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DriK – May 27, 2008
Well today was the frocking ceremony and as I had expected, it was long, hot, and along with the frocking, there were awards to be given out and those checking in got a welcome aboard ball cap ceremony. The ball cap ceremony consisted of reciting the “Sailors Creed” and then those who sponsored the newcomers presented a Shiloh ball cap and the Captain welcomed aboard each individual personally.
The frocking ceremony lineup had me put in the front row going by rank and name. There are always a few first classes so obviously not many would be in that line, and because my last name is at the beginning of the alphabet, there was enough room to put me in front. What I didn’t realize that after I was presented my letter saying I was authorized to assume the title as Petty Officer Second Class, More…
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DriK – May 25, 2008
Well, it is Memorial Day weekend and I have 3 days off. I had to stay on board Friday night, so my weekend started just a tad bit later than others. None the less, it is still another slow weekend for me as I sit in my barracks room alone having nothing better to do than clean. Yes, I said it; it is after 10pm and I am up cleaning.
During my cleaning, I had a thought; what guy would stay up on a weekend night and clean rather than go outside and party with everyone else? I don’t think that very many guys go out of their way to make sure that a room is clean on a Sunday night knowing that they have the next day to do it knowing that it is a day off. I have to say that I don’t think that anyone else on this planet is doing this at this moment, and a very rare few have done it in the past to pass the time. Loser, I probably am. More…
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DriK – May 23, 2008
Well it is that time again; advancement results are out and would you know it, yours truly is one of those who have made it to the middleman position of E-5.
Once again, I had to relive the agony of awaiting the next set of results to know whether or not I was going to advance again. As far as E-5 goes, this was my second time to participate in the examination cycle for the paygrade. The first time around, I had hardly studied and took little to no time to prepare for the examination. I used up majority of the test taking period to complete the exam. I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was when I found out that I wasn’t selected the first time. This time around was completely opposite. I found the bibliography and studied from the selected material as best as I could even to the day before the exam. When I was going through the questions, I couldn’t help but smirk at every question I knew the answer to and completed the exam just over the first hour.
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DriK – May 19, 2008
So it happens again. I am at the Exchange to purchase a few items and you would think this is an easy in and an easy out right? Even the guy ahead of me had a few items, so getting out of there and going back to the barracks wouldn’t be too long. Of course that doesn’t happen, because the guy buys like five t-shirts and the person at the register is an old lady. She has to take every shirt off the hanger as slow as possible and folds the shirts even slower.
Finally she gets done with this guy’s shirts and I pretty much scan the items for her to get the hell out of there. Then I decide I wont want to make food, so I stop to get a ham sandwich. This is an even simpler task that would get me right out and of course out of no where a loud screech blasts into my ears. A kid probably two to three years old is running around screaming for God knows what and everyone is looking at this child wondering the same thing, where are his parents? Believe me that was going through my head.
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DriK – May 18, 2008
A lot of people use music to help explain their situations in life be it work, friends, family and for most, relationships. One band in particular has been there for all of those, Bayside. Undoubtedly my favorite band, there isn’t one song that I have listened to from them that hasn’t gotten me through hardship, especially out here in Japan.
Bayside is a band out of Long Island, New York and their first album “Long Stories Short” hit the market in 2001 under Dying Wish Records. Five albums later, they are now a rising band with their latest album “The Walking Wounded” making #75 on the Billboard 200 and #4 in Independent Albums.
Why I like them so much is from what I’ve stated before, they have gotten me through much hardship in life. My buddy Jim was the one who originally introduced me to them. The first song I heard was called “Montauk” from there 2005 released Bayside Album from Victory Records. It’s not very often that you listen to a whole album and think that all the songs are catchy, but this band was able to pull it off.
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DriK – May 15, 2008
So once again I am let out at a less than reasonable time from work. I can’t help but think that when everyone is gone for the day that all of the equipment experiences massive failures and can only be prevented by keeping everyone on the boat as late as possible, pretty much around the 4pm time frame.
The division I work for are the hardest working people I know. It’s upsetting to say that when I leave Japan, whoever I work for next won’t live up the standards I am used to. You can look at us, even video tape what he do in a day, and I guarantee that you wouldn’t expect much from us. But when it comes to inspection time, we are hot on our asses getting the job done and not only that, doing exceptionally well at what we do.
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DriK – May 14, 2008
What am I doing with my life? That is always the big question in everyones mind. This is an even more important question for those in the military, and in my experience, the Navy. I have been in for almost three years and I do have a pretty good idea of what I want.
I wish I could say everyone had a plan for when they separate, but unfortunately, all anyone in the military wants to do is just get out, mainly those who’s time in service have been unfulfilled. One of my buddies is planning to get out of the Navy, with five years of service. He was first stationed in Korea and after that the USS Chancellorsville and USS Shiloh. He wasn’t even an IT when he joined, but a forced convert after a merger. He is an E-5 and only one school, but not an NEC, which he believes is the highest accomplishment one could have, and trust me it isn’t.
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DriK – May 14, 2008
Well I have finally got my blog up and running. Obviously it isn’t much right now, but as time goes on I will put more into it. As far as what is going to be posted…whatever comes to mind.