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.

Holiday

Almost the big 4th of July Holiday, weather will be great and I will do some sailing. More to post once the holiday has past.

Weekend Sailing in San Franscico

I was able to head to San Francisco for a long weekend of sailing. The weather was great and a good wind helped provide the means to sail all day. Stocking the boat with supplies and heading out, a rounding of Angle Island and a shot across the bay and pasted 'the rock'. Wonderful views of the city front and bridges, boats and even a few dolphins.

Spent the night on 'the hook' at the island, nice spot in towards the beach and once everyone left it was very quiet. The BBQ on the boat fired up and a good supply of rum helped ward off the slight chill of the evening. Once dinner was eaten, not much else to do but head below and get ready for sleep. Early morning brought a little fog and a gentle roll of the waves. Only a few boats stayed the night and we decided to head to Sam's for some food.

A nice sail back to the dock and put the boat to bed. a great weekend.

My Greek Olympics: Working towards the first test...

Apartment:

At this time, I also got my apartment, but it had no furniture so I would have to buy some. I didn't like the furnished places, so I was told I could get the company to provide money to buy the furniture. George had a friend who knew people and we went one Saturday to look and buy. I got a coach, table and chairs, an arm chair, a small desk and a futon. Then I would buy my stove, washer and refrigerator at another place. I was still in the hotel till the end of June, since the furniture wasn't going to be delivered till then. I had found the place originally through Ari, he knew a woman who had a place and he gave me the number. I liked it more because there was no furniture and I could get what I wanted, I should have gotten a furnished place, but....

Apartment

When I finally moved into my place at the begining of July, I didn't have much to fill it. The apartment was on Omirou Street, on the slope of Mt. Lykabettus in the Kolonaki area, but was closer to the University. I was only a block from Trep's office and about a mile or so from the MOC. Around the corner was a small market and on the next block was a small, very small bar called "Low Profile". Up the street and down a bit, there were lots of bars and restaurants, though I didn't go to them much, just walked by. My apartment was 92 square meters, which is about 900 square feet. I had three AC units, which was a lot for Athens since it cost so much to run them. I had to buy the refrigerator and stove plus a washing machine, but I didn't get them untill August. The store I went to never got the items in stock so I cancelled that order and went to the store next door. I got the stuff with in a week.

Altec:

At this time David was man-handling Altec, one of the subs, and they were complaining to their "friends" with in the company, who we are sure they bribed. Altec was to put in the network at the MOC, but they never showed up and always made an excuse as to why they couldn't come. Finally they showed up to do the phones and network setup, but after 3 hours nothing worked. David was pissed and threw them out, we were going to put the network together our selves, namely me. I found an electronics store and David and I purchased the tools and equipment. I crimped the cables and connected the ports, plus set up the phone lines. We got an electrician in to make sure the wiring was right and with in a few days we had power, phone and a network.

Watching the Fire Brigade:

In June we went to the Fire Brigade to observe how they operate and get a scene of what is done on a standard call. The staff were all in a big room with a large table in the middle, a set of "windows" were on one side of the room. The people at the table would answer the phone and write down the information, they would yell to another guy who would come and get the paper. The paper would be handed to a guy in one of the windows who would call on the radio to send a vehicle. This involved a lot of yelling and handing paper back and forth. No one seemed to keep the paper as a record or do any reporting on what was happening.

Part of the contract was to build an addition on the existing building and move all these operations over to those new offices. Each group and function would have a dedicated area to work in. We were giving them a system that would do all of the call taking on a computer screen and take a way the yelling, plus have a record of the calls. In the new offices, we were going to have the phones in a different room, the radio in a different room and a wall in between. When they finally moved up to the new office, they had the partitions removed so they could yell between the rooms. Kind of defeated the whole purpose of the system, and just interfered with how they new system was supposed to help.

Putting in the rack at MOC:

Fire Brigade Office

As we started to install the computers and get the system working at the MOC, we were faced with a decision to have a rack installed for the computers for the IET1 demo. We were going to show the system as it would be installed and having the computers in a rack would be best, but how do we get the rack in the MOC?  A rack is a large steal frame and it has the power connections and back-up power units all installed. It is heavy and it can't be disassembled for the install. I looked at removing a window on the first floor and having it brought up on a crane, but the window was to small for it to fit and it would be expensive. David decided that the computers would just sit on tables in the server room. The room was all the way in the back of the first floor (second floor) and air-conditioned. The computers were expensive, something like 300 thousand dollars. It was important that the computers were well taken care of since they would end up in a command center eventually they needed to be kept in very good condition.

