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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
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3:55 pm
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| Thursday, November 5th, 2009
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5:55 pm - the Tauntaun
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May I just say that I think it's awesome that Lucas Film gave Think Geek the license to produce this. It restores a little of my faith in them.
(Think geek had posted this as an April Fools joke, and got so many requests they got permission to produce them for real. The one thing that was better about the April Fools version was it was real key chain lightsaber, not a plush one for the zipper pull.)
current mood:  cheerful
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
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6:06 pm - hap hap!!!
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All you computer folk out in LJ land. I have a dead Western Digi 80GB SATA hard drive. It's making the click of death. Click wurrr, click wurrr, click wurrrr. It will not mount, after about three cycles of the click of death it spins down. This is a full size HD (i.e. 3.5"), i had two go out in the span of two weeks (in computers purchased at the same time.) The first just corrupted some sectors in the OS and I was able to recover data, this one is toasted or so it seems. I have a hardware level bit copy program I use for consulting and the odd data recovery but I can't do anything if the thing won't spin.
Any suggestions?
I'm willing to try the "out there", and in fact already have since I left it in the freezer for 24 hours and tried again.
This is not vital data but it would make me look like a miracle worker if I could get it back. The drive is going back to Dell since it's replacement is already in service in the machine so I can't be destructive.
I'll try anything once (except escargot... that's just gross)
current mood:  amused
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, November 1st, 2009
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5:57 pm
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Something I did last night caused my neck and shoulders to tighten up badly, and I ended up spending most of my day off with a very annoying tension headache, that actually woke me up in the middle of the night. Vretallin managed to work out most of the tight spots and get me some measure of relief. A nap and several analgesics later I'm doing ok. The nazi zombies are thriving due to my absence however.
Now I'm trying to use better posture during my killing sprees.
current mood:  okay
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(comment on this)
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12:47 am - For Halloween this year
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| Saturday, October 31st, 2009
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9:34 pm - A day off
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So... tomorrow I don't have to get up at all. Not going down to the clinic since both therapists will be there. Trains are done for the season. No work. the lawn doesn't need to be mowed. So far there's no eggs or toilet paper to clean up. ummm... wow. Its very relaxing not to have anything scheduled.
current mood: happy
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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9:24 pm - Advanced Squad Leader and it's ilk
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So with UCon and the games I'm in there, and with some of the reading I've been doing of late, I'm interested in a computer turn based combat simulator from the World War II era. I'm interested most in realistic accuracy, but I'm darned if I can find one. Anyone know of a good one?
I'm a fan of FPS as much as the next guy, but I'd actually like to explore some real strategy.
current mood: happy
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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7:56 pm
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7:29 am - Misc randoeness
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I was upstairs working on one of the admin folks computers yesterday. They both have nice new (less than 3 year old) Dell AMD baised machines and both have suffer hard drive failures in the last two weeks. The first one I was able to recover the data, this one how ever made the "click/wurrrrrr" of doom and I didn't get back nott'n. The most important stuff (accounting/payroll) is backed up to the server nightly, but unfortunately she lost a lot of documents and such. I think I'm more upset about the data loss than she is. I really need to look hard at our disaster recovery stuff, especally workstation back up. Historical side note: Back in the days of the Voyageur fur trades on the great lakes they tell stories of transporting barrels of "high wine" which would of course occasionally decelope leaks and have to be consumed. Other background: we set up a community Halloween party in a big tent behind HQ every year. So the other admin who's computer I fixed last week is running around getting ready for halloween including sorting donated candy for the party. We got to talking as I worked and I mentioned how Reece's peanut butter cups are the best candy ever. It came up because several bags of them were being sorted. She offered me a bag which I of course declined on the grounds of growing waist lines. I turned it down several times until finally she tore open the bag and set it on the desk saying ,"oh look it broke open, no choice but to eat them now. " Which we proceeded to do with the help of several chief officers. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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| Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
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6:56 pm
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You have got to be fucking kidding me
It is 2009 right?
I see the closeted bigots that still abound all the time (I do work in a semi-rual county in Missouri after all). But for an elected official to do this? Wow. Of course the fact that "this is the first time anyone has complained" probably just goes to show how often this does happen and no one makes an issue of it.
good grief.
current mood:  angry
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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1:17 pm
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Another awesome name for an military Regiment: Royal Highland Fusiliers.
