Monday, May 25, 2009

Weather Report

I can't trust the weather forecasts at all!  If I were to believe them today would have been a stay in bed day, rainy and dreary.  Instead it's nice and warm and the sun is shining bright with just a few puffy clouds in the sky : )

Yesterday a fog rolled in and covered everything, it was a little brisk, maybe sweater weather at most.

Book Corner - Finished Reading

The 47th Samurai by Stephen Hunter
Paperback 461 pages

In typical Doc Report fashion I'll just say that I enjoyed it.  Of course you can always go to Amazon for good reviews :  )   It involved Samurai swords and a former Marine who kicks some butt, what more can you ask for!

Riding in cars with boys by Beverly Donofrio
Paperback 204 pages
Non-fiction

What?  Yes I read the book, never saw the movie.  An easy one day read.  It was a good interesting story.

Memorial Day

A special thanks to all who are serving, to all those who have served and of course to the families of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.


Saturday, May 23, 2009

Studying for the CISSP Exam

I don't know how many of my readers are IT folks familiar with the CISSP exam but if you are you know how bad it is.  I am taking it again this summer, studying everyday a little bit more and more.

250 IT security questions in 6 hours.  Thankfully the answers are all multiple choice and you can write in the book, unlike computer based exams where you are given a scrap sheet of paper to take notes.  

Fortunately there is a good amount of study material out there, that and I am familiar with the topics and the exam as I passed it on 2004.  

You don't want to fail this baby at $550 a pop!  There is an incentive for passing the exam as I get a nice pay raise for a certain amount of years, and then have to recertify.

Blood Sausage

I had it for the first time last weekend.  It's not what you expect, it really wasn't that bad, in fact it was rather tasty and good for you, chock full of iron!  I also had some sweet sausage, it's rather odd tasting as you don't expect a sausage to be sweet, it even has beans in it.

Another 3 Day Weekend, Memorial Day

Another 3 day weekend begins, the weather is beautiful.  Lest we forget why the long weekend, Memorial Day.  There will be a ceremony at the British cemetary on Monday honoring the soldiers and sailors buried there.  Little trivia, there are German sailors buried there from the Graf Spree.
The Graf Spree is sunk right here in the River Plate, the superstructure is still visible on clear days.
Some information.



Bad news today as 2 Americans were killed in the Green Zone.  Probably not much news in itself except that it appears that one of the Americans was shot in a vehicle, not good.  I didn't realize while I was there an American was kidnapped from the Green Zone.  I knew quite a bit of insider information and I didn't know that.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Another Three Day Weekend

Yet another three day weekend and it started off with a half day Friday for me. Not going to do much. It's getting cold, in fact the heat was turned on in the apartments today (The floor's are warm).

Till next time.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Yecky Day

Rainy and cold.  It has been getting dark earlier and earlier.  Sunset today at 5:53PM.  I expect a Daylight Savings Time change will be soon.

The Pile is Gone

Well the big pile of old computers by the engineering school is gone.  I saw were a small dumpster was dropped off and in a few days the mess was gone.   I don't know why it took so long to get rid of them, maybe it was an environmental hazard kind of thing.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Coffee

I don't know why, but I was just thinking about my coffee drinking throughout the years. Never was a coffee drinker until, the Marines. Okinawa, Japan 1985. Had to wake up early in the morning to turn on the radios and stay up the rest of the day, I was introduced to Maxwell House, black.

Big gap here, can't really recall my coffee's during this time.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1999. Turkish coffee, little cups of strong brew with residue at the bottom. Seemed there was a reason to boil some coffee and talk, whenever.

Baghdad, Iraq, 2005. Starbucks sent from friends and family made in a pot in the office. The coffee in the big coffee urns at the chow hall was always weak and I didn't like it.

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 2006. Starbucks again. There was a Starbucks at every corner and I usually bought a bad and made some in my villa.

Montevideo, Uruguay 2007 to present. Bahia familiar, expresso ground. This is an excellant Brazilian coffee we buy at the grocery store. 225 pesos per kilo, we buy a half kilo, about 6USD.

Now I have had coffee all over the world, and you would think I can tell you my favorite and oddly it's not even hot coffee, it's a Vietnamese creation called cafe su da (sp?). It's sweetend condense milk added to strong coffee on ice. Wow! What a zing!

What is your favorite coffee?

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mom's out there!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Book Corner - Finished Reading


Against All Enemies by Major James B. Woulf USMC

Paperback 400 pages

Fiction


I wasn't sure what to think of this book in the beginning, but by the end I was reading through it with vigor. Basically the U.S.A. goes to war over a rogue South American country for furthering global warming, strange yes, but you have to read it.

Definately a head spinner of a book, the end will kind of leave you hanging for more.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Three Day Weekend Ends

The weekend is coming to a close, we didn't do anything and I take the blame for that, I should have planned well in advance.  But guess what?  We have another 3 day weekend coming up this month so I get another chance!

It was nice and warm all weekend, well, a little cool towards the evenings but otherwise very pleasent.

Nice to see the leaves changes colors and all over the sidewalks.  I should take pictures!

The Source Is Revealed

Many mornings I wake up to the sound of a scooter pulling away from the apartments, always around the same time, oh-dark-thirty.  For my non-military readers that's military jargon for pretty darn early in the morning, in this case around 5:30am.  The scooter sounds like it's groaning when accelerating, I can hear it go down the street.  I knew that someone must be deivering something, probably newspapers.  

Well on my way to the bus this morning I see a kid grab a stack of newspapers off of the back of a scooter and go inside an apartment building,  come out and got on the scooter, when he started it and pulled away I knew exactly where I had heard that sound before!  There was my culprit!