The Virtual Command Environment

I still live, sorry for not posting but since the return from deployment not much of note has happened. I still continue to geocache and I will probably do up a post of some of the more memorable caching experiences here in the coming week.

Now for something entirely different...(Story taken from my exploits in the game Sword of the Stars)

The people of Pascal journeyed out into the depths of space to brave the new frontier. Colonizing many planets they wondered if others were doing the same. The answer came in the form of another terran race lead by Gully Foyle, an association was negotiated and the two sides lived in peace for some time as they both expanded their respective boaders.

Developing technology at a rapid pace the people of Pascal began to become aware of a war between Gully Foyle and other terran people's lead by The Mule, and Khan Noonien Singh. Negotiations to form an Alliance were rebuffed and the people of Pascal faced their first war as their expeditionary forces came under heavy attack by their previous associate and the other factions. The first battle came unexpected as the expeditionary forces came upon a planet that was under contest by The Mule and Khan Noonien Singh. KNS forces quickly wiped out TM's and fell upon Pascal's forces dispite a fleet wide ceasefire order on the Pacal side. Heavy losses incurred brought the sleeping giant out of its slumber. Previous fleets of colony ships and cruiser and destroyer escorts gave way to mighty dreadnoughts heavily armed and out for blood.

GF forces sued for peace after two savage clashes which they violated soon after making an alliance with KNS. KNS forces also tried to use the guise of peace to sneak armed forces into Pascal territory. The people of Pascal fought back with the combined might of over sixty colonized planets. Mighty war fleets rushed to the front lines armed with distructive weapons, space and cloak penetrating sensors, and savage ships to take the opposing sides technology.

For over two hundred and eighty years the war has raged. GF and TM forces fell to Pascal weapons and the trechery of the KNS empire. The people of Pascal fought with bravery and distinction in every battle and dispite heavy losses in a few battles the war continues to push the KNS forces father and farther back from the home planet. Now over one hundred and thirty worlds fly the Pascal flag as mighty warships drift in silent vigal. Despite viral and suicide attacks from KNS forces the peoples determination has never wavered.

Fleet forces included 1328 destroyers, 2284 cruisers, and 430 dreadnoughts. Of these ships 1073 destroyers, 1322 crusiers and 356 dreadnoughts are still in service with a battle record of 1676 enemy destroyers, 842 enemy cruisers, and 261 enemy dreadnoughts killed in action spanning 250 worlds. Cries for peace from KNS forces fall on deaf ears for the memories of the brave expeditionary forces brutally destroyed under a flag of peace.

Been a bit since I updated so here I go. We made a brief stop in guam, so brief in fact that I really only had a chance to grab one cache and do some laundry before we pulled out. I would've liked a chance to explore guam a bit more but the fact that it is a more expensive version of Hawaii probably means I probably will not do it on my own.

After the ship pulled in to Pearl I had just enough time to move in a new roomate at my apartment before hopping on a plane for a long flight home. Of course after arriving back in the states I was dead tired but still managed to have a meal with my family and my girlfriend before we drove back to the house. On the way back we stopped a couple times for geocaches, one to drop off some travelers that I took with me or found on deployment, and another that had been placed in my home town just recently. It was a pleasent surprise to come up to the one that had been placed in my home town and find that we were the first to find it. I guess with the fuel prices the way they are people don't go out and just drive anymore.

The end of the week I got togeather with my girlfriends family to go to a Rinobucket concert. Think AC/DC type music and you have the sound they produce. That weekend I worked on the house with my mother and her boyfriend putting up some screen doors on the house. Later that night I went out with my girlfriend to the mountains to do some camping. We were joined by some friends and we enjoyed some BBQ'ed hamburgers and hotdogs and played some board games as the campfire burned nearby.

Later that next week I was able to go with my girlfriend's father and brother to a nearby town and enjoy a couple days of drag racing. Both her father and brother ran very well but the next day after her and her mother joined us at the track her brother had a bad couple of runs and lost out. Towards the end of the day her father was in a see-saw battle for track points with another driver. Up until the last race we didn't know who would win. There was quite the celebration after her father won the last race.

Of course it ended too quickly and I had to return to Hawaii, I'm happy to say that the new roomate seems to be doing alright. I'm on my way to number 300 for geocaching and I'm pretty excited to hit that mark.

