Middle Eastern Sat-TV

Sorry but i had to remove part of this post due to security issues

Something else that the socially aware may frown on is the use of bottled water here. There was an article in the CBC web site about how Ottawa school boards wanted to cut down on bottle water. This base lives on bottle water; the local water is undrinkable, either too biologically contaminated or too full of chlorine. Taking showers here give off a smell similar to a swimming pool with too much chemical added. I myself may go thru 4 or 5 a day and we have not reached the heat of the summer. That reminds me if anyone wants to send me anything please pad with crystal lite packages.

The new mattresses… Last week one of the managers went around asking if anyone wanted their mattress replaced, the military had a thousand coming in and wanted to know if cancan wanted some.  At the time mine was doing well enough so I passed, that was a lucky decision. The following Sunday a few supply clerks came to the camp with a list of tent spots and a truck full of what appeared to be sixty mattress.  Thirty can-cap people came to the tent after a long day of work to discover their old mattress had been replaced with a brand new box spring.

The snoring … I have some one new that is across from me in the tent and he snores… I have gotten use to the person next to my space that snores, learning to fall asleep between his bouts of snoring. The new guy has an uncanny ability to snore when the other is not, as one rolls over and quiets down the other start…

Sorry but i had to remove part of this post due to security issues


Bath room connoisseur… As no one has privet bathrooms it becomes a game to know where all the bathrooms are in a given area that you spend a lot of time in. I have found myself no less than three times in the last week having conversations comparing one public rest room facility to another, how clean are they, how covetable the seats, what has better graffiti.  

Dumpster Diving Warrant… Lexmark laser printers come with a code that says what part of the world they are from. Well they brought the printers in Canada, the problem is that the toner cartages are from europ and have a miss match code. Solution is to pull the chips from the spent cartages from Canada. Well had a warrant office call in at the end of the day after replacing the cartage getting the region error. When informed he needs the old one we got the statement over the phone “ F***, it’s in the dumpster and I already sent the privets home, F*** !!!”…

SCA News… Found out about the new Baron and Baroness, I be honest not my choice, but that’s SCA life. At the same time I have found out that the company’s contract has been extended till December 2011. I am getting use to the place to the point where it’s coming natural to be here, that may change once summer and rocket seasons starts to roll in. If the company keeps me there is a good chance I will miss most of this baronial cycle.

A tragedy of timing recently occurred here at the camp and at the time I decided not to write about it, I thought that my journal for the week had gotten a little too dark and this would have taken it too far. With the news of a resent death, I reconsidered.

Last week we had a new team arrive for a new office in my department. One of the girls there with a look of quite dismay at the situation she found herself in, which is not uncommon for people here for the first day. She is fresh from college and this was going to be the fastest way to pay the student loans. She knew she was not going to be here alone; a friend from high school was part of this new office and had arrived with her. The other person in KAF was a boyfriend of one of her friends from home. He was a trooper based in the area. The tragedy was that boyfriend of a girlfriend was one of the four killed soldiers we sent home at a ramp ceremony only a few days after she got here. She decided that she could not stay and went back home on Wednesday being her only one week.

What ties this event to the event I find myself now is this is the same ramp ceremony that I found myself somewhat annoyed at the pastor giving the eulogy that it sounded too much like the ones given before. As if he had a script and was filling in the blanks. And yet I knew this girl was in pain and I was “lost for words”, I could do no better. Recently with Sandra death I had read kes_zone LJ and sent an email to Menken, the reply and the Journal made it clear they knew her very well and are hurt deeply with her loss. I have been struggling between sadness and frustration for a day to find words to console from 10 thousand miles away but it would make no difference if I was one mile away. Like many I am lost for words falling back in times of pain to well used scripts wishing to say the right thing. How do I say anything truly consoling when the man who job here to say the right thing can do no better.

I only knew Etaoin in passing at sca events and that she had been very important to the society going back quite far to midrealm days, but I know little about her beyond that. The only truly honest words I can find to pass on to those who knew her is that be the best of story tellers and know that we are all truly sadden at her loss.

Well it rained Monday, the first proper rain storm since I have gotten here. It got the place wet with puddles every ware you never know you were in the desert. There was even hail the size of small marbles, the linesmen next door had a short hail ball fight. Two days later and there is some water still on the ground, which is why there is so few tree as the ground here holds very little water when it does rain.  Makes me thinks that NATO needs to drop a few million tones of peat moss would make a big difference.

