4.20.2008

Murphy's Law in Action My luck is really running. So, I'm stuck in Helena Montana for the night. I tried to get out this morning, after a rude awakening (I'll talk about that later) but it was a balmy 9 degrees with snow on the ground. Al Gore lied to me. As I mentioned before, I thought I was safe on Friday to take off my Snow Tires. This was proven false. So today, I went out looking for some chains, as I've got three passes to cross in order to get home. And its been snowing all weekend. My current tires are possibly the worst kind of tires to drive in the snow, or so I discovered as I was driving around town to try to find some chains, only to discover that Walmart considers them out of season, even though this is Montana and apparently the snow is always in season. But then again, I should have known that I was going to Montana and kept my tires on. Well, I was directed to find some tire stores because that was likely the only place to find chains. It being Sunday, everything was closed, and I'm trying to find the location of any place that sells chains on snow covered roads while I'm trying to negotiate from point to point without killing myself or hitting anybody. Then I discovered that trying to drive in the snow without snow tires skewed my perception of how my car feels to me. When I finally found a place that sells chains, I discovered that I was driving on a flat tire. So I had to change a flat tire on top of it all, and once I got my spare on, I had to go back to Walmart to get my flat fixed because no other tire place is open on Sunday. Hanging around Walmart for about twenty minutes, I get an overhead page telling me to make my way to the automotive department to tell me that my tire is unrepairable. Oh, and I just bought the tire on Friday. So it was brand new. But now I have to find a tire to replace it so I can get home tomorrow so I can take this one back. Well, I considered it somewhat of a sign that maybe I wasn't meant to go home today. I had an eerie feeling this morning that I needed to stick around. Something was kind of nagging at me. And a couple people who left before me told me the pass was like glass. So maybe its all for the best? We'll see how the pass is tomorrow then? Labels: angst, Car, Doh, Grr, Trip -Risawn: # 9:37 PM - |

4.19.2008

Weekend Bliss So, I'm in Helena Montana on a training mission this weekend. I've been to Helena for the last two Aprils so this was just another one of those missions, right? Actually, this one is a bit different. We're training DEPers, at least that's what I like to call them. I had to drive up here on Friday to get prepared to for Saturday (today) where we were going to do all of this training and had it planned for the soldiers so they could get a taste of what Basic Training is going to be like and just give them a leg up or so. Well, I'll talk more about my weekend when I get home on my military blog. In the meantime, I have my alarm set for *early* because we're doing a 'rude awakening for the privates. Unforunately, apparently the rumor is going around that we're going to wake them up at zero early in the morning so I think a few of them are going to be prepared for us to go in there and scream at them. We have to plan this out just right though. Anyway, I wanted to wake them up at 0400, but apparently the recruiters are a little against that idea. But my phone (which doubles as my alarm clock these days) is running out of juice so despite my eyes being bloodshot and I look like hell from lack of sleep (being a drill sergeant and all) but I don't want to take the chance of sleeping in because my alarm clock is dead, so I'm in my car now, looking for a place where I can charge my phone up and there is free wireless internet to blog (since I've been such a neglectful blogger recently). Meanwhile, going back to the training, they had this high speed training schedule planned out, and that kind of got thrown to the wayside when it decided to snow this weekend. I can add to this. I thought I was safe so I got my Snow Tires removed yesterday before I came up to Montana to do training. So I have to drive THROUGH Montana tomorrow when they are predicting up to six inches tonight. We didn't plan these things. I might just spend the night in Helena tomorrow night too, or at least wait until the roads are cleared before I head out, because driving through the roads with my tires proved to be crap. *sighs* Anyway, a lot of training got nixed, like the confidence course, which I was looking forward too, but I got to call cadence, and I learned that I need to keep up with my cadence calling, but at the same time, it comes back pretty quick. And I need to work on my command voice. My voice is now gone. It's pretty darn cold and I've been lethargic lately so I haven't been working it. I also found out that a certain side of my humor comes out of the woodwork when I put on my hat, and it's a side of my humor that I REALLY need to watch when I hit the trail. The self depreciating humor is what I particularly need to watch, but I usually just use it when I screw up, like when I call a column left instead of a column right (and I was doing that WAY to often this weekend *sighs*) But overall I had a lot of fun. Got a little refresher as a Drill Sergeant, learned that I really need to work on the PT, and that this dad gum weather has not been helping out with that. So, aside from last weekend, we've just been having snow every weekend. Why have I not been taking advantage of my Snowboard? Just saying. Tell you more when I get home. If I never get home, its because I drove off the side of a mountain trying to get home. Er, that last part was a joke. I hope. Labels: Drill Sergeant -Risawn: # 10:30 PM - |

