Category Archives: Fallen Warriors

Fixtures and Late Posting

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Last night … I was playing Fallout 3, and went from game to sleep. My bad.

Today, I’m back in fabrication and assembly mode in the woodshop:

Cutting a rabbet

Cutting a rabbet

I’m running with the dadoe set installed for cutting 3/4″ slots for the shelves, but by embedding about half of that width into the sacrificial fence, I can also cut the rabbets for the back panel. Notice that I’m using a finger board to help keep the workpiece in control – a 4′ long side needs a third hand, and the finger board provides the safest method of control near the blades.

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Our condolences to Commander Price’s family, friends, and team:

  • Cdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died Dec. 22 of a non-combat related injury while supporting stability operations in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.

 

A Week Off

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I’m taking this week off of work. I’ll still check email from time to time, but mostly I’m going to do some chores around here, organize a bit of woodworking, and get caught up on my reading.

Wrapping up school: Late this week, the grade for the last course should drop. On the 30th, the degree should be conferred. Fun stuff, really.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas D. Checque, 28, of Monroeville, Pennsylvania, died of combat related injuries suffered Dec. 8, while supporting operations near Kabul, Afghanistan.
  • Staff Sgt. Wesley R. Williams, 25, of New Carlisle, Ohio, died Dec. 10 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Staff Sgt. Nelson D. Trent, 37, of Austin, Texas, died Dec. 13 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. Michael J. Guillory, 28, of Pearl River, Louisiana, died Dec. 14 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
  • Staff Sgt. Nicholas J. Reid, 26, of Rochester, New York, died Dec. 13 in Landstuhl, Germany from wounds suffered on Dec. 9, in Sperwan Village, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. 1st Class Kevin E. Lipari, 39, of Baldwin, New York, died Dec. 14 in Logar province, Afghanistan.

Work, Schoolwork, and Statistics…

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If you are playing along at home, you might suspect that “Damned” could fit in for “School” in today’s word-swap cipher match. The upside for me is that I’m developing a project website that I’m likely to put into play early next year. But not to discuss until it’s nearly ready. I don’t know whether I’ll take it down the customized blog path, or go back to my beloved bespoke hand-crafted HTML approach that served me so well over the years.

Yesterday I went shopping, because I had about 5.5 hours of work to do today, helping launch a new infrastructure. That went pretty well, all things considered. The planning meetings paid off in spades, much as it pains me to say that. The work was done by about 1330 EST, and then it was back to the schoolwork. Tonight, reading for the coming week, and more tuning and content writing for the project site.

Oh. Well, I’ve actually got nothing about statistics to discuss. But it helped the headline flow, eh?

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Our condolences to the family, friends, and unit of this fallen warrior:

Cpl. Christopher M. Monahan Jr., 25, of Island Heights, New Jersey, died Nov. 26 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Leftovers

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Our turkey day was full of thanks and food and more food. Just the two of us, and a 17 pound bird … shedloads of leftovers, needless to say. Marcia’s job-hunt continues, and I’m back to work tomorrow after a week off. It’s been very weird, frankly. I did a lot of schoolwork – both for the week in progress, and groundwork for the final website project. I played some Half Life 2, and watched a bit of Top Gear UK. And the week is gone, just like that.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Lance Cpl. Dale W. Means, 23, of Jordan, Minnesota, died Nov. 18, while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
  • Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin R. Ebbert, 32, of Arcata, California, died Nov. 24 while supporting stability operations in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.

Marcia’s back (again) & Linux reloaded

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Today, I relaxed a bit. Shopping in the morning, a bit of Top Gear UK during the day, and I picked Marcia up at BWI around 1500 EST. Happy dog is happy, and so am I. The holiday bird is in the fridge, I’ve got a tray of mac-n-cheese ready, and … we’ll see how the table ends up.

Tonight, I blew out the FreeNAS installation, and installed Scientific Linux 6.3 x64 on the box still known as Serenity. I had a lot of trouble getting things working right, and there are issues with offsite backups that are much more easily solved with a Linux at the helm. Instead of returning to the Ubuntu way, I figured one of the RHEL retreads would be a good way to go – I’ve got to re-certify in the next few months, and more practice is good.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Capt. James D. Nehl, 37, of Gardiner, Oregon, died Nov. 9, in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, from small arms fire while on patrol during combat operations.
  • Sgt. Matthew H. Stiltz, 26, of Spokane, Washington, died Nov. 12, at Zerok, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire.
  • Staff Sgt. Rayvon Battle Jr., 25, of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, died Nov. 13, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.
  • Sgt. Channing B. Hicks, 24, of Greer, South Carolina, died Nov. 16, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, from injuries suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
  • Spc. Joseph A. Richardson, 23, of Booneville, Arkansas, died Nov. 16, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, from injuries suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.

Marcia’s back!

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Marcia was away for a 3-day retreat, and got home a short while ago. Lexi and I are both dancing about with joy. I got my schoolwork done, and relaxed a little bit today, while baking a pork shoulder to incorporate into the macaroni and cheese I’m making tomorrow. Also tomorrow, since it’s a holiday (for me), I’ll finish up the yardwork for the year.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Staff Sgt. Dain T. Venne, 29, of Port Henry, New York, died of wounds suffered Nov. 3, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Paktia province, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. Ryan P. Jayne, 22, of Campbell, New York, died of wounds suffered Nov. 3, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Paktia province, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. Brett E. Gornewicz, 27, of Alden, New York, died of wounds suffered Nov. 3, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Paktia province, Afghanistan.
  • Pfc. Brandon L. Buttry, 19, of Shenandoah, Iowa, died Nov. 5, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. Daniel L. Carlson, 21, of Running Springs, California, died Nov. 9, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.
  • Kenneth W. Bennett, 26, of Glendora, California, died Nov. 10, in Sperwan Gar, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when he encountered an improvised explosive device during combat operations.

