USS BATAAN (LHD 5)

Fri - Mon

10 - 13 October 2014:

Almost a 4-day weekend ... 

My wife and I spent a few hours of "off time" with the crew of USS BATAAN (LHD 5) this holiday weekend (Saturday evening).

Someone on the staff of the area Admiral thought it would be a good idea to have a reception aboard the ship for the Admiral to meet some of the local movers and shakers. To be clear: we weren't there as "movers" or "shakers." We was workin' ...

From all accounts received, the little soire went well. I wouldn't know, though. As usually happens, I stayed on the pier after all guests were aboard. But I actually prefer to hang out with the drivers, Security guys, cops, Carabinieri and other support peeps. It's become "Standard Operating Procedure." And I always enjoy meeting folks at the gate as they come in as well as all the folks who are assigned to various posts on the pier. My wife got to go aboard, though - her 1st time on a Navy ship - so that was kinda cool.

I'm not complaining, but I would have liked to go with my wife and get a picture of her in an Osprey or Hornet or something. She was well cared for, though, and properly escorted, so that was good. She was there volunteering as a translator (English-Italian and the other way around).

This time, like on other occasions after "working the gate" and all the guests have arrived for such events -- I was a sweaty mess after all was said and done. I really wasn't "presentable" nor in the mood to "be sociable."

And *this* time, I had also been sideswiped by a bus (my right side covered in bus-dirt from almost getting run over by a liberty bus) and the only returning Sailor who had too much to drink while on liberty returned to the pier and chose my car to hide behind while he ... well ... for lack of a better phrase: *puked his guts out.*

I found this out when I went to move my car later and splashed his gift on my shoes and pants cuffs ...

"When you're all sweaty and covered in bus dirt and Sailor puke, it's best not to hang around 'clean people.' Some of them don't like that."

My life. My rules.

- JM(M) -

DREAM ANALYSIS: "House of Spit and Snot"

"I HAD A DREAM!" - M.K. King, Jr.

(I did, too. But I don't think MLK's was about a house full of spit and snot.) 

Here's the best graphic illustration I could find:

​

The only thing similar about that Ibex spitting in the reporter's face and my dream is ... not much.   I just thought it was funny. :)

The dream:

My wife and I were in Las Vegas (don't know why) and I was going to get the car. It's at night. I don't know, maybe we were at a casino or the "Gold and Silver Pawn Shop" or something (it's on our bucket list).

We probably weren't at a casino, because most of them have parking ... and in the dream I had to walk a few blocks from wherever we were.

I was walking uphill and it was rainy, dark and the streets were shiny just like you might imagine how they spray down a movie/TV set to look that way ... and I was thinking that in the dream "Wow, this looks like I'm walking into a murder scene in "CSI."

I couldn't figure out where the car was and eventually decided I was lost. So did I turn around? Noooo. I decided to turn to my left and open some random unmarked door to what could have been a store or an apartment building ... it was just a dark, random door.

It turns out there's nothing IN this 'building' and I end up walking through it to "the back" and out the back door. Except the "back door" didn't go back outside ... this is where it turns into "The House of Spit and Snot."

It was some kind of twisted "Fun House."

But it was weird, it wasn't a "Haunted House" like some make for Halloween, but it wasn't a "Fun Houses" anymore. Maybe they don't have 'em any more? The last one I knew of was in Bushkill, PA and it was pretty much detroyed in a flood. It had stuff in it like "stairs" that would tilt back and forth as you climbed up, a big tube that turned as you walked through it, just fast enough to keep you from being able to walk straight ... mirrors that made you look weird, stuff like that.

This was "The House of Snot and Spit." I knew because it had a big flashing neon sign that read: "House of Snot and Spit."

But it was similar to a Fun House or Haunted House in that you had to walk along a path to get through it and out the other side ... and this path was ... well, full of snot and spit.

There were little animated character heads that "spit" at you. I can't recall if they were clowns or animals or just weird little characters, but they were all definitely spitting.

At first I thought "Meh, no big deal ... water. It's not spit. But if someone spits water at you and then someone spits "spit" on you ... you can tell the difference.

Some of the heads were on the floor spitting UP at me, some of 'em were along the walls. Some of 'em were hockin' loogies (spitting snot laden spit, for those of you who never heard that phrase). Some of that snot was spit *at* me, some of them were being spit onto the floor.

