Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Another Driving Encounter
Well I ran across another genious driving a mini van today. On my way home from work I had to stop at the supermarket to get some of those last minute Thanksgiving items, and had the following encounter on the way home.
I got stuck behind some fool in a minivan at a red light. They were not in the left turn lane however had thier left turn signal on. Well the left arrow came on and everyone started turning left from the lelt turn lane while my minivan friend tried to cut these folks off to make his or her turn.
Nobody let the person in and when the arrow turned red the person still tried to make the turn. It is a good thing that this idiot had good reflexes as the folks coming from across the intersection took off like they were starting a drag race, and this person had to abort thier left turn and continue through the intersection,
Well then minivan idiot person drives down the road at 5-10 miles per hour, turn signal still on and trying to find a place to turn around. Well this particular street doesn't have a side street until the next red light.
When this person couldn't find a place to turn off they made a illegal U-turn right into oncoming traffic causing folks to have to slam on thier breaks and all. To add to this they were not able to complete the U-turn and had to actually back up into the traffic that had to slam on thier breaks when the person made the turn.
This idiot almost caused an several accidents, and I wish there had been a police car thier to observe this clown. Just another example of why I think folks that drive these vehicles shoud be required to take an extensive test before driving these bigger vehicles.
Posted at 12:01 am by
RWO
Monday, November 22, 2004
This one is for my students. Today we had a very interesting problem with a (V) 15.
Bite 17 fails, Bites 10, 15, and 16 pass. Since 17 only goes through the A21 and A18 before it joins up with the rest of the Bites coming across the feedover loop we figured this would be an easy problem.
Swap the A18 or A21 and that should fix it, right? Well it didn't work. We then checked the filter that generates the noise for Bite 17 and found we had a problem between the Bite module and the A21. After taking care of this we still had a no go.
We then checked all the voltages going to the A18. Pin 15, the AGC was indicating a little over nine volts. The range of our AGC is 0 max gain and -8 minimum gain.
We then went to the A15 and checked the AGC voltage and found -2.3 volts, definately within normal.
Well since the output of the A15 is a straight wire to pin 15 of the A18 -2.3 should have been -2.3 on pin 15 instead of the 9 volts we were reading. We had a voltage drop indicating not an open or short, but a voltage drop.
Upon inspection we saw that pin 15 was unseated and just barely making contact. The current was able to make it but the voltage drop was created by the bad connection. The 9 volts shut down the A18, but the AGC that also goes to the A17 was normal, therefore only affecting the A18. Since Bite 17 is the only bite that checks the A21 and A18 our initial troubleshooting efforts were correct.
We found that the loose pin caused a voltage drop shutting down the A18. That means Bites 10, 15 and 18 all pass, 17 fails and therefor the Transciever works fine in all data modes and FM, but fails in AM.
This problem will be rare in the fleet as you folks do not change out modules with the frequency that we do in school, but just one module swap that puts strain on a pin can cause this.
This one was a bear as Petty Officer Kelly and myself spent about five hours on it today. We won again and the WSC-3 lost.
I just wanted to point out a few things with this one.
Check all your inputs. If you have a descrepancy check the outputs from the cards that suppy the subject board.
If there is a change a voltage drop has happened. Usually it will be an open or short, but if it is a bad connection it will be a drop.
Hope this helps you out if you have a problem in any of your gear. You all know how to e-mail or call me but I will also continue to post the interesting problems we find. I hope tips like these help you folks as you are out there by yourselves.
Posted at 11:05 pm by
RWO
I don't know if it is just me, but I have observed a distressing trend lately. It is the inability of some truck drivers to remain in thier lanes. It has gotten to the point now where I will not pass them unless there is a lane between them and me.
My father drove trucks for a while after he retired from the Navy. He had to take extensive training and a driving test before he could drive them. I wonder if all of that is still in effect.
I do realize that driving one of those monsters han be nerve racking, especially in a big city such as San Diego, but I am beginning wonder if that si all to it. I know it is hard for them to avoid the idiots that weave in and out of traffic, and cut them off, but many times I have seen them drifting out of thier lane with no one in front of them and all.
Since most of the time I am driving my littlw VW Beetle, it can get pretty scary when one of these guys drifts towards me.
I am not saying all truckers are bad, it just seems like there are many drivers that are not paying attention, or don't have the skills to drive these big trucks.
Anyway, that is today's observation. It's off to class now.
Posted at 06:37 pm by
RWO
Friday, November 19, 2004
SUV's and Parking Garages
Today I had to go to my bank to make a deposit. Well my bank moved into a new building about a year ago. It has the most messed up parking structure I have ever had to park in. All of the parking spaces are layed out for small vehicls and the left very little room to back out of the spaces. The have actually had to put on extra security guards to assist folks in parking and backing out.
