----------
Sent from the father of Shazaam, Prince of the short, blond dogs.
Wow, sometimes cool things unexpectedly pop onto my radar. One of those things is Evernote (evernote.com). It allows you to make notes on their system and then search them. No big deal, right? But:
You can e-mail notes to you Evernote account.
You can scan documents to your Evernote account (and it will OCR and make them searchable).
You can send pictures (of whiteboards, notes, etc) and it will OCR and make them searchable.
Clip web pages….
The list goes on, I’m sure. After all this data collection you can use it from anywhere! Your web-enabled device, computer, laptop, work computer, etc. Simply astounding!
Is this cloud computing? If so, I like it!
I’m off to explore some more of Evernote!
Sometimes being down in the
Back underway again. It seems like just yesterday that I was pulling into
This one isn’t all bad, we will be spending a few days in Port Everglades enjoying the hospitality of the Broward County Navy League, those folks really know how to make us feel appreciated!
It’s a duty day (back in homeport obviously) and I was just topside doing a tour and I glanced over to the ship across the pier, the USS COLE (DDG-67). It’s a cold, rainy night here in
The Navy doesn’t give up on ships, the
The Sailors standing watch on the COLE’s quarterdeck understand the history of their ship, but the history doesn’t have the same impact as memory.
I was a Strike Officer doing a training exercise on another ship that day. We were in
I’m an old hand at this Navy thing and over the years there have been many memories, more good than bad but a melancholy memory goes with a rainy duty night.
Ahh, another Sunday down, well almost. We advanced clocks an hour last night, another hour tonight and we are back in the same time zone with home.
It’s been a long deployment, compounded with a long school before deployment. Since July last year, I’ve been home about ten weeks, for those of you counting, that’s 15 months and only 10 weeks at home and I still have another three weeks underway before the end of the year. It’s feast or famine in the Navy, I also got to spend a year of not doing anything but going to school.
Right now, it’s a focus on the positive though, one more Sunday to go!
The weather is fantastic today, it's hot, but the oppressive humidity
has let up, at least for this morning.
What does an OPS boss do all day? Well, this has been the biggest consumer of my time today.
I have been trying to address the ship’s long-range schedule.
Every quarter our boss goes to a scheduling meeting and randomly has our ship’s schedule changed. Once the schedule is changed they secretly make changes to a PowerPoint slide surreptitiously called the
On day 4.67 the powers that be check the ship’s schedule and poke me with a dull stick (dull because it has been over used for poking) about why I haven’t updated my schedule amongst all the other things I do.
The meeting ended on the 10th, I’ve been getting poked since the 15th (no accounting for weekends, this is the Navy!).
So, a busy day. The good news? One more down! Not nearly so many to go!
I'm stealing this from Kris, or just answering it I guess.
1 What time did you get up this morning?
6:10
2 Beer or Wine?
Yes, please.
3 What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Hmmm, don't remember, it was long ago.
4 What is your favorite TV show?
Grey’s Anatomy though I really haven't seen much TV in about 15 months.
5 What do you usually have for breakfast?
Cereal and milk when I can, eggs when I can't
6 What is your middle name?
Edwin
7 What food do you dislike?
I'll try anything once, but if it's slimy and cold...
8 What is your favorite CD at the moment?
Shakira, Laundry Service
9 What kind of car do you drive?
Chevrolet Avalanche, but I want a new Camaro!
10 Favorite sandwich?
11 What characteristics do you despise?
Cruelty, lack of a sense of humor, self-centeredness
12 Favorite item of clothing?
Who needs 'em!
13 If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
The islands!
14 What you wearing now?
White tee shirt, brown shorts (too damn hot in hear for a uniform!)
15 Favorite brand of clothing?
Brand? The clothes type of stuff.
16 Where would you retire to?
Right where I live, it has an airport, I'm down the street from an RV dealer, what more could a retiree want?
17 What was your most recent memorable birthday?
I get so busy I forget most of them, but any spent with Kris make me happy
18 Favorite sport to watch?
Baseball
19 Furthest place you are sending this?
Who's sending?
20 Who do you least expect to send this back to you?
Anyone.
21 Person you expect to send it back first?
I've already seen Kris's.
22 Favorite Saying?
How many more days?
23 When is your birthday?
April 1st
24 Are you a morning person or night person?
Neither, unless I get a nap
25 What is your shoe size?
10.5
27 Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?
Not really, I've been stuck in the same spot for about six months.
28 What did you want to be when you were little?
A porn star or truck driver, never could choose.
29 How are you feeling today?
Tiredly optimistic.
30 What is your favorite candy?
Runts, Milk Duds, Hot Tamales!
31 What is your favorite flower?
Sunflowers and daisies, they are just so optimistic.
32 What is your full name?
James
33 What are your listening to right now?
The whir of an unknown fan, it'll stop in a few minutes and I will be no wiser as to it's source.
34 What was the last thing you ate?
Peanut butter on bread (really getting low on food here)
35 If you were a Crayon, what color would you be?
Today, Mango
36 How is the weather right now?
Partly cloudy, humid and windy (it's
37 Last person you spoke to
Brian, he wanted my soda!
