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Tuesday, May 9th, 2006
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1:09 am - Seattle Ferry
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So, what else do you do at 1:00am riding a ferry around the pudget sound?? Update my journal, of course! I spent the weekend back home in Seaside, though it was almost more trouble than it was worth. Oh, sure it was great to see William and Mom, but they both had to work while I was there, and the car was having all sorts of trouble. Eh, fun...Luckily, Mom was able to drive me up to Portland to catch a Greyhound bus, but that didn't arrive in Seattle until 00:20 this morning. Caught a cab to the waterfront (I was going to walk it, but I lost my bearing and didn't want to waste any time), bought my ticket and a soda, and settled down for a couple minutes to wait. When the ferry arrived, I made short notice of setting up my office. Gotta love cellular internet - I'm updating my system right now - very cool. Got a copy of Oblivion the other day to sample, seems like a pretty cool game. Addictive, actually. Probably going have to get a copy of my own. Oi, tired. Going to take a nap.
current mood:  tired
current music: Bad Religion - 21st Century Digital Boy
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| Saturday, December 17th, 2005
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6:14 pm - Vacation
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Ahhhh, it's nice to be home. It has been roughly sixteen months since my last visit, and I'll forgotten how nice the Oregon coast can be. Granted, it's winter...and cold...and rainy...but to me, it will always be leaps and bounds above Florida or Mississippi. I've made several trips to Portland already, mainly to visit friends and family, but I was able to pick up a MIMO wireless card while I was at it. Unfortunitly, 64bit linux drivers for the thing are non-existant. Shoot, just getting the PCMCIA system to recognize it in my laptop was a chore, but I think I could hack something together if I went back to 32bit processing. 64bit is far from standard anyways.
I spent a few days with my good friend Jeff and had the pleasure of meeting up with a couple of other buddies whom I haven't seen in a long time. Nick, Ben, Andre...sigh. The time has been too short. I have to leave again in a few days, but since I'll be close by I should be able to visit on weekends or at least holidays. I'll admit, I am a little scared about going to my first ship. I've never been on a sea going vessel before, let alone an aircraft carrier. I mean, I have no doubt I'll live throught the ordeal, but...it'll be an adventure.
I'm glad I've finally finished my Navy schools. I want to get back to college and continue working on my degree. I'ld love to start my own business too, and while I'm getting closer all the time to realizing that goal, it's still a long ways off. I'm sure it'll be worth the effort, but I'm not looking forward to dealing with funding, patents, marketing, and everything else related to administration. Probably should hire someone else to take care of that. But alas, it is all moot unless my education is finished. I'm still pursuing something in the biotech field, maybe molecular biology or tissue engineering, but if a more...uh...diverse degree is available, one that can take advantage of the electronics training I already have, that would probably be the way to go. Perhaps something in bionics or prosthetics?
*Sigh* I hate the waiting. I wish I had my own R&D lab right now, with the full support of a (benevolent) multi-national corporation. If wishes were wings...
current mood: groggy
current music: David Lanz - Water from the Moon
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| Monday, September 12th, 2005
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4:09 pm
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Crazy. I left pensacola only a few months ago, and I'm already back. After graduating from "A" school I transfered to Biloxi, MS for my "C" school. There, I was learning how to be a calibration technician. Everything was going just fine, life was good, then Hurricane Katrina struck. What a b!7(4 she was...Biloxi and Gulfport (as well as New Orleans) were pretty much destroyed. After spending a few days in a shelter and then later, back in the barracks, the command decided we need to evacuate the area. No hot water, no power, living off MRE's...not exactly great living conditions. Now I'm not complaining, we still had it off a lot better then many people, but there was room in pensacola, so that's were we went. It's not bad being back either, just a little weird. I've spent a lot of time trying to study for the 3rd class exam..and I'm amazed at how much stuff we never covered in class. In the publications we're supposed to study, there are probably over 1000 questions, at least 750 I'ld say. Anyhoo, because of the hurricane I'll be taking a delayed test, probably at the end of september. I have a lot less confidence now then I did a few months ago, now that I've seen the material, but if I don't make it this time around, I can try again in March. Probably should get going, a few friends and I are going to grab some food and go bowling.
