My Greek Olympics: More work

Working with Rick and Eric:

Now that David and Vic were gone, Rick and Eric were the ETeam experts. I had them and the other ETeam crew members at the MOC. Eric was doing everything he could to make SAIC happy and Rick did his "I know everything" act. I got along good with Rick and I knew Eric from previous work. I warned them not to go beyond their contract, but Eric wanted to do a lot more. This set them up for problems down the road, but at the time they happily went along with everything asked. I spent a lot of time with Rick, since he was working with the customer mostly and I had to as well.

Some of the ETeam crew were screw offs and I didn't quite know what they did half the time. They were to help with the customer, yet hardly ever went anywhere. Also some of them complained about living arrangements, but this was an ETeam issue. ETeam was asked to do a lot, since the IET was fast approaching and nothing was working.

Rick liked to have a good time and was somewhat like David, he liked to drink and eat and hangout with his little group around him. Rick made good friends with the police guys and talked them into a lot of stuff, but he didn't hold a firm line with SAIC shitheads. Jesus and the Vampire manipulated them to do things and it would come back to bite them at IET time.

Lunch:

One day we invited Stavroula, Alex and Sophia to lunch at the noodle bar. So we all walked to the place, about a 10 minute walk and we went in. Stavroula and Sophia hadn't had noodles like this before, so we helped them decide on what to order. When the food came, we all had a good time watching Stavroula try to eat with chop sticks. We knew what to order so it was easy for us, but the others had to look for something to get. It was fun to watch and we gave encouragement. We paid for them and they all said that it was very expensive. We didn't think much of the 6 euros per plate, but for them I can see why they thought it was so expensive. With a salary of just 1000 euros a month, 6 euros on lunch a day was a lot.

On another day, I took Stavroula to Poliathina for lunch. It was expense too, but I liked the place and I always got good service. I ordered grilled sardines and took my time eating them. Stavroula said I spend too much money on lunch and that she would take me to a place for lunch that she goes to. All the staff at the place run around and gives us great service while the other people are left waiting as we get our food first. A few days later we go to a place that makes crepes and we get a ham and cheese crepe, a big one like a quesadilla. It was good and only cost a Euro, so I could see why she would go there. 

Fire Bombs at the bank:

One night, the whole gang of ETeam and 'the good guys' went to dinner in the Adrianou square area. We went to the place that had OK food and served a cheese stuffed squid and it also had a night club inside which would get crowded. It was an average night and as we walked back to the annex, we heard a couple of bangs. I didn't think much of them but as we went around a corner onto Pandrosou street, we could see a fire burning in an alley. I went around the building and could see three fires burning at three different banks, one in an ATM vestibule and the others on the ATMs in the street.

This was an anarchist attack on the banks. It is a common occurrence actually and I wanted to see how it was handled. I waited and finally a cop showed up and looked around, he didn't ask anything of anyone. I could see the fire brigade trucks coming down the street, but they were blocked by cars and since this was Athens, no one moved for them. I stood there for about thirty minutes and watched the fire and police guys do their thing. Just an average day, no one ever asked me if I saw something or to step away. I stood and saw how they handled the incident. If it was here, the FBI would show up and it would be a big deal, attacking a back is a federal offense, not in Greece.

Sushi:

On Apollonius Street, at the end, there was a Japanese place that had Sushi. It wasn't bad and since it was one of the only places in town that we knew of that had sushi, we ate there from time to time. The place was small and the guy who owned it wasn't very friendly. We would do as we said "channel Semos" and order a bunch of food. Soup, platters of sushi, fried things, what ever we wanted. We would eat until we were stuffed, it was expensive, but once or twice a month it was worth it.

The noodle bar down the street would fill in and they would be a cheaper alternative to sushi. A bowl of noodles and a beer would be about 10 Euro compared to 25 at the sushi place. I could always count on the noodle bar and I would go there for lunch once in a while. Once while I was eating, I met Ari and the prime ministers brother, who were eating there and talking business.

I had to spend time at the Fire Brigade center which they were still building the place so we had to deal with the construction. Some times the power would go out or the stairs would be blocked by garbage. We would have to move from room to room as they worked on finishing the place. The daily operations were still going on in the old part of the building, soon they would move up to the new offices.

My Greek Olympics:Before the IET2

SAIC CEO:

Finally the CEO was coming, we had been trying to get Byster to come, but he never did. Now we had a new CEO, Dahlberg, and he was coming to meet the Greeks and the crew. The Greeks thought it was not nice for him not to come and met the customer, the Greeks are into the personnel relationship and having the CEO not come was an insult. So on the big day, every one at the Regis Office in Marousi was excited and running around like little children. I was at the MOC and would be listening in on the Telcon. So we dialed in and everyone was yakking away, then Shitsler speaks and everyone shuts up. He introduces Dahlberg and he speaks for a few minutes. The usual talk of 'how wonderful' a job we are doing and the other crap like that. I really didn't care about his trip and it would not effect me at all.

Then I get a call from TJ, he is bring the CEO to the MOC to get a quick demo of the system. I run down and tell all to clean the place up and get ready. George is there with me and when TJ arrives, I come down with George and meat the CEO. We do the introductions and I give a quick demo of ETeam on the video wall. It lasts about 10 minutes and they leave after he meets everyone. The next day on the Telcon everyone is still excited, I still don't care.

IET2 prep:

The run up to IET-2 was such a mess, nothing was working and Jesus and the Vampire kept me in the dark, plus I had to go to meetings all the time to see what was happening and what had changed behind my back. The scenario was going to be done by some SAIC guys who I knew from Salt Lake, they were OK guys and they did their own thing. I did have to go over their scenario because of the parts that I had to deal with. I spent a lot of time with the Greeks who would be the interpreters and facilitators.

I was going back and forth between the different command centers doing installs and updates. I would have to take the metro to one place, then taxi to another, then back on the metro to a third. I would have to get permission to go into some facilities and others I would just walk in. The military places were hard to get into, but once in I could go all over.

