Therapeutic Stretching - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 74

A photo I took on Ft. Lewis of Mt. Rainier. 

Always a pretty amazing site on clear days

This morning we formed up for PT in our summer PTs with the jacket. Once accountability was done were were broken up by platoon to do a police call around the WTB complex. Yes…today's PT was picking up other people's trash around the complex. I walked down our platoon's assigned side and back, threw away what little trash I did find, then headed to my car where I ate breakfast and took a short nap while listening to the radio.

I then headed to the SFAC to check my army email. I also brought in my two awards that I have paperwork for so the HR guy could add them to my ERB. Now I show two Army Achievement Medals. I was never in a hurry to get anything put on, because I really didn't care. When I first in-processed the HR guy talked me into getting everything updated. It's just too bad I still have not received my joint award that I was promised when in Korea or my PCS award when I left Germany. I have come to realize that if you don't get the award before you leave, then nobody really cares or follows up with it to make sure it gets done. Oh well.

I then used the SFAC computers to file my damages claim from our household goods move. We had a few glasses that broke, my Bose wireless surround sound speakers, and an external hard drive stopped working. I've never filed a claim before, so I'm not sure how long the process takes or even how much of a pain it is.

I then headed to the gym parking lot to meet up with an NCO from the maintenance side of our ComSec office back in Germany. He asked if I could have his butterfly knife shipped with my household goods. He was afraid to put it in his suitcase and ended up leaving to Ft. Lewis before me. No problem…I gave him his knife and we chatted a bit before he took off. I then headed to the library to do schoolwork until lunch time.

I had lunch in the SFAC and then headed to a Therapeutic Stretching appointment that I was required to attend. There was a group of us and the instructor just went over a bunch of stretches we can do on our own. It was pretty basic stuff and as soon as she was done, I packed up and headed home for the day.

Cleaning the House - (Germany) Day 522

This morning we had PT formation at the bowling alley here on PHV, which was good because I don't have a car…I could just walk there. So I got up, put on my ACUs, walked to the formation, then walked back home and changed into my cleaning clothes. I then took it easy getting ready for the day with my wife. We ate breakfast, drank coffee and watched the NBC Nightly News video podcast each morning. This keeps us up with what's going on back in the states.

We then spent the majority of the day cleaning the house. Scrubbing the appliances and cleaning the bathroom to make everything look even better than when we arrived. We did take a break and watched a documentary called "Super High Me" on Hulu. This was done by a comic (Doug Benson) who jokingly said he should do what Morgan Spurlock did on "Super Size Me" with McDonald's…only instead of McDonald's food he smoked weed. A film producer took him up on his joke and they decided to do the documentary. It started with the comic going 30 days without any weed or alcohol. During this time he was seen by a doctor and given a series of medical tests. The next 30 days consisted of him getting high from the moment he woke up until bedtime each day. The medical tests were done again and surprisingly everything was about the same…except his oral math skills kind of plummeted.

Hulu has been a great entertainment venue while we've been over here in Germany. Now that we only have our laptops for entertainment…we've been watching quite a bit more on Hulu. I then got back to work cleaning our house. I emptied out our small attic space and our basement. A large air conditioner, a fake Christmas tree, and various other items were all brought out to the curb for bulk pickup. I had a guy pick me up from the office and take me to the car detailer around 1500 to pickup my car…it's never been this clean since we first purchased it! They guarantee that it will pass inspection, I guess we'll see tomorrow.

By the time I got back home the A/C unit was gone…which I'm glad. I hate just throwing good stuff away, but nobody I worked with was interested in it. There are a lot of things that people just end up throwing away because they are PCSing and don't want to take it with them.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Germany) Days 520-521

This weekend was a little different, as we had no car. Usually not having a car in Germany is no problem. Their public transportation is awesome, but living on our post (PHV) is like being on an island. There is no public transportation to speak of, in fact the taxis can't even come on post. So without our car, we were pretty stranded here on PHV. We did want to make it downtown at least one more time, so we called a taxi and walked off post to catch one. Taxis are expensive and just the short trip downtown costs about $20…round trip is double that, so you have to think twice anytime you decide to take one.

We walked around downtown, did some last minute shopping and had some ice cream. The nice thing about Europe is that there is an ice cream shop on every corner at least…and it's good stuff. There is something that is just better about the ice cream here and I'm going to miss it. It was actually a little sad walking around knowing that this would probably be our last time in downtown Heidelberg. It's a great city and we have loved living here.

SPC Mac and his wife came by in the evening and picked us up for dinner. We headed to one of our favorite restaurant and breweries in a neighboring town and had our own farewell dinner. One thing about my life in the army so far is that I've met some pretty cool people, but the bummer is that they are always limited in duration...one of us is always moving because of the army. Of course I've kept in touch with everyone through Facebook, but it's not the same as hanging out with them.

Sunday we ended up spending most of the day deep cleaning our house. We have to get it all cleaned up by Thursday morning when the inspection happens.

Finally Friday - (Germany) Day 367

This morning I headed into the office…and guess what I did? The exact same thing I've done this entire week! With the chaplain gone, I've just been hanging out on my own. I don't even know if my office or command even realizes that he's gone…and I'm not going to bring it up. I'll just keep doing what I was told, and that was to assist the chaplain…and the chaplain told me to work here until noon and then take off the rest of the day. So I got in my office and read. I finished book 3 of the Game of Thrones series. I decided to take a little break and start reading a new book I downloaded called "No Easy Day". It's about seal team 6, the team that killed Osama Bin Laden. So far it's a pretty interesting book, documenting what it's like to be not only a seal, but an elite seal which is what team 6 is composed of. The book was actually on the news because of the controversy suggesting it violates OpSec. Funny because that is what they are trying to say my blog has done as well.

I'm also reading the magazine "MacLife". I decided to subscribe to the digital version via Newsstand on my iPad. I used to get the print version a few years ago, but now I figured I'd try out this new version. I've read my text books and other books on my iPad, why not a magazine? I also am trying to do my best to keep up with technology and I figured the magazine subscription wouldn't hurt.

So reading and yes a little bit of cleaning in the office. For today's task I decided to sweep a small 2 square foot area in the corner that the janitor misses when she comes in with the vacuum. It had been accumulating a small amount of trash for some time. That was my work for the day…then my wife came and picked me up a little before noon. Now barring any last minute staff duty shifts or anything, I'm off for another 4-day weekend!

Fall Cleanup - (Germany) Day 314

The results of our fall cleanup for our building. Lots of junk and a bunch

of bags full of leaves.  This pickup spot is located on our neighboring

building's curb...they haven't cleaned up their leaves yet.

This morning for PT I headed to the gym as usual with the profiles. I'm not sure what the normal folks did since we left before they got started, but today is normally a cardio day. Speaking of cardio...I had a pretty good cardio workout on the stationary bike.

