One year

One year ago today I started this crazy blog thing.  This makes my 45th post in that year.  I started this thing with my disgruntlement about the way companies try to make anything for some sales with this post. Seriously, Hannah Montana Easter egg baskets?  What were they thinking?  Don’t get me wrong.  I think capitalism is a good thing, but I think that some companies have tried to take it too far for way too long.

I’ve also discussed some of my thoughts on some green items, green thinking, and stuff. Since I started this blog, I’ve switched to using mostly organic shampoos and soaps and even tried some homemade deodorant.  I use less water, electricity, and recycle more now and it makes me feel a little bit better about my impact on the world.  I also realize that I’m only getting started. I have many more ideas I’d like to do to reduce waste and use more.

I’ve bitched about some stupid people in the Army, but that is only a little bit of it.  I got sucked into talking politics, tried to stay positive and not talk politics, and sucked back into talking politics.  Looking back on it, I didn’t have much positive to say about John McCain, but I had lots negative to say about Obama.  I still think that McCain was the wrong Republican to be our front-runner and I’m not really sure he helped himself when he brought in Palin.  One thing this election definitely taught me is that it is more okay to be sexist than it is to be racist.  I’ve tried to remain positive about our new president, but I’m mostly underwhelmed with what he’s done so far.  I believe that Congress, on both sides of the aisle, needs to step up and do whats right for the country, whether it is political sepuku or not.

So here I am, one year and 45 posts later.  Sandy and I know that we’re moving in about 45 days, but we still don’t know where the Army is sending us.  The list of places that we thought they were sending us has completely changed, grown, and morphed so that it is now a 5 minute conversation to tell someone where we might end up. Good times.  At this point it is almost comical when someone asks where we’re going.

My thesis is a little less than half way done, but the half I have done is probably some of the hardest stuff.  All references and stuff.  Out of the five chapters; 1st is at about 99%, 2nd about 90%, 3rd and 5th not really started, and the 4th is only about 40 %.  I’ve got a little more than a month to finish it up.  I better get back to writing…

Thesis Update

Okay, so maybe this is cheating for a post, but I figured I needed to say something since I’ve been so quiet lately.  Writing hasn’t really been my focus, or at least blogging hasn’t.

We had Sandy’s wife and her little one here for two weeks and I was having too much fun hanging out with them.  I always enjoy hanging out with the wife’s wife and this time the beastie was along for the ride.  It was a really good time, I just wish that the wife, twice removed, could have brought her husband to play too.  I guess somebody needed to be working though.

I’ve been busy working on my thesis/ research since the wife’s wife left.  I’ve got a few pages written on the thesis, but it is a slow process and I’ve forgotten how good I am at procrastinating.  “Oh, look!  Something shiny!”  As my adviser said on Monday though, we need to add some beef to the thesis, so I mentioned possibly getting some Weight Gainer 3000.  He laughed, but didn’t know that I was serious.  The bad part is that I know all the ideas are percolating in my brain, but getting them to the end of my fingers is proving to be more difficult than I remember.  Plus, while I really want to be home with Sandy and the animals, I am pretty sure I work a lot harder while I’m at school.  Weird.

“In other news…”

I am officially no longer a captain in the Army.  For some crazy reason they promoted me to major.  To some that would be Major Jack Ass, but whatever.  It is a little weird since I wore captain’s rank for almost seven years.  I’m sure that I’ll get used to it, but there is definitely a break in period.  I just wanted to say thanks to all those that have been supportive of me through the years.  Without the solid base of family, I’m not sure I could have made it this far.  Definitely a huge thanks to Sandy.  I couldn’t have done it without you.  I’m really glad I was sent to pick you up at the Newark Airport for that conference at West Point many many moons ago.