I was a good boy this deployment so I bought myself a treat! Plus it will help with my SETI number crunching as well...:D. My girlfriend will love it because it is blue, so, win win situation for me :D.

My coworker commented on the fact that I will not do much gaming on it with; "You just purchased something to search for god or his reasonable facsimile, yet you intend to play solitar on it?..."

My response; "Look at those polygons on the cards!"

Case Nzxt Lexa-S Gaming Tower Case - Black w/ Blue Light
Processor [== Quad Core ==] AMD Phenom™ II X4 965 Black Edition Quad-Core CPU
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P -- AMD 770 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, PCI-E MB
Memory 8 GB [2 GB X4] DDR3-1333 Memory Module
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 – 1GB - Single Card
Power Supply 1000 Watt -- Extreme Power Supply - [Gaming Series] Quad SLI + Active PFC
Processor Cooling iBUYPOWER AMD Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit
Master Hard Drive 1 TB HARD DRIVE - [16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s]
2nd Hard Drive 1 TB HARD DRIVE - [16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s]
Optical Drive 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Blue
Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
Monitor 19" Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor - Black
Keyboard Combo: Logitech Black Internet Internet Keyboard + Optical Mouse - Black
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit
Advanced Build Options Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound - The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks
Flash Media Reader/Writer 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Blue
iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion Internal USB Expansion System

We've arrived in Singapore for an actual liberty port this time. Even better news is I do not have duty on my Birthday! Going to try and visit the Chinese Gardens and Science Centre today. For the 30th its mini-golfing and Zoo time!

The day after duty started out very warm so our first objective was to find some breakfast in a place where we could get into some air conditioning. Stopping at the same mall that I found the first cache, I believe the name was Au Ban Pain, a French bakery type place that had some pretty good breakfast food. Afterwards I was able to replace the full log with a new log page to allow others to continue to enjoy the cache. After I was done, my liberty buddy and I continued back to the beach to admire the view.

 

This early in the morning there were plenty of Para-sailors out enjoying the clear day. It seemed the day before the beach clean up crew had been out and did a pretty good job clearing up the area and there were plenty of people out for the weekend. Walking along the beach my liberty buddy we took advantage of the clean beach ourselves to search out some sea shells for him and a nearby cache for myself.

 

The first cache of the day was by a nearby pier that serviced tourist ships and had quite a few people out in the water nearby hunting for something themselves, crabs or crawfish maybe? Quickly finding the small cache we continued on to a a neat light house that we had already visited a couple days before. Luckily it was low tide because the cache there was placed were it would’ve taken a little bit of wading if the water had come in. I was pretty surprised when I opened the cache to find a travel coin from Bern, Switzerland. The description on the coin was “Never too cold.” So I knew exactly what I was going to trade for it. In my bag I had a Signal the Frog Christmas pin. Trade completed I took a picture of the cache to let the owner know it was still in good condition before we left to a nearby trail going up a hill.

 

Last time we took this trail it was to search out a statue that we saw coming up the beach, instead we found a Buddhist shrine that day and a pretty cool little park dedicated to Lau Tzu, Confucius, and Sun – Yatsen. This time I was able to put a few more caches into my gps. Making a couple more stops before finally making our way up to the mystery statue I was unable to find the caches but as we finally reached our destination I found that the statue we were looking for was dedicated to…wait for it…wait for it…Admiral Krom Luang Jumborn Khet Udomsakdi. Say that five times fast. Seems he was responsible for bringing the Thai navy out from the leadership of foreign nations and was regarded as the father of the Thai navy.

 

The pictures from the top of the statue site were awesome due to the clear day. Working our way back to town we were able to make another cache find. This one was a dedication to the amount of trash near another of the Buddhist shrines. Making our way down into town we worked our way back through the back side of the town exploring the random shops we found. Along the way we found some cool shirts that were a play on popular brands like Red Bull (Dead Bull), Puma (Pudle), and some others that I was finally able to negotiate a good price and made my purchase before we had to go and check into our hotel. After getting back to the hotel and dropping off our packs we went out to one of the malls to eat at a Japanese restaurant. The table was set up with a little Bar-B-Q in the  table and the meat was sliced in perfect sized pieces and mine was lightly gingered. The service was pretty lame though so that pretty much spoiled the meal when we couldn’t even get drink refills when the tables on both sides were taken care of very quickly.

