Hey lookie here... I had an anniversary

Well, I have just realized that I have been Beating on the keys of this computer at an irregular interval for the past 2 yrs blogging about what ever has tickled my fancy enough to put forth the effort to post. I am still quasi amused with my first post and what I think is still my mission statement on my overall view of the world.
Free Box with every Pizza.

Well, I hope to continue to entertain and amuse the approx 3.5 folks who read this blog. (that includes the nice neighbor lady and my mom)

Well you can put away the party hats and noise makers. It ain't that important!

Recirculate

I am doing a re-post of this because I found ultimately what I want to do when I grow up.. (it is the last in the pick of Jobs I want to do)

In the Twenty years I wore the “dirty blue shirt” there was always the give and take of the rate that you chose before you enlisted.

Coner’s would always give the Nuke’s the “chose your Rate-Chose your fate you SRB getting SOB’s”Sh#t when the 1MJ would power whine 2 minutes after watch relief on the mess decks.

Then, there was the same attitude from everyone for MT’s, whom during the first week of pulling in and the last week of pulling out of port would have to work like rabid monkeys to get all the maintenance done on the missile and other related systems.

Same held true with my rate when we would have to hydro ourselves to get the ship out of port and in deep blue water; then in and out again for each port/medivac/humivac and liberty call.

On a Submarine, Each rating had a skate time and a period of time that was just horrible.
I think the only Rate I never envied were the Yeomen.
Those poor devils had bad hours no matter where we were in a deployment period. And if they weren’t supporting the XO/CO for some major paperwork evolution, they were hosed with the 3MC/EDEA putting them on Drill weenie hours.

So there was always an envy factor between rates on the boat. No matter what rate you were,, you had some degree of envy for the other guy because he wasn't in your situation.


Now that I have transitioned to the Civilian side, I still have job envy.

I caught a nice brass ring getting out of the navy and found a great, well paying, satisfying way to make a living that I didn’t have to move, my commute is the same if not shorter than when I was in the Navy and I work with a great bunch of men who have the same twisted sense of humor I do.

But still, there are days I sigh and dream....

WHAT IF???

First, If I could do anything in the whole world over again, I would choose the Job of Mark Reid.

I grew up in New Mexico with Mark. Actually he was more like an uncle to me than a peer. He is a man of many talents and a great overall guy.
He is a Master Body Painter








Here are some Examples of his work


And Those aren't Blue Jeans,, Those babies are painted on.

This is his specialty in the buisness.

Working with some of these women, I guess you could see the Envy factor.

I am sure that there are day’s Mark asks himself “ Why don’t I do Something Else” like every man can and I am sure does. But I am sure that the are far less frequent than most of us.

And

To airbrush those girls.

WOW

His website Mark Reid Art



And if I couldn’t be a Master Body Painter like Mark,


I would chose this Guy's Job



He has such a Kick ass set of tools, I don’t know if it’s job envy or tool envy that drives me to want to take his place.

Cabinets, tables, Dado’s, Mortis bits…. The ENTIRE collection of Porter Tools, and Delta Tools. Plus a really cool workshop that seems to never have a wife messing with the stuff.

He can take a pallet that has been run over by a Semi and turn it into a French Colonial Cuckoo clock or some other way cool yet useless piece of furniture.


And Finally, Here is the job I really want.


Paid to be like Statler and Waldorf.
I would love to have a job where I have nothing to do other than have an unlimited license to insult,mock and belittle all foolishness in the world.


Well there you have it.


I chosen my first rate after the Navy. But there is still the things I still dream of being when the job I have is boring and mundane.

I like her

The McCain staff and John made a brilliant political move with this girl.


To quote SUBVET over at Blowing SAN #1,
Religious, home school er, 2nd Amendment supporter, athlete, corruption fighter, hunter, fisher, political outsider, five kids, oldest son in the military, husband a championship athlete, she won the title of Miss Congeniality in a beauty contest some years back. Favorite meal is moose stew.

What's not to like?

With any sort of luck she'll be the GOP candidate for President in 2012 after McCain decides not to run for re election.

and I stole this from Cookie over at the Cook shack.

