Well, we pulled out of Long Beach at 1000 Saturday morning right on schedule.
We'd had our safety and lifeboat drills by 1130, so I had a light lunch, and took a nap.
Proceeded to finish reading "Patriot Dawn", and watched "Casino" before hitting the hay at 2200.
Today was a "No Work" day for most of us, so I started watching the PBS series "Warplane", narrated by Stacey Keach.
If you haven't seen it, it's great, and Keach, as usual, does a great job narrating it.
The IT guys set up streaming video on the big TV in the Lido Lounge, and football was enjoyed by all.
Except me.
I. DON'T. Watch. Football.
Period.
"Pro" football has to be the stupidest scam ever foisted on the American "Sports Fan".
How ANYBODY can take a nominal ONE HOUR game, and bloat it out to FOUR FREAKING HOURS is beyond me.
And I won't even go into the obscene money paid to the thugs on the field, the team owners, and the ticket sellers.
It's almost as bad as "Pro" basketball, but I won't go there, either.
ANYWAY....the ship's catering crew set up a nice hot buffet for all the people watching the game, and we had hot dogs, burgers, and meatballs in red sauce.
Hope you all have a good week!
Admiral Yamamoto infamously said "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a man with a rifle behind every blade of grass."
And so it should be, a nation of riflemen....
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
*FINALLY* Feeling Better
After being knocked down by this damn flu bug for over a week, I'm finally starting to feel somewhat normal again, just in time to pack my stuff up, and head out to sea again on Saturday.
I made a COSTCO run tonight and picked up a bunch of snacks and things for the trip, and I'll lug some of that in Friday moring.
2x 3lb bags of pistachios
2x 12 pack bags of beef jerky
100 packets of Emergen-C drink mix
1 LARGE bottle of glucosamine sulfate for my battered old knees
2 bottles of Robitussen
2 boxes of Chloroseptic throat lozenges
1 HUGE bag of Hall's Mento-Lyptus cough drops
And various and sundry other items.
I also bought a new set of headphones, as my Koss Pro-4AAT cans finally bit the dust.
I had to replace the cable between the earpieces a few years ago, and then the 1/8" stereo plug failed, and now the plastic has broken on one of the earpieces so it won't stay on the headband.
I found a set of Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor phones at a good price, and they're quite nice. They don't seal out the background noise as well as the Koss' did, but they sound very good, with solid bass, midrange, and treble.
They probably reproduce more frequencies than my ears can pick up these days, as in my youth I subjected myself to a LOT of open-exhaust race cars, and el-cheap-o aviation headsets that hardly blocked out the noise of the little Cessna and Piper aircraft I used to putt-putt around in.
But I *ALWAYS* wore ear protection (and eyes, too) when shooting.
.
.
I made a COSTCO run tonight and picked up a bunch of snacks and things for the trip, and I'll lug some of that in Friday moring.
2x 3lb bags of pistachios
2x 12 pack bags of beef jerky
100 packets of Emergen-C drink mix
1 LARGE bottle of glucosamine sulfate for my battered old knees
2 bottles of Robitussen
2 boxes of Chloroseptic throat lozenges
1 HUGE bag of Hall's Mento-Lyptus cough drops
And various and sundry other items.
I also bought a new set of headphones, as my Koss Pro-4AAT cans finally bit the dust.
I had to replace the cable between the earpieces a few years ago, and then the 1/8" stereo plug failed, and now the plastic has broken on one of the earpieces so it won't stay on the headband.
I found a set of Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor phones at a good price, and they're quite nice. They don't seal out the background noise as well as the Koss' did, but they sound very good, with solid bass, midrange, and treble.
They probably reproduce more frequencies than my ears can pick up these days, as in my youth I subjected myself to a LOT of open-exhaust race cars, and el-cheap-o aviation headsets that hardly blocked out the noise of the little Cessna and Piper aircraft I used to putt-putt around in.
But I *ALWAYS* wore ear protection (and eyes, too) when shooting.
.
.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
My Flu Shot Didn't Work
I've been getting flu shots since 2009 when I got really sick for about 2 months with some bug that just wouldn't go away. So far, things have been fine, with just "regular" colds.
