RETIRED WARRANT

Sixth Trip to Visit Laila

Well I am on my way on the adventure to Laila’s again. This morning I got up early and after saying the Rosary with Laila and posting some OP in the game I set out for work. I got there in plenty of time despite leaving slightly late and getting hung up in some traffic.

I got my class graduated and on their way to their ships, and then I went and finished up teaching the data parts of the receiver. I took off a bit early and hit the bank for some travel money. I then ran home and got myself reset in the game.

After that I packed up the rest of the stuff I was going to bring and waited for Judy and Carlos to give me a ride to the airport. I also made out the house payment and put it on the refrigerator door for them to mail on the first.

Then I played the waiting game. I had told Judy I wanted to get to the airport by 1 PM and that the plane left at 3 PM. Laila and I were chatting while I was packing up the last few things and we were getting worried about the time. About 12:30 Judy called and said she was on her way home, so I felt a little better. I had been chatting on the laptop so I switched over to the PC and packed up the laptop.

All of a sudden the screen started messing up and Skype kept dropping so I rebooted it and went up stairs to get the razor, toothbrush and stuff like that. Finally I went ahead as told Laila to get some sleep and I continued to wait for Judy and Carlos.

They finally drove up about 1:15 and we quickly loaded the car up and off we went. We were pretty lucky because there was no traffic until we got to the airport, and there was very little traffic in front of the United Terminal. I got to the counter and there was no line so that went quick, even though they had me move some weight, from one bag to another. That was easily done and then it was off to the security checkpoint. They were training new people and so that went very slow, even though there was not a line.

The guy in front of me must have been transporting half of his household as carry on baggage as he had several bags and additionally filled up three of those baskets you run through the x-ray machine.

I am waiting for my flight to board which should be happening pretty quickly. It is 2:15 now and it just landed from Chicago and will continue up the coast to San Francisco. Once I get there I will try and find a good place to camp out and plug in the lap top while waiting the 5 hours before heading for the Philippines. I brought a set of season 2 of NCIS so I have plenty of stuff to watch while waiting. I think I will wait before going to the international terminal though since I want to find one of those e-mail type computer terminals to send out a few e-mails. I have wifi on the lap top but I don’t subscribe to any of the services and the airport ones seem to never work right.

Well I suppose it is time to put this thing up and get ready to board the plane. They should start any time, so I’ll add some more to this post when I get there.

Well I am currently sitting on the floor at the Philippines Airlines counter. The flight from San Diego got here a little early and the ticket counter isn’t open yet, but there is already a line. It is 4:45 now, but I don’t think the ticket counter opens until 5PM if I remember correctly.

The flight up from San Diego was not too bad other than I wanted to slap the kid sitting behind me for continually kicking the back of my seat and the disgusting guy sitting next to me. The kid was probably about 12 or 13 and he and his brother were just having a fun time at everyone’s expense. I saw if you can’t control your kids on a trip, leave them home.
The guy that sat next to me was just disgusting. He was too fat to get the tray table down, and he kept rocking forward and backward the whole trip. He also brought a bunch of magazines with him and was ripping pages out continually. It was a really bad display and luckily no one had the unfortunate luck to sit between us.
If was kind of funny when we left San Diego. There was a bunch of like wealthy businessmen and women that wanted to get to San Francisco and we trying to get into First Class or Business Class for the trip. One lady even was so bold to say exactly what seat she wanted while standing by for First Class. Well First and Business Class were full so I hope they enjoy San Diego, because I am here and they are still waiting for their First Class seats. Well I guess I will watch a NCIS episode while sitting here in the line. So I will get back to this later.

Well after watching two episodes of NCIS we were informed that our flight was cancelled. They will have us leave tomorrow instead. I guess we will be leaving tomorrow, a little after 11 AM. I was one of the first people in line so I was one of the first to ask them what were they going to do with people from out of town that had no place to stay. They are going to put me up in a hotel for the night so that is cool. We are just waiting for the van to get here so we can get a ride to the hotel. S now I am waiting for them to get me over to the hotel so I can plug in and talk to Laila. Also I have to go eat, because I am starving.

Anyway I will add more when I get to the hotel.

Ok, I got to the hotel, the put us up in the Good Night Inn near the airport. They were pretty cool, I had a nice room, though it was nothing fancy, and they gave us a meal at a seafood buffet, though I had most of the beef and chicken items. They also had Internet access so after trying several different ways to get through to Laila I finally did and let her know what was up with the flight and all. I then played the game a bit and we chatted until it was time to go to sleep.

This morning I got up and showered and all then got online again. I was able to get myself out and start back in when the Internet died in the room and I could not get back online any way I tried. I went ahead and checked out of the room and decided I would try from the Airport. I tried several of the Internet pay things at the airport but found none of them working right, so then I decided to try buying a phone card but many people were hesitant to use them and some of them were not working either.
I decided I would try and get my wireless to work on the airport service, but again that wouldn’t work. So try and try I was not able to get work to Laila. At least last night I was able to pass on the flight number and arrival time.