4.11.2008

More Fun With the Camera So, I've come to the conclusion that I will be taking a lot more pictures with my camera. I love this thing, and you can take a picture of just about ANYTHING! And until I get something else of interest taking my time, I'll be posting a lot of pictures of whatever I find in my camera. I think I'm going to start a blog just for pictures. They'll be pictures of interest for me of course, ones that have semi-artistic merit and not just a snap shot of people picking their noses. Yesterday I watched the niece and nephew practice Soccer. They're four and five (well, Brinley's almost five, and Cody'll be six this summer) and watching a bunch of little kids play soccer is quite hilarious. They keep wanting to touch the ball with their hands and you have to use visual pictures to get them to understand the game. Like they have to pretend to be carrots, and carrots don't have hands. They had practice in Manito Park, and I observed with my camera in hand. My sister Julie got recruited as the Soccer Coach kind of last minute, which is quite funny because I don't think she really knows a thing about soccer. Fortunately, these are little kids so the rules are extra simplified for them. I must say that I'm really loving my camera. Brinely can be such a ham sometimes. She just got recruited this week to play soccer with her cousin and she LOVES it. Cody found a stick, and began to want to play hockey with the soccer balls. We had to put an end to that real quick. He had to wear that hat. I got this little girl in action, and I love how this shot turned out. She's quite the little Soccer Player. There's Cody running up behind her. Playing with continuous shot on my camera, I got a series of shots of Brinley running. I had to play around so I merged them together into one photo. Not a perfect merge by any means, but I love how clear the shot was. I took advantage of being in Manato Park and saw some birds, so I took some bird shots as well. I've always wanted to get shots of birds and animals in flight. Not all came out clear, because there was about fifty billion birds there and they were all over the place, so you kind of had to point the camera and try to take the pic, hoping it would turn out. Well this one did. This poor duck is clearly mutated or something. But she's not so ugly that she doesn't have a mate, who appears to be right there protecting her. Ah, love is clearly blind. More fun with those micro close up shots. I can see myself potentially doing a lot of these. I hope I don't burn other people out of them. There's a green house in Manito Park which has all of these really pretty flowers, and even a banana tree. I took a lot of closeups while I was there. I'm sure I'll be posting more pics in the near future. Labels: family, Pictures -Risawn: # 10:26 AM - |

