I've been addicted to watching makeup and hair tutorials on youtube. Talk about revolutionizing the internet. YouTube has freakin' taken off in regard to videos about ANYTHING! If you are looking for a video on how to do a smokey eye, how to bungee jump, good practical jokes, and Carly's favorite, otters holding hands... you can find it all on YouTube. It's so weird for me to think that the Internet came around in my generation. It's hard for me to imagine life without it now. But I suppose that is the way with anything... you don't know something if you've never had it. I really don't think I could have made it through college without askjeeves.com or google.com. I think that this may be why our education system is in such jeopardy now because it is so easy to find things online. I guess it would be considered a double-edged sword because on one hand, it is simple to find the information you need on Pythagoreoms Theorem for algebra, the anatomy of frog for biology, or the plot of Plato's Republic for polysci, but... on the other hand, it's SO easy, the researcher is basically required to do nothing. The fact that one can sit in front of computer, type questions into google and get exact responses to those questions that have so frequently been asked by many before, cheapens the whole experience of research. I'm sure at one point in your life, dear reader, you have taken some text from a book or a website and passed it off as your own and, you know what? Everyone does it! Why? Becuase EVERYONE has gotten away with it at one time or another. IT'S TOO EASY not to! If I took the time to go to the library, find a book, look through it for the exact information I needed, write down what I need, take it to the copier, pay for the copies, go back and find another book, therefore repeating the process over again... and meanwhile, Joe Schmoe from my class goes online to google, finds the same information in half the time with half the effort, copies and pastes it into a Word document, changes a few words so it COULD be his and we both turn the work in... it's like, WHY? Why wouldn't you do the easier way? Libraries, (as much as I love them and even work in one every Monday) are becoming so... what's the word... not to sound trite, but elementary. It's like comparing a video cassette to a dvd.
So, you're telling me that I can "fast"-forward to the part I want to watch or I can use the handy menu and just skip right to it instead? Hmm, lemme think.
Are books going out of style???
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Ship Date & Related Issues: Subject 3 on the Blogging Agenda
THE OATH
I do solomnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegianace to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and then Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Having sworn into the Army and taken the Oath, I have orders to ship out for Basic Combat Training (BCT) on July 10, 2007. I am headed to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina for 9 weeks until I graduate in September and then am sent to Ft. Benning, Georgia to report in on September 24th for 16 weeks of Officer Candidacy School. Holy shit, right? All this basically means I will be gone from July until January. Ever since I swore in, it is literally all I can think about. I go from nervous to excited to terrified in seconds and every person I see walking around in uniform (which is a lot since I work at a Marine Corps base) I have to tell myself that they made it through Marine Corps boot camp (the hardest of the branches, as far as anyone whose anyone is oncerned) and I can make it through basic too. I got a future soldier guide about what I will be doing from week to week during basic. Some highlights: week 2: gas chamber :) Yippee, week 5: rapelling off a 60 foot wall, week 6: rifle marksmanship... OMG. Craziness. I can't believe in 41 days, I will be entering the biggest challenge of my life. Before I head out, I will put my address for basic on here and anyone can write me... I know mail will be my sustainment. :) Also, because I am going officer, I am entering basic as an E4 Specialist so I'm sure my ass will get handed to me because of that. Yay. So, that is that. :)
Out here.
