Weekly Update

I am switching to a split-shift to fill-in while one of our system admins is on vacation. I will be working 1400-0000 (2pm to mid-night, for those of you in Rio Linda) and will still have Thursday off. This arrangement will last until he returns (early July) or I get shipped off to Al Anbar area.

I installed my Steam client and finally downloaded Half-Life and Half-life 2 content. It probably took 24 hours spread over 4 or 5 days to do it. Haven't tried deathmatch yet but given the internet lag here, it will probably be ugly.

We have some more folks in to help us with some of our comm issues. They already spotted some things that needed correcting so I'm hopefull that they'll help us get this thing worked out once and for all.

For this week, the temp highs have been in the mid 100 teens, at least so far as I can tell. Some people tell me that and others say its never been above 105. I have felt 109 in Phoenix and some days here have felt hotter.

I got my new orders, which cover me until May 31st, 2006. Now I just need to get my CAC card renewed. I have been told its not too big of a deal until I try to leave Iraq, which I don't plan to do until October.

20 weeks and counting until I see my family!! Woohoo!

Ok, these boots have been worn like 5 times to work. At this rate they probably won't make it past June. Ahhh, the wonder of egg-sized gravel. :-( These guys were built for comfort. "Comfort" or "durability". My choice. 

Consider this picture. I have managed to access Half-Life 2 via my Steam account. It took several days of downloading to get all of the content. But just to be able to do this in the Iraqi desert is pretty cool. 

Home at Camp Scania: 48sqft of tenty goodness! You see here about 24 of those 48 sqft. Eventually I will get a higher bed fram so a duffel and a footlocker can go underneath, I'll build a table to go where they were. Behind the 'chair' is a blanket hung up on some 550 cord to make a 'wall'. To the left out of the picture is a wall locker. The brown towels are on the east wall and help block the sun since I currently get to bed around 7am. 

Woohoo! We finally sold our Round Rock house! We are due to close by the middle of June! 

This lovely shot shows how close we came to 'seeing' Germany. Not very. The gate was not ready so we sat on the Tarmac for 2 hours. We could even leave the plane. 

Our majestic flight, taking us from sunny Fort Bliss to sunny Kuwait. 

In a sign of things to come the first thing I saw after leaving the Kuwait Airport was...port-a-johns. 

Hunh...Look at all that smog in the air...Oh, wait, that's dust. 

"Sgt. Dork, reporting for duty!" 

I have the POWERRRRR!

Actually, I finally have my laptop. I got it Monday afternoon and have been setting it up ever since.

I have moved to the other side of the tent. Two new guys moved in.

Of such things are exciting times made, here at Camp Scania.

I hope to have some pictures posted in the next day or two.

Iraqi "Brisket"

I'm from Texas. Specifically I'm from central Texas. They have barbeque there. Lots of barbeque. After high-school football and huntin', its probably the most hotly debated topic. I miss my barbeque.


Recently I saw that our dining hall had "Texas Bar-B-Q Brisket". I thought, "If I can convince myself to live in the Iraqi desert for 12 months, I can handle their version of brisket."

I did, but it was a very...um...interesting experience. It was kind of like, and I have to admit that I have no hard evidence of this, they freeze dried the "meat" for several years, re-constituted it, and soaked in some sort of smokey-ish ketchup stuff. As a meat dish it was passable, but as for "brisket" it was a hangin' offense that no Texas jury would have found me guilty of.

As for their "fuhheetuzz", well, they'd be hung, then shot. They should just stick to the dining hall favorites of "Swiss Steak", "Meatloaf", "Beef N Noodles", etc.

Actually the food here is pretty good. They just don't get the regional US dishes down well.

Checking In

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since my last posting. I guess time flies when you're working 8p-6a. Anyway, here's a recap of the week:

- It is now like central Texas in late July. Days are usually 105-ish and at midnight it is still 85+. At least there's usually a nice hot breeze. ;-)

- I still don't have my laptop but a package I ordered from Amazon, about 3 or 4 days after my wife sent my LT, arrived a couple of days ago. It is a CCDP Self-Study book. I think I can take the CCDP test up at Anaconda at their VUE testing center.

- Recently the PX got 8 Sony PSPs. They were all gone before noon the next day. They also had 4 $180 Sendheiser headphones that were gone in less than a day.

- We had some military folk come in from Camp Arifjan to help us with some comm issues we have been having. Nothing definitive yet but we're ruling things out one by one.