6 Weeks

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Just sayin’.

I finished this week’s schoolwork yesterday, so I managed to read the documentation for the new saw, adjust things that needed adjusting, and push some wood through the machine for the first time. Much easier to set up square and true. I still need to pay close attention to feed rate, because I didn’t want to spend 4 grand + an electrician to get a cabinet saw in… but it’s a very nice saw, and I’ve got it dialed in within about .005 on the fence, and an invisibly small fraction of a degree on the miter gauge. Happy, that.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Cpl. Alex F. Domion, 21, of Richfield Springs, New York, died Oct. 31, as a result of a non-combat related incident in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
  • Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew G. Kantor, 22, of Gillette, New Jersey, died supporting stability operations in Zabul, Afghanistan.

Dangerous Sandy

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A bit of light drizzle, some breezes, and a second day under cloud cover. That’s what has happened so far. But Sandy approaches. The patio furniture is stowed in back, the hanging baskets and flag removed from the front, and the generator is tested and ready. I gave Marcia a walk-through on starting it up today, and she feels content with that.

At this beginning of things, our rain gauge stands at 2.96 inches, as of 1700 EDT.

School countdown: 7 weeks left.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Chief Warrant Officer Michael S. Duskin, 42, of Orange Park, Florida, died Oct. 23, in Chak District, Wardak Province, Afghanistan, from small arms fire while on dismounted patrol during combat operations.
  • Staff Sgt.  Kashif  M. Memon, 31, of Houston, Texas, died of wounds suffered Oct. 25 when his unit was attacked by small arms fire in Khas Uruzgan, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
  • Sgt. Clinton K. Ruiz, 22, of Murrieta, California, died of wounds suffered Oct. 25 when his unit was attacked by small arms fire in Khas Uruzgan, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan.

Beginning of the End

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If you buy into the Mayan calendar lunacy, then I’ll STILL have finished my degree work before the end of the world. I’ll have five whole days to celebrate! However, since the degree won’t be granted until December 30 … That’d be hard luck. So the final class, taking me to 71 units completed with UMUC over the last five years, is called “Principles of Web Design and Technology I.” It starts tomorrow, and finishes eight weeks from today. You’d think a class like that would be a slam dunk for me, yeah? But since I’ve essentially been self-trained on everything I know about computers, there’s gaps everywhere – stuff I never had to use. So I plan on learning something from this course, as I did from every other class I’ve taken to get to this point. (Oh, the other good news is that I did get the A for the Myth in the World class. Huzzah!)

My boring weekend: A bit of work at the office yesterday in the morning, and Top Gear UK much of the afternoon. I made a batch of turkey chili in the evening. Today, shopping and house cleaning filled my day. Tonight, after this post and some supper, I’ll get started on my course: reading the syllabus again, and doing some of the first week’s reading.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Spc. Brittany B. Gordon, 24, of St. Petersburg, Florida, died Oct. 13, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked her unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. Robert J. Billings, 30, of Clarksville, Virginia, died Oct. 13, in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Pfc. Shane G. Wilson, 20, of Kuna, Idaho, died Oct. 18, in Khost, Afghanistan.

Capclave 2012 #FTW

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I had an AWESOME time at Capclave 2012! I got to spend quality time with a number of superb authors, experts, and fans. Among the former were John Scalzi, the Author GoH – as a “Guest” he sure had to work his butt off, but since we all benefit from his work, I’ll not whinge on about it. I got him to sign The God Engines (his “cheerful one”), and I had him inscribe Redshirts to Marcia. Thanks, John! I also stumbled across Edward Lerner, Alan Smale, Allen Wold, Jean Marie Ward, Neil Clarke, and many more brilliant, articulate, wonderful people in the panels, around the tables, and in the halls at this superb small con. I recommend Capclave highly, and I’ll be back for more next year. Kudos to the volunteers who ran the con, and the WSFA, the local organization that sponsored it.

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The penultimate class is complete, as of this evening. The grade should drop sometime during the coming week, and I’m hopeful (but not entirely positive) that the 4.0 will survive the experience. The final course of my first degree starts next Sunday. I’ve gotten confirmation from the school that what I’m taking this session puts paid to the requirements, and I’ll be graduating as of 30 December 2012. The skin which is not from a sheep shall arrive 6-8 weeks later (does that come with Ginzu knives?) So, I CAN do an eight week course on web technologies standing on my head, right?

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors.

  • Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Milton W. Brown, 28, of Dallas, Texas, died Aug. 4, from a non-combat related incident in Rota, Spain.
  • Sgt. Thomas R. Macpherson, 26, of Long Beach, California, died Oct. 12, in Andar District, Afghanistan, from small arms fire while on patrol during combat operations.
  • Sgt. 1st Class Ryan J. Savard, 29, of Sierra Vista, Arizona, died Oct. 13, in Khanabad District, Afghanistan, from small arms fire while on patrol during combat operations.
  • Cmdr. Joel Del Mundo Tiu, 49, of Manila, Philippines died Oct. 12 as a result of non-combat related injuries.