I was in the US Navy. I’m proud of it. But the Navy and me, we had a deal. They send me to school, I paid for the school by working on their ships for four years. The USN met their obligation, I met mine, and got an honorable discharge to prove it. Nobody owes nobody nuthin’ in my book.

Crap like the pic above pisses me off. The implication is that if you don’t forward it, and act all gung ho, you’re somehow unpatriotic or a commie or something.

The past several years, usually if I mention that I was in the Navy, someone says “Thank you for your service”. That disturbs me. It was a contract. I joined to get away from home, and to avoid a big debt from a student loan. I didn’t join because of patriotism. I think most the guys from my ships feel the same way.

“Thank you for your service” ….sounds like a new fad.

When someone says “Veteran”, I don’t think of me. I think of the 20+ year guys, who deserve a retirement check they can live on, and the benefits that go with it. I think of the combat guys, permanently damaged mentally or physically or both. They didn’t sign up for that, they deserve comensation and the care they need. I think of the guys that were drafted, who didn’t want to go but went anyway.

When I say I support Veterans, these are the people I’m talking about, not everyone who was ever in the military for any length of time.

So don’t thank me, I did it for the school, I did it for the travel. While I do love the USA, and consider myself a patriot, thats not why I joined the Navy, and the US Government owes me nothing.

And by the way, these whiny twerps that want their student loans forgiven can kiss my butt. Pay it back bitches. I don’t care if you think you got a bad deal, you agreed and it’s now your obligation. Meet it and quit your crying!

On the same note, last few years I perceive that a lot of one-hitch ex-military are playing the veteran card, apparently trying to get some benefits. I don’t agree with this either. We joined the military, we got out, the military is under no obligation, nor do we deserve, to be taken care of the rest of our lives because of it.

Over and out.

This morning, I was driving a non descript SUV agross a vast, flat desert. Blue sky, white sand, and scrub brush, whizzing by. All of a sudden, I started going down a steep hill. Vertical, straight down. The accelerometer on my watch started beep-beep-beeping. Danger Will Robinson!

Odd, the cat didn’t seem too worried.

To hell with it, i thought to myself, I don’t need no stinkin’ brakes, I’m riding this rocket all the way! Yee Haa!

nudge nudge nudge.. “Babe!”.

Crap, my watch doesn’t even have an accelerometer…

Alarm clock.

And that’s the last thing I remember before getting up, shaving, power walking the dawg, shower, coffee and sitting here.

MAN! We Was FLYING!

Have a great day!

Usually, throughout the day, I see something or think of something and think, “Oh! I can put that in my post tomorrow.” But, to the best of my recollection, that never happened.

Not that it matters. normally I’d be sitting here thinking; “Yesterday I thought of a great idea for a post today, but I haven’t the foggiest idea what it was.”

Yesterday at work was not my favorite. I was putting papers in the designated 3-ring binders. It’s my least favorite thing, so I put it off. I put it off, so it snowballs. It snowballs into this huge task, and I hate it even more.

I started Friday, thought I’d get ‘er done yesterday, but (gasp!) I found some papers in the WRONG 3 ring binder! The horror. It’ll probably take me 6-9 months (sixty-nine months), to get it sorted. That’s what I said, 69 months (six to nine months). 

What did you think I said? Noooo, I said the other one!

Obviously, I need more coffee. Have a wonderful day.

As you may know, the BBC is my prime source of news. On the radio and online. You also may know I grew up for most of my school years in a little town called Moberly, Missouri, USA.

I was quite surprised to come across the name, Moberly, Missouri in a BBC article about a fake Rock ‘n Roll star this weekend. 

I’ve read it 3 or 4 times, and the dude is quite the imaginitive liar. I had to re-read it just to figure out who the fake people are.

If you have some spare time, it’s quite  good read.

It was an OK weekend,  Went to the work Christmas party Saturday night. The sole came off my dress shoe and I was walking around barefoot all night. My NFL Team, The Redskins, won and Dallas didn’t score a single point! They got skunked!

And now it’s back to work, on what should be a good weather week!

Enjoy your day!

I think THIS is pretty cool! But I notice the touchdown rockets have charred the surrounding area. Hope there weren’t any flowers growing there or anything.

