Sunday, November 09, 2003

Last night, I attended a reunion party for the 3-15th Infantry with my dear friend Susan. The event was held at Ngala, which is a private game reserve co-owned by Fred Canaan, who was one of the officers I was with in Iraq. Fred had told all of us about Ngala while we were in Baghdad, but unfortunately for Fred, he didn't even come close to describing it. The reserve had several wild animals on display with their handlers, a troupe of african drummers and dancers, and a wonderful buffet-style feast. Susan was delighted by the animals, and we got to feed the giraffe by hand - what a beautiful animal! I really had a great time seeing everyone again, and I really felt at home again with the great folks of the 3-15. There were several speakers, including David Bloom's younger brother - it was truly a beautiful evening. I also was presented with a group photo of the 3-15 and had an opportunity to tell them how happy I was to be able to keep them in contact with their loved ones while we were in Iraq. It was very nice to have the chance to meet some of the people that were on the recieving end of the phone calls and emails I was able to provide for them.

Unfortunately, we had to leave to make the drive home to Hollywood, but Susan and I had a wonderful time and would like to thank the 3-15 Infantry for the honor of having been invited.

Again, I wish to thank all my brothers in the 3-15 for the honor of being able to attend your family reunion. I've posted a few pictures Susan and I took in a new gallery in the Iraq trip section.

Friday, October 24, 2003

Good news / Bad news - the good news is, I'm getting the truck painted soon. The bad news (and unwanted motivation behind this) is that I was in my first traffic accident, of course with the blue truck. I got caught with nowhere to go and changed lanes into an occurring accident - no, the tow truck wasn't really moving into the intersection - he was SKIDDING INTO THE CAR IN FRONT OF HIM. Shit. I was only doing 40 in a 45, but there were cars lined up on both sides of the lane I had just changed into and by the time I realized the tow truck (without lights) wasn't moving, I only had about 3 car lengths to stop. I bumped the Taurus that was on the tow truck at about 5 to 10 MPH. The truck has minor damage to it, the worst part is that the grille was damaged and it's the only part that's not being reproduced yet. I'm lined up with all the replacement parts, including a good used grille and should be starting to get it back together next week. There's a new gallery in the photo album with pictures of the damage and my progress in repairing it.

Monday, September 22, 2003

Hey - more wiring progress pics. I got roped into a 3 1/2 week job in Alaska - started as a 3-day job, ended up being a lot longer. I got home on Thursday and was scheduled to leave on Tuesday of the next week. I did a 3 day no-sleeper and got the truck running again, just in time to take it to Orlando to work on the Iraq / Bloom truck, which NBC just used again for the coverage of hurricane Irene. The parts we needed weren't there, so I had Norm help me put the new tailgate handle in so I can shave the tailgate. We didn't have any sheetmetal up there, so I'll have to make the filler later. I'm also going to re-do the dashboard so the gauges set into the dash, more like stock gauges. That's gonna take some time and engineering, but I should be able to get it done soon.

Here's a direct link to the new stuff: Click here

Almost forgot, in France right now - haven't seen much to take pictures of... Should be back at the end of September.

Thursday, July 31, 2003

I just added lots of photos of my "new" truck. They're in the gallery section under "blue truck". Go figure. I'm neck-deep in my little rewiring project on the truck still - I just couldn't get into the way that the engine and transmission cooling fans became intermittent on really hot days. Now, I'm really up the creek because it's turned into a pseudo-rebuild on the whole thing, but in the long run, I'll end up with a better setup and I'll be more familiar with how everything is on the truck. That last line is my little mantra right now - dammit, it's been nearly 3 weeks since I've heard that nasty huge engine make any noise, and I'm really getting tired of it. Oh well, I'll get it done sometime in the next week or two, and life will be good again...

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

Oh yeah, I also added lots of pictures of the new flooring at the house. I finally ripped out the nasty old carpet and put down wood flooring. My sister came out for a few days and re-decorated the whole joint, and it really looks nice now. Pics are in the house gallery. There's even one of Ed, the cat, in there.
Okay, I guess I'm through screwing around with this page for a while. I finally figured out how to re-locate the site into the correct directory, and it looks like the only thing I've lost is the original layout on this main page. I'll figure that out eventually, but it's a low priority right now. If you're wondering what's different, there should be a calendar on the right hand side of this blabbering, and an occasionally-updated "today in history" thingy above it. Well, they're gone. Tough for them...

I did finally add the pictures from the day I spent in London with my friends Howie and Pippa, doing the "tourist" thing - first chance I've had to do that in London. It made for a really long day, but we had a great time. Thanks again, Howie and Pippa.

I also have a few pictures of the new truck up. I'll take more eventually, but for now you'll have to settle for one rear fender and a few shots of a pretty dirty rear suspension.

Enjoy!

Jake

Wednesday, June 11, 2003

This should re-generate the page I accidentally deleted..

Or maybe not...
Going to be making some major changes today - if you can see this, consider yourself lucky. I'm going to attempt to move the whole site around to get rid of the annoying redirection page; the "this page has moved" thing... Hey, it was originally a test that worked a little too well. Now I gotta go clean up my own mess.

Monday, June 09, 2003

Okay, I finally took the time to figure out how to make the "original" blog web page work with the new layout. Don't ask unless you understand gibberish - it was pretty ugly to finally get working, but for now, it looks like it's okay. I can't guarantee that this means the page will change that often, or get updated more, but hey - at least I have the means to update it again quickly.

Having filed my disclaimer now, there should be some updates soon, because the Suburban got a new transmission, I got a new cat, the house got a new "fake" wood floor, and I'm also getting a new truck. I'll post more on all of those goodies soon.

Saturday, April 26, 2003

Well, after a mere 2, maybe 3 years total development / tinkering /
cussing, I've gotten the links page working correctly. I've been on a
streak with PHP lately, after getting the picture gallery figured out.
If you want to, you can add a link to the links page now. The server
will send you an email to confirm that you actually put the link on the
page, then you click on a confirmation link and the next time you visit
the page (or hit refresh), the new link will be there. Enjoy!

Saturday, April 19, 2003

I finally, after literally months of fooling with it, figured out the photo gallery program I wanted to use. I've re-done all the photos now, and the main gallery is located here. I also added a link to it at the top of the page here, and the category menus on the left now go directly to the main gallery of each section.

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Uploaded a video from the local Miramar NBC station. I had emailed it to everybody, but since you don't all work for my company, you couldn't see it on our network. Ooops..... The Video (11 Meg)

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Updated the blog on the Kuwait page again this morning. Things are getting ready to become REAL interesting here.

Thursday, March 06, 2003

Arrived in Kuwait City safely. I've updated my page on this trip once.

Saturday, March 01, 2003

Big news! I am going to be travelling to Kuwait on Monday, March 3rd to operate an antenna the company I work for has provided to a major US television network. There's not much there now, but I plan to try and maintain a weblog of the trip. It's located at: http://donttrythisathome.org/kuwait.html so you can check it out. I expect to be off-line for a while until I get the truck set back up after I arrive in Kuwait, but I will work on getting photos up as soon as I can.

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

Yeah! More cabinet pictures. Too tired to type - check 'em out...

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