My new favorite game on the X-Box is Castle Crashers.
It's very cutesy-cartoonish with exaggeratedly short knights and exaggeratedly large weapons (in comparison to the size of their bodies). It's pretty fast-paced action with some cartoon gore. Although not what you would think of in terms of "hi-def," the graphics are detailed and flow really smoothly on the big screen. The music is a mix of techno and action-movie-theme-song. It really gets your adrenaline pumping as your fighting off the bad guys with swords, battle axes, maces, bow & arrows, and magic. You can play up to four people at the same time.
Warning for parents: In addition to the cartoon gore, there are some pretty silly but gross elements. The authors of this game had some sort of obsession with animal poop. The forest animals in the background (owls, deer, bears) get scared of the battles and leave poop behind them as they run away.
You can download the game for about $12 on the X-Box Live Arcade.
Here's a trailer for the game:
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
How times have changed...
I feel old.
My wife and I were just sitting here remembering what it was like for us as kids and thinking how different it is for our kids.
This all came up because of a story ES read at school. Apparently Abraham Lincoln realized he overcharged someone 6 cents, so he chased the person down the street to repay them their 6 cents. ES just couldn't believe that he would do that for 6 measly cents. My wife explained to him the concept of inflation and the fact that 6 cents was worth a lot more back then.
That got me to thinking...
When I was in first and second grade, we used to go to the Thrifty drug store down the hill from our house to get ice cream. It was 15 cents for a single scoop, or 30 cents for a double. Nowadays, we go to Maggie Moo's and pay like $3 bucks per ice cream. I don't remember the exact price, but it seems to me we normally pay about $12 for the four of us there. Granted, at Maggie Moo's they take candy and other stuff and mix it in to the ice cream by hand, but still. If we just went down the road to the Hershey ice cream place, I'm certain it costs at least somewhere in the $1.50 to $2 price range for an ice cream cone.
When I was in third and fourth grade, we used to ride our bikes and play ALL over our neighborhood. I could have been anywhere in a 4 or 5 block radius from my house, and there were no cell phones or radios for our parents to find us.
ES likes to go over to his friend K's house to play. We have a very nice network of paved walking paths all over Ashburn. I just clicked my way around Google Earth and saw that it would be an easy 0.57 mile walk for ES to just walk on the paths over to K's house instead of my wife driving him to drop him off and then driving over to pick him up again.
I've always been grateful to my parents for their trust in me and the independence it fostered.
I went on my first unaccompanied plane trip when I was 9 years old. Granted, my mom said goodbye to me as I got on the plane in California, and my Grandpa said hello to me as I walked off the plane in Colorado, but still...
That was the same age that I became a latch-key kid. Yep, I walked unescorted 0.9 miles from my elementary school to my house (the horror!), and then let myself in the house and went to play with my friends in the neighborhood.
Since I value the independence my parents fostered in me, I've always thought that I would try to do the same for my kids.
...and yet I find I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of ES going half a mile to his friends' house.
Is it just a sign of the times?
Are there just too many weirdos out there to make it worth the risk?
Or am I just not as trusting as my parents were?
My wife and I were just sitting here remembering what it was like for us as kids and thinking how different it is for our kids.
This all came up because of a story ES read at school. Apparently Abraham Lincoln realized he overcharged someone 6 cents, so he chased the person down the street to repay them their 6 cents. ES just couldn't believe that he would do that for 6 measly cents. My wife explained to him the concept of inflation and the fact that 6 cents was worth a lot more back then.
That got me to thinking...
When I was in first and second grade, we used to go to the Thrifty drug store down the hill from our house to get ice cream. It was 15 cents for a single scoop, or 30 cents for a double. Nowadays, we go to Maggie Moo's and pay like $3 bucks per ice cream. I don't remember the exact price, but it seems to me we normally pay about $12 for the four of us there. Granted, at Maggie Moo's they take candy and other stuff and mix it in to the ice cream by hand, but still. If we just went down the road to the Hershey ice cream place, I'm certain it costs at least somewhere in the $1.50 to $2 price range for an ice cream cone.
When I was in third and fourth grade, we used to ride our bikes and play ALL over our neighborhood. I could have been anywhere in a 4 or 5 block radius from my house, and there were no cell phones or radios for our parents to find us.
ES likes to go over to his friend K's house to play. We have a very nice network of paved walking paths all over Ashburn. I just clicked my way around Google Earth and saw that it would be an easy 0.57 mile walk for ES to just walk on the paths over to K's house instead of my wife driving him to drop him off and then driving over to pick him up again.I've always been grateful to my parents for their trust in me and the independence it fostered.
I went on my first unaccompanied plane trip when I was 9 years old. Granted, my mom said goodbye to me as I got on the plane in California, and my Grandpa said hello to me as I walked off the plane in Colorado, but still...
That was the same age that I became a latch-key kid. Yep, I walked unescorted 0.9 miles from my elementary school to my house (the horror!), and then let myself in the house and went to play with my friends in the neighborhood.
Since I value the independence my parents fostered in me, I've always thought that I would try to do the same for my kids.
...and yet I find I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of ES going half a mile to his friends' house.
Is it just a sign of the times?
Are there just too many weirdos out there to make it worth the risk?
Or am I just not as trusting as my parents were?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
DC Area Submarine Ball and Happy Hour
Heads up for bubbleheads in the DC area:
N87 hosts a monthly social gathering for submariners in the N87 spaces at the Pentagon. This month's event is this coming Friday, 2/27/09, from 1500-1700.
If you're in the area, I encourage you to attend. I always end up running into some old shipmate or classmate that I haven't seen in ages. It's a great place to relax with a cold beverage, swap some sea stories and catch up with old friends.
If you need directions, drop me an email.
BT BTSubmarine Ball Update
As promised, here is the flier for the DC area 2009 Submarine Birthday Ball.
(Click on image to enlarge)I have the flier in MS Word format if you would like for me to email it to you.
I have received a couple of email questions about the ball. Here are the answers for anyone else who has the same questions:
1. Where do you buy tickets?
Answer: It's on the flier.
2. What type of dress is appropriate for ladies to wear when the guys wear dinner dress blues?
Answer: See my wife's post on that topic.
Friendly reminder / public service announcement: NOW would be a good time to try on your dinner dress blues and see if they still fit or if you have all the pieces and parts. Uniform shops aren't exactly conveniently located around here.
Need a date? I don't know if Craigslist works as well here as it did in Hawaii, but you could give it a try. :-) (See last year's post on that topic.)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Blue & Gold Dinner
Saturday night we had our cub scout pack's Blue & Gold Dinner in honor of the birthday of scouting. Our pack here is HUGE in comparison to our pack in Hawaii last year, and they do things a little different here.
For instance, we didn't have a father-son cake contest. I was kind of bummed by that. I suppose we could have baked a cake together anyway, huh? (shoulda coulda woulda)
Also, last year in Hawaii, we had a cool bridge-crossing ceremony toward the end of the school year to promote the scouts to their next den and award them their Tiger / Wolf / Bear hat and scarf. Here, they had a promotion ceremony of sorts at the Blue & Gold dinner. They basically called up each den, and handed each scout a little envelope with their new patch.
ES stepped forward thinking it was his turn to get his patch.
Unfortunately, they had an administrative mix up with a scout that transferred out and ES who transferred in, and they didn't have one to present to ES. He was very confused and a little perturbed why all the other scouts got their patches, but not him (understandably so). His den leader quickly scrounged up another one and handed it to him after the fact.
ES checking out the Wolf patch after his den leader found an extra.
(It actually goes on the left side of the other two,
but you get the idea.)
The theme for our Blue & Gold dinner was America ABCs. At our last den meeting, we made placemats. Each scout had to choose a state to use as the theme of their placemat.
So take a guess what state ES chose. Go ahead... Those of you who know ES will NEVER guess.
Virginia where we live now?
Nnnnnope!
Hawaii where we just lived for 15 months before moving here?
Nnnnnope!
Oregon, California, or Massachusetts where his grandparents live?
Nnnnnope!
New Hampshire where we like to go on vacation to Lake Winnipesaukee?
Nnnnnope!
Florida where we like to go on vacation to DisneyWorld?
Nnnnnope!
ANY of the SIXTEEN states we drove through on our recent trip across country???
Nnnnnope!
He decided on...
Why???
I haven't the foggiest idea.
First he traced the outline of the state from a United State of America puzzle the den leader had on the table. Next he drew the city skyline silhouette. Then he drew the Statue of Liberty.
He did a really good job with the Statue of Liberty. He drew it totally from memory. Even before he colored her in green, if we had been playing pictionary, I totally would have been able to tell it was the Statue of Liberty. Then he drew a car with something on the roof, which I thought was a police car at first, but then he colored it in yellow and I figured out it was a taxi cab (h/t to the King).
Then we started talking about how there's more to the STATE of New York than just "the city." After some discussion about the rest of the state, he added Wegmans and then Niagara Falls, because hey, they're of about the same relative importance aren't they?
