8.30.2008

Dealing With Lower Beings

Most people who know me know I'm really laid back. At the same time I'm also high strung. But let's keep with the laid back trait for now.

I'm quite spontanious but at the same time, if I am given some time to think things through, I analize the best way to go over something, or how I should handle something. I have a very active mind and it races all the time if I am given an opportunity to sit and think about it.

So anyway, most of the time I sit back and listen and observe whats going on around me. I do that a lot in my job when I am talking to the Lower Beings (I have to speak in code when I talk about my job, notice that?) and sometimes they will say something to me and it catches me off guard and because I'm so laid back I don't handle it right then and there, but I will get some time to think about it and I'll chew them out the next day when i see them.

I would chew people out more often right then and there and let my high strung personality take over more often, but that is another story for later.

Such as the case with a certain person. I've taken ownership in a few people and have tried to help them when I'm not busy hunting down various items requested by others. Anyway, when they leave us because they can no longer train and they are getting processed out, we have to take them to another location who processes them out completely. The lower beings here have more freedoms, like surfing the internet watching tv and calling home daily, as long as they behave themselves. When I dropped off a few people, the people improcessing them are chilling, and I'm kind of in chill mode too.

The problem is, as I mentioned before when i talked about how easy it is to find me on the internet, one of them did.

More aptly, he found my Myspace page. I don't use Myspace all that often, mostly its a good way to keep in contact with people I haven't seen in years, and I'll find them on programs like Myspace and Facebook. But I'm not really big on using my Myspace page.

So this lower being decided that he would request to friend me through Myspace.

Wrong answer.

I even have a little disclaimer on my Myspace that tells lower beings not to contact or friend me until they are no longer in the status of Lower Beings or they get out completely. I messaged him back, told him he was still a Lower Being and not to contact me again and denied his friends request.

I went to this place today just to see who was still there and how they were doing, because we graduated the rest of our lower beings on Thursday. And i found out that this one individual who had requested to be my friend on myspace had been telling all of his 'buddies' that he knew me really well and we were talking all of the time and he showed them all my Myspace page.

This pissed me off.

I'll tell you why.

there is a reason that disclaimer is there. if a Lower Being is telling other Lower beings that me, a 'higher being' (because that is an acceptable analogy to use in this situation) is contacting them through electronic means (such as phone, internet, etc) and we are on friendly terms (and apparently he was suggesting we were more then just friends, and we knew each other before coming here, which is a lie), that could put me into some hot water. I could be placed under investigation and be removed from my job as a Hat. And I like my hat.

They brought him downstairs and one of my people told me later that he had never seen me that angry before when I chewed this person out. Later, during roll call, I was brought out in front of the entire troop and I publically humiliated this person for telling his buddies that I was his 'friend'. So it was quite clear we were not buddy buddy.

I nearly got into some hot water earlier in the cycle for somebody pranking me and telling me they were a 'lower being' through a text message and they had a cell phone. I pretty much told them that they were never to contact me again through that means. I then went through my chain and informed them what was happening so I didn't get in trouble for it.

This kind of thing gets me wired. I did mention I am high strung, right?

8.19.2008

Mexican Food

About a week ago, I was really craving some mexican food. The thing was, it was kind of late, I just wanted to spend a couple of bucks and get something quick and take it home with me.

I'm not much of a fast food eater, and I hadn't eaten some Taco Bell in some time. There is only two reasons why I eat at Taco Bell. It's cheap, and it's quick.

Or so I thought.

I went to Taco Bell and noticed the line of cars backed up and thought 'eh, I'll just go inside.' so I went inside and got in line.

Ten minutes passed. Maybe fifteen. It was a while before I even got to ordering my food. I didn't really even think about it. For some reason, if I don't have someplace to be (which is usually RIGHT THEN) then I just turn off my brain and relax. Because most people who know me know I get really high strung when I need to be somewhere and have to wait around for a while. And I didn't really so much mind the wait to order my food right then, because it was an opportunity for me to just sit there and not think about anything for a bit.

So I ordered my food and sat down waiting to get it. There were about six other people waiting to get theirs too. We waited. And waited. And then I began to realize that we had waited for a while, especially when what appeared to be a mother of one of the patrons came in wondering why it was taking thirty minutes to get their food when she sent her son in to get it because it was to long to wait in the drive thru. apparently, they were pushing the drive thru people through and leaving us in the store to rot.

It took them 25 minutes from the time I ordered my food to actually get it.

And it wasn't even that good.

So it was cheap. I guess I got what I paid for, because it sure in hell wasn't quick.

I won't be going to Taco Bell again any time soon.

Meanwhile, a couple of days ago, again craving mexican, I decided to just take the time to go to a sit down place and order up some. I mean, if I have to wait for my food, I might as well enjoy it.

