Hate The Fat Ones - (Korea) Day 233

Work call this morning was at 0630, a bit earlier than I prefer. We had to setup a meeting in the secret conference room and then another in the top secret conference room. Once that was all done I headed off to Starbucks to get some coffee. I needed some fuel to keep me going since we had such an early work call.

I then settled into my office and started doing SkillPorts until it was time to clean up from the morning meetings. Once we finished I sat down in the conference control room with our KATUSA and SPC Mick. I had been doing SkillPorts all morning and then we just hauled all the crap from the meetings up and put it away. I wanted to just sit back for a second. Normally we keep the conference room door locked, but because we took some dirty dishes into get washed we had to keep it open for them to be returned to us. Unfortunately our NCOIC walked in and saw us all just sitting around. I think what made it look even worse was that both me and SPC Mick were leaned back with our feet up watching TV. She asked "Is this what you guys do up here all day?" She then proceeds to tell us all these changes she has planned. It was basically all the stuff she had said before when we had our "sit down". I'm not sure what to expect as I said before, I hear a lot of things…but nothing ever seems to happen. If it does happen, it only lasts for a little while and then it goes back to normal.

When our NCOIC left SPC Mick blew a gasket and kicked a few things around the room. I guess that really touched a nerve. He then stated "This is the worst day of my life". A bit dramatic, but like I said…I'm waiting to see what if anything really changes. I can't see anything changing any time soon. Our NCOIC has to train the replacement for our air force master sergeant, and until that happens she's going to be pretty busy.

I headed to lunch a little early and was able to video chat with my wife for a bit. When I got back to the office, it was back to SkillPorts. I worked on those until we setup for a meeting in the secret conference room. Once that was done SPC Mick had to do a bunch of phone calls for our NCOIC. I'm not sure what it was all about, but he had a stack of business cards and had to call each of them. I feel sorry for him. I took the office car out and picked up our supply KATUSA. We headed to the cell phone store where I picked up the broken blackberry that I had dropped off earlier. The supply KATUSA was then able to upgrade my office phone, so I now have a nice shiny gold star trek communicator looking phone. I feel so special now.

When I got back CPT Hooah! wanted me to do a little research on laser pointers. We have a few bigger ones and one skinny one currently, but we were informed that one of the generals "hates the fat ones!" So this is now a burning issue!

I did some more SkillPort work until the last meeting was over around 1730. We then cleaned it up and took off for the day. I headed back to my room where I did pretty much the usual…you know SkillPorts and TV Shows. The young hawaiian stopped by for a bit. He is going to the board tomorrow and was given some sound advice…."have a few drinks before you go to the board, it will loosen you up a little". He had some communist beer and soju that he left in my refrigerator back in April from the DMZ tour…LOL. So he picked that up to have for tomorrow's use. I'm looking forward to hearing how that goes.

Slow News Day - (Korea) Day 232

Me next to a small statue in front of my office

Work call this morning was at 0830. We had to setup for a meeting in the secret conference room, then I turned my attention to SkillPorts. I worked on them until lunch time when I left to one of the shops next to the PX. I had to pick up my room key and a copy that was made. You see my roommate lost his key in the swimming pool and had to get a copy made for him. He dropped it off there this morning and I picked them up so I could get back in the room. I decided just to eat lunch at the food court…a BLT, haven't had one of those in a while.

Back at work we setup for another meeting in the secret conference room and then cleaned up when it was over. Not a lot happened today, just a couple of meetings and a whole lot of SkillPorts. I also started searching around for other web based training I can do while I have the time. There isn't a whole lot for signal surprisingly, but I didn't have a lot of time to poke around.

After work I headed over to the young hawaiian's room to borrow his small travel luggage. The only bag I have is huge, just too big for my short trip home. I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone and just hanging out. I know it's going to be fast paced and time is going to fly by, but I'm going to try and enjoy every minute of it.

Back in my room for the night, I found out my roommate will not be back until Friday. He left for training down south, so it will be nice and quite…I'll get some good sleep!

the wife

One day closer my love!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 02:09 PM

Just Another Day - (Korea) Day 231

A photo posted by the official photographers from the change of command ceremony
last Thursday. This was the "official party" or as I called them "The VIPs". The general
on the far left is the new incoming commander. (original photo is located
on the USFC Flickr website)

Work call this morning was at 0830. We setup for a meeting in the top secret conference room. Special K finally has a badge and can escort us in from now on to setup instead of us having to wait for one of the officers from our office. The funny thing is that Special K has had a top secret clearance since coming to Korea, but they never gave him access to this conference room for some reason. CPT Hooah! thought that was BS and had that fixed within a few weeks of him finding out which was pretty cool. It makes things much easier for us and for the officers in our office.