Work call this morning was actually in front of my building at 0900 instead of the office. This week is fall cleanup, with each building coordinating with their tenants to work one of the days. My building happened to be today. It's not actually a bad thing, I don't have to leave the house early and I get to wear civilian clothes. I met up with our supreme building commander (not sure what his actual title is, but he is the highest ranking in our building…so he is the guy in charge). All of PHV is slowly starting to shrink in terms of population and our building is no exception to this. At one end of the building there is only one family living in the stairwell, which can hold six families. In my stairwell there are four families and at the other end I believe there 5, for a total of 10 families in a building that can hold 18. Out of the 10 families, only 3 people showed up for the cleanup at first. About half way through a couple more showed up to help.

We started by just taking a walk through the attic areas and the basement areas of our building. The common areas are places which seem to attract junk that people just leave after they PCS. Our supreme building commander asked if any of the stuff laying around was ours, but nobody claimed it. He wants to make sure the stuff is not somebody's that is living here before he tosses it. We did haul out a few items we could tell were just junk (i.e. a broken mirror). Everything was placed next to the curb for pickup by someone else.

We were then given a rake or a large broom to start cleaning up around our building. I took a rake, put in my headphones and started making big piles of leaves while rocking out, not a bad way to spend the day…in fact much better than sitting in the office, sitting in a chair, looking at a wall. Once we finally completed all the sweeping and raking, we were given a bunch of large bags to put all the debris in. Once all the bags were full and taken to the curb with all the other junk, we were finished. 

I headed to my house and ate lunch. I then took a nap on my couch, much better than my car LOL. I then did schoolwork for a while, taking advantage of the extra time I have and waited for my wife to get home from work. One other item of note, I was introduced to a band called Rock Sugar, a very unique band that does a mash up of songs that I grew up on. It's very strange to hear the lyrics of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" sang to Metallica's "Enter Sandman". You can check out their facebook page here. Not a bad day, we got a lot of stuff done and I only had to work half of a day.

Here's the video for Rock Sugar's "Don't Stop The Sandman"

Gloom & Doom - (Germany) Day 310

In the process of cleaning coolers, coffee pots and coffee dispensers

for our lazy ass S-3 office

This morning for PT those not on profile did circuit training, which is basically going from station to station doing a different exercise. I headed to the gym with the other profiles and rode my stationary bike for a cardio workout.

At the office today we had sergeant's time training of course…it's Thursday. SGT Mex gave a class on using SKLs (Simple Key Loaders, the devices we load our encryption keys on). Like most classes we have though, we are limited with resources. SGT Mex had one working SKL that he demonstrated with, but with the screen the size of an iPhone, it's kind of hard for everyone in the room to have an idea of what he's talking about. He did a good job with the resources he was given. We then learned about some legacy equipment that predated the SKL, which I'm surprised we even wasted the time on. There were a couple of NCOs that came into our office and both said the same thing when they saw this ancient equipment, they hadn't seen this stuff in years! 

The next class was going over a message that was sent out by 5th Signal Command concerning 2013 training schedule and expectations. One of our NCOs went over the entire message with everyone in attendance. The NCO would pause after each paragraph or point in the message and let our platoon sergeant chime in and give his two cents on each subject. Most of it pertained to everyone excelling and doing their best. Some of it had to do with the downsizing of the army and this is where our platoon sergeant went into full swing about how horrible it is to be a civilian now. If we leave the security blanket of the army, nobody will hire us, veterans have it the worst in the U.S., we will regret it every minute and wish we could get back in. He then goes on to say how we have to not get into trouble and even exceed every standard to make sure we can stay in and not get kicked out. All this doom and gloom may work on the younger kids, but I've been around. It's all scare tactics to try and either motivate people to do better, or just to keep them from screwing up.

By the time the message was finished, it was time for lunch. I headed to my car as usual for music, my book, and a nap. After lunch it was full on destruction time, just like the start of every other month. I was shredding like crazy, printing out new inventory lists and inventorying our safes.

SPC Mac was told he had a "setup detail" and to report to S-3. He came back a bit later very pissed off and I can't blame him. Our lovely S-3 office, which has a full staff of enlisted soldiers in all ranks, told him to clean their coffee pots. This was the actual mission! Make sure he gets them really clean!! I would be freakin' embarrassed to ask for a person to perform a detail and then have them clean out my coffee pots that I use every day. In addition to the coffee pots they told him to clean out some coolers and some larger coffee dispensers. I could only laugh. Only in the freakin' army can you be pulled from your normal job to go to another office and clean their coffee pots because they're too damned lazy to do it themselves. Of course this is the same office that has the staff duty folks do their janitorial work for them. So SPC Mac brought all the crap back over to our office because we had a large water faucet outside, as well as larger sinks in the bathroom. I felt bad for him, so me and a couple other guys gave him a hand cleaning the stuff. I have to say that I had to restrain myself from taking a piss in the coffee pots.

This whole day was just another day why I have no desire to stay in the army any longer than I have to. All I can say is I'm now one day closer to getting out.

Just A Little Trash - (Germany) Day 182

This morning's PT was pretty much nothing. Since I have been selected to do a PT test tomorrow, I was told to take it extremely light in the gym today. So I headed over and rode a stationary bike at a slow pace for a half hour watching the sports center highlights on TV.

I had my last Monday of AIC detail..a.k.a. Post Cleanup…a.k.a. Garbage Man. I reported at 0900 and the old guy in charge took quite a while before turning us loose. Today we actually had three soldiers show up for the detail. Usually it's two unlike last week where it was just one…me. We also had a high school girl with us who was doing some community service work. By the time the old guy in charge briefed everyone, it was 0920 and I actually had to leave for an appointment at 0930. It's not like I was trying to get out of this detail, I had the appointment scheduled a long time ago. I also decided to start looking out for myself in regards to appointments and such. I was just dealing with the pain and pushing through in the past. I'm not going to do that crap anymore. Anyways…I helped pick up trash in the main park where we started and we finished in 10 minutes. I then took off for my appointment.

I went home and changed into some comfortable gym shorts and a t-shirt, then headed to my physical therapy appointment. I went through my checklist of various core, back, and neck strengthening exercises. I then had had heat on my back and neck while using the IFC for my "shock therapy". After that the doc came and did my spinal manipulation. He then had another guy work on my neck. This staff sergeant has had some massage training and I have to say it felt awesome! I left the place in no pain and feeling nice and relaxed.

By the time I got back to PHV it was a little past time for my lunch break. I ate lunch in my house and decided to watch a movie since nothing was on the AFN channels. It seems nothing is ever on the AFN channels. I watched Napoleon Dynamite…of course I've seen it before, but I just wanted to watch a silly movie and veg out for a bit.

When I have done AIC detail in the past, I'm usually done by lunch time…even when I'm by myself, but I had to go out and make a drive around PHV to make sure they were still not working. I did so and saw no sign of anyone still working the AIC detail…so I headed back home and hung out for a while. I added some more of the posts I had converted over from WordPress.

I read a little and then headed off to the clothing store. I had to purchase some of the specialist rank for my Class A shirt. I heard we may be having a class a inspection coming up. I then picked up my wife and we headed to a store on the economy. This particular store has a parking garage and like every German parking garage, all the stalls are tiny. It's a good thing we drive a small car, the normal American SUVs and such would have a tough time finding a spot.

