Yesterday was my Dad's 75th birthday but he had his party today. Got a
chance to have a video chat with him with his new webcam that he
installed (Woo Hoo Dad!). He read me corny jokes from a book of jokes
compiled from emails that he had sent and was made into a coffee table
book.
My Dad looks good for his age is doing well and is still working.
Hoping I'll be just like him when I reach that ripe old age!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Book Corner - Finished Reading
Need to catch up on this:
Born To Kill - TJ English - 341 pages - Title of the book comes from a slogan written on some Vietnam soldiers helmets. The book is about the rise and fall of a violent Vietnamese gang in New York.
A Walk In The Woods - Bill Bryson - 416 pages: The author and a friend walk the Applachion Trail. It was a good read and peaked my interest in doing just that.
Easy Target - Tom Smith - 288 pages - About a helicopter scout pilot during the Vietnam war.
Taking The High Ground - Military Stories Of Faith - Jeff O'Leary - 300 pages. A very good read, great stories of faith. Read this in one night, that good!
Almost finished reading Chicken Soup For The Mothers Soul, just because I ran out of something to read and it was at my Mom's house.
Born To Kill - TJ English - 341 pages - Title of the book comes from a slogan written on some Vietnam soldiers helmets. The book is about the rise and fall of a violent Vietnamese gang in New York.
A Walk In The Woods - Bill Bryson - 416 pages: The author and a friend walk the Applachion Trail. It was a good read and peaked my interest in doing just that.
Easy Target - Tom Smith - 288 pages - About a helicopter scout pilot during the Vietnam war.
Taking The High Ground - Military Stories Of Faith - Jeff O'Leary - 300 pages. A very good read, great stories of faith. Read this in one night, that good!
Almost finished reading Chicken Soup For The Mothers Soul, just because I ran out of something to read and it was at my Mom's house.
A Travellers Story - Part 2
I always wonder when I can say "This was the worst flight ever", I thought the Baghdad days would have anything else beat, but I take that back.
So I left ORF for JFK by way of Delta (The AA flights to Miami were full). Well Chris is the queen of overweight bags, I never know how she gets away with it. One of the bags she packed for me weighed 70 pounds! I told her there was no way I would take that and tried shifting some weight to another bag. I get to the Delta counter and my bag weighed 51.5 pounds, the agent made me remove 1.5 pounds!
The flight to JFK went without incident, no F-22 Raptor show (Forgot to mention that I told the pilot that the Raptor show was cool, he said "Wasn't it though!").
Arrive at JFK and wait for my 10:15 direct flight to BA (Buenos Aires). At 9:30PM when we should be boarding the gate agent announced that the departure time just changed on the board to 7:30 AM, she wasn't sure if this was correct, 30 seconds later she announces that in fact, yes, the flight has been cancelled until the next morning and to go back to ticketing for hotel information.
I take off for AA ticketing and not long after have my hotel and food voucher. Had to take the sky train to Federal Circle and catch a hotel shuttle to the Ramada Plaza Hotel. The shuttle was there and took us to the hotel. Check in was easy enough. The room was a rat hole. Went to the restaurant and the hostess told me I could use my $10 voucher for the soup and salad portion of the buffet (Usually $16, complete buffet $26).
We had to be back at the gate at JFK by 6:30AM. For whatever reason I left the hotel at 4:30, made it through security and was at the gate by 4:55AM, much to early. Fell asleep and a lady told me that the gate had changed to 41, we were at gate 4! But the information boards didn't say this and there was no announcement. I thought I'm not walking all the way to gate 41 if this isn't correct. Turns out it was. But there never was an announcement nor gate change info on the information board.
Board the plane and settle down, plane pushes off from the gate and one of the flight attendants says over the intercom that that one of the engines wouldn't start and we were going back to the gate. People got upset and wanted off the plane. This meant that their bags had to be removed. 3 hours later we were taxiing to the runway.
Wheels up to a plane full of applause, 10:30AM for a 7:30AM flight
I fell asleep after the meal (Breakfast although it was lunchtime). A bit later I hear the pilot say "Some of you maybe wondering why we have been flying around in circles, we have to lose weight to land in Miami, a part of the plane broke", gate agents will help you rebook.
We land in Miami to a plane full of applause again (Those funny Argentines).
We go to gate E24/25 and gate agents go to work. It was lots of confusion and messages over the loudspeaker in Spanish which didn't help me, but I was able to figure out what they were saying.
This time I get a room and 2 nights at the Crowne Plaza and my flight leaves tonight directly to Montevideo. I also got 2 $10 vouchers and one $5 voucher.
Fortunately the Crowne Plaza is much nicer than the Ramada. The meals are fairly expensive, but the vouchers offset the price. Went for a walk around, it's like being in another country, another Latino country.