After that I checked my promotion point status since it's the beginning of the week:

Military Education (260 Maximum Points)

Correspondence Crs (Hrs 598) (Pts 119)

I'm slowly making my way up there. I know I have more hours than it currently shows, but it takes a while for it to update on my ERB, then it takes another few days to update to the promotion point worksheet. After checking that, I continued to work on more SkillPorts. I didn't have any interruption this morning, no phone calls to make…no secretary work…my NCOIC called in sick today.

I headed off to lunch and video chatted with my wife in my room for a bit. When I got back to the office we cleaned up the top secret room and then setup for another small meeting in our conference room. I then started to work on my army SSDL1 training. I ended up staying a little after 1700, but I was able to finish it all. It says I'll get 80 hours credit for completing the course, so we'll see if it shows up automatically on my ERB or if I have to do something like go to S1 with my certificates. I'll give it a week or so…well I guess until I get back from leave which is coming up soon!!!

I headed back to my room to change and then met up with PFC Pickle at the food court where we ate dinner and hung out for a bit before heading back to our rooms. I did my usual nightly routine….SkillPorts and watching TV shows. I have 134 days left here in Korea and I plan on making the most of them, like my sergeant told me…"you may not have a lot of the free time in your next unit, so take advantage of it while you can here"

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 229-230

OK...I may be a little stupid, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity to
snap a quick picture on post.

Saturday: This weekend is a little messed up because of my CQ shift. I had plans to go to a "mud festival", but those had to be tossed. When I finished my shift at 0900, I took a shower and then went to sleep. I turned on my fan and put in my ear plugs. I slept until 1600, so most of the day was pretty much shot. I ended up going to the food court and eating lunch/dinner. I had plans of hanging out there a while with my laptop and using their internet to download a number of items, but the internet was down. I headed back to my room and watched some TV shows and doing SkillPorts between shows.

PFC Pickle called and wanted to meet up at the food court. I met him, but was still full from my big lunch…not too full to enjoy some ice cream though! We hung out for a bit, made some plans for Sunday and then went our separate ways. I went back to my room to do the usual…TV shows and SkillPorts.

Sunday: I woke up about 0830 and started laundry, then video chatted with my wife for a bit. After my laundry was done, I met up with PFC Pickle at the food court for lunch. After that we headed off to the National Museum of Korea. This is a huge building that we can see from post as it sits right on one of the edges of the south end of the Yongsan Garrison. We ended up taking a taxi to it because we weren't sure the best way to get to it. It was also extremely hot and humid out, so riding in an air conditioned taxi was a nice break from that.

The museum is free which is always nice, and it is huge! It had a number of pieces from early history in Korea. I found out that it is actually the 6th largest museum in the world in terms of floor space. It was pretty interesting checking everything out and when we finished there was a Korean folk dance performance going on. We checked that out for a bit before heading off to Itaewon. I had some shopping to do before I go on leave. We started walking, but because we weren't exactly sure how to get there and because of the heat we decided to hail a taxi.

Once in Itaewon I bought some souvenirs and we headed back to my room to drop it all off. We then grabbed some ice cream at the food court before heading to the theatre to see "Horrible Bosses". What a funny show!! I was laughing out loud and actually spit out my water at one point. It's a comedy about three friends who each hate their bosses and decide to kill them.

When I got back to my room I poured an entire bottle of Drano in my sink. It has never worked quite right since the "snake incident" a few weeks back. It randomly fills up with water and is always slow to drain. Every morning after I shave the sink will almost fill up and overflow. It then slowly drains away only to fill up and random points in the day. When this happens it brings back up the shavings from my face and then leaves them all over the sink. So it's been a pain in the butt to try and keep clean. After the "snake incident" I don't want to call building maintenance and have them try to fix it. The Drano seems to have done the job, I guess time will tell.

After another shower to wash away all the stickiness from the hot and humid day, I'll be going to sleep.

