Romney Rally April 25, 2012
5 days ago
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Happy 236th Birthday Marines
Today is the 236th birthday of our beloved United States Marine Corps. Happy birthday, brothers and sisters, past and present. I can't express how proud I am to be among the fold. Semper Fidelis.
Commandant's Award
In boot camp we were subjected to a barrage of tests and exams after being under stress and awake forever our first few days. After these tests, they took a couple of us out to offer us to be reassigned our specialty.
I had signed a five year contract to be in Aviation Ordinance, basically affixing missiles to fighters as they fly out on bombing runs. This sounded fun and what I thought I'd be doing right out of boot camp.
I scored well on the tests and I was told that I showed a strong ability to learn languages...You can tell that from a test? Hahaha, I remember one of the tests had a totally made up language and you had to translate it, basically like an anagram but with total garbledy goop. So, they offered me a change from putting missiles on planes on the deck of an aircraft carrier to being switching to the intelligence field as a linguist, Morse code operator or even presidential guard (not sure how that is related, but the offer was on the table). I chose Russian but eventually, due to class quotas for Marines, ended up being changed to Korean.
Language training was done in Monterey, California at the Defense Language Institute. There was a lot of rivalry between the different service members in my section and base wide for that matter. We had Marines, Army, Air Force and Navy intel people all training together. We, as young Marines, were pretty...well...lets just say that we thought we were "hot poop" and we let everyone else around us know it ;)
There were many who expected us to fail and rock out of our classes, and many Marines as well as other service members did fail our or get recycled to other classes. Some of the Army boys were just as high on themselves are we were and they would always make comments as to how they were going to be awarded the Commandant's Award, for the best linguist in the graduating class. Graduating class being all languages, all services on a given graduation day.
Our first concern was not to fail, and for those of us who excelled, we targeted the Army boys. I didn't care about the Commandant's Award (winning the war), I just wanted to win every single battle, every quiz, every test, every "who knows the answer to this question?" I focused on that daily. My class started with two of us Marines (Me and Jesse Zimbauer)and several others from other services...We rocked several due to ability as well as some due to medical problems. But each time we rocked a soldier, we would get one from a class ahead of us. A section was three classes, 7-10 students per class. Our six Marines were evenly spread among the classes, outside of my class...we picked up a third Marine; Desmond (Falcon, Stewy, StewBirdy) Stewart.
We were a force to be reckoned with, hahaha, just the perfect combination of mischievousness, cockiness, brotherhood and just all around enjoying youth. We all made it through, graduated and are forever brothers. In the end, I pushed the Army kids and they pushed me like no one's business. A combination of class scores, DLPT scores (Defense Language Proficiency Test), community service and an interview was used to determine each graduating class's top student, who was awarded the Commandant's Award...I knew that I was top for scores for all Koreans graduating, but I had no idea about the Russians, Arabics, Spanish, Philippines, Japanese, etc. scores. Spanish linguists generally had the quickest graduation times and generally scored super high on tests and DLPTs.
In the end, I was awarded the Commandant's Award for all graduates, with Kris (Army girl and study buddy) from my class being awarded another big award on the day...our class took the two biggest awards ;) Not tootin' my own horn, but I tend to think about stuff like this when it comes Marine Corps Birthday time...It was a very enjoyable time in my life.
I had signed a five year contract to be in Aviation Ordinance, basically affixing missiles to fighters as they fly out on bombing runs. This sounded fun and what I thought I'd be doing right out of boot camp.
I scored well on the tests and I was told that I showed a strong ability to learn languages...You can tell that from a test? Hahaha, I remember one of the tests had a totally made up language and you had to translate it, basically like an anagram but with total garbledy goop. So, they offered me a change from putting missiles on planes on the deck of an aircraft carrier to being switching to the intelligence field as a linguist, Morse code operator or even presidential guard (not sure how that is related, but the offer was on the table). I chose Russian but eventually, due to class quotas for Marines, ended up being changed to Korean.