And there was spit and snot that seemed to just be emanating from somewhere ... covering the walls and floors making it very slippery (slick as snot! (BWAH hah!). It was like the object of this "House of Snot and Spit" thing was to get through it without falling on your ass.

And I remember thinking that ... in the dream. "I can do this! I can make it without falling down." But I was also (duh) really not wanting to fall down ... I'd have been covered in slime and ... eeesh.

I did pretty well! I blocked spit and loogies from above and below and left and right ... and I kept my footing. Then there were stairs at the end ... stairs that went down where I could see the door out of "The House of Snot and Spit."

I made it down the stairs! I was 10 feet from the door and slipped and fell; I got up quickly, though.

The last thing I recall was, after leaving the place, I was headed back to wherever it was I came from and pleasantly surprised that I was not too covered in as much snot or spit as I had thought.

But if you're a guy and have ever had a mustache ... you know how difficult it can be to blow your nose and not be kinda gross (so you generally do that somewhere where nobody can see you if you get snot all over your moustache).

And just before I woke up, I realized I had snot all over my moustache. And I had nothing to wipe it with ... so I used my sleeve. And when I did so I realized *I WAS* all covered in slime and snot and ... well ..

Then I woke up. Wasn't drooling ... hadn't sneezed ... no snot or spit to be found anywhere. I have no idea what I might have seen, read or heard yesterday that might have put "snot and spit" in my head that a weird dream like that might have resulted.

We're always talking about moving to Las Vegas, so that explains the location setting.

I dunno. What do you think?

Facebook Follies Finale

FACEBOOK DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

So here's the latest missive from "The Facebook Team:"

Did you catch: "The name you requested suggests that what your Page is about has changed, which can be confusing ... " and then my 'name-change request' (at bottom of graphic) which was to change the damned name from "John Musser" to "John Musser - My Life and Times?"

Is it just me? So, using their own "skewed logic" I changed "John Musser" to "MyLifeandTimes.Org." Maybe that will work.

Here's another example of 

"The Facebook Team" and their clarity:

Go looking for "merging" in their overdone "Help" section and you will find this rather blunt bit of information:

They can't do that. "We don't currently offer a way to merge 2 acounts ... "

  Now try searching with "merging pages:"

I suppose it was my fault for just using "merge" instead of "merging."

To be fair, here we learn that there apparently are at least two "definition of terms" issues here; a "PROFILE" and a "PAGE." Question: is an "ACCOUNT" another type of ... "page?"

I don't know ... I'm way too worn out just trying to get them to change my "John Musser" to "John Musser - My Life and Times" and not try to tell me that YOU are TOO STUPID and will now think that the content of the two is somehow different.

So I poked around and found the "Merge Pages" button that I found a few days ago and submitted (when they told me that the names of my pages were too different (One was "John Musser" and one was "My Life and Times." That's where I submitted the request for the name change. Get it?

I don't know ... you tell me. Would the 2 pages below confuse you if someone asked for them to be merged into one page instead of being 2 pages?

The page I wanted to make as a "Blog thing page:"

My personal page at the time:


So ... I REsubmitted the same request I submitted to "The Facebook Team" originally (see post from earlier this month).  I can't wait for their next answer/problem with my request.

2017 UPDATE:

I actually got tired of copying this over from the old blog because it was wearing ME out trying to follow it!  Long story short ... they ended up making me a "blog thing page" which was separate from my personal page.   'Nuff said.  But man was it a pain in the butt ... someone basically said (her name was "Dora," I think)  "Ohhhhh!  I get it!  You want a personal page for family and friends but you also want to have one as a page for like a BLOG!"  As it turned out ... I started keeping journals ... never really did anything with the stupid 2nd "group" page ... Hmm.   All the effort wasn't worth it ... sometimes it's like that.

- JM(M) -

Facebook Follies 2

One of the things I learned in the Navy: "There's a waiver for almost everything."

"The Lacebook Team" - Changing things

Y'know how, sometimes, when you desperately need help from some company of one sort or another ... let's say, oh -- a book company that makes "Lacebooks" ... you look and poke and search around the website of the Lacebook company and you feel like you've found proverbial 'Golden Egg' if you can find a way of contacting someone - a real person - who can help you with your 'Level 1 Red Lacebook Alert' crisis you're having? They certainly don't make it easy for you to find an email address, a phone number ... nothing. You're lucky if you find a mailing address.