At home we hung out, ate dinner and watched some TV shows. We watched a new show on HBO called "The Newsroom" which has some potential. Now that all the normal season shows have ended we are looking for alternative shows to watch.

Cleaning Up After Pigs - (Germany) Day 176

Saw this guy on his 4-wheeler out driving in Heidelberg 

the other day....something you just don't see in the states.

This morning's PT was a mock PT test. Since I am on profile I just stood there and watched everyone until it was time to run…but for me and the other folks on profile, we walked. A walker must walk 2.5 miles instead of the 2 mile run. You don't score points for the walk, instead it is a "go" or a "no go" depending on your time. I was told we had 35 minutes or so to finish and I ended up coming in before then…so no worries. The only issue was that because of some poor planning and deciding to do a mock PT test at the normal PT time, everyone left at around 0800 which is about a half hour later than normal. We were told we could come in at 1000 instead of 0900. My problem when crap like this happens is that we only have one car and my wife needs to get to work. I quickly drove home and let my wife take off for work after making sure I could ride into work with SPC Whirlwind.

Thanks to the delayed work time, I had plenty of time to get ready…luckily I didn't waste it. I got a call shortly after showering and eating stating that I had AIC detail again. This is where I go around and be the garbage man (excuse me...sanitation engineer) on PHV. The nice thing is that I don't need a car, but the bad thing is that I had some paperwork I wanted to get done in the office today. I just found out for sure that my daughter will be coming to live with me for the next year. While I'm extremely happy, I know there will be many hassles with all the command sponsorship paperwork and I wanted to get that started right away. "Command Sponsorship" is needed for any family member to get all the benefits and be able to stay here for longer than 90 days. We'll see how all that goes…I know we'll be pushing it trying to get everything done in time before school starts.

I headed over to the AIC office and found out that I'm the only one that showed up for this detail…meaning that I get to clean the entire post by myself. Yay me! I started by walking around with one of those "long pinchers on a stick" and a trash bag looking for trash on the ground. I only had to hit the BBQ areas, the movie theatre and the playground areas. I also had to drive the TMP around looking for any trash cans that were full. I couldn't believe how much people just litter and don't give a crap. I can't imagine these people's yards and houses if they didn't live on post and have forced labor cleaning up after them. They are all freakin' pigs! I worked my butt off picking up trash all over post. I felt like I was in a chain gang out on road patrol picking up trash…only by myself. I know people think I probably got into some sort of trouble because I'm doing a crappy job, but no…this is just a normal day in the army. The good thing about this detail is that I finished by noon. I was soaked with sweat and had a fierce headache, but I was done. I headed home and showered…again, then took some "Goody's" to try and relieve the pain. It seems I'm always in pain…it sucks! I think the physical therapy might have done a little more than planned yesterday.

At home relaxing…I watched "Pearl Jam: Twenty" a rockumentary about the last 20 years of Pearl Jam. I grew up only a ferry ride away from Seattle. Even though I didn't play any instruments, music was my life growing up…and I guess you could say it still is a big part of my life (my iTunes has over 25,000 songs in it). The Seattle music scene was blowing up while I was in high school and for a while after. I loved all the grunge rock and the bands that were coming out of Seattle. I never got the chance to see Nirvana, but I have been able to see Alice 'n Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam in concert. The show brought back a lot of memories from those days with a number of scenes from Seattle and talk about the beginnings of Pearl Jam which started off as Mother Love Bone…a band that was destined to be great if the lead singer Andy Wood wouldn't have died. The show also covered "Temple of the Dog". This was a little of Soundgarden with Pearl Jam that created a great tribute CD to their late friend Andy. All in all the show was pretty cool showing the history of the band until now. How they hit super stardom and then went on somewhat of an independent road of their own. For any fan, this is a great show…and for any Seattle music fan in general, this is a must see.

While at home relaxing I also decided to change where I post my blogs. I changed to using Google's Picasa web albums. I also use Google to host my original website, so after checking out their blog platform I decided to give it a try so everything will be with one provider. I'm going to leave everything else where it is for now.

Anyway..the rest of the day was uneventful, I watched some TV shows with my wife and then spoke to my daughter on the phone for a bit…all in all a pretty relaxing day.

side note: Now that flickr has increased their storage, I've moved all photos there. While Picasa works nicely with Blogger, I found flickr to be an easy fit with a ton of storage. You can check out my flickr page here and see all the photos and albums in their entirety.

side note II: Now that flickr has imposed limits on the number of photos allowed, I am moving most of the photos to Google Photos. So you may not see much when clicking on the my flickr page link above.

Typical Army - (Germany) Day 148

This morning's PT ended up being no PT for me. We formed up and after accountability I was pulled out of formation and told to go home, change and be back to help out a sergeant in 1st platoon at 0745. WTF? This was a little annoying (which would end up being the theme of the day), I could do this just fine…but my wife and I only have one car and she has a job as well. If they give me some advanced notice I can make plans ahead of time and avoid stupid stress like this. So I left and headed home, then proceeded to tell my wife she has to get ready as soon as possible and then take me back to work to drop me off before she heads in.

My wife was very cool about it and we both were able to get ready and I was able to make it back to the 1st platoon barracks by 0745. My job involved being a chauffeur for the 1st platoon sergeant. I'm rolling my eyes just thinking about it as I'm typing this. So I drive their TMP and drop off a couple of his soldiers, then we head to Patton Barracks where we dropped off 2 microwaves and a shredder. We then headed back to Campbell Barracks where I work, and that was the extent of the help needed. We were done by 0830, so I headed over to the shoppette and picked up some coffee and a snack. I decided to head back into work and surf the internet because there was nothing else to do…at least until work actually started at 0900.

Once work started I did pretty much the same thing…surfed the internet along with checking email and answering a phone call here and there. Then more stupidity hit…we were all told at 1120 that we were having company pictures taken at 1300, so we had to go get our dress uniforms and get back to the 1st platoon barracks by then. There was no mention of this earlier in the week…or even earlier in the day. Way to plan ahead guys! I didn't have a car and a few others didn't have cars as well, so we ended up having to take a TMP. I did have my specialist patch sewn on my uniform, but I did not have the specialist pins yet for my shirt underneath…oh well.

We ended up getting back about 1245 and headed to the barracks…we all headed upstairs to the top floor in the day room and waited…and waited…and waited. At about 1315 we were told that it was going to be in the basement, so we all headed down there and waited some more while the camera guy got setup. I don't think we took pictures until 1400. We had the opportunity to order some prints, but I politely declined. I mean if we are going to get pictures taken that we can order…give us a heads up. I would have had my uniform squared away, I would have had a hair cut, and I would have brought a razor to have a nice clean shave right before the photo. (I have aggressive facial hair and usually have a 5 O'Clock shadow within a few hours of shaving) So I sat down let him take my photo, then left.

I headed back to the office and we did the usual office work, but for some reason our NCOIC didn't think we were busy enough…so she told us to go through each customer's folder to make sure there were no errors. This would be fine and dandy, but we do this almost every day. SPC JayZ wanted to take on all the folders and make a spreadsheet of what needs to be done…fine. Then all of a sudden me and the new SPC in the office are told to go to first platoon and raid their supply closet. "Take two boxes and get anything you think we can use" (1st platoon is actually in the process of moving…and all their supplies will be turned back in). This really just seemed like busy work…something to have us do for the sake of doing it. We went…we raided…we came back.

