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Electron Boy and The Make-A-Wish Foundation

2010-04-30T17:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a very special day for a young boy with liver cancer. Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and hundreds of volunteers including police officers, a few guys off of Deadliest Catch, the Seattle Sounders FC, and Spider Man, Erik Martin got to live out his wish of being a superhero.

About the only thing I have to say about it is that it really made my day. It's a great story. You can read it here at the Seattle Times. There are links to a photo gallery and Electron Boy's Facebook page there as well. The photo gallery is pretty nice.

Would you like to see some boobs with your coffee?

2010-03-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know how prevalent they are in the rest of the country, but we have a few drive-through espresso stands here in Bremerton with baristas that brew coffee while wearing only pasties and thongs. It is a fairly hot topic in the Kitsap Sun. The stories and Letters to the Editors never fail to draw a lot of comments. There are several stands of this sort around the area.

A lot of people say it is immoral and that the stands are a blight on our fair city. I don't know about that. I remember some of my past girlfriends that would be nice enough to bring me coffee in the morning, frequently in some state of undress. It never bothered me. Granted, that is a different context than a little drive-through coffee stand/peep show, but who am I to pass judgment on what other people think is acceptable? Personally, I have no desire to get my coffee from any of these stands. I am more concerned about how sanitary it is for a nearly-nude food worker to be preparing coffee or about the safety aspects of unclothed people working with steam and scalding hot beverages than I am about the moral aspects.

Some people have complained about the women working in these stands being in full view of passing motorists and their passengers on the nearby road, which is quite busy. The bus that I take to and from work passes right by a few of these places. The stands are visible from the road, however, I think you would have to be looking pretty hard to get a glimpse of naked flesh while passing by. They are not exactly in-your-face. They have tinted windows that are opened when the customers pull up, but I have yet to see any naked girls. Maybe I need to look harder, but I am just not all that interested.

One commenter on one of the Kitsap Sun articles said that she felt "ambushed" when she drove up to one of the stands with her kids in the car. The stand is named something like "Fantasy Espresso" and there is a sign on the side of the stand showing a silhouette of a woman. I think this poor woman should have been paying a little more attention. Maybe she could have connected the dots and avoided the ambush. Heaven forbid that someone needs to explain to their children that women have breasts and that men like to look at them. I wonder how they deal with questions about erectile dysfunction after their children see commercials on television.

I remember when my first boat pulled into Fort Lauderdale. Some of us had heard about a topless donut shop and we decided we needed to check it out. It was like any other donut shop with news on the television behind the counter and various customers reading newspapers and chatting over their donuts and coffee. The only difference is that the female waitresses were topless. That part of it was kind of surreal. It was a mildly interesting experience, but not that thrilling. The donuts were okay and the coffee was pretty good. I don't know whether or not it is still in business, but I doubt I would go back if it is still open.

In the meantime, I guess these new businesses will be a controversial subject whenever they come up. I guess I am in the camp of "Who Cares?" If you don't like these places, don't go. If you want to spend your hard-earned four dollars and throw a buck or two in the tip jar to get a good cup of coffee and a quick look at a scantily clad woman, that's fine with me. It's not going to hurt the economy. Hopefully none of the outraged citizens will take the matter into their own hands and burn the place to the ground like this coffee shop in Maine that had topless girls serving coffee.

The Tea Party

2010-02-18T16:10:00.000-08:00

I read about the nutty guy in Texas that flew his plane into the IRS building in Austin. I read his last note or suicide note or whatever it is that you want to call it. I can actually agree with some of the sentiments expressed in there, but I think advocating violence against the IRS and then actually carrying out a suicide attack on the IRS is pretty nuts.

I also read several comments that readers had submitted. I don't find much funny about this situation, but a lot of the comments make me laugh. Right-wing nutjobs and Left-wing nutjobs are both trying to claim that the suicide pilot is a liberal (from the right-wing nutjobs) and a conservative (from the left-wing nutjobs). Having read the note, I had to agree with the comment that basically said the guy was nuts and his political beliefs are all over the map. It was a pretty rambling note.

I did read a political piece of news about a gathering of the Tea Party in Clarkston, WA. Apparently, one of their speakers want to kill one of our United States Senators. She said:

"How many of you have watched the movie Lonesome Dove?," asked one speaker from the podium. "What happened to Jake when he ran with the wrong crowd? What happened to Jake when he ran with the wrong crowd. He got hung. And that's what I want to do with Patty Murray."

Pretty classy group of people that gather at Tea Parties. I kind of thought that some of them were well meaning people, in spite of the somewhat racist signs and thoughtless comments that I have seen and heard attributed to them.

She was at least sincere enough to allow her comment to be recorded on video and preserved for posterity. You can watch it here if you want. The video clip is cut a little short after the comment so it is difficult to judge the reaction of the crowd, but if she feels that she is among people that think that murdering an elected official is an appropriate comment or a funny joke, that tells me what kind of people that she thinks are in the party.

Maybe I will go to an anti-Tea Party gathering when they have a Tea Party around here. After seeing this video, I have absolutely no respect for them.

Screw 'em!!

Round and Round I Go

2010-02-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

I was visiting my parents a few weeks ago and I decided to drive back to Bremerton using a route that I normally do not use. From my parents house, I drove to Olympia using what we call "The Back Way In" to Olympia. This is a road that goes through some very rural areas before coming into Tumwater on the way into Olympia.

I was approaching Tumwater when I saw signs indicating there was construction ahead. January isn't exactly the peak of construction activity in this area, but they were doing something to the road. As I got closer, I saw that they had put in a new roundabout.

I hate roundabouts.

Roundabouts are one European import that definitely should have stayed in Europe. To tell you the truth, I don't know for sure that they originated in Europe. I just associate them with Europe because of the Griswold's adventures in England during National Lampoon's European Vacation. Now that I think about it, comedy movies may not be the best source of information about other countries and continents, but I have to work with what I have.

Anyway, there is another roundabout that I occasionally use and I am not very good at it. I have probably been through it about a dozen times. I would estimate that I have successfully navigated this roundabout three or four times on the first try out my dozen attempts. Most of the time when I go through it, I end up in the wrong lane and am forced to exit before I want to. I should probably have it figured out by now, but that darn roundabout outwits me nearly every time. After driving through and coming out heading in the wrong direction, I have to drive about a half mile until I can turn onto another street and get myself turned around so that I can reenter the roundabout and come out at the correct exit. I could probably stop and turn around a little earlier, but I am worried that someone will see me and realize that I got messed up by the roundabout. Since I am a man, that would be an unacceptable outcome, almost like admitting that I was lost.

Bottom line, I hate roundabouts. Now they just put in another roundabout on a road that I sometimes travel. I came out of the roundabout, miraculously heading in the correct direction and drive for a few hundred yards when I come up on another new roundabout.

Two new roundabouts??? Are you kidding me? What could be worse than two new roundabouts?

I left that roundabout and continued driving for a few hundred more yards when I found out what could be worse than two new roundabouts.

Can you guess what that might be?

If you guessed a third roundabout, you would be correct.

I hear that roundabouts are safer than intersections controlled by traffic lights. That may be true, but I would take a left-turn lane and a nice clear green arrow to tell me when I can turn over a roundabout every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

My Year in Review

2009-12-31T05:37:00.000-08:00

The last year has brought some pretty substantial changes to my life. I have a new job, live in a new place, and have a new car. About the only thing that is the same in my day-to-day life is the same old furniture that I have been dragging around with me from Hawaii to Guam, back to Hawaii, to Pullman for school, and now here in Bremerton. At least something has remained the same. I need some consistency in my life and I have been parking my butt on that couch for quite a while now.

As for the changes, being a nuclear engineer at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is certainly preferable to being a college student, at least for me. I am sure that some of my twenty-some year old co-workers would rather be back in college rather than working. I didn't really have anything in particular against going to school, however it is much nicer to have money flowing in rather than having money flowing out each month. In addition, while I was in school, I always felt that there was more that I could be doing for my classes or something that I should be studying when I was sitting at home which made it difficult to really relax. Now that I have a job working with classified material all of the time, I am simply not allowed to bring my job home with me. Leaving work at work is pure bliss in my book.

My new home is Bremerton. For those of you that have been to Bremerton, you may not consider this much of an upgrade for my hometown. I always liked Bremerton and I still do. I would probably enjoy living in Hawaii more, but Bremerton is better than Pullman in my book. At least here, I can find other middle-aged sailors and ex-sailors to sit around with and bitch about the state of the world. In Pullman, every place that you went was filled with college students, most of whom were much younger than me.

Another big improvement is the weather. If you hate rain, you wouldn't agree with me there, but what I really hate is the cold weather that would be around for so long each year on the other side of the Cascades. Snow is pretty to look at, but beyond that, I don't have much use for it.

I know lots of people like to ski and snowboard. I went skiing a few times when I was younger. I fell down the last time I went skiing. I never thought that falling on my butt would hurt so much. I was bruised for a week and decided I didn't really like skiing.

Another reason I dislike cold weather was a slip and fall while I was walking to the bus stop in Pullman about three years ago. I ended up sliding into a concrete curb and breaking my leg. I will take the drizzle and gray skies of Bremerton over the ice and snow of Pullman any day.

Anyway, my new job and new home are pretty good upgrades over what I had last New Years Eve. I also got a new car. I ended up trading in my old Thunderbird for a new Prius. I like the new car, but the old Thunderbird has gotten me where I needed to go since 1997. I definitely felt a twinge of regret as I traded it in on the new car. I had decided that when the next big repair came up on the Thunderbird, I would be getting a new car.

One day, while I was sitting at a stoplight, my windows started to fog up. I turned on the defogger and had steam shooting out of the vents. I drove straight to the dealer and got my Prius that night. It wasn't too much of a snap decision. I had done some research and talked to a few people that own one, and had known for months that a Prius would be my next car. I do miss the Thunderbird, but it was time for a new car.

All-in-all, most aspects of my life have gotten better in the last year. I hope that everyone else out there had productive and happy years and hope that 2010 brings joy and prosperity to your families. Happy New Year!!

Shifting Gears

2009-12-23T18:43:00.000-08:00

One of the things that I did not really consider when I came to work at the shipyard is how much shift work there would be. Truth is, I was kind of looking forward to working mostly days, but I have probably spent the majority of my time on swings. The last few weeks, I have been working the graveyard shift.

Although I had been looking forward to working days, I found that shift work really hasn't been that bad. There are several factors that I had not considered that make shift work easier as a civilian than as a sailor.

Probably the biggest thing is that the shifts are truly 8 hour shifts for me. I don't have to come in early for a brief and stay late to clean or to talk to the day shift managers about the shift. Granted, this is only true because I am still a trainee. The qualified guys do have to come in a little early to do a pre-shift tour and stay a little late to conduct a proper turnover, but an important difference is that as a civilian, you get paid to work extra hours. Nice. Overtime helps a lot because you get to pick up a little extra pay and management has an incentive to keep you within your normal 8 hour day.

As a nub, I have only had to work overtime a few times, and while I certainly don't want to work weeks and weeks on end without a day off, a few hours of overtime here and there are nice. It is certainly less hours than I would put in while I was sealed in a submarine far underwater for weeks and weeks on end, and I get paid extra for it!

Another thing is shift differential. I get paid a little extra for each hour that I put in between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. This isn't a huge amount of money, but it gives me a little extra money in my pocket every few weeks.

All in all, shift work is a lot better as a civilian than as a sailor. Working graveyard shift while the weather is gloomy here in the Pacific Northwest isn't so bad either, since the nights have been only a little darker than the days for the last few weeks. Might not be so great in the summer.

I will be shifting gears again after I finish work in the morning and coming back on days. Just in time for Christmas.

I sincerely hope that everyone out there has a Merry Christmas and that the coming New Year is fantastic for all of you!!

Sad Day In Washington

2009-11-29T18:14:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, just down the road in Lakewood, four police officers were slain in a coffee shop while preparing for their shift.

The murdered police officers from the Lakewood Police Department are Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold, and Greg Richards. Here is a link to a Facebook page dedicated to the memory of these police officers.

The police in the area are on the lookout for a person of interest, although, at the time of this post, he has not yet been called a suspect. He has a criminal history in Arkansas, where a long prison sentence was commuted by their governor. More recently, six days ago, he was released on bond after being arrested here in Washington for assault on a police officer and child rape charges. Read about him here.

This comes just a month after a police officer, Timothy Brenton, was assassinated on Halloween in Seattle. Tragic days for those that Protect and Serve.

My condolences to the families and friends of these officers.

Perseverance

2009-11-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

I remember when one of my boats pulled into South Korea for a liberty port. The briefing that we received prior to pulling into port included the dangers of drivers in South Korea. We were told that it was the most dangerous country in the world for drivers and also the most dangerous country in the world for pedestrians. I don't know if these were true facts, but I do remember a few white-knuckled rides from Chinhae to Pusan. They may as well take out the gas pedal and brakes and put in an On-Off switch because the taxi drivers alternated between putting the accelerator on the floor and putting the brakes on the floor. Truly terrifying.

I want to share a heart-warming story that I just read about a South Korean woman that passed her written driving test on (or about) her 950th attempt. The test requires a minimum of 60 out of 100 to pass. She has been taking the drivers test nearly every day since April of 2005. After spending more than $4000 in application fees, she finally passed with a 60 out of 100.

The next step is to actually get behind the wheel for the driving test.

Cha Sa-soon, I salute your perseverance. Good luck on your driving test. I hope you pass this part of the test more quickly than the written part.

Also, I would like to say Good Luck to all of the drivers and pedestrians in South Korea. You need it.

Headline News

2009-11-03T15:52:00.000-08:00

I just got home from work and thought I would like to see some election coverage. The local news hasn't started yet. I prefer not to watch election returns on MSNBC or FOX. I figured headline news on CNN would have some good coverage. I looked on the guide and saw that Prime News is on and thought that would be a good place to watch. After all, the description for Prime News is:

"The days top stories, as compiled by CNN's news-gathering unit, are presented."

I tune into to headline news and what kind of coverage do they have? If you guessed that they would be having an in-depth discussion of whether or not Anna Nicole Smith was high on drugs in the so-called Clown Video that was shot in 2005 or 2006, then you are obviously much more in touch with the pulse of CNN than I am.

CNN, you suck.

Guess I will have to stay up and watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report if I want to see something resembling real news.

Secretary of Navy Interview: Women on Submarines? Soon.

2009-10-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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Ray Mabus

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Ray Mabus, the Secretary of the Navy did an interview on the Daily Show last night. One of the topics addressed was that of women serving on submarines.

Some of you may have been following the long debate about this issue going on over at Bubblehead's blog. Some people are in favor of women serving aboard subs, some are opposed, and some other people probably don't really care and just want to go to the rack when they get off watch.

From what SecNav said during the interview, it doesn't seem that there is any debate going on. When Jon Stewart made the statement that women aren't allowed to serve in submarines, Ray Mabus replied "That's right. They will soon." The part where he talks about women serving aboard submarines starts just a little over two minutes into the interview.

He also said, innacurately, that there would be a delay because all people that serve on submarines are nuclear-trained. For the non-submariners out there, not all sailors that serve on subs go through nuclear power training. All the officers, with the exception of the supply officer are nuclear trained. The enlisted nuclear power plant operators are also nuclear trained. The other enlisted sailors go through submarine school.

I suspect that the Secretary of the Navy has a general idea of what sort of training that submarine sailors go through before they hit the waterfront. I guess this may be a clue that the first United State female submarine sailors will be officers, most of which are nuclear trained. No surprise if that is the case.

One of the people that left a comment on Bubblehead's blog had a link to a news article that said the first women may hit the submarine fleet in 2010 or 2011. The writing is on the wall and change is coming whether the men currently serving on subs want it or not.

At the shipyard, I have been working with the nukes from an aircraft carrier. Some of them are women. Seems like they can do the job that they are doing. Doesn't seem to be any obvious friction or inappropriate behavior between the men and women on the crew. The men and women both appear to be professional adults doing a difficult job. No surprise there, either.

When we begin to integrate women into submarine crews, it will probably result in a few rough patches on the road. We may lose some people. It will be their own fault, but they will blame the fact that we are allowing women to serve on submarines. Some people will have no difficulty aside from having a longer line at the shower. Some people won't care at all.

Most of the people who think it is a stupid idea can probably think of several other policies that have been implimented at their command that they thought were stupid ideas. They learned to adapt to the stupid policy and move on. This will be the same.

The Seattle Psychic

2009-09-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, the Seattle Mariners were in Toronto wrapping up their final road trip of the year. Mike Blowers, a former Mariner and Yankee player and current baseball analyst on the Seattle Mariners radio broadcast, made an absolutely amazing prediction.

During a pre-game segment called "Pick to Click", some of the announcers are able to make their prediction about who will "click" during the upcoming game. Mike chose Matt Tuiasosopo, who was recently called up from the minors.

When making his prediction, he said that Tuiasosopo had been swinging the bat well and was going to get his first major league home run that day. The original prediction was that Tui would get into a favorable count and hit a home run to left-center field, maybe reaching the second deck.

Things got a little out of hand as the conversation continued, with Blowers predicting that Tui would get to a 3-1 count in his second at bat of the day, then he would get a fastball, and put it into the second deck in left-center field.

During his second at bat, Seattle's hall-of-fame baseball announcer Dave Neihaus calling the action:

"Left-hander's 2-1 pitch, and that's inside, Ball 3!!!"

"3 balls...I've never been so excited on a 3-1 count in my life!"

"3-1 pitch on the way."

"SWUNG ON AND BELTED, DEEP TO LEFT FIELD. IT JUST MISSED THE SECOND DECK. FLY, FLY, FLY AWAY. I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!"

You can hear another announcer giggling uncontrollably the entire time this was happening. Although the ball didn't quite make it to the second deck, it was a pretty amazing prediction. Wow!!

The call was featured on the Rachel Maddow show the other night. Here is a link to the youtube video of the clip from her show.

For those of you that want to listen to the clip without the obvious liberal bias associated with any MSNBC show, here is a link to an audio-only story about the call, embellished by New York Vinnie, a Seattle radio and television personality.

For a more bare-bones audio, you can hear both the prediction and the call at Shannon Drayer's blog here.

Was this a wild shot in the dark that hit the bulls eye? Maybe.

Was this just an experienced analyst making a lucky, educated guess? Perhaps.

Was this a flash of psychic ability from the Twilight Zone? Possibly.

Was this freakish, weird, and amazing? Absolutely.

Costco

2009-09-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

I made a trip to Costco last week. It might not sound like such a momentous event, and I guess it probably wasn't. It has just been a really long time since I had a membership there. While I was going to school at Washington State, the nearest Costco was in Lewiston, Idaho and it was a pretty long drive. Certainly not the sort of drive that I would have been willing to make on a recurring basis for shopping, particularly when considering the winters in the Palouse.

A lot of the sailors that I worked with in the navy used to swear by Costco for everything. I had a membership a really long time ago, but it just wasn't something that I used often enough to justify the annual fee. Since everything is sold in such large quantities, a single guy like me just wouldn't use enough to make it worthwhile. Between deployments and weekly ops, staying home for more than a few weeks at a time was not something that I could count on. If I bought a pack of chicken breasts, I might eat a few of them, but the rest of the chicken breasts would just stay in the freezer for a really, really, really long time until I got tired of them taking up space and threw them out or gave them away. About the only thing that I could be assured of buying and using was toilet paper, but paying membership fees for a annual trip to Costco to buy twelve dozen rolls of toilet paper just didn't seem worthwhile, so I let it lapse.

This trip to Costco made me realize that it hasn't changed much. I bought some grape juice and coffee creamer and a few other items. I managed to avoid convincing myself that I needed a huge package of lasagna or two pounds of beef jerky or a gallon jar full of jelly beans, so it wasn't a very expensive trip and my apartment isn't overloaded with a bunch of stuff that I really don't need.

I did buy a rotisserie chicken there. It wasn't the most spectacular piece of poultry that I have ever eaten, but if I can buy a fully cooked, ready -to-eat chicken for $5.99, why the heck would I want to cook one? Of course, I could just as easily pick one of those up at Safeway or Fred Meyers, but I guess it will help me justify my Costco membership.

The coffee creamer was a decent deal, but not an incredible bargain. I like french vanilla coffee creamer and the stuff that they sold there has two bottles of french vanilla and one bottle of hazelnut. I don't really like hazelnut all that well, so I won't be using that. Luckily, my mom likes hazelnut creamer, so when I buy it, I can take it down to her on my next visit or give it to her when my parents come up to visit me.

Milk is something else that I have been thinking of buying there, but the packages that look like a good deal are two gallon packs. I drink a bit of milk and use it for some cooking, but only go through about a quart every week, give or take. I hate to buy two gallons of milk and have half of it spoil on me. I think I might pick up some of those disposable plastic storage containers with the screw on lids. I suppose they probably have them in 1-quart size. I can pour the majority of the milk into those containers and toss them in the freezer. I think I would get around to using it a little more frequently than those old chicken breast that I used to throw out in Hawaii.

Does milk freeze well?

I don't know for sure, but I have been single for so long, that I am not exactly a connoisseur of fine foods anyway. Should keep well enough for me.

Hopefully, I will find enough bargains to make it worthwhile to have a membership and avoid purchasing the stuff that looks a lot better in the store than it does once it is filling up my freezer or a cupboard in my apartment.

A Good Barber Is Still Hard To Find

2009-09-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

After living in Pullman for three years without finding a barber or hairstylist that I really liked, I have started a search here in Bremerton. Luckily, I don't need to get my hair cut as frequently as I did while I was in the navy, so I have a little more time to find someone new.

The first place I went to, the stylists were friendly and chatty, but the lady that cut my hair made me kind of nervous. She was rather mature and her hands were a little shaky. She also had this habit of finishing some of her sentences with a nervous little titter. It is somewhat unnerving to have someone let out a little laugh at inappropriate times.

One of our verbal exchanges went something like this:

Her: "Whoops. hehe"

Me: "What's the matter?"

