Internment Camp

Well folks, just a quick update.  I went to MEPS this week and did all that fun stuff.  I’m proud to say that I am now officially in the United States Air Force.  I swore in on thursday

I got first choice on my job during my contract negotiation (Satellite, Wideband and Telemetry Systems).  Now that all of this is in motion, I guess I need to get my goofy ass in shape.  I’ve started running and stuff like that, but I don’t ship till January at the earliest.

Umm…cant think of anything else to write, so yeah.  Yay me.

Well folks it looks like the blog is going on hiatus.  I will have nothing to write about for the forseeable future after this post.

State of the Shrap:

Getting on Delayed Enlistment this week.  Currently unemployed.

Until next time…

So my job is ending soon.  I’m extremely happy and sad at the same time.  My job isn’t exactly the most exciting job in the world, usually I’m the step-and-fetch for the IT department.  “Tom, go grab the boxes on the 5th floor; Tom, go trace this cable” and so on.  In the last week or so, they’ve also blocked my internet except during my lunch hour.  So they removed the only way I could keep myself sane during my copious amounts of down-time between “projects”.  Awesome.

Some things about this job make me not want to leave, though.  Such as my co-workers.  They’re all a bunch of great people (barring a couple idiots/douchebags) and a couple of them are absolutely hilarious.  How often can you walk into a meeting and go “o hai” and have someone else respond “o halo thar”?  It’s a rare thing.  Also, I don’t have another job lined up and I don’t feel like being broke. That’s another thing that makes me not want to leave >_>

Mostly, though, I’m glad it’s over.  I went into this internship with the notion that I was going to be taught about the industry and learn about technology and such.  This happened a little bit in the beginning but it has pretty much tapered off to nil in the last, oh say 8 months.  I’m also not a big fan of being blamed for not working when there is literally nothing to do.  My boss loves to do that.  He doesn’t give me anything to do and then gets upset when he sees me at my desk with my thumb in my ass.  Nonsensical? Yes.  Welcome to my job.

In closing, if anyone would like to give me a job starting on the 25th of august, that would be fantastic.

I just got home from vacation.   Probably one of the more boring vacation’s I’ve been on.  Here’s the story:

Last friday we all left at 4 AM.  Me and my brother in the minivan and the rest of the family in the SUV.  we got to South Bethany Beach, Delaware at around 10 AM.  After that it was off to the beach.  I stayed for probably a half hour and then I bailed with my brother.  I needed sleep.

Next day it was off to the beach again for another hour.  I get very bored of the beach, very very easily.  Oh yay, waves.  Whatever.  The water was colder than penguins’ testicles.  Home, watched Nirt ‘08, sleep.

Day 3.  Beach for a little bit, I left after another 45 minutes.  I ran off to the boardwalk to get some Reef sandals (which is, by far, my best non-tech purchase in the last year or so).  That night the whole family went out for seafood and icecream.  Home, sleep.

Day 4.  Woke up at around 8-ish.  hopped in the car and drove to my aunt’s house.  Got there around 12.  Cousin, being the jackass he is, answered door in boxers.  Not a whole lot else happened that day.  I watched alot of TV.

Day 5.   Not a whole lot.

Day 6.  Last day.  Visited Nimby and Dirt.  Had some good food.  Cat tried to kill me.  Home, sleep.

Day 7.  Today.  Woke up and hopped in the car.  Traffic sucked.  Home, blog.

Two of my favorite bands are In Flames and Soilwork. My favorite songs by each of them are Cloud Connected and Nerve, respectively. I was browsing YouTube last night and I stumbled upon this:

How awesome is that? My two favorite songs mixed together?

Dammit.   Every time I think I’ll be able to go take the ASVAB, something comes up.  I was planning on doing it today but I can’t get a ride from anyone and my parents are out of town.  I’d drive myself but the Shaggin Wagon is still KIA.    AHHH I want to get this process started.

</rant>

Ever have one of those sudden urges to just get stuff done? Happened to me today. I cleaned off my desk and moved my new computer to a decent location. Also, I started doing pushups and stuff to get in shape so I don’t fall on my face at USAF BMT. I’ve also given up some of my less-than-legal habits so I don’t get arrested during enlistment.

