And You Never Did Think

Goodbye Blogger, Hello WordPress

2009-06-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with WordPress and I've decided that I like it much better. So update your bookmarks, readers, whatever: you will now find my thoughts at http://neverdidthink.wordpress.com/.

Summer Playlist

2009-06-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

I had to make a new summer playlist. Since it's my playlist, it's all country. It's amazing and perfect... especially for a cross country road trip :)

People Are Crazy - Billy Currington

Out Last Night - Kenny Chesney

It Happens - Sugarland

It's America - Rodney Atkins

Chicken Fried - Zac Brown Band

Gettin' Down on the Farm - Tim McGraw

That's What I Love about Sunday - Craig Morgan

How You Ever Gonna Know - Garth Brooks

Simple As That - Lonestar

Troubador - George Strait

These Are My People - Rodney Atkins

All Summer Long - Kid Rock

All My Friends Say - Luke Bryan

Back When - Tim McGraw

Cherry Bomb - John Cougar Mellencamp

There's Your Trouble - Dixie Chicks

Some Beach - Blake Shelton

Strawberry Wine - Deana Carter

Ticks - Brad Paisley

Something To Talk About - Bonnie Raitt

How Bout Them Cowgirls - George Strait

Domestic, Light and Cold - Dierks Bentley

Suds In the Bucket - Sara Evans

Mary's Song (Oh My My My) - Taylor Swift

She's In Love With The Boy - Trisha Yearwood

South Carolina Low Country - Josh Turner

Only In America - Brooks & Dunn

Awful Beautiful Life - Darryl Worley

Six-Pack Summer - Phil Vassar

Ain't Going Down (Til The Sun Comes Up) - Garth Brooks

Jack and Diane - John Cougar Mellencamp

Mud On The Tires - Brad Paisley

BBQ Stain - Tim McGraw

Get Drunk and Be Somebody - Toby Keith

Where The Boat Leaves From - Zac Brown Band

Me & Charlie Talking - Miranda Lambert

One Night At A Time - George Strait

American Living - Rascal Flatts

God's Been Good To Me - Keith Urban

We Danced Anyway - Deana Carter

Damn, OCS...

2009-06-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

I had to do my PRT this morning. Luckily, I was able to do it with the recruiting office in Salinas instead of driving all the way to Mountain View, which meant a 45 minute round trip instead of a 3 hour one. That also meant I was doing it with a bunch of DEP kids, who are in surprisingly awful shape for young people but made me feel better about my not so stellar PT skills. Seriously.

They read off the minimums for the DEP kids and then asked me if I know mine (yes, by heart, 19 push ups, 54 curl ups, 14:53 run). The two petty officers running the PRT called me "OCS" throughout it all.

Curl ups: 54 (Good-low)

Sad, because I hit my minimum on the head... had we not been on asphalt in the rain, I might have been able to do a few more, but oh well, I met the standard. I also did twice as many as just about anyone else. My partner did 10. She kept trying to do more, but they weren't full curl-ups, they were crunches. I went longer than anyone else (I used the full 2 minutes), which prompted the petty officer to say "Damn, OCS, you're blowing everyone else away... this is the future of the Navy, you guys! The future of the Navy!"

Push ups: 27 (Good-medium)

I saw some crappy push ups too. Ones that Sig calls "officer push-ups" and ones where arms did not approach 90 degrees at all. More like 135. Those were the people who just seem to be bobbing spasmodically, and then stand up at the end of two minutes and say, "I did 90 push ups!" Right. I did 27 with decent (though steadily deteriorating) form -- one more than I have ever done in my life. I tried to make it to 30, which would have put me at a good-high, but I put my knee down and ended it. Next time...

Run: 13:57 (Good-high)

Chris ran with us and kept pace for me. I kept up (sort of). When I saw the guy standing at the end, I broke into a full out sprint to finish, and heard what I thought was 14:57, which would have put me four seconds over my minimum. I said crap (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) and Chris looked confused, and then the guy said 13:57 and my actual time sunk in. 43 seconds faster than my fastest ever time. Nice.

Now I just have to get someone at DLI to tape me, because I'm over weight again (grrrr) and there were no active duty females at the recruiting station today. Sigh. I don't know how I'm still overweight... I've been working out nearly everyday and you don't get much better eating habits than I have. FRUSTRATION.

UPDATE: I got taped and I'm definitely within standards. Since I went to MEPS, I've gained three pounds and dropped two percent body fat. How does that work? I'm super counting calories and doubling my workouts until I leave. There's no way I want to get taped at OCS.

Asthma waiver, PRT, height/weight DONE. Now I just have to sit back and wait 2-3 weeks for my final select and class date. Yay!

Um, Really?

2009-06-06T12:00:00.001-07:00

Someone got to my blog by googling "would someone on ocs leave his family for a much older nasty women?"

Baking!

2009-05-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

My adopted soldier from Adoptaplatoon asked me if I would mind sending him some baked goods when I got a chance. Baking is what I do best and it's relaxing for me, so how could I turn that down? I spent all day baking... chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and brownies (two kinds -- one fudgy, and one cakey).

I am proud to say that I only tried the oatmeal raisin (because they're my favorite). The rest are sitting and cooling, waiting to be put into ziplocs and packed into a flat rate box :)

Time for the Real PRT

2009-05-31T19:49:00.001-07:00

This Wednesday is my PRT. Wednesday at 9 am. I'm nervous and not sure what's going to happen. I'm ok on the push ups... not as good as I would like to be, but I can definitely meet--and probably pass--my standard (19). I have to hit good low on all the categories. I think I can probably get to at least good medium (26) for the push ups, and possibly a good high (30).

Running is my enemy. It makes my arms cramp up (I swear I am not clenching my fists, or scrunching my shoulders!) and my nose run and just bleh. I hate it. My standard for the run is 14:53... I've been consistently within 10 seconds of that for awhile. Usually on the 10 seconds too slow unfortunately. On Saturday I ran it in 14:42 (yay for sub 10 minute mile!), which is almost at Good Medium (14:30). I've done it once so I should be able to do it again. At least that's what I'm telling myself. I'm going to run again tomorrow, and probably Tuesday morning (if not on the track, then definitely on the treadmill).

Sit ups are also my enemy. Not because my abs get tired, but because for some reason whenever I do sit ups, I manage to rub a spot at the bottom of my spine raw. Theoretically I should be able to say screw that, my abs still work! and just keep going... but consistently rubbing a raw spot against a piece of material makes the raw spot burn and sting and you just want it to stop. I bought some cushioned band-aids to put over the spot and they helped. I need to hit 54. I've done it before. ~~Probably not going to hit Good Medium (62).~~ I just did 62 sit ups, so I should be able to score Good Medium on Wednesday.

I'm trying not to worry about it, because at this point there's not much I can do to improve. I'm either going to be able to do it or I won't. Since my recruiter keeps saying "We'll just run a PRT and see where you're at," I'm guessing that if I don't pass this one, it will just be a blow to my ego and not the end of the road to OCS. Still, I would really prefer to pass it. I've been working so hard at this, I'm kind of frustrated that I'm not positive I'm going to pass with flying colors. I know that I've improved since I started working out, but I really would have liked to improve faster... still, physical stuff has never been my forte. I think that's why I'm so determined to make it my forte.

However I do this Wednesday, when I get to OCS, I will be at the Excellent High (91 curl-ups, 41 push-ups, 12:30 1.5 mile run), so when I graduate, I can be at Outstanding High (101 c/u, 46 p/u, 10:17 run).

Jumble of Random Thoughts

2009-05-27T19:19:00.001-07:00

I am officially asthma free! Now to wait for the waiver, which my recruiter says is about a week wait. I've learned that in Navy time, that is probably more like a month.

Casey is a 3/3/2+ Russian linguist. I haven't taken such a test to evaluate my Russian, so I'm bragging about him.

Dr. Pepper has a weird after taste.

When people park in the middle of a space that could have fit two cars, it makes me want to ram into the back of their car.

There is nothing you can't do with cream of mushroom soup. It's magical.

I wish I could write Military top contributor on Yahoo!Answers on my resume.

Chris passed out when they took his blood this morning. I did not pass out when they took my blood this afternoon. I'm hardcore.

Tickets in California are too expensive. I'm looking forward to contesting my ticket in court though. I get to take pictures and make charts to prove that a 25 mph speed limit on a hill that is almost vertical is unreasonable.

After I finish OCS, I'm going to make Chris salute me and call me Ma'am. Heh, not really... but I might make him ask for permission to come aboard when he wants to come in the apartment.

It's driving me crazy that my books are sitting unorganized in boxes. I want them nicely organized by author and series on a shelf.

I'm getting Paula Deen pots! I wish they were here already.

This morning at the gym, I saw a Navy guy doing a PRT. His pushups were awful. It looked like he was trying to do the worm dance.

Catch-22

2009-05-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

I need to get a test to prove I do not have asthma for the Navy... but the only people in Monterey who can do the test won't do the test unless I have an abnormal pulmonary fitness test (PFT), which I don't -- mine meets or exceeds all expected levels.

So I can't prove I don't have asthma because I don't have symptoms of asthma and they won't test me. Sigh.

Some Random Thoughts

2009-05-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

Last night, my dream was in the form of Meghan McCain's Twitter. What does that even mean? I don't know. I normally don't dream, but this past week, I've had vivid dreams every night. Is this good or bad? I don't know.

This morning, I was at the DLI track stretching and all of a sudden this guy in a truck pulls up. He sprints out of the car, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, runs two laps around the track, runs into the porta-potty next to the track, runs out of the porta-potty and does two more laps, then runs back into his car and immediately drives away. I'm still really not sure what to think of that. I just turned up my CD of running cadences and looked straight ahead.

I am a huge fan of training programs. I used to follow the Couch-to-5k running plan. Now I'm working on increasing speed, so I don't have a program. Today I just found the 200 sit ups challenge and the 100 push ups challenge. Perfect. By the time I get to OCS, I will be able to do 200 sit ups and 100 push ups.

CAPT Awesome just emailed to ask when I leave for OCS. I gave him the estimated date (assuming the waiver comes through) and he responded with "Newport winters are balmy. That's my story and I'm sticking to it." Ha.

Waivers, PRT, and All That Good Stuff

2009-04-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not a good liar.* I've never been a good liar. My face turns red, I have a nervous laugh, I sometimes even stutter. So when I went to MEPS and they asked if I had ever been diagnosed with asthma, I had to say yes. I have discussed this at length with various friends and people, and my recruiter was fine with my decision to not hide it. Yes, the chances that someone would ask about it are probably slim, even in the course of a background check, but like I said, in the case that they did they would know I was lying. So I told the truth.

And it sucked. They temporarily DQ'd me, and now I have to submit for a waiver. I have a pulmonary function test from a pulmonologist in Los Angeles from August of last year, but I need one that is taken after you run on a treadmill for awhile. I should have started this process earlier -- like when I was still on my mom's insurance, which would have covered all of this for a measly $20 copay. Now I have my own insurance, which doesn't cover anything until I hit the $1500 deductible. Meh. It's alright though (especially if Dr. Potter pays me for my chapter and I successfully contest the speeding ticket I got for coming down Prescott in Monterey -- it's a hill that's practically vertical but has a 25 mph speed limit). The bigger problem is that I can't seem to find anyone in Monterey who will do this test for me. I'm waiting to hear back from one place and hopefully they can do it and will fit me in pretty soon. I'm kind of nervous I won't pass it, but that's an unreasonable fear, because I run all the time and when I finish, I'm still breathing. My recruiter says I have a very good chance of getting the waiver, and once the paperwork is in, there should be about a one week turn around. Keep your fingers crossed, and if you're the praying type, please keep me in your prayers :)

As for the PRT, tomorrow the boyfriend is going to conduct a mock PRT for me. We bought a stopwatch at Big 5 so we can time everything. We've counted and timed all things separately, but tomorrow will be the first time I do everything in a row. For refresher, the standards I need to meet are: 54 sit ups in two minutes, 19 push ups in two minutes, and 1.5 miles in 14:53. I'm currently at 47 sits up, 19 push ups and 1.5 miles in 14:56 (SO close). I just need to push a little more to get there. I'm supposed to a PRT with my recruiter soon so we can put in for final select, so that should be coming up fairly soon.

All that other good stuff is my weird dream last night where I was at OCS, and it was in one building that was connected to another. All the girls slept in one room and the walls were lined with beds with people's names, but while I was putting my stuff neatly under my bed, the DI took the sticker off my bed and moved it to another one and then yelled at me for being at the wrong bed. I redeemed myself later by saluting the DI and asking for permission to do something or other, and he was pleased and said I was an excellent officer candidate. I told Chris and all he said was, "Why would you salute the DI?" Good question. No more reading Pushed to the Limit before I go to sleep.

In unrelated news, I saw Wolverine and it was amazing. Also, I'm very excited for Star Trek next week. And being exactly two weeks away from graduation. Yay!

*This doesn't include when it doesn't matter. When it doesn't matter, I lie all the time about everything and you can't tell. Ask Casey. But when it matters, when it's about something important, I can't lie.

Gay Ban and the Military: A Bad Fit

2009-04-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Today, I read a column in the Washington Post entitled Gays and the Military: A Bad Fit. It was entirely frustrating, but it served some good, because it motivated me to finally write that post about Don't Ask Don't Tell. Without further ado (and because Casey is staring at my blog, hitting refresh, and waiting for me to post this), here you go. My comments are in bold.

Gays and the Military: A Bad Fit
By James J. Lindsay, Jerome Johnson, E.G. "Buck" Shuler Jr. and Joseph J. Went

With the nation engaged in two wars and facing a number of potential adversaries, this is no time to weaken our military. Yet if gay rights activists and their allies have their way, grave harm will soon be inflicted on our all-volunteer force.

Letting gay members serve openly doesn’t change the makeup of the military. Gay Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen ALREADY serve in our armed forces and there is absolutely no evidence that they have weakened our strength. Our all-volunteer force isn’t falling apart. It’s insulting to suggest that our military is so unprofessional that the troops would mutiny if they found out that some people—with whom they’ve been serving without problem—are gay.

The administration and some in Congress have pledged to repeal Section 654 of U.S. Code Title 10, which states that homosexuals are not eligible for military service. Often confused with the "don't ask, don't tell" regulations issued by President Bill Clinton, this statute establishes several reasons that homosexuality is incompatible with military service.

Section 654 is based on several distorted facts and a number of unfounded opinions, but aside from that, it DOES NOT state that homosexuals are not eligible for military service on the basis of being homosexual alone. It states that homosexual behavior is not accepted by the military, but provides for certain circumstances in which it can be permitted. For example, a normally heterosexual soldier can go out and have a homosexual encounter when he gets drunk one night, and that’s alright. A homosexual soldier can have a long term devoted relationship, and that’s not ok. Yep, certainly seems to be promoting a culture of self control and discipline.

Section 654 recognizes that the military is a "specialized society" that is "fundamentally different from civilian life." It requires a unique code of personal conduct and demands "extraordinary sacrifices, including the ultimate sacrifice, in order to provide for the common defense." The law appreciates military personnel who, unlike civilians who go home after work, must accept living conditions that are often "characterized by forced intimacy with little or no privacy."

I’m not even sure how this supports their argument. Are they suggesting that homosexual soldiers are incapable of “extraordinary sacrifice”? Doesn’t the fact that so many gay soldiers are currently serving and DENYING a part of their of identity because the military thinks they should be ashamed of it mean that they are actually more used to sacrificing than heterosexual soldiers, who can easily discuss relationship problems or bring their significant others to military functions?

While there have been changes in civilian society since this statute was adopted by wide bipartisan majorities in 1993, the military realities it describes abide. If anything, they are more acute in wartime.

In our experience, and that of more than 1,000 retired flag and general officers who have joined us in signing an open letter to President Obama and Congress, repeal of this law would prompt many dedicated people to leave the military. Polling by Military Times of its active-duty subscribers over the past four years indicates that 58 percent have consistently opposed repeal. In its most recent survey, 10 percent said they would not reenlist if that happened, and 14 percent said they would consider leaving.

