The · Doctor's · Journal

I hate weekend duty.

For the unenlightened, this means no liberty, not being out of the detachment for more than two hours (and only can go to a few certain places), no civvies, no drinking alcohol, and lots of cleaning and watchstanding.

Tomorrow, I have the dreadful five-hour watch from 1200 to 1700. That's going to suck simply because I'll be bored out of my mind. No eating and drinking is allowed (except a bottle of water), but I am allowed to go to chow for lunch. No reading except for school work (and I don't have much to do so that won't help much) and certain books that appear on an approved Navy book reading list. I'm hoping the book I'm currently reading, Six Frigates by Ian Toll, which is about the birth of the Navy is allowed even though it's not on the list.

The "no drinking" bit is killing me the most (although not wearing civvies for the whole weekend sucks, too). I didn't get to go out drinking last weekend because I didn't have civvies until the end of the weekend. I couldn't go drinking the previous weekend because I was still on Phase I. This long drought of not being able to go out drinking is killing me. But on the flip side, it's not like I went out drinking every weekend while I was at Earlham.

This weekend duty could have sucked even worse. Early afternoon yesterday, a transformer near the detachment exploded and knocked out the power for most of the day. For the briefest of moments, I feared I would have to go through the whole weekend without any internet or television. That would have REALLY sucked. Fortunately, the power came back around 1830. Thank god because I was able to watch Battlestar Galactica later that night.

It's going to be a lllooonnnggg weekend...

For nearly ten years, as anyone who went to high school or college with me knows, I wear sandals all the time no matter the weather. The only exceptions were when I was running, backpacking, or playing Ultimate. And yet, for the last few months since I've been training with the Navy, I've been wearing boots on a regular basis...and I've enjoyed wearing them. A lot. Additionally, when I came to my A School, I didn't bring any of my civilian clothing (there was no room in my sea bag and I foolishly didn't think to bring another bag) so this past weekend I went to Target and decided to buy a pair of Converse All Stars shoes, largely because I didn't want to wear boots with my civvies and I didn't want to buy a new pair of Tevas (not that Target had any at this time of the year). I've never worn Converse All Stars before, so this is a new experience for me and I'm oddly loving them. The best part is, because of the attire I bought at Target (khakis and dress shirt), I kind of feel like The Tenth Doctor (I need my trench coat!). Pity I don't have my wavy semi-short hair anymore. :-(

In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm back at college. Classes, homework, crappy cafeteria food, drinking, and of course, procrastination (I got a two-page essay due Wednesday I really should be working on instead, but here I am). That being said, there are two elements that make this very different from college.

First of all, instead of having a variety of classes each day, each subject (public affairs, photography, journalism, videography, web building, photojournalism, etc.) is heavily focused on for a series of days. Each school day is broken into two parts: the morning is spent with an integrated section of all of the other services (Army, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard) where we have been working on how to write a story (so far we've only learned how to do a lead and a bridge, but we haven't gotten to the body yet); and then in the afternoon usually all four sections (48 students across the five services) gather together for a lecture (currently on public affairs), although for a week we have been/will be gathering together with only our own service to cover how the MC rating works for our specific service.

Secondly, of course, the biggest difference from college is being a sailor outside of school. At the barracks, there are a number of things that we have to worry about: room and personal inspections, duty, watchstanding, marching, physical fitness, and most importantly, getting all the necessary checkpoints in order to phase up (in other words, earn privileges such as extended liberty hours, being able to drink if you're of age, wear civilian clothing off-duty, and so forth). Most of my class phased up yesterday and have already taken advantage of some of these privileges. Sadly, I foolishly didn't bring any civilian clothing, so that's one privilege I haven't been able to taken part in, but I'll change that soon enough.

Ah, boot camp! I won't say it was the greatest experience of my life (there's no beating backing the Appalachian Trail or the Grand Canyon), but it certainly wasn't the worst either. It was nothing like you've seen in the films like Full Metal Jacket or Jarhead (although granted that's the Marines, but I can't think of any films that feature the Navy boot camp). Did I get yelled at a lot? Not all the time, but I certainly had my fair share, particularly in regards to my permanent 5 o'clock shadow. Before boot camp, I loved growing a beard on an occasional, but at boot camp, the quick growing of my facial became the bane of my existence. It got to the point that I had to shave twice a day to ensure I didn't get yelled at by a chief petty officer or petty officer (although my three RDCs, recruit division commanders, only cared just prior to a personal inspection).

There were other aspects of boot camp which I didn't like, such as marching (I had a lot of trouble staying in step initially) and ironing (but only because we had to get up in the middle of the night to do it and had to do it sitting for "safety" reasons in regards to the iron board), but my biggest issue was with many of the members in my division. Many of them were fresh out of high school. They treated the whole experience of boot camp as if it was just summer camp and that it will all be over soon and could move on to something else. They rarely treated the situation seriously even after being "beaten" via IT (intensive training), which was basically long session of calisthenics (including push-ups and sit-ups along with other exercises). I found this to be extremely frustrating despite the efforts of the few who tried to direct the division in the right direction. Suffice to say, if I never saw 90% of them again, I would be quite happy.