For instance, we didn't have a father-son cake contest. I was kind of bummed by that. I suppose we could have baked a cake together anyway, huh? (shoulda coulda woulda)
Also, last year in Hawaii, we had a cool bridge-crossing ceremony toward the end of the school year to promote the scouts to their next den and award them their Tiger / Wolf / Bear hat and scarf. Here, they had a promotion ceremony of sorts at the Blue & Gold dinner. They basically called up each den, and handed each scout a little envelope with their new patch.
ES stepped forward thinking it was his turn to get his patch.Unfortunately, they had an administrative mix up with a scout that transferred out and ES who transferred in, and they didn't have one to present to ES. He was very confused and a little perturbed why all the other scouts got their patches, but not him (understandably so). His den leader quickly scrounged up another one and handed it to him after the fact.
ES checking out the Wolf patch after his den leader found an extra.(It actually goes on the left side of the other two,
but you get the idea.)
The theme for our Blue & Gold dinner was America ABCs. At our last den meeting, we made placemats. Each scout had to choose a state to use as the theme of their placemat.
So take a guess what state ES chose. Go ahead... Those of you who know ES will NEVER guess.
Virginia where we live now?
Nnnnnope!
Hawaii where we just lived for 15 months before moving here?
Nnnnnope!
Oregon, California, or Massachusetts where his grandparents live?
Nnnnnope!
New Hampshire where we like to go on vacation to Lake Winnipesaukee?
Nnnnnope!
Florida where we like to go on vacation to DisneyWorld?
Nnnnnope!
ANY of the SIXTEEN states we drove through on our recent trip across country???
Nnnnnope!
He decided on...
NEW YORK
Why???
I haven't the foggiest idea.
First he traced the outline of the state from a United State of America puzzle the den leader had on the table. Next he drew the city skyline silhouette. Then he drew the Statue of Liberty.He did a really good job with the Statue of Liberty. He drew it totally from memory. Even before he colored her in green, if we had been playing pictionary, I totally would have been able to tell it was the Statue of Liberty. Then he drew a car with something on the roof, which I thought was a police car at first, but then he colored it in yellow and I figured out it was a taxi cab (h/t to the King).
Then we started talking about how there's more to the STATE of New York than just "the city." After some discussion about the rest of the state, he added Wegmans and then Niagara Falls, because hey, they're of about the same relative importance aren't they?
Aside: For those of you who aren't fortunate enough to have a Wegmans near you, Wegmans is an AWESOME grocery store with a food court. It used to be a regular thing for us to go there for lunch on Saturdays. They originated in New York and have been spreading across the country from there. If you have one near you and you haven't been there, you should stop by for lunch in the food court and just check the place out.Anyway, we adults had a good laugh - both at my son's placemat and the others' as well.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Random Act of Kindness
I was the recipient of a random act of kindness yesterday on the bus to work.
Our bus is sort of like an airliner - not a lot of leg room in most rows, but there are two rows in the middle of the bus that have extra leg room. On the airplane they're the emergency exit rows, and some people like me call them "poor man's first class." They're actually intended as handicap seats on the bus, but I used the same PMFC phrase to describe these extra leg room seats on the bus.
So yesterday morning, I got on the bus to ride to work, and most of the seats were already taken. I sat down in a row with an open seat and crammed my backpack between my feet and the seat in front of me. The guy in the PMFC one row behind and across the aisle from me saw me cramming into the seat, tapped me on the shoulder, and told me I should sit in his seat because I needed the leg room.
Wow, thanks dude!
Family Movie Night
We frequently try to pick up some dinner to go and a rental movie for a family movie night on the weekends. Most of the time it ends up being pizza, but last night we did something different.
After I got off the bus, I stopped at Pei Wei to pick up some dinner.
In case you aren't familiar with Pei Wei, it's run by the people who own P.F. Chang's, but it's an order at the counter and sit down type of place instead of a full blown restaurant. According to their website, they're "a faster, more casual take of our parent company P.F. Chang's... and feature an entire menu priced under $10."
Plus they give out these fun chop things for the kids. They're a simple little plastic doohicky that holds the chopsticks so the kids can use them like a big set of tweezers. Our kids love them.
Anyway, I brought the food home and we had family movie night while we ate our chinese food.
Last night's family movie night selection was Cool Runnings. I dare say it was even somewhat educational for the boys. In order to set the stage for them before we watched the movie, I asked them where Jamaica was. We talked about Jamaica being an island in the tropics and that meant warm weather and palm trees like Hawaii.
I asked them if there was any snow in Jamaica, and they said no. Then I told them this was a movie about Jamaica entering a bobsled team in the winter Olympics, and ES let out a guffaw.
During the movie we talked a little about Jamaica once being a British colony. After the movie, my wife and I talked with the boys about the morals of the story, namely that (1) you can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind to it, and (2) winning isn't everything. It's a good movie for talking about sportsmanship, too.
Our bus is sort of like an airliner - not a lot of leg room in most rows, but there are two rows in the middle of the bus that have extra leg room. On the airplane they're the emergency exit rows, and some people like me call them "poor man's first class." They're actually intended as handicap seats on the bus, but I used the same PMFC phrase to describe these extra leg room seats on the bus.
So yesterday morning, I got on the bus to ride to work, and most of the seats were already taken. I sat down in a row with an open seat and crammed my backpack between my feet and the seat in front of me. The guy in the PMFC one row behind and across the aisle from me saw me cramming into the seat, tapped me on the shoulder, and told me I should sit in his seat because I needed the leg room.
Wow, thanks dude!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Family Movie Night
We frequently try to pick up some dinner to go and a rental movie for a family movie night on the weekends. Most of the time it ends up being pizza, but last night we did something different.
After I got off the bus, I stopped at Pei Wei to pick up some dinner. In case you aren't familiar with Pei Wei, it's run by the people who own P.F. Chang's, but it's an order at the counter and sit down type of place instead of a full blown restaurant. According to their website, they're "a faster, more casual take of our parent company P.F. Chang's... and feature an entire menu priced under $10."
Random Aside: Why is it that every P.F. Changs in CONUS is always packed and has a long line of people waiting to get in, but in Honolulu they're always half empty? It always blew us away to go to P.F. Chang's in Honolulu and NOT have to wait in line and to see half the tables empty.Anyway, the food at Pei Wei is delicious and I haven't gotten any MSG headaches there. I was pleasantly surprised looking at their nutrition information, too. I remember from WeightWatchers that Chinese food is absolutely EVIL and to be avoided at all costs. But the Mongolian Chicken at Pei Wei is only 6 points on the WW scale, and the brown rice is only 3 points. That's pretty darn good, especially considering how good the food tastes. I have found that things that are low in WW points generally taste like corrugated cardboard, but that is NOT the case at Pei Wei.
Plus they give out these fun chop things for the kids. They're a simple little plastic doohicky that holds the chopsticks so the kids can use them like a big set of tweezers. Our kids love them.Anyway, I brought the food home and we had family movie night while we ate our chinese food.
Last night's family movie night selection was Cool Runnings. I dare say it was even somewhat educational for the boys. In order to set the stage for them before we watched the movie, I asked them where Jamaica was. We talked about Jamaica being an island in the tropics and that meant warm weather and palm trees like Hawaii.I asked them if there was any snow in Jamaica, and they said no. Then I told them this was a movie about Jamaica entering a bobsled team in the winter Olympics, and ES let out a guffaw.
During the movie we talked a little about Jamaica once being a British colony. After the movie, my wife and I talked with the boys about the morals of the story, namely that (1) you can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind to it, and (2) winning isn't everything. It's a good movie for talking about sportsmanship, too.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Taking Chance
Thanks to my friend Ed for sharing this. I'm looking forward to this movie starting on HBO on 21 Feb.
Here's the trailer:
Here's the schedule on the HBO website.
Here's the trailer:
Here's the schedule on the HBO website.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Just for a couple of laughs
First, while searching for the definition of a nautical term, I happened upon this quiz. It's a bit dated (dixie cups and dungarees), but I had fun answering the questions. I got them all right.
Second, thanks to my friend Vince for a good laugh from this Top 278 Star Wars Lines Improved By Replacing A Word With "Pants."
Second, thanks to my friend Vince for a good laugh from this Top 278 Star Wars Lines Improved By Replacing A Word With "Pants."
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Pentagon Gouge - PHA & Metro Check heads up
Heads up for those of you in or around the Pentagon:
1. PRT season is coming. Is your PHA up to date? The annual Physical Health Assessment replaced the Navy's old five year physical. You're supposed to do it during your birth month so that the medical clinics are not swamped the month before the fall and spring PRT.
Well, in September I was driving across country doing a PCS move from Hawaii to DC, so I didn't get it done. I'm sorry to say I blew it off until now, and now I'm regretting it.
We just got our 8 week notice on taking the PRT in April and reminding us that we must have a PHA completed within the last year to take the PRT.
I am now learning the hard way just how difficult it is to get a PHA done in the DC area. One friend told me that there is only ONE guy in the Pentagon clinic who does PHA's. They only take reservations a month in advance, and apparently the morning the reservations for the following month open up, the phone lines are jammed.
