OCD

Ok. I admit it. I can be a bit OCD at times. It's not horrible, but when it hits...well.....

As you may have read, I have a spiffy projector that I use to project my computer (and now my xbox) on either the wall at the foot of my bed, or I can move it to above my desk and project it on the far wall if I have guests over.

Another friend of mine got himself some plotter paper that he uses, but he said that it's slightly reflective. My walls are white, so it turns out I really didn't need the paper.

However, my walls are littered with holes from...who knows what. Pictures, hooks, you name it. So, I decided I would get some spackle, flat white paint, a putty knife and some sandpaper. Well everything showed up quick enough.....except the putty knife. Great. So after waiting an extra week or 2 weeks (I forget) it finally showed up today. So I went around and happily spackled up the holes in the two locations I project the screen. Then I look around the room. Hrm. There are more holes. I look at the rather full spackle container. I make my decision, and spackle every hole I can find in my room, which actually was quite a bit. I still have some left, so when I sand down the walls and look over the projector walls for any other holes that I might have missed I can hit them up. It's not that the projector looked bad on the walls, but this will make it look better ;)

In regards to my previous post, I have had a hot shower every day. It's phenominal.

Hallelujah!

So there I was, minding my own business taking a leak in the bathroom that was just fixed....the one without any hot water because they didn't have the fuses to run the water heater.....(why would you order fuses for it if it wasn't functioning...even though it was due to be fixed). I went to wash my hands and.....nearly burnt my hands! What was this? HOT WATER. When it was time to take my shower, the blessed...blessed hot water came flowing from the shower head freely. I took a navy (aka combat) shower where you turn the water off inbetween shampoo and soap and still had a massive amount of hot water which I left for whoever came in after me.

I don't know who brought the fuses....and when....but I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

He's baaaaack

Wow, so much time as passed, and so much has happened.

The internet provider I was using in the tents where I lived was shut down, and the people that shut them down were horribly unreliable, not to mention not always taking new customers....so that pretty much left me without internet for quite some time.

Honestly, I really didn't mind much. I was able to get to my college website at work, so I could work on my schoolwork on breaks or after hours, and a friend of mine lived on the Special Ops compound and had a wired internet to the provider so it was pretty quick. Between those two, I was able to finish up my school. The government unclass network does not allow people to go to blog sites (like this one) and I really didn't have the time nor inclination to post when I was at my friends house becuase it was usually late at night and just wanted to do my schoolwork and be done.

BUT

That was then, this is now.

I spent about 5 months as the Regional tech out here in Kandahar, before they decided they wanted to switch people up and put them in different spots. The guy that was coming in to be my boss in the south was a raging...feminine cleaning product. I don't know if they had planned to move me or not, but I requested to fill in the Special Ops compound spot since the guy there was leaving soon and I didn't want to be stuck with this new boss. Thankfully, my move was approved and I was allowed to move. It wasn't until it was a done deal that the feminine cleaning product was moved elsewhere and wouldn't have been my boss they they had considered me becoming the lead here. I thought long and hard about it, and although it would have been sucky I decided that if they wanted me I'd do it. Fate stepped in, and I found out they already had another person who was coming into theater in mind so I moved to the Special Ops compound.

That's not to say I'm not living the good life now. If I had stayed as Regional Tech, or the Regional lead I would have still been in a tent. However, as a tech over on the SOTF compound I live the good life. I'm in a hardened room that measures about 12ft by 12 ft with a small extra area for a foot locker and storage space off that room. The guy I replaced used to live in this room and it even had a couch! Not bad...not bad at all.

As time went on, I managed to make some upgrades. First, there is a door that joins my room to my neighbor....a neighbor that likes to play loud music until well past midnight. He's a soldier, I'm a contractor....I didnt' want to bug him too much because it's probably one of the few things he gets to do over here that he enjoys...but I needed sleep. I asked once if he could turn it down, which I'm sure he took down 1/500th on the dial, because I didn't notice a difference. So, I scrounged big sheets of styrafoam and layered 3 sheets deep on the door. It still wasnt enough, so I cut a custom piece of 1" plywood I found and stuffed foam in the cracks. It muffles it enough now that it's tolerable and almost always isnt that bad.

