New camera- playing with Macro mode

Tami and I were playing around with the new camera and took some photos just to see how they would turn out- it’s nice to have a camera that does all the work isn’t it.

Asia’s Inspired: Butterfly Wings

She’s a crafty one ‘eh? Asia went to town the other night doing one of her secret projects that she had a sudden inspiration to do. It’s quite interesting for her Mom and I to sit back and watch her think her way through her projects. How she get the inspiration is anyone’s guess, but I imagine her love of all things pretty kind of helps. Here we have Asia showing off one of her newest creations… butterfly wings. The next morning she made some crowns with little antennae on them for her and Liberty. Here she is showing off her work; click to enlarge.

IMG 0514 300x225 Asias Inspired: Butterfly Wings

IMG 0515 300x225 Asias Inspired: Butterfly Wings

IMG 0516 225x300 Asias Inspired: Butterfly Wings

When little girls pick out their Dad’s Father’s Day Cake

FDcake2009 When little girls pick out their Dads Fathers Day CakeThis is no doubt the product of what happens when a house full of little girls are in charge of picking out the Father’s Day Cake. Oh well, it was good! Happy Father’s Day!

The revolt against IE6… I wish I could participate

Click to enlarge... Down with IE6

Click to enlarge... Down with IE6!


Oh I wish it would go away… but it won’t as it’s still the primary browser used in the Coast Guard :( John Martz, he who keeps the site RobotJohnny.com, posted one of his latest works for momentile.com. This is a splash screen for those who have to use Internet Explorer 6… the evil brother of the newer IE’s. And as I tried to check the site out from work I can tell you the blocking of IE6 works, and you’ll indeed be greeted with a nice little message saying “Howdy Internet Explorer 6 user. Please update your browser to access this site. Love, momentile.com” Oh how I wish I could… but hey FF at home on my Mac works great!

Anonymous bloggers have no rights…

anonymous 300x250 Anonymous bloggers have no rights...… in the UK.

I don’t have a problem with it, for the most part, but it would be nice to know who hates me all the time. Oh well… on to the point; on BloggingTips I’ve come across a post that may be a warning to those who feel as if they may have some rights or something just because they blog/comment in the dark. In said post the recent ruling of a UK (as in across the pond) High Court states

…anonymous bloggers have no right to have their identities kept secret.

Not really a big deal for site like this or CGBlog (so far as the one who post). But for those sites out there who rely in anonymity to stay in business this is the kind of thing that could spell trouble. Realizing this is in the UK one may say that it has no bearing on us in the US… I beg to differ, the internet, not to mention our constant presence in the UK’s back yard, has made this world very small.

Some military bloggers anonymous as they may/are blogging from far off places that don’t really exist to you and I except for on their blog. And in the case of the UK ruling, the individual it was aimed at has a good point when arguing that his anonymity be reserved “in the public interest” as he was writing/posting about real current events; much like our military bloggers do. However, on the flip side there are those bloggers who are out to point fingers at not only internal military problems but also the government as a whole. And they feel as if the only way they can do so is by doing it in the dark… maybe their right- ’cause we’d only laugh at ‘em for digging for material to further their own agendas.

And the Coast Guard wins this race…

winner 150x121 And the Coast Guard wins this race...The NavyTimes has a new blog on the street seemingly having everything to do with the sea services… the SCOOP DECK, not to be confused with the poop deck (naval architecture). Though to be honest I don’t know how you may confuse the two. And to push them on CGBlog they found a story citing the Coast Guard as winning the first Armed Forces Cup Perpetual Trophy this past week. The story is actually over on the Alameda Sun- D11’s world- pointing out that the race involving the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard was to determine who was the fastest on the water. Well as luck would have it they stayed close enough to shore that we were easily the winners. Who knows what would have happened had it gone into the deep ocean (roll with it folks). Congrats to LTJG Jesse Stewart, LTJG Christina Hawn and LT Ryan Hawn for taking the win.

And do note that the Army wasn’t in the race… bummer if you ask me. And the Air Force? Well, I only need say one word: water. ;)

Not a Good Day to Die; a MUST read

050223 tdy book daytodie vmed11awidec 195x300 Not a Good Day to Die; a MUST read
A must read, not Coast Guard, but still a must. For part of my studies I’ve been reading NOT A GOOD DAY TO DIE by Sean Naylor, a story on the chaos and courage in the mountains of Afghanistan (it say’s it right on the cover). As one who was prior Army I find myself still in a state of learning as I read this. I was unaware of the amount of activity our Special Ops community did (even though I was one of ‘em) in the world, especially after 9/11. If you want a good back story to the rhyme and reason as to why things went the way they did after 9/11, halfway around the world, then this is the book for you.

Keeping up with, and filtering, the Coast Guard static

f uscg p 1 1244059492976 300x136 Keeping up with, and filtering, the Coast Guard staticLast night at work I was asked a question that I thought was kind of odd-

How do you (I) find these stories or bits of information to write about on your (my) sites? It’s not like there’s that much Coast Guard news out there…

I would have to disagree- take for example the screen shot here on the right. I took this at 1605hrs this afternoon, this morning when I got home from watch I only had 4 items unread in there. Granted, this count isn’t only CG stories/posts as it also includes any and all sites with a maritime nexus to them. So with that, I would be hard-pressed not to find something to write about.

Oh, and I’ll be adding some little RSS tools/feeds that I use to keep up with the Coast Guard/Maritime world soon, just in case any of you want to use ‘em. And the screen shot is from my USCG Feedly page… an extension for merging Firefox and Google Reader (I wish I could use FF at work).

The Coast Guard Image: Some Auxiliary Love

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Flickr user Drewski2112 brings us a shot of a dedicated Aux boat out in the Puget Sound area. I’m guessing this is on one of the navigable lakes out there… maybe even at SeaFair. Oh well, none the less, it’s an Aux boat, and it’s being posted here.

The Coast Guard Image: A 30 footer?

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

I found this picture by misspelling Coast Guard on flickr… which turns out is quite common. None the less I saw this and thought it good to post. I won’t pretend I know what it is, but I’m guessing by it’s number is a 30 footer. Anyone got some other info on these things? The image was posted by flickr user sunny00_04.