If just the lesser number left the military, our active-duty, reserve and National Guard forces would lose 228,600 people -- more than the total of today's active-duty Marine Corps. Losses of even a few thousand sergeants, petty officers and experienced mid-grade officers, when we are trying to expand the Army and Marine Corps, could be crippling.

First, the Military Times poll was not drawn from a representative sample of the military population, but rather from a self selected group of people who read their publication. Anyone who’s taken a class in basic statistics and research methods knows you can’t draw solid conclusions from flawed data. Second, there is a difference between attitudes and behavior. Servicemen in the 40’s were opposed to integration of the services, but when they were told to accept it, they did. West Point students pledged to leave the service if women were admitted in the 70’s. They didn’t. Approximately half of British and Canadian troops said they would not serve with gays, but when their respective bans were lifted, they didn’t. Let’s talk about some more reliable statistics:. In 2004, an Annenberg poll found that a slight majority of junior enlisted favored openly gay service. In 2006, a Zogby poll of Iraq and Afghanistan vets found that 72% were “personally comfortable” around gays. [Source:Palm Center Policy Memo] Around half of the troops knew of or suspected that someone in their unit was gay. Somehow, they’ve managed to continue effectively functioning. Shocking. The authors must have missed those studies. I would expect more attention to detail from retired flag officers.

And the damage would not stop there. Legislation introduced to repeal Section 654 (H.R. 1283) would impose on commanders a radical policy that mandates "nondiscrimination" against "homosexuality, or bisexuality, whether the orientation is real or perceived." Mandatory training classes and judicial proceedings would consume valuable time defining that language. Team cohesion and concentration on missions would suffer if our troops had to live in close quarters with others who could be sexually attracted to them.

A “radical policy”? Not really. It just says you can’t discriminate based on someone’s sexual orientation – whether it’s their actual orientation or just what you think their orientation is. Notwithstanding the fact that you should just be able to say, “Hey, you know how you’re forbidden from discriminating against people based on gender and race? Now you can’t do it based on their sexual orientation either,” such anti-discrimination training could prevent things like the pointless murder of Barry Winchell from reoccurring. A waste of valuable time? Not so much. Cohesion in the military is based on task cohesion, which is actually stronger than social cohesion anyway. Letting gays serve openly wouldn’t hurt that.

We don't need a study commission to know that tensions are inevitable in conditions offering little or no privacy, increasing the stress of daily military life. "Zero tolerance" of dissent would become official intolerance of anyone who disagrees with this policy, forcing additional thousands to leave the service by denying them promotions or punishing them in other ways. Many more will be dissuaded from ever enlisting. There is no compelling national security reason for running these risks to our armed forces. Discharges for homosexual conduct have been few compared with separations for other reasons, such as pregnancy/family hardship or weight-standard violations. There are better ways to remedy shortages in some military specialties than imposing social policies that would escalate losses of experienced personnel who are not easily replaced.

Is “zero tolerance” of dissent something new to the military? Now I’m not in the military (yet), but I’ve always been under the impression that in the military you don’t get to decide which policies you agree with and will abide by. They tell you to do something, you do it. If you don’t do it, you don’t get promoted and you get punished. If you’re really opposed to being told what you can do and when, you are dissuaded from enlisting. Essentially, these officers are saying they don’t think people should be forced to abide by this policy, but forcing people in the military to abide by policy is nothing new.

And comparing homosexual conduct to pregnancy/family hardship and weight-standard violations is like comparing apples to oranges and bananas. For one, if pregnant, women are given the option to leave – not told that they have to. In the Navy, they’re not even allowed to leave unless they can prove “overwhelming and compelling factors of personal need.” When they’re no longer pregnant, they go back to work. Being overweight can keep you from doing your job; it can endanger your life and the life of those around you. And, sort of like pregnant women, when you’re not overweight anymore, you can get back to work. I would like to see the statistics on losses from pregnancy and weight standards, because I’m not quite sure I’m buying this statement. Even if I did, the military deals with those losses because there’s no way around it. You can’t tell women not to get pregnant, you can’t tell people not to get overweight (although you can stick them on strict training regimens)… but you can somehow tell people not to be gay? No. Those are completely avoidable and unnecessary losses.

People who are gay are always going to be gay. Their sexual orientation does not endanger the lives of people around them. The integration experiences in other countries suggest that being open about sexual orientation also decreases the probability that their sexual orientation will endanger their lives. When a person is free to report harassment to his chain of command without fear of being discharged for homosexual conduct, the frequency of harassment decreases.

There’s also a problem with the authors’ statement about the losses of experienced personnel who are not easily replaced. I’ve already expressed my doubt that many people will actually leave, but guess what else? The gay soldiers being discharged aren’t easily replaced either. The GAO estimated that 800 of the 12000 servicemen discharged under DADT held mission critical positions: pilots, linguists, medics, intelligence analysts. The cost to replace them and train new service members was over $363.8 million.

Some suggest that the United States must emulate Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada, which have incorporated homosexuals into their forces. But none of these countries has the institutional culture or worldwide responsibilities of our military. America's armed forces are models for our allies' militaries and the envy of our adversaries -- not the other way around.

What about Israel, the UK, and Australia? Convenient omissions maybe, because these countries have also integrated gays into their militaries, and with high levels of success. No one disputes the strength of the Israeli military, or the strength and worldwide responsibilities of the UK. No one is suggesting that the United States military needs to model itself after Denmark, the Netherlands, and Canada (and Israel, the United Kingdom, and Australia). Rather, they are countering the belief that allowing gays in the military will reduce military efficiency and cause mass numbers of servicemen to flee the service by providing examples where these things did not happen.

As former senior commanders, we know that the reason for this long-standing envy is the unsurpassed discipline, morale and readiness of our military. The burden should be on proponents of repeal to demonstrate how their initiative would improve these qualities of our armed services. This they cannot do.

How can telling our service members that they must respect all their peers regardless of their sexual orientation hurt discipline? It seems to me that it would demonstrate the strength of our services to follow through on orders that they may not personally support. How can the addition and retention of qualified soldiers—especially linguists, pilots, medics, and intelligence analysts—hurt morale and readiness? It can’t. They cannot do because you are all close minded bigots—and that is not a word I use lightly.

Consequently, our recent open letter advised America's elected leaders: "We believe that imposing this burden on our men and women in uniform would undermine recruiting and retention, impact leadership at all echelons, have adverse effects on the willingness of parents who lend their sons and daughters to military service, and eventually break the All-Volunteer Force."

You can believe that all you want gentlemen, but it is an ignorant and unfounded belief. There is no proof that allowing gays to serve openly would undermine recruiting and retention or impact leadership. If military officers cannot enforce a policy on their troops, they are lacking the leadership required to be military officers. Further, parents do not “lend” their sons and daughters to military service. Young men and woman choose to enlist because they want to serve their country. If they feel they cannot serve their country because the person to their right or left happens to be a homosexual, perhaps they should find another way to serve their country. Just as we would not indulge their prejudices against the opposite sex or different religions and races, we should not indulge their prejudices against people with different sexual orientations.

For further reading, I strongly recommend Unfriendly Fire by Nathaniel Frank.

MEPS Snag...

2009-04-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

More on the whole MEPS experience later, but here are some highlights:

Civilian MEPS Employee: Put a check in the circle, don't bubble in the circle, don't X through the circle, just put a check. Only checks. Again, don't bubble in, don't X, don't draw a line, just make a check mark. If you don't know what a check mark is, look at the example on the board.(Looks at paper of stupid first girl in row and stops in disbelief) Really? Did you really just bubble in that circle? (Looks at me, behind her) I hope you're not allergic to stupid people.

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MEPS Dr.: If you are one of those people whose recruiter told them that it is MEPS job to disqualify them, please know that is not the case. I am here to qualify you. Now please sign this line to demonstrate that you understand you have been disqualified because of asthma until our medical records are complete.

Because obviously that one trip to a the student health center in college for bronchitis is going to be far more influential than the letter from the pulmonary specialist who treated me from age 5(ish) and said I have absolutely no symptoms or physical restrictions and am asthma free.

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Army Major @ MEPS: SESPI! What are you doing here? Don't you have a 2 Lima on your paperwork?
Me: I don't know, what is a 2 Lima? I was disqualified.
Army Major: You weren't disqualified. Where would you get an idea like that?
Me: From the box I signed that said I was disqualified?
Army Major: Don't assume! That doesn't mean that. Your file is still open. Now go back to the Navy office.
Me: But they just brought me down here.
Army Major: We can't fingerprint you today because you were disqualified.
Me: ...

I still have no idea what a 2 Lima is and how it is different (or if it is different) from being disqualified or having an open file...

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I have to gather up some more medical records. Ugh. My recruiter is NOT happy with MEPS. She sent down the medical records that had been collected before I went in for the physical and they gave me the good to go. The guy putting my kit together said he's going over the doctor's head to another MEPS doctor, and if that fails, there's another way to appeal. So apparently, I'm not out... but I'm not in just yet either.

An Update on the Navy Front: Part 2

2009-04-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

My recruiter just called me and went on for about a minute and a half in a voicemail about how she had set up the hotel for me to go to MEPS in Mountain View next week and I would be getting that information in an email shortly. At the very end of the call, almost as an afterthought, she said, "Oh yeah, and I wanted to congratulate you -- you were selected by the Board."

Woooooooooooooooooooo!

For those unfamiliar with the Naval Officer selection process, this means I've been "professionally recommended" and isn't the same as being absolutely selected, like sign your contract and we're shipping it out. It means the community I applied to has said that they think I am qualified and would like me to join -- pending the approval of MEPS and passage of a PRT. I'll check in next week and describe my MEPS experience... and then hopefully soon with a post that says I was final selected and have my OCS ship date! :)

P.S. When I called my recruiter back, she said she was excited too because I was her first person and I was selected, which means she has a 100% success rate. Hahaha. I love her. If anyone is looking to put in a Navy OCS application, let me know and I'll put you in contact with her.

I'm Not Crazy

2009-04-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

People DO judge you when you go to the gym. It's not just me. Or maybe it's just girls who judge other girls, because the guys in the gym at DLI don't even look at me until they're off the machines. Sort of like, "Oh, that's a GIRL next to me... she's sweaty and nasty. Gross." Except for the guy who recognized me once at Long's, but even he was unsure if it he knew me and had to ask if he saw me sometimes, maybe at the gym? Yes... if by sometimes, you mean every morning from 7-8ish for the past couple months. I clean up nice.

Luckily for me, when I go to the gym, it's in the morning and the only other woman in there is a late 30's military wife who just briskly walks on the treadmill for half an hour. Judge me all you want! I'm faster than you and I run longer! Ha!

...I think I may have accidentally just proved that I AM crazy.

San Francisco

2009-03-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went wine tasting at Pier 39 in San Francisco.

Lots of choices...

If you memorize those descriptions, you can sound like you know a lot about wine.

I drink pink wine because it tastes fruity and like candy. I actually bought a bottle of one of them (at a market in North Beach when we needed a bathroom).

Chris drinks red wine. He's more like a grown up.

We should have ordered the bread and olive oil/balsamic vinegar sampler.

Headed home after a dinner of pulled pork and (free) wings at Hooters, where the girls really aren't as attractive as they're hyped up to be.

That Can't Be Right...

2009-03-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

You know veterans... they're about yea tall, usually wearing green or maybe tan, and about... thiiiiiiiiiis brave.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

That Can't Be Right - Veterans' Health Insurance

Daily Show Full Episodes
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Actual Navy SEALs... hahaha.

An Update on the Navy Front

2009-03-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

I've been very blog averse lately, but I have a list of things to write about (among them DADT and what makes a good/bad leader). I'll probably get around to most of them eventually, but I figured I would start with what's been on my mind: the Navy.

I got a call from a Navy recruiter in February, asking if I was interested in learning about opportunities as an officer. It was good timing because I had gone the week before to talk to a Naval Captain (1630)--we'll call him CAPT Awesome, because he is--at NPS and he pretty much won me over. The weird part is that he won me over by putting me in contact with a 24 year old female LTJG who was not gung ho about the Navy. When she sat down to talk with me, the first thing she said was, "I don't know why CAPT Awesome wants you to talk to me. I'll probably convince you not to join and he'll be mad at me." I went home that day, called the recruiter back, and told her I wanted to put in my application.

The application itself was pretty straight forward, and nothing I haven't filled out before--why do you want to join, where did you go to school, what's your medical history, have you tried to overthrow the US government, etc. The hardest part was writing my motivational statement. You only get 350 words so there's not all that much you can do with that. I had to track down all my transcripts and request some letters of recommendation from professors and employers, but that was more time consuming than difficult.

From there I had to take a hideous test called the ASTB. Awful test. The math section was fun, the reading comprehension was different than any I've ever taken, and the mechanical comprehension (read: physics) was как адская огня. Seriously. I prepped for two weeks--mostly on the mechanical comprehension because it has been a looooonnnnggg time since I took a physics class (over 10 years)--and it was still dreadful. In any case, I finished an hour and a half later, got a pretty decent score, and then talked with my recruiter about the fitness requirements.

If you recall my New Year's Resolution, the fitness requirements shouldn't be a problem because I've been working on it for awhile. I'm getting there... I need to score a good low across the board on a PRT before I can ship out to OCS. For my age group that means 1.5 miles in 14:53, 54 sit ups in 2 minutes, and 19 push ups in 2 minutes. I'm currently at 1.5 miles in... an unknown amount of time (but probably around 16 minutes), 45 sit ups, and 10 pushups. I'm most impressed with the pushups--a month ago I couldn't even do 3 girl push ups and now I can do 10 real ones.

Anyway, my application packet went up for the March Selection Board, which took place on March 15. In addition to the paperwork, I had an interview with CAPT Awesome and he gave me a strong recommendation (SELECT NOW!!!!) and CAPT Awesome set up an interview for me with LCDR Junior 1630 Detailer, who also put in a good word for me. My recruiter (who is amazing by the way) emailed me the other day and said we have a 15 day wait to hear back, so I should find out one way or the other pretty soon.

If I get selected by the Board, the next step is to go through MEPS and get OK'd medically. There are some potential snags there, but I'm doing what I can to address them. If all fails... waiver? Shrug. If I get OK'd at MEPS and pass a PRT with my recruiter, I get final selected and then it's off to OCS for me. The very earliest I could be at OCS is July (or so I hear).

And that's where I'm at in the Navy process: Waiting...

Bleck.

2009-03-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've lost 50 pounds since I was in high school. You wouldn't know it by looking at any of the pictures taken of me over the past weekend.

Ugh.

Casey's Surprise Party

2009-03-15T09:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my beloved roommate turned 23 and we threw him a surprise party. We also gave him a pimp cup that said Big Daddy on it, and that followed him downtown when we went out.

Here he is:

Here's the surprise... with the weird pause between when he opened the door and when we yelled "SURPRISE!" He had no idea.

Being as strange as we are, we decided to have a black and white clothing theme and a This Is Why You're Fat food theme. Here's the spread:

Starting from the back (the giant bowl) is bacon poutine, a chocolate cake with Reese's peanut butter cups between the layers frosted with chocolate and peanut butter and decorated with Reese's pieces, bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers, bacon wrapped hot dogs with assorted toppings (including crushed potato chips), bacon wrapped dates (which were amazing), fried ravioli, and brownies.

I made the fried ravioli, but I had never actually fried anything before this -- I try to avoid it usually and have a tendency to faux fry by breading and baking. They turned out well though. so here's a close up.

I didn't eat all that much, for which my heart is thankful. I gave up candy for Lent, so that mostly ruled out the cake (Eric ate the candy and I just ate the actual cake part). The poutine grossed me out, so I didn't eat it. Not a huge fan of hotdogs (or bacon), so I skipped that. I ate some ravioli, a few bacon-less poppers, and a brownie.

I'm going running today. Maybe twice.

Weight FAIL

2009-02-20T13:02:00.000-08:00

You know what sucks? When you're right on the border of a weight requirement*, but then you find out that you're two inches shorter than you always say you are and your weight requirement moves up (well... down in this case) by six pounds. ARGH.