Hanging out at the National Museum of Korea

Me and Buddha at the National Museum of Korea

Me and Buddha at the National Museum of Korea

The Korean folk dancers at the National Museum of Korea

CQ - (Korea) Day 228

My workstation during my brief appointment as cashier at the DFAC.
I was manning the "Main Line" and the touch screen was how I input all the info.

Work call this morning was at 0700. The thing about roommates is that they share the same room with you. My roommate is a pretty cool guy and very nice, he just stays up late every single night. He usually doesn't get up before me, but in today's case he did. I have a fan going and I have my headphones in playing "white noise". I also wear my PT beanie over my head to cover my eyes to keep out the light from his desk lamp. Some nights are better than others, but I would guess I lose a good hour to two of sleep each night because of my roommate. I am looking forward to leaving the barracks life once I leave Korea.

Back to the rest of the day…I arrived at the office and we setup for a meeting down in the secret conference room. It was going to be the first meeting of the new commander and there were some last minute changes of course. We finally got everything setup and fixed a couple of misspelled name blocks. Then as we were getting ready to leave a marine officer came over and said "so…what would it take to get coffee for the head table?" I was thinking to myself, well sir…it would take some advanced warning, unless you want me to pull it out of my ass. Another army officer came over and said "It will only take them going up stairs and getting it". This set off a chain of crazy events. Our office including CPT Hooah!, our NCOIC, our sergeant and all the junior soldiers had to start scrambling getting all the coffee, water crafts and everything that goes with a full setup from our office which is four flights of stairs above this secret conference room. With everyone helping we were able to get it all down there, but it looked like crap when it was all setup and we were doing the setup around the generals who were already sitting at the head table. We were able to finish before the commander ended up coming though, which I was very surprised.

I then had to pull more secretary duty for my NCOIC making a lot of calls to see if people were going to come to another meeting. I really dislike doing that. As I was heading down to bring an updated list to my NCOIC, CPT Hooah! sees me and tells me to follow him because we may have to call "stand by" for a meeting. I ended up sitting with him near the secret conference room for about a half hour doing nothing except trying not to fall asleep.

I finally headed to lunch and video chatted with my wife for a bit before heading back to the office. I was able to finish one SkillPort before being handed another call list that I had to do. I know I would never want to be a telemarketer. I had to leave at 1500 and head to our company headquarters for a CQ brief. I have CQ tonight starting at 1630 until 0900 tomorrow morning. After the brief, I headed to the shoppette to pick up some supplies for my shift (drinks, beef jerky, etc). I then went back to my room for a small rest before heading to the DFAC. Something new they have added to our shift is being the cashier in the DFAC for dinner. Very strange, they would have just random people come in and do this every single day. A worker trained me on the system for about 5 minutes and then turned me loose. Not too hard, just enter in what service they are and have them enter their social security number. Only a few folks actually paid money. I then actually ate at the DFAC once the shift was over and they locked the doors. The food was much better than my previous experience at the old DFAC. It was also nice doing something other than just sitting at a desk staring at a wall for CQ.

CQ consists of mostly sitting at a small desk staring at a wall. I had to take inventory of everything in the day rooms for our barracks to make sure nothing is missing. We are also supposed to do a "security check" once an hour, which is basically doing a walk around and through the barracks to make sure all is well. I had my laptop at the desk, so I was able to watch a number of TV shows, do some SkillPorts, watch "Sniper: Reloaded" which is the 4th movie in the "Sniper" series. It wasn't too bad, of course I wasn't expecting much. I also listened to a number of podcast episodes that some old co-workers make “Tales From The SpacePod”. They are pretty funny, it's good to hear voices of friends that I haven't heard in a long time.

It's a long shift and goes until 0900 on Saturday. I ended up not drinking any coffee or Mountain Dew because I thought I would make it just fine, but at some point around 0600 I dozed off for a bit. At one point I was watching CSI, then the next thing I know my screen saver was on and the show was over. That little nap gave me what I needed to last the rest of the morning, I was able to video chat with my wife a few times throughout the night and I was even able to talk to my branch manager about my next assignment. Because of the time difference there is never a really good time to call, and every other time I've tried all I get is a busy signal or no answer. Since I had all night during my CQ shift, I thought this would be a great time to try. Surprisingly the guy was very nice and gave me my next assignment. He said he would be putting through a waiver, but that it should all show up on my ASK (Assignment Satisfaction Key) on the AKO website sometime next week. I'm not going to mention it to many people until I actually see it under my assignments on the web. I know things can change and I don't want to get too excited yet. I'm not even going to mention it on here yet….