In other news, the new phone is working out very well. I’ve got some free GPS software on it, as well as some Mobile IRC stuff called WLIrc. Also, the unlimited messaging and data I signed up for is pretty handy; I’ve sent 100 texts since friday evening.

Back to the USAF stuff. I plan to take the ASVAB in the next couple weeks to see if I can get the position i want (2E1X1 Satellite, Wideband and Telemetry). If I don’t get a sufficient score I most likely will not enlist.

About my non-functional vehicle: I had my dad help me push it down the hill. He worked the steering wheel and brake while I pushed it. We got it out from in front of the house and down alongside the house where I usually park it.

Until next time…

So about mid-way during the day today, my phone crapped itself.  It turns on, does all the normal smart-phone stuff except for that very critical PHONE FUNCTION.  It doesn’t seem to want to connect to the cellular network.  I screwed with the Host Routing Table, nothing.  It flat out refuses to connect.  The connection had been flaky and intermittent for the past couple weeks.  I think it just finally gave up.

So i gave up and ordered myself a Blackberry 8310 Curve from AT&T.  Pretty sweet device.  It should arrive on Friday or Tuesday.  Had to get a new number though, so I’ll have to email/call/text everyone.  Hopefully I can transfer my address book from my old blackberry to the new one.

We’ll see.

In other news:  Windows Server 2008 training finished today.  It seems to be an excellent product in many respects, but it leaves a little to be desired.   More on that in the next post.

So, a few days ago I was coming home from work when my only mode of transportation, my crappy minivan started to make a horrible noise. Imagine taking two gears and whacking the teeth together really really fast. Well, that’s what my transmission sounded like. I make it about 100 yards from the end of the off-ramp and the van won’t go any further. I pull over (read: rolled backwards down a hill until I maneuvered myself to the side of the road), call for assistance, then pop the hood and hop out. I open the hood, and I see something you never want to see: SMOKE. Yes, there was smoke rising from my transmission.

I figure, it won’t put itself in gear because, as we all know, automatic transmission fluid is dual-purpose: lubricant and hydraulic. I tried putting it in first gear manually, which worked. I limped home in first gear, 15 MPH the whole way, and parked on the street in front of my house. I get out and happened to glance behind the van…HUGE TRAIL of transmission fluid. Not good but, since it was raining, I figured “screw it I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”

Next day: First thing i did was run out and look under the van. No puddles or leaks, which was very odd. So my dad was nice enough to give me a ride to the Fair Auto where i grabbed some transmission fluid, then headed home. I put 3 quarts of ATF in the transmission and took it for a spin through the cemetery across the street from my house.

Accelerated fine, shifted by itself. I got it up to 30 mph on my way out. Just before exiting the cemetery, I decelerated from 30 mph and the van started to shudder. Once again, not good at all. I rolled up in front of my house and had my dad hop in so I could repeat my circuit through the cemetery. All the same things happened: drove fine, shifted fine, but when I decelerated at the end, this time the ENGINE SHUT OFF. Started it back up, brought it back to the house, left it running, looked under the van…transmission fluid POURING out of the transmission.

So it’s a blown gasket or seal. The transmission is most likely destroyed, and the van WON’T MOVE since the transmission is bone-dry right now. As of now, I’ve given up all hope of it ever working again while in my ownership. It’s just sitting in front of my house….

Please come steal it, firebomb it, get it the fuck out of here. And then possibly drop off a new car. Thanks.

Woo! My first blog. I’m guessing these first few posts will be a bit boring until I get the hang of this blogging thing.

Anyway, on to the stories. Today I got my first gigabit switch. Apparently, if you want Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP to connect to each other at 1000 Mb/s, you need to be very patient. Or do what I did and curse alot, swap cables and reboot a couple times. Big thanks to Darkstar for the networking assistance there.

I’d also like to say hello to all my IRC friends. #Digital-overload is good times.

And that’s all I can think to write right now.