Well todayI had to visit the bank as I said. The wife was almost out of gas so she decided to have me take her car, a Cadillac CTS, instead of my car, one of the new VW Beetles. Well I gassed up her car, luckily I had enough cash and didn't have to apply for a loan, to pay the high gas prices, and headed for the bank.
They are building a new building next to the bank and the open air parking lot was closed so I had to park in the dreaded, parking structure. Well for those folks that read my blog on a regular basis might remember when i blogged about people who can't drive, shouldn't drive these big vehicles. Well, guess what I found in the parking structure? It was full of all these folks that can't drive, trying to fit these monsters in a compact parking space without hitting anything.
Oh if this wasn't so sick it would be funny. It took me 15 minutes to park, two minutes to make the deposit and another 15 minutes to get out of there, because these folks with the big SUV's and big pickups couldn't get out of the structure. Oh well, at least I got my banking done.
Oh, by the way the other day I promised to keep the non San Diego folks up to date on out election for Mayor. It seems alot of the write in votes are getting tossed and our former Mayor has been reelected. Seems folks wrote in her name and didn't mark the box, so they tossed them. Of course it is in the courts now. i think what they should do is toss that entire election and have us vote again in a runoff election between the Mayor and Roberts. I'll keep you posted.
Posted at 06:55 pm by
RWO
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
The time has come to get rid of the embedded journalists traveling with the troops. Due to school and some family health problems I have not had much time to keep up on this subject but have now heard enough on talk radio that has my anger raging.
I have given up on watching NBC, CBS and ABC news as the have definitely demonstrated a bias in their reporting. The only news I watch other than Fox right now is my local NBC affiliate and that is for local news as their national and international coverage comes from the network spin masters.
See the news media feels they were the ones that won the Vietnam War. If it was not for the media and idiots like John Kerry we would have won that conflict. Their negative reporting started the anti-war movement and basically resulted in a loss of support for the troops, led to more deaths as the folks we were fighting realized the troops had lost the support of the people.
The media ruled the late sixties and early seventies. They had managed to ruin the political career of Lyndon Johnson, no great loss if you ask me, and of course they ruined Nixon. Over the years they have lost that power as more and more folks can get alternative news on the Internet or by watching the cable news outlets and I am not talking CNN. The New York and LA Times, and the rest of the liberal press have lost readership and are going down the tubes. The mainstream media is also discovering that their viewer ship is disappearing especially in the midst of the CBS making up news to derail Bush’s reelection.
CBS has been exposed twice for the partisan hacks that they are with the phony documents and the missing munitions stories. Well now NBC is at it, and this time it is hitting close to home for me.
What I am talking about is the so-called execution of an Iraqi hostage. The press has been against the war on terrorism and this president from the get go. I guess the only way to get them behind the president and the troops would be for 911 to happen to their studio headquarters, though in my opinion that would be no great loss.
Their latest twist of facts has one of our Marines shooting some poor unarmed innocent Iraqi person. Well the guy that filmed and reported this story should get booted out of the imbedded journalist corps and maybe even get charged for slander or anything else that he may have violated. Michael Savage raged about it last night, and stated the guy should be charged with treason, but I don’t know if that would fit. I do feel that the Marine and his family can sue the pants off of NBC News for defamation of character or slander or something.
News flash NBC, we are at war, despite you efforts to stop it. These people wear no uniforms, will wave a surrender flag to sucker our troops in and shoot them, and will rig their wounded and dead to blow up. These folks are animals and we have to give the benefit of a doubt to the kids out there that must react or die. But no NBC, you are trying to stop the war at all costs. You want to join your colleagues as CBS and make up the news. And you are trampling over the young kids that are protecting your right to broadcast your BS in the process.
This Marine had earlier in the week watched as one of these wounded terrorists played dead and blew himself up with some of our troops killed in the process. This Marine was also shot the day before by one of these wounded Iraqi’s. Put yourself in this kids shoes. If this Iraqi even blinked wrong I would take him out.
NBC and the others through selective reporting are going to get our troops killed. Worried that anything they do will be on the evening news will cause some of these kids to hesitate and will result in them getting killed. Can you imagine what would have happened if we had imbedded journalists on Tarawa, Iwo Jima or Normandy? We would all be speaking German or Japanese right now.
People it is time now to let these folks know we have had enough. When stories like this come out, e-mail your outrage to the idiots at the news agency involved. Yesterday the British Female Care worker hostage was executed but where was that footage? No our news media is going to portray our military as bad, the people we are fighting as innocent, and ignore their atrocities, while exploiting mistakes by our guys. Case in point, how many times have you seen the Abu Grabib pictures and how many times have you seen the beheadings?
