Summary of a recent attempt to get entertained

[Ari Rahikkala]

I, along with five other guys in my platoon, was supposed to get to watch some terrain get pounded to bits as essentially all the artillerymen trained anywhere in Finland this half of 2005 took their "final exam" yesterday at Rovajärvi. There would be over a hundred guns concentrating their fire on small targets in a valley that we had an excellent vantage point over.What happened instead: We went there, stood around freezing for four hours, someone died, and we went back.Yay.Ah well. At least the battalion's command post (my job is to set up a part of it) is an exciting place these days, what with the prototype equipment we're playing with. ph33r the superiorosity of our PCs, fiber optic cables, IP networks and HF radios! The league of sadistic telepaths: "There's someone in your head and it's not you"

[david northworthy beckfor]

Quote: serving in the armed forces is extremely safe.the amry, safe?seems like a strange armed forces.. If you feel an icy chill...the Conglacio is amongst you

[UEC]

Why does Tarja seem like a female name....? E. Metzler (UEC)Duke of Brookshire"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSClicky Clicky..., Tiss for your own good ya know.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Because Tarja Halonnen is female?Or because it ends with an "a", and generally in English only female names do that?Or because it reminds you a lot of "Tanya"?

[Stjepan Veliki]

And Tarja Turunen fronts Nightwish.Or rather, used to.That band went down the crapper already though, so it's cool. SF-SNEdited by: Stjepan Veliki at: 12/3/05 17:27

[UEC]

YES!.. that last one is it...The have a female ruler... cool.... E. Metzler (UEC)Duke of Brookshire"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSClicky Clicky..., Tiss for your own good ya know.

[Tahmaseb]

You were at that one? Sheesh. I'm glad I was in coast artillery, nothing like that could ever happen there.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Quote:the amry, safe?seems like a strange armed forces..It might seem strange, but that's what it's come down to, and really, that's the only way it could work out here. Finland is a pacifistic nation with no military concerns in sight in the near future (other than that one little thing behind the eastern border that likes to violate our airspace, of course) but which gives essentially all of its men military training. If the training wasn't excessively safe and accidents were common, the armed forces would have some *real* trouble keeping the nation convinced it's worth it to force people to go injure or kill themselves in preparation for a crisis that might never come...Don't get the idea that the military is all safety regulations and nannyism, though. We get to do dangerous things here, it's just that we're trained to do them in a safe way. I've thrown a live concussion grenade and fired an M-72 LAW. On the sixth week of my training I was running and lunging around in a forest, and carrying and firing a weapon loaded with real bullets, in an exercise where it's perfectly possible your gun will be aiming at someone while you're busy with other things than making sure there's nothing pulling the trigger. It takes real training and real prudence to have thousands of people take that exercise every year without anyone getting hurt.Quote:You were at that one? Sheesh. I'm glad I was in coast artillery, nothing like that could ever happen there.Hey, remember that I'm not operating those guns either, I'm in communications. You mightn't have a great chance of having children if you're peeing on the HF antenna when someone decides to send a burst with it (it transmits at 100 watts at max power), but at least there's no danger of grenades exploding on your face . The league of sadistic telepaths: "There's someone in your head and it's not you"

[Tahmaseb]

Yes, and I've fired a 130 mm gun with real ammo, which actually has some potential risks...But yes, a conscription army has to play it safe because nobody can say "well you knew it was dangerous when you went there, duh" if you have to do it anyway.

[RicLyon]

I once read the Russians went as far west to Torneå (what's that in Finnish? Tornio? Can't be bothered looking up), and that some stations in Uleåborg saw some Russian planes...

[Tahmaseb]

The Russians went to Tornio in 1809. If you mean WWII, it must have been the planes.

[RicLyon]

No, a few months ago I read an article in Aftonbladet (or some other tabloid) about how the Russians went to far west that Finland was really worried.But that may be sensationalist, we all know how Aftonbladet it.

[Tahmaseb]

Really worried? We would have been defeated at that point.And today Aftonbladet publishes an article about threesomes.

[RicLyon]

I love the headlines at AftonbladetLast night, talking about the giant straw goat on fire in Gävle, the headline was:THE GOAT'S ON FIRE!Father Christmas and Ginger Bread Man wanted for crimeAnd oh, a nice little article on that event in English:http://www.thelocal.se/article.p...01e02a40c7(I love the bit with the American ) Richard LyonYansha Elaer Kyon gef ShanPernem kahn gef kuymal per varga stiPernem kahn gef varga per kuymal sti

[Tahmaseb]

There are other things I'd like to burn in Sweden.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Hm, it appears the Defence Forces forbade all use of grenade launchers (fi) except for research on the accident. If that sounds excessive to you... well, it isn't, really. The current batch of grenade launcher operators is basically fully trained - the accident happened on the last day of the exercise that's more or less the summit of their training - and the army has at least three months before the next batch will even see a launcher. It's basically an inevitable move, considering what kind of a national tragedy the death of one soldier in the army is here in Finland... The league of sadistic telepaths: "There's someone in your head and it's not you"

[Bill3000]

Conscription is evil. Bill Dusch - Archon of SoloralismCitizen of ShirerothBaron of AntyaProud to be ApollonianScripts not allowedvar txtList = new Array()txtList[txtList.length]="'Whoa! You're in...college now? You got...older! I guess that's what happens when time passes, but still...' - Scott Siskind";txtList[txtList.length]="'The Hindenburg Uncertainty Principle, by contrast states that before you get on a blimp, you can never be certain whether it's going to catch on fire or not' - Scott Siskind";txtList[txtList.length]="'We.....are.....not....FANTASY!>?!POE' - Scott Siskind, on hearing Bill Dusch say that Shireroth's theme is percieved to be Fiction-Fantasy based";txtList[txtList.length]="'me to. well almost, we have to worship the living god, Bill3000.' - Hubert";txtList[txtList.length]="'Y'know what? I am never going to get out of micronations. I think I need to be assassinated or something.' - Jason Steffke";txtList[txtList.length]="'Bill, you are STILL young and stupid.' - Jason Steffke, Control of Destiny 1";txtList[txtList.length]="'I think we've gotta promote you. You now have slightly more diplomatic skills than a random rock.' - Sirithil nos Feanor, to Bill Dusch";txtList[txtList.length]="'Wow. I'm this close to admitting you're no longer young and stupid.' - Scott Siskind, to Bill";txtList[txtList.length]="'ow! I've been thrwappen! Now I have a sudden urge to enter politics...' - Gryphon the Pure, after being hit by a shard of Pure Mischief";txtList[txtList.length]="'I could probably date Hypatia's Mom. Now THAT'S scary.' - Ryan Caruso"; j=parseInt(Math.random()*txtList.length);j=(isNaN(j))?0:j;document.write(txtList[j]);

[stevenAntica]

Quote:(other than that one little thing behind the eastern border that likes to violate our airspace, of course)Russians aren't nuttin to fuck wit'.