It’s Friday. This Saturday is the work Christmas party…

Today is not totally cloudy, like most of this week has been. It’s a good sign. On the dark side, I rekkon the yard’ll need mowing again.

I hope your weekend is fantastic!

Our friend had their parents visiting from Scotland last week, they’re leaving today. Last night we had a good-bye dinner for them at The Kitchen restaurant. It was quite nice. Everyone was surprised at how good it was. I especially enjoyed their Mango Mousse that I had for dessert.

Below are a few pictures from last night.

I’ve met Geoff and Lorna several times, every time they come, and they’re great to hang around with. Emma is my wife’s best friend and she went to Scotland with Emma last summer. Wish I coulda gone, but I will!

Outside the restaurant, there were two chickens above the door, roosting there, quite high up. I guess they were there for the night. Funny.

And tomorrow is Friday! It’s still cold, rainy and windy here… Sad, so sad.

Well, back to work today after three vacation days and a weekend. I did house chores more than expected. Yesterday, my designated beach day, it rained. so I installed the new fan, picture above.

Day-before yesterday, I went and bought the new fan, and the above pictured replacement light fixture for the kitchen. And light bulbs. I replaced the kitchen lights. It took more time than expected, because on the final step, putting the third and last light shade in, I found that the socket was broken and I had to take the whole thing down, return to the store and trade the defective one for a new, identical one. But, I got it done. And it was bright. I knew The Wife would say it was too bright.

A little backstory, My wife and I have an ongoing squabble about light bulbs. She likes these dim, yellow light bulbs, “natural light, soft white”. I like brighter lights, so you can see what you’re doing, maybe see your hand in front of your face or dissect a microbe.  Needless to say, we have these dim yellow lights all over the house. Happy wife, happy life.

Do you see, in the picture above, where it says 2700K? With the little triangle below the bar, like a brightness slider? Well, these are the bulbs my wife bought, after she returned and replaced the bulbs selected by me. The bulbs I originally bought had the arrow/slider all the way at the other end, and  the number said something like  500,000K. It lit the whole house, through the walls, ’round the corners, front porch and back. It lit the neighbors yard next door and the whole street. Stadium lighting, as the wife said. My wife forced me to admit that my bulbs were too bright, which, (I had no choice) I reluctantly did.

Seriously, you couldn’t even look at them, it was like being blinded by the sun.

So the fan’s up, lights up, concrete patched, lots of household projects done. Now it’s back to work on a rainy, cold Wednesday that feels like a Monday. 

Havva good’un!

I took three days “use it or lose it” vacation.  (I have to use it before the end of the year because I’m already transferring the max number of days to next year). The whole time, it’s been sunny and nice. I’ve been doing projects around the house the. No diving, no beach. Yesterday, a gorgeous day, I promised myself I was going to the beach. Screw the projects. Today is lugubrious and cold, howling wind, rain. Definitely not a beach day. Sigh, I guess I could install this ceiling fan…

Back to work tomorrow, It’ll be nice and sunny again….

I made the first three videos below from the audio on fourth video. I extracted the audio, then edited it and screengrabbed it while it played back in my Lexis Audio Editor, then mixed the audio with the screengrabbed video. I think it helps be be able to “see” the audio as you hear it.

The first is what the human ear would probably hear from the wind on Mars. YOU PROBABLY CAN’T HEAR IT WITHOUT GOOD HEADPHONES, TURNED UP LOUD! It is very low frequency, and if you have good headphones and turn it up to max volume, you ( I ) seem to “feel” it in your ears more than hear it. You can see it’s quite a large signal, but it’s near the lower limit of human hearing, therefore hard to hear. I find it fascinating.

In the second video, the audio has been pitched up two octaves, placing it easily within the human audio range. (Remember, you might still have your headphones all the way up and may want to lower the volume a bit)

In the video below, the sound comes from a different instrument on the InSight lander, and has been multiplied by 100, thereby increasing the frequency by 100. It sounds really weird.

The video below is the story that was all over the news, you’ve possibly seen it already. Like I already said, the audio for the first three videos came from the audio in the video below. Their explanation is much more thorough than mine. You’ll hear all the same sounds as in my videos again, but I like my videos because there is a good visual reference to go with the sound.

Hope you enjoyed this post, I enjoyed making it! It took quite a lot of work and I hope you’ll leave a comment!