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UP THE BUM NO BABY
Sep 1, 2011

by Hand Knit
Ugh that furniture is depressing

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tyler
Jun 2, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLKnCeeAW48

Zeris
Apr 15, 2003

Quality posting direct from my brain to your face holes.
Live Laugh Love

EBB
Feb 15, 2005

chicken soup for the failure

Zeris
Apr 15, 2003

Quality posting direct from my brain to your face holes.
niiiiiice

Syrian Lannister
Aug 25, 2007

Oh, did I kill him too?
I've been a very busy little man.


Sugartime Jones
:perfect:

Dick Burglar
Mar 6, 2006
Why the hell are they called "spikes" anyway?

A Festivus Miracle
Dec 19, 2012

I have come to discourse on the profound inequities of the American political system.

Dick Burglar posted:

Why the hell are they called "spikes" anyway?

Back in the day(like, 1870s), rail line was constructing by hand. Dudes pounded in rail road spikes, shovelled dirt, blasted gravel, that sort of thing. The way it worked was that you had a moving camp (generally supplied by train), that was based at the nearest finished railhead. Here, the main camp would prop up and you'd get your food, medicine, cheap STD-infested prostitutes, etc. To work in this camp (which a lot of people would have had to considering the logistical effort it took to build rail line), was referred to as 'in-camp'. The CCC, borrowing heavily on the "we're the heirs of the original CCC and thus the heir-heirs of the railroad builders', took some terminology from those projects, like 'in-camp' (ie the main railhead camp), referring to work sites as 'the grade' (ie the literal gravel underlying the rails), and referring to extended work weeks as 'spike'. Essentially, the railhead would progress every day, but the camp wouldn't move with the railhead until it was deemed necessary to do so(because packing up all your poo poo, especially in a massive rail head camp, would be expensive and time consuming). Consequently, when your work party got far enough away from the main rail head camp, you were now 'on spike', doing the exact same poo poo you had been doing but now so far out that returning to camp would be impossible until the camp reached you.

That's why we call it spikes. I find myself explaining this a lot because I keep using it as short hand for 'extended work week in a place outside of comfortable driving distance' and expecting the average person to understand what the gently caress I'm talking about.

tyler
Jun 2, 2014

Have you considered felling a tree on your neck, OP?

Kawasaki Nun
Jul 16, 2001

by Reene
Now that you know so much about trains what are your thoughts on self-manumission and riding the boxcars to a less abjectly terrible life?

A Festivus Miracle
Dec 19, 2012

I have come to discourse on the profound inequities of the American political system.

Nostalgia4Murder posted:

Have you considered felling a tree on your neck, OP?

Felling a tree on my neck would be real hard. I'd have to fell it perfectly, then run out in front of the fall, lay down and stick my head just right into the path of the tree. Way easier to just take a chainsaw to my neck.

Speaking of which, one of my COMET brothers from my old center told me that his crew got a whole week off during fire. They were coming back from some side work for the fire camp, and found a firefighter swinging in the breeze. jfc


Kawasaki Nun posted:

Now that you know so much about trains what are your thoughts on self-manumission and riding the boxcars to a less abjectly terrible life?

gently caress it bitch, we're going to Canada .

A Festivus Miracle
Dec 19, 2012

I have come to discourse on the profound inequities of the American political system.

A spiker boys gonna spike. Away I go to combat tree mortality tomorrow.

I leave you with a story. Nobody likes a snitch, and in the C's a fast way to get everyone to hate you is to become a Purple Hat(snitch). I've dealt with a few in my time and my universal opinion is: if you tell on some one for something minor (hit the dirt on chainsaw, for example), you are a smelly piece of gypsy poo poo. gently caress you, I hope you get ads cancer. Howrver, this isn't omerta. If you're smoking meth in the dorms, you should get snitched on, for example. Threats, physical violence, sexual harassment isn't cool in my book.

So, the reason I broke in with that is to relate to you the ballad of Bryan, heroin user. At some point in his time here at the current center I'm at, him and a girl got busted doing meth. Now the C's has a self reporting option- you go to staff, say "I have a substance abuse problem" and they will help you get clean. But Bryan got busted with speed and smack in his system. They gave the pair a choice "sell out other people or go home". The girl went home. Bryan, however, took the latter route. He sold out everyone he could think of. To the unfortunate luck of others, Bryan accompanied 20+ people to a nearby beach, where they smoked ganja and drank (minors included). He literally gave Admin a list of names to drug test. They let him stay (and transfer, ironically to Tahoe center). Everyone else who tested positive got a choice: quit or get fired. The aftermath was brutal. 30 people went home, a 3rd of center.

The firing still wasn't over when I came in. Our CAB president got fired because of it. Our CAB store manager almost got fired. The entire kitchen staff almost got fired, with a few unfortunate going the way of the dinosaur when I joined.

Anyway, off to spike. Suck a corpmembers dick for me.

A Festivus Miracle
Dec 19, 2012

I have come to discourse on the profound inequities of the American political system.

Returned from Spike, again again again again again. I've got roughly 4 spikes to go before I'm finished with my Americorp program.

