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This is the first post made from Windows Live Writer,
It looks better than I thought it would. This could be promising, as currently I would have to wait for the spaces page to load and then wait for the blog page to load and then wait for the page to let me publish what I write and copy it just in case it still doesn’t publish it. phew…
Good stuff.
Here is a general update on my life. It has been a while since I had the chance to blog, things have been rather hectic recently, though that’s no excuse when so many people are lining up to read my blog </sarcasm>
I recently made the change to linux, finally. I have nothing against Windows and will definitely continue to use Windows XP and Vista, for tasks that require it. I have two laptop HD’s so I can get away with having two OS’s on separate HD’s. The distribution I decided to go with was Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is very quick and easy to install, it came as a LIVE CD so I can pop it in and see whether it will recognise my hardware at once. It recognised everything except the 1394 connection, which i was thrilled about anyway, because not only do i not use it, I hate it. The 1394 connection is always disabled on my windows installations anyway. Everything else worked like a charm.
This distro is great if you have a constant internet connection because you can use the update manager to grab updates and software from the many community and other repositories out there. You can also use apt-get to grab software that is not included in the updates from the command line, and Automatix to pull the necessary basic software, codecs, and tweaks.
I can definitely see myself dropping Wndows altogether as my main OS very soon because most Windows software can be run on a Linux box using WINE (acronym for Wine Is Not an Emulator). This enables linux to run Windows software natively rather than as an emulation, which oft uses more memory and added CPU usage along with more processes running in the background.
Another thing I love about Ubuntu is the amount of community support there is. Any question you have has probably already been answered on the forums.
Other than that, things have been crazy busy around here (as the phone rings). I have been having a hard time getting alot of personal things done because it seems like everytime I get within five feet of the door to go to the gym, or the head, or to run some other errand, phones ring and my name is mentioned way too many times. While this may seem like a gripe, do not get confused. I love what I do and I put myself in the position of being the goto guy for most situations.
In other news, what to think about Israel?
Who here thinks they are doing the right thing? ::raises hand:: I do!
Actually, I think they should have shown more force in the situation. Don’t misconstrue this and picture me as a war lover, because I am not. I do think that terrorism should not be shown an ounce of leniancy, because every time someone does, it is a victory for terrorists everywhere.
Terrorists are recruiting new terrorists based on the strong propoganda building from the current situation in Israel. Say Israel commits to a cease-fire without any conditions. They never see their troops that were kidnapped again, they just stop shooting. Who wins? Hezbollah.
Does anyone else see why our current position in Iraq and Afghanastan are so vital to the larger picture? Americans think they have lost numbers, though no one stops to think that almost every war we have been in has been bloodier than this early on.
With Iran and Syria having connections with OPEC and having threatened us in the past with stopping our oil supply, we could never have achieved victory in those countries without our economy taking a dive and a new depression taking hold. If we had allies in the middle east with oil supplies that could supply the energy resources we need until the end of the war, well wouldn’t that just make things smoother for the American economy? Why yes!
If we play our cards right, we are already in prime position to tackle the largest proponents of terrorism in the entire world. And Israel will play their part, as they are our strongest allies in the region.
Though I hope this doesn’t escalate to World War proportions, there are definitely more lives to be put on the line to see this out to victory. What we need now is the American public to stop watching one news atation thinking that they have all the answers. Additionaly, for God’s sake lose the tunnel vision and think outside your comfort zone!
~RouterB
After nearly a month of waiting they have finally brought Windows Live Spaces to me.
I recreated my space in preparation of this. I still wish the URL was routerbad.live.com but beggers cannot be choosers.
I will continue to update my space and keep the content fresh.
I know that at this point, no one reads my blog and no one really cares to check my space on a regular basis, but I think things will change, when I get back to the rear and have time to write more often about what is going on.
Later.
~RouterB
Okay, now that Spaces is letting me post blog entries, here we go…
Today marks the 5 year anniverasary of the day that Samantha and I started dating. Many people have voiced their opinions and doubts that I never listened to. At the time I’m sure that many people thought I was being foolish and that something like what Sam and I had could never last. I was just following my heart
These people should be eating their feet with this milestone! Five years of listening to people’s "concerns" and we are still here, more in love than ever.
I can’t thank God enough for the clarity of heart and mind he gave me to find someone that I know that I will be able to hold on to for many years to come.