Anyway, I'll let you know if I find any quick and easy ways to get this knocked out, but I encourage you NOT to wait if you are in need of a PHA.
Update 8/5/2009: It was nearly impossible to get a PHA scheduled and done in the Pentagon and was going to take multiple trips. One of my JOs told me that it was easier at Bethesda, so I went there to do it. Sure enough, Bethesda was a breeze. I made an appointment and was in and out of there in about an hour - PHA complete! Warning: Parking is a pain in Bethesda, so plan on arriving a good 30 minutes prior to your appointment so you can park and walk into the PHA clinic (it's on the second floor directly above the food court / right next door to medical records).
2. Metro Checks expire in two weeks. When they distributed the mass transit subsidy metro checks this time around, they told us that these metro checks EXPIRE on March 6th. If you have any in your wallet (like me), then you should stop by the Metro and load up your SmartCard before the metro checks expire.
1. PRT season is coming. Is your PHA up to date? The annual Physical Health Assessment replaced the Navy's old five year physical. You're supposed to do it during your birth month so that the medical clinics are not swamped the month before the fall and spring PRT.
Well, in September I was driving across country doing a PCS move from Hawaii to DC, so I didn't get it done. I'm sorry to say I blew it off until now, and now I'm regretting it.
We just got our 8 week notice on taking the PRT in April and reminding us that we must have a PHA completed within the last year to take the PRT.
I am now learning the hard way just how difficult it is to get a PHA done in the DC area. One friend told me that there is only ONE guy in the Pentagon clinic who does PHA's. They only take reservations a month in advance, and apparently the morning the reservations for the following month open up, the phone lines are jammed.
Anyway, I'll let you know if I find any quick and easy ways to get this knocked out, but I encourage you NOT to wait if you are in need of a PHA.
Update 8/5/2009: It was nearly impossible to get a PHA scheduled and done in the Pentagon and was going to take multiple trips. One of my JOs told me that it was easier at Bethesda, so I went there to do it. Sure enough, Bethesda was a breeze. I made an appointment and was in and out of there in about an hour - PHA complete! Warning: Parking is a pain in Bethesda, so plan on arriving a good 30 minutes prior to your appointment so you can park and walk into the PHA clinic (it's on the second floor directly above the food court / right next door to medical records).
2. Metro Checks expire in two weeks. When they distributed the mass transit subsidy metro checks this time around, they told us that these metro checks EXPIRE on March 6th. If you have any in your wallet (like me), then you should stop by the Metro and load up your SmartCard before the metro checks expire.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Goose Creek hike
There are several great parks in Loudoun County, and I keep finding new parks that Loudoun County Parks, Recreation, and Community Services (PRCS) have created for our enjoyment.
One of the nice Loudoun County parks in our area is the Keep Loudoun Beautiful Park that is located along Goose Creek between Route 7 and the Potomac River. If you park at the small parking lot just off the south side of Rt. 7 next to the old iron bridge, it's about a 2.5 mile hike from there out to the Potomac River (one way), and there is a series of about half a dozen or so geocaches along the trail.
Back in December 2006, I participated in a NoVAGO (Northern Virginia Geocaching Organization) park cleanup event there. YB went with me and we had a good time, but he couldn't make it all the way out to the Potomac and back. It's been on my geocaching "to do" list ever since then.
YB on the Goose Creek Trail during the NoVAGO park cleanup event in December 2006. I think that trash bag is bigger than he was back then.
I'm happy to report we finally knocked this series of geocaches off the "to do" list yesterday. It had warmed up to a balmy 52 degrees outside, and I was bound and determined to do SOMETHING OUTSIDE and not involving video games.
Unfortunately, in the amount of time it took me to eat lunch, get the boys suited up, gear packed up in the car, and ready to go, a cold front moved through and the temperature dropped to 38 degrees. Accuweather said the "real feel" was 30 degrees with the wind chill. My wife asked the boys if they still wanted to go, and I was afraid they were going to chicken out on me. I was pleasantly surprised that they still wanted to go.
Traditional Blunoz self portrait, this time with a trail marker.We didn't do the whole trek from Rt. 7. We started at Riverside Parkway this time, about 1.5 miles from the Potomac. My friend Woods and his kids came along, too, and I owe Woods a tremendous debt of gratitude. After we had been hiking for a while, we found another Loudoun County PRCS parking area along the trail. Woods graciously went back and got his car and drove it up to the closer parking lot so we wouldn't have to hike ALL the way back.
We ended up hiking about 3.5 miles by my GPS trip odometer, and the kids did a great job. Much to my surprise, I didn't hear a single complaint about the cold. ES started complaining his feet hurt during the last half mile or so, but I couldn't really fault him for that. I think it was a genuine complaint, not just a "I'm tired and bored and making up excuses for you to carry me on your shoulders" gripe.
We found three geocaches along the way, and I was glad a different kid was the first to find each geocache, so it sorta spread the wealth as far as that honor was concerned.
Kids on the trail.
Woods teaching the kids to skip rocks on the water.
Group photo at the first geocache.
ES signs the log at the last geocache. In the background, that's Goose Creek coming in from the left and the Potomac River off on the right. This is where we turned around and headed back.I feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction that we successfully broke suction on the TV and video games and got outside to do something this weekend. I hope you all enjoyed your President's Day holiday, too.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Reminiscing of Puerto Rico
Reminiscing about my first sea tour on USS PROVIDENCE (SSN-719).
Facebook is pretty cool for the way it's putting me back in touch with old shipmates. I uploaded a bunch of photos from my second and third boats, and whenever I reconnect with someone on Facebook, then I'll go through my pictures and tag them in the pictures.
So today I pulled some of those old photos out and scanned them to build a 719 photo album on Facebook. It sure brought back memories.
Back in late 1997 and early 1998, we were doing our deployment workups with the JOHN C STENNIS carrier battle group (before they started calling them "carrier strike groups"). That was back in the days before they closed the bombing ranges on Vieques Island, so we did a LOT of operations out of Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. I actually had more experience driving the boat in and out of "Rosey Roads" than I did out of our homeport of Groton. I lost count after 12 or so maneuvering watches.
USS PROVIDENCE (SSN 719)
Pierside in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico
Circa 1997
Rosey Roads was a fairly nice place for a port call - not my absolute favorite, but certainly not at the bottom of the list either. Shore power wasn't all that reliable there, and I had my worst duty day in my entire career during a port call there.
Sea Story Tangent...
It all started with us having to snorkel and dead-stick berth shift (explanation: not start up the engine room, just have tugs pull you away from the pier, move you around and push you into your new berth) to make room for another boat that had to load some exercise weapons. After we finished the dead-stick berth shift and got the brow across, the Captain gave me (the Engineering Duty Officer) permission to bring on shore power and secure snorkeling. Then he, the XO, and the Eng all got in a rental car together and took off for San Juan. It was a liberty port call after all. Oh, and this was before the days of everyone having a cell phone, too, so once they left in that car, I had NO way of contacting them.
Aside: These are the types of horror stories that make junior officers dread their Ship's Duty Officer qualification boards. They always have some sort of question that puts them in the hot seat, forced to make a series of difficult decisions without being able to get in contact with the CO or the XO for guidance or permission.
I've always been a believer that you learn more by DOING than by reading books. You need to let junior guys DO things so they can learn. I had a young sailor working on his quals who needed to shift the electric plant to an aft shore power lineup, so I let him.
The pain and agony of this story is much better told in person with people who are properly cleared and nuclear trained so they understand all the gory details, but to make a long story short, the sailor tried to parallel the ship's power with shore power WAY out of phase and tripped the breakers in the shore power bunker at the foot of the pier.
...Yes, that would be the shore power bunker with the barbed wire fence around it and the big padlock on the gate.
...No, the people at Harbor Ops could NOT find the port electrician with the keys to the bunker.
...Yes, it was DARN hot and humid in Puerto Rico that Saturday.
...No, we don't run the air conditioning when we're snorkeling (running the diesel generator for emergency power) and have no shore power.
...and that was just the beginning of a very BAD day. It went downhill from there. I can't really get into the other engine-room details, but when the Captain, XO, and Eng eventually returned to the ship late that evening, it wasn't pretty. I had never seen the Captain so pissed. He was literally hopping mad and secured my liberty for the rest of the port call (that's called being put "in hack").
End of Tangent.
Anyway, I WISH I could say that was the ONLY port call we had in Rosey Roads that involved NOT having shore power.
The other downside was we almost never got BOQ rooms there. The aviators were always down there doing exercises with us, and they always had priority for the BOQ rooms. We had racks to sleep in on the boat - they didn't have racks in their airplanes, go figure.
In spite of the somewhat unreliable shore power and lack of BOQ rooms, Rosey Roads was an okay liberty port. It was fairly cheap. There was great scuba diving. There were the rain forest tours. There was El Morro Castle. There was the Bacardi factory tour with the free samples. We called trips to Puerto Rico back then "rum runs" because everyone would be allowed to bring back two bottles of rum. We would lock up all the rum in one of the torpedo tubes for the transit from PR back up to Groton.
Tangent about El Morro Castle.