One of the CV's crews got disbanded because people keep quitting. After our Con Sup got on stage at community meeting and asked 'Why are people quitting CV? :downs:", a group from my new crew (I got moved crews, but thankfully kept the same dorm) went to his office and explained to him that having a functional, competent crew living in a basic-style barracks (think one long room, lots of double beds) with COMETs is a fantastic way to encourage them to quit. You'd think it would be common sense that having literally zero privacy for months on end might get to some people, but hey, sense isn't exactly common in this place.

So I went on Spike with this formerly homeless crew after they were moved dorms to my current dorm. Although a fairly uneventful spike, I got to witness a few things. The first thing I got to see was the unofficial policy of the Cs: "Run things until broken, patch lightly, run until broken, keep running anyway until it explodes". The chainsaws of my new crew are in the 'keep running until it explodes' phase right about now. We have one chainsaw with a spring broken in it, meaning the power head wobbles around like a juiced up whirly top. It's pretty much impossible to use this thing to buck, and it's dangerous as gently caress to use it to limb. But we still use it :kheldragar:. Another saw is so close to the 'it explodes' phase that you literally have to keep throttling it or else it dies. It smokes constantly, it's sealed bearing is leaking lubricant onto the clutch drum. I'm waiting for this saw to catch on fire (Because it most definitely will) at this point. Other saws are in various but far less dangerous states of disrepair. We have a Stihl 461 that likes to have it's muffler fall off at awkward times, spitting sparks everywhere, another saw that likes to smoke because it's oiler is finicky.

Thankfully, or rather, shittly, I didn't get to use these saws because my new C1 is the 'prove it to me' style of C1 that is rather common in the CCC. Generally this means doing a mountain of extra bullshit, like getting up super early to help out kitchen dudes cook breakfast, running around helping out people cleaning chainsaws, and oh, the usual bitchwork that I've been doing for the last 6 spikes already (ie, picking up sticks, putting them in burn piles). Additionally, my new C1 hates cursing and profanity, which means that I have to walk around talking like Ned Flanders. It's annoying as hell. I'm competent with a chainsaw. I came to CV to use a chainsaw, even one about to burst into flame, not to pick up little sticks. The only real thing keeping me going at this point at this point is the knowledge that the light is at the end of the tunnel. CV is almost over, and at that point, I might get moved to a regular grade crew who's C1s are more my speed and generally well regarded by regular Corpmembers.

I got shot at on spike. Yeah.

Thunderstorms happened every day during the spike, usually around 6 or 7 PM. After one particular storm had passed, me and two other corpmembers hiked up to a rock cliff face over our camp. As we were sitting there smoking cigarettes and watching distant lightning strikes, I heard a crack and a report of a rifle. Yes, a loving round passed close enough to my head to hear the whizz. I heard another report, but no whizz this time. We quickly got the gently caress out of dodge and ran back to the camp. Apparently some veterans encamped below our camp mistook us in our tan uniforms for a deer or some poo poo. We told the game warden, but he didn't do a thing. Yeah, someone almost committed negligent homicide, but whatevs, it's a national forest bro :shrug:.

Apparently this isn't the first time someone on this crew has almost gotten capped. The last spike (which I wasn't on), some negligent assholes started shooting down the slope from our crew, their missed rounds impacting close enough to the crew (who was on lunch) to put a hole in a dolmar gas can. My new C1 quickly rounded up the crew and got out.

So aside from dipshits with rifles, endless bitchwork, and oh, the constant annoying buzzing flies that accompany you wherever you go on grade, things are otherwise fine. I got to watch my C2 catch a drunk minor right out of COMET at dinner. The Kitchen Supervisor (a really cool dude who seriously looks and acts like the rib chef guy from House of Cards) was giving free soda to all the corpmembers at dinner. Security was watching the serving line. The guy handing out the sodas asks this guy what kind of soda he wants, and he just walks on by without paying attention, stumbles a bit, catches himself, and grabs a plate. I catch the Security lady's eye, and she walks out quickly after him, sitting him down at a table. Minute or two later, our C2 shows up, drug test in hand, and pulls him off to another room in the Kitchen building. I doubt I'll be seeing him soon.

EBB
Feb 15, 2005

nobody cares

Kawasaki Nun
Jul 16, 2001

by Reene

You should try to start a sister lumbering program in South Sudan

tyler
Jun 2, 2014

Terrible Robot
Jul 2, 2010

FRIED CHICKEN
Slippery Tilde
lol you were out in the woods wearing tan and no fluorescent markings? Y'all dumb as hell

tyler
Jun 2, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbMLphi7HQU

Dingleberry
Aug 21, 2011

Terrible Robot posted:

lol you were out in the woods wearing tan and no fluorescent markings? Y'all dumb as hell

"We used to hunt the homeless but now we hunt the CCC folks cause someone might miss the homeless."



"Yo CCC you left a log in this river!"

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Admiral Bosch
Apr 19, 2007
Who is Admiral Aken Bosch, and what is that old scoundrel up to?
this sounds like absolute poo poo, better you than me. i guess it's a step up from prison

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