 

The next day started out pretty slowly as we waited for the rest of our group to join us from the ship. It was nearly eleven when they finally joined us and we started out to the mall nearby. Eating a quick breakfast we traveled to the top of the mall where they had a Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum. Most of us went in to enjoy the different sections. The first section we went into was a haunted house, it was rather funny going through something that would probably have a tough time scaring a five year old. After the laughs we crossed over to the “Maze”, it would’ve been a lot more fun if there were different routes but we had fun with the mirrors and bounce rooms before we hit the museum itself. I really enjoyed the museum and wish I had more time to go through it but the others were getting antsy so we left the museums to meander around town visiting the random malls and shops.

 

I really enjoyed Thailand due to the fact that everything that you found could be gotten at a decent price. I was able to get my first suit, some jade for my family, and some funny t-shirts for myself. Those along with some other random items to send home were had for less then a couple hundred dollars when in other countries it would’ve been a whole lot more. I had a lot of fun there though I could do without having to watch for stray wiring.

Pattaya Thailand was a real eye opener. It was like stepping back in time and seeing how we came from the industrial era to the digital. Phone and electrical wires ran haphazardly over buildings and during times of rain you could hear the buzz of short circuits. It was fun though, elephant rides and the adventure of finding what was around the next block kept the attention and amusement during the entire visit.

The first day was mainly just getting a lay of the land. My liberty buddies and I walked down from the Hard Rock Cafe where we had been dropped off and strolled along the beach. Several statues had been placed along the walkway on one side while the beach lined the other. During the middle of the week there wasn’t much trash pick up I guess because the beach was lined with litter. That Friday a huge crew came out and cleaned up the beach for the weekenders but it was too little too late for my group and we stayed clear of the cluttered beach during that week. Midway through the walk way I noticed a geocache was nearby and I took the group to a nearby mall to find it. After successfully finding the cache I noticed that the log was nearly full. I managed to get some new logs printed off the coming days and replaced it so that others could continue to enjoy it. The end of the walk way steered us onto “Walking Street” where we passed restaurants, night clubs, pool halls, and stores rigged to get you to spend your money. I managed to get the group passed it the first time and onto the beach once more and we enjoyed the start of the setting sun as we walked up to a light house and stopped to take pictures.

 

Beside the lighthouse was a trail that went up the nearby hill and to a Buddhist shrine and a city park. Visiting each we were able to take some great pictures before the setting sun forced us to start heading back down into town. Our side trip to another cache led us to what might have been the Mayors house where I took some pictures of some interesting statues that were near it before we were shooed away. Up on the balcony were robed figures with spears and down by one of the entrances were gargoyle like creatures that were pretty cool to look at.

 

Going back to Walking Street the group decided to stop at the “Right Spot” restaurant. The food was passable though the only thing I really enjoyed was the steak that I ordered. There was just a hint of garlic and clove on it but it was cooked to perfection and I enjoyed every piece. Unfortunately the food was priced nearly three times as high as the restaurants in town as we would soon find out. One of the other things about Thailand is the prices for goods are pretty low compared to a lot of countries that I visited and everything was barginable.

 

The night ended with our group stopping at one of the tailors to get some suits, I decided on a lined grey suit with a cream shirt. For about a hundred and fifty bucks it wasn’t a bad price for a fitted suit. At the end of the week we picked them up and everyone seemed pretty satisfied with their purchase.

 

The next day started early with a quick trip down to Sattahip to attend the opening ceremony for our exercise. The sun was terrible that day and standing in a formation where everyone is wearing bright white made it pretty hard on the eyes. After making our showing at the ceremony it was back to Pattaya to get signed out and out into town again.

 

Walked around a bit before having to return to the tailor for a fitting and to Hard Rock to go on a tour to ride the Elephants. Had a blast riding the elephants for close to an hour before we stopped and watched a demonstration of traditional Thai dancing and Muay Thai, after the tour was over they took us to a gem factory where I was able to get some rather large pieces of jade for a fairly reasonable price to send home.

 

While everyone else went back to the Hard Rock my group went in search of the go karts. It was pretty fun driving against my liberty buddies but I think instead of Sarge I should have chosen the nickname spinout because during the first few curves of the race the tires of my go kart would not be warm enough and I would drift and spin all over the place.