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964) is the current Governor of Alaska, and the presumptive 2008 Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States.[1] She will be the second female Vice Presidential nominee representing one of the two major American political parties.[2]

Born in Idaho and raised in Alaska, Palin played point guard on her high school's championship basketball team. She was the 1984 runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, receiving a scholarship that allowed her to attend the University of Idaho, where she received a degree in journalism. After working as a sports reporter at an Anchorage television station, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, City Council from 1992 to 1996, was elected mayor of Wasilla (population 5,470 in 2000) in 1996, and ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in 2002. After charging ethical violations by state Republican Party leaders,[3] she won election in 2006 by first defeating incumbent governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary, then former Democratic Alaskan governor Tony Knowles in the general election.

On August 29, 2008, presumptive GOP nominee John McCain chose Palin as his nominee for vice president.

Family and personal background

Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter of Charles and Sally (Sheeran) Heath.[4] Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant.[5] Charles Heath was a science teacher and track coach.[5] The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and the family regularly ran 5k and 10k races.[5]

Palin was the point guard and captain for the Wasilla High School Warriors, in Wasilla, Alaska, when they won the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982; she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play.[5] She played the championship game despite a stress fracture in her ankle, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds.[5] Palin, who was also the head of the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes, would lead the team in prayer before games.[5]

In 1984, after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, Palin finished second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant which won her a scholarship to help pay her way through college.[5] In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics.

Her husband, Todd, is a Native Yup'ik Eskimo.[5] Outside the fishing season, Todd works for BP at an oil field on Alaska's North Slope[6] and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-mile "Iron Dog" race four times.[5] The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated from college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street.[5] The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Anchorage.[7]

She briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high school sweetheart.[5] One summer when she was working on Todd's fishing boat, the boat collided with a tender while she was holding onto the railing; Palin broke several fingers.[5]

On September 11, 2007, the Palins' eighteen-year-old son Track, eldest of five, joined the Army.[7] He now serves in an infantry brigade and will be deployed to Iraq in September 2008. She also has three daughters: Bristol, 17; Willow, 13; and Piper, 7.[8] On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome.[9] She returned to the office three days after giving birth.[10] Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"[10]

Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose hamburger, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane.[11][12] Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.[13]


Pre-gubernatorial political experience

Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, she challenged the incumbent mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes.[5] The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to organize a recall campaign, but failed.[5] Palin kept her campaign promises, reducing her own salary, as well as reducing property taxes by 60%.[5] She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin.[5][14] Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.[8]

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a four-way race. After Frank Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, Palin interviewed to be his possible successor. Instead, Murkowski appointed his daughter, then-Alaska State Representative Lisa Murkowski.[5]

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission,[15] where she served from 2003 to 2004 until resigning in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest.[5] After she resigned, she exposed the state Republican party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners, who was accused of doing work for the party on public time, and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail.[16] Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.[5]


Governorship

Governor Palin visits a wounded soldier in Landstuhl, Germany, July 2007In 2006, Palin, running on a clean-government campaign, executed an upset victory over then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.[5] Despite the lack of support from party leaders and being outspent by her Democratic opponent, she went on to win the general election in November 2006, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles.[5] Palin said in 2006 that education, public safety, and transportation would be three cornerstones of her administration.[13]

When elected, Palin became the first woman to be Alaska's governor, and the youngest governor in Alaskan history at 42 years of age upon taking office. Palin was also the first Alaskan governor born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood. She was also the first Alaskan governor not to be inaugurated in Juneau, instead choosing to hold her inauguration ceremony in Fairbanks. She took office on December 4, 2006.