One of the more fun aspects of boot camp was my divisional job: mail PO (petty officer, rank within the division only). Essentially I was in charge of delivering the mail from the ship's (what we called the building we lived and trained in) mail room to my fellow recruits. As a result, I single-handedly became everyone's favorite person, although that occasionally became annoying because some people constantly asked me about the mail even though they knew (or should have known) that I hadn't gotten to the mail yet that day (which was always 1900 on the weekday)! Others would joking threaten me if I didn't bring them mail while others would simply whine about how they didn't get mail that evening. Alas, no good deed goes unpunished. On the plus side, in the closing weeks of training, I became the ship's mail PO and thus I had control of the mail room. And minions. Lots of minions. :-D

Other highlights from boot camp: marching across the base early in the morning, taking what would have normally taken ~25 actually took ~45 minutes because there it was in the 0's with wind up 20-30 MPH and lots of ice on the ground (because it was warm the day before and melted all the snow but then hit a deep freeze that night); my 1st RDC reminding me of one of my favorite high school teachers (Terry Pendegrast, for those who went to high school with me), including the fact that he picked on me just like Terry did; and lastly, the penultimate moment of boot camp, BATTLESTATIONS, where we spent approximately 10 hours in a ship simulation on a ship recreation...in the middle of the night (and already having been awake all day) with the threat of failing simply by falling asleep (which turned out to be the single most difficult aspect of the simulation).

That's all for now. It's almost time for taps (bedtime for you non-military folk) and I'm tired.

So I learned today that Matt Smith will be taking over for David Tennant in Series 5 (after the 2009 specials). I already knew Tennant was leaving but hearing about this guy I've never heard of taking over was a bit of a shocker. He'll be the youngest actor to portray The Doctor, beating ol' Peter by 3 years. But this is hurting my head the most: the next Doctor actor will be younger than me! What the fuck?! :-(

In other news, I'm safely at my "A School" and already very busy between the sailor stuff (duty, inspection, physical fitness, etc.) and the academic stuff (although it's boring public affairs stuff right now). I'll try to keep people up to date with the stuff I'm doing when I can. And no, I haven't forgotten about sharing my experiences about boot camp! Maybe sometime over the weekend.

The road was long but I'm finally done with boot camp, just in time for Christmas. I'll talk more about my experiences at boot camp tomorrow but right now I want to share a few words on my trip home.

The bus ride to O'Hare was relatively uneventful except that it was a bit off schedule (which was problematic for the early afternoon departees...thankfully I was not one of them). It was not until I had lunch at the Macaroni Bar & Grill when things got interesting. I had traveled in my dress blues because that was what I wore for graduation and I had no civilian clothing to change into (which was fine because I thought it was pretty cool to travel in that uniform). This was significant because an elderly couple who was dining at the same time as me decided to pay for my meal in thanks for my service (even though I had only just graduated). To say the least I was flabbergasted and honored.

In addition to this, I found myself in a long conversation with an Air Force veteran while we jointly waited for our flight. I talked a lot about my training and experience at boot camp and he talked a bit about his time in the Air Force, including a six-month stint on a base that was on lockdown after Kennedy was assassinated (that gives you some idea how old he is). During this conversation, a younger gentleman (maybe a few years older than me) offered his congratulations to me because he recognized that I just graduated from boot camp (this isn't entirely surprising considering Recruit Training Command is in Great Lakes which isn't far from Chicago).

Lastly, for whatever reason, I discovered during my wait for my plane to arrive that my ticket had been bumped up to First Class. I don't know why this occurred but it was a fun experience especially since I had never flown First Class before. Nice large leather seat, plenty of leg room, and a big glass of REAL orange juice (huge deal because the fountain orange juice in the galley at RTC was HORRIBLE). All that with this week's Time Magazine's Person of the Year issue (Obama, duh), I was sitting in the lap of luxury.

Now for some much needed sleep! And I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to iron! Or ask permission to use the head! Or listen to snoring! Or have the lights suddenly turn on at 0600 and hear "GET UP! GET UP! GET UP! 10...9...8..."

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

This describes me perfectly.

ARGH!

I love Star Trek literature and I love moderating the Litature forum at TrekBBS, but sometimes I get really frustrated with some of the posters there. Once again, the eBook versus paper books has arisen and the last few times, the debate was completely unintentionally (from my perspective as a paper book fan). This situation is frustrating because when when someone (including myself) casually mentions on the side that they simply prefer paper books, suddenly a hoard of people start jumping down their throat! It's especially frustrating considering many of those people who jump down our throats seem to automatically 1)assume we haven't given eBooks a try, 2)assume we're simply misinformed in someway about them (such as the SCE stories being novellas. Gee, thanks, I didn't know that! *rolls eyes*), or 3)toss aside our distaste for eBooks as folly.

