Well, these are the first photos of me at my new base doing my job. My responsibilities are to search the trucks for contraband, which includes (among the obvious things as bombs, drugs and weapons) knives, lighters/matches, propane tanks, aerosol cans, pressure cookers, cell phones, loose wires and electronics, batteries. The last five (starting with cookers) are all material that can be used to construct an IED and as such are confiscated. Only the cookers are given back to the drivers when they leave. The trucks smell like cigarettes, B.O and ass, but overall, it's not that bad of a job. I like the people I work with, the hours I work are ok, and there's a high probability that I'll get to go home with all limbs where they should be. The only thing that really sucks is that we don't get days off at all, so there's little time to relax. I doubt I'll get any more pictures of interest, but if I do, I'll be sure to post them. The second one is of me wearing a Brit boonie cover holding their rifle. If you look closely, you can see my clean raccoon eyes. The rest of my face was uncovered by my goggles and as such is covered in dirt from riding in the turret of the humvee.
The last four are of me searching a truck, with the first of them being the truck I'm in. br br br br br
Also, I haven't done a write-up for either of their profiles, and I'd greatly appreciate if any of you literary types would be so kind as to help with that. (Format doesn't really matter, but you can browse some of the other competitor profiles to get a feel. Email whosagingbetter at gmail dot com. Thanks!)
I dreamed tonight that I was surfing reddit, and suddenly saw a familiar username among the redditors. JiggaJonson was commenting on reddit, with his usual frisky green color, even. (In my dreams it's possible to go charter on reddit too, apparently.)
I'm not saying that Tom's Quality Comfort Air Conditioning want to sodomize your pets, but they might- and I'm getting tired of comment spam.
So- when you Google "Tom's Quality Comfort", here's hoping you are reminded that this company may or may not be behind a conspiracy to do unspeakable acts with your beloved pet.
NOTE: I never wrote a letter regarding the "reauthorization" of three or any of the provisions of the Patriot Act. I asked to have it repealed. Period. It's a terrible piece of legislation (as with FISA) and it's terribly unconstitutional. It was heavily protested when Bush was in office, but now we have that "other guy" in, it's all of a sudden crucial to fighting terror. Such utter bullshit.
Anyhow, here's the bullshit letter back. Proving more and more that this "representational" government doesn't represent us. Notice how she tells me what she "believes" on the matter. I didn't ask for her take.
Anyhow, here's disconcerting the letter. Edit: Anyhow, here's the disconcerting letter. Sorry, I think I was dyslexic last night.
Dear Mr. [blankfist]:
Thank you for your letter regarding the reauthorization of three provisions of the USA Patriot Act. I appreciate hearing your concerns, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.
I believe the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the PATRIOT Act are essential to combat terrorism, as recent arrests have shown. The United States remains a target for terrorists, and good surveillance is critical to prevent attacks.
I am working with my colleague, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Patrick Leahy (D-VT), to pass a bill that will improve national security and protect civil liberties. I am pleased to say that on October 8, 2009, the Judiciary Committee reported S.1692, the "USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009", as amended, to the full Senate. In addition to allowing specific surveillance authorities to continue, the legislation adds several new protections against potential abuse through changes to internal procedures at the FBI and by providing more transparency into these activities by the public, the Congress, and the Courts.
Please know that I appreciate hearing your concerns. As Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I look forward to working with the Justice Department and Intelligence Community as the legislation moves forward.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. I hope you will continue to keep me informed on matters of importance to you. Best regards.
Sincerely yours, Dianne Feinstein United States Senator
If you haven't already, you should update your Flash player to the new pre-release of 10.1 Why?? Cuz it's got Hardware Acceleration* support F I N A L L Y !! No more crappy frame rates and hickups *at least on the PC version
Just created this simple but fun little site. Give it a look: Who's Aging Better?
Basically there's a daily battle between two random entities where you are asked to vote for whom you think is doing a better job of aging. Photos are included as are descriptions of each competitor.
Right now the stable of fighters is extremely limited, so there's bound to be some battle repetition. It takes time to add each competitor because it takes time to find a good collection of images through a person's life and do a half decent write-up, but there are tons more fighters to come.
Tell a friend. And please let me know if there is anyone in particular you'd like to see do battle!