The following year, my wonderful wife and I were married and left for our honeymoon in St. Lucia. Our trip took us first to a several-hour layover in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so I thought it woud be fun to hop in a taxi and go see El Morro.
The taxi driver didn't speak any English and had NO clue what I was talking about. Only, he didn't give me any indication he didn't know what I was talking about, he just smiled and shook his head yes to anything I said. He proceeded to drive down the strip of resort hotels along the beach, stopping at each hotel and pointing as if to ask "is this your hotel?" I kept saying, "No. EL MORRO."
I mean, common dude, it's ON YOUR FRIGGIN' LICENSE PLATE FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!!
Note the image of the watch tower on El Morro.
Here's the real thing.
Luckily, I had been to El Morro enough times that I just pointed left and right to tell him which roads to take and got us there.
It's pretty amazing to walk through that old fortress and think about all the history there. Sir Francis Drake attacked the fort in 1595. It's been attacked by the British, the Dutch (in 1625), and the Americans (during the Spanish-American War in 1898). Later, I went to a 007 movie, and I laughed out loud when El Morro appeared as a bad-guy stronghold and was blown to smithereens with computer graphic animation.
Anyway, it's time to bring this post to a close. I have a few more pictures I want to scan and upload later and will probably have a sea story or two more to go with those. Stay tuned...
Facebook is pretty cool for the way it's putting me back in touch with old shipmates. I uploaded a bunch of photos from my second and third boats, and whenever I reconnect with someone on Facebook, then I'll go through my pictures and tag them in the pictures.
Aside for those who aren't familiar with Facebook: You can "tag" photos you upload to Facebook so that as you roll the cursor over people in the picture, it will pop up the name of that person. You can click on their name, and it'll take you to their Facebook profile. Also, on a given person's Facebook profile, you can click on "Photos of [name]" and it'll show you all the photos that person has been tagged in on Facebook.It's taken me a while, but I finally reconnected with one of my fellow junior officers from my first boat. It occurred to me that I don't have any photos to upload or tag from my first boat because it was before the days of digital cameras. Everything I have from that tour is on film and in photo albums or boxes in the closet.
So today I pulled some of those old photos out and scanned them to build a 719 photo album on Facebook. It sure brought back memories.
Back in late 1997 and early 1998, we were doing our deployment workups with the JOHN C STENNIS carrier battle group (before they started calling them "carrier strike groups"). That was back in the days before they closed the bombing ranges on Vieques Island, so we did a LOT of operations out of Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. I actually had more experience driving the boat in and out of "Rosey Roads" than I did out of our homeport of Groton. I lost count after 12 or so maneuvering watches.
USS PROVIDENCE (SSN 719)Pierside in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico
Circa 1997
Rosey Roads was a fairly nice place for a port call - not my absolute favorite, but certainly not at the bottom of the list either. Shore power wasn't all that reliable there, and I had my worst duty day in my entire career during a port call there.
Sea Story Tangent...
It all started with us having to snorkel and dead-stick berth shift (explanation: not start up the engine room, just have tugs pull you away from the pier, move you around and push you into your new berth) to make room for another boat that had to load some exercise weapons. After we finished the dead-stick berth shift and got the brow across, the Captain gave me (the Engineering Duty Officer) permission to bring on shore power and secure snorkeling. Then he, the XO, and the Eng all got in a rental car together and took off for San Juan. It was a liberty port call after all. Oh, and this was before the days of everyone having a cell phone, too, so once they left in that car, I had NO way of contacting them.
Aside: These are the types of horror stories that make junior officers dread their Ship's Duty Officer qualification boards. They always have some sort of question that puts them in the hot seat, forced to make a series of difficult decisions without being able to get in contact with the CO or the XO for guidance or permission.
I've always been a believer that you learn more by DOING than by reading books. You need to let junior guys DO things so they can learn. I had a young sailor working on his quals who needed to shift the electric plant to an aft shore power lineup, so I let him.
The pain and agony of this story is much better told in person with people who are properly cleared and nuclear trained so they understand all the gory details, but to make a long story short, the sailor tried to parallel the ship's power with shore power WAY out of phase and tripped the breakers in the shore power bunker at the foot of the pier.
...Yes, that would be the shore power bunker with the barbed wire fence around it and the big padlock on the gate.
...No, the people at Harbor Ops could NOT find the port electrician with the keys to the bunker.
...Yes, it was DARN hot and humid in Puerto Rico that Saturday.
...No, we don't run the air conditioning when we're snorkeling (running the diesel generator for emergency power) and have no shore power.
...and that was just the beginning of a very BAD day. It went downhill from there. I can't really get into the other engine-room details, but when the Captain, XO, and Eng eventually returned to the ship late that evening, it wasn't pretty. I had never seen the Captain so pissed. He was literally hopping mad and secured my liberty for the rest of the port call (that's called being put "in hack").
End of Tangent.
Anyway, I WISH I could say that was the ONLY port call we had in Rosey Roads that involved NOT having shore power.
The other downside was we almost never got BOQ rooms there. The aviators were always down there doing exercises with us, and they always had priority for the BOQ rooms. We had racks to sleep in on the boat - they didn't have racks in their airplanes, go figure.
In spite of the somewhat unreliable shore power and lack of BOQ rooms, Rosey Roads was an okay liberty port. It was fairly cheap. There was great scuba diving. There were the rain forest tours. There was El Morro Castle. There was the Bacardi factory tour with the free samples. We called trips to Puerto Rico back then "rum runs" because everyone would be allowed to bring back two bottles of rum. We would lock up all the rum in one of the torpedo tubes for the transit from PR back up to Groton.
Tangent about El Morro Castle.
The following year, my wonderful wife and I were married and left for our honeymoon in St. Lucia. Our trip took us first to a several-hour layover in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so I thought it woud be fun to hop in a taxi and go see El Morro.
The taxi driver didn't speak any English and had NO clue what I was talking about. Only, he didn't give me any indication he didn't know what I was talking about, he just smiled and shook his head yes to anything I said. He proceeded to drive down the strip of resort hotels along the beach, stopping at each hotel and pointing as if to ask "is this your hotel?" I kept saying, "No. EL MORRO."
I mean, common dude, it's ON YOUR FRIGGIN' LICENSE PLATE FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!!
Note the image of the watch tower on El Morro.
Here's the real thing.Luckily, I had been to El Morro enough times that I just pointed left and right to tell him which roads to take and got us there.
It's pretty amazing to walk through that old fortress and think about all the history there. Sir Francis Drake attacked the fort in 1595. It's been attacked by the British, the Dutch (in 1625), and the Americans (during the Spanish-American War in 1898). Later, I went to a 007 movie, and I laughed out loud when El Morro appeared as a bad-guy stronghold and was blown to smithereens with computer graphic animation.
Anyway, it's time to bring this post to a close. I have a few more pictures I want to scan and upload later and will probably have a sea story or two more to go with those. Stay tuned...
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Advice to Junior Officers: Timing of signing a contract
My junior officers on my previous boats have heard me explain this before, but I thought I'd post it here for a broader audience.
First, a disclaimer: This is NOT an attempt to convince you to Stay Navy by dangling dollar signs in front of your face. This is also NOT directed at any particular individuals who either currently or previously worked for me.
IF you aren't sure about staying in the submarine force, then stop reading here. Make your decision about whether to continue your career as a steely-eyed killer of the deep first.
IF you are already thinking about staying in for a department head tour, then be advised: you are financially better off signing a contract for Nuclear Officer Continuation Pay ("COPAY" - remember from this post "eets naught a bohnus") BEFORE you reach the end of your Minimum Service Requirement (MSR - i.e. 5 years from your commissioning date).
Here's why:
IF you sign a contract BEFORE the end of your initial service obligation ends, then you have the option of receiving one payment more than the number of years in your contract (see Paragraph 7.c.(1)(a) on page 7 of OPNAVINST 7220.11B).
In other words, if you are signing a 5 year contract, then you can elect to receive 6 payments. You receive the first payment as soon as you sign the contract, and then you will receive each of the follow on payments on your anniversary date.
Allow me to illustrate using two examples. Let's say these two guys were both commissioned on 21 May 2004, so their initial five year obligation ends on 21 May 2009.
Example #1. LT Procrastinator waits and doesn't sign a contract until after his obligation expired on 21 May 2009. He signs a 5 year contract for $30k per year.
Example #2. LT Smartguy passed his PNEO exam, is gung-ho about the cool tactical missions we do on the pointy-end of the spear. He wants to go back for a department head tour. He signs a 5 year contract on 1 Mar 2009 and elects to receive 6 payments.
Here's how that works.
In both cases, 5 years x $30k per year = $150k total value of the contract.
In LT Smartguy's case, $150k total NOIP divided by 6 payments = $25k per payment.
LT Smartguy will get $25k (minus taxes) immediately upon signing the contract on 1 Mar 2009. Then he will get another payment for $25k on his anniversary date of 21 May 2009 and every year thereafter.
In LT Procrastinator's case, $150k total NOIP divided by 5 payments = $30k per payment.
That might seem confusing at first. You might be saying to yourself, "Self, aren't $30k payments better than $25k payments?"
