So its been a while since my last post. To be honest not much interesting has happened with me. Just keeping my self busy.
Got Vacation on the mind... it looks like mid march to mid April. Spend maybe a week to ten days at home to decompress and then back to London to take a tour of England then Hampton court cooking weekends and then take the train to low countries or say in London to do more sight see..
Its a little frustrating as we are getting rumours of Dubai closing to Canadians serving in Afghanistan. We know that the military and direct employes can not enter at this point, but there is talk that it may get extended to contractors like my self. This could damage my options for vacation.
It could be worst a number of people here had plan to go to Egypt in the next few months, that kind have gone down hill with every thing going on. The question is how many countries will have these revolutions and how many may go sour. Iran started of the same way with revolution and was hijack by the religious element.
When talking about rumors here the big story is about how the Americans have a very violent serial rapist on there hands who has attacked ten women nearly killing them and they didn't tell any one until a British girl got attacked. Turns out it's a total false rumour started when two US women charged their supervisor with sexual assault and the grape vine rolled it out from there.
We lost our ball hockey team. They got baited to get into a fight on a pre-season game with one of the military teams. The military team played a very physical game and some of us got hurt so a argument started. After the game they informed us that three of our best players were band from the ball hockey legal here and that the team will get disbanded till next season. The rumour of course is it was all planed from the start.
Weather, we are finally getting some rain. We are technically three quarters of the way threw the rainy season here with only a few drops here or there, last night it rained all night. We still need more, if we don't get enough rain this country will have allot of unemployed farmers for the Taliban to recruit when summer comes around. Of course that just a rumour too.
Well for me I am keeping my self busy with little projects. Working on creating a search engine for out numerous media and file servers and today i got ask to make a streaming video server too. Well it keeping me busy. I'm still going to the gym and fencing, with the fencing there is only two of us coming out regularly. But as time goes by the number may pick up again.
Well that my life in a nut shell.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Another Crazy Week
Nothing major happened this week, it was just a lot of little things... Well that not totally true from the point of view of the company. We had the Company CEO come to the camp and spend a half a day telling us ... well ... lots of stuff we already knew. When a project is almost done and every one knows there won't be any more jobs after a given date the managers start to panic a little.
I think it comes down to the fact that many corporations motivate by promising the imaginary. ( http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-03-31/ ) Most often this is done in less obvious ways then what in the comic, it more often seen as “what do you see as your long term goals in the company” But when the end is in sight those kind of conversations become very pointless.
The fear for the managers is people leaving before the contracts are done. The company only gets paid fro the people on the ground and if some one leaves two or three months early its not cost effective to get some one new, train then, and fly them over here so it ends up being a loss income ether way.
The solution for them seems to be to talk up Kabul, every one knows the military not asked for people yet and that there going to be sitting on a large pool of military doing nothing now that the combat mission is done. The other solution is telling how they are talking to the parent companies about giving us a leg up on position they may have.
The funny thing is no one really cared what he had to say about the projects future, it was all about Dubai. We now had to deal with getting visa for over a week and Dubai airport system seems to become a land mine field you need to navigate. Before it was a oasis to stop over at, get a few drinks, maybe go into the city. Now well we had lost luggage, missed flights, and people trapped at the air port for a couple of days sleeping on floors. We had more problems in the last week then the company would see in a year., and that with most of the past problems having more to do with people getting drunk then issues with the city or airport.
Talking about travel my vacation will be in march, and i need to tell the travel people what i want to do about a month before. That means having my travel plans ready by the end of this month. I have 25 days to spend ( 28- 3 travel days ) I will need to come back to Canada probable for only a week then spend two weeks or so going around Europe. I want to start in London, then I will have to pick two or three other cities to visit ( advise will be welcome on this choice )
I am looking forward to this as I'm going to focus on museums and castle. I'll start in London and take to Eurostar to Paris or Brussels, and train to other citys from there, i guest the real choice is France or the low countries. From my last trip to London I learn its fun to go alone but its be much better to have someone to go with. I can afford using my vacation bonus to have some one flown out but who. I'm still trying to figure that out, one of the disadvantages of being single.
I'm not the only one planning travel trips, there is a number of local cats people have made into pets and there is a strong desire to send them to good homes back in Canada, the problem is the costs. It about a thousand dollars a cat after you cover the necessary travel and vet fees needed. So people have been putting hats out and fund raising the money. Two cats have been sent home already there is talk of two others. For the long term readers the cat that was rescued from a US dumpster has been sent home the one that lives in the repair yard is the next one planned to be sent home.