Her: "Oh, nothing. hehe"

The haircut wasn't bad, but I decided not to go back.

Last month, I tried another place. There was a middle-aged woman and a younger woman working there when I walked in. The middle-aged woman stepped up to the counter and asked:

"Can I help you?"

The words seemed normal enough, but the glare she was giving me and the tone of her voice seemed to say:

"What the f&$@ do you want?"

I told her that I wanted a haircut. She kind of growled at me and told me it would be about 20 minutes. I said that would be fine and wrote my name on a sign-up list and took a seat. Next, she turned to the younger woman and angrily told her that if anyone else came in, it would be at least an hour before she would take another customer because she hadn't eaten lunch yet. The younger woman sweetly replied that she would just tell anyone else that came in to get lost. The young woman also earned a glare for that remark.

In the meantime, the middle-aged woman called a father who was bringing his son in for a haircut back to her station. I only heard one side of the conversation, but it didn't sound too promising. I heard her say quite loudly:

"I don't think you even know what you're asking for. He's gonna look like Little Lord Fauntleroy if I cut it like that!!"

Next, I heard her say:

"A bob?!?! Do you even know what a bob is?!?! He's gonna look like a little girl!!! Just let me do this!!"

Obviously, I was having some reservations at this point, but having already committed some of my time, I figured I would go ahead and stick it out and get my haircut as long as she didn't treat me so harshly when it was my turn.

After the young boy and his father left (with a pretty good haircut, I should add), she called me to the back. I gave her my standard "Finger-length on top, a number 1 on the sides and back, and blend it together" and she commenced cutting my hair. She chatted with me and seemed quite friendly the whole time. She was like the Mr. Hyde of Hyde/Jekyll. It actually turned out to be a pretty good cut.

I don't know. Maybe she just doesn't like kids.

Hello, Again!!

2009-09-06T02:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I would like to say hello to everyone again. If you happen to check in on this blog from time to time, I suppose you noticed that I haven't posted in quite a long time. I just haven't felt like making any new entries for a while.

One of the reasons, I guess, is that my life is substantially less stressful now that I am back at work and getting a steady paycheck. I think that posting on my blog was a form of stress-relief for me.

Another reason is that I live in Bremerton, where I am surrounded by sailors, ex-sailors, and shipyard workers. When I look at the people here, it is kind of like looking in a mirror, so to speak. When I was living in Pullman for school, I felt like I was living on another planet, and some of the observations of the younger generation prompted me to write a few posts.

Probably the biggest reason I haven't been posting is that I have been reading a lot fewer news articles. I guess I was just getting disgusted with news in general. I used to watch some of the cable news shows, but I got to the point where I couldn't stand to watch any of them. MSNBC should rename itself the "We Love Obama" channel, FOX should rename itself the "We Hate Obama" channel, and CNN should rename itself the "We Love Ourselves" channel.

Some of the news that has filtered through has tempted me to write a post or two, but in the end, my laziness won out. I was going to write a post about Michael Vick coming back to the NFL, but decided that the NFL has a number of convicted felons already, so it just wasn't all that big of a deal. I was going to write about the backlash from conservatives because the President wants to speak to schoolchildren. The partisanship surrounding that topic just disgusts me. In the end, I wrote about nothing.

I did find a few articles that put a smile on my face and thought I would share them with anyone that is interested in looking at them.

The first one is an article from the Kitsap Sun. Just a little story about some loud and naked guys in Bremerton. You can read the full story here. Here is an excerpt in case you don't want to read the whole story:

Witnesses said one was completely naked, one wasn’t wearing any pants and they couldn’t see the third man because the other two were on top of him, they said. The witnesses said they heard somebody yell “return of the Jedi” while the three were naked and entwined.

When officers arrived, they found three men — a 29-year-old and two 23-year-olds — on a porch. All appeared to be drunk. They were surrounded by empty alcohol bottles, according to the police report. All denied they had been involved in the incident.

“We’ve got our clothes on, must not have been us,” one said.

Well, I guess that is more like ninety-percent of the article rather than a short excerpt. Sorry.

The second article details a bad experience with some gals from Craigslist. I thought that I had read a while ago that Craigslist was doing away with the Erotic Services. I took a quick look. Erotic Services is no longer listed on Craigslist. However, there is an Adult Services section. Guess it is the same thing. Anyway, this story serves as an example of what can happen when a bunch of "incredibly intoxicated" guys get together and decide that calling the number on a Craigslist ad for some escorts is a good idea. The full story is on the Seattle Times and you can read it here. I think my favorite part of the article was probably the last paragraph:

While trying to describe the suspects to police, the men decided to rate the women on a scale of 1 to 10. Three said the women all rated a "2." But the man described by police as the most intoxicated disagreed and claimed they rated a "4."

Incidentally, while perusing the comments posted on the second article, I learned that Sir Mix-A-Lot had written a song about some of the local girls: "Bremelo." Huh. How about that? I have heard the term used a lot of times in the past, but never knew that someone actually wrote a song. I am probably the last person in the world to figure out that this song exists. Oh well.

For anyone that persevered and read this entire post, thanks for your time. Hopefully, I will be feeling a little more motivated to put a few posts up from time to time. Hope that everyone out there has been doing well.

Road Rage

2009-06-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

When I was a teen, shortly after I got my driver's license, I almost caused an accident because I was driving aggressively. I passed a car when it wasn't safe and almost hit an oncoming vehicle. Luckily, both the car that I was passing and the oncoming vehicle made room for me to get back in the proper lane and avoid an accident. It scared the crap out of me and my driving improved instantly.

I still liked to drive fast, but I was much more careful. A $35 speeding ticket in New York in 1988 didn't dissuade me from driving fast. A $150 speeding ticket in Massachusetts did. Over the years, I mellowed quite a bit. Now, I don't speed at all, I drive defensively, and I do my best to avoid accidents.

Sometimes, it is tough to drive safely. For example, if I am driving on the freeway and try to remain about two seconds behind the car in front of me, somebody will take that as an invitation to squeeze in the space in front of me. While I was going to school in Pullman, it was unusual for me to drive without having some kid in an SUV getting right on my tail and try to intimidate me into speeding.

I just finished reading an article that made me think about my driving habits and other driver's habits. It turns out that New York City has the most aggressive drivers in the United States. Can't say that I am surprised by that. What did surprise me was the breakdown of how people respond to drivers that piss them off. Normally, if I was told that 1% of a group of people do something stupid or strange, I would not be surprised.

In this case, 1% of the drivers polled admitted to slamming their car into the offending driver's car.

In a typical drive around Bremerton, I am sure that I see several hundred other cars on the road. Does that mean that there are several people out there that think it is appropriate to slam their car into mine because they don't like my driving? Kind of a sobering thought for me. In Washington D.C, the percentage was 4%!!! Pretty scary. You can read the article here. Here is an excerpt:

Seven percent were so angry they called the police and one percent admitted they had slammed into the car in front of them.

"In Washington, D.C., four percent of drivers admitted to slamming into another driver," said Bush. "They stand out in that one particular category."

I generally do a pretty good job maintaining my cool and rarely get upset by how other people drive. I am okay with pulling over and letting people who feel that their time is more important than mine pass me by. Over the last two weeks, however, aggressive drivers have managed to elicit a few curses from me.

The most recent one was last week. I was driving on a rural highway going 55 MPH when a pickup truck rapidly approached me from behind and was tailgating so close that I probably could have counted the dude's nose hairs in my rear-view mirror. After about 30 seconds of this, I came upon a slow vehicle turnout and let the guy pass me. He honked his horn and flipped me off when he went by. Why? Because I let him pass me, I guess. Don't really get it. Obviously, this guy was a jack-ass. That guy made me cuss.

About three weeks ago, on the same highway as the one that I just talked about, three motorcycles were following me. As we were leaving a small town on that highway, one of the motorcycles passed me and started speeding away from me. He passed me just prior to a long stretch of road where no passing is allowed and the small shoulders don't allow you to pull over. The motorcycle in front of me then started slowing down to just under 55 MPH until I started catching up to him, then he would RAPIDLY slow down forcing me to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting his bike and killing him. He then sped away from me again and repeated this idiotic maneuver. It dawned on me that he was trying to slow me down so that his two buddies following me could pass me. They didn't pass me. I couldn't safely pull over to let his buddies pass me. I slowed down to allow them to pass, and the guy in front of me pulled the same crap again at lower speeds.

This insane behavior continued for several minutes until we came out of the no-passing zone. Then the two guys behind me passed me. About five minutes after that, I came to another town and the three guys were parked outside a store talking. I pulled over in front of them, got out of my car, and slammed my door. One of the motorcyclists put his hands in front of him and said "Hey man, we're sorry about that." I guess I must have looked pretty pissed off. I turned around, got back in my car and drove away. I didn't see these guys again.

Good thing they weren't driving in Washington D.C.

My Phone Has Been Ringing Off The Hook

2009-06-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

While I was living in Guam, sometime in 2001, I gave up on using a home telephone. That happened after the third time my phone was disconnected because my bill wasn't paid on time. In one case, I had to bring the Guam Telephone Authority a copy of the canceled check to prove that I had paid. In the other two instances, the payment had been in the office in plenty of time, but had not been processed. In all three instances, my phone was reconnected and the reconnection fee was waived (Gee, Thanks, GTA!!!) but I had wasted half a day (or was it Hafa Adai?) standing in line at GTA to speak to a customer service representative. In any case, I had already had my fill of GTA and became a cell-phone only household ever since. Until now.

After living without a home phone for about the last 8 years, I decided to have one installed. What a pain in the butt!! I have had the phone hooked up for less than 48 hours. I have eight missed phone calls. I haven't bothered to answer it yet because I have not given out my phone number to anyone. The numbers stored in my caller ID and the two messages that were left for me lead me to believe that all of the calls are from telemarketers.

Who ever buys things from telemarketers? There must be people out there that do buy stuff or they wouldn't call. The second my phone rings and it is not someone that I know calling me, I feel instant resentment for the disturbance, like when I was awakened from my nap yesterday evening. I just registered with the national no-call registry, so I guess the calls, or at least most of the calls, will have stopped in about a month. I hope it works.

Settling In

2009-06-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

I got my cable hooked up yesterday and now have television and reasonable internet access. Actually, the Comcast cable modem is way, way faster than the Time Warner Roadrunner that I had while I was in Pullman. It is also pretty nice to be able to turn on the television and watch a little news in the morning before taking off for work. I had been watching Band of Brothers to pass the time in the evenings. I think that is one of the best World War II movies that I have seen.

I appreciate the comments on my last post. For Nereus, I am in East Bremerton on Fairgrounds Road.

I had to laugh at the warning to watch out for Diamond Parking. My first day ran pretty late and I didn't have a chance to look at a bus schedule, so I drove in for my second day. The parking cost $6 and I had six $1 bills in my wallet. I was having trouble fitting them into the box and ended up putting in the bills in groups of two. When I finished work and walked out to my car, there was a blue envelope on the windshield containing a $25 ticket stating that I had paid only $2 for the parking spot.

There was a number to call to appeal the ticket, so I gave it a try. I waited through a pretty extensive recording which ended by saying "If you are calling to appeal a parking ticket, please leave a detailed message after the tone."

So I waited for the tone.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

After what was probably about a minute of waiting, a diamond parking enforcement car (golf cart?) came by and it had a different phone number on the side of its door. I decided to give that number a call. A woman immediately answered the phone and I explained that I had some difficulty putting the dollar bills into the payment slot and that I had put them in in groups of two bills, but that I had paid the full $6. She told me that they had found four $1 bills in the slot right next to the one that I was putting my money in and that the missing bills had probably found their way to that slot. She ended up voiding the ticket, so in the end it didn't cost me any more than a few minutes of cell phone time.

I did get bus schedules that day and found a bus that picks me up at a Park & Ride just about a quarter-mile down the road from my apartment and drops me off at a gate that is right next to my building at the shipyard about 20 minutes before I have to be there. The shipyard paid for my bus pass, so I will stick with the bus for now.

I am getting all of my stuff put away (slowly) and everyday my apartment looks a little more home-like. It will be nice when I can come home and relax and not worry about putting another box of stuff away, but overall, I am getting settled in nicely.

Still Alive

2009-05-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well, figured I would give a quick update since I haven't been online for quite some time. I still don't have regular internet access at my new place, so I decided to make a quick trip to the library to check up on stuff.

I am getting settled in at my new place in Bremerton. After the move, I decided that I still don't like movers very much. The guys that unpacked my household goods have left me a tremendous amount of work to do to before the place looks like a home. I guess I will gripe about that in a later post.

I started working at the shipyard yesterday and have had a few fun-filled days of briefs and videos and power point presentations as well as several long walks through the shipyard to get our group of newly hired people familiar with the area.

That's about all that I have the energy to write for now. Hope that everyone else has had a little more fun over the last few weeks than I have. The last few weeks have been full of the pain associated with moving, but things are looking up again.

Moving On

2009-05-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

Moving day is almost here. The movers are showing up tomorrow to haul all of my stuff away. I have been going through all of the closets and cabinets and nooks and crannies to see what kind of junk I can get rid of. It is not as bad as I had feared. I have accumulated a lot less junk than I had thought.

Thursday is apartment inspection day so I will be doing some last minute cleaning after all of my stuff is gone. My parents were here for my graduation on Saturday and my mom decided that I needed some help moving, so she has stuck around to help clean the place up.

Moving day has always been a bad day in the past. I remember when I was packing up to leave Guam. The movers packed all of my stuff into shipping crates and I was supposed to install and sign security seals to each crate after they were nailed shut. The guys doing the moving tried to get me to sign the security seals and let them take them back to the warehouse. They promised me that they would make sure nothing went missing and that I should just give them the signed seals. I wasn't that trusting.

They got pretty pissed when they were nailing shut the last shipping crate which was only about 1/3 full. They kept going on and on about how I should let them finish nailing it shut back at the warehouse. They said they would be packing out someone else the next day and if I wasn't such an asshole, they would be able to pack my stuff together with this other persons stuff and save everyone some money. After spending the day with these guys mishandling my personal belongings, I told them I didn't care if they thought I was an asshole, but the security seals were going on before my stuff left my sight.

Another group of movers irritated me when I left Hawaii. There were a couple of island boys packing up my stuff. One of them asked me questions like "Hey Brah, You don't plan on keeping these golf clubs, do you?" while he was looking at my TaylorMade irons, Callaway driver, and Mizuno woods. I was asked twice if I really wanted to keep the golf clubs. I talked to the guy in charge of the movers and told him this guy needed to leave the house immediately. When the people that are moving you out of your house are eying your personal belongings and trying to talk you into leaving them behind, you start to worry about sticky fingers.

The supervisor talked to the guy and he stopped asking me if I wanted to leave any more of my stuff behind. Then he started bitching about how the last time he packed up a house, the guy that was moving bought everyone a pizza and sodas. He mentioned it about two hundred times. I told him the last time that somebody packed up my belongings, they brought their lunch with them. I talked to the supervisor about this guy again, only I was much louder and my language was heavily laced with profanity. Told him I wanted that guy out of my place immediately. This time, the supervisor apologized and told the guy to leave right away. When the guy told him that he needed a ride, the supervisor cussed him out and told him to call his brother if he wanted a ride that bad. Turns out, the guy had gotten the job because his brother worked at the moving company and he was already on thin ice with the boss. Anyway, he walked off complaining that the world was against him.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I hate moving. Hopefully, the guys that come to pick up my stuff tomorrow don't cause me any unnecessary aggravation. As many times as I have moved in the past, I figure I am due to get some good guys here to do the work.

Washington State University Graduation 2009

2009-05-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

With graduation weekend upon us here in Pullman, the population of the town has swelled. There are a lot of family members in town to wish their graduates well. My parents have been here for a few days now to join in on the festivities. If you are ever going to attend a graduation ceremony for Washington State University, make sure to book your hotel room well in advance. I have heard that some of the local hotels take reservations a few years in advance for graduation ceremonies. Pullman is not a very large town and the hotels in the region are booked solid months in advance. Luckily, I have an extra room in my apartment for my parents to stay in for the weekend.

We went to campus to take some of the obligatory pictures in the cap and gown. One of the most popular spots is the sign at the entrance to the campus.

This is a picture of the line to take pictures. It was a bit longer when we got into the line, but it moved pretty quickly. The weather was pretty cooperative. There was quite a bit of rain Thursday, but it cleared up nicely ahead of the commencement ceremony.

There was a reception for the School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering graduates yesterday evening. It was a nice chance for my parents to meet some of the other students and some of the professors. We had a pretty good time. I guess I was probably about the same age as most of the parents, but I was only asked once which one of the students was my child.

We have about 2400 graduates going through commencement today. We are divided into three groups. I get to walk in the 3:00 pm ceremony. I am sure that there will be several thousand guests there today. The ceremony is also broadcast on live television here in the Pullman and there will also be a live webcast and the webcast will be archived for future viewing. If you want to know what the ceremony looks like, you can find a link to the webcast here.

It has been interesting going to school and probably an atypical experience given my age. In the end, it has been a fairly enjoyable experience, I met lots of nice people, and at the end, I get to walk out with a degree in Chemical Engineering. I guess it has been a fairly productive two and half years.

It's Time To Go Home

2009-04-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

My parents live in a small town and there are not very many entertainment options. There is a popular tribal casino located just a few miles from their house and the casino has become a sort of hang-out for locals. My mom and dad go there nearly every day. They don't really do a lot of gambling. My dad is retired and sits with all of his retired friends drinking beer, talking sports, playing keno, and arguing politics. My mom will put $5 or $10 into a slot machine and play until it is gone or until she wins a little bit of money, then she goes home and plays video games on their home computer. Later, she will go out and pick up my dad when he is done socializing.

My parents don't lose much money and it is truly a place for them to go and socialize and have fun. When it is time for them to go home, they go home. I usually go out there with them when I am visiting. I am not so good about knowing when to come home, but I do come home of my own accord when I get tired of being there. Luckily, we always drive out there so we can come and go as we please.

Some people really don't know when to come home. There are frequent announcements at the casino to tell people that the bus that brought them there is loading. They will make this announcement two or three times, then they will start to announce the absent passengers by name through the casino. There is almost always one or two holdouts that can't tear themselves away from craps or blackjack or the slots until the very last second. They won't go out to the bus until repeated threats over the announcing system that the bus is leaving without them, then they will sprint to the door hoping to catch the bus. Some of these people look pretty elderly and kind of frail. It can be kind of frightening watching them sprint for the door.

I remember one late night in particular, a wife had requested numerous announcements for her husband to come out to the car.

The announcements started with the usual: "Robert, your party is waiting for you at the security podium,"

then progressed to "Robert, your ride is leaving,"

then further escalated to "Robert, your wife says that if you aren't at the security podium in one minute, you will be walking home,"

and culminated with "Robert, your wife is going home and throwing your stuff on the lawn."

These were late night announcements and people kind of make light of these situations when someone doesn't want to come home. I just read an article about a woman that took it to new extremes. Apparently, when she didn't want her husband to gamble away the money they were saving for a car, she phoned the casino and told them that her husband was on his way to the casino with a fertilizer bomb to blow the casino up.

She wouldn't tell them her husband's name but said he was intent on blowing up the casino as revenge for losing a whole bunch of money. Unsurprisingly, this is not the woman's first brush with the law. She has been arrested several time at the casino and at other places for drinking, drugs, trespassing, and so on. She said she wasn't too concerned about the charges, but was awfully upset that her phone records were released:

She said she wasn't worried about the charge. She was more upset that police had obtained her telephone records, "violating my civil rights and my privacy."

"I thought this was still a free country," she said.

You can read the full story here. You should take a look at it. It is good for a few laughs. As they say: Life is hard. It's harder when you're stupid.

A Nasty Tumble

2009-04-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

People run up and down the stairs outside my apartment at all hours of the day and night and it sounds like a small train running through my living room. This is frequently accompanied by laughter and yelling.

Last night, while I was sitting in my living room, I heard someone going down the stairs much more rapidly and making even more noise than usual and letting out a small scream at the same time. Something about the noise made me concerned and I poked my head out the door to see if something was wrong. There was a coffee cup laying on its side at the top of the stairs and a young Asian girl laying on her side at the bottom of the stairs where she had landed after tumbling down the stairs.

She got to her feet as I was walking down the stairs to check on her. I asked her if she needed help or wanted me to call somebody or get somebody for her. She insisted she was okay and limped around trying to find her coffee cup. I grabbed her cup for her and asked her again if she was okay. She sat on the bottom stair and said she would be fine, that she just wanted to sit for a moment. I stayed and talked with her for a few minutes to make sure she was coherent. Eventually, I decided she was probably alright and she didn't seem to want me around to babysit her.

I went back inside my apartment and poked my head out a few minutes later. She was gone. I guess since she was able to get up and walk away and since I didn't see any blood, she must have been okay. Still, even if you can walk away relatively unscathed, a big tumble down a flight of concrete steps seems like it would suck.

One Week Left

2009-04-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

The last several weeks have been pretty packed, but now I am down to my final week of classes. Two of my five classes are completely finished now so this week is shaping up to be pretty easy. I will finish another class this afternoon, and the professor told us that class today is just an opportunity for us to give feedback for the curriculum as a whole and after that is done, we will adjourn for a few drinks at a local watering hole (first two rounds on him). I have one last exam that I will take one week from today and that will be the last academic thing that I need to do to complete the requirements for my degree. I think I have enough points to pass that class even if I score a zero on the final, so I am not particularly concerned about that.

I think the thing that I am looking forward to more than anything is finding a quiet place to live. The last three years living in an apartment building with college students living above, below, across from, and beside my apartment has definitely made me want some peace and quiet. Although I will not be moving out the day that I finish classes, experience has taught me that once classes and exams have finished for the semester, there will be a mass exodus from Pullman as all the kids go home to visit their family. End result: Peace and Quiet. I will be moving one or two weeks after classes have let out, so I will be gone by the time the noisy people show up again.

