Day 89 (92 days to go…)

Well today is a notable achievement. I am now 50% done! For those that are looking at my title and wondering how the math adds up, remember I started at -2 days. ;-)

We actually got to walk to Eggers today for steak as the roads were clear. It was good as usual. On the trip I had one of the Afghan kids (it is one I know that was happy to see me after such a long time) INSIST I take one of his bracelets he was selling. I made sure to give him a couple bucks when I returned.

Unfortunately it will probably be my last time going to Eggers in a while (if not ever). The new guy that oversees our company’s work starts in a few days, and apparently he is much more paranoid about contractors doing work and gets concerned when he sees them out of the office during their 12 hour shift (regardless of if they make it up at the end of the shift like normal.) So meal times will be cut to strictly 30 minutes with no other time in the middle of the day for going to the gym or anything. This means definitely no Eggers as the round trip usually takes over an hour. We also have to be extra careful that everything on our screen looks strictly work related to make sure he doesn’t think we are off goofing around the internet. Even programming blogs that appear a bit to flashy or a quick 2 minute You-Tube video have to be strictly regulated. It sucks, but we don’t want to give any impression (true or not) of anything negative.



~David

Day 87 (94 days to go…)

Today I took my second trip out of the green zone to IJC. I went to talk more about the new upcoming search. All the new stuff I have been working on is now mostly done, and I was able to show off the new features. The meetings went very well and were informative. I feel much better about rolling this new version now.

Below are some more crazy photos of the ride over. These were taken by me this time. Last time someone else took those pictures.

~David

Day 85 (96 days to go…)

I got a package from my grandmother Nana today. Has a bunch of things like some chips, some mac and cheese, some other sweets, all kinds of stuff. Thank you so much Nana! I love you, and I thank you for your support. All of you back home have been great. My coworkers keep wondering how I don’t get fat! :-P



~David

Day 83 (98 days to go…)

Saw something interesting today. They are tearing down one of the old housing units. It is built just like the one I am in, little compartment rooms that are essentially shipping containers. It was really cool to watch as a crane hoisted one of these containers 30 or 40 feet in the air as it slowly brought it over to a flatbed truck. Somehow the entire scene really reminded me of the opening scene of Portal2 – where you are in a similar unit and it suddenly starts moving through the facility lol. The fact I live in an essentially identical unit felt all the more crazy.



~David

Day 82 (99 days to go…)

Well today is an exciting day! As they say around here, I’m now a double digit midget! I am under 100 days. Only 99 to go!



~David

Day 78 (103 days to go…)

Well had an interesting random thing happen today. I was working late, listening to some music on my awesome Bose headphones. There were only a couple people in the office as it was around midnight. Well someone left the office door open, and one of the cats (one of the more friendly ones) wandered in to say hi. I kinda noticed it but didn’t pay much attention. This is not the first time one of them has come to visit and I figured one of the other people would chase it out. I went back to work as I was trying to finish some important work and get to bed… plus it was a good song on. Well suddenly said cat decides to jump up on MY DESK. MINE. There are 20 workspaces in here and it chooses mine. It decides to walk and rub over ALL my stuff. I’m stuck there trying to decide how to get it off as it runs behind all my monitors. Finally Sharron is able to get it down and take it outside (Thank You!). Needless to say, these cats are not exactly clean. That aside, as most of you know, I am highly allergic to cats. So it was time to clean… everything… Exactly what I felt like doing at 12am in the morn. Ah well… it was all dusty anyways. (Things get dusty here crazy quick). So yah, that was fun. Let’s just hope this is one cat who doesn’t come back. ;-)



~David

Day 77 (104 days to go…)

Today is one of our SAs’, Sharron’s, going away party. She will be leaving in a couple days. She kind of acted as a mother figure to all of us here in theater, and she would get on to anyone when they misbehaved or acted up. She is really cool and will be missed. I have many fond memories of her here. She made the time go by. She is happy to be going home though to be with her son (who is about my age) and her new boyfriend Paul. I wish her the best!