Most of the people we had trained didn't know what to do because they had practice with the system. I was also the video wall god and had to deal with issues at the centers. I seemed to be doing everything and the other shit head nothing. Minerva, who was working on the CCTV sub-system and Tetra radio system was suppose to help me with my work. She never seemed to do anything and always was going somewhere for vacation.

Ouzo:

I had started to drink Ouzo once I arrived, most people here drink it as a shot and it isn't very good that way. In Greece it is drunk with ice and a splash of water. It is very common to have a glass before dinner. The after dinner drink is Metaxas, which is like cognac but not quit as good. When ever I would go out with Dimitris or Alex, I always would get an Ouzo or in some case several.

ENC mess:

I dealt with this issue for a long time and had many meetings about the data. A requirement in the contract said we would provide a means to view data and ENC charts in the system, the problem was the Coast Guard wanted the data as well as the viewer. ENC are now commercially available and are used in GPS units. But the map data is expensive and to get data for the whole country would be very expensive. I was trying to work out a way to just provide a cheap means of showing data and the data could come from any source. I had several meetings with companies that supplied systems and data to many agencies. I tired to find a source of data we could use, but most had the data in a form which required special software.

It was painful to deal with this, Tryphon was always asking and I tried to explain it to him over and over. What was worse was when CG Stavroula would talk to me. She would look at me with her big eyes and kind of flirt or pout; it was like she was intimidating me with her looks. Even though I liked her, I didn't want to have to deal with her in the meetings or else where.

AVL meeting:

I had Danny sit in on a meeting with the Police because I had to start working on the AVL interface and look at how we would make the system work. One of the biggest problems with the AVL system, even though we were using a commercial system, was we couldn't seem to get it to integrate. All I needed to do for my sub-systems was demonstrate it, sounds easy but the committee was causing problems all the time.

I had Danny talk to the Police and he did a good job smoothing things, but the Police officers didn't want to be tracked and they would disable the system by simple ways of interfering with the antenna. I was trying to work with a few other SAIC people, but they never helped or lifted a finger to do anything. Even though it wasn't totally my system, I would have to deal with the issues by myself half the time. I never seemed to get the support that I needed and I was always running in circles because of it.

http://youtu.be/430ykbW1zqA

A really cool video from space. Look at the stars and look for familular constelations.

YU55 Asteroid

The last time a space rock this large came as close to Earth was in 1976 so having YU55 pass by is a little bit of a news event. As of today, the asteroid has safely past, of course if it didn't we would all know about it...
The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) as measured from the center of Earth, or about 0.85 times the distance from the moon to Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on Earth, including tides and tectonic plates. Although the asteroid is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth, Venus and Mars, the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest it has come for at least the last 200 years.
NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes some of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

Thinking about Time.

As I do from time to time, I was thinking about scientific theory and was just running through my head what ‘time’ really is. It is said to be a fourth dimension, like the familiar 3 (up, down; forwards, back; side to side). These 3 dimensions are all 90 degrees to each other, think of a cube where the corners meet. The fourth dimensions would be 90 degrees to all three other dimensions, if you have a cube try to create it by trying to put a fourth line that is 90 degrees to the other three (it can’t be done). But that would be a fourth dimension and this is what time is supposed to be.

The thing is that Time is said to always be moving forwards like water in a river flowing. I don’t think this is right, I would say Time is like an ocean and we are floating in it, under ‘water’, completely surrounded by this “water time’. We move with it, it moves around us but stays with us. What is really the ‘passing of time’ is the changes and interaction of the ‘water time’ with us. It is always changing and this change is what is what we perceive as the moving of time. There is no past or future or present, time does not pass.

We think of time as the ticking of a clock, but that is a man made property, there are no clocks in the universe, though some people would say that the spinning of certain particles or decay of certain atoms are natural clocks. I still say no, we find something that fits our need and call it a clock, nature does not care, only man would care. So Time is this dimension that surrounds us, surrounds everything, and fills the universe. Planets, stars, galaxies and everything else in the universe displace Time. This effects the property of Time, time wants to be uniform but the matter causes changes in the consistency of Time. This is what we perceive as the Einstein effects on space/time as described in his theory.   

I will write more about this......

The world today...

There are some crazy people in this world… I heard that some people think that the Earth will pop, yes pop like a balloon. The Earth will expand and the crust will crack, the oceans will pour into the center and the Earth will break into many little chunks. Is this the effect of our dumb-down education system? I really worry sometimes as to the future of this country, maybe it is a plot to over through the government by making the people so stupid that they vote in people who are destroying the country. I saw a video clip from the 50’s, people seemed in general so much smarter, they wanted to be smart and know the latest scientific news. People stood in line to read a posting of math equations. Today people just sit and stare at their little screen while listening to noise. People don't think, they just read what the little screen tells them. It is a form a mind control, post something and people will believe it no matter how crazy it is because they read it on line.

Greek Festival in Portland

A week ago there was a major festival at a local Greek church. This was the 75th year and everyone said it was such a great thing. Since I lived in Greece for a few years and really loved the culture and food, I had to go and see what they offered. I drove out to east Portland on a somewhat rainy Saturday. I was lucky to find a parking spot on the area around the church, it was filled with cars. I parked and walked a few blocks to the church. As I walked up there were people all over sitting and eating. That seemed to be the thing to do. I walked in and found that you had to buy "Talons" or money to use to get anything. Well I kind of was wondering about that, the Greeks used Drachma as currency, I thought Talon were Romam... Well I got $20 worth and walked over to the area where they were selling Gyro and Kabobs. I got two gyro and paid the $10. What I got was a fake peta type bread and one slice of that pressed meat, a big glob of something that I don't know what it was, some kind of sauce though it wasn't Greek. And a few onions slices on to to finish it, it was crap. One bit and I wanted to spit it out. It wasn't Greek at all, it was what the Greek would say Malacca's! Shit. that is what it was, American food with a Greek name. I tossed the other one and went to the beer tent, they only had American beer, what is up with that??? Not even trying to have Greek beer. This is what the Greeks say, American Greeks are not Greek, they are not even worth calling Greek. I have to agree, they know nothing of what Greece is all about. They are tourist who go and look around and are happy to leave. The one thing I thought they couldn't screw up was coffee.the Greek coffee is a strong  boiled brew, but it is easy to make. Unless you are American Greek, it was crap like everything else. I left after 20 minutes, what a waste of time and money.

