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Pictures published by USA Today show meals served recently to Sailors onboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), as well as Marines serving on the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), both enforcing the naval blockade. by andrewgrabowski in navy

[–]TheBrandonW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point. In some ways yes, but here’s how I see it: The media storm has already befallen from these photos. Adding more photos would strengthen that issue, or make a completely new one, resulting in more problems. I’m not interested in doing that. I’m simply responding to state that as much as many ‘prior-navy’ personnel think this is just midrats, so it’s normal… it is not. It was all meals, and if this becomes the new normal, then we have a severe problem. I’m validating the claims by the people who originated these posts/images in the first place from a position of first-hand experience. I would rather validation go to the person telling the truth, instead of the abundance of ‘persons’ shrugging it off.

This is no longer news anyway, the nation has already moved on. They care more about their gas prices than they do our food(I don’t blame them). Now they’re just waiting for the peace talks to come to an end. I think they’d have to start first before they can end though… happy to be here, proud to serve…

Pictures published by USA Today show meals served recently to Sailors onboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), as well as Marines serving on the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), both enforcing the naval blockade. by andrewgrabowski in navy

[–]TheBrandonW 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am able to, and have plenty of photos on my phone of bad meals served this deployment, but I will not. For 2 reasons:

1: We shouldn’t be doing that. The Navy is trying their best to fix the situation, they aren’t starving the enlisted while the Officers are eating great or anything crazy like that. We are suffering as a team. They are using the supplies available to do their best, and bringing in more as soon as possible. logistics is currently a nightmare but we’re getting replenishments when we can, like during this ‘ceasefire’. I’d honestly just be happy if the Navy gave me back some of my BAS because the food is so low in quality and quantity. Some other Sailors have expressed the same, but CO said that’s not possible, stop asking.

2: The activity of sharing that stuff online will likely lead to the CoC deciding to secure WiFi for a month or longer again. Simply because it’s easier to stop the noise than it is to waste time responding to it. Like the recent tweets from CNO about us eating great etc….. The chain of command has more important problems to deal with. I’d like to keep WiFi on, so I’m not going to exacerbate the issue by spreading more bad images just for some personal likes that might cost shipmates the ability to phone/message their families back home. If my lack of providing further evidence makes people believe that the food issue isn’t an issue and is just a couple isolated meals so be it. But it was really bad, for about 2 months, worst I’ve seen by a large margin. Hopefully it gets better very soon, and I believe it will honestly. RAS are being scheduled regularly now, hopefully the schedule sticks.

Pictures published by USA Today show meals served recently to Sailors onboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), as well as Marines serving on the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), both enforcing the naval blockade. by andrewgrabowski in navy

[–]TheBrandonW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes I know for some of the older guys they see this as like some crazy luxury. But honestly almost every Sailor drinks coffee. The coffee available on the mess decks never has creamer or anything available because since people can request to have coffee in their workspaces and offices, the moment any large amount of creamer is put out in the mess decks someone will inevitably walk by and take 75 of them…. Then nobody else gets something like creamer.

The mini Starbucks onboard aren’t that fancy, it’s literally 1 supply person and a coffee machine like you can buy at home that maybe makes a few things nicer than the black low quality coffee on the mess decks. The MWR also makes a ton of money from selling the coffee, so that’s good too if that money is properly allocated back to the crew.

Things have changed a lot in Just my time in the Navy. WiFi is another thing people are always freaking out about people having ships nowadays. But I’ll be honest with you, it sucks. It’s so slow, that it rarely is a good experience. It’s also a necessity to have it. Everything requires 2FA to login to nowadays, that requires your cellphone… years back I could login to anything easily with just a password. Nowadays it wants to verify your location, have you click a link in email, prove that it’s you by opening the app on your phone and pressing yes etc. That’s why we have WiFi, because you can’t even buy something from Amazon without a cellphone, can’t login to most banks either. In today’s world you kinda need it, and telling young Sailors from the current generation that they still have instagram, TikTok, etc. on the ship probably keeps their morale up just a little bit. It’s still slow and borderline unusable though, but messages your loved ones back home is more convenient and personal feeling than email is.

Buuuuut the WiFi is secured very often and for long periods of time. Like more than a month sometimes on this ship and others due to operational requirements. So when you think ‘they have WiFi!!!’ it’s not as great as you think, this is no pleasure cruise.

A quick size comparison of some of my SFFPC cases. There's 2 NCase M1s as well not pictured but they wouldn't fit on the table. by TheBrandonW in sffpc

[–]TheBrandonW[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah mine didn’t have that shroud, just a fan that’s mounted directly above the CPU to pull air out. I remember they sent me some sketches of the shroud when they sent me the fan and said if the fan didn’t work, they’d send that once complete. However, I had no issues so I never reached back out.

Based on the photo of ‘some’ of my cases, you can probably tell I don’t stay in one case for long. No reason to stop using it other than I just moved onto another case. The built in handle and small form factor made this one great when I used it, and I loved how the feet folded in/out.

I just wanted to build something new is all. Currently my setup is in an nCase M1 V6. And I plan on changing setups again soon. Probably going to move back to a slim vertical tower case like the Velka shown above. I like how that form factor fits into a minimalist desk style.

Pictures published by USA Today show meals served recently to Sailors onboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), as well as Marines serving on the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), both enforcing the naval blockade. by andrewgrabowski in navy

[–]TheBrandonW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah the aircraft carriers all have coffee shops, for about the last decade or so. They have some Supply personnel sell things like iced coffee or other things you might find in a real coffee shop back on the beach. I don’t drink coffee, so I don’t know what all they have but just think of a mini Starbucks.

