A LIFE IN THE DAY OF...

11:06 12/30/2001

Pretty good year Hotshottin'... Made a lot of money, and saw some great country, people, and fire. Made a bit of money playin' the '5 bucks to watch' game with the rest of the crew (suckers!). Picked up a saw in about the last 3rd of the season, and hopefully made my captain proud the rest of the year. Bought a Stihl 066 in September- $800, but I made that back (or would have) in firewood sales this year. Got really lucky and found a few large oaks- 32" or better, right next to the road. (dead ones, 'cource) 3 to 5 cord in each...
Bought a 150# pull crossbow off E-bay, and did a little fishin with it. Parallax is an interesting problem, but once overcome it's amazing what a crossbow bolt does to a 2 foot carp. Also amazing what it can do to the chest of a deer, but that's all I have to say about that. Bought a 245# prod (the bow part) and was in the process of building a midieval bow. Waulnut stock, period hardware, the works.
Had a beautiful Mongoose full suspention mountain bike, which was stolen off my front porch by my ex roommate Kevin Russ who can be seen here, http://www.powderridgect.com/ he's on the right in the snowmaker picture. If I were you I would email him at work and give him shit about it. Why didn't I do anything about it? He's in CT, I was in CA. I, like a dumbass, didn't write down the serial of the bike nor register it with the cops. Sigh. Anyway, I may never have a use for that bike.
So now I'm laying in my hospital bed, hoping everything works out for the future. I wanna continue to write here of my fabulous adventures, not my broken hopes and dreams.

So Hotshot season started today. Not a bad day, got all my crap, think I know what Mod I'll be on for the next few days at least...
First full day in the Whites in about 6 months, well on the way to having some huge assed boot bites for awhile... But that's what NewSkin's for.
Looks like we might have a pretty good crew this year, there are a few newguys I don't like the look of, but I'm gonna let them flop on their own, not let my first misconseption lead me down the garden path.
The weather has been really dry- and no rainfall in sight, so hopefully we'll break 1000 hrs of OT this year. Who knows tho, the fat lady isn't even done eating yet.

You always pay. One way or another, nothing is free. Sometimes, free things just aren't worth it.

Life's not as shiny as it once was. Sure, it looks like it on the surface, but underneath it really is not.

I have not written much here recently, mostly because I have not the inclination. Time is a factor also, but not as much.

So... once again, been awhile. You don't like it? too bad. Email me and ask.
I live with the toads for the moment. Might be y I'm not on the net all the time..... You figure that one out.
I MAY (stress that MAY) be teaching Snowboarding at the College this year. They need a teacher, I know how... They just have to be convinced I have the ability, and the jury's still out.
Going to my Sisters (Los Angeles) for new years. She's got a new house (buy not rent) I wanna see it, and it gets me out of here 4 awhile.
Bought a new Prior WCR 185 and a set of Bombers for myself for x-mas. It's a rocket, and frankly scares me a little.
I sleep on the floor, bed's too big for the room I'm in. (just FYI)
Working on a cooling project... See some of it Here
Added some to the funny page, go look.
Ok, that's all you get for now.

Well, a long time between posts again. I've been running around alot lately, and haven't really had the time.
So I'm a Hotshot now. Yup, still doing the fire thing, 'cept on a hand crew now. Makin' about 3k a month if there's fires, 1.5 if there's not. Sigh, life is hard.
Dropped a 5 and a half foot across at the base tree today, took me about an hour and a half to get it on the ground. Too dark to get any of the wood today tho. Probably about 6 cord in it.

Here again, gone again... Wow... what a life. I've been downloading alot of things to get me back into the life of a true Netzen. Lost all my backups: Found out a Win2k formatted NTFS drive doesn't get along with any other formatted type... (Even Linux, if you beleve that!) Unfortunately ALL MY BACKUPS were on that drive. My CD burner died (have another now) so long story short, I've had to download (and crack) everything again.
I'll get HotDog Pro (V.6, free) up and running, then try to spell check this whole place... Sigh.
I should have a Linux compatable modem in the mail any day now... Then hopefully I'm off into Phat or Gentus or RedHat (Linux flavors) land. 'Cource I'll keep windoze on some drive somewhere for 'mergencies just because it's the OS I know best.
Someday soon I'm going to try to find some time to improve the place a little... I hope.

