To the Lady on the Blue Line who recgonized me

Hello there. Glad someone actually read this blog!

Leave a comment, please.

Also, one year anniversary of the last post on this blog.

As you can see, I don't post much.

Logan Radio is now ... Airwaves

Suddenly, while I was off Tuesday and Wednesay, somewhere in the airport, wherever that server is that plays Logan Radio's allotment of songs and ads... they decided... let's call it, Airwaves, the sound of Boston Logan.

It's a bit cheesy and gimmicky-sounding, but I guess I can get used to it, Logan Radio was nice though.

Of course, it's been around for over a year and a half now. So, you can tell it's doing good, unlike T Radio ever did!

We have the blues

My supervisor told us today during a briefing that we now switching over or "rolling out" to the new blue uniform within the next two weeks, which is way ahead of what was originally planned (whenever that was as most of us don't know when it was going to be).

Of course, they want us to look spic and span, so my friend Matt from training class is going to need polishable shoes as he wears boots with velvet on them. Which is funny, although shoes are available from the uniform supplier, VF Solutions, they're not issued to us automatically and must be bought with our uniform allowance, which I heard is a nice shoe, I could go and order them, but I'd want to try them on first because I have flat feet so I need arch support and I'd want to see how the feel, but more or less it's a free-for-all when it's come to shoes, that is until now.

However, we won't be wearing our badges just yet, they're on back-order and will arrive a few weeks after we rollout the blues. The new badge will look like the images on the right. (The second image is a third-party trinket lapel pin of the badge.)

A cool new feature of our new uniform, is no more shouting, no we not getting muzzles so we don't bark at passengers at much, but we are getting headsets to communicate with each other, so instead of just supervisors and leads carrying radios, we're all carrying radios.

Here's a crappy picture of it, since it's so damn small. Along with a Millimeter Wave Whole Body Imaging unit, also know around the TSA blog commenters as and other internet forums as the "virtual stripsearcher" which is all apart of the new technology being rolled out to a bunch of different airports, which also includes our blue box of an X-ray, the Smith Heimann HI-SCAN, except instead of having one monitor and a overhead view of your bag

If you want to what my checkpoint at Terminal A might eventually look like and get a 360 degree view of the new uniform, check out Checkpoint Evolution's innovation section.

I got certified

So last Monday, I got certified, so, if you're around Terminal A's only checkpoint, the Delta checkpoint, maybe you'll see me.

I touched James Posey

Mr. Posey got selected for additional screening at AirTran today. One of my co-workers had patted him down, I believe I was monitoring the exit when he left, and when he came back, he had to go through the procedure again.

Terminal A Problems and Shouting Match

So Wednesday, the bag belt broke down in Terminal A which serves Contnential and Delta, as such, bags had to be manually checked by us with extra personnel then is usually in the oversize room and on top of that, the staties brought in their K9s to sniff bags. Most all I did was help load bags and escort them downstairs. Ironically, the first bag I escorted. I walk with the guy all the way down into the bag room and as soon I was walk away, klaxon after klaxon begins to turn as the bags turn back on. Of course, I had to escort a few more bags but more or less, that was that.

Today, one of the female screeners in the checkpoint got into a shouting match with a female passenger over her mother who was in a wheelchair. I'd say the passenger was about my mother's age... (49, she looks 30 though ;) ). Anyways, I could only hear but not see as I was inside the office at the time on the computer. So, apparently the passenger was handing items to her mother, except you shouldn't do that. Until, the grandmother was screened she is not allowed to touch anything.

Apparently, this woman didn't understand that and all hell broke loose. The woman called the screener rude and had a bad attitude and such. I forget what the screener retaliated with. There was so much words flying back and forth I just don't know and can't remember. But after that, the pay guy comes in and tells us apparently she was like that before the line so apparently this passenger had bitch written all over her which I could see when I observed her later.

I went on my break a few minutes later and stopped by the bathroom at the other end of the checkpoint and there was she was, I was expecting her to get in my face and more hell would break loose but they were too busy talking

But please folks, until we're finished with a family member, don't go shoving stuff into their arms, they're not cleared.

You would be surprised what people can hide in wheelchairs.

Collecting Booze and sorting knives and the rest of the week

checkpoint which is located directly north of us (So Sunday, I'm pulled away from tailing my monitor as usual and told I'm needed at the JetBlue checkpoint. (AirTran's 3 gates is based out of the old Continental (now located in my terminal of A where I'm going back once I'm certified) and Midwest gates, while it was originally located in what was formerly Terminal D.)

Anyways, I get there and stand there, and eventually someone finds us, it's the Security Manager for B, Mike Jones. It turns out me and my partner, Ed, get to do something "fun" for a change and get away from the checkpoint, and get away from the dreaded 3:30 crush rush (which is good).

So me and Ed get to the American Airlines checkpoint where Mike has already beat the STSO (supervisor) to the punch and is already unlocking the cabinet for us.

"Holy shit!"

That's right, "Holy shit." Because when he unlocked it I was expecting small bottles of booze and perfumes. Instead we end up finding, well the small bottles of booze, plus this bottle of some liquor.... the bottle was two and maybe a half feet tall. That was all there was at the American checkpoint, which is most likely due to the fact there's a duty free shop there.

The other checkpoints had large bottles of hairspray along with shaving cream and the like and some bottles found were actually under the limit. But there was still booze mixed in... plus a broken mercury thermometer.

We also collected the various confiscated weapons.. most of which are pocket knives which are given to collection agencies and state agencies who sell them on eBay. So don't worry folks, the TSA and the feds aren't making a dime off your confiscated materials (the spray cans and such are recycled)... though being the tax and spend liberal socialist I am, I believe we should make some cash off this stuff... to shore up the federal programs in need of money and write off our debt... but whatever.

Anyways, we had to sort those knives... and much more into buckets. Some stuff included a revolver prop fashioned out of wood. Most of the stuff landed on the floor (because it was in huge bins and sorting out tiny knives one at a time would drive us all in that tiny cramped storage room to insanity fast... though I bet we'd all get a nice chunk over overtime money ;). So must of it got into the buckets... others on the floor, my and another guy just scooped the stuff out and we all picked up what fell. That and I got a look at the nice new blue uniforms.

After that, it was back to the checkpoint. Nothing much today, aside from covering for a guy who was out for testing and being shoved on the WTMD or mag despite not being certified by that cleared up quick.

Nothing much else, I should have brought my camera with my to show just how much knives we end up getting a in a three month period (the last time the collection company to haul the goodies away was in February.) And all that water on top of that, not to sound offensive despite the repeated stuff, people still bring liquid bottles through.

Of course, I mean the water bottles are fine... yes, it's hassle for everyone when they don't take them out of their bag... but I mean come on, with the liquor... it's 3.4 ounces... very little alcohol is under 3.4 ounces aside from nips, but why do need to put in your carry-on... are you really going to crack out the Chardonnay or Jim Bean/Jack Daniels in mid-flight... but then again, seeing as how a lot of people have a phobia of flying (including me somewhat) I guess I can't blame them, but it's easier to check it under the plane.

And if you get to drunk from cracking open that bottles, well, now you've gotten disruptive and not only will the bottle be confiscated (which it already has anyways since it's pretty damn easy to see on our X-ray screens) so now we must divert the flight to land it and the local police have been called to haul your ass. So save yourself some trouble and check the liquor, don't carry it.