Wish I could of enjoyed the rain but I been more or less out due to a stumic bug.  Illness is common here; we have people coming from all the NATO countries and at the same time people going on vacation to the four corners of the planet. The result is there is colds and flu running around the camp continually. People try their best to keep it to a minimum with hospital style alcohol dispensers at the bathrooms and hand washing stations into the messes. It only a matter of time before you get one of the bugs running around, well it was my turn. Result was I spent Tuesday in bed, but its Wednesday evening and I feeling better.

Tonight in the back ground can-cap have the oasis sound system cranked playing music and having a big barbeque. The company has one every month and this is my first as I just got here less than month ago, every one enjoying there ration of two cans of beer, it’s the only time you’re allowed to drink here. Hand full of people wondering around asking anyone that looks sober if they had their second and if they could have it. 

The tech shops gatter has been converted to a DJ booth which is being run on a portable with a big amp strapped in the back bucket.  As people come around they plug there mp3 players into the portable to add songs to the play list as a form high tech red neck request hour.  As the night runs down and people start going to bed the music starts to change and reflect the people still standing.  It started with mostly 60’s and 70’s like mama & papa’s to fit the managers taste but as they gone to the tents the music slowly moves forward to like 80 big hair and now starting to move into 90’s dance music. As there is almost no one here less than 30 I dough there will be anything from the last ten years.  

This journal going to be short. You may have heard in the press that a civilian was killed Friday. http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/606234  Just letting you know I am fine and still kicking… Spent my day off rewiring me tent area, I am still spending a lot of time trying to organize my tent space. The space is about 6 feet by 8 feet and it’s a challenge to make it my little own home away from home. I tell myself its good practice of volume management for sca camping. It stormed most of the day with a large wind gust that forced people inside. There’s been more rain on and off but it never gets this place wet or even cleans off the dust.  That’s about it here from there very alive John 

March 17th

I am currently writing this journal laying on the floor of my weather heaven.  We had another rocket attack. As a civilian I need to take on a bunch of precautions such as putting on a flack vest and helmet to meet up with the companies insurance. This is the second time threw a rocket attack, and this time it was different as it was in the relative quiet of night and I could hear more going on around me. I talk more but very serious people said in a very serious manner I should not talk about the very serious details. What surprised me was how little emotional effect this had on me or the people around me. To repeat a cliché “it’s not like it is in the movies”.

St. Patrick day at a place with no alcohol…. Ya, people are grumbling, mostly by taking about favorite brands of beer or mixed drink they will have when they get home. There is talk of rain tonight, Not much it never rains too much here but the rain is muddy. Yes it rains mud here. The drops pick up dust on the way down and so by the time it hits the ground it can range from just a slight tan tone color to grey chowder.

March 18^th

Emotionally the lost of internet a few night ago had much more effect on me then the rocket attacks. I became angry enough to march down to the little sea container office and had my voice know. Not my normal emotional response to things for those who know me. The lost of connection was mostly due to another band-aid patch on the network, problem with being a professional geek is you become judgmental on other peoples work especially the inept examples .  The internet connection is one of my main ties to home, the other being a book Kes and Menken gave me on the send off party, “A Distant Mirror” by Barbara W. Tuchman. It’s set in the 14^th century and is heavy on historical placement; each few pages will have something that reminds me of conversations spoken, classes taken, garb seen or some other SCA memory. Taking my time threw it, only about 160 pages in.

Many of my co workers take the rule about fraternization as more of a guide line, they know the company will slap them on the wrist as to avoid the cost of sending them home is quite high. And I can understand the appeal as there is some very attractive women in the ranks here.  But as one of my younger co-workers found out, the look women have to inform men that “you are a jerk and buzz off“ has a little more impact when they got an M-16 assault rifle slung over their shoulder.  

March 19^th

Got reminded by the Bad Baron that I haven’t posted in a bit. It’s been about 25 to 30 degree in the day and 10 at night. To be honest I like the weather here, well now, I know it will change. We’ve been getting a few thunder storms but nothing to write home about.   The storms up to now have been tiny. The Long term people here tell that the storms come in two sizes here. Tiny things that pull up a bit of wind and a bit of rain and the hand of god that rush in like a wave of dust and will tear up tents and antenna. 

I took pictures of the "MASH" post soon after getting here but decided to post them now, had a converstaion online chat yesterday and the person commented that the blog and the LJ makes her think that I had never left... The statement struck me and reminded me how far and the need for me to write these to stay in touch. 

Picture of one of the rodent control inspector hanging out with the linemen for coffee and milk.