4.10.2008

The Digital Toys of My Life In continuation of my previous post about my new 'toy', which is what I call anything that deals in electronics, whether it be cameras, laptops or Nintendo Wiis, they are my toys and I'm just a big gigantic sucker for them. I've always loved taking pictures, and got a lot of grief for it when I was a young private in AIT. I took a ton of pictures, and it drove my class mates nuts. But they didn't seem to mind so much when I gave them duplicate pictures. But when I got my digital camera, I was sold. As many pictures as I could take, and no need to worry about developing them? You know, I really haven't used the traditional 35 mm since then. I thought maybe I should give you a brief history of my various Digital Cameras, since it's such a fantastically interesting topic I'm sure. I've included some examples of some photos each took, some of my favorites really, nothing cropped or altered except for size. Click to full view. My First Camera - Sony DSC S50 This camera was my first digital camera, and I'm not sure why, but I was sold on it as soon as I saw it. I think the flip up view finder is what sold me now that I think about it. It's because of that flip up view finder that I still have this camera in my posession, because otherwise the poor thing is seriously outdated and obsolete. It came with an 8 mb Memor Stick, and I think I upgraded to a 32 Mb for something around the neighborhood of $80. EIGHTY DOLLARS for a freaking 32 Meg MEMORY STICK!!! I was told to get a camera with a minimum of 2.0 Megapixels as well, which was a good thing at the time, as I do believe this was 2001 when I made this purchase. I must have spent in the neighborhood of $600 on this gargantuan monster, but I still love this camera. It is a great little camera to just take shots of yourself, and I have great memories taken with it. But only 15 second videos? I guess they thought your memory stick would get eaten alive if they expanded it anymore. And the videos never got bigger then 460 x 680. I think. Tiny. I have a lot of great pictures taken with this camera, but this picture of me in Suriname continues to be one of my favorites. These kids are so adorable. And when I flipped the viewfinder up and showed them I was taking their picture, they loved it! I wish I had a bigger memory stick, I would have taken more pictures. My Second Camera - Sony DSC P93 Sony's are expensive. They are nice cameras and all, but you pay for that brand name for sure. However, one of the reasons I went with a sony again for my second camera was not for the brand name, but for the memory stick. Yes, I'm a sucker, and I already had acquired a few memory sticks with my previous camera, and memory sticks were sill expensive! So I felt it necessary to cut the costs wherever I could and stick with what I already had. Besides, I love my other camera, I thought I would stick with a brand I liked. Actually, I really didn't need to get a new camera for the purposes of staying new, because I liked my old one just fine. The problem was, I was getting ready to mobilize and I wanted a camera that I could keep with me, easy enough to slip into my ammo pouch on a mission. Because believe me, we weren't putting ammo in them. This camera turned out to be great. In fact, I beat the crap out of it. It traveled all over Europe with me and took some great pictures. A lot of incriminating photos probably. Though I was careful never to post those online. Whatever. I purchased this camera at the end of 2004, and it lasted me into 2006. Me and one of my battle buddies SGT V, hitchen' a ride on the back of a Kosovar tractor in Letnicia. This may be one of my favorite pictures in regards to Kosovo life. I wonder if he minds that I took it? It's just a dynamic photo, and a lucky shot of me taking the shot as we passed him by in our Hummvee. The camera however, has been on its last leg for a while now. I didn't want to take a beat up old thing with me to Yellowstone, so I picked up another one before I left and handed this one down to my brother. My Third Camera - Sony DSC S600 Yes, we have a bit of a pattern going on here. I had luck with the first two Sonys, and keeping with tradition of wanting to cut costs on memory sticks, I picked up a third. I've taken some decent pictures with this camera, but it has by no means been a happy experience for me. Actually, this camera has frustrated me to no end. From the battery case popping loose and losing some good batteries while horse back riding to its less then stellar pictures under certain weather conditions to its feisty behavior, I have not been fond of this camera at all. I think it might be because its a lower end of the Sony brackett, and my other two cameras were mid range or higher (the first camera is definitely a nice one for the time and technology) that I just couldn't get happy with this camera. But I do keep it around for certain occaissions. One of which is to help augment my current point and shoot, which I will get to in a minute. Meanwhile, after this camera, I stopped taking as many pictures. Mostly because its strange desire to suck batteries of their life a little to quickly, and its outright refusal to work unless coaxed in a certain way. It's stubborn I tell