Something else that I am looking forward to is being around people that can eat politely. Everybody always brings food with them to study sessions and to class. I have spent far too many hours sitting across from somebody that brings a pizza to a quiet study hall, sits down across from me chewing on pizza with their mouth wide open, and smacking on their food like a cow working on a piece of cud. Very distracting. As I write this, I am listening to the guy behind me slurping loudly while chowing down on some Cup O' Noodles. Of course, now I am just being nit-picky, but it will sure be nice to be around people my own age again.

A New Fan Convention

2009-04-24T07:28:00.001-07:00

I guess Comic-Con is one of the most popular fan conventions that there is. I remember once when we pulled into San Diego while Comic-Con was going on. One of the guys that worked for me was incredibly excited. It was all that he talked about for about two weeks before we pulled into San Diego. He was, of course, mocked and scorned by everyone else on the boat.

When we went on liberty after we pulled into Point Loma, a few of us went to the bus stop by the mini-mart and waited to go into town. Darth Maul from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was also waiting to take the bus. I didn't know that Sith Lords took the bus, but there he was.

Anyway, everywhere in San Diego that we went, we were running across people dressed up for the convention. I had no idea that people got into movies and comics to that extent. Tens of thousands of people went to the convention.

The guy that worked for me tried to convince everyone to go with him to Comic Con. He promised that anyone that went with him would have a great time. Everyone refused. A few days went by and we left San Diego. When we got out to sea, he was telling people how great the convention was. He told another guy that worked for me that he saw Gene Simmons at the convention. This other guy was a huge KISS fan and was greatly disappointed that he had missed the chance to see one of his musical heroes.

During a field day, he was lamenting "Man, I can't believe I missed Gene Simmons!!"

A shipmate, nicknamed Wookie, said "So what? Who cares?"

"Gene Simmons, man...I missed Gene Simmons!!!"

Wookie: "So what, you missed a dude that exercises with fat women. Who cares?"

Wookie brought everyone to silence with his ignorance, followed by lots of laughter.

Anyway, the reason that this story was brought to mind this morning was an article that I read in the paper this morning. Apparently, there is a new fan convention happening in Seattle tomorrow. It is called CatchCon and it celebrates the crews portrayed in The Deadliest Catch. There were 500 tickets and they are already sold out with 600 people on a waiting list, so you are too late if you want to go and don't already have a ticket.

Apparently, the people from The Deadliest Catch aren't entirely comfortable with having a crazed fan-following. One of the captains hides his boat when he pulls in because people come looking for it.

"People are always creeping around," said Hansen, who hides his fishing boat now. "It's kind of flattering, but weird."

Fort Lewis: Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy?

2009-04-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

A sergeant at Fort Lewis has made the news. It was for allegedly committing a crime.

Pierce County prosecutors have charged a Fort Lewis soldier with promoting prostitution, alleging he directed two teenage girls to trade sex for money.

The girls involved in the case are 16 and 17 years old.

Stories about crimes that occur near a military base that involve military members frequently make it into the local newspapers. In some cases, the stories appear to be written in a manner that are trying to put the military in a bad light. Fort Lewis has certainly been in the news over the last few years. Not for little crimes. For big, bad crimes. I don't think the newspapers are picking on Fort Lewis, either. McChord AFB is the next door neighbor to Fort Lewis. A search for news stories about McChord yields results like "Air Show" or "Fireworks" or "USO Hugs and Kisses", but no stories about criminal behavior.

A sampling of some crimes committed or allegedly committed by Fort Lewis soldiers:

Olympia Police Arrest 2 Fort Lewis Soldiers:

Police have arrested two Fort Lewis soldiers following the weekend stabbing of a 24-year-old man outside an Olympia, Wash., bar.

Army Files Charges Against Soldier in Death of Teen at Fort Lewis:

Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt, 19, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Leah King. He was also charged with wrongful use and distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to use controlled substances.

Soldier Sought in Abductions, Fires:

A Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade soldier accused of abducting and torturing two women is being sought on a warrant that charges kidnapping, rape and arson.

Fort Lewis Soldiers Charged in University District Holdups:

Three Fort Lewis soldiers accused of robbing University of Washington students at gunpoint last month were charged with robbery Friday in King County Superior Court.

Fort Lewis Officer Among Soldiers Accused of Skimming Reconstruction Money:

In a federal indictment in March, prosecutors alleged that Nguyen skimmed more than $690,000 in cash while acting as the civil-affairs officer responsible for overseeing millions of dollars intended for reconstruction projects and payments to private Iraqi security forces northeast of Baghdad.

Nguyen, 28, a West Point Military Academy graduate, is accused of packing stacks of cash into boxes and mailing them to his family's home.

Former Army Ranger Gets 24 Years in Prison for Bank Robbery:

According to documents filed in the case, Sommer was an Army Ranger stationed at Fort Lewis when he recruited two other Rangers, Chad Palmer and Alex Blum, and Canadian nationals Tigra Robertson and Nathan Dunmall to participate in the Aug. 7, 2006, robbery of a Bank of America branch on South Tacoma Way. The robbers, some armed with AK-47s and wearing body armor, made off with $54,011.

Admittedly, the embezzlement crime happened in Iraq, but I felt justified in including it in the list because the money was spent at or near Fort Lewis. Other than the bank robbery, which occurred in 2006, these crimes were all committed in the last six months.

What is the U.S. Army doing about this? These are serious crimes that pose a big risk to the local community. They are robbing community banks, robbing local college students at gunpoint, being very involved in the death due to drug overdose of a local girl, and pimping out local girls.

I certainly don't want to indict all of the soldiers at Fort Lewis. In fact, the soldiers that were robbing college kids were turned in by a fellow soldier after bragging about pistol-whipping one of the students. Still, these are a lot of serious crimes happening in a pretty short period of time. I have commented on these stories in the past, defending the soldiers. It is getting kind of tough to continue to comment that most of the soldiers at Fort Lewis are good people. I think that the time has come that the Commanding Officers of the base and the various units take action to protect the community. These thugs may represent only a small percentage of the soldiers at Fort Lewis, but they pose a substantial risk to the members of the surrounding communities.

I think it is time some officers at Fort Lewis get fired. I am not talking about the O-1's and O-2's. I mean guys that have scrambled eggs on their hats. They are failing in their duties and have squandered their chances to stop this crime wave emanating from Fort Lewis.

A Squirrelly Situation

2009-04-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

The situation with the ground squirrels in Finch Arboretum is rising to the level of national attention. The Spokane Parks and Recreation Department has been using a product know as the Rodenator Pro to cause small underground explosions to kill ground squirrels which are detrimental to the trees in the arboretum. I don't know if blowing up squirrels falls under the "Parks" side of the Parks and Recreation Department or the "Recreation" side of the house. It looks like the people that were blowing up squirrels in the video I found on YouTube the other day were having a pretty good time.

There is an article in the Spokesman Review that gives a little more background. The Parks and Recreation Department had already started using the Verminator Pro without making any announcements. After they had been using it for a little while, people began to call in. I guess the Parks and Recreation Department hadn't considered that people in the neighborhood would be concerned about hearing explosions in the park. Anyway, people called in to ask what was going on in the park, because it sounded like things were blowing up. The Parks and Recreation Department decided it would calm everybody down by informing the public that they were only blowing up squirrels.

Whoops!!!

Turns out that some people thing blowing up little varmints is kind of mean. How could anyone have seen that one coming?

Here are a few key points that I gleaned from the article:

Rush Limbaugh mentioned it on his show in an effort to tweak the animal rights crowd:

Radio host Rush Limbaugh mentioned the detonation plan on his show Tuesday, saying he wanted animal rights activists “to try this one on for size.”
But Limbaugh focused more on the name of the Finch Arboretum and said it was the first time he’d seen the word arboretum.
“The name for a park, is that what it is?” he asked.

The Humane Society has condemned the practice:

Spokane Humane Society Executive Director Dave Richardson called the “killing of native wildlife” a temporary, unethical and reactionary response to a problem that could be solved by limiting the animals’ food supply.

I am not going to say that one side is right or wrong. But regardless of whether you are in the "Blow 'Em Up" camp or the "Don't Feed 'Em" camp, I think everyone can agree that the people in the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department should reconsider what they are doing:

The Spokane Parks Department once lined burrows with sticks of Wrigley’s juicy fruit gum after hearing rumors that eating the gum would destroy the animals’ stomachs and kill them, Goodspeed said.

Are people that tried to kill squirrels with chewing gum really the same people that we want running around with propane and oxygen explosion generators? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Junior is Back in Town

2009-04-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to wrap up at school and the last few weeks that I have spent with my nose to the grindstone are finally starting to pay dividends. I still have a substantial amount of work to get done, but the list of remaining reports and presentations before the end of the semester is now at a reasonable level.

I have finally made enough progress that I can watch the Mariner's home opener. I am watching the pregame ceremony now. I think they will have a little tribute for Nick Adenhart, the Angel's pitcher that was killed by a drunk driver last week. They have quite a few things lined up before the game starts.

The biggest attraction of course is the return of Ken Griffey Jr. to the Seattle Mariners. Seattle is pretty excited to welcome back their favorite son and thrilled to have him wearing a Mariner's jersey. I am sure Safeco Field will explode when he is introduced.

I was pretty happy to see him back with the Mariners, although I don't expect a lot of production from him. I am just happy to have a legitimate sports superstar with no hint of scandal attached to him back in town. I am hoping to see a little bit of magic from Griffey today, but even if he doesn't hit one out of the park, I am sure he will get a very warm welcome and I am really happy that I have the chance to watch the game, even if I couldn't be at the ballpark.

Go M's!!!!

Blowing Stuff Up...A Northwest Tradition

2009-04-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to browse the news and see what has been going on. The news has been dominated today by the story of the American ship's captain that was rescued from the pirates. I am happy that he is coming home safely.

As I was browsing the Seattle Times online tonight, I ran across an article entitled "Spokane Parks to Detonate Squirrels." I thought maybe it was just a headline meant to grab peoples attention, but it turns out to be pretty descriptive of the plan.

The Rodenator Pro pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion. The shock waves kill the squirrels and collapse their tunnels — but in a humane way, the agency said.

Propane, electric sparks, explosions, shock waves, and collapsing tunnels ...well, at least it's humane.

I went and searched YouTube for Rodenator, and there were quite a few videos showing this machine in action.

As the blog title says, we do have something of a tradition for blowing things up here in the Northwest.

Hopefully, the Spokane Parks Department will watch the exploding whale video before they get started and take away a few "lessons learned" from that brilliant idea.

Huey Lewis & The News

2009-04-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

The concert last night was very nice. There were lots of excited moms and kids and Huey Lewis put on a great show. I had forgotten exactly how many songs they have put out over the years. It was a great trip back to the 80's for me.

They opened with "Heart of Rock & Roll" and we also heard "Doing It All For My Baby", "The Power Of Love", "Hip To Be Square", "I Want A New Drug", and many others. Here are a few pictures from the show.

All in all, it was a great show and I would go see them again in a second. Hope everyone else has had a good weekend.

Mom's Weekend

2009-04-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

Not my mom, specifically, but Mom's Weekend for the mothers of any Washington State University Cougar. Mom's Weekend is this weekend. My mom has always declined to take part in the festivities. She is a pretty smart woman. As I have said before, Pullman is a pretty small town that is dominated by the university. Now, we add in all the mothers (and fathers that tag along) and Pullman is overwhelmed.

They have Huey Lewis & The News playing tomorrow night. One nice thing about being old enough to be the father of most of the students here is that I am as old as their parents. When they book entertainment for Mom's Weekend and Dad's Weekend, it is geared towards people my age. I haven't taken advantage of this yet, but I decided that I would take in the concert tomorrow night. I passed up on a ZZ Top concert last year, which I probably would have enjoyed a lot, but Huey Lewis & The News should be a good time.

This weekend should be quite a bit more relaxed than the last few weeks. I have gotten ahead on enough schoolwork (or at least caught up enough) that I have tonight and tomorrow night off. I will be going to the concert tomorrow night and I decided to watch a movie tonight. I am going to break out True Romance.

If you haven't heard of this movie, it is a Quentin Tarantino directed love story. There is violence, drugs, violence, politically incorrect language, violence, pimps, violence, prostitutes, violence, mafia, violence, and of course, True Romance.

It has a LOT of well-known actors: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini, and Brad Pitt. This is by far my favorite Brad Pitt role. Here is a little snippet from the movie where Gandolfini meets Brad Pitt.

There is a tad bit of violence in this movie, so you probably don't want to let the kids watch it. At least, they probably shouldn't watch it until they are about 35 years old or so.

I decided I would grab some Guinness Beer to enjoy while I watched the movie tonight, so I ran down to Safeway to grab some. My ID is rarely checked when I buy beer. Today was an exception. The cashier gave me ***REALLY BIG SMILE*** and said loudly, "I know you are probably over 21 sir, but I am required to check ALL ID's for alcohol purchases." I guess he said this to show all the moms in town for the weekend that their kids can't buy booze without being 21.

He didn't need to bother with that. With the exception of two moms, all of the moms (and there were a lot of them) in Safeway were in the beer section buying beer for their kids. I guess it's possible that they were buying beer for themselves, but I don't think that 120 pound blond mama was going to drink two cases of Corona all by herself. The other two moms that weren't in the beer section were in line right behind me with shopping carts full of beer. Well, they might have asked to see my ID to put on a show, but I guess it is nice to show the parents that their babies can't buy booze unsupervised. Personally, I don't have a problem with people drinking at age 18. Old enough to vote, old enough to go to jail as an adult, and old enough to serve in the military...should be old enough to crack open a frosty can of brew.

Well, in any case, I think this will be one of my more enjoyable weekends here in Pullman. I hope that everyone else has a great weekend, too.

Accelerating My Life...Not Today

2009-03-31T17:45:00.001-07:00

I picked up the mail last night and there was an official looking letter sitting on top of the pile. Actually, the letter looked like many others that I have received, except the return address was D.O.N. That made it official enough for me.

I was hoping that the letter wouldn't be something that I didn't want to see, so it was with a little trepidation that I unsealed the letter. Turns out, it was an advertisement from the Navy.

The letter started off telling me that It takes more than a scholarship to turn a college experience into a remarkable success. (Their bold lettering, not mine)

The next bold lettering told me Plus potentially over $155,000 while you pursue your studies. It's the Navy Baccalaureate Degree Completion Program. (They really like bold lettering)

A generous military salary, food allowance, and housing allowance could total from $2,376 to $4,300 a month all paid to me, to spend how I want!!! With no military obligation until you graduate.

I had to laugh. I wasn't even laughing at the fact that they were pitching the position of an Ensign in the Navy to a retired enlisted dude. Well, maybe I was laughing at that part a little bit, but I know there are a lot of college students out there and that they don't check the background of everyone before they send out letters.

What really made me laugh is that I will graduate in five weeks. I imagine that the Navy saves a lot of money by only offering to pay for the last five weeks of a student's college education. While I don't expect them to know my background, it seems pretty foolish not to check that I am graduating this year. This part, I would expect them to check.

Anyway, the letter finished up telling me that I should shift my career into high gear and accelerate my life. Sorry, Navy. I think I am going to shift into neutral and coast for a few weeks, then start working at a more sedate pace, but thanks for the offer.

Khmer Rouge and The Killing Fields

2009-03-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Cambodia has convened a genocide tribunal and has started the trial of Kaing Guek Eav. He is also known as Duch. Duch was the commander of a prison where an estimated 16,000 people were tortured and brutalized before their deaths. Read the AP news article here.

I have done a fair amount of reading and have watched numerous documentaries about the atrocities committed by Nazi during World War II and The Holocaust. The reign of terror imposed on Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge did not kill as many people as The Holocaust, it was no less brutal and resulted in the deaths of 1.7 million people.

Perhaps the reason that this particular genocide has always had special meaning to me is because we had refugees from Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia move into my town when I was in high school. At the time, my hometown consisted almost entirely of white families and Native American families. The addition of Asians was impossible to miss. I remember one guy from Laos that was 19 years old and spoke very little English. Some people laughed at him when he first came to our school because he was too old for the grade that he was in and didn't speak English very well. A few days after he arrived, he joined a gym class. In the shower, you could see scars from two bullet wounds on his back and a large scar from a knife across his chest. Nobody ever laughed at him for being different again. It was quite an eye-opener for a high school kid.

The 1984 movie, The Killing Fields, tells the story of a Cambodian reporter trapped in the country when the Khmer Rouge seized power and began to murder any Cambodian with education or foreign connections. If you have not seen this move, I would recommend that you watch it. This will give some context for the genocide tribunal that is now taking place in Cambodia.

I remember reading about Dith Pran, the reporter whose story is detailed in The Killing Fields last year. He had died of pancreatic cancer in New Jersey. What I didn't realize was that he had died precisely one year ago, on March 30, 2008. Fitting that the opening remarks of the trial of one of the butchers of the Khmer Rouge should start on the anniversary of Dith Pran's death.

If you really want to learn more about the genocide, I would also strongly recommend that you read the book "First They Killed My Father", by Loung Ung. I read this book a few years ago and thought it was amazing. It tells the tale of a five year old girl and her experiences during the genocide. Some of the stories that are in there are pretty heart-wrenching. The children were forced to become soldiers and kill adults that did not fit into the Khmer Rouge's mold of what a perfect citizen of Cambodia should be. There was another story about how guilty she felt for stealing a few grains of rice from her family because she was starving. Some pretty sad stuff in there. It was a pretty powerful book and, again, I strongly recommend this to everyone.

Hopefully, the tribunal in Cambodia will help to bring some closure to the survivors that have been permanently scarred by the brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime. Justice is long overdue and I hope they find some measure of it in these trials.

New SecNav??

2009-03-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

I just came across this AP article that says an ex-Mississippi governor will be nominated for Secretary of the Navy.

President Barack Obama will nominate former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus to be secretary of the Navy, a person familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press on Friday.

I have not personally heard of Gov. Mabus before. Guess I will be doing a little homework.

Graduation Fair

2009-03-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

I will be finishing my last semester at Washington State University in about six weeks. We had a "Graduation Fair" here earlier this week. All of the graduating students received a notice telling us about the fair and we had to go there to order items such as caps and gowns. They will be renting caps and gowns from the bookstore starting next week, but I decided to get mine now while it is still early.

When I arrived, I was directed to stand in a line to check in with the registrar's office. I stood in line for about twenty minutes. When I got to the front of the line, they asked for my student ID number. They punched it into a computer and told me that I was good to go. The only thing that they were checking was that I had applied for graduation. The deadline for applying to graduate was several weeks ago, but they do allow late applications if you are willing to pay an extra $75 fine. None of the four students in front of me had applied yet and they were hit with the fine. They didn't seem too worried about it. I guess maybe they were spending Mom & Dad's money.

After they verified that I had applied to graduate, I got sent upstairs where there was a HUGE line. It stretched past several booths where they were asking for money. The first was for donations for the Senior Class Gift. I didn't really get this one. I guess we are all supposed to donate money so that a plaque with "WSU Class of 2009" engraved on it could be hung up somewhere on campus. I don't know. Maybe it was for something cool. In any case, I declined to contribute.

The next booth was for Jostens. I remember this company from my high school graduation days. They came to our high school to sell the students outrageously priced class rings then encouraged us to go door to door selling some cheap crap to our neighbors, friends, and families so that we could earn money to buy their class rings. Jostens was selling lots of stuff at the graduation fair. The first Jostens booth was selling class rings. I didn't even bother to look at the price. I never regretted not having a high school class ring and don't think it will bother me to miss out on a college class ring either.

The next Jostens booth was for graduation announcements. The girl that I went to the fair with purchased two orders of 25 announcements. It cost her about $180 for these fifty announcements. Wow!! Over three dollars each. Even custom printed announcements shouldn't be that expensive.

Next were diploma frames. Another Jostens booth. The diploma frames were $160 each, with a "free" cap and gown rental. I think I will go to Walmart for my frame.

I finally broke down at the last booth. This was where you actually rent the cap and gown. You can rent a cap and gown for $30. They even let you keep the cap and tassel as a permenant memento. I sprung for a souvenier tassel that was made using Crimson and Gray colors. That cost an extra $7. We don't get to wear those tassels, though. Nearly everyone has to wear a black tassel during the ceremony. I think that the Veterans Affairs office on campus will have red, white, and blue tassels available for veterans. I seem to remember that the veterans are allowed to wear the red, white, and blue tassels during graduation.

Anyway, the Graduation Fair turned out to be long lines where students were sold many overpriced items. I felt fortunate to walk out of there spending only about $37. Lots of students were getting swept up in the moment and buying lots of stuff. I guess I just don't get it. Maybe I would have been right there next to them twenty years ago, but now I think that I would rather keep dollars in my wallet. I suppose I will eventually buy a nice frame for my diploma, but I sure hope I can find a nice one for less than $160.

Uncomfortably Numb

2009-03-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

I think that I am becoming numb to all the news coming out about AIG. This past weekend, I read about the bonuses that were going to be paid out. My first thought was that these bonuses were not necessarily large bonuses and that perhaps they were being paid out to a large number of regular employees, like secretaries and maybe that guy in the mailroom. When the news came out that a big chunk of these bonuses were over a million dollars and being paid to the clowns that are the backbone of the unit that was responsible for the multi-billion dollar losses, it didn't even phase me. No surprise whatsoever.

It kind of reminds me what I used to tell the guys in my division when they complained about getting a bad deal on the boat. I used to say that eventually, they would go numb. There isn't much difference between getting kicked in the nuts 100 times or getting kicked in the nuts 101 times. You just go numb. Even with the numbness that has set it, I really do wish that AIG would quit kicking the American taxpayer in the nuts.

Luckily, there are a lot of people out there that are still capable of being infuriated. When Senator Charles Grassley made the comment that these AIG executives should apologize or commit suicide, there wasn't much of a public outcry. I know that they wouldn't do that, because these guys at AIG have no shame at all.