I'll probably leave here around 9:30PM or so. Have to recheck my bags but I already have a boarding pass so I'll probably do a self check in.
So I left ORF for JFK by way of Delta (The AA flights to Miami were full). Well Chris is the queen of overweight bags, I never know how she gets away with it. One of the bags she packed for me weighed 70 pounds! I told her there was no way I would take that and tried shifting some weight to another bag. I get to the Delta counter and my bag weighed 51.5 pounds, the agent made me remove 1.5 pounds!
The flight to JFK went without incident, no F-22 Raptor show (Forgot to mention that I told the pilot that the Raptor show was cool, he said "Wasn't it though!").
Arrive at JFK and wait for my 10:15 direct flight to BA (Buenos Aires). At 9:30PM when we should be boarding the gate agent announced that the departure time just changed on the board to 7:30 AM, she wasn't sure if this was correct, 30 seconds later she announces that in fact, yes, the flight has been cancelled until the next morning and to go back to ticketing for hotel information.
I take off for AA ticketing and not long after have my hotel and food voucher. Had to take the sky train to Federal Circle and catch a hotel shuttle to the Ramada Plaza Hotel. The shuttle was there and took us to the hotel. Check in was easy enough. The room was a rat hole. Went to the restaurant and the hostess told me I could use my $10 voucher for the soup and salad portion of the buffet (Usually $16, complete buffet $26).
We had to be back at the gate at JFK by 6:30AM. For whatever reason I left the hotel at 4:30, made it through security and was at the gate by 4:55AM, much to early. Fell asleep and a lady told me that the gate had changed to 41, we were at gate 4! But the information boards didn't say this and there was no announcement. I thought I'm not walking all the way to gate 41 if this isn't correct. Turns out it was. But there never was an announcement nor gate change info on the information board.
Board the plane and settle down, plane pushes off from the gate and one of the flight attendants says over the intercom that that one of the engines wouldn't start and we were going back to the gate. People got upset and wanted off the plane. This meant that their bags had to be removed. 3 hours later we were taxiing to the runway.
Wheels up to a plane full of applause, 10:30AM for a 7:30AM flight
I fell asleep after the meal (Breakfast although it was lunchtime). A bit later I hear the pilot say "Some of you maybe wondering why we have been flying around in circles, we have to lose weight to land in Miami, a part of the plane broke", gate agents will help you rebook.
We land in Miami to a plane full of applause again (Those funny Argentines).
We go to gate E24/25 and gate agents go to work. It was lots of confusion and messages over the loudspeaker in Spanish which didn't help me, but I was able to figure out what they were saying.
This time I get a room and 2 nights at the Crowne Plaza and my flight leaves tonight directly to Montevideo. I also got 2 $10 vouchers and one $5 voucher.
Fortunately the Crowne Plaza is much nicer than the Ramada. The meals are fairly expensive, but the vouchers offset the price. Went for a walk around, it's like being in another country, another Latino country.
I'll probably leave here around 9:30PM or so. Have to recheck my bags but I already have a boarding pass so I'll probably do a self check in.
A Travellers Story - Part 1
I'm on a Delta flight from JFK to ORF (Norfolk, VA). Pretty much a boring 45 minute flight on a 50 passenger Embraer ERJ-145.
Not long after cruising altitude the pilot mentions that Antlantic City was visible over the right side of the plane, cool except I'm on the left side, back to reading.
The pilot then mentioned that there was a F-22 Raptor following us on the left side of the plane, I looked and sure enough there it was.
Our pilot gently rocked the wings of our plane (To say "Hey dude!") and I watched as the F-22 rocked it's wings. Not but a few seconds later the F-22 did a triple barrel roll the banked over our plane. Goosebumps shot through my back, it was pretty cool! I looked around the plane and everyone was asleep or reading.
The F-22 then came back in sight. I thought it would be cool to see that bird go vertical with full afterburners. I must have sent this message to the pilot because all of a sudden all you can see were two vertical contrails that just kept going, and going and going, right to the moon.
Not long after cruising altitude the pilot mentions that Antlantic City was visible over the right side of the plane, cool except I'm on the left side, back to reading.
The pilot then mentioned that there was a F-22 Raptor following us on the left side of the plane, I looked and sure enough there it was.
Our pilot gently rocked the wings of our plane (To say "Hey dude!") and I watched as the F-22 rocked it's wings. Not but a few seconds later the F-22 did a triple barrel roll the banked over our plane. Goosebumps shot through my back, it was pretty cool! I looked around the plane and everyone was asleep or reading.