The mainstream media wants us to buy into the fact that they are not biased. I’m sorry, I am no rocket scientist, but I see very clearly what they are trying to do, and I for one will not let them get away with it. I have had it with these people. Every time I see a story that is reporting spin, I will call them on it. I will boycott their network and their sponsors. This stuff has got to stop and the only way that it will is if we, the public speak out against it. If they find that there is no profit to be made from what they do, and if in fact they start losing money this crap reporting would stop.
News stories should be investigated and reported completely. It should not be full of half-truths and purposely edited to fool the public. I am beginning to think that some of the mainstream media has attended the Michael Moore academy of journalism. Well at least I o have the remote and can get these biased idiots off my television screen. I wonder if any of these guys really listen to what they are reporting, as they would figure out from the last election results, the majority of the folks in this country will not blindly follow them like sheep.
In the meantime I would appreciate it if the media will leave our troops alone. It is a kill or be killed environment over there. These kids should not have to worry that if they fart in the wrong place or shoot the wrong person that they will be a front piece for the evening news.
Posted at 05:59 pm by
RWO
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Some folks are just not lucky
Well today i had to take off work to go to one of my favorite places, the dentist. Lucky for me it was just for a checkup, no work thank God.
Well I was on my way home about 3:15 PM, a little early for traffic to get backed up, but when I hit the good old I-805 south I hit the good old parking lot. I only had to travel a couple of miles so it wasn't that bad, but I was wondering why it had been backed up so early in the afternoon.
Well I-805 has a slight curve near Imperial Avenue, or it might be Market Street, but anyway I rounded the slight curve and sitting on the offramp was a car fully engulfed in flames. I have seen some nasty accidents in my time, but this is the first time I have seen a car on fire like that.
Well of course I guess I must have ticked off someone behind me as I had to slow down to be a looky loo, but this one was different from anything I have ever seen in real life. Anyway, it looked like they had managed to get everyone out ok. That is good, but someone now has no car.
After that I stopped to vote for our new City Counsel Member, ours passed away a few months back. This time it wasn't so much voting for someone, as it was voting against one candidate.
I don't know how many of you have ever followed San Diego politics but our mayor's race is a joke. It is currently in the courts. Our City, 7th biggest City in the United States is about 1.5 Billion Dollars in the hole. Our current Mayor is one of those guys that always states he didn't know, it didn't start on his watch, and any other reasons he can think of to place the blame elsewhere. His inaction has continued to make the City continue to spiral more and more in debt.
Ron Roberts is a former City Counselman who was beating the crap out of Mayor Murphy in the polls and looked like he would be a shoe in. Murphy saw he was in trouble and through some back room deals managed to get Donna Frye to run as a write in candidate. Donna Frye is the wife of a surf shop owner that is currently on the city counsel. She is a strict environmentalist and gained a lot of respect and support as she was the only counsel person to oppose building all of these sports stadiums. On the other hand it has also been reported that she is unable to get a driver's license due to DUI's.
Well they held the election and low and behold guess who is leading? Donna frye, the write in drunk candidate. Why the City Attorney, City manager, Board of Elections or anyone else let her run as a write in candidate is beyond me. She never ran in the primary election by the way. The rulses for election are pretty clear, the top two primary vote getters have a runoff for Mayor. Also the City constitution also says that the Mayor must get 51% of the vote. If she or anyone else wins it will be with 34% of the vote, as it is that close.
Now it is in the courts. The county court said let the count continue, but it also in federal Court and there hasn't been a decision yet. So again San Diego is going to be a nationwide joke due to our politicians. I'll keep you posted.
Posted at 05:53 pm by
RWO
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Be careful around the house
I would just like to warn folks about the dangers of things around the house. Thursday my wife had just finished wasshing the ceramic tile floors in our house when I decided to make a run to the refridgerator stepped on the wet floor, and down i went.
Now I have a huge nasty bruise, some swelling, and a messed up nerve. the doctor told me it should be ok in a couple of days. I would just like to give you this example, so you can watch yourself around the house.
A slip in the shower or a wet floor can be painful if not deadly, and it is really surprizing how often it happens. Have a safe weekend.
Posted at 02:12 pm by
RWO
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Laila and I have started a new blog for our save the children sponsorship. I have a link under my miscellaneous blogs section: or you can just clik here:Save a child
Posted at 10:05 pm by
RWO
Well i have returned from my trip to fresno all safe and sound. Actually i got back yesterday, but was a little too tired to blog about anything after driving back down.
The trip wasn't that bad. I managed to get out of San Diego in the morning. The guys at work were really understanding about letting me get out of there early. Well just as I jumped in the car and started for the gas station to fill up the tank the change my oil note came up. As the wife has a Cadillac CTS and I was taking her car it tells you when it needs service.