A little while later we were all told to clean the office like crazy…we vacuumed, wiped everything down, swept, mopped…you name it. Again it seemed like we were just being told to do something just for the sake of making us do something. No problem…it passed the time.

We then get released, but I am not really released…I have staff duty tonight. So I head over to the staff duty desk and start my night there. That is when I find out that when you work staff duty on the week nights, not only are you working all freakin' night, but you are the janitorial staff for the S-3 office and the command group. WTF? I'm thinking to myself (after just cleaning our office - and we pretty much clean our office every night before leaving) these guys are lazy bastards. They don't take out their trash or anything, they just leave it all for the staff duty people to take care of. I really couldn't believe it. The sergeant I had duty with told me I could go home for dinner at 1800 and be back at 2100. That was pretty cool, so I called my wife and she picked me up…we ate dinner together at home and watched a couple of shows together.

I came back to the staff duty office and I really couldn't believe my eyes. The sergeant I was with started to mop the hallway. (we have to mop and wax the hallway tonight). She had put way too much soap in the bucket and proceeded to mop the entire hallway…without stopping. The hallway looked like someone was taking a bubble bath. When I came in, she said "I think I put a little too much soap in". I was thinking OMG…what a moron. Not only did she put too much soap in, but she just kept going…didn't stop until the entire hallway was full of freakin' bubbles! She then said she had to go pick up her son and left me the mop to fix it. We have to have all the bubbles gone…the floor clean and dry before we can start waxing.

I had to rinse out that mop what seemed like a million times before most of the soap was out. I then had to re-mop the hall way many times trying to get all the bubbles gone…cleaning the mop each time. What a pain in the butt. I'm working with a full on retard. I finished it and then took a break to let the hallway dry.

I watched a movie "Ready to Rumble" about some crazy professional wrestling fans who help their favorite wrestler come back from the dumps. It was a little cheesy, had a couple funny parts, and it passed the time. I also read some and surfed the internet. Once the sergeant I was working with came back she wanted to wax the floor, so I moved the mop bucket along with her and helped squeeze it when needed. I don't think it was done as it should be, but I didn't really care at that point. Once finished I spent the rest of the night switching between surfing the net, chatting on Facebook, and reading my book. Even though I was very tired and felt like a zombie, I couldn't sleep at all in my chair. It was hot, I smelled like crap, I was sticky, and I could only sleep for a minute at a time.

In the morning about 0800 the sergeant major came in and asked if we could vacuum, which I did with a very crappy vacuum cleaner I might add. I also took out the garbage and then finally called it a day at about 0840 when the sergeant I was working with let me go. I waited outside for my wife to come and pick me up. Once home I took a shower and passed out. What a long night!

TMP License - (Germany) Day 78

This morning's PT was in the gym and was muscle failure day. It consisted of a number of push-ups and sit-ups. Unfortunately my stomach muscles failed a lot earlier than I would have liked them too. I'm going to have to work on that part of my body soon.

Work this morning started out at the driving center. I had to get my TMP license this morning and met up with SGT Black at the office. When I arrived she was already there and I sat down, showed my current license for Germany, then signed a few things. After that the guy handed me my TMP license. I guess we got hooked up, because there is supposed to be a small class that is supposed to be taken before getting your license. Much easier than when I was in Korea and had to take a 2 week long class before getting my TMP license.

I then headed back to the office at which point I was sent to the armory to clean my weapon. Everyone that went to the field had to eventually get over to the armory to clean their rifle. I worked on mine until lunch time. It was accepted on my third try turning it in. I cleaned it and of course each time I turned it in, the sergeant would tell me something was still dirty. Part of the problem is the tools we are given to clean the rifles with, the other part is that this guy will see a speck of dust and then hand it back to me.

I ate lunch in the office and then ended up sorting about 800 encryption cards by their serial number for the rest of the day. These were sorted at one point, but in our NCOIC's frantic search to find a missing card she scattered them everywhere. It passed the time anyway…I finished that and then had to inventory and close the safes before leaving.

I headed over to the shopping center on post to purchase a new hard drive for my computer, then headed home to eat and finish the rest of "Game of Thrones" with my wife.

Better Prepared - (Germany) Day 25

Kind of hard to tell, but that is a the view of the fire truck from our window. 

The fire department had to come and shut off the alarm for our stairwell.

Last night just after falling asleep…well it was more like the point where I was in-between being awake and asleep…I hear this strange noise like an alarm and my first thought was that my cell phone had a strange ring or something. I then came to and realized there was a fire alarm going off in the stairwell of our unit. Our units have a stairway leading up with a total of 6 apartments (3 on each side). We are on the third floor, I looked out the window and saw a couple of people outside already. My wife and I threw on some sweats and headed out as well. Our neighbors said this unfortunately is a common occurrence, the fire alarm seems to go off without reason at various times. Great! We waited for the fire department to come and turn it off before heading back up. So much for a good night's sleep.

This morning's PT ended up being a spinning class. My boss picked me up and we drove to Campbell Barracks…this after a quick turn around to get my ID card I forgot. Once there since it was raining we ended up going inside the gym, and after a few minutes of everyone in the racquetball getting ready to do some sort of group exercise the platoon sergeant just told everyone to join the spinning class. It was my first time in such a class, and if my legs weren't still so sore from PT the last two days I would have been able to get a lot more out of it. We finished up and SPC Matrix gave me a ride home, then picked me up for work call which was at 0900.

I prepared myself a little better for today. Soon after arriving to work I had to fill out a sheet detailing what I will be doing this weekend. This is a requirement which I have heard about from the guys in the office. They all hate it with a passion. It seems pretty stupid to have to explain everything you'll be doing, we're all adults. I guess there has been trouble in the past with people getting drunk or getting in fights, now if they have this paper and you get in trouble somewhere, I guess you can get in more trouble if it's not on your paper. Pretty stupid, but such is life in the army. After filling that out I headed over to the shoppette and purchased a Stars and Stripes newspaper as well as a Mac Life magazine. Some reading material to keep me occupied instead of just sitting and staring at the wall. I wish I could take my iPad in to read, but there are no electronic devices allowed in our office unfortunately. I spent the morning reading every single article in the newspaper making sure to take my time even scanning the classifieds for the heck of it to pass the time.

Lunch was the usual…Subway in the food court. I then headed back to the office and started on my magazine. Surprisingly we were told we could leave early. We had to clean up before leaving (sweep, mop, wipe down the desks and take out the trash), but that was done pretty quick and we headed out and my boss gave me a ride home.

It was nice spending some time with my wife. We didn't do much even though it was a Friday night. Watched some TV shows, I read some of my book and then we headed to bed. We are planning to get up early tomorrow and ride with my boss and his family to Ramstein Air Force Base to check out their PX.

