World in Chaos

It's August 2014 and the world is in chaos.  Russia invading Ukraine, ISIS/L wreaking havoc in the middle east, China bolstering their military and starting an apparent arms race, EBOLA spreading like wildfire in Africa, and of course the continuing of the century old conflict in Israel and Gaza.

Now that the US Military is in full swing of it's downsizing mode, one would have to ask if the US is ready to respond to the next event?

Thumper Bio Monitor

Making a Biosphere monitor for Turtle Thumper.  Wanting to view Air & Water Temp as well as humidity.  Also plan on adding a pH probe and Salinity probe.

Depression IS an illness

News broke that Robin Williams had passed away, due to apparent suicide following severe depression. As the vast majority of people will likely have already said, this was terribly heart-breaking news. Such aniconic, talented and beloved figure will have no shortage of tributes paid to him and his incredible legacy. It’s also worth noting that Robin Williams was open about his mental health issues.

However, despite the tremendous amount of love and admiration for Williams being expressed pretty much everywhere right now, there are still those who can’t seem to resist the opportunity to criticise, as they do these days whenever a celebrated or successful person commits suicide. You may have come across this yourself; people who refer to the suicide as “selfish”. People will utter/post phrases such as “to do that to your family is just selfish”, or “to commit suicide when you’ve got so much going for you is pure selfishness”, or variations thereof.

If you are such a person who has expressed these views or similar for whatever reason, here’s why you’re wrong, or at the very least misinformed, and could be doing more harm in the long run.

Depression IS an illness

Depression, the clinical condition, could really use a different name. At present, the word “depressed” can be applied to both people who are a bit miserable and those with a genuine debilitating mood disorder. Ergo, it seems people are often very quick to dismiss depression as a minor, trivial concern. After all, everyone gets depressed now and again, don’t they? Don’t know why these people are complaining so much.

Soldier injured on duty, now not getting paid.

The ARMY’s Soldier Creed is full of tradition and values that have stood for centuries and are at the core of each and every soldier. One of lines in the creed states that “I will never leave a fallen comrade”, but it seems that the ARMY has forgotten about SGT Marc C. Daniel and his willingness to place the mission first. SGT Daniel is a 42 year old ARMY reservist assigned to the 1-382d LSB at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and is married with children at home. He was attending his annual two week training when tragedy hit.

Hair Pulling Arduino Error

So I have been building a new controller for our 16 foot Christmas Wreath and I was running into a huge issues that I never had before.

Proposed county sales tax would help out fire departments

Comanche County officials have a week left to convince residents to vote in favor of their proposed sales tax.

The money would go toward the rising costs of operating the county jail amongst other uses. The proposal would extend a current one-eighth cent tax and add another one-eighth to it. The sales tax doesn't just fund the jail, it's also crucial to keeping the 19 volunteer fire departments in the county running.

RACH Ambulance Wrecked By Drunk Driver

An early morning accident with a pickup and an ambulance has caused quite the traffic headache at the intersection of West Gore and North Sheridan Road.

Lawton Police Lt. John Schwenk said the accident occurred shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday when an ambulance traveling south on Sheridan Road was struck by a pickup, which had run the red light at Gore Boulevard.

Google Chrome on iOS 8 beta

So the list of apps that do not work with Apple's iOS 8 will I'm sure grow.  Here is what happens when you try and surf to google.com with Google Chrome.

Fidelity Communications increases speed of Internet

Fidelity Communications customers in Lawton will see increased Internet speeds at no additional charge beginning Monday, the company announced.

SharePoint in the Operating Room

Improving Patient Safety with a Proven Operating Company Model!

Introduction

TeamSTEPPS is a teamwork system designed for health care professionals that make it a powerful solution to improving patient safety and scientifically rooted in more than 20 years of research and lessons from the application of teamwork principles.  MEDCOM continues to roll out TeamSTEPPS Army wide.  SharePoint is an off the shelf collaboration tool that D0D and the Army has used for over 12 years with mixed results.  SharePoint is largely being used as a tool to store documents.  SharePoint has the ability to be used for a much wider variety of ways such as collection of data for quality control and process improvement.  Integrating SharePoint into hospital everyday practices would allow for improved patient safety, fewer delays, and increased utilization all while saving countless tax payer dollars.  Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC) is using a postoperative team assessment for over five years now. The success of this assessment tool was published in the Journal of Surgical Research on January of 2013.  The article clearly shows success and a clear value of this assessment tool. The tool has been implemented to over 10 military treatment facilities (MTF’s) Army-wide., to include Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston and Tripler Army Medical Center at Honolulu, Hawaii.