The current CEO of AIG said that he finds some of these bonuses "distasteful" and that he shares the anger that many Americans feel. He also says that "Mistakes were made at AIG on a scale few could have ever imagined possible." I know these guys have contracts, but I think these contracts should have a clause that says "If you make mistakes on a scale that few could have ever imagined possible, you will not receive a seven-figure bonus."

The other news item that I have taken notice of is the wrong-headed idea that war veterans with private insurance should have that private insurance billed when they are injured fighting our wars. I have to say that Shinseki and Obama are just dead-wrong on this issue and I can't believe they have admitted that they were even considering it. I am very pleased with Senator Patty Murray, the senior senator from my state. She has already told Shinseki that this proposal would be DOA if it was sent to congress.

Since a lot of private health plans have deductibles and co-pays, it is putting a ridiculous burden on the soldiers wounded in defense of our nation to have to pay their own way for injuries sustained in the line of duty. The costs of treating these injuries would also count against the cap on the money the insurance companies pay out to a family, meaning that less money from the private insurance would be available if another family member developed a catastrophic medical condition. I suppose that they would have care available through Tri-Care, but if they are paying for private insurance, they should have the option to use that private health insurance in case Tri-Care is unwilling to foot the expense for a test or procedure. Hopefully, we will only hear one more thing about this proposal, and that will be an apology from Obama and Shinseki for even considering it.

Six Weeks Left

2009-03-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

I only have six weeks of classes left until I graduate. I can't express how happy I will be to finish school and enter the work force. The workload has been pretty tough over the last few weeks, but I made it through and am currently on spring break. I have spent the first few days of break doing some spring cleaning in the apartment and catching up on some other things that have been pushed to the side in an effort to keep up in school.

I was having a chat with the department secretary a few weeks ago. The department secretary spent some time in the navy before she came to work at WSU and we frequently have chats about one thing or another. She was asking how everything was going and I confided in her that I was running out of steam and was ready to be done with school. She accused me of having a Short-Timer's Attitude. She's right.

I have been receiving letters from the Business School at WSU encouraging me to apply for graduate school. I don't know how many people get these letters, but I seem to be the only Chemical Engineering student receiving these invitations to apply. I don't really know why I have been singled out. I have pretty good grades, but not the best grades in the class, so I guess it isn't based solely on GPA. I haven't participated in any extra-curricular activities. I am kind of curious why they put my name on their apparently short list.

Anyway, the letters say that there is funding to accept five students into a program which results in a PhD through the business school. The funding is available for up to four years. It is geared towards engineers and actually sounds like a pretty good deal. There is a stipend available in exchange for teaching a few classes. It is actually more generous than the GI Bill. Some other benefits include a full tuition waiver, several scholarships to cover various fees and textbook expenses, expense paid travel to conventions, a free computer, and assistance in finding summer jobs. I am not really interested, but if I was ten or fifteen years younger, I guess it would be a great opportunity.

The last two years, virtually the entire class of graduating Chemical Engineering students had firm job offers in hand at this point in their final semester. This year, there are only three of us out of about twenty students that have a job lined up. Tough time to be graduating. A lot of my classmates are getting pretty anxious about finding employment. Hopefully, some companies will be making some offers soon, but the number of companies that have been attending our job fairs at the university has been down over the last year and the ones that do come are not looking to hire very many people. We did have a few engineers from some of the companies at Hanford on campus a few weeks ago. They are looking to hire several engineers, so there are some prospects out there. Unfortunately, I don't think many of the students here are interested in working there. Still, if it comes down to choosing between no job and a job at Hanford, interest may increase.

US Navy Ship Harrassed by Chinese

2009-03-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Update: 3/9/2009 3:48 pm: Here is another article with more details.

A United States ship operating in international waters in the South China Sea was harassed by several Chinese ships on Sunday. In this article, the United States ship is identified as the USS Impeccable. There is an article in Wikipedia about the USNS Impeccable which is an ocean surveillance ship. I suppose this is the ship they are referring to in the article.

The Pentagon says that the Chinese ships approached within 25 feet and that when the Impeccable asked them to clear a path so that they could leave the area, two of the Chinese vessels got directly in front of them and littered the path with pieces of wood. The article says that the Pentagon identified the Chinese vessels as a Navy intelligence ship, a bureau of maritime fisheries patrol vessel, a state oceanographic administration patrol vessel, and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers.

I did get one laugh out of the article. When the crewmen of the Impeccable turned fire hoses on one of the Chinese vessels, the Chinese responded by stripping down to their underwear.

Fallout for December Marine Jet Crash

2009-03-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

You may remember the Marine jet that crashed into a house in San Diego last December. At the time, I had assumed that there was probably some sort of prohibition against flying a crippled aircraft over a highly populated area and that whatever happened to the jet happened while the pilot was already over this area.

Well, you know what they say about assuming things. Turns out that there was an alternative. Air control at North Island announced three times that the plane could land at North Island approaching over water rather than over a densely populated area. Several Marines were punished for this tragic error in judgment that resulted in four deaths when the jet crashed into the house.

Four officers at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego have been relieved of duty for directing the F/A-18D Hornet to fly over the residential area, the officials said. Nine other military personnel received lesser reprimands.
With his jet having engine problems, the pilot should have been told to fly over San Diego Bay and land at another base that sits on the tip of a peninsula, the officials said.

Link to AP Story

This incident was a terrible tragedy, costing a husband his wife, children, and mother-in-law. It is all the more tragic for having been preventable.

The High Price of Gasoline

2009-03-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

Poor Juan Zamora filled up the tank on his Camaro. How much would you think it would cost? Did you guess $81,400,836,908? That is what was charged to his PayPal debit card. Eighty-one billion dollars. Guess there were a few misplaced ones and zeros on this electronic transaction.

Read the story here

The part of the story that really made me laugh was that he had difficulty trying to establish that it was not a legitimate charge. Technology is wonderful.

Coffee Shop Baked Goods

2009-02-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

They have really been busting my hump in school over the last few weeks. Between reports, presentations, experiments, homework, quizzes, and projects, I have been spending way more time on school work than I would like to. Thankfully, I will be done with it all in a few months.

I came to campus after an early lunch and stayed in the library until about 5 p.m. I decided to take a dinner break so I went to Subway and got a $5 foot-long. I decided that since I would be going back to the library to finish up a report I am working on, I should stop at Starbucks and grab something with a lot of caffeine to keep me working at peak efficiency.

As I approached the counter, I looked at the selection of baked goods and other food items. My eye was immediately attracted to a sign that advertised "Pot Doughnuts".

Now, I have been told for many years that the only stupid question is the one that you don't ask. Over those same years, experience has told me that this statement isn't 100% accurate, but it is still a pretty good saying.

So when I got to the counter to order my coffee, I asked:

"What's a Pot Doughnut? Is that like a Hash Brownie?"

The coffee-girl gave me a somewhat stunned look and followed my gaze to the sign.

She told me that it was Top Pot Doughnuts, that Top Pot was the name of the company that made them, kind of like a brand name.

I backed up a little bit to change my point of view. Turns out the sign did say "Top Pot Doughnuts", but the "Top" was obscured from my original view point.

I declined to try a doughnut, just to be on the safe side. Anyway, I certainly don't need one.

Port Royal Drydock Photos

2009-02-19T22:54:00.000-08:00

The USS Port Royal has entered drydock for repairs. You can see the sonar dome and the ship looks a bit banged up. Here is a link to a photo on Strategy Page of the USS Port Royal in drydock.

This photo gallery from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin has two pictures of the USS Port Royal in drydock after the grounding and one picture of it the last time she left drydock.

I think the link to the Star-Bulletin is acting kind of screwy. Here are some better photos from Navy.mil

Picture of the screws

View of the stern while in drydock

View of the bow

Port Royal on the rocks

Dead Teenage Girl Found at Fort Lewis

2009-02-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, a sixteen year old girl was found dead in some barracks at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington yesterday. Not much information has come out yet, except that the investigation is being handled by the Army Criminal Investigative Division. There are already suggestions out there about our big, bad military people and how they need to be controlled because they are a bunch of thugs. Mind you, there is not yet evidence of any criminal activity. I kind of wonder, if in the interest of smoothing things over with the local government, there will be restrictions placed on the soldiers at Fort Lewis.

The last time I was in Yokosuka, the base was imposing liberty restrictions stemming from the murder of a Japanese woman, but they weren't particularly bad. Basically, we just had to be out of the bars by midnight and back on base by 1 a.m. That is probably not exactly what the restrictions were, but it was something along those lines. I had to ask what time we would be allowed out the next day.

Apparently, the boat was given guidance about what time to have us back on base, but not on what time we would be unleashed in the morning. Since we had to be back on base at 1 a.m., I suggested that we should be allowed to go back out in town at 1 a.m. That didn't happen. Instead, a time was thrown out there like 8 a.m., which caused a group of people that like to run in the morning to protest. I think in the end, we had to be back on base at 1 a.m. and were released at 5 a.m.

I don't think liberty restrictions were ever placed on us when we were in our own home port, but I wonder if something like that will be coming for Fort Lewis. I read a story in the Seattle Times this morning that took advantage of this incident to dredge up some serious criminal activity by a few, very few, of the soldiers stationed at Fort Lewis. This is somewhat premature since no criminal activity has yet been alleged. Still, we know that there are a lot of people that will use this incident to indict every military post in the area, which includes Fort Lewis, McChord Air Force Base, Bangor, and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, along with several smaller military bases.

Some of the incidents that have been brought up are some recent robberies of University of Washington students and a 2006 bank robbery masterminded by an Army Ranger. By and large, the military is full of great people, but their image is being tarnished by a few high profile incidents. This incident is not even proven to be related to criminal activity, and it is already being used to discredit the Army.

Here is the story from the Seattle Times.

Comments

2009-02-15T08:51:00.001-08:00

I really enjoy reading news online. The Seattle Times has a website that I check in on every day. I probably spend more time reading the comments section for each story then I spend reading the stories themselves. I usually find it pretty interesting to see what other people think and sometimes I find myself disturbed by what other people think.

I find it really interesting how many people drag politics into a discussion. If there was a story about a dog getting run over on the street, people would be making comments about DIM-ocrats or Libtards or CONservatives. I occasionally leave comments and have at times been called an idiot liberal and other times called an idiot conservative and sometimes just get called an idiot. It doesn't bother me much. Years and years of submarine duty have thickened my skin a bit.

I read a story in the Seattle Times yesterday entitled "Bellevue man outwits 2 criminals, escapes in their getaway van." The story is about a guy that was working in his garage crafting a part for his hobby car. He heard someone in his house and discovered his house was being burglarized. He grabbed a hammer so that he had something to defend himself and went outside. The crooks had left their van in his driveway with the engine running and the doors unlocked. This guy hopped in the van and drove it a few blocks away to the house of a friend. Crooks came outside, saw their van was gone, dropped all of the loot on the porch, and took away on foot.

When I read the story, I kind of laughed when I thought about the look that must have been on their faces when they came outside and found that their van had been stolen. I also thought that the guy might have been somewhat foolish, but since he didn't get hurt, it was just a great story.

Some people that commented on this story seemed to have the same idea, but a lot of other people made comments that I find kind of disturbing.

One of the most common responses was along the lines of "Those guys are lucky that they didn't break into MY house or I would have BLOWN THEM AWAY!!!!"

Don't get me wrong. If someone breaks into a house, they are taking their lives into their own hands. I am probably not going to feel too bad about someone getting killed while they are breaking into a house. What disturbed me about these comments are the bloodthirstiness with which they are made. It seems like there are a whole bunch of Clint Eastwood wanna-be's sitting in their living room with a gun in hand hoping that something happens that would justify them killing someone. What kind of a person fantasizes about killing someone? It just disturbs me that people like this live in the same neighborhoods as me.

The other common responses focused on something else in the article. The article mentioned that the guy was recently laid-off, his wife was at work, his kid was in daycare, and he initially thought that it was his housekeeper in his house until he realized it wasn't the right day for the housekeeper to be there.

There were tons of comments along the lines of:

"How dare this guy be working on a hobby instead of looking for work!!!"

"How dare this guy have a child in daycare when he is not working!!!"

"How dare this guy have a housekeeper when he is not working!!!"

"How dare this guy....blah, blah, blah"

Seriously, why are there so many people out there that hate this guy for being able to weather a period of unemployment in comfort? If the guy can afford daycare, can afford to work on a hobby, has a wife that works, then I say good for him. Sounds like he spent a lot time living within his means and was smart enough to put money away for a rainy day, or perhaps his wife earns enough money to support their lifestyle.

Well, I suppose I will continue to read comment sections in the newspaper. I thought it would be illuminating to see what other people think. I guess it is illuminating, just not in the way that I thought it would be. I thought that I would see some well thought-out discussion that might persuade me to think about something in a different light or that might reinforce the way that I already felt. Instead, I find that we have many more bloodthirsty maniacs and petty, jealous little people living in our midst than I thought there were. I still hold out hope that these people making the comment are a small minority, but boy, they sure are vocal.

USS Port Royal Initial Damage Assessment

2009-02-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

Update 2/20/2009: A link to a photo of the USS Port Royal in drydock can be found in this posting.

The Port Royal has a cracked sonar dome and both screws have had some blade tips sheared off. They are going to go into drydock on Friday to do a more thorough damage assessment. This story from Navy times also includes a short video summarizing what has happened up to now.

From the Navy Times

USS Port Royal Captain Relieved

2009-02-09T15:34:00.001-08:00

Not much of a surprise here. The CO of the USS Port Royal was "temporarily relieved of command" shortly after the ship was freed from its grounding incident earlier today. I know that this is standard operating procedure in these sorts of cases and I doubt that he will return to command the ship.

Navy Times Article

I know that the CO is responsible for everything, but Captain John Carroll was in a difficult situation. Of course, CO's have to be constantly prepared for difficult situations. This was his first day out at sea with his crew and he probably didn't have much of an opportunity to observe his navigation team in action. Still, he should have been especially vigilant while the ship was operating near shallow water after dark while performing a personnel transfer. If he saw things going bad, he should have stopped the evolution and made sure the ship was returned to a safe condition.

Ultimate Responsibility is a term that everyone on a navy ship understands and everyone knows who it is that has Ultimate Responsibility. I wish that some of the civilian company CEO's felt the same sense of responsibility that our military commanders live with every day that they are in command. What do you think of the concept of Ultimate Responsibility?

Pacific Beacon: Better Single Sailor Housing

2009-02-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

A new housing complex for sailors in San Diego opened last December. This may be old news for some of you, but I had not heard about this until I stumbled across a story about it and found the website for the development. It is called Pacific Beacon and it looks like a fantastic place for single sailors to live.

Poor housing was always one of the biggest drawbacks to being a single sailor. Barrack rooms were typically depressing places. They were poorly lit, noisy, and cheaply furnished. Furthermore, the people that worked at the barracks often seemed to be on some sort of a power trip. From the moment you checked in until you checked out, the people working there seemed determined to remove any sort of pleasure you might derive from living there and generally treated the residents like they were inmates in some sort of prison. Even these poor conditions were better than the poor sailors on surface ships that were not even given a room in the barracks. They had to live aboard their ship.

The navy had done a pretty good job in recent years of improving housing for single sailors and Pacific Beacon looks like a giant leap forward for improving the quality of life for single sailors. It is basically a large condominium set in several towers in San Diego and it is directed at sailors that are E-4 and above. It is privately run and the rent is currently below the 2008 Basic Allowance for Housing for an E-4. It sounds like the rent is removed from the sailors pay in the form of an allotment, so they don't even have to remember to drop off a rent check. The rent includes all utilities with the exception of phone and internet service. There is a rooftop swimming pool, a large "Front Lawn" with barbecue pits, a large fitness center, optional maid service, and dry cleaning drop-off and pick-up.

It was designed for sailors and they keep that in mind. When deploying, a sailor can either keep their room or move out. There is indoor storage for excess items. Some of the apartments are furnished, and judging by the pictures, the furniture actually looks like it is high enough quality that someone might keep it in their real house, instead of the cheap particle board lowest-bidder stuff that was always put in the barracks on base. Every apartment has two master bedroom setups and each bedroom has its own private bathroom with a full sized bathtub.

Even better, since it is not a facility operated by the navy, the command and the navy do not do room inspections. Since the rental agreement is subject to California rental regulations, the management is not allowed to enter your rooms without 24 hour advance notice or in the case of an emergency such as a fire or a water leak . I think I read in their FAQ's that you can have an overnight guest for up to 14 days.

I sure hope that the sailors enjoy their new housing. I also hope that they don't tear it up and make the navy rethink their decision to arrange for adequate housing for their single sailors.

Here is a link to their website. They have a lot of information here. Looks like a great place to live.

Pacific Beacon Website

Here is a story about the project at Navy.mil. In this story, it says that they have already signed contracts for similar projects in Jacksonville, FL and Norfolk, VA and that they would like to expand it to include overseas locations. This is a long overdue change, in my opinion.

USS Port Royal Grounding

2009-02-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

Update 2/20/2009: A link to a photo of the USS Port Royal in drydock can be found in this posting.

The USS Port Royal is stuck on a reef near Honolulu International Airport. They tried unsuccessfully to nudge it free with some tugs early yesterday. Here is the story from the Honolulu Advertiser.

Here is a link to a news video about the story: Video from KITV

They have a few pretty interesting shots of the ship in the video. The news station was told by family members of the crew that the ship has no air conditioning or electricity. Looks like a pretty miserable situation.

Update: 5 p.m.: The navy is going to lighten the ship by offloading fuel, water, and people and then they will try to free it again. If you have any first hand knowledge about the Port Royal, or just like to talk, feel free to leave a comment.

A P Update

Update: 2/8/09 1 p.m.: After offloading some fuel, water, and people and using more towing power than they used before, the third attempt to free the USS Port Royal was unsuccessful. The navy is assessing options. I think it will be a while before they get the ship off the rocks.

From U.S. Navy Public Affairs on KGMB 9

Update: 2/9/09 9:10 a.m.: Looks like the fourth time was a charm. I just read that the USS Port Royal was freed this morning. I guess there will be some damage assessment and probably another drydock period in the immediate future.

From AP

Update 2/9/09 12:00 p.m.: I just read that the ship is now back in Pearl harbor. It took a total of seven tugs, a salvage ship, and a motor vessel to free it. I didn't know what the heck a motor vessel was until I saw it referenced as the Motor Vessel "Dove" which is used to move the sea based X-band radar platform. For those of you who have seen it, it is the giant white ball that you can occasionally glimpse from Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area. It looks kind of like a giant white Epcot Center. This is a picture of the radar being moved into Pearl Harbor. (This is not the Motor Vessel "Dove" in the picture, though. I couldn't find a good picture of that, but I am guessing it has some pretty serious towing power)

Credit for this Photo: Missile Defense Agency

USS Louisiana Blue COB

2009-02-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

There were a few rumors floating around on Bubblehead's blog over the last few days. I just came across a few news articles today about the COB from the USS Louisiana (Blue) appearing in court in Kitsap County Superior Court for second degree child rape. Here is a story from the Kitsap Sun.

Accused Navy Master Chief Makes His First Court Appearance

DNA Sampling - Unreasonable Search and Seizure??

2009-02-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

The Washington State Legislature is considering a House bill that would make DNA testing mandatory for all persons, juvenile and adult, arrested for a felony or a gross misdemeanor. One of the crimes which will be included for mandatory DNA sampling is shoplifting. This DNA test will be submitted to the Washington State Patrol database and the FBI database. If the person is later found not guilty, charges are dropped, or the conviction is overturned, the DNA sample will be destroyed.

This is one of those bill that really scares me. I don't understand how people can look at this and say that it not an unreasonable search which we are constitutionally protected against. Under the current law, DNA sampling requires a warrant unless the person is actually convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor sexual offense. This new bill would allow the police to take a DNA sample from someone arrested for suspicion of a crime without giving the suspect a day in court. In fact, it would be mandatory for them to do this.

On the surface, this might seem to be no more intrusive than fingerprinting during arrest. This is a quote from the executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs that appears in an article in the Seattle Times:

"It is good technology. It solves crimes," said Don Pierce, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, which has long pushed for DNA tests at the time of arrest. "We take fingerprints at the time of arrest, which in many ways is a lot more intrusive."

This is simply not true. As an example, let us say that one of your siblings or cousins was arrested. If they are fingerprinted, those fingerprints belong only to that person. If there is fingerprint evidence somewhere for an unsolved crime, they will have only that individual's fingerprints for comparison.

If a DNA sample is taken from someone that has been arrested and entered into a national database, then that sample may be compared to DNA from a crime scene with an unknown subject. What happens if one of your close relatives is arrested and they have some genetic markers in common with a DNA sample from an unsolved crime scene? If that DNA has genetic markers in common with that unknown DNA sample, then a suspect pool consisting of closely related family members of the same sex can be made. What is to stop the authorities from using this as probable cause for a search of your property or person without showing any other evidence? You could be forced to spend thousands of dollars to defend yourself.

One part of the bill says that the sample will be destroyed if the person is not convicted or if the conviction is overturned. Can we really believe that once a DNA sample is entered into a state or national database, that it will be removed later? I think that is simply not true. If we could trust this sort of information gathering to be handled in accordance with law, there would have been no need for President Bush and our Senators and Representatives to give immunity to telecommunication companies that illegally recorded telephone conversations.

I also have serious reservations about the Washington State Patrol being involved in this process. They have a record of handling and analyzing scientific evidence improperly and then saying later that it doesn't matter.

Several years ago in Montana, a scientist provided erroneous hair-sample analysis that helped convict a man of rape. That man was later exonerated by DNA evidence. This man was also alleged to have provided analytical evidence that resulted in the wrongful conviction of two other Montana men for rape. This scientist later came to work for the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab.

In 2002, an internal audit of 100 cases handled by this scientist revealed errors in 30 of the cases. That is a 30% FAILURE rate. The Washington State Patrol failed to tell the defendants or their attorneys of the flawed test, deciding that they were performed well enough. They decided that the "sloppy work" built around "shortcuts and speed" were not a good enough reason to fire the guy. I guess they don't believe in following proper procedures when performing tests that can destroy a persons life if improperly performed. You can read about this guy and the official WSP response here.