My Internet has been good enough in the last few days to see some of the winter war picks… I am quite jealous I could not have been there for TSivia pelicaning, It looks to have been a grand ceremony.   Everyone I ask that when you read this by LJ or Blog you send me messages telling me how it was and all that happened.  

Went to market yesterday with Erec the Bad Baron, and the women in his life a very lucky, that enough said on that. I have collected some more pictures of the market, not too much is new there but it does break up the week to go to the hustle and bustle of the market. I am collecting a large wish list of items I like to bring back. I may have to stay here some time to pay for it all. I have to make a second request and ask people to get on the blog and tell me what they see in the pictures of the market and tell me what they want me to try to bring back. With this market image I added a few obvious fakes like the Chinese made movie sections, the designer purses, and the glass gems.  There is many real gems bouncing around some of very good quality it’s a question of telling them from the fakes.

*Warning the following paragraph may contain some geekyness*   One of linesmen from my training group has rewired their tent the correct way for the eight people there, with punch-down board and a proper 12 port switch.  Most of the tents here have Ethernet strung around the top of the tents tied wrapped to anything that may come close to their desired path. The result has the appearance that it was laid out by a great network spider trying to catch the poor sods that wonder around below.

 

March 12th and 13th

The last few days have been quite uneventful.  Got my first pay check and discovered that I not going to make quite as much as I thought, there is quite a bit of mandatory insurance on me and guest who pays for it.

I had a DVC twitch moment yesterday. I had a co working going how great a researcher Brown is and how “the da vinci code” really shows how useless most historians are. I sat in the corner of the office twitching at the sound of that. Tried to break in and refute some of the claims of Brown but was ignored on the grounds that she had been to some of these places on vacation tours and that her and her husband watch discovery channel all the time.  On the grounds of getting along with my co-works decided to let it be as there is no sign that I change her mind.    

The Canadian civilians here if I had to guest the demographics are three quarters of them are middle aged and that most of them are retired military or related to the military somehow.  There is a smattering of 20 and 30 something’s like myself who to be honest are here for the pay.  Many are related with two father and suns, a mother and son and a mother and daughter here.  

Well Friday the 13^th is done for me as I type these last words some 8 hours ahead and I had good luck this week from getting a bike to winning a Afghanistan Tim Horton’s hat, So I hope I pass this luck to who may be reading this. 

March 11th

Well my pack rat character flaw is an asset here; I was able to get myself a bike and a small desk for my tent area today.  The bike was put together by a young mechanic here who got himself another one and sold me his old one. There both Frankenstein made from a dozen other bikes but they work. It’s a little small for me but it will do the job.  

After work and after dinner some of my people I went to training with had a game of “Risk” at the company’s common house “The Oasis”.  It was quite surreal playing while in the back ground you could hear machine gun fire at the small arms range, armored vehicles rolling down the road nearby, and the sound of a jet fighter taking off over head.

Someone one from my training class was put in “row 1” what we call the hospital here. A few days ago he got a bit lost coming out of the mess after dark and ran into a large pile of gravel and put a small cut in his knee. Well by the next day it got blood poisoning and was swelling and turn read. So they put an iv in him and put him in the hospital for a few days. There were worries they have to fly him out and worst case amputated but that was very much over blown.  

10 second exposure of the moon... The moon is blanched out but the picture to show the effect of the dust in the air. The ring you see around the moon is not a lens effect. My theory is it’s similar to a rainbow but a reflection not refraction for you science geeks.    

*** Sadly uploading it to blogger has a high jpeg compression and very much distorts night sky images so you can't see the ring in the image...  But the Moon here often has a white halo around it.

Collection of market pictures, if you see anything that catches your attention ask and i can email you a more detailed image and i try to get it for you in the coming months.

 

Oh and the very bottom right is a 8' x 11' handmade all silk carpet. He wants 3500 US but i think i can talk him down over the next 3 or 4 months. 

The illumination flairs seen over the camp

Gator: A small two person six wheeled john deer used as the mai n trasportation for my department. 

March 10^th

My supervisor and manger are going on holidays today, but I got a good by gift, they were able to get me a winter jack for here. Now that may sound strange but it gets quite cold here at night. Bad Baron was around the office today. He was looking for tech stuff, it be handy for him with me in the tech shop. 