Not this year.
I noticed I was starting to get a sore throat on Tuesday, and by Wednesday night I could hardly speak, and was running a fever.
"Dr. Mom" insisted I got to bed early, and loaded me up with some OTC stuff that helped. Thursday I stayed home from work, and Thursday night I had one of those coughs that kick in about 3 minutes after you lay down, making it rather difficult to get any sleep. I called in to work Friday morning, and my boss told me to STAY HOME, as we're too close to leaving to have me come in, spread something around, and have everybody else sick just as we're getting to the launch site.
Friday and Saturday morining I was pretty 'zombiefied' from whatever hit me, AND the cold meds, so I just kicked back and didn't do much.
I went in to work today at 0800 to help set up and run the final RF testing we do before they lower the rocket, and roll it back in the hangar, and everything went smooth as silk. We were finished by 1430, and rather than hang around, I came back home to take it easy. Tomorrow we'll get all our gear on the platform stowed for transit, and then wave them off Tuesday morning, with us following 4 days later on Saturday.
So beware!
There's a nasty bug floating around out there, and I hope it misses you....
Not this year.
I noticed I was starting to get a sore throat on Tuesday, and by Wednesday night I could hardly speak, and was running a fever.
"Dr. Mom" insisted I got to bed early, and loaded me up with some OTC stuff that helped. Thursday I stayed home from work, and Thursday night I had one of those coughs that kick in about 3 minutes after you lay down, making it rather difficult to get any sleep. I called in to work Friday morning, and my boss told me to STAY HOME, as we're too close to leaving to have me come in, spread something around, and have everybody else sick just as we're getting to the launch site.
Friday and Saturday morining I was pretty 'zombiefied' from whatever hit me, AND the cold meds, so I just kicked back and didn't do much.
I went in to work today at 0800 to help set up and run the final RF testing we do before they lower the rocket, and roll it back in the hangar, and everything went smooth as silk. We were finished by 1430, and rather than hang around, I came back home to take it easy. Tomorrow we'll get all our gear on the platform stowed for transit, and then wave them off Tuesday morning, with us following 4 days later on Saturday.
So beware!
There's a nasty bug floating around out there, and I hope it misses you....
Friday, January 11, 2013
No, I Don't Need "10 Bullets To Kill A Deer"
But I damn sure might need more than 10 to defend my family!
Mark Levin puts it all into perspective.
Please, give it a listen.
H/T to therightscoop.com
Mark Levin puts it all into perspective.
Please, give it a listen.
H/T to therightscoop.com
Thursday, January 10, 2013
We Need More Baseball Bat, String, and Knife Control!
On the other hand....don't get the leftwing moonbats barking about this.
They might try and turn us into (formerly) Great Britain!
H/T to MissK and It 'Aint Holy Water.
They might try and turn us into (formerly) Great Britain!
H/T to MissK and It 'Aint Holy Water.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Pre-Departure Preps Underway
They rolled the payload over to the ship this morning, and tomorrow we'll do some RF power checks from the launch vehicle up to one of the equipment rooms. If that goes well (it always does), then Friday morning we'll flow live data from the ship, through the NASA TDRSS network and do an "End-to-End" test of the entire network we use to relay telemetry from the launch site to all the places it goes.
Yesterday they filled the LN2 tanks in the Launch Platform with NINE tankers of Liquid Nitrogen, and today they started loading the LOX. There were 8 tankers on-site when I left, with another 25 on the way. The day before departure they'll bring in three more to "Top Off" the LOX supply, for a total load of THIRTY SIX tankers of Liquid Oxygen. Something like ONE TON per day boils off during our transit down to the Equator, and we carry enough to make three launch attempts. The fuel can be drained back out of the launch vehicle and saved, but pumping LOX always incurs losses.
Almost all of the RF testing my little group handles is finished, and we're kind of sitting around twiddling our thumbs until Sunday, when we do "Roll Out and Erect", and run the full countdown, minus fueling the launch vehicle. The satellite builder for this launch is an American company we've worked with many times, and things go very smooth, as all involved have done this before, and we all speak English, unlike the last launch, when we could barely communicate with the foreign customer, leading to some "interesting" problems, and very long days.