Highlights of Governor Palin's tenure include a successful push for an ethics bill, and also shelving pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans. Palin successfully killed the Bridge to Nowhere project that had become a nationwide symbol of wasteful earmark spending.[10][17] "Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on 'federal dollars,' as the state does today."[11]

She has challenged the state's Republican leaders, helping to launch a campaign by Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young[18] and publicly challenging Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings.[10]

In 2007, Palin had an approval rating often in the 90s.[11] A poll published by Hays Research on July 28, 2008 showed Palin's approval rating at 80%.[19]


Energy policies

Palin's tenure is noted for her independence from big oil companies, while still promoting resource development.[11][10] Palin has announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet group of advisors, to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska.[20]

Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded thirty-five appointments made by Murkowski in the last hour of his administration, including the appointment by Murkowski of his former chief of staff Jim Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority.[21][22] Clark later pled guilty to conspiring with a defunct oil-field-services company to channel money into Frank Murkowski's re-election campaign.[23]

In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope.[24] Only one legislator, Representative Ralph Samuels, voted against the measure,[25] and in June Palin signed it into law.[26][27] On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, Transcanada, was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant.[28][29]

In response to high oil and gas prices, and in response to the resulting state government budget surplus, Palin proposed giving Alaskans $100-a-month energy debit cards. She also proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers' rates.[30] She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and in its place she proposed to send Alaskans $1,200 directly and eliminate the gas tax.[31][32]


Social issues

Palin is strongly pro-life, a supporter of capital punishment[www.palinforgovernor.com, "Issues" Nov 7, 2006], and belongs to Feminists for Life.[13]

She opposes same-sex marriage, but she has stated that she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination.[13] While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin complied with a state Supreme Court order and signed them into law.[33] She disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling[34] and supported a democratic advisory vote from the public on whether there should be a constitutional amendment on the matter.[35] Alaska was one of the first U.S. states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage, in 1998, along with Hawaii.[36] Palin has stated that she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment.[13]

Palin's first veto was used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to the partners of gay state employees. In effect, her veto granted State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples. The veto occurred after Palin consulted with Alaska's attorney general on the constitutionality of the legislation.[34]


Matanuska Maid Dairy closure

When the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business, Palin objected, citing concern for the impact on dairy farmers and the fact that the dairy had just received $600,000 in state money. When Palin learned that only the Board of Agriculture and Conservation could appoint Creamery Board members, she simply replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation.[11][37] The new board, led by businesswoman Kristan Cole, reversed the decision to close the dairy.[37] The new board approved milk price increases offered by the dairy in an attempt to control fiscal losses, even though milk from Washington was already offered in Alaskan stores at lower prices.[38] In the end, the dairy was forced to close, and the state tried to sell the assets to pay off its debts but received no bids.[39][40]


Budget

In the first days of her administration, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. The state placed the jet for sale on eBay three times. In August 2007, the jet was sold for $2.7 million.[41]

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled a contract for construction on an 11-mile (18-kilometer) gravel road outside of Juneau to a mine. This reversed a decision made in the closing days or hours of the Murkowski Administration.[42]

In June 2007, Palin signed into law a $6.6 billion operating budget—the largest in Alaska's history.[43] At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to nearly $1.6 billion.[44]

While waiting for your wife at Wal-Mart

1. Take 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they aren't looking.

2. Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. Make a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the rest rooms.

4. Walk up to an employee and tell them in an official tone, "Code 3 in housewares!" ..... and watched what happens.

5. Go to the Service Desk and ask to put a bag of M&Ms on lay-away.

6. Move a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7. Set up a tent in the camping department and invite shoppers in if they will bring pillows from the bedding department.

8. When a clerk asked if they could help you, throw yourself down on the floor,and began to cry and wail, "Why can't you people just leave me alone?'

9. Looked right into the security camera; used it as a mirror, and picked your nose.

10. While handling guns in the hunting department, ask the clerk if he knows where the antidepressants are.

11.Dart around the store, looking around suspiciously while loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme.

12. Hide in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yell, "PICK ME! — PICK ME!"

13. When an announcement comes over the loud speaker, assume the fetal position and scream, "NO! NO! NO! It's those voices again!!!!"

14. Go into a fitting room, shut the door and wait a while; then yell very loudly, "Hey, Somebody! I need some toilet paper in here!"

Submarine Blogger Roundup for August 08

Here is another roundup of all the Submarine Bloggers I could find on the Internet.

I am posting in a different format this time, I didn't include my interpretation of the blog postings, You will have to just go and read them yourself.

I have also categorized them by who has been blogging frequently, and those who have all together abandoned blogging but still have a few good sea stories to read.

If I have missed a blog, or there is a new Submarine blogger out there who hasn't been identified, Please post a comment so I can include it.

