August 2005

C-Money Reports: Keesler Report #2

August 31, 2005: Some more info from Carolyn down in the ravaged Gulf Coast:

I went to the house today (that's about all we were allowed to do) and it's okay. One of the vents on the roof blew off and it left about a 5' x 1' hole in the roof, but that was all. Water got in and may have damaged the insulation, but again, that is all. The house was still clean and dry. :-) :-) :-) We do not have power or AC, but there is running water. I just don't know if it's potable.

The privacy fence is completely down. Our shed is gone (but close by) and the contents are still there (lawnmower, bikes, extension cords, etc.). That big-ass pine tree behind our house that I was really worried about fell, but thank God, back into the woods and NOT on any of our houses. :-) :-) :-)

The area has a lot of wind damage, lots of trees down (mostly the big pines), but all of them miraculously NOT on houses. We had a little trouble getting out there with trees down, but it's AMAZING how quickly the construction crews are clearing them. When we left the house, the roads were clear...

From what I could see, near the base, the bay and the gulf caused a lot of people to be homeless. Water up to the rooftops. It's crazy to see that one house is still standing, has all four walls, but all around it there is nothing but foundations and rubble. We have a lot of crews from out of town down here just ready to help tear down and rebuild.

Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, some gas stations are open and getting things moving on reconstruction. I do see a HUGE problem with gas though. There are no pumps working, so people cannot refuel here. From what I hear, it's like that all throughout Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and even north of there. So, hopefully, "the Boss" will do something about that.

I will let you all know more when there is more to tell. Still keep up those prayers, the death toll is rising as we speak, but again, ALL MILITARY AND FAMILIES THAT SHELTERED ON KEESLER AFB ARE O.K.!!!!

God bless and talk to you soon!

Carolyn

So there's hope for at least some of the areas right around Biloxi. I talked to the SSgt I work with who is down there for training and it looks like she may be there for a bit longer to help with the cleanup efforts around the base and city. As it is now though, she's living cramped in a shelter room with 16 others (which is apparently the norm right now). She hasn't showered in 4 days. But at least she's alive, just stinky. I just, myself, can't believe how devastating the pictures are of the area, especially New Orleans. But seeing Biloxi's flattened neighborhoods is chilling, as I was there for 3.5 months for training so I somewhat know the area. And to think a majority of that is gone is unreal - including a majority of the casinos that are 'barged' but now have been sunk. Unreal.

Well, it's good to hear some good news from out there, but that's because I am somewhat avoiding the news, as it really is depressing. I will be giving blood though and making a donation to the Red Cross, as every little bit helps.

C-Money Reports: Live from Keesler

August 30, 2005: The following was an email received from C-Money today. Sounds like she's okay, but obviously there's still lots to deal with.

Hey! We are all okay! Everyone who sheltered on base are good, safe, and cranky! I was able to get out of the shelter due to being married to the highest enlisted comm guy (lucky me!) and we are sheltering in the Comm Sq. building. We are supporting the CAT so, we are busy. We have no local telephone (Biloxi switch under water), no power (all on generator, local power is a mess), no cable (due to no power), but we are using our small network capability to watch news.

Biloxi was devastated. Keesler is in pretty good shape compared to it. We have a LOT of damage, but mostly trees down, quite a few structures are compromised but still standing. Clean up will be long and hard. It's going to take a LONG time to get things semi-normal. I don't think we'll start teaching again for at least a month.

We won't be able to get off base until at least Friday to check the house. We hope and pray it's okay, but have heard word from those who can get through on cell phones that there is wind damage, but the houses north of I-10 are pretty good. Keep your fingers crossed and say prayers. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Thank you so much for the thoughts and prayers, we are in need of them all. I will send updates as I know them!

So there you have it. At least we know for now that C-Money and family are alive and well, but definitely not out of the woods just yet. Just hope that area can recover rapidly.

In other news, I had an uneventful weekend except for the fact that I bought a new laptop to replace the guy I'm currently typing on. It's just not quite powerful enough to satisfactorily process digital images, web page design, Flash, etc. The new one is an HP Pavilion zv6000 with widescreen, DVD burner, 100 GB HDD, Athlon64 3200 processor. It rocks.

Then yesterday, I got my NintendoDS in the mail. That is one well-designed portable video game system. I've played Meteos, a very addictive Tetris-like game that is ALL the rage on the DS. I've also got SuperMario 64 DS and NintenDogs on the way. SWEET! Got plenty of things to keep my time occupied this upcoming weekend of uneventfulness.