Some pictures of her:

~David

Day 76 (105 days to go…)

A package from my grandparents arrived today! Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa. It is filled with all kinds of sweets, as well as a bunch of other stuff I needed like a night mask. I love you both very much and miss you all.



~David

Day 75 (106 days to go…)

Today we had a going away party for Rich. Rich is the KMO out here that oversees a bunch of contractor projects for the government, including several of our company’s like the one I am on. He has been very supportive of our company and our projects. We have been fortunate to have him. We all ate pizza and wished him well as he travels back to the states.

On a side note, right before the party I barely made it to the laundry building in time to pick up my laundry. They have been closed the past few days, and closed early today because it is the end of Ramadan and thus Eid al-Fitr. I am glad I made it; I was just about out of clothes lol.



~David

Day 72 (109 days to go…)

Just finished the last bag of the mint chocolate chip cookies Mrs. McNeeley sent. They were soft and fresh to the last bag. My coworkers also loved them. At one point when I offered one today to Jamie, the tech lead, he initially declined saying “No than… Yes! I forgot about your cookies!” lol. Again thank you so much.



~David

Day 69 (112 days to go…)

Well got a bit of bad news. Because of some recent incidents, the area is on lockdown, and traveling is only for mission essential activities. It is right in the middle Ramadan which tends to be a violent time. Everything is fine inside this base but it does mean that even with Eggers being only a couple blocks away, I won’t be able to go over there for a couple weeks.



~David

Day 65 (116 days to go…)

Well here is some news. I am now under 10,000,000 seconds to go! I have been here 5,843,233.83 seconds at this time. Also I am about to pass my 100,000th minute mark! Awesomeness!

Day 61 (120 days to go…)

Well I have made good progress, but today I finally get the rest of my team. Stephen, who was the team lead on the original search project, and Ross are great assets, and we all work very well together. We might get a few more people as well. We can now really start collaborating and get some code done. I am a bit excited as this effort will give us a chance to not only give new functionality, but we will also be able to fix and tweak a few things not noticed until well after the original search code cutoff. It’s time to get to work!



~David

Day 59 (122 days to go…) - A Month In Review

Well, another month has gone by, which means it’s time for a month in review!

I am really starting to get used to life out here. It isn’t so bad. The company I am with is a really good company with good people. The coworkers around me, once you get used to the style around here, are all really cool. One thing interesting is the illusion of a high turnover rate. Even in just these 2 months I have seen quite a few coworkers leave, and quite a few new arrivals. It is not like they are leaving the company or anything, just going home. Many are going to Colorado or other states and it is unknown if I will ever see them. It is weird though. We are a pretty tight-knit group of about 20 people, but every couple weeks someone is leaving and someone new is arriving. A few people are also “on leave” at the moment for around a month so that also adds to the effect.

I do thank everyone back home for their support. I really owe you all. Without all of you back home I imagine being out here would be much more difficult. It really means a lot to me so I thank you all. Even just reading this blog means you all care enough to see what’s happening.

Honestly I am very behind on this blog, and I am writing this post weeks later than I should be. Work is been very busy lately with the ongoing search effort. I have been staying up after 1am quite a few days just so I can coordinate with people back in the States. Being busy is good though, and makes time fly by pretty fast.

Today I did something cool. Byrd took me to a little room where they have a bunch of instruments to play, including a drum set. Two other coworkers (Jack and another David) got on guitar, Byrd took base guitar, and I hopped on the drums. I haven’t played in FOREVER so I was completely rusty. It didn’t help that one of the drumsticks’ top was broken off. Still it was awesome to rock out again. I had a lot of fun. We played for over an hour. Well that is about it for now. I will GREATLY attempt to get up to date with this blog… You all know that I hate writing so that doesn’t help. :-P This date marks my 1/3rd mark, only 2/3rds left to go…



~David