FrankJL

I'm fine with the scriptures on my PDA, I use mobipocket for that, and lots of other books too. I'm wondering how specifically you got them on your cell phone, unless you have a pda phone, or what model phone do you have?

ah...I'm in Pittsburgh (see my icon :) ), I don't think there is any of them around here.

DI?

A-train.. How do you have the scriptures on your phone? I have a Dell Axim PDA with them on, but not my phone. I have an LG Env phone, that I use a lot for webbrowsing and e-mail (the flip keyboard is really nice for e-mail and txt msging

I guess this is where intros go, so here goes. I'm 26 and I'm just recently returning to being active in the church. I joined when I was 17. After I graduated from high school, I joined the army. A few years after joining, I fell away from the church. I served 8 years, was deployed to Iraq twice, once to Afghanistan, and once to Kosovo. I was with 3rd ID during the initial ground war, in Iraq. I mainly did radio communications and computer networking as my job while I was in. Now I've left active duty, but I'm still in the reserves doing the same job as I did before. I just finished my sophomore year at Penn State, I'm majoring in secondary social studies education, and minoring in political science and economics. Hobbies I guess would be geocaching (looking for boxes in the woods with a GPS, sounds odd I know) hiking (goes with the geocaching) working on computers / networks (had a MCSA at one point, think its expired now though) politics (watching the news, reading online news, I'm a registered republican, not a conservative though, more libertarian in political views) People I look up to: Jesus - goes without saying.... Ronald Regan - Our greatest President of modern times, no one will every archive his 49 state land slide victory margin anytime in the near or distant future. Dr. Walter "E." Williams - A brilliant economics prof at George Mason U, writes a lot of columns, and papers that make economics so easy to understand and explain. (Recent Add) Dr. Liviu Librescu - Israeli Engineering Prof at Virginia Tech, and holocaust survivor, held off gunman on campus by blocking the door with his own body, while his students escaped through a window. Shooting through the door, he was shot 5 times, once through the head killing him.

please tell me they where not playing "rape me" at the stake center Actually I have nothing against Nirvana, "come as you are" or "pennyroyal tea" from their unplugged cd is prob one of my favorite songs. Though I do get tired of explainng to people that pennyroyal tea is not about ru-486....

I've just come back to being active in the church after being inactive for several years, and I remember back when I first joined my elders having little quads that had a snap cover. Did they stop making these at some point? I can't find one anywhere, i've looked on the lds distro, deseret book and a few other sites and I can't seem to find one. I would really like one to keep in my bag to be able to read between long class breaks.

If we instituted a cuss jar in every military motor pool, we could generate enough money to wipe out the national debt in a matter of weeks...heh

I this a desktop or laptop keyboard? If its a desktop one, just toss it and get another one they wear out after a while, and they are only a few bucks. If you did spill something in to cause it to stick, run it through your dishwasher (no heat dry and no dish soap) let it dry out for a day or two, and it will be like new. Put it in by it self, on the top rack, with the keys facing down. Also remember if its a ps/2 (little round connector) keyboard, turn the comp off first before you unplug it, if you don't there is a small chance you could ruin you motherboard. If you didn't spill anything, then the little plastic plunger underneath the key could have broke. If you really don't want to buy another one you could just replace the key with another key that you don't use much, the windows function keys come to mind.... If its a laptop thats a whole different matter, they are kinda expensive and somewhat difficult for an average user to replace.

Nice little site, lots of good information on there. One little quip though. The music on the homepage. I usually listen to music or online radio streams on my computer, and the music drowns that out. I see there is a volume control at the bottom of the page, but you have to scroll down to see it, even on my 22'' monitor. It would be nicer to have that volume control visible at the top of the page, so someone could cut it off if they wanted to.

Just don't let it bother you so much, I'm not really sure how to explain it more eloquently. Its just a mental toughness you have to develop. Most of the time you would spend vainly trying to get people to change their ways, could be put to far more productive uses, especially in a work environment. If it is a coworker that is harassing you, I'm sure your workplace has official policies that you could use to resolve you situation.

Learn to deal with it, I know that sounds kind of harsh, but you can't change most people. I becomes more hassle then its worth. Especially where you can't control it, like in short calls with customers. After spending 8 years active duty army, there is nothing that people can say that really offends me. I've heard probably every obscene, disgusting, and weird thing you can probably think of, and then some.

The starbucks refusing to work with the military is an false urban legend from years back. Considering starbucks is owned and mostly patronized by people with a very liberal political views, it does sound like something that could be easily believed.