New plan: doubling the amount of cardio, no more soda, and no more candy until I'm at my new requirements... which apparently needs to be at the end of the first week in March.

Six pounds in two weeks? Completely doable.

*My dad's side of the family is very dense... we weigh a lot more than one might think.

Things to Do Today...

2009-02-18T11:21:00.001-08:00

1. Yell at HP and see if I can get them to fix my computer (the problem with it is a common one that they have yet to issue a recall for).

2. Yell at MIIS and see if I can get them to fax an official transcript (since they apparently never mailed one).

3. Yell at my old employer for not transferring paperwork I need transferred.

4. Play with my new computer - I've gone back to Dell!

I yell at people entirely too much...

Repeat: Stay away from HP

2009-02-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

My laptop worked fine this morning, then I closed it and went to the gym... since then won't turn on. It appears to be a common problem with my model (Pavilion tx1000) and not one that HP has bothered to fix. I've had more problems with this computer in the 13 months that I've had it than I had with my Dell in over four years, and way more problems with their customer service.

So I guess it's time to buy another computer. Sigh. This hurts. At least I just got a fat tax refund that should pay for it.

A Change of Course...

2009-02-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

I've been kind of quiet on my military plans as of late--that's not because I've changed my mind and decided I really like being a civilian, it's because of I've been talking to a lot of people and doing a lot of thinking. I've always been sure that I wanted the military, and I was pretty sure it was going to be enlisted, National Guard, Army.

I pretty much have done a complete 180*.

As of today, I am officially a candidate for a commission in the Navy.

*And not a 360 which would be a complete circle and not at all what I meant. Geometry fail.

Books in 2009

2009-01-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

I've decided that this year I'm going to keep track of how many books I read. Of course, this means ALL the books I read, and not just the ones that make me look smart... ;)

So I'm keeping a running tally on the side of my blog now of books that I've read, and books that are on my shelf waiting for me to read. So far I've knocked out 7 books this year... and almost every one was a trashy romance novel (except the one that wasn't was one I had to read for a class). In my defense, I'm on vacation and have been enjoying not having to think. Also, my upcoming books that are waiting to be read are all books of substance. Not a single romance novel in the lot.

Barack Obama is NOT Winning Me Over.

2009-01-24T11:57:00.000-08:00

He's repelling me a little more each day.

From an article in the Telegraph:

Mr Obama has told Republicans in Washington to stop listening to the right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh, risking a new culture war with conservative voters.

Well gee, Obama, you may be the President, but I don't think you have the right to dictate who or what your political opposition listens to. Dissent is patriotic, remember? Obama apparently has a personal vendetta against Limbaugh who said "I hope he fails." To be clear, what Limbaugh was talking about was Obama's liberal policies - as in, I hope Obama fails in creating a socialist state. I hope so too.

[Obama] faces mounting criticism over his $825 billion economic stimulus plan, from Republican leaders who say the legislation has been drawn up without the input which Mr Obama had promised to allow them.

The president responded with a clear signal that he is prepared to ram the bill through without the bipartisan consensus he promised to construct, telling Republican leaders from the House of Representatives: "I won. I'm the president."

Again, you may be the president, but we have a little thing in place called checks and balances. Remember? It was all people talked about when Bush was president, but I guess now that the One is president, we don't need them anymore. What Obama wants, goes.

Mr Obama has pledged to end the culture wars on social issues that have riven American politics for a generation and did not allow television cameras to film him signing the executive order reversing the Bush abortion funding ban on aid agencies abroad, in order not to provoke pro-life groups.

When he finally did sign the order he issued a statement in a bid to placate abortion critics by promising to "reach out to those on all sides of this issue to achieve the goal of reducing unintended pregnancies." He added: "It is time that we end the politicisation of this issue."

Because if it's not on television, it's like it didn't happen. Those pro-life groups won't oppose it if it's not publicized. It is time that we end the politicization of this issue: I wonder if that means it's time we find a common ground, or if it's going to be another "I win, I trump you on that, you have to agree with me." -- i.e. we're going to kill babies, and you need to stop listening to your church, your conservative pundits, your conscience, etc, because otherwise we won't get anything done.

The president has also reacted badly to his first taste of tougher questioning from the previously supine Washington press corps - becoming visibly irritated, during a visit to journalists' offices in the White House, when asked a substantive question about the ethics affair.

How dare you ask a substantive question! I hear Obama tells the reporters who will be called on beforehand, and if you haven't been informed, you don't even try to get in a question. I love our newly transparent government.

This was probably the most annoying to me:

The Obama people like a scrap, they've proved that throughout the year, none more than the president. But they know they're in a fight now. And it probably won't let up for eight years.

He's less than a week into his presidency. Can we stop assuming he's going to have a second term? When we get hit with another terrorist attack because he's crippled the intelligence community with inexperienced leaders and asinine interrogation restrictions, and returned the people at Gitmo to their home countries and allowed them to become terrorist leaders), any chance at a second term for him will be gone. Unless the media somehow finds a way to blame it on Bush.

Being the Bigger Person is Hard

2009-01-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

But I managed again today. Remember Stupid McJuvenile? Well, since his wife works with me, she managed to finagle him a job in our office. I say office in the general sense--he's actually not even in our building, although he does make his way over here frequently. And he somehow manages to hang out in my cubicle and say hi to Monica (on my left) and Casey (on my right) while pointedly ignoring me.

Today, he got a piece of spam email in Russian. He wanted to know what it said and if he could unsubscribe from the mailing list. We have three Russian speakers in our office: myself, Casey (currently in Seattle taking the PMF test) and Kris (currently in DC for the inauguration).

Did he act like a professional and forward me the email asking me to please let him know what it said? Nope. He sent it to Ian, who speaks Arabic, knowing that Ian would forward it on to me.

Did I tell Ian to tell SMcJ to ask me directly and say please? No. I looked at it and told Ian it was spam with nowhere to unsubscribe or even contact the creators of the email aside from a phone number.

SMcJ thanked Ian, who passed the thanks on to me. I got the joy of knowing that it killed him to have to ask me for something (even indirectly) as he takes great pleasure in snubbing me on every occasion we happen to be in the same room, even when I take the higher ground and politely smile and say hello. And I suppose I get the satisfaction of being the bigger person.

Customer Service Review: Crate and Barrel

2009-01-16T17:12:00.000-08:00

I've decided that I have a lot of interactions with customer service people, and as someone who used to work retail, I'm going to start reviewing them. I already offered everyone the service of suggesting you stay far away from HP and I forgot to mention this when I talked about my Navy Ball dress disaster, but Nordstrom's is awesome. They took back the dress--after I wore it and was sewn into it--and gave me a full refund.

Today though, I'm going to talk about Crate and Barrel. Last week, I decided that I was going to make Pizza Soup (which I recommend to everyone... along with George Duran's entire cook book). I had no oven safe bowls though, and they cost a fortune and/or were ugly everywhere around here... but then I found these:

Cute, and part of a discontinued line so I could get 4 for $6 (instead of $8 each). And I get a little out of control with kitchen things (I can't wait until I have my own kitchen... with a gas stove--no more electric!), so I also bought this casserole dish:

Also cute, also on clearance. $9.95.

I finally got them though and the handle was broken off the casserole dish. Sigh. So I called Crate and Barrel, expecting a hassle of having to send it back, wait for it to be verified, send out a replacement and all that. Nope. 5 minutes later, a nice old southern lady said, "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry to hear that! You just throw that one away and we'll send a new one right out to you. Is regular shipping ok, or do you need it quicker?"

That's how customer service should always be.

Why Did I Agree to Do This?

2009-01-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

Sometime last year, my professor said if I wrote a paper on Venezuela, it could be included in his book of case studies on nuclear proliferation threats. Sounds like a good opportunity, plus I get paid -- for a paper I had to write for a seminar anyway.

I'm now on about the 4th round of edits, and it's starting to seem like every time I make an edit, they send it back and tell me I have to do two more. I don't even know what I'm arguing in this paper anymore.

The final draft is due January 25. Then I'm taking my money and the next time someone asks me to write a chapter for a book, I'm saying no.

I'm also dropping the proliferation seminar I'm signed up for this semester. No more papers! Ok, two more papers... but definitely not three!

New Year's Resolutions

2008-12-30T21:09:00.000-08:00

Here's to hoping I do better this year than I did last year.

Drumroll please... this year's goal:

Be in good enough shape to max out the Army PT test (even though I'm still not in the Army. Sigh. Someday. Hopefully).

What does that mean for a 25 year old female?

46 pushups in 2 minutes

80 situps in 2 minutes

2 miles in 15:36

I appear to have quite a ways to go.

P.S. If those numbers are off, let me know please :)

Random Note

2008-12-30T08:08:00.001-08:00

Being sick sucks. Being sick sucks more when you're so dizzy you can't even open your eyes without vomiting, so you can't read (even though you finally have time to read for fun and about eight "new" books from the used book store) or even really watch TV (when USA is playing a House marathon... although I did get to watch the Psych marathon). On the plus side, I'm finally caught up on my sleep debt (I think I've probably slept about 30 of the last 48 hours) and I probably lost a couple pounds.

Glad that's finally over because my birthday is coming up, Chris is getting back to LA tomorrow, and I need to eat lemon meringue pie and my free dinner at La Capilla... mmm tortilla soup.

:(

2008-12-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

Argh. I have one more paper to write. It's due Saturday at 1300.

I. Can. Not. Make. Myself. Write.

11-12 pages or 3500 words comparing the strategic, operational, and tactical performance of the Soviets in Afghanistan with the Russians in Chechnya.

Since December 1, I have written 46 pages -- 7 of them in Russian. That's entirely too many pages.

Everyone else is done, and I'm going home tomorrow.

I want this paper OVER!

A Conversation Between Me and the Roommate

2008-12-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

Me (to Chris): Casey said now that Obama's going to withdraw the troops from Iraq, he's going to join the Army--

Casey (from his room): That's NOT what I said!

Me: I'm paraphrasing, and using artistic license.

Casey: I'm revoking your artistic license!

Me: Are you working on your paper?

Casey: Don't tell me my business!

Hahaha, I love the roommate...

New Years Resolution

2008-11-30T15:51:00.000-08:00

I need to make this one early, because it might take me 13 months to accomplish it.

New Years resolution: Get a strong core and some upper body strength.

This resolution will be considered successful when I can push myself up from a pushup into a handstand and then go over into a bridge.

On second thought, that might take me a few years to accomplish... but I'll aim for December 31 2009.

Here We Go Again

2008-11-19T20:27:00.000-08:00

Somehow I always end up with so much to do at the end of the semester. I tried to break it down, and this morning I felt ahead of schedule, but then Chris found out he made E-6 (yay!) so we went out to dinner and now I'm not in a writing mood. I will get into a writing mood, or I'll be behind in the morning.

The to-do list (in order of deadlines):

1) ~~Revise 27 30 34 page paper about Hugo Chavez and nukes~~
2) ~~Start researching, then write 12 page paper about the future of Russian-US Arms Control Agreements~~
3) ~~Take home Russian test~~
4) ~~Start researching, then write 15 page paper about the relationship between drug and nuclear smuggling in the Caucasus.~~
5) ~~Write 8 page Russian essay on the Russian submarine fleet~~
6) Write 15 page paper on Russian/Soviet military history

Semester ends: December 15

That was supposed to make me feel less stressed, but it did not... Based on the very good advice of a friend last year, I will make sure to take breaks and go running. I've been running up at DLI and it is definitely a stress reliever.

Tip of the Day: Stay Away from HP

2008-11-17T19:27:00.001-08:00

Ugh.

I had a Dell laptop for 4 years, no problems at all. Well, my keyboard broke a couple times (I type hard apparently) but I would call their customer service, be off the phone in ten minutes, have a free replacement in two business days, and all was well. I traded it in because it was too heavy for me to cart around in my backpack and the fan randomly got super loud in class to the point where the guy next to me asked if it was going to explode. It ran fine though.

Last December I got an HP tablet PC. It's lightweight, it's cute, and it has a cool rotating touch screen. But it runs Windows Vista (strike one), it crashed two weeks after I got it (strike two), and now the power cord just broke in the middle of crunch time (three 15 page papers, one 8 page paper in Russian, and revising a 28 page paper for publication... all due early to mid December). STRIKE THREE.

That's three strikes. But does it end there?

Nope. I had to call customer service three times today, because my computer is under warranty and they will replace the cord for free. None of their representatives speak English and I can't understand anything they say. I told them flat out that my power cord is broken and it's not the port on my computer, I just need a replacement cord. I even gave them the number from the label on my cord that says "Replace with HP Part XXXX-XXX."

They took my credit card information because if I don't return the broken cord to them within 15 days, they'll charge my card. No refunds. Grrrrr.

I told the guy I was in a hurry because I was on a break between classes. He still took the time to try to convince me to sign up for an extended warranty and wouldn't accept a simple "No, thank you, I'm not interested, and if I change my mind, I know how to contact you." GRRRRRR....

I got an email two hours later saying that they were mailing me replacement Part YYYY-YYY.

... back to the phone...

Twenty minutes later, after I've finally got the person on the phone to understand what exactly I'm saying, she says "I'm not the person you need to talk to. Let me transfer you."

So then I have to start all over. This woman catches on a little more quickly, but says, "We're mailing you the part that's compatible with your computer." I say, "That's fine, I just wanted to double check, because my computer cord specifically says replace with XXXX-XXX and you're sending me YYYY-YYY."

"Your cord doesn't say that. That doesn't go with your computer."

"Um. I'm looking at my cord and that's what it says."

"No, ma'am, that's not compatible with your computer."

"The power cord I've had since I got my computer is not compatible?"

"Let me double check your serial number." Pause. "Oh. Yes, you're correct. Your part hasn't shipped, we'll send you XXXX-XXX. You should have given us this number the first time you called." GRRRRRAARRRRGGGGGGHHHH.

Sigh. Next time I get a new computer, I'm going back to Dell. Or maybe even cross to the dark side and get a Mac.

The Bright Side

2008-11-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

In spite of the fact that I will have to deal with smug Obama supporters tomorrow, I can see several good things for the future:

1. Maybe--just maybe--Obama will stick to his promise to have a bipartisan administration and the divide in the country will shrink.

2. I like his idea about putting the head of the National Guard on the JCS.

3. With a Democratic Congress, Obama might be able to overturn Don't Ask, Don't Tell and let gays serve openly in the military. I hope he can.

4. Youth are politically energized more than they ever have been. I think that's awesome (and will be more so when they pass out of the bleeding heart liberal phase and come to their senses).

This is not the end of the world. It's four years. There will be a peaceful transition of power, there will be checks on power, and we'll still be guided by the same Constitution that's governed this country for 220 years. We will still be America and we will still be based on the ideals of justice and liberty.

There had to be a Carter before there was a Reagan. It's just the way democracy works.

Reality Check

2008-10-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

I think I've gotten too negative lately, due to being overwhelmed with schoolwork and friend drama.

It's perhaps time to stop and remember some good times:

I'm an ISTJ

2008-10-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

I love taking psychological tests -- I think it's the psych major in me.

This test -- the Jung Typology Test -- is my favorite.

Check out the description of the ISTJ (Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging) - that's me. The emphasis is mine:

ISTJs are often called inspectors. They have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in their area of interest and/or responsibility. They are noted for devotion to duty. Punctuality is a watchword of the ISTJ. The secretary, clerk, or business(wo)man by whom others set their clocks is likely to be an ISTJ.

As do other Introverted Thinkers, ISTJs often give the initial impression of being aloof and perhaps somewhat cold. Effusive expression of emotional warmth is not something that ISTJs do without considerable energy loss.

ISTJs are most at home with "just the facts, Ma'am." They seem to perform at highest efficiency when employing a step-by-step approach. Once a new procedure has proven itself (i.e., has been shown "to work,") the ISTJ can be depended upon to carry it through, even at the expense of their own health.

ISTJs are easily frustrated by the inconsistencies of others, especially when the second parties don't keep their commitments. But they usually keep their feelings to themselves unless they are asked. And when asked, they don't mince words. Truth wins out over tact. The grim determination of the ISTJ vindicates itself in officiation of sports events, judiciary functions, or an other situation which requires making tough calls and sticking to them.