The last five years have been a series of emotinal roller coasters for the both of us. We have dealt with more time apart than we have had together, We have been separated by my career decision and the war I am participating in. We have been through more than the average couple for any age group, by and by proving our steadiness and maturity in dealing with the hard times that love has thrown our way.
I can’t say that there arent rewards to this, though. The milestone of five years together and the love we continue to share and the support we give each other even from thousands of miles away is worth all of the emotional lows and heart panging hard times.
I am on my second tour in Iraq, and Samantha has been faithful through the betterest of times. For that my love, I thank you!
I quite often truly believe that I haven’t done anything to deserve the true and unconfitional "I love you anyways!" love that we share, but we have it, and there is nothing that would convince me to give it up.
Happy Five years Samantha! I will love you always.
~RouterBad
I really haven’t had the chance to blog recently, considering how busy I have been for the last, oh, lets say two weeks.
It seems as though I am a marked man. Everytime something comes down my name seems to be attached somehow. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and I love to work, especally for the Marines that I work for, but sometimes I get the feeling that I am the only one taking initiative. I can’t gripe too much, because the more they throw on top of my desk, the more I learn, and I will love any knowledge I can pull back. I am trying to get as much experience with the Cisco products as possible, because I plan on getting my CCNA when I get back, and after that, I want to start studying for my CCNP. I will probably try to use Tuition Assistance to get into one of the bootcamp programs for those.
Right now the biggest thing in my world is the wedding I am trying to have. I want it to be great, but money and time are definitely not on my side. Neither of us seem to have time for anything, and i haven’t even really talked to her in the last few days, because I either get tasked with something as soon as I come in, or I end up staying late because there is something to do that only I know how to do, which leads to me waking up later in the morning.
I don’t mind being the go to guy, but it does kind of wear on you after a while.
There have been plenty of times during my "military career" that I fail to see the common sense in many command descisions. The thing about the Marine Corps is, if the explanation doesn’t make sense, its an excuse to cover up any real reason there may be to include but not limited to:
dog and pony show
politics
pissing contest
"I have more rank, so do what I say.."
dog and pony show
politics
pissing contest
"I have more rank, so do what I say.."
I always find the last one to be the most amusing, seeing someone who can’t think anything but Marine Corps falling back to their rank and hiding behind it like a scared puppy everytime someone calls them out on some order or directive they put out that makes absolutely no sense. What they should realise is that we are all laughing at them when they do this. The rest of them are pretty much just annoying, though I see the reasoning behind them sometimes.
Common sense seems to take a sharp turn south and head for a steady decline as you pick up rank.
Catch up to you later, I have questions coming from all sides…
~RouterB
Everything is gone..well, not everything. Just the hard drive partition that had all of my music, pictures and other media.
Its been another slow day, not that I can say I’ve really been here most of the day. The morning was kinda hectic, for reasons undisclosable.
I got a bill from a bill collector representing Sprint telling me that I owe 230.61 dollars to them. Imagine my reaction. When we military folks go out of country, we don’t need a cell phone. In fact, we aren’t allowed to have a cell phone due to the frequencies they broadcast on. Every cell phone provider has a military suspension policy, some are really good, and allow you to terminate the contract for free if you choose, or just keep the contract suspended until you return. Sprints’ Military suspension plan is decent, but because its Sprint, something always goes wrong.
I left for Iraq in February, the 7th to be exact. I called Sprint on the 6th and had them put me on the military suspension plan, something I did a year earlier with no problems. Now, because I had already recieved service in February, I did as expected, get billed for the month. My plan was to pay the bill online when my statement hit. The bill was 64.17, no big deal. The problem is, I find I can’t get into my online account to pay it. I email their E-Care team(what a joke). They reply that my account is locked out due to a past due balance of 64.17 and the account has been suspended.
I tell him that the money I owe is not past due but for the month of February and my account is suspended not because of a past due balance, but because I put it on a Military Suspension. These words never fully sink in to any of the 10 people’s heads that I got emails from.
The next email I recieved stated that because I put it on a military suspension that the online account has been suspended. I didn’t like this answer because I was in my online account all the time last year to make sure they weren’t charging me anything, with no problems. I dealt with it though and asked if there was any other method to pay my bill other than the online pay. He said the only option for me was to send my family money to take it to the Sprint Store and pay it there. Good enough for me, so I call the Sprint Store down in Port Richey, who tells me that I can’t have them pay it there because I purhcased my plan in North Carolina(where I am stationed) and that is in a different service district. Great! No way to pay the damn thing.
