswagen Beetle and I just got really close to the person in front of me and blocked the guy from cutting in as did several people behind me.

When I got to the gate I found out what the problem was. A new guy at the gate was carefully checking everything. He checked my sticker and both ID’s really carefully then finally waved me through. I was a little upset that it took so long since he is another instructor from the school where I have been teaching for the past 5 years! Anyway he was just doing his job so I can’t fault him.

After that I opened up the classroom since I was the first on in, and then I taught for a while. During the first break one of the other instructors said he would like to teach today so I asked him what he wanted to do. He told me the A-24 module and it just so happens that it was the next module I was going to teach, so I got a break.

So anyway, as the day progresses I hope my good fortune continues. Maybe I can hit the lottery or something.

Oh and before I go I was saddened to hear that Tony Snow, formerly of Fox News, and now the current White House Press Secretary has had his cancer reappear. He will be in my prayers.

Anyway, that’s it for today. Have a great week.

Bad weather day

Well today had been miserable day weather wise here in San Diego as we have a cold winter storm going through. One of the kids was going to go to work at the commissary today but with one look outside that idea went away fairly quickly as the rain was coming down really good.

After putting reinforcements in the game and after saying the rosary with Laila I went ahead and left a few minutes early for work knowing the traffic was going to be bad. I was not disappointed and I am glad I left a few minutes early or I would have not made it on time.

On my way in I heard something that got my anger up. I think I blogged a few months ago about the guy that had taken pictures of an illegal alien came and then got attacked by them for doing it. If some passers by had not stopped they might have killed him. Some of the pictures he took were of his attackers and they were displayed in the papers, on the web, and the news on TV.

Well now the illegal aliens are suing him for violation of their civil rights to privacy. I was under the mistaken impression that they have no rights because they are not citizens, but I think I have that backwards. If some illegal alien were to start using my social security number, what about my right to privacy? Could I sue him? I think not as they would just deport him and he would come back next week, assume another identity, a continue life as normal.

I am growing really concerned at the stories I see in the press where illegal aliens are suing law enforcement officials for doing their jobs. Something is really backwards there and I wish the government would start defending our borders and stopping these ridiculous lawsuits. If you are an illegal alien it pays to be caught committing a crime. It is like hitting the lottery. You just make up some story about being brutalized and sue. You will be an instant millionaire and just go back home and live like a king.

And I am livid every time I hear some politician talk about amnesty. It has not worked in the past and will not work now. As the colonization of southern California continues you see it everywhere. Last night on the news I heard a story about how hit and run accidents are rising at alarming rates. Since we live in an illegal immigrant sanctuary, crime statistics are not readily available for how much of this stuff is committed by illegals. I am willing to bet that a good majority of these accidents are caused by illegals.

My neighborhood has gotten so bad lately that I am afraid to drive. I don’t know how many times I have been at a stop sign and watched people just blow right through them without even slowing down. Then I look and see the Baja plates and figure just another of the lawbreakers breaking another law.

People do not think this has an impact on them because they are paying out everything through taxes and not direct cash. I think that if a collection agent started showing up at people’s doors demanding payment for the medical care of their illegal alien neighbors they might get a clue.

We are paying to send their kids to school. We are paying for their medical care. We are giving them welfare benefits. All of that and more, takes money and guess where that comes from? You are paying in the form of taxes and higher prices. When they file these lawsuits guess who pays? You might say the city, county, or state but there does that money come from?

I have had it with these representatives that keep coddling these people who don’t belong here. Have them do it legally, as I have no problems with that. Anyway I guess that is it for today.

A short vacation from blogging

Sorry for not blogging over the weekend but I had a really busy weekend and never got around to even logging onto the blog. This weekend was the weekend to get caught up on a few things around the house and also finally sort through tons of junk mail to see what was important and what is not.

When I got home from my last trip I went through all the mail and got all the bills out of the stack and paid them, but I had tons of credit card offers, catalogs, and various other junk that I never took the time to sort through.

I finally got to it since time to figure out the taxes is here and I wanted to get all that paperwork found and sorted out. Now I just have to get it organized into a nice little packet and then figure out the best way to file them.

Also Saturday was grocery day and after staying up too late on Friday I kind of slept in on Saturday getting a little bit of a slow start to the day. I also did laundry on Saturday and we worked on cleaning up the kitchen and all.