Tis SJ orientation draws the ISTJ into the service of established institutions. Home, social clubs, government, schools, the military, churches -- these are the bastions of the SJ. "We've always done it this way" is often reason enough for many ISTJs. Threats to time-honored traditions or established organizations (e.g., a "run" on the bank) are the undoing of SJs, and are to be fought at all costs.

[Description from here]

Bonus trivia: I was told last year that ISTJ is the most common typology among military officers... :)

Angry Rant about Immature "Friends"

2008-10-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

Now, I have a John McCain like bad temper, and normally when someone makes me mad, they know they have made me mad. Had this person been in the room yesterday instead of arguing with me online (which coincidentally, he criticized someone else for doing last week), he would have seen that my jaw was clenched and I was literally shaking from anger. Presumably, since he’s a coward, he would have then gone running from the room for fear of a fist to the throat. But then, since he's also an idiot, he probably wouldn't have. And because at least one of us acts like an adult, I would have reined in my temper. And my fists. I'm so glad we can settle our problems like adults. Oh wait, except we didn't. I behaved like an adult. He went the middle school route and posted a public note on Facebook criticizing me, insulted me again, then unfriended me.

Ok, wait, let me back up here. In the words of the Mad Hatter: Start at the beginning, and when you get to the end… stop. I appear to have started at the end.

I have a friend who is diametrically opposed to me in politics. He is also one of those people who goes out of his way to antagonize you and gets personally insulting. Last week, he said something—I don’t even remember what—but he crossed a line, and I told him to stop commenting on my political posts. Already showing his immaturity, he responded with, “If you don’t want me to comment on your items, there’s a way to block them.” Essentially: Make me.

Anyway, we didn’t talk for that whole week. Then he made a comment on an article I posted about Madonna. I let it go. He commented again on a random news story. I let it go. Then he commented on a Wall Street article I posted about Obama. It’s my Facebook, my stuff is only visible to my friends, and commenting is a privilege, not a right—a privilege that Stupid McJuvenile lost in regards to political items because he doesn’t know when to stop. So I decided for him: his comment was deleted.

He FLIPPED out. We were chatting (for the first time in a week) on AIM and all of a sudden he goes, “omg, did you delete my comment?”

“Yep.”

“I can’t believe you did that. I expected more from you.”

“Oh well. I told you not to post.”

[insert some snarky comment from him about how I’m being juvenile and intolerant]

“Oh well.”

“I’m getting you back for this.”

“Right, I’m done talking to you again.” End conversation.

Five minutes later, I’m talking to Casey about this and Casey says, “Uh oh.” Uh oh? “Stupid McJuvenile posted a note.” Oh really?

[For those of you unfamiliar with Facebook, you can post notes and they will be broadcast to all of your friends. You can also tag the people you mention to make sure they see it. Stupid tagged me. I untagged me so it wouldn’t be linked to my profile anymore.]

Here’s the note:

What a great tribute to [sespi], someone who is strong enough to post certain links such as this, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385651698727257.html Obama's 95% Illusion, but yet doesn't have the guts to be able to take a comment. For someone who is so highly opinionated, which I think is good, and keeps people on their toes, it seems she will now only take comments that coincide with hers. As I have posted many times, and we have disagreed, I have never deleted one of her comments, because if I post something, I know that there are people who will disagree, and post a comment. That is the whole nature of a post, isn't it? Perhaps you are not as open to discussion as I once thought, what a loss. You can usually back your opinions up, but to delete someone's comment, wow, I didn't think you would stand for that. I thought you could just slash through anyone's opinions with cold, hard facts, or at least threaten to punch them in the throat. You know what they say, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." I am hoping for a rebuttal, a post, whatever, so that I can believe in the legend of opinion which is [sespi]. Also, since my comment was apparently very offensive, or couldn't be debated, here it is.

"It's a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he's also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%."

Yay, I'm all for it. No extra house or extra sports car for them. Darn.

Casey says “Wait until you respond. Cool off. Don’t respond while you’re mad.” I responded anyway.

My response:

Very few of my friends share my political beliefs, but I am always interested in hearing what they have to say and have never deleted comments just because they disagree with my beliefs. On the contrary, I welcome opposing opinions provided they are respectful. Last week, you crossed that line by directly insulting me. As a result, I no longer respect your opinions and have no desire to read them. I asked you last week not to comment on my items anymore. You ignored my request, so I deleted it. If you continue to ignore my request, I will continue to delete your comments.

His response:

Again, I responded to your comment on another subject, and you didn't delete that. Not very consistent to your reply, is it? And the fact that you no longer respect my opinion, makes it very pointless to have conversation. So it's done. Thanks, and please return items that belong to me in a timely fashion. I have a porch, leave them there.

Being the bigger person, I said nothing. Just put his chairs on his porch and let it go. But I wanted to say this:

I only asked you to stop commenting on my political blogs because those are the ones you’re obnoxious about and you know that. I had hoped that we could stay friends and just avoid politics, since you can’t discuss politics like an adult—apparently that’s not the case. The fact that I have never deleted any of your responses before, and I’ve never deleted anyone else’s responses isn’t very consistent with your argument, is it? And as for my not respecting you, how are you respecting me by posting things like this for everyone to see instead of sending me a personal message? If you want your chairs, come and get them. I have a street, they’re in the middle of it.

Casey convinced me that anyone who actually knows me wouldn’t judge me from Stupid’s response. Hopefully he’s right.

I still feel lame though. No one has ever been able to change any of my political opinions—and not because I’m stubborn, but because they have all developed from long studies of the issues and discussions with thoughtful friends. Does this make me close-minded? I listen to other people’s opinions, even when I think they’re incorrect. I regularly exchange emails with a friend where we discuss political issues—very respectfully—and always come away from them with a better understanding of his beliefs, even if I don’t agree with them. I’ve always thought that I was relatively tolerant, granted that people were genuinely interested in finding out what I thought and didn’t just want to argue.

Since this whole fiasco, I’m afraid to talk about politics with anyone. In a school where everyone studies international relations and wants to work in Washington, that leaves me with very little to say in a lot of conversations. Ugh.

Navy Day Ball

2008-10-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

I got to go to the Navy Day Ball with Chris on Saturday - so much fun! Of course, me being me, the night started out with trouble. The zipper on my dress--which I had tried on several times without problems the week before--got stuck.

Would. Not. Budge.

So with an hour before we were supposed to go, Casey, Chris, my sister, and my sister's boyfriend are all yanking on the zipper, but nothing. Finally, we get the pliers and yank - and the zipper comes flying off the dress. Great.

We spent half an hour or so trying to get the zipper back on, and then gave up. My sister sewed me into the dress. She did an excellent job though, and no one could tell...

But here we are, all polished and nice.

The Ball itself was nice. It was at the Monterey Hyatt and being surrounded by a bunch of sailors in dress blues is never bad ;) They rang a bell to signal the arrival of someone important and the beginning of the ceremony. Then they brought out the flags, someone played Taps, and they talked about the significance of the empty table--in honor of POWs and MIA. There was a moment of silence for them.

A Pearl Harbor survivor talked for about seven hours and then we did toasts. A toast to the President, to the Secretary of Defense, to the Secretary of the Navy, to the Chief of Naval Operations, to the Army, to the Air Force, to the Marines, to the Navy! I think that's all of them. Next, some guy did something I'm told is called Boatswain's Pipe so we could eat dinner, then everyone sang Anchor's Aweigh and they cut the Navy's birthday cake. Happy Birthday Navy, you're 233. It was cut by the oldest and youngest people in the division. Get this... the youngest person? Born in 1990. I'm getting old...

Then it was time for dancing. What types of songs, you ask? Well, "In the Navy" (everyone in the Navy knows all the words to this song, no exaggeration) and "You've Lost that Loving Feeling." Navy boys are ridiculous.

Example: Check out this dancing guy.

And here's one more picture, because it's my favorite.

Check that off the List

2008-10-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

You know how every time you walk by a fire alarm, you get an urge to pull it?

Ok, maybe that's just me. But today we had a fire drill at work, and the Fire Marshall stuck his head in our office, looked at me, and said, "Hey, can you smell smoke and pull the fire alarm?"

DO YOU EVEN NEED TO ASK?!

After the drill, he said "Thanks for your help."

No sir, thank YOU.

Life goals are getting checked off like crazy these days.

Calls from the Recruiters

2008-10-05T11:43:00.000-07:00

I got two phone calls from Army recruiters a few weeks ago—both of whom work in the same office, the office I visited last September. At the time, they said, “Well, you’re still in school and it’s too long for you to go DEP, so we’ll give you a call next fall and see what’s up.”

The first one I talked to was very brief: “Hello, we wanted to check in and see how you’re doing? What’s new, are you still thinking military, give us a call if you want to sit down and talk.”

The second one confused me because he was from the same office I had talked to earlier but told me his office hadn’t heard from me in over a year, and then I confused him by telling him I had talked to Sgt. First Recruiter from his office approximately three hours earlier. “Oh,” he said, “Well, what did you tell him?”

[Enter my cynical thoughts: Are they tag teaming me because I seem easy to convince? Maybe.]

“Well,” I said, “I told him that I am unsure of what I want to do, and that there are several options on the table, and some other complications, but the military is still an option I am seriously considering and I will give you guys a call if I want to talk.”

“What kinds of options and complications?”

“I got a job offer that’s pretty tempting. And I have a boyfriend who doesn’t want an Army girlfriend.”

“Well your boyfriend doesn’t get to make that decision. It’s your decision.”

“Oh I know, but I think he should get to express his opinion.”

“Not really, no.”

Hmm.

“So you’re in school. You’ll graduate with a… bachelor’s?”

“Master’s.”

“You know you can come in as a Second Lieutenant.”

“Yes, I know.”

“So you’ll start off relatively high up.”

Mmhmm. The bottom of the officer totem pole. Which would only introduce more problems, because even if I could convince Chris that he doesn’t mind an Army girlfriend, he’s still an NCO (E-5) and that’s fraternization. I heard that fraternization is bad. Although maybe if I was a specialist, that would still be fraternization. Note to self: learn about this.

“Do you have any questions for me right now?”

“No.”

“You speak any languages?”

“Basic Spanish, intermediate French and advanced Russian.”

I didn’t study Spanish for very long and most of my Spanish is derived from my French. In any case, I can get by reading and listening to Spanish, but speaking kills me. My French is rusty because I haven’t formally studied it since high school, although I read newspapers from time to time to keep it up. I should take a refresher course. Maybe this winter at MPC.

This was my thought process and probably why I missed whatever the recruiter was saying. I think he was talking about the FAO program, which was cool because I think it would be awesome to be a FAO, but I also know that you cannot enter in as a FAO. You need something like 8 years of experience first. I also know that the Army has the best developed program for that because they’ve been running it the longest. At least that’s what Navy FAOs tell me.

“Ok. So you’ll give us a call when you want to come in and talk.”

“Yep.”

“You’ve got the number?”

I have business cards from both recruiters that I see every day when I open my planner. “Yes.”

And I will call eventually. I should stop using my out of shapeness as an excuse not to call though, because if I keep that up I will never go. I haven’t run since I was in DC.

Oi.

The running regiment starts again tomorrow. Even if it’s pouring like it was this morning.

I can't decide if I'm offended...

2008-09-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

The other civilian in my NPS class told me today that I should join the military because it's my best chance at a job, and I would have better qualifications once I get out of the military. Plus, she said, if nothing else, I could serve my four years and probably get a second Master's out of it.

Why can't I decide if I'm offended? I suppose the job market is in bad shape right now... but still. She doesn't know what my qualifications are or what my chances for jobs are. Maybe I have all kinds of federal agencies and private sector companies begging me to come work for them. (I don't, but that's beside the point.) She probably meant well though.

In any case, I'm guessing that if I got the military to send me for a second Master's (and I don't want that... I am SO over school right now), I would have to commit to serving a lot more than 4 years.

100th Post!

2008-09-27T16:33:00.001-07:00

Sadly, not something meaningful... but it is hilarious.* Enjoy.

It actually looks like it could be a Disney movie, and probably one that I would go see... :)

*Disclaimer: I do like Sarah Palin, but even I have to admit that this is pretty well done.

Conflicting Ideas about the Future

2008-09-07T19:43:00.000-07:00

Vision 1:
Working in DC at a fast paced job that can be very satisfying and amazingly awesome--or extremely boring depending on what day of the week of it is--with high potential for advancement.

Vision 2*:
Sweet tea, pecan pie, and homemade wine
Where the peaches grow
And my house it`s not much to talk about
But it's filled with love that's grown in southern ground
And a little bit of chicken fried
Cold beer on a Friday night
A pair of jeans that fit just right
And the radio up...

Both very different, and yet somehow both appealing.

*In my head, I'm in the military in vision 2.

[Can you tell that school has started? My blogging has increased like tenfold since I got back]

Liberalism, Conservatism, and Sarah Palin

2008-09-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

My friend Claire--EXTREMELY liberal--posted this article about Sarah Palin. It was the typical rant from the left wing media, but then I saw this line:

According to that right-wing social viewpoint, divorce, teen pregnancy, and other lapses in family values are the fault of liberals. According to this political movement, respecting the right of gay and lesbian people to formalize their relationships; refusing to censor the Internet, books, television or movies; supporting age appropriate sex education; and refusing to allow religion to be inculcated by official government means, are the causes of social dysfunction in America.

I've seen a lot of articles lately telling me why conservatives like Palin and what they think, but this pushed me to a point of needing to respond--I won't respond to her directly because it would be like talking to a brick wall. Gotta love those open-minded liberals.

Anyways, the author of this article is missing a very important point here: Christians aren't perfect, and any Christian who claims to be is not a true Christian. One of the fundamentals of Christianity is that people are flawed--and not just some people, not just unbelievers--but ALL people. Some things may make it harder or easier for people to stumble, but I guarantee that even in a completely religious, censored, gay-marriage prohibiting, non sex educating society, people would still sin. There would still be teen pregnancy, there would still be divorce, there would still be violence and crime. I know that Catholic schools can have high numbers of pregnancies, that the Christian divorce rate is very near the general population rate, and that some of the most violent acts in history have been carried out in the name of God. The cause isn't the environment, it's the nature of people.

That said, there are things that can make it easier for people to mess up. Sorry to point this out to you, US Representative Barney Frank, but it's not liberalism. Well, it's not liberalism per say, but the refusal to accept responsibility for anything. I think that liberalism can invite this behavior by creating excuses and offering easy solutions, but that not all liberals fall victim to this. [Disclaimer: I'm not claiming conservatives are without flaw either, but that's a whole different topic]

You had bad grades/no experience? No problem, you're a minority and it's probably because we oppressed you. Let's give you priority to make up for that.

Oops, you're in high school and had unprotected sex and got pregnant? Get an abortion, and don't worry- you don't have to tell your parents. Try to pay more attention in sex ed, but if it happens again, don't worry about it. These things happen to everyone.

Ooh, you found out your child is going to have Down's Syndrome? Go ahead and abort and try again. We'll cross our fingers that your next child will be "normal".

Saying something isn't wrong doesn't mean it isn't wrong. Having an easy solution to a problem doesn't mean you shouldn't think about your mistake or that the easy way out is the correct answer.

Sorry. I got carried away for a minute there.

Rules don't change because people mess up or don't want to abide by them anymore (oops, my moral absolutism is showing). This is why conservatives get frustrated with liberals and why conservatives adore Sarah Palin. Her daughter is not taking the easy way out--she has faced up to the consequences of her actions.

To correct another liberal fallacy, conservatives are not supporting Bristol Palin's pregnancy because she's a conservative and they are not saying it is ok at all. They are supporting her decision to do what is correct even though it's not easy.

To all of those out there who are criticizing Sarah Palin's parenting skills because Bristol is keeping the baby and getting married, I think you need to take another look. Kids don't always listens to their parents, but it looks like Sarah and Todd Palin passed on the messages of personal responsibility and accountability pretty successfully.