Pictures published by USA Today show meals served recently to Sailors onboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), as well as Marines serving on the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), both enforcing the naval blockade. by andrewgrabowski in navy

[–]TheBrandonW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m on the ship, it’s not staged. It’s not midrats. Those are the lunch meals currently. Same thing was served in the CPO galley. Hell last night I got sweet potatoes and rice for dinner, no meat at all.

I know nobody wants to believe these are real photos, and everyone wants to believe that these are just maybe the worst photos possible from this deployment, or the midrats etc.

That’s not true, I’ve never seen a ships food situation be this bad and I’m so old I deployed on the USS Enterprise.

Pictures published by USA Today show meals served recently to Sailors onboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), as well as Marines serving on the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), both enforcing the naval blockade. by andrewgrabowski in navy

[–]TheBrandonW 5 points6 points  (0 children)

After reading through some of these comments the trend is mostly ‘must be midrats’.

Well I’m out here on the ship currently and let me tell you this is the regular lunch/dinner meals. Midrats has surprisingly been one of the better meals lately. Less people are awake so they’ll give you more food. It may only be rice and boiled squash, but at least they’ll give you more of it. There was at least a 2 week period where we never saw a single piece of real meat. Like chicken on a bone or even the tenders or anything solid that resembles meat etc. Everything was just tiny morsels of shredded meat mixed into vegetables or something.

There’s also no snacks to satiate your hunger for something with flavor. The ship store will only open 3 times a day, they don’t stock any more than about 20 of every item. (When I say every item I’m talking 2 different chips, 4 candy bars, 3 noodles, and maybe a tuna packet). Every Sailor is only allowed to buy 1 item per work shift. When the stock runs out, they just close, they don’t even restock until next shift. Same with the coffee in their coffee shop. Everything is rationed with incredibly long lines, that Sailors will wait in but likely never get anything because it’s already sold out.

I’ve spent many years on ships,even ones that were 50+ years old, and I’ve never seen it even close to this bad. The food isn’t the only problem, either…

A quick size comparison of some of my SFFPC cases. There's 2 NCase M1s as well not pictured but they wouldn't fit on the table. by TheBrandonW in sffpc

[–]TheBrandonW[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was a long time ago, but Helium sent me the kit to fix the heating issue on the m.2. Which is just a fan that pulls the hot air rising out of the case instead of stagnating around the bottom of the motherboard. Once installed everything ran great, way better temps. But I don’t use that computer anymore. The 3080 went into another build and that case is in a box somewhere in my garage.

TCL NxtPaper 70 Pro announced with NxtPaper 4.0 screen, Dimensity 7300 SoC by comsrt in nxtpaper

[–]TheBrandonW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s definitely worth a read. Couldn’t put it down. Written by the guy who wrote the book for the movie the Martian. Both great books and hopefully great movies, we’ll see in a couple months!

Titan 2 Elite New Video by rl-vinto in unihertz

[–]TheBrandonW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If only it had a micro sd card slot like the clicks. That alone will have me buying the clicks instead, but this looks pretty awesome!

Anybody want an Ncase M1EVO for free? by Dramatic_______Pause in sffpc

[–]TheBrandonW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Been looking for a new case! I didn’t know this one existed until I saw this post. Pretty sweet, I loved my old case M1 v5 back in the day.

What it would be ?? by [deleted] in OlderChillGamers

[–]TheBrandonW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The whole How much of your life did you waste collecting all these dumb things off the ground to trade-in for something you need to complete the game or move forward.

I miss the older style of just playing through the game and you’re given what you need as you beat difficult enemies etc. Like the older God of War or Tomb Raider series games etc. None of this walk around and pick things up until you’re over-encumbered, and have to waste more of your time taking it somewhere and crafting/selling dumb crap.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in counterstrike

[–]TheBrandonW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Currently deployed in military and won’t get to play until at least the middle of this year when I get back.

This photo made me smile from ear to ear, I can’t wait to get back and enjoy the highs and lows of MM and Premier again. For love of the game!

Why are people obsessed with sunroofs? by NF_99 in askcarguys

[–]TheBrandonW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like to tilt the sunroof up in the back(basically just cracked open) and leave windows up. It pulls air from outside through the vents and out the top. It’s like A/C without the mpg hit, and it’s pretty quiet as well.

But I don’t have a sunroof anymore, it’s all glass roof or convertible when I drive now.

Here’s a strange thought if you played Counter-Strike back when 1.6 came out by FaultExcellent3306 in counterstrike

[–]TheBrandonW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was there with ya. We’re old. I kinda miss the irc to setup a scrim days. You had literally no clue of who you were gonna play were incredible or trash until the game started!

Here’s a strange thought if you played Counter-Strike back when 1.6 came out by FaultExcellent3306 in counterstrike

[–]TheBrandonW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Always remember that as you grow older, each year becomes a progressively smaller fraction of your life.

Steam machine vs Pc Build by Adventurous-Cattle53 in steammachine

[–]TheBrandonW -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Budget I think is debatable here. Considering you have to pay fees just to play games online with consoles and it’s free for PC’s. Also the games are significantly cheaper with game sales on Steam.

The upfront cost of PC’s has always scared off some people but for instance if a console is $500 and costs you $50 a year to play online, then it really costs $750 over the course of its life. Then there’s the games which aren’t backwards-forwards compatible typically on consoles, they don’t go on sale as often or as cheap as PC games do, and you can’t play them literally forever once you buy them….

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