I stayed up again too late on Saturday night but did get up in time for church. I didn’t bring the bulletin so I won’t post links to the scriptures but the mass was one the one where the lady was going to be stoned for adultery and Jesus said “Let those without sin cast the first stone.” The priest then kind of made the gospel go along the lines of trying to solve a few things that have been going on at our parish. There are several committees that have been fighting for power and as a result it has been causing a lot of conflict.

He basically related everything to the hand. The hand has five fingers of various sizes and none are the same. Some you use differently depending on what you are trying to pick up or grab. If you lose one by it being lost or injured you will not be able to do certain things. It kind of goes along with anything you do in life or family. Everyone has their position and it takes the group or unit to get things done. A weak person, committee, teammate, or family member drags the entire unit down.

He even put it directly towards our Filipino members, our church is mainly Filipino, and said that they have the ability to take a smoothly running organization and by struggling to be the most important and recognized person cause the organization to splinter. He then went on t talk about how if your neighbor buys a car, that the next neighbor will go out and get a better car to show they are more well off. He said we should live within our means and not worry about what others have and own.

He even made a joke about the Gospel saying, “Those without sin cast the first stone” and whack a stone sails by his head and he says “ok, mom”.

Anyway after church the kids wanted to come home and that was when I decided to go through all the paperwork stuff. It took a while but I got through the stack and I made it smaller, though I still have to go through a stack of stuff to get all the tax stuff ready which I will do today or tomorrow.

I was still playing Unification Wars, but was kind of just running back and forth monitoring what was going on every few minutes or so, rather than sitting continually behind the screen. I also got my clothes ironed for the week and all, I had forgotten about some clothes in the dryer, so I had to iron stuff.

Later Laila woke up and then I went ahead and concentrated more on the game and all the chats on the screen. We have various chats set up for the various federations we are allied with and so I have several chat windows up simultaneously. It is good because we can share ideas and make new friends. We can also find out about people and get opinions on things.

Also we have our own federation IRC chat where we work with team members. It is really good because once someone gets kicked out or quits they can be banned. There has been a lot of stuff going on in the federation and our sister federation. Our federation is full and our sister federation has open slots. They have been inviting people into their federation so we can get a look at them and last night one of the most arrogant people I have ever seen in the chat came in and all he did was tell us how this wasn’t good enough, and pretty much slammed us on our choice of ships and all.

Laila jumped on him quick as did Sgt Joe. The guy told us our OP was not good and so Sgt Joe went ahead and listed his battles and results including where he has beat this guy. Anyway, the guy got booted and I hope that others like him will not keep appearing in the federations. It goes along with the hand thing, everyone has a role to play, and that guy was destructive.

We have a couple more like that in our federation, but I think that they might be leaving soon. If they don’t I fear that they will drive some of our players away. To me image is important and I carry the flag of my federation with pride. To me the allies of our allies are also folks to be looked after and not attacked as well as personal allies of our federation mates. We have a few wild cannons that attack and then look at who they hit. They have been hitting allies and friends of allies, and that is not right and has no place in warfare.

There are plenty of NPC’s and people that would like you help them into protection to get your planet count up. I see no benefit in hitting someone’s main system and taking away all their planets unless they are doing it to you or others. Then I feel you are justified in doing it.

If you just attack to prove you can do it then you are nothing more like the folks that are causing all the problems by blowing themselves up in market places and all. It serves no purpose other than to make enemies.

Anyway, now that I have that off my chest, Laila is now starting to have the same problem she had with PLDT happening with her Bayantel. Recently her bandwidth has dropped way down and though their customer service is great the guy checking her lines was able to point directly back to the servers. They too have oversold their bandwidth, but no that she does have a ticket and has had her lines checked hopefully they will get her taken care of.

I stayed up way too late last night trying to get my time reset. It is not cool having to stay up until 1 AM and then trying to get up at 5:15 AM. Maybe if I were a little younger, so I am going to try and move up a little and go out earlier in the evening.

Also Laila as she always does has now learned another section of the game that will produce planets without having to fight for them. She now makes and uses her own artifacts and she is going to teach me how tonight. So now I will start doing that in addition to fighting. But now it will be more like protecting them.

Well time to get ready to get some work done. Have a great day and a great week.