Step One of the Cleaning

2008-09-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

I cleaned out my purse today. It got ridiculous, because I could never find anything. It's now down to the bare minimums:

Wallet
Planner/address book
Ipod
Bandaids and Neosporin (I'm accident prone)
Pocketknife with screwdriver and bottle-opener
Extra hair clips
Chapstick
Sewing kit
Hairbrush
Mini stapler
Little make up bag
Keychain sharpie

Now the question is, with all that in my purse, what in the world did I take out?

No time to contemplate, on to my room... eventually.

Sarah Palin = Fred Thompson in Female Form

2008-09-04T16:02:00.001-07:00

I LOVE her.

Text, Full Video, and Video Highlights

Best part:

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

She obviously loves freedom. Just like me.

Oh boy...

2008-09-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

In case you can't read it:

Question: I live in georegia but i dont see rusia no where not even sound but they says theres tanks should i be worrie. i herd on the news that rusia has invaded but i dont see them no where wats going on

Answer: You are in the state of Georgia. The nation of Georgia is on the other side of the world.

I hope that question was a joke or I fear for the future of our country a little.

From FAIL Blog

Old Marines in the Airport

2008-08-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

So I’m heading back to California today, and I’ve been sitting in Reagan National for about an hour and a half. (I get paranoid about missing flights, especially when I rely on a shuttle to get me to the airport, so I scheduled everything super early). I
noticed a couple things about this place:

1. It’s way more crowded than Dulles.
2. Moon pies are only a quarter! (Sadly, they only have vanilla, not chocolate)
3. This place is crawling with old Marines.

You may be saying, with old Marines? Well, it turns out that the First Marine Division from Korean War times—who were apparently at the Chosin Reservoir, according to hats and shirts I’ve seen— had its (every two years) reunion in DC this year. I went to go fill up my water bottle and one of them (who was sitting in his dress blues) called out, “Hey, are you really in the Navy?” – yes, I know it’s DC in the summer, but a/c is way overdone here and I’m always freezing, so I was wearing my Navy sweatshirt.

So I said, “No, my boyfriend is,” and walked over to go talk to them. I imagined maybe a 5 minute conversation, but I ended up listening to their stories for about 45 minutes (until I had to go to my gate to board). They were saying that they used to have 9,000 Marines get together, but over the years it’s gone down to 2,500 and they like to meet to see who’s still alive and kicking (their words, not mine). I asked about the ribbons on one of their uniforms because he had quite a few, and he told me the stories behind all of them: he was in WW2 on Okinawa, and he was in Korea, and then he got out, because three strikes you’re out and he didn’t want to risk his luck deploying again. The other one said “We fought the Chinese in Korea, did you know that? They were surrounding us on all sides and a reporter asked how we felt about that and I said, ‘It’s great, you can shoot any direction and kill one of them [insert non PC term here]’.”

Then they asked questions about Chris (the boyfriend)—what does he do in the Navy, has he been to Iraq, when is he going to Iraq (upon hearing that he’s learning Arabic), and so on. One of them told me about his son, who was in the Navy—he was a mustang, enlisted at 17 and came out a lieutenant in the 70’s. He worked on submarines, but now has tattoos and a giant beard and lives in Scotland. [Insert utterly baffled look on old Marine’s face here].

One of them had a tattoo of a pin up girl on his leg. That was pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever seen—unexpected on a 70 year old man. They have some interesting tattoos. I’ve seen flags, bull dogs, USMC… but the pin up girl wins.
Anyway, I finally said, “I have to go buy a Moon Pie before I get on the plane, but it was wonderful to meet you. Thank you both for your service.”

And they said, “Thank YOU for listening to our stories. Most people won’t talk to us.”

I asked, “Why not?”

He started to answer, but his wife cut him off and said, “They’re grouchy old men, that’s why.”

There you have it.

Quote of the Week

2008-08-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

Me: I'll have a Manhattan.
Jenny: Of course you will. You know why? Old military men drink Manhattans. And that's what you want to be. An old military man.

Marine Parade at Rosslyn

2008-08-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday in the summer, the Marine drum and bugle corps and silent drill perform at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Rosslyn Virginia. My roommate and I went this Tuesday, and it was pretty awesome.

Don't be fooled by their hardcore appearance... they're playing "Oh What a Night".

This guy somehow got up there without anyone noticing...

And then he played Taps.

I think it's a law that un-uniformed Marines must wear khaki pants.

Goodbye Colors.

Goodbye Marines.

Dartmouth Marines

2008-08-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

Why would someone from an Ivy League want to join the military? This is why:

A Call, And An Answer
Two recent Dartmouth grads explain why they joined the Marines

By Michael Knapp and Ethan Mefford
The National Review

We stood at attention on the parade deck in the oppressive Quantico heat. In the preceding weeks, along with our fellow officer candidates, we had run countless miles through the woods, tackled and retackled the obstacle course, been forced to shave twice a day, and fallen into dreamless sleeps listening to lectures on discipline and integrity. We had all endured the same persistent cough and received the same eight vaccinations. Now graduation had come at last. We stood together, sweat pouring into our fresh haircuts and perfectly rolled sleeves, listening as the colonel in charge of Officer Candidates School (OCS) told us about his own decision to join the Marines. “All of you,” he said, “are here because you felt the call to serve in a time of war. When I became a Marine during Vietnam, it was just to avoid the draft.”

The colonel was right: We had made a choice — and choices often have to be defended. This became clear to us when, after graduating from OCS, we returned for our senior year to Dartmouth College, where plans for the future — Goldman Sachs, Fulbright scholarships, Teach For America — were the topic of every conversation.

Sometimes it was easier just to avoid the question by talking about our summer plans: “I’m doing an Arabic program at Georgetown,” Ethan would say; for Michael it was “I’m doing research for a professor.” But when we did divulge our secret, it often felt as if a sheet had descended, separating us from our insouciant classmates. First came a brief stare, and then we were met with some variation of “Why are you doing that?” in a tone either brusque or reverential. We soon learned to size up our audience and respond appropriately. To people who we felt deserved an explanation, devoid of bravado or humility or caustic humor, we would start by saying, “Lots of reasons.”

Michael first thought about joining when he was in high school, but he dutifully applied to college instead. During his freshman year, which began in the fall of 2004, he returned to the idea, just as it was beginning to stir in Ethan. After meeting as freshmen, when we lived in the same dormitory, we would seek out a quiet spot in the cafeteria to pore over the New York Times. Reading about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we experienced intense, visceral reactions: hope, sadness, despair, anger. We both had friends from high school who had enlisted and done tours; it was our generation’s struggle, and it felt strange for our priorities to be elsewhere, caught up in academics and the trivialities of college life.

We found ourselves drawn to the study of history and government because these subjects produced in us sensations similar to those we felt reading Times articles. As we began to mull over a decision that would come as a shock to our families and many of our friends, we found strength in history. It was heartening to know that generations before us had accepted such challenges and faced the same sort of fear and doubt. Ethan was struck by Leo Tolstoy’s depiction of the Russian artillery crew at the Battle of Borodino in War and Peace, which reveals the crew’s cohesion and dedication, working to the hilt even as French artillery rapidly reduced its ranks.

The generations of men and women who have exhibited similar courage and struggled, often selflessly, for a greater cause provided a model that we both hoped to emulate. And with the study of history came a desire to participate in history. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will have profound effects throughout the world, and by joining and serving in the armed forces, we could intertwine ourselves with history.

During our sophomore year, we developed an intellectual framework that justified and encouraged our interest in national service. An introductory political-ideas class that we took touched on Western political thought from Plato to Marx. Plato’s idealism in particular spoke to us: His Republic rejected cynicism about human nature and its larger manifestation, politics. It was closely akin to the youthful idealism we felt welling up within ourselves. We also seized upon Plato’s words, delivered through his teacher Socrates in Crito, on the central importance of the social contract as the foundation of a functional society.

By virtue of the upbringing that this society had allowed us, and the myriad opportunities that had been extended our way simply because we were Americans, it was incumbent upon us to offer our services to our country. The privileges we have enjoyed endow us with a responsibility, an obligation, to fulfill President Kennedy’s charge: To this country that has given us so much, it is our turn to give back. We reject the pernicious belief, commonly held at our most highly esteemed institutions, that fighting our nation’s battles is someone else’s job.

“When you lose a Marine . . .” Our company commander’s voice caught slightly, and rose with emotion. Two hundred officer candidates sat bolt upright, eyes fixed on the speaker. He was not going to say that it was all right. “And you write to his family . . .” He was speaking of young men and women who risked their lives to promote American foreign policy and the futures of Iraq and Afghanistan. Accepting a commission into the Marine Corps is a grave responsibility. America is granting us charge of a platoon of its best young men and women, entrusting us with their safety, showing confidence in our judgment.

Many of our contemporaries also feel a call to service. In greater numbers than ever before, fresh graduates are choosing to help their country in various ways, in communities at home and across the world. But as opportunities for national service have diversified to include the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach For America, among others, there has been a steep decline in the number of graduates of elite schools who choose to serve in the military.

Many never even consider joining the armed forces — yet military service offers young graduates unparalleled opportunities. It can serve as a great equalizer, bringing together people of all different backgrounds and teaching them to work as a team. Few other entry-level positions involve so much decision-making independence; as second lieutenants, we will serve our platoons in both a leadership and a supporting role. Years later, the faces of senior officers light up as they recall the days when they were closest to the privates, corporals, and sergeants — the backbone of the Corps.

By the fourth week of OCS in Quantico, we had both been pressed beyond our breaking points. “Everyone has one,” the colonel had assured us, “and we are going to find out where yours is.” An empty threat, we thought at the time: We were in stellar physical condition and had sworn to ourselves and each other that we would not quit. But by Week Four, blisters covered Ethan’s feet, courtesy of his new boots, and the hacking cough that everyone had caught had in his case developed into a fever. He lay at his appointed spot in the defensive perimeter, shivering in the 90-degree Virginia heat. It was his turn to lead the fire team in an impromptu attack. Mustering whatever enthusiasm he could, he tried to remember the various signals and commands that the exercise called for, but he forgot several, and the all-important “command presence” was lacking. The sergeant called Ethan over for his debriefing. “You’re struggling,” he said. “Why do you want to be here?”

“I think the country’s in a tough spot,” Ethan replied. “And everyone who has something to offer should be willing to give to help us through. I think I have something to offer.” The sergeant paused for a second; he had expected the rote answer: “Because I love my country!”

“That’s the best explanation I’ve heard. I think you do have something to offer, and I think you have what it takes.” Coming from a sergeant recently returned from a tour in Iraq, this was no idle endorsement.

On the day before our college graduation, we both took the oath to become second lieutenants in the Marine Corps. In so doing, we added our names to the long list of those before us who were similarly inspired to serve, and we are determined to uphold the high standard that they set.

Mr. Knapp and Mr. Mefford, both second lieutenants in the Marine Corps, are 2008 graduates of Dartmouth College. They will begin further officer training this fall.

Someone was unoriginal...

2008-08-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

... since Schweikart's book (America's Victories) came out over two years ago, and Bing West's book comes out tomorrow, my money's on West.

In N Out vs. Five Guys

2008-08-10T18:44:00.001-07:00

So ever since I've been in DC, everyone has been raving about Five Guys. The big debate was whether Five Guys is not as good as, is better than, or is on par with In N Out. Being born and raised in Southern California, I have a natural preference for In N Out and scoffed at the thought of a better burger, but I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a try. Here are my thoughts:

Atmosphere: Can you say wannabe In N Out? Red and white tiles... please. To their credit, Five Guys does give you free peanuts. On the downside, you can't throw the shells on the floor, and they don't give you anywhere to put your shells. They give you seven thousand napkins, which is just wasteful. I only used three. Plus, the girl who screamed out numbers had a very annoying voice. And, I missed my Bible verse. Most people are ambivalent, but I like drinking soda that reminds me that God so loved the world He gave his only son.

Food: The hamburger was nothing special. I got the little bacon burger-little because a regular burger at Five Guys is a double double-with BBQ sauce and grilled onions, which I had high hopes for. Those high hopes were dashed... I would much rather have had a Jr. Western Bacon Cheeseburger at Carl's Jr. (For those of you who just felt your hearts contract in sympathy for mine, I haven't eaten one of those in about nine years, maybe longer). You do get more options for toppings than In N Out offers, but in the end, I walked out thinking, "I wish I had just eaten an In N Out burger."

Now the french fries--not a hard win, given that I'm not the hugest fan of In N Out fries--but Five Guys still didn't win. We got the cajun fries, and they were the thicker style, which I don't like in the first place (I like crispy fries), but they weren't seasoned well at all and it seemed like they were going for quantity over quality. My roommate and I split a regular order and we had trouble finishing it. In N Out fries are decent if you order them well done. Five Guys fries are just eh.

Five Guys did have Sprite Zero in their machine and Coke Zero, so that's points for them. Nothing beats Sprite Zero with a spritz of Hawaiian Punch. However, In N Out has delicious vanilla shakes that are perfect for dipping fries. Winner? In N Out.

Price:You can get an In N Out combo -- burger, fries, drink -- for under $5. We paid almost $8 at Five Guys. My roommate suggested the price difference is the result of the excess of napkins. Perhaps.

Conclusion: Five Guys will do if you need a hamburger in DC, although Good Stuff Eatery(Spike from Top Chef's restaurant) has a better burger with quality fries (they have rosemary and thyme on them!) and milkshakes. Granted, their combos will run you about $10, but hey, I'll pay the extra $3 for better food. In any case, In N Out has nothing to worry about, even though Five Guys is trying to break into the So Cal market.

Jenny agrees.

So Awesome

2008-08-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

I Don't Normally Read HuffPo...

2008-07-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

... but this was hilarious (especially the last one).

Obama Releases List of Approved Jokes About Himself by Andy Borowitz

Saying he is "sympathetic to late night comedians' struggle to find jokes to make about me," Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) today issued a list of official campaign-approved Barack Obama jokes.

The five jokes, which Sen. Obama said he is making available to all comedians free of charge, are as follows:

Barack Obama and a kangaroo pull up to a gas station. The gas station attendant takes one look at the kangaroo and says, "You know, we don't get many kangaroos here." Barack Obama replies, "At these prices, I'm not surprised. That's why we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

A traveling salesman knocks on the door of a farmhouse, and much to his surprise, Barack Obama answers the door. The salesman says, "I was expecting the farmer's daughter." Barack Obama replies, "She's not here. The farm was foreclosed on because of subprime loans that are making a mockery of the American Dream."

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Why the long face?" Barack Obama replies, "His jockey just lost his health insurance, which should be the right of all Americans."

Q: What's black and white and red all over?
Barack Obama: The New Yorker magazine, which should be embarrassed after publishing such a tasteless and offensive cover, which I reject and denounce.

A Christian, a Jew and Barack Obama are in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. Barack Obama says, "This joke isn't going to work because there's no Muslim in this boat."

I'm Not the Only One

2008-07-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

Navy SEALs are a popular Google topic - this is now the number one viewed post on my site. Wow.

Navy SEALs

2008-07-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

I have what some people *coughcough Chris coughcough* have termed an "abnormal obsession" with Navy SEALs. It's perfectly normal however, because we all know that SEALs are awesome, and why wouldn't I love something awesome? If I were a guy, I would totally be one.

Anyway, I was sitting on the Metro on the way to work this morning, reading my Navy SEAL book (Warrior Soul by Chuck Pfarrer - one of the best SEAL books ever written IMO), and the guy next to me says "I'm a Navy SEAL."

Plausible, I suppose, given that I'm working in DC and there are always 7000 military types on the Metro in the morning and a lot of them are Navy. But Navy SEALs- in my experience- don't walk up to people and announce their profession. He seemed like he was waiting for me to say something, so I said, "How did you like Coronado?"

He gave me this blank look and then said "Oh I was never stationed there."

Uh huh. "Where did you do BUD/S?"

"What?"

Yeah. Stop talking to me.

