Today was my first real day off...only had two meetings and a telecon to participate in. I did, however, get to sleep in until about 1000. So I guess it was a morning off. Just found out that I will be taking a new job further up North in the next few weeks. Not sure if I will be staying at my current location much past next week, so if you haven't sent me anything...please hold off until I get a new address. I have a feeling this won't be my last move, either. I hope that the Air Force has a frequent flyer program. The sad thing is that I may not get to say goodbye to my TC Commander, who is on leave right now.
I am getting impressed with my rather useless superpower of being able to dry my hands with toilet paper. Another bathroom tidbit of note, it has been at least three days since I have smelled any mothballs...maybe they are running out? I also find it rather amazing how the days fly by here like lightening, yet the weeks keep dragging and dragging like they aren't going by at all. Strange deployment phenomenon.
Later.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Home, Home on the Range...
Well, kids, we finally went to the rifle range today. Not the kind I am used to. No Pop-up targets, no marked left and right limits, no paper targets with silhouettes on them, no loudspeaker, no safety officer, and no numbered lanes. We did a short safety brief, walked down to whatever structure was near the berm, and stapled some white paper on whatever was there, placed some water bottles, walked back to our firing points and started shooting. I am a horrible shot, by the way. Of the first 15 9mm rounds I shot, only about 6 hit one of the 8.5x11 sheets of paper that I had. But I had fun with the M4. At least there is a laser dot you can put on the target and be somewhat accurate. I splashed a few water bottles with it, and burned some wood with a few tracers. But, the best part, was putting the thing on three-round burst setting and emptying the magazine. Not too accurate, but very fun!
Tonight I am going to watch the whole X-Men series. I watched Wolverine: X-Men Origins today, and it kind of got me fired up to watch the whole series. No work tomorrow, so I can sleep in. Just hope I can remain awake for the whole series. The copy of Wolverine that I got was a pre-final release, apparently. I have never seen anything like this. You could still see the wire-harnesses, some of the Computer Generated Graphics weren't colored in yet, and you could tell when these used the Green Screen, because they hadn't refined it yet. Totally bazaar, but cool at the same time. Well, tomorrow is my weekend, so I will start it off tonight with a fine Cuban Cigar and then the X-Men Marathon.
Later Gators.
Tonight I am going to watch the whole X-Men series. I watched Wolverine: X-Men Origins today, and it kind of got me fired up to watch the whole series. No work tomorrow, so I can sleep in. Just hope I can remain awake for the whole series. The copy of Wolverine that I got was a pre-final release, apparently. I have never seen anything like this. You could still see the wire-harnesses, some of the Computer Generated Graphics weren't colored in yet, and you could tell when these used the Green Screen, because they hadn't refined it yet. Totally bazaar, but cool at the same time. Well, tomorrow is my weekend, so I will start it off tonight with a fine Cuban Cigar and then the X-Men Marathon.
Later Gators.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Mysterious Training Holiday...
We showed up to work today...unfortunately, the Iraqis were on a training holiday. Seems as though they let the students go early for the weekend so they could celebrate one of their holidays. Would have been nice if they let us know yesterday...
It was kind of funny watching all of the officers mill about at the dining facility. You see, their commander is on leave, they gave all of the cadre off, and they were all kind of trying to be seen by each other before they, themselves, made the exodus. Kind of reminds me of a normal workday for a FISTer back in my Lieutenant days. To catch you all up, I spent my junior officer days on the shores of the Monterey Bay in California. And I was also a Fire Support Officer (FISTer). Basically we were officers with almost nothing to do on a daily basis. So we would show up in the morning and basically make sure we were seen, then put the feelers out to make sure that no one was looking for us, then disappear until after lunch, when we would just rinse and repeat only to find ourselves at the beach or golfing by 1400...ah, the life. And, yes, that was EVERY DAY...at least until Manual Noriega f-ed it up for all of us. But that is another story.
And now for today's lesson on life in a third world country: Just because your workday is over by 0900, doesn't mean that you have to turn your reports in before they are due. The guys at HQ are expecting those reports to start rolling in at 1600. If we turn our daily SITREP in at 1000 when we have it done, we do two things. The first is that we alert them that maybe we aren't working as hard as them (they are required to be at work from 0730 - 2000 including some food breaks). And, two, it would just mess their daily routine up for gathering reports. So, actually, we are doing them a favor. Lesson over.
That is all I can think of for now.
Later.