I do solomnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegianace to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and then Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Having sworn into the Army and taken the Oath, I have orders to ship out for Basic Combat Training (BCT) on July 10, 2007. I am headed to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina for 9 weeks until I graduate in September and then am sent to Ft. Benning, Georgia to report in on September 24th for 16 weeks of Officer Candidacy School. Holy shit, right? All this basically means I will be gone from July until January. Ever since I swore in, it is literally all I can think about. I go from nervous to excited to terrified in seconds and every person I see walking around in uniform (which is a lot since I work at a Marine Corps base) I have to tell myself that they made it through Marine Corps boot camp (the hardest of the branches, as far as anyone whose anyone is oncerned) and I can make it through basic too. I got a future soldier guide about what I will be doing from week to week during basic. Some highlights: week 2: gas chamber :) Yippee, week 5: rapelling off a 60 foot wall, week 6: rifle marksmanship... OMG. Craziness. I can't believe in 41 days, I will be entering the biggest challenge of my life. Before I head out, I will put my address for basic on here and anyone can write me... I know mail will be my sustainment. :) Also, because I am going officer, I am entering basic as an E4 Specialist so I'm sure my ass will get handed to me because of that. Yay. So, that is that. :)
Out here.
Weight Loss and MEPS: Subject 2 on the Blogging Agenda
WW is going awesome. I am down to 145 and have lost 16 pounds and 10 % of my body weight since I joined on March 12th. My goal is to lose another 15 by the time I head to boot camp, putting me at a nice, reasonable 130 pounds.
Hey, were you ever wondering what it would be like to hover over a toilet and pee in a cup with a woman watching your every move? How about doing the crab walk around a room while in your bra and panties and then doing jumping jacks and pushups in front of 20 other girls? Does this sound like a GREAT day to YOU?! Then you should head out to your local Military Entrance Processing Station! MEPS offers many valuable lessons including, but not limited to:
*How to hold your urine analysis cup correctly so you can spill it all over your hand!!!
*The correct way to do the crab walk so everyone in the room can see every imperfection in your body!!!
*How to do lunges so your ass can jiggle and your bare feet can slide on the cold gym floor AT THE SAME TIME!!!
*The proper way to "hurry up and wait" in line to get your eyes, ears, blood, skin, height, weight, and measurements checked so you can be at your local processing station for up to EIGHT HOURS!!!
Does this sound exciting to you? Then YOU should join the military too! All this and more awaits you and your nearby MEPS! :):):)
Hey, were you ever wondering what it would be like to hover over a toilet and pee in a cup with a woman watching your every move? How about doing the crab walk around a room while in your bra and panties and then doing jumping jacks and pushups in front of 20 other girls? Does this sound like a GREAT day to YOU?! Then you should head out to your local Military Entrance Processing Station! MEPS offers many valuable lessons including, but not limited to:
*How to hold your urine analysis cup correctly so you can spill it all over your hand!!!
*The correct way to do the crab walk so everyone in the room can see every imperfection in your body!!!
*How to do lunges so your ass can jiggle and your bare feet can slide on the cold gym floor AT THE SAME TIME!!!
*The proper way to "hurry up and wait" in line to get your eyes, ears, blood, skin, height, weight, and measurements checked so you can be at your local processing station for up to EIGHT HOURS!!!
Does this sound exciting to you? Then YOU should join the military too! All this and more awaits you and your nearby MEPS! :):):)
Officer Candidacy Board: Subject 1 of Blogging Agenda
Well, in all aspects, it has been a while. I'm actually afraid to start typing this becaue I know it is going to be a long one and I'm scared that I will type it all, go to publish, and my computer will freeze, therefore sending my blog into the abyss of the Internet. I need to make a list of what I want to talk about so I don't leave it all out when I go on a rambling rampage.
1*Army Officer Board
2*Weight Loss & MEPS
3*Ship Date & Related Issues
1
I went up on the Army Officer Candidacy board on the 28th of April and was super stressed. There have been a lot of times in my life that I have been nervous about something, but this was the interview to end all for me. If I didn't get it, I would have to wait and go back later, which doesn't seem so bad, but I would be up against the same officers who already would have a bad taste in their mouths regarding me and my abilities. So, there were five of us there: (this is also the order we went on the board)
1: THE CORPORAL: the enlisted dude who was still in and trying to become a flight officer. He was in Alphas and his MOS (military occupation specialty) was Military Police. (I have just realized that the military has a lot of acronyms for things and I'm really happy that I know some of them from Clint LOL) He was a cocky SOB and that comes back later to bite him in the ass.