I will get to see Mom and Harv next week when they come up to Vegas. I'll only see them Friday though, as I'm off on a plane to St Croix that evening to visit the other set of 'rents. I'm a man about the world - always jetsetting away somewhere or another. Here's hoping that the next hurricane doesn't decide to fuck with the Caribbean while I"m there. Yes, I do realize that my timing of visit is in the heart of Hurricane season - I like to gamble apparently.

Also rewatched Episode III: Revenge of the Sith once more in the theater. I just wanted to experience the last new Star Wars movie in the theatre in its original release run once more. Still somewhat of a weak movie at the beginning, but dayum, once the Emperor is revealed, the movie is unbelievable.

Alright, I'm going to stop now. Work is cool, as everybody is back right now, and it's amazing what an office full of great, capable coworkers can do to the morale. But what's sad is that Shmofield is retiring in literally 6 weeks. CRAZY! We were actually doing the plans for it today.

Some Good Ideas!

August 25, 2005: Thanks to you guys for giving me some good ideas on things to do. Connie, the house hunting idea is a good one and if you're ever really bored and want to help pick out some good finds in Colorado Springs, I'd be appreciative. I'm looking for a singlestory home, if possible, garage, 3 bedrooms, and somewhere relatively close to Cheyenne Mountain area. I know....Vague much? And I may have to do a Vegas rollercoaster jaunt just to make sure I go on them one last time before leaving this precious city for Colorado. Good idea, bandaid man. As for a visit to San Antonio, that will probably have to wait till next year. I'm thinking it might be fun to go there during Fiesta in the spring. I haven't been to that in a long time and that would make it a lot of fun.

Anyways, here are some pictures from the build-a-boat competition we had here in Nellis. Units could participate and build a vessel out of the same starting pieces, those being about 5 huge pieces of cardboard, 3 rolls of duct tape, and dry erase markers for decoration. And duct tape could be no wider than 4 inches at any point on the boat. So you couldn't cover the entire bottom of the boat in duct tape. Anyways, we went off a design proposed by Fox, and it was a good one, especially if we had had to go up and back. But alas, it turned out we only had to go one way. Now, we initally were thinking make it a floating craps table, and it started out okay in terms of shape. But as implementation became an issue, it just became a box with dice on the sides, but at least each dice had a member of the Det on it. So it looked cool, but didn't have some of the flair other boats did. Ours actually ended up floating good, but what we've learned is that it was a tad narrow and our fearless captains were unable to keep it stable, and ended up capsizing about 15-20 feet down. Oh well, you live you learn! Next time, wider boat! It was fun though, when all was said and done.

Build-A-Boat Competition, August 24, 2005
Jenn and John	The Det1 Boat, 5-dice side	There's my side!	Left view of the 4-dice side	Right view of the 4-dice side	Excalisosh is represented!	The racing grounds
Jenn and Admiral John	Team Excalisosh!	Pena aka Gilligan!	There we are	The first heat gets ready	And the calamity that follows	There's us after the crazy race

I've Learned..

August 23, 2005: Got the following chain email from Mila, but I thought it was pretty good so I'm sharing it here. Forgive me if you've already received this email.

• I've learned that you cannot make someone love
  you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they
  panic and give in.
• I've learned that no matter how much I care,
  some people are just assholes.
• I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and
  it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.
• I've learned that you can get by on charm for about
  fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better have a big
  willy or huge boobs.
• I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to
  others - they are more screwed up than you think.
• I've learned that you can keep vomiting long after
  you think you're finished. (Hobie's comment: Amen, whoever wrote this.)
• I've learned that we are responsible for what we
  do, unless we are celebrities.
• I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy
  a relationship is at first, the passion fades, and
  there had better be a lot of money to take its place.
• I've learned that 99% of the time when something
  isn't working in your house, one of your kids did it.
• I've learned that the people you care most about in
  life are taken from you too soon and all the less
  important ones just never go away.

So there's that. In other news today, it was my day to be noticed apparently. Maybe I should have checked my biorhythm chart, but today people were all sorts of nice to me, which is strange. Not at work though, just in my interactions with others at stores and restaurants. This morning at Blueberry Hill, while paying, the older lady waitress who's checking me out just decides to reach over and hit me on the arm. I kinda look up, chuckle, and say hello, and she just says, "I just thought you needed to get slapped." Hmm... Jen Tittel says I must have the kind of face that people want to slap. WHATEVEH! Then, after work, the Wendy's and Best Buy checkout girl's are all smiles. Maybe I had a good hair day today. Hmmm.. Just one of those weird things, because 99% of the rest of the time, barely any glimmer of charm comes my way. BASTARDS!