On that note, Sandy and I still don’t know where the Army is moving us next.  I submitted our preferences waaaay back on 22 October, but we don’t know yet.  Last month I finally bugged the guy about news and he said he’d tell us this month.  Then, right when I was about to send anthor email this month, he sent one out.  It basically said that there is another office weighing in on our assignments (mine and everyone else moving this summer) and he would try to let us know something by the 28th, but if we didn’t hear anything by then, just wait longer.  Gotta love it.  We plan on putting the house on the market next month, but we don’t know where we’re going yet. It’ll be a race to see which one gets here first; the Realtor sign or our orders to move.

And now I need to get back to my thesis…

Hand outs

I think just about everyone has someone that really likes forwarding emails, sometimes commenting on them and sometimes not, but either way forwarding multiple emails almost every day.  Well, I usually read just a little bit of the email and punch delete if I’m short on time, but if I have the time I might read all of it.  The other day I got one that I thought I would share in this forum.  From Rush Limbaugh:

By Rush Limbaugh:

I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving our country in Uniform are profound No one is really talking about it either, because you just don’t criticize anything having to do with September 11. Well, I can’t let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack, you’re going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million.

If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable.

Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there’s a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a scre eching halt.

Keep in mind that! some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it’s not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers. (Actually, soldiers are put in harms way by politicians and commanding officers.)

We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.

You see where this i s going, don’t you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It’s just really sad. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the   Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low-rent housing. Make sense?

**However, our own US Congress voted themselves a raise. Many of you don’t know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month. And most are now equal to being millionaires plus. They do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn’t have to pay into the system.  If some of the military peop le stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7, they may receive a! pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who placed them in harm’s way receives a pension of $15,000 per month.

**I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting.

“When do we finally do something about this?”

So after reading this one, I thought I’d check it out.  I googled the first sentence and it took me to this page.  To keep this post from being longer than necessary, check out the link and take a look at the analysis portion.  Part of the Limbaugh monologue is accurate, or close enough, but the last few paragraphs are off.

Still, this is something to think about.  Don’t get me wrong, I feel for anyone that lost a loved one in the attacks in September 2001.  It is unfortunate for everyone involved.

But do they really think that just because Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines volunteer to serve their country and possibly die for it, that their loved ones are any less deserving?

If the government is going to pay these survivors, what is the purpose of life insurance?

… and that’s the way life goes…

So my last post was very short on hope and long on frustration.  That was just the middle of last week.   And now, my adviser (with me close by, but not really doing much other than catching typos) has my research converted from OPL to CPLEX, and running.  Granted there is still more to be done with the code, but it works.

I’ve also kicked my own ass into gear, with Sandy’s help and some good natured ribbing from my adviser.  I have a couple of pages of my thesis written.  Granted, the damn thing is so “rough draft” right now that I won’t let anybody look at it, but it is a start.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and my thesis won’t be either!

Thanks to everyone for the support, whether it be tough love or careful prodding.  I do appreciate it and I’ll probably need more of it in the future.  At least for now I feel like this thesis thing is getting somewhere.

FUNK!

It’s just a really fun word.

You know, it sounds kinda dirty but it totally is not at all.  Funk music is fun to listen to (ref. George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars).  If something is described as funky, I think that it is probably pretty cool and a little quirky (another really fun word).

However, for me right now, funk describes my state of being.  For some reason I don’t want to work on my research/thesis at all.  I’m supposed to graduate in May, and if nothing else, the Army says that I have to move in May, so I should really be working on this Masters of Science thing, but I don’t wanna.

The FUNK would be why I haven’t posted in forever.  I’m just feeling funky, but not in a good way.

The bad part is that when I leave school and go home, I’m only slightly more productive.  Funk-a-delic.  Funk-i-fied.

Or is it just plain funky?

Changing tunes…

First, I just realized that it has been almost a month since my last post (on election day).  I know I was thinking about posting some things, but I guess I just never got the gumption.  That gumption thing is slippery, hard to catch, and sometimes just plain dumbfounding.