My upstairs neighbor is pretty nice. He likes to mix music during the day on his off time, and for now I don't need to sleep during the day because of a weird schedule so it doesn't bother me at all. When and if I have to start working wacky hours tho....it may become an issue. However he told me when I was moving in if I have any problems to let him know. He's a contractor too so he understands.

Overall life on the compound is good. It's within the confines of Kandahar, so I'm not on a little FOB somewhere. The food is pretty damn good. Mondays is meatloaf, tuesdays taco night, wed ital night, thurs surf and turf, fri pizza, sat soul food (my least favorite) and sunday bbq (awesome ribs!). Breakfast is good, and lunch is....ok. Saturday's lunch is mongolian bbq, and we get to pick food and veggies and they will grill it up with teriyaki, soy sauce, or sweet and sour.

Christmas here was pretty uneventful. My wife sent me a 2 foot tree with lights and ornaments, and my mom sent me some xmas decorations too so I was able to decorate my room a little to help with the christmas spirit. I was also able to watch my wife and kids open their gifts via webcame (in stutters, but it worked at least) so it wasn't horrible.

I picked up a projector to plug my computer (and my xbox that my wife just sent me) into, and project a 48" screen at the foot of my bed.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-K11-Portable-Pocket-Projector/dp/B003LX8E1K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1295008740&sr=8-1-catcorr

It works surprisingly well. I chose it because it was an LED lamp projector and had a much longer lamp life. It's not as bright when the lights in my room are on, but I can still see it. When I turn the lights off it's PERFECT. My only gripe is that there is a little tiny speaker in it, and there is no audio out port. So when I hook up my xbox to it with my HDMI cable, I cant port the audio out to headphones or speakers. So I use the PC cable with it and swap between my computer and xbox depending on what I want to use. Perhaps I'll get a switchbox one day, if I want to be really lazy.

Throw in a wireless keyboard and mouse and it's pretty spiffy. If a friend comes over, I can move it to one side of my room and project a 7' diagonal on my far wall which makes for a good movie screen. I really can't complain too much about the living here. There is one eensie teensie annoyance tho. Showers.

All but 1 shower I've ever had here has been cold. There are a lot of people here, and the sinks and washing machines share the same water so there is rarely any hot water. I commuted a few times back to the place where I lived so I could take a hot shower, but that kind of got old. One of the bathrooms here had pipe problems so they closed it down and opened up one of the female shower trailers for us. There was hot water there all the time, because it had it's own hot water heater...unfortunatley they fixed it yesterday and opened ours back up. Welcome back, cold showers. Thankfully, being the innovative person I am, I decided to try something. I picked up a camping solar shower for 15 bucks when all we had was cold water before the issue with the pipes.

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Elements-Gallon-Summer-Shower/dp/B000J2KX88/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1295008452&sr=8-6

It was delivered while we got to use the female showers so I didnt need it. But, since we're back to cold water, I decided to give it a test run today. Now, I have a hot water beverage heater that can fill it about halfway with scalding hot water I then top off the rest with the cold/luke warm water that the sinks provide and voila! A hot/warm shower. I was pretty happy at how it worked. It takes a little effort, but a hot shower is definately worth it. When I came out of the shower someone asked if the water was hot and I replied "Hell no, but I cheated so I had a hot shower."

Besides the hot water heater, I also have a small college fridge and a microwave that I picked up...so I live like a college kid. I can heat up food when I want, I have cold water, hot water, and some food that I bought here and had sent from home.

With 7 months left on deployment here, I consider this living the high life. Hopefully now that I have stable wired internet and more time on my hands, I'll be able to start posting again on a semi-regular basis.

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 :)