In The Dragon - (Korea) Day 359

Woke up today at 0640 to give myself time to get ready and to gather everything together that I needed to ship. My roommate was supposed to have PT and be up, but because of the rain it was cancelled, so I worked via my desktop lamp. I was able to take everything I wanted to ship and place it on my bed. Once that was done I started to clean up a little until the movers arrived at 0800. When they arrived I turned on the lights and they came in, waking up my roommate LOL. Once I told them what to pack the three of them brought in a box and within minutes had everything packed and had me signing some documents, then they were gone. I was surprised how efficient they were.

Now with my stuff packed and gone I started cleaning my room in earnest. I also started to pack my luggage and realized rather quickly that I should have shipped more stuff! I didn't realize how much stuff I had until I started laying it all out to pack. I also put aside quite a bit of stuff to give to PV2 Charlie in order to lighten my load and of course help him out. Once I had my luggage packed I continued to thoroughly clean my room.

I headed to the office and donated my remaining coffee and splenda as well as my DVD-Rs to the staff. I grabbed the office car and returned to my room, then loaded the car with all my luggage. I then continued to clean before my final room inspection at 1400. I ate a quick lunch and then of course kept cleaning. The inspector came and checked every little thing which I was prepared for, but it kind of surprised me because I know he didn't check anything when my old roommate cleared (he didn't even clean any of the common areas such as the bathroom, refrigerator, or microwave). No worries though because I passed and he signed off my room after collecting my key.

I headed to the housing office and was able to out-process from them which was my last item on the installation checklist. I then drove to The Dragon Hill Lodge and checked in and took all my luggage up to my room. I still need to slim down a bit because I couldn't fit everything in my current luggage. Next stop was battalion S1 where I out-processed. I returned the car to the office and picked up some wine my ROK co-workers gave each of us for Thanksgiving. I walked to The Dragon Hill Lodge and relaxed in my room until SPC Roy was off of work. He picked me up and we headed to the airport to pick up my wife.

Seeing my wife after all this time was just awesome. I'm so excited to have her here for a little vacation and to spend Thanksgiving with me. She was hungry so SPC Roy picked a little hole in the wall Korean restaurant near post to eat and we all had some great food for a late dinner. Kind of nice for my wife to experience Korean food right away.

We then headed back to the room and did things grown ups do. So great to have my wife back!!!!

rickclark3

Congrats again on making it through this year.  Have a happy thanksgiving!  I look forward to more reading after your leave.

Saturday, November 26, 2011 - 12:55 AM

Last Day In The Office - (Korea) Day 352

This morning we had to check in with the company at some point and were told to wait for a call at some point between 0430 and 0730. Once we got the call we had to head to the company and bring our NBC gear, our dog tags, and ID card. I had to change my sleeping habits a little last night because of this. Normally I sleep with my earphones in playing "white noise" from my iPhone. This works great to cancel out all the outside noises, but it also would keep me from hearing my work phone when it rang. So I had to sleep without the headphones…which made sleep not as good as it normally is, especially with my new loud roommate.

I got up and showered, grabbed my pop tarts for breakfast and headed to the company. When I arrived there were about 10-15 people standing outside waiting in line I joined the back of the line and waited. Not too much longer after that I hear in a Mexican accent "Son of Bitch….Shit!" (a sound bite from the old movie "Stripes") over and over again. I quickly grabbed my iPhone and turned off my alarm that I set just in case I didn't get a call this morning…LOL. Once in the company the process went pretty quick, they checked the dog tags and ID, because I already turned in my NBC gear yesterday they just marked me off the list, and finally they had to check my medical status to see if I was overdue on any shots…which I wasn't. I then headed to the office and dropped off my paperwork as well as my pop tarts while I grabbed my mocha from Starbucks. I then ate breakfast in our conference control room while watching a little college basketball. Little did I know this would be my only break until almost 1400. At 0800 we started setting up for meetings in various conference rooms. We would be setting up one meeting and then quickly going to another conference room to setup another. It seemed this was never ending with us either setting up or cleaning up from meetings that finished.

Early on there was a point where I left for a bit and took the office car to 1RC to get my PPD shot checked, it turns out I do not have tuberculosis which is a good thing. 1RC has a medical station, but it also has the installation out-processing office as well, so I was able to pick up my papers from there which was the last of my "to do" list before actually starting the clearing process tomorrow. Once back at work it was non stop action until we finally were able to take a break and leave for lunch at almost 1400. I was absolutely starving! Normally I would eat a small snack from my desk at work, but I actually never had any time to stop and do so. I headed to the food court and picked up a foot long subway sandwich, then headed to my room to video chat with my wife. I swear that a subway sandwich has never tasted so good.

Once back at work we cleaned up from a few meetings that finally ended and then setup for another ceremony in our conference room. We then had to do some deep cleaning in our office because the chief of staff (a two star general) will be coming to visit our colonel. So there was lots of vacuuming, dusting, and windex being sprayed all over. After we finished I also did a little IMO work and helped our new LTC move his files from one computer to another and then get everything setup and configured for him. I then tried to make sure PV2 Charlie was up to date on all the open issues and ticket submitting procedures because this will be my last day in the office. Kind of hard to believe after all this time!

We then had a meeting with our NCOIC before leaving to go over everything. Turns out we will not be having a room inspection tomorrow which is good. I also found out that I will not be able to take my PT test on Friday because my CIF equipment turn in is too early. It's kind of ironic because I am probably in the best shape I've been in since I've been in the army. I've been going to the gym almost everyday and having some great workouts. I feel as though I would definitely blow away my old score…I guess we'll have to wait until my next unit and see if I can stay in shape while eating all the good home cooked meals and exercising a lot less.

We left the office around 1745 and I headed straight to my room. I then went through all my CIF equipment and tried to do my best to sort out what I need to turn back in on Friday. We have a sheet that states what we keep and what we turn in, but somethings are more difficult than others to try and figure out what they are. I was able to get a PDF that had most of the items with a picture and description of them, so I think I'm in pretty good shape.

I then sat back ate a small dinner and watched a couple TV shows to wind the night down. Tomorrow is going to be the beginning of the end of my time here in Korea.

Weekend Wrap-Up (4-Day) - (Korea) Days 313 - 316

On the way up to Seoul Tower...me with a view of the city behind

Saturday: Woke up around 1000 and did my normal Saturday routine of laundry and video chatting with my wife. This weekend is a four day weekend, so I'm looking forward to relaxing and sleeping in each day. I ate lunch in my room and then met up with PV2 Charlie and PFC Pickle to hike up to Seoul Tower. PV2 Charlie hasn't left the post yet and wanted to visit the tower, so I figured I would count that as my cardio for the day.

Once we got back we split up and I met up with the young hawaiian to watch some fireworks. I'm not sure what the occasion was (either fall harvest season or the birth of the Korean nation), but there was supposed to be a big fireworks show along the river. The young hawaiian knew the park to go to and we boarded the subway and headed there. Once we made a transfer to another subway line the crowd started to gather. It was bigger than the crowd at the Linkin Park concert that boarded the subway earlier this year…and I thought that was a lot of people! There were a number of police everywhere for crowd control. It started to sink in that this was a big deal. The subway train arrived and people started to board, but they all couldn't fit and the doors would not shut, this is when the police got involved and forced the ones keeping the doors open to exit the train.