If you read their response, you will probably arrive at the conclusion that they have cleaned house. However, about a year ago, they had to contact 130 people that had been issued citations for driving under the influence of alcohol. These citations were based on faulty breathalyzer tests performed on the people driving. The toxicology lab responsible for these mistakes is overseen by the WSP. An internal audit and several independent audits found problems. A panel of judges issued the following statement about the lab:

A panel of King County District Court judges said the lab and its leadership created a "culture of compromise" with so many "ethical lapses, systemic inaccuracy, negligence and violations of scientific principles" that the breath tests should not be used as evidence in pending DUI cases.

Well, at least they told the accused people about their lab problems this time, even though some of the people had already served sentences.

The WSP is definitely the wrong organization to be involved in the collecting and cataloging scientific evidence of DNA. Their laboratories and their leadership at the laboratories have not demonstrated that they take their responsibilities seriously.

Bottom line for me is this bill should be shot down. I believe this is a violation of our constitutionally guaranteed freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. I also do not have confidence that our government agencies will handle the collected samples properly or legally.

Buying a Car? Read This First.

2009-02-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

It seems that some people that are trading in a car when buying a new car are getting screwed. With the large number of car dealers that are going out of business, some of their customers are left holding the bag. If you still owe money on your car when you trade it in and the dealer is going to take care of the balance of your loan, they don't always manage to follow through.

I can't remember ever trading in a car that was not already paid off, so I am not real familiar with the process. Some people have traded in cars with the arrangement that the dealer would pay off the remainder of their loan. If that car dealer goes out of business, they may not have paid off your loan and you are still on the hook for the balance of the loan. This can even happen if the dealer has sold the car to a third party. In some cases, the lender will go after the third party and repossess the car because they still have a lien against it. I guess the buyers aren't looking at the titles prior to buying the car to make sure that there is not a lien holder on the title.

In any case, if the dealer goes out of business and is bankrupt, the person that traded in the car is at risk of the lender coming after them for the remainder of the loan. In other cases, they may take away a recently purchased used car from someone that bought it in good faith.

Seems like it should be illegal to me, but I guess the consumer needs to look out for themselves because nobody is looking out for them. I assume that most lenders are banks and the auto manufacturers. They may be coming after you after you dealt in good faith. They can afford to come after you. Thanks to the bailouts, they have plenty of taxpayer dollars to finance it.

Read more about it here

Goodbye USS Kitty Hawk

2009-02-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

The last fossil-fueled aircraft carrier of the United States Navy was given a fond farewell at a ceremony in Bremerton yesterday. There is an article in the Seattle Times about the ceremony.

The Kitty Hawk was frequently moored in Yokosuka whenever I visited between the late 90's and the time that I retired a few years ago. It was practically part of the scenery near the pier that we always used. I see in the article that the sailors aboard referred to their ship as Miss Kitty. That is not the nickname that we had for it on the boats, but I will admit that our submarine crews were not always the most polite people around. I suspect a few of the Kitty Hawk sailors had the same nick name for it that we had, but didn't use it around their bosses.

Something that I didn't know about was the riot that nearly broke out on board when they were visiting Brazil. It sounds like a pretty good sea story. It sure made me laugh:

They talked about watching the sky light up from the flight deck during a nuclear test off the coast of San Francisco, about going to Cuba during the missile crisis, about the time a near-riot broke out onboard while the ship was docked in Brazil.
That time, a Brazilian ship had broken loose from its moorings while the Kitty Hawk had 10,000 visitors aboard. As the vessel drifted toward the carrier, the crew was told to pull up the anchor and get underway.

The visitors onboard thought they were being kidnapped, said former machinist mate Jim Strahl, and it took members of the Brazilian army, who were also onboard, to restore order.

Well, the navy certainly got its use out of the Kitty Hawk. It has been around for a long time and she has earned a rest. I wonder if they will turn it into a museum?

Civilian Contrators

2009-01-26T12:26:00.000-08:00

I frequently go to the Stripes website and read the Letters to the Editor section just to get a feel for what sort of things our troops are thinking and talking about. A few weeks ago, some of the people serving in Iraq started writing about the visits that celebrities make in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mostly, they were complaining that the contractors that are working there with them get in the front of the line to receive "goodies" that the celebrities bring along with them. For example, a pro baseball player might bring along some ball caps from his team. The chief complaint was that these should be reserved for the troops. In any case, there are almost daily letters in the pages of Stripes from our troops and from the contractors. Most, but not all, of the letters from the troops complain about civilian contractors. On the flip side, most, but not all, of the letters from the contractors point out the valuable services they provide for the troops.

Reading this has reminded me of a few of the experiences that I have had working alongside civilians while I was in the navy. Most of the people that I worked with on the waterfront were pretty good people, particularly while I was at Trident Refit Facility, Bangor (prior to the conversion to NRMD).

In fact, the only really bad experiences that I had were with civilians working in Personnel Support. When I transferred to Bangor, I had only 18 months or so remaining on my enlistment contract. My experience on my first boat had turned me against the navy and I was definitely looking forward to getting out of the club. Although my experiences on my second boat later changed my mind about the navy, my first day on Bangor only served to reinforce the anti-navy feelings that had been nurtured in me during my first sea tour.

The first person on the base that I talked to was a civilian at PSD. I sat down at his desk and he handed me a pile of paperwork and a pen and pointed to a table across the room for me to sit at and fill it out. Not a "Hello" or "Welcome Aboard", just a stack of papers, a pen, and a finger extended across the room. While I was filling out paperwork, I came across one that was a voluntary extension of service. I did not fill this out. I finished all of the other papers and took them back to him. He thumbed through them and noticed that I had not willingly signed away another 6 months of my life.

He put the voluntary extension in front of me and told me that I needed to fill this out. Those were the first words that he spoke to me. I refused. He said I can't refuse because I had accepted orders that required a 24 month commitment. I said I won't do it. He said I had to. I said that he wanted me to fill out a voluntary extension and that if I HAD to fill it out, it was INVOLUNTARY.

Next, he threatened to send me back to my previous command. I told him to go ahead and do that if he wanted to. Of course, I knew at the time that I had been one of the last five people to leave my last boat after we decommissioned it. I didn't think he would be successful in sending me back. I was right. He contacted me a few weeks later and told me that he would send me to another fast attack. I told him to go ahead and do that if he wanted to. In the end, I was assigned to the Trident submarine that I was supposed to be assigned to and no mention of an extension of service came up until more than a year later, when I decided to reenlist.

This left me with a pretty bad feeling about civilians working in support roles. Another bad one that happened at Bangor was actually just a few weeks before the one that I just described. I was on the crew that accompanied the boat that we had decommissioned from Mare Island Naval Shipyard to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. No facilities were available for us to sleep that evening so we were taken out to Bangor to get put up in the barracks there.

We got there at about 11 p.m. with strict orders to be checked out of the room and waiting for the COB at 5 a.m. to take us to PSNS in the morning. I went to my room, put the sheets on the bed and slept until about 4 a.m. Then I got up, took a shower, shaved, got dressed and went to check out of the room. The room that I had been put up in was occupied by a sailor that was permanently stationed at Bangor and it was pretty dirty. Toilet and shower were filthy, junk laying all over the room, big dust-bunnies lurking in the corners, and generally dirty. When I went to check out, they took my information and asked me to have a seat, along with all of the other sailors from my boat. They came back in a few minutes with a large list of items that we needed to complete before we could check out. My list included scrubbing the toilet, scrubbing the shower, sweeping and waxing the deck, cleaning up all the junk the other guy left in the room, making his rack with clean sheets, and other stuff to bring the room up to satisfactory conditions. All of the guys from my boat were given similar lists.

We wasted about two hours that morning arguing with the clerks working at the desk. Our thoughts were that we had spent less than six hours in the rooms and they could kiss our collective asses if they thought we were going to do their cleaning for them. Our COB came in and gave us some support, but it was not enough to release us. After we were about two hours late to the boat at PSNS, the Captain came in, found out what was going on, and extricated us from the situation.

Several years later, I found the support to be much better. When I checked into a boat at Pearl Harbor, a civilian clerk was fantastic. Minimal paperwork, friendly attitude, calls to the barracks to ensure that I was put up in the barracks, information about the area and off-base housing, and no pay problems. I don't know if I was just unlucky the first time, if the difference between me being an E-5 and E-6 was that big (I doubt it as E-6 is nothing special), or just that customer service was being taken much more seriously.

In the end, I am generally supportive of civilian in support positions. I just want them to remember that a civilian doesn't outrank a military member, no matter how low on the totem pole that enlisted guy is. I want them to treat military members with respect and would expect the military members to reciprocate.

Bad Flights

2009-01-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

I generally avoid flying when possible. I don't have a fear of flying or anything like that. I just find that flying is almost always an unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, there are times when flying is the only practical way to travel due to time constraints or location. When I lived in Guam and Hawaii, I felt that flying was the only practical way to get someplace else, unless I wanted to travel by nuclear submarine.

It seems like nearly all the flights I take are delayed. Whenever I read statistics about on-time flights, they always say it is somewhere in the mid-eighty percent range. I must be incredibly unlucky when it comes to flights being delayed or there is a lot of lying going on. I find that arriving on time is a rare exception, not the norm.

I also don't like the way that some flight attendants treat passengers. I do feel kind of sorry for flight attendants and I know they are there primarily for passenger safety and to enforce rules, but there are a few of them out there that really seem to go out of their way to be rude to passengers. Most flight attendants are pretty nice and treat passengers well, but if you ever get stuck on a flight when a flight attendant is having a bad day, it can be a miserable experience. This has not happened to me very often. Very few flight attendants have treated me poorly, but when it does happen, it sucks.

I just read this article about an absolutely terrible flight from Mexico City to Seattle. The flight was diverted to Portland because of heavy fog in Seattle. After flying for six hours, the plane landed in Portland. Then the airplane sat on the tarmac. And sat. And sat. For four hours, they sat there. Then, they turned around and flew back to Mexico City. What had started as a six hour flight turned into a sixteen hour flight. Then the passengers had to spend the night at the airport in Mexico City and fly to Seattle the next day.

While in Portland, with no food and having been sitting on the tarmac in Portland for hours with no opportunity to deplane, the passengers started to get angry. They couldn't get off the plane because they had to clear customs. Luckily, the Portland Airport Police had a solution. They came on the plane and told the passengers to sit down and shut up or they could choose to be arrested instead!

Great Job, Portland Airport Police!!! You guys are heroes.

Some Portland Airport Firefighters took pity on the passengers and bought them Big Macs from McDonalds. At least these guys took some initiative to help the situation instead of being a bunch of jerks like the police.

Portland is an international airport. They should have custom agents that can come in and let the people get off the plane in Portland. The people then could have taken a short flight to Seattle, or hopped on an Amtrak train, or taken a bus. Lots of ways to get from Portland to Seattle. Instead, they flew all the way back to Mexico City and then spent a night in an airport, then flew to Seattle the next day.

At the very least, you would think an international airport would have a place where the arriving passengers could have been let off the plane to use the bathroom and relax while they were waiting for the situation to be resolved instead of keeping them trapped on the airplane with no food.

Portland Airport officials manned up and took responsibility for the problem.

No they didn't.

They passed the buck.

A spokesperson for the Portland International Airport told KGW that PDX cannot comment on the customs situation because it was a federal issue.

I guess this is just one more item to add to the list of reasons I don't like to fly.

Living Without T.V.

2009-01-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

Well, kind of like living without television. I will be moving in about four months and I am giving some pretty serious thought to not subscribing to any television provider after I move. Right now, I have Time Warner Cable. Most of the time, when I have time to watch television, I find myself aimlessly flipping through channels and finding nothing that I really want to watch. I find it difficult to believe how there can be so little stuff that is interesting to watch when there are so many channels available.

Don't get me wrong. There are several shows that I enjoy watching. They are just on at times that are sometimes inconvenient to watch. If I have to miss an episode, it can be difficult to get caught up with what is going on. My favorite shows include the following:

Heroes, 24, Lost, Scrubs, Monk, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Burn Notice, Law & Order

Other than the shows listed above, the only things that I watch are news and sports. I enjoy watching the local Northwest Cable News.

CNN, MSNBC, FOX news...these channels are all a bunch of crap. All of these channels are so wrapped up in their own agendas, they fail to report news that I find interesting. They are just 24 hours of Conservative Talk (FOX), 24 hours of Liberal Talk (MSNBC), or 24 hours of watching them patting themselves on the back (CNN). Still, I do enjoy watching Northwest Cable News. They have a lot of local interest stories on and they do cover major national and international news.

I also enjoy pro baseball, pro and college football, and college basketball. Still, every year that goes by, I enjoy them less. I find it much more difficult to stay solidly behind a team when there are so few players that stay with a franchise for their careers. It seems that after watching a player develop for a few years or several years, they get traded and you watch someone else come in to play.

Another thing that ticks me off is the negotiations between networks and providers. I missed every NFC regular season and playoff games for an entire season here because of a dispute between FOX and Time Warner Cable. FOX wanted more money and Time Warner refused. Both of them appealed to customers. Two years later, I am still pissed at both of them. My parents just lost ABC (I think) on Dish Network because of the same crap. Anyway, it pisses me off.

I don't think that the sports and news are of high enough quality to keep me hooked up. I have been looking at various websites for each network, and, with the exception of Law & Order, I can keep up with the current season of every show that I enjoy by watching them online. In fact, watching shows over the internet tends to be more enjoyable because there are so few commercials to deal with. There are also a fair number of current and old television shows available at hulu.com. It is not a huge selection, but I can generally find something to watch there as opposed to the aimless channel surfing that I find myself doing with my cable service.

Using the internet to watch my favorite shows also means that I won't accidentally find myself listening to some dude talking about how his book is going to explain how to clean out years of gross, sticky, slimy crap out of my colon while I am eating breakfast. No more erectile dysfunction, KY Jelly, or male enhancement commercials either.

Northwest Cable News also runs most of their video online. That takes care of the news as far as I am concerned. I get most of my news by reading news stories on the internet anyway.

Sports will be the most difficult thing to keep up on. Of course, as I said before, I am not as big a fan of sports as I used to be. I think I can get my fill of sports by listening to the broadcast on the radio and maybe going to a friend's house or a bar if I really have to watch a game.

I figure that between what I can watch online and renting movies from Netflix, I should be pretty well off without enriching one of our cable or satellite television providers. Luckily, I live alone and don't have to worry about an entire family huddling around a computer screen to watch a television show.

Circuit City Closing

2009-01-16T10:55:00.000-08:00

Looks like Circuit City is closing its doors for good.

Circuit City, once a bellwether American retailer, is going out of business for good, stripping the nation of its second-largest consumer electronics chain.

A Good Barber is Hard to Find

2009-01-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

I was married until 1996. While I was married and even after I was divorced, my wife would give me haircuts. She wasn't a professional but she always did a pretty good job on my hair. After I moved to Hawaii at the end of 1996, I just went to the Navy Exchange for haircuts. I was never particularly happy with the haircuts I got there. They would always ask me how I wanted my haircut and then would proceed to cut it however the heck they wanted to cut it. It never turned out particularly well. I would have uneven sideburns and a few places that were cut shorter or left longer than the surrounding areas.

Eventually, I found a hairdresser in town. I always had pretty good luck after I decided to get my haircut out in town for the next 10 years. One of my favorite things was that they would always wash my hair when they finished. I thought it was kind of silly for a dude to get his hair washed after a haircut until I actually tried it, then I realized I didn't have annoying little hairs falling down my shirt all day. I was hooked.

I had some difficulty finding a barber or hairstylist in Pullman that I like. There are lots of college students filling jobs nearly everywhere and that means a high turnover for the employees. The first place that I went to here, the girl asked if I wanted her to shampoo my hair. I said that I would and she handed me a towel and asked me to walk to the sink. I told her that I wanted it shampooed after she cut my hair and not before.

She had a slightly stunned look on her face and was staring at me like I had a dick growing out of my head.

I asked "Why are you staring at me like I have a dick growing out of my head?"

She said "WHAT???"

I said "You are staring at me. Why are you staring at me? Is there a penis growing out of my head?"

I left shortly after this exchange without the shampoo and haircut. She didn't appear very comfortable around me and probably would not have given me a very good haircut.

I probably should have said something more polite like "Why are you staring at me like I have lobster crawling out of my ears?", but it just kind of slipped out and once I said it, it wouldn't come back.

Stylists and barbers always try to engage me in conversation, but I try to avoid it. I reply enough so that they don't think I am rude, but I really don't like talking to them. The reason that I don't like talking to them dates back to the second barber I had here in Pullman. He spent the entire time complaining.

He had graduated from WSU with a degree in Journalism but was unable to find a job in his chosen profession. His parents wouldn't let him move back home. He whined the entire time about how unfair life was. I made the mistake of replying to him a few times, so I guess that I asked for it. I kind of wanted to tell him to shut up, but I was worried about pissing him off while he was cutting my hair. I didn't want it to look like it had been cut by a blind chimpanzee.

I get a pretty basic haircut. I tell the person cutting my hair to go around the sides and back with a Number 1 and to cut the top finger-length, and then to blend it together. A Number 1 clipper cuts very, very close to the skin so the hair cuts very short. It took me a little while to figure out the finger length thing. When I was describing how long I wanted the hair on the top of my head cut, I held my fingertips close together and said that I wanted it about that long. She asked if I meant finger-length. My first thought was that my finger was a lot longer than I wanted my hair. Turns out, finger length means that they hold your hair between their index and middle finger with their hand flat against your head and then cut it flush to their fingers. I guess it would be more accurately described as finger-width, but I just call it what they do and it seems to get the job done.

I just got a haircut today from yet another barber. He was the "new guy". I didn't know he was the new guy when I came in, but I figured it out pretty quick.

When I sat down in the chair, he asked "Are you getting an eyebrow wax?"

Now, I don't know exactly what an eyebrow wax consists of. Everything that I know about hair and wax was what I learned from watching 40 Year Old Virgin. I was pretty sure that I didn't want any sort of wax.

One of the stylists working at the next chair said "No, the eyebrow wax is for this guy."

He looked confused for a second, then asked if I wanted a haircut. I told him to cut the sides and back with a Number 1, finger-length on top, and then to blend it together. "No Problem", he said. He went to work with the clippers. Large chunks of hair began to fall from the sides and back of my hair, which is expected.

The next thing that happened was unexpected.

He turned the clippers off and said "Man, I don't think I can finish this without screwing it up!"

My head whipped around as did the heads of the stylists working on either side of him.

One of the stylists admonished him. "Don't EVER say that in front of a customer. Just ask one of us for help."

Then she turned to me and said "I'll finish it up if he can't do it."

As it turned out, he was able to do a pretty good job until he got to the part where he was blending the top with the sides. He asked one of the girls if he could use her "blending-comb" to finish up.

She said, "Sure, but it's a piece of crap."

In the end, a different stylist finished up and I guess it turned out okay. But I don't think I will ask Bryan to cut my hair next time I go back.

Twig: My Parent's Marley

2009-01-12T11:26:00.000-08:00

My mom and dad have a dog named Twig. They got him long after all of us kids left home and Twig is their baby now. They spoil him shamelessly with food scraps and he can get kind of annoying at supper time (and at lunch and at breakfast). Other than that, he is a pretty well behaved dog and a pleasure to be around. He is kind of getting up there in age and appears to be losing his hearing. Still, he is very happy.

He has a few idiosyncrasies that add some depth to his personality. He hates changes. He is used to having the house the way that it always has been. My father got a small space heater last winter that he breaks out when it gets cold. When my dad breaks out the heater, Twig will go through pains to avoid the heater. He obviously doesn't trust it at all. If the heater is sitting out in the living room, he will squeeze between the coffee table and the couch and scramble over three sets of legs rather than walk in front of the heater.

When my parents changed his brand of dog food, he started a new ritual before he eats. He will stand in front of his dog dish for about two or three minutes barking at his food. Once he has barked his food into submission, he seems pretty content to eat it.

He also has a fear of cameras. Every time you point a camera at him, even a cell phone camera, he runs away. I have no idea what caused this phobia to develop, but it was a struggle to finally get a reasonably good picture of him. For some reason, he allowed me to take a couple of pictures of him the last time that I was home.

A few years ago, my parents had new linoleum installed in the kitchen. One of the things that Twig used to get a great deal of enjoyment from was coming in the kitchen when my dad was cooking bacon and licking up the grease that splattered on the floor. That was with the old linoleum. Now that there is new linoleum, he is afraid to set foot on the kitchen floor. You can put one of his favorite treats on the kitchen floor and he will sit and stare at it, but he is afraid to venture out any farther than his two front paws. If it is a really great treat, he will scratch at the floor with his front paws as if trying to pull the treat towards him. It is pretty funny to watch. When he wants to go outside, he has to cross a small patch of the kitchen floor and then go through two doors to get out. He has to see that both doors are open before he crosses the patch of the linoleum. Once both doors are open, he runs as fast as he can across the floor and outside.

My favorite story about Twig is the result of a traumatic situation that he went through. Every time that my mom or my dad would hop in the car to go someplace, Twig would want to go along. If it was a short trip, they would usually indulge him and he would happily sit on the passenger seat and look out the windows while they were driving.

One day, after getting his hair cut, my mom was bringing Twig back home. They were driving down the highway at 55 mph. A car which had been sitting on the shoulder of the road decided he wanted to do a U-turn and turned directly in front of my mom. She slammed into the side of the guys car at 55 mph. It was a pretty bad wreck with air bag deployment and both cars were totaled. Luckily, other than some minor burns from the airbags, there were no significant injuries.

Twig was pretty shaken up by the accident. A few days later, my mom got in the car to go to the espresso stand and get a latte. Twig loved this ride in particular because he always got a doggie biscuit from the lady at the espresso stand. Now he was refusing to get in the car. My parents figured that his car riding days were probably over.