After all that failed I went ahead and got some breakfast at a little restaurant in the airport and it was not bad, other than the price was a little steep. I then stakes out a place near an electrical receptacle to use the laptop and update the post. I have about 2 more hours before the plane leaves so I am thinking of watching a couple more episodes of NCIS or maybe try and explore internet options again. I just know I am a little tired of walking, as I have been all over this airport.

So I guess that is it for this part of the trip. Next part hopefully we will be in the air and on our way, or else we will be back on our way to a hotel again. At least Laila is glad that we are getting in at a reasonable time. 6:30 PM is a lot better than 5:30 AM.

Well now I am on the plane, and the first thing that happened was it was late getting loaded. Then the sound for my seat doesn’t work and the little TV for the seat does so now I have that distraction. I was going to watch NCIS on the plane but I seemed to have dropped my USB headset somewhere while getting on the plane so now I can’t watch movies or TV on the plane. This airline is beginning to get my goat. The last three times they have been late. Two of the last three flights I was assigned to a seat where I could not see or hear the movie. Since this is my seventh trip in a year and a half with this airline, I would like to be treated better. I do not buy into that first class, business class crap, and now that Philippine Airlines actually gets me there later than if I would have caught the longer multi-stop airlines that why not fly a cheaper more dependable airline next time.

Well I never was able to get word to Laila that I was cut off on the internet this morning and all. The airport in San Francisco has the little terminals allover the place and they want a fortune. Too bad they don’t work or are not maintained.
So now I will have to look for an internet handset for the ride home. What a bummer this flight is going to be. Oh wait, I didn’t try and see if the little headset they gave me for the plane sound system that don’t work might fit into my headset jack and then I will be able to watch NCIS.
Nope that didn’t work either, so now I guess this is going to be another boring flight like the last one. Can’t watch the movie and this time I can’t even watch the stuff I brought with me. Oh well such is life I guess.
Last night I finally bought the rest of the systems I was planning on getting on Unification Wars while I was sitting around the room waiting for something to do. I had a PM from someone who admired my systems and as I was thinking about it I decided, if I am eventually going to do it, why not just do it, so I made all my systems but the main a Parthenon, and my main is still a Titan.
I just hope my empire got in ok and that Laila was able to reset safely since I still had 4 Tokens on my empire when the Internet went dead, and she had not reset. While I am certain that I got in with no losses it still gives me an uncomfortable feeling not knowing.
So now I only have to find something to do for the next 14 hours or so of the trip with nothing to do. I don’t want to blog to much or the darned battery will be dead. Earlier I accidentally sat in the wrong seat. Maybe they will be there. I will check on the way off the plane, though when I asked earlier the lady that was sitting in that row, gave me that I know nothing look which means if I left them someone owns them, even though the person finding them will not have a clue on what they are, or what they are used for.
Well I guess that is it for right now. We are going to stop in Guam on this leg of the trip so maybe I will blog again then. We’ll see, but for right now I will save my battery for later.

Where I stand

I had a chance to write another entry in my blog since it is lunchtime and all I am doing is sitting here answering the phone while the guys are at training. I am writing this about Unification Wars and the need for some members in our federation to stop posting negative things on both the federation page and in the IRC.

Whenever you have so many people all playing a game and depending on others to help you out and work together, and the fact that we have people of all ages, races, backgrounds and nationalities, disagreements and arguments will happen. We have told people over and over again to take these matters private, both with the use of PM’s or in private chat.

Things have cooled down over the weekend concerning the blowup in the IRC chat a few different occasions last week and I am glad that people are being positive or not saying anything at all when they are angered.

But I am still seeing negative things being posted on the fed board and would appreciate it if the negative posts would stop. That is not the place where these items should be expressed. The fed page is a place where we should post important stuff about trends we have noticed in the game, and congrats for achievements. We should also use it to clarify rules and for recruiting new members. Right now if people wanting to join our fed look at it they will think everyone there is just fighting amongst themselves when in all actuality if only involves a few.

I was accused by a member of being unfair and saying things that I did not say. I never referred to anyone as being a disgrace to the SG and in fact as soon as I started getting angry about the way the chat was going in the IRC, I logged out and didn’t say a thing other than to say no one is too valuable to be booted from the fed.

The fact is that this guy did make a mistake, as all of us have at one time or another. He then made the same mistake the following morning. Both times the people who were out trying to fight and gain were negatively impacted and it disrupted the whole flow of the resets.

I doubt if the second time was an accident due to some statements that were made when he was told to come in. It is funny how the truth comes out when you are concentrating on something else. The person that did it probably did not even notice what he said when he did it, but others and I did.

When confronted about it he was disrespectful to me and other fed mates and I guess after I left the IRC rather than escalate the problem, some folks got disrespectful towards him in return.

Since that time I have been posting for him when he is out, though others are unhappy enough with the situation that they don’t want to post for this individual. I have been very careful to not say anything to him unless it is to ask him to post or to give him permission to go out.

If I have been out of line as a federation LT then it is our fed leader’s choice to make the call and remove me. As long as I am a LT though I will enforce the rules and I will enforce those rules on anyone, no matter how long they have played or how valuable they think they are to the federation or the game.