Well, now it's time to watch my DVR'd Big Brother 6 episode from earlier tonight. Fingers crossed that the Fiendship didn't do anything to really piss me off. I don't want to have to stop watching this show.

Oh, and by the way, a Big Congratulations to Byron, who is a single-digit-midget and is just days away from a plane back to the USA! SWEET! Come home Byron, and get a well-deserved rest. I imagine you'll be taking a bajillion days off just to recover.

So Listless the Ennui is killing me

August 22, 2005: I really have no motivation to do anything. Can you say 'drama queen'? I know that you can. But seriously, I don't have a drive to do anything right now. SO BORED. How pathetic! I'm not even spun up enough to be angry at work, because I really am not angry at work. No schoolwork is keeping my mind occupied, and I just can't get into video games all the time like I used to. I need to get out or something. Maybe it's time for me to finally visit the Double Deuce saloon next door and get TRASHED! Nah. I have beer here. So I think I'll just drink here - just one beer though. No need to make myself hate work by being hungover. Blech. So, what should I do with my remaining time in Vegas? Make friends? Bah. Buy stuff? Getting tired of that. Gamble? That's been completely horrible lately. I need a quest or goal or something. A purpose. Hmm....... Time to go to the drawing board. (BTW, I don't need to hear the "I wish I was bored, you little shit, be happy nothing is going on!" replies - I know, I'm being a tool. But it doesn't mean I'm not bored!)

Worst-time-to-use-a-t-shirt award goes to...

August 18, 2005: ME! I thought this shirt, when I bought it, would be funny. It still is. But every time I've thought about wearing it out in the world, well, I think about some more and change. But ah ha! I wasn't leaving the house this evening, so why not change into it. It is definitely how I felt about the world this afternoon. (Don't worry, I'm not all angry like early-2005 Hobie). But I decided to wear it while doing some important lounging around the house. Anyways, I ordered a pizza to help feed my lounging activities/exertions (meaning: eyes glazing over while playing video games until I had DVR'd Big Brother 6). Well, the pizza guy arrives and as he's handing me my pizza, I can tell he's trying to figure out what the hell my t-shirt is about. I can see myself thinking that it can be quite an obscene gesture (think: shocker, or something like that) but if you read the text, well, it makes sense. But still crass. Anyways, he leaves. So as I am enjoying some pizza goodness, another knock on the door. I don't think I ordered another pizza (a bonus pizza? For me!?), but maybe....? Oops, bad mistake. It was a bible thumper, actually, and more accurately, it was a "Miracle Healer" disciple who was handing out flyers to the next healing (this Saturday, the park nearby - if this weird head sensation doesn't go away, I may just swing by for some miracle healing). Well, this guy couldn't stop looking at my shirt either. So I offend a pizza guy. Big deal. Offend a religious worker? Ticket straight to hell. Why couldn't I have just worn my white t-shirt?

In other news, Big Brother 6 just had one of those 'best-freakin'-episodes-EVER!!!!' episodes. I mean, seriously, it doesn't get much better than that, folks. If you are reading my Shooting Gallery blog on BB6, you'll know that after Tuesday's episode, the house was completely and irreversibly divided. I anticipated a lack of civility, but dayum, I had no idea how today was going to pan out. But it was awesome. The Kaysar Krew basically made living in the house as unbearable as possible. They were openly hostile, belligerent, and mocking. I love those guys. In the last episode, Janelle (my favorite blonde snob) declared if she won HOH she'd tell the bitch (Jennifer) to pack her bags. Well, guess what. Janelle won HOH today. It was fucking awesome. Janelle actually flipped Jennifer off as she realized she won. Then to top things off, today was a double elimination round, meaning Janelle had to nominate two people for eviction immediately (HOH usually has till the next episode to determine nominations) - guess who she nominated? Yep, Jennifer was nominated, as was Maggie. And as the episode went to credits, you can hear Janelle say to them, "Say goodbye, bitches!" I was literally on the ground, laughing my ass off! I was just hoping she'd work in, "Pack your bags!", but "Say Goodbye, bitches" is just as good.

Oooh, Cast Announcements Revealed

August 16, 2005: How sweet is this?! Both Amazing Race 8 (Family Edition) and Survivor 11 (Guatemala) have revealed their new cast lists! Check them out at the CBS website. September will rule.

