Well crap....

Well the piece of software (POS) I was using to post to the blog, which was much faster given my limited bandwidth issues, has decided that all of the post from 13 NOV 2010 until now, weren't only not worth posting, but has sent them to someplace that I can't find.  Sooo.....  I will have to go back and re-enter everything as I get time, bandwidth, and find stuff.  :(  sorry.

BUT.....  since it's going to be a new year and all....  it seems like a good time to try and start over with the blog thing.  I'll be doing it thru the blogger interface, so posts might be kind of bland if the internet is crap.  Which has been a LOT lately.

So...  here we go....

Bugs

Well now that it's getting darker a little sooner, I can wonder around the job site and see what comes out at night.

I'd been seeing these goofy tracks in the sand, but couldn't figure out what was making them.  Well, this guy does.  He's about 1 1/2" and gets around pretty fast.
:)

Road hazards

Here's a view that you probably won't see back in the US of A.

:)

Updates....

Sorry I haven't been doing updates as often as I should (could).  I just get tired of looking at a computer screen.

Anyways, I had a little fun today.  A co-worker and I drove down to LSA so he could visit an old friend.  And while we were there, I made a new one.....

His name is Clyde, and he was very friendly.

:)

It's the little things in life.....

Hurray for me!  I finally have an internet connection that doesn't crawl.  :)

Now while to some this is still crawling, compared to what I had last week......  this is light speed!  I'd say about 80% of the internet access in Kuwait is via 3G connections, which is what I have now.  I got the faster speed with is supposed to be maxed at 7.2mb, but at Buehring I'm only seeing between 600 and 800 or so.  Out where I work, I'm pulling 4.2mb or so.

Sooooo....... now that I can post.....   here are some answers to some of the questions people have been asking me.....

Where do you stay?  Camp Buehring, Kuwait.
How far out of the Kuwait City is that?  Not too far, maybe 40 minutes to the airport.
Where do you work at?  Khabari Alawazem Crossing, Kuwait. 
Where is that on the map?  Do some research.
Is it a military base?  Yes.
What do they do there?  Military stuff.
How many people do you work with?  A few.
What do you do there?  Computer stuff
What kind of stuff do you work on?  Computer stuff
Is it hot there?  uh.... it's Kuwait.  Yes, it's hot here.
Do they have camels?  Yes.

Have you seen any?  Not up close yet.  Someone else took this picture.
Is there a lot of sand?  Yes, we have a lot of sand here.
Are there any mountains in Kuwait?  No.  There are some bumps.  These could be dead camels covered with sand, or they could be small hills.  Either way, they're not very big.
Are there lakes/rivers/ponds in Kuwait?  No.  Just like Hollywood, there are no natural bodies.
Is there fresh water in Kuwait?  Yes.  Kuwait desalinates about 96% of their fresh water.  The rest they get from wells.
Do they speak English?  Yes.  Arabic is the primary language, but English is spoken by most people.
Is it a modern country?  Yes.  Any type of store you can find in the US, can be found over here.  I was in Ikea and Ace Hardware this week.
What kind of money do they have?  Base 10, paper and coin.
What does that mean?  OK.... in the US, we have dollars, in Kuwait they have a Dinar.  Same thing.  10 dimes to a dollar, 1000 fils to a Dinar.  So you might get a burger at Burger King for 3.65KD (Kuwait Dinar).  You give them 4KD, and get back 350 fils in coins.  All values are based on 10.... like the metric system.  :)
What's the exchange rate?  Right now it's about 3.55US to 1KD.
Are things expensive there?  Depends on where you shop.  At the malls (and they have a LOT of malls) it is expensive.  It just depends....
Can you haggle?  At the malls?  No.  Any place else, yes.
What are the roads like?  If you mean the actual condition of the roads, for the most part the highways are very good, the secondary roads are decent, and back roads are OK.  The older the road, the worse the condition.  If you are talking about driving on them......  IT SUCKS.  If you really want to drive here, you should be 40% rally car driver, 40% bumper car driver, and 40% crazy.
What do you do for fun?  Movies, books, food, walk around, take pictures and the 'net.
Where do you eat?  At the dining facilities on base or someplace in KC if that's where I'm at.
Is there alcohol there?  No. None.  Zero.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.
What about pork?  On base? Yes.  Off base?  See answer above.
Are there lots of contractor jobs over there?  Yes.
Is the pay good?  That's up to you to decide.
How can I get a job like yours?  Apply.
Can I send you a resume?  No.
Do you like it there?  Yes.
Do they shoot at you/have you been shot at?  No.  Overall Kuwait is very safe.  This is not like Iraq or Afghanistan.
Did they give you body armor?  Yes.  The Army supplies its contractors with it.
If nobody is shooting at you, why did they give it to you?  Because someone might shoot at me if I were to go TDY to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Do you get to keep it?  Only if I want to give the government a lot of my money....which I don't.
How much is a lot?  I'm not sure.  But a 3 with 3 zeros behind is probably about right.
Is it heavy?  Yes.  Depending on the configuration, it weighs up to 50 pounds or so.
Can you visit Dubai? Yes.
Is Dubai in Kuwait?  No.  Dubai is a whole different country.
What about the UAE?  What about them?
Can you visit them? Yes...I just said I can go to Dubai.
The UAE is in Dubai?  No, Dubai is part of the UAE.  The UAE has seven member states.
Huh?  Never mind.
What about Saudi Arabia? Yes
Jordan? Yes.
Abu Dhabi ?  Look, I can go anywhere I want on my time off.
Israel?  ......  OK, I can't go there.