Jobs and Callings

2008-07-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

We've been over this before: I don't care if I have a job where I make a lot of money, or if I'm famous, or even if my job is prestigious. I just want a job where I can wake up and feel happy about going to work - where I don't sit around on Sunday night and try to think of reasons not to go to work, or sit at my desk all day and will the clock to move faster.

Right now I'm torn. I have a fellowship that will result in a job offer (unless I do something awful in the next month and a half) and I know quite a few people who would jump at the chance for my job. It's a good job that will give me benefits and pay decently, allow me to travel, and pay back (some) of my student loans... but when it comes down to it, I don't get excited about it. By 9 o clock every morning, I'm already wondering if it's time to go home.

What I do get excited about is the military. I read books about military training and battles and operations and strategy for fun. I bought the Counterinsurgency Field Manual the day it came out and read it cover to cover... more than once. I want to take all my classes at the Naval Postgraduate School. I want to wear digital camo and the ugly boots and put my hair in a bun with a sock. I'd even wear the ugly beret without complaint, even though I'm pretty sure I'd look ridiculous.

But the problem is that I feel sort of bad turning down the opportunity. Everyone in my office expects me to come back - they all say things like, "Well, when you come on full time..." or "When you're back next year..." I don't want to seem ungrateful, because I'm not. I've learned a lot already this summer, and it's been a great opportunity, but it's just not my thing. I guess what I'm worried about is that I'll leave the job and never have the ability to change my mind - suppose I get out of the Army and decide that hey I actually did like this job and it would be nice to work there. I wonder how hard it would be to come back if I walk away?

At the same time, in the back of mind, I know that I probably won't want to come back. The environment is wrong - the office persona doesn't mesh with me. I could easily see myself in a different agency doing similar things, but enjoying it a lot more. I guess I just have to make that decision, because it would be worse to stay here and be mediocrely content (yes I said mediocrely) and know what I could have done to be happier.

Still... making undoable decisions always makes me a little nervous. Especially when it means I won't have health insurance for a few months...

Stanford's Effects?

2008-06-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

I still get urges to go fountain hopping.

Something tells me it wouldn't be accepted at the Watergate... but it should be.

Random Fact

2008-06-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

The top things that bring people to my site?

1. Salinas Air Show

2. Adoptaplatoon

3. My review of Bing West's "The Village" (which makes me think that I should write a better review... haha)

4. Child Leash

Indiana Weekend

2008-05-27T08:30:00.001-07:00

Ok, that was one of the quickest trips I've ever made -- 5 states and three time zones in one weekend! (California to Chicago to Louisville to Indiana to Philadelphia and back again).

I've made an executive decision that I should be from the South. I LOVED Louisville and Indiana. After church on Sunday, there was a potluck luncheon and it was like a 1950's movie. Someone even brought that crushed pretzel strawberry cool whip stuff. Awesome.

Chris's new adopted sister is pretty much the cutest baby ever - and she's so happy all the time! It was ridiculous. His mom said everyone thinks she looks Hispanic (she's Chinese) and that maybe when I have kids they'll sort of look like her. She was trying to talk me out of trying to steal Mandy when we left.

Can you really blame me for wanting to steal her? ;)

On Saturday we mostly just hung around the house with his family - we were pretty tired since we hadn't slept all night. We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, watched a Mythbusters marathon, and ate pizza for dinner.

On Sunday, we went to church for Mandy's dedication, then we went to Magic Mountain Kentucky Kingdom. It's been a very long time since I've been to an amusement park, but they had some amazing roller coasters. When we got back, we went in the hot tub and drank pina colada wine coolers. Amazing.

On Monday, we basically woke up, ate leftover Cracker Barrel french toast, took showers, ate hot dogs and potato salad and went to the airport. This is the picture we took on the airplane on the way from Philadelphia to SFO.

We were pretty sure we were dying because as we were running from one terminal to our connecting flight (we landed 10 minutes before our connection boarded), we stopped at Sbarro's and grabbed some dinner - not bad, but sooooo greasy. I'm pretty sure I gained ten pounds after I ate that. And my heart is probably like 98% clogged now.

Anyways, it was a very good weekend. Chris's parents are really nice, and I bonded with his brother over our mutual dislike of Star Trek. :) I'm back in California for the time being, but I'll be back on the East Coast next weekend. Oi. At least I'm staying there for awhile...

Indiana for the Weekend!

2008-05-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for the airport in about half an hour with Chris.

Meeting his parents tomorrow morning... eek.

Who wants to meet her boyfriend's parents for the first time after flying overnight? I always feel so grungy after I fly...

Go Look at This

2008-05-21T13:18:00.001-07:00

For those of you wondering, my job description is "Content Specialist" for the Homeland Security Digital Library. I mine for homeland security related materials (read: play on the internet all day) and add them to the library when they're relevant. Now I also control a featured topic list:

HSDL Issues New Featured Topic List: 'Military Role in Homeland Security'

Yes, I blogged the list (more shameless self promotion) but I also created and maintain the list, which you may or may not be able to see depending on where your network is. [Military base or various government institutions - yes. Private computer - you have to register for access and wait for approval. The blog is publicly available though.]

Lieberman and Google

2008-05-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

Joe Lieberman has requested that Google remove terrorist produced videos from Youtube. This includes, but is not limited to: killings of American soldiers and civilian workers, assassinations, training videos, and anti-American speeches. All of these videos are apparently branded by the terrorist groups and thus pretty easily identifiable (and as a sidenote, how arrogant is that terrorists use American media to disseminate their anti-American messages and blatantly state that they belong to terrorist groups? And you know why they can? Because no one is going to stop them.).

Google's response is that violent videos will be removed as will hate speech, but they will not outright ban groups from posting, because it violates their policy of freedom of expression and the right for people to say unpopular things. The CATO Institute endorsed this view and accuses Lieberman of censorship. Ah, First Amendment rights. Some might consider this a reasonable argument. Do I?

No. Considering that terrorism is on principle a psychological weapon used to gain an advantage over a conventionally superior opponent, one of the best ways to counter it would be to prevent the opposing propaganda from being spread. When a company not only allows a terrorist groups ready access to such a wide spread and easily accessible network of viewers, but defends the right of the terrorists to disseminate their propaganda, they have crossed a line. Google's policy of promoting free speech for everyone -- even those who have been declared by the State department as Foreign Terrorist Organizations -- has been rightfully challenged. By providing access to American audiences, Google is assisting the terrorist groups. Last time I checked, that was illegal. Lieberman is right to ask them to remove the videos: Google should go beyond removing just the violent and blatantly hateful videos and remove all videos identified with known terrorist groups.

CATO argued that the best way to counter bad speech is with better speech. There is no doubt that the US could do a lot better in the hearts and minds category, and there's no reason for us not work on countering terrorist propaganda with our own propaganda, but there's also no reason we should help the terrorists spread their message.

We have our hands tied fairly frequently in this war. Are we actually going to sit back and win the war for the terrorists now?

Language Day at DLI

2008-05-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

This past Friday was Language Day at DLI, which is when they open up the Presidio to the public and have cultural activities, all kinds of food, and classroom tours. It was very fun, except it was super hot (and not just hot for Monterey, but hot hot - in the 90s!). Chris didn't have class so he was just wandering around, but I had a meeting at work, so Casey and I went to meet him up there around 10:30.

We listened to the Russian choir sing and then wandered around to see the different foods, while I bugged Chris every two minutes about what different ribbons and pins meant on uniforms and practiced identifying rank. [I have this chart above my desk at work and am slowly but surely learning to read rank]. I watched people at the Marines recruiting booth do pull ups and considered trying, but decided not to. Probably I would have lasted about twenty seconds, and wouldn't that be embarrassing in front of the crowd of Marines standing around watching? I tried to convince Casey to throw the football at the Army booth [Casey is me, but in boy form - he even considered joining the Washington State ARNG], but he claimed he doesn't know how. I did get a nice lanyard though - which I display my Navy Contractor badge on;)

Then we went to the classroom demonstration for Russian, where we learned the alphabet, some basic words, and numbers. All very basic for Casey and me, but fun nonetheless. We got to make words with little Russian cubes. Who knew class at DLI was so fun? I think that they made it a little more fun because we were visiting, because Chris's class doesn't sound as fun. [He's always learning words with Rapid Rote... I'm probably learning Arabic just by sitting in his house while he studies]. They gave us little certificates at the end that said we had completed the Russian class, and it has the DLI insignia on the top. I'm going to put it on my desk at work, next to the rank chart. After that class, we went to get lunch - gyros for $4 or something like that. They were pretty good. We wanted ice cream, but they were sold out because it was so hot, so Casey went back to work and Chris and I went for margaritas at the wharf. All in all, a very good day, despite my sunburn.*

*Chris claims my sunburn was not a sunburn, just a patch of skin that was red for a few hours, then tanned. [Thank you Mexican genes!] Chris, on the other hand, a white boy from Missouri, BURNED. He's still red.

Just for a Laugh

2008-05-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

I'm writing my last paper of the semester (which ended last week... hmm) about the role of the Spetznaz in counterterrorism operations, but I stumbled across this and it made me laugh...

They're pretty awesome, but if you're a hostage in Russia, you're more likely to die from their trying to save you than from the terrorists.

Things for Distraction... and Plans for the Weekend

2008-05-01T18:17:00.001-07:00

The goal is for the paper (I'm on page 15, but it will be 20 by the end of tonight) to be done by tomorrow night, so I can go to International Day at NPS on Saturday morning, listen to Dmitri Trenin speak at school in the afternoon, and then go to a potluck at my Russian teacher's house to talk with some FAOs in the evening. After Casey and I went to the FAO conference at NPS, I got sort of interested in that position, so it will be interesting to talk with them.

Plus after the Chavez paper, I still have an econ problem set (due Monday), an econ final (on Thursday) and my final Russian paper about Civ-Mil Relations in Russia due Friday (ish). But then I get a three week vacation before I'm off to DC for the summer! Yay!

In the meantime, here's how I'm distracting myself:

Ющенко, Тимошенко, Янукович: A Ukrainian Political Skit

Делаем коалицию. Так. Но Вы не будете премьер-министром. Не так.

Тhe Dancing Guy... amazing.

Nathaniel, Seth, and Barack Obama Dancing

Thirty Pages?

2008-04-24T08:24:00.000-07:00

If anyone is wondering, I've disappeared because I'm working on a research paper about Hugo Chavez and nuclear weapons. It's supposed to be 30-40 pages, and theoretically I should be spending most of my time writing.

Realistically, I spend most of it thinking, "Thirty pages? I've never written thirty pages before" or "Thirty pages? That's twice as long as the longest paper I've ever written" and/or watching the NHL playoffs. (Go Red Wings!) Who assigns research papers while the playoffs are going on?

In any case, it's due in 12 days and I have 3 pages written. I should probably get on that.

Why I'm Opposed to Affirmative Action

2008-04-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

I hate affirmative action, and am genuinely shocked that anyone (aside from shamelessly opportunistic people with no sense of pride) would ever support it. Someone made me mad last week by telling me first that I should support Affirmative Action because I'm a minority, then telling me that none of my reasons for opposing it are valid because I'm white. I HATE that. It's like when people tell boys they can't have a stand on abortion because it won't ever apply to them. My race - whatever it is - should have nothing to do with the veracity of my arguments. When it comes down to it, that's the thrust of my whole argument against affirmative action in general, which I suppose is a fundamental difference in world views.

My opposition to affirmative action formed (the previous view was apathetic) pretty much the day after I got my acceptance letter to Stanford and a girl in my class said, "Well obviously you got in there, you're Mexican." Obviously.

Well, I know she was bitter after getting rejected from everywhere she applied, and my acceptance was more about my APs and GPA and SAT score and recommendations and extracurricular activities than my last name, but the idea that anyone can think that bothers me. In some sense, it lessens all the work I did during high school. I knew that my freshman roommate never had her acceptance doubted and everyone assumed that she was just brilliant, but everyone always wondered if my last name got me in. It made me want to staple my transcripts to my shirt to prove that I was worthy too.

(Disclaimer: I'm not claiming that going to Stanford makes you brilliant - I know some pretty dumb people who went there.)

Affirmative action not only lessens the actual achievements of minorities (or even apparent minorities, since I don't consider myself one), it also insults minorities by insinuating that they would need a boost to be on a level playing field with white kids.

Who decides what a minority is anyway? My sophomore roommate flaunted her minority status, claiming that she was receiving payback for years and years of oppression of blacks in America. I'm all for making up for oppression - if you were actually oppressed. Seeing as how she drove a Benz and lived in a mansion, I'm willing to bet that she wasn't.

Another beef with affirmative action is that people who aren't qualified are admitted to jobs and schools where they don't as well as they would in jobs and schools for which they are better suited. Some of them fail out of school, become discouraged, and quit trying altogether. In that sense, affirmative action is actually hurting the minorities that it's trying to help.

Finally, it's just a hypocritical policy. We're going to make up for racism by being racist...? Martin Luther King talked about his children being judged by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin. Let everyone be judged by their abilities and character, and forget about skin color and ethnicity. Affirmative action is just another form of racism, and it's not helping anyone.

Заниматься vs. Изучать

2008-04-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

Кейси: Мы с Сарой решили заниматься ядерным терроризмом...

Джейк (pulling out his cell phone): Hello, FBI?

Анна: Ядерный терроризм... это плохое поведение.

Кейси: Изучать ядерное терроризм!

While I'm Announcing Movies/Shows...

2008-03-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

HBO is finally putting on the miniseries "Generation Kill" (in July). I've been waiting for this forever - the trailer looks good, and I really liked the book. The book is written by a Evan Wright, a journalist (of sorts) who embedded with their unit, which was one of the first Marine Recon Units to go into Iraq in 2003.

Here's the trailer:

Actually more than Generation Kill, I liked Nathaniel Fick's One Bullet Away, which is a book about the same unit at the same time period (more or less) from the Marines' point of view instead of a Rolling Stone journalist's point of view. That's the book that got me interested in the military to begin with.

Frontline: Bad Voodoo's War

2008-03-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have become a huge fan of Frontline this year. They have really interesting little shows. Anyways, coming up on April 1 is this episode about a National Guard Unit in Iraq.

From the website:

In June 2007, as the American military surge reached its peak, a band of National Guard infantrymen who call themselves the "Bad Voodoo Platoon" was deployed to Iraq. To capture a vivid, first-person account of the new realities of war in Iraq for FRONTLINE and ITVS director Deborah Scranton (The War Tapes) created a "virtual embed" with the platoon, supplying cameras to the soldiers so they could record and tell the story of their war. The film intimately tracks the veteran soldiers of "Bad Voodoo" through the daily grind of their perilous mission, dodging deadly IEDs, grappling with the political complexities of dealing with Iraqi security forces, and battling their fatigue and their fears.

Here's the trailer:

Rub Some Dirt on It, Walk It Out

2008-03-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school, they replaced the wood toys at the park with these plastic ones. The wooden toys had a tire swing, monkey bars, metal slides, and this big wooden tower to climb up. The plastic one has a slide and some monkey bars and those huge blocks to play tic tac toe with. Why did they replace them? Because little kids got a few splinters and the slide got hot when it was sunny. Sure, it's no fun to get a splinter, but that's just part of being a kid. You pull it out and climb right back up and stay away from the splintery part - at least that's what we did in my day. Now, the parents are so upset at the idea that their poor baby might get a splinter, they won't even let them play on the toys! They have to have the plastic ones, and kids complain about getting shocked on the screws holding it together.

Now you may be saying, "Ok, sespi, we get the point, you're tough." [I'm actually not. Take me somewhere where it's 70 degrees and there's a slight breeze and you'll hear me whining about how cold I am] This morning I read an article that talks about how college students are "stressed" about the war in Iraq. Well gosh, college students are stressed? Let's call the whole thing off.

I went to college - I'm STILL in college. College students aren't stressed about the war. They're stressed about papers and tests and boyfriends/girlfriends and whether they can afford to go somewhere exotic for spring break. They're some of the most self involved egocentric people in the world. It's typical that they would turn this around and use it as a reason to focus on themselves: I have friends serving, and they may face hardships, but listen to how this effects me. I'm stressed.

