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New Episode Out!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/30KnNQULqw1vLO2HZ78JS5?si=m-sXBNVkRkmO28vpTPYd-g&dl_branch=1
I spent a few minutes talking about the usual topics plus a few new things that have happened in the last few weeks as well as some house updates and some potential future goals! Stay strong, stay healthy, speak the truth even if your voice shakes, shields up, don’t break formation, and not all you know is “misinformation”.
Please share the podcast and check out Jon Dawsons work in progress forum and lets get some discussions going:
Speak Your Truth… Even If Your Voice Shakes
Got something to say but you typically don’t die to fear of losing your job, social media oppression, or ridicule by friends/family? I wanna hear your story, concerns, and rants on my podcast! Message me if you would like to say what you wanna say for thousands to hear. You are not alone.
I Fear…
….the modern day “Outlawed Tunes on Outlawed Pipes”
When the sounds of a free thinking society vanish,
The tyrants shall walk the Earth.
Genesis Coffee Lab
Who likes coffee!?! I know I do! Check out my latest podcast where I review local Alaskan coffee company “Genesis Coffee Lab”. Please don’t forget to share and follow my IG page at @smalltown.famous
https://linktr.ee/SmallTownFamous
New Episode!
Small Town Famous: Coffee, Bourbon, and the Grit In-Between has a new episode out! Follow me on IG @smalltown.famous and don’t forget to share!
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#podcast #spotify #appleposcast #anchor #amatuer #google #bourbon #coffee #ranting
Goodbye Everybody, I’ve Got To Go…
“Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body’s aching all the time
Goodbye everybody, I’ve got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth”
It’s that time, my WordPress fam. Time for us to go on vacation and time for you to read all of my bullshit while you’re shitting on the shitter.
A double shot of whiskey is enough to put me in blog mode so take it or leave it.
We are traveling to Miami for some good times with the in laws and then swinging through Montana for my sisters wedding. This trip is long overdue and I can promise you we won’t be waiting another year before our NEXT trip. I mean once a year traveling goes against Amidon rule #213.
I guess I had good reasoning. I’ve been in the books since March for my Fire Apparatus Drive Operator cert. The colossal challenge I knew was coming for nearly five years finally caught up to me. Saturated with information on an entirely different scale of fire fighting. I buried myself as far as my mind and body would allow me while balancing all other obstacles life decided to throw at me/us. It was one of the greatest challenges I had ever faced. My goal was to land a full time position with CMSFD.
At the time we knew full time spots would open soon, we just didn’t know when. I cracked my book open in March of 2019. A five week class would start up in April and I wanted a head start. When April came around, it was a daily routine of regular job and class by nights/weekends. I learned a lot and loved it. Math is my kryptonite and I knew I was going to have to direct extra attention into the formulas and coefficients. Who’s smarter than a 5th grader? Not this freaking guy.
I struggled pretty hardcore and come test time, I chewed my bottom lip off from test anxiety (ask Dorte, she offered me chapstick as it was cracked bleeding and falling off). I ended up passing 3/3 practicals and 2/3 written. The written consisted of three tests. Mobile water, pumping and driving. I put all of my energy into mobile water and pumping that I failed written driving. I was comically disappointed as I foreshadowed this. I had three weeks to study for a retest and during this study time, the full time positions were announced. Which meant another written… the FDO.
Crunch time.
I knew I had to prioritize so studying for my driver written FADO retake was what I had to do. I studied when I could and went in for a retake. Two weeks later it turned out I failed…. again. This time by one question. Fuck. By then I had applied for the full time position. I had one more chance to pass the driver written FADO if I even wanted to proceed with the FDO. Studied studied studied but this time for FADO and FDO.
I was swamped.
Sleep was a luxury and my coworkers were feeling the tension during the day. I fell behind on daily tasks at home and work. I began chewing my lip again and even found myself clenching my jaw which eventually led to headaches. I even broke out in a stress rash confirmed by my primary care doctor just days before my FDO test. Anyway… one week before my final FADO retake… I took the FDO written. Quite possibly the hardest 100 questions I’ve ever answered in my life and 25 was guaranteed math. I went through three #2 pencil erasers as I second, triple, and quadruple guessed my work. 4.5 hours later I finished and turned into my chief. I was the last one.