current mood:  hungry
current music: Keyboard clatter in a public library
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| Monday, June 13th, 2005
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10:29 pm - Close to Graduation
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Well, I'm getting ready to graduate from my navy "A" school. I've worked hard these past months, and although I won't be getting automaticly advanced in rank, I'm proud of how well I've done. It's too bad I'm not getting advanced. My scores are high enough, but our class is so small they can only give out one advancment. And I'm in second place by a few measly points. Oh well. I'll pick up Third Class Petty Officer in September.
I take my last two tests this week: a performace test on the Radar Trainers, where we actually troubleshoot a problem, and a comprehensize multiple-choice test over all the radar topics. Should be quite the challenge, but I have no fears of failing. By the end of the week I'll officialy be an Aviation Electronics Technician (I level), and have completed the second hardest "A" school in the Navy. The only thing tougher was going Nuclear, but that's a two year school.
Of course, not all has been peachy-keen around here. My good friend Jones, from boot camp got hurt pretty bad last Tuesday. He borrowed my bike to ride out to his bank, but on the way got hit by a van in an intersection outside Walmart. He was quite visible too, a bright orange vest on a white shirt. Ironicly, it was the Navy duty van that hit him....
He had to spend a few days in the hospital, but thankfully, he's okay. A broken collarbone and a few cracked ribs, but nothing a little time and painkillers won't fix. Guess I should be getting to bed. We aren't doing anything too important tomorrow, just class pictures and a few last lessons, but I'ld rather not be half dead.
Oh btw, I came across a pretty cool series. I've been following the story for a while now, but I don't think I ever mentioned it. It's called, "The Scene" and follows the activities of some real hardcore movie pirates. www.welcometothescene.com will get you started.
current mood:  mellow
current music: Nightwish - Angels Fall First
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| Friday, April 29th, 2005
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8:19 pm
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Today is going pretty good. I had a half day at school because we're getting a new Commanding Officer of NATTC. A bunch of higher ranking students and staff (and performing units too) had to attend a special turn-over cermemony at the Naval Air Museum around 1300, but most of us just got the afternoon off. Of course, we got shit on by the barracks because they wouldn't let us go on liberty until around 1500. But that's alright, I got some much needed time playing Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri. Good stuff. While I was doing that, Jarret gave me a call and came over from Correy Station. We went to Cordova Mall and had dinner at the Chinese Buffet. While I was at the mall I picked up a copy of Final Fantasy VII too; I could hardly pass it up at only $15. After that, we called the Correy Station duty driver a caught a ride back to Jarret's barracks. I'll probably stay here till Sunday, but if not, at least tonight. As I say, "Home is where the internet is...", which reminds me - it's time to get online!
And now it's 23:35. Crap, I spent about three hours uploading old journal entries to LiveJournal. I should of been reading slashdot or something....
current music: Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love
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| Monday, April 25th, 2005
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5:57 pm
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I started my first day of Unit III today. This is the first part of the military phase, so no more civilian instructors. This is, probably, a good thing. Some of the instructors didn't seem like they cared very much about how well the class did. This also marks the halfway point in my "A" School training. If I continue to do well, I should graduate on the 23rd of June. I also took the 208 test this morning. Most of the class did pretty poorly, including myself. Our instructor was pretty crappy, though. While this was my worst test score, I still managed to pull-off an 83.33%. This was good enough to bump me up into second place among class averages. Oh, I got the business with Verizon fixed up (I think) since my last bill was right on. Either that, or they carried the billing over to next month...But I'm not worried about it. I should be getting my taxes back soon, too. I don't remember how much, but it should be a decent amount.
I think this Unit will be pretty easy, since it's all about radio receivers and transmitters. Next unit is on RADAR, which is supposed to be pretty tough, but I'm excited too. I might be able to use this in my robotic exoskeleton plans, or at least understand how to make the Automapping software I've been thinking about.
