Things are Happening in Sector 5

/3 Comments/in , /by

I have been getting a few concerned messages from some elves in Sector 5. I want to assure you that even though we don’t yet have our Regional Tracking Center finalized for Sector 5 things are indeed happening.

I think as the month of August comes around next week all tracker elves in every sector will see communication coming from their Elf Supervisor, me included. Just because we’re homeless, so to speak, that doesn’t mean we’re not working. For me, I may be working from a cell phone in my car, but I’ll still be working.

Now, to answer your questions: no, I don’t really know what the hold up with. I just know that we have several cities that can host us and the powers that be are talking to all of them still. We’re going to have a Regional Tracking Center, I just don’t know where yet. It has long been out of my hands and I don’t actually get involved in the contract talks. So I cannot really tell you what is going on and what the problem is.

And, like you, I should not focus on that. Things are happening in our sector and we need to focus.

The test flights were over our area this past week for just a day or two. They’ll be back for an extended run some time later.

One of our first goals as a sector will be to see if we can see it when they are over us. Sleigh sightings are a huge part of being a tracker elf and I think we can use the practice. So keep an eye on the Santa tracker map.

Many are asking about reports and when we can start. Our lack of a Regional Tracking Center will mean we will depend upon you for reports more, not less. So be ready. Flight command is not yet asking for anything in particular yet. But I think that will change right around the middle of August with weather reports.

Of course, with the weather, the most important thing you can report is what you actually see. I know a lot of elves check in with local news stations or even the weather service where they are and that’s fine. But your big value is your observation of where you are. Don’t forget that. I know some trackers put a lot of apps on their phones or bookmark websites to check for when Flight Command asks about weather. That’s great. But don’t forget to look out the window.

Since we don’t have a Regional Tracking Center yet I’m going to ask you to hold off on inspections for a while. I’m going to meet with Elf Roger this week to get his ideas about how to handle that while we wait for our assignment. It does not make a lot of sense to have our tracker elves sending in reports we cannot process. We need to solve this problem of no Regional Tracking Center soon.

So hang in there, Elves. We’ll get it together!

Time to Stand Down Sector 5

/3 Comments/in , , /by

Trackers in Sector 5 – I know Santa’s not even touched our sector yet but Flight Command just sent the word that we can start to stand down. This will vary – those in the east are nearing bed time, while those way out west in Hawaii and Tahiti are going to be up for a while.

For those out west, we’re not anticipating any needs, so your judgment is best for when you need to stand down. Santa just requests that you don’t stay up too late tonight!

Thank you all for an outstanding year!

Merry Christmas!

Santa Wants a Weather Update

/1 Comment/in , /by

Elves,

Are you watching this? Santa has these sudden bursts of speed – he literally tore through Australia in under an hour. Amazing!

The word I’m getting is that he is totally focused on breaking this speed record this year. He’s going to go through our sector just as fast. He’s moving like crazy!

Let’s help him out by sending him the most current weather forecast you can find. Get screen shots, take pictures – do whatever you have to do to get him the latest from your area.

Here’s the report:

If you do not know or remember your sector, please see this link
Check all that apply

We are in the Red Zone, Trackers

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Tracker friends of Sector 5 – finally! – we are in the Red Zone! Santa will soon be on the way and we’re ready to rock.

I do not have any requests from North Pole Flight Command for you at this time. Please get some rest. I think we’ve got a full day ahead of us for tracking Santa for Santa.

Cyber Attacks Continue Against the North Pole

/1 Comment/in , , , , , , /by

Cyber attacks continue to plague North Pole websites as the hours to Santa’s launch continue to count down. North Pole Security is currently working on restoring service to SantaUpdate.com as well as a new threat to servers at the Regional Tracking Center for Sector 1 in Fiji.

North Pole Flight Command assures that none of this affects Santa’s launch and that Santa is still scheduled to take off a little more than six hours from right now.

Kringle Radio appears to be up and working properly.

For the moment, SantaTrackers.net will serve as a back-up news source as best we can.

This is a developing story.