I wasn’t too worried because while on military suspension, Sprint is not allowed to charge late fees, tax, or take action against my account. Riiiiiight!
The next news I get, other than more crap from the E-care team, is a letter from a creditor stating that I owe 230.61 dollars to Sprint.
They awoke a sleeping beast with this one. I called and got the run-around(maybe I wasn’t patient enough) for about an hour cumulatively while being on hold for a cumulative 30 minutes. So an hour and a half and I am no where close to fixing the problem, but I have found the source. One of Sprint’s very skilled billing specialists (intended sarcasm) informed me that my account was accumulating just over five dollars a month of tax for the payment I never was able to pay. So, like any company who cares about their loyal patrons, they charged me 170 dollars (roughly) for early contract termination…yippee! I told him it was outrageous and that I was not going to pay that because I was on the military suspension plan to prevent action against my account while I was out here.
He was going to give me a number to call and I told him that I was going to call base legal, he said he would put a note on my account that the charge be removed and my contract reenstated, but he could’nt do anything to help me, I would have to talk to customer service (for the fourth time..not happening). I just politely told him to have a nice day and I will handle it with legal.
I never did call legal, turns out, the next time I called, I got a billing agent that had actually been there for more than a week, and she looked over my account and agreed that I shouldn’t be charged anything but the original 64.17 dollars. She thanked me for being patient as she put me on hold while she explained the situation (Sprint? Customer SERVICE??) to a collections person. She was just about to transfer me and I got…disconnected?? CRAP!
I called back and asked for Collections, and I got someone who immediately brought the situation to his manager, who had already heard the situation (there it is again, keep it up, Sprint!) and had already put the account up for review..phew!
Now, they said to call back within a week to see if it had been removed so, I will wait patiently and see if anything comes my way. I have to keep my fingers crossed, because with Sprint its always hit or miss.
Its been another slow day, not that I can say I’ve really been here most of the day. The morning was kinda hectic, for reasons undisclosable.
I got a bill from a bill collector representing Sprint telling me that I owe 230.61 dollars to them. Imagine my reaction. When we military folks go out of country, we don’t need a cell phone. In fact, we aren’t allowed to have a cell phone due to the frequencies they broadcast on. Every cell phone provider has a military suspension policy, some are really good, and allow you to terminate the contract for free if you choose, or just keep the contract suspended until you return. Sprints’ Military suspension plan is decent, but because its Sprint, something always goes wrong.
I left for Iraq in February, the 7th to be exact. I called Sprint on the 6th and had them put me on the military suspension plan, something I did a year earlier with no problems. Now, because I had already recieved service in February, I did as expected, get billed for the month. My plan was to pay the bill online when my statement hit. The bill was 64.17, no big deal. The problem is, I find I can’t get into my online account to pay it. I email their E-Care team(what a joke). They reply that my account is locked out due to a past due balance of 64.17 and the account has been suspended.
I tell him that the money I owe is not past due but for the month of February and my account is suspended not because of a past due balance, but because I put it on a Military Suspension. These words never fully sink in to any of the 10 people’s heads that I got emails from.
The next email I recieved stated that because I put it on a military suspension that the online account has been suspended. I didn’t like this answer because I was in my online account all the time last year to make sure they weren’t charging me anything, with no problems. I dealt with it though and asked if there was any other method to pay my bill other than the online pay. He said the only option for me was to send my family money to take it to the Sprint Store and pay it there. Good enough for me, so I call the Sprint Store down in Port Richey, who tells me that I can’t have them pay it there because I purhcased my plan in North Carolina(where I am stationed) and that is in a different service district. Great! No way to pay the damn thing.
I wasn’t too worried because while on military suspension, Sprint is not allowed to charge late fees, tax, or take action against my account. Riiiiiight!
The next news I get, other than more crap from the E-care team, is a letter from a creditor stating that I owe 230.61 dollars to Sprint.
They awoke a sleeping beast with this one. I called and got the run-around(maybe I wasn’t patient enough) for about an hour cumulatively while being on hold for a cumulative 30 minutes. So an hour and a half and I am no where close to fixing the problem, but I have found the source. One of Sprint’s very skilled billing specialists (intended sarcasm) informed me that my account was accumulating just over five dollars a month of tax for the payment I never was able to pay. So, like any company who cares about their loyal patrons, they charged me 170 dollars (roughly) for early contract termination…yippee! I told him it was outrageous and that I was not going to pay that because I was on the military suspension plan to prevent action against my account while I was out here.