you. But I still find myself having to use it instead of my new one from time to time. A lot of my yellowstone pics were taken with this camera, but when you see the pics my family took, you can tell which ones were taken with the 'cheap' camera and which ones were taken with the nice one. The picture quality has definitely deteriorated. But I still have some good pics. Rawhide was a good little horse. Yellowstone was fun, probably one of the funnest jobs I've ever had, but I was still getting past my deployment and was not the easiest person to work with that summer. High strung was a good term to use, a lot of things were going on at that time and though I don't regret the experience, I wish things had ended differently then they had. But that's another long story. Doing a lot better now. Yes, this camera was purchased in 2006. My Fourth Camera - Sony DSC T10 This is the last Sony I will probably own. Don't get me wrong, I love this camera, but I'm kind of over the whole Sony bit. This camera also takes some pretty sweet pictures, but unfortunately, I've had some bad luck with it. I purchased it for Drill Sergeant School, wanting something small and portable and NOT my third camera, and the memory stick was again a factor. However this camera has had its share of woes. During DSS, something happened and it just stopped working. I don't know what I did (probably dropped it) but fortunately for me, it's still under warranty. I had to use my loathesome third camera for DSS instead, and ended up not taking a whole lot of pics because of this. The other problem is charging the battery and downloading pictures onto my computer. Unlike my first camera, which can be plugged into charge and therefore you can always take pictures, this one tends to like to run out of juice, and I have a nasty habit of misplacing the charger. I also don't know what happened to my USB adaptor, which is a little different then your standard adaptor, and so I use my third camera to download pictures onto my computer. It gets a little tiresome. My picture taking has suffered because of it. I did this photoshoot in December, you might recognize the picture a bit. Half were taken with this camera, half with my sisters when I ran out of memory card space. *sighs*. As mentioned, I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures with this camera. But I'm trying to change that. Its a great little point and shoot, as long as I keep the battery charged. My Digital *Non* Camera - Vivitar Digital Camera Binocular Don't tell me what made me take a momentary lapse in sanity and think this was a good idea. I should know better then to buy cheap crap electronics like this. But alas, last Christmas, I had more money then I knew what to do with and I thought with my Employee Discount it was worth checking out. Well, it was cheap, thankfully, but that should have been my first clue. I just always liked the idea of being able to zoom in really close and take a picture. I can zoom with my other cameras, but I never could get as close as I wanted too. I've always wanted to get better pictures then I get, so I thought I would give this a try. I could probably get them for false advertising, because this is not what the picture looks like. Not by a long shot. It makes it look like it takes crystal clear SLR quality photos. Hah! I took a couple. They turned out a horrid blurry mess. I never tried again. But the camera was fortunately very cheap. Very very cheap. That should have been a warning. They do work as a pair of binoculars though. My Fifth Camera - Canon DSLR EOS 40D It's very pretty. It takes very pretty pictures too. I'm still getting the hang of it and am trying to baby it and make sure it lasts for many years to come. I bought this thing to focus more on making photography more of a hobby of mine, and encourage me to get outdoors and go visit family more often. So there is extra incentive for me buying this gargantuan thing. It encourages me to get SOCIAL! And continue to be a camera happy person, yes, but there is nothing wrong with that. And I am encouraged to look around at things a little differently. I'll probably save up for some different lenses later, but man how I wish I had this thing when I was in Yellowstone. It would have taken AWESOME pictures! But this will go to Knox with me. I'm not sure how often I will get a chance to use it, because I can't take pictures and do the shark attack at the same time, and I don't trust another person that is not family with it yet. Well, except Julie, as she is as bad as me when it comes to breaking things. I'm going to make an extra effort to take more pictures, maybe not fascinating ones and I'll likely not be in them, but hey, it is my blog. And i can take pictures of whatever the heck I want! I'll be taking some action shots tomorrow. I've got to get fully realized on this camera before I take it on the trail with me, and make sure I'm comfortable enough with it that I don't run over it with a car or submerge it in water. Otherwise, well, it's covered under warranty. Exciting stuff, eh? There's my multitude of Cameras. I only have so many because I'm single and haven't found a responsible way of using my money yet. Labels: Camera, Pictures, Toys -Risawn: # 1:07 AM - |