The next train came and the young hawaiian and I made it on…just barely. The subway train was so full! I've been in full subways here before, but this was unlike anything I've experienced yet. I couldn't move my arms…it was similar to being in a rock concert in the general admission section close to the stage. Just so many people squished into one place. It was pretty crazy!

A few stops later everyone departed the subway and we just followed the crowd. The streets were full of people. When I say full of people, I mean there were more people than I've ever seen in one place before…ever. In every direction I looked there were just crowds and crowds of people walking down the streets. When we made our way to the riverside park, the scene was more of the same…people everywhere you looked. We stood and watched the fireworks, which was a pretty impressive show for a little over an hour and then decided to head back. We weren't sure how long the show was going to last, but after a while it was all pretty similar stuff. We headed back and the crowd was still large, but not nearly as bad as when we came…..what an experience.

PFC Pickle, Me, and PV2 Charlie at Seoul Tower

A view down one of the streets full of people during the fireworks show

Some of the fireworks at the park on Hahn River

Sunday: The morning consisted of watching UFC 136 in the young hawaiian's room. His roommate is TDY until at least January, so he rearranged all his furniture. He now has quite the setup and it's all his room for a long time. He moved all the furniture to the outside walls and joined the two beds to make one big bed. He has a big screen TV in the middle which made a great setup for the show…which was great as always.

We then headed to Walker Hill's Paradise Casino and did the poker tournament. I have come to the conclusion that I'm not a very good poker player. I'm glad it's a free tournament. Granted I didn't get any good hands, but I lost pretty quick…it took the young hawaiian a bit longer, but he eventually lost as well. He came in about 18th place, while I was more like 50th or so. Unfortunately you have to be in the top 5 in order to win the 100,000 Won.

We headed back and got to our rooms about 1830. I watched TV shows (CSI, Falling Skies, & Survivor). Falling Skies is a new show (for me). I saw that it had Noah Wyle in it, whom I always liked in the show ER. The executive producer is also Seven Spielberg...plus it's about aliens invading earth, so I had to check it out. We'll see how it progresses.

Monday: I slept in until 1000 and video chatted with my wife for a while. The day was a pretty chill day consisting of watching TV shows, going to lunch with SPC Roy and then watching some more TV shows. I then then went to dinner with PFC Pickle and followed that up with even more TV shows. Not a lot to report on except it was a nice relaxing day.

Tuesday: I slept in until about 1000 again and video chatted with my wife for a while. I then cleaned up my room a bit, I'll save the more extensive cleaning until next weekend. I met up with the young hawaiian and we took the subway to Myeongdong. This is a shopping district that is pretty cool. There is a lot going on everywhere you look and they have a number of shops to check out. The young hawaiian wanted to do a little shopping, then we stopped and had lunch.

SPC Roy ended up calling and wondered what I was up to. He actually lives close by Myeongdong, so he ended up meeting up with us after a bit. We did a little more shopping and then had dinner together. We ate at one of SPC Roy's favorite spots and had makkoli (rice wine) with dinner. I enjoy drinking makkoli so much more than soju.

We then headed to a bar and had a couple beers. We discussed the current events with the US military and the couple of rapes that have happened. SPC Roy said the Korean news has been reporting about it a lot. What the news states though is that these guys were investigated and then the military just came in and took them away. SPC Roy said his family (all Korean) have been asking him what is going on. To the Korean's it looks like we're just taking these guys and protecting them from the Korean justice system. The news doesn't report on the trouble they are getting in with the military and the jail time they will be serving. Instead it just looks like they are being protected by the military. So of course there are a lot of Koreans that aren't too happy with the US military in Korea at the moment.

We called it a night early since it's a work night and headed back to post. The end of a nice 4-day weekend!!

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 250 & 251

A picture I took a while back while out in Itaewon. Some toilets are normal...

and some are these. Just squat and take care of business!

Saturday: I'm glad I had this weekend to try and catch up on some rest. I didn't make any plans to do anything except just hang low and relax for the most part. I did laundry and video chatted with my wife in the morning. I then headed to the gym and worked out for about an hour.

In the late afternoon I went to the commissary to pick up some groceries. As I came out I saw the bus pulling up and grabbed my bags and jumped on the bus. As it left the commissary it headed straight out of the gate from the post. Oh Crap!! I grabbed my bags of groceries and jumped up and told the driver I needed off. It turns out this bus was headed towards K-16 (a small post located further south). I thought only the post run shuttle bus came through the commissary. I'll have to pay a little more attention on which bus I get on from now on. I walked to the nearest bus stop for the post shuttle and waited with all my groceries until the next bus came by to pick me up.

After I got back to my room I stayed inside for the rest of the day, it's so hot out I had no plans to go back out there. I think everyone else has the same idea because the post seems a little like a ghost town.

Sunday: I remembered late this morning that there was a UFC fight on. I tried to contact PFC Pickle, but he is hard to get a hold of since he broke his phone in a fit of rage by throwing it across his room. The only way to contact him is via Skype or Facebook chat. Since I couldn't contact him my only choice was to watch the UFC in my office, so I headed down to my office and went in our conference control room to watch the event. I can't complain, we have a comfy chair and there were no interruptions. All the fights were decent, I just didn't have anyone to enjoy it with.

I spent the afternoon video chatting with my wife and then cleaning up my room for a while. With me gone two weeks my roommate has let it go down hill. He does no cleaning at all. Because of this I only clean my side and of course the bathroom, I stay away from his side and don't touch any of his stuff when I'm sweeping or mopping. The bathroom was pretty gross…even to my standards. I'm not sure how he was able to get it so dirty.

I headed to the gym and worked out before heading to the PX to pick up a couple of supplies I missed from yesterday at the commissary. The rest of the day was spent in my air conditioned room doing SkillPorts and watching TV shows. I also did some reading on my new iPad which my wife got for my birthday while I was on leave. Reading a book on it is awesome, no need to worry about bookmarks…you just pick up where you left off. Plus it has a number of apps that I've downloaded. My favorite so far is one called Flipboard. It takes your Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn as well as several news feeds and puts them into one app. It also displays your Facebook more like a newspaper instead of the traditional feed, which makes it a lot funner to read. When not in use I set it up as a digital photo frame which I have to say is very awesome. I loaded it with a bunch of photos before I left and now enjoy hundreds of photos all day long.

SkillPort Mania - (Korea) Day 168

Kind of hard to tell with this picture, but our KATUSA was found asleep in our

conference room on the floor in front of the sound booth. We were wondering where the heck he was.

Work call this morning was at the normal time…0830. There were no meetings scheduled in the morning so all I did was SkillPorts. The difference this week and from now on though is that our sergeant now is requiring us to complete 10 SkillPorts a week. This is doable, but it means that we will not actually be able to go through the lessons and learn the material. All I did all morning until lunch time was go to the answers at the end of each course and skip the content. I answer the questions and if I miss any, I copy down the correct answer and then take the test again. I would say it's not what the army had in mind when they put this out for promotion points, but we have to do what we have to do. I finished 8 by lunch time.