2: THE PRIOR ENLISTED GIRL: (Karen Christie) super-fun chick who was 29 years old. She was in the Army enlisted 4 years ago and is now getting back in, but going the officer route. She and I made friends quickly, as we were the only females on the board and we both liked making fun of all the other dudes that sucked. :)
3: THE COLLEGE GRAD WHO IS DYING TO BECOME AN OFFICER BUT FEELS QUITE INFERIOR TO THE TWO PEOPLE HEADING TO THE BOARD BEFORE HER: this is me :)
4: THE WEIRDO: This was one of those guys that keeps saying things that he thinks are really funny, and then everyone just looks at him and tries to back away so he doesn't say another joke and continue to embarass himself. He was also wearing a suit with an old ratty brown belt and black patton-leather shoes. Plus, you know when your pants are too big and when you put the belt on, you have to like cinch it really tight so your pants don't fall off and expose your ass? Ya, that's where this dude was.
5: THE CONFIDENT GUY: This dude was dressed nice, was really polite, and kept making jokes about Full Metal Jacket and war cries (remember this) to keep everyone as calm as can be expected. He was one of those people that you're like, how the hell is this dude so collected while the rest of us are flipping out? Jerk. But, THEN, he's NOT a jerk. That's the worst!!!
So, there it is. Oh my gosh, this post is already abnormally long. I'm going to have to break it up into a couple posts here. So, moving on. We all get to Ft. Meade and Sgt Kinchen gets us all in a room and proceeds to tell us how the officers are just "normal people" with "normal feelings" and "normal intentions" except that they are deciding our fates. Oh, and that one used to be a JAG interrogator, and the other has been in 16 years because he is prior enlisted, and the main person is a female LTCOL (For those of you who don't know, officers start out at an O1 paygrade... a Lieutenant Colonel is at an O5) who was a battalion leader in Iraq before she came to Maryland. So... awesome. On that note, he ushers us all into a cubicle (no, I'm not kidding) and we stand there like fucking morons until they call us into the room of doom one by one. So, The Corporal goes in and we're all sitting there trying to relax while leaning on the unstable walls of the cubicle and all of a sudden we here, "AHHHHHHHHHH!" We're like, WTF was that? So, Confident Dude is like, oh, that's his warcry! Of course at this point, I'm thinking to myself, oh, god... I'm gonna have to do a warcry and I'm gonna say Oorah (Marine Corps warcry) instead of Hooah (Army warcry). So, I go to the bathroom and practice (quietly) in the mirror.
***Hold on, I gotta pee***
Ok, back. Oh a sidenote, I am, in all relative standards, one of the fastest pee-ers in the world. It takes me like 4 seconds to sit down, pee, wipe, and be done. It's crazy. Don't even get me started on taking a shit. (FYI: record time = 24 seconds from start to flush) I think that this will help me a lot when I am at boot camp and am being rushed to take a shit in front of 40 other girls. Yippee.... moving on
***
Also, while practicing my warcry, I practice the entrance. What I mean by that is this: the procedure to enter the room is knock on the door HARD three times, wait for them to tell you enter, and the proceed into the room. When you get there, you stand in front of the three officers and say, "Katelyn Reynolds reporting to the officer of the board." Then they tell me to sit, and I do so knees together, hands directly on knees looking straight forward until they address me. So, The Corporal comes out of the board in like 10 minutes. This is strange because they told us it would be at least 30 minutes for each of us. He tells us that it was probably bad he was so fast. He also tells us that they made him take his jacket off to see if he was wearing his nametag on his shirt underneath and when he wasn't, they were less than impressed. He said they DID make him do a warcry and that they asked him a lot of situational questions. So, the day proceeds, and Karen Christie goes in and comes out 35 minutes later and we don't have time to talk because I head in next. I do the entrance procedure and sit down. JAG dude (Capt Gregory) asks me about my schooling, what classes I