One Bad Thing About Surfing in the Library...
Well other than there not being any decent waves, when their internet goes down you're pretty much SOL. Luckily there wasn't much to speak of yesterday, and there wasn't any today either. Conveniently forgot the quote that I was going to post again, one of these days I'll get it up there. Got paid today, that's kind of exciting as it's more than I was getting at OTS now that I'm officially O1. Keep coming up with random things I need to go buy... Was all set to inhale some Campbells chunky clam chowder and low and behold I discover I have no can opener... I'm such a smarty sometimes. We did a mock PFT this morning, and my time was pretty much the same as it was at the end of OTS, which was 30 seconds off what it was in the middle unfortunately... A good sign though given I hadn't touched my running shoes during the two weeks in between. Time to get crackin again.
Ah actually I can post a blurb on The Pianist which I finally got around to watching last night after having it sit on my hd for like a year. I figure with all this free time I'll finally get to watch some good movies, and this was one of them. Held my attention throughout, some very powerful stuff about life as a Jew in Poland during WWII. Or lack of a life, as it became apparent. Not for the weak stomached, but a strong 5 out of 7 M's. I'm pretty sure Brody if that's how you spell his name won an Oscar for his performance.
Got squared away down at Wright Flyers for my NIFT training, picked up all the computer based info and will probably give that a look this weekend to get ahead. The optional ground school starts Tuesday, still iffy on that, if I end up blasting right through the computer based stuff I probably won't need it reiterated and I'll just wait the week for my form to be approved and then get flying. They sure are smaller planes than I expected, I guess that's what makes it easiest to learn. Least I'll have more to busy myself with, this no internet no tv thing continues to suck.
Speaking of which all you people I normally chat with continuously do feel free to call, when I'm not busy (which is basically always) I'm quite available for conversation. I have a strange affinity for ending up in people's voicemails when I call them, funny how that is sometimes. :)
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
When is the Library Open Again?
Apparently not all the time. What an inconvenience. No 3am posts for a while I guess.
Been just sort of wandering around base doing various things on my little inprocessing checklist thingy... I ordered my local phone # and DSL but apparently although they'll come hook up on the phone on Friday they won't hook up the DSL until the 26th, sheesh... I'll be hittin up the library until then.
Found out I have incredibly boring eating habits, was able to buy two weeks worth of food for $50 thanks to the tax free and somewhat reduced prices of the commissary. I get something like $250 or something a month for food, so I guess the rest will go towards eating out, or just end up in my pocket. My room is finally all put together, after more than one later trip to buy stuff I had totally forgotten I'd need, like toilet paper, or a trash can... It's funny how you don't think about things until you go to use them and are like Hmmm... Haven't gone to try out the dining facility yet, been raiding Subway and various other local places, something tells me as I get going and am over in that section of the base costantly I'll figure out that full meals for two bucks is a much better deal.
Managed to break the rotating portion of my watch off somehow, going to have to not recommend anyone get this kind. Seems like a nifty way to change the mode until it's broken off making it almost impossible to do so... Most watches last me at least a few years, pretty sure this one didn't make it to one.
Someone had asked so I'll go ahead and post here, yes I'm allowed to have visitors, and yes you're allowed to stay on the base, it's just sort of an unofficial policy to not have lengthy overnighters in the room, meaning don't move anyone in. Of course you can always stay somewhere off base, but the price of free tends to work out better. I just have to call the main gate and get you a pass before you get here, so unfortunately surprise visits won't actually work.
I see people are beginning to find the Guestmap to the right, which is cool, looking forward to seeing where people are from. It's editable, but I'll leave that Greenland one up there, since something tells me that'll be the only one from that area.
Darn had a good quote for today and left it at home, will have to put that one up in the next blog.
Hm, yeah pretty boring last couple of days. Going to get the NIFT train in gear probably tomorrow, and see what the deal is with finishing that before ASBC.
Apparently not all the time. What an inconvenience. No 3am posts for a while I guess.
Been just sort of wandering around base doing various things on my little inprocessing checklist thingy... I ordered my local phone # and DSL but apparently although they'll come hook up on the phone on Friday they won't hook up the DSL until the 26th, sheesh... I'll be hittin up the library until then.
Found out I have incredibly boring eating habits, was able to buy two weeks worth of food for $50 thanks to the tax free and somewhat reduced prices of the commissary. I get something like $250 or something a month for food, so I guess the rest will go towards eating out, or just end up in my pocket. My room is finally all put together, after more than one later trip to buy stuff I had totally forgotten I'd need, like toilet paper, or a trash can... It's funny how you don't think about things until you go to use them and are like Hmmm... Haven't gone to try out the dining facility yet, been raiding Subway and various other local places, something tells me as I get going and am over in that section of the base costantly I'll figure out that full meals for two bucks is a much better deal.
