Lacking ideas

Damn, all the crap in my pockets makes me look fat!

Having a hard time lately coming up with something to post. I could bitch about various things here, I could talk about the dust, I could describe personalities, or I could try and talk about work in an oblique manner. Unfortunately, I don't feel much like any of these right now. My schedule has been a little mixed lately (including a night flight), and I am kind of tired and listless (at least mentally).

One thing I will bitch about is the fact that we operators have been getting jerked around by our unit. They keep changing the goal line for our progression to becoming fully qualified at our primary job (operating the systems in the aircraft and talking to the troops on the ground). Now we also have to become qualified using the systems that are used to process our video after the flight, and to post the products to the web site.

Problem is, there is a whole part of the unit dedicated to doing this post-mission work. Some of their leadership thinks they are short-handed. However, when I go there to train, there is always at least one person (and usually more) reading a book, sleeping, on the internet, or BSing with a buddy. But, somewhere in the leadership there, they think they need more people. We operators are viewed as logical for the job because we have the same MOS as the analysts. That's all fine and good, but between flying, training to fly, and various company duties, finding time for getting trained to do this other job is hard to do. This is frustrating, especially as it is perceived that some of the reasons we are getting pushed into this are personal/political up at the officer levels.

We will plug away at it, though. This is what we have to do. It will get better, but the fact that what the leadership perceives and what we see are two different things, and the leadership is blinded by political/personal considerations makes me crazy.