 

The end of the day came and it was time for some dinner. Asking the workers at the go kart place we walked a few blocks to find a restaurant named Alois and had a fantastic meal. I started with a single appetizer of liver and frog legs before my ceaser salad arrived. After the salad my soup (Tom Yum) arrived, the soup was so good, but after a few spoonfuls it was so hot it was inedible for me, but I sincerely wish I could’ve gone through and finished it. Instead I ordered some tiramisu and drowned my sorrows in its rich espresso goodness.

 

We slowly walked back to the Hard Rock and explored the various stores before heading back to the ship after a great day of exploring Pattaya. I’ve got a couple more days to document so stay tuned.

The funeral was very emotionally draining, so it was good to go back to my own home afterwards. The next day though I was up bright and early to make the hour and a half trek back to start helping with my grandmother’s house. There were times before that we had tried to go and help my grandmother and grandfather help declutter their house but it was in my grandmothers nature to keep everything that could have a future use so the house would always be filled with boxes of random items so the following days we were going to do what we could to get things managed so there would be more then just a walking trail through the house.

The trip didn't start out so well with a traffic stop right before I left my own town. Seems there are two signs on each side of the road, incoming traffic has to slow down to 35, outbound is 45. The cop pulled me over going 45 and issued me a ticket for traveling 45 in a 35 mile zone. I was still pretty shocked at the time from the funeral so when I looked back to see the 35 sign I thought I had been mistaken and just accepted the ticket. What made it worse is when I went to the court house to see when I would be able to fight the ticket the judge told me it would take until the next month just for the first hearing, only having one week left I was left with no option but to accept the bupkiss ticket.

Finally made it up to my grandmother’s house where my mother and aunts were in full swing going through the house. I was given a repreave shortly after when one of my uncles arrived with his gps and wanted to know a few things about it and if there were any caches in the area. I took a break and took him and one of my little cousins out to a nearby cache a few blocks away. The cache was placed up in a welcome sign for the city and my uncle was concerned that my cousin was too short to find it but she surprised him by climbing all over it when we arrived and quickly found the cache. Returning we helped until it became time to leave and this time I had no trouble getting back home.

Traveling like this lasted until Father's Day when I returned and after eating dinner at Jen's parents we went out to the mountains to go caching. Not having done any geocaching since Korea it was a fun change of pace to be able to go out with people I knew were up to the task of tackling the obstacles on route to the cache. Jen's father took us and her brother out to some of the new caches in the area plus some of his own that he had placed out. Some of the caches were easy, some involved some climbing, and of course the last had to involve a rose bush...ouchy. We had fun though even though most of us and the geohound we took with us had some scrapes as we headed back into town.

Much of the rest of the week involved getting some minor house repairs done, insulation put in the attic, quick fix on the air conditioner, and, after getting a notice from the city(they seemed to really love me that week), a few hours spent on the boulevard killing weeds. We ended the week by going to Transformers 2, where I laughed my ass off at the hokeyness of the movie but had fun.  

The day I had to fly out of Singapore went by slowly but I used the time to pack. About forty pounds heavier I finally made it off the ship and to the first flight to Narita, Tokyo. Don't really remember much of that flight due to a full night watch. The second flight from Narita was a little interesting because of the little Japanese lady that was sitting next to me. I think I scared her at first because I found out that my pen had busted so I wasn't able to fill out the paper work for going through the airport. I waited an hour before asking if I could borrow her's and was surprised as she immediately stopped using it and tried to give it to me. I'm thinking that she mistook my being peeved at my own pen detonating for just being angry. Cleared that up and after stopping the stewardess a couple times for her after they ignored her when she asked for water I hope she doesn't remember me as the incredible hulk.

Washington had me at forty-two hours with virtually no sleep due to watch and flying freaking me out so much. Finally making it into Montana I kind of stumbled into my family. I knew something was wrong when we didn't go to the hospital. Unfortunately my Grandmother had passed away and the next few days were filled with driving back and forth getting preparations done for the funeral at the end of the week.

Jen was very supportive with me coming home. I was able to meet the new dog and not one but two rabbits. The dog was about six months old Walker Cross and she had received one pet bunny and one feed rabbit. One of the rabbits was pure white and looked like the Cadbury bunny except with a light marking on its back. I joked that it looked like it was working on the transmission of the cars.