Well the web sites are moving along now i have two to make and i seem to have stepped in something. There seems to be a little war between managers arguing over the planned corprate web site about if we should make it and what networks should it be on. As i got volunteered to do the next version of the site I’ll be right in the cross fire. No wonder this project has gotten no ware scene April. I May get a bit of time to work on it this week as I'm back on evening shifts next week so if the evenings turn out to be slow then i will get some done.
The evening shifts will let me spend the mornings in the gym. The gym thing is going well i did get my three trips in this week and i may get five or six in this week because of the evening shift schedule. My body is starting to get use to all this gym time and working on both upper body and core body weight work. That reminds me if any one by chance can pick up one of the hand gyro gizmo and throw that in the mail to me it will be appreciated. I apparently need to work on my wrists and this little gadget is a little weighted ball that you twist in your hand and the ball speeds up from gyroscopic forces.
My current wrist workout, fencing, is doing well. We are going to lose the other squire Ioannes Dalassenos is leaving next week but we have a few other regulars coming out and they both have talent and one is from the west kingdom. The squire is interesting as he is a lefty and will be missed, he trying to get me to go out to gulf wars and i am trying to get him out to pennsic.
I won't say too much about calibration other then apparently some of the kingdoms in the south west US have a minimum calibration for fencing. AKA they have a fencing light, you need to place “positive pressure” for the hit to count not just touch pressure. It comes from the whole phrase “It takes a sword 4 lbs of pressure to break skin” He is not the first i have ran into with this idea/rule. I had some worries when i got back last time about my fencing calibration.
Any way that was my week more or less, I hope every one is doing well on the normal side of the world. I'll try to keep the Post coming
I think it comes down to the fact that many corporations motivate by promising the imaginary. ( http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-03-31/ ) Most often this is done in less obvious ways then what in the comic, it more often seen as “what do you see as your long term goals in the company” But when the end is in sight those kind of conversations become very pointless.
The fear for the managers is people leaving before the contracts are done. The company only gets paid fro the people on the ground and if some one leaves two or three months early its not cost effective to get some one new, train then, and fly them over here so it ends up being a loss income ether way.
The solution for them seems to be to talk up Kabul, every one knows the military not asked for people yet and that there going to be sitting on a large pool of military doing nothing now that the combat mission is done. The other solution is telling how they are talking to the parent companies about giving us a leg up on position they may have.
The funny thing is no one really cared what he had to say about the projects future, it was all about Dubai. We now had to deal with getting visa for over a week and Dubai airport system seems to become a land mine field you need to navigate. Before it was a oasis to stop over at, get a few drinks, maybe go into the city. Now well we had lost luggage, missed flights, and people trapped at the air port for a couple of days sleeping on floors. We had more problems in the last week then the company would see in a year., and that with most of the past problems having more to do with people getting drunk then issues with the city or airport.
Talking about travel my vacation will be in march, and i need to tell the travel people what i want to do about a month before. That means having my travel plans ready by the end of this month. I have 25 days to spend ( 28- 3 travel days ) I will need to come back to Canada probable for only a week then spend two weeks or so going around Europe. I want to start in London, then I will have to pick two or three other cities to visit ( advise will be welcome on this choice )
I am looking forward to this as I'm going to focus on museums and castle. I'll start in London and take to Eurostar to Paris or Brussels, and train to other citys from there, i guest the real choice is France or the low countries. From my last trip to London I learn its fun to go alone but its be much better to have someone to go with. I can afford using my vacation bonus to have some one flown out but who. I'm still trying to figure that out, one of the disadvantages of being single.
I'm not the only one planning travel trips, there is a number of local cats people have made into pets and there is a strong desire to send them to good homes back in Canada, the problem is the costs. It about a thousand dollars a cat after you cover the necessary travel and vet fees needed. So people have been putting hats out and fund raising the money. Two cats have been sent home already there is talk of two others. For the long term readers the cat that was rescued from a US dumpster has been sent home the one that lives in the repair yard is the next one planned to be sent home.
Well the web sites are moving along now i have two to make and i seem to have stepped in something. There seems to be a little war between managers arguing over the planned corprate web site about if we should make it and what networks should it be on. As i got volunteered to do the next version of the site I’ll be right in the cross fire. No wonder this project has gotten no ware scene April. I May get a bit of time to work on it this week as I'm back on evening shifts next week so if the evenings turn out to be slow then i will get some done.
The evening shifts will let me spend the mornings in the gym. The gym thing is going well i did get my three trips in this week and i may get five or six in this week because of the evening shift schedule. My body is starting to get use to all this gym time and working on both upper body and core body weight work. That reminds me if any one by chance can pick up one of the hand gyro gizmo and throw that in the mail to me it will be appreciated. I apparently need to work on my wrists and this little gadget is a little weighted ball that you twist in your hand and the ball speeds up from gyroscopic forces.