I have been thinking about my tone (aka my tune).  I don’t want this blog to feel whiny, bitchy, or complainy anymore.  I’m going to try to stay more upbeat, but I’m not really sure it is in my character.  I’ve tried keeping a more upbeat attitude lately.  Not like super cheesy, but less cynical and more positive.

Basically, the idea is to put more good out into the world.  It seems like the media always wants to make things sound worse than they are because drama sells and the general population feeds off the drama to make things worse and then the media comes back to report that things are really worse then they initially reported, that things are more dramatic, so people get more worked up and on and on and on…. I don’t want to feed the drama machine.  Life is dramatic enough.

Many of my friends, family, and associates seem to think that the U.S. is just going to crumble in on itself on January 20 and ask what my opinion is and for my insights into how Army folk think about the President-elect.  This is where I started my move to be more positive.

President-elect Obama is not the end of life as we know it in America. Things are probably going to be different, but I’m not sure that is necessarily a bad thing in many cases.  Obviously some things need to change for Wall St., Detriot, the housing market, etc.  I’m not sure that the government needs to have their fingers in all of them, but there definitely needs to be some legislation or statement to help fix/motivate/beat-the-crap-out-of some of these corporations.  I don’t know who to assign the blame to and I don’t really think that it matters too much.  Everyone is going to point the finger at the other guy and say (insert whiny or belligerent voice) “It wasn’t my fault.”  My personal opinion is to let some of this “recession” crap work itself out.  There can’t be up without down.  There can’t be an economic slump without an economic boom and vice versa.  Some people are probably going to lose everything. Lesson learned, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  Isn’t that something we learn as little kids listening to stories that finish up with “Moral to the story….”?

I’m starting to get into the whiny/bitchy/complainy voice again, so I’ll stop now.  I guess I had more to say for this post then I initially thought.  The bad part is that now that I’ve started writing, I don’t want to stop.  Something about “objects in motion…” comes to mind.  I think this is enough for today though.

Is this the future of the Army?

A buddy of mine sent me this email.  The original email was written by one of my “peers,” but she got picked up for promotion early, what we call Below the Zone (BZ) in the Army.  Statistically, about five percent get promoted BZ to Major (MAJ).  For those that don’t know, Major (O-4) is the fourth rank as an officer and comes right after Captain (CPT, O-3).  The Major’s board is around the ten year mark as an officer.

Her complaint is that she is just on the opposite side of the cut-off for the bonus that was offered last fall.  For the first time (that I know of anyway), Army officers were offered a bonus to stay on active duty.  Normally, only Soldiers receive monetary bonuses for their continued service.  Money was not the only bonus offered, but it was obviously a pretty major one.  The officers could choose between $25-35K (depending on their initial branch in the Army), choice of duty location, and choice of military school.  Obviously the cut-off has to be somewhere; not everyone can be allowed this bonus, but it split my year group (similar to a class) between the Captains that are BZ and the Captains that are PZ (Primary Zone).

This first email is what the BZ Captain wrote, and then below it is a response from a Lieutenant Colonel (O-5, the rank immediately following MAJ).

Subject: Not the smartest email in the world Here is a perfect example of what not to do.  This CPT wrote every BZ CPT:
THE LETTER FROM CJ
Subject: BZ to MAJ – CPTs Bonus (MILPER 07-237)
Good morning, fellow BZers~
After discussing this MILPER message with my mentors and other BZers, I have decided that we should all do something about it.  I hope you don’t mind that I emailed you and took a few moments out of your day. I don’t know about each of you, but this bonus really makes me angry.  We are being punished financially by the Army for being better than our peers. We won’t pin until sometime next year; probably May-July and our peers will get $25-35,000 and get pinned in October.  I don’t know about you, but 4 months of MAJs pay isn’t equal to a $25,000 bonus in my eyes. If the bonus was for YG 2000-2004, I wouldn’t even worry about it. But we are YG99 and our peers, the ones that haven’t worked as hard as us, are getting rewarded.