A day drive to Hood River.

It is Sunday and I wanted to get out of town and see something different. I gassed up the car and headed to Hood River which is on the Columbia River about 60 miles east of Portland. I had wanted to do other things today but they never materialized so I just headed out on my own.

 Hood River is an easy one hours drive no the Oregon side, but I crossed the river and drove over on the Washington side of the river. It is slower but a lot less traffic and you see more. After about 1 1/2 hours I crossed the river again and entered the town of Hood River. It was over cast and there was some rain so it wasn't great weather, but it is typical of this time of year.

Hood River is a small town with a main drag and some shops and places to hangout in. It is a great spot to wind surf or Kite Board plus it is a jumping off point to Mt Hood. It is not ski season yet so there wasn't a big crowd in town, just some older people wandering and the local young kids hanging out with nothing to do.

 I went into a coffee shop and had lunch, just relaxed for a bit. The town is not a wild place so the pace of life is slow. After I ate I wondered around and looked in a few shops, They have a lot of windsurf and ski shops, plus mountain bike places as well. I spent about two hours there then decided to head back to Portland.

The drive this time was on the south side and it was much faster, the speed limit is 65 which means people drive 75. The north side limit is only 55 so it is slower and more windy of a road.

Reallity

The other day I was reading a book on education that quoted Edward Said: "Facts do not at all speak for themselves, but require a socially acceptable narrative to absorb, sustain and circulate them." The less people are interested in reality, the more they will be indifferent to becoming untethered from it.

In some circles, people charged with describing and increasing our knowledge of reality are dismissed as "elitists." That's probably an accurate description. They know more than most people about a given subject, they have thought about it longer and more deeply, and they are dismissive of those who believe in green cheese and in brownies at the bottom of the garden.

Myself, I think we need elitists. When I get surgery - nothing I'm planning on - I want my doctor to be an elitist. I want him to have graduated at the top of his class from a fine school. If he has a couple of extra degrees, swell. I don't want a doctor who complains about "elite doctors" and how the medical profession stabbed him in the back.

Of course, these things happen. Doctors have believed all sorts of garbage in the course of their history as a profession. They didn't really have the diagnostic tools or the knowledge. Now they have more of both. They don't know everything about diabetes, but they know enough to give you better advice than the guy who works behind the counter at the 7-Eleven.

Maybe it's my age, but it seems as if there's more ignorance around than there used to be. Not stupidity - the stupidity quotient has been pretty steady. But more people are getting permission from their thought leaders to ignore what we know and base their actions on what they believe.

Faith-based, they call it. God will make it better because God makes things better. That hypothesis will be tested in the next decade, I believe. My reality-based perspective suggests that people may make things better, but probably they will screw them up. It's a crapshoot, at the very least.

But still, through all the nonsense and wrong turns, we have arrived at pretty good guesses about a lot of things. We have dropped an apple and, a thousand times out of a thousand, the apple has fallen to Earth. We feel confident in predicting that will happen the next time. So far, that fact does not need to be guarded and contextualized, but a lot of other ones do.

Did you see Sarah Palin trying to describe the ride of Paul Revere? It was deeply embarrassing, not so much for her - she went past embarrassment on the great fame highway about two years ago - as for the people who support her, many of whom, I'm betting, actually know the legend of Paul Revere.

The facts about the ride would be better, but those really aren't that well known. But at least give us an ungarbled version of the legend.

The Longfellow poem is the legend. People know the Longfellow poem, which is famously memorable (although not quite as earwormy as some selections from the work of Robert W. Service), so they know that the signal was lights in the Old North Church - one if by land, two if by sea. The British came by land. Palin somehow got the lights confused with bells (the church-steeple problem is my guess) and additionally said that Revere was warning the British that they couldn't take our guns away.

Well, no, he wasn't. What's more, when you watch Palin on tape, you can see that she's just throwing the bull, like a high school sophomore who hasn't read the assignment. It's pathetic. You don't have to know the poem, or even the real story - you just have to say, sorry, I don't know that tale very well.

That's the thing about the New Ignorance - it pretends to be the new knowledge. And those of us with passing knowledge of the facts, those of us who have read, perhaps, books by contemporary historians of the Revolutionary War, know that there are real facts to be gathered and laid out.

Notice I didn't say truth. We are not in a battle over truth, because the world is so marvelously complex and wondrous that the truth is hard to find. Paul Revere took some secrets to the grave; perhaps you yourself will take secrets to the grave. But the no-longer-secret things, the baseline of knowledge that we have agreed to accept so we can move on to the next discovery: These items need adherents. They need people to shout the facts' names and not pretend it's all a matter of opinion.

Some things are a matter of opinion; others are not. Education helps you distinguish between the two. That's not complicated.

You and I, yes, and someone named Cheryl could be part of a socially acceptable narrative. First time!

My Greek Olympics: Between the IETs and just a lot of work..

David leaving:

David was leaving about the same time mom was leaving and David's Father had come to visit along with his sister. David basically said screw this to the project and bailed since he wasn't going to work for the Vampire. On the last night mom was in town, we met at Poliathina and had a great dinner.

We had a good time and Vasileos came to the table and talked to us. We had a lot of wine and food, plus deserts, and everyone came to say goodbye. I think we must have cleaned out the kitchen, we ordered so much. Of course we got the grilled sardines and sausage, plus lamb chops and grill mullet. Several plates of vegetables and bowls of soup were had as well. This was David's last chance to get all the food that he loved and I ordered all that I liked.

Jay, Vic and now David were leaving and I was going to be there by myself. IET 2 was still coming up, even though it had been pushed back by a few weeks, we still weren't ready. As we were leaving, mom and Vasileos had a big hug and everyone came out to say goodbye. Mom had an early flight and Peter was coming to take her to the airport. As we walked back to my place, the Christmas decorations were already starting to come out.