Language training was done in Monterey, California at the Defense Language Institute. There was a lot of rivalry between the different service members in my section and base wide for that matter. We had Marines, Army, Air Force and Navy intel people all training together. We, as young Marines, were pretty...well...lets just say that we thought we were "hot poop" and we let everyone else around us know it ;)
There were many who expected us to fail and rock out of our classes, and many Marines as well as other service members did fail our or get recycled to other classes. Some of the Army boys were just as high on themselves are we were and they would always make comments as to how they were going to be awarded the Commandant's Award, for the best linguist in the graduating class. Graduating class being all languages, all services on a given graduation day.Our first concern was not to fail, and for those of us who excelled, we targeted the Army boys. I didn't care about the Commandant's Award (winning the war), I just wanted to win every single battle, every quiz, every test, every "who knows the answer to this question?" I focused on that daily. My class started with two of us Marines (Me and Jesse Zimbauer)and several others from other services...We rocked several due to ability as well as some due to medical problems. But each time we rocked a soldier, we would get one from a class ahead of us. A section was three classes, 7-10 students per class. Our six Marines were evenly spread among the classes, outside of my class...we picked up a third Marine; Desmond (Falcon, Stewy, StewBirdy) Stewart.
We were a force to be reckoned with, hahaha, just the perfect combination of mischievousness, cockiness, brotherhood and just all around enjoying youth. We all made it through, graduated and are forever brothers. In the end, I pushed the Army kids and they pushed me like no one's business. A combination of class scores, DLPT scores (Defense Language Proficiency Test), community service and an interview was used to determine each graduating class's top student, who was awarded the Commandant's Award...I knew that I was top for scores for all Koreans graduating, but I had no idea about the Russians, Arabics, Spanish, Philippines, Japanese, etc. scores. Spanish linguists generally had the quickest graduation times and generally scored super high on tests and DLPTs.
In the end, I was awarded the Commandant's Award for all graduates, with Kris (Army girl and study buddy) from my class being awarded another big award on the day...our class took the two biggest awards ;) Not tootin' my own horn, but I tend to think about stuff like this when it comes Marine Corps Birthday time...It was a very enjoyable time in my life.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Bunny wants to help with laundry?
Here's a short video of Bunbun running around on the bed after I brought in laundry from hanging. He does a couple good crazy eights near the end of the video! When rabbits jump around, it's their expression of happiness, called a "binky". He was certainly a binky boy tonight!
I had the air conditioning on, when it's hot, rabbits just lay all spread our trying to get rid of as much heat as possible...they love the cooler temperatures. I make sure every time I defrost the freezer to give him a giant bucket of chipped ice to play in, he loves it!
You may have seen this on FB, but I'm posting here mostly for Auntie Judy to see ;) Love you all.
I had the air conditioning on, when it's hot, rabbits just lay all spread our trying to get rid of as much heat as possible...they love the cooler temperatures. I make sure every time I defrost the freezer to give him a giant bucket of chipped ice to play in, he loves it!
You may have seen this on FB, but I'm posting here mostly for Auntie Judy to see ;) Love you all.
Another Sydney Opera House Photo
Pae had another chance to go out with a friend during some time off. It's the same as last one basically, but I'm posting another Sydney Opera House pic anyway ;) Oh, I also found one circa 1990's from when I was in Australia doing a joint mission with the Australian Army as an Indonesian Linguist (*laughs). I'm guessing I must have been 22 years old at the time?
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Cancelled
My marathon has been cancelled due to the ongoing flooding in Thailand. It was only a couple weeks away and Eric and I were working hard to get ourselves ready for it. Our 32 kilometer (20 mile)run this past weekend was cancelled as well, but that's just as well since Eric evacuated his family a couple hours south to Pattaya.
The Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon 2011 has been moved to February 12, 2012. I guess we have lots of time to train now and work out all of these physical kinks with the knees and hips and feet! ;)
The Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon 2011 has been moved to February 12, 2012. I guess we have lots of time to train now and work out all of these physical kinks with the knees and hips and feet! ;)
Photo Essay: Thai Flood 2011
Here is another collection of photos of what's been going on here in Thailand for the past month or so, and is likely to continue another month. Great picture essay.
(photo by Sukree Sukplang/Reuters)
(photo by Sukree Sukplang/Reuters)
Thai Flood 2011
Well, rainy season was pretty much normal here in Thailand except for a heavy September. Combined with other factors such as super high tides and long term problems like deforestation, were seeing some of the worst flooding in decades.
I'll not start criticizing the government, or the political scene or the social divide between the haves and the have-nots...but all of that contributes to the mess that has been made of the whole thing, as well as years and years of neglect by those in charge as well as the population as a whole. I'll not go into that...full stop.