So, why am I emailing you and bitching? Well, my mentors all agree that we are getting screwed.  And, they all think that we should all first contact our IG [Inspector General], then, write to our Congressmen.  My COL [Colonel] thinks that might make an impact.  It may not change anything, but it is worth a try. The 82nd Division IG has already contacted the HRC IG [Human Resources Command] and they told him it is all about the money. There is a shocker! They said there are already a bunch of IG complaints about the message, so let’s beat them up more. Just so you know, there are 177 of us on the list. If all 177 of us took the money, they would pay out close to $5 million.  That’s about 3 new Humvees, 2 new tanks OR ½ an aircraft. I think we are worth it.
Again, if this means nothing to you and you just think I am whining, hit delete and go on with your day. But, if you are pissed like me and want to do something about it, let me know.  Have a great day and congratulations on your promotable status!!
V/R~
CJ
[ Name removed ]
CPT(P), SC
Assistant Professor of Military Science/BN S3 [ school ] University ROTC

Now, when my buddy sent me this, there were so many forwards that the actual email was probably about 20 pages down (I didn’t print it in the hope of saving a forest or two).  This letter and the response that is below were passed around the Army for a while, got sent over to some guys in the Air Force and passed around there, and then back to the Army.  So you could say that it’s been around; literally around the world and back.  This is the initial response by a Lieutenant Colonel (LTCs normally have 15 plus years experience as an officer).  His response is classic and speaks volumes to the morals and attitudes of the older generation.

THE RESPONSE FROM LTC XXXX
Nick -
Let me open by saying I heartily dislike CPT (P) [ Name ].  First, because she has ‘CPT(P)’ in her signature block.  Second, because she’s preaching about how unfair life is while soaking in her own light at an ROTC position at [ school ] University.  I spent my entire time as a Captain in MTOE assignments … in Korea, 10th Mountain (twice), and Fort Polk (TDA …. but 11 rotations per year … in ‘nowhere Louisiana’).
Captain time in ROTC at [ school ] University? Yeah … she has a whole lot to complain about. And third, because of this line (among the many): ‘we are being punished … for being better than our peers’. ‘Better’? Near as I can tell, you have the no Respect, no Loyalty, no sense of Duty, no Honor, and no sense of Selfless Service … if that is ‘better than your peers’, then I truly fear for your Year Group.