Managed to break the rotating portion of my watch off somehow, going to have to not recommend anyone get this kind. Seems like a nifty way to change the mode until it's broken off making it almost impossible to do so... Most watches last me at least a few years, pretty sure this one didn't make it to one.
Someone had asked so I'll go ahead and post here, yes I'm allowed to have visitors, and yes you're allowed to stay on the base, it's just sort of an unofficial policy to not have lengthy overnighters in the room, meaning don't move anyone in. Of course you can always stay somewhere off base, but the price of free tends to work out better. I just have to call the main gate and get you a pass before you get here, so unfortunately surprise visits won't actually work.
I see people are beginning to find the Guestmap to the right, which is cool, looking forward to seeing where people are from. It's editable, but I'll leave that Greenland one up there, since something tells me that'll be the only one from that area.
Darn had a good quote for today and left it at home, will have to put that one up in the next blog.
Hm, yeah pretty boring last couple of days. Going to get the NIFT train in gear probably tomorrow, and see what the deal is with finishing that before ASBC.
Sunday, November 09, 2003
Where am I?
Okay so here we go. We have a new leaf on our hands folks, and it's being turned over. I'm finally at the point where I'll be able to spend more time entertaining myself with such activities as posting blogs.
My current location is Randolph AFB in San Antonio, Texas. Come tomorrow I'll be in-processing with the 562d Training Squadron. JSUNT is the name of the course, which stands for Joint Student Undergraduate Navigator Training. I'm pretty sure anyway. The first portion is called NIFT which stands for Navigator Instructional Flight Training. Actually I have no idea what it stands for. But basically it's the portion where we go through ground school and then actually get some stick time in the pilot seat for several flights, in order to sort of show us what it's like so we'll have a better understanding of how to navigate. I'll be here for a while, then probably go on leave for a week between Christmas and New Years. After that I'll come back for a couple weeks, then head back to Montgomery, Alabama for ASBC which is the Air and Space Basic Course. This is a six week course that basically starts your PME which is Professional Military Education. Hope everyone reads this post because I probably won't ever define acronyms more than once. :) Anyway at various times in my career I'll return to Montgomery for more training, such as ASBC and SOS which is Squadron Officer School. Basically each time you gain a rank there's more education that comes along with it. After ASBC I'll return here in March and hopefully sometime soon after start my actual JSUNT class. Once I complete my NIFT course I've heard they'll bump up my JSUNT date, which is currently scheduled for July 1, 2004. If I did end up in that class my graduation date would be June 30th, 2005. So basically even if I get my date moved up to the spring, I'll still be here over a year.
So in a nutshell that's what's going on. I know I repeated a lot from one of the previous posts but I just want to make sure I've communicated everything. I most likely will not be talking much about OTS on here. Unfortunately as a whole it was a pretty negative experience for me. I learned a tremendous amount, but my performance was consistently unsatisfying. I may make random references or tell stories from time to time (Goldhawks, hua) but for the most part I'm going to try to focus on the positive things going on, which at the moment means the future.
For all those who haven't driven the 10 freeway between Los Angeles and San Antonio let me some up a tour for you. To your left we have um, some desert. To your right we have um, some more desert. Tada. I ended up deciding to leave Thursday night instead of Friday morning, and did a little 250 miler out to Blythe at the edge of California. The next day I got going relatively early and was still feeling fine at 400, so made it a 600 mile day to Las Cruces. Yesterday I didn't manage to get moving until noon after the time change, but I decided to plow on through the eventual darkness and fog anyway, and managed to get here around 9pm. I'm currently staying in Billeting, because they don't inprocess in anyone on the weekends. The best time to tour a base is definitely Sunday morning, the place is a ghost town. Took tons of pictures, going to investigate various methods of posting them online once I get moved into the dorm and get my internet set up. Move in should be sometime tomorrow in between paperwork, so I'll have my address then for those who want it. I've managed to meet up with an OTS classmate who arrived on Wednesday and thus has gone through much of the process already. Always nice to be able to call on someone with a brain if necessary.
The base itself is cool, a neat layout involving octagon shaped roads and lots of pretty houses. A couple things were pretty neat about arriving, the first being the first salute I got at the front gate after showing my ID card, and the second being the exchange that followed. I mentioned I needed a map to billeting, and instead of giving me one the Security Forces guy said "oh yeah just go straight ahead past the flags to the Taj Mahal, take the traffic circle around and it'll be your third right, then go down past the chapel and take the second left, go down a ways past the static display and it'll be your second left again, followed by your first left and then right into the parking lot." Luckily given my AFSC (Air Force Speciality Code = job) is Navigator, I was able to make it without error, which made me think maybe I'm in the right place. Billeting itself is pretty ridiculously nice, I'm not sure if I was in the officer's version or what, but I had basically an embassy suites style room with bedroom, living area, full kitchen, and spacious bathroom. The dorm rooms are also pretty sweet judging from my friends, with the square footage being about quadruple the size of last year's dorm room at UCSB, which was already way too big for me. Should be interesting trying to fill the space or more likely than not, not filling the space. I'm quite excited to get everything out of my car and situated.
