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Tuesday, August 31, 2004

What the hell 

I got a gmail invite. I'm using it. We'll just see if it's actually worth anything. It's not like I get that many emails worth keeping, but maybe I can sidestep a little spam with it. Not much else to report really. Been a slow few days.

Monday, August 23, 2004

A retraction 

Okay, so maybe I over reacted to the situation in my last post. It's not like this situation is a show stopper for me, but it is a huge inconvienence. I had already planned to fly down to my really good friend Chris' wedding from DC and bought the cheap, nonrefundable tickets. I was also in the process of planning a trip over labor day weekend to see Marci et al. Now I have to wait until god knows when do see them and whatever, but I'm starting to rehash. Final note on the subject, this isn't a roadblock but a speed bump.

The retraction: I have no immediate knowledge, proof, or otherwise that Iraqis have been screwed by the Army. That was said out of frustration. And for you conspiracy theorists, I'm also not being forced to make this retraction by any one but myself. The gun to my head is absolutely not being held by any army personnel but by some one completely unrelated to the Dept. of Defense. Just kidding, boss.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Greetings from DC! 

Well, I've just arrived here in the nation's capital for my three month detail to HQ. I couldn't be more anxious to start proving myself to the chief mucky-mucks. Oh, wait. Except I'm not really in DC so I can't start the next phase of my career.

Yes that's right my fine blog reading friends, after months of planning and preperation, I, like so many Iraqi's, got screwed by the army. I think you deserive an explanation, so I'll foward along the one I got.

Several months ago, I began planning this detail with people at USACE HQ and my local supervisor. We new that it was going to be expensive to live in DC, so after trying and failing to find some place I could live at the pitance they wanted to provide, my supervisor and I sent a memo asking for a waiver of reduced per diem so that I could get the full amount and not have to worry about my well being every night. The division commander eventually signed off on it and sent the request up to Army HQ (I work with the Corps of Engineers, but I'm funded directly through the army). Well, army pointed fingers and fowarded three such requests, mine included, until I was supposed to have already been there. Apparently, I'm the first person in history to go on a detail to DC. Yeah, right. Since that was a no go, I tried to split the detail up into three one month increments. This would avoid the reduced per diem squabble and, hopefully, expedite the approval of my travel orders. I submitted new orders two fridays ago. Should have been plenty of time for them to get approved. This past wednesday I recieve an email from the human resources dept. saying that all training requests and travel orders need to be submitted no later than close of business 8/20. Seeing as I had submitted mine a full week before that, I didn't worry. Thursday came and I began to worry as my orders were yet to be approved. I got on the horn and called my order approver to see what the hell was going on and she said, "oh, management decided yesterday [the wednesday I recieved the above mentioned email] that we wouldn't be approving any more orders for the fiscal year." To which I replied, "oh? even though the email I received yesterday said that you would continue to give them due consideration through friday and besides the fact that they've been sitting on your desk collecting dust for the past three days?" "Yes" was what she said.

So the moral of the story is, I need this detail to graduate from this intern program, but they're going to ignore all advice, memos, and protocal they publish and do their own thing without telling anyone and to hell with the collateral damage (i.e. my career and professional development).

Now I'm completely at the mercy of the congress, I have to wait until they get off their fat asses and sign appropriations that the president will approve. And since they are never done on time, there is no telling when I'll be advancing.

I also bought non-refundable tickets for a flight out of DC I was supposed to take to be in a friends wedding. Now, I'm not going to be in DC so I'm probably out the 250ish bucks it cost me. That's big dollar signs to me, my friends.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

I'm giving Firefox a try. It's just like netscape except by mozilla. I looks very similar to netscape and acts very similar to netscape, except you don't have to sign into AIM every time it starts up. To be fair, this is only the second night I've used it so it's quite possible I haven't had the opportunity to use all of its bells and whistles. The following is a list of what I haven't used that Firefox got.

  1. Open file
  2. Save page as
  3. Send page
  4. page setup
  5. print preview
  6. print
  7. import
  8. work offline
  9. select all
  10. find on this page
  11. find again

wow. Who needs things like "print"? Those are some wild and crazy guys there at mozilla. What a way to shake up the browser world. Jesus, even the options screen looks like netscape.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

I left work early today. I just can't stand these eight hour days anymore. Plus I feel like ass. All this smoke is killing me. I've got black lung now, I swear.

Monday, August 16, 2004

Controlled burn 

Copied from http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/pubfcst.php?fcst=FPAK51PAFC#AKZ141 (bolding and underlining mine)

...DENSE SMOKE ADVISORY CONTINUES FOR THE COPPER RIVER BASIN....
TONIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. SMOKE WILL REDUCE VISIBILITY TO LESS THANONE QUARTER MILE OR LESS AT TIMES. LOWS IN THE UPPER 40S TO MID 50S.LIGHT WINDS. .
TUESDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. SMOKE. HIGHS IN THE 70S. LIGHT WINDS. .
TUESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SMOKE. LOWS IN THE UPPER 40S TO MID50S. LIGHT WINDS. .
WEDNESDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF AFTERNOON SHOWERS. SMOKE.HIGHS IN THE 70S. LIGHT WINDS.

And it's not fuckin' around. I can't see or breathe. And it's like some one took a razor blade to my throat for all the sinus drainage this shit's causing (I know, I know. TMI). Apparently there's a fire up near Fairbanks and the brilliant planners who dreamed this up waited until there was a good enough wind to blow all the damn smoke four hundred or so miles down here to Anchorage. Hurray! Two more days of this shit.

Friday, August 13, 2004

Whaaa!!?!?!?!?!?! 

Somehow I now have five kids. The children of my wife's friend decided they wanted to spend the night with us and now I have two girls and two more boys to take care of tonight. Strangely enough, it seems to be easier with more. Of course, one each of the boys and girls are preadolescents so they can help watch the younger kids. Also, oddly enough, I don't seem to mind them being around. Dare I say it? It's sorta nice to have a big family around. I can't believe that I just typed that. What's happening to me?

Monday, August 09, 2004

Top ten explanations/reasons/excuses why I haven't posted in a while 

  1. I went home for a while and as cool as my parents are, I'm not a family sort of person. It was like the icy grip of death around my throat. I do love my folks, honestly.
  2. I'm on opinion overload. A couple of friends of mine have been emailing me trying to get me to change my vote using cleverly irrelevant anecdotes and unimportant (to me)comparisons. From this moment on, if some one gives me their opinion and I didn't ask for it, I'll give them the most savage beating I can muster.
  3. There's never anything in this damn house for me to drink unless I happen to want water.
  4. I wish I had known last time I was in ATL that it was going to be the last time. Things would have happened differently.
  5. I'm going to be stuck in DC for three months with precisely one friend who, on the weekends, will be spending time with his fiance.
  6. I leave for my service in DC Sunday and I don't know where I'm staying.
  7. I leave for my service in DC Sunday and I don't know how much I can spend on lodging.
  8. I think this deserves to be mentioned at least twice, what I though was my last trip to Atlanta was cancelled and I only just found out.
  9. I'm sick and tired of the stupid people everywhere I go and what I once thought was funny, I now find completely annoying and inconvenient.
  10. I wanted to cut my loyal reader base from the massive and representative sample of four to a more manageable and economical three.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Hello, you've reached http://keertus.blogspot.com. I'm unable to post at the moment, but leave a comment below and I'll get back to you as soon as mentally possible.

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