The funeral for my Grandmother was packed with my family, Jen's Mother and father and about four hundred people from the town. My grandmother had been a social worker for the town and had touched a lot of people. Afterwards at the reception we had a lot of people share their memories of their time spent with her, it was really touching to hear their stories.

http://pics.livejournal.com/sarge104/gallery/0003etbr

Pictures of Thailand, I will upload more soon when able as well as go into what has been going on since I last posted. Just need a bit more time. Take care all.

Have just a few more hours till I board the flight to the States, so far it's been smooth sailing. I'm waiting the car wreck I know is going to happen when I get into the US though. Security combined with my *steller* track record with flights back home will definitely wear on me as I finally board that last plane home. 

Singapore was the quietest airport I've ever been in. The only announcements I heard made were flight cancellations and turning yourself in if you felt ill. This made me a little concerned as the boarding time approached and I didn't hear anything about a boarding call at all. The only reason I knew that security was letting people through to the waiting area was a stubborn older gentlemen that kept pestering the security people to be let through. When he was finally admitted the entire herd moved as one as all the sheep (myself included) finally checked into the waiting area ten minutes before boarding.

The flight itself was a little bumpy but compared to a prop plane it wasn't so bad. The stewardesses were all about serving drinks and food during the flight so I had little trouble getting enough water to get little more then a mild pressure sensation in my head as we came down to a nearly flawless touchdown at Narita, Tokyo.

Was able to log in and make some major updates to my computer while waiting so I'm pretty much ready for the trip. Just wish it was in better circumstances

Last night I was informed that my grandmother is soon to pass. Another supreme effort from myself and my chain of command allowed for a plane ticket home today. Till then there will be not much sleep and a lot of worry.

I've already described how my grandfather on my father's side of the family was a hero to me. A real cowboy, sailor, husband, and father. I still hold myself to that standard and hope to achieve it.

My grandmother is someone who made due with what is available. The great depression permanently affected the way she handled things. Every time I visit and walk past the bottles, tied stacks of papers, bags of pop cans, and stacks of copper wire I'm reminded of this. She always was on the move, even after her second heart attack and surgery she tried to work as a sample person at the local stores giving out free toys and other things. It was only recently after a third surgery that she finally has started to slow down. She is now in the hospital and in a very weak condition. They are doing everything possible and we still have hope for her but reality means I am doing everything in my power to see her one last time before it is too late.

I called my mother last night to let her know I was doing everything possible to get back to the states. I was doing a good job of maintaining a calm demeanor until she started to cry. After I told her to let my grandmother know I was coming home I told my mother I loved her in time to get off the phone and start the paperwork to make what I just said a reality. Mid-way through the paper work I broke down myself, what little family I still have is starting to go away and it had a profound effect on me. Today I scoured the airlines for flights and lucked out; I will be leaving today and should be home in 28 hours. I know now that I've done everything possible to get home in time but the stress is still affecting me.

Once again I find myself in Singapore, this time though I am extremely limited to where I can go or do considering we haven't been able to leave the ship before 5pm and the subway lines here close at midnight making it very costly to take a cab back if we are unable to get on the subway in time. I've also been a little peeved at the fact that by the time we get off the ship the local Naval Exchange has already closed. I've been running low on hygiene gear and the ships store is normally only open when I'm elbow deep in the day's current project. Luckily I'm not out yet but I'm hoping the next few days will either allow me to get to the exchange or a local store that isn't a Seven Eleven to get the things I need.

So with the rant out of the way I can get on with what I have been able to do. The first day was busy with pulling in and getting the spaces cleared so that we could go on liberty. I went out with some of my division this time to say goodbye to one of our own that was leaving early the next morning. We went out to Hard Rock Cafe and had a great time. Before we left a cover band called Energy came on and did a pretty good job going through some of the popular songs that play on the radio, after leaving Hard Rock one of the group suggested an Irish Pub called Muddy Murphy's. The pub was set up fairly well with a great atmosphere and the service was pretty good considering the amount of people already set up near the stage where a couple bands were murdering random songs. The next table over we met some of the sailors from the Destroyer Milieus and traded jokes and stories to pass some time before they had to leave. Time grew short for us as well so my liberty buddy and I said our goodbyes and headed to the nearest MTR station. On our way we discussed the differences between Singapore and the US. Mainly the fact that even at midnight you didn't see trash on the street or vandalism to the panes of glass placed along the side of the road depicting random scenes. We also discussed the fact that all the shops we could see seemed to be specialty shops of one sort or the other. If it is new and trendy it was here. I'm still trying to find the East's version of Wal-Mart.