He was going to give me a number to call and I told him that I was going to call base legal, he said he would put a note on my account that the charge be removed and my contract reenstated, but he could’nt do anything to help me, I would have to talk to customer service (for the fourth time..not happening). I just politely told him to have a nice day and I will handle it with legal.
I never did call legal, turns out, the next time I called, I got a billing agent that had actually been there for more than a week, and she looked over my account and agreed that I shouldn’t be charged anything but the original 64.17 dollars. She thanked me for being patient as she put me on hold while she explained the situation (Sprint? Customer SERVICE??) to a collections person. She was just about to transfer me and I got…disconnected?? CRAP!
I called back and asked for Collections, and I got someone who immediately brought the situation to his manager, who had already heard the situation (there it is again, keep it up, Sprint!) and had already put the account up for review..phew!
Now, they said to call back within a week to see if it had been removed so, I will wait patiently and see if anything comes my way. I have to keep my fingers crossed, because with Sprint its always hit or miss.
I recently had a hard drive failure..well, I wouldn’t call it a failure on the hard drive’s part. I was copying my music folder from my hard drive to My Music folder on a new Windows installation. With about 15 seconds left to go, I start getting errors saying that all the files it was trying to copy were corrupt. Great! So I cancel out of that and remove my hard drive from the system via "safely remove hardware". I reconnect the HD to run the CheckDisk utility that I have come to hate so much in Windows (mainly because it starts more problems than it fixes). When I reconnect, the entire 150 GB partition is "corrupted and unreadable". I try to run the recovery command from the command prompt, which tells me that I need to run chkdsk.exe. Okay, so I run chkdsk, and it tells me that windows cannot determine the state of the drive and will abort.
Now, one would imagine that there would be plenty of information out there about this very issue, and there is, but most of it I can’t get to through our web filtering. I try to find software that may help fix it after looking through some forums and find a few that offer trial versions of their software. So I install a few programs, one that freezes as soon as it opens, another that doesn’t do anything unless you buy the full version, and another that makes you think it’s going to fix something but six hours later you find it telling you that it can’t help you.
This is frustrating, and I refuse to format the partition because I don’t want to lose over 100GB worth of data. So I kept looking for solutions to no avail. A friend let me use some software that he had called active-undelete. I may just buy this software ust in case this happens in the future. It’s not finished yet, but it has actually given me feedback on what it sees on the hard drive so far, and how much longer I can expect it to run. The recovered MFT records are now in the hundreds of thousands, so I think I might get everything back, we’ll hope so.
I hope this helps anyone with the same problem
Now, one would imagine that there would be plenty of information out there about this very issue, and there is, but most of it I can’t get to through our web filtering. I try to find software that may help fix it after looking through some forums and find a few that offer trial versions of their software. So I install a few programs, one that freezes as soon as it opens, another that doesn’t do anything unless you buy the full version, and another that makes you think it’s going to fix something but six hours later you find it telling you that it can’t help you.
This is frustrating, and I refuse to format the partition because I don’t want to lose over 100GB worth of data. So I kept looking for solutions to no avail. A friend let me use some software that he had called active-undelete. I may just buy this software ust in case this happens in the future. It’s not finished yet, but it has actually given me feedback on what it sees on the hard drive so far, and how much longer I can expect it to run. The recovered MFT records are now in the hundreds of thousands, so I think I might get everything back, we’ll hope so.
I hope this helps anyone with the same problem
Now there’s a headline for you!
I actually managed to wake up without destroying my alarm clock today, then again I still feel like I’m forgetting to do something.
Nohting too exciting going on today, though I did get a chance to call Samantha. That always tends to put me in a good mood for the day.
Still nothing to complain about right now, but don’t worry, I already have that feeling that something is just going to set my mind off today, starting with this stupid laptop keyboard. This thing has got to be the most unresponsive thing I have ever attempted typing on. Pretty soon I am just going to say screw the backspace button, and let you see what this thing is doing to me.
Seriously, htough, not to nitpick but can’t they make a keboard where the buttons don’t fly off after one months use? Then say that happens and you actually find the cap for the key, good luck putting it on correctly, yes, advanced technology with touchscreen compatibility and this laptop is holding the keys on with plastic hinges. Smart…not.
