Opinions

Everyone has one.

Mine tend to make my life harder.

It is times like these that maybe it is a tell tale sign that I need to transition to the civilian world.

Family Circus

>Click on "files" then September 9th, 2005.<

My mother sent me something very special. Instead of scanning the picture and posting it which will slow your computer down I thought this would be easier.

It made my day, maybe it will make yours.

I see a Finger and Thumb in a Shape of an "L" on People's Foreheads

In MARADMIN 428/05, my name is clearly not listed. I am not going to be promoted.
I know and fear my suspicions were right and the reason seems to point to my PME.
I wasn't really happy about the fact I was told by a person I despise, respect, but despise.

My options are:
1) Receive the training I am missing and kiss a lot of ass.
2) Prepare for the civilian world.
3) Be disgruntled, and piss everyone off.
4) Or go see the "doc" for all those "things" that I have been "sucking up" with for the last decade.

Currently, I feeling that option 1 is the best course of action.

T minus 315 : Day 40 : Rotation Time minus 48

I survived the "typhoon." I deployed to the states. I have slept an eradicated schedule. I have a stomach virus. I have been SIQ (sick in quarters) for the last few days. I am still living in a icebox in the middle of the desert. Oh, and I have a head cold.

All in all, not bad. Not bad at all. Could be worse... Right?

I personally wish to have deployed to the Middle East, then at least my crappy sleep/work schedule would not bother me as much.

I just read an article about the diversity on the social order of America and the military. I agree with the author. There is no point in going into specifics. The military is a scapegoat for the rational teenager and rational parent to have. We do our job, and they go to soccer games and PTA meetings and have coffee and cookies. I am paraphrasing here but I think you get the drift.

Even though I am in the good ol' US of A, the time here counts as if I were still overseas. That is the reason for the title of this post.

The good part of being sick is the fact I am getting lots of sleep. The bad part of being sick is I am getting lots of sleep.

Have you ever read the "Lockhorns?" It is a comic strip. When you have the opportunity you should. My life is similar. I am just missing the wife part right now.

I am been chaste or pure as of late. I don't know how becoming that will be.

September Stress

-The constant change in my venue has reminded me of what being a Marine is all about. I have mentioned this before in a previous post.

-The "per diem" that I am supposed to receive for being here, has not been received. And as my current rank I am not authorized to drive a non government vehicle. The cab fare for 4 miles is 8 dollars. I don't know how many of you have been to Yuma, but everything is at least 4 miles away, probably more like 10 to 15 miles.

-The real stress in my life seems to be that message I have waiting for. You know, the one that says whether I will get that promotion or not. I know of few things I could have done to make myself look better on paper. My excuse was the job tempo of my previous command. (Everyone has an excuse, I am not the exclusion.) In fact, I was denied Professional Military Education (PME) twice due to this operation tempo. Of course, none of that is documented. So, if I don't get the promotion and the reason is my PME, I will definitely not be a happy camper.

Working In The Coal Mine

This is the new me. I am hoping it doesn't last that long.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

This is me.

Yuma

I just received word that I will be returning to Yuma on a ....Deployment!
The thing is that I actually wanted to go back. I will receive a dislocation allowance while there. This is commonly referred to as "per diem."
So, hopefully, I should make up for the losses I had during my February disaster with my house.

Time Off

Apparently, no remembers whether or not we, the military, have holidays. I write this because I have received several inquiries about the Labor Day weekend. So I have decided to share this link with you all.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/holidays.html

As far as how much actual time off we receive that depends on duty status and how the Commanding General feels he or she should give us. The most common is a 72 hour liberty, sometimes a 96 hour liberty is granted.

T minus 329: Day 26

Well, the people reading this today, should be aware of the "Super Typhoon" heading this way, by now. Yea.

I personally have survived a many hurricanes such as Fran and Bertha which were both class 4s and were back to back within 5 days of each other. Granted, this one is a class 5, but how much worse can it be?

Not too many trailers here.

The Sgt. Maj. is back. My first impression is a good one. It's kind of strange, but I can relate to this guy pretty well. I figure it is a good thing.

This is the first Saturday I haven't worked. It must have something to do with the typhoon thing or maybe it's because of Labor Day being on Monday. It doesn't really matter, I am happy either way.

Mail call didn't go on Friday, I am a little perturbed about that. There may have been a letter from someone who put smiley faces on the envelope.

For those people that have worked on a flight line or have been on ship know that your head is supposed to be on a swivel. (Meaning you should always be aware of your surroundings.) Well, last night I was sandwiched between two honchos(taxis) and my left calf muscle got the brunt of the force. Luckily, there is no visible damage. The Doc (corpsman, who lives next door) said I should just take note of my body and explained what I should look for in the next couple of days. Overall my legs are fine as long as I don't try to use them.

The main consensus here is this is a crappy place because of the command, meaning the higher ups make life hell for the juniors. Well, now that I have been here awhile, I may be one those people. I already started making changes, everybody hates changes. I am hoping that the few little tweaks here and there are going to make little better cohesion within my workcenter and moral will hopefully go up after some time.

One last thought, for those who know me, know that I have a hard time hearing things at times. I feel that I must have "Superman" hearing. Everyone here seems to be deaf. An example, would be the the other guy next door to me, he turns his TV up so loud that I can watch TV without having one. Which I don't. Think about this, I mean, how loud do you really need it in a room that is 10 feet by 15 feet.

Maybe I am getting old.

That can't be it. I like good sound vibrations too, but I ask the people around 1st if it is too loud. I have a surround sound system, my neighbor doesn't.

A note on my system, I broke out a compass and a measuring tape and calculated the best positions for the optimum sound in my given environment.