Early Report Request

/0 Comments/in , , /by

We are nowhere near the Red Zone in Sector 5 yet we have an early and an unusual request that just came in via North Pole Flight Command. They are asking that if we are out and about today, no matter where we are in the sector, that we keep our eyes up to observe local Christmas conditions.

You can report what you see right here:

This is your Personal Information Number. It validates who you are. See this page.
Drag & Drop Files, Choose Files to Upload You can upload up to 4 files.
Optional. Please share photos of Christmas in your neighborhood

Sector 5 Elves Check In Now

/1 Comment/in , /by

Ok, Elves – this is it! We’re officially invited by North Pole Flight Command to track Santa for Santa in this our final phase. That means we can now officially check in. Santa’s launch is a little more than 24 hours away. So we need to show we’re ready to do business.

Check-in below:

The Difference Between a Meteor and a Sleigh

/1 Comment/in , /by

Trackers of Sector 5,

Over the past 15 hours or so we have received a good number of sleigh sighting reports. This has mostly come from the Northern USA and Canada.

The test flights of Santa’s sleigh have ended (for now) but there are plenty of sleigh aloft due to Operation Airlift. (Not as many as will be airborne on Christmas Eve, but still there are many sleighs up there). We really appreciate you keeping an eye on the skies.

But in researching these sightings and trying to match them up with flight records at North Pole Flight Command we have determined that some of these sightings are actually of meteors and not of sleighs. In fact, we have it on good authority that right now – from the last several days until at least December 24th – areas of our sector are experiencing the last Ursids Meteor shower of the year. This is a picture of what that meteor shower looks like in areas that have clear skies:

Meteor

Something like that could easily be mistaken for a flying sleigh.

We have no criticism for those sending in pictures like this or reporting a sleigh sighting. We appreciate, in fact, your diligence right now in watching the skies.

How might you be able to distinguish between a meteor and a sleigh?

Honestly, you might not. It just depends on how close or how far away you are from it and maybe even the equipment you’re using to try and capture an image.

If it is close enough, you may see actual lights on a sleigh or even hear sleigh bells.

Of course, you’d get none of that with a meteor.

I’m not sharing this with you to dissuade you from watching and documenting the skies. I’m just letting you know some of these things you’re seeing might not be actual sleighs.

The odds of seeing a sleigh in flight is going up. By the time Santa launches there will literally be thousands of sleighs in flight and that continues all during the 30+ hours of Santa’s flight. So if you WANT to see a flying sleigh and you WANT to dedicate the time to doing it the chances of getting good results only improve over the next couple of days.

You might want to see what local weather forecasters are saying about the visibility of meteor showers in your area before you look to the skies. Be informed.

Thanks and happy hunting!

All Elves on Alert Status

/2 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

Per plan and as scheduled, North Pole Flight Command has put all elves in all departments worldwide on alert status.

Alert status means that the next phase of Operation Merry Christmas is in process and that all elves need to be actively coming to North Pole websites with regularity to stay informed and to be ready for direction from their elf supervisors.

While we are still about 24-hours away from checking-in for Tracking Santa for Santa it is hoped that you can visit frequently with your Sector news page in advance of that event.

While major announcements are not expected at this time we want all elves to be eyes up and ready for anything.

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to support Santa and Operation Merry Christmas!

Lets See Your Home Tracking Center

/0 Comments/in , /by

Greetings, Trackers.

In our daily bulletin from North Pole Flight Command the Elf Supervisors received a weird request for pictures of home tracking centers.

Evidently a surprising number of elves showed up at the Community Center at Southern North Pole University to hear a lecture by Elf Dr. Grant Smedley about the “History and How-To of Home Santa Tracking”. Elf Flip Beanz was there to share the current status of remote working elves like you and the class got a little off track when they started asking questions about tracking Santa away from the North Pole. Those elves in attendance were fascinated by the work you do and want to see the environment in which you track Santa.

So they’ve asked for pictures.

If you can snap a photo of your set-up home tracking center and share it via the Elf Wall, that would be great. You can also send it in via a Photo Report.