The statement was made that he is not a young man. Well I am not either, as I am over 51 years old. Laila is in her late 40’s so we have a little maturity in life. We also have a special family bond, so if you insult one you insult both. It cannot be broken just as our fed leader has a bond with his brother, and others have bonds with other family members.

I will not sit by and see her verbally attacked and she will not stand for me to be verbally attacked.

I have heard comments that the individual involved in all of this latest mess is a military man. I have heard he was a Commanding Officer at one time. Being a military man myself I wonder when I see him sound off the way he does and the way he acts how that could be true, as any military member is aware of something called the Chain of Command. A military man does not ridicule the chain of command, but respects the chain of command, even though he may disagree with the person filling the position.

I am who I say I am here in my blog, for better or for worse. You do not have to like me, nor read what I have to say. The same goes for Laila and her blog. She is who she says she is and she doesn’t need people to like it or dislike it. It is just there for people who are interested to read.

To understand me and why I am the way I am you should understand more about me and why I treat the responsibilities as a federation officer as I do. All of my adult life I have been associated with the military. People in authority are treated with respect, if not for the person, respect for the position they hold. I have not always liked all the people I have worked for in my career. I have not always agreed with the policies or getting dressed down when I didn’t follow those policies. I accepted them for what they were and later when I had the seniority to change things I would submit my proposals.

I started out at the bottom as a Seaman Recruit in 1974 and was promoted to Seaman after boot camp. I was promoted to Third Class Petty Officer in 1975, Second Class Petty Officer in 1977 and First Class Petty Officer in 1980, each time with more responsibilities and more of a leadership role. In 1985 I was promoted the Chief Petty Officer after a successful tour as a Leading Electronics Technician on board a Fast Frigate and after earning my Enlisted Surface Warfare Qualification. I had already been pressured to apply for the Limited Duty Officer Program but felt I had to make Chief prior, to make a better leader. Later at another command I again was being pressured to become and officer and submitted an application for the Navy’s Limited Duty/ Warrant Officer Program. I was selected as a CWO2 in 1988 and was commissioned in 1989. I then went on to earn all my qualifications and advanced to the highest point available CWO4 during the years. The Navy did not have a CWO5 until after I had already retired.

I served as Officer of the Deck on board three ship’s USS Vancouver (LPD-2), USS Acadia (AD-42), and USS Eliott (DD-967). I was also qualified as Command Duty Officer at every command since Vancouver with the exception of qualifying as and standing Repair Duty Officer on USS Acadia, though I stood Command Duty Officer at Sea while being stationed there.

So I have been in pretty much most levels of the chain of command and am well aware of who is in charge, who to tell off, and who not to tell off.

When I was an Officer of the Deck on a ship at sea I gave orders and they were followed without question, or the person was relieved of their duties and replaced with someone who would follow the orders. An Officer of the Deck is totally responsible for everything that goes on, on board and with the ship, when the Commanding Officer is not on the bridge. An Officer of the Deck is responsible for all collisions, groundings, and accidents that happen when he has the deck. He holds the lives and safety of all people aboard in his capable hands.

He also is not promoted to that position until qualified to fill those shoes. Before becoming qualified he must perform certain tasks in sequence and pass oral boards. He must know the rules of the road, rules of engagement, and military customs and traditions. He must have the utmost confidence of his Commanding Officer to be able to be in charge while the Commanding Officer is asleep or not on the bridge.

I had to qualify as a Combat Information Center Watch Officer, Junior Engineering Officer of the Watch, Conning Officer, and have all my other ducks in a row to qualify. I had to know how my actions on the bridge affected everything else on the ship, from abrupt course changes to my orders to the engine room during casualties. I had to pass my oral boards in all of those positions and even went on later to gain my Surface Warfare Officer’s Qualification.

I am not bragging or anything, as I have just done what many who preceded me and many who have followed me have been doing for years. It just shows that I had the drive and initiative to take on the added responsibilities and the trust in those above me to allow me to hold the titles and qualifications I earned. Also it is not automatic as I know many former officers who failed to make the cut, otherwise everyone in the Navy would be an Admiral.

Anyway back to my point, you can tell a successful military man and one that has had training by their actions and the way they carry themselves. A military man plans things, be it in the game or in life. A military man does not repeat the same mistakes time after time (lessons Learned). A military man is aware of what is going on around him and the status of things (How many retals an opposing player has). A military man knows the support requirements needed to get the job done (Credits, Turns, and Resources to get more). A military man knows how to get the job done quickly and adds an element of surprise to the attack (Going up incrementally moving all the time in small amounts to keep the stacks intact).

I guess I have covered this quite at length. In closing I will just leave things up to what is good for the fed. If I am a lousy leader fire me, and put someone else in charge. If I am in charge though, then I will have respect, either for the position or me. It doesn’t matter to me if I am liked or disliked, as I will always do what is best for the fed. Also don’t be surprised if someday after pulling some of the dumb stuff that you have been told not to do or mouthing off in the IRC chat or Fed board results in the removal of the SG logo next to your name, no matter who you are, no matter how long you have played the game, or no matter how many friends you may have in the fed or the game.