38 Do you like the person who sent this to you?
More than she'll ever know!
39 Favorite Restaurant?
Max and Erma's, Macaroni Grill
40 Hair Color?
Brown
41 Siblings?
Yup, 3.5
42 Favorite day of the year?
Anniversary
43 What was your favorite toy as a child?
Legos!
44 Summer or winter?
Spring
45 Hugs or Kisses?
Why be choosy?
46 Chocolate or Vanilla?
Vanilla!
47 Do you want your friends to email you back?
Sure!
48 When was the last time your cried?
August 28th
49 What is under your bed?
Jim
50 Who is the friend you have had the longest?
Kris!
51 What did you do last night?
Played video games, sweated...
52 Favorite smell?
Sea air, baking cookies, Kris
53 What are you afraid of?
Forgetting
54 Plain, buttered or salted popcorn?
Buttered and salted!
55 How many keys are on your key ring?
Wish I knew, 4 or 5
56 How many years at your current job?
Depends on who you ask, I call it 22, some call it 21, some ask if I have a job!
57 Favorite day of the week?
Any day I come home!
58 How many towns/cities have you lived in?
8
59 Do you make friends easily?
Not really, I don't like people generally.
60 What and where is your favorite view?
A beach, at sunset beside my girl!
Fridays in port are always so frantic, everyone trying to wrap up the week's work to get home and enjoy the weekend. It's much the same at sea, except that Saturday is a work day and nobody is going anywhere tonight.
I think this is tied to the shore establishment. We jump through hoops to get them information so they can answer their bosses and go home early. Seems foolish, but we do it nonetheless...
Hopefully your shoreside Friday is going well and (since it's five o'clock here) you are on the way home to enjoy a relaxing weekend!
Ahh, the 80’s… what other era could give is such an apropos cliché? Another Sunday down, four to go!
This Sunday finds us escorting a suspected vessel back to port, boring but someone has to do it. In the eastern Caribbean, Hurricane Ike is bearing down on
Laundry is down again. That may seem strange since I haven’t mentioned it here before but, it goes down too often. What that means is everyone is wearing uniforms far longer than they should. Not too bad when it’s cool, but this is the southern
Til next time!
Keeping up with this blog has been harder than I thought! I often tell Ricki I sit down and write long e-mails in my head, they just never make it to the light of day. That’s what has happened here somewhat.
Enough belly aching though, it’s Sunday underway. We try to stick to holiday routine on Sunday, it allows everyone to get a little rest, relax and let their hair down, it also allows me time to catch up on e-mail and blogs.
Right now we are in the
I was on the bridge wing last night and it was a brilliantly clear, moonless night. You could see the span of the Milky Way across the sky. I’ve told more than one person, that’s one good reason to be in the Navy, you’ll never see that ashore…
that this deployment is almost done. I finished off my giant bottle of Flintstone’s chewables! I’ve now switched to the small auxiliary bottle.
While we’re on it, are the Flintstones even on anymore? Who are these things made for, us or today’s kids (not the goat kind Kris ;-) )?
Yes, it is off center... that was intentional, no really.
We are 22 hours from being done with our current exercise. It hasn’t been too arduous but it is always nice to check another item off on the “going home” list!
Unfortunately, for the port we are going in to, we are limited to liberty on the pier which boils down to cheap beer at one of three bars located on the pier. Not a bad way to spend an evening but definitely no insight into the local customs and traditions!
Here’s to another check mark!
That does seem to be about all I say sometimes! This week has been particularly hectic as we have been preparing for a multi-national exercise off the coast of
The problem with these big exercises, or any exercise for that matter, is that no matter how well orchestrated, they are still very hard to keep coordinated. We spend hours trying to get through the last bit of paperwork, decipher intentions and make everything presentable to the rest of the people on the ship. Part of Operations is the translation of intentions to a workable plan by the ship, and that seems to have eaten up this week.
The good side of that is the week went by quickly and it puts me seven days closer to being home (I’m counting Sundays, some people count Burger Days, some count days inport, etc)
Sometimes it’s the little things that make you happy. Talking to my wife, knowing what the weather at home is, little things like that.
Through the power of the Internet, I now probably know more about the weather she is having than she does, just using a little add-on for Firefox called Forecastfox!
We are on our way in to
We left
Again… Back out at sea for the last part of deployment.
Mayport was a nice break, now it’s back to the daily grind. People ask what it’s like to be at sea, imagine living at your job. There is down time but, when your office is the same room you sleep, work is always intruding.
As I write this, I share my room with the cremains of 10 Sailors. Not sure how that makes me feel, they had longish lives and died of natural causes. It still seems odd that they are all stacked up in here with me.
Other than the odd feeling that I’m being watched, the day is going right on by, it’s hot and we’re getting ready to head back to sea. Thankfully, we are on the last part of deployment!
This picture was taken in May as we transited the Strait of Magellean.
The SOM is between South America and Tierra Del Fuego (the end of the
world). It was a very picturesque transit.
