Sharing the stories helps keep me sane.
Down time in Africa was loads of fun. During both ops there (Somalia and Rwanda) we managed to get a silly amount of golfing and drinking in, and even an occasional safari.

Cheers Brother

Interesting set of responses. I sort of understand why guys want a younger woman, but I don't think I could be involved with someone younger than my oldest son. I'd always be a bit concerned about motives and such. My ex and I split when I finally understood she wanted someone to take care of her for the rest of her life, while I thought I had a partner for the rest of our lives. I'd always have that experience in the back of my mind with a woman under 30 or so who hadn't really established herself first. My ex is also older than me, so I'm hoping to meet someone my own age, though I know it will take time and effort.

Oh and NavyGirl, the idea that 20-something guys are looking for a mommy figure (I'm sure many are) is always a bit disturbing. I'm sure someday you'll be a wonderful queen to a fine king without the added weirdness of a junior suitor trying to recreate Oedipus

Cheers.

A little something amusing for the military folks in the crowd. A friend sent me this a few days ago. For those of you who are civilians, please take this as it is intended, a light bit of humour. It's not intended to be insulting or offensive. I also edited out a few pieces as being really inappropriate here.

Military vs. Civilian Friends

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Tell you not to do something stupid when drunk
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will post 360 security so you don't get caught

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Hope the night out drinking goes smoothly, and hope that no one is late for the ride home.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Know some wild **** will happen, and set up rally points and an E & E route.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Bail you out of jail and tell you what you did was wrong.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will be sitting next to you saying, Damn...we screwed up...but hey, that **** was fun as ****!

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Steal each other's stuff so often nobody remembers who bought it in the first place.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Are happy that someone picked up a one night stand and leave them alone.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will Low Crawl naked into the room with a camera and hope for the tag team.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will listen to your relationship problems and hope it works out for you.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will listen to you over a long hard road march, and will help you straighten it out better than Dr. Phil.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Might try to hit on your girl behind your back.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Have spooned with you in the field more than your girl has, and would never even think about doing that.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowd's *** that left you.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will try and talk to the bouncer when you get tossed out of the bar.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will man up and go after the bouncer for touching you on the way out.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will wish you had enough money to go out that night, and are sorry you couldn't come.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will share their last dollar with you, drag you along, and try to steal free drinks all night.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you've had enough.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say, "Dude, you better drink the rest of that ****, you know we don't waste.. That's alcohol abuse!!!"

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Want the money they loaned you back next week.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Can't begin to remember who owes who money after taking care of each other for so long.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will say "I can't handle Tequila anymore".
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will say "okay just one more" and then 2 minutes later "okay just one more".

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will talk **** to the person who talks **** about you.
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will punch their lights out!!

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will tell you "They'd take a bullet for you."
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will actually take a bullet for you.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will ignore this
MILITARY FRIENDS: Will repost this

Cheers.

It's pretty clear you don't understand how it actually works. When you sign up for the military (I did 10 years in the Canadian Air Force on CC-130 Hercules) you commit to two very specific things:

The first is unlimited liability, which means they have the right to order you into a situation that may be fatal, and the danger does not represent an excuse to say no.

The second, and much more important in this context, is a very specific obligation to follow ALL lawful orders. Or would you rather the folks in charge of the country's ability to respond with and to violence get to decide on their own which orders to follow? Of course we think for ourselves, and I can promise you that anybody that has experienced combat would think longer and harder than any civilian before committing to it again. But, if it's a lawful order, the guys in uniform will go and do it. That is why the job they do for society is worthy of all the support you can muster.

Just for completeness in the thread, I served in the first Gulf War, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Haiti and others. I like to think the work we did in peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance was worthwhile.

Cheers.

Oops, this was originally in response to a post that was moderated. I believe the basic thrust of my comment is still useful, but confusing without this little note.

I guess I can add my two cents. I was happily married for 16 of the 18 years we were together. When I finally understood we had different expectations of the relationship, I knew it was time to for that relationship to end. No fighting or anything like that, but she is no longer the person I want to spend my time with and I feel better with her out of my life. I have no regrets, since if I'd not made the decision to marry, I'd be a very different person today. I was willing to take a shot, and ended up with more happy memories than sad ones, so I think it worked out OK. Would I get married again? I honestly don't know, but I suspect probably yes if I met the right person.

Cheers.

I honestly have no idea what my next big goal in life will be, I'm trying to discover that now. This doesn't mean I have no goals, or I'm just drifting right now. I have very specific goals in a variety of areas such as career, romance, self-improvement, etc. It's the really big target, 5 or 10 years out I'm thinking about. Two things I know.

One, whatever I'm doing in the future, I can always change direction.

Second, right now I can't imagine being anyone else or doing anything else until I find my next big goal. I'm having fun and loving every moment I can't wait to see what happens next.

Cheers.

I think the combination of MAC trapping (limiting connection to known MAC addrs) plus WPA-PSK is probably adequate for 99% of the people with a wireless router in their home. The first rule of network security is to be a less appealing target than anyone around you (the 2 guys and a lion story), and in an urban area, there are more than enough poorly secured networks to keep people busy, so even moderately secured ones get skipped. Yes, it is fairly easy to change a MAC address to connect to a router, but this is usually pretty obvious (since you end up with duplicated MACs on the same network segment). Generally, you should be more concerned with people attacking your computers from the Internet.

Network security as a profession is challenging. I know because I've been a network security professional for over 15 years. It has good points and bad points. I wish you well with it, I'm actually getting out of that business.

Cheers.

Of course, using Latin will almost always get you labeled a know-it-all

That said, people are where they are, not much to be done about it. Some people seem to believe that if you're well spoken and knowledgeable you obviously feel you're better than those around you and are probably elitist. Some people are just flat out intimidated by people more knowledgeable than them. Some days I think there's a quickly growing cult of ignorance

I try to stay away from words like "smarter", "dumber", etc, because there's no agreement on what they mean and no way to pin them down. Are we talking about creativity? Math skills? Ability with languages? Education level? Don't say IQ, that only really measures your ability to take IQ tests, which doesn't really help. Interesting things to think about, though.

Cheers.

It was a good day, and it ends with a nice glass of wine, a fire and a good book.

Cheers.

My workday is finished and I can't go anywhere because of the weather. I think I'm going to spend some time in the backyard throwing snowballs at my dog (she loves it). The question is: what other ideas do people have for a day like today?

Cheers.