4.09.2008

Grown Up Toys I don't know what it is about being single, but being single means only answering for oneself, and when one wants to get a toy, one merely has to talk themselves in or out of it. So I talked myself into a special toy that I've been thinking about getting for some time now. I picked up a DSLR camera. It is fancy shmancy and as soon as I took it home, I decided I wanted to test it out by taking it out and taking pictures of anything that could potentially be interesting. I discovered that when one has a camera in hand, one focuses on what could be potentially be an interesting topic to photograph. And I've also discovered that anything could potentially be an interesting topic depending on how it is photographed. Well, I still got a lot to learn, but I love the camera and how crisp and clear the pictures turned out. Though this is not the time of year to take a camera out to catch the sights. I think is previous years April should offer plenty of bloomage, but this April has started of a bit on the damper side. And I need to further train my photographer's eye on things that could potentially be interesting to take pictures of. Call me weird, but I want to take pictures of bugs. It's still to early to get pictures of bugs however. Kentucky probably has a nice variety I wager. One of the more interesting pics I took. I bet I could talk my sister into heading over to river front park and taking some pics with me. Heck, either one in town would likely be game for it. One sister is quite the photographer, we could compare cameras! Labels: Pictures, Toys -Risawn: # 7:30 PM - |

4.06.2008

Charlton Heston - RIP As many of you know, I'm a bit of a gun nut. I like Guns. I have been a member of the NRA and truthfully I need to get my membership renewed sometime in the near future, before this next presidential election when you have people like Barack Obama who wants to ban all hand guns. So, as many of you know, Charlton Heston, former President of the NRA, passed away yesterday at the age of 84. I noted his passing mentioned on Perezhilton.com yesterday (one of my guilty pleasures I admit) and was curious as to what Perez's readers might say about the man they would likely see as their enemy due to his stance on gun rights. Apparently, these people are rabid haters of anybody who wants to own a gun. And they are apparently also loyal supporters of the film maker Michael Moore. Michael Moore's movies should be shown in Critical Thinking classes, and that's about it. The man distorts and edits so much in his movies that he completely tweaks the truth to fit his agenda. Because he does this, he has lost all credibility with me. I've seen Bowling for Columbine. I refuse to watch any other movies that he's made, no matter what message he's trying to portray that I may or may not agree with (and mostly I disagree, but the man is a complete narcissist so why should I even bother?) Apparently, people still look at the film 'bowling for columbine' and it's character assassination of Charlton Heston as gospel. Including the apparent scene where he goes to a gun rally in Denver shortly after the Columbine incident and rallies his fellow gun-loving troops behind him. I would link to the Bowling for Columbine Myths page to get a better understanding of all the problems with the film, but alas, the link is broken. Whatever the case, Charlton Heston, a screen legend in Hollywood, a strong supporter of the civil rights movement in the 1960's, and a advocate of the 2nd ammendment, was a good man that does not deserve the hostility he has gotten from rabid lunatics of the left who follow Moore passionately. Besides, if anything to encourage the ownership of guns, look at Switzerland and their unusually high gun ownership rate. They also have a very low homicide rate due to gun violence. Why? Because I know if I were a criminal, I would be less inclined to attack somebody if I knew they were armed. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have the guns. There are a bunch of these little sayings, but you know what? They are quite true. I guess I didn't mean to go on a bit of a rant on the owner ship of guns when I'm talking about the death of a great man, but I guess they go hand in hand, don't they? Labels: Guns, Rant -Risawn: # 11:56 AM - |

4.04.2008

Stop-Loss I was just watching Bill O'Reilly and he had a little segment on movies involving the Iraq War, bringing to our attention the movie Stop-Loss, and how its bombed in theaters stateside. I watched as it seemed like people were describing this movie as not Anti-War but Pro-Soldier. I haven't seen the movie myself and I admit I have no intention of seeing it. But I've had no desire to see it since I heard of it. Because its about whining and complaining. And I'll go further as to why I think most people, and a lot of soldiers are turned off by this. This is a volunteer military. We have not enacted the draft. When you sign the dotted line, you are signing a contract that states that you are getting pay and benefits and sometimes a whole lot of money for your service. You are getting something for something. And the military is expecting you to hold onto your end of the bargain. What a lot of people don't seem to understand is the eight year contract that EVERYONE who joins the military signs. Meaning you are still in the military after your initial two or four year contract is up. They can still call on you and ship you overseas if they have need of you. When you hear soldiers coming back from Iraq bitching and complaining of being stop-lossed, calling it a backdoor draft, I call bull. Nobody forced you to sign the contract, you did it because you were expecting something in return. Granted, some people's experiences in the military are not the greatest either. You may have had a bad experience, poor leadership, which has killed more then one career that I know of (and nearly killed my own) but you still have an obligation, as the military does provide plenty of opportunity and benefits if you take advantage of them. So I look at this movie Stop-Loss and it is no surprise to me that it bombed. Telling me a story about a soldier who served faithfully, then gets back and gets stop-lossed and gets mad about it, shows to me that you are showing a soldier who is not living by the army values of Loyalty, Duty, Selfless Service or Honor. This isn't going to fly in the military community, unless its other dirtbags that are whining too. Thanks but no thanks. Show me a story of a soldier who deserves my admiration and respect. Tell me a story of a soldier's soldier. They used to make movies all the time. Why can't we have a Saving Private Ryan of the Iraq War? This movie is not Anti-War, well maybe not. I'm not one to judge, I haven't seen it so I can't judge it on that regard. But it is not showing the better side of the American solider. No thanks, I'll save my money. Labels: Movies -Risawn: # 5:21 PM - |

