Blog of Chris

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Here’s a fine example of what’s really newsworthy in today’s world.

First of all, thanks to those who commented on the last post to let me know that you still read this.  It means more than you think.

Today I went to Camp Fretterd to get a new military ID card.  The microchip mysteriously fell off of my ID sometime last month, making it difficult or impossible to access my military email and my Army-provided laptop.

So, I am sitting at the PSB, getting my picture taken, and waiting for my brand new card to be issued… A Sergeant walks in and starts chatting with the soldier who is processing my new ID.  She shows the Sergeant the ID card and says “Look, his chip fell out.  Have you ever seen anything like that before?”  He says, “Sir, you’re being to rough with that ID card.  It’s from running all those missions in Iraq.”  I asked him how he knew I’d been to Iraq, and he said, “Aren’t you the LT. who was blogging when you were over there?”

I was kind of blown away by that, as I’d never met this soldier before, and he recognized my face and name from an ID card and tied it into a blog that I stopped writing 2 years ago.  I shook his hand and thanked him for reading it, and he said it was great to see what was going on over there… it helped to keep the rumor mill under control.  I admitted that most of the time I had to bite my tongue to keep it politically correct, but I was still happy to let the world know what I was doing.

It kind of put things into perspective.  2 years is a long time.  I wonder if after 2 more years if I’ll still feel the same way I do right now about things.  It seems at every point in life when you think you’ve got it all figured out, a little bit of time and a little bit of hindsight will convince you that you were nuts.  (much like looking through your high school yearbook and seeing what was fashionable… except with your brain) I guess it’s indicative of the constant changes we go through, which I suppose is a good thing because it means we’re growing.

-C

“I’m not rich yet.” Well, they say rich is a state of mind. I have no boss and I’m not starving, so I must be rich.

Sorry for not posting in so long. I’ve been pretty busy with the new business and the Army.

I’ve posted some pretty decent-looking graphical ads on CraigsList, and gotten a tremendous response. I spent an ungodly amount of money for a teeny, tiny business card sized ad in the CityPaper (which is on week 10 of its 13 week run) and has gotten me exactly zero business. It did get me an interesting phone call, and those who know me well will know what I am talking about. I have been running the CL ads for a week now, and they’ve gotten me 2 new tech support clients, 1 web site client, and 1 offer for decent subcontract work installing network systems for chain restaurants and stores.  The moral of the story is:  No matter what you’re paying for, you can probably get it for free on the internet.

Uncle Sam has kept me busy too. Last Sunday I had my official change of command, where I took command of the company from my predecessor. I took the guidon, gave my speech, and shook lots of hands. The best part was Jimmy, james, John, Paul and Mandy showing up for support, and then taking me out to Fogo de Chao to celebrate. (Fogo de Chao is a new Brazilian BBQ restaurant downtown. It’s one of those deals where they come around with all kinds of different meats and they cut as much as you want off a spit… it was good, but you must remember to pace yourself)

I spent the first four days of this week in San Antonio at an Army conference. My unit will be participating in a Latin American aid effort in 2009. We’ll most likely end up doing renovations on schools and medical clinics in a few small towns in the Dominican Republic. I had to represent Maryland and tell them what construction assets we could bring to the table. There were representatives from the Dominican Republic and Jamaica there, which was interesting. As a joint operation, there were also representatives from the Navy, Air Force and Marines, some reserve, some active, and from all over the U.S. It was also neat to see what goes into planning major operations at echelons above Corps.

One navy Ensign aside, I was the lowest ranking officer at the entire conference (see below). It was mostly majors and above, representing entire national guard battalions. As commander of a separate engineer company with no higher engineer headquarters, I am in a pretty unique position when it comes to mission planning.

Apparently, my promotion packet has finally been submitted. We’ll see how long it takes at wherever it has to go. It would have been nice to get promoted before my 2 weeks of duty in June, but at this point I’m not counting on it.