Also, one other little reminder. We have NOT asked for “official” tracker check-in for this weekend YET. But some of you are finding the page and checking in early.

Please do NOT do that. During this week of launch it is critical these reports come in when we call for them. Sometime on Friday, when authorized by Flight Command, I will post a call for all trackers to check in (each Elf Supervisor is going to do that). There is an order to this. In fact, there a whole launch sequence that our check-in is part of. So its real important you only check in when I tell you to, okay?

Thanks guys! Make it a great day!

 

Tracker Check-in Scheduled

/4 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

Attentional All Tracker Elves in All Sectors,

We are pleased and excited to announce that Tracker Elf check-ins will begin on the following schedule:

(All dates and hours are local time)

Sector 1: December 22nd at 11:00pm Fiji Time
Sector 2: December 22nd at 7:00pm Turkmenistan Time
Sector 3: December 22nd at 8:00pm Iceland Time
Sector 4: December 22nd at 10:00pm Aruba Time
Sector 5: December 22nd at 9:30pm Eastern Time

You need not check-in at these precise times. These are just times we want check-ins to being in each sector. Please do not do so before the times listed above. This is VERY important.

We prefer all elves to check-in within 24 hours of the times listed above.

Check-ins are just the first of many things we anticipate needing from trackers. Launch time weather around the world looks problematic so the first half of Santa’s flight is expected to be very active.

Please keep an eye on your Sector News page. If you don’t know how to find your sector news page, please comment below.

Thanks!

Sector 5 Servers Attacked

/3 Comments/in , , /by

Trackers of Sector 5,

I know you may be tired of hearing of server and computer issues but we have more to report. Our servers for the Regional Tracking Center here in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada have been under attack most of the day.

The attack hit during the chat with Santa on Saturday. It immediately knocked us offline and delayed reporting through-out the sector for about an hour. We had to switch to emergency satellite Internet to stay in contact with North Pole Flight Command.

Those back-up protocols made it so we could stay in business but it showcases what a frail existence it is for us. It also shows how we depend on Flight Command and other sectors in an emergency.

I don’t know entirely how it works but when we were able to report our issues to North Pole Flight Command they immediately routed incoming data from our sector through Sectors 2 and 4 – thus ensuring the ongoing stream of information was uninterrupted.

Also, as a precaution, we contacted the SS Tannenbaum, who relayed critical information on our behalf to North Pole Flight Command and set up an emergency “phone bridge” between us. They talked us through the whole situation.

Tonight, some 14 hours after this event started, we have finally started to see a decrease in server traffic and are starting to restore normal operations.

Please understand these technical difficulties are not a result of misconfiguration or mistakes on the part of our technical teams. These are attacks that appear to be coming out of China and Iran. North Pole Security has been working around the clock to determine who is doing it and why.

With Santa’s instructions in hand, I want you to know that right now we could use some fresh information specifically from Sector 5:

  1.  Please stay on top of weather. It appears the Canadian and US West regions will be dry over the next week, except for coastal areas. But we are not confident of East Coast weather patterns. Special note to Elf Weather Tracking: Elf Seymour Snow says he has no way to contact you. But as our weather analyst in Sector 5 if you could take it upon yourself to update via a weather report what you are hearing about the US and Canada East Coast regions at least once a day, that would be helpful right now.
  2. I’m working on official check-in instructions for later this week with Flight Command. We do not want to begin those too early. Because Christmas Eve is on a Sunday this year we know this means a lot of elves have family commitments and will be tracking by mobile device. Just so you know, I’ve asked for early check-in, but I’m getting some resistance on that. I’ll keep you updated on what is decided.
  3.  Someone asked about the status of the roof and chimney inspections. From what we can tell of reporting the past couple of months, we have a roughly 61% completion rate. That’s actually an improvement. That means 6 of 10 homes have updated information about roofs or chimneys. Please, if you can add any new roof or chimney information for those that have NOT been reported this year, please try to get them in as soon as possible. There is no need to update roof or chimney situations that you have already reported on this year.

Thank you all for your good work. I’ll do my best to keep you posted. If you have questions please post them in the comments below.