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What funny/interesting thing happened in your life today?

Ultimate Steve

By Ultimate Steve
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Lewie

Lewie

Posted
Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

I can now sign up for the Navy without asking my parents. As I have turned 18 today!

Happy birthday bud!!!

14 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

But can't drink alcohol. Still < 21.

America! Old enough to die for an  oil company, but still can't drink. 

Edited by Lewie
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GuessingEveryDay

GuessingEveryDay

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Shpaget said:

Why would you sign up?

Just pointing out the weird laws that we have in our country. My family does have a history of having at least one person per generation signing up to serve. My dad's side served in WW2 and Korea, and my dad was born in a military base in Germany. However my dad's mom is sick of the Army and threatened to break my dad's knees if he tried to serve. Meanwhile my mom's side is much more okay with war. 4 uncles in War on Terror, and one aunt helping design Ohio-class. A cousin on my mom's side, recently finished a tour to Taiwan with the Marines.

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JoeSchmuckatelli

JoeSchmuckatelli

Posted
Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, Shpaget said:

Why would you sign up?

 

3 hours ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

My family does have a history of having at least one person per generation signing up to serve

This is a 'feature' of the United States' "All Volunteer Force".  We identified this at least as early as the 90s.  There is a 'class' of people who are more than merely willing to serve (approximately 8% of the population) and typically they have a family history of Service. 

It is a potential problem for us. 

If you consider that a significant proportion of the remaining 92% are only willing to 'take' or have given to them the benefits of living in a Democracy without ever bearing the burden of supporting it, that is a weakness.  Certainly I don't view the entire remaining part of the electorate as parasites (there are many ways to give back to society other than military service), but there is a large part for whom the idea of serving others is confusing and distasteful. For some, it would literally be a dissonant thought that they actually owe anything to the system that enables them. 

I think a lot of people subconsciously recognize that - which is why you see a lot of support for 'taking care of veterans' or 'veteran discounts' and other, similar 'thank yous' that permeate American society. 

Within the 8% you find a sense of pride and duty that permeates generationally.  A presumptive normalcy in the concept of service.  We are actually confused by and find dissonance in the people we meet who would never consider serving. 

*The percentage of the population 'willing to serve' during times of war raises to between 19 and 23 percent.  The 8% is the proportion of the population that have family traditions of service and who regularly volunteer to serve even during peace.  The proportion between the 8% and the 19-23% don't necessarily want to - but they are willing to - and if needed they would not try to avoid serving.  But they don't necessarily seek out service or see it as a duty. 

Edited by JoeSchmuckatelli
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DDE

DDE

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

 

This is a 'feature' of the United States' "All Volunteer Force".  We identified this at least as early as the 90s.  There is a 'class' of people who are more than merely willing to serve (approximately 8% of the population) and typically they have a family history of Service. 

It is a potential problem for us. 

If you consider that a significant proportion of the remaining 92% are only willing to 'take' or have given to them the benefits of living in a Democracy without ever bearing the burden of supporting it, that is a weakness.  Certainly I don't view the entire remaining part of the electorate as parasites (there are many ways to give back to society other than military service), but there is a large part for whom the idea of serving others is confusing and distasteful. For some, it would literally be a dissonant thought that they actually owe anything to the system that enables them. 

I think a lot of people subconsciously recognize that - which is why you see a lot of support for 'taking care of veterans' or 'veteran discounts' and other, similar 'thank yous' that permeate American society. 

Within the 8% you find a sense of pride and duty that permeates generationally.  A presumptive normalcy in the concept of service.  We are actually confused by and find dissonance in the people we meet who would never consider serving. 

*The percentage of the population 'willing to serve' during times of war raises to between 19 and 23 percent.  The 8% is the proportion of the population that have family traditions of service and who regularly volunteer to serve even during peace.  The proportion between the 8% and the 19-23% don't necessarily want to - but they are willing to - and if needed they would not try to avoid serving.  But they don't necessarily seek out service or see it as a duty. 

Yes, and I believe at this point an absolute majority of new personnel influx are service brats. If measures weren't taken to essentially force them to integrate with the broader society by requiring civilian higher education as part of officer qualification, there would be a very real risk of creating an insular military estate / caste.

I am of course speaking hypothetically and in no way describing the recently highlighted surplus of vain and boneheaded jarheads in a certain military.

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JoeSchmuckatelli

JoeSchmuckatelli

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, DDE said:

there would be a very real risk of creating an insular military estate / caste

This is one of the things that we identify as a potential problem - we being those of us who serve and are wary of the cost of the benefit. 

The benefit is a highly competent, motivated and professional military - the cost is an elite /caste within the society that has a different language and expectation of normalcy than the others. 

Side note: Boneheaded Jarheads have a reason to be vain: we are AWESOME! 

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AlamoVampire

AlamoVampire

Posted
Posted

I just did a flight from DFW to LAX and MSFS2020 once again blew my mind. I was on approach to runway 24R at LAX and the moon was setting over the Pacific. This was cool, but what took it from cool to is this getting real: the color of the moon got redder and redder the closer to the horizon it got, but not only that the moon was being reflected ON the Pacific!! I was blown away at how spectacular and beautiful it was!!

230412262022

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steve9728

steve9728

Posted
Posted (edited)

Introduced by a friend to a lady who is pretty chatty and then she can play French horn: as a typical Chinese who can play piano and viola, honestly, playing this was like some kind of magic to me.

Edited by steve9728
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StrandedonEarth

StrandedonEarth

Posted
Posted

C5MiIh0.jpeg

Guess who got a Cricut for Cristmas?

We'd never messed with anything beyond an inkjet but the design app wasn't too alien so the first thing I made with it after cutting the cricut logo was a decal for my laptop. It may have been a bit on the challenging side for a first project, and white probably made it even more difficult. I lost a few letters in the weeding and transfer process, so they simply didn't make it through the launch sequence. that's my story and I'm sticking to it....

 

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Ryaja

Ryaja

Posted
Posted
Just now, AlamoVampire said:

And why is that? Your 0$.02?

222112272022

Deeply inhales

now it's time to launch into a explanation for no reason: first, your dollar sign should be on the left side not the right, second, it would make more sense to just say cents instead of dollars and, third, you didn't need the decimal or 0's if you had said cents. Also about your second one: frantic gesturing and incomprehensible speaking.

 

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Ryaja

Ryaja

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, AlamoVampire said:

@Ryaja <deeply inhales and then begins cackling dementedly>
 

for what its worth and again its just my $₽¥€¢£₩0₽¥€$¢£₩.₽¥€$¢£₩0₽¥€$¢£₩2₽¥€$¢£₩ cents i see nothing wrong here. :kiss:
 

now, im gonna go run away as you find this one! Wheeeeee

010712282022

Spoiler

th-3809021194.jpg

 

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Zozaf Kerman

Zozaf Kerman

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, AlamoVampire said:

Because its 2 users goofing around with the (on my end for sure) intention of making the other laugh at genuine absurdity. In this case the excessive use of currency icons in places where one would not expect or need said icons or in those quantities…

143112282022

I was joking lol

Edited by Zozaf Kerman
Hehe boi, it’s a newwwww pageeeee
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