On reaching the MTR we found that it was closed so we had to take a cab back to base. I try and take public transportation as much as possible due to the fact that cabs, no matter in what country, are very expensive. Verses the fact that the MTR would've cost 1.40, to ride the cab to go to the same destination was over 25 dollars. The subway system is set up very well here so it is usually not even a mile to your destination when you get off at the station.

The next day was hot! Wow, I was chugging water down by the liter as we worked to bust rust and get the spaces painted to prepare for a reception that was coming onto the ship. After being released we went down town, this time via MTR, first thought was of food so we went to a food court and while my liberty buddy had sushi I chose some Lamb Sheesh Kabob, basically a fancy wrap that reminded me of a Greek Gyro but, as with most of my experience with Indian food it was a bit warm on the flavor side. After working all day in the sun my body did it's best to convince me not to eat it but it was delicious. Afterwards I stopped for some mini steamed coconut pies and we went on to try and find a movie theater since it was already getting towards 8pm. Our intention was to try and see the new Star Trek movie but the theater we went to didn't have it. I suggested the real life remake of Blood: The Last Vampire but my liberty buddy didn't bite so we had some McDonalds before making our way back to the ship to try and get some rest for another day of work.

 

Came off my duty day raring to go out and do something other then just walk around Orchard Road. Unfortunately, the fact that I had to make a Navy Exchange run meant that by the time I came back to base from getting my necessities it was too late to head out to the Zoo or the Science Centers (Or Centre if you go by the English spelling ;) ) . Instead I headed out with a friend to the Shaw House on Orchard Road to watch the live action Version of Blood: The Last Vampire. I was impressed that they were actually able to pull a decent story though it was week in a couple parts. I think the most annoying thing about the movie was the Human tag-along they put in but I will not spoil it more then that. I did enjoy the action but the cgi looked a bit hookie.

 

Didn’t get a geocache this time but I will get another chance here soon. Hopefully I will be able to hit the other attractions as well since I don’t think I will be over in this part of the world again in a long time.

Came into work with a smile on my face and a bounce to my step...


Apparently this was enough to cause abject terror and panic to a co-worker. Still trying to figure that one out.

Little did we know that skwerly made a short stop by the ship last month. I was able to snap this quick picture before she jetted off again. I hope you had a fantastic B-day!

The departure from the Zoo allowed us to make a trip to a nearby scenic lookout to get some great pictures of the area. Near the scenic lookout was a cache that had been DNF'ed (Did not find) a few times so after we finished our pictures I enlisted the aid of my liberty buddy in trying to proof that the cache still existed. Unfortunately, despite a through search we were not able to find the cache ourselves and had to give up. My liberty buddy was very intrigued by the activity and was game to try for another cache that was nearby. Walking back down from the scenic lookout we passed the zoo and tried to find our way up a small hill to a shrine that was placed there. We were denied this as well due to not being able to find the right street to access the path to the shrine. Empty handed we returned and found a cab back to the base.

My liberty buddy surprised me by saying that he enjoyed the exploration and sight seeing and looked forward to another outing at the next port. I'm glad to have interested yet another person to the activity but what he said next floored me. Seems the only thing he really did on the previous port visits was go out to the bars with friends from the ship and get drunk so he was really glad to have found someone willing to go out and enjoy the sites as well.

I've made it a point to go out with people other then who I work with on a daily basis for just this reason. Sometimes it is just to get someone who hasn't found a liberty buddy off the ship for a few hours and sometimes it is to make sure said person doesn't get themselves in trouble while in port but over all it is to have a good time and mingle with people who normally don't even see me during the deployment other then at chow hours. I've done my best to have fun and make sure they do as well and sometimes it works out and that is what makes my day.

The next day had us hard at it busting rust and priming our outside decks on the ship so that took most of the day before being released once more. Food was on my mind and luck had it I was able to hook up with two others that wished to grab some food off base as well. Despite going to RaRaRa once more it was fun times exposing yet another shipmate to actual ramen noodles. It was funny having them cuss us out as well because all this person ate was ramen purchased from the ships store and now it was ruined because it just wouldn't be the great experience they just had. The sub cockles of my heart were warmed... >:D Thus ended my port visit to Sasabo.