SUCK IT UP! I have friends serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. One of my friends in undergrad was dating a Marine who served in Fallujah in 2004. It's upsetting, but life doesn't stop when you're upset. We worried, sure, but did we skip classes and mope about how sad we were? No, we supported our friends: sent letters, care packages, put on a happy face when we talked to them.

We need to stop catering to the youth in our country (says the wise old woman of 24). When men went to war in the 40's, women stepped up to the plate: they raised the kids, ran the house, went to work, in general did what needed to be done to keep things running smoothly. They dealt with the splinters and climbed right back up again, and here we are whining about the plastic.

College students have the easy part, sitting in air conditioned classes arguing about the politics and ethics of war, while the people serving are far from home, away from family and friends, comfortable beds and good food. Instead of fussing about the college students, let's smack them upside the head and give them a list of things to do to keep their minds occupied - volunteer for the USO, Adoptaplatoon, Soldier's Angels, whatever. Let's let our friends know how much we love and appreciate them, and stop complaining about how their service makes our lives less comfortable.

My Dad is Basically Bad@$$

2008-03-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

So my dad was a cop for 20 something years, and he worked undercover in narcotics for awhile and he actually was on an episode of "World's Scariest Police Chases," but today was the first time I've ever actually seen him do something in real life (aside from the time he jumped off his bike to catch a child molester in the park, but I was too young to remember that).

We were sitting in the living room watching TV and my dad was watching out the window and all of a sudden he gets up and starts moving toward the door. My mom and I looked at each other and were like, "What's going on?" and my dad said "Anthony [my little brother] went over to see if the girls could play and some guy just went back there after him."

[Note: As it happens, my brother had knocked on the door and the girls couldn't play, so he had already left before the guy went back there. But my dad hadn't seen Tones leave, and there was no car in the driveway so he thought the girls weren't there.]

My dad is a big guy and I have not ever seen him move so fast - he ran out the door and caught thhe guy, who was riding away on a bike he had just stolen. The guy threw the bike at him and my dad took off on foot after the guy, then jumped in his car and followed him while I called the cops...

The guy was gone by the time they got there, but my dad told them which house the guy ran into to, and the cops went to go check it out. Apparently there's been a wave of bike thefts in our neighborhood recently.

I think I may have to go watch the video of my dad's chase now...

Hippies!

2008-03-12T10:09:00.001-07:00

For those of you who don't read IMAO:

My favorite part is when the Code Pink girl says "The Marines, we don't need to be worrying about their rights... it's not an equal relationship." Or else when the undercover reporter yells HIPPIE! and breaks boards.

Good and Bad News

2008-03-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

Bad News: A lady hit my car while it was parked in front of my house and now my car is in the shop :(

Good news: She did enough damage that they have to replace the whole driver's side fender, which means my old big ugly dent (courtesy of a parking garage in Old Town San Diego) is also getting repaired free of charge to me! :)

A Random Thought

2008-03-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

In a situation where someone has to get hurt, I would rather it be me. I hate knowing that I've hurt someone, even if it's unavoidable.

Maybe this is what my friend meant when she said I have no self protection instincts.

War: Then and Now

2008-03-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

I came across this article while I was at work and I thought it was interesting. Enjoy. Oh, and if you haven't noticed, I added a little thing to my blog that shows my shared clips from my Google reader, with which I am in love.

Anyway, this isn't in my reader, so here you go:

From the "The Past and the Present" by Douglas Stone, at the Center for Security Policy

"Challenge: Setbacks in War . . . .

Then: In 1862, Union General Ambrose Burnside leads a disastrous frontal assault on Confederate positions at Fredericksburg; over 12,000 casualties; even so, another assault is attempted at Chancellorsville fewer than six months later, this time led by General Hooker, that results in more than 18,000 Union casualties; the North begins drafting troops two months later as it redoubles effort.

Now: In Iraq, American combat deaths are totaling approximately 800 a year; opposition leadership in Congress says the war is lost and calls for withdrawal of troops; the fiscal 2008 defense appropriations bill includes $2 million for brown tree snake interdiction in Hawaii and $3 million to provide "learning facilities and educational programs that promote character development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf."

Challenge: Media response to war . . . .

Then: In 1917, the American press largely supports U.S. efforts in World War I; respects President and military leaders and helps to rally public opinion; relatively little media opposition after we enter war.

Now: Large segments of U.S. media oppose Iraq War; emphasizes American atrocities and setbacks; rarely reports positive news and in many cases seeks to remain "neutral" as between U.S. and our enemies; 36 year old Lara Logan reports from Baghdad as CBS News "Chief Foreign Correspondent."

Challenge: Unprovoked attack on the United States with thousands dead . . . .

Then: In 1941, the U.S. declares war on Japan and Germany and wages relentless war; at its height, war consumes close to 40% of GDP; rationing; over 12 million serve; Germany and Japan defeated four years later.

Now: Following second World Trade Center attack; small all-volunteer army invades Afghanistan; U.S. spends less than 4% of GDP on defense; few people personally know a serviceman; war continues six years late; some "allies" send force of one (1) troop or refuse to fight at night.

Challenge: Irregular "fighters" make war on U.S. . . .

Then: In 1942 eight Nazi saboteurs land in the U.S.; rounded up by the FBI before doing any damage; trial before a Military Commission; six executed as spies within two months of arrival.

Now: Al Qaida- and Taliban-affiliated irregulars captured in Afghanistan fighting without uniforms; sent to Guantanamo; human rights campaigners and the media take up their cause; international pressure forces some to be released; "torture" consists of prisoners being forced to keep company with American lawyers.

Challenge: Foreign power threatens U.S. . . .

Then: In 1952, responding to Korean War and Soviet threat, the U.S. begins massive military build-up; spends over 13% of GDP on military; U.S. tests first hydrogen bomb; President Kennedy would later vow to "pay any price, bear any burden" and go to brink of war over nuclear weapons in Cuba.

Now: Iranian President Ahmadinejad taunts U.S. and threatens an ally with destruction; Iranian President pushes forward program to become nuclear power; U.S. intelligence services undermine efforts to counter Iranian threat; President attacked by U.S. media as warmonger -- President Bush, that is."

I don't want to quote the whole article because that's probably copyright infringement, and there's not much left to it anyway. It makes you think though. Ok, I'll quote one last part, because it's the question he leaves off with, and I think it's a good one:

"Would our approach to the world in 2008 be foreign to a Truman or an Eisenhower, to a Henry Jackson?"

Yes. What are we going to do about it?

An Old Fashioned Kind of Girl (... Sort Of)

2008-02-27T15:32:00.000-08:00

The other day I was at work talking to George, one of the librarians at work, and he brought up my plan to join the Army (it's one of his favorite topics). I mentioned in passing that my boyfriend isn't too thrilled with the idea - I think that's hypocritical, seeing as how he's in the Navy, but he disagrees. Something about two people in two different branches of the military who aren't married having no chance of being stationed anywhere near each other, which is probably true since he's aiming to be put on a submarine after DLI. But you know what else? A submarine isn't going to be anywhere close to where I will be after Monterey anyway.

Anyway, I'm digressing. The point is that George went off on a tangent that was something like this: "It's a very honorable thing to do - to change your lifestyle and go serve your country. It's sort of old fashioned." I liked his characterization of the job, except it made me sad to think of it as old fashioned. When did serving your country go out of style?

We've been talking about the alleged "Civil-Military Gap" in my Civil Military Relations class, and one of the problematic developments highlighted by some of the key theorists is the transition of the soldier from an honorable duty to just another job that one can choose to do or not do. We discussed the idea of a professional soldier and how that might affect the perception of a soldier as a regular profession, but one of the guys in my class responded with the comment that it's not the same, because being in the military is almost like a calling.

Maybe I do romanticize the notion of a soldier a little, but when people give me looks and say things like, "You could make so much more money as a civilian!" or "You can do the same job as a civilian and be able to live your life like you want," or (my personal favorite) "What is the Army going to do for you?" it always catches me off guard. It's not about what the Army can do for me (although paying back some school loans and providing language training are both pretty good benefits), or about having the freedom to go where I want when I want to do what I want, or even about making money. I don't know why other people can't understand that. It's about serving my country and giving back what I can.

I guess that makes me an old fashioned kind of girl.

Things that Make Me Feel Patriotic List

2008-02-24T19:41:00.000-08:00

1. Morning colors at NPS. Everyone stops and turns toward the flag, I put my hand over my heart and the national anthem plays - I can't think of a better way to start the day.

2. Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution. Our Founding Fathers were amazing.

3. Fireworks

4. Nuclear Weapons. I'm not really sure why, but I used to come out of my history of Nuclear Weapons class and be all gung ho America.

5. Small Towns

6. Any Memorial in DC, but especially the Lincoln Memorial. The spot where MLK gave his speech? Amazing.

7. Charlie Daniels

8. Comparative Politics. Our country is amazing.

9. Baseball. It's an American tradition. On the same note - high school football games.

10. Voting. Knowing that you can make a change, voicing your opinion, exercising your right as a citizen... being reminded that not everyone gets to vote around the world and it's not something I should take for granted.

And the bonus... recruiting commercials for the Marines. Man, those are awesome.

Some Random Thoughts

2008-01-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

My Marine (the one from AdoptAPlatoon) just came home (well... to NC anyway) after a year in Iraq. We talked on the phone the other day, it was pretty neat. Nice to be able to put a voice with a face/handwriting :)

SFO needs to have free wireless available, especially if they're going to delay my flight 6 different times. I read Rainbow Six cover to cover while I waited for my plane(s).

Flying isn't so bad when you have a whole row to yourself and can stretch out.

Every plane should have individual TV screens like Jet Blue, or at least play good movies on the big screen.

Taxis are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I'm not going to say how much I spent on my taxi today, because I don't want you all to cry.

It's actually warmer in Washington DC than it was Monterey.

Now it's off to figure out how to get Target/Costco on the other side of the highway without a car...

I <3 Borders

2008-01-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

I worked at Borders for a year between undergrad and grad school, and you think that by this point, I would be sick of it and never want to step foot in another one again. Yes, I had some crazy customers (including the one who threw a book at my head because we asked him to leave after we caught him shoplifting, and the guy who had a compulsion for buying books whose mom actually called and told us not to sell him books anymore), but I loved pretty much every day there.

I got a 30% Borders Rewards coupon and I'm heading to DC on Tuesday to do some interviewing for summer jobs, so I figured I might as well pick up a book (or two, or three) for the plane ride. I also needed to buy the last of the required books for my NPS class (Intro to Civil-Military Relations, which is my favorite class this semester). For a normal person, this probably would have been a half an hour, forty minute task - pick up a new paperback from the paperback table (which is so badly maintained at the Sand City Borders that it actually pains me to look at it), pick up Fiasco, pay and leave. I somehow ended up at Borders for almost THREE HOURS.

I actually have a running list of books that I want to read and I usually keep the top 5 (out of about 50) in a list in my wallet, but I always get distracted by other books.

Yesterday, after I wandered through the new releases section, then checked on my regular authors in Mystery and Romance (yeah, I read romance...), I headed to the history section. I'm one of those people who likes to read as much as possible on one topic then move to the next one, sometimes related, sometimes not. For the past few months, I've been reading about wars: I started with Iraq, then Afghanistan, and then Vietnam. Logically the next one should be Korea, and I do have The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam on my list, but it's still hardcover, and I somehow found myself in the general military history section.

I was browsing, and this old man next to me says, "Are you looking for military books? Because this is a good one." This was Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts by Robert Kaplan, which is also on my list, and also still hardcover, but this led to a discussion of one of Kaplan's other books - Imperial Grunts, which branched into a discussion of other books, which led to him buying two other books that I recommended for him, and then him leaving because he said he couldn't afford any more books... :)

Then I saw a book about Delta Force that I've never read (rare... pretty much any book ever published on Special Forces is on my bookshelf), so I started flipping through that, and this guy started to talking to me about Special Forces books. He's up at DLI, and he's Army Special Forces studying Arabic. That was a pretty cool conversation, and that ate up another 40 minutes or so.

The last place I browsed was the Russia/Soviet history, and I didn't see anything that interested me more than the Spying on the Bomb, which actually was on my list of books to read, so I headed for the cash register... then got distracted by the 50% book rack, where I spent another hour or so browsing.

That's what bookstores have that Amazon (and other websites) don't - interacting with people and getting/making recommendations, full conversations that have nothing to do with books, browsing and finding things you would never have seen before, and eating large chunks out of your day :)

(Ok, so Amazon does make recommendations and you can browse on there... but it's just not the same).

As a sidenote, if anyone wants to make recommendations for me, feel free :) I'm always looking for new books.

Some Thoughts on Drugs

2008-01-08T18:25:00.000-08:00

One of my friends the other day asked me what my deal-breakers were. And to those of you who are now thinking, "Deal-breakers for what?": we were talking about dating. I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head, and he suggested that someone who is fanatically liberal might be a deal-breaker, but I actually even have dated some people from the left end of the political spectrum [and to those of you who are now thinking that I consider anyone less conservative than Scalia liberal, they actually were full blown registered Democrats].

I did think of one today though: Drugs. And not just currently using drugs, which is an automatic "Do Not Pass Go," but even using drugs in the past. I didn't think this was unreasonable, but my friend accused me of being way too harsh. I get accused of being too picky about guys all the time - and I'm more than willing to concede that I will probably not ever find a cowboy-Navy SEAL-spy with a southern accent who can play guitar and sing [although if you ever find one, send him my way ;)], but I never thought that it would be my drug policy that would push me over the line.

I do think that if it was something like trying marijuana once or twice like in your teens, it could probably be forgiven, and then my friend says, "Well if he just tried heroin once?" What? What? Maybe this is like that time I asked my sister if kids in high school really had kegs at parties [yeah... I was -am- a REALLY good kid], but heroin isn't a drug that you experiment with. That's making a conscious decision to try some serious stuff - something that could kill you. So? I stuck to my guns - zero tolerance for drugs if you want to date me.

The conversation went like this [Yes, I really do use correct punctuation and grammar in IMs]:
Mystery Friend: that's harsh i think, because certain circumstances aren't there for certain people, and if they learn from their mistake, which is the only way to learn that stuff sometimes
Me: What circumstances?
Mystery Friend: like where you grow up, etc
Me: Excuses.
mystery friend: i don't think they're excuses, if you had grew up in a neighborhood where someone offered you drugs, and if you didn't take it, there was the underlying threat of getting shot in the head on your way home. i think it would affect you.

First of all, I doubt very seriously that there is a neighborhood where people go after kids and say, "Take drugs or I'll shoot you!" Secondly, I think it is a cop out: everyone, no matter who you are or where you are, can say no. Yeah, it might be easier for someone (like myself) who grew up in a nice suburb and was never ever offered drugs, but that doesn't mean that because you live in a bad area, you can't say no. Does everyone from Compton use drugs? No. Do people in suburbs use drugs? Yes - meth is a huge problem is small towns and suburbs.

The decision to use drugs is just that - a DECISION. It does suck that some people live in areas where they are exposed to drugs at impressionable ages, but it's not an excuse for it. People need to take responsibility for their own actions. That's one of the major problems in this country today: people have thousands of excuses for everything and nothing that happens is ever anyone's fault. It's always because of the situation, or their parents, or someone else. I was a behavioral psychology major in undergrad and I understand the power of the situation as well as the next guy, but it doesn't explain everything and it doesn't excuse bad choices.

Growing up, I had a drug addicted relative who was constantly in trouble - culminating in his ODing and leaving a year old kid behind. He had every chance in the world to straighten up and he rejected all of them because he wanted to get high. In my experience, using drugs is a conscious and selfish decision, and it's not a "victimless" crime either. Maybe it's not fair to judge everyone who uses drugs by my relative, and I do think that people can quit, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for those people who make the effort and get off drugs. But they made a decision, and that decision has consequences - one of which happens to be that they will never get to date me. If you think that's too harsh, oh well. You don't have to date me either.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but I decided I would this year. I figured that the more people know about them, the more likely I am to keep them, so here they are.