Rather, I'd just like to let everyone know that it is happening, and it's all around us. So many people are suffering around the Kingdom, and not just those under water. The floods have tied up and pretty much stopped all supply chains for things from daily necessities such as food and water, to things that make the economy go here...industry (car parts manufacturers, hard discs, EVERYTHING). Tourism is taking a huge hit thanks to panic and hysteria in the media and social networking sites.
A photo essay like the one from The Atlantic found here (Beautiful pictures of a desperate situation) shows just a few of the areas worst hit by the flooding...the flood waters refusing to recede. Residents facing several months of meter-deep to neck-deep waters, stagnating, rotting, breeding disease-carrying mosquitoes...sad.
In the meantime, the average Bangkokian is on edge every day wondering when the waters are going to reach their part of the city. As of today, they've stayed away from our part of the city, but we are one of 5 areas that are the next to flood and considered "high risk" areas. I personally don't believe it will be as bad as it's being made out to be for inner Bangkok, but what do I know!? I'm just trying to take a more hopeful approach, while at the same time preparing for the worst. Water, check. Batteries and flash lights, check. Canned foods and ramen, check! Mmmmmm! Heck, Pae even brought back some dark chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii! We're set!
Anyway, for our family back home, we're safe. As of today, we're dry. We're prepared and we're hopeful. Those who pray, please find time for those in Thailand less fortunate than us. They need lots of prayers, luck...any good vibes going their way. Take a look at the link above, again beautiful photos, and there are many more but this is my favorite set so far.
I'll not start criticizing the government, or the political scene or the social divide between the haves and the have-nots...but all of that contributes to the mess that has been made of the whole thing, as well as years and years of neglect by those in charge as well as the population as a whole. I'll not go into that...full stop.
Rather, I'd just like to let everyone know that it is happening, and it's all around us. So many people are suffering around the Kingdom, and not just those under water. The floods have tied up and pretty much stopped all supply chains for things from daily necessities such as food and water, to things that make the economy go here...industry (car parts manufacturers, hard discs, EVERYTHING). Tourism is taking a huge hit thanks to panic and hysteria in the media and social networking sites.
A photo essay like the one from The Atlantic found here (Beautiful pictures of a desperate situation) shows just a few of the areas worst hit by the flooding...the flood waters refusing to recede. Residents facing several months of meter-deep to neck-deep waters, stagnating, rotting, breeding disease-carrying mosquitoes...sad.
In the meantime, the average Bangkokian is on edge every day wondering when the waters are going to reach their part of the city. As of today, they've stayed away from our part of the city, but we are one of 5 areas that are the next to flood and considered "high risk" areas. I personally don't believe it will be as bad as it's being made out to be for inner Bangkok, but what do I know!? I'm just trying to take a more hopeful approach, while at the same time preparing for the worst. Water, check. Batteries and flash lights, check. Canned foods and ramen, check! Mmmmmm! Heck, Pae even brought back some dark chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii! We're set!
Anyway, for our family back home, we're safe. As of today, we're dry. We're prepared and we're hopeful. Those who pray, please find time for those in Thailand less fortunate than us. They need lots of prayers, luck...any good vibes going their way. Take a look at the link above, again beautiful photos, and there are many more but this is my favorite set so far.
Pae in Sydney
Pae has begun flying again. This has given her the chance to see new places and meet lots of new friends. Her first few flights were Phuket-Sydney, Sydney-Bali-Sydney (x2), Sydney-Honolulu-Sydney and back home Sydney-Phuket.
Needless to say, being in Sydney, she had a chance to spend some time off with friends exploring the area...and when in Sydney...the opera house is obviously a must! Right now, Southern Australian winter is turning to spring.
It was a really sunny day, causing the photos to be totally white and too bright and the photos came out a little off, but she'll have many more opportunities to go sightseeing and take more pictures!
More on Hawaii later!
Needless to say, being in Sydney, she had a chance to spend some time off with friends exploring the area...and when in Sydney...the opera house is obviously a must! Right now, Southern Australian winter is turning to spring.
It was a really sunny day, causing the photos to be totally white and too bright and the photos came out a little off, but she'll have many more opportunities to go sightseeing and take more pictures!More on Hawaii later!
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