News Flash~>
I'm not on the machine 24/7 much anymore- I have a new job and a new (kinda) life. I work for the USFS now on Engine 14 out of Milford, Ca. I'm just a back seat kinda guy for now, but maybe someday they will let me near a saw and I'll get to show I'm not really the newbie.
Hopefully sometime this season I will get on the 'Shots, in order to pave the way for a full season there next year. (shrug) Who knows tho...
I am also going to try to write something here more often.

SIGN MY GUESTBOOK!

Wow... It's been like a month. ok, a little more. My hair's growin, but not fast enuf. I think I have a pair of BDU pants around here somewhere, but that's about all that's left. Thank god that nitemare's over.

So I'm in Cali now. Yup, I was going to Ct, but the offer fell through. Scored a cool chick there and everything, but no job = move somewhere else. (something all the folks in upstate NY have failed to realize...) The drive out was kind of a bitch... it took 4 days, and in the winter there isn't even corn to look at.

A note to renters: Check your prospective house totally b4 you move in. Here's why... it may look all good, smell all good, and be priced well, but whence you move in you find things like:
Screen door doesn't shut all the way.
1 bathroom, shower's busted, toilet works.
Other bathroom, toilet's busted, shower works.
There's a leak in the wall somewhere.
Kitchen sink leaks.
Stove works, all wood was cut too long. (JACKASSES)
Celing fan is at forehead level.
Front deck falling off.
Back door handle busted.
Kitchen drain doesn't.
One burner on stove doesn't.
Phone lines suck, too far from the switch. 26.4 max bps. (somebody get me a gun...)
Fridge doors are on backwards.
The neighbor has a really bored basset hound.
A skunk lives under it.
I swear to god I find anything more wrong with this place I'm gonna shoot myself. I'm in a month to month, so expect a move soon.

So I joined the GPAA a few weeks ago, and have been gold paning a few times. (yes i found some) it's fun, and gets my mind off other things, and keeps me happy. Maybe I'll find a nugget someday.

I'm going to do some more with the site, but at 26.4 it will take FOREVER to upload, so that's gonna have to wait. I want to do a hacker vs cracker explanation page, put up some stuff about my SGI, and a few other things. So anyway, that's on the way.

I am now running Netscape 6. (developer's release 1 beta) The interface is similar to neoplanet, without the pesky IE 3.0 core files. It's also a smaller footprint than 4.7, but we'll see. Hopefully it has "MORE POWER!!"

I AM DONE!
A FREE MAN! Finally signed out of the unit today!
Massive (pardon my french) DICKDANCE trying to clear CIF (central issue facility) today... I lost 2 sleeping bags, just str8 up have no idea where they are. i figured, well, I'll just pay for them and be on my way. Yeah right. I got the paperwork from CIF, took it back to the unit, filled it out, went to Army finance... and they wouldn't touch me. Seems Army finance can't touch Air Force pay. So...... I called Hanscom... and it seems they can't help because the item belongs to the Army. So... I played around with that for awhile... Got one of the O's in on it... seems suddenly CIF remembered another way when he called... So I went to the bank, and finally paid my money. It sucked... Never have I seen so much incompetence and ignorance in one place!
Well, all is done now- on with the rest of my life!

Well folks, I found out 24 hours ago that the job I had lined up in Connecticut has been given to some guy from England. Kinda sucks- but in the words of Mom "If he's (the owner) going to do that to you, you probably didn't want to work for him anyway".
So... What am I going to do? BAIL FOR CALIFORNIA! I leave here (Watertown NY) on Wed or Thurs, depends on how fast I can get out of this house. Then off to Pittsfield, Ma for a couple of days while Kevin and I reconsolidate everything, then Westward-ho maybe as soon as Monday, March 6. We figure the longer we stay out here the more $$ we spend, and the less we'll have when we get there.
I'm really looking forward to getting to California- More jobs, better pay, mountains, the beach... opportunity for single unmarried white males without kids....