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| Wednesday, April 6th, 2005
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9:28 pm
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Alright, I took the 105 test today. I think I did pretty good, since only one or two questions gave me pause, but unfortunitly we could not get our scores today. As soon as we finished the test we were sent home to the Q. Evidently there was a tornado warning for this area (Mississippi was hit with one) and they wanted us out of the school. We were hit with a storm shortly thereafter, and it's still going on. It would be kinda cool to be hit with a tornado, exciting anyways, but not if it means spending extra time on this base. It's not bad here, not really, but since it's a training environment it still sucks. I cannot wait until I get to a real base. Oh, I bought a bike at walmart a few days ago. It ended up costing me about $100 after accessories, so not a shabby deal. Jones and I (He was in my boot camp division) are planning on going for a long ride this weekend, maybe into downtown, but we haven't decided yet. In other news, I think I'm going to get stuck with an outrageous phone bill. I've been using the phone as a modem for internet, leaving it on overnight when I have unlimited minutes, but I've forgotten to turn it off a few times in the morning and have racked up hours of over-minute charges. I've called Verizon a bunch of times, but all the customer services folk are asses or don't wait to do anything. Granted, a lot of it's my fault, but they have some blame to share as well. I'll keep complaining. Anyhoo, time for bed soon.
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| Tuesday, April 5th, 2005
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2:29 pm
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Class was a waste of time, as usual. We skipped PT today, which I'm a little upset about, so maybe I'll work out in my room a little. We watched about half or more of the Hunt for Red October after lunch.
Since today is another one of my duty days, I'm pretty much stuck in the barracks. The next muster won't be till 1600 though, so I should have time to shower and change. I should do some laundry too, especially my raincoat. I don't know what happened to it, but somehow a bunch of something splattered all over the front right side. I've tried to get it out, but to no avail. I'm going to try running it through the washing machine to see if that'll work, but I need to go to the NEX first and pick up some shaving supplies. That's right, my electric shaver bit the dust this morning. Piece of crap, the foils between my skin and the blades has developed a nice, large hole. Yeah, good luck shaving with that - why don't I just cut myself now and save the trouble? Anyways, I guess I'll excersie for a bit, shower, muster, buy some blades, then do the laundry.
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| Tuesday, March 15th, 2005
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2:52 am
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Things are going well. I'm almost a week into my AT "I" Strand classes, and we'll have our first test on friday. I'm hoping to do well on it, but I'll need to study like crazy the next few days. I'm on dutytddtonight (dunno if I'll get stuck with a watch), and PT will be in the morning. Course, it's suppose to rain all night, so it could be cancelled. I'm going to workout on my own if it's called off. Gotta keep in shape. I imagine duty section is going to start late tonight - there's a Health and Comfort inspection going on right now, and who knows when it'll be finished. I haven't worked on my story in quite a while, so I'm going to try to get back into that. I was preoccupied with trying to get the last few episodes of Inuyasha - and now I'm sad to say I've seen them all. The story isn't over, there just won't be any more anime made. I feel a little hollow. The last episode was great, but all the biggest issues were never resolved. I doubt another series will ever be made, and even if it were, getting the same voice actors and whatnot could be near impossible. *sigh* I guess I shouldn't mourn the loss of this friend, but savor the journey we've shared together. New episodes of the manga will still be made I guess, but I'm really going to miss everyone.
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| Thursday, March 10th, 2005
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9:30 am
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It has finally happened - like a grand revelation or epiphany, my mind feels elated and my spirit lifted - good fortune has come my way. Not only did I receive my Phase III liberty, but today I classed up. Because of this, I got out of stripping/waxing floors, a quarterdeck watch, and the general
Barracks Support bullshit.
During the class we went over all the basic stuff - muster times, etc.