had difficulties with and how I overcame the difficulties, why I picked the jobs I did (Military Intelligence, Signal Corps, and Civil Affairs) and then proceeds to look around the room while I answer all his questions. He also asks me to stop in the middle of an answer and asks me if I need a minute because I look like I am about to cry. I tell him no, that I am fine, and move on. So, 16 year vet asks me questoins about previous jobs, previous bosses, my average week, my volunteer hours, and my schooling again. Then, comes LtCol Hull. She seems very straightforward with her quesitons and even tells me that she knows how stressful this can be and to just relax. She asks me about my physical prowess and explains to me that it doesn't matter how smart I am, if I can't keep up with the boys, no one will want me to lead them. She asks me what the last leadership book I read was, and I have no answer. (P.S. since the board, I have read, the Army Officers Guide, Who Moved My Cheese, Leadership Tactics of Atilla the Hun, (GREAT book, totally recommend it) and am now reading Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach) That was pretty much it. I was in and out in 40 minutes and felt soooo much better when it was over. Bleh. So, Wierdo and Confident dude go in and come out and Weirdo gets REEMED by the board members. He is in there about an hour and when told to relax, appartently, sat back in the chair and crossed his legs. (WTF?!?!?) He had to do 4 warcries before they let him go because they weren't satisfied. Yikes. Confident dude and no problem. Jerk. :)
The end of this story is they take us in again one by one and tell us if we made it or not. The Corporal: no go, Karen Christie: left for Officer Candidacy School on May 21st and is in Ft. Benning as I write this (she didn't have to go to basic because she was enlisted in the last 4 years), Me: made it!!!!, Weirdo: didn't make it and left the building in tears, and Confident Dude: heads out July 2nd.
1*Army Officer Board
2*Weight Loss & MEPS
3*Ship Date & Related Issues
1
I went up on the Army Officer Candidacy board on the 28th of April and was super stressed. There have been a lot of times in my life that I have been nervous about something, but this was the interview to end all for me. If I didn't get it, I would have to wait and go back later, which doesn't seem so bad, but I would be up against the same officers who already would have a bad taste in their mouths regarding me and my abilities. So, there were five of us there: (this is also the order we went on the board)
1: THE CORPORAL: the enlisted dude who was still in and trying to become a flight officer. He was in Alphas and his MOS (military occupation specialty) was Military Police. (I have just realized that the military has a lot of acronyms for things and I'm really happy that I know some of them from Clint LOL) He was a cocky SOB and that comes back later to bite him in the ass.
2: THE PRIOR ENLISTED GIRL: (Karen Christie) super-fun chick who was 29 years old. She was in the Army enlisted 4 years ago and is now getting back in, but going the officer route. She and I made friends quickly, as we were the only females on the board and we both liked making fun of all the other dudes that sucked. :)
3: THE COLLEGE GRAD WHO IS DYING TO BECOME AN OFFICER BUT FEELS QUITE INFERIOR TO THE TWO PEOPLE HEADING TO THE BOARD BEFORE HER: this is me :)
4: THE WEIRDO: This was one of those guys that keeps saying things that he thinks are really funny, and then everyone just looks at him and tries to back away so he doesn't say another joke and continue to embarass himself. He was also wearing a suit with an old ratty brown belt and black patton-leather shoes. Plus, you know when your pants are too big and when you put the belt on, you have to like cinch it really tight so your pants don't fall off and expose your ass? Ya, that's where this dude was.
5: THE CONFIDENT GUY: This dude was dressed nice, was really polite, and kept making jokes about Full Metal Jacket and war cries (remember this) to keep everyone as calm as can be expected. He was one of those people that you're like, how the hell is this dude so collected while the rest of us are flipping out? Jerk. But, THEN, he's NOT a jerk. That's the worst!!!
