Like most folks, we usually eat bananas in the morning, chopped up over cereal, or at night with ice cream. lol, if I was smart I’d just eat them alone with nothing else … but hey, I like ice cream. Jaiden actually does eat them pretty much by themselves. I put them in her cereal, but then she just picks through it, and takes out all the “a’nanas”.

Ana and I sometimes get into a minor disagreement about just how ripe a banana should be. She wants to buy them, and sometimes even eat them, when they’re still green. Whereas to me, that one you see up above, nice and yellow with some brown spots on the outside, is just about perfect.

One thing I can all but guarantee … no matter how ripe it gets, if there’s only one left, someone will end up eating that last banana.

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Start Rant

Seriously folks, it’s a FREE site, and it’s on the Internet. And really, who, in 2010, is actually naive enough to think that Anything they put on the Internet is really “private”?

As for me ….

But since, generally speaking, I Do want people to know what I think, and what I do, I have no problem with the fact that my status updates on Facebook are now searchable by the entire Internet. In fact, truth be told, I think it’s good.

I’m a marketer. One of the reasons I jump on the computer every day is that I want to meet, and connect with, interesting new people. The easier it is for them to find, and learn about me, the better.

Which is why, to me, one of the strangest things about this whole “controversy” is that many of my marketing friends are some of the people throwing the biggest hissy fits about facebook’s privacy settings. I honestly don’t understand?

Facebook Instant Personalization Pilot Program

I also have no problem with the idea that if I visit a site on the Internet, while I’m logged into my facebook account, and they have access to my facebook interests, they might use that information to present me with more relevant advertisements.

If these sites are going to show me ads anyway, why wouldn’t I want to see something I might actually be interested in?

What, am I afraid I might be more likely to buy something if the ads are relevant to me?

If you really need privacy on a network …

Here’s the cold hard truth: if you really need a “private” place to interact and share with your friends and family, Facebook (or any other “free” social networking site, for that matter) is probably NOT a good option for you.

Here’s what I’d do if I wanted to set up a (theoretically) private network online …

1. I’d buy my own web hosting account (you can find them for $10 or less a month)

2. I’d install either wordpress with the buddypress plugin, or I’d use a free message board script such as phpBB or SMF (which can be installed with one click via fantastico).

3. I’d password protect the directory, and just for good measure upload a robot.txt file with “User-agent: *
   Disallow: /”

4. I’d invite (and give the password to) only the people that I want to share my stuff with

This is probably a workable solution. But, it’s not terribly easy, and it’s not free. Plus, honestly, how many of my friends are really going to take the time to read and/or post anything on “Todd’s private network” anyway?

Bottom line, if you want to network online (especially when using a “free” site) you should expect that your information will be shared with others; and that the site will try to monetize your content and information in some way.

If either of those prospects are unacceptable to you, I’m sorry but you really shouldn’t sign up for the “free” sites in the first place.

Thought to remember:

On the Internet (actually really in life) “free” is almost never actually FREE

End Rant

Til next time …

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Every time Ana and I drive past this place, when just shake our heads. It seems like such and odd concept.

Then again, I suppose that if you have no money, and bad credit, but need your car to get to work, it’s probably good that an option like this is available.

It just seems a shame that the reality in our country is that the less money you have, the more things tend to cost. (I would imagine that even people who end up owning their tires from a place like this ultimately pay 2-3 times what the tire would cost at normal retail).

This isn’t the only example …

This afternoon on the radio, I heard one of those ads for a computer, with no credit check … just proof of a job. I didn’t listen close, but I think you pay something like $75-$100 a month, for about 2 years! And I may just be cynical, but somehow I doubt you’re getting a high end gaming computer for that price … more like a system that could be picked up at any Walmart for a couple hundred bucks.

And then finally, as I’ve written, I’m currently looking for a used car.

Fortunately, I have good credit, so was able to get a guaranteed loan from USAA should I choose to buy something that costs more than the amount of cash I have to spend. But in my search, I’ve also noticed how many of the local dealership almost seem to take advantage of the young soldiers here on Fort Hood.