Back in Vegas

August 15, 2005: Well, as I indicated briefly in the guestbook, Harv had a successful surgery. After 3.5 hours of being under, the doctor was able to replace the discs inbetween his neck vertebrae (I misstated earlier - his vertebrae weren't replaced) and restore feeling to the nerves being pinched off, as well as removing much of the pain. He now has to go through some physical therapy to get strength back into his arm, but that will happen with time and effort. It's just good that he had such a good surgeon doing the work. I did my job well too, in keeping mom sane.

For the most part, I spent the time at home or at the hospital. On Saturday, when Harv was released from the hospital, some visitors came up including my stepsister Stacie and my aunt Helen. I got to spend some time with them and then that evening I hung out with my best friends Mila and Sveta. It was awesome, as we met up and went to the Stinking Rose on La Cienega in West LA. That is a restaurant that focuses solely on garlic dishes. Fantastic food, and I got smashed on chianti. We spent a few hours there, then had fun driving the happening avenues of Hollywood, then finally found our way to a coffee house on Franklin in Hollywood. I think it was called the Bourgeouis Pig. I was quite buzzed, so I don't know for sure. But nevertheless, it was a great time with best friends.

On Sunday, I spent most of the time wishing the headache would go away from the red wine hangover. Ugh. Then my flight was a tad delayed because in Vegas, a huge freak thunderstorm decided to roll on in. We left about an hour late, but we made it just in time, as when we landed, I'm sure the airport shut right down again as the thunder and lightning were RIGHT overhead the airport. Scary.

And now I'm back at work. Work sucks. And when I tried to go running today, it nearly killed me. I've been steadily ramping up my endurance, speed, and pace the past few weeks and taking 5 days off apparently had a huge effect on my health, as damn, I had to stop after 30 minutes of treadmill. Oh well, I'll get back to my healthier self soon.

L.A. Visit pics - August 10-14, 2005
Mom and Steve	Mom, Harv and Me - I think Harv is tired...	Still tired	Helen, Mom, Harv and me	Helen, Mom, Harv and Steve
Sveta driving us to funtown	Mila riding in the back	Serious me in shotgun	Mila at the Stinking Rose	Sveta and me in our booth at the restaurant

LA, Baby

August 9, 2005: Well, well, a two-day work week. And I did probably as little to nothing as possible today. No one else was at work with me in my office, and it being my Friday just led to me not really being motivated to do a damn thing. Horrible, isn't it? But there was good news to be found: my SrA troop is going to be a SSgt! Yep, he made the grade, so tomorrow morning I'll go in before my flight to assist in presenting him his stripes, as well as a bottle of champagne to celebrate. So congrats, Pony!

Anyways, I'm off to Los Angeles. Please send thoughts and prayers to my stepdad as he goes in for surgery on Thursday! It's surgery in his neck, so it's kinda scary, but hopefully will help relieve him of a lot of the pain he's enduring right now. Fingers crossed!

Well, there won't be any updates till Sunday, so enjoy the pictures below, and I'm sure the spammers will keep us all entertained with their borderline illegal postings on the guestbook.

I .. Can't .. Think .. of .. a .. Headline

August 8, 2005: So before I forget, if you haven't watched the show on TNT called The Closer, do yourself a favor and watch it on Monday nights. It's an awesome cop show with Kyra Sedgwick as a very gifted policeman who has a knack for getting confessions and revelations out of witnesses or suspects. She throws out the whole Southern lass thing one second and a cold-hearted police investigator the next. It's awesome.

Anyways, back to our program. I've updated my dice page because this weekend I found some more. Well, maybe find is a nice way of saying I drove determinedly all around this wretched town.

I also took part in Airmen Against Drunk Driving, which is a program that Nellis AFB has in place to keep drunkies off the road. It's actually a very cool program, as AADD goes out and takes you AND your car back to your home. Well, I volunteered for the 10pm - 2am shift, and that was pretty uneventful - only one call, and it was from one part of base to another. EASY! I'm just glad I didn't have the 2am - 6am shift, as that really would jack up your sleep schedule.

Other than that, I thought I had more to say, but I really don't. I finally got to taking care of housework tonight, as I was barely home yesterday. I'll be heading home to LA this Wednesday afternoon, and will be around home to make sure that Harv has a successful surgery and that Mom doesn't go crazy. I will hopefully get a chance to see some friends and maybe see some of LA which I haven't seen in a while, like the beach or Sunset Blvd.