So, there it is. Oh my gosh, this post is already abnormally long. I'm going to have to break it up into a couple posts here. So, moving on. We all get to Ft. Meade and Sgt Kinchen gets us all in a room and proceeds to tell us how the officers are just "normal people" with "normal feelings" and "normal intentions" except that they are deciding our fates. Oh, and that one used to be a JAG interrogator, and the other has been in 16 years because he is prior enlisted, and the main person is a female LTCOL (For those of you who don't know, officers start out at an O1 paygrade... a Lieutenant Colonel is at an O5) who was a battalion leader in Iraq before she came to Maryland. So... awesome. On that note, he ushers us all into a cubicle (no, I'm not kidding) and we stand there like fucking morons until they call us into the room of doom one by one. So, The Corporal goes in and we're all sitting there trying to relax while leaning on the unstable walls of the cubicle and all of a sudden we here, "AHHHHHHHHHH!" We're like, WTF was that? So, Confident Dude is like, oh, that's his warcry! Of course at this point, I'm thinking to myself, oh, god... I'm gonna have to do a warcry and I'm gonna say Oorah (Marine Corps warcry) instead of Hooah (Army warcry). So, I go to the bathroom and practice (quietly) in the mirror.
***Hold on, I gotta pee***
Ok, back. Oh a sidenote, I am, in all relative standards, one of the fastest pee-ers in the world. It takes me like 4 seconds to sit down, pee, wipe, and be done. It's crazy. Don't even get me started on taking a shit. (FYI: record time = 24 seconds from start to flush) I think that this will help me a lot when I am at boot camp and am being rushed to take a shit in front of 40 other girls. Yippee.... moving on
***
Also, while practicing my warcry, I practice the entrance. What I mean by that is this: the procedure to enter the room is knock on the door HARD three times, wait for them to tell you enter, and the proceed into the room. When you get there, you stand in front of the three officers and say, "Katelyn Reynolds reporting to the officer of the board." Then they tell me to sit, and I do so knees together, hands directly on knees looking straight forward until they address me. So, The Corporal comes out of the board in like 10 minutes. This is strange because they told us it would be at least 30 minutes for each of us. He tells us that it was probably bad he was so fast. He also tells us that they made him take his jacket off to see if he was wearing his nametag on his shirt underneath and when he wasn't, they were less than impressed. He said they DID make him do a warcry and that they asked him a lot of situational questions. So, the day proceeds, and Karen Christie goes in and comes out 35 minutes later and we don't have time to talk because I head in next. I do the entrance procedure and sit down. JAG dude (Capt Gregory) asks me about my schooling, what classes I had difficulties with and how I overcame the difficulties, why I picked the jobs I did (Military Intelligence, Signal Corps, and Civil Affairs) and then proceeds to look around the room while I answer all his questions. He also asks me to stop in the middle of an answer and asks me if I need a minute because I look like I am about to cry. I tell him no, that I am fine, and move on. So, 16 year vet asks me questoins about previous jobs, previous bosses, my average week, my volunteer hours, and my schooling again. Then, comes LtCol Hull. She seems very straightforward with her quesitons and even tells me that she knows how stressful this can be and to just relax. She asks me about my physical prowess and explains to me that it doesn't matter how smart I am, if I can't keep up with the boys, no one will want me to lead them. She asks me what the last leadership book I read was, and I have no answer. (P.S. since the board, I have read, the Army Officers Guide, Who Moved My Cheese, Leadership Tactics of Atilla the Hun, (GREAT book, totally recommend it) and am now reading Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach) That was pretty much it. I was in and out in 40 minutes and felt soooo much better when it was over. Bleh. So, Wierdo and Confident dude go in and come out and Weirdo gets REEMED by the board members. He is in there about an hour and when told to relax, appartently, sat back in the chair and crossed his legs. (WTF?!?!?) He had to do 4 warcries before they let him go because they weren't satisfied. Yikes. Confident dude and no problem. Jerk. :)
The end of this story is they take us in again one by one and tell us if we made it or not. The Corporal: no go, Karen Christie: left for Officer Candidacy School on May 21st and is in Ft. Benning as I write this (she didn't have to go to basic because she was enlisted in the last 4 years), Me: made it!!!!, Weirdo: didn't make it and left the building in tears, and Confident Dude: heads out July 2nd.