Just realized I haven't written anything here in a while...
Updated a few things, the WISH and FOR SALE pages...
I've been packing up the house... Throwing out a LOT of stuff... the ferrets sure are enjoying all the boxes Dad brought home just for them (r i g h t .....) AND all the styrofoam peanuts in said boxes...
I now own my very own copy of IRIX 6.5, AND the 6.5.6 updates. Still need a sled for the cd-rom, and a 9.5 gig scsi hard drive...
I have a new pair of Solomon ski boots for my riding pleasure..

Well friends and neighbors, I went snowboarding today for the first time this year, on my bran new board, with my bran new bindings. That first run was a little loopy, to say the least. Oh, did I mention it was -5 on the hill? Well it was. So I played for about an hour, and then played some more. Then I crashed (hard) and it was time for coffee. So.... I went in the lodge and in the process of having my coffee, I loosened my boots..... My right one was in about 5 pieces. Just the top, but it was well on the way to getting really exciting. So... New boot time! Hidden bonus? I now have really kewl Koflach inners for my Sorrels. Too bad I'm not a jibber... Oh well.. sigh.

About 2 seconds ago the UPS guy showed up to deliver my new SGI monitor.... Now all I need is a SCSI hard drive and an OS for the thing. Mom's going to buy the OS.... "Investing in my future" she calls it. Thanks, Mom.
Look for an "EYE CANDY' page soon, I just found some stuff on PC DEMO's yesterday- Boy are they kewl, I just wish I had a little hotter video card. (an Oxygen perhapse?)
Updated the script on bio.htm to reflect the true day I am out. It sure seems to be coming fast, and yet not fast enough. Hopefully I'll get all my crap done in time. For those of you who care, I'm OUT on Feb 29 but not GONE 'till Mar 15.
Wearing contacts now, most of the time. Just wearing glasses to let my eyes rest on occasion.

It's been a few weeks, and truthfully I wasn't sure if we would all still be here with all the millennium hype and all. However, I'm not dead and more importantly, this machine still works! I have not turned on the SGI Iris I have tho- I have heard they may not like the date change, but if it doesn't, I'll just tell it the date is '96 and I'm sure it will be fine.
I played codeboy a little this evening, you can no longer right click on anything here- those of you trying to 'view source' will now find it mildly difficult.
I now have 2 drive sleds for the Indigo2, no drives yet, but I'm lookin'. I have a monitor on the way, as the 13w3 to vga adapter didn't work. I don't think SGI's like pee see monitors. Call it a learning experience.
I have received a few comments regarding spelling- If you see something, please tell me. I have 9MB of information / files here and I am not the best at proofreading!
Working on a site for a friend, you can see it Here.
I'm planning on doing a little more work on the place soon- Look for changes!

The UPS guy brought me a Silicon Graphics Indigo2 yesterday! It was advertised on E-Bay as a XM 100 or something like that, but the sticker on the back plainly says "INDIGO2". The drive sleds (and drives) are gone- about 200$ each for replacements, so it'll be a little while before the thing is up and running all the way. I plugged it in and turned it on, and it makes happy SGI noises, so at least I know it's still alive. I need a 13W3 to VGA adapter then I'll be able to plug in my monitor and see what it has to tell me.
If any of you have a copy of IRIX 6 (or better) and MAYA maybe we can make a deal.

I RECEIVED MY NEW SNOWBOARD FROM COILER COMPOSITES TODAY!! It's a 166 world cup slalom...Ok, so I'm excited.... A new board to me is like a new car to you. I can't wait to ride this thing- I already have a Burton Super-G and I wanted something a little slower and more turny. The Burton is VERY FAST- the first time I strapped it on and dropped off the top of Donner Ski Ranch (plug~ my most favorite place to ride in the world ~plug) I was absolutely certain I was gonna die! The Coiler, on the other hand, has so much sidecut I'm really going to have to pay attention! I can see it already- lookin' at a chic...hook an edge....go ass-over-teacup and land right on my head. I haven't been on a SL board in years...sigh. Ok, I have to go build a bonfire so I can dance around it naked holding a stinkbug while praying to the snowgod!