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| Saturday, February 12th, 2005
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10:50 pm
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Today has gone quite well. I rode the bus to Cordova Mall with Jones, one of my buddies from Boot Camp. We spent most of the day there, mostly wandering around, but he picked up a few things. I stopped at most of the cellphoneiosks and finally decided on Verizon. I have to buy my own phone, but the service is only about $40 a month and I get unlimited night and weekend minutes. I also get internet, so I can use the phone as a modem at night. I'm going back to the mall tomorrow to pick it up, since I forgot my credit card here in the barracks.
Grandpa's funeral was scheduled for tonight, but I couldn't arrange airfare and travel arrangments in time to make it. Heck, I didn't even know when or where it was until wednesday evening, and without a phone or internet, just finding that out was difficult. I've called home a few times, spoke with both mom and william, and left a few messages on Dad's answering machine. I feel bad about not seeing Grandma and Grandpa more, or at least sending them the letter I wrote in December - in fact it's still sitting on my computer, with no way to print it out. Well, when I get my phone tomorrow I can at least try calling Grandma.
I classed up this past week too. While it's only Aviation Fundamentals - a six day course - at least I'm not doing barracks support. I'm hoping that now that I'm in The System, taking classes at the Mega building and whatnot, that I'll stay in this student status rather then as part of an assorted labor pool. I haven't really worked on my story much since I've come to Pensecola, but I have had a few new ideas (and fleshed out others) on Tissue Engineering for my BioTech company. I think I could have up to four product lines operational soon after securing basic funding and initial research. Of these, the most important is the CBM implant I wrote about before, and was the topic of my college research paper. Soon following or concurrent with the CBM's development, I could probably get a Glucose production organ operational. This is based off of plant biology and photosynthesis. The plant itself could be of the hydroponic variety, for better Bacca Tank compatibility, and perhaps designed to produce glucose in a fruit-like manner. Besides these two, I think a biomech Egg and a Milk machine aren't too far off either. While these last two will be considerably more difficult than the others, and pose more biological rather then mechanical problems, I believe neither have insurmountable challenges to overcome.
Suppose I should be getting to bed soon. Jones and I are going to PT in the morning before we go to the Mall. In the evening we're going to work on our Yeoman quals as well. From what I can tell, it's good to be on the staff here. Hell, almost anything is better than scrubbing floors over and over and -over- again....
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| Saturday, February 5th, 2005
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10:07 pm
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I've gotten a few things accomplished since my last entry. First of all, I've picked up my cellphone and the cable to connect it to my computer. I've enjoyed the internet for almost two weeks now. It's slower than any connection I've ever used, but at least it works. I'm well on my way to becoming a yeoman in the barracks here, too. While being a yeoman isn't that greatest job, it has a few perks that make it work while. Less mustering, better information, better and fewer watches - good stuff. I checked my mail today and I found a bill from Verizon, my W2 forms and a letter from Mom. Guess I should be able to do my taxes now, but I'ld really like to solve my home state taxation issue first. Ideally, I want to change it to a state where I don't have to pay taxes at all. I don't know the details, but both Florida and Illinois (and a few other states) have tax exemption policies for military personnel. I should find out about that tonight. I finished my AV Funds class, and have returned to barracks support. However, I've been luckly enough to get on with a permanent working party to the Air Department. We don't hardly do anything, and almost always get secured early. Sure beats cleaning the "Q" over and over again.
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9:08 pm
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I just received some very bad news. I was sitting here on my computer, playing Civ3, when the Messanger came up my room and told me a chief was on the phone, and wanted to speak with me. I was a little worryed, but I threw on some shoes and followed him down to the Quarterdeck area. I spoke with the chief, he said he had a Red Cross message for me that said Harold Harvey, my grandfather had died at 08:07. Along with that was a phone number to the hospital. I borrowed a friends phone, and tried calling Dad. He wasn't home, so I called the hospital to see if anyone was still there. That turned up negative too, but I was able to get a hold of Mom and William. I'll probably take some emergency leave for the funeral, but I'll need to fiqure out when it is and what flights I'll need to take to get home. I imagine I'll be able to stay with Dad, but I'll need to work that out too. It hurts me inside when I think of the pain Grandma must be going through. While she probably knew this moment was coming, I doubt that'sch consolation. I suppose this is why religon was developed in the first place, as a way to deal with life's pain. I envy Grandma in that she can turn to religon to help comfort her. As least she's knows Grandpa is in a place without pain or suffering.