I have been appointed to my position for the good of the fed and the fed is a machine. If the machine gets some worn, old, or has some broken parts they will be replaced for effective operation. Be warned, no one, not me, Laila, or any other people in this fed are irreplaceable. It is up to you to follow the rules, assist your fed mates, and grow. It’s up for me to enforce those rules, and I will, no questions asked and without hesitation.

I hope everyone knows where I stand now and that I do not take things lightly.

Upcoming Trip

Sorry for not blogging yesterday but it was a pretty busy day and I had quite a bit to do to get ready for my upcoming trip tomorrow. I had to make a few runs out in town to pick up some various items and also since the kids were out doing some stuff for their mother, I was busy answering the phone and all of that kind of stuff.

Today was also kind of busy. I got up early and we tried to get Laila reset, but we had a little trouble finding people to post OP. Finally a couple of fed mates logged on and we coordinated the op through the game PM’s.

We got done getting her reset and managed to fit the rosary in before I had to leave for work. Just as I was getting ready to go I saw on the news that there was a three car pileup on the I805 North at the highway 94 exit, and another at the I15 exit, meaning thee I 805 was going to be a parking lot.

I kind of left in a hurry knowing that traffic was going to be bad and sure enough, when I got to the I805 it was a mess. I was going to back road it but I noticed that the on-ramp was moving, and I also figured since I was only going 1 exit to 43rd street I might as well take it.

I got onto the freeway and then was almost taken out by a black pickup truck that was weaving in an out of traffic well above the speed limit and well above the speed of the traffic. The clown almost hit several people and I was hoping a California Highway Patrol would have seen that this guy was going to cause an accident. Anyway I got to work unscathed, even though I had to lock up my brakes at one point to keep from getting hit by my buddy in the pickup truck.

After I got to work, the news of the day was that two of the students in the new class got busted for drugs over the weekend so I hope they enjoyed the Navy, as they will be civilians soon.

This morning my class filled out their end of course critiques and took a post test before we allowed them to leave for the day. A few of them have packing to do and will be moving out of the barracks tomorrow. It is always great to have a little extra time getting ready to transfer, and I am going to miss this class, as they were one of those classes that had fun and were a joy to teach. Some classes have a personality of their own and this one definitely had a great personality.

Now I will be teaching the PSK and FSK detectors to the new class and holding down the fort during lunch, answering the phone and all. After they get back from training and physical performance tests I will take off since I will have missed the lunch hour and all. I have some errands to run after work and I will be really busy getting ready for the trip. I will try and blog before I leave, but if not able to, I will be able to blog during my extended airport waiting times.

Have a great week.

Busy Saturday

Some things get on my nerves, and the main one that gets to me lately and others has been watching folks get into arguments on the IRC chat or posting foolish things on the fed board.

If you have a problem address it privately. Do not air your dirty laundry in public for all to see. I do not argue in the chat, I just mention my displeasure and log out.

The stuff that happened yesterday exploded in the chat last night and I logged off the chat to await a chance to talk to another fed officer.

Anyway I guess some feelings are hurt and for that I am sorry. Irresponsible behavior be it in the home, on the job , or in a game where you are a team member can not be tolerated, no matter who you are. Some people think that longevity gives then special privileges and nothing could be further from the truth.

Anyway last night Laila and I watched movies until about three in the morning, and then I went to bed. I got up at 7 this morning so she could reset, talked to our leader about the issue at hand and then since Laila was not feeling well she went to bed and I went grocery shopping with Judy and David.

When I came back I tried to take a nap, but after many visitors and all that didn’t work. So now I just gave up and will try and go to bed early tonight.

Well Laila is up so I will go ahead and post this and get on the game.

It’s amnesty

I don’t think it is possible to be angrier with the President of the United States and Senate of the United States than I am today. The Senate’s amnesty bill for illegal aliens has me so angry that instead of blogging I am searching for information on impeachment and recalls.

I will support the recall or impeachment of any elected official that supports this bill. Any groups that are working on getting rid of these officials please contact me. It is time to start spending my money on the cause rather than just blog about it.

Anyway I have never seen a day go to hell as fast as today did. Last night a seasoned player accidentally building on his main, causing our reset schedule to get all messed up. We even tried resetting people 2 at a time, but never managed to get everyone done before people had to start going to bed. I went ahead and went to bed at midnight and set my clock early so that I could be up to post for Laila when I got up.

I got up at 5 AM and grabbed a quick shower and all. I made it downstairs half an hour earlier than usual. One player was out and on his way in, and then again the same player that messed up the rotation last night built on his main again. I almost kicked him right then and there. This guy will go ahead and follow the rules for a while and then this crap starts happening. He doesn’t seem to realize that he jeopardizes everyone’s empire when he pulls this act and frankly now that everyone is angry he will square away for a week or so and then do it again. I may have to resign as a LT because I swear I was a microsecond away from making him fedless.

Anyway as a result I left for work and was not there to post for Laila and I will hold him personally responsible for any losses she suffers. That is unfair to have her protect everyone for 15 hours and not have people there for her because of the careless exploits of a greedy player. He says it was an accident but showed his hand when asked to come in by saying he had planned to be out 2 hours. Accidentally built on his main, right, he just saw OP posters for Laila that had been set up in advance and decided to use it. He knew we would say no if he wanted to go out so why not make a mistake and get his wish. He also knew that opportunity was limited as two of us posting had to go to work. I am so angry I may still go home and boot him.