Once again I found myself in Sasabo, Japan. This time I was bound and determined to explore the area and I'm happy to say that I was able to do just that, even if just a small part. After spending the first day on duty I was a little anxious to go and see what Sasabo had to offer.

First things first I had to find a liberty buddy willing to go off base. Seems most of the ship was more interested in staying on base on a lazy Sunday but I was finally able to find someone willing to leave and after a quick trip for supplies at the local Naval Exchange we were off to Sasabo Zoo. After finding a cab a quick twenty minute ride had us at the main entrance to the zoo.

The front of the zoo held the botanical garden showcasing various plants and flowers. Walking through the rose section it was pretty cool to see so many varieties of them in bloom despite the colder temperatures. Of course there were the differing red roses but mixed in were entire bushes of yellow, red/yellow, black, and white varieties set on either side of arched trellises and white statues.

Next up was the avian exhibits where cranes, condors, peacocks, pelicans, and a verity of flightless birds were kept. Something very large and moving caught my eye though and I went over to the Asian Elephant exhibit and managed to get a pretty good shot of both the elephant and I together. Next door was a huge lion that looked like it could bat you across the room with one of its paws.

Moving on I was able to see some Baboons at play. As the adults watched the little ones scampered and swung from everything and anyone. A cross the street I was able to get some pictures of a Wallaby, though from the looks of it the poor thing probably had a rough life with it's matted fur and desolate hopping. Next to the Wallaby was a couple of Giant Tortoises, and when they say giant they mean dinner table big. The black bear exhibit was a little disappointing at first due to the big guys sleeping in the feeding corridor but I was able to swing back to get a couple of pictures of them snoozing away outside. It was surprising to see Meer cats and ground hogs at the zoo since most people I know would consider them a pest then something you would want to pay money to see. I guess that goes to show the power of TV, turning gophers into cute and cuddly heroes...were is my 22?

With the chill in the air the snake exhibits were not all that exciting due to the reptiles trying their best to stay warm. The Gibbons on the other had were pretty funny to watch as they swung all over their exhibits and hooted and hollered pretty much non-stop. After a quick stop by the Zebra's and Camels I got a chance to see some Bear-cats meander around before starting to make my way to the exit.

The zoo even had a small exihibit for Penguines that a couple of kids were haveing fun with some of them already in the water. The kids would trace a pattern along the view port and the Penquines would chase and flip in the water to chase the end. Right before the exit there were two exibits left, the squirrel monkeys were having fun in their moat enclosed exihibit and the Girriafe definately showed off its tounge when it nearly wrapped it around the six inch diameter posts around its fence.

I've run out of time so next post I'll make sure to fill in the rest of the trip.

Enjoy!

Pictures from my visits to Donghae and Pusan
http://pics.livejournal.com/sarge104/gallery/00004h9w

Kota, Kinabalu Malaysia
http://pics.livejournal.com/sarge104/gallery/0003bks7
 

A bit of a rant if I may...well, it's my journal so I will.

Just got done reading how Afghan president Karzai's talks are stalled with the Taliban, how Russia thinks a missile shield built near them is bad for their country, and  about how Iranian president Ahmadinejad hijacked the UN's racism conference to blast Israel again. Free press is a wonderful thing, giving us a slightly canted view of the world around us but ultimately allowing us to come to our own decisions about things. It really pisses me off to know that most of the countries mentioned blame the one country that allows free speech.

It mystifies me that countries blast the U.S. then expects this country to fix things for them. Other countries have been around for hundreds of years before the United States but only now do we see them going out to help other countries with natural disasters, or most recently protecting freedom of navigation like nearly a dozen nations are doing over in Africa. Why is this?

A great example for this is Iraq, we go in, oust a dictator, and then rebuild the country. They say they can’t wait for us to leave and let things get back to normal but now that we are leaving they say that things just will not get done when we are gone. Wow, just wow…

I've been reading about people worrying about China' s building an aircraft carrier to help them carry out their plan to finally be able to go out and do sustained air operations outside their own territorial waters. Are we really scared of this country or what? It would be nice to know that the UN has another carrier to call on, if China allows it to go. Wouldn't that be awesome if the Somali pirates saw a gaggle of SU-27s running them down?