Watching the Police:

For IET2, we would do a lot with the Police. I had to go to the police station and watch how they worked. Again everything was on paper, yelling or on phone. Not one computer was used and I am sure no one knew how to use one. The only computers were for the dispatch system, but that was a joke. I finally saw what we would be up against; this was going to be tough. Introducing technology in such a short time was risky and we didn't know if we had the time to finish let alone train everyone.

November 17:

In Greece there is a holiday of sorts on the November 17th. It is a commemoration of the beginning of the overthrow of the military junta that ruled Greece in the early 70's. It is a date when the anarchist come out and clash with the police and most people stay home that day and night because of the violence on the street. I went to work of course and I must have been the only one to go. It was very quite and nothing was open. I made some calls and the company people said I should go home and hide, what idiots. I worked the day and I stopped at the annex, which was open and had a drink of ouzo and a quick snack. I went home and watched a DVD on my computer, but by 6:00 pm I could hear the protesters in the street and the chanting. I went to the patio and could see the police moving on the street as they followed the groups of protesters. Since I lived near the university, which is where a lot of the stuff happened in the 70's, I was near most of the action. Of course there was a lot of action at the US embassy, but they always protest there. After a few hours the noise stopped and it was quite again, nothing big to me.

Preparing for IET2 and the CPX1:

I was to demo CATS and talk about DAP and Bomb Management, but just demonstrating the components. The whole process was a joke, SAIC brought a bunch of people in to do the exercise and they didn't know shit. What a waste of time and money. The CPX was also to be done on this exercise, but things were still being built and there was a question if the CPX would be done at all.

I did get to spend more time with Stavroula and the more I saw her the more I liked her. She was fun to be around and we played little games. I would meet her and Alex and go for a coffee or tea somewhere and sit and talk. Alex would make fun of her boyfriend and how he treated her, she would just blow him off. Alex said that "Fred" would leave her and go to Mykonos with his friends. You only go there for sex and drugs Alex said.

Shopping with Stavroula:

It was getting cooler and I didn't have much cold weather cloths, so I decided to go shopping. I asked Stavroula were to shop and she said to go to Ermou Street. I hoped she would go with me and with a little convincing, she said OK. I met her at the metro stop and we walked across the square and onto Ermou. It was busy but not crazy. We went into a building that I walked pass many times, it was a major department store, I didn't know that. We went up to the 4th floor and found the men's department or were they had the men's cloths.
I needed a sweeter and a few shirts, so Stavroula looked around and found me a sweeter and a few shirts. I wasn't sure, but Stavroula said they looked good on me and I was convinced. She had her favorite brands of shirts so she picked two out for me. I was happy to go along with what she picked. I didn't really think about the price of the shirts, how much can they be I thought. We went to pay and I was shocked at the price, I spent over 250 Euros which was about $300. I never spent so much before on clothes like this. I would never buy anything else as expensive while I was there. I found a cheaper place and brought more clothes from home on my trip back

My Greek Olympics: Party and a leg..

George and his leg:

George took a trip home and while there he broke his leg on a motorcycle trip. George loved to talk about his bikes and riding and he was looking forwards to going home and doing a long ride somewhere. On a ride out in the desert, he stopped for gas and crashed his bike when leaving the station. He basically had the bike go out from under him and it landed on his leg, breaking it. He had to have surgery and would be out for months, not to return until February. When he got back he was marginalized by Jesus and the Vampire, I don't think they new what to do with him or if he was loyal to Jay and crew over the new bunch of assholes.

Jake's party:

In September, David and I decided to cook some special food at a party Jake was having, basically it was a party for all the employees and a way to get everyone together. Jake said he was going to get chicken and make hamburgers, plus make potato salad, a real "American" BBQ. David and I decided to make some interesting dishes so we went to the central market and did some shopping. We found some squid, langoustine, red mullet, steaks and sausage. Also we picked up all we needed to do the prep, it wasn't very expensive, maybe 60 Euros total and we got a lot of stuff.

The night before the party, we prepped the veg and cleaned the squid, and also made some marinades for the meat and other things. After we went to Mia Tia for drinks and enjoyed ourselves as usual. The day of the party, Chris came by with his car and we piled the stuff in then drove to Jake's out in Kifisia. Jake's place was huge and no one was there yet so we had plenty of room. We finished getting the stuff ready for the grill and Jake took out a big pile of chicken and ground meat. The meat in Greece is very lean and this stuff looked like it had hardly any fat in it, hamburgers need fat to hold it together. Jake said he paid over 100 euros for the meat alone, what a rip and we could have gotten the stuff for next to nothing.

We made the patties and started the grill, but before the grill was ready, Jake put all the chicken on in one big pile, it would never cook properly that way. Of course the fire kicked up and the chicken started to burn, David and I did what we could to rectify the situation. Jake was doing things inside so we could manage the chicken as we got our stuff going. David wanted to have corn on the cob and it took a bit to find it, he was putting chili butter on the corn and I was getting the squid ready for the wood BBQ.

Jake comes out and takes the chicken off the grill which he though it was done, but we knew it was still not cook inside. David told Jake to put in the over to keep warm and when Jake turned away, he cranked up the heat so that the chicken would cook. We started our stuff, the squid stuffed with butter, garlic, parsley and lemon, plus the mullet and steaks. David cooked the corn on the other grill and when finished coated it with the butter mixture. Jake comes out and starts to cook hamburgers once the other people start to arrive.

The burgers just fall apart because they have no fat to bind them together. We try our best to keep them from falling into the BBQ, but it is hard. I start to cook the other items we are doing and as they finish we take them inside. Since I was outside, I didn't see that all the other fat pigs were eating everything that we cooked as it was brought in. All the corn was gone, the squid was gone, and the Mullet were eaten by the Greeks, the steaks by the fat Americans. I basically came in and all that was left was Jake's shitty chicken and crumbling burgers.

Everyone was talking about how great the food was and that David and I should cook Thanksgiving for them all. Bullshit to that, fuck those little bastards. We cooked that stuff for us and some of the better people, not the fat shitheads in the corporate office. If we knew they would eat everything, we would have poisoned them instead. What a bunch of greedy fuck-heads they all were, fuck them all. Anyway, David wouldn't be there for Thanksgiving, he would be gone by then. My reply was that we were professionals and we didn't cook for just anyone. Fuck the lot of them.