After I got to work we had planned that we would have my class assist the LPO with a few paperwork things. We had to do some kind of power panel report so they were going to do that and I was going to assist the other ET1 by teaching some of the harder receive modules. I figured my class would be here for about an hour working for the LPO and get to go home and I in the meantime would teach the junior class.

Well the LPO kept getting called to the office, and kept getting other tasking so they got started late. Then just as I started teaching the junior class we got a call telling us that they had to go take a urinalysis test. So there went the morning, gone in a flash. Now I am sitting here with my old class listening to them joke around while typing up the power panel report.

Some of them are not too happy, and I don’t blame them. They will be getting out of here soon though, as it looks like they just finished. I will be waiting for the guys from the junior class to come back at they complete the urinalysis and have them catch any of the new tasking that comes from the office.

Well I guess that is about it. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Aggravated

Well today should be a quiet day. I woke up early, and got down stairs early to find Laila out protecting two abandoned empires from attack. This is one thing that is really beginning to bug me in our federation. Too many people are just leaving their empires up to be protected by others and about 75% of the time the others are Laila and static OP. It is a hell of a lot to expect out of her and I know it stresses her out. I have come on in the aftermath and have seen the PM’s where she had allies help get people in. I used to see where she had her own friends help out members of our fed only to be retaliated against by the very fed mates that were protected. Now she uses her personal allies for only two people, as I only use mine for two people.

Then this morning with her DP about to expire I was the only one live posting for her again. And even that was put on hold due to the unattended empires. This is beginning to get under my skin as night after night and day after day we are protecting these unattended empires. I am about to talk to Sparty and Joe and just come up with a rule that if you do not reset and come out unattended and you have not made arrangements in advance then just use the static OP. These unattended empires are screwing up our nightly resets, as we have to keep people from going out. They are keeping Laila from doing things around the house during the daytime on her side. This crap of just leaving it up to the fed has to stop. If you don’t care about your empire, why should we? Everyone gets a chance to reset every single day. Sparty, Joe, Laila, and I go out of our way to accommodate people often at the sacrifice of sleep and our going out times. I have reset in ten minutes sometimes to keep from holding up others.

I know it is a pain in the butt to sit there posting OP hen you would rather be out fighting. When you are out posting how many people are posting OP for you, and how do they feel about sitting their waiting for their turn? Get my drift, everyone has to take care of everyone else. Anyway, I guess that is enough on that.

I was watching the news last night while posting OP and saw that they are going to give Paris Hilton special treatment in jail after all. She is going to be segregated from the other inmates in a special area and they are also going to give her a break on her sentence. It has me angry as hell. Because she is cute, spoiled, and rich she gets special treatment. She was even caught on tape yesterday smoking marijuana. So again one set of laws for the rich and famous and another set of laws for the regular citizen.

This morning on the way in to work they were talking about taxes. Most people only think of taxes in the form of the income taxes they pay. We also pay taxes on our property, gasoline, electricity, telephone, water, and everything else you buy. The City, State, and the federal government tax you. Sometime this month I don’t know the exact day, you will have started earning your wages for yourself, since prior you were working to pay your taxes if you are middle class as I am.

And where does the money go? It goes to the folks that are too lazy or unwilling to work in the case of welfare folks. It goes to take care of our illegal visitors as they apply for and get all kinds of aid under the various programs that were set up for our poor. It goes to protect our borders from illegal visitors, now isn’t that working well? It goes to build a nice bridge between some of the islands in Alaska so the couple hundred people that lie on the remote islands won’t have to take the ferry, but have a bridge so they can drive, how nice of us.

Our taxes pay for the food and drug administration to make sure we are protected from salmonella, e-coli, and tainted wheat from China so I guess that is money well spent, oops. Our taxes pay for our military to protect us from the terrorists and keep the fight on their shores and not here. Oh but then the liberals want to save that money, bring our troops home and possibly use that money to repair all the stuff the terrorists will blow up.

We spend all kinds of tax dollars on education in this country, probably more than the entire budget of some countries, and yet a high percentage of our graduates can’t read, write, or balance a checkbook. I am continually amazed when I see like a history major from some well known college answers a question on Jay-walking like “Who was America fighting in the Spanish/American war?” and they come up with one of those bright answers like Germany. And where do they find these idiots that players stupid enough to lose on are you smarter than a fifth grader. Enough said about the education system and all the wisely spent dollars there.

All in all the tax system is nothing more than a Socialist scam, to take money from the hard working to give to the non working, and keep that non working voting base voting the right was. It also powers the mighty political machines that trade federal contracts to companies for campaign donations and support. As I watch the debates on TV, and this goes for both sides, I don’t see one person yet that I would trust babysitting my kids let alone entrust the country too. Yeah a few of them have a few good points here and there but there is no all around good candidate, and the congress is a waste. They can’t get anything done other than point fingers and argue. In the meantime look at the country.

