Ladieeeeeeeeeees and Gentlemennnnnnnnnnn

Soooooo as a follow up to yesterday, I go into work today and guess what? That second ticket that I still had in for the unclassified phone? They configured it. Yup, so the phone they said they couldnt put on the network is now on the unclassified network. As for the other phone, I was able to trade it with someone and get our other phone up and running, so the office is DONE. Woot! I'll be sweeping and cleaning it tomorrow morning and I should be able to work in it all day. I'm pretty excited.
As for the Kandahar help desk.....once I understand the inner workings I'm becoming accustomed to the way they do things. I snapped a group photo of them, as you can see above.

Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays

Wow, I couldn't figure out why today was so sucky before I realized....it's Monday.

It actually wasn't going too bad earlier in the day. I wrote some new batch files that will make my ever exapnding job much easier. I was able to get a lot of work done today too. But then, things started to go downhill. The brand new phones we just got in and that I've been working on the last couple of days to get up and running...are now no longer allowed on the network. Even though the phones we currently use on the network are the SAME EXACT MODELS they are no longer allowing those particular units to be added to the network. Now, when I had called I was asking about the classified network. So, just to make sure I call back to make sure its the same for the unclassified network. The help desk rep on the phone is talking with the "Networks NCOIC" I can hear him in the background saying "No, No, No, NO, NO! WE ALREADY SAID NO, PUT THAT GUY ON SPEAKER PHONE....PUT THAT GUY ON SPEAKER PHONE." The tech thankfully didn't and asked if I had any other questions. Disgusted and defeated I replied no and hung up.
20 minutes later, its now time for dinner...and I get a phone call. It's from one of the software guys that work with us. Some SGT at one of the units is having problems with her IP address. Oh, and it's been going on since before lunch. So not only did she NOT call the hardware guy (me) but she decides to wait until the end of the day. Grumpily I go over there and fix the problem. By the time I finish and get to the chow hall, the line is HUGE. I sigh, and go to the back of the line.
Finally I get up to the place where I can get my tray or a takeout box. I grab the takeout box and excuse myself out of the line because what I plan to eat is up in the "fast line" Some snot-nosed little soldier (who looks like he has to wait 3 days before having to shave between shaves) snidely says "hey, there's a line here you know." I turn to him and inform him that I'm not getting food from the normal chow line, I'm moving up to the "fast line" so I can get my spaghetti and be on my way. He shrugs and says "whatever you tell yourself man, its still a line." Meanwhile, other people are moving past me and have done so for the 2 months I've been here. It still annoys me a bit an hour later. what's funny is as I was leaving his officer friend who was standing next to him had somehow magically caught up to me and was getting his drink when I was. Either he stepped out of line or a crap ton of people flew by me when I wasn't looking. Punk. I hate to take an elitist stance but....at least I'm here by my own volition...and getting paid very well. He's not.
I've been putting off coming up with the thesis for the 15-20 page paper I have to write this semester...but I have to submit a draft abstract in 2 days so I"m busy downloading PDF white papers on the topic. Joy.
It's been getting cooler here, and I may actually need to start wearing my sweats to the shower in the morning. The days are still pretty warm, but there is a definate chill in the air that started about the middle of September.
The internet is still pretty crappy here. The guy that I'm going through for internet service promises me it'll be better soon...but I keep hearing that over and over. He said that there are some new wireless antennas we'll be using and they are supposed to be in any day. Until then, it's crap internet for me when everyone gets home from work and is sufing/skyping.

"The word sir?" "The word? Is no. I'm therefore going anyway."

So there is a place here called "One stop" where you can put in a work order for things to be built. We have a new office conex that was delivered a couple of weeks ago so I drew up plans for desks to be put in the new office. I handed in the plans and they told me the approval would come back in a few days.

Flash forward to today, and I stop in to find the work order was denied. The excuse was that the labor is too busy. So, I knew of a few places where there was scrap wood and began my scavenging. I had told my boss some times the way I scavenge for things here I feel like a Jawa.

I stopped in the shop where they actually build the items when it comes through from one stop. One of the workers was nice enough to cut down a bunch of 4x4 scrap to the exact size I needed. Next, I went to a site where some Seabees are building an office and scavenged some 2x4's and some plywood. I went to another place where they had a bunch of woodscrews. I went back to the carpenter shop and asked if it were possible to have 2 2x4s (I didn't want to be greedy) but the woman there was like "Oh, well since we couldn't build this for you what do you need?" I was able to get 4 2x4's and 3/4" ply for the desktops. They even cut the plywood to the exact size I needed.

I phoned a friend and they were able to loan me a cordless drill and circular saw so I set to work.

I'll have to take some pix but the desks/workbench came out pretty decent. Tomorrow I'm going to build a hutch part that will have a shelf. I also had a lot of fun building it.

A Vacation! (well....sorta...)

I know it's been quite a while so I figured I'd take my spare time I have today to update the blog. It's exactly 1 month since I left home and boy oh boy did it go by quick.

I was really busy when I got here, but things have slowed down a little which I'm thankful for. I ended up finishing my finance class with an "A" so I'm excited about that. However, looking over the material for my next two classes, I can see I've been spoiled in the last couple of classes I had. One of my classes wants a 15-20 page paper (yuck) and the other wants an 8 page paper (not bad!). We'll see how difficult it is to keep up on the work since both classes expect posts and replies to other student's posts.

The other day I was forced to play pizza delivery guy. I had to take some hard drives out to a FOB (forward operating base) by helo. So I got up at 4 am, caught the flight a couple of hours later, flew for a bit and landed, met up with a tech at the helo pad to hand him the drives, then get back on the helo and fly back. It wasn't too bad, but I was pretty tired for the rest of the day.

My supervisor's boss (the guy who was supposed to be my boss in Bagram) came down last night so I've been showing him around today and we brought a server online. Right now I'm back at my "home" chilling out on the internet. Why you may ask? Good question! Apparently some time last night the generator that runs the tent where we work went down. It's been down all day and it's still down right now. Soooo no power = no computers & AC so yeah, nothing to do there. I went to one of the units I support to check my email but my boss and the govt PM basically went to their homes and my supervisors boss wanted to be let off at his temporary home so.....here I am at my home :)

It's a welcome little break after working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day every day to be able to be 1) awake enough to compose something more than 2 lines 2) enjoying said time on the computer because generally by the time I get home from work...I don't want to login to my computer at home. It's an odd feeling...people I know have told me that it happens to them but I always logged on to check email etc when I got home in the states. Here....not so much.

Enjoy the sunrise pic at the helo ramp :)