The NCOIC’s Bitch - (Korea) Day 227

A quick snap shot I took of the VIP staging area (formerly known as the racquet ball court)
complete with leather couches and plants

Work call this morning was at 0730. We setup for a KUB in our conference room and then our KATUSA, me and our NCOIC took off to the big gym on post "Collier Field House" to help setup for the commander's change of command ceremony. The ceremony was originally scheduled to be on Knight Field which is right outside our office, but because of the weather it was moved inside. I helped place some brochures on the seats and duct tape down some cables on the floor…pretty minor stuff. Our army major then wanted me backstage near the VIP staging area where they had a laptop and portable projector setup just in case there were any technical difficulties.

As I was standing around there were so many generals walking around it was crazy. They all had a personal security detail as well, so there were all these guys walking around in suits with ear pieces in, it looked like a secret service convention or something. The incoming General came in and saw me standing along his path to the VIP staging area. He stopped and shook my hand and asked where I was from. He could tell I was a little nervous, because it took me a moment to speak. I wasn't ready for him to stop and talk to me, everyone else just walked by and ignored me! He said he's just a soldier too like me…lol. Seems like a pretty down to earth guy.

Once the ceremony started I headed out and we made a pit-stop at Starbucks where our NCOIC treated me and our KATUSA to some much needed caffeine. Once back at the office I did one SkillPort before my NCOIC asked me to finish up on all the phone calls I started yesterday. As I was doing that Our KATUSA and SPC Mick headed back to Collier Field House to help clean up. When they came back they were with our army major who bought some pizza for us all. That was a nice gesture because we have all been pretty busy with this change of command and it all went very smooth.

After pizza I made many more phone calls. This is basically what the action officers do in our office. They make a lot of phone calls to verify who is attending certain meetings so they can prepare the correct seating charts. I'm guessing my NCOIC doesn't care for doing this because she's passing it all off on me. I finally finished and gave her a detailed report of who was attending and who I just couldn't get on the phone.

I then continued on my army SSDL1 module 3 and finally finish it. I now only have one more module to go. I was hoping to get it done this week, but it doesn't look like that will be happening…maybe next week before I go on leave.

My NCOIC called me down to her desk and then I get handed another sheet of paper full of names for a different meeting at a later date. Another project to start tomorrow. My sergeant also gave me his list of inventory items he hasn't been able to find yet and asked me to see what I could find. We had a meeting going on in our conference room, so I couldn't do much. The meeting lasted until about 1720 then we cleaned up and left for the day. Looks like I already have a lot to do in the morning.

I eat dinner in my room and watch some TV shows as usual, except I make sure to do at least a SkillPort between each show.

A VIP arriving via helicopter to the Change of Command ceremony

Scavenger Hunting - (Korea) Day 226

Work call this morning was at 0830. We setup for the normal Wednesday meeting in the secret conference room and I ran the slideshows as normal on the regular and secret computer. Everything went smoothly…no complaints. After the meeting I ran over to the tech center to pick up The Big Dog's blackberry. Unfortunately they could not get it setup for him because there was a hardware issue. Special K and I took the office car and turned in the blackberry to the cell phone service place which is right outside of one of the gates.

By the time that was over, it was time for lunch so I had Special K drop me off at my room. I ate lunch and video chatted with my wife…always a nice treat! When I headed back to the office I started the army SSDL1 training and had visions of finishing module 3, but I was interrupted quite a bit. First it was my sergeant trying to find more stuff to check off his inventory list. That can be pretty difficult at times because of the limited descriptions and such. It's kind of like a scavenger hunt around the office and conference control room.

After that our NCOIC came up and asked what I was doing. When I told her training she said "good, then you can stop that and help me do this." Needless to say I never finished my training for module 3. Instead I spent the rest of the day calling different offices asking if people were going to attend a meeting this Friday. Some were wondering why I was calling because they already RSVP'd and others were happy to be invited. I made it about a quarter of the way through the list and will have to pick up where I left off tomorrow. We cleaned up and found out we'll be doing some prep work for the big change of command ceremony tomorrow. This is for the commander of US Forces Korea…the head guy!

I headed to my room and did the usual…ate dinner, watched TV shows and did 3 SkillPorts. I didn't get a chance to do any of those while at work today.