What the heck is a Fusilier?
(ah I see, a Fusilier was what a soldier was called armed with a "fusil" a light flintlock musket from the late 1600's. Along the lines of a Grenadier, who, it follows was a soldier that originally worked with grenades and other assault operations. I doubt there'd ever be a regiment of American Fusiliers, since that's a little before our time.)
current mood:  nerdy
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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12:27 pm - Oboe Two Delta calling
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So, I managed to get a shift trade done for the Friday of UCon. We already had two people off on vacation that day so even though I've got time, we can't drop below minim and I had to trade. Got the other two days off already (I'm lazy and didn't put in for the day off early enough, I keep doing this to myself, you'd think I'd learn). I'm really looking forward to a couple of the games I'll be playing, both World War II themed.
The one on Friday is just gonna be awesome. The GM is already sending out background stuff for the game. We'll be playing a group of British Tankers during the Normandy Invasion after D Day. The GM has done some painstaking research and we are playing actual units involved in the battle.
We are playing members of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry.
Is that not just the most awesome name for a regiment ever? Like ever? I have always loved the British military tradition in how their units are raised and named. Because they are all regional, they each have their own personality. It is just awesome as far as I'm concerned. I'm sorry but no US unit will ever have a name as cool as the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, or the 24th Regiment of Foot, South Wales Borders (who fought at Rorke's Drift in the Zulu wars, they were at the time the 2nd Warwickshire), or of course, everyone's Favorite The 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot, The Black Watch. Today the Black Watch is the 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS). I think we miss out on some cool names by not having a king. I wouldn't trade us in or anything, but you just don't get anything so cool as the "Royal Regiment of Scotland" with out a king around.
Of course the brits have a head start, the unit that become the 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot, ultimately known as the South Wales Borders, was formed in 1689. 400 years is a lot of time to build tradition and units here in the US just don't have. The Northamptonshire Yeomanry was formed in 1794. They've been around just about as long as we've been a nation. Since we no longer raise our military units regionally, I doubt there is any US military unit that can trace it's traditions back that far. The Black Watch can trace it's roots back to 1660's.
Honestly I think this game could turn out to be me sitting around for 4 hours and listening to a discussion of the various units involved and I'd be thrilled to death. Since I know there'll be much much more I'm really looking forward to it. But then again I'm a nerd that way.
current mood: nerdy
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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12:06 pm
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So I realized what it was that was making me actually feel like a captain for the first time recently. The empowerment that my new/old BC gives me (for those keeping score this is the B Shift Battalion Chief I got moved away from when I got promoted and just recently bid back to) actually makes me feel like a leader. That's what hit me though it took a week to actually understand the feeling. I wasn't just doing what I was guessing the BC wanted (as I was most of the time on A shift) I was actually making decisions and guiding my house. I was leading. It was a very odd feeling actually. I like it. Now of course my BC still has expectations and so on, but he is much more hands off, letting his company officers actually lead their houses. This is of course, or could be, a situation of enough rope to hang yourself with. But even though I've wrapped the rope around my neck a couple of times I've managed to step back from the edge each time.
Now that's not to sell my other BC too short. I was supposed to be leading under him, but there was so much second guessing going on because of, what I consider to be, his lack of communication and lack of his own leadership, that it never really felt like I was leading. I was trying to guess what I was supposed to be doing, or doing what I thought would keep me out of trouble. That's called "covering your ass" and is not leadership. I did my best to keep my own CYA from effecting my guys while on A shift, but there's only so much of that you can absorb before it spills over. I was supposed to be their leader and as such I was supposed to be insulating them from that stuff. I did my best. But now it is not a problem. So much less for me to absorb.
One thing that brought this to the forefront of my mind was a couple of (very) minor screw ups I made yesterday, and the shift before. I took my (very small) lumps from my BC and it was over with. With my old BC I would have been worried about it for days. With my current, not an issue. He made his expectations clear, and that was it. I was harder on myself about it than he was, but once it was over with, it was over with.
The other thing that brought it to mind was a project we were working on. Hydrant testing, basically we go out each your, service and flow all the hydrants in our district. We had one neighborhood left to do. As the Headquarters Company officer it was in my district. Well I talked with my BC about it a little and we had a general idea of what we were doing. Under my A shift BC, he would have made all the decisions, and I just would have implemented them. Under my new BC I should have spent more time organizing things. But I was still some what in my old mind set and I didn't. So the (minor) disorganization of the effort made it clear to me that, no... it was my job, and I should have done this. It wasn't a problem, but it did turn into an object lesson about doing the job I'm supposed to be doing.