Gas prices are up, and it is starting to cause the price of food and good to go up. The illegal immigrant population is up, and so is the crime rate, but then the illegal immigrant is our friend and just here to do the jobs Americans won’t do. Radio personalities’ being fired is on the rise, mainly because in their attempt to raise ratings they will do or say anything. Oh, I forgot to mention during my tax tirade that the publicly funded Federal Communications Commission protects us from vulgarity and explicit sex on TV and radio. That should lower the costs for television related components since we won’t need child filters and all that extra electronic stuff, because we are protected.

Anyway I have rambled on an on, time to get productive. Besides lunchtime is almost over and I will have to get back to work. Have a great week and try to remember how much you pay in taxes and where it is going.

A quick start

Well, the morning started a little fast, but now everything has calmed down and I will be working on regular course materials the rest of the day.

I went to bed pretty late last night after our resets got a bit delays. We had our rotation going and plenty of op posters, but nobody was hitting us. It really slowed our resets down and Laila and Nat were not able to get reset last night at all.

I got up early this morning and sure enough Laila was waiting to go out. We had enough people to post so instead of doing the rosary we got her reset and in safe. We had another gout right after her and I felt bad about posting and leaving right away, but I had to get to work.

I also felt bad for one of our newer team members because last night he got a chance to reset, but we did not have the resources at the time to let him stay out longer. I will make it up to him tonight by letting him stay a little longer.

Laila and I managed to get some TV watching in last night while waiting on people to get hit and all the chats were pretty busy. Another person has started the overmind project, which is a pain in the rear. The game was also having some server problems and it was very frustrating both last night and this morning trying to play because the lag was so bad.

When I got to work we had the after course stuff I like to show the graduating class, but it also is a little hard to get set up for. We went through the full operation of both systems showing how the various computers talk back and forth and all. We also did the red/black interface and RIBB troubleshooting for the benefit of the students that will be going to ships that are not configured for TADIXS.

Now that they have finished that they are helping with a few little odds and end’s jobs like test equipment inventory and power panel labeling, while the junior class is taking the transmit test. So the rest of the day should be pretty quiet.

Next week at this time I should be just a couple of hours from landing in Manila, which will be great. At least Laila will not have to worry about having an OP poster when she is out, though I will take away from being one of the prime time posters in my time zone.

We have been getting a lot of people trying to join our fed, but we are being selective in who we will let enter. They must have their systems leveled up to X, they must have 1 million planets minimum, be logged on at least daily and be able to post live op a few hours a day, and we are looking for people in the Asia/Europe area.

The other thing that is concerning us all in our fed is the status of our sister fed. The leader is seldom logged on, and the LT’s aren’t there either. Many of their people are logging on looking for other team members for OP, but can find nobody there. It is a shame because a few weeks ago they were pretty productive, but now are getting crushed. I wish something would get them back into playing the game.

I guess today the main topic on the radio is about the death of Jerry Falwell. They were talking about how the leftist bloggers have been handling the situation on their blogs. I guess some of the stuff being said is pretty gross and very deplorable. It’s know secret I hate Bill Clinton yet when he went in for heart surgery I wrote in this blog about my prayers for a successful operation and a speedy recovery.

Just because you have a blog and freedom o speech does not mean you should use it to prove to the world what an utter contemptuous fool you are. Only the most callous of people would make comments making fun of or slandering people that have just died. If you cant’ think of anything good to say don’t say anything.

Well that is my rant for today. Hopefully the rest of the day will stay quiet.

Nice to get back to the routine

Well I only have a week to go before I start heading for Laila’s house for some rest, relaxation, and company. It will be great and while I am there we are going to make an effort to meet some of our gaming buddies.

Last night was great as we got to swing back into our old routine. Laila’s Internet connection was quick enough so we are back to watching TV online again. We watched “The O’Reilly Factor” since he had Michelle Malkin on, then a recorded episode of “Dexter” and a recorded episode of “Deal or No Deal”. We then caught a couple of minutes of “Judge Judy” before watching “Deal or No Deal”, “Heroes” and then “Law and Order, Criminal Intent”.

I can just imagine how Laila’s screen must have been pretty crowded, but she seemed to be getting enjoyment out of it, even though the Heroes episode last night had a couple bloody scenes.

Anyway we had a pretty good night as a federation. The only big losses came to an unattended fed and they came on the last hit. We did our best to protect it, but once the fleet left behind gets damaged there is no way to protect it effectively.

This morning on the way in I heard that George Lopez had his show cancelled and is now saying it is because of racism. Sorry George, if your show was good and people watched it, it would not get cancelled. Ratings are money, and your show was dieing.

Hollywood people just don’t seem to get it. Actors and actresses that go out and are always speaking to the crowds about their agenda tend to turn people off. I used to love the movies that Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon starred in. Now they have joined the list of people I can’t stand to watch. I do not watch anything they, Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Baghdad Sean or any other left wing activist puts out because I see them spouting off their hate America crap in the press and I see that when I see them in a movie.

These folks are not getting the viewer ship they once had. Their movies are tanking, as are their shows. Maybe someday they will figure out that there are a majority of clean quiet folks that do not share their liberal way of life. People are a lot smarter than these brilliant Hollywood actors give them credit for. The regular people are the ones that have to go out and work for a living, get educated for a better job, or sometimes work too jobs to make ends meet.