Why can't you go to Israel?  Because Kuwait wouldn't let me back in.

But you said....  Shut up, I know what I said.
Can you drive home if you want to?  Sure, why not...
Do they have milk?  Yes, but it tastes funny.
Do they have cars there?  Yes.  And electricity too.
How much is gas in Kuwait?  I don't know.  I use a gas card to pay.  But it can't be very much.
Is it clean there?  No.  I've never been any place so littered as this.


I have a few more, but these are most of them.
I do have quite a few pictures now.  I'll resize them and post some up.
So.... until next time!

The Internet. Or lack there of it in my case....

Hello again!
Well, you might have noticed by now that my current internet situation is, shall we say.... less than optimal.  For an IT person that's used to having always on, uber fast connections, the connectivity over here basically sucks.  How slow are we talking here?  How's this:

Nice huh?
All this can be yours for the small some of $30US a month.  Go ahead.... I know you want to.....  laugh at my expense.  Don't think it's all that slow?  Go test your own connection right now. www.2wire.com click the speed test link in the upper right corner.  Go ahead.  Go test.  I'll wait.....


Back now?  See what I mean?

There are faster solutions, but I can't get any of them until I get my 'Civil ID', which is really jsut my Kuwaiti residence visa.  Good thing that only takes two to three months.

OK....OK.... it's not really that bad.  And it won't be this way the whole time I'm here.  And, I do have access at work, but it's pretty much for official use only.  Some personal use is allowed but no posting to blogs, etc.  Which explains why I haven't been updating lately.

So what's my job like?  Well, I get to get up at 0430, get ready to go, and then drive 1/2 and hour out to the work site, work for 12 hours doing systems admin stuff then drive drive back to Buehring.  Spend 30 to 45 minutes clearing the inbound security check point, then go grab some dinner, take a shower and go to bed.  Repeat for 4 more days.  Yes, the long days catch up with you.  Which is why I have rediscovered the joys of coffee!


Also.... and this is REALLY good news.  They have pork, and pork products on base!  Yes, the other white meat, the wonderful magical animal, the super-duper swine..... marvelous pork.  When I discovered this I felt all warm and fuzzy.  It was either the discovery of the pork, or I was standing out in the sun.  Either way, I felt better.  :)

Well, that's about all for tonight.  I'll try and post up tomorrow with answers to some of the questions I've been asked about how things work over here.

Welcome to Buehring!

Well, it been a few days since I've really had a chance to sit down on my laptop and get on the net.  I've had hit and miss connectivity using my iPhone, but you can't really type long posts with it....

Anyhow.....

I finally made it out to Camp Buehring.  While not the biggest base in Kuwait by number of buildings, it does have the most people and take up the most land space.  I won't be posting anything that might be classified but if you have questions, feel free to ask. 

CB sits at the northern end of Kuwait, about 15 kilometers from the Iraq border.  As such, about 99% of the military folks carry a weapon with them at all times.  Kinda of odd getting used to that, but it does give you a sense of security.