My Greek Olympics: Pre-IET2

Trip to Aigina with Ron:

One Saturday, Ron and I took a hydrofoil to Aigina for the day. We just wanted to get out of town for a bit. When we got there we did the usual drink and eat at one of the places around the port which served a good lunch. We ordered the standard yogurt with honey and nuts and coffee with bread, after eating we went to rent a car. No cars were available so we rented scooters instead. They had little 50cc ones and a few larger ones, I didn't want to get a big one so the 50cc was what we got.

We went riding to the south and soon left the town and were in open country. We took the road as far as we could go south and it ended on a hill with a nice view of the Peloponnese across the water. The scooters were 50cc and they had trouble going up hills, I had to push mine up a few hills since they just didn't have the power. Luckily there was little traffic and we could go at our own pace.

On the way back, we stopped at a small town and had lunch at a water side taverna, the owner said he had a good fish special and we both got that. It was good and relatively cheep. We then rode back to town and to the other side. Ron didn't seem to know the signs and he went down a one-way street the wrong way. I chased him, but he soon realized the mistake when the cars were all coming towards him. We made it back to town and had a drink then walked around a bit before we got on the boat. A nice day trip and we had some fun.

IET2 Command Centers setup:

The IET2 would be the first exercise in the new facilities. They were spread out across the city and we would have 5 command centers to deal with. I had to go to all sites and do software installs and setup of the tables and such. Also I was the video wall guy so I had to be at each to baby sit their installations.

One command center was at the military command complex, what was called the pentagon, and it was down in the basement area of the main building. I would have to go there from time to time and it was easy getting on base, then I had to be escorted down the elevator to the room. From then on I was loose to do what I wanted, kind of strange. The other center was at the Fire Brigade 911 center, the MMM center at the port, at DAOA in the Intel center and the Police department's main complex on Alexandros Boulevard.

Each location would have servers, a video wall of some size, computers and communications. The MMM center was the smallest, only one room and not all of the space was the command center. The police had the largest command center, since they were to move their operations into that facility after the games.

My Greek Olympics: Between the IET

Delivery:

Once I returned from SD, I had to get the rest of the stuff for my apartment. I ordered a refrigerator and stove from a store near Panepistimiou. They never got the stuff so I canceled that order and went to the story next door. I bought the same stuff, washer, stove, and refer and had them delivered with in three days. The funniest thing was the guy delivering them, who carried the stuff from his truck around the corner from my apartment, up the four flights of stairs and into the apartment. Wildest thing I saw to date. 

Near the Coast Guard Office

Coast Guard Stavroula:

We were having lots of meetings with the committee, and Coast Guard Stavroula was part of it. She was a chemical engineer, but you would never know it by looking at her. She was more like a model type person, most thought she had rocks in her head or just air. I never hear her speak about anything in the meetings maybe just a few words on an issue here or there. The thing about her was she had a great body, a great chest in particular. Her shirt was so stretched that the button holding her in was under so much stress that we thought it would shoot off if she sneezed. We called it the Jesus button, we all wondered when it would give up, Jesus only knew.

She would sit in the meetings and every once in a while she would take a deep breath, we all turned quick to see if this was the time when the button would fail. We did hear that the shirt did fail a couple of times, but both times was when one of the committee members was with her, and he was gay so nothing gained. As he would say, it was totally wasted on him. We all hoped it would be us next.

IET2 run-up – Stavroula #2:

The IET-2 was pushed off because nothing was ready, this was the first time the system would be used by the customer and we had to start training people. I was to give an over view of the system to the engineers and the Greek people who were going to do the training. This is the first time I met Stavroula #2, she was the first one in the door of the MOC and she was very pretty. Stavroula, Alex and Sophia would be the Greek trainers that will be working at the MOC and they all worked for Pouliatis or Q&R.

I thought she was a bit forceful or straight forwards, but she was cute. I had to deal with the corporate morons, they didn't know anything and they kept talking like we had to build a whole new system. It didn't go well, but I got to meet Stavroula and that was one of the best things that happened. This is when I also met Alexandros and Sophia, Alex was funny and likeable, new his stuff also.

As Stavroula was leaving, Rick and I were joking and I did a Semos impression, I took Stavroula by the hand and started to pet her hand as I said good-bye, she smiled and pulled her hand away and I kind of laughed at the response, but she smiled back and I was looking forwards to seeing her again.

My role in the IET-2 was to demonstrate the SS3, 4, 6, and 7 components and how they relate to SS1. At this point everything was still out of the box stuff, but we had to train people on how to use it. I expected people with some skill in computers and an understanding of what we were doing. I got people who never used a computer in their lives. Nikos was going to have to serve his military duty so I met Dimitris at that time as well.

Life in the apartment and shopping:

Now in an apartment, I started to go to the central market to shop. The market was a two kilometer walk from my place. I would walk past Panepistimiou and over toward Omonia. The market was in a large building where meat and fish were sold and with vegetable stalls across the street in the square. There was a small market near my place, but the big market was cheep and had many fresh items, plus the meat and fish I wanted. I found in the square some items that I liked to cook, fresh eggplant, squash, onions and peppers, olives, sausage, and some spices. In the main building, the beef, lamb, chicken and pork were sold from stalls. Each type of item was in one area, so all the chickens or pork or lamb was together in groups of stalls. In the square there were stalls, but people would stand around the area and sell things themselves. One lady sold cilantro, the only cilantro in the whole market. If I wanted to make Mexican food, I would have to get it from her. I would buy all she had which wasn't much, but it was cheep.

I had a standard meat stall to get ground beef, one to get lamb, and one for chicken. The meat was very lean and if you wanted to have some fat in the ground meat, you had to have them cut it and put in the grinder. One stall had a whole cow hanging on a hook, it looked like a marathon runner it was so lean. When I buy the meat, I would point to the meat chunks hanging on hooks and the guy would cut off pieces and then run it through the grinder. Once ground, he would wrap it and toss it back to the lady with the scale, who I would pay. You walked through the hanging meat to pay the lady.

