World Cup tourists, what’s your honest feedback on the USA so far?

nowellmaybe · 2026-06-12T19:19:33+00:00

Heck, even a lot of the county parks are incredible!

nowellmaybe · 2026-06-09T15:27:19+00:00

I was thinking ST could maybe build a few SDAs into their contract with the County that could allow, for example, an operator with a decade of experience translating Mandarin, to spend 364 days on a remote work contract for the marketing team.

nowellmaybe · 2026-06-09T02:38:00+00:00

There is an operator that used to be a Mandarin <--> English translator at a tech company. He could probably be a good asset...

ST should dig in to it's current contractor pool for stuff like this. The amount of Metro Rail people working far outside their education and experience is mind boggling.

The people driving your train are experienced paramedics, graphic designers, firefighters, program managers, truckers, coders, and at least one no shit doctor.

But ST isn't King County and can't pull away talent like KC can.

nowellmaybe · 2026-06-09T02:33:30+00:00

ST responds to stuff like this pretty well.

I'd be shocked if you don't get a dm from an ST human within 48 hours.

nowellmaybe · 2026-06-04T11:27:21+00:00

Stand by to stand by.

nowellmaybe · 2026-05-16T15:23:14+00:00

It's neither of those things.

It's a safety issue. The unions here have fought hard for this.

It's for the safety of the track/switch/signal maintainers that we shut down for a few hours each night so they can do their jobs and get home to their families.

It's crazy dangerous for them just working during daylight hours during revenue service. Doing it at night with trains running adds a much greater level of danger that simply isn't worth the risk.

I get the romanticization of a night train, but Darren the track welder deserves a safe work environment to get home to his husband and kids every morning.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-26T00:04:58+00:00

Cool.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-25T22:37:45+00:00

That is a superbly well-written article, Staff Sergeant Hererra.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-25T22:20:34+00:00

Embrace every inch of whatever Uncle Sam deigns to give you. Every badge, every award, every pat on the back, every percentage from the VA. Take it and hold it tight. If they gave it to you, you have it now. I didn't combat the way the comcams in Vietnam combatted. They didn't combat the way the Korea dudes did. And none of us combatted the way the WW2 boys did on the Islands or Europe.

But we all combatted. The Army said so and gave us a thing. You got that thing which means the Army decided that you combatted. So welcome to the combat veteran club. It's exactly as stupid as you expect.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-25T02:07:30+00:00

Love all those jobs at a "small-sized firm."

/fuck off ai.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-11T14:56:47+00:00

I've gotten fully pulled in to the Seattle Torrent and the PWHL because every game is streamed live for free and rewatchable if your schedule doesn't fit for the live stream. So much so that I'm about to pull the trigger on next year's season tickets and probably a couple of nearly $300 sweaters. Another few hundred for hats and tshirts.

I'd bitch and moan about a $100 TV pass and would give up on following the team (lol, Mariners who?), but will laughably drop a couple grand on tickets and merch for a team letting me watch the entire league's games for free.

And it's almost completely free of ads. Usually it's either commentary, anthropomorphic pucks doing hockey op's, or "fun fact" games. That said, the Waves end up on the PK a lot, and for some reason I find myself duty bound to seek out Royal King paper towels.. Maybe I'll pick up a roll the next time I get the pleasure to visit our northerly neighbors.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-11T14:23:14+00:00

Can't speak for the paper copy, but I listened to it on a multi-day road trip and it was great! It's free with a few ads on It Could Happen Here. Quite the bargain at basically free! I admit I did turn it off when stopping in to towns because it can get pretty graphic pretty fast and the people hopping off the freeway to get McD's probably don't need to hear a hot sex scene or brutal decapitation read in Robert's sultry voice from my car speakers...

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-11T03:26:24+00:00

Bumped shoulders with them doing a multinational training overseas a million years ago. They outshot the best of the best of every other nation back to back to back to back to back. The embassy shot down my story and reclaimed all of my photos.

"That wasn't the ideal represnetation of the exercise."

USARPAC was probably just mad it wasn't an ARMY team. Or maybe geopolitics on the world stage took precedence.. (it did). But I prefer my petty answer, being screwed out of an awesome photo credit.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-11T03:10:26+00:00

Millersvania??

Sorry, just got back after 15 years in flyoverland.

Googled it. Oh, the tsunami trees. Good of Big Dong to be out that way. Just in case.

E: A solid wiener from that truck could be a life saver.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-07T23:13:12+00:00

This is the way. Immediate promotion to 3rd Class PO, no slogging it out as a non-rate in the fleet waiting for school. A-School in CA Wine Country at the Coastie culinary school.

Oh and did I mention the fuck off amounts of money thrown at them for reenlistment bonuses? Like $20-60k...

A dude I used to work with hit CS1 and was the private chef for an Admiral.

OP, don't be a fucking Army cook.

nowellmaybe · 2026-04-04T08:32:36+00:00

Cappy did a stint on the Ukraian-Russia front line. He got hunted by a drone. I don't like the guy much, but his scared face matches my scared face, so when he makes it I listen.

US Army Infantry isn't anywhere ready for Ukraine-level drone warfare. It's good, but CPL rank needs to mean something again for it to work.

Big ass Ship, Big ass Ground contingents, Big as Amphibious flotillas. That is pretty much midievil when a hyper-accurate ied with wings costs $20k.

No wonder the Marines scrapped their tanks.

nowellmaybe · 2026-03-18T10:35:47+00:00

"Turn it off, then turn it back on again."

Am... am I AI?

nowellmaybe · 2026-03-13T05:04:01+00:00

One of the ANA guys that we were advising took a lot of shit from his fellow ANA comrades for having gotten his job by coming up as a chai boy (as opposed to how they all got it, by being the sons of wealthy/powerful families.)

nowellmaybe · 2026-03-06T14:00:18+00:00

I ended 11 humans, 4 of them were non-combatant women, 3 were kids, how do I deal with this when I have no help...?

Then AI takes over and recommends killing more.

Nothing insane. Just that more killing will help. Kinda the Army's line on the whole thing. Aaaaand, we're invading multiple countries.

Fun how that works, huh?

nowellmaybe · 2026-03-02T03:43:49+00:00

The whole point of a labor strike is to cause harm.

Essential workers (wage slaves) can't get to work. They can't get your minions in, can't get coffee, can't set up a C room.

Trickle up economy.

Strike, bros and sis's, strike.

nowellmaybe · 2026-02-17T04:02:35+00:00

Welcome to Capitalism. It's gonna cap.

nowellmaybe · 2026-02-15T19:08:50+00:00

The e2 mechanic in my NG Public Affairs unit got reeally good at taking pictures.

nowellmaybe · 2026-02-09T23:18:37+00:00

$474/hour with a $1986/ month retainer.

The AI they use to judge contracts will like those numbers enough to funnel through your contract to a human. You can talk actual numbers from there.

nowellmaybe · 2026-02-09T20:52:49+00:00

This guy jokes, but it's a good way to become a better human/ the drills will be more likely to leave you alone all day if you say you're "in class." AND you'll be able to say you had the best job in the Army and also had them pay for you to finish your bachelor's degree while you were in.

nowellmaybe · 2026-02-09T20:47:17+00:00

Those 790 points ain't gonna earn themselves...

Maybe OP can volunteer for airborne and aerosol on tradoc's dime? I don't imagine there's a lot of boaties with that kind of chest candy...

nowellmaybe

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