1. Get into better shape - I'm aiming for running every day plus increasing the number of push ups and sit ups I can do... hmmm, I wonder if I'm trying to prepare for something :) The running sucks so far, because we're getting a huge storm and they've predicted 60 mph winds and 4 inches of rain tomorrow, but I'm doing well on the push ups and sit ups.

2. Give up soda - This is the one I half make every year, but so far I'm sticking to it. When you get headaches if you don't drink a soda in the morning (yes, I drink Diet Pepsi in the morning - I don't like coffee), it's too much. I've gotten down to one a day, which might not sound like much unless you consider that over break, I was drinking probably 6 or 7 a day.

3. Practice speaking Russian more - Stop being content with reading and writing and start speaking!

There they are. Happy 2008! I think it's going to be a good one :)

(We'll see how 24 compares to 23)

Russian Reading Challenge

2007-12-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

One of my friends passed on this website to me and I thought it was kind of neat. Basically, it's an idea by someone who has been interested in Russian history for a long time, but who hasn't been exposed to very much Russian literature, so she's going to tackle some books this year and is inviting people to join her. The suggested number of books to choose is 4 - I picked 5, but only because I don't expect to finish the 5th one, I just want to make a dent in it.

So here's my list:
1. "The Gulag Archipelago" by Solzhenitsyn
2. "Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov
3. "Dead Souls" by Gogol
4. "In The War" and Other Stories by Vasily Grossman
5. "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy (Actually in Russian.... I won it in my first Russian class, but have been too intimidated to start it)

Here's the website if you're interested

Some Thoughts on PTSD

2007-12-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

I read a post at Vox Veterana the other day about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Would I agree that PTSD is probably overdiagnosed? Yes, definitely: We, as a society, have an obsession with being happy and successful, and anytime we're not, we assume there must be an underlying problem.

Can't run a mile? It's not because you're an overweight couch potato, it's probably just asthma.

You can't sit through two hours of class without fidgeting? It's not because you're a seven year old boy, it's ADD. Have some medicine.

You're not happy 24 hours a day? Must be depression. Have some medicine.

That said, PTSD is a serious problem and we need to strike a balance between letting people know that it's ok if they are difficulty adjusting to life post combat and forcing a diagnosis on someone because they've experienced something that might lead to PTSD. You don't want someone to feel stigmatized by having PTSD, but at the same time you don't want someone to feel like there's something wrong with them if they don't have PTSD.

One of my dad's friends was killed in the line of duty in the 1980's and when he told his supervisor that he was having trouble dealing with it and wanted to talk to someone, his supervisor told him that police officers didn't talk to people about emotions – essentially, be a man, suck it up and move on. Did that help him cope? No - instead he bottled everything up for twenty years, never dealing with anything, and letting all the problems compound upon each other until he couldn't work as a police officer anymore. A lot of departments have since implemented programs that require debriefings after traumatic incidents and I think that's a good thing - as long as it's a one time requirement and not a series of required meetings, and as long as people know that they can talk more if they need to and not be judged and that they don't have to keep talking to people if they don't need to, and that's fine too.

It’s true that the rates of PTSD between WW2 and Vietnam, and even Iraq, are very different, but I don’t think that is necessarily the result of a societal obsession with negative consequences of war.

Vietnam was a very very different war from WW2, and one that removed quite a few justification mechanisms from soldiers. In WW2 the enemy was clear: he was wearing a uniform and he was on the battlefield. In Vietnam, the enemy was everywhere. You couldn’t tell who was a friend or who was an enemy. VC didn’t wear uniforms and they lived among the village people, who helped you out sometimes.You weren't safe anywhere: paranoia developed. Same with Iraq (from what I've heard). Bombs could be anywhere, and you can't even trust kids. That messes with your mind, and it's definitely not something soldiers in WW2 or WW1 had to deal with.

Along that same line, when the soldiers came home from Vietnam, they weren't always greeted as heroes, like the soldiers in WW2. Some were accused of being baby killers and murdering innocents - in that sense, one of their major psychological defenses was removed. It's never going to be easy to deal with knowing that you killed someone, but if you have people telling you that it was necessary to protect you and your country and your friends, it's a lot easier to justify, morally and psychologically, than it is when you start to have doubts about what you did. When you have doubts and you start to question whether you were right or wrong, that’s when you end up at a higher risk for PTSD.

So I guess to wrap this up, I would just say that while it is possible – even likely – that we are overdiagnosing PTSD now, because we became so familiar with it after Vietnam that we look for it and shape people’s experiences to fit the mold, I wouldn’t agree that downplaying the possibility of PTSD is a good thing. When things come out of the blue, they have a larger and possibly more damaging effect. Allowing for the possibility of something allows people to prepare for it mentally – to build up defenses and be prepared when (if) something happens. And I think that it might better to be overly cautious when it comes to mental health than to let some people who do have problems slip through the cracks because they don’t know what’s wrong, or where they can go for help, or that if they tried harder the problems would go away.

Some reading recommendations (in this order):
On Killing by Dave Grossman
On Combat by Dave Grossman
Force Under Pressure by Lawrence Blum (About Policemen and PTSD)
Achilles in Vietnam by Jonathan Shay (With the warning that he gets pretty philosophical and theoretical from time to time, and it’s a denser read)

I'm still alive!

2007-12-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

... just swamped with work. This week I'm working on ~~a group policy memo about the Protect America Act~~, ~~prepping a presentation and finishing up another policy memo on the proposed missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic~~ , ~~writing a paper about the Russian opinion of the US missile defense system (in Russian)~~, ~~preparing another presentation on the alternative energy programs the DoD is considering~~, and writing a paper about proliferation risks associated with nuclear energy programs. UPDATE (December 17): Finished!

Wow I feel so much more behind now that I've listed all of that. I should stop blogging and get back to work. Or sleep.

In the meantime, I found a fun quiz...

Which soldier type are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Special Ops

Special ops. You're sneaky, tactful, and a loner. You prefer to do your jobs alone, working where you don't come into contact with people. But every once in a while you hit it big and are noticed and given fame. You're given the more sensitive problems. You get things done, and do what has to be done. You are competent, resourceful, and resiliant.

"VULCAN NECK PINCH!!!"
"owww.......(slump)"

More proof that I was a Navy SEAL in another life. And not meant to be a civilian.

Wow.

2007-11-18T13:53:00.000-08:00

If I were the kind of person who decided who to vote for based on commercials, Huckabee would definitely have my vote.

When Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Chuck Norris has not had to pay taxes ever.

I Guess Things Happen for a Reason

2007-11-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

So I disappeared for awhile - school got busy and I've had projects and presentations like crazy. Sorry about that.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm at the right school. When I finished undergrad, I took a year off because I needed a break from school. I was pretty sure that if I tried to go straight into grad school, I would end up burned out. I guess in that year off I changed a lot more than I thought I did.

I've been talking about the military for so long that it seems like I've wanted it forever. I don't even remember what prompted my interest in that originally, but it definitely happened after I graduated. One of my friends from undergrad went into the Peace Corps and he just finished up his first year in Namibia. It's been awhile since I talked with him, but we both happened to be on Gmail chat the other day, so we caught up on stuff. He asked me if anything was new in my life, and I said something like, "Well, I've been talking with this guy and I'm joining the Army." And he FREAKED out. The funny part was that he was more surprised by the guy than the Army, but his response was basically, "When were you going to tell me that you've completely changed your life?!"

I tend to assume that everyone else has changed, not me, but that's probably not true. We've all changed - some of my friends are married now, some are parents, some are in Iraq, some are in law school, and none of us are the same as we were two years ago. Sometimes I'm so sick of school, I have to force myself to go to class. And sometimes I still stop and wonder if Monterey is the right place for me? Maybe I should have gone to USD or off to the FBI or into the military.

But then I realized all the good things that have come with Monterey:
1) I went to Middlebury - without that, my Russian would be (more) terrible and I wouldn't have made all the good friends I made there. I definitely wouldn't have had the connections to help with summer internships and I probably wouldn't have actually pursued joining the military.
2) I've made some great friends up here (including one guy who is just like me, except a guy, and another guy in my Russian class who's just fun)
3) I'm working at the Naval Postgraduate School, which I LOVE.
4) I'm working on a research project at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies doing psychological profiles of state leaders. It's awesome.
5) Monterey is gorgeous.
6) The guy I've been talking to is pretty fun.
7) I'm taking super cheap Arabic classes from a former DLI instructor.

So yeah. It turns out that Monterey was a good choice, and there must have been some reason for me choosing here, besides that I heard back from them first.

Sometimes I Get a Little Road Rage-y.

2007-10-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

I learned to drive in LA, which means that I am an overly aggressive and impatient driver. I realize this.

But it still annoys me when people drive 20 miles an hour when the speed limit is 35, or when they put on their blinkers three blocks before they turn so you don't actually know where they're turning, or hit their breaks as they go around curves (take your foot off the gas going in, put it back on as you come out), or come to complete stops before they turn in driveways (I won't hold complete stops at stop signs against them, because I recognize that the California Roll is technically running a stop sign), or put on their blinker but don't change lanes until there is at least a mile clear for them.

Basically, Northern California drivers make me wish I had a giant truck to crush bad drivers.

Technical Difficulties.

2007-10-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

The Blogger.com and I are currently engaged in a battle to the death.

Please excuse some weirdness for a little bit.

Profanity has no place in today's military...

2007-10-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

Which means I can cross "learn to swear" off my list of things to do before I join. Read about it here.

And then read this one about how Marines can't wear bling anymore.

Oh, the things I find when I don't want to write policy memos... it's times like this I wish English had aspect (there's something I never thought I would say) so I could differentiate between writing (the process) and writing (completing).

I писала, but didn't написала my policy memo.

An Interesting Read

2007-10-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Does Suburban Middle-Class America Still "Support the Troops"?
By Austin Hill, from Townhall.com

"I awoke before sunrise last Sunday, and stepped outside my home.

And soon I was face-to-face with the United States Army.

No kidding."

We have a National Guard Armory in my hometown, and I remember my Dad telling me that they trained on weekends sometimes, but I don't remember ever seeing them... I wonder what the reaction would have been to that. I think a lot of people in my town are pretty pro-military (surprising, seeing how it's Southern California) - we have one of the biggest Armed Forces Day parades in the country and when one of our soldiers was killed in Iraq the whole city pretty much shut down for his memorial service (and chased out the protesters).

Still... we're also very near the school that made a kid take a plastic soldier off his fifth grade graduation cap because the gun was a violation of the no tolerance violence policy...

Halloween

2007-10-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

I need to think of a good Halloween costume. I think I'm going to do the completely unexpected and be something like a fairy princess. Why?

Some things I've been told over the past month or two:

"You're going out dressed like that?"
"What's wrong with this?"
"Maybe you can try to find a cute top... that doesn't say 'Fly Navy' on it?"
(I like that Blue Angels shirt...)

On having a Maglite when no one else did and it was dark:
"Wow, you're really prepared. Were you a Boy Scout?"
"Girl Scout?"
"Oh... no, I don't see you as a Girl Scout."

"That's girly beer. Why are you drinking that?"
"I'm a girl?"
"Right."

At a table full of guys and me:
"Man, you guys drink like girls. Except Sespi."

"I need a pocket knife. Does anyone have one?"
Requester looks at guys. All guys look at Sespi, who actually does have one, in her purse, next to the previously mentioned mini Maglite. In my own defense, next to the Maglite and pocketknife are tubes of mascara and lip gloss and sometimes a compact.

Anyway, I generally prefer not being uber girly, but I think I may need to shake things up just for a night and remind everyone that I am, in fact, a girl.

*****update*****
After a long conversation yesterday, in which I was told that I could never pull off a fairy princess costume, it has been decided that I will be a cowgirl for Halloween. Now I just need to find a cowboy hat...

Maybe Russian isn't obsolete?

2007-10-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

People always tell me that if I want to work in national security, I should be studying Arabic and not Russian. I'm willing to bet that might be changing soon...

From Times Online

This one:

" 'We will develop missile technology including completely new strategic (nuclear) complexes, completely new. Work is continuing and continuing successfully,' Mr Putin said. He gave no details about the new nuclear weapon, but went on: 'We have plans that are not only big, but grandiose, and they are fully realistic. Our armed forces will be more compact but more effective and better ensure Russia defence.' "

And this one:

"President Putin forged an alliance with Iran yesterday against any military action by the West and pledged to complete the controversial Iranian nuclear power plant at Bushehr. A summit of Caspian Sea nations in Tehran agreed to bar foreign states from using their territory for military strikes against a member country. [...]. The declaration of the five states did not specify a particular threat. Rumours have long circulated, however, that the US is seeking Azerbaijan’s permission to use airfields for possible military action to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb."

My Russian teacher asked us on Tuesday if we thought there was going to be another Cold War and most of the people in the class said no. She said we are very optimistic.

Lesson of the Weekend: Don't Assume.

2007-10-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

With the amount of people in Monterey who know foreign languages - everyone at DLI, everyone at MIIS (second language is required), and a lot of the NPS people - it's really not smart to assume that you're the only one around who knows a foreign language.

We went to the Brit last night and I was talking to a Marine, thanks to a friend who randomly walked up to him and informed him that I thought he was cute. While we were talking, one of his friends kept trying to get his attention and finally he turned around, glanced back at me, and proceeded to have a conversation in a foreign language, presumably to keep me from hearing. Unfortunately for him, the language he chose was Russian. Which was interesting - that was the first time I've ever heard Russian spoken with a thick southern drawl.

When he turned back around and said, "Sorry about that, he wanted my opinion." and I said, "Ну, это хорошо. Я согласнa, что она - очень красива." (For those of you who don't speak Russian: that's a comment on his conversation.) It was pretty funny actually, you could tell that he was instantly going over the conversation in his head, trying to remember what exactly he had said and if there was any reason for me to be offended and when he decided there wasn't (and he was right), he just said, "So... you speak Russian?"

Da. I speak Russian. He was really embarrassed, but I thought he was a nice guy. Plus, he was two thirds of my ideal trifecta, so he would have had to be pretty sleazy for me to walk away.

Anyway, moral of the story: if you don't want people to know what you're saying and you're living in a hub of foreign language speakers, either speak a REALLY obscure language, like Klingon, or else walk out of earshot.

First Day of Arabic

2007-10-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

I was talking to someone about Arabic the other day and she went off about how it's arrogant of us to expect everyone to speak English (and we already know my thoughts on learning different languages and expecting people to speak English), and no wonder they hate us because we don't even know their language but in the next breath she was complaining about how horrible the culture is in the Middle East.

How is it less arrogant to think your culture is superior to another than to expect someone to know a foreign language (which is a pretty common second language might I add)? Not that I don't agree that our culture is generally better (I'm all for educated women being able to go out without chaperones and head to foot clothing in 100 degree weather) but at least I'm consistent. She gave me a pitying look when I said I'm joining the Army, so I gave her a pitying look when she said she was ignorant - excuse me, I mean liberal.

ANYWAY, yesterday I started Arabic classes. There's a retired DLI instructor who's offering lessons for really cheap, and since I was thinking about going to MPC next semester anyway, I figured why not?

There are two other people in my class for now (and maybe two more eventually): one of them is also in my Russian class, which is fun because we speak Russian when we don't know the Arabic words. (Isme Sarah... ochen priatno.)

We learned greetings and introductions. I can now say hello in three different ways, tell you my name and ask for your name. Then we spent a good chunk of time going over the alphabet.

The writing is really different and is going to take some getting used to, but then again I thought that when I started Russian too and now it's like second nature. And Arabic is different enough that I won't mix up the scripts (when I switch between Russian and English I always mix up d's with g's, and p's with n's and r's, and s's with c's, and t's with m's... and ok, I can't switch between them!)

Arabic is cool though. I'm excited for the next class. And there's lots of people in Monterey that I can practice speaking with - although they might get tired of introducing themselves to me, so I should probably learn some more sentences first... :)

GO STANFORD!!

2007-10-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

I think they won one game (maybe 2) in my 4 years there, but this makes up for it.

STANFORD SHOCKS WORLD, USC, 24-23

I wish I had been there.