As I’ve already posted on my MySpace blog, my ‘tentative’ departure dates are between the 30th of August and the 3rd of September. With that said, I actually hope to stay past September 1st. Mainly because one day in September means tax free for all of September, and its just one more day. I will probably not arrive in Cherry Point until nearly the 4th or 5th of September anyway, so why not.
I was going to put this up in another blog entry, but noone reads this thing anyway. I have recieved new news on my reenlistment package. Apparently, it has already been signed, and sent forward to the monitor, so that means its out of my hands, and into Gods. I have no problem leaving it in his hands because everything else I’ve turned to him for has turned out just fine.
Hopefully, it won’t be too long before I hear some news back from HQMC about this reenlistment thing. They will approve the reenlistment for sure, but whether they approve the duty station incentive is what I am holding my breath for. Hurry up guys, I only have a few minutes left…
On the World Cup,
What was America thinking? Horrible performance, and I am now faced with finding a new allegiance out of the remaining teams. Of course, England it is. Nevermind…they have been eliminated as well. So Germany it is.
Well, enough rambling for now, I think I will go have another cup of tea..err, coffee..ahh whateever!
I actually managed to wake up without destroying my alarm clock today, then again I still feel like I’m forgetting to do something.
Nohting too exciting going on today, though I did get a chance to call Samantha. That always tends to put me in a good mood for the day.
Still nothing to complain about right now, but don’t worry, I already have that feeling that something is just going to set my mind off today, starting with this stupid laptop keyboard. This thing has got to be the most unresponsive thing I have ever attempted typing on. Pretty soon I am just going to say screw the backspace button, and let you see what this thing is doing to me.
Seriously, htough, not to nitpick but can’t they make a keboard where the buttons don’t fly off after one months use? Then say that happens and you actually find the cap for the key, good luck putting it on correctly, yes, advanced technology with touchscreen compatibility and this laptop is holding the keys on with plastic hinges. Smart…not.
As I’ve already posted on my MySpace blog, my ‘tentative’ departure dates are between the 30th of August and the 3rd of September. With that said, I actually hope to stay past September 1st. Mainly because one day in September means tax free for all of September, and its just one more day. I will probably not arrive in Cherry Point until nearly the 4th or 5th of September anyway, so why not.
I was going to put this up in another blog entry, but noone reads this thing anyway. I have recieved new news on my reenlistment package. Apparently, it has already been signed, and sent forward to the monitor, so that means its out of my hands, and into Gods. I have no problem leaving it in his hands because everything else I’ve turned to him for has turned out just fine.
Hopefully, it won’t be too long before I hear some news back from HQMC about this reenlistment thing. They will approve the reenlistment for sure, but whether they approve the duty station incentive is what I am holding my breath for. Hurry up guys, I only have a few minutes left…
On the World Cup,
What was America thinking? Horrible performance, and I am now faced with finding a new allegiance out of the remaining teams. Of course, England it is. Nevermind…they have been eliminated as well. So Germany it is.
Well, enough rambling for now, I think I will go have another cup of tea..err, coffee..ahh whateever!
Well, I survived chow once again! Not that the fod here is bad, but…well, it gets pretty bad.
The chow hall here has its high and low points. Its high points are purely dependant on personal tastes. Let’s just know that the past month has been a month of sandwich days. Maybe if the chowhall got come different food for once, you know, just to spice things up, we would get some enjoyable food.
My routine when going into the chow hall for lunch or dinner is usually:
1 lap around the chow hall, just to see whats being served
followed by an immediate rush to the sandwich bar, once I’m satisfied that the main meal is crappy enough.
Anywho, almost time for the gym, man my chest is sore from that workout three days ago!(intended sarcasm)
Been a pretty uneventful day at work so far, the price we pay for making a well oiled machine! I have answered a few questions but other than that.
So, its just another chow down, about 180 left to go. Oorah!
The chow hall here has its high and low points. Its high points are purely dependant on personal tastes. Let’s just know that the past month has been a month of sandwich days. Maybe if the chowhall got come different food for once, you know, just to spice things up, we would get some enjoyable food.
My routine when going into the chow hall for lunch or dinner is usually:
1 lap around the chow hall, just to see whats being served
followed by an immediate rush to the sandwich bar, once I’m satisfied that the main meal is crappy enough.
Anywho, almost time for the gym, man my chest is sore from that workout three days ago!(intended sarcasm)
Been a pretty uneventful day at work so far, the price we pay for making a well oiled machine! I have answered a few questions but other than that.
So, its just another chow down, about 180 left to go. Oorah!