I then would get fish or squid from one of the stalls in the fish area. Nice mullet or shrimp, maybe langoustine if I felt like it.  The fish wasn't cheep, almost like the price here but the really small fish were the cheep ones. They were like anchovies or sardines, they sold them by the kilo and I might get a kilo of sardines for dinner. I liked the mullet, but the small ones were best fried and the larger ones grilled. I had a small electric grill, but it would smoke or catch fire if there was too much grease. Cooking the fish in the apartment was always smelly. I should have cooked on the patio so it wouldn't smell.

Across the street, there was a cheese and butter shop, I would get a block of butter and a kilo of feta or some other cheese. It was better and cheaper than the market by my place. I would get canned items or liquor at the market and any other items other than food. But since I ate out so much, cooking was more of a once in a while thing. Maybe spaghetti or stew, once in a while lamb chops or fish.

A daily staple was yogurt and honey with nuts. I would get a lot of this and eat it every morning, really good and quick to make. I got coffee at the market as well. I may stop at a place and get a cheese pie or spinach pie once in a while. I lost weight with all the walking, even though I would drink a lot of beer and eat a lot of fat.

The apartment was large for just me and since I didn't have much furniture even after I bought some, it was very sparse. I had gotten a table and six chairs in the thought that at some time I would have people over to eat, but that only happened a couple of times. Mostly it was just me and I lived on the couch with my computer next to me. I had taken one of the projectors from the office and would project movies on the wall. I had speakers and it was like a small movie theater.

The one main issue I had was cooking anything that would make smoke. I had an electric grill that I used to grill lamb or fish, but it would catch fire when the fat dripped down. I should have taken it out on the patio and cooked there. I would buy a bunch of stuff and make a big pot of chili or something. This would sit in the refrigerator for a while since I ate out so much.

I wanted some more furniture; the $6000 I got from the company to buy stuff didn't go very far. After the appliances and couch and bed, I didn't have much left. I did buy two folding chairs and a long table, plus my rugs. I had the chairs on the patio and on Saturday morning I would go out and spray down the dust and wash the patio off. A lot of dirt and dust collected which was mostly from the cars. I called this my surfing Saturday and at least I got my feet wet.

The washing machine was a front loader and though they are supposed to get your clothes clean, they take forever to do a load. The first time I used it I figured it would take maybe 20 minutes, but it took over an hour. Then once it finished, the spin would make the machine bounce all over the place. I thought it would go through the wall or damage the floor. I ended up not using the spin and just squeezed the water out before I hung it to dry. It was a pain to use and I didn't really like the front loader at all.

One other thing I had to do was pay the monthly apartment bill and this was about 50 to 100 Euros a month. It was for the heating and maintenance of the building. Once a month I got a bill and I would have to go down and pay the bill then get reimbursed from the corporate shit heads. I was known as the "American" and everyone knew who I was.

Shopping at Care4 and other places:

I would also go and shop at one of the major stores from time to time. Care4 was a major chain that is as close to a super market as you can get. They sold everything from food to clothes and appliances. I would buy things that I needed around the house like soap and detergent or sheets and the like. The Care4 near me was by the Police station at Ampelokipi and a bit of a hike to get to, but it was the closest one I could go to. I also would shop on the streets around the central market. There were a number of shops that sold household items that I needed. Then down on Ermou in Monastiraki was a few stores that sold furniture. I got a couple of folding chairs for the patio and some small nick-knacks for the house.

Flower incident:

One night I went out with Rick, Silvia, Roula, and a few others from ETEAM. We were going to go to a Bouzouki for music and entertainment. Silvia said that we had to go around 11 pm so we met at the Metropol and walked to a place not far from the MOC on Nikodirmos street. It was a downstairs place and was kind of full. Lots of loud music was playing and singers singing, people drinking and dancing, plus a woman with flowers walking down between the tables. This was a traditional place and the music was known to all.

We get a table and order drinks and since scotch is popular that's what we get. After a little while, a singer is singing and a group of employees come on stage caring boxes. They sit them down and start to take out bottles of Campaign. The men start shaking the bottles and opening them, lots of pops and spray and the whole case is opened. The singer toasts the guy who bought it and she continues to singe. The Champagne is actually soda water and they do this to show how much they like the music.

I find out that the flowers are to show love and if you throw or drop flowers on some ones head, it means they love you. Well since we were drinking and flowers were around, we started throwing them around, not knowing what they meant. I tossed some in the air and some landed on Roula and some went on the next table. Well the guy didn't like us throwing flowers on his wife so he starts to yell. Silvia calms him down, but we were not really that welcome anymore. In the old days they would break plate and glasses, now they use paper plates, flowers and fake Campaign.

My Greek Olympics: After IET1 and the Vampire

Back to Athens:

When we got back, we talked to Vic who was back in SD. He was to sign papers and come on board as a full employee, but he was having trouble with the division. Jay was also under fire, though I didn't know how badly. This was the first real sign that the project was hopelessly doomed to failure, David said later that he thought we had a 50-50 chance of succeeding from the start, now it was less than 20%.

In early August, Sara came to visit and stayed with David. David told her not to bother him and just do what ever she wants. He didn't want to really both with her and he complained that she kept hanging around with him. She came with us to Mie Tie a few times and out to dinner once in a while. I paid more attention to her than David did. She eventually went up to the northern parts of Greece and some islands. Sara liked to meet hippie types and she found a few smokers to hang with. David didn't like to have strangers show up at his place and Sara wore out her welcome fast.

Home trip:

I returned to SD in August for my first visit under the terms of the contract. A week was about all I could have, we had the IET-2 coming in October and I was going to be under the gun to do some things. I went into the office and talked to Dean and Marybeth. I got a few things and sent some emails. I also filled Marybeth in on what was going on. I saw Vic and we had a talk about what was happening. Vic said he was waiting for the documents on the full time hire. I was heading back so soon that it didn't even seem like I was home at all. The trip back was uneventful but long, it wasn't fun to do the traveling and I only got to surf once before I left. Margit was pissed at how things were going and she couldn't understand what I was dealing with, we didn't talk much while I was home.