For lunch I headed to my room and ate while video chatting with my wife and my kids. My son loves that he has an iPod and can use Skype to call me…I love it too :). When I headed back to work I was able to finish the last two SkillPorts needed for the week. Now that I have those behind me I can concentrate on other things. I did some office work and checked up on some of the help desk tickets I submitted last Friday.

We headed down to the secret conference room to help setup for a retirement ceremony for a colonel. We only had to put in name tags, but our Major in the office wanted all three of us to stay around in case anything else was needed. We were his security blanket. We hung out doing next to nothing for about an hour. We helped bring the food down which by this time of the day was smelling very good. It was almost 1630 and the ceremony was about to start. I headed to my usual position…holding the door open down the hall for the general when he comes (a.k.a. a doorstop).

To my surprise there was an honor guard there already performing the task. There were a number of honor guard in their dress uniforms for the ceremony. I just stood around and spoke with him for a while. He has been here in Korea for 7 months and can't wait to leave. In fact he just found out he'll be going to Fort Carson. Wow…maybe I'll find out where I'll be going in two months or so. I'm curious, just not as curious as I was in AIT. I have places I would love to go, but most important I just want to be with my family.

After the generals walked through I headed back up to the office with my co-workers and we cleaned up. We had to wait around until the ceremony was over at 1730 so we could go clean up. When we went down we were asked to have something to eat from the left overs. It was some pretty good stuff…meatballs, yaki mandu, and gimbap as well as some other stuff. We indulged until everyone left and then cleaned up. We helped carry all the awards and plaques to the colonel's car and then finally left.

I got to my room a little after 1830 and watched some TV shows, did some schoolwork, and then went to sleep.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 145 & 146

When cleaning my room I stay away from my roommate's side.
No mopping, sweeping...or anything.

Saturday: I figured I would take it easy and just stay in this weekend and rest. I slept in this morning and after waking up, I did my laundry and video chatted with my wife and kids. I look forward to the weekends because I get to see my family for extended periods. During the week I usually wake up early before work and I get to chat a little with my wife, but that is about it. The rest of the communication is done via emails and through Facebook.

SPC Roy called and said he found out that a contractor that just arrived here at Yongsan was found dead in his hotel room this week. When he didn't show up for work and didn't answer his phone they had the hotel staff check his room and that's when they found him. They are investigating the cause of death, so we don't know if it was suicide, murder, or natural causes. Pretty crazy stuff!

I headed out and got a haircut, since we are having our Monday inspections. The nice thing about haircuts here in Korea is that getting a quick massage is considered a given. I could get used to that. A quick haircut with a nice little shoulder and arm massage. Not too bad.

I then met up with PFC Pickle and we walked off post to a convenience store to pick up some Korean snacks. Once we were fully supplied we headed back to the food court and ate lunch. With our bellies full we headed to my room and took an afternoon nap. Gotta love the weekends! We then headed off to the movie theatre for perhaps the last of the free movies here on post. We watched "Season of the Witch" with Nicolas Cage. That is the perfect movie that I like seeing at this theatre. It is not a movie I would want to pay to see, but it was decent enough to go watch and enjoy. It really sucks that they are going to start charging at the start of next month. It will take a really awesome movie for me to go and pay to see it.

Once we finished we parted ways and I headed back to my room for some schoolwork and then sleep.

Sunday: Of course I slept in once again. After waking up I video chatted with my wife and kids again along with my extended family who were all together coloring eggs for Easter. As great as it is to see everyone, it is also very sad. I realize now more than ever how important it is to be together with family. I had grand visions of all the exciting places I may see, the experience I would get, the education I would receive all by joining the army. I think it's really a great place for a young person to start out in, but for an old man like me with a family at home it can really suck. I had visions of landing a great job after I get out, but now I don't really care what I do. I just want to be together with my family.

Yes…I'm homesick and I've still got 220 days left here in Korea. Looking back on my blog, day 146 at AIT was graduation and I was with my wife. Day 146 here is just another day with many more to come.

After video chatting I cleaned my room and then used the lessons learned Friday and cleaned my boots LOL. I headed off to the food court with my laptop and met up with PFC Pickle there. We had dinner and chatted for a while. I downloaded some entertainment while we were there. After PFC Pickle left, Shamadillo ended sitting in the booth behind me. We exchanged hellos. I wonder how he is doing here and what his unit thinks of him. He's actually doing a 25B job…well everyone I went to AIT with that came here is doing a 25B job...except for me.

I left the food court after a few hours and an ample supply of entertainment. I then went back to my room and kicked back. I watched a few TV shows, then called it a night. Back to the grind tomorrow and a uniform inspection. I might even have a PT test this week. My sergeant did say April…and there is only one week left in this month.

mom

you make me sad when I read how homesick you are. Hang in there it will all be over soon and you will be home with us, we miss you so much also and cant wait to have you back home

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 - 04:20 AM

Boot Cleaning 101 - (Korea) Day 144

Cleaning day in the conference room...complete with the white glove treatment.
SPC Mick on the left & Special K on the right.

Work call this morning was at 0830. The day's schedule was pretty slow with only one meeting that we had to setup for. That meeting ended up getting cancelled so I thought we may be let out early since it was Friday and all. Our sergeant mentioned that we would be watching a movie in the conference room at lunch and did indeed say we would probably be leaving at 1500 or 1600.
I started the day updating the events calendar and then working on a SkillPort. I also printed out my 5 certificates for this week. Sometimes getting 5 done can be tough in a week, so I end up doing a lot of easier ones. These are shorter ones and I usually just take the tests until I pass in order to complete the session and get the certificate. When I have the time like today I actually go in and do the longer and harder courses. I actually go through the course and take the test at the end the way they should be done.

Since we had the extra time today our sergeant wanted us to clean up our conference room…a deep cleaning. We put on some gloves so our finger prints would not get on the glass that covers the conference room tables. We picked up the glass and cleaned the underside of the glass and the wood table it lays on. It's amazing how much crud gets under the glass!

I then left with Special K to the small shoppette next to our office "The Sweat & Treat" to pick up some lunch. I grabbed a couple slices of pizza and we headed back to our conference control room and watched some NBA while eating lunch. After lunch I did a little 25B work. I hooked up a docking station for CPT Hooah! and also fixed the email issue our supply sergeant was having. Today her demeanor was totally normal, I'm just glad I don't have to work with her on a daily basis.

Our sergeant then told us all that we had to print out the latest Army Board Study Guide. This is the manual that soldiers study to try and pass the board. It contains all kinds of information about everything you ever wanted to know about army weapons, policies, procedures and anything else you can think of. I think it was over 300 pages and we printed three copies…we were killing trees today! This is all part of the changes that CPT Hooah! is going to bring to our office. I guess each week we have a subject we need to study because we'll be asked questions. As I was punching holes in the pages and putting together my binder for the study guide our IMO came and started talking to me. She is an air force sergeant and when she asked me if I was going to be busy for a while I had to tell her yes. We were all required to meet up with our sergeant and learn how to clean boots. She thought I was joking, but unfortunately I wasn't. She started laughing and couldn't stop. She then said all of us army people are crazy. CPT Hooah! is now going to make us all have a uniform inspection every Monday, so the boot cleaning is something that we'll need to do each weekend to make sure our boots and nice and clean. I'm thinking I may wear my new boots they issued me here just on Mondays and then wear my good Converse boots the rest of the week…we'll see. I guess I'll get my hair cut as well this weekend so that will not be an issue during the inspection.