They sat me down and I ordered my food within three minutes. They had it out to me in another five. I was done eating and paying my bill in less time it took Taco Bell to give me my food. And I paid double what I paid over at Taco Hell, but the food was actually good. It wasn't like the slime they try to pass for cheese at Taco Bell.

Indeed, you get what you pay for. No, I won't be going to Taco Bell for a long time.

8.18.2008

8.16.2008

Google Me

I thought about the various ways to find somebody online recently, especially if somebody has the internet presence I have.

Or rather (fortunately) had at one time.

Yes, it is a good thing that I am not so prevalent on the internet, but I am not as easy to find on the internet as I once was.

So, because of the fact that some people may or may not try to find me, after this summer especially (for whatever reason, the largest being the fact that I take a lot of pictures and have had a lot of people asking about the pictures I take, to which I tell them to shut up), it just made me wonder how easy they could find me and email me. especially considering some people shouldn't be in contact with me in that matter.

So anyway, I looked at the various ways to contact myself. And how fast it took them to find this blog.

Google my first and Last Name: 7 out of ten links on the first page direct to me and various profiles of me on the internet. Several of the links in turn link to this blog. But no direct links. Hmm.

Google DS with my last name: Not on the first page at all. In fact, I don't show up in the first fifty hits. That's promising.

Google Drill Sergeant with my Last Name: Two hits, my milblog and indirectly, my LJ.

Google Risawn: Everything that hits is related to me. However nobody in the real world knows me as this.

So I am findable. But people have to work to find me. Unless they know my first and last name.

Promising indeed.

8.12.2008

Guys and Bikes

So, I'm a girl in a boy's club. I 'hang out' (i use that term loosely) with a bunch of guys. all the time.

Guys that are basically restricted on what they can and can not do, and what they can or cannot talk about. At least when i am present.

when I drive around (how did I get stuck on driving detail anyway? i'm a horrible driver), I've noticed that guys tend to notice something more then anything else.

you know, I would think it would be members of the opposite sex. But no, because I am there, they know they can't say anything about me, or anything about women in general because I might throw a boot up their ass, and I make myself as unflattering as I can be (I wear ACUs and not a lick of makeup) as I don't want to attract undesired attention (i still do). But I degress, I don't notice the guys noticing women, and if they do, they don't comment on it.

They comment on Motorcycles. And I swear every single one of them do it. They see a motorcycle, they check it out. they gawk at it. they comment how much they miss theirs. They rattle off the make and model of it from a two second glance. they spend the next couple minutes talking about motorcycles until I tell them to shut up.

I've discovered that guys like motorcycles. Now, this may have been a well known fact, and I knew some guys did like motorcycles, but I wasn't aware of how many of them were into them.

Or maybe I just hang out with the select few guys that do like bikes, and because I hear about bikes from them, it makes me assume that every one of them likes bikes.

Well, I do have a confession to make in regards to motorcycles. I have a fear of them.

It might be related to the fact that I burned my scrawny little leg on the exhaust of one when I was four years old and for some reason I have been traumatized by them ever since, but growing up, my dad (who has always wanted a harley) would take advantage of the opportunity if somebody let him ride their bike and would give us rides. I was an adventurous kid, I enjoyed adrenaline enduced activities such as this. Which made me wonder, when I was reluctant to get on the back of a motorcyle with my father, why I was this way.

Later I kind of linked that perhaps this traumatic event that happened to me when i was four psychologically scarred me to a point where I now don't like motorcycles, but i think I'm past that. Or at least, I would hope so.

I mean, I ran into a freakin' tree snowboarding and I will still get on a snowboard even though if I was going much faster at the time it could have very well killed me.

But with the economy and gas prices they way they have been, a part of me was thinking of getting something to commute on that would be quick and save me some gas money. I was thinking more along the lines of a scooter or something, but after a little research, I think in the long run a motorcycle might be funner.

The only problem is that in the long run, it might not save me much money. With the cost of insuring such a thing and the fact that it would undoubtedly kill me.

I am a huge klutz. But a part of me is intrigued with the notion of getting over this fear of Motorcycles. If I stay here for any longer for whatever reason, I may even consider buying one.

So, is it anything like riding a bike?

8.10.2008

My Dilemma

So I have reached a dilemma in regards to my forever incompatibility with my service in the military. that would be my hair.

I don't want to cut it ultra short, I did that once and liked it, but then I had to live with the pain of trying to grow it out to a length I actually liked. But I like it long.

the problem is that I have to keep it off my collar in a bun at all times whenever I am in uniform. And I'm a blonde, so i got the thin wispy blonde hair that breaks off. I shed like a cat. I brush my hair and it falls out in clumps.

guys don't have this dilemma, because they just shave it off and are done with it. I would look weird with a shaved head. And I would probably get my ass reamed.