Well... not exactly. TWO $25k payments in rapid succession are much better than ONE $30K payment. When LT Procrastinator received his first $30k payment on 21 May 2009, LT Smartguy received his SECOND $25k payment. So in May 2009, LT Smartguy now has $50k plus the interest he earned on the initial $25k from March through May and LT Procrastinator now has $30k.
Now, when these two lieutenants transfer to shore duty and are each looking to buy their first house, one of them has $50k and the other has $30k to use toward a downpayment (minus taxes). Even if they both made $30k downpayments on their respective houses, LT Smartguy still has enough extra money to finish the basement or remodel the kitchen.
You might say to yourself, "Self, in the long run it's the same amount of money either way, right?" The answer is no. If you invest the money, then the time value of money (compounding interest over time) is going to make a big difference. At the end of that first 5 year contract, the lieutenant who took 6 payments and invested the money could have in the ballpark of $10k more in the bank than the lieutenant who waited and only took 5 payments.
In order to illustrate this to the junior officers on my last boat, I put it all into an Excel spreadsheet to show them Option A versus Option B (and also took into account interest rates and tax rates). I don't know how to post an Excel file here in my blog, but I'm happy to send it to you via email if you'd like to see it.
So, to sum it all up, if you're going to stay in for a department head tour, then don't wait. Sign up for the bonus as soon as you finish PNEO and elect to receive the extra payment.
To see the reference documentation on Nuclear Officer Incentive Pay, please visit the PERS-42 website.
First, a disclaimer: This is NOT an attempt to convince you to Stay Navy by dangling dollar signs in front of your face. This is also NOT directed at any particular individuals who either currently or previously worked for me.
IF you aren't sure about staying in the submarine force, then stop reading here. Make your decision about whether to continue your career as a steely-eyed killer of the deep first.
IF you are already thinking about staying in for a department head tour, then be advised: you are financially better off signing a contract for Nuclear Officer Continuation Pay ("COPAY" - remember from this post "eets naught a bohnus") BEFORE you reach the end of your Minimum Service Requirement (MSR - i.e. 5 years from your commissioning date).
Here's why:
IF you sign a contract BEFORE the end of your initial service obligation ends, then you have the option of receiving one payment more than the number of years in your contract (see Paragraph 7.c.(1)(a) on page 7 of OPNAVINST 7220.11B).
In other words, if you are signing a 5 year contract, then you can elect to receive 6 payments. You receive the first payment as soon as you sign the contract, and then you will receive each of the follow on payments on your anniversary date.
Allow me to illustrate using two examples. Let's say these two guys were both commissioned on 21 May 2004, so their initial five year obligation ends on 21 May 2009.
Example #1. LT Procrastinator waits and doesn't sign a contract until after his obligation expired on 21 May 2009. He signs a 5 year contract for $30k per year.
Example #2. LT Smartguy passed his PNEO exam, is gung-ho about the cool tactical missions we do on the pointy-end of the spear. He wants to go back for a department head tour. He signs a 5 year contract on 1 Mar 2009 and elects to receive 6 payments.
Here's how that works.
In both cases, 5 years x $30k per year = $150k total value of the contract.
In LT Smartguy's case, $150k total NOIP divided by 6 payments = $25k per payment.
LT Smartguy will get $25k (minus taxes) immediately upon signing the contract on 1 Mar 2009. Then he will get another payment for $25k on his anniversary date of 21 May 2009 and every year thereafter.
In LT Procrastinator's case, $150k total NOIP divided by 5 payments = $30k per payment.
That might seem confusing at first. You might be saying to yourself, "Self, aren't $30k payments better than $25k payments?"
Well... not exactly. TWO $25k payments in rapid succession are much better than ONE $30K payment. When LT Procrastinator received his first $30k payment on 21 May 2009, LT Smartguy received his SECOND $25k payment. So in May 2009, LT Smartguy now has $50k plus the interest he earned on the initial $25k from March through May and LT Procrastinator now has $30k.
Now, when these two lieutenants transfer to shore duty and are each looking to buy their first house, one of them has $50k and the other has $30k to use toward a downpayment (minus taxes). Even if they both made $30k downpayments on their respective houses, LT Smartguy still has enough extra money to finish the basement or remodel the kitchen.
You might say to yourself, "Self, in the long run it's the same amount of money either way, right?" The answer is no. If you invest the money, then the time value of money (compounding interest over time) is going to make a big difference. At the end of that first 5 year contract, the lieutenant who took 6 payments and invested the money could have in the ballpark of $10k more in the bank than the lieutenant who waited and only took 5 payments.
In order to illustrate this to the junior officers on my last boat, I put it all into an Excel spreadsheet to show them Option A versus Option B (and also took into account interest rates and tax rates). I don't know how to post an Excel file here in my blog, but I'm happy to send it to you via email if you'd like to see it.
So, to sum it all up, if you're going to stay in for a department head tour, then don't wait. Sign up for the bonus as soon as you finish PNEO and elect to receive the extra payment.
To see the reference documentation on Nuclear Officer Incentive Pay, please visit the PERS-42 website.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Reminder
Public service announcement for you guys out there:
I would love to offer you some wisdom and advice on how not to get in trouble with your significant other on Valentine's Day, but I have to tread very lightly lest the comments section fill up with stories of my own colossal mess-ups of Valentine's Days past. Note that last year I didn't post ANYTHING about Valentine's Day - I just didn't want to open this can of worms. I figured this year I'd just offer this up as a simple reminder in case you've had a busy week and don't realize it's the day after tomorrow.
Anyway, get thee to a florist.
Oh, and for some humorous Valentine's Day advice, check out this post on Broadside.
SATURDAY is VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
I would love to offer you some wisdom and advice on how not to get in trouble with your significant other on Valentine's Day, but I have to tread very lightly lest the comments section fill up with stories of my own colossal mess-ups of Valentine's Days past. Note that last year I didn't post ANYTHING about Valentine's Day - I just didn't want to open this can of worms. I figured this year I'd just offer this up as a simple reminder in case you've had a busy week and don't realize it's the day after tomorrow.
Anyway, get thee to a florist.
Oh, and for some humorous Valentine's Day advice, check out this post on Broadside.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Halo Wars and Battlestar Gallactica
Weekend Entertainment Part II
1. Halo Wars
In case you didn't know, the makers of Halo are making a new version of the game, Halo Wars. You can download the free trial version on the XBox. It's pretty darn cool.
Unlike the original Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3 which were first-person shooter (FPS) type video games (you run around with a gun in your hand shooting at the bad guys), Halo Wars is a real-time strategy (RTS) game. In RTS games, you have an eagle's eye view of the battle field, and you command groups of units to move and attack. You can gather resources that enable you to construct buildings, and the buildings will give you the ability to construct new military units or research new technologies to make your military units more powerful.
Anyway, if you like RTS games and have an XBox, I highly recommend checking out the free download version of Halo Wars. Now I can't wait for the full version of the game to be released.
I looked for a trailer of the new game on YouTube to show you what I mean about the game, but it seems like all the trailers for "Halo Wars" are totally useless. They make it seem like you're watching movies of people playing the first three installments of the the Halo FPS shooter games and don't give you ANY feel for what the Halo Wars RTS game is really like.
Oh, here we go, this trailer on the XBox website was a mixture of fantasy FPS footage and some glimpses of what an RTS game is like.
2. Battlestar Gallactica
Okay, alright, I'm ready for the barrage of I-told-you-so's from the peanut gallery. The "new" Battlestar Gallactica came out while I was on sea duty. Since I figured I would miss a bunch of it, I didn't see any point in trying to watch it when it was playing new on TV.
Yes, yes, yes, I know they started in 2003 and they're in like season 5 now, so it's not exactly "new" anymore. By "new" I mean NOT the Battlestar Gallactica I used to watch when I was a kid a couple of decades ago.
Many friends of mine have raved about how awesome the new BSG was though, so when I saw Blockbuster had the first season available on HD DVD, I put it in my Blockbuster queue. I've watched the first three episodes now, and WOW. What an awesome show! I'm really putting my new surround sound speakers to use and making the family room floor reverberate, too.
Oddly enough, even though the "new" BSG doesn't have any real sort of a theme song, I keep getting the OLD BSG theme song running through my head all the time now. Bizarre. I can think of worse songs to get stuck in my head though.
So is getting sucked into BSG going to raise my score on the Geek scale?
1. Halo Wars
In case you didn't know, the makers of Halo are making a new version of the game, Halo Wars. You can download the free trial version on the XBox. It's pretty darn cool.Unlike the original Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3 which were first-person shooter (FPS) type video games (you run around with a gun in your hand shooting at the bad guys), Halo Wars is a real-time strategy (RTS) game. In RTS games, you have an eagle's eye view of the battle field, and you command groups of units to move and attack. You can gather resources that enable you to construct buildings, and the buildings will give you the ability to construct new military units or research new technologies to make your military units more powerful.
Anyway, if you like RTS games and have an XBox, I highly recommend checking out the free download version of Halo Wars. Now I can't wait for the full version of the game to be released.
