pecunium

You're viewing

pecunium's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

I'm sorry I've not been writing much. A lot going on, and the effort to find things to write about is more than I have to spare. I can noodle an image, or two, from the library in odd moments, and so you get more pictures.

Her are four, each different from the others.

Hitler's Mercedes

On the Lookout

July, at 10,000 ft.

The Launch

As usual, there are more. I can't seem to load less than about 20 lately.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

auriaephiala.livejournal.com

The geek in me wonders how well armored the Mercedes was.

Nice pix, all of them, but the car grabbed me the most.

B-- and I had one of those weird "discussions from nowhere" yesterday, which raised a question that you might be able to answer: is there a general military principle (U.S. or Canadian or other armed forces) that soldiers should be relocated regularly -- beyond the normal necessities of filling empty positions or handling promotions? Googling produces the impression that "permanent changes of station" in the U.S. military are extremely impermanent, but no reasons why they happen.

From:

pecunium.livejournal.com

The geek in me is able to tell you it was armored to a fare-thee-well. For the day I don't think it got better. The glass is about 3/4" inch thick. The whole think is on a really heavy suspension, and the motor bay is huge.

For the US Army the policy is (though there are rumors this is being changed) that a soldier shall not be in one place for more than 3 years. This is supposed to maintain flexibility, by keeping units from becoming too insular. The idea being that a uniform culture will be maintained in the army-as-whole, while the individual units will keep a local culture, which isn't too different.

In practice, that's sort of weak. Officers have more flexibility than enlisted, because they can be made to change branch. Infantry units are where infantry soldiers go. Airborne soldiers try to stay in airborne units, etc.

When you get to things like interrogators, there are only so many units which need them (though it's more than one might think, because divisions have platoons in the organin MI Bn, which have interrogators).

For a soldier to contrive to stay in one place is called, "homesteading" and is frowned on. It can stunt a carreer. The new policy is supposed to be same station for 7 years, but with the possibility of being rotated to a different unit on the installation. It's new, so we'll know in about five years if it's going to work out/be kept.

But PCS moves, and the strain on the family, combined with the present optempo is making for unhappy spouses, and it's a recruiting truism that, "when the spouse is happy, the soldier stays in. If the spouse is unhappy, the soldier leaves," so there's a strong push to make things more stable for married troops.

In theory one could do an entire career on one installation, under the new rules. I don't think that will be allowed to become common, but it could happen.

The Brits do things very differently, and unless one is in a specialty like Intel, I am informed one usually stays withing the regt, barring career moves for officers.

I don't know about Canada. Perhaps

goshawk could explain it.

From:

asimovberlioz.livejournal.com

Too bad the Mercedes doesn't look like Sonny Corleone's car.

From:

auriaephiala.livejournal.com

Thanks muchly for the clear explanation.

From:

cyan-blue.livejournal.com

Beautiful. I love the egret... and the flowers in front of the mountain.

From:

don-fitch.livejournal.com

The automobile does nothing for me, but the other three are typically fine examples of why I like so much of your photographic work. (Not that I really want to try to analyze your Style, or decide whether it has some kind of Absolute value or simply coincides with my particular tastes, but I find the colors and the composition remarkably ... _satisfying_. It's like my reaction to traditional-style Crow Indian beadwork -- the colors, shapes, and proportions just look _right_ to my eyes & inner senses.) And also, I think you display a remarkable ability to come up with the best word(s) for titles/captions.

From: (Anonymous)

I don't know if I should envy you more for your talent or for your ability to visit such beautiful places. If I had the strength when I have the time, I don't know that I would have had the ability to pick up my camera in such a sublime setting as the second photo of (semi-) alpine flowers.

From:

pecunium.livejournal.com

I think, as I publish more photos, I understand the "burning passion to do "x", which we refer to a a muse, and the Greeks saw as being ridden by a genius.

I've been taking photos for some 25 years. I like it. I did it for years, pretty much for me. A way to not forget a fleeting moment. But sharing them was hard. One had to have money, perseverence and a healthy dose of both obsession and luck; to go with craft and talent.

I got some things published, landed some gigs, but never had the money to make it more than a hobby (or perhaps not the drive/self-confidence to think I could).

The net has changed it all. I can publish. I can also sell directly. That has inspired the self-confidensce, which has ignited the fire. I can't be in a place like that, with a camera, and not take photos.

Ask

commodorified what it's like to walk with me in knee-deep snow, when the temperature is -16C/0F. To have a camera is to see things I want to share. To not try to share them has become incomprehensible.

From:

commodorified.livejournal.com

Ask [info]commodorified what it's like to walk with me in knee-deep snow, when the temperature is -16C/0F.

Like going for a walk with a preschooler: wear an extra layer, make him wear an extra layer, put him in snowpants for when he dives into the drifts, and try to keep an eye on him so that when he hares off in an odd direction, he doesn't get lost or walk under a bus.

*smooches

pecunium*