March 7^th

Well Today was market day and I don’t have the day off… Went during lunch and spent the hour taking pictures and drooling over the stuff … Problem is I need to pay some bills first so I can’t really by anything till May … But I can still go and get to know the merchants…  I am getting use to the place I not sure I have much to write about in the coming days. The work is slow now but will probably pick up in the next few months…  

Started into the book Kes and Menkin gave me one the “see you off” party.  Can’t start work on the jerkin as the linen liner is not cut yet, I may take it to the common area and hijack the poker table long enough to get that done so I can start the hand sewing.  Another project has come up I think. They gave me an extra blanket as an apology for not giving me one the first nite,  I have brought my 3”  needle, If I can get enough extra blankets there is a possibility to make a futon if I can find enough button like objects.

March 8^th

First day off … what to do, what to do,…  Well got laundry done. Played on the internet till it went down and by the time its up we are under another comms lock.  Had to sneak into work for a while to get my gator training in, this is a small 6 wheel tractor that john deer makes. They’re very common around the camp and my office has a few we use to get around with. I really don’t have a choice as I don’t fit into the small Mazda truck we call bongos. The day ended watching from my tent the illuminate flairs.

March 9^th

Monday morning, and yes it’s the same every ware... We had another ram ceremony after work… Called my brother thought my mother might be staying there, no luck so I’ll try again latter… Had a few quick words with him, find out how he is doing.  Asked him if he wanted pictures of aircraft for his models but forgot to tell him there going to be a mile or more away and only when the air craft are in the air. There are tons or rules about what we can take pictures of and you can’t play rules layer here. My problem is I have become a bit of a shutter bug with the new camera so I have to keep reminding myself the rules. The whole cloak and dagger thing is not coming naturally to me and my curios nature; I will just have to become more self disciplined if I want to keep my job. 

My part of town

Home Sweet Home.. This is the tent area that Cancap stays As you can see each tent has its own little padio with a few lawn chairs.  The Little Hut on the left is ware there is a unlimited supply of water bottles are kept. You may also notice the large number of bikes and the SUVs.. these are the main ways to get around the camp... With a speed limit of 16 km/h its actualy faster to get around with the bikes if your legs are up to it ... 

This is the Air Bus A380 I took from London To Dubai

March 4th to 6th

Please note that this journal was posted late as due to multiple communication lock outs. Lets hope this is not the case in the future.

March 4^th

Today started with some apprehension, the flags were half mass the night before and we were under comms lock down. This is done when someone is killed or seriously injured so that the military can inform the families before the press does. Started my second day of work and spent assisting in an office move. This was one part moving computers, 1 part checking the paper work was correct, one part discussing with military personal what the paper work actually says and means, one part waiting around as so that systems can be moved in such a way not to lose units capability. This will be the normal recipe for what I will be doing for the next 6+ months

Lunch was in the euro mess with a live musical ambiance as one of the American military brass quartet were practicing. The sound echoed thru the hall and made normal conversation somewhat difficult but no one really mind as they were very good.

After work we were told that we had lost 3 men and that night we would have a ramp ceremony. I had some supper at the American mess and soon after went to the glass tiger concert at the board walk… It started with the local military rock band that best described as the local house band. Then a Ottawa singer who I don’t know and wasn’t very good, but she made up with this by having a very minimalist outfit and having a very good backup band. Then the big name glass tiger and all the 40 something’s were up front crowding around trying to get t-shirts. I took the opportunity to take lots of pictures as a way to get practice with shutter speeds and apertures settings.  They started the concert one hour early so that not to overlap the ramp ceremony later that night. I went the ramp ceremony as part of the can-cap contingent.

 

March 5^th

Today was quite and was spent around the shop getting odd jobs done. I finally got to try the burger king here for supper and I was surprised how close there whopper was to home, the menu is much smaller then home but still it’s nice to have. Internet to my tent went down again but I can’t send messages out any way as we are under another communication lock down.

 The weather here is staying a bit on the cool side making it quite pleasant even for the dust, With this clear cool wind I can see the mountains around the base clearly for the first time. If I was not locked to the base it might have been interesting to hike to the top of one and see what I could, alas that is but day dreaming.

March 6^th

Quite average day here, I am starting to get use to life here and I guest this is the state of “settled in”. Tried to call bad baron but after calling the number got a military office. I only have his first name and for those who know the military how useless that is. I will have to go back and try to get a last name and rank. But not tonight, as my tent internet is down once again. This is becoming my main pet peeve about this place. There are a few others like Google thinks that you’re in the country that your satellite links to, for example my tent internet bounces to Hong Kong so my default is google.hk. All the pop cans here have the tear drop pull tabs. It’s the little things that remind you that home is 10563 km away give or take a few klicks.

