Kingsquared » rants

Oh the irony!

John — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:51:43 +0000

The only explanation is that someone knows how exhausted I am and they want me to get a decent nights sleep before spending 28 hours driving home.

I guess I should explain. Last night I went to bed early knowing that I had my evaluation and that I needed to be well rested. I didn’t sleep well. I went to bed at 10PM and woke up at 1230AM. I watched 20 minutes of TV and tried to fall back asleep. I was WIDE awake until 3AM. I had an incredibly strange dream and woke up when my alarm went of at 415AM. Let’s do the math – that’s less than four hours of sleep.

I caffeinated myself and went to work. I made two stupid, but not destructive, mistakes and passed my evaluation with a Q1. It’s not perfect (Q1E is perfect) but I’ll take what I can get. I knew that I had to get all of my out-processing done by 345PM and that I’d have to rush. We landed at 230PM and by the time we finished the epic taxi, my cargo download, and we finished waiting for the crew bus to show I had eaten up 45 minutes of my time. I spent the next 23 minutes waiting for someone to get out of a meeting to tell me that I needed to get someone to process some paperwork. I asked them to do so and they graciously did so. By this time I had 3 minutes remaining.

I grabbed the finished paperwork and hurried to the next building before they closed at 345PM. Thankfully, the decided to help me out. I was almost done when they told me I was missing one piece of paperwork. I wasn’t going to leave today. I’ll have to wait until someone gets into work at 730AM to give me that one piece of paperwork.

The only explanation is that someone knows how exhausted I am and they want me to get a decent nights sleep before spending 28 hours driving home. It’s probably a good thing.

Change can be painful

John — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:29:06 +0000

Since the beginning of the year we’ve seen a few changes in the world. The people of Egypt decided they weren’t happy with the status quo and “removed” their president. In Libya, some of the people are getting the crap bombed out of them for wanting a new leader. I did say some because not all of them support getting rid of Qadafi. (Also spelled Kaddafi or Gaddafi – odd how that works out huh?) The King of Saudi Arabia changed the laws preventing anyone from protesting in public to prevent a change of the guard. The King of Jordan removed his entire cabinet and replaced them with new ministers to prevent an overthrow from within. There is change a brewin’ – and there is some pain associated with it.

Human life, property, dreams, childhoods, bank accounts, and all manner of things are being destroyed in the process. Everyone not directly involved is footing the bill via higher gas and oil prices. I don’t have a problem with the citizens of those nations (or any other for that matter) deciding that they’ve had enough and trying to make a change. I’d simply prefer that they do it in a civil manner and without bloodshed while knowing that this is sometimes impossible. We had our “bloodletting” in 1800s so I guess it’s time for some of the others. Of course, those nations have had more upheaval than I dare to Google and count… I’m SURE there has been some violence in that region in the world before we got involved.

I just don’t like paying for it at the pump. So, we need to expand research for alternative fuels that are, hopefully, renewable. We shouldn’t be looking for new places to drill or ways to convert coal into oil. We should be looking at renewable and sustainable energy. We should look at recycling the crap out everything instead of digging a new hole in the ground. When someone on the other side of the planet decides to pick a fight I shouldn’t feel the pain when I fill up my car.

I’m for the status quo of the people – I’m not for the ass pain it causes me. I guess it’s necessary. Hopefully, we can prevent increasing energy costs from happening in the future by investing in our future. Yes, it’s not going to make money for a while and it’s probably going to lose money for quite a while. I have a feeling that we won’t make the switch until oil is so expensive that we’ll be forced to change. Of course, when that happens I’ll be screwed unless they can figure out a way to fly a C-17 on…. something other than oil.

Being a sore loser

John — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:22:24 +0000

Unlike the 100 million or so other people, I didn’t watch the super bowl yesterday. I guess it all boils down to me being a sore loser. At the beginning of the season nobody predicted that my team would finish with a winning record. We were predicted to place third in our division and fail to make the playoffs. Up to our bye week I didn’t think that my team had a chance. We still had a bunch of problems on our offensive line and our defensive secondary was weak. The coaches made the right changes and my team started to click. Some of the wins were ugly but we got points on the board when it counted.

My quarterback started to take better care of the ball. He was sacked more than any other quarterback in the league and he shrugged each of them off. He isn’t Mr. Personality. He isn’t the league MVP. I think that he could be the best quarterback in the league. He’s been through three offensive coordinators in three years. How well would you do? I hope that he continues to make progress next year.