We will be renovating the rappel tower and obstacle course at a Maryland Military facility in a few weeks. I’m trying to balance running this business by myself with being occupied full time by the military, and it’s kind of a pain in the butt.

On a more tasty note, I finally got a food processor for the sole purpose of making pesto. My Aunts came down a few months ago and taught me how to make it out of Rosemary. I got tired of buying the expensive pre-made pesto in a jar, so now I just make huge batches of it at home and put it on everything. (My latest batch included pecans instead of pine nuts, and Asiago cheese instead of Parmesan… it’s still awesome)

That’s it for now. If anyone still reads this, let me know. Sometimes I think I need to be in a combat zone in order to have anything interesting to write about.

-C

OP had his operation this week at Falls Road Animal Hospital.  It was an overnight stay, but I had a man on the inside taking special care of him.  When I picked him up, he seemed a little dazed (you would be too), which I think was due to the drugs.  He was back to his normal, chewy, spazzy, self by the afternoon, and doesn’t seem to be showing the signs of a recovering neutered dog that they told me about when I picked him up.

They say that neutering will calm them down a little, but I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

I finally scheduled cleaning of my HVAC ducts, which have been clogged with excessive (and incessant) dust for the last 4 years.  Since the day the system was installed, it has been circulating the massive amounts of dust generated by my rehab and construction projects.  My filters would be covered in a thick, nasty layer of black dust after only a few days.  I thought the procedure involved some sort of probing brush, but they just use a pneumatic hose with an attachment that blows high pressure air out in all directions.

They said after about a week any of the stuff they kicked up but did not retrieve would be caught in the filter, and then I should expect to see a lot less dust circulating around the house.  We shall see…

I know, these aren’t the most exciting topics to blog about, but I thought the title would be funny.

-C

http://www.maxim.com/7VideoGameCurrenciesStrongerThantheUSDollar/articles/22332.aspx

“the very core things that make up our government like wars or interrogation or border patrol, jailing, any of those types of things that you would think would be sacred things that would happen with the state are now being turned into for-profit enterprises. And if you want all these things to be, if you want corporate ethics to be our national interest, then you have the situation we’re in now. But right now, when you think that we’ve out sourced everything to interrogation, which means torture is a cost-plus enterprise, I think you can see a complete spiritual bankruptcy to this whole neo-con movement. It’s a nightmare beyond anything you can really imagine.”

Read a full article on the new movie, with some of the commentary between Cusack and Bill Maher.

This is another gem I dug up from my file server…

-C

I was digging around my file server today, for no particular reason, when I stumbled across this ad I made for my old car.  I sold it prior to leaving for Iraq in 2005, along with my boat, bike, and several other things I wish I hadn’t sold.

I loved this car so much that I almost bought another one when I got back from the desert.   I had a lot of good memories in this car.  I can remember seeing it in Baltimore shortly after I got home.  It still had its trailer hitch and roof rack…  I wish I could have it back.

-C

Last weekend, my friend Nick Strocchia  snapped this photo of me feeding my dog a celentani noodle with chopsticks.  I love the look on his face.

I know, he should not be eating people food…

-C

I am in the process of finishing up the very last project in the renovations of my first floor.  The stairwell to my basement has an L shaped knee wall, which never had a cap put on it because I couldn’t find oak pieces that would fit it properly.  This meant that it had to be custom cut, and would therefore be expensive.

Luckily, I know a Carpenter, and he had a good idea to make the cap out of oak veneered plywood, something he could accomplish with leftovers from another job, saving me money.

The downside to the plywood solution, other than having to do more prep work to dress up the trim joints, is that it’s thin, and less strong.  This wouldn’t matter if I was going to cap the wall normally, but I wanted to have a triangle shaped cap over my L shaped knee wall… it will give me a place to put a potted plant, or serve appetizers at parties.

I’ll post pics soon.

-C