Monday, April 11, 2011

IMO Class - (Korea) Day 133

Work call this morning was at 0800. I have my IMO (Information Management Officer) class this week. I will actually be learning something about being a 25B instead of serving coffee. I woke up early so I could video chat with my wife, then headed off to class. The class started our a little chaotic. The classroom can hold 20 people and there were some there on standby hoping to get a seat. The instructor told them that the class was indeed full and there would be no room for them. There was one person that the instructor was forced to put on the list, but since he was the last one on the list, he had to go as well. He was pissed off. He stormed out of the room, then shortly after the instructor got a call and we could hear him explaining that there was just no room. The guy should have signed up earlier instead of trying to power his way in. Needless to say, he didn't get let back in and we finally started class. Our instructor gave us a short introduction of who he is and then had everyone around the room introduce themselves. There is a wide variety of skill levels in the room from absolutely no experience to 20 years experience in IT.

Shortly after class started my phone started vibrating non stop. SPC Roy and SPC Kim kept calling and calling. The guy next to me even looked at my pocket a few times wondering why it was vibrating so much. Finally at our first break I called them and asked what was up. They forgot I had class and thought I was oversleeping. They even went to my room and started banging on the door and window…LOL. They remembered where I was shortly before I called.

The class was pretty interesting. It was just some basics the first day. We learned some contact numbers to call and how the army images machines. This information will come in handy because I've been asked multiple times and I had no clue. We went over the different networks here in Korea and some procedures that are done here. We also went over the destruction of old hard drives. Let me tell you that when they get through with them, no information will be able to get recovered. At my old job we would run a big magnet over the drives before we threw them away. The army doesn't play around. We were shown the big machine they put them in, basically a huge magnet that will erase all the data. Then just to make sure it's un-salvageable they put it in another machine which actually destroys the hard drive platters!

We were let out around 1530 and I headed to my room and changed for the gym. I was going to do a two mile run on the treadmill, but they were all full. I ended up riding a bicycle for a half hour, needed to get my cardio in. I then went back to my room and ate dinner and did some schoolwork.

I called SPC Roy to see why he was still at SCJS. He was supposed to move to another office today, but they had him stay another week to help train our new guy SPC Mick. SPC Roy then proceeded to tell me that his aunt who has been in a coma for three weeks is going to be taken off life support. I spoke with him a while. He's going to head down tonight with the rest of his family to say goodbye. I let him know that I've seen a lot of bad things happen and you never know when life is going to throw you some major curve balls. I've personally had some major events that have changed the way I look at life. The first was my little brother dying at a very young age. The second was my divorce. There have been others sure, but these two significantly changed me. I try to live life to it's fullest and not take anything for granted…ever. After talking to him I started worrying about my family and hoping nothing bad happens while I'm stuck over here in Korea so far away from everyone. I hate to even think about things like that, but sometimes you just can't help it.

To get my mind off that I decided to watch a movie. I saw one on my computer called "The Island". That sounds nice I thought, I wouldn't mind watching a movie on an island and seeing some nice scenery. LOL. The movie turned out to be nothing what I expected. It is about a place that basically clones humans and grows them for harvesting body parts. A curious clone ends up finding the truth and is hunted down. It's actually a pretty good movie with a lot of action, just not what I was expecting.

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