I have meet two of the three resident cats that live on the base. There are from when the Americans first took the base and are kept here to keep the mouse population in check. In Afghanistan ware there is mice there soon is snakes and all the snake species here are venomous.

Food, food, and more food. With free mess and free snacks, free drinks, and the hand full of stores on the board walk it will be a challenge not to gain weight other than none of it is particularly that good. 

I am Alive and in Afghanistan

*** Originaly Posted on Live Journal March 3rd

Just posting to let every one know I am alive and I have made it to the base. The internet here is patchy at best. I am working on getting my internet set up at my tent.  

I wanted to compare this place to pennsic but the only comparison is that there both tent cities. I shell never complain about getting lost at pennsic again. Every thing here is the same dusty tan, even if they started off green or white the dust that in the air eventually cakes on to every thing and turns everything to the same color of tan...  

My flight here was quite standard, I got lucky and was on a new A380 from London toDubai. I did have a stop over in London and it was hard to think that my first time inEngland and would have to leave just 2 hours later.   


March 1st

After landing I had to wait in line to get an id then was bussed over to supply and given my very own flack jacket and helmet, both fit badly. On the way back got my first rocket attack alarm so dived for cover in a bunker and waited for an hour till the all "clear".  

Got introduced to the mess cafeteria food I will be living on for the next 6 months. There is 4 different mess here each having different specialties, the euro mess is next to ware I work with the US one close to the tents I sleep at... there is also a British and Asian mess I bit farther out.  If I feel like spending some money there is a half dozen places I can buy food here like the timmies, burger king, and a French pastries shop. The Dutch have an eatery and is the only place that servers there food on china with metal forks… I have time to go to all these places for now its back to my tents. Ahh the tents, I have an 8 by 6 foot space for my self in a tent I share with 7 others. My first night was a hard night as my mattress had seen better days and I had not been issued a blanket yet. I was able to get it traded to a better one the next day. On top of that there is the sound of a very active military base that runs 24 hours, like every thing else I will get use to it. The sounds of the pennsic drums sound so sweet in my memories now. 

March 2nd

This is the day of rest to allow you to get use to the camp, in reality its the day to get last min paper work done and get driven around from some one in my team. The camp is a blur of C-Cans (Sea Containers), tents, tin buildings, military vehicles and Toyota SUVs. There is very few real land marks to a new person to grasp on to.  The dust in the air prevents any one seeing to far on most days I have been told.  I had internet set up in the tents but it failed with in a hour, and the connection that’s costing me 70 US /month Is 128 kb down, and 32 kb up. The reality of it is that I be lucky to get that.  Went to bed early and skipped dinner as I had lost my appetite after the wind changed and the camp got flooded with Ode of sewer from the Russian treatment plant that the base uses.  

March 3rd 

Did not get as much sleep as I like as the camp got hit by a wind storm during the night.  I thought the tent would have been blown away but it’s just made allot of noise. The weather havens tents I am in are quite over built. I work in a small it office that now with the new people is way over crowded and it was a quite day so it gave me a chance to settle in and get use to the place. Got to ride around in the gatters we use to move equipment around. Still have a bit of a cough from the dust but its not as bad as it was on my first day so I am starting to acclimatize to this place. They are right and the time will go quickly.... What we do for money. 


P.S. I have been taking pictures But i forgot to upgrade my account on my way out so i probley going to email them someone once i have better idea my internt limitations. 

Started Training

*** Originaly Posted on Live Journal Feb 17th ***

Well For those who have forgotten who nofixedlj is, I am called by Paul by some of my friends but most call me John Moran. This is the start of my journal about my travels to the war lands of the Middle East, aka Kandahar NATO base Afghanistan…

Finished the first two days of pre deployment training including the medical, apparently I am not to stop this “heavy fencing” as my blood pressure has gone down from when I started and is now found in a healthy range.

Lavalin is a night and day from my last employer, its most grounded organization I have been employed by and I actually feel that they are looking out for me, well considering that all of the managers have been out there at one time or another and are not scared to be very blunt about what we are getting into. I love to go into details but now I have to live under the military rules on security, which means that some of the pictures I was hoping to take over there are going to be out of reach, that’s life…

Tomorrow is the gas hut, for those not in the military that’s running around in a very confined space filled with tear gas sporting a gas mask and a bunny suit. The managers who are also our trainers sneak when they say this is a team building exercise … now I have to decide if I want to trim the beard as it may allow some of the gas in … I’ll try to get some pictures to post …

J Moran