My advice:

Keep poking around. Keep looking for any "fillable form" on their site or nook or cranny which will accept input. Then use that form (it will usually have a 'SEND' or 'SUBMIT' button on it) and send your message to them that way.

If the only "input form" they have is to apply for a freakin' job, use all the spaces to type your message to whomever you want to get it. Even better: if they allow the upload of .doc or .pdf attachments ... send your note that way. Or embed it in a .jpg file if they accept those. Or maybe, find a section where they might accept "feedback" or maybe complaints about not having a way to contact them."

Another good one: "FamousPerson@Lacebook.Com!"

​(There's always "a way-fer everything.")

This is a "Lacebook."  What?  What did you think I was talking about?


Now ...
Here's the story of grandma's 'Lacebook' fiasco:

It had always annoyed Grandma how Lacebook seemed to just DO things without asking; with no interaction with their customers or anything. It was obvious: "They knew what grandmas wanted." And what was really cool: they knew this stuff without ever asking her or any of the other grandmas who used Lacenook. Stuff would just, all of a sudden ... be different!

Like, sometimes, Lacebook would change the colors and designs of their Lacebook covers from what all of the grandmas were used to using. Or the Lacebook company would change the actual size of the Lacebook pages. This made it very very difficult to make the new Lacebook pages work right with older Lacebooks and all the grandmas would have to redo their layouts and designs.

Yep, all the grandmas would have to rearrange their pictures and their recipes and saucy pictures of themselves having picnics in the park and other things on their Lacebook pages and then, on any given (Sun)day, they'd go to the store to buy more pages for their Lacebooks and find that the new pages didn't fit or look as they needed and now everything was all screwed up.

This happened a lot. And the grandmas always chattered like monkeys and sputtered and spit cuss words like "dag nabbit" and stuff ... and then they had to figure out how to make their Lacebook pages.

And then, one day, Grandma had an idea. Grandma decided to be brave and COMBINE an old Lacebook with a newfangled one ... and in doing so: she broke it. So Grandma's made phonecalls and sent letters to the Lacebook people to ask them to help her with her project. She even went to see them but: nothing.

But as the story goes: one morning, Grandma found a short note from the Lacebook "Team" (that's what they called themselves, "The Lacebook Team") in her mailbox. The Lacebook people told her "we have decided not to help you, because we don't like the way you titled your Lacebooks, they need to have titles that are more alike."

So she renamed her Lacebooks so they were similar, just as The Lacebook Team" asked her to do. They sent her another letter.

"DENIED!" it said. "We didn't mean the names of your Lacebook *pages,* Grandma, we meant YOUR name. You call yourself "Grandma" on one and "Grandmother" on the other ... that doesn't make us happy and you need try again."

"And when you submit your next request for our help," they continued please submit proper documentation that will somehow sufficiently prove to "The Lacebook Team" that these Lacebook pages are yours and that you're not starting to start a "Lacebook Series" and try to make money like that J.K. Rowling lady who should have gotten in trouble for writing books while she was at work!" These Lacebook people were really getting demanding.

So she did. She had Mr. GoDaddy's receipt for her purchase of her Lacebook page (Mr. GoDaddy was in cohoots with The Lacebook Team," but he was much nicer and easier to deal with when such problems arose. She sent a copy of her receipt from Mr. GoDaddy in the mail to The Lacebook Team.

... and she waited.

She got another letter from them. It read:

"Hi,
Thanks for submitting a request to change your Page's name. We'll review your request and respond to you soon. Please keep in mind that submitting multiple requests won't result in a faster response.

For additional questions about your Lacebook Page, please visit the Help Center:
https://www.facebook.com/help/pages

Thanks,
The Lacebook Team

This "Help Center" to which they referred was one of those pages that has no answers, but asks you to rate their information on a scale of 1 to 10 (because they caught on to her method of using feedback forms to send messages). So she used the "1-10 Rating Page" several times and sent them old-fashioned cusswords in binary code ... stingers like "Shucks!" and "Gosh!" and "Pshaw!"

And then ... she waited some more:
AS OF 7.9.2014, STILL WAITING

Facebook Follies

5.9.14

SO ... what *used* to be my personal profile located at Facebook/JohnMusser is now what I wanted to be located at Facebook/MyLifeandTimes.Org ... I've sent Facebook an SOS to see if they can help. I'll keep you posted.