Right of way

Correct me if I am wrong but I always thought that the “Right of way” rule meant that if two people are stopped at an intersection at the same time the one on the right proceeds after they have determined it is safe to do so. Well if you live in San Diego that does not count any more as everyday I see people that don’t even bother to stop at the stop signs at all.

This morning I almost got tee-boned at an intersection and I am a little angry. I was at a stop sign on a major street. I looked both ways and there was a lady driving a green sedan slowing down to stop at the stop sign on my right. I am sure she saw me as my headlights were on. As she slowed down for the stop sign I started forward to make my turn. I was about halfway through my turn and I had to slam on the breaks as she had determined in her mind, I guess, that she had the right of way and sped up or maybe she hit the gas instead of the breaks. Anyway I didn’t hit her and she missed me by about 18 inches.

I am really getting tired of this crap. Yesterday while picking up my mail at the post office and trying to leave the post office parking lot I was prevented from turning onto Reo Drive as six cars in succession failed to stop at the stop sign. And this is an everyday thing any more. As far as I am concerned the city could save a ton of money by just getting rid of the traffic signals since they are not being obeyed anyway.

Anyway I made it to work safely again and am just being extra careful when I am out driving around town. And now that I am at work it looks like I am going to have a very boring day. I was all set to have my students continue with their practice troubleshooting, but the class got picked to go over and go through random drug testing so I guess I will be working on power point presentations until they get back.

Last night on Unification Wars we had a very interesting and busy time. A fed mate and I were out of damage protection and collecting planets and all when a few more fed mates came on line. A few of them accidentally put their outpost in their system and they wound up out of damage protection and at the same time two more members who were not in communication with the rest of us came out and one minute we were two and the next minute we were seven. It looked really awesome to see all of us together in a group on the active page, but it also left very few people to post outpost for the rest of us. Due to some good work by the few remaining members everyone safely made it back in and we made a lot of gains.

Later our leader came on and I almost bankrupted myself posting outpost for him, but I survived that by quickly selling stuff on the market. It was fun, frustrating, and got the adrenalin up all at the same time.

Anyway, I guess that is about it for now. Got to get to work so have a great day everyone.

A busy day

Well, getting to work this morning was a little bit of an adventure since it was raining and the one thing that people here in southern California can’t seem to do is drive in the rain. I got up a couple of minutes later than usual this morning after hitting the snooze instead of jumping out of bed. I stayed up just a few minutes too late last night.

I got ready for work in plenty of time and got my coffee, but I was definitely running in slow motion mode until I got my coffee. I got online and posted some outpost for the game and the federation got my free stuff in Neopets and Laila and I did our morning prayers.

It was then time to get going so I logged off the PC and hit the road. Coming out of my neighborhood is sometimes a bit fun as I live way down in a hilly area with many deed ends and all. There is only one way in and one way out so some things can’t be avoided. This morning as I was just about half way out to the main blvd a guy when ahead and pulled out from the curb and made a U-turn right in front of me. Maybe he didn’t see me, or maybe he was distracted while talking on his cell phone but at least I saw him in time.

Anyway I had to follow this guy for about a quarter mile to get to the main street and since we were in a residential area the speed limit was 20 MPH, and this guy decided to play it extra safe by going 10 MPH.

I think he was trying to warm up his tires because he was weaving all over the road and almost his a few parked cars, but he was going slow so it wouldn’t have caused much damage if he did.

When we got to the stop sign at the entrance to our area, Mr. Safety of course ran right through it and through the red light on the main street. I hope the conversation he was having on his cell phone was very important and that he lives long enough to get to work, because this guy can definitely not drive and talk at the same time.

After that the drive to the freeway was pretty quiet, but I could tell from a distance that it was going to be a hassle as it was pretty backed up. At my favorite on ramp it was again a zoo. Since the freeway was backed up for miles many folks were cutting out of the freeway lanes and into the on ramp off ramp lanes. To compound matters I got stuck behind one of those guys with the pickup full of lawn tools. You know, those guys with the lawn mowers, weed whackers and all, usually with non-working brake lights that goes real slow to keep all the crap from falling out of the truck.