Conducting operations (Active Bloggers)
Sandy Salt
Beebsblog
A Geezer’s corner
The Stupid Shall Be punished
Chapomatic
Unconsidered Trifles
Submandave
Robs Blog
Photios
The Cook Shack
Molten Eagle
Gus Van Horn
Doc MacDonald
USS Dolphin
Right Mind
Musings of an old man
Da fox hole
Aloha Dump
Reality Frame
Twelve Fluid Ounces
Submarines Forever
USS Boston Sail and Rudder CO LTD
The Old Coot
DCS Security
Ramblinboy
USS Augusta
Midwatch Cowboy
Blowing San #1
In Through The Out Door
Blunoz random ramblings
Sleepy Eyed Whiners of the Deep
Emergency Blow
Checks with Chart
Decks Awash!
No Slack, Fast Attack
Myron’s Random Thoughts
One of the better stories ever told
Boomer Rider

Drydock (6 months to 10 months since the last post)

None

Reserve Fleet (Greater than 10 months in posting)

Hundreds of Fathoms
Zero Bubble
Discomfort of Thought
Snapshot tube 2
Submarine Sailor
WTFO
Desert Periscope
Lazrambles
Torpedo in the Water
Adventures of the Professor Lieutenant
Run Aground

Missing and presumed lost

The EM Log

Submarine Forums

Rontini’s BBS


Submarine News

The Sub Report

Again if I missed a Blog, Please let me know, I have done enough cut and paste that there are URL's Stuck on the the ceiling, my chair, It's just a mess around here...

God Bless Texas

I gleaned this off of the CNN website this morning

HARROLD, Texas (AP) -- A tiny Texas school district will allow teachers and staff members to carry concealed firearms to protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting employees follow certain requirements.

The small community of Harrold in north Texas is a 30-minute drive from the Wilbarger County Sheriff's Office, leaving students and teachers without protection, said David Thweatt, superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District. The lone campus of the 110-student district sits near a heavily traveled highway, which could make it a target, he argued.

"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in a story published Friday on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Web site.

Barbara Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Association of School Boards, said her organization did not know of another district with such a policy. Ken Trump, a Cleveland, Ohio-based school security expert who advises districts nationwide, said Harrold is the first district with such a policy.

Trustees approved the policy change last year, and it takes effect when classes begin this month. For employees to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun, must be authorized to carry by the district, must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and must use ammunition designed to minimize the risk of ricocheting bullets.

Officials researched the policy and considered other options for about a year before approving the policy change, Thweatt said. The district also has other measures in place to prevent a school shooting, he said.

"The naysayers think [a shooting] won't happen here. If something were to happen here, I'd much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is OK because we were able to protect them," Thweatt said.

Texas law outlaws firearms at schools unless specific institutions allow them.

It isn't clear how many of the 50 or so teachers and staff members will be armed this fall, because Thweatt did not disclose that information, to keep it from students or potential attackers.

I am sure this will have liberals running around like their hair was on fire over this one. It has all the ingredients of a Greek tragedy to them, Teachers, Children, Class room and Nasty Nasty guns.
But if there had been some well armed citizens who have the intestinal fortitude to take the initiative in some of the other public places that gun wielding crazies have created news headline tragedies, I am certain that the body count would have amounted to the deranged criminal.

There are some things I still miss about living in the Southwest.

The right to bear arms in a responsible manner is one of them.

For employees to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun, must be authorized to carry by the district, must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and must use ammunition designed to minimize the risk of ricocheting bullets.

Emphasis mine, They can't just go to Joe's Guns and get a .38 to pack to work with their sandwich..

Site Meter problems

Friday, various blogger sites were unaccessible.

This was due to the Site meter software. It is used on blog pages to try and track page views and visitors. I only used it to verify the fact that other than my mom and a friendly neighbor, someone actually visits my page and reads what I write.

After a bit of troubleshooting on the blogger "help"(as in not much help) site, I figured out what was causing the error and deleted the offending element off my page.

So, If you use Site meter, (*I don't know if they have straightened out their problems, but I don't give crappy software a second chance,*) This was the reason anyone using IE7 couldn't load your Blog.