Yesterday they filled the LN2 tanks in the Launch Platform with NINE tankers of Liquid Nitrogen, and today they started loading the LOX. There were 8 tankers on-site when I left, with another 25 on the way. The day before departure they'll bring in three more to "Top Off" the LOX supply, for a total load of THIRTY SIX tankers of Liquid Oxygen. Something like ONE TON per day boils off during our transit down to the Equator, and we carry enough to make three launch attempts. The fuel can be drained back out of the launch vehicle and saved, but pumping LOX always incurs losses.
Almost all of the RF testing my little group handles is finished, and we're kind of sitting around twiddling our thumbs until Sunday, when we do "Roll Out and Erect", and run the full countdown, minus fueling the launch vehicle. The satellite builder for this launch is an American company we've worked with many times, and things go very smooth, as all involved have done this before, and we all speak English, unlike the last launch, when we could barely communicate with the foreign customer, leading to some "interesting" problems, and very long days.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Lucky Gunner Brass vs Steel Cased Ammo Test
I don't know how many of you received this in your email, but it certainly is an amazing amount of work and data gathering.
Go here and read the whole article.
Just amazing....
.
.
Go here and read the whole article.
Just amazing....
.
.
Monday, January 7, 2013
An Entirely New Meaning for the Term "Enemy of the People"
As ususal, T.L. Davis has an excellent piece over at his place.
Please, go RTHT.
I always thought the phrase meant a person or persons who were at odds with society, and dangerous to society.
TL turns the meaning around with something so obvious I felt like I just got clobbered with the fabled "Clue-By-Four".
On a side note, when I worked at DirecTV we used to joke about how somebody would change the title to a movie to make it more "relevant" to the foreign audience.
When Will Smith's "Enemy of the People" was playing, and we were broadcasting it to South America, the tile had been changed to "Public Enemy".
A subtle change to some, but considering how corrupt most South American governments are, it was a telling change.
.
.
Please, go RTHT.
I always thought the phrase meant a person or persons who were at odds with society, and dangerous to society.
TL turns the meaning around with something so obvious I felt like I just got clobbered with the fabled "Clue-By-Four".
On a side note, when I worked at DirecTV we used to joke about how somebody would change the title to a movie to make it more "relevant" to the foreign audience.
When Will Smith's "Enemy of the People" was playing, and we were broadcasting it to South America, the tile had been changed to "Public Enemy".
A subtle change to some, but considering how corrupt most South American governments are, it was a telling change.
.
.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Traffic Web Cams As Remote Intelligence Assets
Found this over at Rawles' Survival Blog, and it looks like a great idea.
Use all those Nanny State traffic cams to see who's moving what to where.
As long as you have power and an Internet connection, these could be useful.
This website has all sorts of webcams that might provide some "interesting" viewing.
Use all those Nanny State traffic cams to see who's moving what to where.
As long as you have power and an Internet connection, these could be useful.
This website has all sorts of webcams that might provide some "interesting" viewing.
Friday, January 4, 2013
"Fiscal Cliff" Survival Package
From a friend.....
Just wanted to let you know - today I received my Fiscal Cliff Survival Pack from the White House.
It contained a parachute, an 'Obama Hope & Change' bumper sticker, a 'Bush's Fault' poster, a 'Blame Boehner' poster, a "Tax the Rich' poster, an application for unemployment, an application for food stamps, a prayer rug, a letter of assignation of debt to my grandchildren and a machine to blow smoke up my ass.
All directions were in Spanish.
Keep an eye out. Yours should arrive soon.
Just wanted to let you know - today I received my Fiscal Cliff Survival Pack from the White House.
It contained a parachute, an 'Obama Hope & Change' bumper sticker, a 'Bush's Fault' poster, a 'Blame Boehner' poster, a "Tax the Rich' poster, an application for unemployment, an application for food stamps, a prayer rug, a letter of assignation of debt to my grandchildren and a machine to blow smoke up my ass.
All directions were in Spanish.
Keep an eye out. Yours should arrive soon.
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