The F-22 then came back in sight. I thought it would be cool to see that bird go vertical with full afterburners. I must have sent this message to the pilot because all of a sudden all you can see were two vertical contrails that just kept going, and going and going, right to the moon.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Bill Obituary
My stepfathers obituary:
William B. Gott VIRGINIA BEACH - William B. Gott, 74, went to be with
the Lord Sept. 5, 2008. He was born in Maine June 17, 1934. William
attended Gateway Free Will Baptist Church, and was a volunteer at
Salvation Army. During his career in the United States Navy, he received
many honors including the Bronze Star with Combat V, Vietnam Unit
Citation and a Licensed Merchant Marine Officer by U.S. Coast Guard. He
proudly retired from the Navy as a commander. He is survived by his
loving wife, Ok Bun Kim Gott, of 27 years; three daughters, Sherry,
Cathy and Cindy; two stepchildren, Dominic and Michael; and five
grandchildren. He will truly be missed. A service of remembrance will be
held Tuesday at 11 a.m. in Gateway Free Will Baptist Church with Pastor
Karl Sexton officiating. Condolences may be made to the family at
www.altmeyer.com.
Food Fest!
I went to a going away party last night and there was so much good food
there! My belly was so happy! I should have took a picture,
Most of the stuff I can't spell, but one thing that did stand out was
the empanada's. A shout out to Leney who hand made these delicious treats!
When I got home I laid on the couch and fell asleep, my stomach was bulging!
there! My belly was so happy! I should have took a picture,
Most of the stuff I can't spell, but one thing that did stand out was
the empanada's. A shout out to Leney who hand made these delicious treats!
When I got home I laid on the couch and fell asleep, my stomach was bulging!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Step Dad passed away
Although I meant not to include much personal matters in my blog this is important enough to mention.
My Stepfather passed away yesterday afternoon after a long illness, he was 74.
My Mom married Bill much after I had joined the Corps and moved out and we didn't always have the best relationship but he had a good heart.
Bill was a alumnus of the Maine Maritime Academy and joined the Navy, retiring as a Commander. He was a Vietnam veteran as well serving in Cambodia.
I am leaving for the States tomorrow evening and return next Monday.
Friday, September 5, 2008
My Mothers Morning Walk
Speaking of walks, when I was home I joined my Mom during her morning
walk. Now being a former Marine you would think that I'd have no
problem with a 0530 walk in the morning on the beach, but was I wrong!
I was surprised at how many people were up that early in the morning
also going for a walk, and everyone was very friendly.
walk. Now being a former Marine you would think that I'd have no
problem with a 0530 walk in the morning on the beach, but was I wrong!
I was surprised at how many people were up that early in the morning
also going for a walk, and everyone was very friendly.
My Mom put a twist to the beach walk, where I thought she would walk on
the wet hard sand, she prefers the soft sand! I don't know how many
blocks she walks till she is back to the pavement but it seemed to go on
forever! My wife who is in better shape than I am took it all in
stride, I think she barely broke a sweat.
Her neighborhood has changed so much. All of the old beach cottages
have been torn down and some contemporary behemoth replaced it or they
have been remodeled so much there is nothing left of it's original
informal beach design to them.
Chilly willy
So much for a mild winter. I just plain forgot that winter wasn't over
yet! It's been much colder lately, today Low 39F/High 48F, add the wind
off the river and it's a cold walk to work in the morning!
yet! It's been much colder lately, today Low 39F/High 48F, add the wind
off the river and it's a cold walk to work in the morning!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Google Chrome 0xc0000005 Exception Error
Well my Google Chrome run didn't last past the install, kept getting an exception error crash, so it wouldn't work. Nothing had hit the internet yet but I knew I wasn't the only person with the error. One morning later and there are messages all over the internet about it, mostly on Google Groups. Was holding out for the best suggestion and here it is for anyone that runs into it. The culprit? Symantec Endpoint Protection.
If the client is unmanaged then , please perform the step below :
1) Back up the registry on an affected system.
2) Open the registry on the Agent system by entering regedit from a
run prompt.
3) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
\SysPlant.
4) Open the Start DWORD.
5) Change the value to 4 to disable the drivers.
6) Reboot the system to commit the changes.
If the client is unmanaged then , please perform the step below :
1) Back up the registry on an affected system.
2) Open the registry on the Agent system by entering regedit from a
run prompt.
3) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
\SysPlant.
4) Open the Start DWORD.
5) Change the value to 4 to disable the drivers.
6) Reboot the system to commit the changes.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Google Chrome just launched
It's the new Google browser. I'm downloading now and going to give it a
test try http://www.google.com/chrome?open
test try http://www.google.com/chrome?open
Monday, September 1, 2008
Long weekend continues
Wow another three day weekend, last weekend I had Monday off because of Uruguayan Indepenedence Day, today of course for Labor Day, sweet!
The weather has been nice overall, not cold but not hot either!
Sure miss summer when it should be summer though, LOL!
The weather has been nice overall, not cold but not hot either!
Sure miss summer when it should be summer though, LOL!
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