Well the guy in the truck had no turn signals or tail lights and then he enters the freeway and goes about 25 MPH while the guys trying to use the on/off ramp were speeding up to about 40 to get by a few cars and cut back into the freeway lanes. I had left a little bit early this morning so I just stayed back and watched the fun. The guy in the truck was trying to merge into the freeway lanes using hand signals vice turn signals. The people trying to get by a few cars would zip up behind him and hit their breaks. He had so much junk in the back of his truck I don’t think he saw what was happening behind him. Anyway he was still trying to get into the freeway lanes when I exited and headed for work. It did look like there were going to be a lot of late people today though.

When I got to work I was the first one in so I unlocked everything and got the classroom and the lab ready to go. We have practice troubleshooting today so I loaded all the problems yesterday before I went home. I just had to turn everything on this morning and get it warmed up.

I have to give them a little procedures lecture then I’ll turn them loose in the lab once I have another staff member with me as a safety observer. We are supposed to have an instructor student ratio of 1:4 in the lab. That means 1 instructor for every 4 students when in the lab.

So anyway it looks like we will get a slightly late start but I am on schedule so it should not be the end of the world.

Oh by the way I checked the spoiled dog food list for the brand of food I give my dogs and their food was not on the list thank god. I hope and pray that people I know do not have sick animals as a result of the contamination of pet food. The loss of a pet can be devastating, and some of the brands I saw on the list were not just the cheap run of the mill dog food. Some were top brands, and that was a surprise to me.

Well time to get some work done. Everyone have a great day.

Change of pace

Well, I guess I have blogged enough on the online games lately and haven’t blogged that much about the news and all. I guess it is because I am at my happiest when wasting my time playing the games.

Anyway, that is me, I like to do things that require concentration and attention to distract me from real life. I am so glad that I have a woman that understands that and understands me.

Last night we did try and break up things a bit by watching Deal or no Deal, but we have been having difficulties doing video through Skype lately. We downloaded the update, but it didn’t seem to help much. It looks to me that the games we play online may be eating up a little too much of our bandwidth or possibly one of us has bandwidth problems.

Anyway I watched the news last night and I guess there is a recall of dog and cat food. I guess it also a recall of up to 50 brand names of food. I guess they didn’t know about it until the animals started getting sick and I want to find out the full story when I get home tonight. I was not able to read up about it on the web and I was busy when the story was on the news last night.

It has me very worried about the health of our dogs because I give them canned food, soft food as well as dry dog food. You might call them a little spoiled when it comes to eating but I want to try and keep them healthy.

I also heard something last night about banning Mexican avocados so I need to find out about that. I keep hearing more and more about food being infected with this and that. We keep hearing about e-coli and salmonella. I hope our government is not doing the same great job with our food supply as it is with the illegal alien problem.

I heard an interesting thought on the radio yesterday. Since the President is blowing his presidency in every way imaginable then the Republican’s should all get together and for the good of the Party, impeach him. Wouldn’t the world and the left just love that? And they would just love President Dick Cheney. It is just a thought anyway and I would love watching the news channels if that were to happen.

My class was in lab all morning and these guys are creating a little fun. The majority of them are fleet returnees, meaning they are already stationed on ships, so the questions are a little more complex then we get from the folks just out of “A” school. It makes things fun, and you can also get a little more technical with them and relate things to other onboard systems. The only thing with that is that it seems to take twice as much out of me as standing in front of a class. But the time does go by fast and the equipment has been cooperating this time through. They should be to the point where we start practice troubleshooting tomorrow.

Today at lunch it is pretty quiet as the boys all went out to play basketball and I am holding down the fort and manning the phone. I love the way everything is quiet over the lunch hour and I can get my blog entry written without interruption.

Well I guess that is it for today. I will check out the news about avocados and dog food when I get home tonight. Have a great week.

Lazy

I was a slacker yesterday and did not blog.

Basically I didn’t really do much of anything. I really don’t know if it was the change in the weather, something I ate, or just old age, but yesterday was one of those blah moods were I just didn’t feel like doing much of anything.

I did get a few things done like the laundry and cooking food for the kids but basically it was a lazy day for me. I even signed off and went to bed a little early last night rather than venture out and fight in the game. I figured I would do it this morning after I got up.

I woke up feeling better this morning, even though I know it is going to be a really busy day. The new class has their first big set of labs today and in fact we will be in lab all week, which means a lot of running around for me. It will make the day pass by quicker though.