Dealing with wiring:

The wiring at the MOC needed to be worked on so I was able to get a couple of electricians in to fix it. The power lines were not very safe and the wiring was a mess from when the last tenants left. They just cut the wires instead of disconnecting things. Along with the power, the computer network wires had been cut so I had to deal with wires that were not labeled or had end plug. I had to crimp new connections on the wires then test them to find out which port they went to. Once I had that done I had to workout how they would connect to the server. Plus the phone lines were also not connected and I had to find the phone line and which number went to which line. It took days to get this all worked out and we had the IET coming fast.



Old Fire Brigade office



Alarm at MOC:

The MOC had an alarm system installed since we had hundreds of thousands of Euros worth of equipment there. I was in charge of the system and I was the keeper of the codes. Once security officer Bob showed up, he wanted control of the system. I was like "bull-shit to that!" He wanted to have access to everything and total control. The system had an administrator code and 10 user codes. I had the admin code and I gave out the other codes to George, David, and the others. I gave the corporate shits a code, but I kept the master. One problem was that the system had a motion detector and the window blinds would move at night when there was a strong wind. Air would go under the door jam and make the blinds move, which set off the alarm. I would get a call from the alarm company and I would have to go shut the alarm off. Since I lived the closest (actually George was closer but since he broke his leg he wasn't around) I would have to go shut it off. I should have given the responsibility to dweeb and let him deal with the alarm going off. Once we had the entrance to the MOC re-done, no more wind could cause the alarm to go off and it solved the problem.

Weekend Boat work, Part 2...

At the last minute I decided to drive up to the Seattle area and spend the weekend, since I was up the previous week working on the boats I decided to go up again and help get them in sailing condition. I drove up on Friday night and the weather was going to be perfect, lots of sun and warm. The drive up was easy and the mountains and volcanoes looked cool still covered with snow. Since we had fixed most of the damage to the hulls, we focused on the trailers and painting the water line on the black hulled boat. We had sanded the old blue line and we thought we would paint it a dark blue, but when at the store looking at paint, we found a color shifting blue paint so we said lets see what that looks like.

Back at the boat, we sprayed the paint and it looked like crap. A very translucent sparkle blue was all we got, plus it ran badly. We thought it would take many layers to build-up the color, then Ray read the label. Spray over a black undercoat.... Well since we were spraying over a primer coat it looked bad, so off to the store again for a can of black paint. A quick sand and Ray sprayed to black then sprayed the blue, it looked really cool this time. Looking straight at it it has a blue color, but at an angle the colors are everything from green to purple and even copper. Ray liked it so much he wants to paint the whole hull in that type of paint. The idea was to have one boat red and the other blue. Also we talked of graphics on the side or transom, a dragon and sea horse.

Once we did the paint, we turn our attention to the trailer. When we took the one boat off the trailer to work on it, the supports were so rusted that  two broke off. We had to build a new cradle to support the boat so Ray got some wood and we fashioned a new set of supports. Then we flipped the white boat over and onto the trailer. The supports worked perfect and we decided to get the rig out and see if there was any issues with that. A quick check and once the lines were in order, I put the mast on and held it while Ray fastened the bolts and attached the stays. We put the jib on and looked at the main, but we couldn't find the spinnakers. But the rig was fine and the boats was ta that point ready to sail if we wanted.

There is some more work to do, but the boat at least could be sailed now. The second boat still needs a little work and the sails for that boat are not in good shape. Plus we have to build a second cradle for it so we can transport both boats. But we have a plan and we are confident we will have them in the water soon. I may go back in July to sail them and help with the other work, but it is good to have them both in a condition so they can be sailed.

Weekend boat repair...

This last weekend I drove up to see cousin Paola and had the chance to start doing some work on a pair of Mini_Millimeter class boats. They have been sitting for at least a year and needed a good cleaning and some general repair. Minor glass work and paint mostly. Though it was to be a 'good weekend', it was drizzly on Saturday and some sun finally on Sunday. 


The boats had to be flipped and placed on saw horses so we could clean them and fix the hulls. The first one was very heavy, I didn't think it would be so much but it was a struggle. The second was easy, a lot lighter for sure. After checking both, one definitely had a lot of weight in the bow and it sounded solid verses the other that sounded hallow and empty. Either one has foam and water in the bow or there is something else to make it heavy.

We washed both down and scrubbed them clean, one was in very good shape while the other had more damage. Mostly it was confined to the rudders but there were a few cracks and chips that needed filling. The rudders needed to have cracks filled and one had to be re-bolted before glassing. But it was easy to fix and we managed to get all the chips and cracks filled. A little sanding and they will be perfect and ready for paint.

We have talked about painting graphics on them, maybe a dragon on one and a horse on the other or just cool colors. Not sure yet but they are small and it will be easy to paint them in a short time.