Well I figured since I had to go to the gas station I would go ahead and have them change it then. Mistake, big mistake. Well they changed the oil and I got on the road. A few exits down some guy started waving at me but drov off before I got the window rolled down. He was trying to tell me something so I got off at the next exit and checked out the car. Nothing wrong. I got back in and continued up the freeway. Well then I started seeing smoke from the back of the car.
I pulled off the freeay and there just happened to be a Jiffy Lube at that exit so I went over there and these guys were great. They found that the guy at the gas station did not have the oil filter seated right and I was leaking a little oil. There was a car wash next door and they recommended that i get an undercarriage wash. And then they wouldn't even take my money for helping me out. that is one chain that I will revisit. I gave them five dollars anyway andtold them to consider it a tip and got the undercarriage wash.
I managed to get back on the road and actually didn't have much traffic through Los Angeles. i had smooth sailing all the way up until I got to Fresno itself. Then there was a wreck on the freeway which held me up for a while.
Since it was just me I stayed in that High Class Hotel 6 chain as I am really cheap. If the wife would have gone with me I would have had to stay in at least a four star or five star place, but since it was just me, I just look for a place to flop. Well I had the address and then I found out there are actually two on the same street about a block and a half from each other. I of course immediately pulled into the wrong one.
Well I finally got that all straightened out and got to the right one, got checked in and called the wife to let her know I made it safely. I then called my old high school buddy and got directions to his house. I was shocked at how big Fresno has gotten over the years. And the lack of traffic was nice. I wouldn't mind moving back there someday.
I finally found my friends house, which turned out to be a trailer, and then was shocked to see what bad shape they were in. They were not in the greatest of physical shape, both extremely overweight. He has never held much more than minimum wage jobs and they have been on and off welfare over the years. I kind of felt bad for them. They were a walking advertisement for why you should apply yourself in school. Niether of them had applied themselves in school.
Well I took them out to a steak dinner at some fancy steakhouse. The food was great, though a bit pricey. I asked them if they wanted to do something else after dinner and they said there was an Indian Casino just south of Coursegold so we went up there for a while. They didn't have any money so I staked them a bit so they could play. Well we hung around there until 11 and after loosing all my money we headed back to Fresno. I dropped them off and hit the pit at my hotel. I actually got to sleep in until seven, which was awesome as I am used to getting up at 5:30 on weekdays.
I showed and shaved and then drove out to Pelco, which was where the field trip was going to see where we were supposed to meet, then went to McDonalds for one of those great healthy breakfasts. I then cruised back to Pelco and ate in the car and listenbed to the radio until folks started showing up.
The factory tour was great, and the folks at Pelco were great to us. They make security camera systems and are the only ones that don't outsource thier labor to other countries. They are very involvedin the Fresno Community and have many employee programs. It would be a great place to work if i were looking for a job. I won't bore you with our assignment there, as we were mainly learning about Quality Assurance.
We finished our Pelco tour and then i cruised over to see if any of my instructors were around over at State. The place was dead, and no one was around, so I figured I had better get on the road and head back to San Diego. It was smooth sailing until I got to Valencia (Magic Mountain) and then the traffic started. It was pretty much bumper to bumper and stop and go all the way to San Clemente. The traffic then cleared out and as I was hading into San Diego, I heard on the radio that the 805 was a mess so I decided to take 5 down to the Southbay and then take the 54 over to the house. The 5 was just as bad so as I got to National City I just got off and took back roads home.
All in all it was a seven and a half hour drive back. Then I get home and find that the wife had been in the hospital far Gallstones and will have to get her gall bladder removed. Wonderful. She is all bent because she can't eat anything that she likes. I went out today and bought her all kinds of the stuff she can eat, but she is stll moaning and groaning, about not being able to eat anything. Oh well, I did some research and after the operation she should be able to go back to normal eating.
I think this is all some after effects from her bought with e-coli from a few months ago.
Well for all of you veterans out there Happy Veterans Day and lets not forget our brace warriors that are currently deployed to protect the US from terrorism. I am glad to see the Marines kicking butt in Fallujah. It is about time we started kicking butt over there, and stopped being so politically correct.
So everyone have a great day. See you tomorrow.
Posted at 07:32 pm by
RWO
Monday, November 08, 2004
Over the next day or to I will be out of town. i have to go to Fresno for a class project. I will blog when I get back.
I hope the traffic in L.A. isn't to bad tomorrow as I have to go through all of that mess to get to highway 99. I have already contacted a friend of mine from 30 years ago, yeah we have talked on the phone, but I have not seen him in thirty years. Well, I am going to take him and his wife out to dinner tomorrow.
See you when I get back.
Posted at 11:07 pm by
RWO