3rd ID infantry units in Iraq did use shotguns for house to house, not only is it great for room clearing, but it can remove a door lock rather easily I wasn't aware they made different rounds for the m16 and the m4.. We always used the same green tip (or orange for tracers) 5.56 rounds in both. I know the a1 and a2 have different rounds, but they work with each other, its just a matter of the rounds specifically adapted to the the different barrel twists. That Barret looks nice, it says its compatible with all of the upper rail optical systems, but is that thing also compatible with the 203 conversion kit for the 16 too? I would still like to see a larger caliber, the 6.8mm is nice, but would still like to see a 7.62. I'm not so much concerned with long range accuracy, in 2 trips to Iraq, and one to Afghanistan, I've rarely engaged a target at over 200 yards. If the target is that far out, thats what crew served weapons are for, the 50cal, 240B, and my personal favorite the mk-19. My second trip to Iraq we worked with a lot of ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers and they had a really good rifle they used. It was a 7.76, had 3 modes of fire - semi, 3 round burst, and full auto. (kinda a combo of the m1/m2 modes of fire). In all the patrols I did with them, I never seen their rifles jam, ever. It was bigger then our 16, but a lot lighter, it was all made of some polymer material, like what glocks are made of

how is the m16a2 more reliable then the m4? Its the same weapon basically, except the m4 has a slightly shorter barrel, and the collapsible butt stock. The middle firing assembly is the exact same thing in both weapons. The only thing I could think of, is the m4 slightly less accurate at long ranges (300+ M) because the shorter barrel gives the round less spin. My preference though was the M-4, its lighter and easier to maneuver around in tight spaces, such as firing from a vehicle. The change out process will take a while for the new radios. The newest version of the sincgars cost 6,500 a piece, the new radios cost 38,000 a piece. So it is going to take a while to replace all 650,000 radios we have in the army alone, not counting the other services. Part of the last congressional defense spending bill paid for about 180,000 new radios, and they are expecting to phase more in in the comming years. Right now they are going mainly to 87th abn, 3rd ID, 10th mtn, 4th ID and that striker brigade out in Ft. Lewis.

Hardcover books (2, 1850 editions): ‘‘Democratie en Amerique: Tome Un et Deux (Democracy in America: Volumes 1 and 2),’’ by Alexis de Tocqueville. Recd—June 5, 2004. Est. Value—$1500. Archives Foreign. As a history major I would love to have the near original volumes of Tocqueville's classic works. Paperback book: ‘‘The Worst- Case Scenario Survival Handbook,’’ by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht. Recd—June 25, 2004. Est. Value—$15. Archives Foreign. From the president of Turkey... That would kinda creep me out as a gift....what exactly is this man trying to tell our President?? I also notice a lot of bottle of wine on this list, but President Bush doesn't drink, I would figure these people would know that...and what is with all the cigar humidors?

Sorry for resurging a somewhat old post, I'm new here, and as a soldier this one sparked my interest immediately, having spent 8 years active duty, and now in the reserves. I do understand your feelings about soldiers now, and the lack of discipline in the army. I thought it was bad when I was on active duty, when I left there for the reserves, I got the shock of my life. The reserves are a total joke, they have no disciple at all, none. The unit I'm in now is mainly all college kids that don't care about doing their jobs or even learning to do their jobs, they are just there to collect thier tuition assistance, and they could care less about anything else. What really got me though was when I was on active duty, a SSG in my commo section got 2 DUI's and lost his security clearence, and they involunarialy reclassed him, to what MOS you ask?? 88M... Transportation (Truck Driver).... 2 DUI's and they make his job to drive around very big army vehicles ... I defy anyone to explain the logic in that to me.. The last two m4 quals I've done with my reserve unit have been 20 prone unsupported, and 20 kneeling, which did seem more realistic to me. We also did 9mm, and you do a whole bunch of positions for that. Though all this is just training after all. Its one thing to be on a tightly controlled range with rounds all going one way. Combat is totally different, no nice firing line, and rounds going in all directions. Having been with a light engineer company in 3rd ID, when we first went into Iraq, I can tell you all about the chaos that is a small arms fight. One of my major gripes though is the weapon itself. The .556 has no knock down power, its way too small of a round. I've personally seen where it has taken several shots at such close ranges as 50-100m to drop a target. Also it gets dirty way too easily, and isn't exactly meant to handle all the tan baby powder fine Iraqi sand, they gunk up and won't fire. I could write pages and pages on our commuications equipment, its my MOS - 31U, well 25U now. Comparing sat phones to manpaks isn't exactly a fair comparison, they each serve a very different purpose. Manpaks are for short range commo with an OP or a other people on patrols, though these same radios when in vehicles with power amps can talk for almost 30mi (on flat terrain, like Iraq), and they are very hard to jam when running in secure mode, and allow everyone on the mission to hear what is going on. Sat phones on the other hand are only 2 people talking, possibly more with conference calling, still though not like a radio where everyone around can hear your. Sat phones are also very easily jammed, they work on a single dedicated frequency when you are talking on them. Also just like regular cell phones, when turned on, not in use, just turned on able to recieve calls, they are constantly making contact with the satellites to verify service, and the location of the phone, this makes it easy to locate the source of a sat phone's broadcast. True our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan don't have the abilty or technology to do these things, but in a war with a more developed country (i.e China) its a very real possiblity. The manpaks we have now are on their way out anyways. The new JTRS system works not only on military frequencies, but on a whole bunch of other frequencies as well, like civilian air traffic control, AM/FM (what you listen to in your car), American and international cell, and is compatible with the radios of nearly every friendly countries radio systems in the world. It is also capable of computer networks, with a usb input, at 2-4Mbps. The most interesting feature though, since I mentioned cell phone freqs, is that this box on its own is capable of operating as a cell phone jammer, seen this in action at a recent Signal conference in Ft. Gordon.