SPC Mick had to bring in a pair of his dirty boots so our sergeant could then show us how to do a proper cleaning. We all watched and when we were finished we had to vacuum and shampoo the rug in then conference room. We did some cleaning up in the control room as well. When we finished we cleaned up the office and then left. It was early…it was about 1655…LOL

When I got to my room I took a nap. I then got up ate dinner and watched a TV show. I have a microwave in my room and live off microwave food unless I go out to eat. I wonder how healthy that is? I try and purchase things that aren't too bad, but I'm really starting to look forward to being back at home with my wife and eating normal home cooked meals.

I then did my schoolwork and decided to watch a movie. I copied this movie called "Blood Out" from my sergeant earlier this week. I was thinking it was a movie called "Blood In Blood Out" which I heard my sergeant and another sergeant talking about. I guess it's a classic gang movie based on a true story. This movie however was not that movie. It was more of a B movie that was about gangs. It had some good fight scenes which I always like. It even had Val Kilmer in it as a boss of one of the gangs. Wow…he sure looks a lot different than the days of Top Gun! This movie was about a cop who's younger brother wants to leave a gang and go straight. He's in love with a girl and she won't marry him unless he quits the gang life. The gang kills him because of this and the older cop brother goes under cover on a vigilante quest to get revenge. For a B movie it was pretty good.

Anonymous

Thanks you putting a picture of my son on you web site.  We are always asking him about what he does, but we get the standard pat answer.  He has referred us to your blog site.

Our daughter has two blog sites....one for the world and one pesonal, which is where we see pictures of Hugh, our grandson.

Didn't know they called him "MICK" ?

Sarah McCormick

Sunday, April 24, 2011 - 12:02 AM

Anonymous

Ask Mick about HBOTOGO

Sunday, April 24, 2011 - 08:19 AM

Brandon

LOL....our office is a little unique in what we do in the army. I don't think they have an MOS for coffee server and janitor, so they just throw random people in this office.

As for the name...I always use nick names for everyone I write about in my blog.

Sunday, April 24, 2011 - 11:51 AM

Hike To Seoul Tower...Again - (Korea) Day 141

Before our hike up to Seoul Tower. From left to right...
our KATUSA, Special K, & SPC Mick

We had to report in front of the office this morning at 0530 for PT which was a hike up to Seoul tower and back. We wore our body armor (without the plates) and assault packs full of crap. I had two 2 Liter bottles of water in mine along with some other miscellaneous items to fill it up. It was a pretty good work out.

When we got back I headed to my room and got ready for work. I was able to video chat with my wife for a bit and then arrived at work by 0900. The help desk was finally able to reset the local admin passwords for all our machines, so now I can finally get some work done. I started in the admin office by installing Adobe Acrobat Pro on all the new machines. The versions they gave me were all upgrades, so when it came time to start them up they wanted an older serial number to verify that an older version is owned. None of the numbers they had typed out on a little piece of paper would work. Grrrr. Luckily they did have one full version (non-upgrade) that I was able to install on all their machines. What a pain in the neck.

SPC Roy called and wanted to go to lunch. We met up and went to the food court. He's loving his new job. They focus a lot more on PT because they have a regular schedule which he needs. He said PT was really tough this morning as they carried a litter (a stretcher) with a person on it. They had to run all over and carry it all sorts of ways.

When I got back we setup for a meeting in the top secret conference room. I then checked my email and updated the events calendar. So many things are duplicated and done so stupid here it can drive me nuts. There are a number of events calendars that are created for various purposes among a number of labor intensive time consuming projects that have to be done quite a bit. I then put in a couple of help desk tickets to get some problems fixed. Since I'm the alternate IMO I am one of the few people that can now put in these tickets.

We then cleaned up the top secret conference room and then cleaned up the office. Unfortunately we couldn't leave because there was a ROK meeting going on in our conference room and we had to stay until they were done so we could shut everything down and lock up. It was almost 1800 by the time they left.

After I got to my room and changed, I decided to treat myself to a Baskin n' Robbins 31 below (Oreo flavored). I also brought my laptop and downloaded some entertainment.

Road Trip - (Korea) Day 137

Our view of the Filipino band playing at the hotel bar

Work call this morning was at 0830, a nice way to return to work. We only had one meeting scheduled and it was more of a performance than a meeting, so all we had to do was put out some seat covers with name tags and setup the flags in the conference room. The only meeting was also scheduled at 1400, so we didn't have any rush when we first arrived.

The first thing I did was update the events calendar. Usually if I'm not there the air force master sergeant will do it, but he was gone as well, so it really didn't get done all week. Events change almost daily so it needs to be updated daily, luckily it's a really slow week. We then did spring cleaning for the office. This involved lots of Windex, Pledge, and vacuuming all over. Once we were finished our sergeant wanted us all to watch an HBO series he just got on DVD. It's called "Generation Kill". We hooked everything up in our conference room so we could watch it…it was almost like being at the movies. :) We watched the first episode and it is basically about a marine unit during the first days of the 2nd Iraq war. The push in from Kuwait and see some pretty crazy stuff. Since it's an HBO series it can get pretty graphic. After the first episode our sergeant ordered us all lunch from the navy club to celebrate SPC Roy's last day in our office. Starting Monday he will be in another office actually getting some training for his MOS which is 42A (Human Resources Specialist). Like everyone else in our office, nobody actually does their MOS because the army doesn't have a coffee server MOS, so they just usually stick 42As in our spot…I'm just the lucky one. We then watched another episode before we had to setup for the upcoming meeting. The series is pretty good, I may have to borrow my sergeant's DVDs so I can finish the first season now that he got me hooked. I guess it eventually goes on to deal with how the war affects these young marines and how it changes their lives.

I then ran some errands with SPC Roy in his rented car that he picked up for this weekend. It's a Kia, but it's really nice. Lots of technology built into the car. When we got back I helped SPC Roy and SPC Mick get on the correct site so they can do their IA training. SPC Mick has to do it for the first time and SPC Roy needs his annual refresher. I now get notices of folks in my office that are close to expiring.

We then had our safety briefing…don't drive drunk, always have a battle buddy, call someone if you find yourself in trouble…etc. I then went to my room and did a little schoolwork. Once I finished SPC Roy came and picked me up for our road trip down south to a city called Jeonju. This city is about 30 Kilometers away from his father-in-law's place where he will be helping them plant rice. I'm just along to keep him company. The trip took about 3 hours and we only missed one turn, which is amazing because we actually had two GPS units going. After we arrived at the hotel we checked in and then checked out the bar. It was a little after midnight and the place was pretty empty. Here we sat in a Korean bar with a live Filipino band singing classic American songs in English. We each had a couple drinks and then retired to our room. Tomorrow I have to do a lot of schoolwork while SPC Roy works in the rice fields.