The next day, my dad got in the car to run a few errands. Twig started barking at him and my dad opened the door. Twig jumped right in the car and took a ride with dad. Turns out, he was perfectly happy to ride with my dad wherever he went, but he would not dare to get in the car when my mom was driving. Apparently, the lesson that Twig learned was that he couldn't trust a woman driver. This accident happened several years ago. After a few years of avoiding my mom's driving, Twig relented and is again riding in the car when my mom drives.

Twig is definitely an oddball, but I know my parents wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.

Washington Floods and Pictures

2009-01-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

I just got back home from visiting my parents. You may have seen on the news over the last few days that Washington has been hit rather hard with flooding. My parents live near some of the hardest hit areas. Thankfully, while the town that they live in was surrounded by flood waters, the town itself came through pretty well. We were just cut off for a day or so. We had to take a fairly long detour around the flooding today so that they could drop me off at the airport this morning.

They are calling this "Historic" flooding and "Record" flooding. They used to call these sorts of floods "Hundred Year Flood" and "Five Hundred Year Flood", but since we have had several of them over the last few decades, I guess they decided to stop calling them that. In this case, we had about 7 feet of snow fall in the mountains over the course of a week. This was followed by a rain storm from Hawaii that brought warm air and huge rainfalls. Some areas of western Washington had 10 inches of rain fall in a single day.

The liberal media, liberal scientists, liberal engineers, and all the other members of the so-called Reality Based Community blame the floods and land slides on over-development in the areas that used to be flood plains, too much tree clear-cutting, and climate change. I haven't heard too many conservative theories on why the flooding has been so much worse, so I assume the conservatives blame the flooding and land slides on excessive corporate tax rates, over-regulation of the free market, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore. I guess the good folks of the Westboro Baptist Church probably blame it on the two lesbians that were kissing at a Seattle Mariners game at Safeco Field last year.

I don't know all the reasons for the flooding being so much worse than it used to be, but I do know that when you have too much water in too small of an area, the water gets real high real quick.

I have a few pics from the area around Oakville.

Water Over Roadway...Duh!!!

This road was damaged when some wet soil under the road collapsed.

This picture shows the land slide underneath the road.

Small Towns

2009-01-01T11:37:00.001-08:00

About a week into my winter break from school, I got tired of looking at the snow in Pullman and hopped on a plane to Seattle. My parents picked me up at the airport and we drove to their house in Oakville, Washington. Normally, I would drive, but there is just too much snow on the ground between Pullman and Oakville. Now I am looking at the snow in Oakville, but at least here it is melting. Unfortunately, I am using a dial-up connection and my patience is already getting short. I was staring at the Dashboard in Blogger for nearly five minutes waiting for the New Post page to load. I guess I am truly spoiled by high-speed internet connections. The editing also seems to be a little screwy. I can't seem to insert spaces between paragraphs. I guess this is the new "roughing it".

Oakville is a pretty small town. If you want to get an idea what sort of town Oakville is, try to picture a one-stoplight town. Got it? Now, take away the stoplight. That's Oakville. There are about 700 people living here.

Oakville experienced a boom a few decades ago when a nuclear power plant was being built near the neighboring town of Satsop. In the late seventies, construction was begun on several nuclear power plants in Washington state. Eventually, because of cost overruns and corruption, the projects were halted and Washington state defaulted on a few billion dollars worth of municipal bonds. The project was named the Washington Public Power Supply System. The project name had the unfortunate acronym WPPSS, or "whoops" as it became known in the media. After the project shut down, the boom was over for Oakville.

Oakville has a few claims to fame, but that is about it. It is home to the last bank in Washington state that was robbed by men on horseback. There was also an incident in which gel fell out of the sky for a period of a few weeks several years ago. Some of the local people think that this was because of some sort of nefarious government experiment being run on the local population. It was even featured on Unsolved Mysteries.

From Wikipedia:

In 1994, over a two-week period in August, a gelatinous substance reportedly
fell from the sky six times. The mysterious goo allegedly contained white blood
cells and several acids from the human stomach, and was reported to infect
anyone it touched with symptoms of exhaustion, breathing problems, heavy
perspiration, fainting, and other flu-like symptoms. Several animals in the area
are reported to have perished because of this.

My parents tell me that it is true that the gelatinous substance did indeed fall from the sky. As for the reports of people getting sick and animals dying, they may not be factual.

Not to be outdone by the fine Governor of Illinois, the Mayor of Oakville has found himself embroiled in a political scandal. The fine mayor had purchased some land just outside of the city limits a few years ago. He bought it with the intention of building four single family houses which he could then sell for a handsome profit. The collapse of the housing bubble has changed his plans.

He still thinks that the land can be used to build housing and turn a profit. However, instead of building single-family houses, he wants to build "fourplexes", which I gather is like a duplex with four units instead of two. Unfortunately, the county has zoned this area for single-family units and the fourplexes cannot be built there. Now, the mayor is leading the charge for the city to expand its limits and annex the land on which he wants to build the fourplexes so that it can be rezoned. If this happens, he will likely realize a tidy profit.

Obviously, some people view the mayor using his office to promote this project as a conflict of interest and abuse of power. The mayor has tried to appease his critics. Whenever the topic of this annexation comes up in city meetings, the mayor takes off his "Mayor of Oakville" hat and puts on his "member of the community" hat. The senior guy on the city council then takes over as the mayor for that portion of the meeting. After they discuss the issue of the property, the mayor once again becomes the mayor.

I guess that it is kind of like in the cop action movies where the cop takes off his badge and says "I'm not a cop tonight." I don't think that is how it really works.

The city council recently held a no-confidence vote against the mayor. The newspaper explained it. Apparently, the vote is to tell the mayor that they don't think he is doing a good job. That's it. There are no repercussions and no binding action has been taken.

Anyway, pretty interesting stuff for a town of 700 people. Politicians act like politicians no matter where you are. I guess that even boring little towns aren't really so boring after all.

Thunderstruck...or is it Thunder-Suck

2008-12-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

I saw that the NBA had a game between the Washington Wizards and the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday. Prior to the game, the two teams had a combined record of 7 wins and 50 losses. Oklahoma City was beaten 104-95 and walked away with a record of 3-28. They suck. The Thunder are really bad. A terrible team. It puts a really big smile on my face.

The truth is, I have no animosity towards the people of Oklahoma. I just detest Clay Bennett for the way in which he moved the Sonics. He had purchased the team in 2006 with vague reassurances that the team could remain in Seattle. It became clear that his intention all along was to move the team out of Seattle when some emails became public in which he was discussing the move with his OKC buddies.

I also blame Starbucks chairman Charles Schultz for selling the team to Bennett and then claiming to have been deceived when it became apparent that the team was going to be moved. The guy heads a multi-zillion dollar a year business, but he wasn't bright enough to see this coming?

The other person that I blame is David Stern, who basically told Seattle, "if you fight this move, you will never have basketball in Seattle."

Some people blame our liberal government in Seattle and Washington State. I don't. The reason I don't is because I am sure that Stern and Bennett were collaborating against Seattle the entire time. Bennett wanted a team in OKC because that is his town. He was willing to lie every step of the way to get what he wanted. Of course, he was selected as 2008 Oklahoman of the Year. David Stern was just greedy to expand the NBA into a new market. Never mind that Seattle had a team for 41 years with pretty good attendance and that excitement was building with the addition of Kevin Durant to the team.

Okay, enough ranting about the move. It is old news that was brought to mind again when I saw the results of the match between the two worst teams in the NBA. Let me say that I am thrilled the OKC Thunder have affirmed their place as the worst team in the NBA. I hope that this team eventually turns into a huge money pit for Clay Bennett.

Oklahoma, I wish I could say that I am sorry that the Thunder are having a terrible season, but I am not. Wasn't it enough that you guys sent us Brian Bosworth? Did you really have to take our NBA team as well? I don't have any real animosity towards you, but please forgive me if I express some glee that your team is an unmitigated disaster this year. I hope you have many more years of the same.

Nuts!!!

2008-12-27T14:36:00.000-08:00

I read an article yesterday about a 19 year old guy that had been sentenced to four days in jail for simple assault. The assault in question occurred when the guy heard that a fellow high school student suffered from a peanut allergy. He took someones peanut butter sandwich, stuck his fingers in the peanut butter, and then rubbed it on the student with the peanut allergy.

When I was 19 years old, I probably would not have thought that a peanut allergy was particularly serious. On the other hand, I would not have tried to inflict an allergic reaction on somebody. As an older adult, I know that peanut allergies can even be fatal.

I figured that this was probably just a bully and four days in jail would probably teach him a lesson, even if it seemed a little harsh. Perhaps some community service would have been more appropriate.

Then I read this article in the Seattle Times and changed my mind. Here is a quote from the article:

Harmon said she honored the four-day jail sentence recommendation in part because a recent mental health evaluation concluded that Hickson suffers some cognitive deficiencies.

What the heck are "Cognitive Deficiencies"? I think in layman's terms, it would mean "The guy is a Dumb-Ass". Why is being a dumb-ass a defense for criminal activity?

The guy denies he actually committed these actions, in spite of several eyewitness reports to the contrary:

In court Tuesday, Hickson denied touching the boy. But several witnesses told police he did.

Still, these weren't the parts of the article that changed my mind. The part of the article that changed my mind was the part that showed me that he was not only a dumb-ass, but an unrepentant dumb-ass:

"What were you thinking when you did this?" Judge Nancy Harmon asked Hickson before sentencing.

He did not answer, only grinning and shaking his head. Harmon pressed, several times questioning Hickson about his motivation. He did not answer.

What kind of person would grin when being asked by a judge why he committed a crime? What kind of a judge is going to stand for that kind of disrespect in her courtroom? It would appear that the guy is a bully that still thinks what he did was funny. I am a little surprised that the guy didn't get forty days instead of four days.

Then, I read a follow up article in the Seattle Times today. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the part of the story that jumped out at me had been altered:

"What were you thinking when you did this?" Judge Nancy Harmon asked Hickson before sentencing.

He did not answer. Harmon pressed on, several times questioning Hickson about his motivation.

Now there is no mention of the kid grinning about his little prank in front of the judge. I guess the newspaper thought that including something that shows the true character of this bully was unnecessarily inflammatory. I am pretty disappointed in the Seattle Times. Now it seems to portray the guy as a dumb kid that screwed up instead of the bully that won't accept responsibility for his actions and still thinks he is funny.

White Christmas

2008-12-25T13:55:00.001-08:00

I had a great view of a White Christmas when I looked out my window this morning. Having a White Christmas is not unusual here. Before moving to Pullman, I had lived on tropical islands for ten straight years and I never missed the snow. I used to do a very small amount of skiing in the winter, but it never really appealed to me. I always preferred golf and a little bit of scuba diving. Tropical islands are more conducive to golf and scuba diving than the winter wonderland that I live in now.

I have taken my car out for a few short trips. Enough to ensure me that the battery is not dead and that I can get around town without too much difficulty. Some of my neighbors have not moved their cars since the snow started falling a few weeks ago. I don't think they will be moving them anytime soon.

Of course, the snow is pretty to look at. These are a few pictures from the apartment complex that I live in. It is a little more pleasant to look at these trees than it is to contemplate digging your car out of a thick blanket of snow.

If you are living someplace without a White Christmas, your welcome to come visit and take as much snow as you like home with you. I've had plenty. I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas.

Frosty the Fire Hazard

2008-12-23T17:33:00.000-08:00

Frosty the Snowman want to burn down your house. Some Frosty the Snowman shaped snow globes sold at Hallmark shops have ignited fires at a couple of different houses. If you leave Frosty in direct sunlight (not a good place for a snowman anyway), he may focus sunlight just like a magnifying glass. They were made in China. Guess you can't trust any toys or knick-knacks from that place. If you have one of these menacing figures in your house, take it back to Hallmark.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Bulletin

Picture from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Bulletin.

Openly Gay Secretary of the Navy?

2008-12-21T09:38:00.000-08:00

According to an article in Stripes, the Obama transition team is considering William White as the next Secretary of the Navy. I am sure that the fact that he is openly gay will be talked about more than his qualifications. He is also receiving some support from retired members of the Joint Chiefs as well as from some members of congress.

"He would be phenomenal," retired Gen. Hugh Shelton, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001, was quoted as saying.

Retired members of the Joint Chiefs have contacted Obama’s transition team to urge them to pick White, and members of Congress said he would be a good choice, according to the Times.

From Stars and Stripes

It sounds like White has done a lot for the troops that were killed or severely injured in combat through his work with the Intrepid Museum Foundation which started the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. One of the points that Obama hammered home again and again during his campaign was the shameful way that injured vets were treated after they suffered injuries while defending our nation. Putting an advocate for injured vets in this position seems like a selection Obama might make.

Many of the picks that Obama has made for high-level government positions have drawn criticism from the extreme right and from the extreme left while receiving some praise from the center. If Obama picked White for this slot, it would place him in the middle between two opposed groups, homophobes and homosexuals. Homophobes will be angry for obvious reasons. I think it would also anger many homosexuals when they discover that the selection of White would not immediately lead to the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Since you will never make everyone happy, if you piss off both sides an equal amount, you are probably doing a good job. I think this would be an interesting selection.

Two Down, One To Go

2008-12-17T16:07:00.000-08:00

I knocked out two of my final exams for the semester yesterday. It kind of makes for a long day. My first exam was from 8-10 a.m. and my second one was from 7-10 p.m. The evening ones are the worst. Usually I am thinking about going to bed at 10 p.m., not writing differential equations and designing control systems. My brain just seems to slow down when it gets that late in the day.

Luckily, I don't get too stressed out about finals week. My first semester here, I was kind of stressed, a little less the next semester. Now, final exams are more of an inconvenience than anything else.

It is kind of interesting looking at the different study habits that the students employ. We have a few rooms where the Chemical Engineering students tend to congregate. Some of them get together in groups, have pizza, listen to music, and chit-chat. After several hours, they all say they are tired of studying and take off. I guess it is more about the social aspects of studying rather than the actual value of studying.

Others will read the textbook cover to cover and do as many practice problems as possible. They stay up all night to study before exams. Personally, I would rather get in a good solid night of sleeping before an exam.

I like to look at any previous exams that the instructor has made available, review the notes that I have taken in class, look at the homework assignments that we have been given, and then decide what questions are most likely to be on the exam. It lets me target just a few areas. I have done extremely well in predicting the sort of questions that are going to be given on the exams and avoided extremely long hours preparing for exams.

Several students convince themselves that the professor is going to try to trick them. They are almost positive that there will lots of obscure questions on the exams. They end up spending hours and hours studying things that have almost no chance of being on the exam. They neglect to study the material that the professor spent several lecture periods on, because they think they already know all that stuff. It appears they have yet to make the connection between the amount of time a professor spends discussing a topic, and how important the professor thinks it is.

I am much happier just spending a few hours brushing up on what I think will be on the test and getting a good night of sleep. Life is much less stressful that way. I guess it pays to be a little older and wiser than my compatriots.

Let It Snow

2008-12-12T17:05:00.000-08:00

I finished up my errands in the nick of time today. We had snow on the ground in November the last two years, and in both cases, it stayed on the ground for several months into the new year. This year, we have had nothing but a little bit of rain.

Today, we are under a winter storm warning. I tried to figure out what time it would start snowing and it appeared that it would not start until close to midnight. The rest of the weekend and well into next week, we are supposed to be going into a deep freeze. The temperatures are supposed to drop from the mid-thirties down into the single digits over the next few days.

It gets kind of tough to drive around here when it starts snowing. Pullman has a population of about 25,000 people. The Pullman campus has about 17,500 students. This results in a disproportionate number of drivers in the 19-24 age range. Like anybody with a whopping 3-8 years of driving experience under their belt, they know how to drive much better (and much more aggressively) than everyone else on the road. They are also talking on their cell phones constantly. Throw in some snow and ice, and the smart move is to stay off the road (and the sidewalks) when it starts snowing around here.

I decided to run out and complete a few errands before I hunkered down for the weekend. I was pretty well stocked up on food in preparation for the first big snowfall of the year, but I wanted to grab a few fresh veggies. I decided I better get my Christmas mailing done as well. I drove by the post office on my way to the store. The parking lot was completely full and the line of people waiting to mail packages was very, very long.

I went to the store, which was also packed. My intentions were to pick up only some fresh vegetables, bagels, and cream cheese. That was all I wanted. Of course, when I walked through the frozen food section on my way to pick up the cream cheese, I saw a sign:

Tombstone Pizza

3 for $10

I told myself I didn't need a pizza, let alone three pizzas, but I guess I am a sucker for sophisticated advertising. Even though I know I could have bought one pizza for $3.34, I walked out with three pizzas. Two of them will probably be sitting in my freezer for several weeks, but I guess I might as well cook one of them up for tonight and to give me something to munch on tomorrow.

When I got out of the store, I discovered that my initial estimate of midnight for the snow to start was off by about 10 hours. The road was already getting a pretty good layer of slush on it from the snow.

Fortunately, by the time I got to the post office, the line had diminished substantially and I was in and out of there in about 10 minutes. I was able to successfully complete all of my errands and get home. Now I should be able to enjoy the snow from the comfort of my living room and not have to worry about driving around town until they start getting the roads cleaned up. Let it snow.

More Hate From the Westboro Baptist Church

2008-12-11T01:10:00.000-08:00

The controversy over holiday displays at our state capitol is ratcheting up another notch. The Westboro Baptist Church is asking to display a sign. If you do not know what the Westboro Baptist Church is all about, check out their website at www.godhatesfags.com. (That is not a typo or a joke, but their actual website) This is the same hate-filled group that protests outside of military funerals saying that God wants our troops to die because God hates America. In my opinion, these people are the very worst that America has to offer. I detest them. This is what they say now:

"You'd better watch out, get ready to cry, You'd better go hide, I'm telling you why 'cuz Santa Claus will take you to hell. He is your favorite idol, you worship at his feet, but when you stand before your God He won't help you take the heat. So get this fact straight: you're feeling God's hate, Santa's to blame for the economy's fate, Santa Claus will take you to hell."

From the Seattle Times

This group that cloaks themselves in religion disgusts me. I don't really care how you feel about gay marriage or the war in Iraq. This group spews hate. They certainly don't uphold the belief that you should hate the sin and love the sinner. They hate. That is all they do. God cannot possibly condone their behavior. Now they are attacking Santa Claus.

This whole controversy started when an atheist group posted an anti-religion sign at our capitol building. I was a little surprised at how it gained national attention. Obviously it is time to stop allowing any sort of displays at our capitol.

To the atheists that started this: Congratulations on your success. You have ruined the spirit of love and joy that surrounds the holidays.

To the people of Westboro Baptist: You make me sick. You are terrible people, each and every one of you.

To my Governor, Christine Gregoire: Put a stop to this nonsense. Do not allow our state to become a laughingstock because of atheists from Wisconsin and hate-filled simpletons from Kansas.

Marine Jet Crashes in San Diego

2008-12-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

Update: Link to new post March 3, 2009

An F-18 jet crashed in a San Diego neighborhood a few hours ago. Apparently the pilot ejected before the crash, but it looks like the jet hit a house.

Story at MSNBC

The article says that the neighborhood is densely populated. Take a look at the video. LOTS of houses there. I don't know how bad it was for people on the ground, but it looks like it could have been a lot worse.

Video

Disclaimer: I found the video while I was sitting in the tutoring lab at school. I didn't listen to it because I didn't want to disturb the other people around, so I don't really know anything that they talk about during the video. I just thought that it looked pretty scary.

UPDATE: 12/8/08 6:00 p.m. : Unfortunately, there were three deaths with a fourth person still unaccounted for in one of the houses destroyed by the crash. Two or three homes were destroyed.

I found this L.A. Times article that refers to the aircraft as being crippled. I assume there is probably some sort of standard operating procedure that prohibits flying a damaged aircraft over a heavily populated area, so I guess that whatever happened to it must have happened too late for the pilot to avoid the neighborhood.

From the L.A. Times:

Marine officials told The Times the pilot was part of a training squadron and that he was trying to aim the plane at a deserted canyon to avoid slamming into homes or nearby Interstate 805. He had taken off from the carrier Abraham Lincoln several miles off the coast. His destination was the air station. Marine Col. Chris O'Connor pledged an in-depth investigation and to see "that the neighborhood is cleaned up as quickly as possible."

Jason Widmer, who was working in the neighborhood, talked to the pilot after he ejected and landed.

"He was pretty shook up," Widmer said. "And pretty concerned if he had killed anyone. He had seen his bird go into a house."

This is certainly a tragic situation for all involved. It appears that the pilot was taking action to avoid hurting anyone on the ground, but wasn't able to do it. Very sad.

The Rock

2008-12-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

I take the city bus to school every day. I looked into getting a parking pass for the sake of convenience, but the only parking pass that would be worthwhile for me has a long waiting list and an annual fee of nearly $400. They also over-sell these passes, so you are not guaranteed of finding a parking spot. All students at WSU have to pay a mandatory $15 "transit fee" each semester. The transit fee is used to subsidize the city bus system and allows all WSU students to use their student ID as a bus pass. All in all, it is a pretty good deal.

There are pros and cons to riding the bus.

On the plus side, it is cheap. The transit fee is mandatory for all students whether they use the bus or not, so I may as well use it since I have to pay for it anyway. I also don't have to deal with the hassle of finding a parking spot on campus or pay for gas.

On the negative side, the bus schedule can be best described as random. When I used public transportation in places like San Francisco, Honolulu, and Japan, I was able to show up about five or ten minutes before the bus/train arrived and rarely had a long wait. In Pullman, the schedule is "on average, every 12 to 15 minutes." This usually works out okay, but sometimes I have to wait about 30 minutes for a bus. Because of this, I have to factor in a rather large chunk of time to ensure that I make it to class on time. This gets a lot worse when it snows.