By the end of the season I was still in disbelief. My team was going to the playoffs. They won the conference. They were the number two seed. They worked really hard to get to that point. In the end, they were stopped by our biggest rival. I guess I took it personally.

In the end, we had our biggest rival facing off against a team led by a creep. The quarterback from the Steelers should have had a longer suspension. Charges should have been filed. He should have gone to jail. How could I choose a team to win? I used to like the Steelers back in the Cowher days. I don’t like their new quarterback – he’s too much of a polarizing figure. I joked that I wanted a plane to crash into the stadium and kill both of the teams. Obviously, I didn’t mean that. A massive case of food poisoning (non fatal) would have been great. Not really. I’m just being a sore loser. My team was so close – so close to a championship. I’m going to have to listen to Packer fans chide me through the entire off season. That hurts the most. Oh well, pending a lockout we’ll have football starting in August. Let’s hope we can get some revenge.

Mornings

John — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:07:37 +0000

Not all of us are morning people. Morning people are those who wake up and all is right with the world. The rest of us need a catalyst to make our day move along smoothly. Jessica is a huge fan of coffee while I need a hot shower to get me going. It doesn’t matter if it’s a weekend, I simply need time spent in a hot shower to start my day off right. Even in the desert, I was able to get hot water (albeit for a limited period of time) and start my day off right. Unfortunately, I’ve been without hot water since last Thursday. I’ve called twice already but the problem still exists. I’m preparing myself to go to the office and complain in person. By preparation I’m trying to find that nice calm center I need. Right now all of my sentences start with “you @#$”

I doubt they’ll fix it and when they prove me correct I’ll excise one of my two viable options

a. move to a different building
b. move off base

I don’t care either way as long as I can get a damn hot shower in the morning.

Really?!?

John — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:47:23 +0000

I called yesterday morning about the lack of hot water. This morning I found that there was no hot water. Really?!?

Almost done

John — Sat, 08 May 2010 16:45:38 +0000

The replacements are here and the pass-on has been completed. The new guy doesn’t have any of his worker bees yet but I can’t do anything about that. If all goes to plan – and there is no plan – I’ll be home within the next 14 days. Isn’t that an overly broad swath of time? Isn’t there an overwhelming lack of preciseness?

I wish that I was being overly vague because I’m not allowed to write about time lines for redeployment. In reality, they haven’t told me anything. I’ve got to find a way to keep myself busy over the next week (or two) or I’m going to loose it.

I can’t wait to be home with my woman… anybody got an aircraft that has fuel tanks large enough for international travel? Want to come pick me up (along with a few thousand others)?

For free?

Guess not. Oh well.

Award Winning Stupid

John — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:58:01 +0000

I work for three stupid people. They aren’t any brand of stupid, they are award winning stupid. I’ll refer to them as R, S, and O. (they might search the inter webs thus the anonymity).

O wants everything done immediately and doesn’t understand that we cannot do everything at once. He screams mission at all times.

S is a complete and total tool. He doesn’t have a clue as to what is going on and spends an overwhelming majority of his time up O’s ass.

R has a standard answer for everything. Mission. He fails to realize that there are competent people in his workforce that are capable of running their own operation. They will break when necessary and do what they must to complete their work on time. They do not have the time available to take two hour lunch breaks that leave anywhere from 5-40 minutes late. They do not have the time to wait while everyone else wastes time. They want to leave, eat, pick up documents, and return. They can do all of this in less than an hour.

R and S saw us at lunch and didn’t think that we could be competent people so they mandated that we take the bus. Starting tomorrow we will simply lock the doors at lunch time and all go. If it takes two hours it takes two hours. When we return, we can take our vehicle on a 35 minute round trip so pick up documents. So – for the people that scream mission – they’ve mandated that we waste 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Award winning stupid… I can’t wait to be done with this career field. The smart ones leave and the morons are left behind. Miraculously they make rank… and their names are O, S, and R.

Healthcare – here we go again

John — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:48:27 +0000

A battle over who to blame for rising health-care costs is escalating, as groups seek to pin the problem on each other and say none of the health-care legislation under consideration does enough to solve it.U.S. spending on health care reached $2.5 trillion in 2009, according to federal estimates. It is expected to jump to $4.5 trillion in 10 years. Insurers contend that they must pass on ever-higher bills from hospitals and doctors. Hospitals say they are struggling with more uninsured patients, demands by doctors for top salaries, and underpayments from Medicare and Medicaid.