Thanks For Flying and Serving I'm traveling in uniform. I have found that traveling in uniform has its downsides, but it has its perks as well. One, if you are in uniform, you don't have to remove your boots when you walk through the check point. Two, you get a lot of people thanking you for your service. Three, if there is an empty seat in first class, the flight crew will come up to you and ask if you would like to sit there. So on my way from Denver to Oklahoma City, I flew first class for the first time. Ever. It was nice. I had plenty of leg room. They actually served my drink in a glass. I was the first one off the plane. But I look back, I didn't really need to fly first class. Actually, I was having a nice conversation with the people next to me and actually hesitated taking the seat because I was leaving them. But its still nice to get noticed and thanked. The downside to traveling in uniform? Well, you stand out like a soar thumb. You can't walk around with headphones in your ears and you have to be extra cautious about what you are doing because you are representing the the military and you have to remain a professional. But when you get somebody who comes up to you and thanks you sincerely for your service, it does make it worth it. Even if I do make a living out of yelling at people. Labels: Army, Feel Good, Military, Travel -Risawn: # 5:06 PM - |

Maid Service I'm currently staying at a pretty nice hotel waiting for my flight to leave later today. Things have been fairly easy here, but I didn't fail to notice that the maid service is not that smart. In a lot of hotels these days, they have this little announcement where they ask you to reuse the towels to conserve water and all of this, which I'm all for. I mean, I don't have to have a clean towel every time I use the shower. So I took a shower, used their soap and shampoos and after I was done I draped the towel over the shower curtain to let it dry out. I didn't let anything fall on the floor. Of course, I had some hair ties and a soap container in a plastic bag, which was wrapped around the rest of my toiletries to prevent them from leaking all over my luggage. Anyway. I came back after the first day, to reveal that although it states that they ask us to do our part to conserve water for the environment, I find my soaps and towels replaced, and the plastic bag is thrown away. Grr. . . The next day, I put the conservation sign up NEXT to my towel, hoping they might get the hint that I don't need it to be replaced. I mean, they tell me to throw the towel on the floor if I want a new one, I'm perfectly content to use the other one. I mean, it's just water I'm drying off myself after a shower. They still replaced all of the towels. But strangely, they left the soap alone. I would take it, but I don't have anything to carry it back in. Hmm. . . I'm not against doing a little conservation here and there. But it makes it difficult when the hotel doesn't cooperate with their own policy. I guess next time I'll put that don't disturb sign on the door. But I like getting into a made bed that night. Labels: Grr, Housekeeping, Travel -Risawn: # 9:34 AM - |

4.01.2008

April Fools! So, I'm waiting at Denver International to catch my flight to my next destination, which should be leaving here in about an hour. So I'm just chilling out in the glorious USO that is here. Quite possibly one of the nicest USOs I've ever been too. Um, the thing is, I should have been at my destination a few hours ago. Let me explain. Whenever I have to travel anywhere, I get a little antsy the night before and can't sleep. Such as was the case last night. So I set my alarm for 0410 because I had a 6 AM flight I had to catch. I did my thing, and to doubly make sure that everything was set, I checked my alarm again. And accidentally shut it off. Causing me to sleep in and miss my flight. And nothing makes you panic like thinking you missed a flight. As an NCO, I need to be more responsible about these things, shouldn't I? So, I won't be flying into my destination until about 10 PM. A good nine and a half hours later then I should have been. I just hope I don't miss any important briefings or what ever happened today. We're crossing fingers that this was a traveling day but I'm sure I'm going to have to make up for something tomorrow. Don't you hate playing an April Fool's joke on yourself? Gah! Labels: Doh, Sleep, USO -Risawn: # 5:21 PM - |