I looked for a trailer of the new game on YouTube to show you what I mean about the game, but it seems like all the trailers for "Halo Wars" are totally useless. They make it seem like you're watching movies of people playing the first three installments of the the Halo FPS shooter games and don't give you ANY feel for what the Halo Wars RTS game is really like.
Oh, here we go, this trailer on the XBox website was a mixture of fantasy FPS footage and some glimpses of what an RTS game is like.
2. Battlestar Gallactica
Okay, alright, I'm ready for the barrage of I-told-you-so's from the peanut gallery. The "new" Battlestar Gallactica came out while I was on sea duty. Since I figured I would miss a bunch of it, I didn't see any point in trying to watch it when it was playing new on TV.
Yes, yes, yes, I know they started in 2003 and they're in like season 5 now, so it's not exactly "new" anymore. By "new" I mean NOT the Battlestar Gallactica I used to watch when I was a kid a couple of decades ago.
Many friends of mine have raved about how awesome the new BSG was though, so when I saw Blockbuster had the first season available on HD DVD, I put it in my Blockbuster queue. I've watched the first three episodes now, and WOW. What an awesome show! I'm really putting my new surround sound speakers to use and making the family room floor reverberate, too.
Oddly enough, even though the "new" BSG doesn't have any real sort of a theme song, I keep getting the OLD BSG theme song running through my head all the time now. Bizarre. I can think of worse songs to get stuck in my head though.
So is getting sucked into BSG going to raise my score on the Geek scale?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Boundaries
Okay, so maybe I need to let my family agree to some boundaries on what I do and don't write about in my blog.
First, a week or so ago, my wife asked ES if he wanted to tell me about what happened at school. He vigorously shook his head and said "NO!" My wife asked him why not. His answer?
Doh.
Ouch.
I told him I wouldn't write about things on my blog if he didn't want me to.
I like to think that I use SOME discretion in what I post in my blog.
Fast forward to last Saturday night we went to a party at our friends W&L's house. It was a social gathering for any military officers in Loudoun County ("LoCoMOs" - Loudoun County Military Officers).
After everyone had arrived and was settled in and enjoying the food and the drinks and the conversation, I pulled my camera out to take a few pictures of the party. My wife saw me pull the camera out, and she shouted,
She said it so seriously as if she were in combat and announcing, "Incoming!" or "Grenade!" or "Watch out, he's got a bomb!"
If I didn't know any better, I'd think these were warning signs that my family doesn't like my blog.
First, a week or so ago, my wife asked ES if he wanted to tell me about what happened at school. He vigorously shook his head and said "NO!" My wife asked him why not. His answer?
"Because I don't want Daddy to write about it on his blog."
Doh.
Ouch.
I told him I wouldn't write about things on my blog if he didn't want me to.
I like to think that I use SOME discretion in what I post in my blog.
Fast forward to last Saturday night we went to a party at our friends W&L's house. It was a social gathering for any military officers in Loudoun County ("LoCoMOs" - Loudoun County Military Officers).
After everyone had arrived and was settled in and enjoying the food and the drinks and the conversation, I pulled my camera out to take a few pictures of the party. My wife saw me pull the camera out, and she shouted,
"WATCH OUT, HE'S GOT A BLOG!!!"
She said it so seriously as if she were in combat and announcing, "Incoming!" or "Grenade!" or "Watch out, he's got a bomb!"
If I didn't know any better, I'd think these were warning signs that my family doesn't like my blog.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Blasts from the Past
Recap of Weekend Entertainment Part I: Blasts from the Past
1. Family Movie Night
I'm always looking for movies for us to watch on Family Movie Night. We've exhausted most of the recent movies, so I've been digging back through the archives for movies that are fun to watch and "safe" for the family.
I dug waaaaaay back (1977) and found a Disney movie that I really liked when I was a kid: Candleshoe. I was surprised LW had never seen it before.
It's pretty weird seeing Jody Foster as a teenager, but it's a good fun movie. Both my wife and ES were laughing throughout the movie. It was a little over YB's head, but he sat through the whole movie (usually if he gets bored with a movie, he'll get up and go play in the play room). So if you're looking for a family movie night recommendation, add Candleshoe to your Blockbuster and/or Netflix queue.
2. Video Game Flashback
I was on the X-Box looking for the new maps to download for Halo 3, and I happened upon the download for R-Type. R-Type was one of my favorite video games back in the late 80's. I downloaded it, and sure enough the copyright date was 1987.
It's pretty cool though. They've spiffed it up. If you hit the Y button, it toggles between the old 1987 graphics and newer, cooler 3D graphics. The boys and I had some fun playing that on Saturday this weekend.
They gave it an "infinite" mode, too. It was a pretty challenging game to try and get as far as you could on just 3 lives. Now, you can put it on infinite mode and it just lets you keep playing, although each time you die you loose all your weapon power-ups.
More to follow on weekend entertainment, but figured I'd break it up into two posts.
1. Family Movie Night
I'm always looking for movies for us to watch on Family Movie Night. We've exhausted most of the recent movies, so I've been digging back through the archives for movies that are fun to watch and "safe" for the family.
I dug waaaaaay back (1977) and found a Disney movie that I really liked when I was a kid: Candleshoe. I was surprised LW had never seen it before.It's pretty weird seeing Jody Foster as a teenager, but it's a good fun movie. Both my wife and ES were laughing throughout the movie. It was a little over YB's head, but he sat through the whole movie (usually if he gets bored with a movie, he'll get up and go play in the play room). So if you're looking for a family movie night recommendation, add Candleshoe to your Blockbuster and/or Netflix queue.
2. Video Game Flashback
I was on the X-Box looking for the new maps to download for Halo 3, and I happened upon the download for R-Type. R-Type was one of my favorite video games back in the late 80's. I downloaded it, and sure enough the copyright date was 1987.
It's pretty cool though. They've spiffed it up. If you hit the Y button, it toggles between the old 1987 graphics and newer, cooler 3D graphics. The boys and I had some fun playing that on Saturday this weekend.
They gave it an "infinite" mode, too. It was a pretty challenging game to try and get as far as you could on just 3 lives. Now, you can put it on infinite mode and it just lets you keep playing, although each time you die you loose all your weapon power-ups.
More to follow on weekend entertainment, but figured I'd break it up into two posts.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Deja vu... Sea story rerun
As I was walking from the bus stop to my office building a couple of days ago, I said to myself, "Self, this headsok ROCKS!" It was 18 degrees out, -1 degree with the wind chill, but my headsok protected my face and kept me nice and toasty warm.
I had a flashback to my first sea tour in Groton and a port call to Esquimalt, British Columbia during my second sea tour. I started composing a blog post in my mind to share those sea stories with you all, but then I had a feeling of deja vu.
I said to myself, "Self, is it possible you've been blogging long enough that you don't remember what you've blogged about before?"
So I did a search on my blog for Esquimalt, and sure enough, I already wrote about it. So hey, if you're new to my blog, I invite you to click the link and read it.
Gear Recommendation (sorry, JT - "Kit" Recommendation for you folks who've been expats for a while):
Get yourself a headsok. Even if you're in a homeport like San Diego, sooner or later you'll have a port call someplace like Esquimalt, BC, or Ketchikan, Alaska, or Yokosuka, Japan in the winter, and you'll be glad you had it tucked away in your locker for just such an occasion.
I had a flashback to my first sea tour in Groton and a port call to Esquimalt, British Columbia during my second sea tour. I started composing a blog post in my mind to share those sea stories with you all, but then I had a feeling of deja vu.
I said to myself, "Self, is it possible you've been blogging long enough that you don't remember what you've blogged about before?"
So I did a search on my blog for Esquimalt, and sure enough, I already wrote about it. So hey, if you're new to my blog, I invite you to click the link and read it.
Gear Recommendation (sorry, JT - "Kit" Recommendation for you folks who've been expats for a while):
Get yourself a headsok. Even if you're in a homeport like San Diego, sooner or later you'll have a port call someplace like Esquimalt, BC, or Ketchikan, Alaska, or Yokosuka, Japan in the winter, and you'll be glad you had it tucked away in your locker for just such an occasion.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Rant: MP3 Players
Lesson Learned for those of you junior officers in the training pipeline getting ready to go out on your first boats:
Quick Tangent.
One time on my last boat, I was standing in the Control Room and tried to be funny by quoting something from Johnny Carson. All the guys in control just stared at me blankly and had no clue what I was talking about. Man I felt old.
End of Tangent.
On my first two boats, we had these crazy old things called CD players. For music, guys just brought along their own little books of CDs to listen to in the wardroom or in their stateroom.
So when I flew overseas to meet my third boat on deployment, I took my book of CDs with me.
Man, I felt like a dinosaur.
NOBODY listens to CDs anymore. At least, nobody did on the boat.
EVERYBODY had an iPod.
I didn't want to be a conformist and resisted the urge to get an iPod. After we returned from deployment, I bought a Zen V-plus mp3 player with 8GB of memory to use on subsequent underways.
It worked out great for a little while. I was using Yahoo Music Jukebox, downloading lots of songs I had never picked up on CD. I paid like $150 for an annual membership and then purchased a lot of 79 cent music downloads.