So watching the x files just now has gotten me thinking... "gravity drive" you know- for airplanes and stuff like that. Do "we" have it already? Did someone figure it out and the feds grabbed them and the idea? Look back at history. The U2 "spyplane" has been flying since the 60's, as has been the blackbird, (SR71) but "they" only told us about them a few years ago. What do we have now? That the feds aren't telling us about? The blackbird was decommissioned (doesn't fly anymore) and we know all about the U2. Doesn't it stand to reason that there is something newish that "they" haven't told us about?
The reasons are good and just I'm sure, like we don't want the commies to get the ability to have one of these machines for their very own, still it would be cool to know about it.
Think of how far computers have come in the last 40 years! ENTIAC (the first computer) was dumber than your watch. Sandia national labs has an intel "Red" capable of 1 trillion computations per second. (1 teraflop). See the TOP 500 Supercomputer sites for a cool list of the most powerful computers on the planet. Apple has managed to build a "supercomputer on a chip" into their new G4 desktop. Did aircraft make the same progression I wonder?
One thing I'm worried about: What happens when we open something we're not ready for yet? What will happen when someone manages to rip space / time for the first time? Pass the speed of light? Teleport something? We still have small minds, and we think we are so smart.....

Well, I changed the place around a little today, added a few fonts, and fixed the ones that were broken. Made a few images, and tried out a new image map program.
I have been trying to figure out how to copy music cd's, without much luck.
I'm in and out of the field this week, the last field ex in my military career.
still not smoking.

Added some stuff to the funny page, and something to the bio page.
Bought two Silicon Graphics workstations today- one's a personal, the other's a server. I don't know how to do anything in IRIX but I'd imagine I'm gonna learn soon.
Bought a cd burner last week.......

So I "found" 2 neon power supplies and several tubes today. Most are straight, 2 spell out "express", various colors. (red, green, blue, white) I don't know what I'm going to make with them yet, but I'm looking forward to playing with them and trying not to nuke myself. (the power supplies throw 30 kilovolts.)
I have been thinking about writing a "build your own computer" section, but have not got around to it.
The new bed is almost done- just waiting for a few of the last parts to dry.
I may move to Colorado after I get out, but the prospective job is in it's conceptual stage at this point...
Oh yeah- still not smoking.

So it's been a week (almost to the hour) since I no shit quit smoking. I've been on Zyban for about a month, and it helped me cut down, but last week I just decided not to go buy more.
So is it hard? Hell yes. This shit sucks. One of my co-workers offered me a smoke last week, and I said no, I don't want one.... Ok, yes I do, but I know if I have one I'll go buy a pack.
If you're young, and you're reading this (yeah right- I get about 1 hit a day...) and you are thinking of starting, don't. Sure, it's cool. Sure, there's tricks you can do with a smoke. Chicks dig some of 'em. It never really bothered me much when I did smoke. Here's why not to start: It's a fucking cock sucker to stop. About every 5 minutes I want one. They say that after the first week, it gets better- I sure as hell hope so.

I built another machine this weekend, my Soyo motherboard got here last week- I put a AMD 266 (oc'd to 333) on it along with 64 MB of ram. Loaded Win NT Server on it, and soon I'll LAN it to my other one. Just as soon as I get my "Home network in a box" kit.
So now I've got the OS, all I need is the knowledge to set it up, and the fiber to my house!
(Gimme 3 years- )

Have moved my site (this place) to the domain name I bought last weekend. I'm working on making it better- Faster loading, etc.
I'm trying to learn Win NT Server, and MS Frontpage. I don't want to learn Frontpage, but I may have to to create the intranet at work. I don't know if NT will take raw HTML code. I was just given this "work on the server" thing last week, and I really haven't had time to check it out at all. It's on a T1 though, so that should be a little exciting...
For the first time in 15 years, I have willingly gone 24 hours without a cigarette. 1 month ago I put away almost 3 packs a day.
Everyone at work finds it amazing that I haven't killed anything today, and that I'm strangely calm. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Found out something interesting today, I think. Previously, I had my C drive formatted with FAT32 so I could copy the whole thing to my 8 gig drive, and use the whole 8 gigs as one drive. The problem was I wanted to use win95 (osr2) and NOT win98, but win95 runs on FAT16 file system, which can only "see" a 2 gig drive. (FAT32 "sees" up to 2 terrabytes). So I did it. I had win95 on an 8 gig drive, and all was rosy. Soon, however, I started having MANY bad sectors pop up, and soon after that, there were so many that the drive ceased to function. (After POST, Win refused to load.) So, I have my now dead 8 gig drive sitting on the floor, and my FAT32 running 2 gig in the machine.