Loss of Vic:

At the beginning of September, I found out that Vic was off the project and he quit the company, apparently they didn't want him part of it any more, they said he brought nothing to the project. Jay was under a lot of pressure and was being attacked by the company as well.

Since Vic was the 'security officer' for the project and he was gone, the dick heads got a new security officer. This guy was like a bouncer at a club, e thought he was king of all. He was really a dick and I just blew him off at every opportunity. One of the things he wanted at first was a map of where everyone lived. So dick gave me the addresses and I plotted them and then printed a map. After this he wanted everyone to allow him to come to there place and see if it was in a safe location plus to draw a diagram of the layout of their place. I said fuck off and never bothered with him again. But I would have to deal with the shit at every IET, since he thought he was the 'gate keep' and no one could pass without his say so.

Security Officer Bob:

Once Vic was gone, they brought in a new guy to be security officer. The guy was a total shit-head and his claim to fame was a third string football player for a year. One of the first things was he wanted to know where everyone lived and have us draw a diagram of our place, then he would come and see if it was safe for us to live there. What a putts, I wasn't going to do shit for him or give him a thing. He spent his time at the Marousi office and never seemed to go anywhere or do anything, yet he always wanted to be in on a meeting or something.

During IET2 he gave me shit for not putting on a badge immediately and I could care less what he thought. I had many things to do, plus everyone knew me and I had free run of the whole place. It would be like asking the president to show his badge while entering the White House.

Loss of Jay:

About this time Jay is removed from the project. It appeared that she had done some things that really pissed off corporate. It wasn't illegal, but the company really didn't want to do the project. They were happy with the DoD dollars and to do an international project was just to much for them. The company was used to getting their way with the government and now dealing with a group of people who didn't give a shit about them or owe the company anything was to much for them. They came down on Jay hard and in the end she quit the company. This was not the end of Jay in Greece and she would return and be a royal pain in the company's side for the remainder of the project.

Shopping at the little store:

I had a little market a block away from my apartment, on Solonos Street. It had a little deli and the ground floor and produce on the mezzanine and dry goods upstairs. They didn't have a lot, but I could get spaghetti and canned tomatoes, some fresh vegetables and some meat. I could get a chicken or some lamb there, but it was more expensive and didn't have the selection as the central market. The cheese was good though as was the yogurt. I preferred to go to the central market, but they closed by 3 and I could only go on the weekends. They did have some liqueur and I would buy a bottle of something if I needed to. I would look at the deli section first and then get some bread and cheese before going up to the dry good section. The people in the store were not very friendly and I always had a strange look from them, especially at the check out.

Jesus and the Vampire:

SAIC brought in a new guy named Todd (later to be known as "the vampire") and David was being forced out. He wouldn't work for Todd so he quit the project. The company had made behind the scene deals with Altec, mostly to cause problem for David and make him look bad. Jay was fired in September and David said fuck it, the project was lost and it was going to fail. Todd would wear a long black leather trench coat and had black hair, he looked Mexican but wasn’t. I think Ari called him a Vampire first and it stuck.

I think he talked to Vic and Vic was going to work with ETEAM, David I am sure was waiting for Vic to say he was hired and then he would quit and join Vic, so all of October was a struggle to stay focused. George was out also because he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident while in SD and was out for months. Ron was sucking up to the shit heads in corporate and I was left alone with all the assholes.  Steve, Todd's guy we called Jesus, because he looked like Jesus, long stringy hair and all.

MyGreek Olympics: IET 1

Setup for IET1:

We had issues with the hard lines at first, so David decided to use a wireless system, so we bought the routers and switches and got the hubs and the modem. Twenty five air cards and two transmitters later, the wireless was up. The video wall was installed and configured, tables assembled and workstations installed. Within a few weeks the MOC was up and running. I did a lot of crimping and running wire, trips to the electronic store and long nights getting things to work. David set goals to meet and I met them.

IET1:

We started the finale IET-1 prep and had the wireless network running along with the hard lines. The video wall worked fine as did the other systems, we were ready. On the scheduled day all the company shit heads showed up and the customers as well. We did the presentation and answered the questions. Jay spoke and then Menolis from Q&R spoke, it was not planned and some were upset. He spoke on and on and would not shut up and I could tell Jay was pissed. I didn't have to show any modeling yet and that was good

I drove the computer and video wall, not one else did anything. The corporate shits just stood in the back and watched. The "twig" had originally planned on bringing sandwiches and salad, bought at a store to server for lunch. Jay and the "crew" thought that was stupid, so we arranged to take everyone to Poliathina for lunch. I think this cemented our relation with Vecili and the staff. They must have spent at least 500 Euro on lunch.

I thought it was a bit rocky, but everyone seemed happy at the end. Lots of talk and the committee all seemed to except the test, but this was just an out of the box exercise so we would pass easy, the set up was the hard part. We passed the IET-1, this was the only IET that was passed, no other exercise met the requirements and all others failed. But we got the job done, and this called for a celebration, London style.

London:

A few days after the IET, David and I flew off to London for a long weekend. We got a good hotel near Piccadilly Square and we flew out on a Thursday night, arriving around 9:00pm. David had it all worked out and a list of places to go and things to do. We flew out on an Olympic airliner and I got my first look of what wonderful planes they have. On takeoff, a section of the ceiling luggage compartment came loose and fell part way, the flight attendants didn't seem to care.

Once we landed in London Heathrow, it was through customs and out to get the train into town. David said it was cheaper than taking a cab so off we went. A nice ride, but I couldn't see anything out the window since it was so dark. We arrived at Boddingtons Station and grabbed a cad to the hotel. We wanted to make last orders at a pub so we were a bit worried we wouldn't make it. The cab pulled up to the hotel and to our relief, a pub was across the street.

We checked in and left the bags at the counter, across the street and in a minute had a pint in hand. We had only 20 minutes till last orders so we ordered a second and one for the bar keep. Replenished, we went back to the hotel and settled in. The next day we were going to do the walking tour for the spy tour of London. Up at a normal time, we had some food and went off to meet the group at Piccadilly Square.