It was kind of funny watching all of the officers mill about at the dining facility. You see, their commander is on leave, they gave all of the cadre off, and they were all kind of trying to be seen by each other before they, themselves, made the exodus. Kind of reminds me of a normal workday for a FISTer back in my Lieutenant days. To catch you all up, I spent my junior officer days on the shores of the Monterey Bay in California. And I was also a Fire Support Officer (FISTer). Basically we were officers with almost nothing to do on a daily basis. So we would show up in the morning and basically make sure we were seen, then put the feelers out to make sure that no one was looking for us, then disappear until after lunch, when we would just rinse and repeat only to find ourselves at the beach or golfing by 1400...ah, the life. And, yes, that was EVERY DAY...at least until Manual Noriega f-ed it up for all of us. But that is another story.
And now for today's lesson on life in a third world country: Just because your workday is over by 0900, doesn't mean that you have to turn your reports in before they are due. The guys at HQ are expecting those reports to start rolling in at 1600. If we turn our daily SITREP in at 1000 when we have it done, we do two things. The first is that we alert them that maybe we aren't working as hard as them (they are required to be at work from 0730 - 2000 including some food breaks). And, two, it would just mess their daily routine up for gathering reports. So, actually, we are doing them a favor. Lesson over.
That is all I can think of for now.
Later.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
I have a new skill!
As of today, I now have perfected a new skill. This isn't something that you can teach another person, instead it is a skill that you have to learn all by yourself, by trial and error. I have been here for about three weeks, so it isn't something that you learn right away. And you can't let your guard down, either. Once you learn this skill you must still pay attention to what you are doing, or you will fail. Miserably. This skill, of course, is drying your hands with toilet paper. They don't actually give you toilet paper to dry your hands with, they instead give you a paper towel like dispenser that dispenses stuff even thinner than toilet paper. And we wash our hands here A LOT! I think that in the first three weeks I have been here I have already increased my hand washing by a power of three. The toilet paper we get to wipe our bums is actually thicker than the stuff they give us to dry our hands. I am not kidding. The embarrassing danger here is not having a toilet paper trail on your boot, it is having toilet paper remaining on your hands in the lunch line.
Today I experienced the first bit of help from a bunch of guys sitting around in a Headquarters somewhere with absolutely nothing to do...but 12-14 hours in which to do it. Received a lot of help on a training set-up that is out of our control...lets call it a Sh@t House...that isn't what it is, but the help I am getting is about the equivalent as the help a person a thousand miles away can give to building a sh@t house. At least I can put the problem off for a few days since I think the commander may by on leave. Anyway, I think that I will watch a movie...maybe. Anyway, I have written enough for one evening.
Later Taters.
Today I experienced the first bit of help from a bunch of guys sitting around in a Headquarters somewhere with absolutely nothing to do...but 12-14 hours in which to do it. Received a lot of help on a training set-up that is out of our control...lets call it a Sh@t House...that isn't what it is, but the help I am getting is about the equivalent as the help a person a thousand miles away can give to building a sh@t house. At least I can put the problem off for a few days since I think the commander may by on leave. Anyway, I think that I will watch a movie...maybe. Anyway, I have written enough for one evening.
Later Taters.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Just because it fits...doesn't mean you should stick it in there!
Well, today I had my first "Blow Out" so to speak. The difference between 220V and 110V finally came to a head when I thought, hmm, I have this american power strip and an adapter, why can't I just plug it in? Well,, you can't. All you get is a warm pop, and then your outlets don't work...the smell is better than moth balls, so I can't complain too much about that. But now at least two of my outlets don't work. I may have to physically move my desk to where the outlets work, otherwise I see myself tripping over the cords at night. Basically, I have just learned that just because it looks like it will fit, it doesn't necessarily mean that you should stick it in there. Don't mess with power, it can be your downfall kids!
Anyway, we had a visit from a General Officer today. Not just an officer of a general nature, like me, but a real Brigadier General! (That is a picture of me with a Captain that came over with us) Stayed a couple of hours and had a few office calls with us and our Iraqi counterparts. Good stuff, but raised our stress level a bit today. Should be back to normal tomorrow. Anyhow, I will feel better if the training we had going on today is continued tomorrow...that will mean that it wasn't just a show for the General. Fingers crossed!
Time for Chow.
Later.
Anyway, we had a visit from a General Officer today. Not just an officer of a general nature, like me, but a real Brigadier General! (That is a picture of me with a Captain that came over with us) Stayed a couple of hours and had a few office calls with us and our Iraqi counterparts. Good stuff, but raised our stress level a bit today. Should be back to normal tomorrow. Anyhow, I will feel better if the training we had going on today is continued tomorrow...that will mean that it wasn't just a show for the General. Fingers crossed!
Time for Chow.
Later.
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