Here are my thoughts.
To the authors -
For a bunch of BZ’ers, your math and strategic thinking skills are sub-standard. And you have a real Values crisis. Let me provide some mentoring. These two email strings validate some of the most terrible things that have been said about BZ Officers over my twenty+ years … that BZ Officers have a false sense of entitlement, that BZ Officers are arrogant, and that BZ Officers are elitist (in the Paris Hilton sense of the word). BZ Officers absolutely deserved to be selected BZ.  However, for every Officer who was selected BZ, there are three other Officers who were equally deserving … Officers with the exact same level of performance, and the exact same level of potential.  Any BZ Officer who doesn’t know that in his or her heart doesn’t deserve to be BZ. The differences between you and that Officer to your left who wasn’t selected is art and serendipity …. you worked for Ernest Hemingway,  while the Officer to your right worked for a Senior Rater who couldn’t write very well; your former Brigade Commander sat on the Board; the Board was looking for a particular skill set, and HRC [ Human Resources Command ] assigned you to that position two years ago; the Officer to your left had a personality conflict with his Rater in 2005.  Did any of you complain about the inherent unfairness of that process after you were selected BZ?  No?  I didn’t think so. Y’all would’ve had my absolute respect if en masse you had written to the ‘Army Times’ about how you felt the BZ-selection process was unfair to the Officer to your left … but you didn’t do that.
Instead, you want to write to the ‘Army Times’ and your Congressman about the unfairness of the CSRB process.   You’ve earned my disdain.  And so have the ‘mentors’ who are encouraging this Pity Party. Here is your Retention Bonus. Historically, BZ Officers have significantly out-performed their peers in terms of selection to senior commands, and the ranks of Colonel and General Officer.  I don’t have the exact numbers, but these figures are in the ball- park: although BZ rates run about 5%, fully 40% of all Battalion Commanders were BZ to MAJ or LTC; and the number of Officers BZ to MAJ or LTC who are NOT selected for Battalion Command is extremely low, probably less than 10%. With the advent of masked O3-and- below OER’s and universal CGSOC (CGSOC was a huge discriminator to BN CMD … In my YG, only 1 of 23 Signal Officers selected for BN CMD was non-resident), I think those percentages will be even higher. Your CSRB bonus is Battalion Command. And why is that important? Well, since these emails seem solely focused on money (and not Army Values), I’ll reply in terms of $$$ (as much as that disgusts me).
Last year, every single Former Signal Battalion Commander (FSBC) in the zone was selected for [COL]. Every one. Only one non-FSBC’s was selected, and he was a former Centrally Selected Division G6. Do you know how much more money a COL makes than a LTC? Do you know how much money a retired [COL] makes compared to a retired [LTC]?  Do you know how much money that adds up to over the course of a thirty or forty year retirement? A hell of alot more than $25K. In 2006, Vernon Wells received a signing bonus of $25.5 million from the Toronto Blue Jays. In January 2007, Bob Nardelli abruptly resigned as chairman and chief executive of Home Depot after only six years at the helm… the Atlanta-based company said Nardelli would receive a severance package worth roughly $210 million. Here’s a thought, write to the ‘Army Times’ about that. Number of Signal General Officers on Active Duty who were not Battalion
Commanders… Zero (0). Number of Signal General Officers on Active Duty who were never selected BZ… Zero (0).
Your CSRB is an EXPONENTIALLY better chance than your peers to lead and mold the Army of 2015 and beyond. Apparently, you think that opportunity is worth less than a check for $25K in 2007. Or, you think that the promotion board simply recognized your glowing superiority.  You should be absolutely ashamed of this conversation … except shame would require Values that I don’t think you possess.
One of the biggest challenges for a BZ Officer is that they start to believe their own press, and pretty soon, we have Terrell Owens in Battalion Command. The vast majority of General Officers are deeply, deeply humbled by their position … they fully recognize how many truly outstanding, equally deserving Officers were simply not selected to be General Officers.  You’ve been in the Army less than 10 years, and you’ve already lost all sense of humility.  Woe to the Army of 2015.
‘Well, my mentors all agree that we are getting screwed’. Go ask MAJ Ed Murphy about how he got screwed. Oh, that’s right, you can’t … he was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.
Go ask his widow about how MAJ Murphy got screwed.
Y’all can compare notes.
‘I think we are worth it.’ I think you are worth exactly thirty pieces of silver.

- LTC XXXX

So, needless to say, I don’t agree with her thoughts at all, but I’m obviously not an unsubjective observer.  I was able to take that bonus (between $25K and $35K), so I’m obviously not “better than my peers.”  I think that this young BZ to MAJ needs to really investigate why she is serving and what it means to serve her country.  We don’t serve because we’re going to get rich.  Theoretically, we as Army officers know that we would be able to make more money as a civilian.

I think that there are two reasons why people stay in the military.  One, they have the calling.  They are patriotic warriors that serve their country in the hopes of making the world a better place.  Two, they stay in because they can get by if they’re mediocre.  Right now promotion rates to MAJ and LTC are in the 90th percentile, so if you’ve got a heartbeat and haven’t killed anybody other than who you’ve been told to kill, you will get promoted.  A mediocre officer can now be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel where before that was the benchmark for a successful officer.

It saddens me that an officer with an attitude like this has gotten promoted “ahead of her peers.”  It also really saddens me that her “mentors” thought that she was right and that she had a valid complaint instead of rebuking her and telling her to do some soul searching on why she was serving this nation.