They do not have time for the Hollywood elite that have millions and millions of dollars because of a pretty face and the ability to get something right on camera once out of say every 10 takes. They don’t by this global warming, you must conserve by people that take private jets everywhere, live in 20 bedroom mansions and ride in limousines. Yes they want us to conserve so they can buy with their millions.

Anyway George, so your show got cancelled. Maybe it wasn’t funny or maybe it got old. I never watched it, because every time I see you I am reminded of the plight of the Illegal Alien and how they are so mistreated. I don’t see you doing anything with you millions to help the healthcare system they are destroying or the folks whose Identities have been stolen.

Get yourself out in the press some more. Keep supporting the stuff the regular people detest. Maybe you will disappear all together just like Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon have seemed to disappear off the big screen.

Well time to get to work. Have a great day.

Some suggestions

Well another weekend went by and it was another where I didn’t get around to blogging. This time it was not due to laziness, but more this weekend of winding up in several chat rooms all at the same time and this weekend everyone was more talkative than usual. Also this weekend was another busy weekend of working with allies and posting op. We also had a few folks get attacked badly and I had a bunch of federation administration stuff to get done. And then to top everything off there were a few little arguments and spats that broke out over the weekend so there were people that needed to be calmed down.

I have noticed one thing that I think needs to stop. We have the ability in the IRC to take conversations private. It people have a disagreement they need to start doing that. To many times recently, I have seen arguments break out in the main IRC federation board last week and over the weekend.

I don’t like seeing our members argue, but then when you have so many people will always have issues. Take it private, if you must argue. A lot of things are said during an argument that are taken wrong, or sometimes name calling and profanity are used. We do have some young players and some female players who view the chat so let’s keep it clean.

Also when talking to other players try to remember that we all come from different cultural backgrounds and some things we say may be taken wrong. Some of the arguments I have seen start, happen over an innocent comment taken the wrong way. We all have to be sensitive to the feelings of others and the cultural differences.

Even Laila and I got into it the other night and gave each other the silent treatment until we ironed everything out and attributed it to a misunderstanding, making us both feel bad.

And yesterday I saw something happen that should not have happened. I am not going to mention any name, because the person it happened to is not the only one that has done it. His just resulted in more losses than usual.

This will serve as a checklist to ensure that when you go out to fight that a least you have a fighting chance. First make sure to put your war minister in your main. This increases your advantage in battle. Next make sure you have enough cash on hand to build your fleet. Don’t wait until you get out and then find you have no cash and don’t count on the market to save you as sometimes that takes time. Waiting five minutes for food to sell is not good if you are attacked, your stacks get messed up, and enemies see that you dropped and didn’t rebuild. You can get hit many times within those five minutes. Have a spreadsheet or a calculator or something to allow you to rebuild stacks quickly. Especially if your stacking is critical to you defense as mine are. Every time I have been creamed it has been when my stacks were messed up. I recommend having 3T easily accessible when you are out. If you are having problems with credits then tell the fed mates that are on line. I have never seen anyone not get help when people ask for it.

Also watch your turns and if you get into turn problems again ask. Many people have STC’s and BTC’s.

Do not panic when you are hit. Try to calmly look at your losses and replace them top stack first. The top stack usually suffers the most damage and will let you get up to OP range the fastest. If you panic and get flustered you will mess up your stacks which don’t do you any good. I have found that if I am calm and watch what I am doing I can get back up faster and get my defensive posture back. It doesn’t always work out under multiple attacks, but then sometimes nothing will help.

Do not allow people to get tons of retaliations against you unless you know you can defend against them. Some people could not get through a newbie stack of scouts, while others can crack your main. If you don’t know who to hit ask, but you have to be very careful of those retaliations coming back to get you at a later date. Beware of the feds like Antimatter who collect retaliations and use them effectively.

I know we have players like Sparty, EK, and Hipis that can go out and fight all over the place. They are well practiced and know their stacks. All of us are not ready to do this and notice that when they do have a bad day, it can be very bad. Look at your abilities and try and do what is best for you.

I am a miner so I get NPC’s and I knock people in when I see an empire down to 2 Tokens. Depending on who they are I will hit a main, high planet count or dark. I will never hit anyone several times unless I know they will not be used against me. I do hit people that are out to supply assistance to allies and friends and again the one hit rule is in affect. People that we are at war with I will hit whenever I see them, but they seldom get up to my PR level. Anyway that is how I do it.

If you want to fight like Sparty and EK then share your stacks with them. Talk to them about how to go up and down quickly and maybe try a few practice runs. We do not bite, and are here to help you develop so when you have questions ask us.

Please try and log on each day to reset your DP. Nothing is more frustrating than having someone’s empire come out unattended a bad time. We give everyone a chance to reset, though sometimes you might have to wait. And then also while you are waiting you can supply live op posting for those that are out. When we have enough live posters we can even get more than one person out and we will make all arrangements possible to not have people having to stay up too late as I know people have jobs and school.

If we have a backlog some of us even just go out and get dp’ed back in right away which only takes 15 to 20 minutes. We also try and keep people with the same PR’s out together as much as possible so they can work together and share OP.