In other news, the last two shifts were boringly slow. Tedious would be a good word. We really need to be a little busier.
current mood: okay
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, October 18th, 2009
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11:22 pm - Ask Zander what's worse than Nazis
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well undead Nazis of course!
Call of Duty: World at War has an sort of easter egg where you can play several levels against undead Nazis. They're addictingly fun and all the rage for network play at work right now. I wandered by GameStop and picked up WaW and yeah, its pretty awesome. I don't know why shooting zombie nazis is so appealing, I guess its the whole unadulterated evil thing... or something. It is good fun what ever the reason.
Had more to say but the EvilMonk is kicking in and I'm not organizing thoughts as well as I was a while ago. Tomorrow!
current mood: amused
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(comment on this)
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| Saturday, October 17th, 2009
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10:02 pm - A real captain
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So a though occurred to me while I was running a call with my station 1 crew this afternoon.
"finally I'm a real captain"
It took me by surprise since I've been an officer for more than a year and a half now. After I thought about it for a while I realized that really for the first time since I got my bugles I feel empowered to do what I think a company officer should be doing with out fear of the reaction of my supervisor.
Not to say I haven't been a real captain before, but working for my current BC, the one under whom I learned a lot about Fire Service leadership is really a different atmosphere than the BC from the other shift I worked for. So much more relaxed, and so much more able to make the decisions that I should be making at my level.
It was an odd feeling, but a good one.
current mood: good
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(comment on this)
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8:15 pm - Overheard at the Firehouse
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Best out of context question:
"Do you know how to throw a monkey?"
I laughed all the way back to my office. (They're killing zombies on XBox 360, one of the special weapons is a cymbal clapping monkey you have to throw to distract the undead Nazis... hence the question)
current mood: amused
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(comment on this)
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7:07 pm - Google Street View
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Looks like google street view finally got around to hitting my neighborhood. We were home when they drove by, all our cars are there.
Thank goodness the lawn was mowed.
current mood: amused
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, October 11th, 2009
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12:00 am - Ballsy
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So, as part of our service to the community we do vehicle lock-outs. That is to say if you lock your keys in your car in our town we'll come and try to open the vehicle for free. Most of the guys hate this task, "that's not something firemen do" and so on. I don't really mind it, it can be fun to mess with the locks and it helps the citizens out.
Sometimes however it can be annoying though not only 'cuse some dummy locked their keys in their car. Tonight we go out to our local Wally-World (Wal Mart) for a vehicle in a handicap spot. We get there and a perfectly healthy 20 something woman meets us at the car. It has the proper tag to be parked in the handicap spot, but it seems obvious that she doesn't need it. Perhaps an unfair judgment, since we do not know what might be the actual situation, though we did get a clue when she mentioned it was "dad's car". So basically dad has a handicap tag, and daughter decides to use it when she goes to walmart.
Ummm.... doesn't that kinda fly in the face the purpose of the tag? If you don't need it, shouldn't you leave the space for someone who does? Ok yeah, you have access to the tag, but that's not the point. I hope she was properly embarrassed by a firetruck showing up to unlock her car for her obviously non-handicap self.
One of my guys was even more indignent, he has an uncle with MS who really needs the tag, and now if he wanted to come to walmart, guess he's out of luck since this person with two well functioning legs is taking up the space.
I'm pretty sure our selfishness as a culture will be our undoing.
current mood:  annoyed
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, October 9th, 2009
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8:00 pm - unionmeetpocolypse
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Uh yeah...
Pretty average day yesterday. I wore my class B (short sleeve) uniform shirt yesterday with badge and collar brass and so on. They are so much more comfortable than the polos that are our normal uniform, and I think it looks classy. Especially as the officer, I think it pays to look like you are in charge. I've noticed a definite difference in how the public interacts with me when I wear that shirt as opposed even to my normal gray officer's polo.