I have to ask this again, I know I've already asked before but who would step up if the United States wasn't around? What country would go in and protect another against genocide, famine, natural disasters? I would really like to know.

Pulled into Kota, Kinabalu and had a blast both liberty days. I was relieved from my watch at 0530 and headed out to meet our guide Dawat. As we waited for the others we discussed the mountain and why only Americans carried gps’s…hahaha. Soon it was time to leave and there was a moment of “What the?” as our guide, seated on the left side, looked back at us and started briefing us while the vehicle was moving. Luckly they drove on the left side of the road here and the right side of the vehicle had the steering wheel that our driver, a very quiet and reserved individual proceeded to treat the vehicle like it was a Ferrari on our way to the trial head. Once again I was made to sign a waiver that I should probably not tell my mother about before we received our badges to wear on our hike and it was game on.

 

Finally made it to the mountain and started our hike at eight and we enjoyed a light sprinkle of rain, and a couple of waterfalls, as we ground out two kilometers at a steady pace. Soon though, I found that my bag that held pretty much everything and the fact that I hadn’t slept in a couple days started to slow me down. The scenery was great despite the overcast day but as we hiked higher and higher I definitely wasn’t catching a sixth or seventh wind.

 

Our goal was to get to the summit but as the hours wound down it was getting clear that we probably wouldn’t make to the gate about a kilometer and a half from the summit before the 12 o’clock dead line. The last 400 meters before the gate definitely had me wondering what I had gotten myself into. We took a two hour break before heading back down. Despite gravity being in our favor it took us four hours to return to the trail head. Going up was tough and going down was just as difficult due to the large steps and beat up legs. Was able to get some good pictures of a red carnivorous worm and of a pitcher plant on my way down, it felt really good to take those final steps up the ramp and to the vehicle completing our 3,272.70 meter climb.

 

The second day had me up early at six just to make sure I stretched out and got ready to get off the ship. After waiting for my liberty buddy to get ready we were finally off the ship by eight. Made a bee-line to a shop called Top Secret…hahaha, to grab some food before we started to wander around the town of Konta, Kinabalu. I grabbed some hazelnut coffee, watermelon juice, and a chicken curry pie.

 

I flipped on the gps as we left the shop and saw that a cache was ten minutes away. We were side tracked as my liberty buddy made a stop to buy some movies. As we made our way back to the cache we passed by a police station, on the fence is a no trespassing sign. They depict this as a man with a gun pointing it at a man running away…well put sir, well put.

 

The cache is near an old clock tower that is one of the oldest structures in the town. After taking pictures of both the tower itself and the signs around it we found the cache and I introduced another person to geocaching. Afterwards we started back towards the mall.

 

After we made our way back to the mall my liberty buddy suggested we get massages. After hobbling up and down the stairs to the cache and back I agreed and we entered one of the places in the mall where quite a few people from the ship had gone too and had good reviews.

 

Now to my admittedly limited knowledge of massage therapy the purpose of the therapy is to relax you. Well when the little 90 pound lady  started working on the knotted muscles from the day before it made time stand still as agony wracked my mind. The foot massage afterwards didn’t make things any different as the muscles screamed as they were kneaded. I will have to admit that I walked better afterwards.

 

We continued our exploration of the city and stopped by the water front to take pictures. My liberty buddy had stopped by a good restaurant a couple days before so when the owner inquired if we wanted to eat there we said yes. The food was great, my liberty buddy had crab and I had some rack of lamb and for dessert I had some terrorisme. During our meal we were constantly bugged by hawkers trying to sell sunglasses, pens, watches, and belts. It got to the point where I joked that the next time I saw them I would use the nut crackers they gave us for the crab.

 

Continuing our meandering we found another mall that we had a great time exploring. It seemed that anything electronic you wanted could be found here and it was funny to find a store that sold kids toys and weapons at the same time. Went to the top floor to find that on both sides of the floor there were arcades. These guys really like their karaoke because half of both arcades were taken up by the song booths.

 

Had a great time despite the soreness of the hike and I truly do hope to attempt Mt. Kinabalu again, only this time reach the summit. The people were friendly and the surroundings were interesting, all and all a very enjoyable experiance.

I'm off to climb Mount Kinabalu, wish me luck!