Nearly every mainstream analysis calls for medical costs to continue to climb over the next decade, outpacing the growth in the overall economy and certainly increasing faster than the average paycheck. Those higher costs will translate into higher premiums, which will mean fewer individuals and businesses will be able to afford insurance coverage. More of everyone’s dollar will go to health care, and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid will struggle to find the money to operate.

The health care that we are currently providing in Medicare and Medicaid doesn’t cover the actual providers costs. The cost of all health care is set to rise over the next 10-15 years. The 2nd and 3rd largest portions of the federal budget are Medicare and Medicaid.

Why haven’t we done anything about this emerging threat? Simply put, its a political landmine. Over the last few weeks both sides have argued in all channels and have said that they can’t agree with each other. Isn’t the job of the legislative branch to protect the best interests of the American people? Shouldn’t they put their political interests aside and do the right thing – cut spending where they can and improve service where it is failing?

The time line as I saw it went like this
1. The President put a mandate to congress to come up with a plan
2. Congress hemmed and hawed and didn’t come up with anything concrete (many points were made and argued but no progress was made)
3. Republicans complained that the President didn’t provide leadership on the issue
4. The President, in absence of a clear plan, provided his own take on the situation
5. The Republicans complained that they didn’t like it
6. A health care summit was chaired by the President to move the process forward but the issue remains unresolved
7. The Democrats do not want to commit to a plan for fear of political suicide – if it fails, they are out of jobs and the other side wins

Basically, if the plan or lack of plan fails the Republicans “absolve” themselves of blame. If they procrastinate long enough they can pin all of the blame on the other party.

Who suffers? Every single tax payer in America suffers.

Its a huge issue – most economists will agree that when ceilings and controls are put into place less of the service will become available and quality will decline (do a search on NYC rent controls).

There is a lot of “fat” in the system and some people are making money – people are allowed to make money in a Capitalist society. I’m against inefficiency and waste.

I want everyone to be able to afford basic health care.
I want providers to provide that health care without doing so at a loss.

If we can’t do that – maybe we should cut it out – all of it. Social security should go too. People depend on that stuff – it is their livelyhood – people will die without it or we can go broke trying to provide it.

There are hard choice to me made by Senators and Congressmen – now is the time to make them – before its too late.

Stuck

John — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:28:26 +0000

A few days ago I left on another trip and to be the “fixer.” We did what we had to and I put some stuff on a pallet. We thought that we were going to get out today but it wasn’t meant to be. I’m stuck here for yet another day but at least we found a way to get around the base. (I’m at this wonderful place called Al Asad). We were waiting for our flight today and we got about as far as roll call before we were told the bad news. We went up front and they checked us off the list. We were hyped because we were ready to go. Not more than ten minutes later they announced that our flight was canceled. We had to get our rooms and linens back. I don’t have enough clean clothes for another day – I guess I’ll just have to be the smelly guy. Leaving my base is cool and all but trying to get travel around this country sucks.

Routine

John — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:25:28 +0000

We all have routines that guide us through our day. My routine at home is far different from the one that I have when I deploy. My routine on the weekend is far different than what I have on weekdays. One constant always remains regardless of the situation – I attempt to adhere to my routine all of the time.

I’ve been “out of the pocket” for the past few days and my routine has been absolutely destroyed. I have been waking up two hours later, not working out (don’t have the necessary shoes – At Balad you can walk in and workout in the shoes you are wearing as long as we aren’t in mudcon. At Sather you must carry your gym shoes with you – I only have one pair of tennis shoes with me so I can hardly carry a second pair. Sure, I have my boots and I thought about wearing them in and changing but I also have a transportation issue. Here, unlike Balad, I can’t walk everywhere. In fact, its almost a three mile trip from where we are staying to the rest of the base. ), eating terribly (I don’t have any motivation without working out), and generally accomplishing nothing. We finished our required tasks yesterday and have been waiting ever since to find transportation back “home”. We’ve been all over the “camp victory base complex” and we’ve almost gotten good at the navigation.

I did get to take a tour of the “Victory over America” Palace. Saddam thought that since he was still in power after the gulf war that he should be a victor – so, he built a new palace for himself. This palace, unlike some of the others, was left unfinished when the war started. Our boys in the sky did a little renovation with a couple of 500lb JDAMs. I took a BUNCH of pictures. I’ll have to upload them at some point in the future.

I can only hope I can resume my routine tomorrow. Sure, its not exciting but it’s what gets me through my day and makes the time fly by.