Is it so hard to that I like the feel of a book in my hands, curled up in my chair or bed, and not staring at a screen. Is it so hard to understand I like to read books endlessly without interruption, something that cannot be done for me (and many others) staring at a screen? And is it so hard to remember that we've explained ourselves AD NASEUM!!!

*bangs head against a concrete wall*

I drove out to Greensboro from Durham with a friend today to visit a couple of friends at Guilford, and on the way home, I was looking out for an Arby's to stop at because neither of us like "traditional" fast-food restaurants but love Arby's Marketplace sandwiches. However, much to my disappointment and shock, there wasn't on for the entire stretch. I'm fairly certain there's Arby's in Durham (I can think of at least one place where it is) so I surprised by the lack of Arby's off of I-40/85. Maybe they're more popular in other locations. Don't know.

I've been reminiscing about the Looney Tunes for the last couple of days and reading various articles on Wikipedia on its history and characters. It brings back a lot of fond memories from my childhood and I've forgotten just how much I absolutely love Looney Tunes. So I decided yesterday, I'm getting all four of the Golden Collection DVD sets for Christmas. And then it will be a very Merry Christmas.

I'm a long time Ultimate Frisbee player but I also enjoy a good round of Disc Golf. Fortunately, I have an official course (complete with the metal baskets) near my house. I don't play enough, which is clearly indicated by some of my throws with my only golf disc. For does who don't know, a golf disc smaller yet a bit heavier than a regular Ultimate disc, which changes the throwing dynamics. Naturally, I'm more accustomed to throwing Ultimate discs, so when I switch to a golf disc, I'm thrown off for a bit. I get use to it by the end of the links, but then I don't play again for weeks. I really should go out more often but I only have one friend in town to go with and he's busy most of time, and I prefer going with someone.

Much to my own shock, North Carolina went blue in the House. While I love my state for its mountains, beaches, college basketball and many other things, I've always been bothered by the politics of the state. I grew up strongly disliking former senator Jesse Helmes, who was the very first political figure I was aware of as child (before even Reagan or Bush). And now both of our senators of Republicans. However, at least this year, the North Carolina House is blue, including my own congressman David Price, who is the only politician other than our governor Mike Easley that I've voted for multiple times (now three times).

Things are looking bright. Here's hoping the Democrats get the Senate as well.

Well, I just got back from voting for my first non-Presidential election. Sadly, despite being a registered voter since 2000, I've only voted twice (in 2000 and 2004) and my excuses for not voting more are lame, I admit. In 2002-2005, I was at Earlham College, so I would have to vote with an absentee ballot and I had a hard time trying to figure the process out in 2002 while settling into college. A shame because I desperately wanted to vote against Elizabeth Dole for North Carolina senator (which she won). Same happened in 2003 (with the added excuse of not being aware of the issues), but fortunately in 2004, Earlham Government students set up a process to simply provide your name and home address and send a letter of request for an absentee ballot to the appropriate official. Made my life a lot easier, especially considering I was deeply buried in school work and spending every working in the theater (doing lighting). My excuses in 2001 and 2005 are so predictably lame, I won't even tell you.

So, that's that. I voted. Have you?

"Everything is different, Jay" said guest star Hugh Laurie when asked if American television production was different from England television production. Laurie quickly followed it with an atypical annoyed House stare directly into the camera.

Computer mouse, that is. I've already confused one person on Facebook. *snicker*

My optical mouse was slowly dying for the last several days, turning on and off at random. Was particularly annoying when I was in the middle of an Age of Empires level. Fortunately, it decided to turn back after a few minutes. Anyways, I have a new optical mouse, which makes me very happy because I HATE touch pads.

Now that LiveJournal is running properly and my own internet is behaving, I'm getting the chance to poke around on the site, and I must say I'm really frustrated with the site navigation. I'm so accustomed to website (practically all of them) that have a general menu bar on the top of every page. Not LiveJournal. Instead, it's present on about half the pages and there's two different menu bars that show up, one more useless than the other.

I also find the settings system to be confusing and unclear at best. I'm still trying to figure out the configure Mood Theme section. Makes little sense.

Maybe this is a sign of me spending too much time online. Or my obsessive pickiness and/or stubbornness. Or all of the above.

The Apocalypse has happened. I've finally joined LiveJournal. What next? I buy a cell phone?

Anyways, the blame lies squarely on Facebook. It recently added a blogging option and I've slowly started using it for random thoughts and moments in my life. And now I've decided to expand my reader base beyond my college friends.

Prepare for utter randomness.