This morning Laila got really angry with a team mate and I can’t blame her though I will pay it back in kind. Since we started playing in our federation Laila and I have posted more outpost than anyone in the federation. A couple of weeks ago it was determined that the best stuff to post was c class ships or better in the outpost. Before that time they used to post fodders and runners. I usually go even further by posting G Livids, Lictors, or Aragonites, which are high powered.

This morning after supporting a teammate all night and in my case most of the weekend, one of our players posted fodders and Laila got upset. I figured rather than get in a big argument I would just mention it to our federation leader and pay this guy back in kind.

We have also found this guy to start demonstrating dishonest tendencies even though the things he has been dishonest about are not a big deal. Laila and I though have a code, and that is if you are dishonest about small things then you will be dishonest about bigger things in the future, so I am beginning to start having a serious distrust of this guy.

He has been around the game long enough to know lots of people and I seriously wonder if some of the attacks that happen to fed mates may be as a result of his deficiencies being pointed out in the federation chat.

Since I don’t know this guy I don’t want to start seeming paranoid or anything, but I have to say that some of his behaviors and his mannerisms are beginning to become suspect in my mind. If this guy continues to be a problem then Laila and I will be forced to find another federation as I will not get in a pissing contest with someone half my age over a game, and at the same time I will not have my woman continually arguing tactics with someone who treats her as an inferior.

Well I guess that is about it for the day. Time to get some work stuff going, so I will get busy and I hope everyone has a great week.

Coffee Maker and Keyboard problems

Well this morning I had a slight personal disaster.

After staying up late last night resetting myself in the game I went to bed. This morning I got up a little early for a Saturday because Laila was going to have her damage protection expire and we both feel more comfortable when we supply outpost for each other.

Anyway I got up, came downstairs, and then proceeded to make coffee but my coffee maker was broke. The pump that pumps the water was broken, so I went ahead and boiled some water and made it manually. Without coffee I am very non-functional in the morning. Anyway it didn’t taste quite right but at least it was coffee.

After that we got Laila through her morning moves and I discovered another slight problem, this time with my PC keyboard. The enter key was broken and I think it was just kind of worn out from use. Also lately one of the shift keys has been messing up so I added a keyboard to my list of stuff to get.

Laila stayed up pretty late for her side helping a new player get his system restructured and leveled up and then we said our prayers and she went to bed. After that I fell asleep at my keyboard for a little while when posting op for someone. Actually I did that twice. Finally I just went ahead and signed off.

I then took a quick shower and took off on a Walmart run. I got a new coffee maker and the keyboard then came home to get everything set up.

I should be doing my laundry but that can wait until tomorrow. I have managed to waste away most of the day and Laila should be getting up soon. I think I will just watch TV until she wakes up for the night because I am feeling a bit lazy today.

Anyway I guess that is about it for today. Have a great weekend everyone.

Most Popular Empire

This morning I woke up to some good news.

I received 70,000 planets in Unification Wars in the most popular empire contest. Laila won Monday and Sargent Joe is up today from our federation. Basically the way it works is, you need to click on a person’s vassal link. The top five each day receive planets. The winner gets 70,000 planets and 2-5 positions get 50,000 planets. We are putting up one member of our federation each day so please click on Sgt Joe’s link: Here

I am sure he will appreciate it.

Today I got to go to two dental appointments. I didn’t really miss anything big at work since they had a command bowling thing going on. My first appointment was just about the same time they were having their function so while they went to the bowling alley I went to the first appointment.

The first appointment was to get the screw removed and a support post put in. I was a little worried about that one because I though it might be a little painful, but it did not hurt at all. I just had a little ringing in my ear for a while.

I left there and was going to get a haircut but there looked like a line at the barbershop so I skipped that and headed home for a couple of hours while waiting for the next appointment.

I posted outpost in the game, checked some e-mails and then got on the road to the other dentist. There they took some imprints for the permanent replacement and then put in a temporary tooth. I get the permanent one in about 2 weeks.

It feels great to not have that open space in my mouth and now food won’t get stuck in the gap. So now that is all done and my mouth is almost back to normal.

On a sad note I heard that the San Diego office of the Special Olympics has been closed while an investigation into violations of charity laws or something. I did not catch the whole thing, but an event scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled. Those that would defraud a charity that takes care of crippled children have to be a low form of life and should be prosecuted.

Well I think my food is ready and I have not eaten lunch and I am starving, so I am going to post this and eat dinner. Have a great day.