The following week I took my final FADO retake. If I failed… I would have to retake the engineer class again (I think) and my chance at a full time was a no go. Results came in for my FDO… I did well and scored an interview. At this point I needed to wait for my FADO score. Friday came around and my interview was for Wednesday. I was losing my shit and then the phone rang… it was chief. She said I had passed. Shit. This is happening.
Clothes washed, shoes shined, resume binders build. I was ready for war… or even an embarrassing defeat but at least I made it.
I made sure to show up an hour early. I even calculated a different route if the train went off the tracks and exploded into a fiery inferno.
The interview was a panel of five and the following 28 minutes was the longest of my life. The questions didn’t seem so bad but I did feel I wasn’t providing fine details but at the same time, as the first two through me off. When it was over, I felt a sense of relief. I felt I did a pretty good job but I DID feel I needed more. One way or another it was over with.
Three days later, chief called and told me I didn’t get it. I was prepared for this and am extremely psyched for my brothers and sisters who did get the position. I’ve been pretty lucky so far in the fire service since testing and interviews really bring out the nerves in me. I did learn a lot through this whole process and I will go for the next spot whenever that may be.
I really didn’t mean to rush the end of that but I figured most of you have heard the roller coaster ride/rant and I didn’t need to repeat myself.
Vacation is here and afterwards I am ready to go back into regular routine with both of my jobs. I haven’t had regular routine since March.
I did my best. I failed. But I will do better.
Here’s to the next two weeks with my lovely wife, my wild in laws, and my family.
Thank you all. Stay tuned.
Spelling and grammar errors. I know.
Code Name: Stellarwind
-Hunted-
Let’s step back a few years before Edward Snowden became the United States of Americas most wanted man. Stellarwind was created by the NSA (Nation Security Agency) just after 9/11. The project was approved by President Bush and was exposed and revealed to the New York Times by Thomas Tamm in 2008. It was a foundation that later evolved into new and different legal structures that allowed Bush and Obama to create more programs and expand their reach.
The program allows for data mining massive databases of American citizens which included emails, financial transactions, telephone conversations, and internet activity. Several internal disputes inside the U.S. Justice Department about the program over the fact that it didn’t just collect date on targets of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act but mass quantities of people as well.
“…the Stellarwind cases were referred to by FBI agents as “pizza cases” because many seemingly suspicious cases turned out to be food takeout orders. According to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, approximately 99% of the cases led nowhere…”
-Wikipedia
Further reading into justifications as to why the program was important, I realized that is seemed as if the 9/11 attacks was used as the final push for this program to be in place. Now that the people of the United States had an enemy on its own soil that organized the attacks right here in the home land, reasons to have a program that collected data on persons of interest seemed like a good idea to the American people. Little did they know, Stellarwind would be used to collect data on just about everyone. We were all persons of interests and it was without warrants.
-How Strange, Innocence-
“…In 2004, the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Jack Landman Goldsmith, wrote at least two legal memos authorizing the program, “We conclude only that when the nation has been thrust into an armed conflict by a foreign attack on the United States and the president determines in his role as commander in chief . . . that it is essential for defense against a further foreign attack to use the [wiretapping] capabilities of the [National Security Agency] within the United States, he has inherent constitutional authority” to order warrantless wiretapping — “an authority that Congress cannot curtail,” Goldsmith wrote in a 108-page memo dated May 6, 2004. In March 2004, the OLC concluded the e-mail program was not legal, and then-Acting Attorney General James Comey refused to reauthorize it…”
-Wikipedia
Thomas Tamm was born in 1952 and received his education from Brown University. He is a former attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and is a known whistleblower. Tipped off by Tamm, the New York Times released and article on December 16, 2005, exposing Stellarwind. A little over a year later, the FBI raided Tamms house and in 2011, the Justice Department dropped all charges against Tamm and did not file charges.
Today, Stellarwind is in full force with several programs grown off of it’s foundation. NSA still collects data on the people of the United States as well as working together with several other European countries.
Sources:
Wikipedia, Google
Small Town Famous 