Well, here's some pictures I took this past week, mostly during my dice quest yesterday. The Silverton Casino is quite a neat casino, and has some cool water tanks with fishies and stuff. They even have a cool mermaid show where the 'mermaids' swim around and stuff. I could never do that job. They have to kep holding their breath and then find the oxygen tank to refill. Too claustrophobic for me, I say.

Quest for Dice pictures - August 8, 2005
Fun with my glasses in the morning	Texas Station	The skating rink in Fiesta - it's nice and cool in there	Zamboni Time	Here comes the Zamboni	The Orleans
The Orleans crocodiles - they're cool cats too	The Silverton's bar rear wall	The Mermaid Tank - surreal, ain't it?	More Mermaid pictures	ooooh, a Ray!	The Monte Lago craps tables. I love playing craps.

What's New? My dice page is up with some more dice. Excitement abounds....

The Meaning of Dotante...Revealed!

August 5 (or is it the 6th?), 2005: Damn, I'm buzzing. I'm not going to bother changing the title, because frankly, I"m too drunk off of beer to care. But I did want to say that I looked up the word dotante, and apparently it is a spanish word, so it's not completely original, but you know what, fuck that, it is original. Dotante translated from Spanish is 'giver'. BAH!!!! Fuck that shiznit. It means what I said below, and that is such a better definition.

Well, it's either another beer for me, or time to go to sleep. I guess we'll see what happens. Or at least, I will. Or would it be, 'Or at most'?

August 4, 2005: A couple of friends and family have been wondering what the hell Dotante is. Well, Dotante originally came from the butchered word 'Donate', which CivvyJenny mistakenly typed during an email. And that is what a Dotante came to represent: the complete and utter butchering of the English language. The Grammar Antichrist of the Month is how the concept originally started, but Dotante has a better, more urgent ring to it. I bring this subject up for another reason, that being that I received a Dotante in the email today and it just made me laugh and rest my head on my keyboard at work. To protect the ignorant, I'll not put the name down here, but dayum, a Lt Col?

Col Hoedown (not his real name) will review next. He’ll decide you else needs to see. Thanks for your help with this.

Do you see the Dotante? I'm sure you do. It's the one that's bolded and italicized. Ouch. Read literally, I have no freakin' clue what he's trying to tell me. Obviously, I know what he's trying to get across, but c'mon, that was awesome. And that, my friends, is a dotante. Utter disregard for proofreading yourself.

So, does anyone want to fess up that they have my Harry Potter Book 5? I can't find it, and I think I let someone borrow it, but I have no clue who.

I am NOT Captain Hobart!!!

August 3, 2005: Have I already mentioned this before in my website sometime? Well, if not, I must say that it is... annoying (?)... when people have no idea what my first name is based on seeing my email address at work. They know that the typical email address is first.last, but does that stop them? No. They assume that no one could possibly have Hobart as a first name. So that means in their mind that my first name is Barnes. Barnes Hobart, but my friends call my Barney. OH HELLS NO. C'mon people, just try Capt Barnes, and that'll work for me. I was even a Lieutenant Hobart once, back in San Antonio. My name just throws people for a loop I guess.

I was watching the second season premiere episode of Buffy on DVD just now, and there was a scene where Xander, Buffy and Willow are just sitting in the high school classroom and chatting as class is about to start. It actually made me reminisce - those were really the good ol' days. I loved those days when you would show up to class, be surrounded by your friends, and chat about meaningless fun stuff. I still chat about stuff, but that environment is still one that I miss. Don't get me wrong though, I definitely don't miss all of high school and that drama, but little moments like that are ones that are definitely missable.

Blech. Back at Work. But I was hyper, so I've got that going for me.

August 1, 2005: People totally thought I was on crack today. It was awesome. I brought joy and sunshine wherever the hell I went today. Just ask anyone. Or....don't do that. In fact, keep your questions to yourself, you nosy bastard. Hyper Hobie isn't the best thing, but it makes the day more pleasant as opposed to stressed Hobie (he sucks), angry Hobie (possibly the least fun person in the world to be around), or depressed Hobie (could this guy BE any more pathetic?).

Well, that's all I've got to talk about except that no one had any love for my picture of the day. What's that about? All I'm trying to do is advertise Civvy Jenny's t-shirt! And as they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. As for bad pictures of me, that is just one example of MANY!!!!!! Explains a lot though.
What's New? The picture of the day. But that's not really new. So in fact, there's nothing new today. Just another day closer to moving!

Shoot me an email if you want to. I may respond. (okay, you know I will - what else have I got to do?)