Then we left Norfolk headed for Panama, a port call in San Diego, and our eventual new homeport in Hawaii. I vowed I was going to jog at least 3 miles per day on the treadmill for the duration of the trip from Norfolk to Pearl Harbor (aside: I did it every day EXCEPT for the day we went through the Panama Canal - I was pretty happy with that).
About two weeks into the trip, I was jogging on the treadmill when all of a sudden my tunes stopped playing. I couldn't figure out why it stopped. I picked it up and looked at dark screen. It had shut itself down due to inactivity, so I pushed the power button again and waited for it to go through its boot-up sequence. I pushed play, and it flashed an error message on the screen:
Do NOT buy a Zen MP3 player.
Quick Tangent.
One time on my last boat, I was standing in the Control Room and tried to be funny by quoting something from Johnny Carson. All the guys in control just stared at me blankly and had no clue what I was talking about. Man I felt old.
End of Tangent.
On my first two boats, we had these crazy old things called CD players. For music, guys just brought along their own little books of CDs to listen to in the wardroom or in their stateroom.
So when I flew overseas to meet my third boat on deployment, I took my book of CDs with me.
Man, I felt like a dinosaur.
NOBODY listens to CDs anymore. At least, nobody did on the boat.
EVERYBODY had an iPod.
I didn't want to be a conformist and resisted the urge to get an iPod. After we returned from deployment, I bought a Zen V-plus mp3 player with 8GB of memory to use on subsequent underways.
It worked out great for a little while. I was using Yahoo Music Jukebox, downloading lots of songs I had never picked up on CD. I paid like $150 for an annual membership and then purchased a lot of 79 cent music downloads.
Then we left Norfolk headed for Panama, a port call in San Diego, and our eventual new homeport in Hawaii. I vowed I was going to jog at least 3 miles per day on the treadmill for the duration of the trip from Norfolk to Pearl Harbor (aside: I did it every day EXCEPT for the day we went through the Panama Canal - I was pretty happy with that).
About two weeks into the trip, I was jogging on the treadmill when all of a sudden my tunes stopped playing. I couldn't figure out why it stopped. I picked it up and looked at dark screen. It had shut itself down due to inactivity, so I pushed the power button again and waited for it to go through its boot-up sequence. I pushed play, and it flashed an error message on the screen:
"No license to play. Sync license from PC."
I stood there staring at the screen in confused disbelief. Then the screen went black again when it shut down due to inactivity.
Um... dude... I'm several hundred feet beneath the surface of the ocean and several hundreds of miles from shore. How the HECK am I supposed to sync this MP3 player up to verify I have a license to play it??? I'm no expert on intellectual property rights and music licensing, but what the heck did I pay 79 cents for if not for the license to play the stupid song on my MP3 player???
Plus, okay, fine, moving beyond the fact that I can't sync my MP3 player when I'm at sea, why the HECK does the thing just STOP and SHUT DOWN when it encounters this obstacle? Hello?!?! PLAY THE NEXT STUPID SONG ON THE PLAYLIST FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! Don't just STOP and SHUT DOWN! I'm JOGGING HERE MAN!!!
So I didn't use the playlists I had created for the rest of the trip. I just stuck to playing albums that I knew I owned on CD and had burned to the MP3 player from the CD.
I made a few attempts to complain to Yahoo about it and demanded my money back, but my complaints fell on deaf ears. They never responded to any of my complaints, so I cancelled my membership there.
Fast forward to the present.
Here I am on shore duty.
Plenty of easy access to my computer and to the internet.
Syncing the Zen with the laptop was doing nothing to update the licenses. So I thought I'd start from scratch. I wiped the Zen clean and started reloading from scratch. As it loaded the Zen with the music off my hard drive, it kept popping up a message saying it was not transferring this song and that song due to no license. I said, fine, no problem, get rid of it.
So I went to the gym thinking I was all set with JUST songs that I had licenses for and would stay on my MP3 player. I made NEW playlists with just the songs that I now had loaded on the MP3 player.
It worked for about two weeks.
I was jogging on the treadmill at the PAC Annex and all of a sudden I noticed the music stopped. I picked up the Zen... dark screen. I pushed the power button again and pushed play again.
You've GOT to be kidding me.
I brought it home and synced it with the PC. Tried playing my playlist again.
I'm done.
I wanna take this Zen player out in a field like the guys in Office Space did with the printer / fax machine.
(Photo credit: Twentieth Century Fox)
Now I'm wondering if I should be a lemming and buy an iPod. Like I said, EVERYBODY on the boat had an iPod, and I never heard ANYBODY complain about their licenses expiring or needing to sync their iPod with their computer during months out at sea.
If I'm wrong, please tell me. Do iPods have to call home to verify your membership is up to date and check the license data on your music???
Um... dude... I'm several hundred feet beneath the surface of the ocean and several hundreds of miles from shore. How the HECK am I supposed to sync this MP3 player up to verify I have a license to play it??? I'm no expert on intellectual property rights and music licensing, but what the heck did I pay 79 cents for if not for the license to play the stupid song on my MP3 player???
Plus, okay, fine, moving beyond the fact that I can't sync my MP3 player when I'm at sea, why the HECK does the thing just STOP and SHUT DOWN when it encounters this obstacle? Hello?!?! PLAY THE NEXT STUPID SONG ON THE PLAYLIST FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! Don't just STOP and SHUT DOWN! I'm JOGGING HERE MAN!!!
So I didn't use the playlists I had created for the rest of the trip. I just stuck to playing albums that I knew I owned on CD and had burned to the MP3 player from the CD.
I made a few attempts to complain to Yahoo about it and demanded my money back, but my complaints fell on deaf ears. They never responded to any of my complaints, so I cancelled my membership there.
Fast forward to the present.
Here I am on shore duty.
Plenty of easy access to my computer and to the internet.
Syncing the Zen with the laptop was doing nothing to update the licenses. So I thought I'd start from scratch. I wiped the Zen clean and started reloading from scratch. As it loaded the Zen with the music off my hard drive, it kept popping up a message saying it was not transferring this song and that song due to no license. I said, fine, no problem, get rid of it.
So I went to the gym thinking I was all set with JUST songs that I had licenses for and would stay on my MP3 player. I made NEW playlists with just the songs that I now had loaded on the MP3 player.
It worked for about two weeks.
I was jogging on the treadmill at the PAC Annex and all of a sudden I noticed the music stopped. I picked up the Zen... dark screen. I pushed the power button again and pushed play again.
"No license to play. Sync license from PC."
You've GOT to be kidding me.
I brought it home and synced it with the PC. Tried playing my playlist again.
"No license to play. Sync license from PC."
I'm done.
I wanna take this Zen player out in a field like the guys in Office Space did with the printer / fax machine.
(Photo credit: Twentieth Century Fox)Now I'm wondering if I should be a lemming and buy an iPod. Like I said, EVERYBODY on the boat had an iPod, and I never heard ANYBODY complain about their licenses expiring or needing to sync their iPod with their computer during months out at sea.
If I'm wrong, please tell me. Do iPods have to call home to verify your membership is up to date and check the license data on your music???
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Handy man I am not
I'm sure I've mentioned once or twice before that I'm not much of a handy man. My grandpa has awesome woodworking skills. My dad was always a darn good handy man around the house. You'd think between the gene pool and all those long hours I spent handing my dad tools and listening to his explanation of how to use the tools, SOME of it would have rubbed off on me.
At last night's cub scout meeting, our mission was to build a bird house.
First, I would like to present Exhibit A.
Exhibit A.
At last night's cub scout meeting, our mission was to build a bird house.
First, I would like to present Exhibit A.
Exhibit A.Looks simple enough, doesn't it?
Please note it says, "Fun & easy to build."
Ummm... Not so much.
The nails that came with this kit were about as strong as a piece of leftover spaghetti, and the wood for the red end pieces was hard as granite. The nails would NOT go into the wood.
Allow me to present Exhibit B.
Exhibit B.
"Fun and easy to build"???
HA!!!
In my defense, this problem was not isolated to me. All five of us dads experienced a smashed finger or thumb at some point as our boys banged away with the hammers. Only two father-son teams were able to finish their bird houses. The other three teams were left frustrated and annoyed.
Maybe I could sue the manufacturer for emotional trauma and become a millionaire like the McDonald's hot coffee lady. I'm kind of surprised given the silly legal disclaimers on every other product sold in America that there weren't any on this birdhouse package.
Please note it says, "Fun & easy to build."
Ummm... Not so much.
The nails that came with this kit were about as strong as a piece of leftover spaghetti, and the wood for the red end pieces was hard as granite. The nails would NOT go into the wood.
Allow me to present Exhibit B.
Exhibit B."Fun and easy to build"???
HA!!!
In my defense, this problem was not isolated to me. All five of us dads experienced a smashed finger or thumb at some point as our boys banged away with the hammers. Only two father-son teams were able to finish their bird houses. The other three teams were left frustrated and annoyed.