But now I'm wondering if I should cut it or not, or should I wait until I get back home to cut it? Granted, while its long, and if I can wake myself up early enough to use plenty of hair goop to keep it in place, it stays cooler when its off the neck, and I'm thinking about cutting it short enough so that I don't have to wear it up and can leave it down.

Hmm. . .


this is the current length, taken by myself because when anybody takes pictures around here of anybody else, it is usually me taking them. And I can't resist making faces at the camera whenever I take pictures of myself because i feel like a retard when i do it.


the standard bun, so my hair is pulled back it looks like this. Granted, this was one of the days I decided to forego hair goop and it stayed *reasonably* back, but a lot of time it just wants to fall out in clumps.

So the question is should I cut it short, or just suck it up and leave it? Not so short that I have a butch dyke appearance, but cut it above the collar and let it be?

and no, I don't wear a lick of make up. There is nobody here i want to look good for. I've been in trouble enough for me to make appearances worse then they already are.

Anyway, this is about what I look like on any given day. I can't get creative with my appearance because I wear the same thing every day, and I don't want to attract any more attention then a short blonde female hanging around a bunch of guys attracts already. I fear i stick out a bit much already.

Not to mention i have a hat that nobody here sees regularly, which might as well be a flashing beacon yelling 'look at me!'

In other news, I'm the thinnest now then I have ever been in my adult life. It would be a good thing if I was actually maintaining it by working out regularly. No, I just don't eat that much. somebody commented that i eat like a bird. I guess he was probably right.

8.04.2008

Creatures that Crawl

I may have mentioned once or twice that I like bugs, and I got this freakin' camera that's a monster and I got a Micro lens for it. meaning it can take pictures of things really up close.

I'm still working out the finer details of my micro (or is it macro? i forget) lens, and sometimes I get a little to close to my subject that only a portion of it comes out clear and the rest of it blurs, but it does take some fun pictures.

Several people have noticed my interest in taking pictures of bugs and commented on it. But a lot of people have also noticed that i lug around a massive camera. Well, since I've been here, I've been one to take pictures of various things. I don't always have a lot of time to blog about them however.

CICADAS


These are quite possibly some of the most interesting bugs you'll find around. They only come out ever seven years or so, and they are in mass for about three weeks. They live underground in the larvae stage and come out after seven years, celebrate by mating and then they die.

They are also very noisy, swarm in trees, and they are freakin' huge.



They also have this habit of flying around and landing on you, and just hanging out for a while until you notice that they are there. Like this one that landed on my camera strap and just hung out.



I thought he was pretty cool so I allowed him to crawl on my finger and tried to get some shots of him up close.



Until I realized that there was a pinching sensation and noticed his probiscus was starting to dig into my skin. I got a serious case of the willies and that sucker went flying as I flung him off my finger as quickly as I could.

Sometimes bugs do give me the eebie jeebies.

my Roommate


Actually, I haven't seen my roommate in a while, but I saw him crawling around by the window and couldn't resist getting some pictures of him. He's not very big, so I had to zoom in close, so I got a lot of pictures that blurred him a bit.



I tried several shots of this guy with and without the flash, some turned out, others not so much.



I'm not exactly certain why Spiders don't creep me out like they do other people, though I admit I wouldn't want a run in with a brown recluse. But this guy just looked cool to me, with his hairy legs and all. I think he's kind of cute. For a spider at least.

If spiders could be described as cute.



Granted, i don't think I would want to cuddle with him.

Finding Crawlies


I saw this guy wandering around on a plant when i went for a hike a couple months back (before we picked up a cycle) and saw a bunch of bugs, including this guy, who I wanted to get some pictures of so I let him crawl around on my arm as I tried to get pictures of him. I kind of like the look of him with my watch blurred out. You can even make out the date this photo was taken.



Plus the time I went on my little hike to take nature pics. Yay for nature pics.



These little green bugs would just jump every which way before I could get my shot. So I had to sneak up on this one.


I really like these uber blurred shots, but it is really hard to get these to turn out. This is one of my more successful close ups with bugs digging around in flowers. often times, if I leave the auto focus on, the camera will focus on anything but the topic I want it to focus on. Very frustrating when it does that.


You can't necessarily notice it from this pic, but this is a really small fly.


It was hard to get this one to turn out, because of the monochrome and lack of contrast, the moth just blends in with its surroundings. But I like how I appear to have caught it's attention to get it to look directly at me.

I've been taking quite a few pictures here (not all are of bugs, but some topics are quite annoying). It is not uncommon for me to snap four hundred pictures at one time. When i try to stay busy sometimes it is hard to get over where the action is and take some pictures, but sometimes you have to take a gob of pictures to see if you can get that one perfect shot.

though with bugs sometimes its hard to take that many pictures of a single subject. But I want to work on getting some more pics.

Maybe i can even get some with me in them? Hey, probably not.