So I got here on Thursday after spending most of the week in Kuwait City at my company's villa.  Nice place.  5 floors, and about 25000 square feet of living space.  Typical villa for the neighborhood it's in. Here's a pic of the house across the street.

 

Of course I went for a walk to find some food and found what has to be the tallest signpost for the most common food joint in the world

for comparison, here's the sign for the one on Camp LSA where we in-processed....

I also passed this building....  one of many around the city..

Since I've been at CB, I've really just been sitting around waiting to go to work on Monday.  It's very dusty here, as there's only one paved road on base.  Well that and the fact the we're way the hell out in the middle of the desert.  It's been around 105 the last couple of days, and the only time people come out is after the sun goes down.

It's really kind of odd here.  In addition to the DFAC's (dining facilities) there are several food courts.  The biggest one has Subway, Baskin Robbins, Taco Bell, a Philly cheese steak place, and a Green Beans coffe shop.  And last night, on stage, live from Camp Buehring.....

Queensryche

 

Not really my type of music, but they sounded pretty good and the crowd enjoyed the break from the norm.

More to come tomorrow.  :)

Pharmacological Quandaries

So the military says that people in the region of the world that I'm going to be in should take these anti malaria pills. Of course one of the things the warning instructions that come with the pills say to do, is to stay out of the sun.

Uh..... The standard forecast for Kuwait is "Hot.....with an abundance of sunshine."

Nice.

Human Pin Cushions

Well today wasn't the greatest day I've ever had. Starting at oh-dark-thirty (5:30) we gathered for a "movement". Basically they move the group somewhere. Not the other kind. Anyways..... First stop was CIF, Central Issuing Facility. Here we picked up our TA50 gear. This is our body armor. Why do I need a -30 sleeping bag on Kuwait again? So 2 hours, and 60 pounds later, we move to the medshed. Here they process your medical and dental records to make sure you're deployable. I have to give these folks credit. They move 450+ people a week through the system.
Medshed took about 6 hours. But in the end, I only needed 3 more vaccinations. Small pox, Anthrax and Twinrix (HEP A/B). I was lucky because I'd already had most of the required shots. But some guys ended up feeling like this guy.

Georgia rain

It rains in Georgia. I mean it RAINS in Georgia. In the last couple of days it's probably dumped more water than Nevada sees in 6 months. Oh ya... Lightning as well. See that tall pole on the end of the building? There's another one just like it on the other end as well. With a big fat static line between them and tied to ground. Instructors says the poles or line get hit all the time. Nice.
This is the TSIRT building. Big enough to hold about 500 people. We've got about 450 in it this week. 60% DOD or contractors. All headed overseas.

CRC Housing

These are the barracks where everyone stays during CRC. Mostly contractors and DOD but also the military folks.

So far it's kind of like being back on the service. Lots of hurry up and wait, some "marching" and of course paperwork. But no saluting, and no one yells at you if you don't shave.

Lots of people processing this week so everything takes a while to do.

CRC

Well..... I guess it better than sleeping on the floor.

But I missed dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Nothing better than Gatoraid and pop tarts to start the day off right.

Well... Finished up my last day at SOS today.

You ever do something you think is really the right thing to do, but once the decision is made, and you actually do it ..   you want throw up?

Ya that's pretty much it.




All BS aside...  I've been really lucky to work with the people at the last couple of agencies I've worked at.

I wish "Joe Public" could see that we're all not a bunch of teat sucking slackers and that 97.9% (yes, I realize there are "those" workers...) of state workers actually give a shit about the job they do.




About 36 hours to go before launch.

Does anyone else happen to think that pigs are pretty much the greatest food source ever?

Ignore everything they talk about except for the "wonderful magical animal" ...   but....  I do LOVE lamb.....  hehe...they eat a lot of that in Kuwait..or is that goat?   meh.... it's all good!



http://www.hulu.com/watch/19910/the-simpsons-lamb-chops

NV

Outta Time!

Well, I am out of here on Sept. 24.  5 days in George, then on to Kuwait.



Took for ever to get all the paperwork complete, but now it's like 'you're leaving RIGHT NOW!'

Might get a couple more posts in while I'm @ Fort Benning, but will probably be a week or so after that before i get back on line in-country.

:)

First post!

Well....  I finally got around to posting something.  :)


Not too much going on yet.  Mostly paperwork.... passport, VISA, etc.  I'll post up again when I know for sure when I'll be leaving.