Chris' Updates

My lord, this weekend sucked. The week was pretty decent in LAN class, and I was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend, maybe get some business done at the PX. But just my stupid luck, we were duty company, duty platoon, and I'm a lowly Phase 4. So Saturday rolled around, and I got put on DFAC (dining facility) detail. Basically, the DFAC closest to our barracks has been under renovation for asbestoses or something, and is now ready for operation. Only thing is, all of the equipment was at a DFAC across base. So we got to unload trucks containing every piece of equipment that's used in a cafeteria, including the pots, pans, serving trays, plates, silverware, cleaning supplies, and all of the food in bulk packaging. Then just for fun, we did it again and moved more equipment from yet another DFAC into the one we emptied. Don't ask me what sense that makes, I could not tell you. We worked from 0730 in the morning to about 1530 (3:30pm), and we worked hard. But it gets be...

It's been a good week, in general. We had PC Maintenance class with Sgt. Pippin and Sgt. Zimmer. The class material was easy enough, since ripping apart computers is a pastime for me. I should've tested out of the class, but I really have no reason to try testing out. If I finish the schoolhouse portion early I still don't get to come home, I'll just end up cleaning around the barracks all day. Anyway, Sgt. Pippin describes himself as "the most motivated instructor in the schoolhouse." I believe that entirely. He usually has 2-3 pots of coffee in the morning before he gets to class. Not glasses, but pots. He has to hold his arms in front of him to keep them from shaking with all of his excess energy. He's a crazy mofo, I'm telling you. I wish I could video tape him to show you all at home, because he is great to see in action. Other than that, life is pretty much settling in to AIT mode. I've been a little bit sick with a cold or flu or something, ...

Life is so much better here at AIT. Yeah, it still has it's annoying points, but it's not lockdown, thank you God! The drill sergeants here are human, they complain about having to pull duty and admit it when they make mistakes. We have a set schedule that we usually know about ahead of time. We have free time to move about as we please. We can walk to the PX and the on-post Burger King as long as we have a "battle buddy." And we get cell phones after the duty day! It's so nice to be able to call people! I probably mentioned most of that in the last post, but I'm finally feeling some of this freedom. It's frickin' great! Class is our main deal being here, and so far so good. We've been thru a week in Basic Electronics, two days in Information Security, and just finished two weeks in Windows XP. For Security and Windows, we've had Sgt. Harr instructing us. He's a real laugh when he wants to be, and he likes to keep his classroom environment...