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| Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005
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8:06 pm
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Yet another day with BCS...I got farmed out on a working party today, as opposed to yesterday where I was one of a dozen folks to clean the whole barracks 2nd deck. The working party wasn't bad, basicly we just loaded up stuff from a warehouse to return it to the Mega Building. Most of this was office equipment, but some other assorted junk too. Also, I have two pieces of good news. Firstly, I'm going to start class on the 11th, and secondly, I figured out how to get cds working properly with Winamp. All I had to do was save the current playlist (once I got winamp to play the disc), open it with notepad, and alter the pathname a little - easy as cake. Using this method, I was also able to get the "hidden" bonus tracks to play. I don't know why they weren't auto-detected, but it seems to be working great now.
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| Sunday, January 30th, 2005
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9:45 pm
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Ahh, finally done for the day. Only twelve musters today - yippie. I didn't play Civ3 earlier, mainly because a friend came over and we watched all the GoldenBoy Anime series (only about 7 episodes). It's a pretty good series, doesn't go too deep, but there's a lot of funny parts. I've been thinking about my book series throughout the day, but I haven't really been able to come up with anything new. I suppose I'll just need to work on consolidating my ideas into a more coherent picture, then fill in the gaps.
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1:23 pm
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Not much going on today, just a couple of duty section musters. I'm having a little trouble getting Winamp to detect audio cds, but I seem to remember it always had that problem. Oh well. I was hoping to rip my Nightwish cds onto my laptop, but I guess it'll have to wait until I can aquire a utility off the internet. I should probably also look for a C-compiler and script writter. I've been meaning to learn programming for like, forever, and it seems like building my own tools is the way to go. Watch last night was a breeze, but I think I got conned into standing an extra half-hour. I'm not sure though, so I'm not going to sweat it. Holdman is watching Alien Vs. Predator right now. It looks like a decent movie, but nothing too exciting. I'm going to play some Civ3 for a bit, maybe work on my stories later today.
Oh yeah, on Thursday I got ready for the Phase II test, but I didn't have to take it! Since there were about 80-100 of us waiting to take the test, we all piled into the second deck lounge and one of the petty officers went over every question with us. All we had to do was listen and sign some paperwork. Easy day.
Something else of intrest - while browseing around the net awhile back, I did a little research on the occult, the Necronomicon, and lost civilizations. Besides a few other curious things, I found an article on what could be sunken ruins of the coast of Japan. Not just any ruins, either - but perhaps part of Mu (or "Lemuria", same thing). Very cool, and something I'll have to follow up on.
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| Saturday, January 29th, 2005
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10:35 am
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Saturday today, but I'll be spending most of the day inside. Not only has it been raining since last night, but I'm on duty - it's a shame too, since I wanted to explore the base some more. I have a watch later tonight too; 2130 - 0130. Yesterday sucked. I spent the morning in BCS cleaning, then I went over to the TSD building and stood a 6.5 hour watch. Luckily, I didn't have to do much in duty section when I got back. As far as today goes, I'm going to try to relax a bit and get some sleep. While it's ridiculous that we're mustered every few hours to clean, I imagine that's more to keep track of everyone then to actually -clean- the barracks. The place doesn't get very dirty, usually a quick sweep does the job.