• I sent a note to Facebook via their "deactivated account appeal form." (This is a form which is most likely to be used if THEY deactivate your account, but it is the only interactive form I can find on the site to communicate with anyone):

Here's the story:

The account was deactivated because I screwed up. But *I* deactivated it after being interrupted with the intent of returning the next day to continue the "conversion" process."

After I returned, I found something preventing me from (what I thought was) reactivating it and creating a community page from my personal profile (7000+ friends and followers makes following my newsfeed a bitch). I am hoping you can fix my screw-up.

*I deactivated the account* with the intent of returning to setting it up the next day (merging my personal profile to a page (friends and followers, like 7000+) so I figured it was time to merge the blog to it.

THE PROBLEM: You guys do it, AND so does the "WebsiteBuilder" which I use on my site hosted at "GoDaddy" (obviously the site is mylifeandtimes.org).

So here's what happened:

https://www.facebook.com/JohnMusser <= this was my original profile which I was attempting to turn into a page to be connected to my blog and is now the page holding my (intended blog readers). GoDaddy's "Website Builder" has a feature which, as it turns out CREATES a page (I don't believe it CONVERTS the page like your feature does) it just creates a whole new page ... and therein lies my problem: The URL "/JohnMusser" is now my "page" containing the folks I accumulated ... but it was supposed to be: https://www.facebook.com/MyLifeandTimes.Org (which exists but ... is just kinda sitting there ... deactivated). That's the page I created via GoDaddy's WebsiteBuilder.

THE PROBLEM CAME ABOUT WHEN: I was interrupted mid-converting-process and lost track of what I was doing after I came back the next day to continue.

As follows:
-----------------------------------
BTW: Fortunately, I *did* successfully create a personal profile/page and should be able to create to keep in contact with family and friends.
-----------------------------------
But I would still like to move the "/JohnMusser" into the "MyLifeandTimes.Org" page.
-----------------------------------
HOW I SCREWED UP:
I created the page: https://www.facebook.com/MyLifeandTimes.Org with GoDaddy's WebsiteBuilder, with the intent of merging "/JohnMusser" into it.

I was interrupted, and deactivated it until I could return to the process the next day, which I did.

When I reactivated "/MyLifeandTimes.Org" (via Facebook) and returned to the process of "converting profile to a page," I did so CONTINUING to use FACEBOOK's page conversion tool (and not GoDaddy's).

Ooops.

I could not for the life of me figure out why I couldn't merge JohnMusser to MyLifeandTimes.Org per your instructions when it had been going so SMOOTHLY the day before!

So now what was SUPPOSED to be located at: https://www.facebook.com/MyLifeandTimes.Org is located at: https://www.facebook.com/JohnMusser ...

Can you relocate /JohnMusser to /MyLifeandTimes.Org (which is what I was trying to do but messed up)?

Very respectfully,
John Musser
... blah blah blah ... email, phone numbers, etc.

IS THIS YOU?

WANTED:

Contributions to or sponsors of the author of this blog.

Your return will be the satisfaction of knowing you assisted in:

The creation more free time required for writing and other work on worthy projects such as:

• Helping the unavoidably homeless (providing food, clothing, shelter, etc.).  
• Writing, publishing and distributing (to elementary schools) short stories, poems and books for our younger folks in order to encourage reading and thinking and being creative to combat their becoming obsessed and overly dependent on their smartphones for 'entertainment'.
• Mastering and accomplishing a properly written screenplay and having the means to travel and meet with the various folks or entities who might be willing and able produce it.  I have regularly-occurring wonderfully workable ideas for programming and am forced to sit back and watch as they find the path of least resistance (via someone else!) rather than emerging from my brain through my arm, hand, fingers, and then pen or keyboard onto paper.
• Complete a book with the intent of someone purchasing the rights to do the above. I have been told by some folks in the entertainment-production business "just write a book about the same thing, there are thousands of people out there looking at books as they are published and snapping them up with the possibility of transforming them into productions for film or television."  

The right person understands the importance of these endeavors and need for dedicated and uninterrupted time required to accomplish them to any degree of effectiveness.

If this describes you: 

CLICK HERE and donate as you see fit.

Thank you!

JM(M)

WORDS WITH FRIENDS 2

Remember "Scrabble?"

​This is the same thing. Except you can play it with a crapload of people all over the world at the same time.