I was also doing it to annoy my old/new BC and senior Captain. My A shift BC had this thing about everyone being dressed the in the same uniform. I never really understood it. It went even down to insisting that we couldn't wear our Union duty t shirts unless everyone was wearing that shirt. Well my old senior Captain used that against me. He didn't like me wearing the Class B shirt since he is afraid upper chiefs will think it looks good and make everyone do it. He wants to be in t shirts all the time (which some places do). So he, the senior captain, came to me and told me the BC wanted me to stop. Well the BC never said anything to me, and I have to assume that he really did make an issue of it, but in the back of my mind I've always thought that perhaps the Captain used that to just get his own way.
Either way I talked to my new/old BC the other day and asked if he minded, he said of course not and so just to rub some noses in it, I wore the shirt at shift change and through out the day. It is sooo much more comfortable. When I originally started doing it I went out and bought three shirt of my own. I think I'll be wearing them more regularly.
Had a pretty average day, of course the calls didn't start until after we had all our routine work done... figures. Had Union meeting that evening, but didn't have much on the agenda... should have been a straight forward meeting... uh huh. Oh and did I mention that we didn't quite get dinner ready in time for the meeting? Yeah well ya know, hour later dinner will still be there.... uh huh.
Meeting rolls right along, actually the stewards from both my remote shops there. At the end of the meeting one of the guys on my new/old shift brings up the issue of a lack of confidence in the union leadership. He's one of those guys who has a hard time when things aren't "Right". His issue is basically that there is small faction that believes that I don't fight hard enough for union issues and that I make the union appear week.
I understand the criticism, and I've talked about it before. I take a more political route in the interest of long term cooperation with management, but that's just not what some people want. And of course the other problem is that most of the victories I do win don't get publicized as well as my supposed failures. This is an old argument and I went through it all again. I don't mind doing it, the more people that hear it the better. I kept my temper for the most part (with one exception). And the conversation lasted for an hour and a half. Did I mention we hadn't had dinner? 2 hour union meetings are not fun. it was good tho in that some of the others in the room stood up for me, and alas my VP threw me under the bus a little, but that's ok.
As a humorous (kinda in a tragic way) aside. One of the people who brought forward an issue that's come to be the center of the current lack of confidence is one of our two female employees. Well probably half the people in the room already knew that to be the case, but i was still being very careful to use gender neutral terms. "they" "them" etc. then about an hour and 15 minutes into the whole thing I slipped. I called her "she" and immediately tried to catch myself. "...and so she... fuck!..." everyone laughed. Hopefully it doesn't come back to haunt me, but if it doesn't I'll deal with it.
So anyway around 10 to 9 my BC is texting me to "get my local under control and come to dinner" (he's actually a big supporter, but he has a unique sense of humor) So around 9 I get to eat
Oh and did I mention the 6 reports that still needed to go into the reporting system? Yeah, so I finally get to work on that... and the guy that started the discussion comes to talk to me... for another 2 hours. I didn't get to start my reports until after 1, wasn't in bed until 2.
In the end the discussion was productive. I think he better understands my philosophy, so in the end it was worth it, but it's so emotionally draining. And tiring. No over night calls, one small mercy.
Was hoping to have a quiet day since the clinic was slow, ended up sleeping for a couple of hours in the morning, but ended up having to help our other therapist move a fridge.
Got an open house at the department tomorrow, legit reason to be in blues.
current mood:  tired
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5:48 pm - Defending every target defends none
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A good article arguing that it's silly to try to defend every possible "terrorist target". Not only is it impossible depending on how you define "terrorist target" but it just leads to failure when they think of something you didn't. It makes an excellent case for good old fashion police work to catch terrorists before they strike.
The other aspect of this that I find funny is how true it is that little towns are worried about being a terrorist target. I've heard it talked about around my department by some (supposed) Emergency Management Wonks. "What if..." Um... really? Small suburb Missouri? you're sure? KCMO has a big IRS processing center and I'll be that would make an attractive target for someone who was really looking to disrupt things, but honestly, why not go to Chicago, or NYC, or LA? There's much more coverage to be had there. I guess the stems from most people having a somewhat self centered world view to one degree or another. "Of course my town is a target, our walmart is vital!" Uh... yeah... k
Now the one aspect of this that is worth looking at (maybe) but is overlooked above is domestic terrorism. Right to Life bombings, the militia movement, and so on do still show up occasionally, but again, the answer is good police work, and good preparation. But then again, Federal Grants to put a cop at every door to the Walmart 24/7 probably look pretty attractive to the police chief. Never mind buying us some good mass casualty equipment.
current mood: okay
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