There are many ads that promise automatic approval for any military member E-2 and above. But then want $2000-3000 down payment, and $250-300 a month (for 18-36 months) … and these aren’t new cars … in many cases, these “deals” are for cars as much as 10 or 12 years old.

I’m not even sure why I’m ranting about this. In one way it doesn’t really seem fair. But then again, I guess if there is no other way to obtain something that you need (like a car, or tires), over-paying might actually be preferable to not being able to have it at all.

I guess I’m just thankful that I’m not in that boat anymore. I did do credit counseling once, and didn’t use a credit card for almost 6 years. Fortunately, I chose to actually pay off all of my debts, rather than declare bankruptcy (which a lawyer actually advised me might be in my best interest right as I was getting divorced from my first wife). I’m glad that was advice I chose to ignore.

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I’m back in Texas, and it’s spring time, so that means I expect to get some pretty decent thunderstorm pictures over the next month or two. Unfortunately, today wasn’t one of those opportunities. Ok, maybe unfortunately isn’t quite the right word. Severe weather is only “cool” when I’m taking pictures of it. If people get hurt, or their property gets damaged, it’s very much not a good thing.

During the daylight hours yesterday, most of the more intense thunderstorms stayed pretty well off to our east; although, we were in the tornado watch box from about 6pm until after midnight. The picture above is of the park out behind my house just before the sun was going down. You can see some storms off in the distance, but for the most part the atmosphere over us was still somewhat “capped“.

We did actually get a pretty intense line of thunderstorms move over us from the west latter on, right before I went to bed. The lightning show was pretty good, but my tripod was still in a closet, buried behind a bunch of other stuff, so I couldn’t be bothered to dig it out. Next time I’ll be a little better prepared.

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I just got back from picking up my replacement at the terminal. I still have about week left here, and about 2 weeks until I actually get home. But, I figured since I moved over to a temporary room, it’s probably time to pull out my bags and start getting organized for the trip home.

Fortunately, I don’t have too much stuff … but even the little I have seems like too much … I almost wish I could just leave it all here, and simply get new stuff when I get home. It’s all good though.

You know what, it’s 2am, so I think we’re just going to make this a very short post tonight.

Happy Friday to you!

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Ask anybody in the military, especially those who are deployed, what they think about the reflective pt belt, and you will more likely than not be greeted by rolled eyes at best; or quite possibly a full fledged rant.

Here’s the rule …

Anytime it’s dark, and/or low visibility, you MUST wear your reflective belt at all times.

I’m all about safety, and being a good SNCO, I’m not going to publicly mock leadership decisions.

For people who are running and walking on the roads at night, that reflective belt could very well end up being a life saver … the important (you’re not dead) type … not the candy.

I think what inspires the mocking though, is the way that the rules are sometimes enforced.

For instance …

The Army guys may very well be denied entry to the DFAC (dining facility for you non-military types), if they show up without their PT Belt.

Guess what happens?

They’re sent back, into the dark, to go get their belt ????

The Air Force isn’t much better …

Lately they’ve been doing ID and PT Belt checks as we enter the Bedrock living area. Again, I’m not mocking the rules, but I do always get a chuckle when I think about the fact that I have to have my reflective belt on in the CHU area (where there are no cars) … I guess they’re worried that somebody walking too fast might run into me?

I could go on …

But if you want more examples, there are actually entire facebook pages devoted just to the subject of the reflective PT belt:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/PT-Belt/128337356482

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Reflective-PT-Belt/334842867006

Enjoy!

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This was my second time here in Iraq … and very likely my last. A couple of weeks ago, I was working pretty hard doing 12 hour shifts. The Iraqis were having an election, and since the American military is still here, we were providing support. Especially compared to the last election they had, a few years back, March 7th was relatively successful and smooth.

Today, the finally released the results …

And, it looks like it’s just about a tie; with the former Prime Minister Allawi’s faction ending up with 2 more seat’s than current Prime Minister Maliki, with Al-Sadr’s party not too far behind. This being a parliamentary system, they will now have to find a way to build big enough coalitions to be able to form a government … which may not be easy. It could be an interesting couple of months this spring.