Lawton Police, still not fixed and same old problems.

It was nine months ago that my van was stolen, and had to rely solely on the media to force Lawton Police Department into doing their job.  Everyone would agree, a very easy job at that, with video evidence and countless people coming forward to identify the person.  It took LPD over 12 days to get a warrant, and over 25 days to apprehend the suspect. I finally met with Bryan Long, Lawton’s City Manager and Chief Smith of LPD on December 31, 2013 and explained my frustrations and we all agreed that there was some miscommunication and more could have been done. I thought I was done with it, but just last weekend several of my neighbors cars were broken into and items stolen, to include one of my vehicles.  Again I captured video, informed the neighbors, and we all filed police reports.  Over 10 days have gone by with zero contact from the LPD’s Criminal Investigation Department. Refusing to look at possible evidence, whether it's good or not, is completely unacceptable. It would appear that LPD only seems to care about shootings, stabbings, or drugs.  Maybe this is why crime is so high in Lawton.  So with LPD only going after the bigger cases, this leave Lawton at a free for all with other “Smaller” crimes such as burglary, auto theft, and assault. Since January 1^st, there has been over 950 reports for burglary & theft, 65 automobiles stolen, over 420 assaults reported, 194 reports of property crime.  The citizens of Lawton are fed up with the crime and want to see it decrease. Granted, LPD is underfunded and under staffed.  But I have yet to see any request for more money or personnel be brought to the people.  I am willing to bet that if an appropriate tax was brought in front of the people it would pass.  So to Chief Smith and City Manager Long, we are sick and tired of the crime, why aren't you?  Give us something we can vote for to help LPD.

Iran Building a Mock U.S. Carrier!

Iran is building a nonworking mock-up of an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that United States officials say may be intended to be blown up for propaganda value.

Why Do People Hate SharePoint?

People who know me, know that I love SharePoint.  But if you ask the majority of the people in the Army, you will hear quite the opposite!  Typically users don’t love SharePoint, especially when forced to use it, many will openly admit their hate and distant of SharePoint. Why’s that?

Values In A Job

Through out my life I have acquired a set of values, beliefs, and ideas that have become important to me.  In order for me to be happy, successful, and gratifying I have had to act on these values. Occasionally taking a look my values and taking them into account when I am unhappy, desire more money, or even when offered a change in my career path.

Reflecting on my values has been the most important factor that determines what direction I take to be satisfied with that aspect of my career.  My work values are both intrinsic, relating to the actual tasks involved in practicing a particular occupation, and relating to the by-products of an occupation.

Fidelity's Reply

I received a reply to my letter from one of the owners of Fidelity Communications, Mr. Mike Davis.

Fidelity Communications

I am fed up with the internet company here in Lawton, I've been dealing with this since Sept 11th, 2012.  So my final attempt is to write a letter to the President, CEO, CFO, and the rest of the board.  We'll see what Happens!

Leave Me Alone!!

I have been flooded with telemarketer calls from “Credit Card Services” for the last 2 months.  I am getting as many as three calls a day from these people. The sad thing is that they are using so many different numbers, it’s hard to figure out if the call is legit or a spammer.  If you call the number back, you hear a recording that the number has been disconnected.  I have had my cell number for over ten years now and don’t plan on giving it up, but I am becoming more frustrated with this.  I am on the national “Do Not Call” list, and reregister every January to ensure my numbers are on the list.

I have filed a complaint with the FCC and FTC, but likely nothing will happen.  So I am left with these stupid calls.  I can block the number on my iPhone, and have done so, but they keep calling from other numbers now…

Here is a list of known SPAMMERS that have called me:

• 703-844-6828 (VA)


• 320-515-8730 (MN)


• 620-504-7452 (AZ)


• 609-624-5231 (NJ)


• 406-980-2030 (MT)


• 631-665-8769 (NY)


• 503-543-5471 (OR)


• 517-641-0982 (MI)