Another bad thing is that the bus is crowded. The buses are usually pretty empty at my bus stops, so I usually don't have any difficulty finding a seat. However, when we get to the later stops, we pick up lots more people and the bus gets awfully crowded. The bus drivers are constantly telling people to crowd in tighter and make room for a few more. I think some of the bus drivers suffer from delusions of grandeur and secretly fantasize that they are piloting the last helicopter of the U.S. evacuation during the Fall of Saigon.

In my opinion, the worst part is some of the other people riding the bus. Most people have the sense to practice good hygiene. This doesn't apply to all college students. There are some kids that have not learned that it is a good idea to shower nearly every day. Frequently, these people also have not learned that they should occasionally wash their clothes. They also still have to learn that the use of cologne or perfume, no matter how much you use, doesn't entirely compensate for lack of showers and lack of clean clothing. Others need to learn to blow their nose before they go to school and they need to learn to cough and sneeze into their sleeves instead of on their fellow bus passengers.

I have a two-pronged strategy to combat this problem. First, I glare at everyone that smells like they haven't showered in a week. This dissuades most of them. The other thing that I do is claim two seats that are kind of a tight squeeze for two people. I'm a pretty fat guy (I prefer the term Nutritionally Enhanced) and this limits the number of people that can sit next to me. Eventually, the seat is usually taken by one of several petite Asian girls that attend school. They tend to practice above-average hygiene, so I have no problem with them sitting next to me.

There is a guy that I privately refer to as "The Rock." I do not think of him as "The Rock" in the sense of "He Rocks" nor do I refer to him as "The Rock" because he reminds me of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I had a class with this guy about a year and a half ago and became convinced that the space between his ears is filled with gravel, or possibly a solid mass of stone. That is why I refer to him as "The Rock."

He has a freakish ability to anticipate my bus schedule. I can leave for school two hours early to finish up some school work, and he will get on the bus a few stops after I get on. I can be running 30 minutes late and he will get on the bus. I can be right on time and he will get on the bus. It's really kind of spooky. I bet he is on the same bus as me at least five times a week. Even worse, he is not deterred by my glares and he will squeeze in next to me because he remembers me from the class that we took together a year and a half ago. He will then rattle on incessantly until we get to our destination, no matter how studiously I look out the window or pretend to talk on my cell phone.

He is a chemistry student. I guess that means he is studying to become a scientist of sorts. He is not very bright and I am surprised that he made it this far. I am sure that it would take you an hour to teach him to boil water or unlock a door. I have compassion for people that cannot grasp concepts or easily learn things. Still, I feel pretty strongly that some people should not be scientists or engineers. The processes of designing and developing procedures for maintaining and operating things like airplanes, nuclear power plants, and bridges are complex. These processes are not well suited to a trial-and-error method. I fear that "The Rock" will be doomed to a life of a chemical technician performing the same analytical procedures over and over again until he retires.

The reason that I bring him up is that he happened to sit next to me on the way to school today. He went on and on about how much trouble he was having in one of his classes. That was my first bus ride of the day. When I came home after my first class, I left school about 30 minutes late and the bus was nearly empty for my second ride of the day. "The Rock" got on at the next stop and ignored about forty empty seats to squeeze in next to me and entertain me with his feelings about the incredible coincidence that we were on the same bus twice in the same day. I have to take a bus back to school in a little while. Based on my earlier experiences today, I estimate that there is about a 90% chance I will be listening to "The Rock" commenting on the odds against us being on the same bus three times in the same day. Sigh. I guess that is how life rolls sometimes. At least he doesn't stink.

Photos of Russian Ship in Panama Canal

2008-12-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

I found a few photographs of the Russian navy ship, the Admiral Chabanenko going through the Panama Canal. It was a night-time crossing and I think the pics are pretty nice. The links are below.

Reuters

Times of India Slide Show

Looked pretty cool. I went through The Ditch back in 1989. I thought it was a pretty big deal. We went through with a lot of security. I remember that we had a helicoptor or two with us the whole time and a few Boston Whalers equipped with big guns and filled with some pretty mean looking dudes. I was 20 years old at the time. Seeing all the security was the first time it was driven home for me that we were a serious military target and it was kind of a sobering experience for me.

Of course, I just loved the experience of going through the Panama Canal. It was definitely one of the more memorable days that I spent in the navy. Some pictures from navsource.org below show my first boat, the USS Shark (SSN-591) transiting the canal in '89. I don't know if I appear in any of these pictures, but I remember being on the fairwater planes while going through one of the locks. I really enjoyed being able to go out on the fairwater planes when we were on the surface. If you ask me, the classes of submarines without easy access to the fairwater planes really shortchange their sailors.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Update 11:00 p.m. : Looks like the links to the pics of my old boat may not be working. If you want to look, go to navsource.org and look at pics for the USS Shark (SSN-591). Sorry.

Happy 75th. Have a Drink.

2008-12-05T11:32:00.001-08:00

Today is the 75th anniversary of the end of prohibition. Prohibition officially ended at 5:32 p.m. EST on December 5, 1933, after Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st amendment that officially repeal the 18th amendment. Thanks Utah!!

Utah??? Really? I never would have guessed that.

Happy anniversary everyone. Guess I should have one or two beers after dinner tonight.

Also, if you are like the paranormal stuff, today is also the anniversary of the day that a flight of torpedo-bombers, Flight 19, disappeared while flying through the Bermuda Triangle.

The President (elect) is on the Line...No...Really...Don't Hang Up

2008-12-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

This is a funny little story about Republican Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen receiving a phone call from Barack Obama. She figured it was probably a prank caller from a radio station pretending to be Mr. Obama trying to embarrass her and hung up a couple of times before he finally got to speak to her.

Read the story here

This kind of reminded me of a story that I heard when I was younger. My father was acquainted with a man named Ronald Reagan. I don't know if his name was actually spelled the same as the former President's name or not, but it sounded the same.

Doing anything over the phone became very difficult for him. One of the most difficult things for him to do was to place a call for hotel reservations.

Ronald: "I need a room for three nights."
Hotel: "Very well, sir. May I have your name?"
Ronald: "Ronald Reagan."
Hotel: CLICK...dial tone....

He learned that if he wanted to book a room or a flight over the phone, he would have to start off by saying "This isn't a joke, this is my real name, so please don't hang up on me." It wasn't so bad when Reagan was merely an actor, but after being elected President, the whole thing balooned to cause him grief when he needed to call someone.

Must be how Michael Bolton felt in Office Space.

Atheists in Washington Hate Christmas

2008-12-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

I hadn't realized how big of an issue this was. Now I see the news has been elevated to a national level. For the Christmas season, a nativity scene along with a holiday tree (or Christmas tree, I am not sure of the proper terminology) is decorating the Washington State Capitol. In 2006, a Menorah was displayed, although there is not one there this year. Now there is also a sign that supports an atheistic point of view. A statement from the Freedom from Religion Foundation is below.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, foundation co-president, said in a prepared statement that the sign is a reminder of the "real reason for the season, the winter solstice."

A Better Bailout

2008-12-03T13:03:00.001-08:00

One of the news stories that came out while I was at my parents house was the new estimated cost of all the US Financial Bailout. It was estimated at 8.317 trillion dollars.

Read the Article at CNBC

I looked at the U.S. Popclock Projection from the United States Census Bureau and it estimates that there are 305,801,765 people in the United States (as of the time that I am posting this). I would have been a lot happier if our government had decided to send every man, woman, and child in the United States a check for $27,197.36. It might not have solved the economic crisis, but I would be $27,197.36 richer, and frankly, it doesn't look like that money has done much good for our troubled financial system.

Actually, I lied. I would not rather see people receive the money directly. But I sure do wish it would have been spent better. The problem has come about due to sub-prime lending, a crashing housing market, record numbers of home foreclosures, the high gas prices of the last year, etc.. These have led to frozen credit markets. I guess I don't understand all of the reasons for the credit market drying up like it has. I can certainly understand that it has gotten smaller as the banks realized that they had made some bad loans, but there certainly are still some good loans to be made that are simply not being made now because of fear. Throwing this $8.317 trillion at the losers in our free-market system hasn't helped to any discernible level. Good risks are not being taken.

The money from the bailout is only a life line to keep certain companies, primarily financial companies, afloat. These companies make money on commerce and consumption of goods. Unfortunately, commerce and consumption of goods is drying up and I think it is accelerating. I really wish that our government had let these companies take their lumps and spent this money in other ways.

Government statistics put the number of unemployed in the United States at about 10.1 million. If the government had instead promised 10.1 million jobs at $50,000 annual salary for 5 years, the total price tag would have been $2.525 trillion. We could have people at work on improving infrastructure, picking up trash, digging ditches...whatever. I don't know exactly what every one of these 10.1 million people would do, but I bet work could be found that generally benefited the nation.

Now, I know that this sounds a lot like welfare and people would also say that we don't want to increase peoples dependency on the government. These are both valid arguments. I would counter that we have spent triple the amount of money on corporate welfare and have increased the financial system's dependency on government.

The government says that they will get most of this money back. This may be true, but I am fairly certain they won't get it all back.

I think there is more to be gained by putting people to work for 5 years. The government would immediately recoup some of the money in the form of taxes. In addition to this, unemployed people that suddenly became employed would greatly reduce the burden on social services. These formerly unemployed people would also increase the tax base for states, many of which are struggling with reduced tax revenue in the current recession. Furthermore, these workers would not be scared to spend their money. This would cause increased consumer demand and the supply side would respond by expanding. Hopefully, they would need new workers and could begin to hire some of the people that are in the limited-time government jobs and would begin to wean the country off of the temporary employment program. It would serve to prime the pump, so to speak, that is the United States economy.

A rising tide lifts all boats. I don't think that this is the context in which that phrase was meant to be used, but I think it is apt.

I am not saying that this is what should have been done. However, I think it would have done a lot more good for our economy than all these trillions of dollars that have been thrown at the problem.

I know that it is not practical or possible to get to a zero percent unemployment rate. I know, from listening to conservative talk radio, that nearly every unemployed person in the country is really just too lazy to work and that they enjoy collecting huge welfare and unemployment checks and spending my money. Still, I hold out hope that some people that don't work would enjoy having a job.

Word(s) of the Year

2008-12-03T12:37:00.000-08:00

I came across an article that tells us that online searches of Merriam-Webster Dictionary have resulted in "Bailout" being selected as the 2008 Word of The Year.

Read the Article

Merriam-Webster has a list of the ten most-searched words from 2008. It is kind of depressing to look at their list. Some of the other words selected are:

Trepidation
Precipice
Misogyny
Turmoil

Lots of these words have some negative connotations. I guess that is something I would have to blame on the generally pessimistic outlook that so many people are getting caught up in now.

The Top 10 List is Here

Some of the other words, like Maverick and Bipartisan, must have come from the intense interest in the presidential campaign. I wonder what words will make it onto the list next year?

Trip Report: Hanford

2008-12-02T17:43:00.000-08:00

I just got back from my field trip a little while ago. Surprisingly, we had all except for one student show up on time to leave and the one that was late was less than 5 minutes late, so we got on the road just about the time that we planned to. The van that I was riding in had some pretty bad climate control. On the side of the van I was on, it was like sitting next to a furnace, but the people sitting on the other side were freezing. Other than that, it wasn't such a bad trip down there.

This was my second trip to the reservation. My first trip happened a few years ago when I was driving through the tri-cities and took a wrong turn. That time, I didn't get any further than the sign that said "Hanford" before I figured it out and turned around.

We actually ended up with three foreign national students on the tour. Apparently, it is not that unusual. One of the guys working there said some of the work had once been contracted out to a British company which later sold out to an American company, but apparently several British workers remained employed there.

The foreign students were separated from the main group for a special security briefing where they had their credentials checked a little more thoroughly than the rest of us. I asked one of the girls that had the special briefing what she thought of it. She said, "By the time they were done, I was scared of myself !!"

Most of the trip was spent discussing our particular projects, but they did take us to look at a few other facilities there. It was a fairly interesting trip. My impression is that you have to do a lot of driving if you work there. Very few of their facilities are even close to other facilities. Of course, I guess that is the sort of things that happen when you build a nuclear facility in the middle of the desert instead of in a big city.

All in all, not a bad day. It was kind of long because of the riding around in the van.

Hanford

2008-12-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

Figured that I would get in a quick post before I hit the rack. I have to get up early tomorrow to be outside Sloan Hall (where I have most of my classes) at 6:00 a.m. This almost reminds me of meeting outside the NEX mini-mart at oh-dark-thirty in Pearl Harbor to go for a bus ride to the shooting range for weapons qualifications. Instead, I am going on a field trip tomorrow to Hanford. For my senior design project, we are trying to come up with a way to optimize a particular method in the processing of radioactive liquid.

One thing that I thought was kind of odd is that we are not required to be U.S. citizens to go there, or at least to see the nuclear-type of areas. Two of my classmates are foreign nationals. One is Japanese and the other is Mexican. Of course, I am sure that neither one of them has any sinister designs. In fact, one of them is giving me a ride to school tomorrow since we have to leave before the bus starts running in the morning. All in all, I am happy that they get to go with us.

I spent 20 years in the navy working as a nuke. Then I went to college to broaden my horizons. Now in the span of just a few weeks, I got to tour a naval shipyard and tomorrow I get to visit a nuclear reservation. I can feel my horizons broadening as I sit here typing this post.

Well, I guess the navy and/or the nuclear world is my calling. Things could be worse. At least there are some good job prospects out there for me.

My Black Friday

2008-11-29T20:48:00.000-08:00

I hope that most of you were more fortunate than me when it came to avoiding the Black Friday shopping.

My dad started looking for a new television when they started advertising the analog to digital conversion for all television broadcasts. About the time that he decided that his setup was not going to stop receiving the signal when the switch was made, his television broke. Since then, he decided that he wanted to upgrade to a nice plasma or LCD television.

I came home from a brief outing on Thanksgiving evening to find my mom, dad, and brother sitting around a huge pile of advertising fliers. They had selected a 40" LCD television from Best Buy. I looked at the flier and it promised a minimum of three in stock. Since we didn't want to risk them selling out, we decided to head out early.

My mom dragged me and my brother out of bed at about three and a half hours before the crack of dawn. We got ourselves all hopped up on coffee and hit the road. We got to Best Buy about at about 5:15 a.m., or 15 minutes after the store opened.

There were lots of people and long lines. The television that we wanted was still available, although the people in line right in front of us were there for the exact same television. The people working there had us stand in line in the television section.

Fortunately, the line was not ridiculously long.

Unfortunately, the line failed to move for about 45 minutes. At one of the biggest electronic outlets in the nation, the line couldn't move because their computers were down. Guess they should have called the Geek Squad. Wait a minute. They ARE the Geek Squad!! Whoops.

After a total of about an hour, we worked our way up to the register and made our purchase. Then we went to pick up the television at the loading area. We had a car. The television was being kind of stubborn about fitting into the car. Rather than trying to bend and beat on the $700 television to get it into the car, we opted to call my brothers buddy, Bill, to come and pick up the television for us. Bill has a truck.

My brother is a truck driver, and so is his buddy. Turns out, truck drivers have the same sort of sense of humor as submariners. You know, the one that says it is okay to make other people miserable because it amuses you. Bill and my brother often play pranks on each other.

Anyway, Bill got the phone call at about 6:30 a.m. asking him to come to Best Buy to meet us and drive the television to my parents house. Bill, who was still asleep when the call came in, looked at the clock and decided that my brother must be trying to mess around with him. Who goes shopping for a television at 6:30 in the morning? He told my brother, "I'll be right there!!" and promptly rolled over to go back to sleep.

It took two more phone calls, a reminder that it was Black Friday, and an hour before Bill realized that we were actually stranded outside Best Buy with a 40" television and a brand new television stand. He showed up shortly after that. My brother rode home with Bill while my mom and I, as an afterthought, decided to swing by Target to pick up a surge protector for the television.

WOW!!! That place was packed. The line stretched to the back of the store before bending around a corner and out of sight. The lady at the front of the line told us not to worry, because the line was moving pretty quick. My mom and I left. We ended up picking one up at OfficeMax.

Now OfficeMax is a store that I kind of like, as long as I go in armed with a knowledge of the proper pricing of what I am looking for. It almost made me sad to go in there. They had the whole crew in to help customers, but the customers failed to show up, I guess. There were about a half dozen customers in the store. One of the sales people walked us over to the surge protectors. There was an open register with nobody standing in line. While it is pretty nice to have two customer service people for every customer, it looked pretty empty on the biggest shopping day of the year. Hope that they don't count on Black Friday revenues for most of their business.

We went home after that and spent the remainder of the morning assembling the television stand and setting up the television. It looks great and works great. My parents were very happy, so I guess it was all worthwhile.

Innovations in the American Automobile Industry

2008-11-29T20:07:00.000-08:00

I was driving home today and I heard about a brand new idea from Chrysler. They are introducing an add-on product for their vehicles. Well, the article is from June, so it may already be available. It will allow you to create a WiFi network in your vehicle. Using a cell phone connection and the 3G network, it will allow vehicle occupants to access the web while driving down the road. It only costs $499 to have it added on by the dealer and $30 a month to subscribe, in addition to the cell phone charges.

Read About it Here

WTF?!?!?!? Cell phones don't cause enough accidents? Even for someone that spends as much time on the internet as I do can do without internet access during my car rides. Presumably, it is for passengers, although I heard someone say that they thought it would be cool to be able to take a look at MapQuest while they are driving. Yikes!!!

Hey, for all of you rocket scientists running Chrysler. If someone needs to access the internet while they are in their vehicle, they probably already got a PC card that lets them access the internet using 3G. These PC cards cost about a tenth of your add-on. Hello?? Are you there?? Stop being morons and stop asking for the American taxpayers to foot the bill while you continue to destroy your company.

While there will always be people out there that spend money on things they don't need, I think the tough economic times are going to take their toll on companies that cater to consumers that spend wastefully.

Hey, Chrysler, maybe if you spent those R&D dollars on giving us a car that gets 10 or 20 more miles to the gallon, you wouldn't need to be begging for money from the public. You are Broken. Fix Yourselves or Go Away!!!

Turkey Day

2008-11-25T08:27:00.000-08:00

I am packing up and getting ready for another trip across the mountains to western Washington this morning. I will be spending Thanksgiving at my parents house. I may put up a new post or two while I am there. Unfortunately, my parents house is in the land of dial up internet. I rarely have the patience to get online while I am at their house.

Meanwhile, I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving. Eat as much as you want, but dont choke on any turkey bones.

Monica Lewinsky Part of Team Obama??

2008-11-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

I ran across an article today that says that there is a rumor that Monica Lewinsky is being considered for some sort of a job in the Obama White House.

It appears to be written tongue in cheek, and I am guessing it is a cute joke since this is:

a) an opinion piece,
b) from the Huffington Post, and
c) coinciding with the 10 year anniversary of the Clinton scandal.

Nevertheless, it made me chuckle a few times. The article says that Hillary Clinton would rather not have Lewinsky back in the White House if she is Secretary of State (duh!!!), but the part that really made me laugh was this quote:

"However, Justin Cooper ... said that Mr. Clinton was cautiously supportive of the prospect. "He's always had great admiration for Monica's abilities," Cooper said."

I hope that you enjoy the article. The link is below. I thought it was pretty funny.

Obama Team Mulls Role for Miss Lewinsky in New Administration

Photos of USS Parche Sail

2008-11-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

The sail for the USS Parche is the centerpiece of a Navy Museum between the Bremerton ferry terminal and the entrance to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. I know it is not new, but I thought some people might be interested in seeing a few pictures of it. I think they did a pretty nice job with the display. I heard that the real reason for this area is a buffer zone to provide greater protection for the shipyard, but they "beautify" the area to make it a little less obvious that it is there to provide protection from possible terrorist threats. It would be fitting for the Parche to be used in a continuation of national defense. The biggest drawback right now is that I had to run through a mouse maze of construction and temporary fences and dodge a little traffic to get from the ferry terminal to the Parche sail.

Pictures of the sail of the USS Parche, the most decorated ship in the navy.

Boat Ride

2008-11-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday, I left Bremerton on the ferry to Seattle. I was thinking that it would be a nice ride instead of taking a drive through Tacoma. It turned out to be a pretty uneventful, yet relaxing start to my trip back to Pullman.

Barely.

I had a pretty flexible schedule, so I wasn't in a big rush to catch the boat and ended up on the 11:30 sailing. If I had waited for the next sailing, it would have been much more exciting. Someone in Bremerton phoned from a 7-11 that he had overheard two men talking about a bomb that had been planted on the ferry. The ferry returned to Bremerton and the terminal was closed. They had a few Coast Guard boats to provide security, Washington State Patrol with bomb-sniffing dogs, and several news helicopters. I heard on the radio that since the ferry never turned, it pulled up to the pier oriented so that all of the vehicles had to back off the ferry instead of driving forward. I think it would have ended up costing me several hours of travel time had I been on that ferry.

Link to the story

Of course, I would have got some more interesting photos. Here are a few pics from the ride to Seattle. Did you know that the Garmin has the ferry route programmed into it? I didn't. For some reason, I thought that was pretty cool.

Here is a picture of some scenery.

Coming into Seattle.

My Garmin faithfully guiding me to Seattle on the ferry, slightly to right of track.

Sir! Yes Sir!!!

2008-11-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

So, I was sitting in my living room watching Law & Order. The neighbors upstairs, that I am normally pretty tolerant of, were playing their music so loud and yelling and screaming so loud that I was having some difficulty following along with the episode, so I felt inclined to go say "Hi" to them.

I knocked on the door.

The door opened.

A nice young fella opened the door.

In the background were a few more young guys and several scantily clad young ladies.

Me: "Hey buddy. I'm having a little trouble hearing my T.V. Would you mind turning the volume down a notch or two?"

Him: "Yes Sir. Sorry about that Sir!!"

That's a no-shitter.

Sigh...when did I get so old? Am I an asshole???

I Have a Yen For....