Either way, I don’t think that any of the parties will be very interested in having American troops stay past the 2012 date in the SOFA. (purely my opinion, I have no particular insight and/or expertise in this area, so take it with a grain of salt)

I am a little bit insulated from what’s actually going on here in Iraq, since I don’t go off the FOB. So really, I get most of my information from the news, just like I would back in the States. If you’re wanting to know what some of the real Iraqi people think, I did find this article from the NYT: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/iraqi-election-results-reactions-from-around-iraq/

Anyhow, this announcement seemed like a good excuse to take another flag picture (above) for my project365 … I got both the Iraq flag, and Old Glory in this one.

And on that note, I’m off to bed … hope you’re having a great start to the weekend!

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So I found this little beach ball globe in our back room when we were cleaning it out yesterday, and got the idea that it might make for a pretty cool picture. I may actually do something like this again in the future, when I have bit more time to set things up … but for now, I think it came out about like I’d expected.

And as a “bonus”, now I have that song I remember from when I was a kid stuck in my head:

He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands

He’s got the itty bitty baby in His hands
He’s got the itty bitty baby in His hands
He’s got the itty bitty baby in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands

He’s got a-you and me brother in His hands
He’s got a-you and me brother in His hands
He’s got a-you and me brother in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands

He’s got a-you and me sister in His hands
He’s got a-you and me sister in His hands
He’s got a-you and me sister in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands

He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands

… probably be singing that one to myself for days.

I’m not sure exactly what the meaning behind the song is. But it kind of makes me smile, so I suppose there’s worse things that could get stuck in my head

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Every notice how pretty much everybody loves Lady Bugs? We pick them up, we let them crawl all over us, we take pictures of them … Heck, we even make jewelry designed in their image. But man, let some people spot a cockroach, or even one of those rhino beetles; you know the ones with the big horns; and they about have a heart attack. What makes Lady Bugs so much better?

Even with little kids, there are certain bugs that just universally “good”. I know kids that are correctly scared of spiders, bees, and yes even the dreaded cockroach. But, introduce those same kids to a “rolly polly” and they’ll sit and play with the thing for an hour.

Even when I was here last time, we all briefed in advance about the dreaded “camel spider“; which, upon closer examination wasn’t really all that scary. It kind of reminded me of a beetle, with 4 pretty sharp pinchers on it’s front jaws. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t go around trying to pick one up and play with it … but at the same time, I never quite understood why people get so freaked out either.

Last, but not least, my favorite example of how we treat specific types of bugs in different ways …

Everybody Hates flies. They’re dirty, noisy, and just plain annoying (side note: the flies over here in Iraq are just down right “rude”. They don’t just buzz around your head, they think nothing of landing right on your nose, eyes or even mouth). Okay, back to the story.

But, make them a little bit colorful, extend the tail, make the wings bigger, and suddenly you have a “Dragon” Fly … which just like the lady bug, almost everybody seems to love.

Happy Thursday!

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Okay, I don’t know about “global” warming, but it’s definitely hotter than it’s supposed to be here in southern Iraq right now. I realize this is sort of a recurring theme. I know, it’s kind of like, “why is it hot?” … and Sam Kinison screams back at me “Because you’re in the F%&*@# desert !!!”

But seriously, according our (admittedly limited) climatology, the previous Record High for this month was only 99 degrees Fahrenheit. The official high temperature we recorded today was 104 … but our little hand held, sitting in the sun for about 10 minutes right outside our office showed a much more impressive (for purposes of my picture anyway) 110.8 degrees.

Either way, it’s just not normally supposed to be this hot, this soon!

Just to clarify though, lest someone accuse me of being a “global warming alarmist” … I am NOT at all trying to imply that just because it’s hotter than normal in one place, it somehow indicates that climate is also changing on a global scale. There are actually some indications that may be the case.

But for the purposes of this post, I just wanted to take picture of the Kestral 4000 indicating triple digit temps, and talk a little about the weather

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