There are a few of us that spend a lot of time on line, while others come and go fast, but we would appreciate it if you can stay when you have the time. We are allied with several federations that help us in many ways and we like to have the people available to help them if the need arises. There have been several occasions I have gone out to help allies on just static op if required. I have seen others do it to from the different feds to help us.

If as a group we can all spend 3-6 hours with the game we will have the support people to get everyone reset and provide proper support for those out. We do not expect people to be online as long as Laila and I are on. If you have something to do you can post op and check your stacks from time to time. I am always running to the kitchen or the restroom while playing. I watch TV, post in my blog and do other things while on the game. I have even gone to the store for things at times and this has not had in impact the game.

Anyway, these are just a few of the things I have seen observed and some suggestions to help us all. The fed is great and we are becoming a force to be recognised. We do not want to become one of the many feds that melted down and disbanded as some have done recently. Anyway I guess that is it for today.

Oh I have a little time to add some more before going home for the day and getting this posted. Today was busy at work, and it was kind of unplanned. My class is about a week ahead and I have just about covered everything I can cover with them. They will be taking the final exam tomorrow and then we just have a section after we get their final grades that I teach to show them some stuff that it not part of the curriculum to help them when they get to the fleet.

We finished up early today and I left them go home early. That way some of them can get travel stuff taken care of since many will be departing for their commands next Tuesday. Then I went to go help the junior class with their first transceiver troubleshooting problems. They have a new instructor and this was his first time running the lab. It can get pretty overwhelming that first time and so I jumped in to assist since I already know where the problem areas will come up and what questions to anticipate.

He did pretty great for the first time though it was a little rocky at first. So anyway I was pretty busy for the morning but it was fun. The first round of problems is a lot of fun because you can just turn a switch and they see they were in the wrong mode or something. Also you can find out what they learned or didn’t learn in class and guide them in the right direction.

Well now my phone answering duties are done for the day and it is about time for me to pack up and go home. Oh I almost forgot, they have found us a new pastor for the church. He will be here on June 30th and is coming from El Centro. So we are looking forward to meeting him and seeing which direction the parish goes next.

Have a great week everyone.

A different day

Wow, have I been busy today. We were doing practice troubleshooting performance tests today, and while it was a lot of fun and this particular piece of equipment is easy, it was still keeping me pretty busy. We finished them up before lunch and I shoved them off for the day so I can install the faults for the final performance tests tomorrow.

Usually we split the class in half at this point in the course sending half to DAMA and the other half to OTCIXS/TADIXS but since half or the class is fleet returnees they are a lot quicker and very familiar with the use of test equipment so things go much quicker. We decided to run them through DAMA as an entire class and now they are in OTCIXS/TADIXS. Anyway one of the drawbacks is that we only have four stations so half the class it troubleshooting while the other half is waiting on a station to go to.

But at least while they are waiting we get to tell sea stories and stuff, so we were talking for a while about dumb stuff we have seen happen or have done ourselves. There were the normal interesting legends such as the radioman that places a live patch cord in their mouth to people blowing up test equipment. I think everyone I know has either seen someone melt meter probes or have done it themselves.

Back in the old days, before multi-meters were digital we used to use the Simpson 260’s. They were an analog meter, the one with the little pointer that deflected indicating what you were measuring. When you made a mistake with them and measured a high voltage with a low scale selected you earned the nickname “peggy” for pegging your meter and destroying the meter movement. These days most equipment will flash overload and some even say ouch.

Still if you short something you will melt your meter leads or arc weld them together. I haven’t ever done it myself, but I have seen others do it. I have also seen people get very bad burns or shocks doing it, so while we were all laughing and joking about the things we have seen and done, we still need to make sure we are safe when taking measurements.

We were also talking about ports we have been to that were great, cool and armpits. They also took a few polls of which ports were better than others. Everyone liked going to Thailand, (Phattaya Beach and Phuket) over going to Singapore. Everyone liked Hong Kong over Korea (Pusan and Chin Hae). Everyone hated ports in the Arabian Gulf (Bahrain, Jebel Ali and Dubai), though they said if they had to go somewhere in the gulf Dubai was the lesser of all evils.

It made me start thinking of places I have been and things that I have done. I have been to Taiwan (Keelung and Kaoshung). I have been to Japan too many cities to list, Korea, Okinawa, Guam, Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines (Manila, Subic, Cebu, Bacalod), Singapore, Thailand (Phuket and Phattaya), Malaysia (Penang), Indonesia (Bali), New Zealand (Toranga), New Caledonia, Solomon Islands (Honiera), Fiji, American Somoa, Somoa, Kwajelien Atoll, Australia (Bunbury, Townsville, Mac Kay, Bainbridge, Sydney, Melbourne, and Albany). I have also been to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, UAE (Jebel Ali, Dubayy, and Abu Dhabi), and Bahrain. Closer to home I have to add Mexico and Canada to the list. Almost all of that was due to my naval career so at least the Navy makes you a well-traveled person. I think my only regret would have to be that I never made an east coast deployment.

Well I guess that is about it for now. I need to start getting things ready for tomorrow, as what I do today will make for an easier time tomorrow.