- Apparently there are some new places opening up that will require some ITT presence. Volunteers have been requested. If that doesn't meet staffing needs then people will be told to go. Since I'm sort overkill here, I might be in that number. Hopefully I can stay here for awhile but I'll go where they send me.

- I am finding that the chow hall can be a problem. Those servers load it on. I need to be careful. I think I have actually gained a little weight since coming to Scania.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully my laptop will be in soon. I am making progress in Rayman: Hoodlum's Revenge on my Gameboy Advance so it isn't a total loss!

Appearances...

can be deceiving.

After awhile, you get into a routine, you get your work tasks figured out, things just sort of flow along, just like when you are back in the states. And then...

They shut the water off. All of it. Until they work on the filter. Showers? Nope. Flush toilets? Nope. Sinks? Nope. If its running water, its not available. We did this for about 24 hours. Lots of activity around the port-a-potties!

At least my tent's AC worked. Another ITT tent lost its AC due to some sort of malfunction. I haven't heard yet if they got it fixed. Not good for those who sleep during the day.

No laptop yet. Thus no pictures.

Dust In The Wind Redux

Had another nice one today (Thursday). I have some pictures but this site does not directly support the inclusion of pictures. They partner with some other place to support photos but I can't take advantage of that until my laptop arrives.

If I can get my webspace at verizon.net set up with pictures I might include some links there.

Stay tuned.

The Upside of Dust Storms

At least at this point in the year, this one was followed by a day that didn't get above the mid-80's. I think this is the Iraqi equivalent of that weird snowstorm in Amarillo recently. Man, it was nice today, and of course I slept through it.

We've got a little action coming up from the tech side, which will be interesting.

Other than that, not much else here.

Just waiting for my first shipments from the states.

All It is is dust in the wind...

Gee, my first dust storm. Niiiiice.
Its actually not too bad by Iraqi standards. I would guess visibility is maybe 1/4 mile. Probably 20mph winds with 30mph gusts. The sand is almost like a light smokey consistency. Hopefully it will be over by the time I get off.

Speaking of which, it is just 1:15am and i'm already starting to get drowsy. Not a good sign with 5 hours to go.

Swimming Against The Tide

First, ignore the post claiming to be entered at 1:15pm. It was AM.

From 4am-4:30am I was pretty much useless. It was like I was in college classes again: barely able to keep from falling completely asleep, head always nodding up and down, etc. I fought through that and, as of about 4:30am I have a second wind. We'll see how long it lasts. Will be interesting to see how easy it is for me to go to sleep. Right now, my worry is whether or not I will hear my alarm...

The Big Switch

Ok, starting today (Monday) I am working nights: 8p - 6a, at least until the other night network admin comes back from leave. After that, who knows.

I tried sleeping from 3am-11am last night to sort of start my body in the right direction. If the showers aren't too busy around 6:30am I'll shower after getting off work and then try to get to sleep by 7:30. Otherwise I'll shoot for 6:30 and then shower after I get up.

It will probably take a few days to get the routine figured out.

It rained again today, but not for long. Other than that I recently watched the 2nd Lara Croft movie, 50 First Dates and Mr. 3000. I liked the details of the LC movie but the plot was asinine. 50FD was pretty good. The ending was bittersweet but that in itself was a pleasant change. Mr3K was also better than I expected due to Bernie doing the right thing in the end. On the other hand I had pretty low expectations for Mr3K.

Rain Rain Go Away

Apparently it is raining more here in Iraq than in central Texas. And me in a leaky tent. :-(

I start coming in at 8p on Monday so I'm kind of on a little extra break since I'm getting off at 6pm on Sunday. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do this change. I think I will try staying up until 3 or so and then sleep until 10-11. Then I have 'free' time until about 7pm when I'll eat "breakfast".
I think I'll try to shower and get in bed by 7am and then sleep until 2-3pm. I'll figure out what works best. By then I'll probably change to another shift.

Not much Here, except...

Saturday night some of the ITT guys managed to procure some pretty good steaks, plus baked potatoes and fresh salad.
Another ITT guy showed up but he is headed to another camp named Echo. From what I hear, Echo makes Scania look like the "Big City". Ouch!
Our sys admin is off today so it will be interesting to see how that goes.
Other than that, Friday and Saturday have been pretty routine.
I put up some sheets to block off my portion of the tent I am in. It is going to require some fine tuning. I may go with a heavier blanket instead of light sheets.
Now, if only my laptop were. But likely won't be until mid-May.