I have spent the last several days visiting here and there. First I had make-up drill on the 24-26. Besides my unit not getting me a place to sleep the first night (I ended up staying with a friend on the other side of Houston) it went well. I was able to stay busy most of the time doing paperwork, so it went pretty fast. On Friday I drove down to College Station to visit some of my buddies. I stayed with Lans, saw "The Dark Knight" twice, and celebrated one of my "Q" (band) buddy's 21'st. On Sunday after church I drove home, just to turn around and drive with my family to Dallas. I was able to enjoy visiting with my Grandparents and Aunts and Uncle. All in all the travel was time well spent.
One of the coolest things I learned while in College Station was that my outfit is dominating the recruiting this year and we are looking at having as many as 32 freshmen. I hope that this bodes well for the efforts of our underclassmen and will lead to a strong year for our outfit.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Lazy Days
I have been enjoying getting to kick back and relax for the past week. Yesterday we had my birthday dinner of spaghetti and a strawberry cream cake. The centre piece of the meal was clearly the cake. It was a three layer chiffon cake with whole strawberries, a sweetened strawberry filling, and whipped cream (the real deal, not that "whip" stuff) in between each layer. I have never tasted a cake that has so much strawberry flavour and creaminess.
Also last night, my brother had his eagle scout board, completing the final requirment toward attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. It was quite and accomplishment and I congratulate him. While he was sweating it out at the board, I stayed home and enjoyed a few episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor is the last of the time lords and spends his days hoping through time, "troubleshooting" time. Its a fun show because The Doctor lives to go see and explore the universe throughout time and he give one the greatest thrill to go see new things.
Also last night, my brother had his eagle scout board, completing the final requirment toward attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. It was quite and accomplishment and I congratulate him. While he was sweating it out at the board, I stayed home and enjoyed a few episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor is the last of the time lords and spends his days hoping through time, "troubleshooting" time. Its a fun show because The Doctor lives to go see and explore the universe throughout time and he give one the greatest thrill to go see new things.
Lazy Days
I have been enjoying getting to kick back and relax for the past week. Yesterday we had my birthday dinner of spaghetti and a strawberry cream cake. The centre piece of the meal was clearly the cake. It was a three layer chiffon cake with whole strawberries, a sweetened strawberry filling, and whipped cream (the real deal, not that "whip" stuff) in between each layer. I have never tasted a cake that has so much strawberry flavour and creaminess.
Also last night, my brother had his eagle scout board, completing the final requirment toward attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. It was quite and accomplishment and I congratulate him. While he was sweating it out at the board, I stayed home and enjoyed a few episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor is the last of the time lords and spends his days hoping through time, "troubleshooting" time. Its a fun show because The Doctor lives to go see and explore the universe throughout time and he give one the greatest thrill to go see new things.
Also last night, my brother had his eagle scout board, completing the final requirment toward attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. It was quite and accomplishment and I congratulate him. While he was sweating it out at the board, I stayed home and enjoyed a few episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor is the last of the time lords and spends his days hoping through time, "troubleshooting" time. Its a fun show because The Doctor lives to go see and explore the universe throughout time and he give one the greatest thrill to go see new things.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
I'm Back from LDAC!
Just a few days ago I completed the biggest training event I will participate in until after I commission. LDAC (Leaders Developing and Assessing Course, I think) also known as Warrior Forge is a 33 day long training session designed to help prepare future officers in the ROTC program to lead as well as to determine if they have the potential to be an officer in the US Army. Honestly it wasn't that hard to complete, but it was a good learning experience. We did a bunch of training including such events as BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship), Cultural Awareness (training focused on what it takes to operate successfully in a foreign culture), Land Navigation, and a ten day "deployment" to the field where we did battled drills, patrolling missions, and patrol base ops.
The weather was perfect. The entire time I was there is rained three times, and none more than a drizzle. As Ft. Lewis is only 39 miles from Mt. Rainer, we often had great views of that mountain. It was impressive how there were small mountains around Mt. Rainer, but Mt. Rainer was so much larger that they all looked like foot hills. While we were in the field, we were operating in single canopy rain forest which was pretty, if not that different from the swamps in East Texas. The most notable differences were that there was moss on almost all the ground and the monster ant beds. The state of Washington decided that they needed some way of controlling the pine needles other than routinely burning the forest, so the introduced these monster ants. These ants build mounds several feet tall out of pine needles and twigs. From the mound they will travel back and forth in "superhighways" collecting building material and dead insects. Invariably I would be in the prone behind some decent cover only to find one of these superhighways running over of under me. Thankfully these ants are fairly harmless, requiring a significant amount to provocation before they sting, and not possessing an especially painful sting. All in all the training was good, but it is nice to be home, sleeping in a real bed and largely off a schedule.
The weather was perfect. The entire time I was there is rained three times, and none more than a drizzle. As Ft. Lewis is only 39 miles from Mt. Rainer, we often had great views of that mountain. It was impressive how there were small mountains around Mt. Rainer, but Mt. Rainer was so much larger that they all looked like foot hills. While we were in the field, we were operating in single canopy rain forest which was pretty, if not that different from the swamps in East Texas. The most notable differences were that there was moss on almost all the ground and the monster ant beds. The state of Washington decided that they needed some way of controlling the pine needles other than routinely burning the forest, so the introduced these monster ants. These ants build mounds several feet tall out of pine needles and twigs. From the mound they will travel back and forth in "superhighways" collecting building material and dead insects. Invariably I would be in the prone behind some decent cover only to find one of these superhighways running over of under me. Thankfully these ants are fairly harmless, requiring a significant amount to provocation before they sting, and not possessing an especially painful sting. All in all the training was good, but it is nice to be home, sleeping in a real bed and largely off a schedule.
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