My current wrist workout, fencing, is doing well. We are going to lose the other squire Ioannes Dalassenos is leaving next week but we have a few other regulars coming out and they both have talent and one is from the west kingdom. The squire is interesting as he is a lefty and will be missed, he trying to get me to go out to gulf wars and i am trying to get him out to pennsic.
I won't say too much about calibration other then apparently some of the kingdoms in the south west US have a minimum calibration for fencing. AKA they have a fencing light, you need to place “positive pressure” for the hit to count not just touch pressure. It comes from the whole phrase “It takes a sword 4 lbs of pressure to break skin” He is not the first i have ran into with this idea/rule. I had some worries when i got back last time about my fencing calibration.
Any way that was my week more or less, I hope every one is doing well on the normal side of the world. I'll try to keep the Post coming
Sunday, January 2, 2011
crazy week
Time for another weekly report and I have to admit this has been a crazy week for me. To set the pace this week was evening shifts, so I was working noon to nine. Making it to fencing was tight but its not far from were I work. When we get evening shift we are the only one on for the last four hours so it can be really dead or really busy. I got about equal amounts this week and alot of the busy was cause by some departments going to reduce manning for new years.
For the First time ever i went to a gym other then to fix a computer, actually twice this week, spent a -hour with a trainer each time. I kept telling my self last time I was here to go like some bad new year resolution you know your never going to do but this time I making it a point. The first trip was just covering the basics of warm up and stretching and the second trip was yesterday and he put me threw the paces on weight training.
I was going to be a keener and go again today on my own but when i got up this morning well its better to say when i tried to get up this morning and failed. My arms and legs are on revolt, so i think its best to take it easy today. The goal is to fence three times a week and go to the gym three times a week and rest on the seventh. (Insert biblical joke here)
You really start thinking of health when you are here. Another tent mate of mine had to be sent home in a hurry due to heart issues. I have mentioned in the pass how this place is dirty and unhealthy, but its is a very dusty place and so very hard on the system. I'm just happy that i got clean clothes as one of the rocket attacks this week hit the laundromat. Lucky enough they got that back up and running in a few days as if nothing happened.
We also lost electricity for a day. This was not from the rockets but the fact that most of the wiring here not really designed for the loads we put it under. The military can really lay out infrastructure in a rush but not in a way to that’s meant to last the long hall or deal with the rate things have expanded. In military fashion the same day as the power went out a fork lift came along and dropped a truck size diesel generator at the end of my tent row, electrician connected it to one of the big breaker boxes and we are back up again.
It's nice to have power back and my clock is running correct, my little alarm clock was losing two or three minutes a day under the old power sources. Fun with technology, i have been on the ground about three weeks and already have a stack of projects on the go. From making a web page for my network share to updating a corporate website that has yet to be posted I had hoped to do some of my own little projects but they have been a bit side lined, I got marked as a person who can get things done when prodded.
Any way that was my week in a nutshell minus a lot of the frustrating stuff that would bore people. I hope this is a good year for every one.
For the First time ever i went to a gym other then to fix a computer, actually twice this week, spent a -hour with a trainer each time. I kept telling my self last time I was here to go like some bad new year resolution you know your never going to do but this time I making it a point. The first trip was just covering the basics of warm up and stretching and the second trip was yesterday and he put me threw the paces on weight training.
I was going to be a keener and go again today on my own but when i got up this morning well its better to say when i tried to get up this morning and failed. My arms and legs are on revolt, so i think its best to take it easy today. The goal is to fence three times a week and go to the gym three times a week and rest on the seventh. (Insert biblical joke here)
You really start thinking of health when you are here. Another tent mate of mine had to be sent home in a hurry due to heart issues. I have mentioned in the pass how this place is dirty and unhealthy, but its is a very dusty place and so very hard on the system. I'm just happy that i got clean clothes as one of the rocket attacks this week hit the laundromat. Lucky enough they got that back up and running in a few days as if nothing happened.
We also lost electricity for a day. This was not from the rockets but the fact that most of the wiring here not really designed for the loads we put it under. The military can really lay out infrastructure in a rush but not in a way to that’s meant to last the long hall or deal with the rate things have expanded. In military fashion the same day as the power went out a fork lift came along and dropped a truck size diesel generator at the end of my tent row, electrician connected it to one of the big breaker boxes and we are back up again.
It's nice to have power back and my clock is running correct, my little alarm clock was losing two or three minutes a day under the old power sources. Fun with technology, i have been on the ground about three weeks and already have a stack of projects on the go. From making a web page for my network share to updating a corporate website that has yet to be posted I had hoped to do some of my own little projects but they have been a bit side lined, I got marked as a person who can get things done when prodded.
Any way that was my week in a nutshell minus a lot of the frustrating stuff that would bore people. I hope this is a good year for every one.
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