Ok, back from the challenge.... Didn't win the whole thing, but we did win the obstacle course and placed 2nd in the ruck marches. I suck at symbology and recce. So now I'm back- Someone forgot to feed the critters while I was gone, so I was attacked upon entering, but all is well. Plants survived, critters didn't tear the place up too much.

Tomorrow, boys and girls, I pull the big yellow stripedy handle and punch out of this place for a week. I get to go to the Dragon Challenge at Ft Campbell. WOO HOO!!!! Hopefully it'll be cool- I don't expect to win, but we'll see. If I do well enough, I get to go to Lightening Challenge in Florida sometime in November. So I'm busy finding all my stuff, bleaching my canteens, and setting up the house to run itself for a week. (I wonder where my pants are...)

Had to format the drive (again) last night... The registry became corrupt, and was sending gibberish to the server when I tried to sign on. ONLY way to fix it? Reload windoez.
Leaving next week for a week, going to Ft Campbell for Dragon Challenge. If I do well, I'll get to go to Florida for Lightening Challenge. However, I don't even have a basket for my eggs...

So I had to reload my machine a few days ago. I was trying to install my new harddrive, and ended up formatting 1% of my primary drive. I tried to save it, but apparently 1% is enough. It's mostly all fixed (thanks to backups!!!)
Fired the 9mm for the first time ever Monday.... 36 shots, 36 holes in the target.... 8 inch grouping. I pulled one in the practice round, but after that I was ok. perhapse I should buy a 9 after I leave NY state.
Have I mentioned I'm an E-TAC now? Well, I am. They are still working on the paperwork to get me the raise in pay though.
Lost all my extra fonts in the format... Searching the 'net for them sucks.

It's been a really long time, I know. So what has happened?

I passed my TAC checkride yesterday. Now I get to talk to Aircraft all by myself. I got a Q, with a few little dings, but not bad over all.

I bought a bike, it's a Mongoose, 1600$ worth for 350. No, it's not stolen, the guy that owned it needed money. I didn't ask what for, and he didn't tell.

The machine is running fine at 458mhz, 550 is still reachable, but only for about 10 minutes before lockup. I'm contemplating getting another 366a and a dual processor board- I think 900mhz would be pretty cool.

That's all I have for now, have fun!

I built my first font 2day! See it on the Font page... It was really easy once I learned the software (Scanfont from Fontlab)

The new machine is doing fine, I've gone to water cooling the chip- Room temp right now is 76.3F, and the chip is running at 55.6F. Under full load however, the chip temp climbs to about 140F (bad... very bad) I think the problem is not enough thermal mass in the heatsink. I'm running 2 peltiers on a different power supply, and with the computer itself off, the chip gets down to 23F. (frozen silicon anyone?) The problem could also be that the little peltier is too small to take the heat, and it's backing up in there. I'm going to do a little construction project this weekend and see.

Seems that I'm getting some kind of award at CC's call this Friday...I have no idea what it is, but I suspect the AF longevity award. (oh yay...) It's kind of scary when they give you one every 3 years or so.....(where the hell are my Blues???)

So.... News lately. Disregard all about Bosnia, I'm not going anymore. I busted a test and a few "upstairs types" overreacted.... Then they offered me kuait, but I don't think I'm going there either. I only have 8 months left- I can hold on.

I built a new computer last weekend- took a Celeron 366 and an Abit board, now I have a 458mhz rocket. I built mine for 300$, what did you PAY for yours?

Nothing new on the site, I've been stuck in a non-creative rut for awhile. Maybe I'll do something with it this weekend, maybe not.

It's been another few days since one of these- I've been hip deep in silicon, solder and 'lecreical tape for a day or 2. Took my chipcooler apart friday night, and I found water had seeped into the space around the heat slug.....bad Bad Bad! Looks like everything was sealed well enough, and the cpu is ok, so I guess I escaped on that one. I'm now running 2 power supplies- One for the machine, and one to cool the chip. I had all the fans and the peltier wired into the one, and it shut down on me. Just happens that I took my pick of the other PS's I have laying around..... This one works great! The chip stays below 50 F almost all the time.