The group was the usual sort of holiday types and the guide was a typical elder English type with a suit and a hat. At the start we went off around the corner and he started to talk about people I didn't quite know who they were, David filled me in and then it was clear. The tour wound around the embassy area and ended in a nice little park were the secret documents were changed hands. A nice little pub was near and drinks were in order. We were joined by a few others from the group and we spent a nice hour or so there. Back to the hotel, David needed a nap and I was hunger, though I couldn't really find a place for food that I liked. We were going to get Indian food then take the tube to Hampstead Heath to meet a friend of David's.

We ate at a place off Piccadilly, I ordered Shrimp Vindaloo and the guy was a bit shocked when I said I wanted it really hot. The food arrived and it was hot, really hot. I ate it all and was kind of wishing I didn't get it that hot, but the waiter was impressed that I finished it. Off to the tube and I was glad David knew where to go because I was lost, we found the right tunnel and in about 20 minutes were walking in Hampstead. A drink at a pub, which I couldn't believe David knew was there, and then off to meet his friend. Several pubs later and many pints, a taxi was in order, no tube for the ride home.

The next day we walked down to St. Paul cathedral and across the Millennium Bridge. We climbed to the top of the church had a nice view of the city, the weather was very nice, no rain or clouds. Also we walked around Big Ben and went into the Abby, we thought about going on the big eye, but the line was long and it took one hour to go around.

That night we went back to Hampstead and had Indian food at a place there, not that great and the first pub was not very good. We did find a nice pub or two and had many pints. We stayed out late and the tube stopped running, so we had to get a taxi back. The bad thing was the pubs close at 11 and when we got back, there was nothing to do or drink.

The next day we did the Greenwich walk and took the boat down the Thames. We saw the Cutty Sark in its dry berth and of course this was before it burned. The walk was interesting and the weather was nice for it. We went up to the observatory and looked around and saw the Longitude line. A big crowd was there and lines to go through and see everything, I was surprised how small the place was, but I guess they didn't build large building back then.

We took the tube back to the hotel and of course had one last night of Indian food, the next day we were going back to Athens and back to the fun of the project. The last night was again in Hampstead, this time we met one of David's friends at a pub, many pints of Fullers past our lips. We took a taxi back to town and we managed to get one last pint in at the pub. We flew out in the evening on a late flight and took the train back to the airport, we got back to Athens late, but found the Metropolis open, and drinks finished the trip.

Trip to San Francisco to sail...

Last weekend I took a day off work and made a three day weekend trip to San Francisco to do some sailing. The plan was to sail up the delta and over night Friday and Saturday on my brothers boat. We had it all planned, distance and marina lined up, weather was to be great. Then the wind... Yes we wanted wind to sail, but we ended up with to much. 20 to 30 knots of wind, way to much to have a comfortable sail and spend nice nights on the boat.

Friday we decided to wait till Saturday since the wind was to die down. Friday ended up being a road trip to the Napa valley and a stop at Rombaour Winery, private tasting and tour by the owner's son and a 30 year old bottle to take as a gift. Lunch at a new restaurant in Napa and a nice drive up and down the vine covered valley. Friday night we went into the city for dinner, an Asian place on Clement was the stop, then we went to an old watering hole, Trader Sam's on Geary. Lots of memories in that place.

Saturday turned out to be too windy as well, still in the 20's wind speed. A short trip to Tomales Bay for oysters was decided and off we went. First we ordered 12 smalls at the Tomales Oyster Company, ate those way to fast on the spot. Then we got a 50 count bag, eat as much as possible then take the rest home. We sat down and went at them, about an hour later we had gone through about half the bag. These were big ones and I was way to full after all those plump oysters. We got in the car and headed to Stinson Beach, stopped for a coffee and relaxed for a few minutes, then continued back. When we got to my brothers, we BBQed about 15 more oysters and ate those, plus we made dinner on top of that. Again way to full...

Sunday turned out to be OK for wind, it was still windy but we were going to go out anyway. About 15 knots of wind and out we went, sailed around for about an hour and a half or so, it was nice and we had full. Put the boat to bed and clean up, then we slowly headed to Oakland and the airport. One final stop at the Saki brewery for tasting and to the airport. It was a very good weekend though we sailed very little.

Next time we will not go crazy with oysters and we will sail more. I could have gone back into the city, I love it there and I can always find many things to do and see.I am hoping I can do another sail this summer, but actually sail more than the few hours we sailed. I just love to sail in the bay and the surrounding area has so much to offer it is hard to choose an activity.

Drive to the beach...

So I went on a little drive to the coast, two hours or so in the car and winding road through the trees. Destination was Pacific City, a little coast town in northern Oregon. The plan was to find a condo and take some picture, but after the drive out we couldn't find the condo. So a stop at a coffee cart and a quick talk gave us the location. Back up the road and we found the place, a quick few pictures and a look at the beach.

Then back in the car and two hours back. This was a kind of work trip so it wasn't really a fun day. Well at least we had sushi for dinner.

Holiday weekend

On a nice Friday afternoon, my brother and two girls flew in for a holiday trip up to the Seattle area. The plan was to spend the night in Portland and then head out Saturday morning. After getting everyone at the airport, we headed out for a BBQ and a relaxing night. Before the BBQ started, we had a chance to relax and play around. Roller skates, big beach balls and other forms of play were involved.

But the BBQ was calling so we started to cook a varied selection of vegetables and thick steaks, plus a nice fillet of Salmon. First artichokes and asparagus went on, followed by par cooked potatoes, then the steak and finally the fish. Bread and cheese filled the time before the food was cooked. After a good dinner, we decided to drive down for desert. We piled into the car and headed off to a place on 23rd ave. A few slices of cake and we were heading back, to large of a crowd, but it was fun. The cake was good and we all were tired after so off to bed.

The next morning off.. Well no, we had to make breakfast and have a run before heading out, finally we were off only about 4 hours behind schedule. Once on the road it should be a nice easy drive, well an accident slowed us down, crawled along for 45 minutes. Finally got some open road and off we went. A beautiful day and the mountains still had a lot of snow. After about 3 hours we arrived and it was time to really relax...

Canoe was calling, BBQ was calling, the golf cart was calling... So much to do and we did it all.
Cooking, eating and just hanging out was the order of the day.