Monday, April 30, 2007
quickie
Quick update!!!
I was 1 of 3 people selected to be an Army officer!!!! I'll write the whole story in a couple hours. I have work to do... I know, weird...
I was 1 of 3 people selected to be an Army officer!!!! I'll write the whole story in a couple hours. I have work to do... I know, weird...
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
FINALLY
Well, it's official. I have broken the 150 pound mark, never to return again. I have lost 12 pounds in 7 weeks and I am stoked. :):):) Things are good. The AC in my office finally got fixed today when I called and told them that I was about to pass out and would not work under these conditions. 10 minutes later, it was fixed. I was relieved but annoyed that nothing had been done earlier if it was that simple to fix in the first place. What else??? I am going to the OCS board in 2 days. It starts at 930 and I am nervous as shit. (How nervous is shit, you ask? Quite.) In 2 days, it will be over and done with. Thank God, because just thinking about it makes my stomach flip. Not much to report. I went on a 2 hour bike ride this weekend and found a batting cage where I spent the next hour rekindling my childhood softball skills. :) It was fun. I am going to take Clint out there sometime this week, so I'm excited. Good to go. Nothing else to say....
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
It has to be said
So, with all this VA Tech news racing around, I have something to say. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and so, this is mine. Firstly, (and so you all don't think I am just a heartless bitch) I just want to say that it is a tragedy. For the families that lost members, it is 100% of their lives right now and that is terrible. Secondly, and more importantly, things like this happen around the world EVERYDAY. America is so inconceivably lucky that having 33 people killed is considered a "massacre". The same day of the VA Tech shootings:
- 56 soldiers were killed in Iraq and Afganistan
- a car bomb (1 of 4) was planted in Bahgdad, ultimately killing over 178 people, including 122 construction workers that were rebuilding the city since the last blast happened
- in Egypt, a head-on collision between a school bus and a truck killed 18 students and injured eight others on a road south of Cairo
- in Rio de Janeiro, mourners fled from gunfire at a cemetery and families ran for cover on the streets, as shootouts between rival drug gangs and police killed at least 20 people
- in the Philippines, a missing Peace Corps volunteer's body was found
And yet, these headlines, that are in turn devestating when compared to a small 33 people, are in the margins of the "Brutal Massacre at Virginia Tech." I hope that when I join the military, if I happen to die for the freedom of my country and the people in it, I won't be a margin in the local paper. Imagine how the families of all the fallen soldiers, construction workers, peace corps volunteer, Brazilians, and Egyptians feel. AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL. It's sick.
- 56 soldiers were killed in Iraq and Afganistan
- a car bomb (1 of 4) was planted in Bahgdad, ultimately killing over 178 people, including 122 construction workers that were rebuilding the city since the last blast happened
- in Egypt, a head-on collision between a school bus and a truck killed 18 students and injured eight others on a road south of Cairo
- in Rio de Janeiro, mourners fled from gunfire at a cemetery and families ran for cover on the streets, as shootouts between rival drug gangs and police killed at least 20 people
- in the Philippines, a missing Peace Corps volunteer's body was found
And yet, these headlines, that are in turn devestating when compared to a small 33 people, are in the margins of the "Brutal Massacre at Virginia Tech." I hope that when I join the military, if I happen to die for the freedom of my country and the people in it, I won't be a margin in the local paper. Imagine how the families of all the fallen soldiers, construction workers, peace corps volunteer, Brazilians, and Egyptians feel. AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL. It's sick.
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