Found a couple of old pics today, scanned them (still learning how to use the scanner...) at 180 dpi (600 will make the machine crash...) and slapped 'em up here.
Just realized I have to go back to work tomorrow...jeez, that sucks...

Finally got my 3 upgrade controls and they were even written up on the Shaw AFB form 23. (Thanks to Ssgt Holcomb, B flt TAC trainer. NOTE: I belong to A flt now...) Trying to schedule a checkride and STILL HITTING SPEED BUMPS. (It's starting to piss me off.....) Everybody's got to have their hand in it and none of the hands know what the others are doing.
The AF started STOPLOSS today. I may stay in to see Ssgt yet! (but not by choice) Now I know why the Commander asked me if I planned to get out yesterday. Maybe I'll finally get to kill something.
Still working on the other computer, recieved the Celeron 366a a few days ago, awaiting 2 peltier coolers, heatsinks, a hdd and a CD rom. All are paid for, I just wish the "through sleet and snow" folks would move a little quicker. I also picked up 96MB of PC-100 DIMMs for 57$ at E-bay. (beat that price, I dare ya...)
The "new" Squadron OI came down today- Hour lunches (If your a weather guy, SHUT UP NOW... I hear "we don't get lunch" one more time and I'm gonna go get a gun...) and ALL PERSONELL in the Squadron "shall" get Internet access "as soon as" the lan is in. Well, friends and neighbors, it's in, where the hell is my access? I got the usual runaround when I asked for it today. Oh yeah, and the fact that the 0730 to 1630 duty day is a privilege and not a right. (we get paid monthly...)
Recently downloaded about 500 fonts, I need to sort them out, then I'll put a few more up. I'm thinking about re- designing the place again, but I doubt I'll get around to it anytime soon.
The Ferrets are fine, thank you for asking.

Finally got some "air time" with an A-10 yesterday, about 5 minutes worth, but I don't know if it counted. There's rules ya know. Anyway, maybe next week.
Dropped my hard drive a few days ago, (the one this site lives on...) thought it was dead, but I finally figured out the ribbon cable had been pulled out of the back a little. It's still alive.
In the last couple of days, I've recieved my new case, a Peltier cooler, and a couple of thermo controlled case fans. The Celeron 366a is still "in the mail".
Still don't have anything ready for Bosnia, and we're supposed to send the trucks in about 2 weeks. I think it's going to get exciting around here in a little while! (oh well!)

Once again, it's been awhile. Where did I ever say I would put something here every day? (have a life...) Anyway, I put up a few more pics and a list on the funny page.
Going out to get my 3 supervised controls tomorrow- then (someday) my checkride.... jeez is this taking a long time.
3 (count them... 3) DUIs in the unit in the last 2 weeks. Guess we have a couple of slow learners.....

21:35 5/13/99

Ok, so it's been a few days, deal with it. found out today August 20th is "Have your bags packed for Bosnia" day. Took the Euro driving test today (cold) got a 96%. YES, I will still update and all that while I'm there.
FINALLY found out what EXACTLY I need for my E-TAC, (what the hell does a guy have to do to get some training around this place? Train yourself!) I should be able to get most of it accomplished on Saturday.
There are a few little fixes to the place I noticed, going to go try to fix them now...

22:55 5/8/99

I've been looking into overclocking and cooling all day- learned a few new words like: Peltier junction, Thermistor, "Celery sandwich", and Cold plate. Ordered a peltier junction to use when I build my celeron here in a few weeks. Put 2 temp sensors and a few more fans in the system, the CPU now runs at 85 F. and the video card runs at 80 F. under full load. Without the fans they are both up at about 105 F. Still have to find a "Gateway" case for the thing, it doesn't fit into mine. Currently the motherboard and all are sitting on a milk crate under my desk.
Fired up my new AMD 266 on another board today, it runs fine, I just need a few more PC 100's to get them both going at the same time. Computer show is at the end of the month, hopefully I'll have enough $$.

17:40 5/6/99

Did the pics for a few fonts today, and fixed the link to the newly created FONTS page.

19:33 5/3/99

Sitting at my machine writing this particular page... Anything previous to this line is in the past, but may be pertinent to future stories...
Started a complete rebuild of this place about 5 days ago... the work is going slow, but I'm getting there...