You can play it with people you don't know as well as those you do, did and will. And you can play it "at will" when you have time to look at the board and think.

And those of you who are cheating, I know who you are! :)

And yes, I'm late to the game ... by a coupla years. But I like it because it harkens back to the days when you'd sit around a gameboard with your little letter holders (a rotating board if you had the really cool edition) and play a game ... and talk.

You can do that with this version, too ... you can press a button and swear at your opponent, etc. Only issue: you can only play a game with one person. So to get around that, you play about 10 games at a time with 10 different people.

What do those computer and cellphone people have in store for us in their evil minds next? Being able to go outside and do stuff? Well, I guess that's what those bluetooth things are for. Hmmm.

Comments welcome and will not be published unless requested by commenter or I like it ... email addresses will not be published (and I'll even change your name if you say something REALLY embarrassing).

WORDS WITH FRIENDS 1

3.9.2014
O.B.W.W.F Today
(Overcome By Words With Friends)

"Words with Friends"

It's "Scrabble." And it's one of those things that I've been ignoring largely due to the negative affect of "Farmville" some years ago. But a recent visit home to Pennsylvania (specifically "Aunt Jo") got me hooked."

"What?!" exclaimed the resident young person inhabiting my couch, "You're just now getting around to finding out about this?!"

Whatever.

Banned from Facebook!

2.9.2014

Okay, so It's actually the 3rd of Sept., but I've been setting up (okay, wrestling with) this "venue" for me to vent since Facebook likes to "ban" me when I say things that they don't like ... no kidding ... we'll have coffee and talk.

The Facebook Police will ban you if someone sends in a complaint about something you posted ... a picture you posted ... a comment you made on one of THEIR posts that offended you, etc. Thus far, I've been banned twice ... and I never got an explanation.

Whatever. I've been meaning to start this thing; "do a blog" and have made a half dozen unsuccessful attempts at it. But you don't want to hear about that ... long boring stories about failures, blasie, blasie, blah.

Today's post has already been posted, actually. It's in regard to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which I was very proud to be involved in. So for today's post (I'm going to try and post daily) I'm going to cop out and use that. (Please navigate to the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge" link wherever it is on your PC page or cellphone-version page of this thing.

​​Peace. - JM(M) -

2nd post, undated Sept. 2004

Okay. Day two. Mostly spent setting this sucker up.

The whole idea behind this thing is for both of us.

I need a place to put the stuff I write where I won't lose it. I do that a lot. Write. Sometimes it's good and I want to refer back to it, but I forgot where I put / saved it. So if you like to read (especially stuff from a non-traditional-thinking doofus,
great. I like to write and that makes us compatible.

Welcome!

I have decided to NOT provide a space for "comments" in the normal sense. In my past (read: failed) attempts to get one of these blog-thingers up and going, I was literally over-f'ing-whelmed with bots.

These "bots" were little "comment-leaving-bastards" and, whether I had a filtering device set up to separate readers (read: people) from the bullshit comments (read: bots) there were still SO MANY of them that it just became too much work to sit down and puke my guts onto my computer. I had to "sort out all the crap" so the machine wouldn't blow up. Actually, it wouldn't "blow up," but the computer people hosting my blog would keep sending me e-mails saying "Hey! You have comments! Go check 'em out!" ... and that affected by blood pressure and well ... yeah, "blow up" applies.

Today's efforts, as I said, have been on set up so that I can sit down and just puke whatever I want onto this thing. And you are certainly welcome to read it.

As I said, however, I am not going to have your standard "comments" feature. I will, however put a "feedback" page. That feedback will be "just for meeeeeeeee." If you wish to cuss me out or express your opinion, I will endure same (by reading your e-mail) ... and I make you this promise: ask/tell me to "REPOST THIS" and I will. I'm going to make a "Prize Winning Feedback" page (already have 1 winner ... Batgirl sent me a nice note) and on that page I will reprint all feedback, negative, positive or perverted (well, not *too* perverted) if the "comment-leaver" asks for their comment to be re-posted. One catch: if you wanna talk smack, leave your name so that can be posted, too. And your e-mail would help, so I can cuss back at you.

None of this "anonymous" crap. I will not publish your email, but I'd sure as hell enjoy the crap out of a private (or public) "debate."

I have always said: "No, I'm not *always* right; I'm just right until you can convince me otherwise." At least I think I said that ... did somebody else say that?