From what I hear there's a lot of downtime, so I'll be doing all sorts of nifty things like working out, reading, and posting blogs! Once internet is up and going we might even see daily posts! Good times.
Okay so here we go. We have a new leaf on our hands folks, and it's being turned over. I'm finally at the point where I'll be able to spend more time entertaining myself with such activities as posting blogs.
My current location is Randolph AFB in San Antonio, Texas. Come tomorrow I'll be in-processing with the 562d Training Squadron. JSUNT is the name of the course, which stands for Joint Student Undergraduate Navigator Training. I'm pretty sure anyway. The first portion is called NIFT which stands for Navigator Instructional Flight Training. Actually I have no idea what it stands for. But basically it's the portion where we go through ground school and then actually get some stick time in the pilot seat for several flights, in order to sort of show us what it's like so we'll have a better understanding of how to navigate. I'll be here for a while, then probably go on leave for a week between Christmas and New Years. After that I'll come back for a couple weeks, then head back to Montgomery, Alabama for ASBC which is the Air and Space Basic Course. This is a six week course that basically starts your PME which is Professional Military Education. Hope everyone reads this post because I probably won't ever define acronyms more than once. :) Anyway at various times in my career I'll return to Montgomery for more training, such as ASBC and SOS which is Squadron Officer School. Basically each time you gain a rank there's more education that comes along with it. After ASBC I'll return here in March and hopefully sometime soon after start my actual JSUNT class. Once I complete my NIFT course I've heard they'll bump up my JSUNT date, which is currently scheduled for July 1, 2004. If I did end up in that class my graduation date would be June 30th, 2005. So basically even if I get my date moved up to the spring, I'll still be here over a year.
So in a nutshell that's what's going on. I know I repeated a lot from one of the previous posts but I just want to make sure I've communicated everything. I most likely will not be talking much about OTS on here. Unfortunately as a whole it was a pretty negative experience for me. I learned a tremendous amount, but my performance was consistently unsatisfying. I may make random references or tell stories from time to time (Goldhawks, hua) but for the most part I'm going to try to focus on the positive things going on, which at the moment means the future.
For all those who haven't driven the 10 freeway between Los Angeles and San Antonio let me some up a tour for you. To your left we have um, some desert. To your right we have um, some more desert. Tada. I ended up deciding to leave Thursday night instead of Friday morning, and did a little 250 miler out to Blythe at the edge of California. The next day I got going relatively early and was still feeling fine at 400, so made it a 600 mile day to Las Cruces. Yesterday I didn't manage to get moving until noon after the time change, but I decided to plow on through the eventual darkness and fog anyway, and managed to get here around 9pm. I'm currently staying in Billeting, because they don't inprocess in anyone on the weekends. The best time to tour a base is definitely Sunday morning, the place is a ghost town. Took tons of pictures, going to investigate various methods of posting them online once I get moved into the dorm and get my internet set up. Move in should be sometime tomorrow in between paperwork, so I'll have my address then for those who want it. I've managed to meet up with an OTS classmate who arrived on Wednesday and thus has gone through much of the process already. Always nice to be able to call on someone with a brain if necessary.
The base itself is cool, a neat layout involving octagon shaped roads and lots of pretty houses. A couple things were pretty neat about arriving, the first being the first salute I got at the front gate after showing my ID card, and the second being the exchange that followed. I mentioned I needed a map to billeting, and instead of giving me one the Security Forces guy said "oh yeah just go straight ahead past the flags to the Taj Mahal, take the traffic circle around and it'll be your third right, then go down past the chapel and take the second left, go down a ways past the static display and it'll be your second left again, followed by your first left and then right into the parking lot." Luckily given my AFSC (Air Force Speciality Code = job) is Navigator, I was able to make it without error, which made me think maybe I'm in the right place. Billeting itself is pretty ridiculously nice, I'm not sure if I was in the officer's version or what, but I had basically an embassy suites style room with bedroom, living area, full kitchen, and spacious bathroom. The dorm rooms are also pretty sweet judging from my friends, with the square footage being about quadruple the size of last year's dorm room at UCSB, which was already way too big for me. Should be interesting trying to fill the space or more likely than not, not filling the space. I'm quite excited to get everything out of my car and situated.
From what I hear there's a lot of downtime, so I'll be doing all sorts of nifty things like working out, reading, and posting blogs! Once internet is up and going we might even see daily posts! Good times.