Identity theft insurance

Okay, in an update from yesterday’s post on the collection notice I received.  This collection is another cell phone that was started at about the same time (May 2003) as the last one, but this one was in Minnesota and not Nebraska.  Thankfully I was still in Afghanistan, and living on the right coast anyways, so it would be hard to believe that it was me.

One thing I didn’t mention in the last post is that Sandy and I had started paying for ID insurance through ID Experts back in October when we started listening to Dave Ramsey and paying off our debt.  I wasn’t sure how this was going to work out when we told them that we had an issue, but so far things are working out really well.

Sandy had tried to talk to Qwest about the claim, but they didn’t want to deal with it since it had already gone to collections, so we tried to talk to the collection agency, Afni.  Of course, Afni was not helpful.  I’m sure they get a lot of people that say “it wasn’t me,” but the nice lady that Sandy was talking to wouldn’t even hold a conversation with her.  They said that they’d be in touch through our P.O. Box.  Of course, they had to check our credit in order to get our address.  Not to worry, we’re thinking about paying the extra $10 to block people from checking our credit unless they need to.

So the good news is that an agent from ID Experts called back yesterday after we made the initial claim.  She asked me a couple of questions stemming off of how we dealt with the previous false claim and about what details I had on this one.  After talking to her for about five minutes, she’s going to take care of it.  She sent me a small packet that I have to fill out, get the power of attorney noterized and fax back to her.  She said that once she’s got that paperwork, they’ll take care of both Afni and Qwest.  How cool is that?

Identity thieved again!

I don’t know if “thieved” is proper English or not, but my identity has been used again by someone else.  Talk about frustrating.  The first time this happened, Sandy and I didn’t find out until we were trying to get a mortgage.  Our mortgage company said that they’d have no problems giving us a deal, we would just have to clear up this one bill that had gone to a collection agency. Turns out it was a $550 cell phone bill.

This time we found out because the collection agency actually sent us a notice.  I’m not sure what’s so different about this time that we’re actually getting a notice instead of finding out from our credit report, but at least it isn’t as dramatic.  Last time someone had started a cell phone in my name in Nebraska.  It was easy to prove that it wasn’t me that time though, because I was in Afghanistan at the time and I was stationed in North Carolina; plus I’ve never lived in Nebraska.  It looks like it is a cell phone again, but we don’t know where yet.

I’m wondering if it was/is the same person using my identity to start cell phones.  That’s one thing that annoys me.  In the Army, our personal information is all over the place.  I’ve been more guarded about just handing out my info now, but apparently it wasn’t guarded enough.  I’ll post again after we find out more details on the situation.

Health and weight

I was goofing around on …  actually, I don’t know how I came across this site, but I found a blog that posted these two photos with the headline “Face off with Facebook.”

Apparently, Teresa Valdez Klein of teresacentric.com got tired of being targeted for weight loss adds and started shelling out her own money to post these pictures as ads on Facebook.  Pretty funny.  When someone clicks on the photos, they take you to the Love Your Body Day website.

I just thought it was pretty funny and I wanted to share, considering all the weight loss gimmicks that are aimed at the American public every day.

On a more serious note, on FoxNews.com today, there was an article about obesity in the United States.  The article says that 1 in 4 people are obese and that people in the South are more over weight than other areas of the country and that Colorado is the skinniest.  Although the study was published by the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report they (the CDC) thinks the findings might be skewed since the survey was done over the phone and men are supposedly more likely to exaggerate their height and women are more likely to not tell you every pound.  The CDC estimiate is that it is more like 30 to 35 percent of the population that is obese.

Either way, the only way that they are discerning obesity is by BMI, but as I said, it is okay to use BMI for a population just not individuals.  But telling me, as an individual, that I am obese because “my BMI” is over 30 doesn’t take into account that I gained most of my weight from lifting weights and working out!  Even when I was in the best shape I have ever been in, and was in really good shape according to the Army, I was overweight according to my BMI.

That is my rant for today.

There are always two sides to a story….