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| Thursday, January 27th, 2005
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8:39 pm
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I finished up Indoc and firefighting, and now my first day of Barracks support is over too. Barracks support is exactly the same as BCS hold, so I'll refer to it as such from time to time for convienence. Basicly, we farm out working parties and watch standers to other building, or stay at the Q and clean. The exact same stuff I've been doing for months. *sigh* I just want to get on with my education, start learning my rate. As it turns out, the library is still closed from the hurricane - so I don't know where to go for my rating exam materials. I heard something about the USO having connections to that, so maybe I'll check them out on monday. I have Dog Duty, which means I'm on duty all weekend, so I'm out of luck for the next few days.
I just turned in my paperwork for promotion to Phase II liberty. While yes, I was Phase III at NSTC, NATTC doesn't recognize that status here. So, I was dropped back down to Phase I. The only benifit is, with proof of my previous status I -can- skip the 21 day in-phase waiting period. So I guess I got a little something out of it.
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| Monday, January 24th, 2005
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5:00 pm
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Wow...a lot has happened since my last entry. For starters, I'm no longer stationed in Great Lakes. I did leave on the 21st, after wandering around base tying up loose ends of course, and arrived here in Pensacola during the early hours of the 22nd. Luckily, that was a saturday, so I sleep in late. I sure needed it too - checking in, doing initial paperwork, getting duty sectioned, and all that took quite awhile. So anyways, over the weekend I worked on getting my watch quals filled out and organizing all my stuff. Today was the first day of Indoc. We were woken up around 0445 this morning, and I just got finished around 1600. Nice long day...but tomorrow is also the last day of Indoc for me, since I did the same stuff at NSTC. The only thing I'm missing is aircraft firefight training. I'll start that at 0715 tomorrow, then be done for the rest of the day. Good stuff. I have a short duty section time tonight as well, but no watch - I'm not fully qual-ed yet - haha. I should have it by tonight or tomorrow though.
I have some pretty cool roommates. One is named Holdman and the other is Foresi. Foresi is a fleet returnee, so he's been telling us sea-stories and what is like in the "real" navy. Sounds a lot different from training schools, but I suppose that's not too unexpected, seeing how most of us are still pretty green. Holdman is pretty cool, but a little bit...um...a whiner is probably too strong of a word, so I dunno - it's the voice. I'ld guess he's 17 or 18. He's a big fan of anime and Inuyasha, so we get along great, but get this - he's a fan of Nightwish too!! That's like - holy crap! There's the second person I've -ever- met who's heard of that group, and both of them in the Navy. Crazy. I believe his favorite is Sleeping Sun. If I had a little brother, I'ld imagine he might fit the bill. Both of my roommates are at dinner right now, but they'll probably be back soon. We're all in the same duty section, so we'll muster at 1800, and then Foresi and I will attend the Barracks Indoc brief at 1900. We'll also have a watchstanding brief the same time tomorrow. After that I should be fulled qualed. With luck, they'll give me my Phase III liberty status back. Oh - I forgot, I'll have to take a test too. Most of it is common sense, but I'll need to know the local chain of command. Well, I still have over half an hour to kill - maybe I dig out some music or work on my series.
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| Monday, January 17th, 2005
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9:55 pm
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Well, this is the end of a nice, long three day weekend. I didn't do much besides play Civ3 all day today, and most of yesterday too. Yesterday was my duty day again, so at least I had something to keep me occupied. I don't know who gave me the game, but they didn't like it because it was too tough. HA! They should've tried Civ2, this one is a lot easier. The game didn't want to install very well, though. A couple of music files are corrupted on the disc (it's pretty scratched up), and the install will fail without them. Thankfully, I found a way around the problem. I copied another music file of the same size off the disc, renamed it, write-proteced it, and placed it in the install folder. After trying another reinstall, and some various fiddeling, I convinced the installer that everything was peachy. Let's see...guess that's about it. While at the USO on friday, I did read part of a spy novel on WWII, and was amazed by the hundreds of boxes of bubble-gum tape they had. I suppose I should check my email soon. I sent Mom a check for $1000 using the USBank bill pay system, and it's suppose to arrive tomorrow. For regular mail, I won $20 in a contest - I just have to claim my prize (and listen to them try to sell me something). K, 'nough. Time for sleep.
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