2008-11-19T21:26:00.000-08:00

I don't normally follow the foreign currency exchange rates, but I did happen to come across the exchange rate for dollars to yen. It is about 95 yen for a dollar.

Seems to me that the exchange rates were always about 110 to 120 yen for a dollar whenever I went to Japan. Now I have some concern for places like The Honch. I have fond memories of karaoke and Filipina bargirls that always told me:

"Wow...you sure do sing good...can I have another drink?"

Those days might be coming to an end.

The exchange rate for Singapore Dollars is 1 U.S. Dollar is 1.52 Sing Dollars...used to be about 1.66.

Thai Baht? 35 for 1 U.S. Dollar.

I have many memories of my Dollars being worth so much more. I have to say that I find the current state of our battered Dollar very sad. Those nights of drunken debauchery may be at an end for our current generation of brave warriors. To all of the new generation, I guess all I can say is:

"I drank all of your beer and fu@#$d all of your girls...have a great liberty port!!"

I always heard that poverty makes for a great liberty port. Will we soon be seeing Chinese and Russian sailors on American shores talking about what a great liberty port the United States is?

What Planet are These Jackasses From??

2008-11-19T11:49:00.000-08:00

Three beggars came on private luxury jets to Washington D.C. asking for money. They speak of shared sacrifice, which apparently means "I'LL TAKE YOUR MONEY AND YOU CAN DO THE SACRIFICE PART." They are like thieves.

Story from ABC News

How can they not get it? You can't rake in millions of dollars in salary and fly around on private jets and then come to beg for taxpayer dollars. It is certainly reminiscent of Leona Helmsley and her famous

"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

These guys need to be sent packing. I wish I could say that I am amazed, but I am not at all surprised. They really think they deserve these perks while driving their companies to bankruptcy. They think they are special and that they have incredible talents. Hell, if anybody wants to hire a new CEO, give me a buzz. I promise to drive your company into the ground for a fraction of what these clowns want. I am starting to feel genuine hatred for these CEO's. I know they are well paid, but do they have to rub our noses in how special they think they are?

Posting from Bremerton

2008-11-17T21:21:00.001-08:00

All finished out at the shipyard. Guess the interview went pretty well. It was actually more along the lines of them trying to sell the job to us, for the most part. They were, from my experience, pretty honest about the negatives as well as the positives.

I also got to take a tour of one of the old decommissioned aircraft carriers and took a quick walk in a drydock basin to see the underside of a submarine. Walking up those drydock stairs sure was tougher than when I used to be in the navy. Must be all the good food I been eating.

There were a group of about nine people, but only about three were interviewing for the same job that I was. Apparently, they are still kind of hurting for people, although they are getting a lot more interest from people that would have otherwise chosen the private sector. I guess the tanking of the economy is good for the human resources people at the shipyard.

Bremerton has gotten a lot bigger than when I was stationed here. It is inexorably growing toward Silverdale. Still a pretty nice town though. I will be driving back to Pullman tomorrow, and think I will take the ferry to Seattle, just for a change of pace. By the time you throw in the gas I save and the toll for crossing the Tacoma Narrows bridge, I almost break even, so it's almost a free boat ride and an hour of walking around enjoying the scenery instead of driving through the heavy traffic in Tacoma.

Off to Bremerton

2008-11-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

I will be leaving for Bremerton shortly. I get to have my second job interview with Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on Monday. They seem to be pretty interested in hiring me. Hopefully, it will go well.

I spent a little time looking into going to work for some of the big oil companies. Most of them try to make you feel like they are God's Gift to chemical engineers and that we should be down on our hands and knees begging to be found worthy enough of being hired. I get the feeling that they consider workers to be disposable assets rather than valued employees. There is an oil refinery here in Washington, but not too many other big oil jobs in the region. Well, I guess I could probably get a job pumping gas, but that is pretty far down on my list of desirable jobs.

There are a few other nuclear industry types that have shown a lot of interest in hiring me as well. Still, the shipyard in Bremerton is at the top of my list as far as desired location goes, so they have the inside track right now.

Some of the guys that graduated last year declined to take a government job, because of the higher pay available in the private sector. Some of them have already been laid off. Private sector does look pretty good, but I would rather have a good job with good job security than a great job with lousy job security. The current economic situation is influencing my feelings towards job-hunting more than I thought it would.

Anyway, I have to shower and pack, and be on my way. Have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Religious Discrimination in the Military

2008-11-11T18:09:00.001-08:00

I guess that I just don't understand some people. I read the bible at home, but I don't particularly care for church services because of the political bent to many church services. I don't really understand the various groups and organizations that intend to suppress all mention of any sort of religion out of all aspects of public life.

One or two years ago, there was a bit of a fuss at SeaTac International Airport. A rabbi, seeing a large Christmas tree at the airport complained. He wasn't complaining about the presence of the tree, rather he thought that a Jewish symbol to celebrate Hanukkah should be displayed along with the tree. This seemed to be a pretty legitimate point of view. The Port of Seattle responded by removing the Christmas tree. The rabbi felt bad about it and said that this was not his intention and that they should put the tree back up. I think the rabbi was being very reasonable in his request, but the hyper-sensitivity to this sort of complaint caused a huge overreaction.

I don't understand how come people feel repressed because a courthouse chooses to display the Ten Commandments or because their child has to utter the word God when they say the pledge of allegiance. I always write these attitudes off to people that go out of their way to be offended by something. For me, if something offends me, I tend to ignore it.

When I was in the navy, I never felt particularly threatened by people that attended services on the boat. When I was stationed on a sub tender, they used to have an evening prayer. Many ceremonies had an invocation prayer. I don't know of anyone that was offended by it. I certainly never felt that there was any sort of overt effort to pressure me into joining in something that I didn't believe in. The tender even had Wiccan services. I thought that the people that participated were a little goofy, but to each his own.

Apparently, not all military members share my point of view and they see a more malevolent side to religion in the military. There is an article in Stripes about a group protesting against the huge amount of religious discrimination in the military. I would guess that if anyone in the military were to be discriminated against on a religious basis, it would be Muslims. I was wrong, though. The biggest targets are atheists, at least according to this group.

"When they say 'there are no atheists in foxholes' it's slanderous," said Wayne Adkins, a former Army first lieutenant who served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. "To deny their existence is to deny that they serve."

Read the story in Stripes

If a person considers the phrase "There are no athiests in a foxhole" offensive, they must be the same sort of people that go out of there way to feel offended. I also think that they are completely missing the point of the phrase. I sure don't think that this phrase was ever intended to deny the existence of athiests.

Anyway, maybe I was just blind for 20 years. Did anyone else feel that they are (or have been) discriminated against for religious reasons while they were in the military?

Circuit City Bankruptcy

2008-11-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: 1/16/09 I have written another post about the announcement that Circuit City is closing and including information for people with extended warranties.

I read today that Circuit City is filing for bankruptcy protection. I am not a big fan, nor even small fan of Circuit City. The only good shopping experience I ever had there was when I lived in Aeia, Hawaii. I lived about a five minute walk from the Circuit City near Pearlridge. I was able to order a new computer online and go to pick it up.

When I picked it up, a salesman tried to con me into buying an extended warranty. I told him I was not interested. He told me that I was making a big mistake, blah, blah, blah... I cut him off and asked if the store was selling me a piece of crap that was going to break down, because I wouldn't want to buy it if that was the case. He continued to go on about how I should get an extended warranty. I told him to shut up or I wouldn't buy the computer. He shut up.

I hate these guys trying to sell you these extended warranties. Circuit City has built a business built more on extended warranties than on their sales. I always considered an extended warranty through Circuit City to be a waste of money. Now that everyone is facing tighter times, I bet more people consider it a waste of money. Add that on top of overall sales slowing down, it is no surprise that Circuit City is in trouble.

Something else for a consumer to consider is whether or not Circuit City will even be in business a few months down the road. If they won't be, then a longer warranty is certainly a waste of money.

I really don't like Circuit City, if you haven't noticed by now. The last straw for me was watching management openly screw their workers.

The electronics retailer, facing larger competitors and falling sales, said Wednesday that it would lay off about 3,400 store workers — immediately — and replace them with lower-paid new hires as soon as possible.
The laid-off workers, about 8 percent of the company’s total work force, would get a severance package and a chance to reapply for their former jobs, at lower pay, after a 10-week delay, the company said.
Read the March 2007 story here

Of course, with the plummeting stock prices at the time, I guess that the Company Executives had to screw over thousands of ordinary people so that they could somehow justify huge paychecks for themselves. Like a lot of executives for major companies and corporations, these executives have shown themselves to be Morally Bankrupt. Now, Circuit City, under their leadership, is Financially Bankrupt.

More on Russian Submarine Disaster

2008-11-09T09:19:00.001-08:00

There are a few more detail coming out about the Russian submarine disaster from Saturday. Apparently, the submarine is the K-152 Nerpin. An article from The Times of India identifies this as a submarine that was supposed to be leased to India starting next year.

The new Russian Akula-II class attack submarine called ‘K-152 Nerpa', which met with an accident during sea trials in the Sea of Japan off Vladivostok on Saturday, killing at least 20 people and injuring another 21, is apparently the same vessel which was to be transferred to India in July-August 2009, sources said.

Read more from The Times of India

The wording used by the Russian Navy spokesman is that it was an "unsanctioned activation" of the fire suppression system. I am guessing there was probably an accidental activation during maintenance. There is a siren that is supposed to go off before the system starts releasing the gas into the "people tank" which may have failed. Presumably, this alarm is triggered as part of the system activation. It is possible that during maintenance, the trigger for the alarm was not in the same loop that resulted in the release of the gas.

I have never studied one of these systems closely. Does anybody know if the gas used in these systems has an additive to give it a distinctive odor, such as the one added to natural gas? It seems like a system designed to rapidly displace oxygen from a large space would have something like this added to provide additional warning.

One other interesting thing that I read in an article. The submarine had 208 people aboard, 81 military and 127 shipyard workers. The breakdown in deaths was 3 sailors and 17 civilians.

Seventeen civilians and three seamen died in the accident and 21 others were hospitalized after being evacuated to shore, Russian navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said. None of the injuries were life-threatening, he added.

More from the Washington Times

I suppose the disproportionate number of civilian deaths is probably due to the level of proficiency of the sailors compared to the civilians. Of course, it is also possible that due to the large number of people on board, a lot of civilians were sleeping in the bow compartment due to the huge overload on the normal berthing spaces.

Submarines always were and still are dangerous places to live. I am sure that there will be some lessons learned out of this to add a few more pages of safety regulations written in the blood of these men.

Russian Submarine Accident

2008-11-08T16:37:00.000-08:00

Sounds like a pretty bad accident, with many sailors killed. I just picked this up a few minutes ago. The article says that the sub was on sea trials. The vessel hasn't been identified.

"During sea trials of a nuclear-powered submarine of the Pacific Fleet the firefighting system went off unsanctioned, killing over 20 people, including servicemen and workers," Igor Dygalo said, without giving any details of the circumstances of the accident.

Read the full article here

Here is another article with more information

UPDATE: Another article has been posted that may identify the submarine involved.

The name and type of the submarine was not released.
However, a source in the Amur shipyard's administration named the submarine as the K-152 Nerpa, a nuclear-powered sub of the Project 971 Shchuka-B type, or Akula-class by NATO classification, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

A picture of the K-152 Nerpa

The Real Reason McCain Lost

2008-11-06T23:40:00.000-08:00

The GOP is now left to consider why they have fared so badly in the most recent elections. Some say it is because they moved to far to the center and gotten out of touch with their conservative values. Others (like me) think that they are just out of touch with the American people.

As it turns out, we may both be wrong. It could be that our election was influenced by Peruvian Shamans. I guess that is as good a theory as any.

President Elect Obama

2008-11-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

Incredible.

I was expecting this to happen based on the last few weeks of poll results, but I guess it will take a little bit of time for the historical significance of this to sink in. I wish his grandmother had held on for a few more days.

I'm thrilled!!!

Election Night

2008-11-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

All finished with everything that I had to do today, so now I get to focus on the election. I am hunkered down in my living room, I got cold beer in the fridge, and a pizza in the oven. Actually, the beer and pizza were for "Heroes" last night on NBC, but unfortunately, a Saturday Night Live special episode preempted my show.

Anyway, the election looks like it is unfolding as the polls over the last week have suggested. I certainly hope that it doesn't come out close. I think after the 2000 and 2004 elections, particularly the 2000 election, we need to have a pretty definitive victory. Florida, I am talking to you.

The election coverage that I have been looking forward will be starting in about 15 minutes on the Comedy Channel: Indecision 2008. I hope that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have some good stuff for us tonight.

Update: 6:53 p.m. pacific time:
Wow!!! Virginia is amazingly close. An 1,100 vote difference with about 2.5 million counted.

No Margarita For You!!!

2008-11-04T17:55:00.000-08:00

I was able to get out of the last hour of my laboratory class today because of a small material failure. My group and I decided to make a run across the border to Moscow (that's Moscow, Idaho and not Moscow, Russia) for lunch.

We decided to go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Here is an excerpt of my conversation with my waiter:

Me: "I'll have an Asada Burrito and a Margarita, please."
Waiter: "Ummm, you can't have a Margarita."
Me: "Is it too early to serve alcohol?"
Waiter: "No, it's election day."
Me: "What???"
(Note: I knew that it was election day, I just didn't understand how this related to my Margarita)
Waiter: "We can't serve those on election day."
Me: "What are you talking about? Where are we? Mexico?"
Waiter: "Sorry, sir."

The irony was lost on me at the time, asking if we were in Mexico while sitting in a Mexican restaurant. Rather, I remembered my time on various boats. It seems like nearly every time we pulled into San Diego, the COB would tell us that it was election day in Mexico. Don't bother going to Tijuana, because you can't drink there anyway. Either Mexico has a heckuva lot of election days through the year, or this was the COB was engaging in some alcohol-consumption suppression, similar to some of the voter suppression tactics used in some controversial electoral districts.

The bottom line is that I had an Asada Burrito and water for lunch. By the way, the burrito was delicious, even if it wasn't quite up to the standards of the places outside the gates at Point Loma. I was disappointed that I was unable to have a Margarita with it. Apparently, nothing is more dangerous than a voter with a loaded pen. Or is that a loaded voter with a pen???

Imagine my surprise when we were leaving the restaurant. A couple sitting at a table near ours were enjoying beer with their lunch. I stopped and asked them if that was beer, thinking that perhaps they were drinking some non-alcoholic beer or something like that. Turns out they were enjoying actual alcoholic beer with their lunch.

I did a little research on it later and discovered that while it is permissible to serve beer and wine on election day, you are not allowed to serve liquor. I guess the enlightened lawmakers in Idaho think that you can get drunk from liquor, but not from drinking beer and wine.

Actually, the law was passed about 70 years ago. Apparently, some of the polling places were located in bars and places like that. The law was passed to prevent candidates from buying drinks for the voters in order to influence their vote. Of course, this information that I have came from various Internet sources, so its validity is suspect.

Lesson learned: If you want to get liquored up before you vote, you need to do it someplace that isn't Idaho.

An Unexpected Lull

2008-11-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

After a flurry of exams and a few presentations over the last week and into yesterday, I took a look at my schedule for this week. To my surprise, I found that I have a relatively light workload for the rest of this week. I am sure that I will thoroughly enjoy this unexpected lull.

On reflection, the stuff that has been piled on me at school isn't really that tough. Apparently, somewhere in the transition from submarine sailor to college student, there has been a perceptible shift in my definition of a hard day. I know that I would have been thrilled to have this small of an amount of work to do before I retired from the navy.

In any case, I haven't been posting very frequently because of my schedule. I intend to rectify this situation today. Unfortunately for the people that pop in to look at my blog, I have decided to take the "high quantity" route rather than than the "high quality" route. Anyway, if you are spending some of your valuable time reading my blog, thanks. Sorry if I wasted your time.

Voting Machines

2008-11-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

I came across an article on CNN that discusses the glitches that can and have occurred with voting machines in the past and are likely to occur again this election. Some of the problems that I have heard about are:

Paper ballots: Choice is not properly annotated, for example, circling the desired candidates name instead of checking a box.

Optical scanners: The circle on the ballot is not filled out completely or dark enough to register.

Touch screen: Sometimes register the vote for the incorrect candidate, due to voter error or machine calibration. Also susceptible to hacking.

"With early voting under way in 31 states, these problems have already surfaced. In recent weeks, voters in West Virginia, Colorado, Tennessee and Texas have reported that touch-screen machines registered their votes, at least initially, for the wrong candidate or party."

Read the story at CNN by clicking here

Now, I may be guilty of thinking like an engineer, but none of these seem like insurmountable obstacles. So how in the world can our democracy allow an election system that does not absolutely ensure that voters are confident that their vote is not only counted, but counted correctly?

My suggestion would be to design a voting machine that incorporates all of these technologies. Design a voting machine that has one input, a touchscreen, and one output, a printer. There is no need to have any other interfaces or connections to the internet that would allow a possibility of hacking. The voter can input his or her choices using a touch screen, which can tell them immediately which candidate they just selected before moving on to the next choice.

After all of the selections have been made, the machine can then print out a paper ballot similar to those used in optical scanners, with all the selections already filled in. Use of a standard system and printer ensure that all ballots are filled out correctly and that the ballot can be read by an optical scanner. It could even have a positive statement to reassure the voter that the vote was properly cast, for example:

For President of the United States, you have selected:
(insert candidates name).

After the voter has reviewed the printed ballot, they can sign it and put it in a box for later counting with an optical scanner. If, for some reason, the optical scanner can not read a ballot, it can be counted by hand. The positive statement as to which candidate was selected by the voter will ensure that there is no confusion about which candidate was selected if a hand count becomes necessary.

I don't know why we have to tolerate this crazy patchwork quilt that is made up of the various types of machines and methods that create the possibility that votes will not be counted or not correctly counted. Our nation has definitely reached a sufficient level of technology where we can correct these errors.

Can the G.O.P. Survive?

2008-10-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

This is a rather long, and probably somewhat rambling and disjointed post, so please bear with me and share your opinions when you are finished.

I am beginning to wonder if the Republican Party will survive this election season. There are reports now of splits on a few issues, such as gay marriage, that are creating a growing rift between McCain and Palin. In addition, Palin feels she is being mishandled by the McCain campaign. Today, she said she definitely wants to remain a figure in national politics.

I would characterize myself as a left-leaning independent. A lot of people would probably say that I am a Democrat. I have voted for Republicans in the past, but some of the reasons that I would have voted for a Republican are just no longer there.

For example, the Republicans have always said that they are a party of fiscal conservatives. I can't see how they can claim that any longer, at least not with a straight face.

They also claim to be more ethical and to place more value on family values than the Democrats. Just look back at the last several years, and you will find that there are a lot of Republican names on the list of unethical or unfaithful congressmen, right alongside the Democrats.

They also try to pass themselves off as the party that takes care of the military, but I don't necessarily agree with that. In fact, the biggest jump in my quality of life in the military came due to changes made by Admiral Boorda during the Clinton administration.

McCain refused to endorse the new G.I. bill that Webb sponsored. He said that he had come up with a superior bill, but his initial reason not to support it was that it was too generous and would induce people to leave the military early. There was no push by the Republicans to improve care for the war veterans until the media started to show the inadequate conditions that prevailed at many of the VA hospitals. Bush last year gave the military a pay raise that was 1/2% lower than the one approved by congress, because that extra 1/2% was unnecessary. The rationale was that it would take money away from other programs that benefited the military. He also supported raising Tricare fees for retirees. Rationale for that was essentially the same, saving Tricare money so that it could be used for other military programs. Kind of a redistribution of the troop's money, in my opinion. Take it out of the pockets of military members, because the government can spend it better. This is decidedly not a conservative view point.

McCain has never really looked all the comfortable to me while he is trying to appeal to the far right members of the Republican party. Palin definitely appeals to this group. There is a far right component in the Republican party that seems to push a lot of people away from that party. I think as long as this group charts the course for the Republican party, they will remain out of power in Washington.

There seems to be a lot of difference in the party based on the region of the country that they are from. Here in Washington state, some of the Republicans are really distancing themselves from the national party. In 15 partisan offices up for grabs, 4 of the Republicans, including our Republican candidate for governor, refused to use the word Republican to describe themselves, opting to state their party preference as G.O.P. on the ballot.

I think there is a real possibility of the Republican party splitting into two parties. President Bush still has about a 25% job approval rating. Palin is extraordinarily popular with the far right wing. On the other hand, I think that politicians like Bush and Palin alienate a lot of moderate Republicans and scare off independent voters as well.

I also think that there are a lot of moderate Democrats that do not fully support their own party, because a lot of senior Democrats are too far left for comfort. Unfortunately, the alternative is to vote for McCain/Palin, and they would rather support their own party.

The only way a third party could ever form is to have viable candidates that are already well established in the political arena. Right now, a vote for anyone other than a Democrat and Republican is considered to be a wasted vote by most voters. Do you think that moderate Republicans might split off from the rest of the Republican party? If they do, do you think that some moderate Democrats would be willing to join them and form a true third party?

Disturbing News Item

2008-10-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that this kind of report surprised me, but I have been expecting that some white supremacist group or individual would eventually get it in their head to take a shot at Barack Obama. Apparently, a couple of nuts decided they were going to make themselves famous by killing 102 people at a predominantly African-American high school, and then go on a killing spree culminating with an assassination attempt on Obama. Luckily, the ATF was on the ball here, and put a stop to it before they went ahead with the attempt.

"Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of ATF's Nashville field office, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree after the Tennessee murders, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press."

Link to the Associated Press Story

I had a discussion with my dad and my uncle several months ago, about whether this sort of thing would happen or not. My dad felt that we were far enough along as a nation that Obama would not be a target because of his race. My uncle and I thought there might be a chance of something like this happening. Of course, we were talking of a more immediate threat, so I don't know if this really fits in with the discussion that we had.

I wonder if this is the first serious threat, or just the first one we have been told about. I guess for now, I will just say Bravo Zulu to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Keep up the good work, boys.