Well, I have time enough to post a short blog, and a few pictures to go with it. My camera does not work, so I've only a few to put up. I'm at my new base and I got a pretty good assignment here. I'm doing the same thing that I was doing at FOB Dwyre - pulling Afghani cargo vehicles in and searching them - and it's a pretty good deal. We work from 7 am until about 11:30 and them from 2:00 until about 5:00. in that generous lunch break we can take the Humvee to the British base and go to their PX, use their internet center which is much faster and has almost zero line. From there I have plenty of time to go to the gym and shower and eat when I get off and not worry about getting on the internet at night and having to wait on a huge line. Plus, I'm working with British Royal Air Force - they're the ones that actually search the drivers - I just do the vehicles. It's really cool to hang out with and talk to them. Their lingo is a hoot. Plus they have some delicious tea there at the guard shack, and that's nice because it's really cold in the morning - probably 45 or so - maybe less degrees out. It may not seem all that cold but it was over 100 when I got here. So until my camera works, all I have for you are these. The one of me holding the shirt is what's left of my favorite t-shirt. I opened my sea bag to find three mice staring me in the face. So I dug through all of my gear to get the little bastards out (five total) and found my t shirt in ruins. A week later I went back in there to find four more. I put a plastic bag over the top, and even though they can chew right through it, I didn't have a problem after.
I'll post more if/when I get anything of interest.
In case this doesn't make it out my queue I wanted to share it here, The collective that is Comedy Death Ray singing "Do They Know It's Christmas Time?" B R I L L I A N T !
An all-star comedy Christmas Carol Directed & Edited by Scott Aukerman
Sung by the Comedy Death-Ray Xmas Nativity Choir (feat. Paul F. Tompkins, R.O. Manse, Tig Notaro, Rob Huebel, Patton Oswalt, Mike Phirman, Jimmy Pardo, Brian Posehn & Scott Aukerman, Garfunkel & Oates, Aimee Mann, Chris Hardwick, Paul Scheer & June Diane Raphael, Doug Benson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Nick Thune, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Cracked Out, Dragon Boy Suede, Natasha Leggero, Thomas Lennon & Ed Helms)
I crossed off bucket list item #37 and made it to an Apple Store grand opening. This is the first Apple Store in Brisbane, so is kind of a big deal. If I believed in heaven, I would want the pearly gates experience to run something like this - replace the people in the pastel tees with dead friends and family.
To improve the usability of an application it is important to have a well designed interface. Shneiderman's "Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design" are a guide to good interaction design. They are listed below, do you think VS fulfills them? the best way to make this evaluation is to log out and assume you are a new user entirely, in fact I was struck by how much different the site looked when I was not logged in. Discuss.
1 Strive for consistency. Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations; identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent commands should be employed throughout.
2 Enable frequent users to use shortcuts. As the frequency of use increases, so do the user's desires to reduce the number of interactions and to increase the pace of interaction. Abbreviations, function keys, hidden commands, and macro facilities are very helpful to an expert user.
3 Offer informative feedback. For every operator action, there should be some system feedback. For frequent and minor actions, the response can be modest, while for infrequent and major actions, the response should be more substantial.
4 Design dialog to yield closure. Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions gives the operators the satisfaction of accomplishment, a sense of relief, the signal to drop contingency plans and options from their minds, and an indication that the way is clear to prepare for the next group of actions.
5 Offer simple error handling. As much as possible, design the system so the user cannot make a serious error. If an error is made, the system should be able to detect the error and offer simple, comprehensible mechanisms for handling the error.
6 Permit easy reversal of actions. This feature relieves anxiety, since the user knows that errors can be undone; it thus encourages exploration of unfamiliar options. The units of reversibility may be a single action, a data entry, or a complete group of actions.
7 Support internal locus of control. Experienced operators strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the system and that the system responds to their actions. Design the system to make users the initiators of actions rather than the responders.
8 Reduce short-term memory load. The limitation of human information processing in short-term memory requires that displays be kept simple, multiple page displays be consolidated, window-motion frequency be reduced, and sufficient training time be allotted for codes, mnemonics, and sequences of actions.
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Stumble This
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And please let me know if there is anyone in particular you'd like to see do battle!