Maybe I could sue the manufacturer for emotional trauma and become a millionaire like the McDonald's hot coffee lady. I'm kind of surprised given the silly legal disclaimers on every other product sold in America that there weren't any on this birdhouse package.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Advice for Junior Officers: VITA
When April of my first year of commissioned service rolled around, I was in prototype and didn't have a lot of free time. So I gathered my tax documents and dropped them off at a local tax place. For $30, they prepared my tax return and had it electronically filed for me.
Not long thereafter, the Navy started the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
VITA relies on volunteers who receive some training on using tax filing software and then take your documents and prepare your tax return for you FREE OF CHARGE. Several years in a row, I used VITA to take care of my taxes, and I was never disappointed.
After we had been married a while and had a lot of stuff to itemize, my wife started doing our taxes on her computer. (Thank you Sweetie! You do a great job with our taxes and I appreciate it!)
My recommendations to you division officers and leading petty officers out there:
Not long thereafter, the Navy started the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
VITA is a GOOD DEAL.
VITA relies on volunteers who receive some training on using tax filing software and then take your documents and prepare your tax return for you FREE OF CHARGE. Several years in a row, I used VITA to take care of my taxes, and I was never disappointed.
After we had been married a while and had a lot of stuff to itemize, my wife started doing our taxes on her computer. (Thank you Sweetie! You do a great job with our taxes and I appreciate it!)
My recommendations to you division officers and leading petty officers out there:
- VITA is a great resource for YOU! Take advantage of it!
- VITA is a great resource for YOUR SAILORS in your division. Get the word out! Find out the location and hours of your local VITA office and push the word out to your division at quarters. From my experience, it's usually at your base Navy Legal Service Office, but if it's not, the NLSO will be able to tell you where it is or who to contact.
- VITA is an great opportunity for you to volunteer for community service and help out your shipmates. Plus, it's a bullet to add on your fitrep or eval. It's one of those things for you to show initiative and a desire to take on more responsibility. If your command can support you being gone part time in tax season, you can get FREE training on tax filing software and then you can provide a service to your community by volunteering for VITA. Even if you could only do it one afternoon per week, you would still be contributing to the team effort and helping your shipmates out.
R 241821Z NOV 08
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N09//
TO NAVADMIN
INFO ZEN/CNO WASHINGTON DC//N09//
UNCLAS
NAVADMIN 334/08
MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N09/NOV//
SUBJ/2009 VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE (VITA) ELECTRONIC
TAX/FILING (ELF) POLICY AND PROGRAM GUIDANCE//
REF/A/MSG/CNO/302325Z OCT 07//
AMPN/REF A IS NAVADMIN 288/07//
POC/JULKA/LT/OJAG 16/JAG/TEL: (202)685-4641/DSN: 325//
GENTEXT/REMARKS/2009 VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE/
ELECTRONIC TAX FILING POLICY AND PROGRAM GUIDANCE//
RMKS/1. THIS NAVADMIN PROVIDES VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX
ASSISTANCE (VITA)/ELECTRONIC TAX FILING (ELF) POLICY AND
PROGRAM GUIDANCE. THIS MSG SUPERSEDES REF A.
2. DURING 2008, VOLUNTEERS WITH THE VITA/ELF PROGRAM FILED
MORE THAN 73,000 FEDERAL AND STATE TAX RETURNS, SAVING
SERVICE MEMBERS AND FAMILY MEMBERS MORE THAN $9.1 MILLION
IN COMMERCIAL TAX PREPARATION FEES. BASED ON THE RESOUNDING
SUCCESS OF VITA/ELF IN PAST YEARS, WE WILL ONCE AGAIN
IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAM FOR 2009.
3. THE VITA/ELF PROGRAM IS A PROVEN WINNER THAT IMPROVES
MORALE AND READINESS - AND KEEPS MONEY IN SAILORS' POCKETS -
BY SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCING THE EFFORT AND COST INVOLVED IN
MEETING FEDERAL AND STATE TAX OBLIGATIONS:
A. NO PREPARATION FEES. COMMERCIAL TAX PREPARERS MAY CHARGE
OVER $140 FOR THE AVERAGE ELECTRONICALLY FILED RETURN. VITA/
ELF VOLUNTEERS PREPARE AND FILE TAX RETURNS AT NO COST TO
SAILORS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
B. FASTER REFUNDS. PAPER RETURNS MAY TAKE EIGHT OR MORE
WEEKS TO PROCESS IN CONUS, AND EVEN LONGER IF SUBMITTED
OVERSEAS OR WHILE DEPLOYED. BY USING VITA/ELF, REFUNDS ARE
DEPOSITED DIRECTLY INTO A SAILOR'S BANK ACCOUNT AN AVERAGE
OF TWO WEEKS FROM THE DATE OF TRANSMISSION, EVEN FROM
OVERSEAS AND AFLOAT COMMANDS. THESE RAPID REFUNDS GREATLY
REDUCE THE NEED FOR ANY TYPE OF REFUND ANTICIPATION LOANS,
WHICH STILL HAVE HIGH INTEREST RATES AND CHARGES EVEN IF IN
COMPLIANCE WITH DOD PREDATORY LENDING LIMITATIONS.
C. FEWER MISTAKES. VITA/ELF RETURNS ARE VERY ACCURATE - LESS
THAN A 1 PERCENT ERROR RATE COMPARED TO 15 PERCENT FOR PAPER
RETURNS.
4. PAST TAX SEASONS HAVE DEMONSTRATED THAT SUCCESS OF THE
VITA/ELF PROGRAM IS PREDICATED ON SUPPORT FROM LOCAL
COMMANDS. WHILE THE LOCAL NAVAL LEGAL SERVICE OFFICE (NLSO),
STAFF JUDGE ADVOCATE, OR COMMAND TAX REPRESENTATIVE WILL
MANAGE TAX ASSISTANCE CENTERS, LOCAL COMMANDS ARE STRONGLY
ENCOURAGED TO PROVIDE PERSONNEL, EQUIPMENT, AND FACILITIES.
WHEN LOCAL COMMANDS SUPPORT THE VITA/ELF PROGRAM, EVERYONE
BENEFITS.
5. SUFFICIENT MANPOWER IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS. THE SUPPORT OF
EVERY COMMAND IS NECESSARY - TO INCLUDE SENDING SAILORS
TEMPORARY ADDITIONAL DUTY (TAD) FOR THE 12-WEEK TAX SEASON OR
ALLOWING PERSONNEL TO WORK PART-TIME AT TAX ASSISTANCE
CENTERS. PART-TIME SUPPORT IS ESPECIALLY CRITICAL DURING
FEBRUARY, THE PEAK FILING TIME. THE GOAL IS TO PROVIDE ONE
VOLUNTEER OR TAD TAX PREPARER PER 100 MEMBERS OF EACH COMMAND.
ONE FULL-TIME TAD TAX PREPARER (TRAINED BY THE IRS AND/OR
VITA/ELF TAX OFFICERS) CAN PROVIDE OVER $50,000 WORTH OF
SERVICES. INFORMATION REGARDING REQUIRED TAX PREPARER TRAINING
OR ABOUT VOLUNTEERING CAN BE OBTAINED BY CONTACTING THE LOCAL
NLSO OR THE OJAG POC, LT JULKA.
6. THE VITA/ELF PROGRAM IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. WITH YOUR
SUPPORT, WE CAN CONTINUE THIS VALUABLE QUALITY OF LIFE BENEFIT
FOR OUR SAILORS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
7. RELEASED BY ADMIRAL PATRICK M. WALSH, VICE CHIEF OF NAVAL
OPERATIONS.//
BT
#0000
NNNN
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Mark Your Calendar: DC Submarine Ball '09
Heads-Up!
DC area submariners, mark your calendars!
To all submariners out there regardless of location: As a friendly reminder from last year, if you haven't tried on your mess dress blues lately, NOW would be a good time to try them on and see if:
(a) they have the correct rank on the sleeves,
(b) they still fit, and
(c) you have all the pieces and parts.
This is especially important in the DC area since getting to a Navy uniform shop isn't exactly convenient for a lot of us.
Don't wait til the last minute! Take those mini-medals in to be mounted, sleeves to be striped, and anything else you need now so it's not a last minute rush.
If you read my blog and you attend the ball, then I hope you'll find me in the crowd and say hi at the ball.
DC area submariners, mark your calendars!
The Submarine Birthday Ball
is
is
Saturday, 11 April 2009
1800-2400
at the
Crystal Gateway Marriott
1800-2400
at the
Crystal Gateway Marriott
Dress: Formal (black tie - civilian, dinner dress BLUE jacket - military).
Tickets (per person): E1-E6 - $45; E7-O4 - $60; all others - $70.
(a) they have the correct rank on the sleeves,
(b) they still fit, and
(c) you have all the pieces and parts.
This is especially important in the DC area since getting to a Navy uniform shop isn't exactly convenient for a lot of us.
Don't wait til the last minute! Take those mini-medals in to be mounted, sleeves to be striped, and anything else you need now so it's not a last minute rush.
If you read my blog and you attend the ball, then I hope you'll find me in the crowd and say hi at the ball.