Chris' Updates

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My pirate name is: Black Harry Flint Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr! Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

So, time to begin what I would consider one of my first "politics" entries, to describe current events and my reactions. Let me start by putting this out there: I hate politics. Today's American political system may be somewhat functional, but it's nowhere near perfect. The idea that elected officials are always thinking about the will of their voters, and not about their image in the next election, is laughable. I would consider myself a leftist moderate; neither the Republicans nor the Democrats really represent my ideals. With that context, here's whats been happening lately. In the past few weeks, Democrats in Federal Congress have been feebly attempting to push through resolutions that will set a calendar timetable on the number of troops in Iraq. On the one hand, I disagree that a calendar timetable is the right idea. If all troops are out of Iraq by July 2007 and there aren't enough Iraqi law enforcers by that time, then there will be civil war in Augus...

Well, I'm more than a quarter of the way through my Calculus class, and so far, so good. My homework scores could all have been better, considering I can get as much help as I want on those. But my first exam was handed back with an 81%, and I'm fairly pleased with myself. I got perfect scores of the first two of three sections, and the last section was only a little rocky. I can't really speculate on the difficulty of the test by the averages, because the scores were all over the board. The professor reported that the high was 96%, the low was 0% (and that was someone who actually sat down and took the test), and the median was 56%. All I can figure is that I was a decent grade. I might haggle a couple more points tomorrow, but really I'm happy as it stands. I just want to avoid those situations where my grade going into the final is on the border. Today Ashley and I had a bit of an impromptu date. She met me in Boulder after class, and we just cruised around for a bit...

Hey all, I wanted to let you know that I've joined the MilBlogs blog ring . It seems appropriate, since I am military and people may want to read my view of things. A lot of the member blogs seems mostly about political opinions and trying to spread the message of a political cause or movement. But others are just the happenings of service members, like me. I got the idea from  My Vacation in Iraq , by SGT Luke Port. I actually found his blog after he got home and stopped writing, but still. [coding rant ahead] Of course, putting the banner on my blog was no walk in the park, thanks to LiveJournal. I love this blog hosting site, but it was sure a pain in the ass to add some simple HTML to the sidebar. I actually had to sit a couple hours and learn S2 , LiveJournal's customization programming language. After a few hours of wrestling with S2, I have what I wanted, and could've had in a few seconds if they didn't escape HTML in the sidebar free text input...

Today Jeremey picked up a cheapo grill from Big Lots so we could do some outdoor cooking, the manly way! Only problem, none of us have ever used a charcoal grill, we've all used the super-easy propane grills. So we had an adventure with the lighter fluid. I'd call the event a success; we had cooked meat, and didn't draw the attention of the fire department.

You may note the new avatars. "The Many Hats of Chris!" It's something of an analogy, and I think everyone has at least vaguely heard of the concept, but it struck me in this context. Drill Instructors are, of course, real people with real feelings. But they are taught that when they put on the hat, they are no longer people with families or feelings or worries. They are professionals with a mission. They are different people, with different goals. That's the idea with my avatars. I have a very diverse life, and I show a different face to each segment of my life. When I "put on a different hat," I have different tasks, goals, and dreams. And so, my life is really just an attempt to be the best person I can, no matter what hat I'm wearing. Am I waxing poetic? No, I'm just rationalizing the lame attempt at multiple userpics to categorize events.

Nothing much to report this week. I had my first quiz on Monday, and my first exam today, and both seemed to go about the same. I got overconfident early on and made some interesting mistakes, but in the end I did pretty well on both. I don't have either of them graded, but I feel fairly good about the results on both. Also, Ashley has cats on her mind. She's fallen in love with an adoption kitten at the Animal Doctor, and I've got to admit I'm not saying no immediately. We'll have to consider the practicality, but I'm on the fence at this point. I'd sure love to have a pet around here, I'm just not sure if this is a good time, with things able to change so quickly. It would live here at Alcott, so we've got to consult with Jeremey and Cameron before we do anything.

So, last week started my new routine for the next 8 weeks. Calculus is going to be very good this time, I think. My new teacher seems very good. I've been keeping up with the homework religiously, which is what I should've been doing all along. The class is a whole lot smaller, only 40 people, very manageable for a professor and 2 TA's. Also, Jackie pointed out one the good aspects of summer semester classes; they meet every day, so there's less time to get distracted. That's been true so far, and it's one I hadn't really thought about. True they're a bit harder because they're compressed, but I think there's a lot of factors that balance it out. We'll see, I just need to keep up. Also thru the week, I've been doing PT with a guy from my unit, Sgt. Hoos. We both need the training, and he thought it would be better to train together. We're meeting at the Longmont High School track. It's a long ways, but he lives in Loveland, so it...

Well, yet another drill down. Saturday morning started off with a suprise; a company-wide drug test. And so we sat around sipping water and shooting the breeze for a few hours while everyone "got the urge." We got in a few classes, and broke for lunch. I gave one of my classes that afternoon, along with a few other people. At the end of the day, we unloaded a shipping container full of miscellanious junk, and unpacked a couple dozen large frame tents. I was informed that the next morning I would be taking a PT test, and to show up in PT uniform. Great. This morning, as promised, was the PT test. It was a suprise to me, since I figured they'd give me a couple of months to work on myself, but I guess they're going to keep on testing me at every opportunity. I don't think it really motivates me any more, it just means I'm maxing out more often and interrupting my own training. On the other hand, failing again today does make me realize I need to ramp up my consis...

Alas, it seems my days of lounging about the house are at an end! My trip to New Mexico last week was very good, and it was wonderful to see the whole family again. This week I've been preparing for the upcoming drill and for the start of school, but I've still felt very relaxed. Actually, yesterday was the busiest day I've had in a while. In the morning, I drove down to Fitzsimons to give Sgt. Lindsey a preview of my Army classes I'm giving this weekend. He was pretty happy with the material and the format, and suggested a few items that might improve the classes, like volunteers and props. I'm teaching "Move Under Direct Fire" and "Move as a Member of a Fire Team," so I think volunteers would really help. In the afternoon, I had a doctor's appointment for a physical and to freeze off the mole on the back of my head. It took a long time, I thought, but it was worth the wait. That evening, I had dinner with Ethel, and she had cooked up a grea...